Category: Happiness

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Effortless Bilocation

Project your energy wherever you wish to be. It’s really easy. 

Begin with a FAVORITE memory, one so good that’s it’s still ALIVE in your mind, like you are still in that moment when you think about it.

One I return to frequently is a particular lanai of a condo I once rented in Kona. I spent many magical hours watching the ocean roll in to the Kona Reef. I’m always up hours too early in Hawaii due to the time difference, so I would savor a cup of coffee on the lanai and watch morning break over the reef, letting the sound of the waves meditate me.

When I close my eyes, it takes almost no effort to call that feeling – that energy – of glorious perfection back to me, as if I were still there.

I milk it. I let it feed my soul. I plug into it deliberately to charge my spiritual batteries. In those moments, I AM in Kona looking out over the reef. I am present to the sight, sounds, taste, smell, and even the feel of the breeze and salt spray! It doesn’t matter if my body is in California, my essence – the energy of my True self – is fully experiencing being in Hawaii.

As many of you know, I also do this a LOT with Croatia.

I live in Croatia in my mind sometimes because it gives me GREAT joy to do so. I love to promote things that make me happy, so when more than one friend asked me recently to help them plan trips to Croatia, I may have gotten a little swept up in the idea!

It took about two days to put it together, but it was like being in Croatia for a weekend! I swear when I had to go somewhere on Sunday, I felt like I just returned from an amazing vacation!

I share the links here in case anyone is planning a trip to Croatia:
Cyndi’s Crazy for Croatia
Dubrovnik – FIVE Stars, Highly Recommend!

But I digress. I was speaking of being in two places at once.

I invite you to practice putting your energy back into a very pleasant memory. When you feel your energy lift, you’re doing it right. Practice with happy memories until you get the hang of it.  

Then start practicing putting your energy where you WANT it to be – wherever that is. Allow yourself to FEEL yourself in that next travel adventure. Feel yourself being happy, satisfied, and financially independent in your new career. Imagine yourself in the arms of your perfect partner, content, confident, and emotionally held.

Imagine BEING in that moment and let the joy you feel charge your batteries! Enjoying these moments causes the Universe to bring more things to us that FEEL like what we are enjoying.

Imagination is the first step in manifestation.

I once had a client tell me that she never dared think of herself in relationship with her perfect partner because it instantly made her sad that the relationship wasn’t real (yet). Her goal was to attract her soulmate, but she refused to imagine herself achieving that goal!

Anything we want is for no other reason than we think it will make us feel happy. Allowing our energy to feel that happiness NOW  brings that happiness – that manifestation – to us more quickly, BECAUSE – say it with me…

I am planning my next trip to Croatia. I think about all the fun we have created there. I put myself on top of the Walls of Dubrovnik in the sunshine with a camera in my hand and a sea breeze in my face almost every day. It never fails to make me feel on top of the world.

Sharing that joy with you, and the world helps me manifest my next travel adventure, my next friendship, my next great joy. Creating those two pages was FUN. It put me right where I wanted to be, and it thrilled me to my toes. The day after I shared my creation, a friend in Croatia reached out to invite me to stay!

I am thinking about what I want. I am enjoying playing with the energy, and I attract the energy I want to experience.

I am THRILLED and excited to be here with you, and to also be there with you!

Happy bilocating!

Grow on!

Find a favorite memory and milk it for all it’s worth! Journal about it. Recall it as vividly as possible until your energy remembers fully the glorious feeling of being there!

Then practice casting yourself in the starring role of living your dream – whatever your dream is. How do you feel when you accomplish it? Safe? Happy? Fulfilled? Successful? Feel that energy vibrating within you, and practice it frequently to attract MORE to you that feels like that!

If you begin to focus on the lack of the arrival of your manifestation, that’s normal! Don’t be hard on yourself. Gently shift back into the memory of joy you have practiced, and just steep in that energy awhile before projecting forward again.

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Give Thanks for Miracles!

