How do we connect with Grace? with Charlene Proctor, Author of The Oneness Gospel

How Do We Connect with Grace?

 

Today we have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 14 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Charlene M. Proctor whose book The Oneness Gospel:  Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You launches on Amazon today Tuesday April 24, 2012.

 

 

 

 

Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D. is an ordained Minister of Spiritual Peacemaking and a “Deeksha” facilitator trained by the oneness guides from Fiji and India.  She is the bestselling author of Let Your Goddess Grow! 7 Spiritual Lessons on Female Power and Positive Thinking and The Women’s Book of Empowerment: 323 Affirmations That Change Everyday Problems Into Moments of Potential. Her Midwestern sensibility and spiritual approach to self-empowerment has helped thousands awaken to their Divine magnificence within.

 

Author Charlene M. Proctor, Ph.D. has written a new book that brings us back to the Essence of true spirituality. The book, entitled The Oneness Gospel: Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You, is a rich mix of science, spirituality and mysticism that transcends the boundaries of religion, and uplifts the reader to that place of Oneness. An ordained Minister of Spiritual Peacemaking and a Deeksha facilitator trained by the oneness guides from Fiji and India, Charlene’s mission in life is to help awaken to their Divine magnificence within all humanity.

 

Yesterday, Charlene visited Lola Fayemi at http://www.alignedandthriving.com/growth/interview-charlene-proctor/, where they talked about her story, divine human and emerging the authentic you.

 

Today, I’d like to share with you a recent interview I had with Charlene when I got to ask her some questions on connecting with Oneness, one mind and grace. I hope you enjoy it.

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Andrea Hylen: Charlene, I know that you did extensive research to gather all of the information for this book. You also have your own personal spiritual practices. What are some simple ways that people can begin to connect with the Oneness on a daily basis?

 

Charlene M. Proctor: Simply remember we are all One Spirit. Oneness is being completely aware of God within yourself.

God is Spirit, the loving source of all that is. God is the one power, all good, everywhere present, all wisdom. God is divine energy, continually creating, expressing and sustaining all creation. In God, we live and move and have our being. Other ways people refer to God are love, life, the universe, substance, or universal mind.

Every day, think outside the box, challenge your perspective. If you study the Bible, consider treating it as history and allegory. Read the works of Rumi, Yogananda, learn about the Buddha, the Goddess, or any other version of the Divine that resonates with you. Stretch yourself. With regards to the Bible, I have shown readers in The Oneness Gospel how to interpret some of its subject matter as a metaphysical representation of humankind’s evolutionary journey toward spiritual awakening, without losing the meat of Jesus’ teachings. The Bible is a complex collection of writings compiled over many centuries. I honor the writings as reflecting the understanding and inspiration of the writers at the time they were written, but I have always searched for truth between the lines.  So, every day, find your personal truth. Expand your spiritual resources. Learn to recognize a universal truth.

 

Andrea Hylen: One of the principles you talk about in your book is “Choose to live in the energy of unconditional love and abandon your judging mind.” How do we do this when life feels uncertain and things in our life are falling apart?

Charlene M. Proctor: There is only One Mind.  It sounds quirky, but there is only one mind. Our individual brains are separate within our bodies and the details of our minds are separate, for example, what I prefer, what I like to eat for breakfast, what I think about in my work, or my favorite color. These thoughts are my thoughts, but I am not thinking anything new that someone else has not thought of a thousand years ago.  I have the same fears, emotions, grief, pain that someone has had. We all have experienced the same suffering, it is not unique.

The Mind wants us to create all kinds of concepts and beliefs about our suffering so it can constantly perpetuate itself. It does not exist without all that chatter. The mind contains the flow of thoughts, emotions, concepts, beliefs, the past and viewpoints, but it also contains fear, jealousy, judgment, or the quest for significance. The Mind is meant to compare, that is the Mind’s job.  And it works the same for every individual in the world.

The Mind is means to be a tool, something to help us distinguish, compare, and decide.  But instead of making friends with the Mind, we’ve let it run amok. It won’t shut up. We have forgotten how to be quiet, and be engaged in what we are doing or experiencing. Instead, we are caught up in the concept our belief systems, comparisons, or analysis. We need the mind as a great organizer and tool, but it should be working for us, not running our lives. It is up to us to get it under control, be friends with it, and be aware of what it is designed to do.

