Energy Coaching

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

My dear friend Pamela is my guest writer today.  She blogged about her extremely liberating experience of quitting her  9-5 job.  It’s inspiring to read her insights and how she found her path once she let go of the old.  Congrats Pamela and thanks for allowing me to share this with our readers!

Some of us think that we are obligated to work 9-5 as a measure of our success in society. That programming is difficult to ignore and the material goods that accompany a steady pay check are enticing.

Some of us just are not cut out for that lifestyle. We try to conform to the system. We do our job knowing that we are not part of that system and here is the result: We spend most of our waking hours with people we would not normally associate with. Maybe there are some co-workers we strongly dislike yet we are forced into a small, crowded office with them. We get caught in office politics that we do not care about, with people we don’t like, for a job that may be meaningless in the greater scheme of things. We come home tired, angry, frustrated, stressed.

Our true vocation is on hold. There is no energy left after the 9-5 brain drain. We wake up in the middle of the night agonizing over a stupid power play from the office (Why are these people in our bed?). Morning comes and we are already stressed. The night’s sleep didn’t erase the daily grind. Now we have to rush to get ready for work, walk the dog, drink the coffee, drive to the office, find parking, clock in, and face the music again. The weekend comes and it is run to the grocery store, the dry cleaners, rush through basic housekeeping chores, rush, rush, rush. If you have kids, the rushing becomes exponentially more insane. Multiply your daily to-dos by 1,000.

This was my life for 6 years. I sidestepped a life of creativity and spirituality, my two most important values, so I could pay bills. It seemed like the easy way out. I was tired of hustling my talents to make a living. So I bought into the 9-5. My boss was a micromanaging freak with a huge chip on her shoulder. Three years of hell and I landed a job in the arts at a very progressive place promising growth, opportunity, camaraderie, and enjoyment ! What a concept! A 9-5 that is a fun place to work…until it is not.

The economy shifted, the balance of power shifted, and with it came a truckload of stress. And then my body started to react. Everything I put up with at work I swallowed whole and my body was not happy. My stomach hurt. My teeth hurt. I had bags and circles under my eyes. Acupuncture helped but…without changing the situation that was causing the bodily ailments, the discomfort continued. I eat organics, take vitamins, practice Reiki, do Pilates and shun medications but my poor little body was bombarded with negativity and couldn’t process it. No wonder so many Americans succumb to the myriad of medications promoted so heavily in the media. And no wonder they are so overweight. They drown their misery in chemically laden, over processed factory food, which compounds the stress imbalance of 9-5.

I ask you – can  you simplify your life? Slow down? Reconnect to your values?

I did. I left my job to rediscover my true self, so I could reinvent my future. The first week I was home I found myself caught in the habit of rushing. I forgot how to do anything at a leisurely pace. I had to retrain myself to enjoy the process of whatever it was I was doing and to be grateful for everything. Everything is a gift! Then I began to engage in things that bring me pleasure: cooking delicious food, sharing a meal with family and friends, decorating for the holidays, baking cookies, gardening, long walks with my dog. Best of all, after weeks of reconnecting to my soul, I reconnected to my inner artist and got back into my studio. I am a weaver. I need to weave, to create with fabric, yarn and threads. It keeps me grounded, balanced, connected to a higher power and appreciative of my talents as god-given gifts. I go in my studio and create something every day and ask myself – “why am I making this?” And the answer is always “because I can!” Sometimes “because I can” is enough. Who else do I know who is doing what I do? No one. I’m it. And that makes me feel good. I’m it. I’m here to share my talents – gifts from the universe, given to me, to create things that can be given to others, to bring joy. If I can’t bring joy into this world then what am I here for? Certainly not the 9-5 grind. Did that bring me joy? At first I thought it did and I learned a lot (rationalizations here) but I did it bring joy? No. It did not. Did I sell my soul to the 9-5?

So now I have been home for three months. My body has normalized. I have slowed down. I give thanks every day for all that I have. I am using Ana’s coaching/visualization techniques to reinvent myself, to create my future. I am more focused on doing Reiki and meditating. With no expectations. I give back to society. I create. Coincidences keep occurring. And opportunities are presenting. I must be doing something right!

Thanks, Ana, for your friendship and your moral support and for your excellence in coaching me to my new reality.

Namaste,

Pamela

Looking into the future is a fantastic game.  The process of re-inventing oneself is one of building a vision for one’s life honoring his/her past, choices and present.  This a much more sustainable and inspiring way of changing than the motivation based on the fear that one is not good enough and needs to change in order to fulfill the expectations of others.  There is a huge difference in taking the pro-active step of re-inventing oneself when the inspiration comes from a desire to better perform his/her mission of service and share his/her gifts with others most effectively.  It’s fair to say that sometimes the process begins with a major crisis and the need for change can no longer be ignored.  However, in order for this ‘wake-up call’ to be sustainable, it needs to be followed with deliberate actions. 

Whatever the initial motivation for re-invention is, the process has steps.  I want to share with you my own process of re-invention which I am currently undergoing.  So far, I have been able to recognize a few steps.  Here they are:

1.  Making a choice to undergo re-invention.  This has to be a concious choice.  In my case, it has certainly been fueled by our recent move to Hong Kong.  It has been a clear choice to go beyond what I’ve been doing, to grow and answer a higher call.  I remember what the call sounds like from my days as an athlete.  If I wanted to get to a higher level of performance, I needed to answer a few hard questions and take action toward the goal.  Did I want it bad enough?  Was I willing to sacrifice physical comfort and emotional security and take a leap to a different life?  Was I committed enough to re-invent myself and become a better athlete?  I chose to say yes to these questions and to take the actions.  Now the time has come once again to say yes to become a higher performer.  The biggest obstacle that impedes most people to take this step is that there is no map to it.  The road is dark and one can only see a few meters ahead.  It requires faith in oneself to move forward.  Once the decision is made to go ahead with the process of re-invention, there is hardly a choice to go back.

2.  Evaluating where I am in life.  This step involves a deeper look at my present, values, choices, surroundings, my chosen companions (partner, friends, family), my view of the world and of my spiritual path.  This step requires a lot of ‘listening’.  It’s not an easy one, let me tell you.  However, once I entered this stage, I began to notice the messages.  They were coming from all over; people, circumstances, moments, words, e-mails, dreams and books.  All of these mediums are coming together to show me a path.  As I was trying to make sense of it all, I realized that it was best not to try to make sense at all!  There is a clear call of  ‘letting go’ of control and of expectations.  I recognized that most of those expectations were coming from outside of myself.  The need to control is fueled by fear of not being good enough and the expectations are a collection of ‘shoulds’ that the outside world gave me and I took in willingly.  I am working on letting go.  It has proven to be quite the task and one that has no specific end in sight.

3.  Letting go.  Lately, there have been many opportunities to let go of things, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and fears that are present in my life.  I am taking actions that facilitate the process of letting go and I am pleased to report that the results have been amazing!  The more I let go, the more I learn.  The more I let go, the lighter I feel. 

There you have it!  That’s how far I’ve come.  I will keep sharing the journey.  My hope is that you also feel inspired to take the leap and re-invent yourselves with gusto.  Someone once said that “the only thing that is constant in our lives is change”.  By choosing to re-invent ourselves we accept this truth and become better equipped to let go of what we no longer need.  Life becomes lighter and we become freer.

With energy,

Ana