The Universe does a good job of keeping me humble. It’s not lost on me that I’m scheduled to present information to colleagues next week on being empowered to choose our responses and twice in the past few days I have not shown up as the best possible version of me. Yesterday, in fact, was pretty much a textbook example of first victim and then anger responses. Good show Universe! Good show! Seriously, I really do appreciate the mirror and the opportunity to clean up my own act. If we are not aware of how we are showing up, how can we change? This is one of the purposes of stretching, growing, and evolving. Each step gives us the opportunity to become even more. But it’s up to us to take that step. I suspect I could fill you all in on the details and get at least most of you to agree that I am “right.” That my point of view is clear and logical, and that the path I point to is the “best.” But the inner world is not the appropriate arena for consensus. Agreement will just keep me stuck in the destructive, negative catabolic emotions, and that truly benefits no one. It negatively impacts my body, mind, and spirit. And that destructive power reaches out and brings others down with it. Righteous indignation is not the same as right. Rather, it is a sign of being out of alignment with Who you really are and that more introspection is needed. You can think of it as a coin. On one side of the coin is the problem and on the other is the solution. If you are stuck on the problem […]
Dang That’s Judgmental
One of the things I love about stepping outside my comfort zone is that my shadow side may show up. That’s the part of me that is insecure, defensive, judgmental—you get the idea. It’s an amazing opportunity to practice showing up as authentically me—regardless of the people or situation. The authentic me is loving and accepting. The authentic me sees my value—and the value in each person and situation. The authentic me knows that there are no mistakes and that the diversity of people and opinions is what makes the world go round. The authentic me knows that speaking my truth with ease and grace will be a gift to others, even if it doesn’t seem like it in the moment. If I am acting out of anger, frustration, defensiveness, fear, judgment, or condemnation, I’m not being authentically me—and I have the opportunity to make a difference choice. The onus is on me to stay connected to my Higher Self (God, All-That-Is, Universe, Source—whatever works for you) and to pay attention if I am coming from a place of love or a place of anger, a place of appreciation or a place of fear. One way for you to stay authentic and maintain your connection to your Higher Self in relationships—particularly if you have a history of pushing each other’s buttons—is to actively focus on all the good qualities of the other person. To literally practice seeing them in the best light. There are a couple of ways to do this. Create a list of all the things about the other person that you appreciate, and read and add to it every day. Practice a visualization. See yourself bathed in a golden light that feels […]
Don’t Hold Back
Woo hoo! After two days of giving my squished foot some rest, I got in an upper body workout this morning. After taking a moment to pat myself on the back for getting back on the exercise wagon, I took a look at the quality of my workout. Hmm. I definitely held back. Out of curiosity, I asked myself “why?” The answer was fear. Fear of hurting my foot and fear of the pain I might create. “Perfectly normal,” you might say. After all, I did just give my foot a pretty significant whack with a grooming table. But as Bruce Schneider likes to say, “Normal does not mean necessary.” In this case, the most discomfort I had was putting on my shoe. Sure, I had some touchy moments here and there, but once I established a way to do each exercise comfortably, why didn’t I give it my all? Recognizing that I was acting from the fear of the pain I might experience was one of the “ah-ha” opportunities from this whole situation. How often have I held back from life not because of the pain I was experiencing, but because of the fear of pain? The answer is “a lot,” and I don’t think I’m alone here. One of the first things we often do when reaching for something new is to throw a bunch of “but what if” scenarios in our way. That can easily stop us right there. That worst case scenario is just too big a risk–and creates too much fear. Most of the time, however, we aren’t really risking that worst case scenario. Sure, theoretically it might be possible that I could lift so heavy a weight that I […]
Mastering the Game of Life
There’s a part of me that thinks, “I don’t want any obstacles in life.” I’d like everything that I do and face to be easy, and everything that I want to immediately be given. In fact, I’d like to just skip along and have everything magically appear, thank you very much. But I think the gift from All-That-Is (God, the Universe, Source Energy, Higher Coach—whatever works for you) is that life doesn’t always work that way. The bigger part of us wants challenges and obstacles because that’s what makes life interesting, and gives it texture and interest. If everything was too easy, it would get pretty darn boring and we might start poking things with a stick to see if we could stir up some trouble. I’m learning to embrace the blocks or challenges that I encounter as the opportunities they truly are to make the journey to fulfillment more fun and interesting! It’s the journey where life is happening, not the destination or the goal achieved. Think of it like a chess game or tennis match. If you’re a really good player, it’s not very much fun to play with people who are less skilled than you. Really good players seek out players who are even better than they are so that they continue to learn, grow, and evolve. The exhilaration is in the challenge of the game, and the reach to learn and Be just a bit better. But the problems and obstacles of life can sure get our attention. They distract us from the beauty of the path we‘re walking and the really wonderful things that are all around us. We kind of glance around and acknowledge that there are bunnies, butterflies, […]
I’m Healthy and I Know It!
Last night after brushing our very furry Keeshond dogs, I picked up the grooming table to put it away and dropped it on the ball-joint of my foot. To say it hurt is an understatement. It hurt so much, in fact, that I thought I had broken it. After hearing the crash and racing up the stairs, my fabulous husband found me writhing on the floor with my foot already turning dark shades. Remembering the RICE rule (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), David immediately got me up on the sofa to ice and elevate my foot. Once the initial wave of pain eased, I hobbled into the bedroom where I remained for the rest of the night. For about the first 20 minutes, I lay there trying to think about how I could alter my exercise routine to work around my injury. As I pushed myself up to a sitting position to take some Advil, I realized I’d also hurt my hand. As if reading my mind, David said, “I think it’s safe to say this is going to impact your workout routine.” In the past, this is where I would have started freaking out. Visions of backsliding and weight gain would have filled my mind. I would have been totally focused on the worst-case scenario. Ahh, I love how much I have changed. Instead, I made peace with it, started looking for the opportunities, and invited in wellness. My thoughts went something like this: This is temporary. I will heal and recover and I will be working out to full capacity again in no time. And there will be a lot of opportunities to get creative with how I move my body. Just because I’m […]
What An Opportunity!
One of the empowerment principles I love is, “There are no problems. There are no challenges. There are only opportunities.” As you begin practicing this, it’s easy to see how true it is. While it can be challenging at first, when you stop yourself from negatively reacting to something and shift your mental focus from the problem to how you can use the situation to learn and grow, your mind shifts in the direction you are pointing it and provides the things you seek. To make the shift, you may have to let go of all the things that “could” go wrong and ask yourself how the situation might actually be helpful—for you and others—how you might be able to see things differently, and how you can trust that things are unfolding just as they should. In other words, you rationalize your way out of fear or anger. It’s a fabulous tool for shifting from negative, catabolic energy where you are at the effect of people, situations, thoughts, emotions, and events, to begin looking for and seeing the solutions and potential. As you practice releasing the catabolic energy by moving away from your well-rehearsed and automatic reactions, you connect with higher levels of positive anabolic energy that truly help you see not only the opportunities in every situation, but how the solutions can benefit each person involved. It is the Yin/Yang of the Universe—for every problem there is an equal and proportionate solution. The opportunity and solution are always there, but you must first raise your gaze from the memorizing specter of the train-wreck that is the problem, and look for the opportunities. As you practice making this mental shift you begin creating new reactions […]
Stay Connected!