The three As – Authenticity, Abundance, Alignment

by Rebecca Clifford

Authenticity: I decided to share something that for me is pretty personal and I hope not TMI …as I am not always sure how people will react. But as part of embracing my most genuine self, it is part of my journey, part of my past, and part of the person I have become. So to hide it or act like it never happened doesn’t seem right. And to be fearful of how people might react seems like a fear that I want to let go. In letting fears go, I think we create more abundance in our lives.

When I was 31 I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I had surgery to remove my sigmoid colon, 6 months of chemotherapy, a sleu of doctors visits, and multiple people have seen & shoved things up my butt- this alone can humble a person. The diagnosis scared me, strengthened me, changed views of how I saw myself and my life, and brought me to things (like yoga) that have become passions of mine. So I can’t sit here and say it was all bad. Because it wasn’t. For the first time, I looked at myself and my life exactly how it was, as something very precious and something very perfect. I wasn’t grasping to have more, I wasn’t wishing to be prettier or thinner, I was content in what I had and whatever time I had left. Driving home in traffic became a different experience in which I saw beauty in the sky, the trees, I felt emotion in songs that came on the radio – things I had at one point in time not paid much attention to. I wanted nothing more than to be here longer with the people I loved and the people that loved me. So I started researching things I could do to help myself after my diagnosis and it led me down a holistic path which has opened me up to so many new relationships and experiences and fuelled this passion in me to want to help people.

Abundance: A few years after my diagnosis, my husband and I went on a trip to Grand Cayman where I went swimming with a dolphin that I joke impregnated me but that doesn’t give any credit to Stan’s, his lil swimmer or the strength and depth of his love. I gave birth to a healthy baby girl and I believe that beautiful bundle of joy is a piece of a lot of peoples love. Letting go of fear and opening up your heart to love, self love and the love of others can manifest abundance. After becoming a mom, it was some days hard to NOT think about what all I didn’t have – more help, family close by, a less stressful job or commute, a chef, a personal trainer, a husband that knows how to use power tools, etc….

Alignment: It is a daily conscious effort to wake up each day and find quiet moments throughout my day to focus on all that I do HAVE – my health, my mind, a loving family, great friends, a wonderful community, yoga, good food, fresh air, a beautiful baby girl who teaches me new things everyday and sees things through a very innocent pair of eyes.