REAL Women Enterprises

7 faces of Being*

Be creative. Operate from creativity, rather than the limits of your mind.
Be kind. Make an effort to live in cheerful kindness.
Be love. Remove all unloving thoughts from your mind. Cultivate love in all your thoughts and actions.
Be beauty.  Appreciate beauty in everything you see, touch, and experience.
Be ever-expansive.  'Expansive' means growing, and things that are growing are alive.
Be abundant.  Let go of your conditioning to think in terms of 'not enough,' 'lack' and 'scarcity' - there is no end to the universe, and the universe knows no end.
Be receptive. The nature of receptivity is serene, peaceful, and calm. There is no room for resistance.

*taken from "The Power of Intention" by Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Strive to be these 7 faces at all times and you'll begin to create your life powerfully.
Write them on 3x5 cards and carry the cards with you to support you in making them who you are.

Authentic Appreciation

Are you ready to finally, finally, finally achieve the happiness you seek?
Are you ready to shed dis-satisfaction, guilt, shame, judgment, unhappiness, and worry?
Are you ready to be the source of your own happiness - no matter what else is going on in your life?

If you're like most people, you believe that happiness lies out there somewhere in the right relationship, the right place to live, the right job, the right income, or by acquiring something. And it'll all be perfect when you get these things - hence you'll be happy!

As long as you continue to believe that your happiness is reliant upon a certain set of circumstances and conditions, you've set yourself up to have periods of happiness and periods of unhappiness.

Wouldn't you like to be happy all the time?
Your belief is what is stopping you from being happy all the time. Your belief is what is between you and being happy day in and day out.
Until you shift this belief that happiness can be acquired and lies beyond you, true happiness will elude you.

It's possible to be happy all the time, it's simply a matter of shifting your belief and learning the Art of Appreciation!

The first step:
Make a commitment to practice appreciation in everything you experience.
Here's how:

The key is appreciation for everything. Everything. Your living situation, your people, your body (exactly as it is)... all of it - there is something to appreciate in each and every experience we have had and are having.
If you're like many people, this might seem an especially challenging thing to do, especially if you've experienced loss or disappointment or a change in your circumstances that feels difficult. There is always something for which to be grateful. Always. In every single circumstance, there's beauty and something to appreciate.

Here are some examples of how to be grateful for circumstances that might challenge you:

When a relationship is changing or ending:
I am so thankful I had the opportunity to love and feel the joy that I felt with _______. I've learned so much about myself and my ability to be in relationship. Even though it is difficult for me right now, I am grateful for the experience of loving and giving and sharing. Thank you.

When there's an experience of not having enough:
I appreciate so much what I do have. I know that with each new day, there's opportunity to fulfill on my hopes, dreams, and desires and for that I am grateful. I appreciate the opportunity to learn to trust that I will be taken care of, even when I cannot see how that will occur. Thank you.

When you're not feeling well or you're healing:
I appreciate the chance to slow down and take care of myself right now. Each and every thing that I can do for myself, I appreciate immensely. I am also thankful for the opportunity to let others do for me what I cannot - that I am learning to receive and I'm finding gratitude in that, as well.

The way to happiness is simple. It lies in the appreciation of what you have right now. Happiness lies within you. It lies in seeing the beauty and perfection in your circumstances and being thankful for everything you have.
Everything.

Listening and Knowing

They say the sweat lodge starts two days before - and lasts at least two days after - the lodge. It's that way when you commit to anything.... the experience of 'it' begins the moment you say you are going to do it. Just like your vacation begins the day you buy your plane ticket because you start anticipating the trip and looking forward.

The sweat lodge is an ancient native tradition that many natives on the North American continent utilized to transform and connect to spirit.  I've been getting a lot of spiritual messages lately and I've been directed to do things... and I've been listening.

So, here it is, several days after the sweat and I've had a breakthrough. While pruning today, I was thinking about how the plant doesn't struggle to grow and how it wants to grow upwards... and then it became so clear to me where to snip and cut. I felt myself know what to do with the plant and that it was the exact correct thing to do right then. I knew how to prune like I've never known before.  Now, this is something I'm very pleased about - yet it gets even better because of what's behind my pruning discovery.

