Tag Archives: mind

Empowering Your Self With Vision

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“How you see determines what you see, and what you feel.” – Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with vision boards since the very beginning. My very first one was an assignment for the very first personal development workshop I attended. End of Day One, before we were to break for dinner, we had a few hours to make a board of what makes our heart come alive.

First vision board - Real Speaking

The second one I made was later that year with an ex-boyfriend on a retreat in Santa Cruz. It was my first beach weekend retreat since moving to California five years before. What had taken me so long?

Second vision board - Santa Cruz

Then I made another one that made me feel like crap, but I didn’t quite know why.

I kept up with vision boards for some reason. Maybe it was my determination to see if they would really work for me in my life. I was a total skeptic in the beginning, going through the motions like a good student, but not truly expecting anything to happen.

After several years of practice, now I know that when I approach them from a certain place within me, vision boards can invite in some real magic into my life.

I haven’t yet written about the latest example of how a vision board changed my life, and since I’m leading a vision board workshop next week, this seems like a good time to really tell the story in completeness. Continue reading →

SoulBodyMind Salon Series

Have you ever wanted to move from overwhelm to ease?

To move out of confusion and into clarity?

Or to move from idea to action?

Each of these transformations is a form of healing of the soul, the body, and the mind.

I combine these three realms into one word – SoulBodyMind – because I believe when we impact one, we impact all.

Becoming fluent in the languages of your own SoulBodyMind will connect you with an internal guidance system that is always working for you.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be hosting this first series of SoulBodyMind Salons in my home in Half Moon Bay.

In this SoulBodyMind Salon series, I invite you to join me in the spirit of generosity as I share stories and teach practical tools that will deepen your fluency in SoulBodyMind language – a language you were born with, but perhaps were never encouraged to listen to. The information and tools are grounded in the intersection of ancient wisdom traditions and cutting-edge neuroscience research.

We will practice the tools together, and you will leave with the knowledge to bring this new literacy into your life.

Each session has a theme and will include access to further resources if you would like to learn more.

What We’ll Do:

We’ll open the salon with everyone in the room introducing themselves to the group.

I’ll introduce the theme with a brief presentation (I promise to tell lots of stories and use lots of metaphors!).

We’ll practice the tools together and discuss our experiences – you’ll make new connections within yourself and with others in the room.

A few lucky, brave volunteers may even get coached in front of the group.

Everyone will leave with something new to begin practicing in your own life!

I will also share resources and reading list for further learning.

Guaranteed learning, play, and connection!

Donation-based event. This means it is offered with generosity and is supported by the generosity of all participants. Please consider what your personal offer will be to support this event.

Four Tuesdays – 7:30pm to 9:30pm

In my home, Half Moon Bay, California. Address provided when you RSVP.

You can attend any salon individually OR the entire series.

Dec. 11 – Your Body’s Truth

Learn to make friends with your body and start trusting the messages it’s sending you. Discover a whole new way to make decisions, check your gut instinct, trim your “To Do” list, and access more energy.

Jan. 15 – The Garden in Your Mind

Move the dirt and plant the seeds for what you really want to grow in your life. It all starts with the thoughts you believe. Get ready to roll up your sleeves, start digging, and selecting the varietals of your dreams that you will cultivate and harvest after the growing season.

Feb. 12 – The Art of Soul-Care

Learn the art of nourishing and honoring your soul, in small daily doses or at lavish feasts. No matter what your circumstances, you can feed your soul and experience completeness right now.

Mar. 12 – Listening With Your Whole SoulBodyMind

Expand your experience of daily life by tuning in to the SoulBodyMind. Envision your SoulBodyMind’s most truthful expression, and take actions from that place of knowing.

How To RSVP

You may attend any of the salons on a drop-in basis. Attendance at all four salons will provide a powerful foundation in your own SoulBodyMind language.

Please call (650) 325-2194 or email me for more information or to register.

Address will be provided when you RSVP by phone or email.

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How to Kill Your Creativity…And Bring It Back To Life

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Is your creativity dead?

