Have fun. Laugh a lot. And feel young and free again!

Some of us take adulthood very seriously. In fact, we are dead serious about being serious. Actually in all seriousness, being serious isn’t as serious as it’s made out to be. Being silly and having fun, now that's serious business. Last night I spent time on Church Street toasting marshmallows, and eating s’mores, drinking hot chocolate  and singing carols with the Salvation Army Man. I was about the business of having fun and I made contacts for my business in the process.

In the midst of all the joy, like the Grinch, there was a pinch then a moment that began to turn the tide. While standing in the freezing cold, with Popsicle fingers instead of Popsicle toes (nod to my mom and Micheal Franks) handing out “free pyramid sessions”, that people refused (That’s a whole other article about how we say no and don’t even know what we are saying no to, you know ….lol) ooh where was I …. Oh yea, During that sixty second period of time that felt like a very long while, I came upon a feeling that was like Pinocchio’s nose, it began to grow. For one reason or another I felt that I was missing potential customers and in that moment, felt anxious. Now just as fast as you please that anxiousness was starting to take over like an unwanted virus with an express card with carte blanc. What is a girl to do to get off the Reading Railroad and onto Park Place? I took a breath, dropped into the moment, let go of expectations and just like that I was back in CandyLand.

So this holiday season while still making deadlines, grading papers and stirring the pots and tossing the pans, stay in the moment. When circumstances and even people try and get you to play the game of sadness, madness and joyless-ness,
take a clue from fireman and STOP, DROP and ROLL.

Stop: Take a breath
Drop: Into the moment, into your heart, onto your knees……just drop cause you can’t put the fire out any other way, and…….
Roll: With what is going on, no resistance, releasing expectations and fully accepting what is.

And before you know it you’ll be back in Kansas with the click of your ruby slipper so you can Have fun. Laugh a lot. And feel young and free again!

Healing the Inner Child

As the time gets nearer for my retreat “Return to your Radiance” Healing the inner child before the holidays, I feel myself really connecting with my inner child. This awareness is showing me the many ways I have yet to grow up. It is bringing clarity to behavioral patterns that are in place that do not support what I say I want. It is showing me the incongruences that keep me from having the life I want. It is showing me how I unconsciously sabotage myself . What does it look like and how to address? 

It shows up as 

• a desire to create more than execute
• A want to get my own way more than make a way
• procrastination
• An increase in eating sugary foods
• lack of focus
• resistance to planning

How it shows up in each of our lives will be different. The point is she/he is there slowing eroding relationships and poisoning our ability to stand fully in our power. How do you change these behaviors? There are three essential keys to changing them and when practiced you will see amazing results. 

1. First Key Awareness

• You can’t become aware if you’re not willing to pay attention to yourself.
• Connect to yourself hold your left hand on your heart and your right hand on the hara-point just below the belly button then ask yourself  “what do I really need, desire and feel?” and then get quiet. 

    2. Second Key Acceptance 

• You have to accept full responsibility for your life and all that has happened, all that is present in order to create a future you and a future unlike the present state of affairs. 
• Holding your right hand on your heart and your left hand onto of it repeat 3 X’s out loud and 3X’s silently “I deeply and unconditionally, Love, appreciate and accept myself exactly as I am.” Sit quietly in that space focusing on your heart. Breathe into your heart and out of the hara-point ,the space just below your belly button but above the sacral chakra. (If you don’t know the chakras please google or request a chakra chart from me)

     3. Third Key Acknowledgement

• You have to acknowledge the behavior in the moment that it is happening or in the very least take an assessment of yourself daily to acknowledge whether your life is moving in the direction you desire or not. 
• Journal nightly and ask yourself the following 10 questions before you lay you down to sleep. 

1. How loving was I to myself today?
2. Did I keep my commitments to myself?
3. Did I follow or deviate from  plans I laid out for myself?
4. Did what I did today bring me closer to my dreams?
5. Have I exhibited this behavior before? 
6. Which of my choices supported what I said I want?
7. Which of my choices not support what I said I want?
8. How did I blame others for my choices today?
9. How did I take full responsibility for my choices?
10. What choices can I make tomorrow or now that will show self Love and are free of blame, shame and attack?

End this process using the second key. Doing this process nightly you will see amazing results!

These first three keys lay the foundation to support you in taking the next most appropriate step in creating an action plan for your desires. It helps clear the slate so that when you begin you are starting from a place of calm, self-love and inner cooperation. You are going to want to create a schedule, regimen, or system that allows for creativity and structure carved out in the way you can fully enjoy both aspect of yourself, the adult you and the inner child you. The inner child isn’t something we want to lock away, destroy or get ride of. They are a valuable and necessary aspect of our being that keeps us young, lively and joyful just because we are alive. Working together with our inner child we can live full abundant lives filled with joy and laughter.