New Year's ReSOULutions

Have you heard the news? Excess weight has become a national health crisis based on a recent report that measured a twenty-six percent jump in the number of overweight or obese Canadians. Well, based on this I can join the ranks and declare, "I AM CANADIAN!" (Although my excess weight has nothing to do with a fondness for Molson's beer.)

This news story comes hard on the heels of millions of New Years Resolutions made by these same Canadians that likely run along the lines of "In 2010 I will lose weight, exercise more and eat healthy food." How do I know this? I am one of the 46% of the population that has made a resolution.

So many of set out in the first few days of a New Year filled with hope and possibility. We want to make our lives better in the coming year by improving our relationship, finances or health. Health seems to top the list of resolutions based the surge of new members in gyms and commercial weight loss programs along with the number of smoking cessation aids that fill drug store shelves.

We are predictable in our resolutions - and in our failures. According to Wikipedia, only twelve percent of people who make a New Year's Resolution achieve their goals. Does that mean the rest of us are losers? Do we lack the will power to achieve our goals? Are we undeserving of success?

Of course not! What we lack is information about how to create what we want. A resolution or goal is more than a wistful thought. An intention needs clarity and an action plan in order to become our manifest reality.

The seeds of our intentions require careful tending. We need to give them time and space and be willing to wait for them in the same way that we wait for a shoot to poke out of sun warmed soil. When you consider the process of growth from seed to sprout, there is a whole lot of activity underway that is out of sight. The roots develop and reach out to nourish and to anchor the developing shoot as it unfurls and patiently pushes its way to the surface. Once at the surface, a seedling needs further protection and nurturing until it grows strong enough to weather the inevitable storms. Sometimes weeds threaten to choke it out and they must be firmly removed. As a seedling becomes a plant a thoughtful pruning will help direct its energy so that it can bear beautiful fruit.

Right now, all I want to do is eat the fruit! This may have something to do with my own well worn New Year's Resolution to lose weight so that I am no longer a part of the national obesity epidemic coupled with the fact that for more years than I care to admit, I have been among the 88% who have failed to achieve this resolution. Aside from feeling hungry, I am also impatient and prone to distraction, which may have something to do with my lack of success on this front.

I know that I am a reasonably intelligent woman with access to information. I am a health professional and a life coach and yet in spite of having tons of information about the perils of being over weight I continue to struggle. I know how to set and achieve goals in other areas of my life and yet I continue to struggle with my weight. I know how to design and implement a fitness program and I am familiar with all the reasons I should be exercising and yet I struggle.

I have been dieting since I was 10 years old and I have probably lost and gained the equivalent of a baby hippopotamus over my 41 years of life. You would think I would have perfected this whole dieting thing by now but either I'm a really slow learner ... or maybe there is a missing piece to this puzzle. My money is on the missing piece.

As this year unfolds I intend to share my quest for the missing piece and how t relates to the weight loss journey I'm embarking on. Here are a couple of discoveries I have made so far that I'll explore in upcoming blog posts: how doing nothing is actually one of the best skills to develop in a weight loss journey and the discovery that weight is simply a metaphor for other things in my life.

Are you like me? Join the conversation. Let this year be the year when we join the ranks of those who have sucessfully achieved their resolutions. Let this year be the year when you move beyond the status quo and the statistics to create the life you want to live!

PS: As I spell checked this post I noticed that I repeatedly typed resoulutions ... I think that is worth noticing since our success in creating the lives we want resides in the reconnection to our soul.

Remembering

Its been awhile since I came to this space. I feel like I am meeting someone after a long absence and feel unsure about where to begin. I know that I have changed in many ways, some obvious and others more subtle. I have changed in ways that I have yet to discover. Like meeting an old friend for coffee, there is a welcoming familiarity in this space, an acceptance of what time has wrought coupled with the sense that the essence of me remains unwavering. I am remembered. I am welcome.