So, when life becomes overwhelming, remember you can never be free of the Mind, you must become free WITH IT. It always creates a sense of separation, which is where all suffering begins, so first recognize how it is flavoring your present day reality, and just SEE.

Only then will you learn to love the experience of life, free from conditioning and negativity. Nothing is truly falling apart or uncertain; it is the sense of separation the Mind wants you to see.  When you can embrace that thought, and replace uncertainty with love, life will seem better, and all as it should be.

 

Andrea Hylen: How do we connect with Grace?

Charlene M. Proctor: Grace is the holy presence. It is an experience. Allow it to be a primary connection to your Source. This is the place you know you are taken care of, when life has meaning. A lack of trust means you do not know grace. It shifts your perception of life.

Love is the foundation of grace and the activity of the Divine. It is Divine Love helping you and healing you. It is like a mother who offers comfort and warmth, who folds you into her lap. There is no effort required on our behalf, and we should offer no resistance. It is free, on the house, available to everyone. It is an energy that is always there but we often don’t recognize it. When we change our perceptions on grace, and allow it to enter our experience, there is progress in the form of personal transformation and healing – a move forward in all areas.  There is a re-ordering taking place. There is peace. It is not a concept or an idea, but the holy presence. All you have to do is ask God for grace.  It is that simple.

When we fall from grace, it does not mean we are sinners. It means we have forgotten our connection with the Divine Presence! When you ‘come back into grace’ it doesn’t mean we have chosen the right religion nor done something amazing to impress God. It means we have remembered who we are as beings of light here on the plant. We have simply remembered our connection.

 

© Charlene M. Proctor Ph.D.  The Oneness Gospel: Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Charlene M. Proctor and that you’ll check out her book The Oneness Gospel:  Birthing the Christ Consciousness and Divine Human in You at http://onenessgospel.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Here’s why:

 

When you sign up for a reminder, you’ll receive:

 

• A FREE pass to attend Charlene’s inspiring “Your Journey to Joy Webinar” taught by Charlene and presented by best-selling author Lynn Serafinn. On this uplifting and informative webinar, Charlene will talk about how we develop our belief in separation and suffering, how those beliefs get stored as trauma in the body, and how to change your inner reality so you can experience JOY in every aspect of your life.

 

THEN…When you buy The Oneness Gospel on Tuesday April 24th, 2012, you’ll also receive:

 

• The MP3 download from the “Your Journey to Joy Webinar” AND

 

• An invitation to “Twelve Principles for Becoming a Divine Human“, a special online discussion with Charlene AND

 

• ·      A complete library of beautiful, downloadable gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe. I’m offering a gift too:

 

Healing Meditation with Energy Tools to Feel, Heal and Transform Your Life.

A 30 minute meditation with energy tools created by Andrea Hylen. Focused on the Twelve Principles for Becoming a Divine Human in Charlene’s Book: The Oneness Gospel.

 

To request a launch reminder so you’ll remember to pick up

The Oneness Gospel on Tuesday April 24th,
and receive all these beautiful gifts, go to:

http://onenessgospel.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

 

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

 

AND… be sure to follow Charlene tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Carl Bozeman, who will be interviewing Charlene on inner awareness, enlightenment and “dark night of the soul.”  To visit that “stop” on the tour, go to http://cbozeman.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/interview-with-author-charlene-proctor

Namaste: Sharing Quotations

“What if success was measured by what we achieve inwardly?” is a quote I have on a piece of paper stuck on my computer monitor, look at several times a day and still wonder how it applies to me.

Every morning, before my feet hit the ground I can see the scroll of my “to do” list roll down in front of my eyes and some days it is pretty long. Some days I get tired just looking at it. A good friend of mine told me it is a “woman’ thing. Readers, tell me if that is true for you too. One thing I know is that my husband doesn’t have a “to do” list coming to life  as he wakes up. Lucky him. As I go about my day I cross  items off my list. And yet I often go to bed feeling I have not accomplished much.

