Creating Peace Love and Understanding

David CantuLove

For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. ~ Khalil Gibran

We will always face times of sorrow and pain. The question to ask ourselves is: What do I want to do about it? Sorrow and feelings of anger and frustration challenge me to be a greater person than I was yesterday. If I’m willing to look within myself, there’s a chance that I’ll find meaning in my experience. With new meaning I’m able to create a new day, a new life. The alternative is inevitably more of the same, more sorrow and pain. What do I really want? What am I living for? These questions asked in honesty will provide the answers I need; they are internal answers hidden behind emotions. Am I willing to slow down and move beyond the feeling? Am I willing to go where I haven’t been able to go until this moment? Yes! That’s why I live! I live for more love, and joy, and peace; that’s the meaning of life. I live to find new answers and greater connection with others, greater love. That’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps us all going! Thank God for the pain. Not because I enjoy it, but because now I can know greater glory. This is the peace that transcends understanding. This is love.

David Cantu
Life Coach Austin
Sorrow, Love and Peace © 2006

Philippians 4:7 (NIV)
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Signs of True Love, Eternal Love

David CantuLove

Love is the emblem of eternity. It confounds all notion of time, effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. ~ Germaine De Stael

All that I fear or cherish is finite and temporary. It will end. As I embrace this truth, I find myself dwelling more and more on something that endures: love. Not the emotional love that can be wildly erratic – up and exciting one moment, down and frustrating the next. Rather, true love that is infinite and eternal. As I place my focus on this love, I create for myself the opportunity of a rapidly evolving life, one in which each day finds me more peaceful and fulfilled than the last. This is the truth that will set me free.

David Cantu
Life Coach Austin Texas
Eternal Love © 2005

1John 4:16 (NIV)
… God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Moving From Emptiness to Happiness

David CantuLove

So, instead of going to heaven, at last–
I’m going, all along. ~ Emily Dickinson

We frequently attempt to prove our value to ourselves and to others through external accomplishments. We may get college degrees, lose weight or work eighty-hour weeks. We do this in order to make the emptiness go away or from a mistaken belief that it will result in happiness. But we get only fleeting glimpses of joy this way; the emptiness remains. Our real goal has been love and fulfillment.

Action is necessary, but not sufficient, to fill the emptiness. Doing and accomplishing things does not create happiness. This will come only with love and meaning. The absence of love is toxic and debilitating. It can however, be learned. Yes, it is better to give than to receive, but the experience of receiving is an essential foundation of life. By receiving love we learn to value ourselves. Self-love, then, is the seed for love of others and the prime ingredient that fills the emptiness. Only with the confidence of love are we able to embrace the possibility of joy and fulfillment.

Fulfillment does not come with the achievement of goals; it is not a finite end but an ongoing process. It is the result of living in the present moment rather than in the illusion that some future event will result in happiness. The accomplishment of goals brings feelings of satisfaction and pleasure, but they are temporary and we soon revert to the same general state of emptiness or happiness in which we lived before the event. Goals are good as long as they are in accord with our true desires, a part of a meaningful life rather than an end.

Be true to yourself; identify that which is most significant to you and nurture it. Live your life with gratitude, enthusiasm, and a giving heart. Be fearless; know that both pain and pleasure are essential facets of life, not to be shunned. Accept them equally, but do not obsess with either. Surely, the emptiness will vanish, happiness will be yours.

David Cantu
Marriage Counselor Austin, Texas
Moving From Emptiness to Happiness © 2009

Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Why Do People Get Angry?

David CantuEmotion, Personal Growth

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. ~ Thomas à Kempis

What do you really want? Far too often our vision is short sighted and our need for instant gratification so great that we don’t accomplish what we seek; so we get angry. Anger’s many colors include frustration, a need to withdraw and self loathing. Regardless of how we express it, or whether it’s just or inappropriate, anger is a fleeting and ineffective antidote to feelings of powerlessness to get what we want. Its false promise of power is very seductive. We get angry in order to relieve the helplessness that we feel – and for a little while we may succeed – but in fact, anger forfeits power. We put whomever or whatever we’re angry with in the driver’s seat of our emotions and lives.

Know you can succeed. Getting angry focuses attention on your feelings of powerlessness rather than on your goal. Attend to your real desire; obstacles are certain to arise, but the biggest hurdle is your own will to overcome them and to see your goal to fruition. How much do you really want to manifest your desire? Transform the energy of your anger and wield it as passion and determination. Be the person you were meant to be and nothing will be impossible for you!

David Cantu
Life Coach Austin Texas
Why Do We Get Angry? © 2007

Proverbs 16:32 (NASB)
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.

Create Your Life – Life Coaching

David CantuPersonal Growth

Life is not holding a good hand; life is playing a poor hand well. ~ Unknown Author

Many people understand at an intellectual level that we’re each responsible for our own happiness. Yet we frequently blame others or attribute the sadness, anger and pain in our lives to outside circumstances.

Until we really get it that those two ideas are fundamentally contradictory it’s impossible for us to live a fully joyful and loving life; holding even the tiniest part of blame in our hearts renders us powerless to create what we ultimately want.

If I hold anyone or anything other than myself responsible for the feelings or facts of my life, I surrender my power to that person or thing. We don’t create everything that happens to us, but in order to find true peace in life we must take responsibility for all of it.

Otherwise, when we experience pain, failure or hardship, it’s much too easy for our egos to make excuses that keep us fearful and small. True responsibility says “I create every aspect of my life by my actions and reactions.” This is the narrow path of truth that leads to enlightenment.

David Cantu
Life Coach Austin
I Create My Life © 2006

Luke 6:37-38 (NIV)
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you ….”