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How Vision Boards Can Empower Your Life

How Vision Boards Can Empower Your Life

Most of us want change at some point in our life, but on the other hand we don’t. Change can be scary and it's definitely kind of uncomfortable, but also essential in order to grow.

A few years ago, I started to Feng Shui my home and all of a sudden my life was upside down. It wasn’t really what I wanted right at that moment, but now I know it was all good and in my best interest.

A vision board is a great tool to empower your life and if you create it, your life will change. How it will change is up to you, the more intentions you set, the more you visualize, the more you will attract those things to you.

Continue reading “How Vision Boards Can Empower Your Life”

How To Empower Your Life With Creativity

How To Empower Your Life With Creativity

Creativity is not about intelligence or information. It's about inspiration, from the Latin word "spiritus", meaning "breath, courage, the soul." Creativity is about being fully alive, living courageously, or as the painter Joan Miro´ says, "Expressing with precision all the gold sparks the soul gives off." When was the last time you felt fully alive? What is it that triggers your courage and challenges your fear of sharing your soul? Knowing this is the key to discovering the creativity that is waiting to be expressed through you.Expressing your creativity, your true self, is one simple way to empowe your life.

When people ask you if you are creative, do you say: No I’m not creative at all.

I can't draw
I can’t paint
I don’t have it

If so, you're not alone. Many people think that creativity has been gifted to some selected few. If they can't paint like Van Gough, sing like Maria Callas, sculpt like Rodin, write like Simone De Beauvoir, they don't dare claim to be creative. It feels like an arrogant thing to say about yourself. If you are not an expert, or not making a living from your creations it feels like a sin to say you are creative.

But creativity is our very birthright, our gift. Why, when we're asked to think of someone creative, do we rarely think of ourselves, but of famous people, that have defined creativity over the years? We think of Picasso, Mozart, Diebenkorn, Matisse and their likes, when the real truth is that every one of us is a born creator. It’s the gift we bring to the world: the ability to create, to turn something invisible into something visible, to create something out of nothing and to fully express ourselves.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book: “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”, says that creativity doesn't happen in our heads but in the interaction between our imagination and our social context. It's a matter of experience and response, a matter of relationship to others and a commentary on the significance of our encounters.

Creativity is the vivid expression of who we are in the world

our imagination creates our thoughts
our thoughts create our words
our words create our actions
our actions create our experience
our collective experience and expression create our culture

Each of us is contributing part to the creation of the cultures we participate in. The world is not divided into two groups of the creative and the uncreative. If there's a distinction, it's between those who are creatively productive and those with unexpressed potential. People who do not express their creativity are not happy campers, they are the ones who feel unfulfilled, bored and resentful. We are creative by nature aand need to find a way to live it.

Each of us, to varying degrees is unconsciously motivated to create, to be original and to solve challenging problems. The question to ask is not, "Am I creative?" But rather: "What inspires me to create?"

Creativity can be expressed in simple ways. It can be how we dress, how we communicate, how we interact, how we move, how we solve problems. It can be expressed in cooking, or dancing, in decorating our homes and many other simple pleasures. There are unlimited ways to express creativity. It’s having fun in life, it’s laughing, it’s all the good stuff.

What about you? Do you not allow yourself creativity and time to play? Do you say: I will do it when I have time, first I have to practice, go to school. I will do it when I’m not so stressed out or maybe when I’m retired……….Does this sound familiar to you. If it does please reconsider and try to do the things you love to do, it will lift your spirit:-)

Please leave a comment with you thoughts and I hope this inspired you to find your creativity.

How Coaching Can Help In Your Life

How Coaching Can Help In Your Life

"We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves. " Galileo Galileo

Do you sometimes feel totally overwhelmed by too many things to do, or one thing that's too big to tackle?
Is it so bad that you rather look the other way and not do it?
Are there some things you would like to do in your life, but you have no clue where to start?