Life is a series of millions of tiny miracles.

Don’t just notice them. Appreciate the fuck out of them!

Appreciation is the HIGHEST vibe available to humans. Love and appreciation are the same. We are here on this planet to allow love to flow through us and into our world!

I know that life on earth is a mixed bag. It’s super easy to focus on challenges and obstacles – they arise to shift our focus. But often we become SO focussed on the challenge, that we don’t even notice miracles, let alone appreciate them. 

I invite you to let the love flow, for no other reason than it feels fucking amazing! When you feel yourself contract in fear (worry, guilt, regret, resentment, etc…), take a deep grounding breath and allow yourself to expand into love.

How? 

Infuse appreciation into every miracle around.

Now, if we have been focused on fear for awhile, we may not even recognize the miracles. If this is where you find yourself, don’t panic. You are not alone in this by any score, and nothing has gone wrong! We are culturally conditioned to look for what is going wrong or might go wrong, threats to our lives, finances, and health, and circumstances outside of our control.

It is my honor, and great pleasure, to help people refocus on ALL we have to appreciate in our lives! Recognizing everyday miracles, and flowing love & appreciation to them serves our health, uplifts our mood, and connects us to infinite wisdom.

I present an incomplete list of miracles to which we can flow love and appreciation.

  • sunshine
  • rain
  • clouds
  • oxygen
  • flowers
  • gardens
  • trees
  • birds
  • butterflies
  • rainbows
  • food (other stuff exists that provides nutrients we require to survive!)
  • dogs
  • cats
  • babies
  • running hot water
  • internet and the level of connectivity it provides
  • grocery delivery! (Imagine what pioneers on the prairie would MAKE of that!)
  • true friends
  • imagination!
  • challenges & obstacles – It is common to curse obstacles, and cast the self as victim when challenges arise. If we shift our point of view and ask what Love is teaching with this challenge, the way through becomes clear. The challenge is ALWAYS a gift, even when we cannot see the value.
  • legs that carry us through life
  • eyes to see the beauty in the world
  • arms to hold the ones we love
  • intestines that digest everything, even when we eat unconsciously.
  • an immune system that protects our lives from unseeable organisms
  • tastebuds!
  • lungs that inhale and exhale
  • blood that delivers oxygen and nutrients
  • organs that serve our survival without us even understanding what they do!
  • a heart that beats without us having to think about it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week of every year of our life!
  • eardrums!
  • our ability to smell pine, and cloves, and roses, and puppy breath
  • Self! – the sum total of billions of living cells that compose the flesh, and life that are you, is nothing short of a miracle!

There is NOTHING more important to which we flow our love and appreciation than self.  Self-love is the key to transforming anything we wish to change. And if there is nothing we wish to change, flowing love and appreciation to self will enhance the perfection we are enjoying!

If we see nothing to appreciate, it is only because we have not cultivated an appreciation of the miracles that surround us. We have been conditioned to take miracles for granted. 

We can absolutely condition ourselves to see them everywhere.
We invite MORE miracles by focusing on miracles!

Grow on!

I invite us to bask in the sunlight of our own miraculous being.
I invite us to look for miracles, NAME them, and infuse them with appreciation and love. Start with the ones I list above. More and more miracles will become obvious.
Practice looking at challenges as a miracle designed by our soul to provide an amazing gift, and deeper understanding of love.

Enjoy previous blog posts on appreciation and gratitude:
Count Your Fucking Blessings
Gratitude Infusion
Deep Gratitude for 2021

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Liberate Yourself!

Being our authentic self is the most liberating thing we can do. 

What does it MEAN to be authentic? It means to be the fabulous YOU that you came here to be. Each of us is a unique spark of the Universal Divine, a singular piece of the infinite puzzle. We deserve to say what’s true in our hearts. We deserve to be true to our own desires and beliefs, and live in whatever way makes us happy. We deserve to live our lives in whatever way we choose, no matter what the fuck other people expect of us, or what they think about our choices. 

