Notes from SuperSoulSunday with Wintley Phipps

If you believe there is a divine vision for your life, how do we reach our highest potential and how do we find our best destiny? ~ Oprah

Wintley Phipps is a world renowned gospel singer and pastor. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago and later raised in Montreal, Canada. An ordained minister who has been traveling the world for 40 years; lectured in 6 continents and sang for 6 U.S. presidents. He is also the founder of US dreamer academy a program that is mentoring thousands of children who have family members in jail or prison. Wintley Phipps is married to Linda Galloway. Together they raise 3 sons: Wintley II, Winston Adriel, and Wade Alexander.

He has always provided a spiritual compass to Oprah. He has been Oprah’s spiritual "encourager" from very beginning. Oprah considers him a Prophet spiritual/leader.  They have known each other for 35 years. They met when he was singing at Civic Center in Baltimore. Oprah tapped in his shoulder. Oprah asked him if he had time to talk to him.

Phipps told Oprah: “God has impressed me to tell you He is going to bless you and give you an opportunity to speak to millions of people” and Oprah said to him “Do your really think God will do that for me?” This happened when she was working at a job that didn't fulfill her in Baltimore. Wintley didn't know that when God sent him that impression that God meant that Oprah was going to be talking to millions of people every day!! 

Oprah has a prayer counsel team, Wintley Phipps is part of it. Maya Angelou (RIP) was a big leader of that team too.

Oprah has a Wintley's file where she saves notes he has sent her such as this on 7/3/2011: “Oprah, as I thought about you today and pray for you I was impressed to share with you that your days ahead are brighter and more fulfilling than you have ever dream because God never shots one door without opening another that is more glorious and more fulfilling than last.”

Wintley has written “Your Best Destiny: Becoming the person you were created to be”

Here are some wisdom Wintley shared:

"Your best destiny really is the moment you most resemble, reflect and reveal the character of God"

"God has created access to him not based on merit but need."

"It's almost as though when God walks into a room the molecular make up of the room changes. And you sense and feel a holiness, you sense and feel a presence that you don't feel in the mundane."

"To me God is the one and only. He is the one and only creator, He the one and only source of life and consciousness - eternal consciousness- and awareness. "

"Let me tell you, God is the ultimate dreamer."

"The most amazing thing that can happen in the life of a human being is to catch a glimpse of what God has been dreaming for you."

"The most beautiful thing that God dreams for us,  is for us to love like him; to be kind like him; to have faith; to have virtue."

"You have to examine your life. That's very, very important. A lot of people don't like to look at themselves." 

"You don't get progress, you don't get healing until you first examine yourself.You don't get better until you asses, diagnose, prescribe and implement correcting measures"

"... greatness is not what we DO but who we ARE- and its rewards are rich indeed..."

"Love is when you choose to be at your best even when the other person is not."

Wintley shares that there are 8 powerful dimensions to reach our best destiny:

1.       Faith

2.       Virtue

3.       Knowledge/Wisdom

4.       Patience

5.       Self-control

6.       Respect for what is sacred

7.       Kindness

8.       Love

Hope you can all have a chance to watch this interview and read his book 'Your Best Destiny.' I'll be reading it. I am ready for My Best Destiny!!

Trip to California

I always wanted to go to California. I knew one day that would happen. My sister-in-law moved there 2 years ago. It was in our plans to go visit her, my husband and I just didn't know when.

When I learned that Oprah was going to have lunch with OWN Ambassadors assisting to O You! 2012 event to be hold in L.A. the time to visit California was set! I bought my ticket to the event in July. My hubby and I sat to plan for our vacation time there.

 The O You! event was on October 20th, door opening at 7am. The only thing I knew for sure was that we needed to arrive to LA before that time! We planned a vacation to the west coast starting on LA and ending in San Francisco leaving October 19th.

