The One and Only, Incredible, Unique You

There’s no one else like you in the entire universe.

Please take a moment to reflect on this statement and then continue reading.

Every snowflake, flower, rock, tree and person is unique. No two are the same.

The Creator created us as unique beings in order for us to bless the world with our particular gifts and talents.

What gifts and talents are particular to you? What defines you and makes you special?

Nurture your gifts and talents

In order to be truly happy during our lives on earth, it’s important to do the things that we’re good at. Not only that we’re good at—but in the spirit of Take it to the Next Level—things that we were always meant to do.

You may be wondering, what are my gifts and talents? You can determine such by the feeling that comes with operating in your gifts and talents.

Operating in our gifts and talents means actively using and performing them respectively.

It feels easy and comes naturally

When we operate in our gifts and talents, we have a good feeling. Everything seems to flow. It’s uncomplicated and even easy! It’s the opposite of the complexity that the world often presents.

How many times have you visited a website and wondered what it is all about? It’s so complex and confusing that you can barely navigate it. There are so many rules and demands (notably for payment) that your stress levels start to skyrocket. In the end, the complexity masks the emptiness of what the site offers. This is the opposite of ‘easy and natural.’

When I write spiritual books, it comes very easily to me. That’s because I am 100% inspired. What about you? What comes easily to you? What inspires you? Are you good at writing? Are you naturally empathic? Are you perhaps good at math?

Speaking with people and coaching them also comes easily to me. I just know exactly what to say. This is a gift and talent. What about you? What comes naturally to you? What do you think you were born to do? If you’re not sure, then book a session with me and we can figure this out together.

We must be in the right environment in order to nurture our gifts and talents

For years, I struggled to understand what my gifts and talents were. Although I took aptitude tests in high school, I paid no attention to the results and blindly moved in directions that were clearly not for me. I moved in directions that were trendy, but not true to my nature.

Even worse, I was in the wrong environment altogether, an environment in which I could not flourish and grow into the unique person I was always meant to be. Is it possible that you aren’t thriving because you’re in the wrong environment?

Abram left his country of origin to become Abraham

Kabbalah—Jewish mysticism—tells the Midrash about Abram’s father Terah.[1]

Terah was an idol maker, worshiper and seller. He was in the business of making wooden idols—false gods—that people worshiped. One day, Terah asked a young Abram to mind the idol shop. Instead of encouraging customers to buy the products, Abram did the opposite! At the end of the day, he chopped up the smaller idols and put the ax in the hands of the biggest idol—to make it look like it did it.[2]

Terah wasn’t fooled, however, and reported this to Nimrod, ‘the highest official in the land’ who had Abram thrown into a fiery furnace. Abram did not die, however, because the Creator had a special purpose for his life.[3]

Pack your bags and go

When the Creator commanded that Abram leave his homeland, he did so immediately and moved to a new environment, an environment in which he and his family thrived, and he received a new name, Abraham.[4] Abraham’s destiny was to become the first patriarch of the Jewish nation.[5]

What about you? What’s your destiny?

Let’s Take it to the Next Level together.

Book your appointment here today,

Luba

Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash


[1] Yehuda Altein, ‘Who Was Terah?’, Chabad.ORG, accessed June 18, 2023, https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4529921/jewish/Who-Was-Terah.htm.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Genesis 12:1.

[5] Yehuda Altein, ‘Who Was Terah?’, Chabad.ORG, accessed June 18, 2023, https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4529921/jewish/Who-Was-Terah.htm.

Dark Times, Open Heaven

I feel saturated, bombarded by Covid-19 news. What about you?

Dr. Neil Levitsky, a Toronto, Ontario psychiatrist, says we should be aware of pandemic news but limit how much we watch.[1] I agree.

We recently celebrated the First Sunday of Advent whose first candle represents hope. For Christians, this hope exemplifies both the Nativity and Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Christian theologian John Piper thinks that Christ should be the rock on which we lean in the midst of the pandemic, a pandemic which is opening a way for transformation.[2] I believe that this transformation is both personal and societal.

You may wonder, ‘Luba, how on earth can I take my life to the Next Level in the middle of so much insecurity, division and change?’ ‘Luba’, you may say, ‘people are dying, and you expect me to believe that there is a God and that this God cares about me?’

Yes, I do.

God works best in dark times because God’s light shines most then. These are precisely the times we’re living in.

Dark Times, Open Heaven

Many believe that, in spite of the dark times we’re in, we are also living under an open heaven which means that communication is actively happening between heaven and earth.[3]  

As bleak as things appear around us in the physical realm, as dark as the situation seems to be, as uncertain as our circumstances are, there is an ‘openness’ that covers us through which blessings come. This is the hope that I refer to in this piece.

God has a plan for each and every one of us. God’s plan for me was to leave Bulgaria, come to Canada and become a chaplain in war time.[4] Although we are not in a traditional war, we seem to be involved in a new kind of warfare, an invisible war with an invisible enemy, Covid-19.

God’s blessings will pour on us when—in the midst of this warlike atmosphere, a kind of protracted lent from pre-Covid-19 activities we took for granted—we remember God.

What is impossible—Next Level thinking—suddenly becomes possible in a step-by-step, day-by-day reliance on the knowledge that we are living under an open heaven that is ready to pour out its gifts on us so long as we accept the transformation that is required of us now.

‘You mean, Luba, that more is required of me than being careful and wearing a mask?’

Yes, I do.

I think that we’ve been given this time of ‘straightening’ as a reprieve. You can think of it as grace or a grace period that’s been given to us to get rid of all the extraneous things and relationships in our lives that are preventing us from rising in life, being the person we were always meant to be.

Open Heaven

An open heaven is clear, bright, gracious, and freeing. It accepts us with our foibles and is ever ready to provide and guide, caress and bless, help, and support, acknowledge and rebuke and love us. An open heaven is uncomplicated and balanced, ruled yet tolerant, and fundamentally good. An open heaven is filled with goodness. It is ready to cover you in an abundance of beauty and goodness in the midst of your pain and suffering.

Feeling a little anxious because of the pandemic? Unsure of what to do next? Perhaps you’ve just retired and don’t know what to do with the rest of your life? As an experienced chaplain in a first class retirement home and psychotherapy intern at the University of Toronto, I can help you.

Let’s Take it to the Next Level together. Book your appointment today,

Luba

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Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash


[1] Neil Levitsky, ‘COVID 19 coping strategies,’ YouTube, accessed online on December 1, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn7mKyKwPDI.

[2] John Piper, ‘COVID-19,’ YouTube, accessed online on December 1, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgfu6JLB_XE&vl=en.

[3] Dr. James W. Goll, ‘What Really Happens in an Open Heaven?,’ Charisma, accessed online on December 1, 2020, https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/a-voice-calling-out/22133-what-really-happens-in-an-open-heaven.

[4] Read the description on my website’s home page, https://lubarascheffconsultancy.com/.