I’m talking about the eyes of judgment, of course.  The eyes that size things up, analyze them, figure them out…assessing, weighing, always striving to find a “better” way.  Those are the eyes that I naturally find wandering over into the camp of others – my husband, in fact, is frequently the victim.  When I figure out that I need to eat less sugar for example, the first person I start to pick apart on the subject is my husband.  Observing him eating too much sugar, making comments about how “we should…” eat instead, and so on and so forth.  All stemming from the inner knowledge that, in fact, it is my own sugar eating that I am attempting to address.  Externalizing the source of the problem, however, makes it easier to handle.  It is easier to blame someone else for my problems.  It is easier than taking 100% responsibility.  It is easier to avoid making any changes that way – because it is he/she/them that need to change – no, not I!

My call to action today is to look into the corners of your life, those corners that perhaps need a bit of attention or sweeping out – are you externalizing any blame for these areas being out of order or are you taking 100% responsibility?  This exercise for myself over the last two weeks has shone some light on a few sore spots that I know I need to step up to the plate on.  Step by step…

Celebrating the rebounding process – the process of recovering from setbacks and failures in life – is about putting the emphasis on the PROCESS instead of an end result that seems to continually elude us.  Sure, there are times that are more intense than others….times that you truly feel like you are walking through a desert…but if we choose to look instead at the opportunities, rather than the obstacles, we shift into a place that allows us a completely different approach.

I thought that once my book was published (check it out HERE), I would feel like I was done wandering in the desert….I would feel perhaps at least a bit more like I had “arrived.”  And yet, seeing that NOT produce those feelings pulls me back to the reminder that there is no end, there is no arrival that matters, except to an internal place of satisfaction that I AM and by doing my best, I am on the path, the only path that is all unfolding perfectly for me.  Feeling “broke” is a feeling that is created by an attachment to not having enough, and particularly for most, not having enough money.  Having just encountered the most serious financial setback (bankruptcy and business loss) in my lifetime, I have visited this feeling many many times.  My story is a rags to riches and back to rags….and back to riches story.  And the real focus in the story needs to be on the path that is the continuous thread throughout.

Own your moment right now.  Take 100% responsiblity for this moment.   How are you choosing to use it?  Are you using it to believe in, feel about, and contribute to being “broke” or are you claiming the opportunity for positive change and taking action, thinking thoughts, contributing to feelings that build you up and make you wealthy?  Actions and feelings like those of GRATITUDE, FORGIVENESS, CONFIDENCE, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, and INITIATIVE? 

The frustration we feel over being broke is a big red flag waving…it says “SOMETHING IS NOT ALIGNED HERE!  PAY ATTENTION!!”  Maybe that red flag is pointing to your desire for positive financial rewards but an attitude of victimization, laziness, confusion, and yes, downright, pitifulness.  I know at times, it has pointed to just that for me.  Losing myself in the fog of feeling disempowered, I spent too much time thinking about what I did wrong, what went wrong that I couldn’t control, what was wrong now, and so on.

My call to action for you today is to grab onto a TAKE CHARGE attitude and go make some massive ripples in your pond today.  Take some new action (even a bad plan is better than no plan!) and shake things up – after all, doing the same things,

feeling the same feelings, feeding yourself the same “broke” self-talk is not going to get you different results! Carpe diem!

Every time I turn the corner, I’m reminded how much I don’t know.  I just read a report about book marketing and it made me feel like crying, truthfully.  How could it be that after all the sweat and tears of writing the book, that I could be facing the daunting task of marketing the book as a neophyte, as green and as new to it as if I just had started writing yesterday?  It blows my mind, actually…Clearly it is time to roll up my sleeves and get very busy learning!

To those of you that are returning to this blog and have joined me before, thank you.  Apparently you are my saving grace which I had always instinctively known, but just didn’t fully appreciate as fully until this very moment.  In reality, I could have been blogging all throughout my experiences with Inspire, the business creation, the business failure, the business restructure, the bankruptcy…I think I was so busy surviving that it never crossed my mind actually.   Well, as of today, expect a lot more – and hold me accountable and capable to it!  I am going to make a pointed effort to create a blog journey here that is about my learning curve marketing this book, I can tell you that.  As well as engage you (if you choose to respond to the mission of posting a response, thank you very much) in a discussion about the rebounding experience and what that means for us collectively. 

I have done a couple radio interview recently (I will post links to them forthright!) and each time I talk about this book, I get more excited.  I love hearing what others have to say about this topic because it is so relatable.  And there are so many aspects of rebounding from setbacks in our lives, no matter how big or small, that we have in common…

The emotional rollercoaster ride of it all…the inevitable coming back to feelings and thoughts around “why didn’t I just…?” – I just can’t get over myself how hard it can be to shake that tendency!  I can teach other people about how to grapple with it and how to gain new perspective on it, putting it in some new cognitive framework, and yet it is so hard for me some days!  Staying diligent about taking care of myself is part of the key, I know.  As soon as I stop exercising, start eating stuff I shouldn’t be, or stop getting the rest I need, the negativity has a tendency to creep in more often and with stronger reminders of self-doubt, “should’ve, would-ve” thinking.  Persistently, every time I stray I come back, rebounding over and over again actually, so that in the grand scheme of things I am making small, steady step of progress each and every day, although difficult at times to see the forest for the trees.