But it is normal to want to fit in, and to want to be liked by others, so many of us wear masks to hide our authentic self. This happens when we believe that we are not enough as we are, or when we have been told that we are too much in some way, or when it feels unsafe to speak our truth.

The masks we create become heavy when worn too long, and continuing to wear them takes a huge amount of energy. We grow weary of trying to be who this one wants us to be, doing what that one wants us to do. We can be exhausted trying to live a life defined by masks, instead of letting ourself be authentic.

If we attract a partner while wearing a mask, we may fear ever revealing our true self. If they love the masked version, how could they possibly love what truly lies beneath? 

The other burden of wearing a mask to please others, is that we never really get the chance to explore our true nature. We get to a point where the mask is so heavy we MUST set it down, but then we might not have any idea of who we truly are and what makes us happy.

So I invite you to liberate yourself! If you are not usually the type to speak your mind, or ask for what you want out of life, I encourage you to start. Play with being authentic to explore how much more energy you have!

If you reveal your true self and someone doesn’t like it, that’s their problem, not yours. The people who love you will be delighted for you to be YOU. Maybe it’s time to release people who want you to wear to please them.

You only get one wild and precious life. Spend it being the fabulous, unique YOU that you came here to be!

Grow on!

What masks do you wear regularly?
Which ones are draining your energy?
Which ones are you willing to let go?
In what ways are you ready to express your authenticity?
What makes you truly light up?

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EXCELLENT fucking reasons!

When I was little, I used to lie on my grandma’s bed and listen to music on her clock radio. I was mesmerized watching the numbers flip over one minute, and hour at at a time. To a four-year-old, it seemed like magic.

In first grade they tried to teach me how to tell time using hands on a clock. I didn’t get it. Partially because I hadn’t yet been taught to multiply by five, and partially because it seemed redundant when you could just look at a magical flip clock and see the answer to what time it was if you cared to know.

My teacher sent home an angry note disparaging my analog time-telling talents. My father was furious that I was behind in this lesson. I cheerfully explained to him that it was ok, because I could get a flip-clock like grandma’s so I could always tell what time it was. He did not appreciate my optimism, and let his fury fly. 

He sat me down at our dining table and slammed the worksheet down in front of me.  I worked out the time on the clocks on the worksheet, and for every incorrect answer, I got smacked.

After my first wrong answer, a furious voice arose in my mind, “Do NOT get one more wrong! Do not answer until you KNOW you are correct!” I was very careful and found that when I applied myself, I could avoid the wrath. The protector in my mind helped me survive.

Over the years, the voice that arose to protect me from wrath was generally the first to hurl it. Any mistake I made was met with choruses of vehement anger. HOW could I be so stupid as to make one mistake? I am SUCH an idiot! Will I NEVER learn?

The protection from wrong answers transformed into criticism for everything that SEEMED like it MIGHT be in error. It was easy to be anxious and uncertain, and then not even try if I was the least bit unsure of myself.

I’m not telling this story to gain sympathy, I tell it to illustrate the fact that I have excellent fucking reasons for the critical voice in my head telling me NOT to fuck this up. And, I am willing to bet that if you hear constant nagging criticism in the back of your mind, you have excellent fucking reasons, too.

I also know that if you hear constant nagging criticism in the back of your mind, you’re dealing with one of the biggest stressors in life. It’s no fun, it wreaks havoc with our digestion, and it’s one of the biggest reasons that women overeat, or turn to sugary treats.

That’s right. You heard me.

If you, like millions of other women struggle with overeating or overuse of sugar, one of the biggest reasons may be the voice in your head telling you you’re a loser for reaching for the sugar again! 

So, we have excellent fucking reasons for the critical voices in our heads, AND that may be one of the major causes underlying compulsive eating patterns that we deeply desire to release. 

What can we do about this confusing challenge?

It’s pretty clear that we want to learn to stop being so critical of ourselves, but how do we begin to release a habit that has lasted a lifetime? It’s a process, and it takes practice!

