In my coaching practice I have often used the analogy that if your life's dream is to dance the ballet, but you have become somehow physically disabled or confined to a wheelchair, you might want to recraft your dream, finding something that evokes the sames feelings and results as dancing.
Now I have a new analogy, the one I will tell about how this video defined my own self limiting beliefs and transformed me as a coach. I was't paying close enough to my own mantra, Dream It - Believe It - Achieve It. I felt that it would be wrong of me to encourage certain clients to pursue a seemingly impossible dream. I won't make that mistake again.
These two inspirational dancers are a perfect illustration of not conforming to the accepted norm, of charting a new course that will take them to their dream. They have proven that the ballet is just as beautiful and can evoke great depths of emotion in the their audience, regardless of what most might see as insurmountable limitations.
This video is my gift to you for the season. I hope you enjoy the lovely, moving performance as much as I did.
At a time of year, when we are bombarded with media stories about the stress that comes wrapped up in the holiday package, I urge you to tune out that defeating message. Instead why not believe that the holidays hold great joy and contentment for you and your loved ones. Perhaps if you believe it, it will be so.
So, however you celebrate the holidays, I wish you the best ever!
Thursday, December 6
SELF LIMITING BELIEFS
Tuesday, July 31
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING WELL BLOG
For those of you who have been with me for a while and missing the regular newsletter that just showed up in your email and was easy to understand and navigate, take heart ~ I will be returning to that format (after some changes at Constant Contact - the service that maintains my list and sends the newsletter format).
In the meantime, here are some instructions to help
you navigte around Blog Spot.
If at any time you accidentally navigate away from this page,
just click the back button/arrow on your browser.
See the dark blue bar at the top of the screen? (okay, you probably have to scroll up for that - sorry). If you are looking for a blog on a particular subject, or know the name of the blog (by the way blog is slang for web log) but can't remember the www , type your search term in the white box and click on Search. DON'T DO IT NOW, unless you want to leave this page.
Next is the Flag Blog. If you let your mouse pointer hover over that button, you'll see that it allows you to report objectionable content.
Next Blog will take you to the next blogger site at Blog Spot. I don't know who/what that might be - I think they are listed alphabetically.
Create Blog. Want to set up your own blog and start posting articles? Be sure to include me in your mailing list if you do!
Sign In. If you've created a blog site of your own, this is where you sign in to write and manage your posts.
Now take a look at the bottom of this page where you see in small print "Posted by Judith" followed by a time. As long as you are reading the Living Well blog, you'll see my name there.
Next to that is Comments. If you hover your mouse pointer, you will see that it is a link. Click on it if you'd like to leave a comment that I and others can read. Please do leave me comments. I'm very interested in your opinions and feelings.
To the right of the comment link, is a little picture of an envelope. You can click on that to forward this blog post to your friends. Please do forward to all of your friends who might be interested. I am trying to reach a mailing list of 250 subscribers for the Living Well Newsletter.
Click on Older Posts to take you backwards one post at a time.
Now this part is a little tricky and some of you have mentioned that you can't figure it out. To Subscribe to posts, hover your mouse pointer over Posts (atom). Don't ask me what the atom means. If anybody out there knows, clue me in. When you click on it, you will be able to subscribe to a feed that goes to your "favorites."
Remember favorites or frequently visited sites? That's the sites you bookmark to visit again. If you're using Internet Explorer ( I can only guess that Netscape Navigator must be similar) you can either click on Favorites in the tool bar at the top of the page, or you might have a little star icon for the same purpose. When you click, you'll get a drop down menu of your favorite sites.
