Archive for the ‘Acceptance’ Category
Conscious Mamas
Posted on: March 16, 2011
I’m excited to announce another “Conscious Mamas” coaching group is forming to begin this spring in Ann Arbor. This is an invitation for curious women who are also mothers who love their kids AND want to have more fun with mothering and all that it involves. Mothers interested in being real and taking personal responsibilty for designing their life, in particular their mothering life and having a lot of fun while learning.
Being a mother is deeply heart and soul satisfying. It’s also filled with competing demands, unending busyness and frequent feelings of stress. We carry around many “stories”, beliefs about what it means to be a “good mother” that impact our daily life and how we feel about how we’re doing our job. We compare ourselves to other mothers, judge ourselves and worry about whether we are “doing it right”. Learning to be a “Conscious Mama” is about lovingly growing your awareness about how you are currently “doing” your parenting and consciously choosing how you really want to be. It’s about being a whole person, authentic and fully loving and accepting of all of you while also being a wife and mother.
Every woman deserves a group. A group where she can totally be herself and be loved and supported when she’s “messy” with overwhelm or excited about her accomplishments. A group where she can share authentically about how she feels, what she thinks and where she might be stuck. A group where she can always leave with practical skills to use everyday to make her life less stressful and happier. A group where commitment to personal growth and openness to learning is the foundation for transformation.
Don’t settle for just getting through life. You have one life and this is it. Why not learn how to do your life in a way that feels heart and soul satisfying and not just okay?
Accepting inquiries now for spring 2011 group: dana@peaceofmindlifecoaching.com or 734-476-7411
Friendly Life Learnings
Posted on: March 3, 2009
Whenever I remember, I set an intention for all my learning to be friendly. May I be open to life’s feedback when it is a soft touch or a gentle nudge as opposed to needing to be hit with a metaphorical sledgehammer before I finally get what is going on right in front of me and right within me. May I be willing to face the truth of what I am creating in my life while it is still a tiny champagne bubble and not a tsunami like disaster. My intention is to meet life moment to moment with an openness for learning whatever I most need to learn with nonjudgmental loving presence. And to have fun while learning.
I invite you to set an intention for all your learning to be friendly, too. Try it and see if you can feel your heart be even more open and loving to all the feedback that comes your way.
Need Some Motivation?
Posted on: January 27, 2009
The average life expectancy for men is 72 years and 78 years for women. If you are a man and have an average life expectancy you will have 26,280 days in your life. If you are a woman you will have 28,470 days of living. To find out how much time you have left, multiply your age by 365 and then add the number of days since your last birthday. For example, if you are male and 51 years old, born on April 21, 1957, you have lived 18, 895 days up til today! Which means you have 7,385 days or 1055 weeks left until you turn 72.
I’m not trying to be morbid here. Just sending you a wake up call. An opportunity to be thoughtful about your one precious life. What is most important to you to accomplish in your life time? Imagine yourself on your deathbed, looking back on your life. What will be your biggest successes? How do you want to be remembered? What have you contributed to others, to the world? What made your heart jump for joy?
Keep a visual reminder to stay motivated and on track towards your goals and desires. Get a large glass jar and fill it with colorful marbles corresponding to the number of weeks you have left to fulfill your life’s dreams. Each week remove a marble and think about what you accomplished. Did it have heart? Did it move you closer to your goals?
Granted, some of you will live beyond the average life expectancy. I’m imagining you won’t run out of dreams!
Learning to Love Yourself Part 2
Posted on: January 27, 2009
Whoa there. Stop for just a minute. Instead of going to that place of judgment “duh, I can’t believe I did that again”, pause. What if you were sitting with your teenage daughter who had just made a similar mistake and was beating herself up about it. What would you say to her? I imagine you might give her your complete attention and really listen. I’m thinking you might put your arms around her and tell her everyone makes mistakes, that’s how we all learn. You might tell her how proud you are of her for taking responsibility for whatever happened and being willing to learn from her mistakes. You might share one of your big boo-boos to let her know she’s not alone, we all screw up. And then you’d laugh at yourself, offering perspective and lightness and in doing so model for her how to not take everything or herself so seriously. Are you willing to give yourself the same loving kindness? I hope so.
