Can You Appreciate All That Shows Up?

Welcome Spring and all that is new.

I’ve been reading and contemplating a beautiful passage about arrivals from Rumi this week (as interpreted by Coleman Barks).

It helped me see a challenging situation in new light…and a door opened.

Perhaps it will open a door for you, too.

 

“This being human is a guest

house. Every morning

a new arrival.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome and attend them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of all its furniture, still,

treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

For some new delight.

 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

 

Welcome difficulty.

Learn the alchemy True Human

Beings know:

the moment you accept what troubles

you’ve been given, the door opens.

 

Welcome difficulty as a familiar

comrade. Joke with torment

brought by the Friend.

 

Sorrows are the rags of old clothes

and jackets that serve to cover,

and then are taken off.

That undressing,

and the beautiful

naked body underneath,

is the sweetness

that comes

after grief.”

 

~ Rumi, as interpreted by Coleman Barks, in The Illuminated Rumi, ©1997 Coleman Barks & Mich

 

What doors open for you as you contemplate this passage? Let us know.

 

To Your Wellth,

Erica

 

Say a Hearty Yes! to Your Wellness Coaching Business

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” – Joseph Campbell

• Are you saying a “hearty yes” this month?

• Are you saying “yes” each day to high impact actions that will move your wellness coaching business forward?

• Are you letting go of time-wasters, energy-drains, and clutter in all areas of your business and your life?

In the 2012 Wellness Coaches Calendar, the focus for February, Develop a Yes!Energy® Mindset, is based on Loral Langemeier’s soon-to-be-released life-changing book, Yes!Energy: The Energy to Do Less, Make More. It’s a fabulous philosophy and I’m encouraging each of us to embrace the daily practice of saying “yes” in our businesses and lives.

What do I mean by saying “yes”?

Well, what I don’t mean is to say “yes” to just anything and everything. What I do mean is to practice discernment and consistency when it comes to saying “yes” – discernment when it comes to knowing what is ours to say “yes” to and consistency in doing what we tell ourselves and others (including our businesses) that we’ll do.

So, this month, consider saying “yes” to doubling or tripling your marketing efforts if this has meaning for you. Consider saying “yes” to approaching a colleague about a Joint Venture project if that appeals. Consider saying “yes” to bigger opportunities, even if you are not quite sure how you’ll pull them off.

Yes, you may not know how you’ll set that Joint Venture up, or how you’ll hire an assistant right now, but, as Loral encourages her clients and readers, and as I’ve done many times in my own business and life, the idea is to say “yes” to what is ours to do, and then figure out the how.

I want to emphasize the practice of saying yes to what is yours to do…not what is someone else’s to do. And in your hearty “yes”, you know the difference.

We can scare ourselves by thinking that we need to push ourselves to say “yes” to huge goals and actions that we’re not yet ready for. This is not the kind of “yes” I’m advocating.

If your business is doing $10,000 per month right now, saying “yes” to bringing in seven figures this year is probably not realistic and just saying that goal aloud will probably be enough to keep you frozen in non-action. Likewise, I’m also not advocating that you play a game that’s too small for you and under-commit by saying “yes” to only those things in your comfort zone.

Instead, what you’re after is saying “yes” to the things that are yours to do, that are the “right” size of big, one chunk at a time. In the case above, rather than shooting for seven figures when you’re barely over six, saying yes to doubling or tripling your marketing efforts, hiring an assistant, and getting a new product out the door could be a fabulous way to say a big hearty yes.

Then with these wins behind you, increase the size of the things you say “yes” to from there. The payoff from saying “yes” to what’s yours to do and sticking to what you say you will do consistently is enormous. This month, become an ambassador of saying THAT kind of “yes.

