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Gratitude: Mindfulness Practice Tips from a Life Coach for Women

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The Gratitude holiday, Thanksgiving, is upon us.  Time for giving thanks.  But just in case you are feeling a little low on appreciation, let’s make sure we are filled to the brim with gratitude before giving thanks.  Don’t you just love the feeling of appreciation and gratitude?  It really is an attitude, or state of being that feels warm and loving.  So why do we need to be reminded with a holiday?  I’m proposing that we live every day as a day of Thanksgiving as a mindfulness practice.

As a life coach for women, I truly recognize the duty and service that women offer to the world.  They give endlessly to everyone – their children, spouses, parents, extended families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and organizations, too.  Women are Divinely designed to give.  And we are also designed to give thanks.  But sometimes, because of all the giving, we can become so worn out, it’s can be hard to feel that warm, loving sense of gratitude.  Instead, we may be feeling worried about someone or a situation, and not sure how to help.

If you are having trouble feeling grateful in the midst of all the cooking, cleaning, planning, and caring for others, here are some mindfulness practices to reconnect you with your grateful heart, your divine right to an attitude of gratitude, no matter what is happening around you.

First, we want to give ourselves permission to BE grateful for no reason whatsoever.  That’s right, just be grateful because you choose to be.  Whenever we try to attach the feeling of appreciation and gratitude to an event, it loses it’s spaciousness and expansiveness.  The real sense of gratitude is a warm feeling in the heart, an acceptance and love for all that is – regardless of what you perceive as good or bad in the outside world.  So for example, we may have many problems or none at all, but we can recognize the experience of appreciation for a cold drink of water or a breath of fresh air.  It’s the practice of BEING that we are grateful for.  The moments when we can feel truly alive and present, without judgment or concerns.  So at any moment you can give this to yourself.  At any moment you can enter the state of being by just appreciating a single breath or noticing the freedom of a movement, feeling the energy within your body.

Usually, we are prone to feel grateful when we are out in nature.  We see the beauty and it transports us into a state of just being and appreciating.  Give this to yourself every day.  Revel in the sunrise or sunset, feel the sun on your back, or the breeze in your hair, whatever is present is a reason to feel appreciation.  When I engaged as a life coach for women I often suggest a visit to a beautiful spot in nature, which can bring you back to the grateful state effortlessly.

So many times, we feel anything but grateful because of some challenge we face.  An illness, financial worries, relationship problems.  By switching your focus to the mindfulness practice of being grateful for the very simplest of experiences, you can cultivate and reconnect with a grateful heart.  Being here and now, take a long slow breath in and out, simply noticing the air movement and the relaxation that comes with a relaxing breath.  Focus your attention on your heart and begin to breath in and out of the heart area.   Allow yourself to feel the aliveness in your heart and imagine great warmth and light there.   As you do, bring to mind something that you feel true appreciation and gratitude for.  It could be someone you love, or something natural like your favorite place in the mountains or beach.  When you experience that feeling of appreciation, keep expanding it and nurturing it until it is full and rich and wonderful in the heart area.  This is an attitude of gratitude – no matter what is going on in the world.  Give this to yourself.  Revel in the feeling.  You will begin to feel so full and blessed, that you will know you have much to give and much to give thanks for.

Blessings for a Thanksgiving of Mindfulness Practices for Gratitude!

Mindfulness Tips for Holiday Stress from a Life Coach for Women

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Tis the season to be jolly!  Jolly crazy that is, when it comes to all the tasks before us, especially women as we approach the holidays.   In this article, you will be encouraged to go through the holidays more mindfully and with less stress so that your experience is one of greater peace and joy.  Isn’t that the true meaning of these holidays – Giving Thanks & Peace on Earth?

So how is it that women find themselves anything but peaceful during the holidays?  We are normally busy doing for others, right?  Well, it’s just that we find that during the next few months, it will be “Doing-for-others on steroids”.  Yes, it’s shop ’til you drop, but we’re not talking about fun outings to buy new clothes.  We’re talking about major grocery shopping, and gift buying galore for family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and even our cherished service providers (don’t forget the dog walker!)

