My, Myself & Inc.

memyselfinc
In our continual quest to help support our local holistic and alternative businesses, Your Community Connector seeks out local wisdom and expertise to help all of us grow our small businesses into something bigger and greater. Towards this goal, we have a new member of the community; Sherre DeMao, who has a wonderful book that we wanted to share with you. – Lori

Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates know the secrets of a successful life and a successful career or business…now YOU CAN TOO! It all starts with a simple mind shift. Stop balancing work and life and start synergizing the three aspects of YOU! After 25 years advising and inspiring over 200,000 entrepreneurs, Sherré DeMao has witnessed and helped make amazing things happen when people stop balancing and start synergizing. Her book, Me, Myself & Inc. – A Synergized World, An Energized Business, Living Your Ultimate Life will share:

  • Why Work/Life Balance doesn’t work. Why Work/Life Synergy does.
  • The three promises to work and live by to make synergy happen
  • How to avoid the happiness, pride or obligation traps
  • How to identify and overcome wishful and fearful thinking

In the book, DeMao captured the stories of more than thirty entrepreneurs presenting real-life solutions of how they synergized and energized their lives and their business. Sized for easy packing in a folio, purse or briefcase, this is the type of book you will carry around with you, highlight meaningful segments and reference again and again. The book retails for $22.95. For more information contact info@greencastlepublishing.com or visit the website at www.memyselfandinc.com.

Relaxed Alertness

By Keith Ward

Keith Ward

You may be thinking that relaxed alertness is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or airline food. However not only is it possible to be relaxed an alert at the same time, but the research of Caine, et. al. indicates that relaxed alertness is the ideal emotional state for learning. (Caine, 2005) It also happens to be the best state to be in when driving your car, playing sports, and almost any activity. When you are in a relaxed alert state you are more resourceful.

You have probably been told that relaxation is good for you. But have you been taught how to relax? Everyday activities may leave you tense and bracing your muscles for actions you never take. Try this: Without warning, ask a friend to stop in the middle of an activity. Then ask her or him to notice where and how she or he is bracing or tensing their muscles. You try it, too.

When we check ourselves, we often discover a clamped jaw, an overly tight grip on our pencil, pen, or other tool, and rigid tension in our neck and shoulders. Readied for action that is subsequently abandoned, we continue to use an intensified degree of muscular contraction-much more than is necessary. It is not surprising that we experience backaches, headaches, and neck and shoulder pain.

You probably already know to relax by taking deep breaths; however, I’m going to share another very simple strategy to relax your mind and body. Use it with your deep breathing and you will increase your relaxation response a great deal.

Here it is and yes it seems weird. Ready? Relax your tongue. That’s right, relax your tongue. Touch the tip of your tongue to your hard pallet just behind your teeth and relax the back of your tongue, which will in turn relax your throat

Why does relaxing your tongue reduce your stress? The simple answer is that much of one’s stress is caused by self-talk that inner dialogue that we all have. If your self-talk is negative, then you are contributing to your stress by what you say. As a colleague of mine said, “By what you say to yourself, you are either in the construction business or in the wrecking business. What business are you in?

Keith Ward earned his Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University and is certified as a Master Coach, a Master Practitioner of NLP, and a Master Hypnotist. Visit http://www.wkeithward.com or call Keith directly at 267-614-5376 for information about success coaching and his seminars and other services.

Relationships: Reconnecting to the Sacredness

By Tracy Becker

tracy becker

My big question is, If relationship isn’t for our spiritual and emotional healing; if it isn’t to lift each other up to be the greatest and grandest version of ourselves; if it isn’t to create a sacred, soft and safe place to expose and heal our most tender, vulnerable and “unlovable” parts, then what is it for?

If you are listening to each other at the office, in your own home, on the golf course, at the day spa, at the coffee shop; if you are listening to your friends, your family, your peers you may be hearing what I hear in my office day after day, and you may experience and believe that relationship is for some of these things: Being controlled or controlling, hurting, defending, battling for who is right, for who does the most chores, who makes the most money, who needs the most rest, who has been done wrong the most, who has done the unforgiveable, who is misunderstood or not listened to, who’s been the betrayed or the betrayer. You may think that relationship is for rearing children, sharing expenses, sharing chores, for social status. You may think it is for having someone to blame for your unhappiness, for being stuck, for not living your dreams. You may experience that it is for abusing, withholding love, for purging every past wrong. Yet over and over again, we continue to listen to this, play a part in this, and support each other in this. You know this is true; we have all committed ourselves to these behaviors at one time or another in our life.

