As a wellness-minded coach or entrepreneur, you know that your clients come to you seeking your expertise and guidance to help them achieve their goals. While working with your clients on a one-on-one basis can be effective, incorporating an online course into your coaching or consulting practice can enhance their success white providing significant benefits to you and your business.
Here are a few ways in which an online course can help enhance your success as a coach or consultant:
Provides a passive income stream: Creating an online course can provide a passive income stream for your coaching or consulting business. It allows you to create something once and sell it to many clients over time, providing additional revenue and scalability to your business.
Increases your visibility and reach: An online course allows you to reach a wider audience beyond your local area or personal network. With the power of the internet, you can attract clients from all over the world, expanding your business reach and potential revenue.
Establishes your brand: Creating an online course is a great way to establish your brand and showcase your unique approach to coaching or consulting. It sets you apart from others in your field and can help you become known as the go-to expert in your niche.
Improves client retention: By offering an online course, you can provide your clients with ongoing support and education beyond your 1:1 sessions. This can lead to better retention rates, as clients feel more connected to your business and motivated to continue working with you.
Enables you to scale your business: With an online course, you can teach multiple clients at once, freeing up your time and resources to take on more clients or focus on other aspects of your business. This scalability can lead to increased revenue and growth opportunities.
Creates a legacy: An online course is a great way to leave a lasting impact on your clients and the industry. By sharing your knowledge and expertise through a course, you can help educate and empower others, leaving a legacy that goes beyond your individual coaching or consulting sessions.
As a wellness-minded coach or entrepreneur, creating an online course can provide additional benefits to your clients and your business. It offers a structured learning experience, additional resources and support, saves time and increases efficiency, provides a passive income stream, and reinforces your expertise and authority in your field. By taking advantage of these benefits, you can enhance the success of your clients and grow your coaching or consulting business.
Tracy Sherriff is a Certified Director of Operations and Curriculum Expert who helps coaches, consultants, and industry experts successfully scale their business online with high-quality, high-impact courses and programs. She is the host of the Scale Your Course Podcast and the founder of Course Design School.
How do you process and release emotions? This has been a big question in my community lately and I wanted to share with you some practices that I've been using for years now to really help me tune into my body and my inner wisdom and release what no longer serves me. These practices have been life changing for me and I've seen the change in my clients when we start incorporating body work into the mix.
You see, every emotion that we feel and do not process gets stored in our bodies. And most of us don't know how to process emotions so we have decades of emotions that are stuck in our energy body creating havoc on our system.
When you find yourself struggling, feeling anxious, disconnected from yourself, feeling down , your energy is low, when you are sick, these are all clear indications that their is a block in your energy system.
THE ONLY WAY TO START RELEASING AND UNBLOCKING YOUR ENERGY IS TO BRING YOUR AWARENESS AND CONNECT TO YOUR BODY!
Our energy body (system) is the part of us that keeps us healthy, that keeps our life force alive and drives us to follow our purpose and our soul path. It is a vital part of who we are!
Mindset is a huge part of our growth and so important to keep us aligned but we also need to start looking at the intelligence that we have within us. This intelligence is what will guide us to find our joy and fulfilment in our lives.
When we tune into our bodies and the intelligence within:
Working with your inner wisdom, understanding it and how it communicates is going to be key for your transformation and in order to do that we need to start by processing the emotions that are stuck and stagnant.
WE NEED TO FEEL OUR FEELINGS VS THINK OR FEELINGS!
These practices will help you to feel and process the emotions that are ready to release. Have compassion for yourself and truly be gentle with yourself. Processing emotions is hard work. Go into it with a curiosity and free of judgement.
Let's go beyond the thinking mind and into our body to really see what it's trying to communicate with us. Leave the ego and the logic mind at the door and step into a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. Give yourself time and space to truly experience the following practices:
1. BODY KNOWING
Spend some time feeling into your body. Bring your awareness from your thoughts into your heart and start feeling the different sensations. What is happening in your body? What do you feel? What are the sensations? Are you feeling heavy and restricted or expansive and light? Our body is always talking to us through these sensations. Start paying attention to what it's saying. Don't think your way through this... FEEL!
What do you know intuitively? What are you not wanting to see or feel? Be in the present and just feel and release what needs to be released.
Here’s a quick practice to help you get unstuck and process emotions, click here for the video.
2. MOVE YOUR BODY
The easiest way to release stagnant and stuck energies is by moving. Have a dance party, shake your body, do some yoga flow or a workout. Take yourself outside for a walk. Get moving and make sure to bring some awareness to your breath. Be mindful and send it up and down your spine. Let yourself be free!
3. ENERGY HEALING
Through energy healing, we can pin point the emotions that are stuck, the beliefs that are holding you back and the fears that paralyze you. When we look at your energy body and start releasing the blocks, you are opening yourself up to your intuition and your inner guidance. You grow your connection to yourself and find peace within.
If you are ready to explore energy healing and how to tune into your body, let's connect.
4. JOURNALING
Journaling is a great way to get beyond the thinking mind and into your emotional body. What needs to be released that is stuck? What emotions are you keeping at bay to make sure everyone around you is ok? Who are you trying to protect by keeping the emotions in? Let your pen flow as you answer these questions without thinking about it. Let the words spill onto the paper and feel yourself releasing what you no longer need.
Let's bring ourselves back to our natural state of being which is fully connected with our body and the intelligence within. Use these different practices and see how you can strengthen your intuition, your awareness & expand your growth.
These might seem simple but they are SO POWERFUL! Try them and let me know!