Set up a business, online or offline,
Change careers,
Improve relationships,
Find fun ways to fulfill your life
Balance you life
Live a healthier lifestyle
Become more organized
Be more playful

Would you like to make certain changes in your life, but you feel it's too daunting without support?

If you answered yes you might want to look into the possibility of working with a coach. Just in case you have never worked with a coach, let's explore what it means and how it can help.

There are many different models and methodologies of coaching. Some may be designed to facilitate thinking or learning new behavior for personal growth or professional advancement. There are also forms of coaching that help the client improve a physical skill, like in a sport or performing art form. Some coaches use a style in which they ask "open ended questions" and offer opportunities that will challenge the client to find answers from within him/herself. This process facilitates the learner to discover answers and new ways of being based on their values, preferences and unique perspective.

Coaching is very effective and empowering to individuals who are absolutely ready to achieve results and goals in life and to pursue their dreams .

What coaching is not:

Coaching is not therapy. It does not focus on your past, or healing symptoms, such as of anxiety or depression. A coach assumes that the client is mentally healthy and able to work with the coach to develop strategies based on the client’s values and goals.

Coaching is not consulting. Unlike a consultant, who is hired to provide the answers, the coaches role is not to know all the answers and solve all of the client’s problems. The coach will frequently challenge the client to take action toward their goals, but does not” tell the client what to do”.

Coaching is not friendship. While relationship is vital to all of us, coaching differs in that the focus is focused on the client and what will give them maximum benefit.

I hope I answered some of your questions in regard to coaching, if you would like to try it, contact me and I will set up an exploratory coaching session, at not cost.

Simple Tips To Be More Confident

Simple Tips To Be More Confident

In order to be self- fulfilled, successful and empowered we need to be confident.

It is very interesting how we neglect being confident. It starts by forgetting our successes, even the big ones. How can that happen that we just remember the challenges and failures? It's self-sabotage, it's crazy, but we still do it, because it is unconscious. Can you relate to this?

As a life coach I notice this phenomenon all the time and I remind clients and friends whenever I can that they set simple reminders to celebrate successes.

Below are 7 simple tips to do this.

Buy yourself a notebook
Set daily reminders on your phone
Set a few minutes aside in the evening and write down what you accomplished
Celebrate and give yourself a little treat
Do this every day until it is a habit
Make a "confident you" vision board
write some cards with simple affirmations and say them out loud.

A universal rule is that everything you do for 21 days will turn into a habit. After 21 days it will be on "automatic pilot". Do you like the idea? Think about it! All the negative habits can be substituted by positive ones and after a while it will be automatic, how great is that!

Confidence is developed in childhood. If you had supportive people around, who always celebrated your little or big successes, you probably feel very confident, believe in yourself and trust that you can achieve your life dreams. Congratulations to you!

Unfortunately for most of us this is not the case, but the good news is that it can be learned and practiced by doing some very simple things.

be aware of your thoughts
be aware of your reactions
be aware of your feelings

Meditation for example is very helpful to improve awareness and it will give you the moment you need in order to choose. Do you want to react and how do you want to react to something.

Insight meditation is very easy to do, you pretty much just sit and watch your breath for a few minutes. No you do not have to sit for 30 minutes, even 5 to 10 minutes done every day will change your life, I promise!

In order to manifest and be successful, it is essential to be confident, so try to get into the habit of celebration. Keep a little notebook about your successes and establish a simple meditation practice. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think, if you have additional ideas please share them. 🙂

Empower Your Life By Letting Go – But How Do We Let Go?

letgo

"Empower Your Life By Letting Go – But How Do We Let Go?"

In personal development and twelve step programs, letting go is one of the main principles to help us get unstuck. It's very simple but very hard to understand what to do. Our intellect does not like it and screams 🙂 "Oh no I don't want to let go"

Thoughts and feelings can be pleasant, but we all have experienced thoughts and feelings that cause us unhappiness or stress. If we let go we empower our life and make room to achieve our life goals and dreams.

