Heart Wide Open

Happy Gratitude! On the eve of our US holiday of appreciation, I give you this poem from my forthcoming book …

Heart Wide Open

Heart Wide Open

Warm sun.
Deep breath.
Kitty purr.
Coffee gurgle.

Soft eyes.
Beating heart.
Soft heart.
Armor melted.

Open arms.
Embracing all.
Boundaries melting.

Open mind.
Open heart.
Quiet mind.
Quiet heart.

Recognition.
Realizing.
Beyond the beyond.

Heart wide open.
Mind in awe.
Surrendered.
In awe.

No rush to cover.
Or control.
Or contract.
Heart wide open.

Heart wide open.

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)

3 Keys for Learning to Love Life

I had one of those life learning experiences this past Sunday, flying back home to the Land of Enchantment from LA. When I checked to see if my flight was on time, the Southwest website could not give me that info, due to a “system-wide technology delay.” The site admonished me to be to the airport at least 2 hours ahead of my flight time.

At the airport, one look at the length of the security line made me think it would take longer than 2 hours to get through that line alone. My first thoughts were, “I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.” Walking and walking and walking toward the back of the line along the street, my next thoughts were, “It is what it is. I have no idea what will happen. It seems like the next logical thing to do is to get in this line.”

Typically, this type of experience would feel extraordinarily stressful to me. The heat on the street, the chaos of so many people having no idea what’s going on, not knowing if I would have enough time to make my flight, my phone having only about 13% charge, my boarding pass on my phone . . .

I made it through security in about 50 minutes. I was able to show my boarding pass to the initial security person inside the building and the official security person at the security checkpoint with 6% charge to spare. I found a floor outlet everyone else had overlooked to charge my phone to 30% to show the gate attendant. I had time to go to the bathroom and get a bottle of water. And, my flight took off only 10 minutes late.

What a strange and wonderful experience to be loving life in the midst  of circumstances that used to cause me stress.

What a strange and wonderful experience to be loving life in the midst
of circumstances that used to cause me stress.

What would have been 2 hours of extreme stress in the past turned out to be a well-choreographed dance. What had shifted for me?

1. Which thoughts do I choose to act upon? Which thoughts do I allow to pass, giving space for something new?
I allowed my initial thought of fleeing to pass without acting on it. That gave some space in my mind to notice that it was probably most logical to get in the security line, even though I didn’t want to.

2. Don’t try to do better. Don’t make it worse.
I wanted to listen to music to make the situation more bearable. Not an option with so little charge on my phone. Then, I wanted to beat myself up for not arriving at the airport with a fully-charged phone. I did neither and simply allowed myself to be human with lots of other humans, hanging out in the present moment.

3. There is only now. This present moment is my life.
Once I remember that this moment, this string of moments, is my life, I relaxed. I didn’t concern myself with the length of the line. I would either make it to my plane before it took off, or I wouldn’t. Either way, I would be with that in that moment.

I asked the guy in front of me what he was learning about the situation on his phone. I talked with the guy behind me about Denver, his destination, and Santa Fe, mine. I love talking about Colorado and New Mexico. I was patient with myself when I pulled up the wrong boarding pass at the security checkpoint. I was kind to the security guy, even though he wasn’t so patient with me.

I lived in the moment all the way home. I loved myself and I loved those around me, realizing we all were in the same boat. When I noticed someone experiencing stress, I took a moment to see them in a love bubble. I was living my good life in the midst of chaos.

What about you? What do you notice in these 3 Keys?

(Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you”)

Spiritual Awareness: Who Are We as Divine Wholeness?

Take a deep breath.  Who are we as Divine Wholeness?

Divine: of God, sacred.  When we divine (verb), we experience insight, intuition. 

Wholeness: full, complete. Not broken, damaged or impaired.

If we are Divine Wholeness, what of our humanness?  Such a delightful and annoying question! 

