Christine Rizzo: Welcome to the manifesting formula. I'm Christine Rizzo. I know, I know it has been forever since I last recorded an episode, but when I meditated last week, I was told it's time to start recording again. So, thank you all for being so patient with me. In this week's episode, I'm going to talk about some of the lessons that I learned and why it's so important to listen to your inner goddess or for some of you, your inner God. So keep listening, my friends, to find out the lessons I personally needed to go through to find my passion to move forward in my career. Hello my beautiful, gorgeous friends. How the hell have you all been? I know it's been forever since I last recorded an episode and so much has happened. So I have to say there will be quite a bit of content for me to talk about. I can’t believe I haven’t recorded since July. That’s pretty crazy. But I need to be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it. After two and a half years of recording, I definitely needed to take a break. I know you can all relate to that in some way or another. So, thank you all for being patient. So last week we talked about. Just kidding. In today's episode I wanted to talk about some things that I went through this past year, my lessons and what I've learned. But before we go there, I want to come from a place of gratitude, a place of love. I hope, even though I haven't been recording episodes and I haven't been in your ear every week, that you've been loyal to yourself by saying and writing in your journals and your gratitude’s. That is definitely a practice along with meditating that I will never give up. Its so important, as I have explained many times throughout this podcast, to being grateful by showing gratitude and to ground yourself through meditation by connecting with your higher self. So tell me, tell me, what is it that you are grateful for today? Feel it my friends. Feel the love for whatever it may be. Say it out loud and let the world hear your words as you feel the emotion of happiness and love go through your body today. I'm grateful for all the messages from those of you that left them for me, telling me how much you missed listening to the manifesting formula and that you can't wait for me to come back. Some of you even left messages of concern making sure I was okay. Thank you. Thank you for the love that you showed me. I truly appreciate all your kind words and after meditating one day, a message came clearly to me that its time to go back to recording again. I thank you and appreciate each and every one of you. Get those journals out so we can add a few new quotes or affirmations to your list. Well, hopefully they’ll be new. I have no idea. What I do know is that you can never repeat positive affirmations too many times. What I will do is give you a few affirmations that the universe is wanting you to hear today. So are you ready? Do you have your journals with you? You should have grabbed it once you saw that I released a new episode. If you don't, you can always come back to the section of the episode and write them down. Okay, here we go. Number one, your thoughts are lying to you. You were loved, you are accepted, and you are wanted. Number two, I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you it's going to be worth it. Number the three c's in choice. Chance, change. You must make a choice to take the chance if you want anything in life to change. Let me repeat that choice. Chance, change. You must make the choice to take the chance if you want anything to change. Okay, so let's get into today's episode and talk about my past year, some of the things that I learned and why I needed to take a break. I realized that my passion for writing weekly episodes as well as recording and editing was really taking a toll on me. As well as working with a partner at the Life coach academy that wasn't doing her share of the work, I felt more and more distant from her and needed to concentrate on how I was going to end our three year partnership of owning a business together. I knew I needed to concentrate on creating an income that wasn't coming in. Through the school, she was head of marketing and month after month she wasn't able to do her role with bringing in students. Now, I'm not here to talk bad about her in any way. Rather, I'm here to explain the circumstances in my life that required me to redirect my focus away from things that were not a priority at the time. I needed my space to figure out what I wanted to do and the direction I was going ahead in. I started to explore other avenues and rediscover what truly brought me joy and fulfillment. I delved into hobbies that had long been neglected, like designing and writing, which allowed me to reconnect with my creative side. I learned the importance of setting boundaries. After leaving my partnership with someone that I trusted, I learned to prioritize my mental and emotional well being. This period of introspection and self discovery was crucial in helping me regain my sense of balance and purpose. I didn't listen to my intuition way back when she first came to me saying we should be partners together and start a school. My intuition back then was screaming, no, don't do it, Christine. Be smart. You always said you would never have another partner after you and Peggy split from one another. But I didn't listen, and I kept making excuses, even when everyone around me was trying to tell me what they were seeing and what I wasn't wanting to. For three years, I heard my inner voice telling me, and I kept making excuses for her. When others would point things out to me, I kept telling myself, things will get better. They have to. They never did. Friendships were affected. And the longer I stayed in this partnership, the more I was able to see the truth. I knew I needed to leave. I didn't want this person attached to my name anymore and everything that