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As we are now in the flow of this New Year, I remind my life coaching clients to listen carefully for their hope whispers. Hope whispers are those tiny, quiet, often tentative yet persistent voices we hear inside ourselves, especially at the start of something new. The key is to listen carefully for them. Then listen to them.

2017 brings many opportunities for fresh starts, with hope whispers gently calling us forth in a spirit of possibility. These sweet whispers typically communicate big, often deep desires. Desires such as: “Maybe, just maybe, I can master the tough challenges facing me at work this year… or Maybe, just maybe, I can meet my heart’s longing in my relationship…or Maybe, just maybe, I can save up the money I need for my big trip and have more fun this year.”

Hope whispers have the power to nudge us along… if we let them. They are soul messages reminding us of our priorities and our dreams. Hope whispers are essential to listen to because they embody the heart of what matters to us! They are like a secret cheer leading team believing in our powerful, creative abilities to make manifest that which we really want.

So when hope whispers…align with it! Align by honoring these quiet messages, embracing them as significant aspects of yourself you are being asked to recognize and take seriously. Align next by figuring out one small way to take action on your hope whispers. Taking action on something our heart desires keeps us in possibility. This is because taking action begins a process. When we are in the process of something we feel a sense of possibility. Things are not static. Things are moving. Energy flows and we feel good.

Follow these simple steps, and before you know it, your hope whispers will be transformed into roars, and you will rock out all those juicy, rich, dynamic New Year’s intentions!

That glorious time we call the New Year is upon us. It is your opportunity for a new beginning. Are you longing to create lasting change in your life? I can help you boldly break through whatever barriers or obstacles are in your way! Are you ready to discover, tap into and bring forth the juicy, rich, dynamic TREASURES that are within you? What better time than now to begin living fully, passionately and from the heart of what really MATTERS to you.

The energy of a person fully ALIGNED with what is meaningful to them is the energy of someone on FIRE. You know that person. Far from simply existing, they are IN their life, living purposefully, fulfilling their goals and making things happen. Their presence is one of expansiveness and empowerment, even if sitting silently. Their happiness is captivating, and you are drawn in. You want some of what they are about…and you can have it!

Experiencing my life coaching process can be the gift you give yourself in 2017. At any point, you can make, and keep, a commitment to yourself to break wide open to whatever or wherever you are being drawn. Why not face your fears, get unstuck and amplify your POSSIBILITIES? Life coaching is all about amplifying possibilities. It is about giving yourself permission to follow your dreams, stand in your greatness and shine. You will shine brilliantly (and soar!) when you find your way back home to what is truly important and INSPIRING to you. Then you can live from that place, prioritizing and embracing what you value most. Is it your relationships, your career, your finances, your health, your spiritual life, or your creative projects? Figure it out. Claim it. Take ACTION. And have a mind-blowingly wonderful year!

Sooner or later, if we want to feel what it is to be alive in a Universe that is alive, we will have to empty ourselves, open our hearts, and listen. ~ Mark Nepo

Partnering with a life coach can feel like giving yourself a supportive holding structure wherein you can feel safe and begin to allow previously disavowed parts of yourself into more conscious awareness. In multiple ways, our inner and outer worlds are filled to the brim with thoughts, feelings, activities, tasks, commitments, and details of day-to-day living. Before you can expect to easily uncover new insights or self-awareness, it is essential to create an opening or space where such can be revealed. Author Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s words echo this truth exquisitely:

For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. A candle flowers in the space of night…My life lacks this quality of significance, and therefore beauty, because there is so little empty space. There are few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours to stand alone and find myself. I am not the only one who has ever felt lost and fragmented, asking how to remain whole when we are pulled off center by the centrifugal force of an ever-widening circle of contact and relationship.