Sending you so much love,
Rachel xo
Rachel Benton is a Licensed Life & Embodiment Coach and a ThetaHealing Energy Practitioner. She helps women step into the essence of who they are so they can build a business in complete alignment with their truth, intuition & integrity and guides them to create a soulful life that FUELS and IGNITES them!
Rachel is also the branch director for Happy Healthy Women - Cambridge (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761666377428793)
Connect with her today:
Website: https://rachelbentoncoaching.com/
Instagram: @wildroserising
“I’m too busy to eat healthily!”
I hear it all the time, intelligent, successful, driven women putting their health on the back burner for everything, and everyone, else!
As successful women entrepreneurs, we write business plans, we write social media plans, we write marketing plans, and we likely even write launch and strategic plans on what we do tactically to achieve our goals. But we need to do better at writing a meal plan that aligns with our health goals, wellness goals, or our well-being in general.
We plan everything except the one thing that provides our body the energy to do all the other things!
The benefits of meal planning for women entrepreneurs are enormous, massive, and tremendous!
They are:
Meal planning isn’t just about writing “tacos” in a square box on a dry-erase board on your fridge. How I teach meal planning is built on the foundation of your schedule, favorite meals, dietary preferences, time, budget, and more. I incorporate into my meal planning frameworks all the reasons people should meal plan and overcome all the reasons they think they can’t!
Source:Photo from Super Easy Plant-Based Cookbook, by Kathy A. Davis, published by Rockridge Press. Copyright © 2021 by Callisto Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing that you have a bowl of Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Quinoa awaiting you or that you can make a sandwich for your ”grab-and-go lunch” with this Creamy Chickpea & Fruit Salad! How confident would you be in choosing healthier options despite your packed schedule?
Imagine it’s 5:00 pm, and you walk into the kitchen hungry, a little tired after a full day of work, tempted to reach for the take-out binder, but you don’t! You don’t because you are excited to see that you have these tasty and easy Chickpea Al Pastor Tacos on your meal plan! You toss the ingredients on the sheet pan, get them in the oven, change into your comfy clothes, do a quick workout, take the dog out, or play with your kids while a delicious and healthy family dinner cooks.
You see, meal planning is about creating order, intention, and ease around something we encounter three times daily. When you plan your meals like a CEO, with your vision of healthy eating and living as the guiding light, you reap tremendous benefits of health, wellness, energy, productivity, and peace of mind. And what other benefits do you need to live a fulfilled and successful life?
Want to learn more about Meal Planning like a CEO? Click here to access my How to Meal Plan like a CEO webinar, and resources today.
Love what you’ve read so far? Check out the vault for more on plant-based eating from Kathy!
For more on creating a successful and inspired life fueled by plants or to learn more about healthy habits, connect with Kathy on Instagram, @veginspired, or Facebook in the Plant-EmPowered Entrepreneurs Community
Kathy A. Davis is a Wellness and Mindset Mentor, Best Selling Author, and founder of VegInspired. Kathy leads other female entrepreneurs to live their most inspired and successful lives fueled by plants.
Kathy is honored and excited to be a US Happy Healthy Women Trailblazer.
I have a mentor who shared with me that the word ‘goal’ is one of the most misunderstood words. It really got me thinking and reflecting.
I operated for many years without setting my own goals. I had dreams, but not goals. And GOALS, real inspiring goals, are what will move you towards your dreams.
For most of my adult life, my goal was always to find the next best thing. I graduated college for the first time in 2008, and ended up finding myself working in the restaurant industry. I turned my part-time job that got me through college into my full-time job.
I stayed in the restaurant industry for ten years. Trading my evenings and weekends for money. I grew tired of this and in my mid-twenties decided to go back to school for Public Relations. In 2015 I got my first full time career, a 9-5, what had really been my goal at the time. Let’s just say, this career move was a massive pay cut. That’s when my life started to not make sense. That is when I felt truly lost. And that is when my debts started to accumulate, my anxiety started to rise and I really felt like I had no idea who I was…
Why am I sharing this? Because the more people I talk to, the more I realize this is the most common type of goal. The goal of getting to the next thing. Whether that be a career move or retirement.
Those goals don’t inspire me now and they definitely didn’t when that was my reality.
In 2016 I was introduced to Network Marketing. What this did was open my mind up to goals. REAL INSPIRING GOALS. Goals that change lives! It also opened me up to personal development, which led me to where I am today - a completely different person, living a completely different and improved life. A happier, more fulfilled life. A purposeful life. A life filled with faith, hope, love, joy and alignment.
There are 3 types of goals.
The first type of goals are goals you have already achieved once before. The second type is a goal you think you can achieve. Both of these goals are very logical and also very uninspired. This is where I find most people live. And that is ok, but I want to show people another way. A way that will truly impact every single area of their lives..
Inspired goals are goals that you want to achieve and have no idea how to get there. There is nothing in your current reality that reflects that you can achieve this goal.
When I first set this type of goal, my life started to change. I started to attract the awareness, the people and resources to me to achieve the goal. I started to grow. I changed. I released years of debilitating anxiety, because, through setting these types of goals, I invested in my first mindset coach. This is where everything started to unfold. And where I attracted my current mentor and role on his team, and my life has continued to expand.
The truth is, the goal doesn't change, but sometimes the plan will. The HOW for our goal is not up to us. When we focus on an inspired goal, we really do attract the people and resources to us to gain the awareness we need to achieve the goal. What we are looking for is that awareness, it is also ideas. Ideas that we only find when we grow our awareness, step out and really GROW!
The true purpose of a goal is not actually to get. The purpose is to grow. Growth is where the true unfoldment takes place. And what I have observed over my two-years working in the personal development space, the growth is what attracts the goal.
