Clear Mind.
Open Heart.
Strong Body.
Radiant Spirit.
I have found that using these self-love affirmations in a repetitive, meditative way quickly brings me back to a calm peace when I feel stressed or out of sorts.
Try them for yourself or write your own and use them as a self-soothing balm as needed!
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your small business.” Copyright 2011.
As I breathe in,
I become more present to
my Divinity.
As I breathe out,
I drop into my power
In the center of my being.
Slowly, fully, and deeply
I breathe.
Allowing my mind to clarify,
My heart to open,
And my Divinity to speak.
I feel, sense, and know
My body aligning,
My heart aligning,
My mind aligning,
My Spirit aligning,
with what is true for me.
I feel, sense, and know
the truth for me
as I commit.
I give myself to this
Divine Commitment.
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your small business.” Copyright 2011.
Post your own transformation insights in the comments section.
Once you are committed, one of the most powerful ways to ensure your commitment involves asking yourself, daily or in a new moment, “Who would I need to be or become to bring this into reality?” Some of your answers to this question will change daily and moment-to-moment. Some of the answers will remain constant.
For example, when my coach Jeff, committed to reaching the summit of that 23,000-foot mountain in Argentina, he knew he would need to be the person who “showed up” for the training in the nine months before he climbed.
Transformation: My coach, Jeff Patterson, inspires me as I commit to my own transformation.
On summit day at one particularly challenging point in the climb, he asked himself who he would have to be to reach the summit. As he took one step and then ten or twelve breaths and another step and ten or twelve breaths, he heard the answer, “patient.” That is how he made it to the top of the mountain that day: patiently.
Read more about his amazing journey.
When one of my clients asked herself who she would need to be to be a great mom and wife, get a new job and start a new business, she realized she would need to be “ a grown-up.” As she continued to check in with herself about who she needed to be in individual moments, she received guidance that she’d need to be truthful, calm, resolved.
When I changed my investment structure for working with my private clients from having them pay monthly to paying up front for the year, I intuitively knew I would need to be clear and confident. As I talked with the first clients about the purpose of this structure, I recognized I needed to be present and slowed down. I also found that who I needed to be varied with the person in front of me. I had to be soft and clear with one person and direct and challenging with the next.
The shortest route between you and all you desire involves asking yourself daily or moment-to-moment, “Who would I need to be to bring what I am committed to into reality?”
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your small business.” Copyright 2011.
Post your own transformation insights in the comments section.
Author’s Note:
Three months ago, in the January 11, 2011 issue of Sacred Space Notebook, I introduced the concept of Committed or Considering. In that issue, I also publicly declared my commitment to writing two hours each day for 40 days to get my new book written so that it could be published in 2011.
If you missed that issue, read it here.
I am proud and happy to announce that it goes to the editor today! Now that’s the power of commitment!!! This is after starting to write the book in 2002.
Commitment works.
Here’s your next installment about Commitment from the book:
Committed or not committed: either is valid for any decision in any area of your life. Where it can get tricky: being muddy or fudging on which is actually true for you.
Transformation: Sometimes commitment requires prayerful contemplatation before you commit . . .
Considering works in the short-term, as you determine what you will or won’t commit to. A life or lifestyle of considering tends to be ineffective.
As you are making decisions, big or small, begin to get real with yourself about what is true for you.
Maybe you’d like to schedule two speaking engagements each month. If you’d “like to” then you are considering. If your coach asks you to state your commitment, maybe as you are contemplating your commitment, you realize that you are committed to scheduling one speaking engagement each month, and two would be great. So there it is: you are committed to scheduling one speaking engagement each month. You would consider a second a bonus.
Or, you may decide you are not committed to scheduling any speaking engagements right now. So the answer to speaking engagements is “no.” Maybe that “no” frees you to commit to attending two networking events each month.
On a daily basis, start to notice at least one decision a day to determine: committed, considering or “no.” As you get crystal clear on small decisions in the moment (committing to the turkey sandwich, no on the roast beef), you tone your muscle for bigger, scarier commitments. Give yourself some time to contemplate big decisions. Prayerfully contemplate and then commit to “yes” or “no.”
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your business.” Copyright 2011.
Post your own transformation insights in the comments section.
May I breathe into being fully present,
taking in this pure moment.
