For this 3rd and final post of the Cornucopia Series, I’m sharing the top 10 books that have inspired me in 2008. These are the books I’ll make a permanent part of my home library (in some cases they are already have been a part of my collection but I read them a second time this year and was re-inspired!) I’ll donate all the rest I’ve read this year, along with ten from years past, so I can still see the shelving☺

Hope you find something here you’ll want to add to your own collection. (I have no interest in linking you to my affiliate amazon account in this post. This is strictly an overview of my favorite 2008 books as a gift from me to you.)

Because you are busy with year-end tasks and may just want the “ top ten list”, I’ve placed it below (the books are listed in no particular order.) If you want to see what it is that I found inspiring, a detailed description for each book is in the blue box below the list.

Enjoy!

1.    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama

2.    Balancing Heaven and Earth – A Memoir of Visions, Dreams, and Realizations by Robert A. Johnson

3.    Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote

4.    The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life by Loral Langemeier

5.    Money and the Law of Attraction: How to Attract Wealth, Health and Happiness by Esther and Jerry Hicks

6.    The Confidence Factor – Cosmic Gooses Lay Golden Eggs by Dr. Judith Briles

7.    A Master Class in Gremlin Taming: The Absolutely Indispensable Next Step for Freeing Yourself from the Monster of the Mind by Rick Carson

8.    The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life by John Assaraf

9.    Lottery by Patricia Wood

10.    What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

 WHAT WAS INSPIRATIONAL TO ME?

1.    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama

In a nutshell: Tsukiyama’s book explores life in Japan before, during and after WWII. The story follows two brothers through the tragedy of war and the difficulty of postwar reconstruction. The boys are orphaned and raised by their grandparents in Tokyo. One dreams of becoming a sumo champion, and the other finds he is passionate about the fine art of making Noh masks. Tsukiyama is gifted with her exploration of relationships, weaving history throughout, and crafting a novel that was lovely to read. It reinforces the idea that out of  hardship, new strength is born.

2.    Balancing Heaven and Earth – A Memoir of Visions, Dreams, and Realizations by Robert A. Johnson

In a nutshell: One of my all-time favorites found its way into my hands again this year. This memoir of Jungian Analyst, Robert A. Johnson has changed my life and each time I read it, I am deepened and changed again. By viewing Johnson’s life, dreams, and synchronicities there is no way to finish this book without your own soul being touched. I love the reminder Carl Jung once gave to Johnson, “…it is what you are that heals, not what you know.”

3.    Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote

In a nutshell: If you are not already a dog lover, you will be after just a few chapters of this book. Ted Kerasote is a prolific writer. His work has been in more than 50 periodicals, including National Geographic Traveler and the New York Times. This is the true story of Ted’s relationship with his dog Merle. The back cover says it best: “Their journey is part adventure, part love story, and part insightful explanation of how sharing leadership with your dog will make him a better best friend.” The inspiration to love and be loved deeply is woven throughout the book. Warning: Will cause tears…have plenty of tissues on hand.

4.    The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life by Loral Langemeier

In a nutshell: Turn your skill set into a cash machine. Millionaire Maker® Loral Langemeier wrote her best book yet when she wrote this one. A no-nonsense master financial literacy coach, herself a self-made millionaire by age 35, and one of the most high-integrity people I know, Loral is a real pro. This book contains actual case studies, step-by-step plans of action, and powerful questions to make you dig deep and check on your own commitment level for entrepreneurial success. As a graduate of Loral’s programs myself, it was this book that inspired me to give back to the community and do some part-time coaching for LiveOutLoud™ each month.  The book is a must-read for all clients, though most read it many times, as I have also done.

5.    Money and the Law of Attraction: How to Attract Wealth, Health and Happiness by Esther and Jerry Hicks

In a nutshell: Don’t be fooled by the main title; pay attention to the subtitle instead. Esther and Jerry present the teachings of Abraham (you will learn more about this non-physical collection of energy and wisdom) in key Life areas. If your mouth isn’t hanging open at every new page, I’d be surprised. A free CD is included and its one you’ll listen to more than once. You’ll discover the power of creating a “new story” for yourself in the arenas of wealth, health, relationships and happiness. In doing so, you’ll change your world. Sits prominently in the resource section of my bookshelves.

