Today is Mother’s Day.  This morning I spoke with both my mothers – my birth mother and my adoptive mom.  I feel blessed to have so much mother love in my life.  Grateful too, to be a mother.

The following poem is written by a fellow Salt Spring Island writer, Lorraine Gane.  She often explores her relationship with her own mother through writing and she is a mentor/support to me as I write Umbilical Cord: An Adoptee’s Memoir – where I am exploring the what it means to be born, separated from one mother, chosen by another and loved by both.

to the mother in us all…

Let the beauty we love be what we do

–Rumi

When I enter the kitchen

your eyes tell me you slept through the night.

A spoon clutched in your right hand,

you unfurl the fingers of your left to show me pills

to thin your blood, lower your cholesterol,

keep your heart beating, then pop them

into your mouth with a spoonful of bran flakes and milk.

I make tea, watch the sparrows out the window.

There is so much I want to say to you but the words

catch in the small cage of my throat

while the questions hang in the air–

where will you go when you leave this world,

what will happen once you’re gone?

The answers elude me but what I know

for certain as we sit here together writing

a list for the grocery store–

you jot down salmon and cream,

I add apples, almonds and beets–

is the light in your face this morning,

hand silently moving across the page

 

-from Beauty and Beyond: Songs of Small Mercies

(to order see or www.lorrainegane.com)

Soul = the expression of your essence

“You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” Tom Peters, Management Consultant

Is there anyplace in your life where you are playing small?  Self doubt can cause us to give away our personal power.  Many people, including myself, believe that we are living during a paradigm shift that is asking for greater consciousness, deeper authenticity and self-expression that flows from our unique sense of genius.  We are stepping into a time when we are invited to move past blame, shame, limited beliefs, excuses and the like into stepping up to make a difference in our own unique ways – in our families, communities, businesses/workplaces, on our planet.

We are all meant to give and receive.  We give away our power when we believe we don’t have any.  Contrarily, we are tapped into our personal power when we are connected with source energy, that universal, abundant, always generous energy that flows through us when we are open and aware and willing to receive.  Source energy gets blocked by busyness, procrastion and self-doubt.  Source energy heals, energizes and supports the full expression of who we are.

“We all have the power to transform ourselves and consciously choose something that does not already exist.  At any moment we can create something beyond what is.” Julie Ann Turner.

We can serve the greater good in more ways, in some way large or small.  All acts of loving kindness, of care, of reaching out, of stepping up, of connecting, of transforming - all create a velocity of pure potential for profound and important shifts at the individual, group and global level.

Regular reflective writing helps you get crystal clear about your value, your worthiness, your story and the unique contribution you are here to make.  The blank page invites your voice, your lived experience, your story and the longings in your heart.  In this context, I believe journaling is soul work – a process that takes us into the heart of ourselves.  When we access this place, this is where our personal power lives, it is the doorway to greater inner peace.

Reflective journaling is tool and a practice that helps you feel inner peace in the cells of your being, in the calm of your mind, in the stillness in your heart.

Reflective journaling helps you meet your greatness on the page and in your life.

We have a brief time to do what we are here to do.  A lifetime.  One lifetime.  Bring regular reflective journaling alongside your life and open into your greatest joy, potential, desires and contributions.  One word, one thought, one feeling, one story at a time.

Join me for my next Life Source Writing™ Virtual Retreat and learn how to tap into the transformational power of journaling so that you can tap into the transformational power in you.

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” Margaret Fuller

What inspires me is…

Sunshine.  Date nights with my honey.  Play time with my sons. Morning coffee. Adele cranked on the stereo.  Writing retreats.  Green Point National Park, Long Beach, Tofino, BC.  The view from our living room.  Art Galleries. A good book. Writing in a hip coffee shop.  People watching. Running on the treadmill.  Rumi poems. Hikes amidst the big trees.  Slow dancing.  Fast dancing.  Van Morrison.  My mother.  My other mother (I’m adopted).  The tide. Watching the Olympics.  Ted Talks.  Personal training session with Debfit.ca.  Reading magazines (while not being interupted by my children).  My children.  My husband. My husband’s sculptures.  Listening to great speakers.  Time with my Goddess gal pals (soul sisters).  Road trips.  A glass of wine beside the fire. People watching. Time in hot spots.  Hawaii.  Mexico.  Writing in my journal.  People who make a difference inspire me.  Life inspires me.

Quotes inspire me…

“Life loves the person who dares to live it.”  Maya Angelou

And you?

What inspires YOU?  Please share a comment here…I want to be inspired by YOU.

Go ahead, just writing about what inspires you, can inspire you!!