See, the breakthrough isn't really in the pruning. The breakthrough is in the ablility to be quiet and in the moment while listening to spirit. It's spirit that knows what will work with the tree's efforts to grow and thrive.

This is authentic knowing and it comes from connection to spirit. Your own essence knows what to do and knows what is exactly correct for you and how to fulfill on your life's destiny and intention. All you've got to do is listen to your inner knowing.

My path has become so clear and so free with each and every day that I allow myself to connect with spirit - and through that, I listen and I know.

What benefits have you gained from connecting to yourself in a spiritual way?

Listening

How do you learn to listen?

First thing you've got to do is be very quiet. That means silence your thoughts and your voice. Create a space of peace and quiet. What will happen? You'll never know if you don't allow the silence to be.

Spend time alone, putting your thoughts aside, your judgments and assessments and criticisms of yourself and others to rest.. just quiet your mind.

This takes practice. This is what we're doing when we meditate -- we're being quiet and listening. Silencing the mind and the ego to allow spirit to be heard.  You'll very likely encounter resistance at first -- your mind will keep thoughts flying at you and you'll likely become fidgety and restless.

You won't know there is anything to hear if you don't listen.
You won't know there is anything to see if you don't look.
You won't know there is anything to love if you don't open up the possibility of loving.

Try creating your space of quiet today for 10 minutes. Post experiences to comments.

Driven to Distraction

What are you seeking? Happiness? Love? Acceptance? Distraction?

If you're like most people, you're seeking something, someone, or some experience most of the time. There's always someplace to 'get to' - either in the physical world or the experiential world. The belief or idea that you must 'get somewhere' or 'achieve something' are simply distractions that prevent you from being here and being present in the right now. NOW. When you're not busy thinking about something that happened in the past, or projecting something into the future.... you can be here, right now. In the moment. In fact, it's really all we have... this moment, right now. And this one, now. Now. There is no tomorrow, only now. There is no yesterday... it is gone. There is now. Now. Now. And then, it's gone.

Every precious moment you spend worrying, projecting, re-hashing, judging, hating, speculating, re-telling... are distractions that keep you from appreciating the moment that you have, right now.

What are some things that take you out of the moment? How about your cell phone -- it's a constant source of connection, yet it prevents you from being present. You do all sorts of things while you're on the cell phone - you can even send a text as you walk down the street! This is taking you away from appreciating where you are right now! You're missing out on your life because you aren't present for it!

Put down the phone so you can appreciate what is around you. Choose to be 'unavailable' sometimes so you can just be with yourself for a change. Check in with yourself, rather than checking in with everyone else.

Your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship of all.  Your relationship with yourself is at the source of everything else you experience.

Expect it, and it shall be delivered

Whatever you're expecting will manifest. I promise.

I had a boyfriend who believed in his heart and soul that relationships lasted 4 years. No more. By year 3 1/2, he was making a case to leave. There was no way, without him transforming what he believed, that our relationship was going  to last longer than he thought it was... his belief was so strong, he created the demise of it with what he expected to happen.

I'm telling you, this is a powerful thing to observe. Look around yourself - whatever you've got, is what you're committed to. If you've got a pattern that emerges with relationships, jobs, family, finances -- that pattern is something to pay attention to because you are committed to the outcome that you keep getting.

If you're complaining about it then you are focusing on it and you'll attract more of it to yourself by this behavior. Stop it!

How can you stop? Is it really possible to radically change behaviors? Patterns? Yourself? Your beliefs?

The good news is YES, you can change and the first step is recognizing that there is something that you want to change... then, getting support to change in the form of a coach who can stand for you as you learn new ways to get what you really want is a powerful way to invest in yourself - and will last much, much longer than a new dress or a pedicure.

Trust me on this - when you really want your beauty to manifest, you'll want to invest in yourself and what's inside - the real, authentic, and beautiful you that will shine through no matter what clothes you have and how you wear your hair.

