Right Livelihood. 

It is something I have struggled with my entire adult life – a nasty tug of war between our “social” (outwardly acceptable)  and “essential” (inner wisdom) selves that can leave us depleted, depressed and numb, as a firmly entrenched need for safety repeatedly puts the kabosh on desires for something more fulfilling. 

There are benefits to growing older:  One cares less and less about what is socially acceptable and expected, and more about what makes one happy.  As a result, when we follow the scent of happiness,  we happen upon our right livelihood.

Right Livelihood is:

• The kind of work that feels expansive and brings you the most Joy;
• The best use of your unique talents which contribute toward and increasing the amount of love in this world;
• Aligned what you are doing with who you are being so that your inner core self and your external social self are working together in harmony.
• Present, rather than future or past focused.
• Effortless.
• Not necessarily your job, and it may not even be something you are paid to do. It is who you get to BE rather than your title.

Your Right Livelihood is the work of your Soul, your mission or your calling.  It does not have to be grandiose (though it can feel that way).  It is more about who you get to be rather than what you get you to do.

Are you following your Right Livelihood? If you are, how do you know? If not, what’s getting in the way?  Share your insights below.   Your wisdom might help someone.

It would seem many of us have bought into the notion that self-loathing is a more socially acceptable way of being in life than loving.  In fact “loving oneself” may been seen as a New Agey, woo woo concept.  Or, worse yet, narcissistic. (Yeah, you..  You think you’re all that…)

Yet, we’ve prefered to buy into the idea that the sole purpose of mirrors (both internal and external) are to pick away at ourselves in order to count all of the aspects we ”lack.”  Rather than seeing an object of beauty, we  see we lack the fitness, the lack of weath, the lack of youth, the lack of success, the lack of perfect hair, the lack of baby-smooth skin, blah, blah, blah.  We measure ourselves against an ideal of beauty and success that sets us us for feeling less than.   We buy into the media, buy the products, expect instant results, look outside to the so-called “experts” to “fix” us.   We believe the answer lies somewhere out there….. when in fact, it lies within.  How can we or why should we realistically compete with images that are the farthest reflection of truth????  I mean, really… Us against Photoshop? Pleaase… Time to cut ourselves some slack.

What if I told you that you lack nothing?  You are complete: beautiful, creative, resourceful and whole. (I hear you scoffing already…)  I spent the greater part of my adult life believing I was broken, needed an “other” to complete me, a fake – you name the lack, I owned it.  I would roll in these notions like a dog rolls pleasurably in cow dung.  That is no longer true.  I am enough, just as I am.

Discovering that you are enough is a practice, a discipline.  Discipline for many is a pejorative term.  It conjures images of punishment, lack of flexibility and kindness.  This is the furthest thing from the truth.

The following is a simple list to guide you on your path to loving yourself, loving your life and others within it:

1.     You Are What You Eat:

Waking up in the morning with an msg hangover from eating too many chips and dip is an indication you are off track.  I should know.  Chips and dip are my achilles heel when I am most stressed out about life.  Be mindful of what you eat .   Are you truly eating well?  Plan your meals – Here, the old adage holds true: fail to plan, plan to fail…..  A sure sign that self-care is falling to the bottom of your priority list….

Is this truly hunger or thirst?  Has your ex taken up residence in the recesses of your fridge?  Thirst is often masked as hunger.  Sometimes a drink of good old purified water will do the trick.  On the other hand, taking pause, getting quiet and still, then asking the question, “Body, are you hungry?” might just give you the answer you need.  The answer you get could be a “Not really. But, boy is that (insert stress inducing situation here) eating me up.” Perfect time to create awareness – journal – a delicious tool for self-love.

2.     Turn Yourself on:

There’s a great Far Side cartoon that always gave me the giggles: Two mosquitoes.  One bloated, eyes bulging (this gets me every time).  The other screaming, “Pull out, pull out Betty!  You hit an artery!”  Sometimes, this is how it feels to be sucked into the electronics vortex of our lives.  So, turn off the television, the cell phone, the computer.   Be in life, with your family, with your friends with yourself without the distraction of technology.  Learn how to reconnect in natural time, with yourself and those around you.  Turn yourself onto life and you’ll turn yourself on.

