True Balance Life Coaching

This summer has been extraordinary. One of the best I can recall. Most weekends have been devoted to beach-combing, floating and capturing images of Leelanau County AKA “The County”. My back yard is primarily made up of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore,  just voted the most beautiful place in America by Good Morning America viewers. How cool is that?

Weekdays were devoted to coaching brilliant clients, finishing a new line of self-paced coaching workbooks and participating in the Inspired Living Telesummit along side a group of extraordinary and highly creative entrepreneurs.

I let go of one version of my young daughter as she skipped off to equestrian camp for two weeks and came home morphed into a new version of her extraordinary self.

I faced and began healing a new set of emotional wounds, found the courage to open my heart and visited with ghosts corporeal and noncorporeal from a childhood long past.

The lesson?  When you do the work and make time to soak up the sweetness of your life, the path of true balance feels clear and supportive. Always in motion. Always a loyal dance. Always a reminder of what we have to be grateful for.

Three Ways to soak up the last bits of Summer:

Highly recommended if you are ready to open your heart and allow for joyful creative expression.

• Visit with a childhood friend

I hadn’t been friends with Leslie Winzer since 7th grade. We were thick as thieves from 3rd-7th grade. Then we went in search of who we would become as teenagers without the safety of our long-term friendship.   Two weeks ago I received an email from Leslie inviting me to lunch, I was excited and a little freaked out. Did I really want to open a dialogue with a person I  had seen since childhood? I agreed to meet my old friend for lunch. When we did meet, there was so much energy surrounding us that we could barely manage to eat our lunch. We caught up on the ghosts of our childhoods. Discovered we’d shared some of the same kid fears and bullies. Neither of us could figure out when or why we stopped being friends. I am grateful to Leslie for taking a chance to suggest our reunion. I expect I will see her again the next times she rolls into the county for a holiday.  Is there a childhood friend you’s like to connect with? Go for it!

• Create time to walk in nature and capture images of the beauty surrounding you

You deserve to surround yourself with natural beauty. I choose to live on one of the most breathtaking places on earth. I find the natural beauty of my surroundings inspirational.  I wrote a great deal of Life on Your Terms while at the shores of Lake Michigan. Plus, there is something magical about the fours seasons of the north country. I am grateful to live in an area surrounded by lush forests, hundreds of lakes, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. When will you make it a priority to take a walk on woodland path or enjoy an invigorating hike along the beach? Grab your camera and chase  a sunset!

• Allow a full day devoted to self-discovery

Self Discovery is not just for hippies and philosophers. Each of us owe it to ourselves to explore our full potential personally and professionally. Personal liberation is enjoyed by to those of us who have the courage to life the veil of the status-quo and stop bumping around in our day-today-ness.  What do you love? What inspires you? What kind of music, literature, and art do you most admire? It’s time to look at your strengths. Your interests. What makes you the miracle that you are. You deserve to develop a deeply satisfying relationship with yourself. Begin your self assessment today by journaling your answers or posting them here on the blog.

Big LOVE and blessings to you.

“True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.”

On Letting Go …

Some of  my life experiences this year have been excellent teachings about the art of letting go. In the last 7 months I let go of one of my closest friends, said farewell to one of my biggest limiting beliefs, and said “a holding back the tears” goodbye to my young daughter as she skipped off for two weeks of equestrian camp and 14 nights away from home.

Letting go of the closest friendship outside of my marriage was a shock to my way of life. How could this be? I had so many unanswered questions. I was hurt. I was angry. I was in denial. Thanks to the advice of a good friend, I’ve learned to be with the range of emotions and have stopped trying to figure out why our friendship was kicked to the curb. I will always have fond memories. I now choose to move on without flogging myself over what may have happened. Even though the friendship dissolved, I love and accept myself completely.