If this is the year you’ve decided to trim back and not buy so many gifts, you’ll still find yourself writing cards or baking something nice for many of the people you love.  Which brings up all the other extra activities that women DO during the holidays – travel arrangements, preparing the house for guests, meal planning, cooking, baking, etc.  Oh and did I mention decorating?  Pull out all the boxes from the attic or garage or basement, select, and place.  And then there’s the tree…….( Don’t forget taking it all down and putting it away, too. )

Well, you know we do all this because we enjoy it.  That is true.  We love creating warm and loving environments for our families and friends.  And we love the parties and gift giving.  It’s all good, right?

Or is it?  How about some tips from a Life Coach for Women on how to keep it from being ‘all stress’.

1) TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF EVERY DAY. This is not the time to stop your exercise routine.  And it’s certainly not the time to slack off on your meditation.

2) SLOW DOWN!  Even if it’s just a tiny bit. Practice mindfulness, living in the moment, by slowing down as  you do each holiday task.  Focus and stay in the moment of what you are doing, not jumping ahead to the list of all the things you must do next.  This way, you will really reap all the benefit of enjoying the season.

3) REMIND YOURSELF EACH DAY OF WHY you are doing the preparations and shopping, etc.  If you are not doing these things out of love and joy, then stop.  Maybe there are some things you could let go of, or replace with things you WANT to do from love.

4)  LET GO OF PERFECTION.  There is no such thing.  Need I say more?

5) LIGHTEN UP AND LAUGH OFTEN.  If you can, make it a practice to laugh several times each hour.  Even if you are laughing at how silly it is to try to laugh every hour.  This is a life coach for women mindfulness practice you won’t want to quit.

Blessings for a peaceful holiday!

Creating a Life Vision: Tips from a Life Coach

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It’s important and valuable to have a life direction.  However, there seems to be a lot of confusion about how to create or connect with your personal inspired vision for your life.  In this article, I hope to provide some insight in just what a life vision comprises, and the qualities of a life vision that will inspire and motivate you and others around you.

There’s some confusion around the concepts we call vision, purpose and mission statements.  What I’ve come to realize is that a life vision is much more expansive and powerful than either purpose or mission.  Purpose and mission are necessarily more narrow and tend to include aspects of measurement and comparison or judgment.  Whereas, vision does not.  Vision does provide direction, but it open and takes you beyond the land of measurements.

A vision is actually a “view” or image of what truly inspires you.  It’s a big picture of the greater possibilities for your life.  When you create your life vision (or rather get in touch with it, because spiritually, it is already there waiting for you to access it) it becomes the inspiration for your every action and focus.  It is the view that will help you create powerful goals and action plans.

A life vision is unlimited because it isn’t a finite landing place.  It’s more of a powerful launching pad.  It will contain possibilities for expansion and growth and development as it fosters new ideas and openings.  And most importantly, a powerful life vision will inspire you and others to take action.

Furthermore, a Life Vision is a powerful picture or image that when held in mind it actually transforms the state of mind of the viewer.  It has the power to expand the mind into the realm of great possibility and inspiration.  It energizes and uplifts your state of being into the higher realm of possibility, joy and creativity.  It also takes you out of the realm of right and wrong and judgment and comparisons.  It brings everyone into a space of present moment creativity.  It isn’t a “future” reality.  It can be seen and felt here and now.

Here are three steps to help you begin to access your life vision.  You can use these for any aspect of your life – health, relationships, career, spirituality, etc.

1) First, enter into a meditation that brings you out of the realm of your day-to-day concerns and into the space of presence and peace.  This is the space where we can here the voice of our higher selves.

2) Let yourself begin to imagine the highest possibility for your life, letting your creativity expand into pictures that you can actually see, taste and feel as they come alive in your imagination

3) Write down what you see – describe the picture.  Describe the view of “how it is” in the realm of possibility.

To help you with this, here is a portion of my life vision.

I see that through my work, women are powerfully supported for personal and spiritual growth and transformation, so that they may face life’s challenges with courage and wisdom and create their lives with meaning, vision and joy through mindful living.  I see the positive spiritual growth of women living more mindfully and joyfully as a ripple effect, spreading out to bless others – children, spouses, friends, parents, co-workers, communities, the world.

Enjoy creating your new life vision!