Take a walk outside, check out that art exhibit you’ve been putting off, have coffee with a girlfriend, enjoy a game of Scrabble with your loved one…  Unplugging is a radical act of self love.  Commit to it.  You’re so worth it! ( Besides, research shows how the simple act of unplugging can greatly reduce your stress level. A huge benie in my book….)

3.     Give yourself the gift of Nia:

The frenetic energy we build each day in endless to-do lists, eating on the run, chauffering the kids, hunching over phones/keyboards/projects, mindless multi-tasking et cetera pools itself up in our bodies.  Continual misuse (actually abuse) of our bodies and minds tends to show up first in “whispers” (slight discomfort) which, when, disregarded  evolve into ”shouts” (acute pain).  We “function” in world full of constant, repetitive and mindless action and movement, so much so that when it is time to rest, most of us cannot seem to shut our minds off.  Take a time out and shake it all loose in a Nia class with a certified instructor (feel free to join me on Saturdays at 9:00AM and Sundays at 10:30am at The Hot Yoga Spot in Albany, New York).  You body and mind will feel so much more grounded

Nia is a sensory-based movement practice that leads to health, wellness and fitness. It empowers people of all shapes and sizes by connecting the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Classes are taken barefoot to soul-stirring music in more than 45 countries. Every experience can be adapted to individual needs and abilities. Step into your own joyful journey with Nia, and positively shape the way you feel, look, think and live.

4.     Get Quiet

In her book The Joy Diet: Ten Practices for a Happier Life by Martha Beck challenges us to take a radical and courageous first step towards happiness and self-love.  She calls it: Nothing.  The invitation is to do nothing for fifteen minutes a day.  No tv, no reading, no listening to music, no NOTHING.  It’s enough to send anyone in the right mind scurrying away like cockroaches.  The majority of us spend our time mindlessly chasing goals.  Take on this practice  and figure out which goals are truly worth going after.

5. Practice Gratitude

We’ve been conditioned to perseverate on the stuff that’s not working.  In fact, sometimes getting together with your peeps can just end up being a bitch fest that leaves you drained of any kind of life force.  Truth is, what you give you attention to grows stronger.  Personally, I’m not interested in giving the negative aspects in my life any more air time than necessary.  So, focus on what is already good in your life.  Please understand, I am no Pollyanna.  The shadow aspects of our lives serve to complete us, and give us perspective on where the light shines.  So, daily, stop in order to express gratitude for those things we already have.  Oprah has a gratitude journal in which she writes every day.  Hey, seems to be really working for her.  Why not give it a try?

The road to self-love requires a commitment to embracing your current life in all of it’s messy, complicated, drama-filled and  breathtaking magnificence.  At times you will feel as if you have lost your way,  at others as if you are exactly where you need to be.  Take time to discover the absolute radiant beauty that you are.  Because you are, amazingly beautiful right here, right now.

xoxo

A recent conversation with a friend revealed that she had no idea what a life coach was about, picturing an aggressive, loud mouthed and berating football coach yelling at her clients each time they didn’t get it right, demanding 100 more push ups… My friend was pleasantly relieved to find out that coaching was did not even come close. This made me realize that I should probably clarify what we mysterious life coaches are doing behind closed doors (or over the skype waves).

The easiest way to start is by describing what I’m not.

1. NOT the boss of you. I’m not going to stand over you not trusting that you are not capable enough to do the job. I don’t care what you do. I DO care about how you feel about what you do, what your thoughts are about what you do, why you do, or don’t do your thing and help you find your way to your desire.

2. NOT Dear Abby. I will never give you advice. I won’t tell you what is right for you. I trust that you, and only you know what’s best. I WILL help you figure it out for yourself, in ways you never thought of before.

