Spiritual awareness: Looking for “the way”

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Often, when I start working with a new coaching client, they are looking for “the way.”  The way to get more clients, the way to feel more confident, the way to less overwhelm, the way to take better care of themselves or even the way to accept credit cards from their clients.

And, I remember when I hired one of my first and most expensive coaches, I hired her to learn the way, her way, to get new clients.  I paid her many thousands of dollars and did not learn the way.  I learned the hard and expensive way that asking to learn the way is not the best question – for anything from getting new clients to improving my yoga to cooking a delicious meal.  The way is different for every person.  My pricey coach’s way was not my way.  My way is not your way.

An effective approach to finding your way involves:

  • setting a clear intention: getting new clients, improving yoga or cooking a delicious meal
  • noticing where my excitement and energy is as it pertains to that intention
  • following that excitement, energy
  • course-correcting as the excitement and energy shifts and I get new feedback
  • Staying aware of the intention, the excitement and energy and the feedback until I have reached my intention

The trick to this far more effective approach involves not being swayed by thinking someone else has a better answer for you than you have for yourself.  By following your intuition, instinct, knowing, excitement and energy in each moment, you will always have the very best way for you.  If you try to follow someone else’s way, even a way that worked brilliantly for them, you have veered from your own unique compass.

Once we begin to recognize that following a formula is far less effective than being fully present in the moment, we begin to tap into the pure magic available to us in that moment.

I would love to hear your stories of following your way in the moment . . .

 

Self acceptance: For the love of simplicity

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In the past week, I’ve had two people tell me about business opportunities that excited them.  They wanted me to get involved because both of them involve network marketing.  One involved a coaching product and another a health product.  The products interested me.  And, I’m looking for additional revenue streams that complement coaching to share with Thriving Coaches.   

Yet the complexity and vagueness of the business model turned me off.  If I don’t understand, how can I share it with anyone?

And, then I realized that I needed to just walk away.  

One of my core values involves simplicity.  Maybe others enjoy complexity.  Those business opportunities would be best for them.

And how beautiful is that?  No one has to be wrong.  I gravitate to what is simple and clear.  Someone else gravitates to what is complex and intricate.

I love having my core values guide me . . .

The more I grow personally and the more I support my coaching clients in their growth process, the more I notice that the most powerful thing we can do to creat our most fulfilling life:  unabashedly love and accept ourselves.  The more I live from my strengths, core values and quirky passions, the more I love my life and fill my own cup.  And, then I have more to share with those who’s lives I touch.

What a beautiful, clear compass to guide me . . .  

Spiritual clarity: From the abundance and beauty of hollyhocks

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Recently, I heard my spiritual mentor, Michael Beckwith, say, “Supply is infinite and invisible.  Money and things are not supply.  They are evidence of supply.  Just like an apple is evidence of supply from the apple tree.  Picking an apple does not represent loss of supply, just as circulating money doesn’t represent loss of supply.”

I know that what he says is Truth.  And yet, I sometimes find myself behaving contrary to what I know.  Even though I absolutely know there is an infinite supply of apples or pears or cucumbers or whatever I need in this moment, I may hoard or ration or worry about eating the apple.

As I drove to the grocery store today – to get more apples, of course – I noticed the most exquisite, red and pink hollyhock flowers growing in a neighbor’s yard.  As I enjoyed their abundance and beauty, I had to laugh to myself as I realized that those hollyhocks do not spend a minute hoarding, rationing or worrying.  They simply grow into the very best version of themselves that they can with the resources they have in each moment.  Ah, that our human lives could be so simple and grace-filled . . .

That is my desire for us today: that we allow ourselves to be “as the lilies of the field, toiling not . . . ,” that we allow ourselves to be as the hollyhocks of my neighbors yard and to receive the grace and bounty of infinite and invisible supply without hoarding, rationing or worrying . . .  

Affirmative prayer: Radiant Drop of Oneness

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Today in yoga class, I heard my teacher say, “This is not about pushing more, but rather opening into . . .”

Ah, such is so much of life when I notice myself trying harder and pushing more rather than simply surrendering and allowing. In those radiant moments when I truly know that I already am everything and that I already have everything that I seek, then I have nothing to seek. I can simply take a deep breath and relax into all of the love and abundance that I am!

Radiant Drop of Oneness

I am a radiant drop in the
ocean of oneness.