I read the  quote “what if success was measured by what we achieve inwardly?” as part of a longer post on Facebook and it called me to question how I view my own worth. Am I successful even if I have no measurable accomplishment to show for? Am I successful simply because I was connected to my heart all day? I want to believe it and having been a type A personality most of my life, this is not an easy task. I like, or used to like, crossing off items off my to do list at the end of the day. It gave me a high and I could go to bed content. Now I meditate before going to bed and connect to the Love energy I have for myself and others. Funny enough, it still fees like  a huge accomplishment. I am waiting for the day when it feels totally natural, when I do not question what I do and when how I feel matters more than what I do because it is what guides my life.

I recently caught a tweet that gave a quote from James Allen (possibly the self improvement British guru who died in 1912): “The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.”  My inner belief is that Love is the only real emotion, the only real energy and the only real guide for my life. So if I am Love, my reflection is Love. If I am inward success, my reflection to the world is success.

I love quotes. They help me grow. Just like the Dalai Lama says: “It is your mind that creates this world.” I ponder on this one everyday and I am not done with it…

Namaste

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Christel Libiot, MA, CPCC, is a wellness coach, Reiki Master and Sekhem-Seichim III and believes in the power of intentional living. She brings integrity and compassion to empower and inspire her clients to look at their lives and make choices toward a more healthy and fulfilled life. She always keeps in mind the importance of the Body/Mind/Spirit connection and blends coaching, energy work and essential oils. She is trained in Theta Healing and received the Munay-Ki: The great Rites of the Medicine Way. She is a Priestess of the New Earth, and a leader of the Woman Within® Training Weekend in the United States and Europe. She leads wellness workshops, women’s circles and women’s retreats. With her skills and experience she facilitates healing in others as she believes that healing can only come from within.

Who Are You?

“Who are you?”  “You’ve changed SO much!”  “You’re not the same (fill in the blank) that you used to be.”

Does any of that sound familiar?  How exactly do you deal with those questions, those statements?  You know, the ones with the underlying message that perhaps the other person is slightly disappointed or possibly even annoyed that you’ve… GASP… changed!

The path to enlightenment isn’t always lined with those cheering you on.  Many times, sadly, there are those who are actually perturbed that you’re no longer who they’ve come to expect you to be.  Perhaps they feel left out of your new life… or even afraid that it will be YOU who judge THEM for being “less than”.

The pursuit of happiness seems to be all well and good when it involves a group effort, but stray too far from the crowd, spend a little “too much time alone” peering into the depths of your own soul, and soon those who are part of the old pack are set on edge.  You are no longer vibrating on the same frequency, and most of them don’t even know what you’re talking about any more… (Frequency? Vibrating? Is this an appropriate topic for a family-friendly forum?)

Soon enough, when you start looking at yourself, REALLY looking, at who you are, what your purpose in life is, what this journey is all about… changes start to unfold.  You slowly start to surround yourself with those do “get you”… or those whom YOU are trying to emulate.  In either case, that usually means that someone is left out in the cold.

The love and acceptance that you feel when surrounded by your new kin is often matched by rejection and criticism from those whom you used to call your friends.  And it’s not necessarily that WE’VE chosen to shun them, but that they no longer able to see how we “fit”.

The rejection can be harsh, the criticism cruel.  We’ve betrayed the brethren, and all by doing the scariest thing possible… we changed.  We dared to ask more of ourselves, and in the process, we left a wake of fear.

So how does one maintain those friendships, those connections of years gone by?  Ultimately, all we can do is hold them in our thoughts, our prayers and move forward with our new level of compassion and understanding, and hope that at some point, they will know that this is not about them… it’s about our own personal journey and the choices that we need to make in order to continue growing.

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Jamie Dee is an author, coach, lecturer and workshop leader who has spent the last 26 years helping others plan their weddings at her event planning business RSVPinternationalEvents.com She has offered pre-marital counseling sessions as a way to help her couples focus on the most important aspect of their wedding, their commitment to each other. After years of studying Heart-Centered Metaphysics and becoming a certified Peace Ambassador with the Rasur Foundation and the Institute of Hearth-Math, she now brings her heart focus to the mission of helping others have the greatest love relationship of their lives, the one with themselves.