It’s not going to happen overnight despite the critical voice telling us that our life depends on making changes NOW, or that we should have made changes yesterday. Often, just hearing the voice saying that something MUST be done is enough to induce our anxiety.

Take a deep breath, and exhale fully.

Changing the voice in our head is not only possible, it is essential, and it is life changing! Go ahead and take another deep breath, because just knowing that change is possible begins to relieve the tension – as does breathing deeply.

Somewhere to begin.

Here is a simple process I teach my clients to begin letting go of the inner critic, and ALL the stress she causes us to feel!

ABC Process

Awareness
Practice becoming aware when it’s happening. For many people, it’s simply a sudden feeling of being judged or disapproved of. For others, it’s hearing full sentences of disapproval and harsh judgement. It can be different for each of us, so we need to pay attention to try and catch it in the moment we are doing it.

Once we are aware in the moment that it’s happening, we can take action. As soon as you are aware of the critic voice:

Breathe
Take a nice deep grounding breath.

Choose 
Choose love.
Choose a voice who speaks gently to you.
Choose to treat yourself as you would treat someone you adore, someone you would never criticize.

Instead of criticizing yourself, choose to love yourself for being human.

It’s as simple as ABC, though it takes some practice to become aware and remember to do it in the moment. And if you don’t catch it in the moment, don’t beat yourself up. 

When you do catch it with your improving Awareness – Breathe, and Choose love!

Somewhere to practice.

Letting go of the constant self-criticism takes time and practice. Three times a year, I run a two-month group for women who are ready to release self-criticism and get relief from stress, and the myriad symptoms that stress creates in our lives. We also release recreational sugar for three weeks in a fully supported, nonjudgmental way to see how much RELIEF we can create from any unwanted symptoms we are experiencing. 

If this sounds like something you want to play with, you can sign up for the next Masterclass at THIS LINK, or read all the information about the upcoming Playgroup HERE.

Grow on!

Print the ABC process somewhere you will see it daily to help remind you to let go of self-criticism.

Check out full details of the next Relief through Release Playgroup at THIS LINK.

Remember that you are WORTH the investment of time and energy that it takes to be kinder to yourself!

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High in San Francisco

I write my blog about topics that lift my vibe, help me grow, or inspire me in some way. Last week I had the absolute pleasure of encountering Salesforce Park in San Francisco for the first time.

I was expecting – I don’t know – a bunch of gorgeous potted plants on a rooftop. Nothing could be further from the reality of what greeted us when we stepped off the elevator on the fifth floor of Salesforce Tower. The image above is from the park’s webpage.

The park spans 5 city blocks, suspended five floors above the streets of downtown San Francisco, and surrounded by the towers of glass and steel that punctuate our beautiful city. 

The spectacular public space includes a fountain that is triggered by buses in the transit center below, an amphitheater, children’s playground, paved walking trail that circles the entire five and a half acre park, and thirteen mini botanical gardens labeled with interpretive signs.

I’m just going to let my photos speak for me this week, so enjoy this little taste of Salesforce Park.

If you are planning to visit San Francisco, I highly recommend the Salesforce park! The park is open 6am to 8pm daily, and you can CLICK HERE for complete details.

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Stairway to Heaven on Earth

A shift in mindset can literally be the difference between experiencing a living hell, or living heaven on earth. 

Mindset is EVERYTHING. Mindset is the vibrational set point of our thinking. It is the accumulation of established thoughts and beliefs we hold to be true. 

Energy attracts like energy, so what we vibrate, we attract.

We can think of our vibrational set point (mindset) as our radio station. Our current mindset is the station to which we’re tuned. Therefore the ONLY thing we can currently experience is what’s being broadcast on our station. If we do not like our experience, we must change the station to get something different.

We cannot change the experience being broadcast. In order to experience a different broadcast, we must change our station, by changing how we perceive.

What we perceive is what we receive.