6.    The Confidence Factor – Cosmic Gooses Lay Golden Eggs by Dr. Judith Briles

In a nutshell: This self-esteem-building book shows us the model that resulted from a nationwide survey of 1300 men and women: “10 Steps to Building Confidence.”  It contains stories of people rebuilding their lives after their confidence was destroyed as a result of what Dr. Briles calls “cosmic gooses.” These stories are from “average” people, as well as popular celebrities (Tiger Woods, Oprah). This book now also sits on my resource shelf and will be one I share with clients again and again.

7.    A Master Class in Gremlin Taming: The Absolutely Indispensable Next Step for Freeing Yourself from the Monster of the Mind by Rick Carson

In a nutshell: The “narrator in your head” is what Rick Carson calls your Gremlin. That Gremlin is no small animated character, he’s responsible for using millions of strategies that cause you to get in your own way – to get in you way of experiencing joy, emotion, success, and well-being, to name a few.

Early on in the life of this blog, I wrote a post describing the power of Rick’s first book, Taming Your Gremlin®. This year, Rick presented us with his advanced techniques on the subject in A Master Class in Gremlin Taming. This is the book that those of us who study personally with Rick use in our Mastering Your Craft groups. Read and put into practice and it will help you further Tame your own Gremlin and show up more fully in the world. (Entrepreneurs,  join me for a Free Teleclass to discover how this approach is a powerful tool for your business and life)***

8.    The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life by John Assaraf

In a nutshell:  Keys for getting innovative when times are tough. Learn how to create your own business blueprint for success. Hone in on your unique abilities so you can more rapidly achieve your business goals. John Assaraf says, “…[it’s] a proven business-growth system that we have used over and over and over again to help people just like you get from where they are to where they want to be.” I was inspired with new ideas to launch and I’ll bet you will be too.

9.    Lottery by Patricia Wood

In a nutshell: This novel centers around Perry Crandall, who narrates the story. Perry has an IQ of 76, but is not retarded, as he’ll explain quite clearly: his IQ would need to be less than 75 for that, and he is well aware of the difference even if others may not. Perry is 32 and has lived with his tell-it-like-it-is grandmother, Gram whose belief in him has helped tremendously. But when Gram dies, Perry’s money-hungry family members, who previously wanted little to do with him, swindle him out of the proceeds from the sale of her house. When Perry wins $12 million in the Washington State Lottery, they come back for more and suddenly take an interest in being his “family” again.  Perry discovers who his true friends are and also abilities he didn’t know he had. Quite inspirational and a joy to read. As I was, I’m sure you’ll think twice the next time you try to convince yourself you can’t do something.

10.    What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

In a nutshell: This has been sitting on my stack of books to read since it came out almost two years ago. I wish I would have gotten to it sooner but regret is one of those things that won’t get me where I want to go:) The wisdom in this book may be aimed at executives, but it is just as valuable for those of us who are entrepreneurs and/or small business owners. The 20 bad habits that can sabotage already successful careers or personal lives are not so new for those who understand the importance of people-skills, but it is an honest, inspirational and straight-forward reminder for all of us.

———-
***JOIN ME FOR MY FREE TELECLASS:
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The main goal is to introduce you to a tool to help you get out of your own way and access more of your true nature.”

Monday, January 5, 2009
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Enrollment is limited, please call to register: 925-933-7445

Somewhere along the way, I caught myself tensed up, hunched over the keyboard, with shallow breathing and a furrowed brow (familiar at all?). Noticing this, I stopped. I took a deep breath, pushed back from the computer and went to get a glass of water. A few more deep breaths and that glass of water later, and I vowed to re-enter my office with another mindset..or rather, another “heart-set.” I reminded myself to slow down and write from my heart.