 

I love offering virtual retreats, including my Life Source Writing Virtual Retreat - clients value being part of this co-created retreat time together and they appreciate being able to access this writing for wellness event from the comfort of their own home/location including the anonymity (freedom) this provides them to deep dive with their ideas, feelings and insights while Writing Alone Together (title of a co-authored book I have in progress).

Here are 10 reasons that clients appreciate virtual services (accessed by telephone or online):

What are the top ten benefits and reasons clients appreciate virtual services?

1. Apply your learning in “real time” – meaning you do not have to take four days out of your life to attend a 1-2 day retreat program, or a whole day to attend a three hour workshop or training.
2. Reduce travel costs and travel time: reduce the costs of gas, parking, and time it takes to get to an in person session or event.
3. Contribute to environmentally friendly/carbon friendly ways of connecting and learning.
4. Connect with other group coaching/retreat participants not just locally, but globally: all at no extra cost!
5. Learn more at your own pace and in your own style.
6. Enjoy both group and individual exercises and sessions.
7. Implement your action plans and commitments right away.
8. Create the space to learn and retreat more frequently in your own home, office or other designated place of your choice.
9. Wear what you want, sit in your favourite chair, participate in powerful interactions from the comfort of your own environment.
10. Participate in a fun, convenient mode of connecting, learning and growing!

A comfort tip: buy a headset to plug into your phone so that you can be hands free – to move, take notes, rest your arms… remember physical comfort is an important part of learning.

Thank you to fellow coach – Jennifer Britton of Potentials Realized – for sharing some of her client’s feedback about the benefits of virtual services to help inform this top ten list.

And you?  Have you participated in virtual events?  What do you like about this way of connecting and learning?  I’m curious!

Self-care includes all of the activities, beliefs, and energy that you embrace in service to living your most healthy, inspired and joy-filled life.  Self-care is NOT selfish.

Here comes what you already know to be true in the deepest part of yourself…

Being a self-sacrificing martyr at the expense of your own health, well-being and happiness does not benefit anyone – not your partner/spouse, children, family, career/business.  Instead, self neglect depletes you, creates resentment, contributes to feelings of depression, low energy and burnout.  We MUST have regular practices, habits, actions that replenish, relax and renew us in mind, body, heart and spirit to reduce stress, heal (which means to make whole), and be well.  Joy lives at the heart of well-being.  It is very difficult (impossible) to feel real joy and happiness if you are run down, worn out, exhausted, miserable, and feeling like you are on auto-pilot.  If this is how you are feeling – know that you can turn this around and reclaim your energy, inspiration and vitality.

The time is NOW to commit to lovingly caring for yourself, each and every day.  Not once in awhile, or later when you might have more time, or when the stars align – but now.   You are worthy of unapologetic, guilt free, self-care!  Every part of your life will come alive in the swell and spirit of loving self-care.  It really will.

I know the road of self neglect, well.  It used to be normal for me to have my own needs on the bottom of my “to do” list.  After a failed marriage and some other defining moments, I grew to realize that there could be another way.  I learned self sacrifice does not serve the greater good.  There are no wins from abandoning the self.  None!  You know it and I know it.  You are more than the sum of how you serve, care for, show up and tend to the needs of others.  You are a heart-centered soulful woman deserving of filling your emotional, physical and spiritual cup.  Your self-care is never a selfish act, rather it is wisdom alive in your life.

Step one to fully embracing self-care - make a non-negotiable commitment to showing up to care for yourself for a minimum of 10 minutes a day.  Perhaps simply sitting still, looking out at the ocean or lake or forest (letting mother nature nourish your nature), a candlelit bubble bath, a quiet walk, some silence, stillness and solitude, time to write in your journal, to be in your own heart and body with kindness - maybe you look in the mirror, look into your own eyes and say the following affirmation…

I love you me, I am here.  I am here now to care for you with a wide open heart.  I am here with full permission, no guilt, and great loving kindness and compassion.  I am here to listen to the whispers of truth within.  I am here to honour my mind, body, heart and spirit.  I am here to receive universal source energy for fulfillment, insights and joy.  I can feel my enoughness.  I am enough.  I am safe.  I am here.  Receiving.  With ease.  With thanks.

Let yourself come home to yourself in whatever way feels right to you.  Breathe.  Arrive.  Let go.  Forgive.  Dance.  Be still.  Do what you need to do to be present at the alter of your own beautiful being.  Let yourself be new, moment by moment.

You are not alone.  You are part of a circle of women striving to be the best we can be – in both our inner worlds and outer lives.  One by one and together, we can increase the vibration of health and happiness in our world.  In ourselves…

Love, Lynda