The following list highlights the key actions that will help you say a hearty yes to the adventure of your wellness coaching business, or other entrepreneurial adventure, this month. I’ve combined some of the actions listed in the 2012 Wellness Coaches Calendar with a few more to keep you going! So say “yes” as you:

1. Pre-order the Yes!Energy book by Loral Langemeier if you haven’t already done so.

2. Do some serious thinking, writing or talking with a business coach to identify the places you can: do more with less energy, delegate and/or say “no”

3. Say “yes” to offering specials for new clients this month.

4. Start, join or attend a business mastermind group. Challenge each other to say “yes” to new opportunities.

5. Get out there. Sure it’s important to jump into the  social networks and form contact there. But get offline and start talking about what you know in the live world this month. As Startup Daddy said back in 2010 in his You Can’t Build an Arc When It’s Raining post, “Get into the social networks. Don’t try to game the system and pad your follower and friend count and just look good. Go out there and start meeting people and talk about what interests you.”

6. Attend networking functions & meetings and say “yes” to my challenge: Up your interaction level. Go for interacting with more than people you usually engage. Listen to the needs of and talk about your wellness coaching business solutions with double the number of people that you talk to when you stay in your comfort zone.

7. If the above challenge finds you stopping in your tracks and getting in your own way of moving forward, simply stop, breathe, notice what you are doing and choose to go forward. For more support, re-read Taming Your Gremlin® by Rick Carson. The bottom line here is that no amount of action alone is going to propel you into the “yes” territory if you haven’t embraced the “yes” attitude on the inside first.

8. Feb 21st – receive and start reading that Yes!Energy book! Encourage your mastermind group to do the same and support each other in implementing the actions.

9. Work with your business success coach this month to develop a stronger “say a hearty yes” mindset.

Tell us other ways you’ll say “yes” this month, or share your ideas for how we can all do so!

To Your Wellth,

Erica

Time to Get off the Fence: 7 Tips to Simplify Decision-Making (Part 1 of 2)

Two cowboys sitting on fenceWe’ve all been there. We’ll all be back. We’re human, and sitting on the fence a bit too long, pondering a decision, comes with the territory. I’m not referring to the fence sitting that is necessary when we’re facing major life decisions. I’m referring to those less critical, should-I-go-to this-event-or-not, or do-I-hire-this-person-or-not type of decisions — the kind of a decision that we can get stuck agonizing over, yet later might look back and chuckle at the energy we spent while ambivalent.

In my view, I think it all comes down to that final moment when we have to trust ourselves and just choose. We can review, analyze and get opinions from others all day long, but the end result is the same: we need to listen to our Inner Wisdom and just decide. To help you do so, I’ve put together a list of my favorite decision-making tips.

I’ve used each of the following tips and tools myself and select from among them, taking into account the nature of the decision I’m making.

Depending upon the importance, type and immediacy of the decision you face at the moment, some of these tips and tools will be more useful and applicable to you than others. Just don’t get stuck trying to decide which tool to use!

I’ll give you the first 4 Tips in this post, and provide the rest of the 7 in my next installment.

7 Tips to Simplify Decision-Making  (Tips 1-4)

1.  Stop…Breathe…Notice…Choose I first introduced this 4-step practice to you in my book, Seven Sacred Attitudes. I find that using the process when I’m stuck in indecision can be quite valuable. To do so, simply Stop action the next time you are struggling to make a choice. Just freeze in one spot. Now take a deep breath and pay close attention to what you are doing to yourself while you are struggling. Notice the details of your breath, shoulders, position of your body and any tension in your muscles. Notice the prison of indecision you have created in your mind – are you telling yourself that the choice of a movie or book is critical? Are you stressing yourself out wondering whether you should attend a social event or not? Just notice. Then take another deep breath and, using your intuition, simply Choose.

Notes: This technique is useful when you have already analyzed the heck out of a situation or when the stakes are not too high to risk an unanalyzed choice.

2.  Ask your Board of Directors what they would do. Don’t worry if you don’t have an actual Board of Directors. This technique involves some active imagination and is, as those of you who work with me will testify, often better accessed while in the shower.

When you have a few minutes of solitude, close your eyes and bring to mind a large oak table in a beautiful meeting room – perhaps a room with large windows overlooking a forest and creek. Now picture your ideal Board of Directors sitting around the table — all of them present to help you in your decision-making process. Your Board Members can be anyone you choose, presently living or not, and real or animated.