Some days I cannot comprehend why we would choose all these earthly contrasts rather than hang out in our infinite home in the spiritual realm.  Other days, I feel moved to tears by this extraordinary experience of life in my body, here in this incredibly imperfect, perfect world.

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I’ve noticed that I take many variations of this same scene – lots of land
and even more sky.  I think it’s one of my ways of staying in touch with my
humanness the – the earth – and my Divine Wholeness – the infinite sky . . .

It certainly lightens my perspective when I remember to remember that I am first Divine Wholeness.  And, it really lightens my experience when I become present enough to experience my Divine Wholeness.

What about you?  What is your sense, your experience: Who Are We as Divine Wholeness? How does being with this question shift your perspective and experience?

I’d love for you to post your comments, insights and progress below.

Allowing Flow: Present and Curious

Awhile back, in the middle of a tense conversation with my sweetie, I could feel my mood going lower and lower.  Instead of engaging fully in what was quickly becoming an argument, I instead got curious.

What would it take to not go to a low mood?

Instead of firing back my good argument, I sat quietly, looking at the clouds.  Really looking, being present to the wonder of the clouds.  All of the sudden, my argument became irrelevant.  In an instant, I lost interest in proving my point.

I told him I didn’t need to go on, that I could let it go.  And I did.  Just like that. My mood immediately bounced back up.

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Some of my best friends are trees and clouds.  The
more time I spend outside, the more present I become.
The more present I am, the less I get upset with the
“small stuff.”

What had happened?  How did I access that beautiful miracle?  I became more interested in a high mood and connection (to the clouds, to me, to him) than in “winning” an argument.  I held the situation lightly and became present to the moment.  In the preciousness of the moment, the argument made no sense.

When we begin to notice more consistently that our innate well-being is always available, we naturally begin to make more choices consistent with it.

So, what about you?  What does this bring up for you?

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences below.

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Are you in the Denver area?

Want to spend an afternoon diving into your strengths? 

Or diving a bit deeper if you’ve been playing with yours for awhile?

We have a few spaces left in an experiential StrengthsFinder workshop on Wed, June 25.

Is one of them yours? Come play with us!

http://www.annstrong.com/strong-you-strong-life

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

Conscious Choice: Mild Preferences Free Us

All suffering comes from our need to have things a certain way.

I can hear your protests.  I can hear them because I’ve had them, too.  I still sometimes have them.  “I’m suffering because of this illness or physical pain.”  “I’m suffering because someone I love died.”  “I’m suffering because I don’t have enough money.”  And our lists go on.

When I feel sick or experience pain, even chronic pain, it is my thinking that causes the suffering.  “I shouldn’t be in pain.  I’m tired of this.  When will I feel better? I can’t take another minute of this . . .”  When I accept what is, when I allow things to be as they are, rather than how I think I need them to be, then the suffering stops.

I may still be uncomfortable with the pain and that too will shift.  When I have a mild preference for being pain-free, then I create more space for the pain to ease or for me modify how I do my day even while experiencing the pain.

beautiful middle aged woman

Mild preferences move us toward accepting what is. 
As we accept what is, we eliminate suffering.

When we feel out of control, we tend to have strong preferences.  We become very attached to those preferences and when they don’t happen, we feel even more out of control.  Quickly, we spin into a downward spiral.

If instead, we can use the feeling of being out of control as the signal to dial back our preference to mild, we then begin an upward spiral.  “It would be great if I felt better,  And, I don’t feel so good at the moment.  And, this is what I can do even while feeling this way.”

Mild preferences move us toward accepting what is.  Because the preference is mild, I’m fine even if I don’t get what I prefer in a moment.  My own personal experience in working with dialing back my preferences to mild: what I would prefer often naturally comes to pass.  I suspect this happens because I don’t have such heavy, attachment energy involved in the mix.

So, what about you?  In what area of your life might you like to play with dialing your preferences back to mild?

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences with your strengths below.