When I returned to my desk, I took another minute out to check my email in-box. And there it was. An email from my friends at Spring Forest QiGong (SFQ), containing a special gift - a 15 minute meditation form SFQ founder, Chunyi Lin called, “Open Your Heart, Change Your World.”  I had just affirmed I’d go about my writing with and open heart, and so I took 15 minutes out right then and there to close my eyes and listen to the meditation.

Chunyi Lin’s meditation did indeed help me to Open my Heart and Change my World.

I’d like to pass the message and the meditation on to you.

Click this underlined phrase here to listen.

And be sure to read the note below that came from Chunyi Lin along with his gift.

Enjoy!

Hello Friends:

Many of us are impacted by the troubles in our world as this year draws to a close and are looking for better ways to cope with the challenges in the coming year – be they economic, emotional, physical or spiritual.

At Spring Forest Qigong, we wondered what we could do to help. We decided to create a special healing meditation by Master Chunyi Lin as our gift to you and to others this holiday season. It’s our hope that this free 15 minute meditation might be useful to many.

This podcast is our gift to everyone. All you need do is download and listen. After listening we hope you will want to share it with everyone you know.

Imagine what would happen if 1,000, or 1 million, or 1 billion people practiced this simple, openhearted exercise every day. We would change our world!

In peace,

Your Spring Forest Friends
http://www.springforestqigong.com/

On my end, I’ll get back to working on the inspirational books post and have it for you soon. For now though, I hope you take time out to enjoy this meditation. There’s no better resource I know at this moment, to help you open your heart and change your world.

p.s. I am not an affiliate or in any way compensated by SFQ. I am simply an advocate of their wonderful work in the world.

———–
Call me to set up a 30-minute wellness coaching session during the holidays. You’ll be sure to find the peaceful oasis within your own heart. 925-933-7445

I keep a notebook set aside to list my favorites each month. Nothing fancy, nothing electronic. A composition book and a pen. Then at year end, I sit back with a cup of tea and my laptop and revisit all that I noted. It’s a fun way to wrap up the year. And as I said in the first post of this series, this year, I’m expanding my annual tradition and sharing my favorites with you…it’s better that way!

So, browse around and find just the right something to strengthen your own sense of abundance, appreciation, delight and Well-Being this season. Enjoy!

QUOTES
Here are a few of my favorite quotes — those that I’ve used as inspiration this year. I keep many quotes on stickie-notes in a fat file folder…things I tear from magazines or notes scribbled from something I read somewhere (even from my own book if I think I need a reminder:) I pull one quote out each week that I want to sit beside my computer. These four came out from the file more than a few times to encourage me this year:

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope
that if you just show up ad try to do the
right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and
watch and work: You don’t give up.
- Anne Lamott, writer

We must be the change
we wish to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandi

We must be willing
to get rid of the
life we planned, so
as to have the life
that is waiting for us.
- Joseph Campbell, author

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.
- Alan Alda, actor

WEBSITES and BLOG POSTS (including a healthy recipe:)
Like you, I read a ton of blog posts and browse a gazillion websites each week.  Keeping track of my favorites isn’t easy. But I enjoy doing so. And with that, I’m happy to name the posts and sites below as some of the big contributors to my well-being this year:

1. Blog: ZenHabits.net
Favorite Post this year: Living Simply: The Ultimate Guide to Conquering Your Clutter
I enjoy the simplicity of Leo Babauta’s writing. And there are many of his blog posts I have flagged as favorites this year. But this one from November, contains a tip that’s recently made a world of difference to me.

My floor-to-ceiling bookshelves were overflowing. When it came to books, Leo’s article helped me explore the habit that I needed to adopt: the “One in, Two Out” rule. It’s a long blog post, but this one tiny tip is worth more than it’s weight in gold to me!