You can vary who you “invite” to sit on your Board, depending upon the type of decision you’re making. [I’ve been known to “invite”: Walt Disney, if I’m facing a creative decision; Donald Trump, if I’m making a real estate decision; Loral Langemeier, if I’m making a business development decision; an entire football team (okay, the Buffalo Bills right now) and their coach if I’m making a hiring decision and want good teamwork input; and John F. Kennedy, if I’m making a leadership decision.]

Go ahead and put anybody around that imaginary table that your big heart desires. Now put the decision in question before your Board. I even dare you to talk aloud while doing this. Take on the voice of any and all of your Board Members as they each tell you what they would do. When you have had enough input, thank them all and send them on their way. Emerge from the “session” (or shower) with a fresh perspective on the decision.

Notes: This is one of my favorite tools. It can be used in either the beginning or final phases of making decisions that are as important as whether or not to hire a specific employee, or which product to sell, or as simple as which color to paint your office.

3.  Act “as if” for an hour or a day. This tool also requires some imagination. If you are deciding between two options (i.e. deciding which of two new pieces of office equipment to purchase) or two actions to take (i.e. deciding whether to attend a week-long seminar or stay home and work on that new book), this technique will be helpful in the decision between the two options you’re considering.

Depending upon how much time you have available, and also depending upon how big of a choice this is, set aside an appropriate time period (1 hour, 1 day, 1 week).

For that entire period, act “as if” you have decided on Option 1. Get into it. Absolutely pretend that you have decided on this option, are excited about the choice, and get on with the rest of that period “as if” you’d really made the choice. Put aside any consideration for the other option. Don’t even think about it.

Speak “as if” you’ve made the choice for Option 1, try it out by telling someone else you made the choice, and feel the freedom of having made a decision. Now, when the hour, day or week ends, go ahead and set another time period aside, identical in duration.

You guessed it – you’ll now act “as if” you’ve made the choice for Option 2. The same guidelines apply. Talk, walk, and act “as if” you’ve opted for Option 2. When the entire experiment is over, you will have a much better idea of which Option is the right one for you (and I’ll bet you’ll know even before you’re finished acting “as if” for the entire period!)

4.  Try this “Basic Option Evaluation” technique by Brian Clegg. Click here and try out this exercise from Brian Clegg‘s book, Crash Course in Personal Development. Likely to appeal to you when you want to make a logical, well-reasoned decision, this exercise provides a great way to evaluate your options when you are choosing among a number of different things. It will help you rank the options according to logical criteria.

—–

Now Take Action! Choose one tip above that you are willing to put into practice. When is NOW a good time to get started?  No fence-sitting allowed:) I’ll be back in the next post to give you 3 more tips for making other decisions. Just pick one of these for now and give it a try.

Enjoy!

I look forward to hearing about your experience…

Wellness Coaches: What’s YOUR Brand of Overwhelm?

overwhelmed businesswoman

A Head-On Look at Overwhelm

If you follow the trends of “focusing on the positive”, it may seem odd to you that I’m illustrating this post with a photo of a business woman literally hitting her head against the wall and experiencing (what I imagine is) overwhelm. Instead, you might have expected that I’d use a photo of someone in a zen-like state and then hoped I’d go on to tell you how to attract that state. Nope.

Even though I incorporate the Law of Attraction into my work and life, I’m not much for skipping over what’s so and I’m really not much for trends. I’m more about what works and as far as I know, what works is always about first looking squarely in the eye of what’s so. So let’s talk Overwhelm.

What’s So

It’s a new year. You’ve got big plans for your Wellness Coaching business. You’ve printed out my 2011 Wellness Coaches planning calendar, looked through all 16 pages, seen the year’s worth of to do’s and gotten right down to it. You set your 2011 business vision, outlined your Q1 plans, started in on a huge list of marketing calls you’re committed to making, and you’re already juggling client work, writing blog posts and have outlined plans to develop new mp3 downloads.

Chances are, you have a ton of unread email in your in-box, a stack of juicy but unopened mail on your desk you’re dying to get to, and between it all you’re trying to fit in your own fitness routine!