May I gently acknowledge my fears and doubts
and breathe through them.
May I acknowledge the many funny faces
of resistance
that try to keep me small
so that I don’t courageously face
and move through
my fears and doubts.
May I continue to breathe deeply
to the center of my Self,
allowing the resistances to go play elsewhere
and allowing the fear and doubt
to naturally dissipate.
May I allow my own true radiance
to shine on, through and as my breath.
May I increasingly recognize and receive
the ideas and inspirations
that nudge to burst forth from my radiance.
May I feel the flow of life
running through me.
May all beings breathe
through their fears and doubts
and laugh away their resistance
so they, too, may allow their own true radiance
to shine more brilliantly.
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice to transforming you and your business.”
Copyright 2011.
One of the most insidious ways we keep ourselves from becoming the best of ourselves involves what one of my mentors, Stephen McGhee, affectionately calls the “spiritual by-pass.” I first ran into the spiritual bypass when I asked a coach from Boulder if she was committed to growing her business. She replied, “I’ll see what Spirit has in store for me.”
At first, I felt confused. Listening to guidance, following Spirit, discerning the voice of the divine, the voice of God are all wonderful ways to know our divinity. So, why didn’t her response feel right in my body?
Ah, because it’s resistance, dressed up in her finest! It’s an excuse, just like all other forms of resistance.
Consciously choose to evoke the best of you by bypassing the spiritual bypass.
I heard a different version of the spiritual bypass again most recently from a cancer survivor. She shared with me that she had learned during her cancer journey and from volunteering with hospice that she is not in control. She is now giving the next phase of her life some space to see what happens.
Again, I felt some conflict in my body as I heard that. I am committed to creating sacred space in my own life on a daily basis. So, what didn’t feel right to me? While I totally hear her and honor her learning that we are not in control with so much of life, we still and always have the precious opportunity to choose how we respond and how we move forward.
While I am not a cancer survivor and cannot even begin to imagine how it would change me if I were, I would imagine I might value the gift of life even more than I had previously. I would also imagine that it would make it that much more precious to consciously choose the things I can control – what dream I’d like to move toward and what qualities of being I’d like to bring to the journey!
And, I have noticed with myself and with many clients that committing to something – growing a coaching business, overcoming the fear of public speaking, moving to the mountains – and committing to becoming who we must become in order to grow the business, speak in public and/or move to the mountains gives us a clear, strong sense of purpose and meaning.
For me personally, I’ve noticed that it helps focus my excitement. One of my strong internal commitments right now is around telling the truth to the person in front of me – both about our glory and power as divine creators and also about our outdated human habits that keep us small.
The spiritual bypass is a highly effective way to resist our good because we tell ourselves that we’ll wait to see what the Universe has in store for us or that it’s God’s will for us to remain small.
We are the Universe. We are made in the likeness and image of God. We need not wait or wonder. We are the One we have been waiting for . . .
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice to transforming you and your business.”
Copyright 2011.
Post your own spiritual growth insights in the comments section.
Last week, we talked about experiencing our own divinity.
As we begin to play with these concepts, we will have new choices to make. As we are in the process of deciding what to choose, we can now ask ourselves questions like:
– Am I choosing from my infinite, Divine Self or my limited, small self?
– As I choose, which option moves me in the direction of Love, which feeds my fear?
– If I choose from my limited human self, what are the consequences of not choosing from my divinity? (Ask this with as much compassion and as little self-criticism as you can.)
– If I choose the option that comes from lack, limitation and scarcity, am I willing to accept the consequences (ideally without self-judgment)?
When we create a spiritual growth practice of consciously choosing from our divinity rather than our small self, translucence and transformation are inevitable . . .
Look at big picture consequences as well as the consequences right in front of you. For example, I noticed one of the big picture consequences of me not keeping some of my business commitments because I got overwhelmed involved attracting potential new clients with the same limited, human “issue.”
They initially felt excited to work with me, but didn’t hire me because they realized they felt overwhelmed. One had a full-time job, an ongoing “project” with her grown daughter and a time-consuming volunteer position. Another had debt to repay. Another had two young children and a teenage stepson.
While each of these situations is legitimate, they are our human excuses. Each of these women came to me wanting to grow their businesses (a divine impulse) and then backed away because their overwhelm, a subset of human fear, kicked in. We all (me included) allowed our small selves to choose instead of being willing to step up to allowing/creating the divine solution that includes the human circumstances of our lives AND our divine dreams.
