Digging up your inner stuff

Digging up your inner stuff

In the very near future, my Reiki Master students will be graduating from the 5 month intensive training program with their Reiki Master certification. You might think that a Reiki Master program is all about learning the Reiki System of Natural Healing techniques and how to use them on others.

That doesn't really cover it though. Reiki Master training is so much more - it's an investment in yourself. Working with energy is working with emotions, mental habits and behavioral patterns, especially your own. If you aren't clear about your own inner stuff, you're not going to be able to facilitate healing on a Reiki Master level for someone else. Reiki Master training is truly mastery of yourself. (If you're interested in studying with me, look here.)

It's been amazing to watch these perservering students focus on self-care in the face of much homework practicing techniques on volunteers over the last five months. It's been empowering to witness them discover inside themselves the capacity to do things they had never considered before. Even more powerful than their courageous acts of facing their doubts and fears has been seeing them begin to manifest the dreams they've held quietly in their hearts for a long while.

I remember back to when I first graduated with my Masters Degree in Natural Health and then later with my Reiki Master certification. I was burning with passion and ready to launch myself out into the world as a wellness practitioner to help others on their healing journeys.

This was years ago before the wellness industry became a hot topic, and I had no idea how to start a practice. It was many years of attempts with other jobs to pay the bills in between before I finally figured out what it takes to be a successful self-employed service professional.

It's not what you might think.

It's not being the best in your field or even knowing all the special business systems that self-employed entrepreneurs use.

It's really all about your inner stuff.

Where you are emotionally, psychologically and spiritually affects your clarity of vision. You need a clear outer vision - how you feel called to be of service in the world - and clear inner vision - knowing and trusting yourself and being open to inspiration. That is what it takes to succeed as a service professional with dreams of healing and changing the world.

Without this clarity of vision, your inner fears, doubts and subconcious patterns are going to put up roadblocks and hold you back from living out your calling. They will trip you up and hold you back from being as successful as you desire.

And there is nothing better for getting really deep perspective on yourself than working with other like-minded individuals who are also pursuing their dreams. The inspiration of motivated, passionate, compassionate individuals who are clearing away the blocks in their path to success can create powerful healing and bigger dreams for all.

In the last year, I have been working with heart-centered practitioners and entrepreneurs, sometimes one-on-one, but often pulling them together into groups to collaborate and dig deep in working on their inner stuff. These individuals are moving forward with their dreams to be of service and change the world from a place of clarity and confidence. Over the summer, I will be sharing their success stories with you.

If you have a dream and a calling to be of service too, but you don't know quite how to work through your inner stuff, and if its keeping you from getting started or moving your dreams to the next level, one of my programs may be for you.

What if you are already good enough?

In preparation for the creative retreat I attended last weekend, my mentor had all of the participants read The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of our Inner Resources by Lynne Twist.

Ms. Twist, a long time fundraiser and activist for The Hunger Project who has worked closely with some of the most resource rich and resource poor individuals and communities in the world, puts forth some revolutionary ideas about our capacity to experience abundance no matter where we are in the world and what our access to money is like.

She actually challenges us to let go of the money myths that have become the foundations of our Western capitalist culture ("there isn't enough to go around so stockpile as much as you can for you and yours") and replace them with a liberating, and ancient, myth of abundance ("there is enough for all of us").

At this creative retreat, we explored how to weave the myth of abundance into our businesses, lifestyle and even spirituality. As we explored how to integrate our passions and businesses with our chosen lifestyle, we were actually exploring how the paradigm of enough could liberate, not just our relationship with money, but our relationship with ourselves, our families, our clients, and all the other people in our communities.

A series of "what if" questions started popping into my mind as the ramifications of the myth of abundance began to sink into my consciousness.

• What if individuals started to realize that they are good enough just as they are?
• What if communities began to see that there are enough resources for everyone if they work together?
• What if there is always enough love and support to nourish me and everyone else?
• What if none of us has to earn dignity, worth, value, love, abundance, opportunities, appreciation, gifts, income and anything else our hearts desire?
• What if we are all inherently good enough to receive these gifts?
• What if it's just a matter of being open to revealing this abundance inside of ourselves and our communities?