(By the way, how’s your breathing right now? Just checking.)

You want to join a new networking group, spend more time on social media, order products, and sign up as an affiliate of your favorite big cheese. You also plan to hire a virtual assistant so you’ll be more efficient and work less hours. Of course you also have to place ads, read resumes and interview people… Whew!

How’d You Get Here?

Overwhelm. We’ve all been here. Some of us tend to hang around the place longer than others, but even the infrequent visitors know it well.  And while your brand of overwhelm is as unique as your thumbprint, it’s just about as likely as the sun coming up tomorrow that your version of overwhelm contains some element where you’ve lost your focus.

In fact, I’d bet on it. You probably arrived here at Overwhelm by trying to get your arms around the whole enchilada of your Wellness Coaching business all at once. So, slow down. Breathe. Focus in on just this post for now. We have work to do.

What You’ve Tried

When it comes to “Managing Overwhelm,” you’ve likely tried many ways of rearranging the external circumstances in your business and life to get “it” (as if Overwhelm were an entity) under control. Guess what?

You’re not overwhelmed because you need to work harder to manage your current activities. And we know you’re not overwhelmed because you’re slacking in your effort to try to get “Overwhelm” under control. You do plenty of both.

Neither task works because they’ve both got a faulty premise…they both assume that the content and circumstances of your life cause “Overwhelm.” Not so. “Out there” is not where you need to look.

Where the Work Needs to Be

You don’t “manage Overwhelm” by manipulating the external things in your life. Actually, you don’t “manage” Overwhelm at all, and you can’t “catch Overwhelm” from your To Do list. It’s not a virusas my friend, mentor, founder of The Gremlin Taming Institute and author of Taming Your Gremlin®, Rick Carson is fond of saying. Rick also says, Balance and Pleasure are primarily an inside job. This is key, as Balance and Pleasure are the opposite states of Overwhelm as far as I’ve experienced. Balance and Pleasure are the Big Kahuna of life. So let’s look more closely at that “inside job” of yours.

A Trip Inside You

The question is, what is your brand of Overwhelm? What’s involved when you do it? No, I’m not interested in those things outside of you that you consider to cause you Overwhelm. Those things could look the same or absolutely different for each one of us and some of us would or wouldn’t Overwhelm ourselves in response to them. I am interested in what you do on the inside of you. How do you overwhelm you? What do you do to you?

Actually, I’m inviting you to participate right here in one small component of Rick Carson’s powerful Gremlin-Taming® Method. I’ve studied and practiced the full method for years and teach it to my clients. Here, I’m inviting you to do as Rick taught me and Simply Notice.  Yes, I want you to Simply Notice how you Overwhelm you.

The Exercise (To be done when you’re alone and not driving.)

I’d like you to take a break right now and give yourself some time to do this exercise. Get comfortable to start. Turn the phone ringer off, put the cell phone away, and hang a privacy sign on the door. Great.

Let’s begin. Imagine I’m there with you right now.  I want you to Teach me how you Overwhelm yourself. Yes, teach me. Only you know how you do it. And until now, you probably haven’t been aware of how you do it. We’re going to shine a light on the whole mess right here, right now.

Notice every detail of you and your experience of overwhelm one by one. Do so as if you were writing a guidebook on how to create your brand of Overwhelm. Take big time to notice. Get into your best Overwhelm state. What are you doing to you? What are you doing with your neck? Your shoulders? Your jaw? Your eyes? What pray tell is going on in that mind of yours? What messages of exasperation are you chanting over and over again to yourself?

Notice I’m not asking you what the external circumstances are that you’re using as a reason to overwhelm yourself. Nor am I asking you what you think “causes” your overwhelmed state.  I’m asking you how you are overwhelming yourself. Only you do that to you. Exactly how, step by step, do you do this to you?

Go slowly. Play up, highlight, and exaggerate every smidgeon of the routine you go through.  Don’t judge, just Simply Notice.

Stay with it and see what happens.

Need an example?