If we believe that we live in a godless universe, where others cannot be trusted, where we must do it all on our own, and struggle for what we have; we are having a very different experience broadcast to us than someone who believes that the Universe has her back, sends frequent angels to support her, and flows resources to her effortlessly. 

Changing our radio station (mindset) allows us to attract something different than we have been experiencing. If we are not currently enjoying our experience, it is vital to shift our mindset.  In order to shift our mindset to attract something different than we have been attracting, we must begin to shift the thoughts we are thinking, and be willing to let go of beliefs that do not serve us.

The question then is, how do we change what we believe?

Awareness is always the first step! We can only change something if we are AWARE that we want to change it. Once we have recognized that something we think or believe no longer serves us, we need a process to help us overwrite those beliefs with new ones that support and inspire us!

We need a process because if we truly believe something, we cannot simply stop believing that, and start believing something contrary. The human brain won’t leap like that. 

For example, we cannot go from thinking, “I hate my body because it’s fat,” to thinking, “I love my body unconditionally,” in the same breath. Our vibration will physically reject the opposing thought because it does not resonate with our current mindset/vibration.

Wheels & Ladders

Here are four processes wonderful for shifting mindset, or point of attraction.

Focus Wheel Process

Esther Hicks and Abraham offered us the Focus Wheel Process in the book Ask and it is Given. 

We place the thought we wish to believe in the center, then write thoughts around the outside which we already believe, thoughts that resonate with our current mindset, meaning – we already believe them. Practicing these believable thoughts moves us closer to the center thought we wish to believe.

Esther says to use the focus wheel process:

  • When you realize that your current Vibrational Point of Attraction is not where you want it to be.
  • When you are aware that you are feeling negative emotion about something that is important, and you want to find a way of feeling positive emotion instead.
  • When something has just happened that is not to your liking, and you want to think about it while it is on your mind and change your point of attraction so that it does not happen again.
  • When you are reaching for a feeling of relief.

For me, the key bit here is reaching for a feeling of relief. When we are thinking thoughts that make us feel icky, anxious, or worried, finding thoughts that RELIEVE the anxiety, worry, and shame is solid GOLD.

Abraham’s Focus Wheel Process is highly effective for many people.

Training Wheels

Another process we can use to shift our thoughts, our mindset, our vibrational point of attraction is Training Wheels. Training wheels help us soften the thought we desire to believe, and bring it closer to our current vibrational range. Training wheels are sentence fragments tacked onto the thought we wish to believe.

Examples of Training Wheels:
Why is it so easy to…
I am learning to…
I am ready to…
I feel empowered when…
Today I begin to…
I choose to…

Training wheels on our example: I love my body unconditionally.
Why is it so easy to love my body unconditionally?
I am learning to love my body unconditionally.
I am ready to love my body unconditionally.
I feel empowered when I love my body unconditionally.
Today I begin to love my body unconditionally.
I choose to love my body unconditionally.

If the training wheel thought is one we BELIEVE, we are on our way!  Shifting from a limiting belief to an inspiring belief takes PRACTICE, so we want to practice the training wheel thought frequently until we feel ready to take the training wheels off.

Training Wheels Process is a super effective way to begin shifting our beliefs!

Laddering Thoughts

I love Laddering Thoughts Process! Imagine the limiting belief on the bottom rung of the ladder. Now place the thought we WANT to think at the top of the ladder.

Now we climb the ladder one better-feeling thought at a time! Each thought is a rung on the ladder taking us closer to the empowering thought at the top. You can absolutely use Training Wheels to help you up the ladder if you find some that raise your vibration. 

You can also use neutral thoughts since neutral is always a higher vibe than negative. For example, instead of the negatively charged, “I hate my body” we can use the neutral statement, “I have a body” to climb one rung up on the ladder. That’s a true statement, so it can resonate with anyone. “My body has physically supported me since birth,” is also true. If it resonates, we can use it to climb one rung closer to the higher vibration we desire!