 2. Blog: TerryStarbucker.com  Ramblings From a Glass Half Full
Favorite post this year: The Real Secret of Life, August 3, 2008
Terry’s blog just flat out makes me smile. What better key to Well-Being? I especially loved this post in August, reminding us to “Never grow up”, along with the 7 keys to happy and successful adulthood. You’ve got to read this post, from Terry’s Category “Half-Fullism.” (P.S. Although the glass is already half full in this post, I’d add Toy Stores to item # 1 in the post! Enjoy:)

3. Blog: Levite Chronicles by Jon Swanson at: http://levite.wordpress.com
Favorite post this year: February, 2008 “Good Intentions”
One of my morning office rituals is to read three posts from 15 of my favorite blogs. I rotate and alternate the 15 and vary which three blogs I read each weekday. When I get to Jon Swanson’s Levite Chronicles blog, I can always count on a post that will touch my soul and give me something delicious to think about for the day.

Back in February, Jon wrote a post called, “Good Intentions”, about shooting free throws at the basketball court. I’ve marked many of Jon’s posts as my favorites, but this one still sticks with me. It’s about daily practice. It’s about the daily practice of your relationship with your soul, God, your heart, love, and life. I commented on this post, but my mere words can’t really capture the way it touched me. Whenever my daily practice is a struggle (often:), I think of Jon shooting free throws…and keep on keepin’ on.

4. Blog: Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) by Liz Strauss at http://www.successful-blog.com/
Favorite post this year: April, 2008 “How to Have Positivity and Confidence Making Tough Decisions”
In mid-April, Steve and I were looking at a real estate investment and stuck in the decision-making process. That week, I read Liz’s post about making tough decisions and the ah-ha light went on…looking at what your Head and Heart have to say about a tough decision can be enlightening. This post and some quiet contemplation helped us move forward. You’ll probably want to bookmark it…I did.

5. Website: Mayo-Clinic.com ’s Healthy Recipes
Favorite Recipe: Chicken and Asparagus Tossed with Penne and Goat Cheese
I found this recipe in 2007, but it remains my favorite in 2008. I substitute Purcell Mountain Farms‘ organic brown rice penne pasta for the wheat pasta, fresh tomatoes for the canned (especially if it’s heirloom time), use free-ranmge organic chicken, and if it’s not asparagus season, I use broccoli. Good, hearty, healthy comfort food:)

6. Website: InspireMeToday.com filled with juicy gems, this inspirational membership site was founded by Gail Lynne Goodwin
Gail’s Blog: InspireMeToday at http://www.InspireMeToday/Gail
Favorite post this year: November’s “Born to Fly“
Gail’s November post, “Born to Fly,” came juist at the right time. I’d been considering a new internet business venture for three months, and was a bit fearful about taking it on. Gail’s words, ”…when the passion is louder than the fear…” were all I needed to step forward. Enjoy the entire post here: http://www.inspiremetoday.com/gail/2008/11/born-to-fly/

MEDITATION TOOLS
1. Holosynch® by Bill Harris’ company, Centerpointe (click sidebar for link to free CD)
Why I love it: I’ve been meditating and sitting zazen for 15 years. I’ve been a student of Maharaji for three. I love my daily practice. And when I heard Bill Harris say that Holosynch can “help you meditate like a monk at the touch of a button” I was intrigued. Couild I go deeper with my meditation? Could I sharpen my brain’s ability to focus? I did some research, tested out his free CD, and fell in love with the Holosynch® system and technology. More important though is that it’s helped me deepen my existent practice. The fact that I get to weave in my own powerful affirmations with the patented subliminal technology is icing on the cake. (As you can see on my sidebar here, I’m such a proponent of Centerpointe’s Holosynch® program I decided to become an affiliate. I don’t do so unless I use and love a program or product myself.) Try the free CD and let know what you think.

2. Meditations for Optimum Health CD by Dr. Andrew Weil
Why I love it: When I want a brief pick-me-up meditation during the day, I turn off the phones and computer, close the blinds, put my feet up, sit back with my ipod and play a selection from this CD. The beautiful music in the background and Andrew Weil’s soothing voice reminding me to focus on my breath is all it takes for me to recharge and renew.