Okay, I’ll do the same exercise I’m asking you to do, right here. This is risky because you might be tempted to try out my exact method for “Overwhelm.” Please don’t. You have your own way. That’s enough for one lifetime. So read “my way of Overwhelming me” at your own risk. Then be sure to do the exercise for yourself. Meantime, here’s a description of “my brand” of Overwhelm:

My No-Fail Step-by-Step Guide to Overwhelming Myself:

1. First look at every detail on my new 2011 business plan.

2. Now scan my entire To Do list for the week.

2. Be sure to open my eyes really wide. Then wider still.

3. Alternate this with a frown, squinted eyes & a wrinkled brow as I…

4. Dart my eyes around the room from one thing to the next. (Tricky, but heck, I’ve been practicing for 54 years.)

5. Make my focus go rather fuzzy so I don’t see any one thing very clearly.

6. Make my breathing very shallow or even better, hold my breath.

7. Scrunch up my shoulders.

8. Keep staring at the clock and internally remind myself how little time I have to do “it” all, whatever “it” is.

9. Keep telling myself I’ll never get to “it” all and that others are going to get “there” before I do.

10. Say aloud how overwhelmed I am. Repeat 10+ times per hour.

What Happens?

Once I’m aware of my brand of overwhelming myself, and I exaggerate it just a bit, until I really see how I’m making myself miserable, 99% of the time magic happens. The other 1% of the time I just have to stick with it a bit longer. But the magic always happens. It will for you too. More on this when you come back from doing the exercise.

Now It’s Your Turn

Go ahead. Head on back and do the exercise. Really. I’ll wait.

About the Magic

Good job. If you took the time to do this, and played it up big time, something happened after awhile. You likely noticed that, like magic, things shifted. Rick calls this phenomenon The Zen Theory of Change which he describes on page 10 of Taming Your Gremlin as: “I free myself, not by trying to free myself but by simply noticing how I am imprisoning myself in the very moment in which I am imprisoning myself.” It’s magic indeed.

Now What?

My number one recommendation for Wellness Coaches, and anyone else experiencing Overwhelm, is to take a breath, and Simply Notice how you overwhelm you right in the very moment you are overwhelming you.

It’s as simple, and yet as challenging, as that.

After You’re Centered Again…

The exercise above, truly a life-long practice, will take you quite far when next you Overwhelm yourself. When you come back to Balance, consider some of these tips for staying a bit longer in that Balanced state:

1. Breathe. Do it often:)

2. Put your focus on just one thing. Stay with that one thing for an extended period of time. Even if it’s 30 minutes. Just the one thing though. No distractions. No fuzzy focus on a million things at once (which is impossible anyway.)

3. Phone a colleague or shoot a quick email and declare that one thing you’ll be doing for the next half hour, hour, or more. (Make it short and sweet. Don’t get distracted with the call.) Tell them you’ll be leaving another message when you’re done. Or hire an accountability coach and do the same.

4. Take some time to re-look at your priorities. Frequently. Ask yourself: What’s important? Perhaps it’s time to revisit this, right now.

5. Get a copy of Crazy Busy by Dr. Edward Hallowell. Take your time and read it. (Jane Massengill, LCSW MCC, Director of the Gremlin-Taming Institute, told me of this book just days ago. I ran off and got a copy. I’m drinking it up. Thanks, Jane!)

6. Remember that “NO.” is a complete sentence. You can use it whenever you want to. Doing so makes saying “YES” to your priorities all the more delicious.

7. I’ll say this one again: Get Rick Carson’s book, Taming Your Gremlin®. Go slow. Read it for just 15 minutes a night before sleep. Go ahead. I dare ya. And if you already have it, re-read it, or grab the sequel, A Master Class in Gremlin Taming. Seriously. Read or re-read either one or both. Don’t let your Gremlin tell you this isn’t important. It is.

‘Til Soon,

Erica


Acknowledgments:

This post was born from your ideas. Many thanks for the requests and suggestions you sent or left in the comments on the We’re Refurbishing and Haven’t a Clue post. I appreciate you and your presence in the WellnessCoach.com community.

