Are you one of thousands of people who feel the need to fill the silence?

Do you tend to feel awkward when there is silence when you are with others?

This feeling of not being comfortable in silence is due to your own personal training of your mind and emotions. We were born being appreciating silence, but somewhere along the way we, often due to tragic or troubling experiences,  we trained ourselves to run away from our thoughts.

Now it is time to retrain your mind and emotions to embrace what you were once born to enjoy.

Here are 4 tips to help you retrain your mind so that you can learn to tolerate and even embrace the silence. Baby steps are the key here.

Often when people want to learn to embrace silence and jump full force into silence, they can n0t handle it. If this is the case for you, start with these tips that have helped me and my clients:

1. Eat at least one meal in silence. Make sure that music and TV is turned off. Turn off the volume of your smartphone so you do not interrupted by messages, calls and email updates. Avoid any conversations with others. Focus completely on the food that you are eating. Enjoy the aroma, texture, colors and flavor. Anytime you notice that you mind wanders away, simply remind yourself that you are focusing on your food.

2. Take a walk. Visit a local park or walk around the block without headphones and music. Embrace the trees, flowers and birds, as well as the feel of the breeze as you walk.

These two tips will help retrain your mind to be in the moment with your thoughts. This is important for your relationships and your personal health because it takes you away from worry, regret and resentment.

The next two tips will help you learn to face those thoughts that keep coming up that may need facing or healing. When you are able to listen to your own thoughts and not run from them, they do not have a reason to return.

3. Commit to sitting in silence for a very short time for just a minute or two to begin with. Before you begin, have two strategies prepared just in case you feel as if you are falling apart.

- Put your hand on your heart and remind yourself that you are simply listening to your own thoughts and that your thoughts can not harm you. Tell yourself this several times, especially anytime you begin to feel emotions that seem scary. Remind yourself that you are still living and will continue to.

- Have a breathing technique prepared so you can center yourself if needed. If you would like me to share one with you, email me at joanne@joannecipressi.com. I will be happy to share one that I teach my clients.

After facing your thoughts for just a minute or two, distract yourself with a walk or jumping jacks. If you need to, even watch TV. After practice of taking a minute or two with your thoughts, you will be able to embrace more time with your thoughts and feel at peace listening to yourself without needing a distraction.

4. Seek help. Seeking help from an experienced coach or therapist that is skilled at helping others with their own thoughts is extremely beneficial. You will have support that is very much needed and experience from a person who has been through this struggle. There are many wonderful coaches that can help. I offer VIP days and individual coaching sessions where you can learn to experience inner peace. I teach you how to feel safe with your thoughts and emotions so you no longer need to run away from your thoughts on a regular basis. When you work with me, you are not simply paying for my time, but for my experience of almost two decades of self-healing and guiding others to experience inner peace.

Regardless of the path that you take to embrace silence and to be comfortable with your own thoughts and emotions, remember that most often baby steps are most beneficial.

It is never too late to retrain your thought patterns and your emotional patterns. You deserve it to yourself and those that love you to care for yourself.

Your thoughts are very powerful and how you react to these thoughts affect your emotions and relationships. Make sure your thoughts and your reactions to them are working for you and not against you.

Much peace and love to you,
Joanne

Silence is a beautiful gift that is offered to us. Physical silence, as well as mental silence enhance the quality of our life in so many amazing ways. Here are some benefits that I have personally experienced from silence that have also been confirmed by my some of my meditation and Reiki clients.

Silence enhances your ability to be more united with your emotions. They are more able to flow freely in silence. Feel and allow to flow.

People have claimed that silence also have many physical benefits like lowering blood sugar, boosting immune system, hormone regulating, and reducing pain, as well as lowering stress levels. I can not prove these claims scientifically as I am not a scientist. However, I personal have experienced less stress levels, immune boosting effects, pain elimination and so many other wonderful physical benefits from silencing my space and my thoughts.

Silence offers a deep bonding with the universe. Being silent in nature and simply embracing your moments spent with it, you evolve as a person on such a deep level that you feel as if you are one with all.

Silence is now natural for me because I have practiced and practiced living in silence. But, it was not always easy being silent without music playing or some other distraction to occupy my mind. The journey of my retraining was amazing and so rewarding. I would like to share some of my tips to embracing the silence in my next blog. So make sure you either subscribe to my blog or come back for these tips.