“It is only after we heal our own wounded heart that we can move forward and love another, accepting them completely for who they are and where they are on their own journey.” ~ Jamie Dee

facebook: JamieDee.HeartfulHealing
twitter: @HeartfulHealing

Busting Through Fear

“While you’re struggling with the fear that it can’t be done, somebody else is doing it.”  Holly Stiel

I was talking to a dear friend the other day and we were discussing the “stuff” that holds people back from expressing the music, the talent, the dreams and the passion that’s in them.  And, we both determined that the key operative is “fear”.

That fear can show up in so many ways.  It can be the over-busy schedule of doing the “not that important” stuff that keeps you from doing the “real” stuff that could make a difference.  It could be caving into the doubts that come up in your own mind whenever you dream about what it is that you want to do.  I bet you have felt it at one time or another.

Or, it could be not following the inspiration, the nudge that comes your way.  I love this story about a woman who followed a nudge:

Ella Fitzgerald dreamed of being a doctor until she happened to hear about Amateur Night at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theatre (a precursor to our live talent shows that are so popular on TV now).  She decided to participate and practiced her dance routine.  However, as soon as she got on stage, her legs froze.  She couldn’t move and her heart was beating so loudly that she knew everyone must be able to hear it.  The audience laughed at her awkward deer-in-the-headlights stance.  So, in order to distract them, she began to sing songs she had memorized from her mother’s records.  The audience was quickly silenced.  They were blown away by her talent.  Simply awestruck.

Ella went on to win a $25 prize.  And, her magnificent singing career was launched.

Got some music in you that has been silenced too long?  Pay attention to the nudge.

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Ann Quasman’s goal is simple: To each day start a conversation that moves even one woman from talking to doing.

Ann is passionate about supporting community and national efforts and causes – and, WomanTalk Live sponsors numerous events each year.  In addition, Ann serves as a board member of The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MCASA), the statewide collective voice advocating for accessible, compassionate care for survivors of sexual crimes and accountability for all offenders.

Want to talk and take action with Ann? Call 410.583.5355 or email ann@WomanTalkLive.com

The Healing Power of Writing

by Sherry Dmytrewycz

Last year I found myself going through a great deal of emotional upheaval. I had a lot of fears to face. At the height of my struggles, I joined a writing group. My initial reason for getting into the group was to get myself to write and publish a book. I felt that doing a group book would be an easy introduction to book writing. The experience turned out to be an ideal way to look at the emotional upheaval in my life and to form new ways of looking at it to help work through it.

It all began when I attended a gathering called Awesome Woman Hub. There I met Andrea Hylen and several other amazing woman. Andrea announced that she was seeking individuals for a group “Heal My Voice” in which everyone would write a personal story about being fearless, which would go into a group book.

I signed on not knowing what I would write about despite the inner voice that told me I would be writing about what I had just been through with my mother. I kept denying that inner voice thinking that something else would come to mind for my story topic. At that point I had no idea how healing and good for me the writing would be, otherwise, I would not have resisted so much. When I began writing, I was still in the middle of the emotional trauma with my mother. I found writing about it did help me to process the experience.

For writing my story, I was encouraged to share my deepest thoughts and feelings about the experience. For many months I found myself unable to write at all. What I needed to write about brought up too many painful memories that I struggled to even begin to put into words. Tears flowed often. I struggled to find the lessons in my experiences in order to put anger and hurt aside. Eventually my story came out, and with the guidance and support of Andrea, the group, friends, and family, my story was edited and rewritten several times. Each individual helped me heal, let go, and change my thinking patterns. Energy healing sessions, done as always with unconditional love, also assisted me with releasing pent up emotions to form new perspectives.

Now that my story: “Walking on Eggshells,” has been submitted for the book: Fearless Voices: True Stories by Courageous Women, I am finding articles that discuss the healing power of writing. James Pennebaker, a psychologist, conducted studies with his college students. He asked them to write about a traumatic experience in a way that reflected how they felt about what happened and how they felt now. In the end these students reported improvements in mood, outlook on life, and in their physical health. Dr. Pennebaker suggests that their writing helped reduced their biological stress as they came to terms with the upsetting experience. Many students expressed that bringing parts of the experience to the surface was painful and the long term improved health results were evident in fewer trips to the health center through the year.