As you can tell, I ask you to bring your whole being, body, mind and spirit to the party when reading my posts or working with me. It’s a physical experience that you and I and all the other travelers on the planet have this go-round, and I make sure we work with that physical experience. My approach was first  built on years of study and practice of the Bio-Energetic work of Stanley Keleman at the Center For Energetic Studies in Berkeley, CA.

I have grown since then and my work has been deepened tremendously by the year-long studies I did at Rick Carson’s Gremlin Taming Institute in Dallas, Texas. My work and writing continue to evolve through the on-going studies I do with Rick to this day. As you can see in many of my posts, as well as when you work with me, I fully embrace Rick’s Gremlin-Taming Method®, weave it into all I do, and am honored to be doing this work in the world.

Spring Wellness – Time Out for Pondering

contemplation-photo.jpgOnly We Know What’s Best for Us
The best wellness advice I ever received came in the form of questions for me to ponder…questions that helped me uncover my own truths.

As a wellness coach, there is no input I can provide here for you that is more appropriate than the wisdom you’ll receive by checking in with your own body, mind, and spirit. Ultimately, you must decide what is best for you. I believe this is true regardless of the source of any external advice.

Take Time to Go Within
In the spirit of quiet contemplation that the peaceful image above inspires, take some time out to look at your current level of wellness. Explore what you really need in each area mentioned below and let that information gently direct you to take appropriate action or non-action. Allow your body, mind, spirit and heart to speak to you.

I like to go through this gentle process of self-exploration each spring and let the natural healing forces and wisdom within go to work. Enjoy!

SPRING WELLNESS INVENTORY
PONDER THIS…

1. ASK YOUR BODY:

What areas of you need my attention?
Which foods would nourish you?
What forms of rest, recreation or replenishment do you want today, this week, this month, this year?
Do you need additional tools for rest and relaxation?
What activities would you enjoy at this time?
Are there any new healing/wellness modalities you want to experience?

2. ASK YOUR MIND:

What is intellectually stimulating and engaging for you?
Do you get enough of this?
How can I give you more of what you need?
Do I need to provide you with more rest?

3. ASK YOUR SPIRIT:

What helps me feel connected with my source?
What is my spiritual anchor, compass or rudder in life?
What daily/weekly practices serve my spiritual life?
What things make my soul sing with appreciation for Life?

4. ASK YOUR HEART?

Who do I consider to be my “tribe”?
Who is in my closest inner circle?
Who do I love?
Who do I count on?
Who knows my heart?
Where am I expressing love?

5. ASK YOUR SELF OVERALL:

What can I do to further your greatest expression?
Where have I abandoned you?
What am I pretending not to know about you?
How can I love you?

Hope the pondering leads you to new layers of awareness. Love to hear what you discover!

Fitness at 50 and Beyond – Seven Sacred Attitudes® for Baby Boomers

Immediately after publishing my post, Fitness at 50 and Beyond, I was interviewed on her BlogTalkRadio show by FeistySideofFifty™’s powerhouse, Eileen Williams. In 15 minutes we covered everything from the highlights of this blog to Seven Sacred Attitudes for Baby Boomers. Take a wellness break, have some soothing tea, and listen in. Enjoy!

FITNESS AT 50 AND BEYOND – Overcoming Resistance and Songs of Appreciation for Club50 and NuStep!

people-jumping-sunset.jpgLooking Ahead
For the past month, I’ve been looking ahead at the winter and realizing that, after decades of year-round outdoor swimming, doing so in the rain each year is getting a bit old for me.

True, the pool is heated, I live in California, and I don’t have to worry about snow where I live. And, yes, I could probably find an indoor pool around here if I looked for one. But that still small voice inside has been getting louder and urging me to find a nice whole-body regime to do during the winter – a regime that will supplement yoga, take the place of swimming, and be available for me at home or somewhere other than a traditional gym.

Buried Treasure
Well, I recently found the answer…but it was located way beneath my resistance.

You see, I’d done some research on the internet and found an incredible piece of equipment made by the company NuStep. Easy-on-the-joints, a full-body workout, and transforming lives, NuStep is a wonderful machine. It also comes with a hefty price tag, so I wanted to try it out first.