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Curious about living and working from your strengths?
Strong You Strategy Consultation

I have a gift for three fortunate people!
Are you one of them?

You may be one of them if:

–  You have taken the StrengthsFinde (SF) assessment and know your top 5 strengths or would like to take it now and learn your top 5 strengths.

–  You have a big vision or an inkling of what’s next for you, yet you’re frustrated by lack of progress or challenges.

–  You know instinctually that you’ll bring your big vision to reality by strengthening your strengths rather than trying to fix your weaknesses.

To receive this gift, be one of the first three people to email me with your top 5 SF strengths and a couple of sentences about your big vision and challenges.

==========================

My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

Transcending Ourselves

“As human beings we are made to surpass ourselves and are truly ourselves only when transcending ourselves.”
–  Huston Smith

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As with our friends, the trees, we find our Genius in
our roots and connection to this earth and our Godness
in our branches and reaching to the sky.

Two ways to transcend ourselves: Godness and Genius.

Godness
The Divine and Universal: going beyond our human limitations, accessing our innate Divinity where all things are possible.

Genius
The human and personal: consistently growing, quantum leaping and extending the boundaries of our personal best. The practice of our craft. Living and working beyond our own innocently self-imposed self-consciousness.

To living our Godness and our Genius . . .

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences below.

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If you haven’t taken the StrengthsFinder assessement,
it takes just 30 – 40 minutes and $9.99.
https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/Purchase

It will change your life – if you allow yourself to stay
with your Strengths daily rather than thinking you
must improve your weaknesses.

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

Navigating Change Successfully: The Certainty of God in Uncertain Situations

In the past six months, I have experienced more change in my life, both personally and professionally, than in the past six years.  Honestly, it has rocked me to my core. 

Two of my clients and one of my friends have each experienced three or four unrelated deaths of people under 50, several of them suicides.  An acquaintance is recovering from a head-on collision.  She was riding a motorcycle.  Another took her own life. 

I have told my coach several times over the past few months, “I don’t know who I am.“ Other times, I told her, “I don’t know where I am.”  Twice she asked me if I wanted to read the prayers in my book, the book that I wrote.  Both times, I told her I did want to read them.  And, I did read them.

Yet, they didn’t soak in very deeply.  Until recently.

We are both Divine and human.

The human part of me HAS been a bit lost, sometimes hard to find during this time.  The Divine part is ever-present, ever-radiant, unwavering.

woman with flowers

Experiencing the Grace of God within and all around . . .

I do know who I am.

“I am love, power, beauty and mystery.
I am love, joy, peace and hope.
I am love, brilliance, health and wealth.
I am love and abundance.
I am God expressed.”

-From “Radiant Wave of Oneness”
In the book, Thriving Work
By Ann Strong

I am the Grace of God.  So are you. As are my clients, friends and acquaintances.  When I live as though I know that, I am unwavering in the face of change.  I want that for you, too.

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences below.

Spiritual Growth: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

“You wake up in the morning, and lo!  Your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the magic tissue of the universe of your life.  No one can take it from you.  No one receives either more or less than you receive.  Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you.  Moreover, you cannot draw on the future.  Impossible to get into debt.  You can only waste the passing moment.  You cannot waste tomorrow.  It is kept for you.”
– Arnold Bennett
  From the book, “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day”

Spiritual growth gems in the book "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day" by Arnold Bennett

Spiritual growth gems in the book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” by Arnold Bennett

After hearing myself say one too many times, “I would love to, but I don’t have the time,” I decided there must be a better way.  So, I am in the process of applying powerful spiritual growth gems from this little book written a century ago and still completely applicable to our spiritual growth today.

Here’s a couple of his spiritual growth gems I’d like to share with you now.

Get Out of Bed Early
Wake up a bit earlier than has been your habit and capture the quiet, creative, clear-mind energy.  Through the summer, I’ve been getting up an hour to two hours early.  I am often more inspired and get more done in that time than I do the rest of the day!