Oct 19th - Early that morning we took our Virgin America flight to L.A! The 1st night in LA included meeting the OWN Ambassadors I haven't met before and seeing again some I have, at the Yard House. We had such a great time!! We pretty much took over the outside patio. Nothing like being in a place filled with like-minded people. The energy, the excitement, it was amazing. We could have been there longer but we needed to go to have our beauty sleep to be ready and radiant for the next day to attend the O you! event.

Saturday Oct 20th - I was planning on arriving at the venue at 7am since they were opening the doors at 7:30am, but we realized that we lost the credit card we have used the night before to pay at the Yard House.  It got me a little off track but once I called them to cancel it I was OK and ready for the moment ahead. I arrived at 7:30am the lines were so long! I started talking to the lady in front of me and when the lines started moving I started to see some of my OWN ambassadors friends that were ahead of me. I don't know to how many people I say hi, but there were lots of us around. The ladies behind me told me "Girl, you know everyone." Of course I told them all about  the OWN ambassadors! https://www.facebook.com/theownambassadors.  It was great to know by some of the other ambassadors that we could go by the VIP entrance! I asked one of them for her business cards about us and gave them to the girls I was talking to.

It was great to be greeted at the OWN booth and given some bracelets with the word OWN Ambassador on them and been told that we had reserved seats for the main seating! It was the start of the joy rising moments that would have gotten better as the hours passed. We were escorted to our seats. We danced, took pictures, laughed. It was great to hear words of wisdom from Gayle King, Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, Iyanla Vanzant and Oprah.

Best moment of the day: having Oprah sitting on our table after lunch and taking pictures with each of us!

Sunday Oct 21st - My husband and I did some touring around Beverly Hills, we drove through many of the streets looking at all the huge mansions with manicured gardens and stopped to have brunch at The Farm of Beverly Hills on Beverly boulevard. What a delicious breakfast! After that we went to see the Walk of Fame and toured the Chinese theater. At night we met with one of my husband friend and his wife to have sushi for dinner.

Monday Oct 22nd - We wanted to do some tours on NBC studios so we check out of the hotel early and head to Burbank. When we arrived to NBC studios we were told the tours there had been cancelled. It was 9am or so. We had tickets to go to a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, but we didn't need to be in line until 2pm. (2:45pm the latest) so we have so many hours without much planned to do. We asked the security guard at the NBC parking to suggest a place to have breakfast. He told us about the Big Boy's restaurant a California Landmark http://www.bobs.net/. We went there and ate. We were thinking about going to a park and relax in the meantime but while getting lost trying to figure out where to go we saw the signs to Warner Brothers studios and decided to check if we could do a tour there and if it ended before the time we needed to be back at NBC. We were able to do the tour... It was so much fun! Thanks EJ for all the information you shared with us. The part I liked the most was visiting Ellen Degeneres studio... She was not having any tape but I loved pretending to be her and dancing through the row of chairs she dances and dancing down the stairs! After the tour ended we headed back to NBC. Jay Leno's guest for that night where Halle Berry, Ali Wenworth and Gary Clark Junior. The studio absolutely freezing if you go there make sure to dress like you are going to spend winter time somewhere! I kept myself warm dancing during breaks! I even got myself a gift from the audience director, a The Tonight Show with Jay Leno apron for my dancing!! So cool! I'll keep dancing!

We started driving up North and stopped in several places before we reached my sister-in-law's house. I have a great time taking my niece to the park; playing barbies with my niece; driving through the Golden Gate; having drinks at the View; having dinner at Tiramisu; working together with my sister-in-law to make my niece's Tinkerbell custom for Halloween; etc. etc!! Lots of great memories, I could write a book! :)

Have fun! Create great memories with loved ones, life is is meant to be lived!

Notes from Caroline Myss' Interview on Super Soul Sunday

We all have sacred contracts. They are spiritual documents our soul recognizes.

The spirit is a part of you the feels like hope. A part of you that is drawn to hope.

If you have life you have purpose.

If you are in the right path you are not in a position to betray yourself.