3. NOT Sigmund Freud.  Although your past is important and explains how you got to where you are, I am not interested in hearing how your mother swung the cat by the tail and threw it outside (true story). I AM immensely interested in what you feel and think right NOW and how to get you feeling better in the now, which will make all the difference in your future.

4. NOT Ghandi. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have all the answers.  What I can do is offer you proven ways to get you to a better feeling place which will allow you to clear the space enough to see possibilities and act upon them. You are the ultimate guru in your life, with all you need right now. Discovering that in a coaching session is the real magic.

5. NOT Judge Judy. Again, I don’t care what you DO.  Your best work is done when dancing with your shadow self (gotta love dirty dancing), confronting your should’s, your ought’s and your musts, and challenging their validity. We all have enough judgement in our lives, starting with our self-judgement.  You don’t need an extra dollop from me.

I DO offer support, a mirror, compassion, space, non-judgement, truthfulness, accountability and a sacred place for you to land your desires and dreams.  I partner with you to unleash your greatest passions into the world so that you may live your right life.

This is no small feat.

Having someone partner with you as you ignite your courage to change, even in just a small measure, can be very powerful.  A Life Coach is just that: one who will help you find all the right stones within you to create the perfect cairn of your life – you get to stack them, balance, rework, start over, choose others any way you want until you get the results you are after.  The secret is to keep an open mind- the outcomes are much more amazing than you could ever believe…

Contact me if you are ready to take the next step.

xoxo

Joëlle

“I get by with a little help from my friends.” ~ Paul McCartney

On an average day, walking through the hallways of a high school, you would see the following scene: students sitting in tidy rows, at individual desks while a teacher lectures.  Some actually taking notes, some chatting, some texting, and others sleeping.  Collaboration and cooperation are not visible- they have the potential to create chaos, dissidence, mutiny…. Having taught for 25 years , I am both a product and part of this system that promotes a culture of obedience – where good grades and right answers get gold stars, where you have to prove yourself on your own.  This system sets us up to become obedient employees in life, to look out for number one and rely on oneself to get things done.

It indoctrinates us with this model: Suck it up.  Get through it.  If you work hard, nose to the grind, you’ll experience success.  And, then….you’ll be Happy.

Time to question this.  Quite frankly “sucking it up” feels downright yucky.  In fact, it brings up my fight/flight up in a big way: What if I ask for help and I’m told “no”?   This idea of rejection feels almost insurmountable.

Yet, when push comes to shove and I need to “get things done” the last place I reach for is my peeps.  In fact, I tend to be a bit of a lone wolf in my functioning: perfectly comfortable spending inordinate amounts of time on my own without so much as a phone call for days.  Sucking it up.

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage mentions how so many of us fall prey to this functioning: how when faced with challenges and stress, we tend to go it alone.  In so doing, run out of air.

His antidote? Community:  people we can count on to help us multiply our emotional, intellectual and physical resources.  I would add to this, spiritual. When we have a social circle we go to in times of stress “we bounce back from setbacks faster, accomplish more, and feel a greater sense of purpose.” I know this to be true.  When I have been among my peeps, I leave feeling like my oxygen tank has been replenished and the work that seemed so overwhelming before gets done with a lot more vim and verve.  All it takes is allowing oneself the “seeming luxury” of taking a break and reconnecting with the flow of love one gets from our support crew.

The above model is backward, says Shawn Achor.  The road to success is actually paved by finding happiness FIRST, not the other way around.

So, should you be feeling as if you’re gasping, call your peeps.  Take a break.  Get yourself happy.  Success will follow with much greater ease.