I am not advocating that rehashing a traumatic event over and over is always good for your health. I have seen many who are stuck in a cycle of victim consciousness that they have been unable to let go of for many years. Research shows that taking a little time and allowing yourself to be vulnerable, to look at, and to write about your feelings about traumatic events may be just the right thing for your improved health and happiness.

If you would like some emotional support during your writing, contact me for an Intuitive Energy Healing session.

Sherry Dmytrewycz 703 802 0377

The Opposite of Love is not Hate

I know, I know.  If you were doing a SAT test and they asked you the opposite of love, the correct answer would probably be hate.  But that’s surface stuff and I’m here to speak to the down below, usually hidden in the dark stuff.  Because that’s who I am:  an excavator of the dark.  I mine it for it’s gold and treasures which are connection and understanding.

Hate is defined as disliking something or someone intensely anywhere you look it up.  Notice that there is a concrete object for the feeling:  a something or a someone.  Nothing imagined here.  Very straight forward.  Hate is all surface.  It takes more than something that straightforward to bring about the atrocities we see named as hate.  Something in the deep dark that few are willing to have a look at.

The opposite of love is fear.  Wikipedia defines fear as a negative sensation caused by a real or perceived  threat.  The real threat is also very straight forward:  our child walks into traffic.  Our heart stops, our adrenalin rushes, we grab her back to safety.  Real fear acts.  For perceived threat there is no direct action.  We get all the emotion, all of the body reaction stuff running through our veins and nothing to attack or do.

It is the perceived threat that is the opposite of love.  We feel our very life threatened but we can’t name by what or why.  We pull in, pull back, throw up walls (only we can see), lock the doors (if there are any), shutter the windows (if there are any), watch shadows, listen to sounds we can’t define because we have so castled and moated ourselves that we are disconnected – the lizard brain licks its lips.  The stories come, dark and foreboding,  of their own accord.  What do we do if the cycle is not interrupted?  We close down more.  And blame it on the noises (people, events, the devil, a god) outside – we are keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe from the noises – from the perceived threat “out there.”  Out of our control.  Which feeds the anxiety and negative emotion of fear of whatever it is the story says is out there. We barricade more.  We are taking in no new information, so our mind – ever inventive – makes up whatever it needs to keep us “safe,” “in here” not “out there.”

It would be so nice if we could all just see love as the way out of the dark.  But love’s requirement is vulnerability and openess (and sometimes pain as we crack out of the shell we have built around us).  When we are backed into a corner (you know, the one we backed into as we closed down – the one that is there only in the stories the lizard brain is telling) it is hard to believe that there is any way out but fighting to the death anything and everything because anything and everything is threatening our “cozy” security.  Cramped, pinched, unable to move, unable to take in new information because we have blocked it out by our belief that we had nothing to do with where we are, we choose this known over the unknown “out there.”

It takes a lot of energy to keep the spirit from doing what it actually came here to do:  grow, and spin the unique part of the web of life that only this spirit in this time can spin.  It hurts.  It hurts a lot more than opening up.  Anais Nin captures it thus: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

When you get to the point where you are always afraid someone is going to take what little you have away from you, where you hate more people than you like, when you hate your life – if you can, stop.  This is the grace in the dark.  The dark has pushed you to your life’s limit and now it is time to find that you can push back.  Sometimes this is seen as a break down.  What is it the old song says?  The cracks are how the light gets in.

It is time to break down/break open because that’s how the light gets in so you can start to see in the dark.  No – there is no guarantee there won’t be a rock directly over your head.  You may have to grow around it or even through it to find the light.  But if you open, and open, and open again, you will expand (sometimes painfully).   This is one thing you can trust:  if you are expanding and opening andbeing vulnerable, if you are finding ways to quiet the lizard and his yarns and carving doors and windows (until you figure out that the wall is imaginary), if you are willing to be with whatever lack of security you feel, you can absolutely trust you are moving in the right direction.

Now is when you  acknowledge that you built the cocoon, choose to grow, break open that cocoon and discover that you have wings.  This is a time of great imperfection – which is a good thing.  Imperfection means you have not been here before.  It means that instead of building a castle and a moat and spinning beautiful encapsulating silk around your senses you are standing out in the open.  If you have been long in the dark, it may take time to adjust your eyes so that you can see.  Reach out and ask for guidance and help.  That’s okay.  If you have been in silence for a long time, everything will seem loud.  Relax into the noise and confusion.  Reach out and as for guidance and help.  that’s okay.  If you can’t yet discern love from someone else’s fear, where the someone else is acting helpful in their own interest maybe to your detriment, that too is okay.  This is called life and we learn through taking on new things, seeing how and whether they fit.  Mistakes, botched intentions, wrong paths are part of growing.  It is how we know we are on the right path.  Feeling scared and opening anyway is your indication – a great big neon sign – that here is the way.

