Archives May 2014

Weed your own yard
The art of tending to your own yard.

yard

Carson City is a small town. It’s not tiny by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there is plenty to do (as a visit to the I Love Carson City Facebook page will quickly show you). Although it is a capital city, 55,274 is just small enough to run into at least one person you know when you go to the grocery store (or an ex boyfriend when you are having a girls’ night). It’s also just small enough to magnify an issue most people struggle with anyway, digging around in other people’s yards.

Tending to your own yard (your own business, relationships, personal issues) is an art. It takes a lot of practice and willingness to not to look over the fence and compare, contrast, judge, or copy what your neighbor is doing. Many businesses tend to do exactly that. They cookie-cutter their competition by mimicking promotions, product offerings, and business tactics. What you must realize is this – it’s what makes you unique that will bring customers to your door, not your ability to pay attention to your competition and do what they are doing.

To tend to your own yard, you need the following tools:

A mower: Take some quiet time to yourself to gain some perspective on yourself. Don’t take anyone else into consideration. Just focus on YOU. Cut the overgrowth caused by expectations, negative self-talk, naysayers, and other things that have gotten unmanageable over a period of time.

A pruner: Get out a pen and paper and start snipping. Write down what makes you happy, what makes you unhappy, what you are looking for in life, and what people, places, or ideas in your backyard that need to be snipped so the weeds don’t choke out the beautiful flowers of your life.

Some weed killer: Once you’ve identified those people, places, and ideas, spread some weed killer on it. Give yourself permission to, as Queen Elsa says, “let it go.”

Some fertilizer: Fertilize the good with positive, intentional, actions. Don’t attack it all at once. Fertilize what you can handle, as it will surely grow.

When you do this to your own yard, versus focusing on others (what they are doing/have done to you, their lives, their businesses, their state of mind) you will find new landscape for growth, prosperity, and profitability.

Today’s Exercise: Try it! Take a notebook and dedicate one page to your mower, one page to your pruner, one page to your weed killer, and as many as you dare for your fertilizer. What did you come up with? How will you use what you have learned to tend to your yard versus someone else’s?

If I can be of any assistance with this exercise. Just contact me.

The beginning is always the hardest.

The Beginning is the Hardest

Do not give up, the beginning is always the hardest!

Have you ever started something only to quit a week, or a few weeks, later? Rushed to see results, you throw up your hands, declare whatever you are trying as “not working” and set off to find another way. Don’t give up when you are so close to the miracle! With exercise, you gain muscle. So the scale may not move for a few weeks, no matter how good your diet is or how hard you are working. When you start a new class, it might be hard at first. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Relationships begin with a honeymoon period, but the hard part is the beginning of the non-honeymoon period. Stick with it. The rewards are great. It’s true, the beginning is always the hardest. Doing the work you need to do, when everything in you is telling you that you aren’t inspired, are bored, don’t have the talent, or don’t have the time, is essential. Whatever you do, do not give up!

Here are 50 Inspirational Quotes to help you stick with it.

Receive more by making a gratitude list.

Be Grateful

This morning, I woke up very grateful. Sunday was very successful, both for me and my clients, at the Festival of Earthly Treasures in Carson City. I spoke with clients on a variety of complex issues from growing a business to personal time management. I ask every client at the end of every session, whether it’s 10 minutes or 10 days, whether it was valuable and beneficial and I am happy to report that everyone said yes yesterday. That makes me so happy.

I woke up grateful that:

  • I am able to be an agent of change in my clients’ lives and businesses and help improve peoples’ lives.
  • I have supportive people in my life who are my biggest cheerleaders.
  • I had a choice this morning, to engage in self-care at home or attend Kaia, a great woman-only group workout I do. (I chose self-care and quality time with my pets.)
  • I have a mind, so that I may learn, and a healthy body, so that I may move to where I am needed (and where I want to be) today.
  • I have a home, a car, I am not lacking for basics. (I was actually homeless for four months. Talk to me and I will tell you the story.)

These are just a few of the things I am grateful for today that are present on my gratitude list.

Daily Exercise: What are you grateful for? No matter how difficult life may seem, or how many challenges the day may throw your way, take some time with yourself and think of five things you are grateful for. 

When you express your gratitude, you make more room for good to come in. It’s like the universe responds by saying, “I appreciate that. Here, have some more good stuff and tell me what you think.”

I’d love to hear your results with writing your gratitude list in the comments below. Have a great and grateful day!

Carson City Festival of Earthly Treasures

The first time I went to the Carson City Festival of Earthly Treasures, I was recovering from a break up. It was a bad one and I needed some time to center, find myself, and see what the world of metaphysics had to offer. I stopped at a booth where people were making necklaces with real stones and sat down. Together, we made a lovely necklace made of Red Aventurine, Green Aventurine, Agate, and Unakite. Each stone had a unique healing purpose and I was thrilled to be making my own power necklace.

Red and Green Adventurine Necklace with Urakite and Agate

Aventurine is said to benefit one in all areas of creativity, and imagination, as well as intellect and mental clarity. Lore says that it enhances prosperity and brings career success. It is a gentle stone energetically that gives a sense of calm and balance and enhances happiness. It also helps one to see alternatives and potentials in all situations, giving a positive outlook, courage and inner strength. It is also said to bring luck, especially in games of chance. Green aventurine is also a mystical stone of prosperity. Aventurine brings friendship to one’s life. It is also a stone of protection energies. Folklore and metaphysical lore say that physically it is beneficial for blood, circulatory system, balancing blood pressure, sinus problems, nausea, headaches, general health, allergies, eczema, fever, and sleep disorders.

Aventurine is associated with the heart chakra. Different colors of Aventurine such as blue, peach or red, have additional properties and relate to various chakras according to color.

Red Aventurine is stone of manifestation through action. It draws upon the elements of Earth and Fire to increase the flow of prana, or life force, in re-vitalizing the physical body and focusing its energy to get things done. It boosts vitality and mental alertness, and amplifies the desire to take on life’s challenges with determination and perseverance. It inspires creativity and sexuality, and renews excitement and confidence in bringing one’s projects, goals and desires into reality.

Red Aventurine is a remarkable crystal for helping one choose their highest path, offering discernment and the ability to perceive which plans and ideas are best to follow, and which are less than ideal. It allows one to see the Self and overcome ego when it prevents better judgment, and lends assurance to those who fear commitment to choose a path and follow it through. It encourages self-forgiveness and the ability to laugh at one’s own mistakes.

Unakite is a made up of a combination of three minerals: Green Epidote, Pink Fieldspar and Quartz. It is a balancing stone helping to balance all aspects of the self; emotional, spiritual and mental, and allowing you to feel more centred. Unakite is also believed to help release energy blockages, that may be inhibiting your growth, and to encourage you to live in the present rather than in the past.

Finally, Agate (the center stone of the necklace) has a lower intensity and vibrates to a slower frequency than other stones, but is highly regarded as a stabilizing and strengthening influence. The layered bands of microscopic quartz in Agate may appear delicate, they are actually very strong. Agate is excellent for balancing emotional, physical and intellectual energy, and in harmonizing yin and yang, the positive and negative forces of the universe.

Learn more about stones and their meanings at Crystal Vaults.

Today’s Exercise: What stones would be in your ultimate power necklace? What do you need to bring into your life, business, career or mindset? Do you need mental clarity, creativity, imagination, prosperity, strength, or balance?

In the spirit of bringing you all the good things the festival brought me, I will be there this Sunday, May 18 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., offering $1 a minute life, business, career and mindset coaching as well as a few other fun festival specials. Come see me at the Carson City Community Center!