Ta Da! Announcing the We Are More Radio Show!
Do you ever start to do something you are really excited about and then find that you get in your own way and create delays and stumbling block?
That’s how I’ve been feeling this week about making an exciting announcement.
(I am fascinated by how so often fear and resistance are intertwined with the things we most long for. Do you ever notice that in your life?)
So breathing kindness, befriending resistance and imagining a drumroll:
On Monday February 5 at 10 am I’m launching the We Are More Radio Show: Expanding into the Fullness of Who We Really are.
I invite you to tune in each week for inspiring conversations with visionaries, change makers and everyday heroes. My guests and I are passionate about unleashing extraordinary potential- individually and collectively. You will gain inspiration, support and practical strategies for expanding into your fullness with wonder, joy, grace and grit.
On Feb 5 for the first episode I’ll be interviewed on FBLive by Raven Blair Glover, executive director of the Women of Power Radio Network about my new show. What inspired me to start it? Why do I think it is needed today? What early experiences woke me up to a reality beyond “ordinary reality”? What are Wonder Stories and why do they matter? How is the world calling us to wake up?
My guests in February:
Feb 12 Award-winning educator, singer/songwriter, international speaker, author, courage coach and founder of the Radical Kindness movement. Although she has been legally blind for years, Vicki Hannah Lein travels around the world presenting her message through humorous, musical, interactive presentations.
Feb 19 Biologist and environmental scientist turned animal communicator who has written four books. Marta Williams believes learning to talk and listen to our pets - and to nature - can help us create a world that is more sustainable, healthier and better for all beings.
Feb 26 Former US Government Special Agent who is now the Executive Director of Super Power Experts®. Tonya Dawn Recla spends her days convincing people Super Powers are real and believes everyone has the power to create a multidimensional existence and master the human experience.
And that’s just the beginning!
I am having a great time connecting with fascinating guests and think you will love hearing their stories and perspectives.
Check out (and bookmark!) the We Are More page on my website to read about upcoming episodes and to read show notes and listen to past episodes when you can’t catch us live. (Some of the links on this page may not be active until early Monday.)
Do you have suggestions for guests you would like to see on the show? (Maybe you?) Drop me a note.
Your Elixir of Enthusiasm
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recently I was working with a client who wanted to feel more confident - especially in networking and sales situations. Digging deeper, we realized that her magic key to confidence is enthusiasm. In our session she began to experience a deep sense of connection and excitement with why she is doing her work. Awakening this body-felt enthusiasm helped her trust her value and to believe in what she offers her clients. She stood taller, smiled radiantly, exuded confidence and looked forward to an upcoming sales situation she had been dreading.
The original Greek root of the word enthusiasm is Entheos, which translates as “The God Within.”
Enthusiasm aligns you with your inner power, vitality and true motivation.
It gets you up in the morning and helps you face tough situations.
Enthusiasm can get you back in your groove, reignite your fire, help you follow through, and provide nourishment to your soul.
Enthusiasm is an elixir you can give yourself to overcome fear and resistance
and to discover inspired action.
Enthusiasm often lags as we get past the initial thrill of a project or job or a love affair.
Reconnecting with your Why can help spark your enthusiasm.
Oh yes! Now I remember why I am doing this!
I am in this relationship (job, position, role, movement…) because I love_____and _____and ____ OR because this is leading me toward _____!
If you are slogging through a project, give yourself the elixir of enthusiasm and you will feel more energy, ideas will present themselves, doors will open, tasks will seem easier, time will expand, and you will inspire others.
Please leave your comments below:
When in your life have you felt enthusiasm - or a lack of it- affect you and your ability to create, work and love?
Where in your life right now would a dose of Enthusiasm Elixir help you?
“Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success” - Dale Carnegie.
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**Want some loving and expert support in discovering your true confidence, activating your power of enthusiasm, or getting clear on the projects and actions that are worthy of your enthusiasm? Drop me an email and let's set up time to talk.
You are the Whale, not the Barnacle.
You are the whale.
Not the barnacle.
You are an amazing creature.
Wild, wondrous, wise and immense with possibilities.
Yet sometimes, maybe for a moment
- or even for a decade or two - you might get confused.
What’s really me?
What’s just barnacles?
You might forget you are a mythic miracle
swimming through the vast sea
and think you are the crusty habits
and limited beliefs that have attached to
your great body along your journey.
Every week I hear clients or friends
(or Yikes! I catch myself!)
saying things like,
Well, that’s just who I am.
I’m a worrier. Have been all my life.
or
I get angry easily and yell at the people I love.
or
I’m a perfectionist.
or
I…
…can’t ever say no.
… feel guilty when I take care of myself.
… never feel satisfied.
…always feel anxious
….overeat, over drink, overspend, over-control, over plan.
….push myself until I am exhausted.
… am afraid to assert myself.
That’s just how I am
I am a worrier, perfectionist, people-pleaser, workaholic or ______or______…
I don’t like it but that’s who I am.
No.
That is not who you are.
All of these are just barnacles
you’ve accumulated around your real self.