What I also know to be true is that in every single moment, every single breath, we get another chance to do something different – something powerfully meaningful – something greatly selfless – something so loving that we generate an incredible force that destroys the walls of protection that we so diligently and desperately built around us.

Daphne Rose Kingma puts it this way:

The future of love is true love, a great, sweet love that isn’t pain but joy, not small, but vast, not personal but spiritual. This is where we are going; this is our true destination. Our relationships are creating themselves in wild, new, beautiful, and terribly upsetting forms. They are creating demanding experiences that are necessary for us to expand as human beings and as spirits. All our relationships are in the process of melting, if not from without – as the form of marriage itself is dissolving – then from within, where we ourselves are melting down. The soul is shifting our relationship focus from form to content, from rigidity to flexibility, from containment to expressiveness, from our emotional needs to love.

Are you up for this? If you are not, I believe that you will find yourself lonely and feeling empty; or engaging in addictive and distractive behaviors so that you don’t allow yourself to feel the loneliness and the emptiness. This isn’t just our romantic relationships either. It is all of our relationships including and especially the one with our self.

Ask Yourself:

  • Can you commit to creating sacredness instead of a raging battle field?
  • Can you commit to the journey of self discovery and self responsibility instead of blaming?
  • Can you commit to revealing the truth of who you are with all your woundedness instead of leaving – whether you leave physically or emotionally?
  • Can you commit to truly and fearlessly loving all of you and those in your life instead of protecting and guarding yourself?
  • Can you surrender and accept whatever shows up and allow all of your greatness to shine forth?

I believe that you can. Each and every one of you has the power, the potential, the capacity and the means to do this; and when you think you can’t, ask yourself, what am I truly afraid of and is it possible that this fear is just a farce?

Don’t allow yourself to be left behind, standing on the side lines, being a spectator on this journey of Limitless Love, the expansion of that which you thought was love, to that which is truly love; the glorious celebration of each and every one of you in all of your greatness connecting to the sacred beloved. Oh, and don’t forget your life raft; the sea of love can sometimes get a little topsy-turvy. Enjoy the ride. In Joy, Tracy


Tracy will be teaching a series of classes on Limitless Love. Please check out our calendar on June 4 – June 6 for additional details.

Tracy can be reached at www.tracybecker.net

The Lion’s Maw

By Janet Sussman

janet sussman

What does it mean to see internally? How does that arise from the depth of raw impulse? The intuition needs a form to operate from. It has to have fuel. The fuel is a hybrid of pure awareness and imagistic content to which the mind assigns meaning. If you get into your car in the morning and have forgotten how to turn on the ignition, the car will not run. The ignition for intuition is the imagination.

The artificial categories of intellect, imagination and intuition create a compartmentalized view of thinking reality. The mature mind takes the imaginative, imbues it with intuition and spits it out into a subjective logic. Then this logic has to conform to the atmosphere of cultural, tribal and historical contexts of belief that surround it.

Think of consciousness like a cosmic circus in which all the performers are trained to surround themselves with props to assist them in various contortions. As performers, we utilize the props in our reality to create spectacles of intelligence that teach us how the environment will respond to internal need.

The interpretative mind places value and significance on different levels of raw intuitive content. When intuition enters, it seals off rooms of its own, through which it will be able to send messages to other parts of the house of intelligence.

The mind automatically contains and processes information according to its own tendencies. To pull out of the “wrap” of the mind, one has to recognize the very structures through which the everyday thinking process clings. Through meditative practice one can spring the mind free from the templates that normally bind it, see through that wrapping and then make room for naked intuitive impulse to come forth.

Unprocessed intuition arises as an impulse in pure awareness that beckons the receiver to follow that impulse until it can be transduced into an integrative model. If one hears or sees an intuitive aspect, it has to be dilated, shrunk, into a package that the mind will be able to digest. Thus all information highways require proper assimilation.

The intuition is the interpretive mechanism that tells our nervous system how the feeling level will respond to the recognizable acts of the mind. We learn to tell time through our intuition, which tells us about the relativity of temporal intervals through our feeling existence. We are the repository of temporal views, strung together by the intelligence of the intellect and then wrapped in the pretext of intuition. We are the nomads in the domain of celestial awareness, tredding the desert of the mind.

