Posts tagged with ‘change’

Pet The Lizard

Down deep, do you feel at ease?
The Practice:
Pet the lizard.
Why?

I’ve always liked lizards.

Growing up in the outskirts of Los Angeles, I played in the foothills near our home. Sometimes I’d catch a lizard and stroke its belly, so it would relax in my hands, seeming to feel at ease.

In my early 20’s, I found a lizard one chilly morning in the mountains. It was torpid and still in the cold and let me pick it up. Concerned that it might be freezing to death, I placed it on the shoulder of my turtleneck, where it clung and occasionally moved about for the rest of the day. There was a kind of wordless communication between us, in which the lizard seemed to feel I wouldn’t hurt it, and I felt it wouldn’t scratch or bite me. After a few hours, I hardly knew it was there, and sometime in the afternoon it left without me realizing it.

Now, years later, as I’ve learned more about how the brain evolved, my odd affinity for lizards has started making sense to me. To simplify a complex journey beginning about 600 million years ago, your brain has developed in three basic stages: Read more »

Posted by Dr. Rick Hanson on January 6th, 2012 in General, Health, Relationships, Things We Love | No comments Read related posts in appreciation, biological evolution, brain, Buddha’s Brain, change, Consciousness, fear, meditation, mindfulness, Neuroplasticity, personal growth, psychological factors, self help, self love, thoughts and feelings

The Choices We Make

Take a look at your life right now. Look at where you live, who you spend time with, how you support yourself financially, your level of stress, your state of mind, your health – all of it. Is this the life that you want to be living? Is this a life that you consciously created or is this a life that you created on autopilot?

We make choices every day. Choices that affect how we live and how our lives turn out. And oftentimes we aren’t even aware that we are making choices. We are simply surviving – getting by – and trying to make it through the day. We aren’t thinking about our vision for our future. We aren’t thinking about manifesting our ideal life. We are thinking about what needs to be made for dinner or what time the kids need to be picked up or whether we have time to finish that project for work that is due the next day.But what’s so crucial to realize is that the universe doesn’t know whether we are creating our lives on autopilot or in a conscious state of awareness. The vibrations that we are sending out are exactly what we will get back.

The choices we make today will affect our life tomorrow. Some of the choices we make today will have a lasting impact on our lives far into the future.

Becoming aware of the choices you make on a daily basis is the first step to creating change in your life. When you recognize that you are about to make a choice – ask yourself this question:
Is this choice leading me toward or away from my ideal life?

So often we know what we want for our future, and we can’t figure out why we never seem to get any closer to our dreams. It’s because of the choices we are making on a daily basis that aren’t moving toward that vision. We are looking for instant gratification and seeing life in the small picture rather than putting aside our wants and desires in the short term to make sure we reach our long-term dreams and visions.

Let’s say your dream is to run a marathon.
You know that to do this you will need to start training every day.
You begin the first day by running for an hour, which feels great! You are on your way!
When you wake up the second day, you are feeling tired and sore and think you will just take the day off as a reward for working so hard the day before and start up with your training again the following day.
This is a choice that you made.
Did this choice move you toward or away from your long-term goal and your ideal life?
Definitely away from.

And if this continues to happen, soon you will realize that the marathon is quickly approaching, and you are not even close to being ready for it. And you become angry with yourself because you realize that your choices put you in this situation.
And if you keep sabotaging yourself by not training, you have to ask if this is something that you truly want for yourself. If it is, it’s time to take a look at what is holding you back. Is it simply that you are lazy and lack discipline or could it be deeper issues of limiting beliefs about what you feel you are worthy of achieving?An alternative solution to this example would be to find another way to reward yourself rather than taking time off from training. Perhaps you can go out to celebrate, or make a special meal, or watch your favorite movie.

It all comes back to the choices we make each and every day.
One harmful choice usually leads to another and another…

But the opposite is also true! One positive choice leads to another and another…
This means that if we are conscious of our choices and make sure they are in line with the vision we have for our future, we will be right on pace to reach our dreams!
So let’s first visualize the lives we want to live.
And then let’s make sure we are consciously making choices that lead us closer to this life.
And soon enough you will see that you are living your ideal life and reaching all of your dreams!