NuStep does have a 30-day at-home trial period, but rather than have it shipped here, set it up, and possibly not like it, I asked where I might give the machine a test ride. I found out that a commercially-owned NuStep machine was located at a gym near me called Club50. And not only could I try the machine out, but the salesperson at NuStep told me I could possibly join Club50 and not have to purchase the machine myself. “Club50?” I thought, “This probably means it’s really a senior center and there are tired seniors playing bingo.” So I resisted going. For weeks.

The Other Side of Resistance
But after a month of grumbling, I gave myself a self-coaching session and figured, “Heck, it’s only to check the machine out. I don‘t have to sign up and play bingo.” So I went. And I was oh so wrong about what I’d find.

Club50 Fitness Centers® were created for those of us age 50 and above and it is anything but a place for bingo. It’s for those of us who want a great workout, aren’t training for body-building competitions, choose cotton t-shirts instead of binding lycra and spandex and prefer to use exercise equipment that is highly efficient yet easy on our bodies.

I met the energetic owner of the franchise near me, Mark, and grinned from ear to ear when I looked around. I found an inspiring environment, fabulous equipment, yoga classes, and, what’s become my very favorite, the NuStep machine. As I tend to like to get in and get down to business, I was also happy to see the efficiency of the circuit system and the lack of crowds at the equipment. I adore the place, look forward to going, get a great workout, and feel right at home!

If you are a baby-boomer at age 50 or beyond, want a fun and engaging way to keep fit, I encourage you to try a Club50 near you and/or also try the NuStep machine. Like me, you’ll be glad you did.

Sometimes, what we want is right behind the resistance we cling to.

Love to hear your comments about fitness at 50, swimming in the rain, overcoming resistance or anything else this post brings to mind:)

Warmly,
Erica

P.S. Join me on my FREE monthly WellnessCoach teleclasses. Call me to register: 925-933-7445

Thinking About Joy, Abundance & Well-Being

resting-at-apple-tree.jpgThere’s nothing new here. Truly. You’ve heard all of what’s in this post before. You already know the information, the concepts, and the ideas. So do I. But there are just times when I need a reminder. So I really wrote this one for me.

Joy. It’s not outside of you. Before my husband and I reached the millionaire mark, I thought doing so would make me happy. It did for a while, but the novelty wore off after a bit. I thought that when my health returned after an accident, that I would be happy. Again, it did for a while, but that joy was also temporary. And after years of inner work, meditation, therapy, and studies with world-known experts in the field of spiritual growth, I continually returned to that familiar statement “joy is within you, not in things outside you.” But did I really get it? I thought so. But maybe not…

Thinking I knew what to expect. For the past month or so, in preparation for a teleclass I’m teaching soon, I’ve been doing the abundance exercise presented in the Abraham-Hicks book, Money & The Law of Attraction. It’s the one where you get a check register and some checks that you aren’t using, and post “money” (imagined) into the checking account each day, increasing by $1000 each day. Then you “spend” that amount daily and actually write the check for things you will buy. To up the ante, and make myself “stretch” a bit, I began with $10,000, then “spent” that, added $20,000 the next day, and so on, increasing the amount added each day by $10,000.

At first, doing the exercise and “shopping” for stuff I wanted was fun and joyful. I actually felt like I had already purchased and ordered those things and they’d be coming in the mail any day. And I wrote the checks with no hesitancy, knowing that the next day there would be more money in the account, as if by magic, without my having to do anything. It was a feeling of freedom. And, after a few weeks of this, whenever I went to write “real” checks, from home or business accounts, I had a visceral experience of feeling the same freedom as I paid bills or bought things – no worries about investing right, the economy, or my businesses —  just knowing there would be more money in the account the next day. So far, so good.

Much more to learn. As I said, I’ve been doing this for a little more than a month now. So today in the exercise, I put the $400,000 amount I was up to into the account and chose to “buy” a condo on Maui. As I wrote the check for the condo, I had an odd feeling. A rather sad feeling actually. I couldn’t pinpoint it. So I stopped, took a breath, and sorted things out. What was the source of the sadness? What thoughts were present? Why wasn’t buying this condo bring me joy?