The mind is never logical. The organization that intellect brings is highly subjective. My mind will never look like your mind no matter how hard we both try. Raw sequences of data enter from the level of impulse and hit the switch of imagination in long and short bursts.

The mind requires intuition to know how to think. The mind takes images, sensations, feelings, and processes them .The mind functions through comparison, analysis and reason. None of these functions are independent of intuition. The diet that the empirical mind relishes can only be enjoyed if the intuition has imparted the spice of meaning.

The sequencing that the mind follows never enters the realm of logic in the way that written or oral language demands. The raw sequencing of inner consciousness is more like a panoramic display of algorithmic processes, in which equations of consciousness are expressed imagistically and on the level of feeling.

To interpret the inner life, it is therefore necessary to unleash the intuitive process and allow it to interpret inner imagistic content at the same level from which it was birthed. Then the point of arising will match the depth from which the intuitive information sprang.

Light enters belly of intuition

wanders through mind

like finest curds

strained through cloth

Elephants appear

feigned causes of insanity

redirected to logic

that intellect defends

we are ice on the curved wind of sea

dealt the final blow by end

of all belief
© 2010 Janet Iris Sussman

Janet is a heart centered specialist in processes to awaken intuition. She has many gifts in this area as well as over 20 years of practice in the development of abilities of cognition that have led her to tap into uncharted areas of scientific, artistic, and spiritual knowledge. She provides consulting services to individuals, transformational music, both keyboard and vocal compositions, that uplift and awaken the body’s subtle energy system.

She is the developer of the Sunpoint Method of energy realignment working with healing light to awaken individuals perception of the unification of the physical and nonphysical dimensions opening them to the soul’s unique attributes and capacities.

She is a published author in the field of dimensional change,time, and consciousness.For more info about Janet Sussman, visit: http://www.timeportalpubs.com

Creating Prosperity in Harsh Economic Times

Part II: Breaking our Addiction to Money

Once upon a time (say, in the Reagan years) we were taught that it was desirable to use our wits to do more, have more and be more than our fellows. There was no such thing as too much. Now, as it all falls apart, we’re seeing the end result of a strategy that raised a few at the expense of many. Where we once took pride in “separating ourselves from the herd,” we now find some meager comfort in knowing “we’re all in the same boat.”

Money is a heady drug and there are countless books, seminars and methodologies out these days that feed our addiction for accumulating wealth, ranging from financial strategies taught by investment gurus to metaphysical techniques using the “law of attraction.” Before we make money our goal, however, it may serve more in the long run to understand why we want more. Addiction results when we use any activity or substance to try to fill a void that can’t be filled that way. We wind up needing more and more and there’s never “enough.” When inwardly we feel lack—something that has nothing to do with money—we’ll never be satisfied with what we have. No matter how much money we make, we’ll create debt, struggle, and worry out of it.

This isn’t meant in any way to moralize on the virtues of poverty. It’s consuming and debilitating to struggle with financial survival, even if it’s a six-figure income we’re struggling on (I heard a report on the life style of bailed-out Wall Street bankers describing how difficult it would be for them to manage on a $500,000 salary cap). It limits our ability to thrive and to be of use to the world around us. But, regardless of our income, don’t we all personally know someone with a bigger income that we have who struggles to make ends meet, and another who seems at peace with less? (Think about that.) Prosperity is a state of mind and when we have it, we automatically program our lives to work financially. Whether we have a lot or a little, we have our needs and wants fulfilled. We have the ability to attract money, without compromising ourselves in the process, and we also are able to create an abundant life without an abundance of money.

True prosperity is available to us without limit. We can have all we need to fulfill our highest purpose and live our highest joy. For some this takes a lot of money and for others it requires much less. My own personal role models of prosperity include the well-known spiritual teacher, “Peace Pilgrim” who owned only what she could carry on her person and felt freer having less, as well as a wealthy couple who have given great gifts to their community through their philanthropy. Falling in the middle of these extremes is an individual I know who simply practices kindness and generosity and always seems to easily manifest the trappings of a happy, gracious, materially comfortable life without a terribly large income. As we unhook the idea of “prosperity” from the prerequisite of “a lot of money,” it suddenly becomes easier to create a happy, abundant life with or without money, whether or not it looks like our neighbor’s version of wealth. This point is often missed, even in popular metaphysical teachings on prosperity, that it doesn’t necessarily take a large income to live prosperously.