Click here to find out more about coaching with me.

Smoke and Mirrors

The people you relate with are holding mirrors to reflect yourself back at you.  The things you judge, complain about, and criticize in others are really things that are IN YOU that you've disowned or not accepted. It's important to notice what you don't like in others because that can clue you into areas in yourself that you've turned away from or blinded yourself to.

What then, is there to do when you complain about your friend who has no integrity because she doesn't keep her word? Look at yourself - where have you not kept your word and where have you not been in integrity -- sometimes, it's that you've not kept your word to yourself. While this is not a very enjoyable thing to discover about yourself, all you have to do is accept this new knowledge and love yourself for who you really are. Then commit to what you want.... if you're lacking integrity and it's important to you - then commit to integrity.

Judging and criticizing yourself isn't going to make it any better, either. The answer is to return to love and go from there. Acceptance is love. Everything is possible when there is love.

Reflections

If you approach every experience as a process of discovering things about yourself, then there really is no way you can make a mistake or fail at anything.  It's all just experience and information that you're gleaning from each and everything you do.

Even in a workout that's hard - you can curse yourself for not doing as well as you think you can or should... even better, though, is to ask yourself what you feel you did well and what you'd like to do better in the future.  By asking yourself questions and inquiring what it is that worked and what didn't work, you are being powerful in your approach to improving while treating yourself with respect, love, and care.

Isn't this the way you'd treat any other person whom you were teaching? By fostering a 'working relationship' with your pupil (yourself), you take on a 'can-do' attitude!

It's little things like this that can have you breaking through obstacles like crazy. And when you see your performance sky-rocket, well, that's just FUN!

The Three Elements

Aren't you ready for a radical new way to bring potential into your life?

Aren't you ready to stop wasting time and start making time?

Aren't you ready to finally have what you've been missing - even if you're not exactly sure what that is?

You CAN manifest all that you desire.

You CAN open new doors to success, however you define success.

You CAN start the second half of your life right now - by building on your past successes and discovering completely new ways of bringing what you desire into your life.
You CAN feel complete, despite any circumstance you may be facing.

You can break old patterns that don't serve you and you can develop new habits that bring about exactly what you want.

In my coaching, I use three elements; a combination of mind / body / spirit coaching that'll help you overcome anything that's been keeping you from fulfilling on your dreams and desires.

Isn't it finally time to invest in yourself so you can manifest your fullest potential?

With fall (and my busy time) right around the corner, I've only got a few openings for new clients - contact me to get started right away!

Searching for your people

I've known Suzanne since our freshman year in High School. Even after all these years, we share common experiences and a connection that is built on mutual respect, love, and friendship. She's a HS vice-principal and an amazing woman. I am so proud of her and the woman she has become.

I refer to my various communities as 'my people' - they may be family and friends, clients, other business people, other women... the list goes on. My people and I resonate in some way or another;  we are in alignment on goals, ideas, beliefs, values... things we have in common.  They're powerful relationships that are incredibly valuable to me and that bring abundance to my life. I am wealthy beyond measure because of the relationships that I have with others.

With all the technology available to help us be in touch and connected these days, how is it that people feel less connected and less 'a part of' than ever?  Most of us are searching for something - a place in the world where we can fit in and be ourselves and be appreciated for who and what we are. 

Are you searching for something? A connection to something yet undefined... A way to feel a part of something? A way to feel good?
You aren't alone if you are searching for this undefinable thing. Most people want to be a part of something and they'll create all sorts of ways to try to soothe that desire within them or to keep that unsatisfied desire at bay; staying busy, always 'doing', rushing around from place to place, even vices and all forms of addiction - all have at their source a desire to feel good and at the core of that is a lack of connection to source and spirit.

Today, spend a few moments reflecting on this question: Who are your people? What activities, values, beliefs, and ideas do you share with your people?  How do they contribute to you and how do you contribute to them? 

Post your thoughts to 'comments'.