True Balance Life Coaching

“Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.”

Extreme self care begins with easing your mind, calming your body, and feeding your soul.

Ease Your Mind

Easing your mind involves being fully present and aware of this very moment. Eliminate the guilt and shame you carry with you from your past and put an end to the unfounded worries about your future. Create more time for gratitude, abundant thinking, a positive attitude and lots of laughter.

Till the soil and plant seeds of healthy intentions by:

• Creating a gratitude journal – Start making a daily list of what you are grateful for.
• Joy Spotting- Notice every little moment that fills you with joy.
• Reading motivational books and blogs – Check out my blog roll for some great inspirational mojo.
• Listening to uplifting music, podcasts and audio books.
• Being aware of your self-talk – Are you gentle and kind to your self?
• Lightening up – Things do not have to be so frigging serious. Seriously!
• Lots and Lots of Laughter – Who are you sharing your time with? Do they make you laugh?

Calm Your Body

As important as easing your mind is to your mental health, exercise and relaxation also play a key role in your well being. Our bodies are marvelous creations that carry us through life. You deserve extreme self care.  Just like a beautiful flowering plant, your healthy body needs rich soil and water to create a full and healthy bloom.

Caring for a calming your body includes:

• Regular massage therapy – Bodywork should be a regular part of your health care.
• Relaxing baths – If you have a tub, get in it!
• Luxurious naps – You deserve an occasional nap.
• Moving your body -walking, going to the gym, enrolling is a dance class, run, stretch, and play!
• Healthy nutrition – Fresh fruit, veges, whole foods.
• Care for your mental body image – I dare you to look in the mirror and greet yourself each morning with “Hello Gorgeous!”  Be kind to your self by banishing negative body talk.

Nourish Your Soul

Discovering true balance includes creating time to feed your spirit.  Nurturing yourself spiritually allows you to ground yourself in your body keeping you anchored, healthy and alive.  Caring for the soul includes eliminating the weeds that show up and choke out your natural soulful beauty.

Nourish your soul by:

• Banishing interruptions and making time to be still.
• Get in touch with your spirituality through peaceful time in prayer or meditation.
• Create a time for your creative pursuits – photography, journaling, art projects and music.
• Get unplugged – Turn off the television. radio, computer, pager and any other electronic device.
• Focus on your breath – Deep cleansing breaths in through you nose, filling your lungs to capacity and then letting it all go with a giant exhalation.
• Share your time with people who make you smile until your face hurts.
• Get out of the house and get close to nature – The miracle of water, woods and wildlife will rejuvenate your spirit.

You deserve real moments of solitude, self-reflection, play and relaxation to balance out how much of yourself you give away.

Photo by Matt Lamphere

I have arrived. I am home.

In the here. In the now.

I am solid. I am free.

In the ultimate I dwell.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

March is teasing me to wake up to my full potential …

Tapping me on the shoulder reminding me to breathe and embrace the Spring thaw.

Chirping at me to bid farewell to February’s low light and bleak economic climate which led to hanging out  in a cocoon created for my protection.

Contrary to what most people who know me would tell you, this motivational, inspirational, funny woman is not always overflowing with high energy.  Cyclical lapses of the blues can easily sneak up and grab hold of me in the lost place between Winter and Spring.  Thankfully I am positive, vivacious and happy most of the time.  This February funk filled time around, I made some interesting observations.

Witnessing every piece of my behavior and allowing for the natural cycle to unfold, meant never getting lost in the darkness.

Admittedly, some days were filled with the struggle to get out of bed. Others involved guiding myself through one task at a time, reserving as much energy as possible for my family and clients. A couple of occasions were filled with emotional meltdowns, sleeping too much or not sleeping at all; combined with touches of irreverence and bits of self deprecation.

Positive days were sprinkled here and there and for the most part I kept my sense of humor. Never losing sight of all of the blessings in my life and remaining present for each part of the cycle allowed me to witness the lost place with curiosity and love.  What a beautiful awakening.

“The flogging will continue until morale improves!” is no longer a part of my story.  A significant achievement for a woman who for so many years expected perfection.  The February funk  illustrated how much I have grown.

As if on queue, Spring arrived just in time to lead me through the doorway of darkness to the light.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
-Carl Gustav Jung

In the Primary Role of Mind The Dalai Lama teaches us that the highest level of happiness is marked by total freedom from suffering and delusion in relation to our quality of mind.  Through these teachings I’ve learned:

You have the power to create an uplifting environment by changing the conditions in your life.

I plan to change the February blues by leaving northern Michigan next Winter. My husband and I have already begun looking for an opportunity in a tropical region.  We choose to fill the lost space with a new adventure and are blessed to do our work from anywhere in the world.  Why not? Maybe I’ll teach a luscious living playshop in Hawaii. The wheels are turning.

Your mind determines every experience of suffering and happiness.

Witnessing my moments of suffering made the cycle shorter and taught me a lot about the quality of my mind. By dedicating myself to witnessing and transforming my thoughts, I found clarity and peace.  I choose happiness, loving kindness and understanding the nature of things.

Our wandering minds can visit darkness and light. Here are some examples:

Ambition

- Thinking that something outside of ourselves will make us happy.

Attachment

- Thinking we need to control or be responsible for the happiness of our family, clients, peers and friends.

Fear

- Letting our false insecurities keep us from our next daring adventure.

Spirituality

- Basking in the gratitude of what is.

Compassion

- Caring for yourself and others evidenced with loving kindness.

Reverence

- Having respect for yourself and all living things.

When you make the choice to live and love in awareness, your life will spring into full bloom bidding farewell to lost place in between Winter and Spring.

What will you do to improve the quality of your mind?