I am one with God.
I am all that God is.
All I desire and need is mine,
easily and effortlessly –
as I am willing to receive
the love and abundance
of me, of the ocean of oneness.

I am one with God, with good.
I am all that God is.
I am a radiant drop in the
ocean of oneness.

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.

I am a radiant drop in the
ocean of oneness.

Affirmative prayer: Today I am willing

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Thy will, not my will.
I am willing to be willing . . .

Breathing out my limited notions.
Breathing in Your expansive reach.

Breathing out my attachments.
Breathing in Your absolute abundance.

Breathing out my resistance.
Breathing in the fullness of Your allowing.

Breathing out feeling stuck.
Breathing in Your ever-present flow.

Breathing out feeling separate.
Breathing in the Oneness of all energy.

Breathing out feeling alone.
Breathing in reaching out . . .

Today, I am willing to do Thy will . . .

 

Getting to the bottom of Law of Attraction

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I have had a desire for awhile now to get to the bottom of the Law of Attraction (LOA).  For many years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with it.  

On the one hand:
I believe and know that like attracts like.  I do know that LOA is all about feeling, that the only reason I desire a red BMW or a red hot lover is so that I can feel something different than I feel without the car and the guy.  Maybe I believe I’ll feel more powerful with the car and more cherished and beautiful with the guy.  Jeannette Maw of goodvibecoach.com, one of my favorite LOA coaches, says simply, “feel now how you would feel then.”

Okay, so I do something now that helps me feel powerful, cherished or beautiful, then along comes the car and the guy because like attracts like.  And, even if the car or the guy doesn’t arrive instantly, I have already gotten to feel more powerful, cherished and beautiful, which is what I felt I wanted in the first place.

On the other hand:
What I haven’t been so sure about:  if I feel groovy, skip and hum my way through life, feeling powerful, cherished and beautiful, then all good things will come to me?  What if the car turns out to be a pain?  Do I know that car is best for me?  Is my highest goal in life to feel good as much of the time as possible?  What do I do when I feel bad?

I found some answers that feel deeply true for me in the book, “The Translucent Revolution,” by Arjuna Ardagh . . .

He talks about translucent art not coming from the artist’s personality, but rather through it.  I realized that many of the things I would love to feel are for my personality rather than through it.  When I desire feeling powerful, cherished and beautiful, that satisfies my personality.  That’s where my unrest came in.  I just knew there was more.

Had I ever felt anything that came through my personality?

Yes.  Yes, I have.  Only a few times in my life, all in the past few years.  I felt a feeling so delicious, so complete, so peaceful, so powerful/cherished/beautiful all at once.  I can describe it only as Oneness and that description falls short. 

I felt it:

  • while reading a passage from “The Power of Now,” by Eckhart Tolle
  • after a lecture by Eli Bear
  • while test-driving a BMW
  • during some yoga classes
  • while spooning with my lover in syncronized breathing
  • while laying on the ground under a tree
  • during some Dances of Universal Peace
  • while soaking up the New Mexico desert
  • after reading a passage in “The Translucent Revolution.”

This feeling came through my personality, transcended my personality.  It feels so rich and so complete that it has become my most important intention to allow myself to feel that Oneness more and more.  I know it can be felt in any moment. 

The keys seem to be:

  • Allowing
  • Being fully present
  • Detachment

I have no idea if this is a complete list.  I am open to learning more.  I would love your input.  Have you experienced something like what I describe as Oneness?  What have you noticed allows you to experience it more frequently? 

Attracting clients: An empowering process

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In my Notes from the Universe, this morning, I read, “Very simply, Ann, the more that you accept responsibility for, the more power you have.”

I had to read it twice. So, I have more power when I accept more responsibility? Yes, that feels true in my body and I had never thought of it like that before!

When I would like more clients, I don’t passively wait for the Universe to deliver. Instead, I take responsibility. I set a clear intention and declare it to the Universe. Then, I clear my head of disempowering thoughts around attracting new clients. Then, I listen for inspired actions to reach out for those incoming clients. Then, I take those actions.

With full responsibility, I keep clearing my head of thoughts that don’t serve my intention and I keep listening for and taking inspired actions until I have attracted as many new clients as I had desired. This whole process might take 20 minutes or a few months.

I realize as I’m pondering the connection between responsibility and power, sometimes I have heard me or one of my clients say, “It’s out of my control. I can’t make someone become a client.”

Of course. True power is not arm-twisting or attempting to impose your will upon another.