How about you? Have you experience some amazing benefits from silence? Please share below and spread your wisdom with us!

Much love and peace to you!
Joanne Cipressi, CHt, CNLP
Empowerment Coach, Speaker and Reiki Master
267-266-6480
If you wish to learn to embrace silence to enhance your relationships and the quality of your life, I am only a phone call away for you to begin your journey.

As I grew older, I realized that the TV was on every time I came over and she was home, even though I rarely saw her sit down and watch anything.

As I grew older, I learned that by keeping the TV on, she did not feel alone. She had a need to keep the noise over the silence. She died when I was a teen, so I never was given the chance to learn the deeper reasons to her needing to fill her silence.

The majority of people that I have known throughout my life have this need to avoid the silence with either literal noise like music, TV or movies or doing something, like reading or browsing the internet so as not to be alone with their thoughts.

I often ask people why. Here are some of the responses that I receive:

“The silence drives me nuts!”

“All my problems come to my mind when there is no noise.”

“I feel lonely in silence.”

“Playing music or watching TV is easier than trying to find something to talk about.”

“I can’t stand the shit that circles in my head. I need a distraction.”

“I start picking at everything in my life if there is no noise. I see how everything is all wrong.”

“I go insane if I am all alone with my thoughts.”

“The memories of what he did to me always come out.”

“My skin crawls when everything is all quiet. I sort of freak out.”

How about you? Do you feel the need to fill the silence? Do you feel the need to have music or the tv on continuously? Or do you have to always be doing something so as to not hear the chatter in your mind? Why? Please share your thoughts below in the comments. Also, share your thoughts whether you think this is a healthy pattern or not? Looking forward to your thoughts!

What makes you happy?

What brings you energy and inner peace?

Think about these questions for a few minutes.

Ponder over what truly makes you feel good about being alive.

What brings a smile on your face?

What allows you to breathe deep refreshing breaths?

Hold what truly makes you happy in your heart and smile thinking about how this makes you feel.

Tap into this happiness and feel they way it travels through your body, mind and heart. Feel the way you breathe. Feel how tensions fade away. Close your eyes and allow this happiness to reside deep within your body. Take a moment or two to stay in this place.

My next question to you is this:

Are you taking action for more happiness and inner peace in your life or are you doing what does not truly bring you more joy?

Really think about this question. Review what you have done in the past month or two and evaluate your actions.

If you are acting in ways to enhance your happiness and inner peace, congratulations.

However, if you are not, my next question to you is this:

Why are you make the unsatisfactory choices that you are? Why are you not doing what you heart is pulling you towards?

We all know the excuses:

• Money.
• No opportunities.
• I am not good enough.
• I have no help.
• I do not know how.
• No one ever showed me.
• My family will be upset with me.
• My friends will not understand.
• My boyfriend/girlfriend will leave me.
• I am afraid.
• as well as many others…

I hope you enjoy them:

My Christmas Wish for You:

And some fun:

My Christmas Wish for You…

to remember your true purpose
and to listen to the pulls of your heart

to free your mind from blockages
of doubt, worry, and painful memories

to expand your soul
and to connect deeper within and without

to learn to trust the moment of now
and your intuition to guide you through your life

to breathe deeper
and to laugh much, much more

to accept love, to give love
and to always love living.

Merry Christmas to you!

Joanne Cipressi

The Spirit of Christmas is known as the Spirit of Giving in many circles. This does not only mean that we give material goods to each other, but this can also mean that we give our heart, our love, and our thoughts, as well as forgiveness if needed.

Forgiving has the potential to provide powerful healing for both parties involved in the hurtful, betraying action that caused tension, regret and/or resentment.

Forgiveness is vital for everyone, regardless of the relationship between each other. It benefits both the giver and the receiver.

Forgiveness is especially needed when there are broken bonds between family members during the holidays when families tend to come together to share meals, memories, and so much more.

Holding onto resentment or regret will cause tension that can be felt by others that are attending the gatherings and this can ruin the reason that all are gathering together.

When you are able to forgive, your heart blossoms, your mind expands and your connections with others and the universe are enhanced.

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese

One of the common themes that we watch in Christmas movies, is the need for forgiveness. The Fitzgerald Family Christmas is one such movie where 7 siblings are considering having their father join them for Christmas this year. Their father abandoned them 20 years ago. As you can imagine this situation would require much forgiveness if everyone hope to have a loving and kind experience.