Stress can often trigger have a million and one things happening at once and a chattering mind is one of the last things you need. Therefore, it’s very important to be able to spend some time to relax, put things in context and to let go.

When you notice your mind chattering away in the background, focus on it and recognize that there is a thought chain happening – often significant parts of the mind aren't actually aware of what's happening, as its just part of the background.

You can say "I am currently feeling this" or "I am thinking of such and such" This can help focus the mind on what’s happening so it doesn't go off to the next thing. Quite often the thoughts stop just by focusing on them because they are suddenly exposed to your awareness. This might be hard at the beginning but will get easier with practice, it is called mindfulness, a is a simple meditation practice.

Below is a very simple and effective method that can help letting go, explore why we hold onto thoughts and feelings in the first place and some more tips to add to your toolbox. It is called the Sedona Method and was developed by Hale Dwoskin

Make yourself comfortable and focus inwardly. Your eyes may be open or closed.

Step 1: Focus on an issue that you would like to feel better about, and then allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling in this moment. This doesn’t have to be a strong feeling. In fact, you can even check on how you feel about this exercise and what you want to get from it. Just welcome the feeling and allow it to be as fully or as best you can.

This instruction may seem simplistic, but it needs to be. Most of us live in our thoughts, pictures, and stories about the past and the future, rather than being aware of how we actually feel in this moment. The only time that we can actually do anything about the way we feel (and, for that matter, about our businesses or our lives) is NOW. You don’t need to wait for a feeling to be strong before you let it go. In fact, if you are feeling numb, flat, blank, cut off, or empty inside, those are feelings that can be let go of just as easily as the more recognizable ones. Simply do the best you can. The more you work with this process, the easier it will be for you to identify what you are feeling.

Step 2: Ask yourself one of the following three questions:

• Could I let this feeling go?

• Could I allow this feeling to be here?

• Could I welcome this feeling?

These questions are merely asking you if it is possible to take this action. “Yes” or “no” are both acceptable answers. You will often let go even if you say “no.” As best you can, answer the question that you choose with a minimum of thought, staying away from second-guessing yourself or getting into an internal debate about the merits of that action or its consequences.

All the questions used in this process are deliberately simple. They are not important in and of themselves but are designed to point you to the experience of letting go, to the experience of stopping holding on. Go on to Step 3 no matter how you answered the first question.

Step 3: No matter which question you started with, ask yourself this simple question: Would I? In other words: Am I willing to let go?

Again, stay away from debate as best you can. Also remember that you are always doing this process for yourself—for the purpose of gaining your own freedom and clarity. It doesn’t matter whether the feeling is justified, long-standing, or right.

If the answer is “no,” or if you are not sure, ask yourself: “Would I rather have this feeling, or would I rather be free?”

Even if the answer is still “no,” go on to Step 4.

Step 4: Ask yourself this simpler question: When?

This is an invitation to just let it go NOW. You may find yourself easily letting go. Remember that letting go is a decision you can make any time you choose.

Step 5: Repeat the preceding four steps as often as needed until you feel free of that particular feeling.

You will probably find yourself letting go a little more on each step of the process. The results at first may be quite subtle. Very quickly, if you are persistent, the results will get more and more noticeable. You may find that you have layers of feelings about a particular topic. However, what you let go of is gone for good.

You might want to repeat this process if you still feel attached to whatever you wanted to let go of and just have fun with it. Be curious about the attachment that is still present, spirit loves curiosity!

What To Do When Life Gets Chaotic And Stressful

Albert Einstein said it so well: “chaos proceeds order.”

Chaos: In this life, you have free will and you can make your own choices. You walk on the path established by your spiritual “blue print”. But like all creation, once you’re “playing” in life, situations present themselves that require choices. Your free will and choice are the chaos in your life. We only hope that we make the best choices and decisions for the evolution of our soul and spiritual growth.

