Jul 15, 2011
As many of you know, I am in the process of writing a book. It’s a book that I feel called to write. It’s a book that came about in the most magical, beautiful way.
I always felt that I would write a book one day – an empowering book that inspired others. And I knew that I would write it when I felt that I had something to offer – something that would really help people take steps to live their best lives.
I know that this book is inside of me, and it has started to emerge. It was flowing out, actually – I could hardly keep up. I truly felt like I was taking dictation from the universe. And then it stopped flowing, and I stopped writing.
What I am beginning to realize was that it never stopped flowing. The flow is always there. The flow has always been there, and it will always be there. We are the ones who stop it. We are the ones who put blocks in front of it in the form of fear, doubt, More
Jul 13, 2011
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude!
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Jul 13, 2011
Do you ever look at your life and wonder how everything can possibly get done? Do you ever wish for just one more hour in the day? Do you ever feel like just crawling back into bed when you look at your to-do list? Do you ever ask yourself how things got so busy? Do you ever wonder if you will be able to dig your way out of this seemingly endless pile of tasks?
I know firsthand how life has a way of sneaking up on us, and before we know it, we are underneath what feels like a mountain of must-dos. The emails keep coming in. No matter how much we wish it would, the house just doesn’t clean itself. There are phone calls that need to be made. Errands that have to be run. Projects that must be completed. And the lists really does go on and on.
When I start to feel overwhelmed, my first desire is always to escape. I crawl into my bed and just quiet myself. I take a few deep breaths and quiet my mind. (And I also have been known to grab a bite or two of chocolate – which is the magic cure for many ailments.)
And then in that quiet moment something happens.
I realize that I am okay.
I realize that all of these tasks and emails and projects and assignments are indicators of a life that is being lived. And I feel better for a moment. If I weren’t living – if I weren’t pushing out of my comfort zone – if I weren’t growing as a person and exposing myself to all of this external stimuli, my life would be comfortable and secure and painfully boring. Sure, I would probably have much more time, but when I look back at the end of my life I don’t want to say that I sure had a lot of time to twiddle my thumbs. I want to say that I lived! I experienced. I engaged. I learned. I grew. I evolved. I inspired. I was a part of it.
And realizing this puts it all into perspective.
Having a busy life means that you are living. You are a part of something.
And sure, you can work on More
Jul 12, 2011
We all want to be loved. We all want to be liked. We all want to fit in. We all want to be understood. We just do.
We are social beings. We thrive in groups. We live in tribes. We have leaders and followers and pecking orders and those at the top and those at the bottom.
And because of this innate dynamic, we tend to look to each other for support. We frequently look to each other for approval. This is completely normal and completely okay. We’re not supposed to go it alone on our journey. More
Jul 9, 2011
As many of you know, I am in a real-world marketing school. It’s not something that I ever would’ve imagined I would be doing. And honestly, I’m still wrestling with the concept of promoting myself, my work, and my message. So many of us who are in the healing/inspiring/nurturing field feel this way. We feel that if we are promoting our message we somehow become sleazy salespeople (images of slicked back hair and bad 70s suits come to my mind for some reason).
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I know this firsthand.
Dan and I have achieved some success with our business over the years.
And yet, we never really achieved the high level of success that we both were shooting for.
You know why?
Because we rarely marketed it.
It’s true.
We always felt strange making calls or emailing our accounts.
We didn’t want to bother them.
We told ourselves that they would call when they were ready to order.
But you know what happens?
We forgot that we weren’t at the forefront of their minds – these were busy store owners who had so much on their plate already. How could they be expected to remember when our journals sold out?
And then it hit me.
We were actually doing them a favor (and ourselves a favor at the same time) by staying on the radar. By checking in more often. By believing in ourselves and our product so deeply that we honestly felt that we were helping their customers by offering it to them.
It just took a shift in our mindset.
I would imagine that a lot of you are also in this same mindset.
If you truly are passionate about what you do – there is absolutely nothing wrong with making money from it and promoting it.
To help give you some tools to get your marketing campaign off the ground, you may want to start with this book:
Crush It: Why NOW is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion=&1=&
Jul 8, 2011
Sometimes it’s fun to reminisce about the past – to romanticize how things used to be, to remember a time when things didn’t seem so complicated.
