Archive for Emotional Health
Calgon Take Me Away–Permission to Pause
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Remember that commercial years ago where a woman is overwhelmed and frustrated by the many demands for her attention? She finally took a stand and declared “Calgon, take me away!” This woman was really onto something that I think bears repeating. Her declaration points to the truth that we all need to step away from the chaos and demands of life to slow down, pause, breathe, check in and reassess.
So what about you? Could you use a “Calgon” break? Permission granted…Go for it! Maybe it’s not a bubble bath, but it could certainly be a ten-minute break to breathe or go for a quick walk. Or how about sitting down to eat your lunch at the table rather than “on the go” or standing up?! 
At some point, you will get caught up in the “doing” and “serving” others through your business and your life that you barely have time to think, let alone feel. Some of you might press in and push through, while others shut down and just stop all together. In either scenario, you’ll reach the point where you are ineffective and unproductive forcing you to reevaluate.
So what’s the answer?
The answer is this: give yourself permission to pause. Take a quick assessment right now and contemplate the following questions.
- What are you currently experiencing internally? Are you at rest inside? Or are you feeling chaos within? Name what you notice.
Once you tune in to what’s happening in your internal world, take a look at what’s going on externally by answering these questions.
- What’s working?
- What’s not?
- What really matters?
- What changes are needed?
Your answers to these questions will reveal some powerful truths. However, you’re just scratching the surface at this point.
There are actually deeper truths that need to be accessed. This internal wisdom will actually help you on the front-end to be proactive in your life and business rather than reacting to the shut-down or burn-out that comes after you hit the proverbial wall.
When you give yourself permission to glean this inner wisdom, you’ll discover your true identity and life mission which reveals your purpose. With this information, you have filters for your choices and you can design a path to the life you’re intended to live. This keeps you anchored in peace while achieving greater impact and tangible results with less effort in both your life and your business.
There’s actually a coaching journey that can help you tap into these deeper truths. It’s called The Destiny Project and this week it went virtual under one website location with it’s own unique brand, identity, mission and purpose. What’s really cool about this journey is that it provides enough structure to keep you moving forward, blended with enough process that takes you deeper into the learning of who you truly are at the core.
Many say they don’t have enough time to dream because there’s too much to do. How about you? What do you think?
What if the question isn’t how can you afford to dream, but rather the question was how can you afford not to? I invite you to contemplate this in your “Calgon” moment as you exercise your permission to pause.
Post your comments at www.shannonbruce.com; I’d love to read your thoughts and be sure to check out the new website because it’s pretty amazing! Thanks Michael Warden and Josh Tilton.
Photo Provided by www.photoxpress.com, Copyright Julia Britvich
Practicing the Art of “Being”
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I’ve spent the majority of my life “doing” rather than “being”. After all, there are places to go, people to see, and things to do, right?
This approach to life fell short for me over ten years ago when I made the bold and courageous decision to leave behind the security of my steady paycheck. I quit my “Corporate” job to pursue my entrepreneurial dream because I was exhausted and burnt out from all of my “doing” for the sake of what?!
Little did I know that I would find myself going through life transition upon life transition, starting with my divorce and the subsequent hurdles of my daughter’s health struggles.
Because of these changes, I was challenged to find answers to the questions of “Who am I?” and “What’s next?”
I could write a book on the topic and some day I just might! In the meantime, the key learning is that I am a “human being”, not a “human doing”. Out of this paradigm shift, I have reaped the benefits of living a heart centered life and I am committed to supporting women like you to do the same.
For those of you who are “do-ers” (which is 99.9% of the women out there), here are some practical next steps that will help you “to be”.
- Slow down and breathe fully. Repeat multiple times during the day!
- Go for a walk in silence. A little bit of exercise, a chance to be and not just “sitting still”.
- Get up early in the morning before everyone else wakes up. Drink your coffee in silence and breathe some more.
- Stop talking and listen. Pay attention to others and to your inner voices, your body, etc.
- Read my blog article “On the Verge of a Break Through” for more insight.
Learning to “be” is essential if you want to find inner peace, joy and greater purpose. It’s a huge shift from the crazy-making world we live, yet so worth the perseverance and commitment to find it.
So what else would you add to this list? Share your comments at Facebook and the Blog…And then, breathe and “just be”!
Going on an Information Diet
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OK, let’s get real. Are you overwhelmed by too much information? It’s a blessing to have readily accessible information at your fingertips 24-7. However, the curse is that there’s an overwhelming abundance of “too much”. So much so that I’m inviting you put yourself on an information diet!
Let me set the stage as to why I think this is important. Last week I had a conversation with a colleague about the impact of being plugged in to so much information. We both agreed that having access to the collective wisdom and brilliance of so many people provides not only inspiration and practical tips, but also calls forth new directions, opportunities and possibilities.