Leaving behind limiting beliefs began by paying close attention to my language. I was letting myself off the hook on some big projects with potential for business growth.  I was making excuses. Often hearing myself complain: “I’ll never finish this project because I don’t have the support I need to get it done”. During a coaching session with my business strategist it dawned on me that I simply had to get clear about what I really needed help with. It was time for some divine intervention. Within a matter of days I’d finally found the support person I was looking for.

When my husband and I dropped off our daughter at summer camp for two weeks, I realized in the moment that it was the last time I would be in the presence of this incredible version of my little girl. I was thrilled about her coming adventure, but sad to know she would be coming home a different interpretation of her young self. I cried almost all the way back home. My hope is she will return safely with grand stories of her adventure and will have made some lasting friendships. As hard as it was to let go, I know this time away from Mom and Dad will be healthy for her.  I can now look forward to meeting my daughter all over again when she returns back home.

Each experience of letting go flooded me with a stunning range of emotions. Even when the moments sucked out loud, I sat with my emotions and eventually let the painful feelings slip away. It was time to let go of the tether and float back into the skies of my glorious, imperfect life.

Here are a few of the things I’ve learned about letting go that I hope you will find supportive:

• Allow yourself to feel what you feel without judgement.
• Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal.
• Create some time to be alone and mourn your loss. No matter how great or small.
• Plan a private good bye party and wish what-once-was a fond farewell to make room for new beginnings.
• Talk to a trusted friend, coach or counselor.

“We need in love to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily–we do not need to learn it.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

When you realize that letting go is a natural part of life, you can begin to eliminate long-term suffering. Allow yourself to feel the way you feel. Then, I invite you to move forward with grace. You really are stronger than you can imagine. You deserve to love and accept yourself completely.

From the archives of True Balance Life Coaching …

It’s been a few years since I posted this article. Enjoy the new and improved version.

A bizarre chain of events happened while walking through the isles of a big box discount retailer.  My fellow shoppers seemed to be in an altered state of irreverent oblivion. Seconds after entering the building, WHO CARES assaulted me from the back of a woman’s sweat pants.  You know the kind – they usually state “Princess” or “Juicy” or some such nonsense.  This woman’s particular brand of posterior communication was… “Who Cares?” plastered on her back side for the world to see.

This buzz kill mantra hit me like an out of control - SCOOTER!?

In an instant I was surrounded by a sea of people who exemplified the “Who Cares” motto. I must have been sucked into a portal and spit out in another dimension.

Picture the scene …

The scooter gang located on my left were completely oblivious to the anyone trying to make way past them to get to the dryer sheets.  Several more pajama wearing people in the aisle just rolled in for some retail stimulation and a box of ice cream sandwiches.  Impatient parents are at all corners of the store bitching at their bored and cranky children for misbehaving. Did I mention the crying children?  Small pods of people are in dialogue about the sorry state of the economy while spewing arm-chair politics.  Then there was the woman who decided to breathe on me. Seriously, I could feel her breath on the back of my neck while waiting my turn in the check out line.

Did I mention the cashier would not smile or even acknowledge my presence while I was checking out?

There was nowhere to run.

This commentary is harsh and may seem out of character for a life coach and yogini. Yet, this honest observation, of a day in the life of the WHO CARES tribe needed to written. You may find offense to my observations about these folks, but I assure you,  they won’t care.

Our lives are so precious. Yet an entire segment of our population is asleep at the wheel.

We simply must discover reasons to care!

If you find that you are ready to don a pair of WHO CARES sweat pants, please read the following list of reasons to care about being alive.

Reasons To Care About Your One Precious LIfe

LOVE
The miracle of life
Good Health
Healthy relationships
Good Friends
Nature
Laughter
Poetry
Reading
Music
Kindness
Spirituality
GOD
The Universe
The Stars
Our senses
Pleasure
Joy
Tears
Feeling
Breathing
Innovation
Travel
Animals
Mentors
Weather
Silence
Trust
Tasty food
New experiences
Napping
Rain
Creation
Art
Earth
Trees
Sand
Oceans
Lakes & Streams
Passion