There are so many wonderful choices we can make. Sometimes I don’t know in what direction to go. I feel like a kid in a candy store. When I’m not in alignment, when I’m defensive the choices overwhelm me. I feel stuck and unable to move or make a choice. When I get centered I realize it will all come together in perfect timing. I make my choices based on what feels right for me. The right people show up at the right time. I’m inspired. I feel blessed.

The reality is we get off balance, disconnected, defensive and stressed. The good thing is we can do something about it. We have choices. I just realized I’m jumped from “I” to “we.” It’s all the same. When I say “we” I am including myself. Sometimes when people teach we think they have it, as in their life, all together. They’ve mastered life and it flows like some perfect happy stream. That’s not it at all. Effective teaching comes from experience.

There have been so many times when I’ve learned something. I’ve had an ah-ha moment and the same day I’m given the opportunity to share it with someone else. I take my experience and lend a hand to a fellow life traveler. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help others. I feel blessed by the people who show up in my life to help me and for me to help them.

What a gift. Thank you.

Many Facets of Relieving Stress

There are numerous ways to relieve stress. I believe in the cross training approach to stress relief. That entails addressing stress physically, mentally, emotionally and energeticly. If you don’t take a multi-dimentional approach there is a tendancy to work on eliminating stress one way while creating it another way. Here’s an example: I’ve had clients come for energy sessions, foot reflexology or take a yoga class then leave and light up a cigerette or go eat junk food.

I’ve done it myself. I remember leaving sessions and immediately craving sugar. Why? There is a part of ourselves that fears the expansion or good feelings. It’s foreign, little know territory. No different than someone experiencing domestic violence that has trouble leaving the abuser. Why? Ultimately you have to answer that question for yourself. My experience is it’s fear of the unknown. There are old belief systems that keep you locked in the familiar pattern. When you challenge them with something new and better your defense systems will rise up. This may sound silly, but you have to think of that aspect of yourself as being misinformed. The old self or ego as some may refer to it, is trying to keep you safe. We forget to live in the moment. We compare the new partners with old. Expecting to be treated the same because, well that’s the way it’s always been. When something new comes along we try our darnest to make it fit into the old pattern so we can prove our belief systems.

What does it take to change? Willingness to do something different. Willingness to ask yourself questions and be open to the answers. Take a different path. Expand your awareness. Fall down and pick yourself up. Let go of judgement. Laugh at yourself. Get support. Love yourself, no one can do it as well as you can. Breath and call yourself back to this moment now. Ask yourself, “What’s here now.”

I’m going to provide you with many tools to help you ease the stress in your life. Some will work for you better than others. The idea is to find the ones that work best for you. We’re all human and we have many similarities, but we’ve developed different coping skills and defense systems. For example some people eat when stressed while other people don’t eat. One person may over exert themselves while another person quits. Someone may react in anger, another in tears. You get the idea.

We have all had challenging experiences. We have all learned to survive as children in ways that aren’t serving us so well right now. Ultimately we all wanted to be loved and cared for. That meant different things to different people. It can feel so complicated. I think we have to remember not to compare ourselves.

It’s about learning how you need to be loved and nurtured. You have to start by loving and nurturing yourself. It’s not going to come from out there until you are willing to take care of yourself. You have to love yourself first. I know it’s not exactly what we like to hear. Really, we say to ourselves. I just want someone to do it for me. Beware, that type of love comes with a price tag. You may be willing to pay it. In the long run you will pay for it.

So what are we going to cover? Nutrition, because nourishment is a foundation. Can you really love yourself and abuse yourself by being malnourished. You may claim you are “treating” yourself to food that is sweet or that you find comforting, but abusers are good at sweet talking now aren’t they. They apologize and sweet talk you right back. Not so different here is it?

Exercise, again physical needs. Breathing, can’t live without it. There are wonderful ways to use the breath to expand conscious awareness. You can use the breath as a bridge to bring yourself into the moment. We’ll expand more on that later.

We all have energy patterns we use. The energy I’m referring to is your human energy field. These intale how we take in energy and how we defend energeticly. There are ways to shift those patterns.