And sometimes it’s fun to visualize the future – dreaming about how wonderful your life is going to be, hoping that everything will turn out exactly how you planned.
And sometimes it’s fun to look at your life right now in this exact moment and recognize all of the wonderful parts of it – how everything is working out just as it is meant to – how you are just where you need to be.
So on that note, let’s think about what we love about our lives right now.
This More
Jul 6, 2011
We all have so much to offer. We are all born with sacred gifts and special qualities that are meant to be shared with the world. When we are young, these gifts flow easily and pour out of us. We sing, we dance, we play – we share our talents with anyone and everyone who will listen. And even if they won’t – we don’t let that stop us. We are simply living our purpose and sharing our gifts.
And then somewhere along the way, we learn to be self conscious about our gifts. We learn that maybe not everyone wants to see, hear, or receive our gifts. We learn that maybe our gifts aren’t the best gifts – maybe someone else has better gifts to offer. We learn that maybe our gifts aren’t practical gifts – maybe they should be replaced with gifts that are better suited for making it in this world – for succeeding in this world.
And so we bury our gifts deep inside ourselves. And we go about our lives in a conforming way. We do what we think is “right” and what we think is “acceptable.” All the while continuing to push our deepest desires further and further down.
And then we become adults with all of the responsibilities that go along with growing up: a real job, a house, bills, kids, etc. And we do all of these things and feel that we are doing a good job – but there is still that calling from deep inside: our sacred gifts want to come out. And maybe they have made little appearances here and there over the years – we paint on the side, we write a little bit every weekend, we sing in the shower, we help our friends with their relationship troubles… but we know deep down that our gifts want to come out so much more. They want to be a priority in our life. They want to be what we devote most of our time to – not an afterthought when we are too tired to act on it anyway.
I was on a phone call recently where
Monique MacDonaldspoke about our sacred gifts and really got me thinking about how important it is for each of us to identify them in our own life.
She said that they are always outwardly focused – what you can give to the world – rather than inwardly focused – what you can give to yourself. And for this reason, she emphasized that if you feel that you don’t have your own life together – you can still share your sacred gifts with others.
She also said that you can be really good at something, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a sacred gift. The way to tell is to notice whether it feeds you or depletes More
Jul 6, 2011
I was going to write all about a wonderful call that I was on this morning where the presenter reminded us to pay attention to our sacred gifts. And I promise that I will elaborate on that in tomorrow’s post.
Today’s post, however, is going to be a short one.
I was just asked on a spontaneous date by the most wonderful man in the world: my beautiful husband. And while there are always posts to write, orders to fill, emails to respond to, books to write, chores that must be done, dinner to cook, etc…there is only the present moment for appreciating our time together and living in the now together.
So I will go get ready for this mystery date. I’ll put something cute on, freshen up, More
Jul 4, 2011
I love when I can remember my dreams when I wake up. It doesn’t happen every day, and so when the dream is still with me as I go about my day, I pay attention to it. I know that means there is a message that I need to listen to.
Last night I dreamt that I was on a plane. I was in the very back row. I didn’t have a seat, so I was sitting on the floor. My things were everywhere – food, books, and clothes were scattered across the entire back of the plane. I looked out the window and saw that we were landing. No one had announced this, but all of the passengers in front of me were in their seats with their seat belts fastened. I didn’t have seat or a seat belt. So I grabbed the seat in front of me and braced myself. I slid around the floor a bit when the plane touched the ground, but I was okay. Because I wasn’t prepared to land, I didn’t have time to pack up and get ready to leave the plane. The flight attendant came back and said that I needed to exit the plane quickly because they were getting ready to take off again. I asked if she could help me pack – it seemed like an endless pile. I had five suitcases filled with stuff – none of which I truly needed, but for some reason I brought it on the flight. I even had veggies and leftovers stored in their refrigerator. And who knows why I brought our huge ceramic fruit bowl with me…She stayed with me and helped me get organized.
The dream ended there. And what I came up with after talking it over with Dan is that the plane represented this journey that I am on right now. We are participating in a program that is fast-paced and requires me to be focused. So I think my subconscious is letting me know that I need to take some time to do just this – tie up loose ends, get organized, ask for help, and let go of my unwanted baggage.
So that’s just what I’m going to focus on today.
My life kicks into More