Jodi Chapman writes Soul Speak – a daily blog that focuses on seeing life through a lens of gratitude and positivity. She is the bestselling author of the Soulful Journals series – writing-prompt journals that help you go within and get to know yourself better. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Go For It: Get Out There and Start Living! She believes that our thoughts become our reality, and our actions lead us to our dreams. She is happily married to her best friend and co-writer, Dan Teck. They live in southern Oregon with their four fuzzy kids. www.soulspeakbyjodi.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Jodi Chapman on August 30th, 2011 in Uncategorized | 2 comments Read related posts in change, choice, conscious living, life lessons, personal growth

Hearing Fear Out

Have you ever embarked on a wonderful new adventure that you were super excited about, and just when you really started to get into it with both feet in – fear stepped up and started listing all of the reasons why it’s probably not a good idea for you to do this after all and tries to get you to see how much safer it would be for you to just step back into your comfort zone?

When this happens, what if we took some time to listen to what fear has to say?
It’s there to protect you – it doesn’t want you to get hurt or fail or be disappointed.
So the next time this happens for you – take some time and write down everything that the fear inside of you wants you to know.

Get it all down on a piece of paper. Give yourself the time and space needed to go within and bring up any reason why your new adventure might not be a good idea or why it’s a scary place to be.
And then you can crumble it up and throw it away.
Or…
You can go through your list one by one and turn it around.
Fear is ego-based and faith is soul-based.
Give your soul a chance to counter each point that your fear brought up.

I think you will find that if you really dig deep and go within, you no longer need fear to protect you on this journey. Your old patterns of letting fear take over will no longer work in your new life.

In my own life, I am writing my first full-length book. It’s a very personal book for me to write, and it requires me going within and really looking at myself and my life with what feels like a magnifying glass. And this can be a hard process that my ego doesn’t want me to go through – it can be painful and yucky and sad to relive certain events or examine my patterns and habits that haven’t always served me. And yet my soul knows that in sharing my story – in putting it out into the world – it will not only help to heal myself, but hopefully others as well who are sharing similar experiences.

So when my fear starts taking over (and boy is it strong!), I recognize it for what it is: a scared ego that just wants me to be comfortable.

And I thank it and let it know that we can’t learn and grow if we always stay comfortable.
And then I get back to writing.

So please take some time today and look at the role fear plays in your own life. Give it a voice – let it be heard. And then either crumble it up or counter what it had to say with all of the reasons why these fears and ways of sabotaging your spirit will no longer work in your new, soulful life.

And then get back to what you know you need to be doing to grow into the person that you were meant to become.

Jodi Chapman writes Soul Speak – a daily blog that focuses on seeing life through a lens of gratitude and positivity. She is the bestselling author of the Soulful Journals series – writing-prompt journals that help you go within and get to know yourself better. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Go For It: Get Out There and Start Living! She believes that our thoughts become our reality, and our actions lead us to our dreams. She is happily married to her best friend and co-writer, Dan Teck. They live in southern Oregon with their four fuzzy kids. www.soulspeakbyjodi.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Jodi Chapman on August 25th, 2011 in Uncategorized | 1 comment Read related posts in change, fear, life lessons, personal growth

Pushing Through the Obstacles

Sometimes we are on a roll in our lives where everything feels like it’s going really well and flowing effortlessly.

And then we add something new – something that is out of the norm from our every day life. We stretch a little bit out of our comfort zone and expect things to continue flowing.

And sometimes they do.
But sometimes we come across obstacles where we didn’t expect them to be.
Sometimes we even come across road blocks that seem to be right in the way of reaching our dreams.

When this happens, take a look at these obstacles and notice where they are coming from and what messages they are conveying.

Are they coming from fear – is our ego stepping in and warning us that it might be scary to try new things?

Are they coming from outdated beliefs that we have about achieving success and finding true happiness?

Or maybe we haven’t stretched our adventure muscles in awhile and just need more practice.

Over the past week, I have been writing my book, and I have stumbled upon many obstacles – some that I had a feeling would show up and others that I’ve been surprised by.
And while I recognize them for what they are (old fears and distractions coming up to keep me comfortable), I still have to work through them and move them aside. This dream is too big to allow anything to stand in my way.