Try these thoughts, and if they resonate, we can climb the next rung:

Some people love their bodies unconditionally.
I would like to love my body unconditionally.
The more I love my body, the more it loves me back.
Occasionally, I love my body unconditionally.
It is possible to love my body unconditionally.

Remember: you need to practice the Laddering Thoughts that resonate for you every day, throughout the day. Once a thought feels more believable, move up the ladder! 

Stairway to Heaven

I adore the Laddering Thoughts Process, and I love to shift thoughts from bad feeling to good feeling, and from good feeling to better feeling.

So I shifted the idea of the thought ladder into the image of a fully supported staircase with double handrails. Now instead of my steps being shaky, or unstable, I feel steady and supported as I climb my Thought Stairway!

The handrail I offer is a choice of uplifting thoughts galore. Many years ago I began creating positive affirmation cards (daily mantra or empowerment cards) for a friend who was going through challenging times.

I take positive statements that feel good when I say them, and print them on my inspiring landscape photography. Currently I have created more than 500, and I invite you to freely download any that resonate for you, and use them to support you on your Stairway to Heaven on Earth!

My fabulous fucking Toy Box contains a treasure trove of guiding support from many wise hearts who are consistently lighting the way toward Heaven on Earth. I invite you to explore and play with these amazing resources, and incorporate whatever resonates for you. This is how we feel supported and guided as we shift our thoughts up the stairs.

We can use our Thought Stairway to climb from wherever we are on the vibrational scale to wherever we wish to be on the vibrational scale. Thought Stairway can lift us from the deepest depths of despair, unworthiness, and shame, right up to heaven on earth!

With PRACTICE.

These wonderful processes help us retrain our neural pathways, and that takes time and practice.

I encourage you not to give up! We reach a tipping point when we finally feel closer to the top of the staircase than the bottom, and that is when we keep practicing!

We play with shifting our thoughts upward. We keep joyfully rising toward that higher vibration, toward renewed mindset, and fresh perspectives.

This is our spiritual practice, to move ourselves closer and closer to the perspective/vibration of that which we call God, Source Energy, Infinite Wisdom. Because living fully in that energy here and now is what it means to live in Heaven on Earth.

Grow on!

What thoughts are you thinking that are limiting your growth?
How does that thought feel when you think it?
What emotion would you rather feel?
What thought can you think that creates that desired emotion within you?
Play with the above processes to climb from the limiting thought to the freeing one!

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Gratitude Infusion!

The Role of Spirit in Creating Perfect Health and Wellness is a recent episode of my favorite podcast, The Spiritual Sandbox with Jill Lebeau and Amit West, where they welcomed special guest Michelle Dwyer.

The topic was one of my favorites – alignment with Spirit, or Source Energy. The laughter alone, from this high vibe trio of brilliant women, would be enough for me to recommend the episode to lift your soul. Their joy is palpable through the entire episode! The episode also overflows with gems of wisdom, many of which felt like I was hearing them for the first time, despite my own familiarity with some.

The idea of gratitude infusion deeply resonated for me, and I jumped in with both feet! 

I also want to share that – even though I recently completed leading a group of clients in releasing negative self talk – some of my first thoughts were, “I should have already been doing this. How did I miss something so obvious? Why am I always doing something wrong?” And then I took a deep breath and infused the moment with gratitude!
I flowed appreciation to Jill and Amit for their wonderful, and much needed podcast. I flowed appreciation to Michelle for the reminder to flow gratitude into each and every moment, and for her beautiful description of cultivating a garden of self love! I flowed appreciation to myself for being open to receiving the reminder, and the willingness to put it into action.

Now each time I feel frustrated or irritated with something, I infuse it with gratitude, and it instantly feels better. I am trying to make a practice to infuse my actions, and my meals with love and appreciation, and when I forget, I infuse myself with gratitude for trying!

And gratitude infusion was just the tip of the topic! The podcast continued it’s perfection with exquisitely timed feedback that echoed the idea that “in every moment, in every breath, in every heartbeat, we are given the choice to begin again!” Fabulous!