Fearlessness is not the opposite of fear.  Fearlessness is feeling the fright, hearing the noise and confusion, allowing for bad choices and falls and doing it anyways.  Fearlessness is actually another name for love.  It is here that you embrace the world in all its complexity, accept it as and where you meet it, and break open some more.  Because love isn’t static:  it grows or dies.  Which will you choose?

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I have been a full time artist for over 10 years.  I developed and ran ArtsAlive!, a non-profit venue to bring diverse artists and art to myarea, andwas also co-owner and curator for The Wylde Women’s Gallery whose goal was to make a place for artists who “didn’t fit.”  My art is represented by a growing number of shops and small galleries in the continental United States and is collected by national and international clients. I like to color outside the lines, and believe with all my heart that everything is connected and anything is possible.

In my coaching business, I use my BA in Business Administration, my MA in Story and my on-the-ground experiences as a practicing artist to create a delicious how-to mix to help Artists and creative Entrepreneurs piece together the puzzle of perfect peeps, products, pricing and places to sell.

I am available for leading workshops in hand-building ceramics, sculputural assemblage, jewelry making with mixed medias, and art journaling.  I also have 20 years experience working in issue-based organizing, and can create and deliver workshops in leadership, non-profit management and board building, and fundraising.

If you’re curious about something in particular, please feel free to email me:  info@TammyVitale.com.  I LOVE to chat!

6 Tips to Tap In To Your Personal Power and Create Results

6 Tips to Tap In To Your Personal Power and Create Results

Self Awareness:
Knowledge is power, but self-knowledge is mega-power, which connects you to your purpose, and taps in to that passion below the purpose.
Continuing to learn about yourself, your needs, your likes and dislikes will re-connect you with parts of yourself that you have disconnected with along the journey of life. When stressful or tragic things happen you tend to lose parts of your soul, your very being, but it also creates space for you to re-connect as well. In current times of disappointment and heartbreak, or feelings of failure you can allow space for those feelings and pieces of yourself will return to you.
As you grow you change, but so many people don’t ask the questions of self-exploration, which is the doorway to getting clear about your wants and needs and get clear within yourself so you can get clear with others.
Being honest, most importantly with yourself is your quickest path to authenticity, which is the cornerstone of every relationship, especially with clients!

Set Boundaries
What are the boundaries that govern your life? Do they serve you? Do they serve others? The boundaries you create in your own life are by far the most important boundaries you will ever set. Once you are clear in your own life and honor the boundaries around what you will do and when and also whom you will invest your time with or will not, you will have set a very firm foundation for how the world treats you. As you honor and hold firm in these healthy boundaries you will find that client drama or employee drama falls to the wayside.

Goals
Set goals and map it out to get there. Mapping out your personal and professional goals with a mentor or a colleague can triple the results you are looking for in this area. Someone who you trust and can give you an honest perspective. Maybe even someone who will stretch you more into your authentic self, more fully aligned with your unique purpose.

Balance:
Finding the thin line of balance is the power. You already have this power inside of you. It is your duty to return to it. Even our physical bodies are constantly working toward homeostasis. I find this amazing considering the wide amount of abuse we expose ourselves to. Think about it, how well do you eat, drink, do you get enough water? Just think for a moment how we abuse ourselves by working too much. Especially on the Western hemisphere, we are overworked and under-vacationed.

Be a Risk Taker
Be willing to take risks! Yes truly, this is the key to living life large. Did you even know you were meant to live life large like this? Well you were, and the first thing you can do to step into this greater purpose is to take a risk. No amount of you staying small will ever help evolve yourself and more important in the greater part of humanity, the world. You say you want more, but what aligned actions are you willing to take. You can spend the rest of your life asking the Universe or who or whatever is the greater force in your life, for the bigger experiences in life, but nothing is going to happen until you take that leap first, then just watch out and see how much shows up to keep you flowing down the river into the life of your dreams. You are also modeling for your clients when you do this. How can you expect great clients to show up in your business, doing incredible things if you do not embody that first? Go on give it a shot I dare you!