I was listening to a powerful telesummit yesterday with Jack Canfield where he was talking about how we can live our ideal life – even with the obstacles.

He brought up the great point that we are always going to have obstacles – but our response to these obstacles is entirely our choice.

We get to choose our thoughts, which means we also get to choose our outcome.

So the next time we are reaching for our dream and we come across an obstacle – take some time to go within and try to get to the bottom of the message it brings up. And then thank it for showing up and teaching you more about yourself, and either push through it or go around it. Keep moving forward.

We are all learning lessons every day. And with each lesson, we are all getting closer and closer to our truest self – our divine soul.

And every obstacle and road block is helping us do just that. They are also great tools to show us just how passionate we are about achieving our dreams and living our ideal life.

Every obstacle we push through and every barrier we eliminate leads us closer to our dreams.

Jodi Chapman writes Soul Speak – a daily blog that focuses on seeing life through a lens of gratitude and positivity. She is the bestselling author of the Soulful Journals series – writing-prompt journals that help you go within and get to know yourself better. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Go For It: Get Out There and Start Living! She believes that our thoughts become our reality, and our actions lead us to our dreams. She is happily married to her best friend and co-writer, Dan Teck. They live in southern Oregon with their four fuzzy kids. www.soulspeakbyjodi.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Jodi Chapman on August 18th, 2011 in Uncategorized | No comments Read related posts in challenges, change, dreams, personal growth

The Power of Labels

Have you ever had a moment where you wanted to change in some way, but you didn’t because it seemed too crazy, too out of the box, too “not you”?

The labels we give ourselves are really powerful.
They can define us – and this can be empowering or stifling depending on where the label came from (our higher self or our comfort zone). If your higher self created the label, then you know it’s something great that you either currently embody or you can strive for. If you create labels for yourself from a point of low self esteem, comfort, or because you think you should – then they can hinder your growth and box you in to a life of comfort and stagnation.

I recently took a look at what labels I give myself – both professionally and personally.
I have been designing, writing, and making journals for over six years. Our business completely supports us, and I am comfortable calling myself an entrepreneur, a designer, and a creative spirit. But for some reason I had some blocks with calling myself a writer and an artist. For me, these words were powerful and I had to step back and think if I could truly embody these labels.
It’s so funny to realize this – the power of words is so strong!
I AM a writer and I AM an artist.
I can choose to create these labels for myself and fully embrace them.
Look at your own life.

What labels do you use to define yourself?
What labels do others use to define you?
Take some time today to write down these labels.

You could write: mother, friend, good cook, likes Chinese food, sensitive, artist, computer savvy, deep thinker, seeker, spiritual, nag, dependent, emotional, etc.

Write down every word you can think of that you would use to describe yourself.

Next, take a look and see if it truly describes the person that you want to be – your best self. If it doesn’t, get rid of it. Think about where each label came from. Is it something that you created for yourself or something that someone gave you that never seemed to fit (or no longer fits)?

Are there any labels you would like to add? Anything that you would like use to define yourself?

Here is an example of how powerful it can be when someone else labels us:
Let’s say you have always wanted to sing, but in junior high your choir teacher said that while you had a nice voice, you really weren’t able to project it. So you probably would never be a professional singer. So the label you put on yourself was that you had a soft voice and probably shouldn’t sing in public. Years go by and the love for singing is still inside of you – you receive support from friends and family urging you to use your voice and sing out. But that darn label is still there.

But… what if you created a new label for yourself? What if you said that you were a singer? There is no judgement in this word alone. It just is. You could then embrace that label and do what singers do: sing!

You can also create labels for yourself that you grow out of.

And when that happens, it’s hard to let it go because you have become defined by this label – it is part of you.

What if you loved Chinese food. It was your favorite food ever. And then one day, it didn’t taste as good to you anymore. And you kept eating it because you had labeled yourself as someone who liked Chinese food. And you had created a life around this label – you would go eat it with friends every week, you would cook it for yourself at home. It was a comfortable identity – but it was no longer serving you because you realized that you no longer loved it like you used to.

