Debbie Ford

Compassion enables you to reach to the heavens and look through the heart of God.

It would be impossible to estimate how much time and energy we invest in trying to fix, change and deny our emotions - especially the ones that shake us at our very core, like hurt, jealousy, loneliness, shame, rage and grief.

It is clear to me that one of the biggest obstacles we face as human beings is the pain we put ourselves through when we resist and wrestle with our emotions.

To step into reverence for your body, you must pardon yourself for all you have done and not done to care for it. You must bless what works and accept and embrace all you perceive to be wrong.

If you have been suffering with physical ailments or even a spiritual emptiness, I want to share with you what I know to be true: The more love and reverence you give your body, the better you will feel.

When you treat yourself with the kindness and high regard that you would give to one of your spiritual heroes, your body becomes the epicenter of quiet joy rather than a battlefield for the ego.

As you say goodbye to lingering disappointments and unattended grief, you will discover that every person, situation and painful incident comes bearing gifts.

Releasing the invisible ties to those who have left you, betrayed you, disappointed you or hurt you, you open up to higher realms of love, peace and joy.

As you become aware of what has robbed you of the purity of an innocent mind, a clear heart and a strong body, you will be deeply served by letting go of those familiar limitations.

It is our interpretation of the past, our limiting beliefs, and our undigested pain that stop us from being able to move forward with clear direction.

When you take the time to cleanse your physical body of accumulated stress and toxicity, you are rewarded with increased vitality and optimal health.

New Year's resolutions often fail because toxic emotions and experiences from our past can sabotage us or keep us stuck with the same old thoughts, patterns and regrets.

When you stop resisting your emotions, you will quickly realize that your feelings are your friends. They are your soul's way to communicate with you and are meant to guide and inform you.

Compassion knows that choosing the higher road in any situation is the most loving option for you.

A compassionate heart will lift you out of the pain and suffering of your own world because it knows that everyone is doing the best they can, given their state of consciousness and the histories they're dragging behind them.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

Beneath the surface of your ego's insatiable cravings, your authentic desires are waiting patiently for you to acknowledge, claim and express them.

Your soul's desires compel you to grow, evolve and move closer to your highest potential.

By acknowledging, accepting, and embracing our dark side, we create natural steam vents within ourselves. By providing an opening, we eliminate the worry about an explosion because we are allowing the pressure to be released in a safe and appropriate way.

We are spiritual beings whether we want to admit it or not, and inherent in our DNA is a design to return us home - home to our true essence, our greatest self, our limitless self.

Self-sabotage is the proverbial hammer over the head that finally wakes us up, demanding that we pay attention. For most of us, it takes something devastating to crack us open, to get us out of our minds and into our hearts.

You have been called to be who you are - the whole luminous light. No one can dim your light when you are fully present to the depth and breadth of it.

Don't go to sleep now, for you have been awakened. Don't shut your eyes, or you will put out the light. Stay awake to the power and force that guides and protects your divine essence.

No one can deny who you are unless you are, in some way, minimizing the power and the force of your divine substance.

God has a plan for you - I can promise you that. Your life is sacred. There is and always has been a path for your soul, and if you follow that path, it will lead you to the inner utopia that your soul longs to experience in this lifetime.

Imagine that your life's efforts serve as a mark of God and that the only way the divine is seen, heard or expressed is through the legacy you leave behind. The yearning to make a difference is your need to express your purpose and derive meaning from your time on earth.

You can satisfy your soul's mission by committing to leaving something behind on this planet that will make a difference to those who come after you.

If you look to your past or even your present to see why you are here or what your purpose is, you may get stuck in a limited view of yourself. Instead, look beyond your years here on earth, reconnect with the divine, and bring forth your soul's legacy into the present moment.

Throughout your life, you've been influenced by what you have done in the past, what you have been told you can and cannot do, and what your present circumstances seem to dictate.

Connected to the collective heart, you can be certain in every cell of your being that you are never alone, and you will experience the grace, guidance and ease that comes when you are one with all there is.

You are on a soulful path that asks you to step into the greatest version of yourself. It is a sacred gift to shine your brightest light, not just in your moments of glory, but each day.

With devotion at the center of your awareness, you don't have to refer to your past in order to make a choice of how to respond or react in any given situation.

Calling on you to give up control of the outer world and gladly accept control of your inner relationship with God, devotion is essential for fully realizing your soul's calling.

When you are committed to living a life in service to the most high, the choices to be great, to serve and be served, to love and be loved are apparent.

God's will can become your internal reference point from this day forward; it is your choice.

Your soul's mission is to serve in the grandest way it can. Divine plans lie imprinted in your inner world, and there are important lessons for you to learn and share on this journey to your most magnificent self.

Divorce is a time of change. It really rocks a foundation of most people's lives. When we have our heart broken or our dreams taken away from us, it is a time of growth and change.

As you step into your limitless self, you might be confronted with old habits and patterns that are not necessarily based in truth. These old ways of being show up because you have repeated many of them thousands of times.

When you fail to tell the truth, you are kept bound to the past in ways that devastate your soul.

While your past can inform you and your future can inspire you, the moment of choice exists in the here and now.

Growth is usually uncomfortable. If you're looking for comfort, you will more than likely feel tired and old earlier than you want, and the misery of your caged soul will always be looming nearby.

For your soul's sake, invoke the agent of change called risk, which ensures that things will not be the same tomorrow as they are today. All real change requires risk.

If you accept that your only job is to be the keeper of your life force, you will make powerful choices.

When you invoke the agent of change called acceptance, you must accept all that you are, all that you've been, and all that you will be in the future.

As you stop trying to forcibly manage the thoughts, beliefs and actions that arise from your mind and ask instead to be guided by a source greater than yourself, you will find a world of support showing up in surprising ways.

You are the mother, the father, the sister, the brother, the teacher and the guide for the soul that has been placed in your trust.

By affirming your own gifts and accomplishments, you build your confidence and increase your ability to build a brighter future.

Unfortunately, unless we're focused on building up our courage, which gives us our self-confidence and all that we need to make quantum change in our lives, the voice of fear will always take the lead inside our minds.

My goal was to be able to be alone without food, sugar, phone, men, TV, anything and to feel O.K. about myself.

Fear is the culprit that robs us of our greatest lives. And although it's mostly made up or a learned behavior from our past, almost everybody I've ever met in my life struggles with fear.