Be True to Yourself

I hope this finds you rested and relaxed after a long Memorial Day weekend!

This holiday is about remembering the people who fought for our freedoms, and it's a good reminder to pause for a moment in gratitude for all that we have. We have so much opportunity to be true to ourselves here in the US, and yet so many of us are too afraid or stuck to live our lives from a heart-centered authentic place. In my article below, I share a technique I use to stay true to myself and my dreams every week. I hope you enjoy!

A dear client of mine found this old email exchange between us in her archives last week from when she was first in a coaching program with me in 2009.

It was a good reminder for both of us about saying Yes to ourselves and No to others in order to be true to ourselves and our businesses. I thought it would be nice to share it with you as well.

By the way, I still do use this technique to stay true to myself, and after a lot of practice ~ I'm pretty good at it now! I hope you block off some time for yourself over this long weekend, too!

Enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Joanna!!

This e-mail is another one of what I would like to call your 4As: Amazing Advice As Always!!!

I want to print it and tape it to my planner...

From the heart...

Carving out 3 things: Self-care, On my practice and In my practice...I love it.

Say YES to me and my practice and NO to other people.

Much love and gratitude,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear ,

If it's from your heart, it will touch people and they will pay attention. People respond to things they resonate with, and when you reach out from your heart you connect with their hearts.

Remember that this is YOUR practice, and you can take all the time you need. In fact, it's crucial to take all the self-care time you need.

I know that a rigid schedule isn't for you, and it's not for me either. Let me tell you a bit about what I do and how it helps me. I think I mentioned this at our mastermind last time. I create my schedule weekly based on what's going on and what's available - who's in town, what kind of events are happening, holidays, clients, personal needs etc..

What I have is a commitment to myself each week to do three things: self-care, working ON my practice, and working IN my practice.

When and how I do this changes each week based on what's happening, but it keeps me focused and on track while also allowing the fluidity that I need with my schedule.

This means that each week, on Sunday for example, I sit down with my schedule and carve out these 3 blocks of time for my practice. (Whether it's an evening after work, a few hours on weekend day, etc..)

So here's how this could work for you.

Make a decision to designate 3 blocks of time each week on growing your practice.

• One block is strictly for self-care,
• Another is for working ON your practice (writing newsletter, reaching out to new clients, designing programs/packages, learning new skills, networking etc..)
• The last block is for being IN your practice at your office space with clients or just visualizing, brainstorming and being creative if you don't have any bookings.

This means that sometimes you are going to have to say No to other people and let people down.

But this kind of commitment to yourself is necessary to make the changes and growth in your life so that you can lead the kind of life you want to lead.

It does take a bit of discipline to say Yes to yourself and your practice and say No to other people every week, but it pays off in the end. You're less frazzled, and there is less stress about trying to meet deadlines for yourself.

This is something I am still perfecting, but it has helped me get where I am today.

I hope you have a wonderful vacation! And when you get back, sit down with your calendar and block off some time for YOU.

Warmly,

Joanna

Do Less. Be More.

I received this message on Friday night. This was after weeks of doing a lot more than usual with my sister's wedding, moving, starting my book, etc... and starting to feel a little fried around the edges.

Wow did it really resonate! Do Less. Be More. What great guidance for summertime!

I really checked in with myself, and I discovered that even my meditation time had become something on my to-do list instead of a time of just being present. I've been in a race against my to-do list, even though I should know better.

The to-do list is just like the kitchen sink. You get it clean, and then you have to eat and use dishes again. It never really reaches a perfect state of clean unless you never use it. Same with my email inbox. It's always refilling, so the emptiness is only temporary unless you are not communicating with anyone.

Where am I going with this?

Do less be more is a gentle clue-by-four from the Universe to shift into a different relationship with the to-do list.

It's always going to be there. How can I BE with the to-do list in a way that doesn't elicit an adrenaline rush? Can I make peace with it, shift things around so there is less to-do each day? What are my priorities?

