SHE

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/she-rochelle-renee

BEAUTY FOR ASHES: FROM GRIEF TO GRATITUDE

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-ashes-from-grief-gratitude-rochelle-renee?published=t

Fall In Love With Yourself

I recall the loneliest times of my life and they make me cringe.

Wounded by a failed second marriage, I carried the pain around for years. Four at least, before I moved on, let the wounds start to heal, and file for the divorce. This did not happen overnight. Along the way, I met quite a few people who helped me see the light. Men who made me smile, helped me flirt with the idea of coupledom by raising my self confidence and boosting my ego.

Prior to filing for the divorce, I had to forgive myself for failing at marriage again. Forgiveness of self is truly instrumental in the quest to finding love. Without it, we hold onto baggage and self deprecation, causing a delay in our growth and hindering our own mental health.

What did I discover in these single years? What magic elixir did I drink to come to this big life changing epiphany?

The answer, simply, was to discover who I was all over again. I needed to accept me, flaws and all, including my shadow side, with all the parts of me that I thought others did not like. First on the list: clumsy. Second: left-handed. Third: just plain misfit. Our destructive self talk is really powerful, and most of us don't realize what negative doom we are manifesting when we bash ourselves or undermine our own magic.

How could I expect to summon love into my life, if I was blaming myself for all that had happened in the past? Becoming my own worst enemy was not the recipe for healing a broken heart. No one can move onward and upwards if they're playing the blame game from yesterday. Dude, that is so, like, 2008.

Did I not realize that I was truly 1 in 7 billion? No other person alive has my DNA codes; the mold was broken when I came along. Realizing this made me suddenly jolt back to reality. Being this unique suddenly gave me an advantage I had never seen before.

Self love is so crucial. We cannot call love into our lives if we don't love ourselves FIRST.

Why is that? Because if you don't love yourself, you don't know what you want, need or deserve. Then you wander around, lost and clueless, searching for something you just can't seem to define. It's like having an invisible list of tasks or goals with no real aim. Get real about who you are and what you want. Things will soon fall into place.

Once you accept your darkness and light --in turn, embracing your essence-- all the lovely components that make up the masterpiece of YOU become crystal clear. Soon, you're living a charmed life that is robust, colorful and passionate. There is no regret, no second guessing, and you experience a FREEDOM that is so amazing. Breathe in the calm of having nothing to prove, and no one to prove it to. You will care less about what others think, too. The liberation is pure bliss.

It's a shame how people run from the beauty of who they were born to be. Stand in the mirror, look at the person staring back at you. What do you see? Let me remind you that being single doesn't mean you are worthless. Think of the benefits to being alone at this time. There's no one to answer to, no one to impress but yourself. You can put on that favorite song and crank it REALLY LOUD without offending that partner in the house.

Learn to romance yourself. Take a walk on the beach during sunset, sit on a vista and watch the city lights glittering in the distance, browse lovely thrift shops and find nostalgic items, spoil yourself with a new dress or outfit at a boutique, go to a movie that only YOU would love. Bonus point: you don't have to fret or argue with your date over which flick to see. No compromising here. Myself, I go to concerts in the city alone, or to karaoke --solo--if I can't find a friend who is free on a Thursday or Sunday night. Heck, I'll show up in my diva glory, belt out some Motown gem by Mary Wells or wow the crowd with a rockin' Shania tune. In my element, it's truly phenomenal. It feels like I'm home, and the joy bursting from my heart seems to light up the whole room. It doesn't matter if I show up to these places alone. Because I've learned to love my own company, there's always a new friend I meet along the way, and I'm pushed off my couch and out of the comfort zone. There's life out there! Go and see for yourself. Go ahead, grab these moments while you can.

Self love is a beautiful journey of the soul that begs us to truly look inside ourselves and find the jewel that is waiting to be awakened again, after so many years of a deep sleep. Divorce or heartbreak can really destroy our self esteem and make us feel broken down, ugly, or unloveable. Remember, though, that you are transitioning and moving forward, so take the time you need to heal those battle scars, but don't dwell too long there. You can become too comfortable in bitterville, letting the heartache seep into your soul, and rob you of the dazzling potential that is waiting to be discovered.

I truly hope that you will learn to fall in love with the majestic person you are. One in seven billion, baby. Now THAT is something to be proud of.

As always, keep the passion alive.

Cheering for you,

xx RR xx

Living Life With Orgasmic Joy

Most of us know the word "orgasmic" pertaining simply to sex, but in the business world, it takes on a whole new meaning.

As a novelist, I'll admit hearing this terminology outside the pages of a steamy romance is a little shocking. Especially when I spend my nights by candlelight creating such pulse-pounding intensity, filled with the goosebumps and shivers that come along with material that makes you go "MMMM."

