Welcome 2013: The Year of Being Brave

Being Brave

As I await the last minutes to 2013 I am posting this pic of myself that I took today as my way of showing my bravery. Here I am...Cold, raw, sincere. Drumming with all the natives in North and South America in support of all who are defending the rivers and lands of our earth. I drum in the wind, singing loudly, singing strong.

In my song I join forces with those who are brave enough to hear the Mother, and their own drumbeat, those who are brave enough to awaken from their slumber and to sing their dream into being.

STILLNESS SPEAKS

The writing piece below came first, the pictures I took a few years later, and today they fit together and are meant for you to enjoy and be inspired to listen to the stillness inside you.

The voice that whispers has been resting in the woods next to an old red oak, watching, listening, perceiving , feeling the sun transform the stillness of dark into an orchestra of light beams on all that it touches as it rises above the horizon. Perhaps it is the voice of the oak tree, or it is of the dark. Maybe it comes from the stillness, or the light beams of the sun. It comes from all of these, and when I am quiet, the voice comes from within me.

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WORDS OF WISDOM..PASS IT ON

This last weekend I watched a Youtube video series called At Risk Youth A Skype Interview with Education Activist Peter Liciaga interviewing his sister Mary Liciaga who is a Parent Partner for Parents with At Risk Youth. I was amazed at the wealth of new information and wisdom that has been shared in the series so far.

As mentioned early on in the interview, all of our kids are at risk for various dangers particular to youth of today. As a parent of two teenagers and working with youth professionally, it is imperative to inform myself on the techniques and tools  I can  utilize with successful results.

There were so many things that Mary Liciaga says in her interview that resonates with my experience in working with young people. You can have all the funding, and programs galore, but nothing compares to interacting with a caring, compassionate, loving human being. Having a person-to-person interaction is a crucial element  to establish trust which is essential for any  help to be effective. These one-to-one interactions take time in which patience and non-judgment are essential components.

To illustrate, helping youth work through their emotional issues, I make it a point to just listen to them when they want to open up and talk. To listen without judgment, or thinking about what we are going to say next, but really listen with all our awareness. is beneficial in itself. So many times we are too busy lecturing and giving advice that we forget how just  listening to someone can make them feel safe. Some of us don't really know how to listen, and we have to start by learning to focus all our attention on what the person is saying without having our own personal conversation inside.
Another interesting point  that was touched upon in Part Two was to focus on the strengths of the person or family, and not just focus on the "problem". Its so true that energy grows where attention goes. In other words, what you focus on grows, therefore, focus on what you have/do that will lead you closer to your goals or resolving the conflict. This technique at problem-solving seems to yield better results as it helps us be in the moment to dig, to our hidden talents which are our unique strengths, and relieves the mental fatigue of constantly focusing on the "lack of", conflict or problem.

Perhaps the most valuable bit of wisdom for me was the discussion about setting goals, meeting deadlines, and/or action plans. Sometimes, these plans fizzle out before they begin, because people may be in "survival mode.This means simply that we are needing to attend to our basic needs of nutrition, rest, and resources of support.. Survival mode needs to be acknowledged and dealt with before we can even begin to think about creating goals. To get out of  survival mode, Mary has us ask 3 simple questions. Are you eating?  How are you sleeping? and Do you see people? Getting into the hole and helping them answer these basic questions is the first step toward goal setting and creating a vision. This is an important step that seems to be generally overlooked and needs more recognition.

Reflecting on this, I would add that many times in my own life, I jump or fall back into survival mode, juggling the complexities of raising a family and working 3 jobs, with getting the right nutrition, enough rest, and surrounding myself with positive people. Maybe slipping back in survival mode a bit happens to all of us, but some of us know beforehand that this will eventually happen, and we know the steps to take that will help us get out of  survival mode, and into creating the life we want mode. Its also important to remember that some people have only known survival mode as the only form of living. I would dare say most people in the world are living on economic survival mode, and the system is designed that way to keep us stressed and at the level of productive workers and consumers, but that is for another story....Yes, to some people, surviving is all they know, and the concept of setting positive smart goals may be new to them and need time digest.

