As the Spirit Moves Me

I’ve spent the past few weeks in a whirlwind and turmoil of activities and issues with my kids–primarily with one of them. I’ve done all the things a parent should and can do, sometimes receiving gratitude and love in return and sometimes receiving anger and requests to simply bud out totally. Parenting is a tough job.

However, their comes a time when you must step back and look at your children and ask yourself if they are ready…ready to fly on their own. Now, you may not really think they are ready, but in your heart you know you must let them.

My daughter…well…I know she is ready. She’s been ready. Yeah, she still asks for advice. And she takes it pretty well when I offer it. Sometimes she runs into problems, she doesn’t handle things well, but she knows it, learns from her mistakes, fixes them, and goes on.

My son, he’s had some learning disabilities that went undiagnosed and that caused me to be…well…let’s say more hands on with my parenting. But he’s at a cross roads now, and he really needs and wants to stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions…and take off. Whether I agree or not doesn’t matter. He really does need to fly solo. And he’s heading into a professional career at an early age, so he really wants to fly…and high.

I don’t believe parenting is about making our children dependent upon us. I believe it’s about creating independent individuals–even at a very young age. I always expected my kids to be able to entertain themselves, find solutions, handle their stuff, not expect me to be with them 24-7, deal with the bumps and bruises that came with life. In Judaism, we talk about the wisdom of a scraped knee…no reason to always run and wipe every tear; let them learn that it’s not so bad, and they can deal, they can get up and go on, learn and grow. They don’t need mama for everything.

But it’s hard not to run when they fall down, to save them when they need saving, to fix things for them, handle stuff when they don’t, especially in a crisis. But there comes a time…

So, today, on Mother’s Day, I’m relinquishing some of my mothering duties. Not all, because no mother ever gives up being a parent, and each kid is different–different age, different needs. But I can allow my children to become adults to the extent that they can or want to. I can step back and watch them spread their wings, flutter them around, and see if they take off and fly. I’ve surely taught them how. I’ve even pushed them out of the nest (gently, but pushed). Yes, indeed, I have.

And you know what? Letting my children fly gives me the freedom to do the same. Because when our children fly, we are released from some of our parenting duties and we can turn to some of the other things we care about passionately. We can flutter our wings and decide in what other directions we might like to fly.

On this Mother’s Day, I give myself permission to fly, too. How about you?

May 13th, 2012 | Category: achieving success, balance, creating change, Parenting | Leave a comment

I’m a big proponent of pursuing your passion. I work with a lot of writers and I’m always telling them to combine their passion with their purpose to get inspired and write their books (and publish them or get them published). I also work with other people who simply want to create better results in their lives; I tell them the same thing: passion+purpose=inspired action.

I’m not good at taking my own advice. I have realized lately that I don’t always pursue my passion. Sometimes I’m too busy doing what I think I should. This is especially true when it comes to making money.

In the last two months, however, I keep hearing the same thing over and over again: Pursue your passion. Do what you love. Build a business around your passion.

So, I’m starting to listen. Especially when I sit down to coach one of my writing workshop attendees about how to get his book written and he asks me to give him advice from a Kabbalistic conscious creation coaching perspective–not from a writing coach’s perspective. Well, that took me aback just a bit.

You see, I am passionate about writing and publishing and helping people get published. But I set out not only to write books on this topic but also to write books about human potential and spirituality–books about things like Kabbalistic conscious creation. Why? I’m passionate about these topics. But somewhere along the line in my attempt to get published and make money, these topics fell by the wayside. At least for a while.

I have discussed them here on this blog, it’s true. And I’ve discussed some of my passions on my other blogs, it’s true. But it’s time. It’s time to really start pursuing those passions again, time to build a business on those passions rather than around what I think I should do or what I have been pigeonholed into doing.

What about you? Are you pursuing your passion? Are you building a business around it? Building a lifestyle around it? Let me know. Leave a comment.