Since I was last here Guardians of the Vision: Parenting for the Birthright of Potential has been released. I believe that it is a ripple that will grow in size and intensity as it touches each person. It is something that compells you to pay it forward. To share. To claim. The courage and honesty, the love and respect each contributor freely offers is a gift. They have gone first, boldly blazing a trail for their readers to follow as they discover their birthright of genius and potential so that they become resourceful guardians.

I am amazed by how the lives of the contributors have exploded into full bloom! Tapping into their experience moved them well beyond the borders of the "stories". Without a doubt, they are the creators of the next "chapter" in their awakened lives and they are touching many others. The creation of this project, particularly my role as a coach and sounding board for many of the contributors has reifnorced my faith in the alchemy of writing.

Writing to tell a story or share information is one thing. Writing to access experience is another thing entirely. When writing is used as a gateway to something beyond the story it holds great power. Writing in this way looks more like idleness dotted with periods of frenzied recording. What may appear to an observer as a distant stare actually marks the direct engagement of experience in flow.

Breathing in, breathing out; inviting and allowing the flow of energy, information, sensation and emotion moves us beyond lifeless language into a realm where we are the creator. Through the portal of the body, we leave the intellect behind and connect with our sacredness. In this space we don't harbor judgement about our experience, nor are we defined by it. In this space we transcend. Only then can we speak the truth - our truth.

The resonance of truth claimed and synthesized moves language from an intellectual process to one that carries an energetic charge. This is the spark that ignites something in the reader. Both writer and reader are transformed.

Tranformation - This is what I have witnessed time and again, in my life and in the lives of others who chose to write from that sacred space within.

And so here I am again, writing and seeking my own ongoing transformation. My joy in life is seeking ways to express the fullness of who I am and that expands exponentially when I work with others who are seeking the same. "Who else is out there?", I wonder ....


"I am the glimmer on a blackbird's feather, the unexpected iridescent sheen that holds a rainbow. I spread my wings and become the wind, trailing my fingers through the long grass, kissing the world as I pass."

Who are you?

Labor Pains

I remember those final days of pregnancy with such clarity. I wanted to be able to unzip my skin and jump out as the weight and pressure of new life was ready to burst out. Well, 'm pregnant again - this time with a book project!

I might be the nearly crazy mother of 3 but I'm not crazy enough to take on a 4Th child at this point. Instead, Guardians of the Vision: Parenting for the Birthright of Potential is on its way. Expected delivery date is September 2009 - which coincidentally corresponds with its conception date back in January 2009. As with my other pregnancies, I feel the same mixture of fatigue and excited anticipation. I feel the restless agitation of "Is it time yet?" coursing through my veins and a keen desire to "just get on with it".

This is a project I conceived of as a way to move beyond the isolation that parenting 3 young children. I craved intellectual stimulation and more than the typical "how to" manual advice available in the current marketplace. I, like so many, am tired of listening to depressing news, reading horrible headlines and being subjected to "ain't it awful" stories. The challenges I face daily as I move through my life with young children has fostered an enormous ache in me for meaningful, soulful conversations that are both realistic and inspirational.

Although I am no Polly-Anna, I have always felt that in spite of everything that seems to be going wrong in the world, each and every one of us carries the seed of potential for rapid, mind blowing, exponential, course-correcting change. Too often, that seed goes dormant in our childhood and somewhere in our mid-life, if we are determined seekers, we start to nurture that seed again. Imagine a world where we bloomed where we were planted - without long fallow periods! Our children, the children of this world, have the capacity for the rapid acceleration required to keep pace with our reality - and so do we. We can chose to be awake and alive, nurturing our own potential as well as theirs - or we can continue repeating the past and getting more of what we've already got.