Because in the last 2 days I’ve been told that (1) I look 10 years younger and (2) I look great, I thought I’d let you in on my secrets…. Caveat: I do not rely on make-up for my beauty. My skin is healthy, so it does not require cover up. And, although my skin has changed over time (more sagging, more lines….), I have taken up some habits and made some lifestyle choices in the last few months which seem to have affected my skin’s appearance,

Here are five easy tips that can help you discover your beauty without going broke:

1. Eat clean and drink lots of purified water. Your diet definitely affects the looks of your skin – not to mention your overall health.  Add way more foods that your grandma would recognize to your diet (if it’s in a bag or box – she most likely would have no clue).  Lots of greens are key!  Purified water is essential for well-hydrated, youthful skin and it supports the growth of healthy skin cells – drink 8-10 glasses a day.  Make your last meal of the day be early enough that your body has an opportunity to digest.
2. Get thee to bed!  (And, no tv watching in bed either….)  Nighttime is when the cells in your body rejuvenate and repair any damage from the day.  Getting enough rest will reduce the appearance of dark circles under your eyes and help keep your cranky self at bay (not to mention anxiety and depression…)
3. TAKE YOUR VITAMINS – This is key.  Not only do vitamins and minerals provide the essential nutrients you need to stay healthy and full of energy, they also play a major role in your outward appearance.  Make sure you are buying pharmaceutical grade, GMP manufactured vitamins to ensure purity, potency and absorbability.   Otherwise you may be peeing your money away.  Did you know that most over-the counter vitamins are FDA approved which means that only 20% of what’s on the label actually needs to be in the product????  Spend a little more (this is where I will invite you NOT to skimp) and invest in your health! (I take mine twice a day to ensure optimal health)
4. Protect Your Skin - You want to look good, right?  Not only do you want to feed your body the proper nutritional supplements, you want to protect the largest organ in your body: your skin!  Make sure that you chose a skin care line that has no parabens and where the packaging ensures that no bacteria will come to play.  You want sure that you use a product that has an spf of 15 or more.  (I have been using Sensé Beautiful Science for 4 years and to be truly transparent, I am also a distributor)
5. Listen To Your Body – Ever got a gut feeling to do something but let your mind take over and ended up in a bad situation?  That was your body speaking.  Our minds may deceive us but our bodies never will.  It knows if you are doing something it doesn’t like and will let you know in no uncertain terms.  Stress plays a major factor in reducing the Looking Hot factor.  Take a Nia or Yoga class.  Take the dog for a walk.  Play with your children.  Breathe, breathe, breathe!  And, save yourself money by reducing caffeine and alcohol – I know, I like my vino, too.  But all this in excess shows up on your appearance.

Try these tips for a month.  Once you are committed to your overall well-being, you, too will be recognized for being the hot, sexy mamma you’ve always known yourself to be!

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I love to hear from, connect with and meet Crystal Source readers at events.  I invite you to:

Overcome Underearning:  Join us at this 5-week teleseminar series based on Barbara Stanny’s book by the same name!

Find your Community: Join Crystal Source on Facebook or follow on Twitter.

Take Action To Change Your Life: Contact me for 1-on-1 Authentic Life Coaching; receive an initial complimentary consultation.

Subscribe to Crystal Source blog for inspiration.

You may know the law of physics which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  But, did you know that this law can come into play when you make a decision, commit to goal, or begin to do something new?  There is a force within you that pitches a two year-old tantrum and refuses to acquiesce to your new demands:  Resistance.

This Resistance comes through when you are in the throws of discomfort: not where you’ve been, and not yet where you want to be.  It is what in Expressive Arts is called liminal space.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as: “of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition.”  To most, this space feels like trudging through mud and the knee-jerk reaction is to get back indoors to your warm, pink, fuzzy slippers.  Resistance kicks in so we can stay where we’ve been: comfy cozy.

What you might not know is that resistance kicks in most at the very beginning and just before achieving your intended goal.  Those are the times in which you are most susceptible to doubt.