—   That’s it for this installment. Next and final post of this series will have more resources that inspired me this year! Stay tuned. And let me know:

What’s inspired you this year?

In this spirit of abundance and plenty, I’ll be sharing some of my 2008 harvest in the next few posts. I’ve gathered together some resources that have contributed to my own Well-Being this year. So feel free to dig around in the next few posts. Find just the right something within the bounty of quotes, websites, blogs, stories and snippets of thought I’ll share, that will contribute to your own sense of abundance, appreciation, delight and Well-Being this season.

I give thanks for your readership, your comments, your inspiring progress you’ve made through our coaching sessions and teleclasses and wish you a meaningful Thanksgiving…

Today’s Harvest brings this Snippet of Thought that meandered through my mind just the other day:

Simply Enough

I sat at my desk, facing my computer, navigating around the internet in total physical tension and mental overwhelm. With lightening speed, thoughts racing through my head screamed, “So much to do. So much information coming at me. So many email messages to read. So many new e-books to read, CDs to listen to, tele-events to attend, marketing actions to take. Other people are out there making giant headway…will I ever get enough new and useful information and get it fast enough?”

I did what I know to do when I hit this stage. I pushed away from my desk, took a breath, left the room, got a glass of water, and went outside.

The crisp autumn air greeted me. A sudden glimpse of a hummingbird, dancing in our red-flowering bushes, helped me forget my tension and brought an ear-to-ear grin to my face. I took a deep breath, looked up at the wide blue sky, grabbed another deep breath and stood there just Being.

Gently, a thought floated into the space of my refreshed mind…

“Wait a minute, Erica. What is the rush at your computer? You take a deep lung-filling breath of air here, not worrying about whether you grabbed enough, or worrying if there won’t be enough air for you, or that someone else will get to it first, or hurrying to grab the next breath. All the air you need is right here. All around you. Why not approach the internet and information the same way. In fact, why not approach life this way?”

I stood still and appreciated this short but life-altering moment. I had a deep visceral understanding that, in this age of information, our job is to discern what we need, take it in, use it, and gently let the rest go. And just like it’s not ours to worry if we get the right bite of air, or worry if we’ll run out of air, or fret that someone else is getting better or more air than we are, it’s not ours to try to take in every drop of information. Ahh.

I took another deep lung-full of air, stretched toward the sun, and headed back inside…forever touched by what I’d breathed in.

Are you “taking in all the air you need?” My friend, Gremlin-Tamer, and coach, Rick Carson, is fond of asking this question. When I’m not breathing, or I’ve squelched my breath in a moment of worry , he reminds me to take in all the air I need. How is your breath at this moment? Are you taking in all the air you need? Are you remembering that there is plenty of it available?

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Grab a bite of holiday coaching with Erica this holiday season. Call for an individual session or join others for the December Teleclasses, “Why Weight?” and “Sacred Attitudes for Stress-Free Holidays“. Space is limited. Offices: 925-933-7445

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

Did you know that your heart already gets the idea? Yup. Your heart is a more intelligent pump than you may realize. When your nice bright-red oxygenated blood returns to your heart from your lungs, your heart bathes ITSELF first with that newly oxygenated blood, before pumping it out again to the rest of your body. This is no small matter. Your heart takes care of its own well-being first. It “knows” how important it is to do so.

I invite you to use this information as a metaphor this week. Stop often during the day and place your hand on your heart. Breathe deeply. Imagine the newly oxygenated blood nourishing your heart first and then the rest of your body. Take a moment to think about the metaphor and take care of yourself. Whether it’s stopping for a glass of water, getting some fresh air, or stretching your limbs, YOUR well-being must come first. It’s written in your heart.