Concentrate Your Mind
What would you like more of in your life?  Love?  Wealth?  Happiness?  Great work? Fun? Vibrant health?  Then bring your mind to bear on that one thing more frequently.  

Strengthen your focus on love.  Think about love.  Behave lovingly.  Notice and express gratitude for love.  Be love.  Write love.  Live love.  Eat, sleep, drink love.  Love what you’re drinking.  Love what you don’t love.  See only love.  Be only love.

Same with wealth, happiness, great work, fun, vibrant health or anything else you’d like to engage in with your precious 24 hours!  Allow this concentrated spiritual growth to transform any area of your life.

Here’s to living opulently on your precious 24 hours a day . . .

Spiritual Awareness: Authentic self vs. Authentic Self

Recently, I’ve had no patience for conversations about authentic marketing, authenticity in social media or authenticity as a value.  This seemed strange to me since I deeply value living and working authentically.

So, I got curious about finding the disconnect.

And, I am thrilled to have been richly rewarded.  

At the beginning of my recent mid-summer trip to Phoenix, I complained bitterly to all who would listen about the oppressive wall of heat.  Then, I met one of my clients, Doug Hecker, for lunch.  He politely and firmly told me, “We don’t talk about the heat.  There’s nothing we can do about it, so we ignore it and focus on what we like.”

Eureka!

And, how great to have clients who teach me so much!

Let me explain: The authenticity of my personality required me to complain about the heat because I am a person who hates heat.  

The authenticity of my Self, the part of me who’s made in the image and likeness of God, involves focusing on the good and a positive mental attitude. 

My main purpose for going to Phoenix: to meet my coach,
Stephen McGhee’s,
coach Steve Hardison – one of the most remarkably authentic people I’ve ever met – more than worth all my heat discomfort.  And, oh, the delicious chilled cilantro-lime crab dip at The Herb Box and  the yummy sweet potato and zucchini fries at ZinBurger.  And the amazing people I got to spend time with – including two married couples who have been married more than three decades and still adore each other and love spending time together!  And, oh, the gorgeous desert views from my friend,
Judy Flynn’s rooftop – which I enjoyed each morning at sunrise when it was only a cool 90 degrees!

More spiritual awareness from a warm rooftop!
What a powerful spiritual awareness to realize that the most authentic me comes from my Higher Self, not my personality! How freeing to enjoy this stupendous view from Judy’s rooftop deck in Scottsdale even though I think I feel too hot!

Wow! Did I get a visceral experience of choosing my authenticity from a higher place!  Who knew there even was such a thing?

I’d love to hear your experiences.  In what specific situation might you have noticed yourself living authentically from your personality rather than your Higher Self?  In that kind of situation in the future, how can you shift to living authentically from your Self?  

Spiritual Awakening: Blossoming

“Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.”
– Walter Scott

What in you longs to blossom now?  Even though many of us choose to set goals and make resolutions in January, that timing contradicts nature – both human nature and mother nature . . .

As Nature herself knows, attempting new growth in the dead of winter makes for a very short life span!  Perhaps explaining the reality of so many new year’s resolutions never taking hold?! 

Trees and flowers know better to wait for warmth to blossom.  And so we as human have this same blossoming opportunity now – when the air is cool and the sun is warm and we feel hope deep inside our limbs!

So, regardless of what did or didn’t happen with your new year’s resolutions, what longs to blossom in you now?  Can you sense more vibrant health inside you?  Do you know greater abundance in your business?  Are you feeling excited about new love blossoming?  Is a new project waiting to blossom?  New collaborations? Deeper friendships?  New fun and adventure?  Spiritual awakening?  Travel to new places?

Let’s use this wonderful, fresh, spring energy to give voice and commitment to what longs to blossom from deep within us . . . looking forward to a wonderful autumn harvest because we’re taking the time now to tend the inspiration of new growth . . .

Feel free to post your spring blossoming urges in the comments section . . .