I have a client who started working with me in the fall of 2022. She was earning around 10K a month in her coaching business. By December, she earned almost $100,000 in one month. That is a fantastic result and definitely a quantum leap. But what is most interesting is watching her grow. She isn’t even the same person as she was even three months prior to that.
Growth is what we are all seeking, whether we are seeking in consciously or unconsciously. My husband mentioned to me once that I had grown so much he didn’t know who I was any more. When he first shared that, it opened my eyes to how much I have grown, but also to the opportunity for us to get to know one another again. Our relationship has never been better.
Are you constantly going after quantum leaps? The truth is, if you are, you are in for the most wild and most amazing ride. Quantum leaps in business always lead to quantum leaps in life. When you grow and expand, everything around you changes. The old model disintegrates to make way for the new model; one that is on a higher frequency. People around you elevate with you. You let go of the old and make space for the new; for what you really want.
I invite you to look at the goal you set for 2023 and ask yourself, is this an inspired or a logical goal? Is this the goal I really want? Is this a goal that is going to stretch me, drive me and grow me?
My life just continues to expand, and yours will too! If you want to connect and start to set bigger goals, and achieve them, reach out! You can book a call with me here and I can help you unlock your true desires!
4 years ago I was working in a cubical barely making ends meet and now I am now living a life I had only once dreamed existed. The how isn’t up to you. Just ask yourself, what do you really, REALLY, want?
Kayleigh Kennedy
Senior Consultant, Sales & Mindset Coach, Conway Consulting
kayleigh@conway.consulting
Are you winning your day? Your week? Your life?
Do you know where you are going and setting small actionable goals to get there?
Are you setting yourself up for success?
Are you doing consistent daily practices to help you grow, evolve and expand as an entrepreneur?
GROWING A BUSINESS AND YOURSELF = DAILY PRACTICES
Yep, I said.. you need to develop daily habits that will support your mindset, your emotional state, your self-esteem, your state of being.
You see I used to dabble.. A LOT.. with daily practices.
I would start my daily work and then things would get better, so I would stop and eventually go back to my old ways and then I’d regress. Then it would take me a while to realize that I had done it again so I would start my daily work, get better and stop again and regress… It was such a vicious cycle.
One thing that I have learnt in the last 8 years of being an entrepreneur is that if you don’t do the daily work, you stay stuck. Your old habits that you worked so hard to get rid of take over and you are right back where you started.
I have been doing consistent daily work for years now. Why? Because…
I have a clear idea of the person that I want to be and the goals I want to achieve and by doing the daily work and taking care of myself, I show up ready, with confidence and with knowing AND my business grows.
I take some time for myself every day to do the things that will help me become a better version of myself, that will help me show up and set myself up for success.
This time is NON-NEGOTIABLE for me. It keeps me grounded, keeps me focused and helps me grow everyday.
HERE IS YOUR SOUL MISSION:
Start making time for yourself every day, get focused, do the work and start becoming a better version of yourself.
Carve out some time in your agenda for YOU. May it be 10 min a day or an hour, what capacity do you have? White that out in your calendar for YOU TIME.
Honour yourself enough to keep this time for you. You are worth it! Most of us tend to not take this time seriously and if something comes up we easily give it up. DON’T DO THAT!
Take some time to breathe, meditate, read, journal, listen to a podcast, whatever you are being called to do to pour back into your own cup and to help you become a better version of yourself. Elevate your state of being.
Taking a step back and giving yourself the space you need opens up your intuitive channel and helps you live a life aligned with who you are and want to be.
You got this!
Much love,
Rachel xo
Rachel Benton is a Licensed Life & Embodiment Coach and a ThetaHealing Energy Practitioner. She helps women step into the essence of who they are so they can build a business in complete alignment with their truth, intuition & integrity and guides them to create a soulful life that FUELS and IGNITES them!
Rachel is also the branch director for Happy Healthy Women - Cambridge (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761666377428793)
Connect with her today:
Website: https://rachelbentoncoaching.com/
Instagram: @wildroserising
Picture this: In high school (think 90s hair), they would play the William Tell Overture over the PA system before first period, which meant a thousand teenagers running through the halls to get to class and pure chaos for 2 minutes and 5 seconds EVERY. MORNING.
Why am I telling you this? Because when I think about how my mornings have been (up until a few weeks ago), that's the energy I was feeling. Anyone else?
3 weeks ago, I made a decision to say goodbye to the morning hustle, and hello to morning bliss. I realized that it was a social construct I was buying into, and feeling like I would fall behind if I didn't do all the dos for my business right away in my day.
I made a decision to take WAY MORE TIME (like, until NOON!) to put me and my wellness first in the morning, VS HUSTLING to get to where I need to be and do what I need to do.
Now, my mornings aren't for hustling. They're for me. For meditation, for fitness, for self care, for chiropractic adjustments, for massage (thank you HHW health benefits!), for feeling into my vision board...and whatever else I want to do with MY time.
I have stopped listening to social constructs and have started listening to my body, and it feels empowering, It feels like freedom, and most importantly, I feel whole....and isn't that what we all want?
Now, I fully realize that this particular scenario isn't possible for everyone as we all have different obligations - BUT - I do know that we could all start to look within and see where we've been doing things according to what we think we should do V.S. a way that FEELS way better and is totally possible.
Our Manifest Magic Retreats are a reflection of this "wholeness". We tune out so that we can tune in. We slow down and pay attention to all the parts of us AS WELL AS our businesses.
If you feel the need to start shifting into the feeling place of what taking care of YOU feels like, and experience the clarity and high-vibe energy that comes along with it while you map out your goals and business - this is the retreat for you.
