What do Resistance and Halloween have in common?

Have you ever been to a haunted house for Halloween? There is quite a bit of anxiety just thinking about what you might experience. As you walk up, there is certainly some apprehension as you see the forbidding props at the entry. You enter and you don't know what is going to jump out at you as you turn a corner. And what are those crunchy things underneath your feet? Ewwww!

What's haunting you?

Resistance produces those same kinds of feelings; anxiety, apprehension, fear. One of my local heroes, KC Miller (Master Life Coach, Spiritual Guru, and Amazing Director of the awarding winning Southwest Institute of Healing Arts) told our Life Coaching class, "What you resist, persists." Sounds like a haunting to me :-). The kind of resistance she was talking about is that sort of stuff we put off taking care of for some reason or another (read excuse). It may be because we don't like confrontation (Who does, it's REALLY uncomfortable), or we are afraid (we think we're not good enough or that we will fail), or it's too hard (read this post).

The thing about haunted houses, is that when you keep moving you do get through them. Sure, you scream a little (or a lot) and then you have some fun experience to share with your friends and family. Sure, you got a little scared because you didn't know what was coming up next, but you walked through it and you got through it.

When you resist taking care of the things that are uncomfortable, it is sort of like walking through a haunted house. You never know when the consequences of inaction are going to crop up. But when you take action, when you make the call, clear up the misunderstanding, do the exercise, eat well, sleep well, etc. the haunting goes away...and you get through it. And then you have happy experiences to share with your friends and family.

So, what's haunting you?

Perpetual Motion

Perpetual Motion

 I call her perpetual motion because I can rarely get a still photo of her. I have lots of pics of her tail because she's usually moved out of the frame by the time I click the button. This is Minnie Mouse, our now 10 month old cocker spaniel and she inspired my post today. You see, I was just about to sit down and write about the relationship between resistance and Halloween when she let me know she wanted to go outside. When I opened the sliding glass door she just lay there still...staring ahead. I looked in the same direction to see what she was looking at...and I saw it. A bird was perched atop the block wall and Minnie was contemplating just how she was going to get it. Just then, she took off like wildfire and, of course, the bird flew away. I watch her do this everyday. She knows that someday, she's going to catch a bird. And after each failed attempt, she shakes it off and goes on her merry way. Wow, what a revelation! For her, the journey, the attempt, the adventure is the thrill. What would she do if she actually caught the bird? I don't know, but she sure as heck has a good time trying :-)

Food for thought?

It got me to thinking again about a paper weight a friend gave me several years ago when I started a challenging new job. I look at it almost every day, and it does inspire me when I am nervous about trying something new, but it was sure fun to see it in action today when this precious untainted puppy took off after that bird. No one has ever told her she'll never catch a bird :-). What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? It could be fun to try, yes? :-)

Maybe we should have called her Confidence :-)

I've been seeing a lot of burning desires in clients and friends, then toe-dipping effort, a bit of failure, and then a shrinking back. What will happen if you just go full bolt ahead like Minnie Mouse, with a knowing that this time, you're going to catch the bird? Can you feel the wind blowing through your hair? Can you feel your heart racing? Are you excited? I am! :-) I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Power of Love and Pure Limitless Potential

I Love my morning mediation and prayer time! During the day ideas circle around in my head and it sometimes feels like a chaotic storm going on. I'll be reading a book and processing its content, analyzing how the ideas presented may benefit my clients, my friends, family, or myself and it can get confusing. Then, I wake up in the morning, let the pups out, pour a cup of coffee and settle in to pray and to meditate. I've shared before that sometimes it takes awhile to still my busy mind so I often start with The Lord's Prayer. Each phrase somehow acts as a prompt and I fill the gaps between the phrases with my own life story as it applies to the phrase.

I love this heart...I saw an angel cloud the other day :-)

Today, my story was that of Love and Thanksgiving. I've been reading Rhonda Byrne's, The Power and it is about making the choice to feel more love in your life. Ms. Byrne advises us to turn away from and don't give bad feelings to that which we don't love. She says that the more and more time we spend focusing on what we love, the less and less time we have to spend focusing on what we don't love, and it falls away. She goes on to say, that the more we love, the more attract love, and the more we don't love, the more we attract things we don't love.  I can see where that happens in my life. Can you recognize that in your life?

And really...It's just a choice :-)

A question I will often ask my clients is "How much time in your day do you think you spend thinking about negative things?" And then I draw out a measured gauge with 24 sections and I say, "There are 24 hours in a day." The more time we spend thinking about positive things, the things and people that we love, that we love about ourselves, our work, our home etc., the less time in the day we have to think about the things we don't love.

I think I want one of these :-)

Clients will also sometimes feel overwhelmed by the thought of having to monitor their every thought and consciously turn away bad thoughts and think up good thoughts. It's a lot of work they think :-). It is, at the beginning. We have been programmed in our society to feel lack, to feel inadequate, to feel want, to feel need. Our programming has often been so effective that we run on auto pilot. We don't question the messages we are getting from all around us. Often those messages are meant to create a need so that a company can sell a product that will fill the need. And when we run on autopilot, we buy into the messages.