These might be big words and if you choose to believe this theory great and if not it’s great too, it’s up to you.

Life can get pretty crazy sometimes especially when unexpected upsetting things are happening. Sometimes it feels like these periods do not end. It’s like a series of messes, upsets and often they include accidents and illnesses.

Do we know why? No we do not, but it’s important when you feel that chaos is coming, to step on the break and calm down. Meditate, do yoga, take care of yourself in whatever way you can, say prayers, mantras and affirmation. Talk kindly to yourself, listen to inspiring soothing music and audios, read happy books and most of all slow down, do not run, do not get stressed out and remember to breathe in and to breathe out. Always go back to your breath.

Stay away from non-supportive people and be as much in a positive supportive circle of friends as you can. It is essential to find balance within yourself, so you have to do whatever it takes to get yourself into a peaceful state.

Do it as long as the chaos lasts, it will be followed by something calmer if you learn to ride the stormy waves and remember that the sun always comes out again. We need these chaotic times to grow. That’s a good way to look at it, it’s more empowering than feeling like a victim.

There is actually another universal law: The law of Catastrophe: Also referred to as the stage of drama/trauma. This is an absolute necessity for the evolutionary process, when the seed cracks and growth is permitted to begin. This occurs in the human experience, and in nature.

What do you do to keep your calm when life is stormy?

How to Live Your Best Life!

“Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure”. Piero Ferrucci

I know that there are lots of ways to live your best life. But I am talking about a life of purpose, a fulfilled life, a fun life, an exciting life, a magical life, a prosperous life, a life full of love.

First of all I like to say that unfortunately we do not learn this at home, in school or anywhere. I can only say: Blessings to the people who grew up with wisdom. Instead most of us learned how to fit in, how to memorize, how to endure, how to suffer, how to be small, how to be good. Yes this sounds frustrating and some might say: what’s the use? This is the way it is and there is nothing I can do about it.

Well the first step is to accept this fact and to do something different. The miracle is simple, you learn how to be aware of your patterns and step by step you practice to change your attitude about them. Yes, it is possible, we are not our patterns, we have incredible potential that is hidden inside of us, just waiting to be unleashed. Wow, what thoughts come up when you hear this?

Fear
Disbelief
Anger
Curiosity

Depending on what comes up for you, it will be clear if you accept the fact that you are the creator of your life, or you are not ready to accept it. Accepting it comes with a huge responsibility and not everybody is ready for it. Wherever you are is just fine. If you are curious: I can only say congratulation!!! you are ready for step 2. So what can we do to change our attitudes and behavior?

Awareness
Mindfulness
Give yourself some time before you react
Consciously choose to do something different
Celebrate each success, no matter how small.
Have you heard the phrase: Your mind is a terrible master, but a great servant? Learn how to play in life, how to take every game in your life as an opportunity to grow;
Bring creativity into every aspect of your life,
Start a simple meditation practice,
Surround yourself with positive people
Unclutter your mind and your space.
Do something new
Be grateful for your life.

If you do these simple things repeatedly, you will change your life step by step. Let me know how it’s going, I love to hear your stories. Leave a comment at the end of the post.

Change Your Creative Habits in 3 tiny Steps

Marita here, as you all know I like to research and present you with interesting practical tips, that might just change your life. I found this program by BJ Fogg,
PhD Director, Persuasive Tech Lab Stanford University. The best is: his program “3 Tiny Habits” is free. I will sign up myself, it’s never too late to learn new habits to achieve your life goals and empower your life.

This is is what he says: to create tiny habits you can change your life forever.

My new program “3 Tiny Habits” can create new behaviors in your life.

Let me explain . . . I’ve studied human behavior for 18 years, mostly at Stanford University. Here’s what I’ve learned: Only three things will change behavior in the long term.

Option A. Have an epiphany
Option B. Change your context (what surrounds you)
Option C. Take baby steps

Creating an epiphany is difficult. You should rule out Option A unless you have mystical powers (I don’t).