Will you join us? It's THE PERFECT time to show yourself some love.
xo
Natalie
As the founder and CEO of Happy Healthy Women, Natalie thrives on building community, and leading women to be happier, healthier and abundantly successful.
Learn more about Natalie
“Eat Your Veggies!” We’ve all heard it. We all know that eating healthier is essential, but do we know how important it is?
Studies show that eating 5- 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day may increase productivity by up to 25%. Imagine for a minute that you could be 25% more productive - what would that do for you? for your business? for your family?
Mind and Cognitive Function. Ever get that brain fog midday? Maybe you skipped breakfast or had the “coffee or latte” breakfast? Or perhaps you had breakfast, but it was a sugary, over-processed granola bar or pastry.
Energy. You’ve been there, you worked through lunch or had a “light lunch” only to feel a slump midafternoon - maybe you drag yourself to the coffee cart or Keurig, or you pick up a coffee on the way to the car pick-up line… it might “help” for a bit, but your frustration, impatience, and overwhelm hits the minute you walk into the kitchen after dinner.
Mood. Food affects your mood. Feed your body nourishing, energizing, and life-filled foods, and you will attract a brighter, more energized mood.
Hydration. Fresh foods and water are hydrating and detoxifying. Hydrated people have better blood flow and more astute senses.
If eating more plant-forward meals can increase our productivity - let’s talk about how to add more plants.
1. Eat a veggie-heavy salad or soup before each meal - focus on hydrating and energizing vegetables, greens, and starchy veggies like potatoes, squash, or sweet potatoes, and add some beans, nuts, or seeds for a punch of protein. Use homemade dressings like this easy Tahini Blue Cheez Dressing, or mix vinegar with herbs and spices and a secret ingredient, like in this recipe: Oil Free Basil Vinaigrette. Simply dress your salad with vinegar or citrus or blend veggies like avocados or berries to increase your whole-food consumption.
2. Add a second side of veggies to your meal. It sounds simple, but how many of us double the veg when we cook? Simply fill ½ your plate with veggies - cooked or raw or a combo, add a whole starch (see #3), and then reduce the processed or animal-based foods to fit the remaining ¼-⅙ of your plate.
Tempeh and Vegetable Grain Bowl with Tahini Sauce Drizzle
3. Let the whole grains and starches energize you by eating them with other energizing foods, don’t pair your starches with inflammatory oils, dairy, and processed ingredients. Enjoy your baked potato topped with pico de gallo and avocado, whole-grain or bean pasta with a red sauce and lots of veggies, or jazz up that whole-grain pasta with hummus and veggies for a fun twist on pasta primavera. Whole grains and starches are necessary for energy and cognitive brain function. Don’t eliminate them!
4. Reduce the dairy and use whole plant alternatives. Now, hear me when I say this-find dairy alternatives that use few ingredients. - 2 ingredients unsweetened nut, soy, or oat milk can work for creamer, baking, and even mashing potatoes. So find the alternatives that work for you. And I know giving up cheese can be a challenge - there is science behind the casein in cheese that links it to morphine - give yourself grace. I’ve found that focusing on adding other ingredients in place of cheese and making new concoctions is better than incorporating 1:1 swaps. Because let’s face it, despite their efforts, plant-based cheeses aren’t a 1:1 swap and are often filled with processed ingredients. I like to get veggie pizza and add fresh avocado or an avocado cream drizzle for a creamy topping; I use tofu or cashews (or other nuts/seeds) to create a creamy alternative to ricotta, buttery sauces, and mayo.
5. Focus on familiar foods. Love sweet potatoes? Swap them into your favorite meals like sweet potato chili or sweet potato tacos. Do you love broccoli or cauliflower? Try subbing those where chicken or shrimp is used (broccoli packs quite a punch o protein too). What about chickpeas? Are they a favorite? Try these tacos: Chickpea Al Pastor Tacos.
If you are looking for ways to eat more plants and increase your productivity to achieve your personal and professional goals, start with an intentional and committed decision and take action. Baby steps move you forward; keep taking steps toward your goal to eat plant-centered and note how the foods make you feel.
Love what you’ve read so far? Check out the vault for more on plant-based eating from Kathy!
For more on leveraging plant-based eating and healthy habits, connect with Kathy on Instagram, @veginspired, or Facebook in the Plant-Based Lifestyle Support for Women Community.
Kathy A. Davis is a plant-based lifestyle and mindset coach, 3x cookbook author, and the founder of VegInspired. Kathy helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals leverage the power of food to achieve their personal and professional goals.
Kathy is honored and excited to be a US Happy Healthy Women Trailblazer.
Nine years ago I quit my stable corporate job to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
My job wasn’t fulfilling me anymore and I needed more! I wanted to inspire and empower. I wanted to make a difference & an impact.
But what I didn’t realize then is that I wasn’t quite ready for that YET. I hadn’t grown into that person YET!
THERE WERE SO MANY STEPS TO TAKE TO GET HERE.
I came face to face with my fears and so much resistance. I questioned my abilities, my beliefs and my worth.
It was a battle between staying inside my comfort zone and expanding and growing. I felt so much fear..
Fear of failure
Fear of being rejected
Fear of getting it wrong
Fear of being seen
And through my journey.. my ups and downs.. my wins and lessons, here’s my biggest lesson:
You might have an amazing service or product but when you overlook your ENERGETIC ALIGNMENT, your INTUITION, your EMOTIONS, your MINDSET, your FEARS and HOW YOU SHOW UP, you will find yourself stuck and struggling. Your business will plateau and you’ll be frustrated and lost.
When you start looking inside yourself, connecting to your soul and the energy of who you are you start releasing and letting go of what holds you back.
You know..
