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Within each of us there is a flame. Some call this flame our spirit or our soul. That flame is like the light in a lighthouse within each of us. That light guides us to our true self, our higher mind, our higher purpose. It also fuels our ambitions, love and compassion.

As we get caught up in our day to day routine of taking care of those around us, and we allow ourselves to be distracted by all of the doom and gloom in the world, we often forget to nurture that flame within us and it grows very dim or even goes out. These are the times in our lives when we feel our lowest. We feel as though nothing can go right, and anything we touch seems to disintegrate right before our eyes.

It is at these times that we need to relight the flame, nurture it, and allow it to burn brightly to guide us back to our true purpose. We need to renew our lives in an effort to get back on our true path. Only when we have renewed our life and brought balance back to our lives, can we begin to move freely down our true path.

Trying to renew your life is much like planting a flower garden. There are steps that need to be taken in a specific order, or your garden won’t grow. If, for instance, you grabbed a handful of seeds and threw them on the ground. Most of those seeds, if not all of them, would not grow. If a few flowers did manage to grow, they would most likely die quickly for lack of pruning or watering, and the ones that managed to survive would be eventually choked out by weeds.

To plant a flower garden that will flourish you need first get rid of all the weeds. Those weeds need to be pulled, roots and all. The ground then needs to be cultivated with nutrients. Next you need to plant the seeds. Once the seeds are planted you need to continuously water them, after which the flowers will begin to bloom. And even after the flowers bloom you need to continuously prune or “dead head” to assure your garden will stay beautiful.

I was once asked, “Why do I need to follow these steps, why can’t I just get right to the spiritual stuff.” My great aunt used to have a saying, “you don’t put rouge on a dirty face.” Much in the same way you wouldn’t give a car full of rust a new paint job without fixing the rust. Eventually that rust would begin to poke through the paint job.

Renewing your life is much the same. We need to take specific step to renew our lives. Going from severe depression Monday to pure enlightenment on Tuesday doesn’t happen. But by following certain steps you can begin the process of healing and balancing your mind, body and spirit.

The first step in renewing our life is to become self aware and recognize the things that may be holding us back. This is the equivalent of finding the weeds in our life. These weeds can be in the form of an overall negative attitude toward life. This doesn’t mean getting rid of, or letting go of, those who we believe affect us negatively. I get a kick out of people who say to me, “I don’t let negative people in my life.” I then ask them, “What deserted island do you live on?” Unfortunately in this day in age we are completely surrounded by negativity. To say you’re not going to let “those people in your life” is outrageous. You can, however, control how those people affect you. That is the only variable in the equation.

The second step is to clear negative programming which can include negative patterns in our life, bad habits, negative emotions or energy. This is the equivalent of getting to the roots of those weeds and pulling them out. Very often we have negative events from our past that hold us back. We need to cut those negative ties that bind us, and stop us from moving forward. Those negative events are much like a rope that is tethered to our back tying us to those events. We slowly drag this rope with us through life, struggling to even take a step at times because the pull is unbearable. Then we finally reach a point in our life where we run out of rope, and can’t move forward. Cutting that rope and rooting out those weeds can be difficult, but not impossible. When you are released from those events you feel a tremendous weight lifted from your shoulders and an incredible renewed energy.

The third step is relighting the flame. This is the equivalent of cultivating the soil, planting the seeds and watering. Once we have cleared all negative energies that hold us back we next need to begin to "plant the seed" to a more positive life. This is done by refocusing our self awareness, setting our intents, and setting very lofty goals. This is the step when we can feel the energy beginning to build within us. We can feel ourselves becoming stronger and more confident. We feel as though we could climb the highest mountain, and swim the broadest sea.

The last step is to nurture our flame and allow it to burn brightly. This is the equivalent of pruning our flower, not allowing and weeds to creep in, and most importantly, enjoying the fruits of our labor! At this point we have learned all of the tools we need to balance our lives and to enjoy our true purpose in this life. We allow our energy to flow freely and we continue our constant goal of reaching a higher state of mind. At this stage we begin o affect others in a positive manner, making a difference in other people’s lives just by our example. This is truly the pinnacle of "relighting our flame," and "renewing our lives."