But here’s the good news: The other two options are practical. And they can lead to lasting change if you follow the right program. However, few winning programs exist.

In December of 2011, I created a new way to tap the power of context and baby steps. Over 3200 people have since joined in. The results are the best I’ve ever seen in any program.
My method is surprisingly simple, but the impact is big. See what people say.

I invite you to join a future session of 3 Tiny Habits. Go here –> http://tinyhabits.com/join

–BJ

twitter @bjfogg
www.bjfogg.com
captology.stanford.edu

sounds good, doesn’t it! I will let you know what I think about his program, if you have tried it leave a comment below.

Find out more about how to get into the creative zone and create our lives now.

My new creative adventure: A membership site for Women: Creative Life Now

“Nourish your spirit” is the motto. How to find joy and fulfillment in life, get in touch and express your inner creativity in a community of like minded women. Click the blue link, or the image to join our community of women at Creative Life Now. Are you looking for support, friends, ideas, tips, motivation and inspiration? The subjects are: Creativity as meditation, Vision Boards, Collages and Creative Writing. Let’s support each other and share ideas. A melting pot of experts in the fields of Creativity and Healing, Vision boards, Collages and Creative Writing and women seeking expert advice and inspiration.

This E book: “The secret behind Creativity”, is free for you!

What The Heck Is An Afformation?

What the heck is an affirmation and what does it have to do with a vision board? If you think afformation is mistyped, let me assure you: it is not.

There are affirmations and afformations, read the article below by Noah St John and you will understand the difference and why afformations are even more effective than affirmations. Well I actually do both versions it keeps my mind busy with positive stuff. For a vision board to be effective it is necessary to believe that we can achieve what we want and to find a way for our unconscious to achieve our life goals, so how we phrase it of most importance.

Noah St. John is the Author of SecretCodeBook.com. more about Noah at the end of this post

We all know that an “affirmation” is a statement of something you want to be true in your life. So an example of a traditional “affirmation” might be: “I am rich.”All right, let’s try it. Say to yourself right now, “I am rich.” Did you hear what just happened in your mind? A voice… a voice that said: “Yeah, right!”

The plain truth is that most of us don’t believe our own “affirmations”. Why? Because we’re trying to convince ourselves of something we don’t believe is true.

Now, traditional success teachers realized that you may not believe your “affirmations”. So they told us to repeat our “affirmations” a thousand…er, million…uh, kajillion times until you eventually, um, believe them.

Have you ever said positive “affirmations” (for example, “I am rich, I’m happy, I have enough”)… and then had… Absolutely nothing happen?

Me too. And about a gazillion other people. I was in the shower one morning, thinking about how the human mind is always in the process of asking and seeking the answers to questions.

For example, if I asked you, “Why is the sky blue?” – instantly, your brain would start searching for the answer. So I asked myself, “If the human mind is always asking and searching for the answers to questions, why are we going around making statements we don’t believe? Why don’t we cut out the middleman?”

Then I asked, “What would that look like?” I realized that if we make a statement (“affirmation”) that says, “I am rich” and our brain replies, “Yeah, right!” the question might look something like this: why am I so rich?

Come again?

Why am I so rich?

Try it. Right now, ask yourself, “Why am I so rich?” What’s your brain doing right now? Searching for the answer!

Remember Universal Law – “As you sow, so shall you reap”. Most people are unconsciously asking lousy questions, like: “Why am I such a loser? Why can’t I do anything right? How come I’m so lonely?

Why don’t I have enough money?” Guess what they reap? The fruits of what they’ve sown! And that’s how, on that fateful morning, I discovered and named the process of using afformations. Afformations are my discovery of empowering questions (NOT “affirmations”) that cause your mind to focus on what you really want, and stop focusing on what you don’t want.

Here are some examples of Afformations that my students have used with amazing results:

Why am I allowed to be, do and have all that I want in life?