Go ahead and do that now. Besides the list of your favorite sites, you should also see Feeds and History. When you subscibe to this blog, you will be able to check the feed by clicking on the button. You'll get another drop down menu that will show Living Well ~ body, mind, spirit (and any other feeds you may have subscribed to). Hover over the title and a little yellow box will tell you the number of new posts since you last visited the Living Well Blog. If it says "0" try clicking on the "refresh" sign (two green arrows) at the right. New posts are automatically updated every day, but if I posted something in less than 24 hours since your last visit - it will show up when you click the green arrows. If you want to read the new posts, just click on the title and "Shazam!" You'll be whisked to the Living Well Blog site.
What about all the stuff on the left side of the page? Well, first there is a summary of my profile. If you want to read more about me (not much more) you can click on View my complete profile. Below that is the list of archived posts. I think there is a bit of overkill here, but . . .
The first listing shows the number of posts for the current year. Below that is the number of posts for the current week. Below that is the most recent post - this one shows a title. As you moved down the line, there are previous weeks, then previous years. If you click on 2006, for instance, you will get a page that displays all the posts for 2006. All you have to do to read them is scroll down.
That concludes the tour of the Living Well Blog page. Hope you enjoyed your visit. Please come again soon and tell all of your friends to check it out too. (Uh, can you tell I work part time in museum that offers guided tours?)
GET THE DEBT OUTA HERE!
Welcome to the ALL NEW Living Well!
What’s new about it? I am celebrating the completion of requirements and testing for certification with the Spenser Institute and N.E.S.T.A. Spencer Institute has been granted full board professional accreditation & certification by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Officially, I am a Life Strategies Coach with a Health & Wellness Designation.
What else is new? A stronger than ever conviction that a big part of wellness in today’s society includes financial health. In future newsletters, you’ll be hearing more about gaining control of your money, instead of letting money control your life. In the meantime, learn how you can jump start your journey to financial wellness right now through paying down your debt and enjoying financial freedom!
What’s new about it? I am celebrating the completion of requirements and testing for certification with the Spenser Institute and N.E.S.T.A. Spencer Institute has been granted full board professional accreditation & certification by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Officially, I am a Life Strategies Coach with a Health & Wellness Designation.
What else is new? A stronger than ever conviction that a big part of wellness in today’s society includes financial health. In future newsletters, you’ll be hearing more about gaining control of your money, instead of letting money control your life. In the meantime, learn how you can jump start your journey to financial wellness right now through paying down your debt and enjoying financial freedom!
To read this complete posting, visit
Saturday, July 21
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM FOR ME
My sister has taken the first small steps to living her dream and I'm so proud of her I could bust. Earlier this month she opened Annabelle's Garden, selling home and garden decor. She says it's only a stall in a local cooperative of artisans, crafters and antique dealers, but it's a fine beginning with the potential to grow as big as her dreams allow.
Her little space in a renovated feed mill is artfully arranged with what we like to call found treasures -- some gently used, some new, all beautiful to look at. This is a dream we share, the one we have talked about for years. It was born in us from our mother, Queen of the Fixer Uppers, and our father, King of the Gypsy Peddlers. It is the life they should have lived. Instead they raised us and our brothers, putting a roof over our heads, food on the table and these dreams in our hearts. So this is for Mom & Dad, but even more it’s for us, because we've learned that time is always too short if you put your dreams on hold, but it's never too late to start if you will only believe in yourself.
So how did my sister get where she is? She might not know it, but she began seeding her dream a while ago and it's been growing all along. It began with her meticulous habit of keeping the things she loved but no longer used . . . in her attic, in her basement, in her garage. One might have accused her of being a pac-rat, but her vision was a different one.
She moved the dream along a bit by encouraging a neighbor and friend to follow her own heart's desire - buying an abandoned feed mill and turning it into a co-op with a home accessory retail store as it's anchor. She could have been envious of her friend's plans and progress, but instead she was a constant cheerleader. Because of that, when the time was finally right, there was a little stall waiting for my sister's lovely treasures.