I honestly believe that few of us – regardless of whether we work as “creatives” or not – intentionally set out to kill our own creativity.

We may just gently turn our backs on it, dismissing it as something reserved for children, or as something only “irresponsible” adults indulge in, or as a waste of time that could never serve a purpose in society (ie, getting paid money for it), or as something only “talented people” get to do.

I’m here to say that none of those is absolutely true.

Creativity is not limited to art…

So, let’s say you’re longing for a more creative life. That could mean anything from having more freedom and flexibility in your current job, to finding a way to support yourself while expressing your own creativity.

I don’t define creativity as being limited to “artistic” activities like painting, dancing, singing, or sculpting pottery. I define creativity as our innate human ability to connect with the unseen. By this definition, I see every human being as creative, by virtue of our brain’s ability to spontaneously form images that are only seen in our mind’s eye.

How you choose to use your creativity is a different story.

And this is where many of us have killed our own creativity, or least left it for dead. Continue reading →

What I just won’t buy anymore

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I was reading the website of a prominent life coach the other day, and was feeling myself getting seduced by the promise of change. For me, this feeling is a little tug in my chest, accompanied by a little voice that says, “You could be like her! Why don’t you just try harder? You could be successful like that! You can have everything you want in your life! Just try harder!”

I was getting pulled in by her clarity, and her certainty, and her artfully written course descriptions and “How I Work With You” page. I was dreaming of what my life would like if only I were “as on top of things as she was”. I was reading through her punchy blog posts, which boiled everything down into three simple categories, a numerical scale, and a “toolkit” for achieving the state of bliss that she has apparently created for herself.

In her “About” page, where she introduces herself and tells her story of why she became a coach, she talks about “having been there”. Having been broke, miserable, in a rocky marriage, and not living her best life. Continue reading →

Solving the Puzzle of the Universe

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A few days ago I solved the puzzle of the universe.

It came in a box. There were 500 pieces and a neat image of the final product – what the solution was supposed to look like.

I had a partner while I was doing it. We didn’t discuss how we were going to tackle the problem, we just started working on it, each in our own way. There were no words. Things just began when they began, and ended when they ended.

I noticed that I wanted to follow some instructions that were somewhere in the back of my head about “how to” solve a puzzle like this.

“Start with the edges and corners,” was one set of instructions.

“Find the colored pieces first,” was another.

I tried both of those, but the puzzle was just so big, so complicated, with so many parts, that I quickly got frustrated with each of those approaches. I made a tiny bit of progress, but immediately got stuck following those two paths. Continue reading →

Tiger Mother Amy Chua Speaks…To Me!

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One of my blog readers took the liberty of sending my video on Amy Chua’s book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, to Amy Chua herself! I never would have done this on my own, but that’s why I put my stuff out there for others to read!

Here’s Amy’s email which was sent to that reader, Denise.

Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 08:36:51 -0500
From: Amy Chua
Subject: Re: FW: The Music Within Us

Dear Denise: Thank you SO MUCH for sending this to me — and yep, Lisa totally got my book and yep, she is totally right that no one else has!! (Only correction is that I never choose or even saw and never would have approved the awful WSJ headline..)

I think Lisa is BRILLIANT, and I love what she says and the passages and moments she singles out. She even gets it about my dogs!!!

I am setting up a website for my book, partly because to try to correct misunderstandings, and I will post this video. Please feel free to share all this with Lisa!

Best, Amy

I am not posting this so that you can read something written by a published author calling me “BRILLIANT”. Although that’s nice and all, the reason I am posting this is to encourage you to GET INFORMED before you form judgments and opinions and join in the fun of media-generated controversies. Form your own thoughts and opinions, reflect on your own life, and learn your own lessons. Do not stop at what the journalists and media or others are telling you. Do not believe what others say until you have questioned it with your own body, mind, and heart. Know that you are always free to create your own story.

Continue reading →

How To Be Exactly Where You Are

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I love blog posts that start with “How To…”. They are always so promising, and hold the anticipation of a wrapped present under the Christmas tree, or a package arriving on your doorstep after your recent online purchase.