- The self-doubt and second guessing (Can I do this?, Who am I to do this? Maybe this isn’t for me?)
- Saying yes when you really want to say no (Wanting to please everyone)
- Criticizing yourself (There is no way I can do this! I’m not good enough, confident enough, knowledgeable enough)
- Comparing (What are others doing, maybe I can do that too or there is no way I’m that kind of person)
- Being paralyzed by fear (letting it consume you and lead you)
I see you! Cause I went through it, ALL OF IT!
It was definitely a process but I learnt every step of the way.
It’s what I needed to move my business forward because..
YOUR BUSINESS WILL ONLY GROW AS MUCH AS YOU DO! (Read that again!)
So as I was feeling resistance, doubt and fear I started putting together a method to help me move past my limitations and stepping outside my comfort zone so I can connect to my authentic self and my inner wisdom.
This method helped me grow into the successful soulful entrepreneur I NOW AM and helps me and my clients every day.
HERE IS YOUR SOUL MISSION:
Take an honest look at your business (and your life) and ask yourself:
Is there an area that feels stuck? Take some time here and go through what is not working for you. Write it down, have the courage to look at it and acknowledge it.
Start looking at how you show up - what is your state of being:
How is your energy, your emotions, your thoughts, your habits and your self-talk. Are they working for you or against you? What and how are you holding yourself back?
Check in with your beliefs: Where are the cracks in your belief system? Ask yourself, what do I truly believe about myself and my business? Do I believe I deserve and am worthy of being successful and fulfilled?
We have a tendency to not want to look at the dark shadows within that are holding us back from living the life we truly want. It’s looking at these that we shift the energy that we project and start attracting what we want.
Take some time, reflect on the questions and have the courage to be honest and truthful about what you are feeling and thinking. The only way to change anything in your life is to be aware. That is your first step - Discovering the Self. Bring awareness to what is really going on so you can make the changes you need to find joy and fulfilment in your every day!
I am cheering you on!
Much love
Rachel xo
Rachel Benton is a Licensed Life & Embodiment Coach and a ThetaHealing Energy Practitioner. She helps women step into the essence of who they are so they can build a business in complete alignment with their truth, intuition & integrity and guides them to create a soulful life that FUELS and IGNITES them!
Rachel is also the branch director for Happy Healthy Women - Cambridge (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761666377428793)
Connect with her today:
Website: https://rachelbentoncoaching.com/
Instagram: @wildroserising
In a time with so much uncertainty, how do you remain calm and not react to the turbulent situations that seem to arise in the world every day?
How do you avoid the ‘fight or flight’ response in the body when particular circumstances could cause you to feel anxious?
When it feels like nothing is going your way, do you quickly blame others?
When it seems that outside forces are blocking your path, do you give up and think, “I just don’t have what it takes to succeed.” Whether at work, in your relationships, or even with everyday problems, what is your typical reaction to adverse situations? Do you immediately move toward feelings of “Ugh, why me?” Or do you pause and think, “What is my life trying to tell me right at this moment?” or “What is my body trying to tell me right now?”
How you respond to difficult things that have happened to you or are happening around you can mean the difference between a life of anger, anxiety, depression, and despair, or a life of joy, peace, tranquillity, and hope. Especially in uncertain times, forces out there feel beyond our control, and fear can hold us back. Ultimately it is not the unpredictable political or personal circumstances outside of us that determine whether we respond with fear or with peace and hope. Instead, one must accept the reality that external events are not under our control; the only thing we can control is our response to those external events.
One’s perspective of change and the uncertainty that comes with it will determine whether they see it positively or negatively. Great things can emerge from uncertainty, as the next important discovery, realization, or insight.
With change comes renewal, which we see in nature every spring, every sunrise, and every new birth. Everything depends on how we choose to relate to uncertainty, which is just life’s constant stream of new events and challenges. What can allow you to embrace uncertainty is becoming a source of hope, strength, and optimism.
Having hope enables us to place our trust in the belief that with great change comes new possibilities and opportunities. “A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty,” said Winston Churchill. There is always something valuable that can be derived out of difficulty, adversity, or change. Without this inner strength of hope, we are left to suffer through crises and uncertain times with self-doubt and fear, leaving you feeling weak and afraid. This is not because of outside forces beyond your control, but because of the self-doubt that comes from being disconnected from your true self.
When you are disconnected from your true nature, fear and doubt leave you feeling helpless and insecure. When you doubt yourself, you cannot trust anyone or anything. People who have been wounded by failure in their career, finances, or personal relationships, typically believe circumstances outside themselves are at fault for how they feel or for what happened. Life they feel is unfair, and others cannot be trusted. With that mindset, you have already surrendered your power to the ‘thing out there’ that defeated your hopes.
Being at ease with not knowing what to do or how to react is crucial for answers to come to you. When you are dissatisfied in the unsettled state, you cannot hear the guiding messages from your higher self. Your feelings of fear, worry, and uncertainty are really your spirit’s way of whispering, “I’m in flux. Something is off-balance here.” Feeling anxious or stressed is your body’s way of telling you that what is happening around you is not in alignment with your higher self. This is your body sending you signals to take action to realign yourself with your true nature.
Your inner spirit’s natural state is joy, love, and peace. When we lose touch with our spirit is when we can start to feel negative emotions, have doubts and are not sure what to do. When you do not know what to do, that is the time to get still. Meditation is a practice that can assist with centering yourself and opening yourself up to Spirit. Eckhart Tolle says to wait for a guiding message from your higher self. If you clear space and allow it to come to you, you can reconnect with the peacefulness of your inner spirit. Practicing mindfulness at any point during the day when negative emotions seem to be getting the best of you, can allow you to take a few long, deep breaths and bring you back down to zero in just a few minutes. By centering yourself and ‘being in the now,’ you can connect with your true self who, once secure and grounded, is unmoved by fluctuations in your surroundings.