So, know thy enemy…  In her book, Overcoming Underearning®-A Five-step Plan To a Richer Life, Barbara Stanny refers to 12 signs you may be in resistance.  Here are some of the faces it may present to you:

1. “I have no time.” You are too busy to attend to your intended goal.
2. “I’ll do it later.” You procrastinate.
3. “What if….???” You catastrophize.
4. “You do it…” You give someone else the power to decide.
5. “This is boring.” You lose interest. You get tired.
6. “Honey, have you seen my….?” You are disorganized.
7. “Oh, I meant to…” You are forgetful.
8. “I don’t know” You space out.
9. “I can’t seem to get going.” You feel paralyzed.
10. “I can’t because…” You make excuses for why you can’t act.
11. “Why can’t I get there already?” You are impatient.
12. “Are you crazy?  You can’t do that!” You brilliantly attract all the naysayers in your life to confirm your inability to be successful at meeting your intended goal.

As you set new goals for yourself, be they personal, financial, relationship or otherwise know Resistance is going to crave her slippers.  Resistance thrives in inactivity, when you are most vulnerable and likely to give up. Chose to take action, ANY action that is going to keep you moving toward your desire.    Once you’ve recognized the face of Resistance, she won’t hold you in her grip quite the same way and you can take the risks necessary to achieve what ever you have set your mind to.

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I love to hear from, connect with and meet Crystal Source readers at events.  I invite you to:

Overcome Underearning:  Join us at this 5-week teleseminar series based on Barbara Stanny’s book by the same name!

Find your Community: Join Crystal Source on Facebook or follow on Twitter.

Take Action To Change Your Life: Contact me for 1-on-1 Authentic Life Coaching; receive an initial complimentary consultation.

Subscribe to Crystal Source blog for inspiration.

I have a friend who I wouldn’t describe as completely negative … but she sure does find a lot of excuses for why her life isn’t working out the way she’d like.

She says that she got screwed at her job because she had the most experience. She says that she can’t get her business going because she is so busy.   She wants to have a boyfriend, yet the moment the guy shows himself to be a sweetie, she does everything to alienate and piss him off.  She constantly orchestrates friends to come to her rescue.  Being with her drains me.

I know, we all are guilty of thinking small from time to time — regardless of how successful or rich or lucky we seem to be.   The question it raises is whether being friends helps or hinders one’s evolution.

Now this is where it gets interesting.

Why?

Because who you hang out with does matter.

They say you can judge a person by the friends they keep.  This is true on several levels. That saying means that you can tell a lot about someone by knowing who they keep as friends. But the friends you have also shape who you are. You spend a lot of time with your friends, and you look to them for approval and support. So their influence is huge.

That all sounds great, but this is a cycle of influence which can act to keep people in small unhappy lives. You choose your friends based on who you are comfortable with. They support your self-image and your values. Which is another way of saying they can prevent you from growing.  Do you have friends who send you chocolate when you’re on a diet? Who tell you to back away from a scary challenge – or who keep you tied into destructive habits?

A Call To Action:

Here are my top tips for maximizing the benefits of your friendships:

1. Raise your awareness. Friends have a large influence on your experience of life, your views about the world and your place in it. So each time you are with friends, make time to step out of the relationship and look back into it with a critical eye. How do you feel about the company of each of your friends? Why are you still friends? Is the friendship growing or shrinking? What function does each friendship serve in your life? By growing this awareness, all kinds of positive actions will become possible for cultivating the best set of friends you could hope for, and that will make your life very significantly better.
2. Have more than one. It’s not just that variety is a Good Thing; friendships go up and down, and if you only have one – and it’s down – you don’t have a friend! As well as that, each friendship offers you different things and with a few friends to choose from, you have rich resources at your disposal.
3. Break out of the box. Are all your mates from your schooldays? From work? From your neighbourhood or social class? Are they all of the same gender or outlook? By limiting yourself to people like you, you place yourself in a box from where you are unlikely to hear radically different views of the world, learn new techniques, or see different and perhaps better life choices in action. Variety is the spice of life, so lean outside of the box.
4. Givers and takers. Does your friend leave you feeling better or worse? Good friendships are all about mutual support and growth, but some friends are big takers – they dump their problems on you, tell you what you can’t do, play on your fears and keep you where you are. You may want to limit how often you see these friends, and so limit their drain on your own energies. Instead, find friends where the balance is more even; where mutual support and growth is the norm.

