2011!!!

2011!!!  I love the beginning of a New Year - it is such a great chance to set a Vision for the New Year - it is always a great chance for reflection and a great opportunity for excitement. 

It has been great being on holidays this week - just a chance to relax and recharge and get ready for NOW, the New Year, 2011!!!  One of my favourite things this week has been going to the Moonlight Cinema - I love being outdoors and I love movies and so it is a perfect enjoying this setting with My Man.  We watched 'Life As We Know It' - a love story with a baby, loved it, love love stories, love babies.

This week I have also loved the chance to read a novel - wow - a story - fiction.  I have always loved  reading non-fiction, self-development books - and since becoming a Coach I now read personal development books with a broader agenda, which means I am always thinking how I can apply this knowledge for myself and to help my Clients.  And so WOW - how great it feels to not think and just read a story.  I read 'The Forgotten Garden' by Kate Morton - loved it - loved it so much that I just wanted to keep reading every chance I got - and what a great way to relax.

Another highlight this week has been planning our wedding - still a lot to do - and yet we got started.  It is exciting and there is so much to do - and I feel relaxed trusting it will all come together. 

New Year's Eve was great!!!  We went to our favourite restaurant - an intimate Japanese restaurant - great food - just the two of us.  We had been invited to a party with friends and yet we also like to enjoy a quiet night together as a great way to begin the New Year.

I loved the chance to reflect on our highlights of 2010 over dinner - so many highlights - getting engaged, starting to try for our own baby, my Mum feeling healthy, my Dad bouncing back after heart surgery, starting my own Coaching Business, My Man getting a new job (his dream job), My Man's Mum enjoying a nice holiday, time with my Nieces, time with our Families, day trips, dinners out, birthday celebrations, holiday away to Nelson Bay.  For us there have been big things - and there has been much simplicity and small things being the big things.

After a lovely dinner, we enjoyed taking a walk along the beach  I really love where we live.  And then at home I loved watching a love story and watching the fireworks.  It was nice to be at home when we enjoyed the 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Happy New Year 2011!!!  It is great to feel so at home in our home, feeling so at home in my Self, feeling so at home with another.  How many New Year's Eve nights, how many nights was I wishing I would kiss My True Love - I have always been looking for Love - and now I can stop searching - YAHOO!!!

So here we are - 2011!!!  We enjoyed a nice lunch with Family and then a nice relaxing afternoon - a perfect start to the New Year.  And how do I want this year to be for me - where do I want to be when I am sitting here on the first day of 2012 - how will I know it has been a great year?  This time next year I will be a happy wife, a Mum, we will be living in a new home, my main work will be my lifework working one on one with my Coaching Clients and also running Workshops and Group Coaching and I will be writing books.  What will not change - the most important thing to me is time with everyone I Love - Love will always be most important to me.

I love that I have my Vision Board for my Life Design in our bedroom - it is great seeing this when I wake up everyday - it is simple and it is clear - everything that is important to me.

And I love that I am in touch with my Passions and my Values.  I have these on a board that I will also post up next to my bed - so that everyday I will remember what makes me feel alive - here I am 2011!!!

This is what it reads -

What are my PASSIONS?  What Brings Me Alive?
How would I wish to spend my last day on earth? 
Actually this is how  I want to LIVE EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE...
”And these are a few of my favourite things...”

Love - Partner, Family, Friends, Clients, Love to All - I also can’t wait to be a Mum and have our own beautiful baby

God  -  Living InSpirit - Open to Inspiration, Space for the Rising of Spirit, Belief that we are all here for a Divine Purpose - I Am Here to Love and Serve

Connection - One-on-one sharing of Sacred Space, PRESENCE with another - Seeing, Honouring, Acknowledging the Light and Gifts in another - Loving and Encouraging Uniqueness and Greatness  (Unity in Diversity, Joy of Differences and Similarities, Moment-to-Moment we can Rejoice in ‘X-Factor’ in each other - one of my favourite parts of College has been enjoying and being a Witness to the AMAZING Gifts and Uniqueness in each of us - WOW,  AND Connection even when it is hard - Conscious Acceptance and  Love of What Is...)