This is a funny example, but you could take out “Chinese food” and replace it with any part of your life that no longer feels like “you.” And if you do decide to relabel yourself as someone who no longer loves Chinese food – there may be friction. Your friends will no longer get to see you weekly at the restaurant. They may feel hurt and wonder why you are choosing to not be there. They may take it personally instead of realizing that you simply don’t like the food anymore. But you know that it’s simply because you no longer like this type of food. And why would you put a label on yourself that no longer fit?
Continuing to look into the labels we create for ourselves is part of self growth.

If a label is no longer serving you – if it no longer represents who you are or who you would like to become – than replace it with one that does.

“But I always have been that.”
or
“But everyone expects me to be that.”
aren’t reasons to continue being someone that you no longer are.

This isn’t an easy process, but it’s so worthwhile to go through.

It’s part of becoming conscious and truly being aware of how we define ourselves.

The first step is realizing our labels.

The second step is making sure that each label fits who we are and want to become.

Living a conscious life is a lifelong practice that takes some work – but it’s so worth it!

Jodi Chapman writes Soul Speak – a daily blog that focuses on seeing life through a lens of gratitude and positivity. She is the bestselling author of the Soulful Journals series – writing-prompt journals that help you go within and get to know yourself better. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Go For It: Get Out There and Start Living! She believes that our thoughts become our reality, and our actions lead us to our dreams. She is happily married to her best friend and co-writer, Dan Teck. They live in southern Oregon with their four fuzzy kids. www.soulspeakbyjodi.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Jodi Chapman on August 14th, 2011 in Uncategorized | No comments Read related posts in change, conscious living, labels, personal growth

Saying Goodbye So You Can Say Hello

Sometimes in life we have to make tough choices if we want to grow and live the life we know we are meant to live. We may have to give up a part of ourselves that we have grown comfortable with, even if we know that it isn’t the self we want to bring on our journey.

I was watching Peter Walsh’s decluttering show the other day on the OWN Network, and I love his approach to physical clutter. He first has you create a vision for your room. Then you only bring in the things that reflect that vision. Everything else has to go. I was thinking that this system could also be applied to mental and emotional clutter.

Let’s try this exercise together:
Think of the person you strive to be: your best self.

Now create a vision for this new self.

How do you look (e.g., peaceful, radiant, rested)
What do you think about (e.g., the present moment, happy and positive things)?
What kind of friends do you surround yourself with (e.g., supportive, nurturing)?
How do you spend your days (e.g., reflecting, laughing)
What else can you visualize about this new self?
Take some time with this and get as specific as you can.
Write it all down, and then hang it up where you will see it frequently.
Once you are clear on your vision, you can start the process of decluttering all of the emotions, thoughts, activities, friends, etc. that no longer fit into your current vision.

This can be a painful process, and change can be hard.
If you keep your vision at the forefront, though, and remind yourself that in order to grow into the person you know you can be, you will need to let go of the person you have become. (At least parts of you.)

It’s your rebirth – and it’s a beautiful thing!

Goodbye to you.
And hello to you.

Jodi Chapman writes Soul Speak – a daily blog that focuses on seeing life through a lens of gratitude and positivity. She is the bestselling author of the Soulful Journals series – writing-prompt journals that help you go within and get to know yourself better. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Go For It: Get Out There and Start Living! She believes that our thoughts become our reality, and our actions lead us to our dreams. She is happily married to her best friend and co-writer, Dan Teck. They live in southern Oregon with their four fuzzy kids. www.soulspeakbyjodi.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Jodi Chapman on August 11th, 2011 in Uncategorized | No comments Read related posts in change, life lessons, personal growth

Embracing Change

We recently went into escrow on our house, but don’t yet have a new house to move into. As excited as we are about our move (just across the San Francisco Bay from Concord to Marin County), it feels pretty scary to not yet know exactly where we’ll be living next month.

With this big change and a few others coming soon, I’ve been noticing how I deal with and relate to change. I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship to change. I love the excitement, growth opportunity, and newness of change. But, at the same time, I can easily fall into states of worry, fear, and overwhelm when facing change, especially big ones.

