Many years ago (decades actually), I found myself immersed with self help books. I was looking for answers but funny enough, I didn’t even know what problem I was trying to solve. It wasn’t until years later that the two came together. And now – more than 20 years later – the lessons that I learned have resurfaced, even more powerful than before. And I’m really excited about how I can use those beliefs to co-create my life with the Universe.

Here is how and why.

When I was reading authors like Deepak Chopra, Don Miguel Ruiz, Julia Cameron, Sarah Ban Breathnach and Tony Robbins, for whatever reason believing in the Universe resonated with me.  Just like how people believe in God or other higher powers, I believed in the power of the Universe — and even more so, my own ability to manifest my life with the help of the Universe.

I wasn’t sure why except that ever since I was young, I believed that life would work out — and that I had a say in how things would unfold. Over the years, even when there were terrible things happening, I felt rest assured that things would be okay. Sort of like that old adage “everything happens for a reason”.

I knew that our thoughts and beliefs would manifest their way into our reality — and if we focused on the positive – then good things would happen — and if we focused on the negative, then that is what would come our way.

Over that past year a good friend of mine has shared some podcasts and audiobooks that he’s been listening to — and to my surprise, some of them have been self help books whose messages sounded really familiar. When he would share more about the subject, it brought me back to all the books that I had read and it made me reflect on what I did with all those valuable lessons and the wonderful foundation that I had built for myself.

I realized that even though I started my adult life with an amazing core belief in myself, over the last 10 years in-particular, I forgot about my trust in the Universe and I’ve let problems and situations overcome me. I wouldn’t say I completely abandoned my belief, but I didn’t lead with it.  Two years ago was one of the low points. While I knew in my head that things would work out for the best, my heart wasn’t in sync. And while it might not have looked bad on the outside, it was a really big struggle for me on the inside to find my way.

So something urged me to dive back in. On Boxing Day this past year, my sister and I went shopping and I specifically wanted to visit a book store. I love walking around books stores and I hope that they never, ever go away with technology.

I visited the business section first and picked up a couple titles and then I went to the self help section in search of something but I wasn’t sure what. One book caught my attention – The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein. The title fit my old belief system exactly, even if it wasn’t being used in my every day life. So I bought it and I started to read it with a childish-like feeling of excitement.

Very quickly, I couldn’t believe the words I was reading and the feelings that I had. All of the messages she was writing about made perfect sense. It was perfectly aligned with my inner voice that knows that at the beginning and end of the day, I have the power to create the life I want and the ability to set fear aside and replace it with joy, abundance and happiness.

So I decided that it’s time to up my game and realize the life that I want to live. And this time, I’m going to co-create it with the one thing that has never let me down – my belief in the Universe. I know that together, we make a great team — and together, we can accomplish a lot of really amazing things.

Thanks FF for the inspiration.