Coaching - I am very Passionate about Coaching  and the opportunity to help Clients feel Self-Love, learn to be true to Self and feel Empowered to Create a life that Inspires and Excites them

Nature - Birds, trees, flowers, walking through the bush, floating in the ocean

Personal Development - Learning, Reading, Studying, Self-Reflection, Growth

Balance - Being/ Doing, Life/ Work, Personal/Professional, Solitude/ Intimacy - Allowing Space in my life for new interests to emerge - looking forward to enjoy time for sewing, writing, cooking, creating

Health - Self-Care Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Spiritually

Gratitude - Daily Reflection of all the beauty, wonders, miracles and Gifts in my life

Community - Feeling of Home and Belonging - Desire to Contribute - Feeling a sense of Love and Connection with others - Passionate about Encouraging Community to be Inclusive rather than Exclusive - Passionate about Contributing and being of Service Locally and Globally

Being Present - Mindfulness, Living in the Moment, Being Spontaneous and EMBRACING NOW,  Enjoying Now, Trusting the Flow.

And I find that by Being Present in 2011 I am able to enjoy the Gifts of every day.  Today when I am glancing out the window I am so Grateful for the Frangipani Tree that I can see - the flowers are beautiful - a Gift from God, and I have such great thanks.

And now I am so Grateful that I can make a nice cup of peppermint tea and relax with my Man.

To 2011 - to making every day a great day living a Passionate life.  To making dreams come true.  To being Me.  And so important is to Love and Serve - to live my life on Purpose - to Spread The Yellow.

2011!!!  I am ready.

Yin-Yang Synthesis

* Synthesis is a stage of Blooms's Taxonomy - a stage of learning - the next stage of learning for me in relation to Yin-Yang. 

It is time for me to look at Yin-Yang Synthesis.  Synthesis - compiling information together in a different way by combining Yin and Yang in a new pattern to form something new.

As I was wrote in my Blog yesterday - the key for me is to bring Yin and Yang into maturity - not just having them kissing at the school disco - but Consciously bringing them together everyday to move me towards my Vision for my Coaching Business.  It is time to create a new story - and bring my Goddess and Strong Man into their power - a strong union of LOVE and PASSION...

When I look at Yin-Yang being a strong union of LOVE and PASSION - an image that came to me this morning in my Meditation was the scene from the movie "Shall We Dance" with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez - the Passion, the Connection - Yin giving her Yang instruction at first - and then Yang comes into his strength and they are in unison - this scene from the movie is electric.  See the link - Wonderful, Wow! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bibtqDxXv1o

I feel so in touch with my Yin - maybe not so much as a Goddess - and yet I am so Inspired when I look at beautiful Goddess images.

I really love the following image of the Goddess - I almost feel like it is a picture of how I would like to be with my Yin-Yang Synthesis - a Goddess in her power, with her strength.

I feel like I need to bring my Yang into power.  I am happy to let my Yin feel into the Next Step and let Yang know what needs to happen, and yet I have a sense that Yang could be a more powerful Resource in my life.  I look at the Strengths of Yang, and in true Yang style, I make a list of areas that I would like to develop:

- Doing

- Being Organised

- The value I place on myself - my Confidence in myself, my abilities, my capability to do things

- Being in charge of my own life

- Looking people in the eye and commanding attention (whether I say anything or not, because of my strength within)

- Taking risks, not afraid to put myself out there

- Being Decisive

- Able to focus and concentrate in order to get something done.

When I think about Yang and a time when Yin-Yang has been in power - I think about the time my Mum was sick with a brain tumor and we received a bad diagnosis and I rang Dr. Teo's Office and convinced the Receptionist that I needed to see Dr. Teo - my Yang would not take "no" for an answer - I spoke from my heart (my Yin) and my Yang was Strong and Confident.  We got the appointment and this changed our life - we thought my Mum would not go home from hospital and that this was the end - and yet my Mum was home by the weekend - just as Dr. Teo predicted - Dr. Teo saved my Mum's life.  When I remember this series of events - I know it happened because of my love for my Mum - that this was a life and death situation - that this mattered SO MUCH to me.