May 4th, 2012 | Tags: inspiration, Kabbalistic Conscious Creation, passion, purpose | Category: passion | Leave a comment

The other day on Twitter, someone share a link to Forbes gallery of the world’s billionaires. This person’s tweet said, “Something I can’t ever imagine being.”

I replied, “If you can’t imagine it, you won’t ever be it.”

Indeed, if you want to be something–a billionaire, a millionaire, a writer, a mother, a wife, a doctor, a lawyer, a musician, a dancer, a comedian, a scenic designer, a retired person–you must first be able to imagine yourself as that person.

As Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

So, today, just for fun…since having fun imagining help you get in the spirit of having (and creating) what you want…take some time to peruse the Forbes gallery of billionaires and just imagine yourself  in that gallery for a moment or two. Or imagine what it might be like to be in that gallery.

Forbes Gallery of Billionaires

Then create a gallery of your own–pictures of what you want to become. You could create it in Pinterest or somewhere more private. But create a gallery that you can look at daily so you can imagine yourself as whatever it is you want to become.

Imagination is an amazing tool. Use it often. Daydream whenever you can. Just do it with focus and intention…and with joy. Let me know what happens and how you enjoy looking at the Forbes gallery. Or share some galleries you enjoy in  a comment.

April 19th, 2012 | Tags: Albert Einstein, Forbes Gallery, imagination, manifestation | Category: abundance, achieving success, conscious creation, creating change, Deliberate Creation, focused thought, Law of Attraction, manifestation | Leave a comment

On Friday night during our Passover seder, someone mentioned that Mercury was moving out of retrograde. I was happy to hear this, since that typically means the things that are stuck will get unstuck.

I don’t normally follow astrology. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I believe it. I just don’t read about it and pay attention to what’s going on in the stars.

I thought it was appropriate that the starts would be aligning in this manner during Passover, which is when we celebrate being stuck, getting unstuck, moving through narrow places, and coming out the other side to freedom.

I’ve definitely seen some things come unstuck in the last few days. Things seem to be happening… finally. I’ve gotten news about things I’ve been waiting on for a long time. My husband’s business received good news, too. I’ve made new connections.

The question to me seems to be whether or not this is due to the movement of the stars or something else. Like maybe it’s due to my constant focus on my business. Or my husband’s hard work on his business. Or maybe it’s an energetic change within one of us. Or it could be, in my case, the fact that every day I’ve been imagining getting the news I received this week.

What do you think? What makes things get unstuck? How do you get unstuck? Leave me a comment and let me know.

April 13th, 2012 | Tags: Mercury, narrow places, retrograde, stuck, unstucck | Category: Jewish holidays, narrow places, Passover, seder | Leave a comment

I’m about to go downstairs and start our Passover seder. The sun is setting over the ocean. I can see it from my office window.

Seder means order. The service we conduct on Passover has a specific order. However, it strikes me that life has an order, too. And that much like the Israelites as they were liberated from Egypt, getting to the place we want to go seems to have an order.

In other words, it’s a process–on that often follows the same steps or route over and over again not matter where it is we want to go. No matter our goal. No matter our destination.

If we want a better marriage, a better job, better health, a clearer picture of who we are, more time, a new house…It doesn’t really matter. A process exists to get “there.” We must go through an order of events, a set of steps to make the thing we want happen or to bring it into our lives.

In fact, all of life has an order, a seder. The seasons come and go, the tides go in and out, the sun rises and sets all in an order. We live and die based on an order. Despite the fact that our lives feel chaotic, disorderly, everything proceeds day to day, hour by hour, moment by moment in an orderly fashion.

It is a seder.

So, when we feel as if we are stuck at the edge of something tough, like the Israelites at the edge of the Red Sea, there is an order to that as well. God told us to stop, go inside and get calm, then take action. Moses was told to raise his staff and the waters would part. We do something, something happens.

For every action there is an equal reaction. When you follow the steps, when you go through the seder, something happens. When you walk through into the water like Nachshon–up to his nose–the water parts. When you walk in the desert for 40 years you get to the promised land.