How do you feel about change? While it may depend on the specific change (i.e. one we want versus one we don’t want, or one that seems exciting versus one that seems hard or even “bad.”), most of us seek and fear change simultaneously. Even positive changes can be unsettling or even downright upsetting. And, while each of us has a unique personality and perspective, many of us tend to be creatures of habit.

Change is one of the main “constants” in life, ironically. However, we don’t usually spend all that much time thinking about our relationship to change or specifically expanding on our ability to adapt to change – we usually deal with it from a place of survival, reaction, or necessity.

What if we embraced change more consciously and learned how to not only “manage” it, but thrive through it. Whether you’re someone who enjoys change and handles it quite well, or you hate it and get totally stressed out by it, all of us can benefit from embracing change more deliberately and supporting those around us as we all go through the big and small changes of life – especially these days.

Here are some things you can do and think about as you deal with change in your own life – so as to more effectively and peacefully deal with it when it shows up.

1) Become consciously aware of your relationship to change. Knowing how you deal with change, what stresses you out about it, what allows you to navigate it most effectively, what kind of support you need as you move through the change process, and more, are all important elements of embracing change. It’s rarely the circumstances themselves that cause us stress or difficulty; it’s our relationship to them. By altering our relationship to change, we can become much more peaceful and successful in dealing with it.

2) Acknowledge and express your true feelings (especially your fear). When change occurs, there are usually a number of different emotions we experience. We tend to focus most of our attention on the details, specifics, and circumstances, not so much on our emotions. However, it is our emotional experience and reaction that dictates much of our effectiveness (or lack thereof) in dealing with change. Whether it’s something we consider “good” or “bad,” fear is almost always associated with change, because we’re moving into something unknown and often uncomfortable. By acknowledging and expressing our fear (and other emotions) in an authentic way, we can take back our power from the situation, get real about how we’re feeling, and move through it with more ease and grace. There’s nothing wrong with any of the emotions we experience during change, the problems begin to arise when we don’t express our emotions authentically.

3) Get support. As with most things in life, change is much easier to deal with when we get help. We don’t have to go through it all alone and there are probably many people in our lives who have gone through similar changes before and can support us in the process. Asking for and receiving help from other people can be challenging for many of us and can feel quite vulnerable. However, one of my favorite sayings is, “The answer’s always ‘no’ if you don’t ask.” Getting support not only makes dealing with change easier for us, it allows other people to be of service, which is something most people love to have the opportunity to do in life.

4) Look for the gold. There is “gold’ in the midst of every change – even the most painful and difficult ones. When change is more “positive,” it can seem easier to find the gold in it. However, positive change can also be tricky because we don’t understand why we still may experience fear or discontent and sometimes won’t acknowledge these and other feelings due to our own embarrassment. With change that is more “negative,” it can often be hard to find or see the gold. When dealing with difficult changes in our lives, being able to authentically get in touch with the gifts, blessings, and growth opportunities available to us can help as we navigate our way through the experience and also allow us to evolve in the process.

Have empathy and compassion for yourself and others in going through change. It’s not easy for most of us. By embracing change we become not only more effective in dealing with it, but more peaceful, present, and powerful in our lives.

Mike Robbins is a sought-after motivational keynote speaker, coach, and the bestselling author of Focus on the Good Stuff (Wiley) and Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken (Wiley). More info – www.Mike-Robbins.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Mike Robbins on June 1st, 2011 in Global/Social Change, New Directions | No comments Read related posts in appreciation, authenticity, change, gratitude, inspiration, Mike Robbins, motivation, self help, transition

2011: Gateway of the One

A decade of the 21^st century come and gone, and what science and spirit both predicted and prophesized have come true. Looking back at the turn of the millennium it is hard to believe we didn’t see the worst financial global crisis coming, a killer Hurricane Katrina, devastating tsunami or astronomical earthquake in Haiti that would wipe out hundreds of thousands of lives in an instant. We didn’t have Youtube, Wikipedia, iPhones, Facebook or Twitter and Google, our search engine lifeline, was just getting started. Y2K, the technological media myth, wasn’t the end, and we finally got to party like it was 1999.

