Reflecting with Cece: Books of 2015

This year, one of my goals was to get back into reading regularly.  To assist with this I signed up to the Goodreads Book Challenge (this is not a sponsored post), and set myself the challenge of reading 10 books in the year.

I am pleased to share that I managed to read more than 10 books this year, and some of them really impacted me.

In today's video, I share 5 books that I read that I enjoyed reading this year!

Reflecting with Cece: Preparing to Reflect

So anyone who knows me in real life, knows that I LOVE to reflect and plan.  For this reason, the last week of each year is my favourite time as I reflect on the year that has passed and plan what I would like to see in the coming year.

My reflection toolkit

For this reason, I am releasing a series of videos this week as I reflect on the year of 2015.  The first video came out today and the aim is to release a video every day for the rest of the week (let's see if I can do it!)

Take some time to watch the first video and subscribe to my channel so you don't miss the rest of the series.

Until next time,
Cece x

It's Christmas! (Giveaway included!)

So the Christmas season is upon us once more!  I wanted to share my thoughts about the Christmas season in a few videos over on YouTube.

My first video shares what I love about Christmas and includes a little giveaway.

Watch the video below to hear my thoughts and find out how to enter the giveaway (there's still time!)

What are your thoughts about Christmas?  Love it or hate it! 

Until next time,

Cece xx

Living without Fear

A few posts ago, I shared with you some videos I filmed about tackling fear in our lives.  It was inspired by a journey that God has recently been taking me on over the last few years.  

As mentioned in my videos, fear has been something that has played a major role in my life and it was not until recently that I realised how much it affected my life.

Courtesy of inlpcenter.org

God has been gradually removing the grip fear has had on my life over the last few years by taking me through some challenges where I have had no choice but to face the very things that I feared.  This process achieved two objectives:

1.  Demonstrated how strongly fear was operating in my life

2.  Demonstrated that I could survive when I confronted my fears.

The process was extremely painful and difficult, and at the same time, amazingly liberating.  Standing on the other side, I am so grateful that God took me through the experience.  

In March of this year, I went on a healing retreat at Ellel Ministries and fear was one of the areas that was tackled.  My experience at the retreat has forever changed me and I can only compare this experience to the time that I gave my life to Christ.  It has been truly life changing and I feel like a completely new person. 

Sometimes, it isn't until you are free that you realise how bound you were!

Whilst my new way of life has been refreshing, it has also thrown up some fresh challenges.  Fear played a big role in my unhealthy desire to please everyone (often to the point of harming myself!).  This "people pleasing" lifestyle was based on fear of being rejected or upsetting others.  Now that I have been set free, I face the challenge of dealing with developing the fruit of the Spirit in my life.

I can almost hear most of you saying, "Huh?!"  Everyone knew me as someone you could always rely on, someone patient, thoughtful and kind, but increasingly I am realising that a lot of that was not necessarily based on me displaying the fruit of the Spirit but rather based on my fear of displeasing others.

So now I am living fearlessly, I am having to learn how to manage the emotions that would have previously been curtailed by fear.  I am learning how to continue to demonstrate love to those who upset me because now I am not afraid of upsetting them.

It has been an interesting journey and I am grateful that God is using it to refine me further.

Until next time,

Cece x

Fear Toolkit: What are you afraid of?

Having looked at the root of fear and what fear is, we know that there will be times when fear comes.  So, what do we do?

Check out my fear toolkit - a series of steps to tackle fear in midst of a fearful situation:

I hope you have enjoyed the series and found it helpful.  Keep an eye out for some Christmas themed videos coming up, including some giveaways!!!

Until next time,
Cece x

Getting to the Root: What are you afraid of?

I am firm believer in dealing with the root of a problem.  If we really want to live a life free of fear then we need to identify and deal with the roots.

In this video, I explore some roots of fear and look at how we tackle them so we can be free!

Look out for the final part of the series tomorrow!

Understanding Fear: What are you afraid of?

It has been a busy few weeks on my YouTube channel as I have been focusing on sharing my thoughts about fear.  Fear is a useful emotion when placed appropriately but we often misplace it which causes a lot of problems for us!

Over the next few days, I wanted to share with you my 3 part series on fear.

In this video, we explore what fear is and identify the fears we should avoid and the fears we should pursue.

In the next video, we will look at identifying the root of our fears.

Until next time, 

Cece x