Of course, taking these steps requires serious courage.  Are you willing to let go of who you’ve known in order to open up to friendships that may be more in alignment with who you are becoming?  Listen, you may find huge comfort in long-familiar, predictable and unconditionally supportive friends, and if so, you should keep at least one on your list! But it might be worth considering how adding some new and different blood into your social set might help you towards your new, happier life.

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I love to hear from, connect with and meet Crystal Source readers at events.  I invite you to:

Find your Community: Join Crystal Source on Facebook or follow on Twitter.

Take Action To Change Your Life: Contact me for 1-on-1 Authentic Life Coaching; receive an initial complimentary consultation.

Subscribe to Crystal Source blog for inspiration.

“If you ask me what I’ve come to do, it is this: to live out loud.” – Émile Zola

Everything you desire awaits you – but first, you need to make a decision.  Making up your mind is not the same as having a wish, dream or setting a goal.   Those actually come beforehand – they point to the destination.  A decision is a solemn promise to do what it takes to make it happen.

And, although many use the tool of Affirmation to get them in the car, it is the tool of Declaration that is the key.   The difference between a declaration and an affirmation is slight, but powerful. According to T. Harv Eker, the definition of an affirmation is “a positive statement asserting that a goal you wish to achieve is already happening.”  The definition of a declaration is “to state an official intention to undertake a particular course of action or adopt a particular status.“ 

Think of a time you started to use an affirmation.  You were affirming something that had not yet shown up in your life.  Was there any part of you thinking “this is BS”?  You may have, on some level not believed it to be true, which rendered the affirmation null and void.

Declaring is altogether different.  You are not saying something is true.  You are stating that you have an intention of doing or being something. Because you’re not stating it’s true right now, but that it’s an intention for you in the future, the mind can buy into it.

Harv recommends that you state your declarations out loud every morning and evening. “Doing your declarations while looking in a mirror will accelerate the process even more.”

• My inner world creates my outer world.
• What I learned about (fill in the blank) isn’t necessarily true. I choose to adopt new ways of thinking that support my happiness and success.
• I release my non-supportive money experiences from the past and create a new and rich future.
• I observe my thoughts and entertain only those that empower me.
• I choose to think in ways that support me in happiness and success.
• I create the exact level of my financial success.
• I focus on opportunities over obstacles.
• If they can do it, I can do it!
• I promote my value to others with passion and enthusiasm.
• I am bigger than any problem.
• I am a money magnet.
• I act in spite of fear.
• I act in spite of doubt.
• I act in spite of worry.
• I act in spite of inconvenience.
• I act when I’m not in the mood.
• I am committed to constantly learning and growing.

There are many more great thoughts and declarations in his book. The ones above are ones that caught my attention. They relate to issues I am working on and what I hear from many of my clients.

Enjoy!

Coach’s Challenge:

This week, I challenge to pick at least one of the declarations and USE IT!

I’d love to hear your comments and what you experience as you practice this.

Suggested Resource:

Check out “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth” by T. Harv Eker

I’m sitting at my desk, amidst stacks of paper, business cards, pens, notebooks, electronic devices and cables, and other detritus, stunned, into inaction. Might as well blog.

I have been a champion follow-through-er in the parts of my life for which I feel passion. Compelled by the drive to have them take center stage in my life and to prove my abilities, I have been a model of perseverance and discipline. No matter that sometimes I’d spend hours or days fully immersed at some project while balancing full-time employment, motherhood, and the daily minutiaes of life. I live for the high of being aligned with work that is true to my heart and feels as if the dance between who I am and what I do gracefully coalesce.

This presents something of a dilemma. Thanks to my time of life (late 40′s) and due in no small part to coaching and being coached, I’m just not motivated, or at least not as motivated, by the desire to impress, the fear of falling short, or the need to be doing something, anything, to feel valuable.  Yet, I find myself unable to get started on a project that is due in two weeks.  What’s with that?