When you are in the path you are not psychically drained, you are tired but you are not losing yourself.

We are never in the wrong path, we just take unwise choices. What is your definition of God? Mystical law. Nature of the universe, order of things, transcendent cosmic force.

I believe in... God

I am ready to forgive... Myself

Another Father's day without you...

As Father's day is approaching, I can't but think about my dad, about how difficult it is to celebrate this day without him. I also think about the other daughters and sons that will go through the same situation. This will be the 3rd Father's day his body is no longer with me and my family in Earth but his soul still is.

Last year I had a very interesting experience on Father's day, which made me think he was around. I was on a cruise on the Mediterranean. I rented internet for a few minutes to log into Facebook and wish my brother and friends who are dads a happy day. I also posted this note for my dad on my wall: "Daddy I hope you are having a great day in Heaven!! Happy Father's Day. I love you today and always." (Papito espero que estes pasando un feliz dia en el cielo!! Feliz dia del padre!! Te amo hoy y siempre.)

Right after I finished writing it, the Latin band started playing a Pasodoble. It made me remember my dad even more! He didn't take dancing very seriously, but when it came to Pasodoble, he was passionate about it! He taught me how to dance it. If we were in a party together I always dance pasodoble with him. As a matter of fact that was our last dance in May 2009 at my niece's communion party. As soon as I listened to this music play my eyes filled up with tears. Then like this was not enough to bring memories of him, the next song the band played was "Cielito Lindo" the song my dad used to sing to me... and in the lyrics I want to believe he was sending me also a message: "sing and don't cry" (Canta y no llores)! He didn't want me to cry. He wanted me to be happy, to sing and enjoy my vacation! He wanted to let me know he got my Happy Father's day note! I'll make sure I send him another this and every Father's day until the day I leave this body and go back to the source and I am able to dance with him again.

As I go through another Father's day without my dad, I have to be thankful for the years I shared with him. I have to remember that he is now an angel looking out for me, my sister and my brother; my mom, the love of his life; his grandchildren, even the one he never got to meet. His energy is around all of us. The energy never dies it only transforms. A part of him is in our cells. His soul is now one with each of us. He can be with all of us, in different places at the same time.

Blessings to all who walk in similar shoes, I want you to know that you will be in my thoughts. Celebrate your dad's lives and still wish them a Happy Father's day. His soul might be there celebrating with you too, happy and proud of having a daughter or a son like you.

Tell me about yourself

Today I'm going to have an interview. I don't know about you, but I don't like interviews. They make me so nervous. I really have a hard time about being interrogated.

I have never really like when the interviewer says: tell me about yourself.

Why do we have to start by telling what we do as if that is all there is to ourselves? Last year around October if you would have asked myself to tell you something about me I'll say... "well... I'm unemployed and searching for a job." Then I watched Oprah's Lifeclass lesson 1: The false power of ego and it made me realize that "nothing, no material possessions, no position, no job, no status would ever really matter in terms of defining who you are. Nothing defines who you are." I still don't have a job, but I no longer say I'm unemployed. I might say (from what I learned from Iyanla Vanzant) I'm temporarily out of the workforce.

OK... I know... it is a job what I'm looking for and that's what I need to talk about, my past job experiences and how that experience can be transferred to this new position. How can I deliver the same message without identifying myself with a job?

I think I don't like interviews because I don't know how to sell myself. There are some people that can sell sand in a desert covered by it. Perhaps I don't know how to sell myself because I don't believe in the product I'm selling and that makes it even harder. I'm more about showing with actions how good I might be performing my job than with words. Once I'm there, loving my job or not, I will be dedicated to what I do and do my best. If I could only have someone to give me the chance to show them with actions how much value I can bring to their companies.

Maybe it will be easier for me to tell more about myself and be more excited to have an interview if I were really interested in the job I am pursuing and I wanted it so bad. Then I would probably do whatever it takes to show my potential employer that I'm the best candidate they could ever select.