Instead, it’s about matching energy. One of the most empowering things I help clients with involves:

  • Setting an intention for what they desire (in this case, attracting more clients).
  • Clearing and continuing to clear disempowering thoughts that don’t support that intention.
  • Listening for inspired actions.
  • Taking inspired actions.
  • Repeating as necessary until the intention has come to fruition.

The easiest way for me to attract those new clients who would like help with this process: be actively engaged in the energy of this process, feel good about it, have fun with it, be in my power with it.

Probably the most clear way to see how this works: look at the opposite. If I think clients should just find me and I resent that they don’t, if I expect someone else to send them to me, if I don’t set an intention, allow my disempowering thoughts to flourish and don’t listen for inspired action . . . what happens? Nothing good, right?

Business coaches, career coaches, life coaches: would you like to attract new clients right now? I would love to support you in that!

Check inside yourself to see if this inspired action fits for you: I’m offering a risk-free, no-cost, high-value coaching consultation for you to experience this! Sign up for yours today . . .

Conscious choice: Choosing from the best of you

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Recently, I had a conversation that really stuck with me.  We were exploring the paradox of fully accepting who we are, how we are and a desire to grow, change.  If we constantly would like to grow, then isn’t there something “wrong” with us now?

I didn’t quite know how to answer that question at first. 

As a business and life coach, I support my clients in both growing and changing and accepting what is – exactly as it is, exactly as they are.  The more I contemplated and looked at my own growth path, I realized a wonderful distinction.

Each of us makes many, many choices in a day.  If our overall intention involves choosing from the most compassionate, loving, kind, present, aware, _______ (you fill in the blank) place that we can choose from in that moment, then we continue to grow and to accept what is at the same time!

I see a continuum, where on the one end, we each have the ax murderer version of ourselves and on the other end we each have the Dalai Lama version of ourselves (or any other low energy/high energy pictures we care to conjure). 

Now, someone cuts us off in traffic, ends a relationship with us or treats one of our children poorly.  We respond.  Do we choose to respond from a place on that continuum that is closer to the low energy or high energy end?  Do we handle the situation from a version of ourselves closest to the ax murderer or to the Dalai Lama?

So, it’s perhaps becomes less about us changing into something completely different, but rather making choices from the best of us more of the time? 

This is big!  I’m still pondering.  I would love your input and to hear your experiences.

Self improvement: Releasing the need to control

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The more Joyce let go of trying to make her ex-husband do what she wanted him to do, the more peaceful she felt.  And, as a surprising bonus, they could more easily agree on arrangements for their children that worked for both of them.  Joyce saw clearly that she actually received more of what she wanted by letting go rather than threatening, manipulating and demanding.

I, too, have learned over and over again that trying to make my sisters, my neighbors or my business colleagues do things my way just doesn’t work.  And, in the moment, it infuriates me that I do not get to be in charge!  Often, when I have surrendered from exhaustion, I have felt amazed at how well things work out without my orchestrating every little detail to my exact specifications.

I feel an actual release in my body.  Trying to control others or circumstances use a lot of my precious energy that I could instead be using to enjoy or create.

Letting go opens up delicious space in our lives.  As we trust Universal Power to bring together people and circumstances, we become more available to the wonder of the present.  Ah, one of the joys of self improvement . . .  

I encourage you to try it in this very moment.  What could you release into the Life Flow right now?

Self acceptance: Living all of your life

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about living your best life.  Since then, I’ve been wrestling with several large challenges in my own life.  Much of the time, not feeling that I’m living my best life!

In the middle of one of these challenges, my 20-year-old niece, Alisha, told me about a website, FMyLife.com, where people write three-sentence stories about bad things that happened to them and other people rate whether they think the story is messed up or if the person deserved what they got.

As a person who makes my living helping people focus on the positive, I was, of course, appropriately appalled.  At first anyway.

Until she had me laughing at some of the things she had read.  And a light bulb went on for me.  Life as a human is often messy.  Sometimes I try to stay so positive and I can’t in that moment.  Maybe I’ll write my story on that website and give others a good laugh.  Ah, full self acceptance . . .

I still have a desire to focus on the positive and help others do the same.  And, I realize that even labeling “positive” and “negative” keeps me from fully experiencing and allowing ALL of my delicious, juicy, messy, sometimes f’ed up life!  

So there’s a new coaching perspective for you.  I’d love your ideas on the subject . . .