What exactly am I getting at, you ask? Well, for starters, most people who live life on the "normal" cycle all the time, just go through the motions. They get up, make coffee, have breakfast, gas their car,  go to a job they may or may not like. Day in, day out, they repeat this mundane cycle, never fully connecting with the core of what it is that gives them their bread and butter. My guess is that they have no idea how to get pumped or excited for the life they've carved for themselves.

Orgasmic joy, I'll guess, is something most of the population doesn't experience when their feet hit the floor in the morning. How many of us bolt out of bed, feel a burst of energy from our spirit and yell out "OH YES!! YESSS!! at the thought of heading to work? I can almost bet good money that you're not mimicking Meg Ryan in that famous diner scene.

Go ahead, laugh a little. It's absurd, right? But let's be real. How bummed are you to head to work and feel that familiar dread creeping in your chest?

I can't remember when I felt ORGASMIC about a specific job I've held in my lifetime. There have been jobs I did enjoy, where the people were bearable, or pleasant. There's been places I worked where some co-workers shared laughs with me and great anecdotes. Others still, gave me gut-busting memories in the book of life. But, to be honest, I've yet to encounter a job that gave me the "BIG O."

That is, until February 2012,  when I sat down on a snowy winter night and crafted a romance novel called PASSION. For the first time, I realized just what it felt like to work in a spectrum that brought orgasmic feelings. Writing that love story was sheer joy. It was absolute ECSTASY. I'd finally found my ultimate bliss. What the heck took me so long? I was 35 years old, for crying out loud.

Let's flashback for a moment. At the tender age of 14, I discovered the power of prose and penned a young adult equestrian romance novel. That little manuscript gave me a feeling of pride that lasted momentarily. Til it sat in a dusty box for well over a decade. Years passed, 13 years of writer's block to be exact, and somehow in late 2011, I met a mentor who opened the portals for me, brought back my passion for noveling, and cured my writer's block (thanks KGM).

Nowhere else in the job industry have I come close to orgasmic joy in any field of work. Writing my passionate love stories of hope, healing and triumph really "does it for me," though. It gets the mercury rising, the pulse racing, the staccato beat of the heart going. In short, I feel ELATED when I sit down to write such thrilling stories. It truly is my niche.

That being said, it now begs to ask the question: Can others find their bliss doing what they love for a living? I would certainly like to think so. For everyone in this social network, I wish the same for you. I truly do.

How can we, in the meantime, bring about this heightened bliss for ourselves? Is it even possible?

Yes, it is!

The answer is simply this: find your passion and make a living at it. 

But -- you might ask -- what is it that makes you "passionate"?

Reminisce now to the days of childhood when you ran free, had an imagination like wildfire, could dream up any astronomical dream, and felt free as a bird, just living in the paradise of being a footloose kid. What did you want to be when you "grew up"? Was it a Neil Armstrong, a Bobby Orr, or perhaps a Steve Martin? Whatever it was that made you daydream and have visions of a happy future, revisit that. Trust me. That, right there, is your ORGASMIC JOY. You have the money shot, the golden ticket, the midas answer. When you find your authentic self and all that makes your dear little heart race madly, that is what you must dwell on. I'm telling you from firsthand experience. At seven, I just knew that I was the next Lucy Maud Montgomery or Danielle Steel. The glass slipper just fit.

I want to reinforce this thing called JOY. The "happy" chemicals that make you feel good -- serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin-- are the ones you experience during the joyful highs in your life. When you find work that makes you exultant, almost giddy to be alive, then surely, you know you've arrived at a place that is meant for you. Your supreme CALLING is the one that makes you tick.

So get out there and grab life by the big balloons. Set sail on a marvelous adventure. Find your passion, go hardcore, dream full force, make your mark and by all means, hit that "BIG O."

Life is waiting for you to scream out "YESSS, OHHH YESSS!"

--Rochelle Renee--

TELLING STORIES with host Jules Carlysle on Rogers TV July 27 -2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqhndBdArY0

PASSION

PASSION Is Here!!

Launched May 7, 2015 is my novel PASSION.

Come on a fun adventure of sensuality, laughter and pure joy. Filled with rich characters and small town charm, PASSION will steal your heart away.

Rhiannon Rose is a single mom of 34 to a loving daughter, Paige, on the brink of teen status. She's on her last few dollars and last hope, so she enrolls in a small community class to get some updated work skills and a spanking fresh resume.

Keane Mitchell, 48, is trapped in a passionless marriage of convenience and status. He's been the enthusiastic and empowering employment counselor in Brockton for 20 years. When he meets the lovely Rhiannon, he is touched by her vulnerability, and decides to take her under his wing and mentor her. But little does he realize what passionate awakening is about to unfold between them.

PASSION will make you fall in love. Get it now on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.ca/Passion-Rochelle-Renee-ebook/dp/B00XBHP2KC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431133570&sr=1-1&keywords=passion+rochelle+renee