And now I need to embrace this Strength of Yang as I bring my Coaching Business to life.  I am so Passionate about Coaching - I love people - I am Passionate about helping people love their life.  This matters SO MUCH to me.  My Yin is inviting my Yang to dance.

As I imagine my Yang - these are the images that feel right to me - the Businessman Richard Gere from "Shall We Dance" + a Serious Muscle Man who has strength and is here to stay and means business + a Marathon Man who has endurance and Commitment and is my feet on the ground.

I love all these images - these bring my Yin-Yang Synthesis to life for me.

What I love about Coaching is that it is designed as an opportunity to learn new tools and techniques to help people in their life - tools and techniques that they can take away with them to apply for their own development as they move away from the Coaching relationship.  I love that I can Coach myself.  Tonight I am Grateful that I went to a NLP Course - where I have learnt some new techniques that I can apply in my own life and that will also be beneficial in my work with Clients.  In the next few days I am going to practice some of these NLP techniques to help me in bringing my Yin-Yang into power.

I am also committed to building my Yang through celebrating my Wins and through positive reinforcement of myself.

What a wonderful Journey, I am on the right path and I feel that I am moving in the right direction.

INVITATION TO MY YIN AND YANG - LET'S DANCE!!!  TIME TO EMBRACE!!!!!!!!!!!

Help Children In Poverty

I am Very Passionate about wanting to Help Children In Poverty, Children Living In Poverty.

I heard the Call last year - feeling Inspired to visit and support Children and Communities living in impoverished countries.

This Call seemed out of the ordinary, certainly without explanation, perhaps without logic - especially since there are other Causes that are very close to my heart - and also because I have never travelled before, and rather than being excited or motivated to go on a traditional holiday - here I am wanting to pay money to volunteer to be with the children.  It makes a lot of sense in that I love children - I just LOVE CHILDREN - yet, at my age I "should" just be focusing on having my own children, which is also a wonderful dream for me.  I can't wait to have my own baby - that will be my greatest dream come true.  And I still want to Make A Difference in the world.  It would not be easy for me to just live my life, without Consciousness or ACTION.

The Call is becoming stronger and stronger - especially after studying Vision and Purpose at College.   Normally I would race and make plans and work out a checklist to make this happen - using my head and getting action plans in place.  Yet now I am learning a new way of being in the world - allowing myself to just go with the flow and see where the Journey leads.  I am showing up and I am asking for God and the Universe to guide me.  This Project desires my Yin and Yang to work together as the creative force for the Greater Good.

I have been designing my Flyer for my Coaching business and I have included the statement - "Active in supporting children and communities in impoverished communities".  For every Coaching Session I will donate $5 towards charity.  It is a start.  I also have plans for my Spread The Yellow business - products and services - where money will also be donated to Help The Children Living In Poverty.

As well as donating money, in my heart I am also Inspired to visit the children and communities and volunteer my time.  This Call is strong for me.  My Yin is intuitively being guided, and then an 'Aha' moment came a few days ago and my Yang goes into action.  I had an idea, an insight, a remembering where university students go to impoverished communities - Yin heard her intuition - Yin got her Yang to Google "students volunteer travel" - and I am EXCITED - I find some great Projects where I can volunteer for 2 weeks.  Community work with children in Sangklaburi, Thailand, organised through STA Travel, catches my eye - I look into the eyes of these children in the photo and feel drawn to be in Thailand.

These are the words about the Project on the STA website "Enjoy working with children and want to help improve their lives?  Do you want to help children in a stunning part of Thailand who are not getting the care and attention they so deserve? This project helps the staff at care homes that are drastically underfunded and where the staff are overstretched and therefore greatly need any help that you can give them. You will be able to make a massive difference to these children’s lives by giving them support, playing games with them and teaching them English. All of which will give not only the children but the community as a whole a promising future to come." YES  YES  YES  YES!!

I look up the Calendar of Terms for College - we finish College on 30 August and go back to College on 20 September - there is availability from 4 September for 2 weeks.  I feel Very Inspired.

Rather than race to book this tour I decide to just sit with this idea (at least for a couple of weeks) - yet I am Excited.