Just like a coin however, there is a flip side. We’ve both found that too much information can become distracting, overwhelming and worst case, it can cause you to question your value, abilities and direction.
If you’re like me, you might often find yourself reacting to what shows up in your in-box feeling obligated to read all of the newsletters, blogs, daily devotions, tips, and inspiration that you’ve signed up for. The challenge is that it can become all consuming to the point you end up working more than you’d like, once again compromising what really matters. Not to mention it can totally diminish your self-worth and esteem.
If any of this resonates for you, my suggestion is that you go on an information diet. Just like you cut back on your food intake to focus on becoming physically healthy, an information diet is about reducing the volume of content you read so you become emotionally healthy and can thrive in your life and work.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you eliminate everything. I am encouraging you to become tuned in and aware so you can decide what content to decrease as you guard your heart.
Here are some questions to ponder and some potential next steps:
- Does this information add value to your life or work or is it a distraction? If it’s a distraction, consider opting out.
- Are you energized and inspired by the information or do you feel drained or defeated? If you are drained and defeated, it might be time to opt out.
- Do you read the information or do you just delete it? If you’re deleting it you aren’t reading it anyway so clear out the volume of e-mails by opting out.
- Is it all good and yet there’s just too much? Rate what you receive on a scale of good, better and best and opt-out of the good so you have time for the better and best.
Clearing and purging information that is no longer life giving or relevant to where you are in your life and work will have massive benefit to you. It will free you up emotionally because you will have more energy available to focus on what’s truly important. It will also help to eliminate the self-sabotage and allow you to focus on who you really are, not what you think you ought to be.
So what do you think? Share your comments at the blog and share it with your friends, family and colleagues.
Here’s to living freely and lightly!
Running on Empty?! Tips to Refueling your Tank
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Are you running on empty? My first two clients this morning feel beat up by life which is contributing to a strong sense of overwhelm. Both of them feel fragmented and unable to focus, wondering “now what?”. I’m curious if this could this be you?
If you’re like my clients, you are on overload. There is so much to handle every day, with information coming at you at warp speed, and life obstacles popping up unexpectedly. Your schedule is likely jam packed with absolutely no room for an unexpected crisis like the H1N1 flu!
So let me share the conclusion that both of these coaching clients came to. Essentially they both said, “If I don’t do something today, I won’t get the results I want in my life and my business!” In both instances, these women recognized that refueling their internal gas tank is “essential” .
Here are some quick tips to refueling your tank right now:
- Go for a walk.
- Shut down your computer, your TV, your Blackberry, unplug your phone and take 15-minutes for yourself.
- Leave early today.
- Take a lunch break.
- Light a candle and sit in silence as you reconnect with your body by breathing.
- Call a friend.
- Write in your journal.
- Pray.
- Make a list of 5-things that you’re most grateful for.
- Laugh!
The bigger question is what you will do regularly to keep your internal gas tank from ending up empty? If you wait until you are totally out of gas, it takes a whole lot more effort to refuel your tank to get yourself moving again.
So bottom line, what’s your long-term plan? If you don’t have a strategy, now is the time to come up with one.
I’d love to hear what you will do. Let me know by posting your comments at the blog. For others who could use these tips to refueling, be sure to tweet it or share this post with your friends through Facebook.
Take a stand for your heart; it’s non-negotiable!
Empower your Inner Voice!
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Throughout your day, notice the thoughts that swirl inside your head? Is your thinking positive or negative? Are your thoughts enhancing your life, or draining the life from you?
You can change your life today! When you empower your inner voice, the impact is profound because an empowered inner voice fuels and energizes you.
Whenever you plant a seed in your garden, something is assured of growing; the question is “Are you harvesting what you desire?” If you plant a seed of corn and expect a tomato to grow, you cannot hope for a harvest of tomatoes because you’re obviously going to get corn. It’s the same with your thinking.
Every seed of thought that you plant will grow into something, and more of its same kind will follow as they are harvested. There is a positive or negative nature to the seeds you are planting within the garden of your mind and they may or may not get you what you actually desire in the harvest of your life or your business.
Your words, combined with the voice of your inner self-talk, have the capacity to be a loving, life-giving force, or to be a critical drain, depleting you of energy and life. Your self-talk conveys underlying messages to yourself and to others that create physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual responses.
When you change your inner self-talk, your perspectives, your reality, and your life experiences will change also. Where you focus your thoughts will make a difference in how you act, in what you speak, and in how you treat yourself and others.
Now the question becomes, “Are your inner thoughts allowing you to be the person you are created you to be?”
Today, practice empowering your inner voice. Eliminate words like “should”, “have to”, and “can’t”. Replace these with empowering words like, “I desire”, “I choose”, “I will”.
What impact does this change have on your demeanor? Your actions? Your attitude? What do you imagine will change in your life and your business?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Please post your comments and register to receive my weekly blog at www.shannonbruce.com.