Power = freedom
Feeling powerless is a victim, non-faith mentality that will continue to further disempower you. Be honest with yourself, where are you falling into the victim mindset? Be willing to realize that on some level you are creating your experience. Get the help you may need to change it if that is the case. Stepping into your power allows you a freedom like never before experienced. The more you step into your authentic empowered self the more you will align with all of you have ever dreamed up. After all you and your dreams are already one.

Rebecca Matias is a leading pioneer in the field of business coaching and consulting. Her focus is on revealing new undiscovered potential in her clients businesses and implement evolutionary ideas which expand her client’s success while dramatically increasing their income, creating a business they love.

With an extensive background in coaching, marketing and a degree in Psychology, Rebecca has the unique ability of combining the fields for unmatched insight into how to leverage your true potential both personally and professionally. She uses new evolutionary techniques for transforming a business so her clients experience wild success. Her approach in how she works with clients is intuitive and cutting edge. She is a leader for bringing in a feminine model of business achieving unprecedented results for her clients. She has inspired audiences with her unique approach leading to higher levels of both personal and business empowerment.

My Tango Dance with Star and Student

I have been many things in this lifetime—a broadcast media salesperson, a banker, an entrepreneur… I have cofounded an energy efficiency training center and have danced and sang on stage. But my greatest professional aspiration is to become a published writer. This is the call I hear. Sometimes it is so faint it is easy to ignore. Other times it is so loud that I tune it out in order to stay sane. That’s what I tell myself anyway.

You see, the type of writing I seek to publish has nothing to do with making lots of money or being famous. Okay maybe there’s a little desire for fame, but that desire is also a bit paralyzing. I like my un-famous life. To be seen and appreciated for one’s insight might seem like a desire for fame, but I think this desire is different enough to call it something like Mass Recognition instead of fame.

And to be seen and appreciated for one’s insight, which may very well be the goal of humanity, is so precarious that the desire must be carefully balanced with humility. After all, where does insight originate if not with the Creator? It is as though I have within me two tango dancers—Star and Student—and just when Star thinks she has something innovative to perform, Student redirects her to study yet another subtle nuance of this dance called life. There but for the grace of God … go I?

It took me twelve years to self-publish my memoir, Thirsty: Journaling to Survive, Thrive and Feel Alive. Twelve years, but I did get it done! And, truth be told, it was four months of intensity in 1999 and another four months of intensity in 2011 with varying degrees of angst over the interim.

The good thing is that by self-publishing this book, even if I am not doing much to promote it, I was freed up of the energy from all of the stories I had previously been holding inside.

To me, publishing is the final frontier where the student of life can shine like a star. As a life long journal writer, I understand and deeply appreciate reflective writing. Yet the deepest healing comes through the act of been seen and understood by others. And when one’s life has been a struggle to be seen and understood, her published words have meaning beyond any fame or fortune.

There are many specifics of my life that are important to share. The most pressing is to note here that I named my current business Inner Fortune. I wouldn’t want to miss the connection to my last statement about published words having meaning beyond any fame or fortune and the intention behind the name Inner Fortune.

And my statement of one’s life being a struggle to be seen and understood has resonance with a great many women. For centuries, if not millennia, women have supported their family, particularly their husband, physically, mentally and spiritually while men received substantially more recognition for supporting their family economically. As a young child, raised in an era where kids were meant to be seen and not heard, I understood this unfairness even though I had no words to express it.

Self-exploration is the general goal of journaling; the more one reflects, the more intrigued he or she gets about things and other people. The more intrigued we are, the more we realize how much we have to learn. In a way, this process is never complete, always spiraling upward or downward toward order or disorder – like housework, like any selfless expenditure of energy. But journaling doesn’t have to be deep, soul-searching labor; it can be an amazingly enjoyable and thrill-seeking ride of creative exploration. And, with practice, it can be a self-directed harnessing of abundance.