When you partner with a coach for personal or professional growth, you are taking a step toward allowing something new to enter your life. The coach, not having an agenda or set plan, but rather just being there in the moment with you, is creating and holding a space for your growth and development. Author Dawna Markava, in her book I Will Not Die An Unlived Life, describes retreating alone to a tiny cabin as refuge “because it is a safe place in which to tell myself the truth about how I feel.” In a similar way, a coach, by simply being present without judgements or expectations, but instead believing in your ability to self-discover, creates a very spacious log cabin of sorts within which growth and a reclaiming of the self can occur. You are given the space to begin really listening to yourself. And how does one listen? I just love author Mark Nepa’s description. He says it is…”by emptying ourselves of noise so that we can hear the sacred pulse of things…by listening with all of who we are, we are briefly illuminated, like stained glass, letting every thing move through us in those privileged and enlightened moments.” A coach, and the practice of creating space, helps the vessel be emptied, as it must be, before it can be filled!

One gateway to redefining your world is through the process of setting an intention to appreciate problems as gifts. Honoring difficult moments in this way offers opportunities for profound growth. Problems become circumstances ripe with possibility for adopting new perspectives, experiencing heart-expansions and bringing about personal change. But how do we manifest this kind of transformation?

First and foremost, we must be willing and committed to raising our consciousness. We raise our consciousness through shifting our reaction to, or our attitude about, problems and struggles. Instead of worrying or focusing on negative outcomes, we must seek the moment of growth within our moment of pain. If we are aligned, on a feeling level, with a sense of “What is possible here?” we will experience new, growth-enhancing ideas and information.

Raising our consciousness also involves strengthening our trust muscle. Responding to difficult situations from a position of trusting surrender to a higher power (be it the Universe, God, Source Energy, or however we are comfortable imagining such) can bring a sense of freedom and strength to how we face each trial. If we harness the power of our thoughts, as well as the power of prayer, and believe that there are golden opportunities for growth embedded in disappointments or difficult times, our world cannot help but take on new definition! This is because we will be vibrating at a higher energetic level and therefore will be drawn to higher level experiences! New perspectives and possibilities abound.

As a life coach, I guide my clients through a growth process that allows them to get to the heart of what really matters to them. Experiencing life from this place, we automatically redefine our world. How do we access the truth of what really matters to us? One way is to honor our daydreams. Daydreams are those thoughts, fantasies, or dream-like images and musings that cross our minds repeatedly as we go about our daily activities. We all have them…sometimes many times a day. Frequently, we think of these colorful ideas as interruptions to our train of thought, or as silly distractions interfering with what we have to do or where we have to go. Too often we ignore our daydreams. Unfortunately, what we then fail to appreciate are the soul-longings and soul-messages contained within each daydream. Daydreams are the remnants of our essential self which we are being called upon to reclaim.

I encourage my clients to be very mindful and respectful of each passing daydream, to slow down and listen. For in simply noting and reflecting on each dream’s contents, we are gifted valuable information that can lead us back to ourselves, and to living happier, more satisfying lives. I believe we all know, deep inside of ourselves what we value, long for, and need. Yet amid the craziness of our busy days, at times feeling emotionally disconnected from ourselves, we can lose sight of what we value. Our daydreams, those flickering, quickly passing fantasies, if carefully considered, can lead us back to soul priorities.

Is it really that simple? Most of the time I think it is. Perspective is profoundly powerful in influencing how we feel and think about what is right in front of us. Perspective is a muscle I encourage all my life coaching clients to exercise regularly. When we shift perspectives we can also almost automatically shift our emotional state. Look through the perspective of dark colored glasses and notice a dark mood and landscape. Look at the same scene through a clear, sharp perspective and feel the uplifting of your emotional world. Notice it with your thoughts….dark thoughts, dark mood, positive thoughts, upbeat mood. Very different solutions to problems can get generated depending on perspective. If you hold a negative attitude toward a tough situation you are trying to find your way out of, your solution may not be nearly as inspired and helpful as when your attitude is open and favorable. Our energy is completely different depending on the attitude we are holding at any one time. Universal forces are much more likely to align well when we embrace a positive perspective. Yet often, we forget that how we see and interpret life is, more often than not, well under our control. We have a choice when it comes to perspective. So today I invite you to play with perspectives and land yourself a really good one. Opt for a perspective that helps you appreciate one aspect of your life in a totally new, different, beautiful way. Then let yourself be amazed by the new attitude your new perspective gifts you!

