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I confess. I adore putting jigsaw puzzles together. The big ones. The 1000-piece size. The entire process of putting them together delights me no end.

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

Tags: Body, General Wellness Tips, Mind, Sacred Attitudes, Spirit, Wellness Coaching //
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