Being calm, centered and pain free are my priorities, and in the most recent Reiki Master class we talked about how to start the day with Being instead of Doing. I think I need to take my own advice.

Here's what I told my students.

The single most important thing a person can do is to take some quiet "me" time every morning.

This means not starting the day with checking your email, watching the news or yelling at your kids to hurry up.

It means setting aside a few minutes just for you to relax before you start your morning routine or finding a way to incorporate it into your current routine such as listening to soothing music on your commute to work.

Whether you play with your pet, just sit with your favorite beverage savoring the flavors, meditate, do yoga, go for a walk, look out over your garden, play music you enjoy, or reflect in a journal, making the time every morning to just be is a very simple way to maintain sanity and keep stress at bay.

First of all, these special moments just for yourself allow you to be fully present in your day so you can truly own and appreciate it.

By making "me" time first thing, you claim your day, rather than it being claimed by the rat race or your obligations to everyone else day after day.

In addition, this quiet time sets the tone for your day.

If you start out peaceful and focused, chances are the rest of your day will follow suit. Whereas, if you start the day in a rush, frantic and running late, chances are the rest of the day is going to be fairly stressful too.

There is another benefit of spending time BEING every morning before you start doing all the things that need to be done in your day.

The quiet time gives you the opportunity to let creative ideas gestate, solutions to be discovered, and inspiration to happen because your mind is open and receptive instead of preoccupied like when you are busy the rest of the day.

This weekend, I spent a lot of time just being with myself, my cat and my sweetie. I felt myself slow down, stretch out and relax. Pain alleviated. It was great. I need to do this more often!

This morning, I made time to be before I started the Monday routine. I was surprisingly productive and focused, I think because of all the time practicing being present over the weekend. It's harder to be distracted by Facebook, Twitter, text messages, phone calls, the news etc... when you are being fully present with the task at hand.

Do less. Be more. Let's relax together this week!

Healing my relationship with Money

Over the first few years of being self-employed, my business revenue doubled each year. That's pretty sweet, and it told me that I was reaching out to the right people in a way that resonates. It also indicated that my programs were successful and people kept showing up to work with me.

Yet despite this growing trend in revenue, I found that I was paying myself about the same amount as the first year - more or less nothing.

All the revenue my business brought in mysteriously disappeared each month before I could pay myself. Not only that, my business didn't feel stable (despite it's growth and success) because I was still operating on a week-to-week cash flow where the money goes out almost faster than it came in.

My business savings towards future growth wasn't growing, and neither was my paycheck. (What savings? What paycheck?)

I had known for a long while that I had a block in relationship to money, which is why I worked on it with my business mentor and my financial advisor. And yet, despite the wonderful systems they gave me to create good habits with my business finances none of it really clicked for me. I'd try a system and by the 3rd week I'd start avoiding money again.

I seriously had a problem here, but I was stumped on how to change it.

Then I had a breakthrough when I heard Mark Silver talking about responsibility. He said that we are responsible for showing up for ourselves, our clients, our family and friends. He talked about a lot of us misplace this responsibility, sometimes believing we are responsible for what happens next after we show up, but we are not. It's our job to show up, do the work, and then surrender it.

I realized at that moment that I had not been showing up for myself. I was not holding myself responsible in my relationship with money.

My usual reaction to money had been "Ugh, I don't want to deal with this," and I would find something else to do. I fell into a habit of being very passive about money, allowing it to flow right out of the business as fast as it was coming in. I was allowing others to influence where my money came from and where it went.

Oh boy. Facing that was pretty sucky.

I decided, finally, that it was time for me to get responsible and proactive with my money and face all the emotional stuff I had been avoiding.

The first step was to take stock of where the money was coming from each month, and where it was going. Ooh this was really an eye opener for me! I discovered that for some of the services I offered, the fee did not cover the expenses. It was actually costing me quite a bit to offer them.

Um. Ugh. Oops. That was a pretty upsetting discovery.