The hidden blessing, and perhaps higher purpose, underlying the financial crunch shared by so many of us is that it’s forcing us to break the easy habit of money addiction. As we face, head-on, the void that money could never fill we discover that it doesn’t take money to nurture our spiritual lives and intimate relationships, and that the experience of joy is completely free. Here’s an experiment that might help break some of your spending addictions and rewire your thinking about money.

For a month see how many days you can go without spending money. Also, consider letting go of small purchase routines that you don’t really need. Take a snack or beverage with you so you can let go of the purchased coffee or snack habit, for example. Notice ways you’ve become dependent upon money for recreation, self-nurturing or socialization and be creative in finding less costly alternatives. Take the money you save and put it toward some sacred purpose. It might be a gift you give away, or you could use it as seed money to fund a cherished dream, or even to buy yourself something that usually feels too extravagant. See if you don’t start noticing a difference between “spending” and living prosperously.

For more information go to www.lynnwoodland.com

Creating Prosperity in Harsh Economic Times
Part I: Cultivating True Wealth

By Lynn Woodland

“The Law of Attraction” has become a mainstream topic of talk telling us that anything is possible if we just change our mind. Meanwhile the world is undergoing the worst economic downturn in most of our memories. Never before have such widely divergent realities of hope and fear pulled at us. Those of us willing to entertain New Thought ideas of limitlessness may still find ourselves drawn into the collective experience of scarcity as the crashing economy and mass panic make “changing our mind” no easy feat. Practicing popular prosperity techniques without addressing the season of growth our world is in can backfire, like trying to plant a garden in the middle of a snow storm.

There are ways to work with times of apparent scarcity that aren’t rooted in fear and actually help build energy for a leap into new abundance and growth. What’s more, when we successfully rise above the collective wave of fear, not only do we create personal prosperity, but our increase is rooted in love. Then, instead of prospering on the backs of others, we create a healing ripple that raises others up with us.

But, while there is a plethora of New Thought teachings on how to separate ourselves from the collective experience and create our own personal prosperity, I believe it’s important first to acknowledge how we’re part of the collective, and as such, had a part in bringing about the current experience of financial crisis. It’s not hard to see how the attitude of “Me first” got us into our current situation but it may be harder to recognize that “Me” consciousness isn’t the exclusive purview of billionaires and corporations. Neither is it simply a matter of overt greed and malevolence. Its more subtle manifestations include all the ways we get so caught up in ourselves that we have nothing left for the world around us. It might look like depression, or getting absorbed in worries and survival fears, or becoming so busy with the demands of life that there’s no attention left for kindness or caring; it might look like stubborn self-sufficiency that forgets others might be there to help if we could just bring ourselves to reach out.

As “Me” consciousness got us into crisis, “We” consciousness will take us out. Just as the 1980’s made personal ambition and wealth chic, I foresee the next decade will bring into vogue compassion and relatedness, not dollar signs. The New Age success techniques that were popularized in the eighties, from affirmation work to creative visualization need some updating. These times call for something more than simply locking ourselves away with our vision boards and copies of The Secret, intent on achieving our personal wealth. I think the strength of the collective experience right now is calling us to have a collective experience. Prosperity in this era must come through cooperation, collaboration and community rather than through personal advancement. Interdependence is the new path to prosperity.

Having a network of support and interdependence requires the investment of timeÑsomething many of us in today’s fast-paced world believe we simply don’t have to give. When individuals believe they have no time for quality-of-life priorities, they may well unconsciously “resolve” the dilemma by manifesting a physical illness that forces new choices and a slower pace. On a macrocosmic scale, when we collectively can’t find time for the human interaction that nourishes heart and soul, perhaps we’ve unwittingly “solved” the problem by disappearing jobs and other financial supports that keep us locked in self-sufficiency, so that we have no choice but to rely on one another.

An obvious payoff to the financial downturn is that it’s inspiring people to appreciate what we still have without money. Over the 2008 Christmas holidays, I was surprised by how many people I encountered, including those whose finances haven’t been directly affected, who chose to dispense with lavish gift-giving traditions and, like “the Who’s down in Whoville” created a holiday based simply on being together.