I am so honored that Louise LeBrun agreed to co-create this project with me. As the creator of the WEL-Systems(R) body of knowledge, I have her to thank for the information and experiences that helped me become a living expression of my own potential. I don't want to watch my children disconnect as I did, and wander aimlessly through their lives for the next 30+ years - I want them to burst out of the gates, fully connected to who they are and how they can create the world they desire. As a fellow blogger and contributing author, Amy McNaughton shared with me, "My mother gave birth to me but Louise gave me life." This is the power of a WEL-Systems perspective - the discovery of how to be fully alive. Nearly all parents have the best of intentions. They do the best they can with the information they have. WEL-Systems(R) offers us compelling new information to consider - information other generations never had access to.

This book is the beginning of a legacy I want to create for my children and children everywhere. It really is about us - the Guardians of the children inhabiting this world. We must discover and nurture the seed of potential, our capacity to create and shape our lives, and then become the Guardians of that same potential that is present in others. Potential is a birthright that belongs to every single human being on this planet.

I am in great company! Each of the 10 contributing authors in this project has a unique perspective and experience to share. They are a diverse group that represents a cross-section of parents, grand-parents, and others who are Guardians in a much larger sense of the word. They come from all walks of life. I am very grateful to each of them for sharing the wisdom of their experience and entering into the "parenting" conversation in a broad, new way - courageously helping to redefine an old paradigm - one that has been absolutely fundamental to our culture and instrumental in defining who we have become. It is time for a new conversation and these folks are amazing pioneers who answered the call and gave me hope and inspiration for what is possible for each of us, individually and collectively.

As we now move forward from final edits to pre-press, I find myself sighing deeply, tapping my toe and ready to burst - it's the final few weeks before an important birth! Stay tuned for more updates.

PS:
To those readers who have been willing to wait for my return to blogging, my sincere thanks! Expect more entries and some excerpts in the coming weeks from Guardians of the Vision, my own manuscript in progress entitled Something More, along with other observations about living a creative life while caring for kids, geriatric doggies, adjusting to life in a new town and my return to my "day job".... lots of material these days!

Manifestation

Life has been a bit of a blur since I last dropped in to this space. I've been noticing that my life seems to proceed with incredible velocity and intensity. The key word being velocity - it has speed AND direction. I also notice that it in order for my life not to move in mindless circles I must give it my attention. I feel as though I'm in the still centre of the storm as long as I do two things: 1) pay attention to what is going on inside of me, honoring the impulses and information that appear as emotions, physical sensations as well as the nudges of intuition and 2) keep my destination alive in my mind.

Although my manifestations, my creations if you will, might happen in seemingly convoluted ways, as long as I continue to do those two things they appear. At first I thought I was just lucky and then I realized that its more than that. I also realized that there was more to it than wishing and hoping. Mirco-managing doesn't work that well either. It seems when I do that, I'm more focused on my fear of might go wrong if I loosen my grip ... and guess what shows up? Exactly the stuff that I wanted to avoid! "Energy flows where attention" goes is truly a law of the universe.

I've started to pay attention to what I already know instinctively, looking for a way to express it and play more mindfully with it. Holding a vision is perhaps the hardest part for me. I tend to crowd the vision with my fears and limitations. I forget about the potential and possibility that comes with our highest nature. I believe we are spiritual beings expressing in a physical universe. Limitless potential is our birthright. Our possibilities are endless. And we seem to have amnesia about this! Once we begin to remember then the world becomes a much more magical place. We feel don't feel as though we are at the mercy of external events. We cease to be victims of what is going on "out there".

Children know this instinctively. Before we strip them of their joy, replacing it with fear and inadequacy - they inhabit a world that feels safe and abundant. Its not long until they become infected with our fears. I want to inoculate my children with hope. I want to help them to be immune to a worldview that robs them of their birthright - limitless potential. And it starts with me.

I have to be willing to face my own fears head on. I have to be willing to say "not my kids". I have to be willing to pay attention and to stay present when there is chaos in my own body and in the world at large. I have to trust myself and give them the space to do the same.

