Business Balance

Greetings to You ~

This week the EnergyRICH® Business Boot Camp lesson was about business balance.

It came at just the right time.  It validated the need to take a break away from work.

Interesting to hear how the time we take to relax and rejuvenate helps us to hear inspired ideas.  The feminine energies of dreaming and creating can be heard.  Think calm and connection.

Have you ever noticed the difference between feeling passionate and feeling your ego's intensity to get something done?  We were asked to check in with ourselves every few hours as to whether we're operating from ego or spirit.

The ego creates urgency which is about fear of not getting things done.  When we're relaxed and in the flow we allow spirit to come through us.

We can then partner with the masculine energy of doing and taking action with inspired ideas.

More repeat messages this week coming across.  Listened to an awesome audio class with Juliet Oberding, the Lawyer to Healers, about "Heal Your Heart, Heal Your Practice."

She suggests we actually DO LESS.  Don't you notice many of us wear our busyness like a badge of honour on our sleeves?

Interesting how many excuses we come up with about not being able to take time off.  How many times have we heard or said we don't even have time to take a coffee break.

"But I have a deadline, I should get this done."

It's so restorative to take a short break.  Walk away from our desks, stretch a bit, take a walk around the block to get some fresh air.  Breathe.

A wonderful message on our group call was, "restorative energy regenerates."

The Artist's Way at Work  by Mark Bryan with Julia Cameron call them weekly time-outs.  For at least one hour, you take yourself on some small festive adventure.

The chance to explore or try something new.  The purpose is to awaken our sense of wonder, not self-improvement.

What would you do?  Where would you go?  Go ahead and give yourself permission.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo

Purposeful Shift of Energy

Greetings to You ~

It's a blustery Monday afternoon in November on the Pacific "wet" coast.  A day when the rain comes down sideways and your umbrella has a tendency to blow inside out.

Uncommon ideas have been percolating for the past few days and flowing forth.  Being in the flow and not aware of time as much as wanting to keep working.

Then there's a time when creativity just needs some space.  Time to sit and marinade.

An interesting feeling when you know it's time to purposely distract yourself.  There's simply no value or enjoyment with continuing to work, even if it's the middle of the day.

It's not avoidance or procrastination but an intentional choice to shift your energy and do something completely different.

It feels like a day to do an activity that brings back happy memories from childhood.  A day to bake cookies.  Cozy and comforting.

In the book, The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron suggests a task for week six to bake something.  "Creativity does not have to always involve capital-A art."  Permission granted to take a break.

Activities like gardening, mending, cleaning or anything that keeps your body moving and your mind at bay are restorative.  Easy, repetitive tasks that allow the brain to take a break.

It's a great perk to work from home and do things in your own cycle.  Whether it's morning, afternoon or evening you can work with your own energy and creative cycles.

No commuting in the rain.  Choosing to wear fleece and slippers on a cold day.  Baking cookies in the afternoon.

What would you do to give your mind a break and allow yourself a moment of comfort?

The wind is howling, the rain is beating down.  The cookies are out of the oven.

Time out to relax.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo

The Art of Expression

Greetings to You ~

Beauty is all around us.  I'm in awe seeing the creative work of others who are masters of capturing the essence and feeling of beauty in physical form.

There's a painting in our home by Danny McBride called "Sunflowers."  It's a woman wearing a big red hat standing in a field of sunflowers.  There's something about this painting that I connect with at a level that's difficult to put into words.

It sounds strange but when I look at her, there's a feeling like I've connected to my higher Self.  Wise and non-judmental, patient with a calm energy.  She's beautiful in her own unique and non-traditional way.

Laura Hollick's website http://www.soulartstudio.com/ has a quiz to understand what kind of a creative spirit you are.  She has her own very authentic approach to creative interpretation.

One of my favourite visual artists, Laura Harris, gives an inspiring description of her creative process in a short documentary video.  I can feel her amazing energy when I look at one of her original paintings.

On the video she speaks about walking out to the point on the beach with her dog in the morning and describes it as “an overwhelming sense of connection that I haven’t felt before and it’s actually moved me to tears some mornings.  I'm walking and crying in a really happy, happy way.”  Then she goes straight out to her studio and starts painting.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The graphic designer working on the Whisper Greetings branding asked me to brainstorm some ideas about explaining Whisper Greetings to someone in one sentence.  He's going to interpret feelings as well as practical values and the purpose of my business to form an identify, symbol or icon.

It sounded so easy.  A statement to describe your business to someone.

Recently in our coaching group, one of the members made a Freudian slip and referred to an elevator speech as an "elevation" speech.  I just love the thought of having an elevation statement.

So back to feeling frustrated with coming up with a single sentence to describe Whisper Greetings.  It's easy to be verbose and an art to succinctly express what you mean.