Anyways, I just wanted to release these thoughts, to open some space in my mind to focus on the task in hand: preparing myself to tell my interviewers about myself.

Have a great day!

Letting go of greeting cards

My house is pretty much clutter free... but as my husband will say it is because I'm very good at hiding it. When it comes to drawers and closets, even though they are organized, they are packed with things I have to let go. Some of those things are Christmas, birthdays and thank you cards.

They are on a drawer occupying space. It is not that I often look at them; however, if by any chance I open the drawer where they are, I like to take a look at some of them and read what our family or friends wrote to us.

I didn't know what to do with them, so I asked Extreme Clutter organizer expert Peter Walsh. I tweeted him about the Christmas cards initially and he kindly responded to toss them, since Christmas was over! Some of his followers who saw his tweet to me also gave me some suggestions: scan then toss, check into the card donation program for St. Jude's or to keep and store in a nice Christmas box.

Today I decided to look into the restrictions for the St. Jude's program and scan the cards.

To a less clutter drawer here I go!

Lessons I have learned that have improved my financial life

USE YOUR CREDIT CARDS WISELY

I do have credit cards, but I don't carry debt in any of them. I have a main card I use to buy groceries, clothes, pay for gas, cable, phone, utilities, dining out, etc however I made sure I only spend what I can pay in full at the end of each month. I get rewards points which I later exchange for gift cards to buy clothes for me and my husband, or to pay for some of our dining out. Other times I give some of those gift cards to family and friends for birthdays or Christmas gifts.

LOWER YOUR CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES

My husband and I moved balances from two of my husband's credit cards at 16.5% interest to my credit card at 11%. It might not seem like a lot reducing 5.5% but remember "a penny saved is a penny earned". Once his FICO credit score started to improve (originally 612), he began to receive credit cards offers for 1.99%. He applied for that card and transfer as much of the balances as possible to this low interest rate. we continue doing the same payments to the credit card but they were going mostly towards paying the principal. Before we were mostly paying the interest portion. Later he received an even better offer 0% for life unless defaulting in any of our financial responsibilities which are reported to the credit report agencies. We transferred as much as we could. There was a fee for $50 o so for the transfer. Happy to say we have paid this debt off!! It took us approximately 6 years or so because we were paying just the min payment since there was not need to reduce principal when the interest is %0! I was making sure we didn't default in any of the other financial responsibilities that would have make the interest jump up!

BE WILLING TO MOVE WHERE JOB OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE

In 2004 my husband was offered a promotion but the new job implied to move to another city, leave our house, our family, our old friends. Sometimes we must be willing to move were the job opportunities are. That new job came also with more responsibilities and more money, 50% more that he was earning before. When more money is coming there is a tendency of spending more too. Having discipline and a budget in place helped us control our expenses and made a better use of the extra money. Most of it was used to pay off my husband's student loan and the car loan. It is a great feeling not carrying $40,000 student loan debt and having a car that is totally paid off.

BUY AN USED CAR IN GOOD CONDITION AND DRIVE IT FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN

We bought an used Toyota in 2003. It was 3 years old and had 30,000 miles. We had a 5 year loan we were able to pay off in less time which save us some money in interest. In 2007 my husband was dreaming of buying a new car but I kept reminding him how well in track to financial independence we were because of not having car payments. We drove our Toyota for 7 years and sold it at the end of 2010. I could have driven it for longer but my husband was so desperate for having a "new" used car, so on December 2010 as a Christmas gift he bought another used car and paid cash for it! Hope I can be driving it for another 7 or more years.

SHARE A MEAL (OR SEVERAL MEALS)

When we were dating my husband and I used to go out for diner every Friday night (that was 10 year ago and we still do!) and order one appetizer, soft drinks and one entree for each of us. Once we started on our journey to get better financially, in order to reduce our expenses we began to share one entree. Think about it, this approach makes you get your finances in shape and you body too!

This lessons learned help me and my husband financially, hopefully some or all can also help you!