Seder. Order. Whether you know it or not.

April 6th, 2012 | Tags: Nachschon, order, Passover, seder | Category: Jewish holidays, Passover, seder | Leave a comment

A moment exists when you know you must act. If you do not take action in that moment, whatever it is you desire or want to do simply will not come into reality or you will not do it. You won’t take action.

Inspiration hits. You must take inspired action. If you don’t, the energy of that moment simply fades. And you may never get it back.

I know this for a fact. As a writer, I’ve had many moments of inspiration. And I’ve had many moment when I did not take inspired action. Or I took half-hearted action. And those books are either not written or only written in part.

Shame on me. I know better.

There have been days when I felt inspired to exercise. I got dressed in cycling clothes, but I thought, “I’ll just check my email first.” Four hours later it was too late for me to get on my bicycle. The inspired moment had passed.

Once in a while I get a thought in my head, such as, “I should really call so-and-so and ask about speaking for their organization or writing an article for their magazine.” And I don’t do it. A month later I see that someone else is speaking on a similar topic or has written an article on a subject close to the one I would have proposed.

These are moments of inspiration. Moments when I should have taken inspired action. And I didn’t.

There are moments when you must act. Can you think of moments when you should have taken inspired action but you didn’t?

April 3rd, 2012 | Tags: action, in the moment, inspired action, taking action | Category: action, Courage, Inspiration, living in the moment | Leave a comment

This past weekend I went to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals. We were disappointed to discover that the adult male and female seals had already finished their mating season and taken to the sea. All that were left on the dunes were the “weaners,” the newly weaned babies, and some juvenile seals ranging from one-to-four years old.

The seals come on land in January when the females give birth to their babies. Not long after this, they mate. At the end of February the adult seals take to the sea, swimming 4,000 miles out into the ocean in the direction of Alaska, where they dive a half mile to a mile deep to eat, going under for up to 90 minutes at a time.

The adults leave the weaners behind to fend for themselves and to learn to swim in the eddies along the dunes and in the shallow water at the edge of the ocean. When they are ready–in early April, they, too, take to the water swimming approximately the same route as their parents. The juveniles arrive on land in late February or March, possibly to molt.

One of the amazing things about this whole process is that the seals swim all that way, spend about two months eating and then turn around and come back to the same place they started. However, as if they had a map and knew what highway to travel, they take the exact same route on their return trip and arrive back on the exact same beach. This is true even for the weaners. They simply find their way back home instinctively following their exact trail.

As I heard the Ano Nuevo docent tell us this, I began to wonder…Could I find my way back home without a map, a GPS on my phone, directions printed out from Google Maps, or some other assistance? Probably not.

And what about true home…or True North. That place within myself from whence I began? My soul.

We often lose a sense of who we are as we travel through life trying so hard to please others and to earn a living and to survive. We travel out into the big, wide ocean in one direction, but we don’t necessarily continue in a straight line. Sometimes we take a turn or two, make a detour or simply go off in the wrong direction. We may know how to turn around and find our way back…but typically not the way we in which we came. We likely do not end up on the same beach where we started, that’s for sure.

We change. But inside, a part of us remains the same. It’s to that place we want to return, I want to return.

Yet, these elephant seals know where they are going, and they know their way back home.

They have an internal GPS. They never lose sight of their destination or their origination point.

Lately I feel I’ve been looking for my way back home. I’ve been trying to find that internal GPS, which actually I think we do, indeed, have…one that leads me back to the core of who I am. I’m just not sure we always find our way back in the same way we ended up lost. Or maybe we do…Maybe it’s as direct a path as the one the ones the elephant seals take when they return to their birth place from that spot so far out in the ocean. Maybe by simply wanting to return home, I’ll be drawn back to myself, to my soul. The directions, the path will be clear.

What do you think? Can you find your way home? If so, how?