Though my mentor has been trying to teach me this for a while, it wasn't until I came home from the retreat did I start to really understand how my entire life and my business could be different if I approached it from this lens of abundance.

Your Transformational Homework this week:

Listen to my lecture & guided meditation about how to open the flow of abundance in your life. Click here to listen.

Reflect on these questions, write in your journal and talk about them with others.

What if you are already good enough? How would that change your life and work?

What if your gifts are enough? What if following your bliss is enough?

Put my manifesto up somewhere you can read it every day:

I AM ENOUGH
by Joanna Scaparotti

"By virtue of being conceived, I have inherent dignity, value and worth. I am loved unconditionally, and I am provided for completely. Abundance, love, appreciation and opportunities are my birthright. It is my duty to open my heart and receive. I am receptive and joyfully receiving the gifts, opportunities, appreciation and love the Universe provides me.

I work to be of Service and fully express my joy, love and appreciation of the gifts given to me. I do not work to prove my worth, earn my keep, or to provide the means to live my life. I express my gifts by surrendering fear, control, doubt, self-criticism, and guilt. Instead I open to unconditional love and blessings.

And I ask today and every day - how can I serve? How can I express my gifts? How can I receive? How can I give?"

Still stuck?

Listen to Joanna's guided meditation for dreaming without limitations from her Lulu store here, or schedule a private breakthrough session with Joanna on the phone or in person.

Are you getting in your own way?

The truth is that sometimes you get in your own way.

When this happens, you're not always aware of it at first, and it usually has more to do with your emotional state than anything else. These roadblocks that you create for yourself come from fears and limiting beliefs. We make decisions about what is and isn't possible in our lives (and careers) based on these subconscious factors that play out without our awareness at times.

It often takes hitting a pretty hard block in the road and deep frustration and disappointment before you can start to realize that you are getting in your own way, blocking the success you really want to manifest in your life.

Getting really clear about your heart's desire can be a challenge if there are roadblocks in the way. Roadblocks can include conscious or subconscious fears, limiting beliefs, self-sabotaging habits, procrastination, your own doubts, and the doubts of people in your life.

What you may not know is that roadblocks - those subconscious fears, habits or patterns - are there to protect you, even if they aren't really helping you attain your goals at the moment. So it can be very helpful to approach them from a gentle place of compassion in order to best learn what you need to move forward from that stuck place.

Often these fears and beliefs about who we are and how we are supposed to act are put into place by our minds while we are still children. We make up rules about what we're supposed to do based on our limited understanding of what's happening in our environment. These assumptions continue to play out in adulthood until we challenge and unravel them so that we can move forward in our lives.

So how do you get out of your own way?

Trust yourself and your inner guidance. I think this is the hardest part. Often, on some level, I know what I need to do to overcome or remove the roadblocks in my way. Yet, what I need to do is often something I don't like or don't believe. I think this is true for most of us.

And yet accessing your inner guidance is not something most of us are good at. We look to others to figure out what's right or wrong, instead of looking inside our hearts to find out what's exactly what we need and desire.

Developing the skill of listening to your inner wisdom is crucial to quickly and gently overcoming the emotional roadblocks that get in the way.

Even if you don't like or don't believe the inner wisdom you receive when you listen to your heart for guidance, I want you to take that step anyways. Suspend disbelief, and just try it and see what happens before you judge it. Even if you don't like it.

Developing the confidence to trust your inner guidance and take those steps to move forward takes practice, and it's what sets you up to be successful in creating the life you desire.

Your Transformational Homework this week:

Sit or recline comfortably somewhere you won't be disturbed for about 30 minutes. Have your journal with you. Relax.

Ask yourself this question: "What's holding me back from achieving this practice?" and just wait with an open mind for an answer to float into your mind.

Once you have an idea in mind about your biggest or most urgent roadblock, bring it to mind. Reflect on it, but don't give up.

Ask yourself these questions: "How does this roadblock serve me? How is it protecting me or what is it giving me?"

