Life Design Strategies Blog

Your Number One Manifestation Tool

2012-05-17T03:21:38Z

Healing your money stories so you can rid yourself of stress and make space for possibility, is powerful work. As I learn more and more there is one thing that keeps popping up as being crucial to our ability to manifest.

It’s self-love!

Self-love is REQUIRED in order to get what you want. Because….like attracts like. What you receive is directly related to the energy you are feeling. And despite what you may have been taught about not tooting your own horn, or not being ‘up’ yourself, it IS vital to treat yourself as you want the world and the Universe to treat you.

Your relationship with yourself determines the quality of every other experience you have. Even your relationship with money is a reflection of your self-worth.

Everything you want is because you think it will make you feel good. You need to be in vibrational alignment with this…..ie feeling good. And it is not possible to feel good when you don’t like who you are. Makes sense, right?

So, what does it meant to practice self-love?

It means putting yourself first so you can be there for others. It means honoring yourself and treating yourself as the precious person you are - giving yourself what you need to live your best life.

Here are some questions to help you:

How to claim your money power now!

2012-05-03T17:37:22Z

How you do money is how you do everything!

Reclaiming your power with money, takes courage. And it means becoming empowered in all areas of your life. This is a huge issue for women. Traditionally women have been taught to not think about money, to leave it to those who know…. usually men…..who most of the time are not that empowered themselves. Who learned any of this stuff in school?

Some of the places you may not be in your power with money!

Do you owe someone money and don’t have an agreed upon payoff plan?

Are you avoiding having an honest conversation regarding money with someone?

Where do you not ask for what is owed to you?

Where are you making excuses or feeling like a victim around money?

Where could you be saving money but haven’t investigated or followed up?

Where have you agreed to something around money, to be nice or ‘reasonable’?

Money will get your attention one way or another, you might as well pay attention and not be taken by surprise!

Spring New Beginnings Check List

2012-04-19T00:52:18Z

Spring is in the air and we are one quarter of the way through 2012!

More than likely you set some powerful intentions in the first week of January. You at least had some goals in mind for 2012, right?

Time to take stock and give yourself an honest assessment of where you’re at. You don’t want December to take you by surprise, right?

Below you’ll find questions I like to use to check in with myself. Everyone gets off track at times and new habits take time to grow roots.

Give yourself a definite ‘YES”, for each of these you have firmly in place, or a “NO” if it’s not at all, or not most of the time! You’ll then have a list of actions to focus on if you want to get ON track TODAY!

1. I measure success not by how busy I am, but by what I achieve.

2. I regularly create 60-day bold money goals.

3. I do some kind of intentional movement (exercise?) every day.

4. I drink a green smoothie each day!

5. I regularly (2-4 x a year) detox to declutter the toxins from my body.

6. I make time for myself at the start of each day to do something that sets the scene for how I want my day to continue.

7. I regularly (at least every 2 months) declutter my filing cabinets to make space for clients, money and more of what I want.

What is YOUR Courageous Conversation?

2012-04-03T17:13:02Z

(While I’m in hospital I thought I’d share this with you. I wrote it last year - it’s still a good reminder, to me too).

I’m writing this on Orcas Island, WA! I’m here to suss out a retreat location for an upcoming retreat and it feels like I’m a million miles away from my usual life - a great quality for a retreat location.

I lead retreats partly because I want to be on retreat! As an introvert, I’ve always known the transformative value of a retreat. I take myself off to a cabin by the sea most months to unplug, feed my soul and restore my spirit. That’s where I’ve created programs, written articles and had some of my most inspired ideas. It’s part of being adventurous, and being an explorer. It’s amazing what we discover when we create space to hear.

The poet David Whyte asks: what is the courageous conversation I am refusing to have with myself, in my own heart and mind with regard to my work and the present life threshold on which I find myself?

For each of us, there is a courageous conversation waiting to be had.

I believe we each have choice. What stops us living a life of adventure - inner and outer - is not making a decision about what we want.

Just as how for years I didn’t make a decision to live near water because I made a different decision - that it wasn’t possible!