March 25th, 2012 | Tags: elephant seals, home, soul | Category: life, spiritual path, transformation | Leave a comment

All day almost every day–about 15-7–I labor. When I’m not at my desk or in front of my computer, I think about my work. And guess what? Most of this time no on even pays me.

So why do I do it? I love what I do (or most of what I do). I’ve wanted to be a writer and author since I was a little girl. I’ve always loved books. And I love speaking to interesting people, learning and putting what I learn to use in my life and offering it to others for use in theirs. I love spirituality and human potential and all things that speak of possibility and opportunity and connection with something bigger than you and me, including God, the ocean and the Internet. I love exploring the areas I’m interested in and then sharing new ideas and concepts. The best way I know to do this is by putting the lessons down in words and publishing them (and sometimes speaking them). And that’s what my days revolve around.

My life has become about helping others create a similar life. Whether I am helping them create a life as a writer or an author or a around some other passion or purpose, the goal remains the same. I’m helping them focus their daily activities on a labor of love. This comes out of feeling inspired to take action in the world.

Today I read a wonderful article that discussed how to find your purpose and do what you love. It offered quotes from six people, quotes to inspire you to do just that. I hope you will read the article by Maria Popova and do just that.

One of the quotes mentions not comparing yourself–simply following your own heart, dreams, path. It’s so easy to get distracted by the need for acceptance and prestige. The need to make money, for money to prove what we do is good enough, that we are good enough. Yet, if we follow our passion and purpose, as they say, “the money will follow. That authenticity will bring people to our work. That uniqueness that will come from not looking at what others are doing, will make us stand out from the crowd and achieve prestige without trying.

I love the poster above, called the Holsteen Manifesto. I’m going to buy one and hang it somewhere I can see it every day…many times a day. “Life is short. Live your dream and share your passion.” That’s why we are here. at least that’s what I think.

Maybe that’s what practical spirituality is all about…living connected to your purpose and passion at all times so you are inspired–in spirit–in all you do. Especially in your work. Pretty practical if you ask me.

What about you? Is your work a labor of love? Are you passionate about what you do? Do you have a purpose that inspires you to action? Tell me about it? Tell us all so we can be inspired. Leave a comment.

March 8th, 2012 | Tags: inspiration, labor of love, passion, purpose | Category: achieving success, how to be happy, human potential, Inspiration, living fully, personal growth, practical spirituality | Leave a comment

What does it mean to have a visual image of you? I’m not talking about a photo now. I’m talking about the hottest new social network around: Pinterest.

I fought this one tooth and nail. No way. No how. Not another social network. No time. No energy. Not me.

Then someone told me that as an author I could use Pinterest to give my readers and potential readers a visual image of who I am. Interesting. No words. Or less words. Just pictures.

Then someone mentioned that I could create a vision board on Pinterest. A board (on Pinterest you create boards) where I could pin (on Pinterest you “pin” photos) photos of what I want to create.

Now I was getting interested. Then someone sent me an invite, and I followed the link.

And now I’m a pinner. I have a Viritual Vision Board! I have a board of things I would wear–a sort of virtual vision shopping trip! And, yes, if you visit me on Pinterest, you will definitely get a visual sense of who I am, what I like and what I’m interested in by looking at my boards. They show you my interests and my tastses–at least some of them. And you’ll get a better image of me if I spend more time on the site.

And I definitely DO need to spend more time there–when I have time. Then I’ll have more boards on more subjects and the picture of who I am will become more complete.

And so many of my friends are there…dancers, rabbis, writers, inspirational teachers, you name it…they are there. And I can see who they are, too.

Pretty cool really. Pinterest. A visual image of me…and you. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you might want to.

What do you think? Is it possible to create a visual image of a person (to get to know them) by  looking at the pictures they’ve posted on a social network?

February 29th, 2012 | Tags: interests, Pinterest, virtual vision board, visual image | Category: creative thought, creative visualization, practical spirituality, relationship, visioning | Leave a comment