Continuing to explore increases the creative juices, which can get bottled up if not expressed in some form or fashion, preferably to an audience that understands and appreciates the creation in like measure as the author. Why are so many people writing blogs, speaking wherever they can and self-publishing books 3400% more now than three years ago? To keep exploring their edges and come ever closer to understanding the great mysteries of life!

Being seen by Andrea Hylen, founder of Heal My Voice, I’ve become aware of the author within me. I have written well over a million words in my journals and have been happily transformed countless times in the process. I’m ready to go the next distance … to learn still more about resistance and persistence; to package and present my insights, with love, for kindred explorers; to evoke resonance so strong and so deep that we all feel seen and heard. The dance of Star and Student continues!
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Karen Ribeiro teaches the art of reflection in order to enhance joy and passion in life and business. Writing her memoir, Thirsty: Journaling to Survive, Thrive and Feel Alive was a twelve-year lesson in resolve and emergence. She is a former renewable energy manager, banker, and advertising executive who loves to reframe challenges and lighten the load for her clients. The next big dream is to certify and officially launch her Inner Fortune “attunement” system. Karen lives with her high school sweetheart and two teenage children in Western Massachusetts and can be reached online: www.innerfortune.com Facebook.com/innerfortune and Twitter: @innerfortune

Illumined Ways with Sharon Fallon Shreve

Many nights before going to bed, I take a stroll through Facebook to read the wisdom and quotes from Sharon Shreve:

A thought to ponder before dream-time…HUGS TO ALL! ♥

“I think that we are like stars. Something happens to burst us open; but when
we burst open and think we are dying; we’re actually turning into a supernova.
And then when we look at ourselves again, we see that we’re suddenly more beautiful than we ever were before!” ~ C. JoyBell C.

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I AM Woman. Compassionate and kind. Generous and trustworthy.
However, do not make the mistake of thinking me weak or testing my resolve.
Do not think me only soft and feminine or quiet and demure. For, in truth, I carry within my sacred Self ancient, power-filled seeds…seeds of strength, faith, courage and conviction…gathered from many mighty warrioresses who’ve gone before me. Know, my power is harvested as needed. All ways for the greater good.

*~*¸¸♥.¸¸*~☆~ * ~Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ~ * ~☆~* ~¸♥.¸¸*~*

Under a moon-lit sky, I breathe in the remains of the day. Slowly, I exhale.
I let go completely. Release the day in its entirety. Making room for a brand-new tomorrow. With all of its wonder and mystery. May deep peace be yours ♥

*~*¸¸♥.¸¸*~☆~ * ~Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ~ * ~☆~* ~¸♥.¸¸*~*

You can find Sharon Fallon Shreve on Facebook and listen to the beautiful music on her website:

https://www.facebook.com/illuminedways

Home

Sharon Fallon Shreve, founder of Illumined Ways™, is a modern-day priestess and ordained, non-denominational, interfaith minister who offers memorable customized ceremonies, as well as inspiring, uplifting workshops & classes to groups of all sizes at the location of their choice.

Spiritual Empowerment, Healing Sessions, & Sacred Drumming Circles are just a few of the many services offered by Illumined Ways. Sharon also creates beautiful , celebratory rituals which honor the seasons at her home, Illuminata, a 7-acre wooded sanctuary located in historic Clifton, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

100th International Women’s Day Celebration

March 8, 2012

100 Years of Celebrating Women

I am ready!

It is time for women to heal their voices in communities where they can practice, feel safe, be seen and heard and heal from the wounds from trauma, loss, grief and abuse. And from that newly healed, grounded place, we are learning to fully express who we really are.

When a woman is nurtured in community and given a space to speak about what she feels, thinks and wants, she heals her voice and begins to speak from a place of wisdom. She learns to listen to her inner guidance. She asks for support when she needs it. She taps into her vulnerability and uses it as power. She discovers her innate wisdom.

Why does it matter now?

Things are rapidly changing in the world. We are in a time of breakdown. The old structures are crumbling. And we have the chance to rebuild, rethink, and release things that no longer work. Women standing together and standing side by side with men is what is needed. We need the full expression of who we are. Connected to our hearts; Listening to and acting from inspiration; Joining together to lift humanity. We can’t heal the planet when we ourselves are emotionally and spiritually wounded.

It is time! The wave of awareness is building and building. We are ready!