So back to manifestation and in the particular, the creation of something different for my children. I am the one who has the capacity to be the guardian of the vision of their potential. Its up to me to be willing to discover who I must become in order to do that ... and its a living breathing process of paying attention.

Although I can pay attention on my own, I know that the process becomes much more powerful when I am public about it and when I involve other people who share the same intention to participate in some way. With that in mind, last week I sent out an invitation to others who interact regularly with children - either as parents, grandparents or in the community, to participate in a book project that I believe will offer a whole new paradigm for "parenting". Using a WEL-Systems perspective as platform for looking at parenting from a whole new vantage point, I believe that we will create something that will be a part of the change I want to give my children.

Its time for new conversations about parenting - ones that aren't about command and control or about strategies to "manage" behavior. I believe the time has come for conversations that are about bigger questions that encourage us to examine our beliefs, values and attitudes about parenting. Questions that create the space for us to consider who we become if we begin to make choices that aren't based on our fears, habits or limited viewpoints that are passed long mindlessly. Questions that allow us to consider, without guilt or judgement, what the legacy we are passing on to our children and then to make a mindful choices, moving forward from there. Questions that allow us to discover that we don't need to fear what we don't know, we just need to step forward and meet it, trusting ourselves as we go. Its time.

The book project is called Parenting: Guardians of the Vision with the subtitle, The Birthright of Potential. Already this creation has called to others and I am finding myself in marvelous company. It has a sense of velocity and intensity behind it and I know that its just the beginning of something much larger than a collective book.

I have also found an editor for Mother Lode - the book. She has already proved to be a compassionate soul with a great sense of humor! I feel like I am in the right hands to guide the thought fragments this space into something larger.

I'm paying attention and I have a destination in mind. Now I'm eager to see how the space between begins to fill in! Stay tuned.

The Next Chapter

Its been so long since I was last here that I feel like a stranger in a strange land. Life is moving with incredible acceleration. In some ways I feel as though I've dropped through the rabbit hole, picking up speed as I went. Suddenly - poof! I have landed with a thud in an entirely new place in my life.

I'm not in the habit of making resolutions at New Year. This year was no different, although I found myself pausing to take stock of my life up to this point. It seemed even more potent for me as this January 1st marked not only a new year, but also my 40th birthday. It is with great pleasure that I feel as though I've stepped across a chasm. Many times I felt as though I was moving too slowly. I was hungry for more and more experiences. I often felt "stuck" and yet as I sit to write, I can see that my evolution as a person has been anything but slow and steady - its been with quantum leaps followed by periods of adjustment before once again jumping off.

My thirties seemed to have been devoted to discovery of self. I was so practiced at doing what was right and expected that I lost sight of myself, only to powerfully re-discover who I am and all the possibility that resides within. I set up and then sold off businesses, I hit the "re-set" button on how I interact with my family - choosing meaning over duty. I discovered so much about health and well-being in an entirely different context - one that literally reconfigured everything about how I see the world now. I worked formally and informally with hundreds of people as they reclaimed their lives and their health. I gave birth to 3 sons and have since been on an incredible journey as a mother to children who are entering a world that is at a momentous bifurcation point. My physical circumstances are unrecognizable compared to 10 years ago and are beyond my humble dreams back then.

Yes, upon reflection, the past 10 years have been truly potent. My acceleration is completely connected to my willingness to step into my first WEL-Systems program where the conversations I craved were available and where new insights emerged, not as a product of my intellect, but from the very core of my being. The best part was that they were MY insights, MY truth - not one installed by someone else. I was taught to breathe and to pay attention to what was going on inside me - and the rest was purely magical.

Having crossed a significant chasm, I now stand here looking forward. I'm about to embark on a very significant new chapter. This time I know who I am. Although I have no idea where I am going, I'm guided choice by choice into a new terrain. My return to blogging has as much to do with discovery in the moment as it has to do with leaving behind evidence of my journey, because although I don't know where I'm headed, I'm quite certain that I'll be moving with great speed and intensity!

