Living life to the fullest doesn't necessarily mean take every second and USE it, dry it up and move onto the next. It can mean to savor it, allowing it to roll over you like silk. See it, taste it, feel it, be IN it. Surrender to its passing as the next second draws you in.
Our magic lies in the moments we truly are in, not the moments we speed through in order to be productive. Being busy and accomplished isn't the same as being creative and abundant. Those things happen in the space we deliberately carve out. Be protective of your time. Be fierce around creating space in your day to simply pause. Turn your face to the sun and soak it up. Be more dedicated to being than to doing. So that when you do DO, it's inspired and easy, instead of obligatory and forced. Can you surrender to NOT creating?
I've moved onto the second trust chakra of CREATE in the new book...and it was really easy for me to see where we don't always trust ourselves enough to just create, to just do that inspired thing. That when we surrender to our natural tendency to be creative beings we allow magic to infuse our lives. But it was really surprising when I sat down to write today, because the opposite message started pouring out of me-and I started experiencing it immediately...do you trust yourself enough NOT to create? I thought this would be the easiest section to write because I'm a natural implementor. I'd call implementation my super power. Talking about surrendering to your urges to create and do-well that's easy. I get lots of ideas, lots of inspiration...and it's easy for me to follow the carrot. I follow quickly and with total trust. Even when the carrot is made of non-organic high fructose corn syrup (if that's a thing). See it's never the urge to create I mistrust, it's the idea that if I don't follow the urge it will go away and never come back. And there was the breakthrough I needed for this section - there's where I have had to consciously build my trust muscles in this area. Do I trust myself and my own creative soul to not have to follow every hair brained or brilliant idea that comes to me? Can I thank the ideas and ask that they wait a little until the timing feels divine? Or can I simply say no thank you for now? Surrendering to the urge to create is just as viable as surrendering to the urge to not create, to give myself permission to walk away when it's not in full alignment, or when it's not what I'm creating right now. It's okay so set it aside and trust that the next thing to do or the next thing you create will be right and perfect even if it's not that idea that woke you in the middle of the night even if you feel like it all needs to get done today even if you feel like you've been not doing for so long that you'll forget what it's like to actually do even if you should be working Two ways of surrendering to the same thing. Two ways to trust yourself a little deeper. And two ways for me to dove into that one section of the book...tomorrow, because today I trust that I'm just letting me feel into the section just a little deeper. Diving into my next book "Active Surrender" I got to 111 pages written in a GoogleDoc before I got stuck. So I've gone offline and found the magic again. Something about staining the blank pages of paper with ink, going old school and really connecting physically with my inner creator feels right. It means I'll need to type it all up later. It means sore hands. It means needing to go buy more pens as my favorites are quickly running out of ink. But I have to follow the magic. It's not about waiting to be inspired to write, it's finding ways to feel inspired so there's nothing more you want in life but TO write. Why are you holding out for the high price?
Listen, be willing to make your prices easy to say yes to. Don't feel obligated to follow the propaganda that in order to be successful you have to charge high dollars. Charge what feels GOOD. Charge the number that your intuition gets soothing vibes from. Do what is EASY. Create the money and then if it feels good, charge a little more, or a little less. Make your business easy instead of always challenging yourself for more. Challenge yourself to charge more only when it feels easy. Business doesn't have to be hard and it doesn't have to stretch you all of the time, especially when you just need to get it going to get the income coming in. Could you charge more? Of course. It's all made up shit anyhow, charge what you want. And if you aren't creating a sustainable income yet, then fill your practice first and worry about raising those fees later if it feels good. Your business. Your rules. Be kind to yourself... I've been quiet...but not really. I've been writing my next book. I really committed myself to writing each day, to taking small jabs at it consistently.