Finally, she unashamedly embraces her passion for home and garden decorating. Together we never have more fun than when we are planning the next design project for each other's homes. Watching everything on the Home & Garden Channel, devouring decorating magazines, haunting the flea markets, thrift stores, department stores and home decor shops until everything is just right. We've spent hours getting the Christmas decorations on a fireplace mantle exactly the way we want them, or matching a shade of dusty turquoise paint to the color we've seen only in our mind's eye. Sure, other's might think we're crazy, but it's just another brick in the path of many that led to the opening of Annabelle's Garden.
Congratulations Sis! You did it!
Her little space in a renovated feed mill is artfully arranged with what we like to call found treasures -- some gently used, some new, all beautiful to look at. This is a dream we share, the one we have talked about for years. It was born in us from our mother, Queen of the Fixer Uppers, and our father, King of the Gypsy Peddlers. It is the life they should have lived. Instead they raised us and our brothers, putting a roof over our heads, food on the table and these dreams in our hearts. So this is for Mom & Dad, but even more it’s for us, because we've learned that time is always too short if you put your dreams on hold, but it's never too late to start if you will only believe in yourself.
So how did my sister get where she is? She might not know it, but she began seeding her dream a while ago and it's been growing all along. It began with her meticulous habit of keeping the things she loved but no longer used . . . in her attic, in her basement, in her garage. One might have accused her of being a pac-rat, but her vision was a different one.
She moved the dream along a bit by encouraging a neighbor and friend to follow her own heart's desire - buying an abandoned feed mill and turning it into a co-op with a home accessory retail store as it's anchor. She could have been envious of her friend's plans and progress, but instead she was a constant cheerleader. Because of that, when the time was finally right, there was a little stall waiting for my sister's lovely treasures.
Finally, she unashamedly embraces her passion for home and garden decorating. Together we never have more fun than when we are planning the next design project for each other's homes. Watching everything on the Home & Garden Channel, devouring decorating magazines, haunting the flea markets, thrift stores, department stores and home decor shops until everything is just right. We've spent hours getting the Christmas decorations on a fireplace mantle exactly the way we want them, or matching a shade of dusty turquoise paint to the color we've seen only in our mind's eye. Sure, other's might think we're crazy, but it's just another brick in the path of many that led to the opening of Annabelle's Garden.
Congratulations Sis! You did it!
Thoughts become words.
Words become action.
Action becomes habit.
Habit becomes your life.
Think Good Thoughts.
Live A Good Life.
Do you need some good stratgies for achieving your goals and living your dreams? Visit www.livingwellcoach.com
Tuesday, July 3
LEMONADE
WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS
We are grateful for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and shoulders to cry on. Without the care and comfort of family and friends during this time, I can't imagine how my husband and I would have kept our sanity (and have we? I'm not sure). Though it feels like our world has ended, it continues to turn and times goes on.
Family and friends remain kind and caring, but as the circle of aquaintance widens, the compassion lessens. We have no choice but to return to "normal" every day life, though our lives are so far from normal as to seem like we're walking on the moon. We go to work, we buy groceries, we shop for necessities, we attend high school graduations and family picnics. We make it look like nothing has changed, and yet, everything has changed, nothing will ever be the same.
Every day brings reminders - a car that looks just like his, a young man with a goatee and the same casual stride. Grandchildren that fill the house with joy and laughter, like music - but always underscored with the sorrow of knowing that there will be no grandchildren from Chad. Not just a life, but a lifetime lost in one tragic moment. Punishment far too harsh for the crimes of youthful folly.
A few years back a sister coach suffered through another episode of the precise challenge on which she built her coaching specialty. "Enough with the experience, already!" she lamented. I say the same - "Enough with the profound grief. I get it."
Though I did not give birth to Chad, though I didn't hold him when he cried as a baby, though I wasn't there for those early years, though people will point out he is only my step-son, there was a bond between us, a meeting of minds and creative spirit not always understood by those we love and who love us in return. In Chad I found a son, so much like the brother I lost 32 years ago. When I think of them both now, I am reminded of the lyric from Starry Starry Night -"This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."