Especially in times of instability, it is vital for us to remain rooted in the vision of change as a source of hope, creativity, and renewal. Rather than approach uncertainty with fear, worry, and pessimism, try switching your mindset to instead: embrace the new possibilities that can arise; having a confident, flexible response to change (understanding that change is inevitable and a natural part of all life); and finding solutions when problems and obstacles block the way (knowing you have what it takes inside you to rise to the challenge at hand). Take time to participate in activities that you know make you feel calm and at peace, like being out in nature. Mother Nature has a way about her that inexplicably grounds us and makes us feel at peace by just being outside or even by a window.
Exercise is also a sure-fire way to get your happy endorphins released into the body, helping you to relieve stress, ward off anxiety and depression, and improve your sleep. Lastly, listening to music, getting creative (like painting or writing poetry), or reading books can be the escape you need to reconnect with the happy place inside yourself. Choosing these positive responses does not depend on having specific attributes, good luck, or an open schedule. They are awareness skills that with consistent practice are realistic for you to develop until they become a part of who you are and how you live your life.
By changing our mindset, practicing meditation and getting still, and staying connected to our spirit (our true nature), we remain untouched by fear and instead are at one with love, hope, joy, peace, and the Source of infinite life itself. We know that life is unfolding exactly as it needs to, and we can place trust in our true self at every moment to remain grounded in hope, peace, and happiness.
Teresa Greco is a happiness life coach and the host of a weekly internet TV show called “The Steps to Happiness Show With Teresa Greco.” She is an educator and educational technologies consultant with a master’s degree from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Teresa is a 3x best-selling author, and the editor and senior writer at two Canadian lifestyle magazines. As a coach and reiki master, she does public speaking, holds workshops, and mentors others about embracing, honouring, loving, and celebrating their true authentic self and achieving their own personal happiness and fulfillment.
You can follow Teresa on her Instagram page @teresagreco_stepstohappiness and Facebook page, Steps to Happiness with Teresa Greco.
You can also connect with Teresa by visiting her website, www.teresagreco.ca, or by email at stepstotruehappiness@gmail.com about speaking engagements, workshops, and services.
Psst... We are being watched!
Is this surveillance disrupting or even disposing of our intuition? If the answer is either (or both), can this most powerful of human gifts be retrievable?
Spies and cameras are everywhere. Alexis and Siri sell us things we just mentioned. THEY are listening all the time. It feels like we don't even have to search for something but when you do, you can bet and win you will see Facebook ads pop up the next time you log in matching your recent search or offering related items.
Shop on Amazon for books, anyone? I believe Amazon is stealing our intuition, interrupting the flow of universal wisdom with its clever algorithms. When you buy one book or even just look at one, the A.I. Bots quickly add, “You might be interested in these titles."
In my early 20s, I picked up a book that made no sense to me. Despite that, in my nomadic years, I moved it with me every time. Although I failed to match my sister's transitory life, I came close enough to distinctly remember several times sitting with a box in front of me, choosing which books made the cut. Each time I would look at this one book, assess its value, peer inside, and read a few lines…still struggling to make sense. It felt like I was trying to parse a code language that offered no gateway to understanding. Ordinarily, I would leave a book that didn’t immediately grab me on the shelf, put it back on a garage sale table, and walk away free of remorse. I regularly go to libraries and let books draw me in for no good reason, no predictable patterns. Same with CDs and oh, how I have discovered authors and artists to thrill my senses and imagination.
Yet, every single time I packed up my stash of books, trying, unsuccessfully, to read and resonate with the words, I still couldn't part with this book. It came with me. It wanted me. I wanted it. It waited for me to be ready.
In my mid-40s, two decades of moving, five lovers, and multiple trysts later, it fell off the shelf when I removed another book. I took them both to the couch with my cup of tea and a deep desire for stillness and tranquility. In that magic space, I learned I had been too much of a bisy bakson to glean its message in previous years. It was only when I slowed down to a stall, shunning my natural ways, molding myself to ease the comfort of the palindrome (my lover at the time), that I could see myself in the pages of Benjamin Hoff's little book, The Tao of Pooh, with cute images at the beginning of each chapter. I had previously been a bisy bakson. I would become one again after leaving the palindrome to reclaim my inner extrovert, just with more passion, more selective of where I put my energy, and finding my life purpose with a lot more balance.
In Hoff’s book, Christopher Robin posted the following sign all too often:
GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON
The palindrome loved criticizing 'Bisy Bakson' people.
Hoff’s book The Tao of Pooh uses Tigger, Piglet, Christopher, Winnie, and Eeyore to illustrate the principles of Taoism. I finally began to grasp and understand the text. Now while I'm waiting for The Chi of Piglet to want me enough to fall off my shelf, I wonder how will we ever trust we are finding our own way in this rapidly hypnotized world? Does it make any sense to you? How can we honestly say we are making our own decisions? Think about how we burn more calories sleeping than watching TV, making it the perfect method for hypnotizing the masses.
Guilt trips, propaganda, and the silencing of alternate views exist regardless of which side of the fence you fall (or choose). Being one who fasts from news, I confess to wondering if the mainstream media is programming us to hate the people who are not complying with the status quo.
Does it make any sense to you that brothers stop speaking? One brother trusts his sources of information and the other his. Their opinions are so diametrically opposed, they won't listen to each other. My handyman tells me his story, too, of broken connections. My own eldest sister did not want her son in her house due to his different views. Thankfully, she has softened. Young children fall between the cracks on each side of the freedom line. As if children need one more instability and inconsistency from the people who are to love, protect, and guide them.