And I realized something about myself - I fucking hate consistency. Yesterday I had a perfect writing day - I wrote for 5 hours until I was dry. 100 pages in the book collected and the intro written. I mapped it all out very logically...that to finish the book by the end of October I have about 1-1/5 days to work on each section. Sit down and write each day right? Well what if I don't feel like it? Because I do things so intuitively, sometimes, that's my biggest obstacle. I follow the feel good. Well here's the thing - sometimes the 'I don't feel like it' is because it's not in alignment and sometimes, it's because I am feeling a little lazy. Both totally reasons not to do it. Writing the book doesn't feel like either. It's just something I have trained myself to not do consistently. I began to wonder if I could train myself to do it differently. Wayne Dyer lived intuitively...and wrote consistently. What if writing became as much a part of my day as brushing my teeth? As I sat staring at today's writing, yep, you guessed it - I just didn't feel like writing. I tried to force my way through to no success. Then I remembered that there are no rules to how I write my book. So instead of writing the next logical section, I skipped the piece that was not inspiring me and started editing the stories within the section. And the flow began again. A couple of hours in I realized that I had indeed found the piece of writing that I felt like doing TODAY. I only wrote 2 pages but I rewrote about 15 to make them more powerfully in alignment with the section. So how to do things consistently and still intuitively? Create the framework (which is complete my draft by the end of this month) and throw out the requirements of what that needs to look like (section by section, front to back for a certain number of hours or pages). Yesterday on a call with my clients, we were talking about marketing. I've had a funny relationship with the 'M' word for a long time...from corporate business development, to being a serial entrepreneur to running my own marketing consultancy all the way to the other side of not marketing at all...of working totally on my inner world of me & my business.
To be honest, my most successful years as an Entrepreneur happened when I focused more on my inner Being than on the External results. So why rock the boat right? Ha! If you know me at all, you'll also know that rocking the boat is a specialty of mine... See, as I released my books into the world I suddenly found myself diving into the strategies I had stashed in the dusty closet in the back of my brain. I freaked out a little, rebelled, felt anxiety over results. What was so difficult about a $15 book when I could fill coaching spots for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars with total ease? It only lasted a day or two because I remembered somewhere in there that 'M' could be a beautiful vehicle to share more love, to give more, to create more relationships, to make them deeper and more meaningful. How I can use a traditional 'sales funnel' (gross) and have the energy be-how can I give more? How can I love more? Yes, in truth it felt awesome to remember how SEO worked and then apply it to that lovingness and trust myself to be in alignment. It opened the door for me to experiment more on the external pieces of my business this year. See I don't really have to create another client for an entire year because I filled up my practice already...with that kind of space how can I play more with my community? How many new people can I bring into my fold to give permission to let go of those formulas that are tangling them up? How many more intuitives can I set free? It's not about the numbers...but what if it is? Not in metrics but in the sheer capacity of transforming the world even just a little bit more. So other than my spiritual coach, I've committed this year to bringing even more of my inner world into my outer work which means I'll be spending the bulk of my coaching budget on practicalities and outer world work. Which feels really edgy to me...it challenges me to stay true to ME and what I've built and the ease and grace with which I can create clients and awesomeness while playing with new tools. Can I BE with 'M' in a totally different way? Hell yes-let's play! It starts in a couple of weeks with some work with my friend Nicholas Kusmich. I warned him already that I won't be following anything he says and he's game -- no formulas, just frameworks that I can use in my own intuitive way. No big hooplah, not me sitting there learning and taking notes but an intimate group of us doing hands on work with a guy who truly gets that relational piece of 'M'... http://nicholaskusmich.com/intensive/ So my challenges this upcoming year are simply to continue with ease and grace and put pieces in place that help me create even more of it, for myself and others. Let's see where the magic rabbit hole will lead... THE DANCE
Lots of time I talk about following your heart and not your head. But I'll be honest - that's just step ONE. See yes, we need to listen to our hearts, lead with love, do all the intuitive pieces in life that we are called to do. BE divinely guided. And then there's a balance that comes into play, where our hearts can guide our brains to use the things we know and have learned and can figure out. The how does matter, just not at first. EXAMPLE: I'm going to build my community...how? Doesn't matter right now. Right now I'm going to get in alignment with the community building piece. Who would feel good to hang out with? What would our conversations look like? What's my dream way of being with my community? Listen to those answers. It'll be really clear what you're being guided to DO. Then your brain gets to engage and create exactly what your heart desired. I hear 'start a new group on FB' and my brain gets to set up the group, choose the name, write the description, add the cover picture, invite people in. And then...it gets to step out again and allow the harvest to grow. I get to just play and welcome people in and I get to show up. It's a dance - between the heart and the head and the Universe. It takes the balance of it all to create our lives. I do not underestimate the power of a sharp mind, only the unbalanced force and push of an overly active one. When I pay attention to the dance instead of making one right and the other wrong then I'm able to stay in step and rhythm. Take the lead and surrender... Where are you in the dance right now? Where can you feel you can become your own best dance partner? Where are both sides struggling to lead, making the dance difficult and awkward? Can you say no even when you really, really, really should say yes?