My grief is deeper than any I've ever known, but it does not touch the depth of sorrow that my husband is suffering. This alone weaves another thread into the fabric of my shroud. Still, together we keep putting one foot in front of the other, we keep putting on the masks we must wear at work, in the grocery store and on the street. As a coach, I know that this is the best thing to do right now. In time - a long time - the masks won't seem so grotesque, the smiles won't seem so out of sync with the feelings. In time the sorrow will find a place deep within us, rising to the surface less and less frequently. When it erupts, it will be every bit as devasting as it was the night the call came, every bit as heartbreaking as it is the 100 times a day his father and I think of him now, it just won't linger as long.
The Living Well website will stay "up", but at this time I will not be offering coaching for overcoming grief - I simply have to remove myself from that community of sorrow for now - or risk complete overload.
In the meantime, I am considering new possibilities and formulating a coaching practice built on happiness. I'll keep stirring the lemonade, and adding sweetner - we'll see what we get.
I think we all know the rest of that adage. I'm making lemonade at Living Well. When I serve up the final brew, it may not be what anyone expects - least of all me.
Once more it's been far too long since I've been in contact, and yet again, though I'm sure many of you will find this almost unbelievable, there has been another death in the family. On March 24, sometime around 4 AM, I picked up the ringing phone and found myself on the end of that one call no parent ever wants to receive. My husband's 27 year old son was killed in a tragic car accident.We are grateful for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and shoulders to cry on. Without the care and comfort of family and friends during this time, I can't imagine how my husband and I would have kept our sanity (and have we? I'm not sure). Though it feels like our world has ended, it continues to turn and times goes on.
Family and friends remain kind and caring, but as the circle of aquaintance widens, the compassion lessens. We have no choice but to return to "normal" every day life, though our lives are so far from normal as to seem like we're walking on the moon. We go to work, we buy groceries, we shop for necessities, we attend high school graduations and family picnics. We make it look like nothing has changed, and yet, everything has changed, nothing will ever be the same.
Every day brings reminders - a car that looks just like his, a young man with a goatee and the same casual stride. Grandchildren that fill the house with joy and laughter, like music - but always underscored with the sorrow of knowing that there will be no grandchildren from Chad. Not just a life, but a lifetime lost in one tragic moment. Punishment far too harsh for the crimes of youthful folly.
A few years back a sister coach suffered through another episode of the precise challenge on which she built her coaching specialty. "Enough with the experience, already!" she lamented. I say the same - "Enough with the profound grief. I get it."
Though I did not give birth to Chad, though I didn't hold him when he cried as a baby, though I wasn't there for those early years, though people will point out he is only my step-son, there was a bond between us, a meeting of minds and creative spirit not always understood by those we love and who love us in return. In Chad I found a son, so much like the brother I lost 32 years ago. When I think of them both now, I am reminded of the lyric from Starry Starry Night -"This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."
My grief is deeper than any I've ever known, but it does not touch the depth of sorrow that my husband is suffering. This alone weaves another thread into the fabric of my shroud. Still, together we keep putting one foot in front of the other, we keep putting on the masks we must wear at work, in the grocery store and on the street. As a coach, I know that this is the best thing to do right now. In time - a long time - the masks won't seem so grotesque, the smiles won't seem so out of sync with the feelings. In time the sorrow will find a place deep within us, rising to the surface less and less frequently. When it erupts, it will be every bit as devasting as it was the night the call came, every bit as heartbreaking as it is the 100 times a day his father and I think of him now, it just won't linger as long.
The Living Well website will stay "up", but at this time I will not be offering coaching for overcoming grief - I simply have to remove myself from that community of sorrow for now - or risk complete overload.
In the meantime, I am considering new possibilities and formulating a coaching practice built on happiness. I'll keep stirring the lemonade, and adding sweetner - we'll see what we get.
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