Clear Money Clutter and Open the Money Faucet

2012-03-20T01:27:37Z

You’ve probably heard me say: Clutter is anything unfinished, unused, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized.

Well, money clutter is part of that. Most clutter is about procrastination - not making a choice, putting off decisions, trying to avoid the whole issue. It’ s the same with money.

And here is something sobering: how you do money is how you do anything! Which means, clear up your money stuff and you’ll find whole other areas of your life transformed too.

Do you recognize any of these examples of money clutter?

avoiding paying bills on time
avoiding having money in the bank
avoiding having a potentially uncomfortable conversation with someone
not being paid what you are owed
anything regarding money that has some form of contraction with it.

Each of these represents something not handled well, and has some kind of emotional charge. Money clutter piles up like dirty laundry, physically and energetically. Who wants all that emotional constipation?

Clear your money clutter with these three tips:

1. Relationship clutter: most people have at least one uncomfortable situation with someone else. Something you’re avoiding, somewhere you feel contracted. Perhaps you’re saying: look at what happened to me! Identify one situation where you’re experiencing a sense of contraction and handle it.

Take a look at ways this situation has made you feel contracted…. sad, fearful, small, ashamed, guilty, resentful, angry, a victim.

Ask yourself: if worrying about what this person thinks or feels were no longer important to me - how would I feel? You feel expansive when you feel joyful, peaceful, loving, grateful, forgiving of yourself or others.

Make a decision about what action you will take. Remember, how you do money is how you do everything!

Inner Feng Shui Tips for Attracting Love

2012-02-14T07:10:14Z

In Feng Shui the Love & Relationships area is diagonally opposite the Knowledge & Self-Cultivation area on the Bagua. Which means they are intimately connected.

Here’s how it works. You can only love another to the degree you love yourself. And you RECEIVE love to the extent you are able to GIVE love. As with everything, it starts with YOU!

Today is Valentine’s Day. While the world is focusing on chocolates and relationships, it’s worth putting some of your focus on how you love yourself.

I know I love myself most when I feel spacious. That’s when I remember who I really am. I can hear what my body is trying to tell me, I feel expansive and in tune with myself. I hear my intuition, I eat well and practice good self care. That’s when I attract more of what I really want.

The reality is that sometimes, OK often….. I get bogged down and forget. I feel overwhelmed. I get into my default action woman mode and end up feeling I’m stuck down a hole - definitely not expansive or loving towards myself or anyone else. And it’s always when I’m not listening. I’ve lost contact with who I really am.

You can probably relate. So partly to remind myself, and partly to offer you something that will help you if you’re ever feeling squished into a small space, I offer you six of my favorite strategies for expanding your world so you can remember how wonderful YOU are!

1. Unplug for a day / a weekend. This is one of my favorites. I have a cottage by the sea I’m able to go stay in. When I moved onto my houseboat I assumed I wouldn’t need to go there - after all I was living on the river - getting my water fix! But, it’s just as important now as before. At the cottage there is no internet or phone. It’s bliss. I walk by the sea, go swimming when it’s hot, read lots, journal tons and reconnect with myself.

If you can only manage one day - do it! Clear your calendar, tell everyone you are not available and make this day all about YOU! Remember, the idea is to STOP the ’shoulds’ and give yourself the gift of solitude and renewal. Leaving home is usually easier. Take your journal!

Change your World with Two Powerful Mindset Shifts

2012-02-02T20:05:42Z

Is it time to step more fully into your power?

Two of your divine feminine gifts will help you do just that. Here they are and you’ll find a powerful mindset shift to make for each.

First: Owning your own authority. Instead of trusting ourselves, we’ve been conditioned to question our own judgment. This is a huge energy drain. When you trust yourself you don’t need to look outside of yourself for validation.

When you do not trust yourself you start to question everything you do. You make yourself vulnerable. You cannot move forward without friction.

As humans we are wired to look outside ourselves and base our behavior on what others are doing. To trust yourself you are going against societal conditioning, and you are going against your own wiring. But it’s so worth it!