After 9/11 (a code that we dial in for help and that contains the powerful number 11) the words “Terror” and “War” constantly struck fear into our hearts and worry into our minds. We were so consumed by giving our personal and collective power over to outer authority and outside sources that 2012 was only a blip on the temporal map and was only seen as some Mayan tale of the end of time. It felt separation would rule us all.

Here and now, eleven years later, time seems to have ended as everything became instantaneous. We have screens and technological devices wherever we go, miniaturized, plugged into our ears, tapped into our touch, connecting us all at speeds quicker than light through our thoughts. The world is literally at our fingertips and in our hands now.

We are starting to see, we are the power. The first African American president was elected because we decided we are ready for “Change” and that “Yes We Can”. A global financial crisis has pulled the veil over our eyes and the truth has been revealed about a monetary system that controls our world governments and seeks to make profit even at the expense of people and the planet, so that the few can have so much, and so that the many have nothing because of it.

Everything has been amplified, exponentially accelerated, including our consciousness and connection to each other. We have gone beyond the information age, and into the age of awareness. 2012 is just a year away now, and happens to be one of the most talked about and researched dates of our time. Depending on which side of the 2012 coin we focus on, is the one we will empower. One side is descending into destruction while the other is ascending in creation. It is our choice.

Even with as much destruction and chaos occurring all around and within us as the whole system feels like it is imploding, many are taking their power back and are starting to be creative, new and sustainable, not just for ourselves, but for the hope, integrity and joy of our posterity. Truly, we now know, that we are the ones we have been waiting for. No one is going to save us, or give us the power we don’t already have ourselves. 2011 is our time to become, to step out of the perception of what we’re not, and see what we already are.

Lets focus a second on the number 11. It is going to come up a lot this year. It is considered a master number, which just means that its purpose is to raise spiritual (inner) awareness for higher conscious. It is a number that drives us to serve altruistically. So this is the year that companies and consumers have an opportunity to make people and the planet the product that profits. 11 is known as the number of transformation. Like a butterflies wings on either side, it is our call to start to fly.

Eleven is also contains two number 1s, representing the two sides of duality, you and me, us and them, right and wrong, black and white. It is the end and the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega. The significance of two sides, or souls, standing together in unity, represents our inherent oneness and the path to our greater good. That no matter how separate we continue to try to be, the truth is we are all connected.

Graphically, 11 looks like a gateway, or a doorway. 2011 is a portal year that we are passing through, and it is calling us to recognize our unity, and to come together to restore power to the people. It is time to invoke the yogi’s “Namaste” and see yourself in every other, and in the world, like a constant mirror reflecting back to you your inner state of awareness and power.

The number 11 shows us that we must come together to create a consciousness that extends beyond the limitations of self, and to embrace our interconnection and interdependence. These are the keys to our thriving future, one that knows no limitations of inequality, poverty, hunger, war, dis-ease, and the endless destruction of our home and resources, Planet Earth.

Together, we have an great opportunity this year to use all the technology, all the connection, and the new business opportunities to shift into a creative paradigm that honors that place within you, that is also within me, which is perfect, powerful and divine. It is time to walk through the gateway of our oneness and unleash our human potential that has been kept from us through our own choice of fear, separation and limitation. This is the year to believe in possibility, to bring love to every part of our lives, yes, even into the marketplace, where the love of power is being replaced by the power of love.

The great cosmic cycle is almost complete. Our sun is aligning with the galactic center of our Milky Way. New energies are flowing through us, and all around us. It is now time to allow the number 11 to activate our hearts as one, creating a gateway where we will pass through, leaving behind our fears and all of our small, myopic beliefs, to emerge on the other side of 2012 with love as the predominant vibration on Earth. Love is the only energy, or currency, that is worth our time, and priceless in value. 2011 is our invitation to transform our lives into conscious gateways, for ourselves, and for the world. It is time to be here and now, and to wake up to the truth that we are the ONE.

Read More at www.Called2Create.com

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Sky Sheridan on January 1st, 2011 in General, Global/Social Change, Spirituality, Technology | No comments Read related posts in 11, 11:11, 2011, 2012, a new earth, AWAKENING, Called2Create, change, Consciousness, end of time, Finance, freedom, inspiriational, LOVE, mayan, money, motivational, new year, Obama, Oneness, power, resolutions, Shift, time, Yes We Can

Effort Is not a Dirty Word – Five Big Pay-offs that Make it Worth Your While

“Lose 10 pounds in 10 days — without diet or exercise!” “Win the lottery, live a life of ease!” “Click here to meet the man of your dreams!