In one short hour, they talked about scarcity and abundance, the healing magic of self-love, the importance of mindset, the power of self-expression, energetic root causes, elevating the ordinary to sacred, and so much more! They reminded us wholly how to reclaim our power, and concisely answered the question, “Why are we here?”

This incredible episode of the Magical Spiritual Sandbox podcast manifests instant alignment with the Universe, and also gives listeners the secret to constant alignment with the Universe, should they choose to wield it.

I simply can’t recommend this podcast, and specifically this episode enough. It lifts, enlightens, and transforms. I won’t guarantee a spiritual transformation, but it certainly is within the realm of possibilities. 

Grow on!

Listen to this episode at THIS LINK.

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The Secret to Happiness

What is the secret to happiness?  Money?  Love?  Health?  Family?

While it’s possible for all of these to enhance happiness, it is also possible to have all of these in abundance and remain unhappy.

So if all that good stuff doesn’t guarantee happiness, what the heck can we do?!

Read my full blog post HERE on Sivana East!

The secret to a happy life is simple:
Relax. Recharge. Reframe. Repeat.

Just because something is simple does not mean it’s always easy.  If you need support figuring out any of these steps, sometimes coaching can help.  If you are considering hiring an energy coach, or a mind body eating coach, use this link to schedule a 30 minute chat.

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Stop and Smell the Fucking Roses

Today would have been my grandmother’s one hundred eleventh birthday. She’s been gone since the late nineties, and I still miss her, but I never focus on her being gone.  I always think how blessed I was to have her wonderful energy in my life.  

Life is full of challenges that demand our time and energy. Sometimes they grab our attention so hard that for awhile that challenge is all we can think about. In our minds, we slow time and chew our options.  The subject constantly pops up uninvited. We may lie awake at night turning it over and over. When it slips out of mind, we almost reach to bring it back because we miss the familiar vibration.

I want us to learn to savor every blessing, every success, every step achieved toward our goal, every tiny triumph with the same single-minded focus that we use to worry!

Why?

The things that we look at, and think about are the things life brings us.

When we focus on hardship or challenge, Life brings us hardships and challenges.  When we focus on what we love and enjoy, Life brings us love and enjoyment. I want us to celebrate everything we love, and get infinitely MORE to love.

I want us to stop and smell the fucking roses!

I feel like roses are literally an invitation from Life to slow down enough to enjoy what’s right in front of us. Not all roses have scent anymore since they have been bred for beauty, so when we find a scented rose, it’s a moment to enjoy.  Let’s stop and enjoy it!

We’re always in such a hurry to rush into the next challenge that we often forget to celebrate finding a solution for the previous challenge. We can get so focused on the larger puzzle that we fail to give ourselves credit for all the pieces we’ve already fit neatly into place.  

If we have a goal to take a fabulous vacation, I invite us to enjoy thinking about it every chance we get! We want to enjoy exploring the area with Google image searches. We want to research fun places to stay, and activities we might enjoy and imagine ourselves being there.  We want to savor the trip long before it begins!

Equally, we can savor the trip long after it ends.  The moments that brought the greatest joy can be brought back to enjoy and appreciate until the day we die, if we invite them in to lift our hearts and delight us again.  We want to milk those special moments for all the pleasure, all the upliftment we can get.

If we have a goal to drop some excess weight, I invite us to celebrate every step in that direction.  Make a different choice for breakfast?  Do a happy dance! Stick to our food plan for the day?  Celebrate! Did we slow down to be present with our meals? That’s a HUGE win!  Woo hoo!  

Why wait to celebrate once the whole goal is reached, when we have the opportunity to create MORE success by acknowledging and celebrating every decision in service of that goal? When we applaud every step we make in that direction, Life brings us more success to applaud.

When we slow down to appreciate the roses, we get more roses.

Grow on!

In what ways do you celebrate success?
What milestones are you ready to celebrate?