That we all had a part in creating the circumstances of today isn’t a cause for shame but a call to action. As a move toward prosperity, instead of focusing on your wealth and self-sufficiency, consider the richness of your personal community. What is your experience of interdependence? Who’s there for you emotionally, spiritually and in times of need? Who’s there when you celebrate? Who can you rely on? Who are you there for? If self-sufficiency has triumphed over interrelatedness in your life, consider giving your greatest resource, your time and caring, toward nurturing relationships. Find those people with whom you can give and receive, accomplish more together than separately, have fun without spending money; and be fully yourself. It may seem costly to find the time and not relevant to the goal of prosperity at all yet, in the long run, it may be the wisest investment of your life.

Part II: Breaking our Addiction to Money (coming next month)


For more information go to www.lynnwoodland.com

Lynn will be speaking at a series of events in Charlotte in April.

Healing Events/Services:

Are you ready to accept miraculous healing? Spontaneous Healing Services.

Dates & Times: April 2010

Saturday 4/17 7:30pm-9:30pm
Sunday 4/18 1:00pm-4:00pm / 7:00pm-9:30pm
Monday 4/19 7:00pm-9:30pm
Tuesday 4/20 7:00pm-9:30pm

Seminar: Living A Miraculous Life

This seminar on practical miracle making will help you manifest your dreams and serve the world around you at the same time.

Dates & Times: April 2010
Thursday 4/22 6:00pm-9:30pm
Friday 4/23 6:00pm-9:30pm
Saturday 4/24 9:00am-7:00pm
Sunday 4/25 1:00pm-7:00pm

For additional information, please visit the Community Connector calendar page. Open to the Public and donation based.

Hosted by Unity of Charlotte www.unityofcharlotte.org

Dr. Michael Ulm, www.holistichealthybymichaelulm.com

Dr. Lynn Woodland www.lynnwoodland.com

Transforming with PSYCH-K

By Michelle Chalfant

Michelle Chalfant
There is a new process creating a buzz in the healing community called PSYCH-K.

PSYCH-K stands for Psychological Kinesiology. It uses muscle testing to test the subconscious beliefs and then integrates the left and right hemispheres of the brain to balance (incorporate) new beliefs in the subconscious mind.

Robert Williams the founder of PSYCH-K states, “PSYCH-K® is a user-friendly way to rewrite the ’software’ of your mind in order to change the ‘printout’ of your life.”

PSYCH-K And The Subconscious Mind
From the ages of 0-6 our subconscious mind is recording everything that happens to us and is forming beliefs in the brain which creates a “map” from which we live from. So if you are a 46-year-old adult, your reactions to the world are coming from a map that was created over 40 years ago!

PSYCH-K is a technique that creates new (updated) beliefs for the subconscious mind to navigate from. It’s like updating your computer with new software. The best part is that it only takes a couple of minutes to change a belief that will last a lifetime. Also, it can be done in person or over the phone.

Sarah, a 30-year-old client recently reported that after using PSYCH-K with the belief, “I am safe,” her entire world changed. She experienced her fears and phobias melt away. She stated she was living with underlying anxiety as long as she could remember and feared someone was going to attack her. She feared dark places, getting in her car at night, going places alone etc. She was still living with the fear associated with an abusive relationship from the past. One changed belief impacted her entire life.

What Does It Work On?
PSYCH-K works with any issue such as negative emotions, phobias, allergies, physical ailments, absolutely anything.

Ellen, a mother of 3 to a new baby boy was struggling with time management and realized that the joy had vanished from raising her children. She saw herself short on patience, sleep and time for herself.

After one session of balancing empowering beliefs like, “I have an abundance of time in my day,”  “I am joyful with my children” and “I am patient with my children and love my time with them,” her whole world changed. She stated that her kids were more manageable, she was joyful with them, and it was hard to find things to get upset about.

Another application of this technique is with intense fears or phobias. Katy, a 13 year old with an intense phobia of spiders had a PSYCH-K session on spiders and the next day was doing her homework and her mother noticed a Daddy Long Leg on the wall right next to her. Her mother pointed it out and her daughter replied, “I see it, what’s the big deal?”  Previous to PSYCH-K her daughter would have been screaming and running.

The amazing thing about PSYCH-K is that once the beliefs change, people tend to forget the old disempowering belief they once held.