Both sides seem to be choosing freedom and security based on the findings they trust. Both sides feel strongly connected to how they arrived at their decision. While we all wait and hope for the pendulum to stop swinging wildly from one side to the other and find the middle capital T truth, do we stop to consider that the difference between a pendulum and a wrecking ball is minuscule?
Fear is an incredible, albeit negative motivator. Fear motivates people on both sides of any coin. I have learned never to underestimate how fear is a mighty powerful means of control.
In the midst of all this controversy, do we invite our loved ones to open dialogue? If family members are silencing and rejecting other family members, where is the chance to speak openly for either side and for both sets of ears (and hearts?) to be open and listen? What happened to the ‘agree to disagree’ philosophy that can nudge us back to love? Where else in history did a leader choose the way for a country and take measures that allowed only one way to be promoted and spoken about and spread in the media? To me, that provides significant grounds to pause and reflect.
Think about the past two-plus years and the meaning of Remembrance Day. What do we remember? Are there too few or too many who forget the methods employed in the second World War?
Hate crimes escalate, with fear and doubt existing on both sides.
Are we lost? Are we hypnotized? Are we cut off from our intuition? Is our intuition retrievable? If we have allowed recent events to split families, experts, communities, and nations, what do we need to do to mend and return to love?
I suggest we need truth-tellers, open conversations, and a willingness to listen!
If you want to delve into writing your truth in a way that invites open dialogue, let's chat. Everyone's opinions count. Yours are as important to you as mine are as important to me.
~Rusti L Lehay
Reference link in the body of the story above
Click here for The Tao of Pooh
Click here for a book you might like to read. More Than Meets the Eye, Watching Television Watching Us by John J Pungente
Learn more about Rusti:
Rusti L Lehay, a global editor and book and writing coach, created over 40 reference articles guiding writers to authordom. Witnessing writers find and speak in their own voice to serve the real boss, the audience, not the editor, is one of Rusti’s greatest joys. She offers bi-monthly online writing STAY-Treats and monthly lounges and teaches weekly creative writing classes. Her primary mission is to inspire, provide value and make writing fun and easy.
https://msha.ke/rustilehay.info
Click here to sign up for the Friday Writing Video Challenge delivered every Friday morning to your inbox.
Click here to book a discovery chat with Rusti.
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It took me most of my life to understand this and it is one of the most powerful lessons I have learnt!
If you are anything like I was you live mostly in your head.
WHY?
BECAUSE IT'S EASIER TO LIVE IN OUR HEADS THAN TO FEEL OUR EMOTIONS AND LISTEN TO OUR BODIES.
We were never taught to deal with our emotions. As a child, if you felt pain, rejection, abandonment, anger, shame, guilt and you didn’t have anyone to share this with or know how to process these big emotions you’ve created a story within you that your needs, feelings, wants are not important. Think about how this is affecting your life today.
We tend to avoid and suppress because we live in survival mode. There is always something to be done, someone to take care of, work to do, a business to run that you don’t have time to deal with the raw emotions that lay within you.
But when you don’t take the time to do it, these emotions get stuck and block your energy flow and will come out in different ways.
Can you relate?
Processing and feeling the difficult emotions is the only way to release the hold they have on your life. You have the right to feel the way you do. You also have the choice to release them and live free. How do you do that?
You need to give yourself the space to connect with your inner self, your intuition and your body.
And this will look a little different for everyone but create white space in your schedule. Don’t overbook your days. Take some time to breathe and be in your body. You can meditate, get out for a walk in nature, listen to relaxing music, do something for you to help you relax so that you can have the capacity to go within.
When I started feeling the difficult emotions, that is exactly what I did. Although it was hard at first, this has been the most freeing thing I have ever done for myself.
I have learnt to trust myself
I have learnt to detach from the outcome
I have learnt to understand my body
I have learnt to open my heart to new opportunities
AND THE BIGGEST LESSON I have learnt:
It’s in the difficult emotions that I found self-acceptance and self-love. It’s in these emotions that I up levelled my life. It’s in these emotions that I found myself.
HERE IS YOUR SOUL MISSION:
Start being the observer of your emotions. Notice:
~ How you feel on a day to day basis. Are you happy, sad, angry, excited, etc.? ~ Put a name to the emotion. Acknowledge it.
~ How are you reacting to others when you are feeling stressed, or anxious?
~ Do you have any reoccurring ailments? If so, when do you feel them the most? What’s the intensity of them?
Start growing your awareness so that you can make some changes in your life. If you are not in a place to process any of your emotions, write them down and come back when you can. Creating the space you need is how you will be able to release and come back to your natural state of being which is calm, peaceful and connected to yourself.
This is the key to stop resisting life and to start flowing with it. Your emotions are your guidance system. If you are not feeling optimal in your life, it’s time to look within and process the emotions that are blocking your energy flow.
You got this beautiful!
Much love,
Rachel xo
Rachel Benton is a Licensed Life & Embodiment Coach and a ThetaHealing Energy Practitioner. She helps women step into the essence of who they are so they can build a business in complete alignment with their truth, intuition & integrity and guides them to create a soulful life that FUELS and IGNITES them!
Rachel is also the branch director for Happy Healthy Women - Cambridge
Connect with her today:
Website: https://rachelbentoncoaching.com/
Instagram: @wildroserising
If you have ever burned a dream to cinders, you will understand my grief and angst after an excellent dream venture involving poetry and art popped up in my life. I leapt at it, dug right in, accomplished a lot and then stalled. The dead halt was 30 percent fearing the sales component and 70 percent too “busy.” I shudder to think how many people might use those four letters if forced to describe me with one word. One friend teases me, “You are trying to squeeze two lifetimes into one.” Guilty as charged. Interested in everything, with the single possible exception of math, I adopt new passions at high velocity despite the risk of whiplash.