Ah. There it was. I wasn’t in a state of joy to begin with this morning. I wasn’t “buying” the condo from a place of joy. As I wrote the “check”, I realized that no matter what I bought, it wasn’t going to make me happy.

Now I’ve known this intellectually my whole life. But I didn’t know it as deeply as I do today. The money is just not going to make me happy. A new anything won’t make me happy. Perfect health, my spouse, the perfect career, or the perfect friends won’t either. Only I am going to make me happy.

This was sobering. I thought I knew this. I truly am a human in process, learning each day. I am sitting with today’s learning for now.

Just thought I’d share.

p.s. if you decide to give the exercise a whirl, let us know what happens…
p.p.s. “Most of you do not believe that it is your natural state of being to be well.”
— Abraham
Excerpted from the Abraham-Hicks workshop in Boston, MA on Sunday, October 20th, 1996

Wellness Cafe – What’s on Your Mind?

friends-at-cafe-2-copy.jpgThis afternoon I went to my favorite cafe. Took nothing but money, my driver’s license and my car keys. Thought I’d take a time out from all things work related.

I got my iced green tea, settled into a comfy chair, and did nothing but stare into oblivion. I’m sure there were whirring blenders, a strong aroma of dark roast coffee, and a cool breeze produced by the overhead fan…I’ve experienced them all, many times before. But today, I just needed to chill out. I did. For a good 15 minutes.

And then I heard a voice rise from the group of people who sat at the table beside me. “What’s been on your mind lately?” I heard a young woman’s voice ask. I turned, thinking she was talking to me. She wasn’t. She was talking to her group of friends. I turned back to my iced tea and, having borrowed her question, mulled it over for a while.

“What’s been on my mind lately?” I asked myself. Posing the question to my own self made me smile. My own “answers” to the question included everything from “maybe Oregon would be a good vacation spot this year” to “I’m wondering if my own fitness regime needs tweaking?” I even thought about several business decisions I’d sworn I wouldn’t bring with me to the cafe. Doing so with detachment was actually enjoyable.

After I left I realized that just exploring the terrain of my mind, without insisting that I had to do anything about what I was pondering, held the key to that enjoyment…

So what about you…what’s on your mind?

“Modify Your Thinking to Handle New Situations”: Wisdom from a Fortune Cookie

fortune-cookie.jpgI was all set to sit and write this post, but hunger knocked on the office door, told me to call it quits for the day and took me out to my favorite Chinese restaurant. Good thing, because until the fortune cookie came, I didn‘t have a title.

Snap. I opened the cookie and out popped the title you see above. Perfect for what I have to say. Which is:

I’m back. The blog is once again in motion.

Yup. A month without a newsletter or blog and this writer at heart has been starving. Not for food. For creative expression.

All that I wrote about in the last post was right from the heart and remains true. I’ve pared back and focused. I’ve created more space in my life.

I thought that space would lead me to write a more personal blog, just for fun. But just as the fortune cookie says, I’ve modified my thinking since that post.

How?

THIS will become the blog I mentioned in the last post as being one I write “just for fun.” I won’t start another blog. THIS will be where I give myself permission to write when I want to write, make the posts as short as want, add a rant or two if the spirit moves me, pose questions I’d love to hear you comment about, let a week or more go by if I need to, or write ten posts in an afternoon if I’m having fun.

So there you have it. I’m breathing a sigh of relief and creative satisfaction at this new approach. It’s amazing what a shift in thinking will do for the soul.

I’ve left the former post up so you can see the thread of my process from last month to this. I now see it’s important to do so. I didn’t at first. I was going to delete that post and just jump right back in again. I’d like to thank my new Twitter-teammate, blogger “GeekMommy”, for helping me see the wisdom of keeping that last post in tact, building from it and sharing the process I went through. There’s nothing like a team mate to help you modify your thinking now and again:)

thinking.jpgSo, welcome back. To all of us. With modified thinking, we’re all back in the WellnessCoach blog saddle.

How ‘bout you? Modified any of your thinking lately?