And then today while sitting at home, watching the Channel 9 morning show which is unusual for me, normally I watch Channel 7 - I see an advertisement for 'Plan' - helping children and communities.  I haven't heard of Plan - yet I have been frequently visiting websites of World Vision, Oxfam, Tear Australia, Save The Children to see all the work that is being done and how I can get involved or if I would look at donating to their Projects.  And then today I learn about 'Plan' - glad my Yin was paying attention.  I am very Excited to learn about Plan, and my Yang is active in exploring their website - "About Plan - Plan is one of the oldest and largest children's development organisations in the world. We work with communities in 49 developing countries and raise funds to support our work in 21 countries like Australia. By actively involving children, and working at a grassroots level with no religious or political agenda, we unite and inspire people around the globe to transform the world for children."

When I read their website - there are some key paragraphs that really stand out for me:

- "Child centred community development is the term we use to describe how we aim to do our development work. It's a rights based approach to development where we support communities to develop the structures and skills they need to provide a safe and healthy environment in which children are able to realise their full potential.  It is our belief, based on many years of experience, that this can be achieved only if children’s best interests are at the heart of everything we do and if children themselves actively participate in the process."  As a Coach, I love the words they use - Community, Development, Support, Children are able to realise their Full Potential - and I love that children are actively involved - they are being given the tools for their own Empowerment, realising and releasing their own power within.

- "Children are the hardest hit by poverty.  Childhood is the most crucial development period in an individual’s life. It is when an individual’s main physical, mental, emotional and social development and growth takes place. Damage at this stage cannot be overcome later in life, and poor children are likely to pass poverty onto their children, perpetuating the cycle. Poverty reduction must begin with children."

- "Poverty alleviation generally tries to increase income at a household level. Children, though, exist within households and usually have the least power and influence on how income is spent. This is particularly true for girls. Poor households often have to cut back on expenses for children and frequently are forced to rely on sending the children to work. Battling with extreme poverty every day often leaves adults too busy and exhausted to properly nurture children. To combat child poverty we need to consider the impact poverty is having on children in poor families."

What I also Love about Plan is that you can not only Sponsor children and communities but you can also organise to visit the communities, organised through Plan - this is wonderful - to see the difference your sponsorship is making in their world.  I also love that they encourage fundraising activities - which I will embrace through my Spread The Yellow business to increase awareness and donate funds to Make A Difference.

I feel so Grateful that I am open to the gifts from the Universe - increasing my Awareness and my Yin intuitively being guided to opportunities where I CAN Help The Children Living In Poverty.  I know that my Family will say that I "should" just be focusing on getting married and having my own children - and this is also important to me - and I cannot ignore this Call - "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." (Helen Keller)

 

 

Feeling Blue

I have been Feeling Blue - Yellow is always close to me and within easy reach - yet today I have been okay to sit with Feeling Blue - to just Surrender to it.  It would have been easy for me to get busy and run towards the Light - yet I have been okay with being Blue - at least for today.   Yesterday I woke up and had to find some Inspiration - I am noticing a pattern - so today I just allow myself, to make it okay, to honour my Feeling Blue.

I woke up in pain with my back and I had a headache - I definitely didn't feel well enough to go to work - and this is not good - work is important to me - I don't like letting my Boss down when I know he has scheduled me on a Project - and my need for the security of my pay is also high.  Yet today I choose Self-Care and decided to just rest and indulge myself in Blue.  I even gave a friendly directive to my Man that he doesn't have to cheer me up - that it is okay if I'm feeling Blue today.  My Man still took one of the pink roses from my vase of VERY beautiful roses (that he bought for me yesterday) and handed it to me and gave me a kiss. 

I look through 'The Blue Day Book' by Bradley Trevor Greive (that sits on my bookshelf) - great images they make me smile.

In my Feeling Blue today - there is a blankness, a feeling of no emotion, no energy, no excitement, no Yellow.  And so I honour this feeling of Blue - after breakfast I go back to bed for Meditation - I fall asleep, no alarm set, I just trust what my body needs right now.  There is so much that I could have done today - I read a few pages of a book and watched a bit of TV.  My Yang likes to be productive and get things done - yet my Yin is happy for quiet and rest as I am not feeling motivated or inspired or energised. 