“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.” ~ Rumi

Recently, I have been contemplating this favorite Rumi quote. I’ve been putting this wisdom into practice, and encouraging my coaching clients to do the same. Your heart, if you really listen carefully, does know what it needs, and is always trying to tell you. Yet how often do you doubt the message you hear? It is tempting to dismiss your intuition, or not trust what is actually a deep knowing. And then what? You end up running in the wrong direction. Big bummer. Waste of time. Waste of empowerment. Instead, why not commit to allowing the mystery of your heart’s calling to guide you through a day, just one day? Try it as an experiment. Really attend to what your heart is calling out for, and move in that direction. Confidently. Experience what it feels like to TRUST yourself. Enjoy the empowerment of where trusting yourself can take you. It will always be to a HIGHER place. A better place. A more meaningful place. And then more magic happens. For when we begin trusting a “heart calling,” it gets easier to follow the next one. And the next. Before you realize it, you will be embracing your own divine guidance system. Maybe you will even begin RUNNING in the direction it is leading you.

You are working hard toward a goal or an intention, yet just can’t seem to get there. What is standing in your way? How do you break through whatever barriers or obstacles are running interference with arriving at your destination? I have discovered that when we are unable to manifest a goal or intention, it is often because we are living out a subconscious old negative story or belief about ourselves. Typically the story is simple yet powerful. It feels true and we unknowingly continue to collect “evidence” for it’s truth. Examples include self beliefs such as: “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not worthy,” or “I’m unlovable,” or “I’m not valuable,” or “I’ll be rejected.” You get the idea. The subconscious story negatively effects our thoughts and actions despite continually “trying” to reach our goal. If you subconsciously believe, for instance, that you are “not good enough,” you are highly vulnerable to sabotaging even your very best efforts to reach a stated goal. In order to free yourself, you have to identify your negative self belief so to make it conscious, and then change it so you can live from the truth of who you are. Your truth, for example, might be that your very essence is plenty good enough for whatever task or goal is before you. If you shift your sense of self to a deep knowing of this reality, then reaching your goal can more likely happen easily. The thoughts we hold about ourselves are so powerful in influencing outcomes! Commit to keeping those thoughts and beliefs positive! Then watch yourself soar.

As I lay on my yoga mat in Savasana, or Corpse Pose, I could hear my yoga instructor, Amanda saying ever so sweetly, over and over again…”Relax, release, renew.” Wow…I thought, this is exactly what I need to hear… and REMEMBER on or off my mat. What a perfect mantra. So many things come at us all day long. Life moves quickly. It is hard to stay relaxed amid all we are expected to attend to. Be it the mundane or the significant, it all twirls together and pushes at you…fast and furious. Yes? Ever feel like your brain can’t take in One. More. Thing? Time to relax. To breathe slowly. And then release. A vessel has to be emptied before it can be filled. How can you release that which does not serve you, that which is bringing you down or cluttering your heart and mind? This is the challenge that this beautiful mantra calls us to take on. And then the joy of renewal can set in. What lightness, or opening will you experience? How will your spirit and soul be renewed? Curious? Go ahead. Give it a try. I know I will.

Wouldn’t it be easier to break through all the obstacles life puts before you if you faced these barriers from the place of first loving YOURSELF? Wow. Wouldn’t that be a perk when grappling with life’s grit? When up against tough moments, my best results happen if I approach these moments first from a place of liking who and where I am. If I can feel good enough at the starting block, the energy I put into my next actions flow more ease fully. I move faster and farther when feeling positive about myself than if I begin an endeavor being down on myself. Can you love, cherish and honor yourself just because? Can you savor your essence as you just let yourself be. Self-appreciation is essential, especially when you are determined to keep BOLDLY breaking through life’s tougher times and seasons. If you cannot recognize the beauty in yourself, for instance, how can you really see it in others? Or how about the idea that to attract that special person into your life…you have to first BE that special someone. Oh my. Today, reflect a moment on whatever roadblocks are in the way of your honoring and loving yourself. And then commit to clear those blocks. Bust ’em down. And get back to the grand business of weaving the threads of your sweet soul into a beautiful tapestry….that you then fall madly in love with.