We can also work on the quantum level. This is the fastest approach and most direct approach.

We have to remember though that life is a journey. As long as we are alive and having this experience of life we will be learning. It’s not a race. It’s all good. Learn to enjoy the journey right now. That’s ultimately what we are going to do together. Let’s learn to enjoy the journey together. In Love.

An irritant can be transformed into a pearl.  If an oyster can do it, so can I.

Sometimes all we know is that something or someone is irritating us.  We instinctively move to get rid of it by moving away or attacking.  Flight or fight.

An oyster deals with a grain of sand by taking that grain and creating something beautiful.  So the question is how can I transform this irritation into something beautiful?

We can start by asking why is it irritating me?  The initial response is usually finger pointing in the other direction.  We look outside ourselves and blame the other.  We’re human, we tend to do that.  We’ve been trained to do that.  After that let’s turn it around and look within ourselves.  Let’s take responsibility.

This isn’t a black and white world where one size fit’s all.  There’s no rule here on exactly how you need to handle the situation.

For example if the stove is hot move your hand.  If someone is beating you up, get the hell out of there.  There is a whole world full of people.  You don’t have to live with one that doesn’t treat you the way you want to be treated.  The way to the pearl sometimes means you need to leave.  The oyster doesn’t have that option so it creates a substance that smooths the roughness.

How can I smooth the roughness in my situation?  What would feel better? Change most often feels like stepping into a void.  It can feel empty at first and scary.  We have to make a conscious effort to recognize that what is really here is potential.  The void is fertile ground for creation.

It is important to focus on the wonderful potential you have to create.  That irritation was just the motivator you needed to realize you want to create something better.  What is that?  As you ask yourself this question you are inviting the universe to answer.  As you step into the void of unknown you are creating a vacuum to be filled.

Have a beautiful day.

While I was in Atlanta at the Matrix Energetics workshop I started to relate my life experience to Goldilocks. You remember Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Yea, from the fairytale. Sitting in the different chairs to see which one felt good. Trying the portage and then the beds.

It’s easy to get caught up in what you should be doing or doing XYZ so you can earn a living. Have you asked yourself lately what feels good? What tastes good? Who do you really enjoy being with? What makes your heart and soul sing?
Don’t feel bad if you don’t know. Just start by being curious. You might start by realizing you aren’t feeling good. You just need a place to start. Then you have a scale.

Give yourself permission to not know. Start to discover, allow yourself to feel good, be grateful for it and then just give yourself permission to have more. Even if you don’t know how that could show up.

Let’s change the fairytale though. Let’s not be scared off by the bears coming home. Instead let’s imagine a great celebration on discovering your love and passion. My bear is really happy when I’m happy. You can make the story however it feels good.

It’s been a wonderful afternoon and evening.  Let’s just include the whole day in that wonderful.  It’s Friday, my short day at work.  Had my eyes examined, no not my head.  Stopped at Boscov’s and bought a few clothes on sale, yea.  Had dinner with one of my best friends at one of my favorite Tai restaurants.  I’m grateful for spell check because I seem to have a mental block for spelling restaurant correctly.  Then we saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love and it was great.  I saw a 2-1/2 star rating on it today and think that was from an unenlightened person.  Some comment about the movie being about a self absorbed woman.  Well, I’m thinking they just don’t understand the inner journey.

Life is good.  I appreciate the contrast.  I know I can still enjoy life while I am processing a feeling of lose and heart ache.  My vessel is strong enough to hold both.  I can love and grieve at the same time.  I can appreciate the beauty around me.

It’s all me.

People play roles in our lives, they are actors and we have given them a script. They serve a purpose in our journey.

They may reflect something back that you are thinking or feeling about yourself or a belief you’ve energized.

They may share supportive knowledge, wisdom, or insight with you.

They may set something in motion to support you on your journey.

The link below is the wonderful poem based on this topic set to music and pictures.

People come into your life for a reason.

Robert Scheinfeld’s book Busting Loose from The Money Game is so much more than about money. It really is about your relationship to yourself and seeing the illusion of life for the truth of what it is. It helps you to re-claim your power from the illusion.