I am so Feeling Blue that I even Google 'blue images' -

My Yin is enjoying this time - and then I am Inspired to look up bluebird - my Yin emotional part of me remembers having a bracelet with bluebirds -

My Yin is Inspired to get out the pencil case and paper and I do some Art Therapy for myself - I use every Blue crayon, pencil and texta that I have - as well as a black and then a yellow crayon.  I cannot draw - I am not an Artist - yet Art Therapy is fun - I actually love it - I can just colour and do what I want - there is no Judge here - I just draw from an emotional, spiritual level.

Whenever I am Feeling Blue, it is sometimes so reassuring - it reminds me that I am human and grounds me.  Feeling Blue also helps me in always having empathy for others - I do not believe that we can explain or Judge the emotions of another - or even Judge or disown our own Feelings.  Whenever I am Feeling Blue, I am very conscious of not falling down the black hole - I have been deep in the black hole before - a long time ago - another lifetime away - yet I remember - and this is what has brought me to Coaching - wanting to catch people before they fall down the black hole.  As I sit in Feeling Blue, I am very conscious of so much Yellow so close to me.


I find a drawing from my Man that he had previously drawn for me - this does make my heart sing.

I decide to go and rest - Meditation calls me...

WOW!!!  Something shifts in me after the Meditation - I feel much lighter - I feel surrounded by Light. 

In the Meditation I was able to witness, sense some beautiful images.  I had a sense that at first I was like a blue foetus, alone, all alone, a sense that I am separate to the world. 

And then I had this sense and visual of me standing up and rays of Light were coming through me and around me and the Yellow rays came within and I was Yellow and blue and then the Yellow and blue became green and then pink whirled around and through me, around me - it was incredible - I was connected to everything - the Universe, Light and Energy surrounded me, flowed to me, flowed through me, THE UNIVERSE IS THERE FOR ME.  After my Meditation, I look up images, these come close (yet so far) to the images of my experience (and I hold the image in my mind's eye). 

                       

                       

         

I then had a sense of looking over at the blue foetus and loving the blue foetus, this part of me, the part that is alone - and the blue foetus part of me, opens up and holds out its hands, my hands, my hands holding a heart. 

I then had an image of my Coaching logo, realising that I am not alone, that it is not only about me giving out my energy - yet that I am surrounded and loved by the Universe and that I will be guided and held in a space of Light to bring my dream to life.

This experience was AMAZING. I have heard others talk about such sensations and visuals - and how wonderful to experience this sense of Joy and Connection and Energy.

After my Meditation I feel ALIVE.  I look at the Artwork for my Flyer with fresh eyes.  I have been so in Yang mode, trying to get this 'done', getting quotes from different flyers, ACTION, ACTION - that I had abandoned some of my Yin.  I print out my Business Card and my Flyer and my Yin feels emotionally connected - my Yin intuitively knows that I can approve the Flyer Artwork.  I am excited as despite all the different quotes and that (unfortunately) printing on recycled paper is more expensive, this is not a difficult decision for me - I am committed to making business decisions that minimise the harm on Mother Earth - I email the Artwork to the printer and I can't wait to get my Flyers.  I can't wait to Spread The Yellow through my Coaching.

I feel that the Universe has given me the opportunity today to rest and relax.  I am Grateful that I didn't ignore or race away from my Feeling Blue - I actually enjoyed the quiet time, hanging on the couch time.  After my Meditation, I am also feeling less pain in my back.  The Meditation was so powerful.  I love to witness my emotions shifting naturally - without the need to force myself back to Yellow.

I have my energy back.  I am excited when I get a knock on the door - knowing it is my Box of Fruit and Vegetables that I ordered from a local Organic company.  It is a mystery box - a surprise!! And I am delighted - love that there is plenty of fresh fruit and love that there is broccoli, my favourite.

I make a Vegetarian pasta dish - happy!!!  And now I watch "Australia's Got Talent" - GREAT SHOW!  I just love to see people Passionate about what they are doing, committed to their Passion, giving it a go - and I loved the words of one of the contestants, a beautiful opera singer - love these words - "IT'S MY TIME NOW"...