Mad Hatter

The title of this entry has less to do with my childhood favorite, "Alice In Wonderland", than it does with the many roles I find myself playing out these days. My life is a lovely hodge podge of of interests, ideas and simple obligations that I often feel as though I am continually switching hats.

Before discussing the madness underlying all this, let me first reference a great newsletter I receive from Denise Linn. In the latest issue she wrote about the stuff of life, the basic obligations we each have in our day to day living, whether it be caring for the creatures on her farm, or caring for children or other basic stuff that keeps our daily lives running.

I have to agree with Denise Linn, in that its our attitude about how we approach the stuff in our lives that makes it a blessing or a burden. I'd even take it one step further, and point out that its our choice to continue living the way we do. If we can't find joy or satisfaction in it, then we need to ask ourselves if its really necessary and why we continue to have it in our lives.

Having said that, I suppose one form of madness is to continue doing and being in ways that are soul sucking while doing nothing to free ourselves from the cycle. There certainly are no fairy god-mothers or white knights with the capacity to free us from ourselves! Once again, its an inside job!!

My own particular madness has been to hold these hats that I wear as somehow separate and distinct. In trying to draw boundaries around them, I am stifling the flow in my life. I currently wear the "Mommy" hat most of the time (which comes with a lovely matching super hero cape). In addition to that I have a physiotherapist hat, a business partner hat, a life partner hat, a writer's hat (quite dusty these days!) and so on. What is crazy making for me, is attempting to schedule all these wardrobe changes in any given day. Its an impossible feat that inevitably finds me mismatched, confused and breathless.

No more! After having seeing the bizarre millinery confection that Sarah Jessica Parker wore on the Paris red carpet premiere of Sex In The City, I have decided to follow suit!! I'm going to pool all my hats into one and let it make its own unique statement. And just like SJP, I'm sure it will make tongues wag while I strut my stuff, feeling just fine in my own skin.

Bone Tired Blogging

Well, so much for the fanfare on my last entry! It seems that I wasn't back at all and, frankly, this time around, no promises!

I'm amazed at how my drive and desire to blog has evaporated lately. Its not as though my life isn't rife with material. I find myself 100% engaged in moment to moment living these days. A toddler can do that! My inner conversations continue and on occasion will rouse me from an exhausted sleep to reach conclusion for the day as my body completes its final unwinding.

Perhaps what I sense as acutely different this time is that my sense of scarcity when it comes to writing has simply evaporated. For the past couple of years it felt as essential as breathing. I felt panicked if I couldn't create the time to give over to the flow of words that seemed to log jam in my mind and body.

Now, the flow continues unabated and unobstructed, I might add. No log jams even though there is no paper trail to follow. I am in the flow of my life unfolding and that is sufficient - for now. In fact, in many ways it seems there is an incubation period happening once again in concert with this pregnancy.

Certainly I was reborn in many ways with Baby "S"es arrival and now I wonder who I will be when this next little person arrives on the scene. This time I have no sense of impending loss of mySelf. I feel like there is more of "me" set to emerge as well.

Writing will follow - but not with the strident discipline it required before. It seems that I have finally found myself completely in flow with my life- fully focused, fully engaged, often exhausted and always amazed by the wonder of what my children reflect back to me.

Am I living in Utopia? Hell no!! But I AM living with a sense of adventure and a great deal of humor. I find myself continually needing to pay attention to what I, as an individual need, and then to ensure that I follow through in providing it for myself. Again, I'd love to say this is a "martyr free zone" but I have my moments! However, there is only enough space for one tantrum at a time around here!! And my day will come .... just kidding.

Creativity comes in all kinds of packages. At the moment, it comes in the guise of finding ways to stay present to mySelf while consciously parenting two, soon to be three, energetic boys.

I'll check in again sometime soon .... thanks for dropping by!