I gave myself time to sit with the yucky emotions, eat ice cream, and meditate until I had processed it all. I was ready to take responsibility for it. Part of taking responsibility was owning that I was the one who created the situation, and that it was ok to forgive myself, learn from it and do something different.

I figured out my emotional reasoning behind the services offered so cheaply. Some of what had motivated me at the time was wanting to please the people working with me by creating a rate they couldn't refuse. I realized, though, that these low rates mostly prevented people from really investing in themselves and working the program. With a price point so low, it was no big deal to sign up and shrug it off if you didn't get around to following through.

I had created a situation for my clients that didn't give them the best possible support and structure for success. Not only that, offering a program at cost to me wasn't helping me be successful either. What a lesson to learn!

Another part of taking responsibility was putting in the time, thought, heart and effort to restructure and get a handle on my business finances. I committed making bookkeeping a priority so I could always pull up a snapshot of my finances instead of guessing what the pile of receipts on my desk represented financially.

I also started fiddling with budgets and spreadsheets and invited this work to bring healing to my relationship with money. I hung in there and sat through all the yucky emotions that came up. Remembrance and tonglen breathing came in very handy during this process.

As I became acquainted with my finances and shifted my business so it had more financially healthy habits, I gave myself plenty of TLC, self-care and breaks. I kept working at it until I emerged on the other side like a butterfly leaving it's cocoon. I was a butterfly who felt empowered and inspired about the flow of money into and out of her business and life. It really was a beautiful transformation.

And if I could do it, you can too.

A new way to be in business

Over the last decade, I have witnessed and worked in all aspects of the wellness industry watching it bloom, decline, shift and evolve in response to the world economy and growing awareness, globally, of what is needed for healthy communities, people and natural environments.

We have become a global society, connected to our communities locally and online across the globe via the internet and social media. We are no longer sheltered and isolated, aware only of what happens locally and what is reported on the news. We are a global society who can witness, experience and be active in helping humanity and mother nature heal from our own destruction of the earth, the upheaval in communities by natural disasters, consequences from economic ups and downs, war, famine, political games, etc... across the world through the innovation of technology and instant communication.

Inside this global society, a shift has begun. People are moving away from the excess, waste and destruction of monolithic companies and corporations into collaborative communities of individuals, organizations and small businesses who are creating conscious change and healing through their humanitarian, heart-centered and environmentally conscious works.

Specifically, we ~ the progressive, intuitive healers who are ushering in a new (or old depending on how you look at it) paradigm of living in harmony with mother nature and within our own human communities ~ need to consciously transform the act of being in business into a heart-centered, relationship and service oriented enterprise that is grounded in abundance and collaboration instead of greed and competition.

The truth is that we cannot leave the "dirty" work of running a business to those who don't understand that we are ushering in a healing evolution, and we simply cannot successfully guide and facilitate the healing of others without healing our own relationship with money and business.

We need to heal and reclaim the notion of what it is to be in business and to be in service.

We are on the cutting edge of this healing evolution, and it is up to us to show our clients, our students, and everyone else how to live and work in harmony with each other and mother earth. That's a pretty big responsibility, isn't it? And yet, it wouldn't be honest or healthy if we healers ignored this aspect to our own healing and growth.

Starting a heart-centered business is simply another part of your personal healing journey, and I invite you to join me on this path if there is an urging in your heart to help others. Don't be afraid to follow your heart or the guidance of your spirit. You don't have to figure everything out on your own. There are heart and soul centered mentors, like me, paving the way, making it possible for you to become an intuitive, inspired business owner that works and lives with integrity, compassion and abundance for your own highest potential and the greater good of all.

Do you have what it takes to be in a heart-centered business for yourself? I believe you do.

If you have what it takes to be committed to your own well-being, your own spiritual development and to treating others with love and compassion, then I know in my heart that you have the kind of commitment it takes to grow a heart-centered business that provides healing and growth opportunities for those who need your support and guidance.

Not only that, you have what it takes to allow your heart-centered work to be a channel for abundance, prosperity and love in your life and in this new global society.

Ask me how!