Wondering if I’d ever change, my eldest sister, Charlotte, offers me a two-word solution, “Say no.”
I debate that it is more complex. Busy is a comfortable habit, an automatic “no” to some activities that may tally more karmic points than any of the junk activities seeping into my days. Thankfully, I have partially learned that lesson. I say yes to family. My neighbour is peeved at her cousin for his clipped response to her invites, “Can’t, busy as usual.” They have both been in Edmonton for a whole year and have not yet met up for a coffee. We both agree that “busy” is the new “lazy.”
Years ago, my other sister teased that I only do idleness when externally enforced, like waiting for the locksmith to retrieve her keys locked inside her Dodge Neon. It was true. I regularly borrowed my great-nieces to provide a legitimate reason to sit in the park. My challenge remains to enjoy the present moments and stop putting off pleasure or rewards into the distant future. I can tell you March 27th, 2013, is the only day in history I deliberately set out to watch movies all day, shunning all work. I informed my main clients and to their credit, only one of them phoned and inserted some work into my day. Confirming I am the problem and less than one day totally off a year is a huge red flag.
Tim Kreider in the Busy Trap says, “Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.”
To follow Kreider's wisdom, Manoush Zomorodi elucidates beautifully how "boredom leads to brilliant ideas.” That is in direct opposition to a saying I coined in my teen years, "Boredom is the misuse and abuse of what is meant to be a creative and active mind.” Zomorodi suggests that our most creative ideas arrive while folding laundry, washing dishes or doing nothing in particular. “It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy forming new neural connections that connect ideas and solve problems.” I know this to be true for the one thing I am good at – letting my mind wander when doing menial tasks and creating a container to write and not allowing anything else to intervene or distract me. The blank page is creativity's best friend. If you find the blank page terrifying, let's chat!
Still choking on my smoke-damaged dream venture, I had to work at not berating myself for stealing idle time after accomplishing paying work. A dream venture should have waited a bit when it doesn’t instantly produce income. Painful as it was, I understand why my business partner pulled the plug when my pace frustrated him.
This prompted some questions. What pace is comfortable and manageable? What are the costs? What can or must I let go of to insert what nurtures me? When do I give myself a break just for me? Do I even know how to strap on my helmet and take a bike ride with no destination, errand or goal in mind? I can arrange that for other people, plan wall-to-wall fun days for my great-nieces, and insert myself into the shenanigans. What do I do solely for myself?
Is a day of movies the best I can do? Do movies really count? The sloth in me just stops at the end of the day and wants to watch a movie. Does a movie enrich, teach lessons, and improve my contribution to planet earth and my community (Think Globally, Act Locally), or do they numb me out?
David Bodanis, scientist and author, informs how we burn more calories sleeping than watching television. I decided back in 1999 to kill my TV. I justify DVDs by having four cardio machines in my living room. No movie unless I bounce on my trampoline, ride my exercise bike, row or step for 30 minutes. A Fitbit pedometer informs me when I reach 10,000 steps. Then pyjamas are my reward.
If the answer to eliminating busyness is found in one word, it is yes. I need to say, “Yes,” for me. Yes, I will step off this volunteer board. Yes, I will examine what I allow in my life and in my schedule. Yes, I will give away quilting materials I keep on a wish of completion. Yes, I commit to eliminating the word busy from my lexicon. Yes, I will cultivate idleness. In the two months I have concentrated on this, it has forced me to examine my choices and become accountable for taking on too much. I commit to imagining what the absence of busyness will feel like.
One simple choice I made amid all this angst a few years ago was strap my guitar to a small wheeled dolly and walk the nine blocks to a community hall for free voice and guitar lessons. Now on the farm, I am once again expecting myself to maintain a small footprint and have to make an effort to plan fun outings. I confess I am not doing well. Clearly, I need to put energy into the now moments and stop chasing some surreal sense of accomplishment by endless doing.
Conclusion:
Being busy can give us a false sense of importance. How do I cultivate importance just by being? My priorities need to fall in this order. Make a living, prioritize time with close family and friends, physical and mental fitness (including sleep before midnight, which is a challenge,) volunteer work (overachiever here) and self-improvement in a purely fun activity. Good slow food, healthy kombucha, an occasional glass of shiraz over inspiring conversation and ambling walks with friends must feature regularly. I fear I’m a long, slow work in progress. We all are works in progress. I am two-thirds through my life, assuming I'll live past 90. I may just have to admit I have two speeds: hyperdrive and sloth. They both serve me.
Resources:
Tim Kreider's YouTube on the Busy Trap
Manoush Zomorodi’s Ted Talk
David Bodanis The Secret Family
Learn more about Rusti:
Rusti L Lehay, a global editor and book and writing coach, created over 40 articles guiding writers to authordom. Witnessing writers find and speak in their voice to serve the real boss, the audience, not the editor, is one of Rusti’s greatest joys. She offers bi-monthly online writing STAY-Treats and monthly lounges and teaches weekly creative writing classes. Her primary mission is to inspire, provide value and make writing fun and easy. She has a new offer - Launchpad for Authors
Links: https://linktr.ee/rustilehay
Click here to sign up for the Friday Writing Video Challenge delivered every Friday morning to your inbox.
Click here to book a discovery chat with Rusti.
Click here to join the weekly Monday co-working zoom space. We complete stuff!