Forgiveness would need to be offered from the children to their father, as well as the father to himself.

If you are still holding a wrong done against you right now, can you find it in your heart to forgive them?

“Without forgiveness life is governed by… an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.” – Roberto Assagioli

Don’t you think that you deserve to live without this resentment living within your heart?

I hope you give the gift of forgiveness this Christmas. Give it to anyone that you are holding a grudge, resentment or any bitter feeling inside for.

Seriously, letting go of the wrongs that were done against you allow your soul to fly free, your heart to open and your mind to expand. Your should feel lighter too! It is so liberating to let go and move forward.

Merry Christmas to you,
Joanne Cipressi, CHt, CNLP
Empowerment Coach, Speaker and Author.
Host of InspireChat
Reiki Master and Energy Healer
I am available to heartfelt talks to people who are looking for their heart to open and to heal, as well as energy healing sessions. Please contact me at 267-266-6480 or email me at joanne@joannecipressi.com

With many of the recent events that have been happening in our world and in my own personal life, I wanted to re-evaluate, connect even deeper within and get more in touch with my intuition.

I have been paying very close attention to the messages that I have been receiving from the universe and those messages I will be reporting in the near future.

But, for now I would like to share with you some of the new changes that will be happening with my TwitterChat #InspireChat.

• #InspireChat is now “A Community that Inspires Together Thrives Together”. Each person that joins the chat is inspiring in their own way. Each person has something to offer the group. When we inspire together, we can not help but to thrive together.
• The chat will be changed from Thursdays at 11amEST to Thursdays at 9pmEST. Many of the regular contributors to this chat stay awake late and some that would like to partake are working, so I believe that this time will be more beneficial for most people.
• #InspireChat will be having a guest hosts from time to time. This community is not about me, but it is about all that are involved. The energies of each person add so much to the depth of the conversations. Having guest hosts will reach our hearts and souls on different levels.
• The topics on #InspireChat will be deeper and will be aimed at touching the soul and heart, with the hopes of deeper connection.
• There will be an GoogleHangout on the 1st Thursday of each month at 10:15pmEST for this community to connect deeper. Depending how this hangout is, I may add more.

Once in a while this is okay for you overall well-being.

But, it seems to be the trend to dwell or to simply remember the past, as well as hoping and dreaming about the future that too many people are lost and pulled away from the present moment.

While the past and the future may seem like pleasant places, or perhaps comfortable places to be in, they will not bring you to the desirable life that you are hoping for—if you live in those times.

Our body is always in the present, but the vibrations we are sending it may be due to the thoughts that we are feeding our heart and soul–from a place outside the present.

These vibrations affect the way we feel emotionally just as well as our emotions effect our vibrations.

When we are experiencing life in the present by reflecting on the past or future, we are allowing non-reality to have control over our emotions and our vibrations.

So, I encourage you to embrace your every moment as it is now–in the present without allowing the past or the present to affect what is happening in the present.

When you are able to do so, you will be naturally enabling yourself to have the most amazing future and to be accepting of the past that has already occurred. There is no need to learn a specific healing modality to allow the past to be forgiven or healed. Simply learn to embrace your every moment.

I know this is easier said than done–especially with the way humans have been trained over the past decades…perhaps even centuries.

But, it is possible and the best solution for your own peacefulness and happiness.

With this all said, we are created with a mind that is able to remember and to visualize a future dream. So, obviously there is a time and place to be, in our mind, in the past or future.

BUT, please remember that there is a time and place to be there….not a life living there!!

Learn to embrace your every moment. Be aware of guidance you are receiving in every moment and act accordingly with trust.

I am here to help you with your process. No, this does not include rituals of meditation as is traditionally taught at studios, nor does it include fasting. It includes reconditioning the way you think, feel and live. as well as what triggers the way you do all.

As children we are trained by parents, teachers and a society who knew only what they knew. But, that does that mean that their teachings were/are best for your well being and the peace of the world. Not at all.

It is time to recondition and relearn how to live embracing each moment of your life. Learning how to embrace your moments will greatly improve the quality of your relationships, your health, your emotional well being and your career. Let me show you how.

Much peace to you!!
Joanne Cipressi
Empowerment Coach, Speaker and Author
267-266-6480
joanne@joannecipressi.com

OUCH!

I remember when rejection use to hurt!