Nothing like blogging to restore some perspective (and procrastinate…). Like journaling, my daily meditative practice, blogging begins in the whim of the moment and then goes where it may go.  It also holds me accountable.

If Fortune is smiling, a post may go towards insight or clarity or, on the best days, something of service. Should Fortune withhold her grace, a post may languish, in which case one always has the option of deleting it. But unlike journaling, blogging has just enough of an outward focus to keep one honest while affording not only the opportunity to experience and express a human foible, but also to share that humanity with whomever might be interested at the moment.

Ahh. So just prior to waxing poetic, this post was awakening a wee bit of “get on with it” seasoned with a dash of “get over yourself” and a generous sprinkle of “guess I might as well start sorting through the muddle.” With that, here are some of the things I intend to put into practice to help me with this process of muddling through today.  I hope they help you out, too.

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE

Where there are no distractions.  The public library has become a fave for me… (You’ll know I’ve truly lost it if I begin to clean their toilets to avoid working…)

TIMING

Use a timer and stick with it.  If the project feels huge, set a timer for 30 minutes.  Resolve to do only that much that day.  (Hey, but if you are inspired to do more, go for it!)

CREATE A STRUCTURE

I know this is probably pretty obvious, but, make a list, write an outline…  Get a sense of direction, the big picture before you roll up your sleeves and get to it. (Checking things off is great – akin to taking your bra off at the end of the day…)

TAKE PLEASURABLE BREAKS

It does not take long to dispel the charge that has built up from working.  Call a girlfriend, get your groove on, put on your favorite playlist and dance dance dance!

SCHEDULE ME TIME

We’re in the dog days of summer, here.  Take thee to a pool, lake, park, massage, Nia class, yoga, or movie to get your mind off the project.  This will give you time to relax, digest, create space, get new perspective, inspire new ideas.

Your projects will get done.  Getting started is what needs to happen first.  And, with these structures in place, you (and I) are bound to get on with it.

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I love to hear from, connect with and meet Crystal Source readers at events.  I invite you to:

Find your Community: Join Crystal Source Women’s Circle Free Teleseminar Series.

Take Action To Change Your Life: Contact me for 1-on-1 Authentic Life Coaching; receive an initial complimentary consultation.

Subscribe to Crystal Source blog for inspiration.

Here are some simple snack-sized tips to keep you clean and clear…

They take practice but are well worth the effort.

It’s no different than going to the gym; you get out what you put in.  So get your groove on!

STOP, SENSE and SLOW DOWN

When you find yourself getting caught up in mind chatter, the moment the awareness creeps in STOP, do a body scan.  Which parts of you body are in contact with something else?  Sense your feet on the floor, your back on the chair, your elbow on the table, your fingers on the keyboard.  Whichever body part is touching something else, sense.  The process of paying attention, slows everything down.  Make it into a game – how many parts can you sense?

This helps you practice the art of being in the now.

BE NICE TO YOURSELF

Would you say the things you say to yourself to your best friend? (“You’re so fat”, “you’re so ugly”, “you’re so stupid”, “nobody likes you”…..)  Become aware of when you are smacking yourself around.  That’s step one.  Don’t beat yourself up for going there, acknowledge the chatter, but refuse to accept it. Replace it with a self-affirming mantra that makes you feel good. It’s best to have some of these in your mind to automatically go to such as:

• I am beautiful
• My body is perfect – a work of art
• I am an amazing person.  Everybody likes me
• I am incredibly smart

While you’re at it, after you’ve said these loving things to yourself, say them to your friends.  Spread the love around.

FOSTER AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Ever heard of a gratitude journal?  It’s a wonderful way to keep track daily of your gratitudes..

If you are feeling sorry for yourself…go to gratitude
If you are stressed out about something…go to gratitude
If you are obsessing…go to gratitude
If you are afraid…go to gratitude
If you are overwhelmed…go to gratitude
If you are burnt out…
You fill in the blank; gratitude is a great cure all.

The cumulative effect of practicing these things is life changing.  Do your research.  Post your findings!

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