Heather, my coach, said we often move into our head with practical tasks like this.  She suggested to go to the heart and describe how Whisper Greetings began.

I told her the story and became overwhelmed with emotion.  A sign that it's coming from Truth and not my head.

What flowed from that was, "Whisper Greetings are genuine, digital, poetic expressions of connection, healing and hope."  That feels so right.  So real.

Funny thing is I had a half dozen different sentences and couldn't remember any of them.  This one is etched beautifully in my mind.

How will the visual branding capture the essence of Whisper Greetings?  Can't wait to see how it unfolds.

How do you express your creativity?  Through words, pictures, music, dancing, singing?

Creativity is food for the soul.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo

Remembrance Day

Greetings to You ~

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month each year we offer a minute of silence.  


In Canada we observe Remembrance Day or Veterans Day to honour those who sacrificed and lost their lives for a future of freedom.  

We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those one hundred thousand Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument.  

(Heather Robertson, A Terrible Beauty, The Art of Canada at War, Toronto, Lorimer, 1977.)

One minute of being completely present.  One minute to honour what matters.

Remembrance is the action of remembering something, someone, even a memory.  

Take a moment today to stop and remember what you appreciate most.  Your life, your loved ones, your health, your challenges, your memories. 

Remembrance Day reminds me of my Dad who passed away almost three years ago and would have celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday.  I still appreciate his love and humour.

How about remembering who you are?  The ageless qualities and values that we appreciate and never change.

The part of you, your essence, that never dies.

Peace and Joy ~

Sheila

xo

Empowerment First

Greetings to You ~

A big realization came this past week that created an inner shift.  Empowerment comes first and abundance follows.

The analogy of an abundance train that needs a strong and empowered  engine to carry the load of all good things.  The engine is you.

If our inner energy is feeling really good our outer manifestations will also support that.   Sometimes our outer world speaks to us first to let us know that our inner energy is not serving us.

Stress, fatigue and negativity will not produce our desired results.  So we look after our inner self first.

My friend shared some brilliant wisdom from her Apache teacher.  It's important to stand on your own two feet and stand up for your beliefs.  It's not about overpowering people but rather standing in your own power and using your gifts.

The creative and practical aspects of business.  Can both be done in a joyful, easy manner?  Learn to allow this to happen.  Relax and take one step at a time.

The practical business tasks this week included laying down some business foundations.  It's important to be actively involved with contacting expert advisors you can trust related to banking, accounting and legal issues.

It's not an area of expertise or even interest of mine but it's important for me to understand the issues.  I always want to feel empowered with evaluating business options in order to make the best decisions.

Ask why you feel stressed or uptight with any specific task.  Is it just new territory?  Be authentic with everything you do and everyone you encounter.   You'll learn to enjoy yourself with the practical end of business too.

This process feels like another move forward to allow abundance to follow.  It is.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo

Possibilities are Blazing

Greetings to You ~

Feels SO good to be eager and enthusiastic with starting a project.  Not knowing exactly where the trail leads but it looks bright and beautiful.

Feeling passionate about possibilities.  Feeling happy to allow things to unfold.  Feeling joy to get started.

Where did all of this high energy come from?  Not sure, but loving it.  You finally let it in.

The dream is going to take physical form.  Thoughts, ideas and creativity that has come through me is going to have it's place in the outer world.

Collaboration is one of my favourite words.  The dictionary meaning is the action of working with someone to produce or create something.

How blessed I feel to work with a talented designer to help bring Whisper Greetings to life!  He offered great wisdom that success follows because of active participation.

So the right people, places and circumstances do show up when you take affirmative action.

We don't need to work in isolation.  Surround yourself with talented, supportive people.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo

Being Present

Greetings to You ~

Just love the book A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.  It can serve as a permanent reference.

While reading it the first time I understood it on an intellectual basis.  He was saying a lot of the same thing that other teachers had written about.

Something shifted near the end of the book, it took on a deeper meaning.

Since then I read it numerous times, taking notes and feeling connected.  Always getting something new with each read.

You know what's really funny?  I had felt some angst and lower energy with a resentment.  Justifying why I should feel the way I was feeling.  Not even noticing that my ego mind had a firm hold on me.

Thank goodness I picked up the book again.  I'm re-reading the chapter on the core of the ego.   Eckhart Tolle writes,

"Whatever behaviour the ego manifests, the hidden motivating force is always the same:  The need to stand out, be special, be in control; the need for power, for attention, for more."

"Can you feel there is something in you that would rather be right than at peace?"

Dr. Wayne Dyer has a great quote, "When you have the choice to be right or to be kind, always choose kind."  It's the ego that wants to be right, wants to feel superior.

What a beautiful reminder that presence can free us of the ego.  With awareness comes the opportunity to dissolve unconsciousness with our presence.

No need to "do" anything.  Just be in the moment and breathe.

Peace and Joy ~
Sheila
xo