I've created with how far I've come. My reputation was on the line. So I decided to distance myself for quite some time until I was fully ready and everything was in place for me to make the break. During that time, I needed to do some healing. I needed my space to figure out what I wanted to do and the direction that I was going to head in. I did a lot of meditating and was led to do what I was missing, which was my creativeness. So I went back into designing and creating. I started a new company called 44 Designs, where I used my passion for design and I started making custom belt buckles, which I don't know if any of you know this, but I used to design belt buckles 17 years ago when my girls were itty bitty. So I went back to what created passion for me. I started creating gratitude journals, and then after selling hundreds of custom buckles through different avenues of social media, as well as word of mouth, I decided to go back to my true passion of buying jewelry and accessories for boutiques here in central Florida. I don't know if you remember that I used to own a boutique, so I'm experienced in being a buyer. I know what sells and I'm really good at it. Remember, my friends, we become really good at things when we tell ourselves and believe it to be true through experience and mind management. I poured my heart and soul into this new venture, and it felt incredibly rewarding to see my efforts pay off. Each day brought new challenges and triumphs, and I reveled in the satisfaction of creating something beautiful and meaningful. Besides, starting 484 designs. I also started to work for my husband’s firm. It’s an architecture firm called Aleskovsky Architecture and interiors. They have grown pretty fast and they needed some help. So now I help them with their social media as well as work with the interior designers by helping them to stay organized and on time with deadlines. I've always been really good at time management and organization, so they're using my assets to help their firm grow. It's not full time, which is great for me since I've been an entrepreneur for most of my life. So working for someone can have its moments of why am I working for my husband again? And then of course, when you see things from the outside you want to help fix, but that's not always what they want, or let alone what they want to see. So there's a lot of they'll have to figure it out on their own since they're not wanting to hear it from me. And I back away. Enough about working with my husband. I can go on and on, but you see, that’s exactly what happened to me when I was working with my ex-partner. I didn’t want to see things that other people were seeing. And the same goes for this firm at times. They don’t always want to see what I see, but that has to come through them. So looking back, taking that break was one of the best decisions I ever made. It allowed me to rediscover my passions, realigned my priorities, and set a clear path for the future. I learned that it's okay to step back and reevaluate, to make time for oneself, and to pursue what truly brings joy and fulfillment. The knowledge I gained during this time will be the foundation for my future projects. And I'm grateful for the growth and resilience that came from facing and overcoming these obstacles. Now, as I continue on this journey, I carry with me the lessons and experiences from the past year. I'm more resilient, more determined, and more in tune to what I want out of life. And most importantly, I'm excited for what the future holds, knowing that I'm on a path that feels right for me, not with a partner on my own. So if something doesn't get done, I'm the only one to blame. So my friends, the message here is the importance of listening to your inner goddess, your intuition, to your higher self, to the feelings that you get when something doesn't feel right. We all know what I'm talking about. When something doesn't feel right over and over again, there's a reason it's not meant to happen. Your creator is giving you a signal for a reason. We were created with a 6th sense on purpose. It's our guide to lead us in the direction or away from certain situations. When something feels good, keep heading down that path. When it feels wrong, run in the other direction as fast as you can. My friends, this has been my lesson for many years and in most situations I always pass the test. I'm always listening. But this test that was given three years ago, I failed. The universe was saying, don't do it over and over again. The universe gave me multiple signals and every time I would fail and wind up paying the consequence. No more. I am really ready to open myself up to paying attention and to listening. Even if I don't agree and feel things could work out. I need to listen to my instincts. It's not about if we agree or not. It's about having a dream, concentrating on that, trusting that the universe is always going to bring that to you. Not always on your timing, but when it's the right time. Letting go of what you think and allowing the universe to do its job. Oh, and by the way, it feels good to be back my friends. I hope it feels just as good for you. One more thing, if you haven't joined the Facebook group, please do. I leave messages daily. It's a place to connect with like minded people. Thank you all for listening to the manifesting formula and thank you for being really patient with me. I truly appreciate you. If you're new to this podcast, please go to the first episode. There are lots of great tips and secrets to manifesting. Oh, and by the way, I'm leaving a link in the show notes. If you're interested in purchasing any of my journals, they will definitely help you to feel good while practicing gratitude and self love. Have a beautiful day wherever you are in the world, sending you all so much love, peace and abundance. And if no one has told you today, I love you. See you soon. Bye.