“Oh I can’t wait to open this! And finally SEE what’s inside!”

And, just like Christmas, just like opening that package that you ordered online, there’s that moment of not knowing, the moment of unveiling, the moment where your expectation rises to greet the present moment unfolding.

When it’s unveiled, we deal with the match between our heart’s desire – the image of what we hoped to see in that opening – and the reality right before our eyes. Is it everything you imagined? Is it “perfect” (meaning, does it match your idea of what you wanted)?

Or is it a letdown? An unfulfilled promise? A shattered dream? Continue reading →

Are you fighting with reality or appreciating it?

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I recently noticed that I’ve been fighting against a lot lately. Fighting against complaining, fighting against frustration, fighting against fear.

How’s that been workin’ for me? Not so great.

Today I went on a hike and happened upon a field of daffodils…in February! Now isn’t that amazing?

I stopped to appreciate the surprise of unexpected beauty. And I realized that by sending out the energy of “fighting against”, I am actually becoming the very thing I wish to avoid or resist. Continue reading →

Taking Things Apart: Videos of Leaving the Cradle

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It’s been just over a year now since I stepped with clarity into the next phase of my life by leaving a business I came to California to create, back in 2004. I’ve told the story so many times that it may seem like “old news” to some of you, but for me, that one decision was a *huge* step. It cleared the way for so much magic that has emerged – through effort and spontaneous creativity, guided by intention and enabled by practice – over the past year.

Last week I went through the embodied steps of letting go – moving all the physical items out of the Cradle of Manifestation after acknowledging that a 1,800-square-foot facility no longer matched the life I am creating. In the process, I’ve come face-to-face with so many of my deeply held beliefs and default patterns.

I believed that being a “responsible” person – a piece of my identity I held tightly as a symbol of my worthiness to occupy space on this planet – meant putting other people’s needs ahead of my own, no matter what the cost.

In my work, this was expressed as taking full responsibility for all outcomes associated with the people I was involved with – which translated into poor delegation, inability to trust other people’s skills and ways of doing things, and the result of preferring to do everything on my own, so it would be perfect. Ultimately, I experienced exhaustion and burnout as the destination on this path.

After I crossed the hurdle of actually setting a boundary, saying “no more” to my own business (which, at the time, was the only path I felt drawn to), and risking the disappointment of other people (which, at the time, was my greatest and most paralyzing fear), the same belief expressed itself as a firm resolve in my mind to continue paying rent on my office space simply because I had signed a lease, and that was that. An agreement was an agreement, with no room for discussion. I was a person who kept my word. But living by those old rules under the new circumstance of starting a business from scratch in a new industry translated to prioritizing my landlords’ needs over my own, which I did for an entire year. I dutifully and silently wrote each check and made sure it arrived before the first of every month. For an entire year.

I was silently proving to myself my own worth as a “responsible” person (daughter, girl), but in fact I was not honoring myself or my fledgling business fully. Continue reading →

Your Dreams Are Always Coming True

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There are a few things I remember always knowing about myself, ever since I was three years old. I remember being in the back seat of the car, when I was three, hearing my parents and brother talking about someone getting into “Harvard”. Something about that word rang in my ears. I asked what “Harvard” was. I don’t remember what they answered, but I do remember thinking, “Someday I’m going to go there.”

I let it go for the next fourteen or so years. And then I ended up going there for college.

At some other point in time, I remember falling in love with the sound of the French language. I loved learning a foreign language which enabled me to speak elegantly, fluidly, gracefully. It contrasted so much with the angular lines and frantic tempo of the Chinese dialects I heard in my family. And, like music, it was a doorway to a secret world that expanded my ability to understand others and express myself in a different way. I remember thinking, “Someday I’ll study at the Sorbonne.” It seemed like a throwaway thought at the time, but I remembered it. And I ended up doing just that, as a scholarship winner for six weeks during the summer between high school and college.

Six years ago I defrosted another set of childhood dreams. Continue reading →