Once you have clarity about your most pressing roadblock, it's now time to find out how to get around it. Ask yourself: "What step can I take right now to get around or remove this road block and move closer to achieving my vision?"

Write down all your observations, thoughts and feelings in your journal. Also write down the step that came to you for getting around or removing the roadblock that's challenging you right now.

Not great at listening to your inner guidance on your own?

Download Joanna's guided meditation for overcoming roadblocks from her Lulu store here, or schedule a private breakthrough session with Joanna on the phone or in person.

Transform your inner perfectionist

Recently, it's come to my attention that I have an inner perfectionist. This discovery came as a shock to me, but when I mentioned it to close friends and family, they all nodded and agreed. How strange it was to meet this part of my personality, and yet it was so powerful to become aware of how these subconscious influences affect my life.

I suspect that each inner perfectionist has her own characteristics and job to do. In my case, my inner perfectionist is the driving force behind me striving to give 100% or better much of the time. And she is the little voice in my head that cautions me against trying something new if she's not 100% certain I can succeed, do a great job, or do whatever it is without upsetting anyone.

I realized that my inner perfectionist is behind a lot of the procrastinating in my life which often results in missed opportunities.

She holds me back from speaking up when things aren't working for me and asking for a change that better meets my needs because she doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. She puts the brakes on unproven, innovative new ideas that might really serve my clients because she doesn't want to make a mistake.

While I suspect that my inner perfectionist came into being in my younger years to protect me from doing things that might seriously injure me or get me into a lot of trouble. I sure can recall several incidents in my childhood where she would have come in handy! Yet, her strict rules seem to keep me stuck in unhealthy and uninspiring situations as an adult. And while she provides excellent customer service to my clients, her unwavering standards lead to exhaustion.

In fact, psychologists have discovered that giving these inner perfectionists free reign to strive for 100% all the time lead to many challenges like fatigue, depression, anxiety and the physical symptoms of chronic stress. Many of us are trained culturally or driven internally to be perfectionists all of the time, and despite our best efforts, we often fall short of our expectations and end up exhausted and disappointed in ourselves.

I don't know about you, but this is certainly a pattern in my life.

An inner perfectionist can be hard to spot, but there are some signs that give her away. For example, inner perfectionists are much harder on themselves than they are on anyone else. If you find that you give yourself a hard time about something that you would forgive or not even blink an eye about if someone else did it - you may have an inner perfectionist.

Another sign: procrastination! If you find yourself putting off doing something because you don't have exactly the right tools or skills to do it just right and you're afraid of making a fool out of yourself or because you're afraid of upsetting someone else by making a change or being successful - you may have an inner perfectionist.

If you do discover that, like me, you have an inner perfectionist - don't do what I did when I discovered it. I gave myself a hard time about it in true perfectionist form.

Instead, give yourself permission to not be perfect all the time and relax. Whether that means giving yourself space to to be average, adventurous, willing to disappoint others some of the time, or to make a fool out of yourself - give yourself permission to try things without worrying about getting it right.

And give your inner perfectionist a lot of compassion because she's working overtime to keep you and your reputation safe - perhaps it's time to send her on vacation for a while. If your inner perfectionist was on vacation, what would you do differently in your relationships, at home, at work?

My inner perfectionist used to keep me from walking through open doors of opportunity discovered by my intuition or being in the right place at the right time. I would freeze up, not feel ready or good enough. I let a lot of things pass me by while I was trying to please her.

By challenging my inner perfectionist and transforming her powerful energy into purpose and courage, I was able to transform our relationship into something that serves me instead of hindering my successes.

Now this Inner Diva inside of me fuels me in leaping from one opportunity to the next. My transformed perfectionist allows me to deliver 100% to whomever I am with, and without all that self-criticism and worry, I still have emotional energy left over for fun, new opportunities and plenty of creative innovation.

If you don't know how to transform your inner perfectionist into a wildly successful diva. My course Succeed Like a Diva will take you through a transformational journey within the loving, compassionate support of a mastermind group.