Just barnacles you can shed.
Like the whale you have mobility and freedom
to choose direction and change course.
You have a brilliant body, ancestral wisdom,
a complex brain with extraordinary capacities
for resilience, compassion and connection.
You have an inner compass that can
guide you where you long to go.
Remember who you really are.
You are not the brittle parasites
pf self-limiting habits and patterns
you have been carrying around.
You are the whale, my friend.
Swim free and play big.
The oceans eagerly await you.
Holiday Joy or Holiday Craziness?
Holiday Joy or Holiday Craziness?
You get to choose.
There is a certain craziness that often comes over many of us at this time of year. Expectations and hype can run really high.
I was so happy yesterday to get a note from one of my coaching clients, a successful, high-achieving business owner, telling me she is going into the holidays this year with a new attitude.
“One of the best things I’ve learned in our coaching lately is that I can release myself from some of the unnecessary pressure I often feel at the holidays. I now realize the holidays and family heap pressure on me because I ALLOW it.
Over the last week I found myself thinking many times: ‘It is Ok not to do what I think is expected of me if I really don’t feel like it.’
I don’t really want to shop for everybody at 5 am on Black Friday, send out 120 Christmas cards, or wait for hours and hours for family members who are really late.
So instead I suggested our extended family draw names for gifts thus reducing the gift load to purchase from 25 to only a few. I might send out New Year Cards after the holiday rush and I might reduce my huge list. My husband and children and I left a gathering when we felt like leaving, rather than staying because we felt obligated. I also stopped my old habit of keeping an inner tally of slights and criticism from certain family members. I stopped looking for negatives.
Whew, it feels so good to release the pressure and some of the negativity!
And my husband and I had one of the best Thanksgivings ever just with the two of us. No pressure, no turkey, no long hours with family members who were quarreling… just the two of us doing what we wanted.”
Way to go! What a success. By reclaiming her inner power of choice my client is freeing up time, energy and mental space and dramatically reducing her stress load. By being more relaxed and happy herself, her presence becomes a gift to everyone around her.
Look at the upcoming holidays and notice what you look forward to and what you dread or tolerate.
There is no one way to do the holidays.
However you think it should be: somebody made it all up.
You get to choose to do it in a way that would most delight and nourish you and your loved ones.
And remember, you don’t have to do it all yourself.
Invite your loved ones to help you create the holidays together - in the ways that actually bring you all joy.
What's one thing you are truly looking forward to this season?
And what's one obligation, task, attitude or activity you are ready to let go of?
Are You in Your ZPD- Zone Of Proximal Development?
Being in our ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development- is a good thing! At least for those of us who want to keep growing more and more fully into who we really are.
A week and a half ago I was in San Diego for Steve Olsher’s New Media Summit connecting with leading podcasters, to pitch being a guest on their shows and to learn to create my own podcast. I was delighted to be in this group of articulate, passionate, generous and mission- driven people.
It was an exciting, intense and challenging three days. At one point I texted to my #1 support team, my family, that I was having a great time and feeling excited, nervous and stretching beyond my comfort zone. My daughter Juliana, an educational consultant, texted me saying, “Mom! You are in your ZPD! Your Zone of Proximal Development where you have productive struggle leading to maximum growth.”
I love this concept of productive struggle!
If we are committed to growing and learning we will frequently choose to be in situations where we feel uncomfortable as we stretch ourselves. In these times we will have feelings of fear and anxiety and we will run into our edges and trip over our old stories and outworn habits and attitudes.
It will feel stressful at times.
To embrace and grow from productive struggle, it is important to take great care of yourself and to become skillful at dealing with the anxiety and fear that is a natural part of the growth process.
Lately I've been developing many resources for this very thing. Resources designed to help you take fabulous care of yourself and to embrace the positive aspects of stress while transforming the negative aspects of stress into energy you can use.
One valuable resource is my free email course: 7 Strategies to Transform Stress to Soul- Satisfying Success.
If you don’t have it yet, sign up here.
Let me know what you think about it.
And be on the look-out for more tools and resources to come.
Our world needs your unique gifts. I’m honored to be on your support team as you shine those gifts into the world.
Your Weekly R&R: Unclench.
We each have areas in our body where tension settles. In fact, if you are like most of us, tension settles in many places in your body.
Chronic muscular tension zaps your vitality, creativity, beauty and wellbeing and restricts movement, blood flow, breath and pleasure.
The good news is, you can learn to let tension release.
Here’s one simple practice my clients and I use regularly.
Notice with kindness where you are holding tension.
Say to yourself the word: Unclench.
Breathing in: imagine breath flowing to any tight area.
Breathing out: feel it begin to unclench.
Ahhhh… Like a tight fist letting go….
Eyes, jaw, lips, neck, shoulders, hands, chest, belly, hips, pelvis….
So many places tension can settle.
Just kindly breathe into any one and give it permission to unclench.
Bit by bit. Layer by layer. Anywhere. Anytime.
It takes only a moment of breath and awareness to feel a difference.
Unclench.
Let your natural sense of well-being flow.