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

From the joy of selecting which puzzle I’ll buy, to the sound of the pieces rattling around as I rummage through the box, to the trial and error method I resort to when I’m assembling a huge section of all blue sky. I love it all. I even like pulling the whole puzzle apart when I’m finished, and returning the pieces to the box. It’s a Zen thing for me.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I began a new 1000-piece puzzle of a summer scene in the Adirondacks (one in the Hometown® Collection if you’re wondering:) While working on it, and grinning from ear to ear, I realized the process of putting a puzzle together contains the exact lessons of well-being that I stand behind and practice myself. So I jotted down a few notes during puzzle breaks and joyously noticed what a powerful metaphor I’d found. The notes themselves made me smile, and I thought I’d share them today:

Jigsaw Puzzles Lessons
to Apply to Well-Being

1. Take your time selecting your puzzle — be sure the picture is one you want to embrace for a while.
2. Keep your eye on the big picture you are creating, the entire time.
3. When you start, and you look at all those loose pieces, you’ll be excited because you know with certainty that, as my favorite teachers, Esther, Jerry & Abraham of Abraham-Hicks are fond of saying, “you are in the perfect position to get ‘there’ from ‘here’”…you’ll trust the process.
4. Feel the excitement of both the end result and the process.
5. Focus on one small task or area at a time…be that the border, sorting colors, or just putting the trees together.
6. Enjoy the entire process of putting this together – all of it…even the part where you can’t find a piece. Yet. As soon as you shift your attention to what you want and away from what you don’t have, then let go, and the piece will be there.
7. Commit to enjoyment the whole time – from the sound of the pieces in the box as you rumble around and sift through them to picking out “just the edge pieces.” From finding “just the sky pieces” to placing each and every piece into the puzzle in its own time.
8.Remind yourself that you do this not just for the end result, but for the fun of the game.
9. If it starts being anything but enjoyable, or you can’t keep a smile on your face – take a break, get up and move around, do something else, shift your attention to another section of the puzzle, or just stop for a while.
10. Take a time out every so often and look at the finished picture on the box so you reconnect with where you are heading.
11. Know that when you are “complete”, it won’t be long before you want to do a new puzzle…know that it is the process that delights you.

I’m not suggesting you become a jigsaw puzzle aficionado…I am saying though that enjoying the process or journey of getting from “here” to “there”, wherever that is for you, is really what well-being is all about – whether the journey involves the well- being of your body, mind, spirit, finances, business or overall life.

I can just imagine that some of you reading this looked through those  “Jigsaw Puzzle Lessons” and may be saying, “Yes, it’s a cute metaphor, Erica, but this enjoyment thing, and trusting the process are only applicable to jigsaw puzzles because you know all the pieces are in the puzzle box — the manufacturer put them there. I don’t know that when it comes to my own physical, financial, or overall well being.”

Well, many of you know that I am a joyful student of the teachings of Abraham-Hicks and their Law of Attraction material…so it won’t surprise you when I say, “Yes, and YOU contain all the pieces of your picture of well-being that you could ever possibly imagine…your “manufacturer” put them there right from the get go…it is your job to FEEL this and ALLOW it.”

I’d love to hear what your “jigsaw puzzle” of well-being looks like. Keep me posted!

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Work with Erica on the Jigsaw puzzle of your own well-being:
- Well-being teleclasses
- Individual coaching series of 8 segments
- Individual coaching segments
Call to register: 925-933-7445

One way to expand capacity seems to be to surround myself with new opportunities, new circumstances and even new information.

I’ve been browsing through books I haven’t known about before, DVDs I haven’t seen or heard of, and even new blogs I haven’t visited. The books I found at a used bookstore and the DVDs from a new catalog I discovered. As for blogs, I found 259 new ones in the batch of 260 that Liz Strauss brilliantly showcased at her annual Blog-To Show this past weekend (I also expanded my capacity for trying new bloggy things and put my own blog in the show:) Pop on over to discover some new blogs that will help you expand your capacity!

At first glance, the notion of expanding capacity might seem to be the antithesis of living a simpler life…I don’t see it that way. Expanding capacity doesn’t inherently mean “get and do more stuff”…it could mean expanding our capacity to live more joyfully, simply, and authentically. I like thinking of it that way.

How about you? What would it mean for you to expand your capacity? What might be possible?