Poof! Just like that, we’re rich, thin, in love and, presumably, happy. Except, we’re not.

And yet, each time we fall for – or are at least tempted by — the lure of the quick fix because we want to believe that we can have it all, instantly, without breaking a sweat.

Why We Avoid Effort
Just like Charlie Brown believing that, this time, Lucy will hold the football so he can kick it, you’d think we’d know better by now. So why are we so attached to the illusion of gliding through life, no effort required?

Well, for one, changing the status quo means we have to leave the familiar comfort of inertia. We have to acknowledge that there is no quick fix and whatever we want to achieve is going to require time and energy.

Next, there’s the discomfort of uncertainty: the nature of effort requires that we persist without a guarantee of success or that we’ll even get the result we’re striving for. We might even, ugh, make mistakes. Not committing full effort provides a handy fall back: “Well, I could have done it if I had really been trying.”

Then there are those who believe in the power of talent — that you either have natural ability or you don’t and there’s not much point in making an effort if you’re not naturally gifted.

Finally, effort is not glamorous; typically, it involves the mundanity of repetition and attention to detail. And in our highly automated, consumerist culture, where the media depicts models looking vaguely bored and above it all, it’s simply not cool to look like you’re trying that hard.

Why Effort Is Worth It
Before you settle back into the couch with your remote though, let me point out a few things that make effort worthwhile.

Effort gives life meaning. In her book, Mindset: The Psychology of Success, psychologist Carol Dweck says: “Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working toward them.” (For those of you wondering about the meaning of life, there it is.)

Effort forges connection. That’s what Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder and his family thought. Suffering post dot-com bubble burnout, they set out to cut through the absurd chaos of materialistic modern life and find a path that was simple, direct, and clear. In his book Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World, Frauenfelder tells the story of keeping chickens in his own remote-controlled chicken coop, making a guitar out of a cigar box and keeping his own bees. The reward for their self-induced labors? Greater perceived value and lasting enjoyment.

Effort trumps talent. Benjamin Barber, an eminent sociologist, once said: “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures… I divide the world into the learners and non-learners.”

A growth mindset – the commitment to stretching beyond where you currently are — is, in fact, what matters more than natural ability, says Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code. It’s what drives desire and creates “the energy that fuels the engine of skill acquisition.”

Effort is essential for mastery. Despite our cultural bias toward instant gratification, there’s no way to reach a high level of excellence — in anything — without hours of effort. Want an exact number? In his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell says that “10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.”

Effort leads to flow. Although a state of flow is often associated with a feeling of effortlessness, initially it requires focused effort to get there. But, once in the flow, you can enjoy an activity for its own sake, without regard for any external rewards it might bring. Daniel Chambliss, author of Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers, notes: “The very features of the sport that the “C” swimmer finds unpleasant, the top-level swimmer enjoys. What others see as boring — swimming back and forth over a black line for two hours, say — they find peaceful, even meditative, often challenging, or therapeutic.”

Growth, mastery and meaning: Sounds to me like an excellent return on investment.

For more information on Peak Performance and Flow, visit Renita’s website, In the Flow Coaching.

If you felt moved, inspired, touched, helped, annoyed, or anything after reading this, please let us know. Our wonderful bloggers really do appreciate your comments and feedback. It’s super easy and takes a minute. Click on comments below.

Posted by Renita Kalhorn on July 24th, 2010 in New Directions | No comments Read related posts in change, effort, mastery, patterns, peak performance, personal change, personal growth, strategy

Prosperity Paradigm Part 2: Knowing What We’re Really Worth

War, poverty, corruption, hunger, misery, human suffering will not change in a monetary system. That is, there will be very little significant change. It’s going to take the total redesign of our culture and values. -Jacque Fresco

Think of it. If one cell in your body survives and succeeds at the expense of the entire organism, it will soon no longer have the organism in order to succeed off of, and it, alone will die. And this is what is happening with the old consciousness and energy on our planet. The way the system has been set up for all of us is no longer being accepted because we are waking up to our worth.

