Coming Back to Center

Earlier this week, I attended an Evening of Exploration at the Academy for the Love of Learning. We explored Coming Back to Center – Embodied Leadership.

One of the most profound things I learned involved not always being able to tell if I was present within myself while being present with another person. What an amazing awareness . . .

How do I know when I am present with myself? What does it feel like? If I’m not in my own center, what does it take for me to become present in my own center?

I’m excited to share this piece with you – exploring this . . .

Experiencing being present with myself . . .

Experiencing being present with myself . . .


Home

Hello, is anybody home?

As I take a deep breath,
I check inside.

Can I feel myself here?
At home in my body?

I feel the energy of me
In my heart center.

I feel the edges
of my physical home
In the tips of my fingers
and the tips of my toes.

I feel my energetic presence
beyond my physical home.

As I feel out farther and farther,
I experience my Oneness
with my Big Home.

All that Is.

Ah, to be home
And to be Home.

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within.”)

I would love your thoughts and responses. Post comments and insights below . . .

Full Dedication

We had the honor of six Tibetan Buddhist monks chanting for us at church last Sunday. Only one of them spoke English, and he spoke for less than two minutes. I was listening to him and now I don’t remember what he was saying. Then, all of the sudden, it seemed as though he woke me up.

He said that our dedication would make the difference. We could pray for one – ourselves or another, or we could pray for all.

If I am praying for patience or peace or prosperity for myself, why would I not pray for patience or peace or prosperity for everyone?

If I am praying for healing or happiness or humor for another, why would I not pray for healing or happiness or humor for all?

I’m not sure why this concept felt so new to me. I have written many affirmative prayers and have often included a Buddhist phrase, “may all beings . . .”

For some reason, the way he said it called me to be present with holding a desire for all, instead of holding a desire for just me or just my friend. The beauty of this: it requires no more of me to dedicate my prayers for all.

So, I wrote a new prayer. For All of us.

AStrong061715-300x300
Why pray for only me, when I can pray for All of us? When my heart
goes out to a friend in pain, why not send my heart out to All who are
in pain?

For the Love of All

May All of us hold our humanity lightly
and embody our Divinity powerfully.

May All of us express our own unique gifts,
in ways that only we can.

May All of us lose track of time,
Living the present moment, fully and completely.

May All of us know ourselves as Love.
May All of us know ourselves as Love.

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within.”)

I would love your thoughts and responses. Post comments and insights below . . .

How Do Your Strengths Influence What You Value about Coaching?

Coaching since 1997, I have noticed that we all hire coaches to help us create more fulfilling lives. The wonderful and fascinating thing about consciously creating our lives: there are as many ways to do it as there are people on the planet.

Perhaps that’s why we have so many types of coaching – from business to intimacy, from spiritual to success, from health to grief. Over the years, I myself have worked with 14 different coaches. Each for different reasons.

And I have noticed patterns about why people hire coaches based on their strengths.

Strategic Thinkers hire me as a thinking partner and for accountability.

Executing folks either hire me to help them get even more stuff done or to improve their relationships. People who have the Executing strength of Responsibility in their top 5 usually hire me to learn how to (finally) be responsible to themselves first or to deepen their spiritual practice.

Relationship Builders hire me to create a connection and learn more about themselves through our relationship. They love it when I help them see their blind spots.

Influencers hire me to leverage their reach with people. They are often interested in how to move even more people or how to influence them more deeply.

train tracks
What makes your life fulfilling and meaningful?

So, what about you? Do you know your top 5 strengths? What have you noticed has brought you the greatest value from coaching?

(If you don’t know your StrengthsFinder strengths, I highly recommend that you invest $19.99 and 30 – 40 minutes to learn what makes you one-of-a-kind! That’s me at my Influencing best.)

I would love your thoughts and responses. Post comments and insights below . . .

What Deception Wants to Set You Free?

The moon was at her fullest last night. According to astrologer Divine Harmony, the planet “Neptune is dominating the sky right now,” giving us the opportunity to discern where we have been deceiving ourselves.

The full moon working her magic over my home in Lamy, NM! June 2, 2015

The full moon working her magic over my home in Lamy, NM!
June 2, 2015

I normally wouldn’t write about astrology because it’s not in my realm, and I am writing about it now because it’s already had a profound impact on me. Thank you, Gina Garris, for sending me the blog post a couple of days ago. After I read it, I was moved to say a quick prayer, “Dear God, please show me where I have been deceiving myself.”

Then I forgot about it.

Yesterday, I was working with my business coach and he said something about there being a disconnect between my ability as a coach and my desire to coach more people. In a moment, I had an insight about where I had been deceiving myself since childhood, through three marriages and several other romantic relationships and how that all related to this disconnect in my business. And then I could feel the disconnect dissolve.

Well, my prayer had been answered in less than 24 hours. This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for 30 years!

So, I wanted you to have the same opportunity, if you would like . . .

And, stay tuned, in the next few weeks I will share more specifics about new coaching offerings and how perhaps I can serve you!

If you’d like to read Divine Harmony’s blog post about this full moon, visit her blog.

I would love your thoughts and responses. Post comments and insights below . . .

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