How to Love Yourself-part 1
Posted on: January 23, 2009
Perhaps you have some habits that you are ashamed of or at the very least, think you should be able to change, if only you were smart enough or strong enough. Maybe you did something wrong or just often feel that you are doing much of life wrong. Or maybe self criticism itself has just become a habitual way of life for you that it seems normal, and no big deal. Really.
There’s a lot underneath that self criticism….wanting to do better, be better, feel better. The thought that if we keep pointing out to ourselves all that is wrong about us it will help us to move towards positive change. What really happens is that we deflate our spirit and fill ourselves up with a feeling of being unlovable.
So when I ask you if you are willing to love yourself for all that you are and all that you are not, what do you do if you want to but just don’t know how? How can you make the leap to allowing your heart to love all of you instead of letting your head find constant fault?
Try this. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths. Imagine someone that you know you really love. This might be your child, your spouse, your friend or your pet. Take some more deep breaths and connect with the expansion in your chest as you feel the big love you have for this person. As you continue to connect to that feeling, when you are ready, begin to send that loving feeling to the rest of your body with your breath. Imagine rivers of loving feeling riding on your breath as you send it out to your arms, your belly, your legs, your fingers and toes and your head and neck. All of you. If your head starts thinking any negative thoughts, come back to your breath and start over connecting with the person you know you love. Take your time and savor the experience. That’s what loving yourself feels like.
Presence is the Best Present!
Posted on: January 22, 2009
I think about how often I notice that I am not giving to someone my complete and undivided attention. Sometimes, I notice and continue to do so!!! Ugghh! I judge myself to be one of those distracted superficial people who don’t really connect with the people they love.
My daughter may come in to the room to tell me something and I am only half listening while I type. My husband shares a story from work and I am thinking of something else and only half paying attention. When I notice what I am up to and choose to shift my full attention to my loved one the quality of the experience is, for me at least, so much more heart satisfying. I can tell that my full participation in really listening, making eye contact, and hearing beyond the content to whatever feeling there may be makes my connection with that person in that moment juicy and alive and so much more rewarding of an experience. My heart resonates with the love and warmth of our intimacy. Yum!
I know that when I commit to being fully present with whomever I am interacting my life is richer and more vividly colored. I feel more connected to my heart and spirit and to the universe of people around me. I get to create this experience anytime I want. And I want it more!
I commit to giving my full and undivided attention to whomever I am with in the moment!
Do you know what I ‘m talking about? Share your experiences with me.
There’s a wonderful gift that New Year’s brings, that sense of a fresh start, an opportunity for new beginnings. It is invigorating and hopeful and exciting. But after the celebrating and toasting and appreciating, the sneaky underbelly of the New Year exposes it’s dark side.
The dark side is the New Year that not always so gently reminds, urges, cajoles and shames us into setting resolutions to change all the things we don’t like about ourselves. Or at least one or two of them.
Can you feel the hands on the small of your back pushing you forward as you flail your arms and drag your heels?
Can you hear your inner voice “shoulding” you into setting particular intentions that are “GOOD FOR YOU”?
Yuck! No wonder so many good intentions to make changes in our lives fail after a short time.
These are intentions that come from somewhere outside of you, from the myriad of influences that have taught you how you “should” be. They’re actually not YOUR intentions, they’re someone else’s that you have inadvertently taken on.
Intention is “a willingness to have a certain experience”. Intention is an “aim that guides your choices”.
How do you know what experience YOU really want to have?
How do you know you are aiming towards what YOU really want?
Here’s some hints about setting intentions that are really your own and that you really want to experience:
If the intention you set feels like a “should” or a “need to” instead of a “want to”, it’s not really yours.
If you notice a pushing or a pulling feeling in your body when you think of the intention instead of an energizing and exciting and at the same time deeply resonating and grounding feeling, it may be too much, too fast or not really yours.
If you notice a sense of dread, of having to gear up, get ready, this is going to be really hard, holding your breath kind of attitude towards the intention then maybe it’s too much, too fast or not really yours.
Is it possible to make changes in your life without forcing yourself?
How about an intention for all your intentions to be truly your own, set with love for yourself with awareness and honoring of your own pace? Are you willing to have that experience?
Thrive Relationship Coaching 