Our week in Montana: How my aunt changed my life with one sentence

This past week, I was in a remote area of Montana with a huge group of extended family.  The trip led to a lot of beautiful moments, insights, and photographs, some of which I’ll be sharing with you here on the blog.erika awakening

The first moment I want to share with you is in honor of my aunt. One night as we all sat around a weathered picnic table, drinking wine and beer and reminiscing about vacations past, we started remembering one of our absolute BEST vacations ever, which was a trip to Tahoe when I was a teenager. My family met up with my aunt’s family (she has four children — my totally awesome cousins), and we all had an amazing time learning how to ski, playing cards at night, and cooking meals together. I remember it as a time of fun and freedom, and also as unusual, because we actually got to ski for a few days in a row.

Now I know why.

In Montana last week, my aunt told me something I didn’t know before about that vacation: prior to our arrival in Tahoe, my aunt (who paid for the cabin where we stayed) forbade my mother to use the phrase “can’t afford” for the entire trip. She forbade my mother to use this excuse because she knew that my mother was in the habit of saying “can’t afford” all the time, and she knew how demoralizing it was for everyone else. Thanks to my aunt, this is one of my only childhood memories of having freedom to do what we wanted to do without financial constraints …

And we had the time of our lives. A vacation that everybody still gets excited about talking about years later. As an adult, I *love* to ski, and I probably would never have learned how if it weren’t for my aunt standing up for the principle of financial abundance and freedom.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it, how such a minor change in attitude about money can create some of the most amazing memories of a lifetime? Pretty sad, don’t you think, how many of these wonderful fun-filled memories we don’t create because we allow financial limiting beliefs to get in the way?

It’s not really any different, is it, from the guy who never creates a great memory with a woman because he’s scared that he’s “not tall enough” or “not attractive enough.” Limiting beliefs are a total buzz kill, and that’s why this website is dedicated to the art of erasing our limiting beliefs … (You must be at least a Silver member to read the rest of this article, it’s easy to join – go here.)

So let’s dedicate ourselves on this site to becoming consciously aware every single time we are about to let a limiting belief be a buzz kill. You let me know (through the member support portal here) which patterns you are noticing that are holding you back, and I will create articles and videos to help you release these limiting beliefs so you can create A LOT MORE AMAZING experiences like our Tahoe trip. Deal?

And btw, another thing tapping has helped with immensely is my family relationships. They used to be pretty full of conflict. This vacation was really harmonious by comparison, and I noticed a lot of moments of authentic appreciation of my family members. Unexpected moments of noticing someone’s kindness or how adorable they were, not for anything special they were doing or saying, just because of who they were being. These shifts in my relationships with my family began to happen after I did a lot of tapping to release old anger, fear, resentment, and other negative emotions from childhood memories with my parents and siblings.

“When you change, everyone else has no choice but to change with you.” – Erika Awakening

In addition to sharing some of our other Montana experiences here on the blog in another article coming soon, I’m going to share some more of the amazing photos from this trip with you:

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