The fear paradigm has been presented to humanity for ages. It asks us to turn over our power to an authority, an outside power. It is a world where few have power, benefit, and truth. We’ve lived it and tried it and it is failing all of us. We are still at war. We are still sick with disease. We are still hungry and hoping for the truth: that love and life are the most valuable currency.

Without the success of the entire planet and all its beings, you and I cannot succeed either. And without the knowing of self, and achieving of success within the self, then the world will not succeed either. It starts with YOU.

Shifting the way we think about our personal worth starts by “Knowing Thyself”. You are infinitely rich in potential. You don’t need money in order to achieve anything of worth. Don’t ever forget that anyone who has ever changed the world, like Gandhi, left a legacy of fulfillment like Dr. Martin Luther King, or found freedom like the forefathers, did so by started with what was inside of them, their thoughts, and you’re a walking bank of them right now.

When do we begin to value ourselves, and the planet over profit? It’s already happening. A visible conscious shift is underway within today’s consumer. We are getting connected on issues like saving the planet, we are interested in organic food, holistic healing and yoga, we want to help each other regardless of nationality or religion, we are getting involved, we want to use our power to create healthier more meaningful lives.

And think about the things that really have value and meaning in your life. The things that bring you joy. Your unique experiences. Your first kiss. A smile from a stranger. That hug you needed when you felt down in the dumps. How about when you paint, sing, dance, write or draw? Creativity is really what we value because creators are who we really are.

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, postulates that in order for the economy to thrive, it has to radically evolve. It is going to have to put, as financial guru Suze Orman puts it, “people first, then money.” Because of the Internet, and the age of information and awareness, companies and governments are forced to become accountable, transparent, socially/ecologically responsible and they are answering to us, the people. And we are eager to go green and give back. We want products that are by the people, for the people.

The destructive economy is dying of its own unsustainable accord and the creative economy is emerging. You can join it by shifting your consciousness within, to you.

As infinite potential, our consciousness contains all the collective components necessary to not just merely survive this life, but to thrive in it. Life is a gift, not a test. Life thrives on the bottom of the ocean with no sunlight, plants grow out of the cracks of cement, our entire pale blue dot of a planet swims in the midst of chaotic deadly cosmic sea. There is always a way for life to be prosperous, beautiful and joyful regardless of the outer circumstances. That is because the value of life comes from within, where the divine lives.

Now is our time to embrace this and shift the current economy to something that serves and values all of us. Until every man, woman and child is clothed, housed and fed, and until we restore our lives to the natural emergent harmonious cycles and systems of nature, which is the enemy of profit (scarcity) because ALL life is abundantly prosperous. Prosperity is the natural state of our unlimited ability to create an abundance of anything we desire.

Once we shift our consciousness from being currency centered to being connected with our true inner worth, which also means being connected to each other and the planet, we can begin to construct a world that eradicates war, poverty, corruption, suffering, hunger and separation.

Lets start being aware right now that we can set ourselves free to create an economy that we deserve, one that places the value of people and the planet first. Because we are, and always have been, abundantly wealthy in the one currency (or energy) that never loses value, can be bought or sold, or that is scarce; LOVE. And love is what we are all really worth.

Sky Sheridan is founder of the conscious Ad-venture, Called2Create. Find out how to empower your thoughts, feelings and beliefs about yourself, others and the world by clicking here: Called2Create and awaken your creative capacity and infinite potential now.

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Posted by Sky Sheridan on July 21st, 2010 in Global/Social Change, Uncategorized | No comments Read related posts in 2012, Affirmation, Aura, Babies, beauty, body, Called2Create, Chakra, change, Community, Connection, Consciousness, Creation, Dance, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Earth, Environment, Fashion, Finance, Funny, Green, Hay House, HEALING, Heaven, Holistic, Inner Being, Joy, Laughter, light, Louise L. Hay, LOVE, Massage, Mind, Models, money, Mormon, Mother Nature, Music, Namaste, New Age, News, Obama, Oprah, Planet Earth, religion, Spirit, Spiritual, The Secret, Wellbeing, Wellness, Yoga