My house is quiet this morning. I have spent the wee hours of the morning meditating, focusing on gratitude, listening to an uplifting book, repeating affirmations, and now writing. It’s peaceful in those morning hours before the sun comes up. As I fill myself with light and love, and simultaneously watch the sun rise and the world turn to day outside my window, I am grateful and I am filled to overflowing.

I will tell you a secret … when I get up earlier (even if I’m tired) and do all of these things before anything else, I FEEL better. ALL day I feel better. I have this sense of balance, accomplishment, and a very real feeling of giving my ALL for the betterment of myself and my day.

If I get up 2 hours (or 30 minutes, or 10 minutes) before I NEED to get up so I can feed my soul, doing it in faith that I will be happier, healthier, and more balanced because of it – and I DO feel better, happier, and more able to fulfill my duties in the day when I do it – how can I then NOT do it each day?!

Feeding my soul is THE way that I maintain a joyful outlook. It is THE way that I keep putting one foot in front of the other knowing that God will carry me. When I give 100% that I can give I KNOW it will be enough and the only possibility at that point is success and joyful expansion.

I used to sleep as long as I was able to. I still want to frequently. I am tired! I have 7 kids and do you know how long a mom with 7 kids is pregnant and nursing babies? 12 years of my life. 12 YEARS!! I haven’t slept well since I had kids (that’s 16 years ago). My body is tired and I can use all the sleep I can get at this point. So I think it’s been reasonable that I have slept everyday until the point I HAD to get up. It was survival mode, you know?

When I was inspired to get up earlier I rolled my eyes and laughed and thought “HA! Riiiiight. Yeah, that will help me NOT be tired. Mmmhmm. Good thinking” … But, as I know God knows more than me and the Universe can see what I cannot, I decided to give it a try.

And I DID feel better getting up and meditating.

But then life happens and I fall back into familiar habits and my bed is so warm and comfortable and I just need that last little bit of sleep ….

This has happened many times, doing it for a while, receiving witnesses that yes, soul food in the morning is actually good for my soul, and then falling back into those familiar patterns of thinking – I know more than God – and using my “brain” and just knowing that the longer I stay in that bed the better I will feel.

It’s funny right? The ways we try to justify familiar habits even though we have PROOF (witnesses) and a higher energy inspiring us to more positive change.

Habits are hard to break, I suppose. And not seeing is always harder to cling to than what we can see. I can see my bed, I can “see” sleep and I’ve learned over my lifetime that when a person is tired they should sleep. It’s practical advice and knowledge. Science.

I CAN’T see God, I can’t see the energy that makes up my being, I can’t see when I have a spark of that energy and I can’t see when it is replenished and revitalized and my soul is fed. I have to go on FAITH that those are happening … and the way I gauge that is by how I FEEL. But I can’t SEE it, not really, so it’s harder to grasp.

If I solely went off of my amazingly adept and sharp thinking (cough) I would assume that the more sleep I could get, especially after 12 or more (really it’s been 16 years, since I had my first daughter) years of sleep deprivation, the better I would feel. I would look at the science and my brain would tell me “more sleep! Yes, you DO need that extra hour. You’re being practical and real.” Because I can SEE these witnesses, because I am a physical person, because science tells me, because my brain likes to focus on what it can see and quantify … I SEE that my energy is tied to my sleep and the amount I get. End of story.

Here’s the thing though, there is a whole world that we CAN’T see. A spiritual “energy” world where wholeness, lightness, ease, replenishment, and JOY abounds! These things reside there in abundance. They are the things that fill and feed our being – our souls.

When I am inspired, it comes from THAT place. When I receive a witness of something I can’t see, it comes from that space. When I am replenished because I read something uplifting, when I am revitalized because I meditated, when I feel lighter because I focused on all that I’m grateful for – when I feel a spark of something igniting within me it is because I have connected to that energy place – that place of abundant love – and it fills me. I can’t SEE it, but I can FEEL it if I’m paying close attention and willing to “see” with spiritual eyes.

The secret then, is to look BEYOND what I can physically see, what I can “know” with my “astute skills of reason and judgment” … it is seeing without my physical eyes, and it is THE way to be guided in life.

Do you know how much energy I receive from focusing on feeding my soul and connecting to that energy world? It is MORE than I would receive if I had slept that last hour. I can’t specifically quantify it, but I FEEL more able to positively live my life when I’ve fed my soul in the morning.

Filling my energy with divine source energy (God, Universe, Flow, Stillness, etc) makes the day easier, it makes my outlook clearer, it makes my step lighter, it allows my perspective to be higher, it gives me what I need to move forward into my divine potential and then to give love and light to everyone in my influence as I am able.

I picture myself, as I do what I’m inspired to do, like I’m stepping INTO who I truly am. I actually visualize each step I take forward in faith – knowing God is inspiring my step – to be a step into my divine self. I see this space open up in front of me and I step into it, almost like I’m shedding a costume and aligning with who I really am …. and as I step into that space, the falseness, the illusion, the burden, the inability to cope, drops away behind me and the only possibility in that “higher Honor” space is success, joy, expansion, abundant energy, and union with the Universe.

In that space I am whole and I need nothing and I am able to give what God has for me to give and I am able to love as I am meant to love and every step I take I feel lighter, and every step I take I feel more energized and every step I take is easier.

It is a release, a relief, a fulfillment of truth. THAT is who I really am.

My ability to easily do all I need to do everyday is directly tied to how much energy I have.

My energy is directly tied to how connected I am to the source of all energy.

My connectedness to source is directly tied to the amount of time and/or effort and focus I give to filling my soul and making space for the flow of energy within me.

When I CHOOSE to give up (only sacrificing a little) what “looks” like energy to my physical eyes (sleep) to focus on and put effort toward what I believe will ACTUALLY give me energy (God, Source, Universal stuff) – I receive.

It’s not NEVER sleeping, it’s giving a “tithe” – a portion or small part – of my physical manifestation of energy replenishment to the higher more spiritual fulfilling way. Giving up a little sleep in faith allows God Source Energy to flow freely within me and I can ONLY receive when I offer it willingly, believing it will benefit my soul.

I am still tired sometimes. I still have to frequently drag myself out of that soft warm bed and slap some cold water on my face and take deep breaths and WILL myself to focus on what I can’t see, knowing that if I do, I won’t be sorry. It does take effort, but what is the alternative? Not believing in the witnesses I’ve received that God is real, that there is a Universal energy that flows in and around and through all things and I am connected to it?

I would rather believe in what I can’t see, hoping and having faith in receiving, than not. And so I do. And as I do I am filled. And that filling and replenishing spark of energy within me is ALL I need to “see” that I don’t see everything and there is a whole world that is beyond my limited perspective. I am willing to put forth 2 hours in the morning to connect to that space. I am choosing to believe in Universal energy and in God’s presence within me. I offer 100% toward connecting to that, in faith that I will receive.

And I always receive. And I am filled. And I have more energy with every step. And each forward motion is easier and lighter and more joyful. Endlessly. Limitlessly.

I can see beyond what my eyes can see, and it’s a world FULL of life. I am connected to that world and in choosing to focus on it I receive ALL that I need, each moment, to sustain me and lift me up.

The sun is now up, the house is filled with sounds and running feet and laughter and life … today I can do anything that comes before me. I have ALL that I need.