I would feel it deep in my heart and allow it to fester and to be alive for a long, long time.

It would be so alive that it was very difficult to focus on what I really wanted to do.

It was like a virus that seemed to multiply and keep me locked inside my house for days!

Thankfully…that has changed!

Rejection happens to everyone of us.

That is a part of this life we live.

As an empowerment coach, some of the people I work with are dating and searching for true love. We all know there is much rejection when dating.

I also work with a lot of people who are seeking to live a life full of love and peace. They are desiring to “be the change” that the world needs. These can be coaches, therapists, doctors, lawyers or other people that are brilliantly smart, as well as good-hearted. Yet, their love and kindness is often rejected.

In addition, in my pro-bono work, I help people who were abused sexually. These people are unfortunately rejected because of them being abused.

In the past, when I worked with entrepreneurs, actors, singers, real estate agents, and other business professionals that were striving to expand their business, they would reach out to me because the continuous rejection was bringing them down.

In my own personal life, rejection has impacted me in many layers of my life.

Fortunately, several years ago, I have learned that rejection can either beat you down or it can inspire you. It is a choice that you can consciously make.

To allow rejection to hurt you or help you is your own personal choice and this is one of the lessons that I teach practically each one of my clients–regardless of the path that they are on.

Here are some examples of some very famous people that have been rejected…yet we can see they did not allow those rejections to beat them down.

Albert Einstein

Teacher and parents believed he was anti-social and mentally handicapped because he did not speak until he was four, nor did he read until he was seven. He was expelled from school and his admittance was rejected to the Zurich Polytechnic School.  Yet, he won the Nobel Prize and changed the way we view modern physics.

Thomas Edison

When he was a young boy, Edison was told that he was “too stupid to learn anything” by his very own teachers!!  Then as he grew up and landed his first two job, he was fired and was told he was not productive enough. What inspires me even more so, is that I remember reading that Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb!! As I sit here writing this article with two lit light bulbs, I know full well that he did not let rejection keep him down!

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah had a challenging childhood like many of us that was also abusive. Then, as a television reporter, she was fired because she was told that she was “unfit for tv.” Yet, TV is what made her one of the wealthiest people in our world.

Jerry Seinfeld

The first time that he attempted his first show, he froze as he looked at the audience which resulted in him being booed off of the stage. This is one of my biggest nightmares! Yet, the very next night, Seinfeld completed his set making many people laugh and he is still doing so today.

What can you do when you are rejection — instead of being hurt, feeling let down or even worse, letting this rejection to drive you away from your dreams and purpose in your life?

Here are several quotes for inspiration:

• “Don’t Take Anything Personally. Nothings others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” — Don Miguel Ruiz
  Realize your rejection is much more about the other person than it is about you. They have their own needs, desires, realities and dreams which may not be in line with yours…and that is okay!!
• “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
  Realize that if one door does not open, there any many, many others that are available to you. Adjust your direction and keep moving.
• “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” — Sylvester Stallone
  Allow rejection to fuel you instead of slow you down! This is what I have taught myself and teach my clients. With this mindset, you can move mountains!
• “There’s nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.” – James Lee Burke
  When rejection happens, an inventory of your skills, your attitude, your appearance, your habits, your goals etc are very beneficial.  Allow rejection to fine tune yourself to improve your skills and the way you interact with others.
• “I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment” – Saul Bellow
  Learn to truly rely and trust your heart. Self-inventory to make sure you are truly connecting to your heart. If you are, keep moving and readjust the sail. If you realize you are not being true to your heart, then read the next quote.
• “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” W. C. Fields
  Sometimes this is true too. That is why the self-inventory is a good idea for us. Sometimes we are striving for something that is based in our ego and is not truly meant to be the thing we are meant to do. Being rejected, can be the universe’s way of guiding you to your higher purpose, the girl you are meant to marry or the job that will supply you with so much satisfaction.

I think many of us do and that is okay…as long as it is short term.

Here is a chat that we had yesterday about “When it is hard to Smile”. The #InspireChat community shared some really encouraging tips to help when it is difficult to smile. Enjoy this transcript:
When It is Hard to Smile
 

Please note that all transcripts for #InspireChat will be on the NEW InspireChat.com website by the end of this month (October). The website will be launched the last week of the month.

Enjoy your day!
Joanne Cipressi
Host of #InspireChat