My call to action for you today is to stage your own mini-rebound inside your bigger picture.  Have you been observing yourself, learning new things about how you are responding to stresses?  Have you been remaining open and staying diligent with your self-care?  Have you gotten “off track” and need a moment to regain your centering point?  Take the time and create the space for continual learning, continual rebounding, and take some centering action TODAY.  Now is all you have, really, so take the leap and get going!  Know that I am joining you – today actually allowing myself the realization of all that I don’t know, learning and learning so more, recentering myself by doing a cleanse/detox day today in my Isagenix system, and creating a cleaner, fresher slate to rebound on tomorrow. 

There are days (and then there are more days!) that I just want to scream in frustration that nothing seems to happen as fast as I’d like it to…and then there are the other days that suddenly provide you portals into that space of deliverance, completion, fruition.  And when it happens it is magical…

You may have noticed that there has been a little gap in these posts – almost an eerily silent front.  The silence may be online but behind the scenes there is this effort going on to launch and release this first book – and because I am learning everything for the first time – publishing, marketing, etc. – it takes much longer than I anticipate, occupying most of my mental energy and much of my emotional energy as well!  Rebounding is a book that occurred so naturally out of my experiences that the actual process of getting it to market was definitely a secondary concern, if you would even call it a concern at all.  The reason I wrote it remains the reason that I’m hanging in there and doing what seemingly comes less than naturally for me (executing to completion)…I know in my heart that there is someone out there somewhere that needs to hear what I have to say in the way that I have to say it.  So that maybe they don’t feel so alone in their process – so that maybe they can have just a few moments the type of peace that only comes through empathizing with a fellow traveler on this road called life.

Do take heart that you can find the resources you need to cultivate the feeling of positive expectation, of momentum…if you continue to persevere and persist in your journey.  Whatever life transitions you may be facing, know that not only are you not alone – you too are just getting started!  I find strength and encouragement in reminding myself that I’m inexperienced in the art of publishing, internet marketing, etc. and therefore can allow myself the space to be unsure and to learn it from the beginning.  And after all, aren’t we all new to this moment, right now, whatever is right in front of us?  Don’t be afraid to say that you are just getting started!  There is power and excitement and movement (growth!) available in that very statement – so join me and stand up proud and declare it!

And in the meantime, check out the e-book version of Rebounding that I just released….  : )

Oh my goodness, I was setting up an appointment yesterday and I realized that February is right around the corner – wow!  And how did January get so fast anyways??  For me, the adage “Time flies when you’re having fun” applies right now- I think January is flying by in part because I’m not watching the clock – I’m having fun in the moment!

The fun part and the hard part are actually one and the same right now – I get the distinct honor and privilege of starting my coaching business over again – which is both overwhelmingly exciting and overwhelmingly overwhelming at times!  If I didn’t have Isagenix as my superfood, fueling my enthusiasm and passion, I know that the energy I need, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually just wouldn’t be there.  I was flying high the other day, caught up in the moment, excited by the nearing completion of the book publishing process and all that is to come with Isagenix and my coaching business and realized that I had exactly $87 in my checking account!  How easy it would be to stay stuck, to stay focused on what is missing, but instead I feel a sense of deep gratitude for exactly where I am right now.  This ability to focus on where I am and where I’m going instead of the past, didn’t happen by accident…this ability is something I have been working on cultivating, it has been a deliberate action….one that only became possible by allowing myself to first and foremost…breathe!

What, you may say, does breathing have to do with gratitude?  Or you may be thinking that my gratitude isn’t gratitude at all but some form of delusional ability to ignore the reality of my life – instead focusing on some intangible dream.  Breathing into myself, into my purpose, into my life on the deepest levels has allowed me to take the steps and do the hard work.  Filing bankruptcy and admitting temporary defeat financially was far from a place of denial – the physical action of turning in your vehicles, selling off your real estate assets one by one, laying off your employees, going through your house to find things you can sell on Craigslist to get enough money together to restart your business – these are not things that can be done from a place of denial and delusion.  Those are all things that come from facing the hard facts and seeing the reality of your life.  But allowing yourself to acknowledge who you are at the core and what you want from your life, slowing down long enough to breath into those basic questions, is what creates the fertile soil that you grow your life deliberately from, from there.

My call to action for you today is the breathe into those basic questions for yourself:  what do you really need in your life to be your best self?  What do you really want your life to be about?  If we don’t take the time to slow down and do this, time may still fly by but not because you’re having fun – but because you are living your life unconsciously, going through the motions of what you think your life needs to be about.  That, I would say, is the form of denial that we really need to be on guard against:  denying that we have the ability to be grateful no matter what, denying that we have the ability to be deliberate about the life we are creating.