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.

I felt resistance when I saw the first post to change my profile picture in hopes of bringing awareness to violense against children. Awareness is always the first step to healing. Denial allows us to look the other way and pretend it doesn’t exist.

When I Googled cartoon pictures I couldn’t initially remember being particularly captivated by any one cartoon. I felt pretty far removed from cartoons and my experience of them. When I caught sight of Tinkerbell I remembered introducing myself to a new friend as Tinkerbell. As I saw other characters show up on Facebook this weekend it made me smile and remember.

I would certainly never choose to relive my childhood. Like many other peope my life wasn’t filled with happy family memories. We had our hidden issues. My Father was an alcholic. That effected many areas of our lives. My Mother did the best she could. I admired her and thought her an amazing woman. She is an amazing, powerful woman.

Something has occurred to me though. I learned to define being a strong, powerful woman by how much pain I was willing to tolerate. Not long ago a friend of mine expressed his own similar view of what a strong, powerful woman was. He described the women in his family as strong because they tolerated poor behavior from their husbands. They put up with it. They lived through it.

I realize I want to redefine what a strong, powerful woman is for myself. A powerful woman is empowered. She is capable of taking care of herself. She is willing to walk away from someone who treats her poorly. She will not allow her children to be subject to abuse. A powerful woman is not there to “fix” her partner. He can only do that for himself. Allowing herself to be treated poorly only reinforces his behavior. All the money and things in the world aren’t worth it.

As a strong, powerful, empowered woman I choose to be in relationships with those that treat me with respect and give from their hearts. I realize I define how relationships show up by how I love myself. I know it takes strength and self love to walk away.

Children don’t have this choice. They must find ways to cope and defend in order to survive. Let’s start by commiting to our own healing. In our healing the consciousness expands. It’s all energy. Healing our own hurts, defenses and pains makes it more accessible for others. We are all connected. Our separation is an illusion.

This is Why We Changed Our Profile Pictures to Cartoons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTcz1Q2EYwk

I provide counseling and healing sessions.  I am a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and have studied other modalities that have enhanced my ability to be present with you as you allow transformation.  I am honored and blessed to work with clients.  It is my pleasure.

http://innerwisdomhealing.com/products-and-services/

In Love,

Susan

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.

What we do does not define who we are.  What defines us is how well we rise after falling.

Sometimes we are forced into directions we ought to have found for ourselves.

To serve people takes dignity and intelligence.  We serve them, but we are not their servants.

Quote from the movie “Maid in Manhatten”

I love when I’m watching a movie and wisdom pops out when you least expect it.  I must say there have been many times in my life when I resisted doing what I knew must happen.  I waited until it was forced upon me, then felt like a victim.  Obviously I was a victim to my own resistance, to myself.

Choose to be empowered.  Pick yourself up.  Trust your inner wisdom.

Relationships aren’t business strategies. While care and planning are important in any relationship if they don’t flow through the heart they end up cold and distant.  It takes courage and strength to live through your heart.  That’s not the same as wearing your heart on your sleeve or being a doormat.  It’s about listening to the wisdom of the heart, then balancing that with the plans in your head.