Who can get trained to use PSYCH-K?
PSYCH-K has caught the interest of counselors however anyone can take the PSYCH-K trainings and use it with yourself, friends or family members. It’s extremely user friendly for anyone that decides to work with it.

Upcoming trainings in Charlotte:
March 27-28 Charlotte, NC      Basic PSYCH-K training
April 22-25 Charlotte, NC          Advanced PSYCH-K training

For more information go to www.PSYCH-K.com or www.LiftTheElephant.com

Who Me? Starting a Business When Business is a Bad Word

By Jeannie Fennell

Jeannie

In this challenging time of change and uncertainty, we are all having to do things differently .As our old ways of working fall away, many people are creating a new ventures to both do work that is meaningful to them and make money. This may be seen as a temporary measure or it may be the fulfillment of a dream.

For many people who are involved in healing, art or spiritual expression, the idea of “being in business” or being an entrepreneur is a strange and uncomfortable one. They really don’t want to be a “business owner” they just want to share their gifts and help others. They have often seen people in business as driven, greedy and cold and that is totally out of sync with their values.

Yet they do want to be helpful and get their services to the many people who can benefit. How to do that without becoming one of “them”?

I have also have those conflicts but have come to see that learning about business is really just a means to the end of sharing my gifts and hopefully making the world a little better place. I don’t have to give up my values but I do need to use all I have to give them the support they deserve. It can also be seen as idea of yin & yang or right brain / left brain. Each part has good properties alone but together they are incredibly strong…the sum is much greater than the parts by themselves.

And I confess that sometimes don’t really want to do the mundane things that a business requires, like learning about websites and emails. I would much rather be counseling or running a workshop. However, I have come to see that part of my “job” is putting my buns in the chair and doing my part. That includes learning about technology as well marketing.

What happens and who is helped when my message goes out is the “job” of the Universe. It is really a very good partnership as the Universe is much better at opening doors for me than I could ever be and brings me all kinds of gifts for my efforts. It is kind of like planting a bulb; we have to do the grunt wok of digging the hole, fertilizing and watering …and what comes up is a miracle.

So if you are thinking of starting a business, full time or part- time. I’d like to share some of the things that have learned, usually the hard way, in my 10 + years as the owner of LIFEWORKS. I hope it will make the road easier for you. Clients have taught me a lot and I have also had privilege of facilitating and learning from the Soulo Entrepreneur‘s Incubator group for over 7 years.

1. DREAM BIG BUT START SMALL It is exciting to dream of what you want your business to become but thinking they need to have it all in the beginning traps many people. They buy expensive equipment, marketing packages and rack up other expenses that they don’t need before they are ready. Just as many famous musicians began their careers singing in small places, “newbie’s” need to grow slowly so they polish their skills and confidence as well as increase their clients.

2. THE BUSINESS YOU START WILL NOT BE THE ONE YOU END UP WITH Businesses are living organic things and they change constantly. New opportunities open up & directions change. The Universe will open up things you can’t know about now. Building on Principle #1, don’t tie up all your energy, money or time in the beginning because as the world changes, so will you. This makes it always interesting and keeps you open.

3. THNIK CREATIVELY FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO Approach every project /learning experience with the question, ” How can I do this more creatively?” Learning to brainstorm with your self is a huge help in making even mundane tasks easier, better & more fun. If you feel stuck, call a friend for inspiration Read books on creative thinking. The motto for my “Success on a Shoestring” (SOS) series is “Use creatively, not cash. Brains not Bucks” …you can do that too.

4. EVERYONE IS YOUR CUSTOMERMany times folks spend lot of money on splashy marketing and forget that people they are in regular contact with are really their best customers. You ARE your business and your reputation is the most in important thing you have. Even when you are doing something not related to your profession, you are carrying your reputation with you. We all want to do business with people who are reliable, reachable and responsive. (Some of my best clients have some from interactions at the gym, volunteer activities and other unlikely sources)

5. ENJOY THE JOURNEY Starting on your own is a roller coaster ride…exciting but scary. You will never be bored and you will gain confidence and trust to a level you cannot imagine in the beginning. Also because you stretch yourself so much, you will always stay young in thought as well as spirit and will benefit many others along the way. What a great way to live!