Photo courtesy of Truly Lovable

There is always good news though :-). I am only half way through the book, but Byrne talks about the unlimited Power available to us when we choose Love. When you choose Love, all that you desire is drawn into your life. When you choose Love, the frequency in which you operate rises and the people and things that are operating in that same frequency become a part of your world. Science has already proven that the Universe is infinite and that we live parallel lives. Sounds far fetched with our current thinking, I know. But just imagine for a second, that when you change your state of feeling from angry, fearful, or resentful to loving, compassionate and joyful you walk in a different parallel existence. Relationships, finances, health all improve! I think that's worth exploring. What do we have to lose?

Imagine it ~ Feel it ~ Do it

Do you ever feel like quitting a task because it seems overwhelming? Do you have unfinished art projects, papers that need to be filed, self care that needs to be attended to? Are you unemployed and find job hunting overwhelming? Do you want to lose weight, but the prospect of watching what you eat and exercising is exhausting? Are there projects around the house that need attention, but you don't know where to start? Could your finances be in better shape? Do you have an unfulfilled dream you haven't pursued?

What's your dream?

I have at one time or another experienced each of these in my life. And admittedly so, I have a few projects around here that need my attention. Just take a look at my 50@50 list :-). What I have learned though, is that when we put our tunnel vision on and look only at the difficulty in accomplishing the task, that is all we see...difficulty. And it's not very motivating and can even be debilitating. We feel bad about ourselves and then projects stack up and become even more overwhelming.

It feels higher than it is

The good news is that we can choose to see the whole picture. We can switch to a wide angle lens, we can take in the entire picture, including the end result and the difficulty becomes only a tiny dot in the whole frame. We can then choose to focus on the beauty of the accomplishment, and feel the feelings that come with achieving the goals we set. After all, it is what we put out attention on that gets accomplished.

Look at the whole picture

Think about this for a moment. If you are unemployed, what's your dream job? What will get you excited about getting up in the morning? Now, feel that feeling. Picture what you will wear, where you will go, who you will work with. Picture yourself doing your work. Picture your bank balance with your paycheck being deposited. If there are home projects that need attention, picture them complete. And now feel the feeling that comes with that. If you have weight that is no longer serving you, picture yourself at your ideal weight. What are you wearing, what are you doing. What can you do now, that you avoided doing before? Whatever your desire, picture it now, feel it now.

Feel it? :-) I do!

And there's more good news! We can choose to take action. The truth is that none of the individual tasks that need to be done in order to accomplish your goals are difficult. For example, if you need to prepare a resume, one of the first tasks is turning on the computer. Now that's just pressing a button. And if you're reading this, you're already ahead. The next task would be bringing up your word processing program...easy enough, right? Now, type in your name...and so forth. Before you know it, you've got a resume! See where I'm going with this :-) Another example; If it's weight; what are you putting in your mouth? Choose healthy. It is as easy to broil fish and steam vegetables as it is to bake a creamy casserole. If you don't have tasty healthy recipes, you already know how to read, so you can look them up and experiment. See how each step is relatively easy?

I'm so excited!

And now {Squeal} the best part! Yes, there's more good news! I'm jumping up and down now! Can you feel it? Here it is: With every good, excited, happy feeling that you choose to feel, and every step that you choose to take, it gets easier, doors seem to magically open, help comes from unexpected sources and you get more and more done and you feel better and better. Don't you feel better already?

I do :-) And I'm going to work on one of my tasks...I'll report later. Will you do the same? I'd love to hear all about it.

Thank you God

For a rain drenched patio

A brisk morning walk

My favorite light gray sweater

A crackling fire

A steaming cup of coffee

A delicious bowl of steel cut oats

A denim slip covered down-filled sofa

Two cuddly cocker spaniels

Hummingbirds and song birds

 Family & Friends

 I went to bed last night knowing that I would feel this way today. My heart is overflowing with gratitude for my life. Fairly predictable with a few surprises sprinkled in here and there is just how I like it. I knew it would rain in the night and that our morning walk would be brisk and I would get to wear my favorite gray sweater. I would get to come in and flip the switch for the fireplace for the first time in the season. My coffee would be ready, my oatmeal just right and the puppies ready to cuddle on the sofa before their breakfast. The birds would be singing outside of the big open glass door. Rick would kiss me three times before he left for work, and I would talk to mom.

Yes. Those are wet dog nose smears on the glass :-)

 And so it is with gratitude that we really do tend to see what it is we are looking for. Last night while getting ready for bed, I anticipated a glorious morning, and that is what I received. It could have looked differently though. I could have dreaded the forecasted rain and instead focused on the imminent muddy paws that would traipse through my carpeted house. I could have thought about being cold and not being able to wear my favorite comfy Eddie Bauer tank top on our walk. I could have ignored the ability to flip a switch and get instant fire, coffee, and music. My day could have looked different. :-)
 

So is this a fluke? Are my hormones just in the right balance today :-)? Or is there something to anticipating a brighter day and being grateful for it in advance? It is certainly worth the experiment, don't you think?