You'll learn new techniques for dealing with frustrations, fears, and procrastination, and you will step into the empowerment to courageously live a life of abundance and vibrancy. You will also learn how to shift into the Diva Success way of being that lets you live from your heart in a way that naturally and effortlessly attracts (and fulfills) the opportunities and success that you desire.

Succeed Like a Diva starts May 2nd, and I don't want you to miss this amazing course! For the first 5 people who respond to this email saying "I want to Succeed Like a Diva!", I am offering you a special opportunity to participate in this course for just $199. Check out the rest of the details here, and then send me an email to register!

When things aren't going your way: what to do when you hit a roadblock in life or business.

Last week I talked about how you don't have to be perfect to be successful. Sometimes, in fact, you do everything just right, and things still don't work out. You planned carefully, put your intentions out to the Universe, crossed all your t's and dotted all your i's, and still, life has a funny way of derailing the best laid plans at times.

When that happens, it's pretty easy to feel frustrated, impatient, angry, overwhelmed, confused, disappointed, and unsure of yourself. Even worse, I notice a lot of my clients and friends take things a step further and start being really hard on themselves for not being perfect and making the outcome work out they way they intended. So add to the original feelings a lot of guilt, self-loathing and berating.

This is a pretty rough place to be in and can start a downward spiral that takes you further and further from the success and abundance you want in your life.

When life happens to derail your best laid plans, I encourage you to take a step back and practice what the Buddhists call non-attachment. Non-attachment is letting go of your attachment to the outcome, and also letting go of your false sense of control over the situation. Release your misplaced responsibility, and approach yourself with compassion. Even if you do find that there was a true mistake of judgment that you made in the situation, you can apologize, learn your lesson and move on from it without being mean to yourself.

I learned about non-attachment over the last three years on my journey with chronic pain. I know all the tricks for managing pain, and sometimes even my best intentions don't work. Pain, like so many things in life, often has a mind and a purpose of it's own that is completely outside of my conscious control. In the beginning, I would inflict a lot of anger and self-hatred on my body for subjecting me to this misery, but I eventually realized that this wasn't getting me anywhere but more unhappy.

I realized that just like when completely unanticipated things happen, I can't always control pain. But I can control my response and actions. I can choose not to have an angry or knee-jerk reaction and instead to respond to the situation at hand in a way that feels right and aligned with my original intentions.

I came up with this simple process for dealing with a flare-up and dealing with unanticipated life situations that throw me for a loop. Step 1 ~ Stop: Take a deep breath and release the need to be in control of the situation on your exhale. Step 2 ~ Listen: Ask your Core self, Inner Voice or Intuition what do I need right now? Listen for the answer as long as you need until you are certain. Step 3 ~ Respond with a Loving Action: Choose how you want to respond to the situation from a loving place. Be kind to yourself, the other people involved and even allow yourself to laugh a bit about the predicament you are in.

If you can, thank the Universe for this lesson to slow down, reassess and get clarity. What I've discovered is that when I can approach the unexpected, unplanned interruptions with compassion, and even a bit of gratitude, another opportunity presents itself.

In fact, success is not doing things perfectly all the time, or even part of the time. Success comes when you are confident enough in yourself and your convictions to weather the ups and downs of the unexpected and jump on the opportunities that present themselves to you. Success is the result of your ability to respond in each situation in a way that's aligned with your goals and values, instead of getting lost in a self-defeating cycle of self-abuse, guilt and anger.

Practicing the three simple steps I outlined for you above can help you become successful. If you want or need more support and guidance in transforming your approach to challenges and roadblocks, Succeed Like a Diva may be for you. It'll bring you through a transformational journey within the loving, compassionate support of a mastermind group.

You'll learn new techniques for dealing with roadblocks, and you will step into the empowerment to courageously live a life of abundance and vibrancy. You will also learn how to shift into the Diva Success way of being that doesn't get stuck at roadblocks so you can live from your heart in a way that naturally and effortlessly attracts the opportunities and success that you desire. It starts May 2nd, and the early bird rates are in effect until April 25th. Check out the rest of the details here.