Dr.Jeannie Fennell is the owner of LIFFEWORKS,”Creating a life and work that works for you”. She is a catalyst, a counselor, motivator and teacher. She uses her extensive background in metaphysics as well as the corporate world to support people in transitions. She is a frequent speaker on mind /body connection, health & happiness and Conscious Entrepreneurship. Her entrepreneur incubator group, SOULO, is for people who have their heart and soul in their business. She also runs “The Bucket Brigade” a free drop in support group for people in transition. Her “SOS” tips column and blog posts can be found on her website.

For more information contact Jeannie: www.lifeworksonline.net or email: jeannie@jeanniefennell.com

A Simple Breathing Exercise

by Rebecca Nagy

Rebecca
When I first started to learn how to meditate, one of the first things I discovered was that I was “breathing upside down” – from my lungs! And that was the reason that I used to yawn all the time – even though I slept a good 7-8 hours a night!

It was because I wasn’t getting enough AIR.

If you breathe only with your lungs, you are not getting enough oxygen into your blood stream – and consequently the cells in your muscle are not getting the rejuvenating H20 they need – and neither is your brain. So when you are staying hunched over your computer hour after hour, trying to force a solution to a perplexing project or scrambling for a deadline, and your are feeling “fried”, what’s the first thing that happens? You begin to actually HOLD your breath! Which causes your muscles to contract and tighten, and your brain becomes fatigued. It becomes a vicious cycle – and the clock becomes the opposing team in a losing game.

So the next time you find yourself needing to “come up for air” during a stressful moment, allow yourself to do some meditative breathing:

* Breathe in through your nose, filling up your diaphragm first
* Then allow the breathe to fill your lungs
* Do this to a slow count of 4….
* Hold the breath in to a count of 4 (this allows the oxygen to begin to circulate and be
* absorbed)
* Then tighten your abdominal muscles while you release the air SLOWLY from your diaphragm, then your lungs to the count of 8, through slightly parted lips – like you’re blowing out a candle
* You can also imagine that you’re releasing stale-used up energy and toxins while you’re at it, in a puff of gray smoke…
* Continue to do this for about 5 minutes

As you continue to breathe, you can add progressive relaxation to the process as well. You can begin to release tension from your muscles by starting at the bottom of your feet and work up slowly through each muscle group until you get to the top of your head, “breathing” into each set of muscles, allowing them to soften with your breath.

You might try saying to yourself something like this: “I am breathing in fresh, vibrant energy…I am breathing out tension from my feet…. I am breathing in relaxing energy…I am releasing tightness in my calves through my out-breath…and so on…

In addition to using this breath exercise during the day when you are feeing tired, or need a break during a stressful situation, it can be used as the foundation of building a meditation practice. The important thing is to do it consistently on a daily basis until it becomes as much a part of your daily regime as brushing your teeth!

Rebecca Nagy is the founder and CEO of the Extra Potential Institute and New Directions Whole Life Center, based in Charlotte, NC. She is an inspirational and motivational speaker, trainer and master meditation teacher, a professional member of The National Speaker’s Association, The World Future Society, The Monroe Institute and The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Rebecca’s own experience with overcoming a spinal injury confirmed her belief in the authentic and transforming power of the body/mind/spirit connection. Subsequently, she made a decision in 1998 to leave her 20 year fashion career to dedicate herself in following a dream of becoming a motivational speaker. Since then, Rebecca has been inspiring audiences from the pulpit to the platform, with her uplifting stories and strategies for change and transformation. She speaks throughout the country on The Power of the Mind and How Your Thoughts Can Change Your Life. Talking with hundreds of people, she has shared her inspiring story of realizing it’s not how you look – it’s how you connect with your spirit! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rebecca_Nagy

Find out more at: www.rebeccanagy.com

A Few Good Quotes to Kick Off the New Year

By Lori Ives-Godwin

Lori

I was surfing the web using a new fun tool called StumbleUpon and I stumbled onto this site of quotes. I really enjoyed them and wanted to share. It made me wonder what the author would have thought if he had the opportunity to surf the web. I am sure many more good quotes about the silliness of it all would be added to the list. This single author is more known for some of his scientific achievements but as you will be able to see, he seemed to have a foot firmly placed in our community as well. So enjoy them with me and thank Albert Einstein for the wonderful insights into our world. – Lori

* “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
* “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”
* “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
* “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
* “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
* “I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”
* “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
* “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
* “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
* “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
* “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”