Consequence: for all of us, we turned away an opportunity to live and work more from our divinity. Consequence: for all of us, we gave away an opportunity to serve more clients in making more choices from our divinity.
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice to transforming you and your business.”
Copyright 2011.
Post your own spiritual growth insights in the comments section.
As I’ve pondered being both human and divine, the question kept coming to me: how do we know we are both divine and human? How do we experience it?
Do you remember the last time you said something to yourself like, “I don’t know what I am going to do with myself?” Maybe you were frustrated about losing weight or getting further with the marketing plan for your business or once again snapping at your daughter.
Think about it for a moment until you remember asking yourself a question like that. This inquiry doesn’t involve the specifics – the ideal weight, marketing plan or response to your daughter. Instead, look closely at the question itself. “What am I going to do with myself?”
Who is asking the question? Who are you in the question? Are you one or two?
As you can begin to actually experience yourself as both – the one asking the question and the one involved with your weight, marketing plan or daughter – you have a true glimpse into your own divinity.
Set aside a few minutes each day to experience yourself as the questioner. Who is this one? Simply allow yourself to know this vastness of you, the part of you that is never touched by “problems” of weight, marketing plans or impatient responses.
My perception of life opened wide the first time I noticed that as I simply allowed myself to lay on the ground and gaze into the sky that I was the vastness of the sky and the sky was me.
Be with this question of who is observing “you” until you begin to experience being the one who is observing. You will absolutely know when it happens . . .
Excerpted from my forthcoming book, “Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice to transforming you and your business.”
Copyright 2011.
Post your own spiritual growth insights in the comments section.
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
– Goethe
Decisively adding joy and happiness to the 50th birthday celebration of my dear friend, Tama Kieves.
Post your own happiness insights in the comments section.
I actually screamed after I got off a coaching call last week. I had hung up, hadn’t I?!?
I wasn’t mad at my client. I was mad for her.
Mad at her coaching school, which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. I won’t name the school because hers is not the only coaching school guilty of teaching “pure coaching” at the expense of serving the coach and their clients.
My client felt really frustrated, torn between offering only “pure coaching” as she was told to do by her instructor and offering coaching and expertise that her client wanted and as her intuition, gut instinct and common sense told her to do.
I can no long grit my teeth and remain silent. She is not the first of my clients to experience this confusion and frustration.
Should she follow her own knowing or the insane coaching industry self-serving concept of “pure coaching?”
I got mad because my client, a smart, successful, seasoned, business professional had begun to second-guess herself.
I am a life-long entrepreneur who has eaten regularly because I learned early on to find out what my client most desired and needed and give it to them. I can no longer stand by as coaching students pay good money to learn something so wrong!
Teaching new coaches “pure coaching” which means never advising, offering expertise or sharing a resource does not serve the client or the coach. It only serves the ego of the coaching profession – whoever or whatever that is.
Let me be clear: I love the “pure coaching” process, both as a client of my coach and as a coach to my clients.
And, I love to ask my coach to tell me how he does something. Or, to have him tell me, not coach me through a process I don’t know. I love to ask my coach his opinion or for a great resource.
And, I love my clients to ask me to teach them processes, offer my expertise, give my opinion or share resources.
How does my love affair with the moon support my coaching business? It’s an energetic thing! One of my clients recently told me she appreciates my pragmatic and “moon and stars” approach to coaching. How great is that?!
At the end of the day, I want to know that I offered my clients everything I have to give them that is useful to them. I do not ever want to hold back something they need that I have to give because it isn’t “pure coaching.”
And, I don’t want you to second-guess yourself about that either!
No wonder so few coaches are making a living!
And, now, it’s my turn to do something about this appalling situation – perhaps for you.
In March, I have an opening to take on two apprentices.
I will teach these two apprentices:
Perhaps we’ll call this: “Serve the Client/Grow Your Business School” since we will be offering the client coaching, training, expertise, resources and so much more . . .
If you:
. . . then call me on my direct line (303.399.8737) to schedule a conversation.
To transforming every pipedream into reality, one dream at a time!
P.S. Do you know two of the most significant differences between coaches who make a great living at coaching and those who go back to a job?