Speaking of creating, Mary mentions working with vision boards, and I just got out my vision board kit I bought years ago. What are the chances of bringing out this kit just a few days before hearing someone discuss how they made one? When synchronistic events like this happen, I know I am on the right path with the flow of the Universe, and it fills my heart with gratitude and joy. I will be discussing what vision boards are and how we can create them in a future blog, but for now I'd like to finish by inviting you to check out the series for yourselves, and/or comment your thoughts, and what speaks to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZfWkYT0YUY

Cleaning Out Clutter and More

I began the year trying out a new activity that I recently read about and decided to try it for a whole month to see what kind of results I would get. I would like to share it with you now and hope you will also want to experiment with such a simple activity but with surprisingly deep results.


The activity is clearing up the clutter in your home. Yep, you read right. But what does that have to do with anything? 


Well...alot.


You see, clearing out the clutter in our homes, cars, offices is also a reflection of cleaning out the past and cleaning out our old mind patterns that no longer serve us, making room for new projects and ideas.


Unfortunately for many of us, we may find ourselves with piles of paper on our desks, piles of clothes in our  closets, boxes of old magazines, rusty tools, toys, books....you name it. If we have basements, attics, garages, we will continue to store things there that eventually we will not use, leaving them to collect dust and become clutter.


These things become clutter because for many of us it is easier to leave the boxes alone, than to make more of a mess  by cleaning and clearing them out. Part of the cleaning process however  is making piles for removal and some of us "neat freaks" don't like to deal with things not  being "in their place", and have to pull things out from the stuffed or crammed drawers and closets. Sometimes it may look neat on the outside, but the clutter still exists.

I began by doing a little tossing out everyday. In the bedroom and office, I worked on the drawers, throwing away piles of clothes and old files. The bookshelves got a run over, and I managed to part with a few books and donate them to the local library. Books, letters, and photographs are the hardest thing for me to clean through. and I usually hold on to most of them. Other days, I focused on the bathroom medicine cabinets and storage, cleaning out old creams, lotions, hair accessories and make-up. I continued on to the kitchen, family and living rooms, picking a specific area to do each particular day. 


Some days I would work on a small drawer; other days I would tackle of bin of sweaters. There were also some days that I simply had too much scheduled  and didn't "unclutter" that day.

It didn't take long, and soon I discovered that all this clearing out also affected my mindset in a positive way.
It feels wonderful and refreshing to clear the clutter away, comparable to taking a shower leaving one refreshed and renewed..I also noticed an increase in creative energy. I'm a pretty creative person, but sometimes get "stuck". This definitely has helped move away any stagnant energy and has in fact brought on a birth of new ideas for upcoming new projects.


As I continue picking areas to clean out, I am noticing that I am being presented with new opportunities for growth and self-improvement in the form of web-seminar workshops and high level classes which I will post in detail as they develop.


I  invite you to try this out for yourselves for at least a month, and let me know what kind of results you get. 


Remember, its important that you associate the act of cleaning with cleaning up and clearing away old mind and emotional patterns that keep us stuck in unproductive ways. If  you have kids/spouses/roommates that you live with, hand them a bag and have them join in on the fun.


For more info and resources:


http://www.lifetoolsforwomen.com/h/10-myths-clutter-htm
http://www.expansions.com

MY FIRST BLOG

This is my very first blog entry though by far not my first journal entry as I have been writing since at least the age of 10.

I still remember my first journal/diary. Ah, the old sky blue diary with thread-like gold embroidered all around the edges, and the gold colored key. Perhaps it was then that the idea of locking away our thoughts, and hiding our secrets that no one else would read them was born, and maybe has conditioned me to not share my writings overall.

I would further add that these ideas are part of a broader isolation programming,  in which many of us react to the worlwide uncertainties, corruption and injustices by isolating ourselves from the world as a form of protection. At some point though, this protection from the powers who control the world, turned into another tool of control as we are more controllable when isolated. Think about it.

Well, I have thought about it, and today I face my fear of speaking my truth, of shining my light with my writing.

Today I take action to break the isolation programming which is a result of years of falling for the "little me" syndrome we so easily succumb to for most of our lives. I am so very thankful that I can now see through this, and understand on a very deep level the fallacy of thinking we are alone. We did not come here to be alone.

Now begins my journey in sharing through my writing the scribbling rythm of my heart beat with you who are here. Transparent, yet solid in my stance to be part of the solution, to inspire others to move away from isolation programming, and to share with the world through writing or other creative outlet the process of manifesting their dreams and aspirations and together learn what we came here for.