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The magical power of the almighty list!

Ah, yes, the humble list.  People tend to love the list or hate the list, but as tools go it’s pretty extraordinary for both action-taking individuals and procrastinators alike.  I love lists!  When I have a big project going, I make a list of the lists I need to make.  My mother is a list maker, so maybe it’s hereditary.  I refer to my lists frequently, and often recommend making a list as a helpful tool for my clients.  

Last week, one of my clients told me that when she makes a list, she invariably loses it.  I asked her how often she loses her phone.  When she admitted that she’s never without that vital instrument for communication, I asked her to play with the idea of keeping the list in her phone.  If you are at your computer screen frequently, you could try keeping your lists in a document on your desktop.  I keep a list of ideas in an email draft that I never plan to send to anyone.  I can access the draft on my phone or computer, and print it out if I need a hard copy.

I’ll never forget when a friend expressed her utter disdain for lists. 

“If I write it down and don’t get it done, that’s like failing.  Every time I make a list I end up feeling overwhelmed, or like I’ve failed.  It’s one or the other and I don’t like either, so I don’t make lists.”

No wonder she hates lists, it made perfect sense.  Every time she made a list, she was using it like a whip to drive herself forward, or punish herself for what she labeled as failure.  Used as a weapon against oneself, the list becomes hateful, instead of valuable.

The list is not a whip.  It’s a basket.

A basket is not punishing.  A basket is quiet.  It sits humbly and holds what we put into it until we are ready to retrieve what we put there.  

Something that can cause me a great deal of stress is worrying that I might forget something important.  I run three businesses with a lot of moving parts, and I get a lot of ideas.  When I get a particularly good idea, my mind runs in circles with it’s arms clutched about the idea thinking, “I must not lose this gem!  MUST hold onto thought.”  That fear of losing something causes unnecessary anxiety – especially if my mind is trying to hold onto several good ideas at the same time.  Lists help me keep track of items without the constant mind juggling.  As soon as I add the idea to the appropriate list, I can let it go, knowing it will be here for me when I come back for it.  Anything that helps relieve stress is magical in my book.

Lists allow us to see everything at a glance.

When the time is right to take action on listed items, a quick glance reveals our options.  I often look at the list of what I’d like to accomplish and pick the one that sounds most fun in this moment.  Alternatively I can choose the item I least look forward to and do that first. Then anything else I mark off the list seems like a cake walk.

I have a basket full of spiritual practices that raise my vibration.  I don’t feel compelled to do all of them every day, but I don’t want to forget about the ones I like doing once in awhile which is easy to do if they are out of sight.  I can browse the list any time and magically pick the one that feels right in the moment.

Lists help us prioritize!

We can make the list in order of importance, or once the list is complete, we can go back and order it numerically, or just add stars to the most important items.

People who are helpers and caregivers can sometimes over-give.  If you are someone who tends to do more for others than for yourself, you are not alone!  When my clients fall into this category, they are often feeling resentful.  I ask them to make a list of the things they want to do for their own health and well-being, and things they want to accomplish. 

The list then becomes a magical tool that can help us stop over-giving.

When someone asks us to help them, we can use the list to discern whether we actually have time to help them, and if their “to-do” is a higher priority than the starred items on our own list.  We can even use one or more items on the list to postpone helping someone, or even say “no” to helping them once in a while.  How would it feel to say, “I am willing to help you with this after I complete (your priority task).”  Or, “I promised not to say yes to helping anyone until I finish writing my resume.”  You get the idea.

The list is an incredibly simple and free tool, yet powerful enough to relieve stress, remind us of our priorities, help us say no, and create what we want to create. 

I’m a fan!

Grow on!

How frequently are you using lists? 
Are you using them as a whip or a basket?
Where is the place you find most effective to keep your lists?
What list could you use right now to help you create what you wish? 
Try making a list of all the lists that might be helpful to you!  Remember these are just baskets to hold great ideas for later!