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Do This One Action to Instantly Rebalance

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I’ve been spending a lot of time on a creative project. When I’m not working directly on it, I’m mulling it over in my head. I even continue working on it in my sleep, considering next moves and possible results regularly in my dreams. It’s the kind of immersion where I figure I’ll cook tomorrow, I’ll save housecleaning for the weekend, and suddenly it’s two (okay, three!) weeks later with neither having occurred.

As great as my project is going and as much as I love working on it, being this focused also has it’s shadow. As an empty-nester, lapses in domestic upkeep have actually been liberating — but diminished eye contact and lack of regular connection with my husband does not make me feel fabulous.

Also, in being so deeply attuned to only one glorious aspect of myself I have discovered that I actually miss — the rest of me.

Have you experienced this?

There is a remedy, and it also works as a prevention:
Continue reading “Do This One Action to Instantly Rebalance”

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Take the First Step

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That niggling idea that you have isn’t going away, is it?

You know which one I mean. At this stage it’s a recurring inspiration. A “What-if?” A dream.

Maybe you’d like to trade in your desk job for travel writing. Could be you’re thinking about starting a local community group for winter camping. Perhaps you’re considering taking your pottery hobby public with a booth at regional events. Possibly you’d like to change your nutrition habits.

You have no idea how to begin. You likely haven’t shared your idea much, if at all. And — let’s be honest– you’re not sure that you’re ready for how your life might change if your idea actually succeeds.

This, dear ones, is a sure sign that the Divine is at work here. Personally, I’ve found that my life goes much better when I follow that.

Don’t worry that you don’t yet know the full plan; just take the first step. That’s all.

So take some sort of step, today. Search info on education options. Request job description details. Ask the city office about community groups. Make some business cards. Download a green juice recipe.

Relax. The first step isn’t a commitment, it’s breaking through your blocks.

For me, I finally sent the email asking how the library community room can be used. It doesn’t mean a local writer’s group starts tomorrow, it just means I’m taking guided action about my big idea.

I’ve busted through my self-imposed block to beginning, and have begun to follow my inspiration. And that feels divine.

You don’t have to know how it’s going to end; you just have to trust enough to begin. (Click to tweet this!)

the-first-step-mlkWhat is a first step that you can take today? Sometimes a first step is to share in the comments, below. <3

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When Your Groove Has Become A Rut

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Here’s a story that I had been operating under a couple of years ago:

  1. Well-held values + Hard-won success = Living the dream
  2. Living the Dream = Lifelong happiness and fulfillment

When the solid earth of my dream job had over time crumbled out from under my feet, I had a bit of a personal crisis. This was my dream job, right? I had worked my butt off for it! When had it become a nightmare? Was I just ungrateful? Had my dream job abandoned me? Worse yet, was I the one who had given up on it?

What I had yet to learn at the time was that after over a decade, I had outgrown that dream. That it had expanded together with me as much as it was able to, and that I had more of me to become. That just because I now dreamed bigger and it was unable to go further did not mean the relationship had been in vain.

For the first time in my life I had true compassion for people who chose to just ride out their careers–for 30 years or more–and took up personal growth through developing new hobbies instead. Or they just started drinking heavily. 

We are meant to grow. We are meant to expand. Do not fear that being at your crossroads means you are dissing the road that got you there.

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Maybe you can identify with this personal questioning on your own journey…

If you are telling yourself that you made your bed and now must lie in it, I encourage you to take another look.. Yes, you made that bed. And, you can make another. Just because we started in a crib doesn’t mean that it fits us today. Or that it should.

But it was right and good and perfect for that time. Just as now is, at this time.

How far you have come is to be celebrated. Yet so is your moving beyond it. Let go.

And then, when we finally get what we want, we do all that we can to hold onto it. It is at this exact moment that we fall out of flow with Life. Like the wheel of Life that never stops turning, the longer you cling on and try to stay where you were, the more out of flow with Life you get. –Rebecca Campbell, author of Rise Sister Rise

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Once upon a time you dreamed a dream. You worked your butt off, and attained it.

And it was good, very good.

Now, you dream a new dream.

And this is good. Very good.

Rise.

What have you had to let go of in your past as you’ve grown into your present? Acknowledge it here in the comments. Our individual examples are universal stories. You are not alone.