Brandon, an insurance salesman in Salt Lake City who’d spent $30,000 on self-help programs with few results, started using this Afformation in May. In 30 days, his sales tripled – and by the end of the year, his revenues had increased more than 560% and he was named Agent of the Year.

Why do I lose weight so easily?

Monee had tried every diet program out there, but couldn’t lose weight. She began using this Afformation – and lost 20 pounds in 60 days without stress or dieting.

And one of my favorite Afformation stories…

Why am I so enchanting?

7-year-old Adrienne from Alabama came home crying to her mother, Joan, sobbing, “Why does everyone hate me?” Joan, who had read my books, told Adrienne, “Honey, you’re asking the wrong question!” She explained Afformations to her daughter, who started afforming, “Why am I so enchanting?”

Adrienne would repeat her Afformation over and over, out loud. Then one day, she came home from school with a picture one of her classmates had drawn – it was a heart with two little girls holding hands that read, “I’m so glad we’re friends!” When I asked Joan how long it had taken for Adrienne’s transformation to take place, she told me – less than one week!

Afformations are an incredibly powerful method I’ve taught people since 1997 to change your questions and change your life. In Part Two of this series, I’ll show you the simple 4-step Afformations Method to manifest anything you really want twice as fast with half the effort. So check back tomorrow for that one.

Noah St. John, Ph.D. is Founder of www.SuccessClinic.com and inventor of Afformations. He’s also the author of the new book The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness (Collins). You can get the first three chapters of Noah’s Secret Code Book (free) and connect with other Secret Code readers at http://www.SecretCodeBook.com. For a 60-Second Afformation Stress Buster (free), go to http://www.iAfform.com

I think it's a great principle, I tried it and it is easy enough to practice. I suggest if you want to be happy and live in abundance, this is a worth a try, what can you loose? All these simple practices help to reprogram our limited thinking and replace it with positive thinking. We can do what we want to do, we can be successful and we have the power to create our lives. We can create our lives, we just have to believe in it.

Do you have an inspiring story you would like to share? I am looking for guest bloggers:

Who? women over 40 who changed their lives and finally allowed themselves to do do what they love to do.

What? Either a blog post about the change or a good vision board story. Click here for more information.

Great Tips On Making Your Dreams Come True

Great video by Jack Canfield, he is one of the pioneers in positive thinking. If you feel your life is not working and you are really tired of it, watch this video. Jack always has some great simple tips that can will help you create your life, help you make your dreams come true and achieve your life goals. Learn a new habit and practice it every day, inspire your creative-self. Every day is the key, not once in while, not only when you remember, it has to be on a regular basis, in order for it to work. Most of the things we learned growing up, are not helpful any more, so it's a good idea to replace old patterns, which are not working with new patterns that are working. You want to be happy? This is a way to happiness, it requires work but it's worth it. Create a vision board, keep a running journal of what you desire.

httpv://youtu.be/sZQkrqKCY1s

Creating a vision board and using a vision board as much as possible is also a great practice to focus on the things you want. The more time we spend focusing on the things we want, the more things will manifest in your life. It's a way for your unconscious to find ways to find ways to manifest your dreams.

Do you have an inspiring story you would like to share? I am looking for guest bloggers:

Who? women over 40 who changed their lives and finally allowed themselves to do do what they love to do.

What? Either a blog post about the change or a good vision board story. Click here for more information.

My new creative adventure: A membership site: Creative Life Now

"Nourish your spirit" is the motto. How to find joy and fulfillment in life, in a community of like minded women. Click the blue link, or the image to join our community of women at Creative Life Now. Are you looking for, support, friends, ideas, tips, motivation and inspiration? The subjects are: Creativity as meditation, Vision Boards, Collages and Creative Writing. Let's support each other and share ideas. A melting pot of experts in the fields of Creativity and Healing, Vision boards, Collages and Creative Writing and women seeking expert advice and inspiration.