There's an event this weekend. I already paid financially for it. I paid a lot financially for it actually. It's the final event out of a series of events, the one that closes the container. My friends will all be there, the ones who fill me with love. I would have an amazing time there-of that I have no doubt. And I'm not going. And it feels soooo good! Because I'm tired. I don't want to be around more people. I don't want to leave my hill. I don't want to make small talk or deep talk or any talk. I want to be alone. I want to be...normal in my new expanded way. My heart is craving a period of decompression. I am already filled to the brim with love. And inspiration. And laughter. And sorrow. And tears. And joy. And hugs. Perhaps some of those things are such that you can never have enough of them. I'd argue that I feel like in this moment I have more than enough with overflow. My body compressed, twitched, recoiled, stressed out when I thought of packing my bags and making the drive. My body relaxed when I thought of not going. I could feel the tendrils of the 'should' and the 'have to' loosening around my heart, allowing it to be free. No regrets. No pressure to be anywhere that my heart chooses not to be. I booked myself a decadent spa experience instead. I'm going to watch my son play football. I'm going to play with my granddaughter and take my daughter to Ikea for new furniture for her and her fiancé who will be coming home in 2 months. I booked an intuitive reading with my spiritual advisor. I have all day Friday open to do nothing but write. I'm going shopping for a new desktop Mac-maybe I'm for all intents and purposes having a totally 'normal' weekend. And it feels AMAZING. It wasn't a struggle for me know I was a 'no'. It was a struggle for my brain to accept it. But when it did my heart relaxed. So feel into it...what can you say 'no' to? Something that you feel in your body but are doing anyhow... even if all evidence points to a 'yes', is it in your heart a no. And if so are you willing to release it? THINK BEFORE YOU PINK It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and you're going to be tempted to buy anything that says it's for the cause... But I want you to take a pause first. Because most of the pink goods don't actually go to the research or support that they are claiming on the tag. Even the larger foundations have such huge overhead that the monies don't truly go to where you think it's going. Give locally. Find a center near you doing great work in your community. Help someone purchase a mammogram or ultrasound, help them get fitted for a wig or prosthetic or even a bra. Help someone's family get groceries or take them to an appointment. Find out where your purchase is really going. DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN SIMPLY PURCHASE SOME PINK THING. Women die every day unnecessarily from this disease. You can be a part of changing it with a little extra thought... My time or money goes to Michelles Place Breast Cancer Resource Center...because they fight the good cause It always comes down to trust...
I can feel the fear. I can feel the vulnerability. I can feel the trepidation. I can feel the doubt. And if I don't trust myself, those feelings take over & I stay put. I can feel the nudges. I can feel the desire. I can feel the power. I can feel the elation. And if I don't trust myself to follow those feelings, the feelings fade away & again, I stay put. But if I surrender to my trust, I can choose how to respond to anything. I can choose to have fear, vulnerability, trepidation, doubt and trust myself to move forward anyhow. I can choose to feel the nudges, desire, power, elation and trust myself to ride the wave to whatever they are leading me to. There are days where I don't trust myself and I struggle. More and more, there are days where all I do is trust, and magic happens. I don't always know where I'm going, but I trust that I'll make it. It's an active practice, and the more I choose to trust, the easier and easier it is to trust because evidence follows. What will you choose to believe? What will you truly trust? |