When you trust your own authority, when you trust yourself, you know you can make the best decisions for YOU. This is a gift you give yourself.

Here is a belief you can embrace that will support you: There is no such thing as a mistake. And there is nothing you can do that you can’t find the gift in and turn into the positive.

So, if you knew you couldn’t make a mistake what would that allow you to do?

Trusting your own authority puts you in a place of power. You can take risks. You get to say “yes” to yourself.

Power Question: As a woman who owns her own authority and trusts herself, what do I know to be true?

It’s not about YOU!

2012-01-18T23:50:24Z

That is what my coach said to me this week!

What do you mean it’s not about me?

I was telling her that I have this feeling I’m meant to be doing something bigger, bolder. Heck I work with clients who tell me that all the time. They know there is something more. I help them discover that ‘more’. I help them get into that place that can be scary exciting! I know they can’t do it by themselves. I know I can’t do it by myself.

Hence our conversation.

Have you ever felt like this? It seems that no sooner do you make a big leap and get comfortable there, than this little voice pipes up to make you think of even bigger possiblities.

Of course, this could be the part of yourself that is never satisfied, but it could also be the part of you that knows there is something more just waiting around that corner ahead.

So, here are some questions that may help - and here are my answers.

3+ Powerful Tips to Feng Shui your Stove, and Boost your Prosperity!

2012-01-05T19:25:21Z

At a party, your kitchen is often where guests and energy gathers. It’s similar in Feng Shui. Your kitchen is a microcosm of your entire life. The energy of your relationships, personality, struggles all begin here in your kitchen. Your kitchen, being the space associated with nourishment in your home, is also closely related to your prosperity.

Within the kitchen, your stove is a focal point and applying basic Feng Shui strategies to this appliance will give you high returns for your efforts.

Here are 3+ Tips for applying Feng Shui principles to your stove:

1.Avoid fights between your stove and refrigerator and others in your home! Your stove needs to be away from your refrigerator. The stove and fridge have opposing energy - one hot, one cold. If these two appliances are next to each other, this can lead to conflict in your home - even if you live alone!

If they are right up next to each other and can’t be moved apart, I recommend glue-ing a mirror to the side of the fridge near the stove. This will help deflect the stove’s energy from the fridge.

If you have just a small amount of counter space between you could place a plant here to buffer the conflicting energy.

Completing the Year that Was…..2011

2011-12-29T18:07:37Z

Taking some quiet time to look back on the year just gone and reminding yourself of where you are, brings both a sense of completion and a reminder of your wins. Let’s face it, you likely pay more attention to where you’ve yet to get to and what isn’t working, than your success and the gifts you’ve gained along the way.

This is an opportunity to drink in some truth about yourself and start to redress the balance. You’ve experienced success for sure. This is worth celebrating! And is fun too!

And, remember the definition of clutter? Anything unfinished, unused, unresolved, tolerated or disorganized.

What’s unfinished for you? You are very familiar with physical clutter and how it bogs you down, but wait, there’s more. Clutter can also appear in your relationship with others, intentions you made last year but you no longer feel passionate about, and successes you haven’t acknowledged yourself for and celebrated. And if you don’t stop for a moment to really own your insights and what you learned about yourself in the last year, that’s more unfinished business.

Questions to complete your year

Take some quiet time for yourself to reflect on the past year and answer these questions. Below you’ll find a worksheet you can use - save it to your computer and start keeping a record of your years. You will only receive the benefit of this process if you write down your answers. Thinking about it will not do it!

1. What was an upset or a disappointment in the past year? Every challenge is a chance to realign yourself and each brings a gift for you. What might be the lesson or gift in this (or these) situation(s)? What did you learn and what were the gifts?

2. Where and when did things not flow easily ? where was there a lot of energy for little result? Are you still trying to push this? If things aren??t flowing, it??s often not in your highest good. Perhaps it??s time to let it go? Or is there a change you wish to make so you feel inspired and excited again? Write down your new 2012 intention.