Energy Coaching

Last week I’ve heard a very touching story.  As most of you know, there was a major earthquake in the north-west province of Qinghai.  In spite of all the progress and wealth China has been accumulating, the rural areas such as this province are extremely poor.  A friend told me that she knew of  a man, a truck driver from Hong Kong, who decided to go to this province and help.  When the earthquake hit, he was there.  He went inside a school and saved a few people before he succumbed to his death when another unexpected shock hit.  The Hong Kong government offered to bury him in the official plot with all the honors of a statesman.  His family refused.  They said that they are humble and want to be all buried in the same humble place together.  Besides, what he was doing, they said, was simply what their family did for generations.  They never had much and helped those who had even less.

Now, showing off is big in this town as it is in any other money driven place in the world.  Here is a family that said no to that; they didn’t want to show off their good deeds.  To me this man was a hero.  A quiet hero who drove a truck and moved vegetables from one place to another and who was moved by the suffering of other people he didn’t even know.  He did something about it and served others to the best of his abilities.

Like him, there are many others who go about their every day lives cleaning streets, selling pizzas, handing us our coffee, teaching, and taking the time to perform extraordinary acts of kindness.  They go by unacknowledged and uncelebrated.  Not that they seek that.  They are happy knowing that someone has something to eat, shelter for the night, clothes on their back because they followed their call to be of service.

Look for the heroes around you.  Get inspired by their stories and follow their example!  Make sure you help others when you have a chance without expecting anything back; recognition, fame, whatever.  Just follow your instincts and be fully engaged in the process of being of service.  I know you can!

With energy,

Ana

There will be times when we all make mistakes.  Sometimes big ones.  There will be times when we overreact, offend someone, slip up, overlook the obvious, and so forth.  The most important question isn’t so much whether or not we will mess up, but rather how quickly we can recover when we do mess up.  We can turn a relatively minor setback or mistake into a much bigger deal by over analyzing our actions (or someone else’s).  I can so relate to that!

See your mistakes, admit to them, and move on - in other words, recover quickly.  The trick seems to be a willingness to forgive yourself - and others - for being human and for making mistakes.  By recovering more quickly, you will learn from others as well as from your mistakes, and as a result, your life will become substantially less stressful.

This week bring more forgiveness into your life.  Firstly by forgiving yourself and then by forgiving others.  We all learn and grow precisely by making mistakes.  Learn to recognize that in your life and in the lives of others around you.

With energy,

Ana

Today I received some really sad news.  My personal trainer died a few days ago.  Death is part of life and as such it is to be expected.  However, when it comes so suddenly, it reminds us how fragile and how brief our life really is.  It’s hard to think that a healthy, muscular and well liked person can die so unexpectedly.

Hearing the news of Luis’ passing made me think about how quick life passes us by and how much time we spend on such trivial pursuits such as trying to be the best at this or that; measuring ourselves and others by our bank accounts, clothes, cars and so on; hating whatever and whoever; feeling entitled, arrogant and judgemental; not paying attention to our words and actions and simply doing what we feel like doing with no regard for others; just to mention a few.

We cannot afford to keep on this path!  There are so many more important things to concentrate our energy on such as working on our spiritual elevation and acting on our collective mission to make the world a better place.  We simply have no time for negative and self-centered behavior.  Our time on this planet is limited and we have a choice to follow our higher call or to remain in the meaningless act of inflating our ego and fighting the urge to give the best of ourselves to the world and to others because of our fears.

We all have our moments of weakness and of egocentrism, nevertheless, the awareness that we want to do better will bring us back to the path of Light.  The awareness of our fragility and of the imminence of death will bring us back to the path of Light as well.  It is one of life’s major paradoxes that the remembrance of death will bring us back to life.

May you reach for the Light all the days of your life!

With energy,

Ana

This entry is dedicated to the memory of Luis Vieira Martins, a big guy with the heart of a little boy.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge with so many of us and for bringing health to our lives.

Sometimes I find myself in a conversation with someone who tells me about how difficult it is to get what they want.  It seems that someone, somewhere, is  magically stopping them from doing things; or worse, from being the best they can be.  It is as if a conspiracy plot has been established against them and there is no time, no money, no opportunities, no encouragement, no energy in their lives.  Wow, can you feel how stuck this sounds?  No wonder nothing is happening!

I realize that there has been a bit of a rearranging of sorts in the world lately, but that has become an excuse for people to become comfortable with the victim mentality.  It’s like quick sand; it pulls us in and unless we work to change our own perspective we are quickly drawn to it.

There are two main points I want to make here.  The first one is we ALWAYS have a choice on how we perceive the world and what’s happening around us.  More often than not, many people fail to realize that they are in the process of making things happen and quickly forget that it takes time to harvest what they have planted.  When they don’t see the quick results they go in to resentment mode, then anger and then the victim mentality.  I guess we established in the beginning of this post how unattractive this is!  The negativity that this state of mind brings will make everything very difficult and the negative self-fulfilling prophecies will begin to take shape.  Who’s choice it was to feel that way?

Pause for deep thinking……

Now to the second point.  It is crucial to understand that it takes time for the seeds you have planted to grow roots, sprout and bear fruit.  Instead of keeping fostering the resentment and the anger, you want to be in touch with your vision and your dream so that you keep yourself aligned with what’s important to you and what gives you energy while you wait for the seeds to bear fruit.  Having a clear vision will also keep you away from the negative feelings that tend to creep in once we let our doubts come into the process.  When you remind yourself of your vision and keep getting energy from it, things seem to work themselves out and results start coming in quicker than you imagined.

You are responsible for your success and for your actions.  You create your future based on how you choose to see what’s happening to your life.  A victim will see fault in the process.  A survivor will see lessons and opportunities no matter what happens to him/her.

How do you see yourself?  A victim or a survivor?  Are you blaming the process or are you seeing opportunities?

Feel free to share with me the answers to these questions.  I would be happy to send some feedback to you and to ensure that you get the support you need to see things in a different light.

With energy,

Ana

What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life.  Imagine for a moment that your life revolves around what you are passionate about; your family, friends, your ideal career, your favorite hobbies, etc.  Everything that you do has the element of passion and love involved.  How much different would your life be?

Living your passions is the secret to have more joy and love in your life.  It seems like an easy thing to do, but let me ask you this:  Are you passionate about your work?  Are you making time for your favorite hobbies and sports in your life now?  Are you spending quality time with your loved ones?  How long since you and your partner went out on a passionate date?

The writer Viktor Frankl wrote in his book “ Man’s Search For Meaning” that “The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.”  We can only find meaning in our lives if we follow our passions.  And how do we find our passions?  Great question!

First you need to be clear about who you are - what your values are, what’s important to you, what makes you smile, what your strengths are and where your creativity lies.  After doing the inner work, you will have clarity and clarity leads to the power to act.  The clarity about who you are will lead you to the clarity about what your passions are.

Your passions are the loves of your life.  They are the things that are most important to you.  When you are living your passions you are aligned with your personal destiny.  When you are aligned with your destiny, your life is joyful, delightful, exciting and fulfilling.  That’s our natural way of living.  That’s the way that leads us to experience true LOVE!

With energy and passion,

Ana