Yoga

by Christine on February 5, 2012

I have always been fond of the idea of a yoga practice. And at various times in my life I have practiced postures on my own or taken a class for a short period of time.

However, I have had great difficulty doing yoga due to my lack of endurance and physical pain. I tried a class a few years ago but it got more difficult each week so I dropped out. And at that time I was not experiencing enough benefits to continue. I knew it was a healthy thing to do but I just couldn’t stick with it.

It has been frustrating to say the least and I had hoped that the day would eventually come when I could begin a practice.

Well that time has come. As I have shifted my energy during this journey I have been feeling better physically. I then had the good fortune of a friend offering to work with me individually to help get me started.

This was a true blessing. I had my first session on Monday and my instructor was surprised and impress with my alignment and flexibility. My friend is a skilled teacher and I felt safe and encouraged. And even though it was difficult and taxing….it was so in a good way. It is clear that I need to build my strength and endurance. But I was not overwhelmed and did not feel pressured to do anything I wasn’t ready to do. It was a great experience and I felt better after the session. In fact I went for a long walk right afterwards! That was unexpected surprise to feel that good and that energized!

I was delighted that the session went so well and that I felt inspired to continue. What I know is the importance of a safe space for me. I am very sensitive and if I don’t feel safe and supported exactly where I am, my fear builds and that increases my stress.  And that stress translates into increased physical symptoms. But once I feel safe, I am comfortable enough to push through a bit and move to the next level.

With my friend I found a safe space where I can learn and practice and build my core strength. For this I am grateful.

Sometimes we need a little hand-holding and individual attention to get over those initial hurdles that hold us back. Even when we know that, it can be difficult to ask for what we need or to find the right person to work with. I now have what I need to move through my fear and resistance. This is such a blessing.

I have practiced yoga twice on my own since I had my individual session 5 days ago. I pray that I can keep the momentum and embed this as a wonderful habit into my life.

I’m sure I will feel resistance again and might even try to convince myself that I can’t do it or don’t need to.

If that happens When that happens I hope I will remember to read this post so that I can sidestep whatever excuses my mind has conjured and will continue my practice.

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Self Respect is Knowing What My Money’s Up To

by Christine on January 27, 2012

Last spring when I cleaned up my financial act and started managing my personal and business accounting more consistently, an interesting thing happened. My money began to multiply. I was also consciously working on shifting some negative beliefs about money. In fact that’s partly why I began to pay more attention to my bookkeeping.

It was a chicken and egg kind of thing. Money started to flow more easily into my life and I believe that was because I was consciously creating more positive beliefs about it. And as part of that process I realized that I had to be more aware of how much money was coming in and going out.

As I was more respectful of my money, I was more respectful of myself in general. How money shows up or doesn’t show up is often clearly related to self-appreciation and self-respect levels. No surprise, huh?

Once again the upward or downward spiral impacts so many areas of life. And once again the good news is that things snowball in a positive direction just as easily as in a negative direction.

Sometime late last summer I started to slack off with my bookkeeping. I was very busy with some new projects and let go of my new habit of recording my revenue and expenses on a consistent basis.

What happened? Yep, you guessed it! My revenue decreased and became more inconsistent. Now, I could come up with many reasons why that happened and they would all be true, but I really don’t think it was coincidental that my income dropped right after my attention to my finances started to slip.

So guess what else?

Yes….as part of my healing process that I am documenting in this blog, I am getting back in the habit of paying attention to my finances. Funny how it was one of that last elements for me to remember to address.

And today I was thinking about needing to be more respectful of my money and how that was a form of self respect.

It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that people who have a deficiency of self-love could also have a deficiency of money. The big question is, what is the correlation between net-worth and self-worth?

If we don’t feel worthy, it makes sense that we wouldn’t let ourselves have money, doesn’t it? I’ve heard many self-development teachers refer to this phenomenon.  It often shows up as self-sabotage. In other words, when someone who feels unworthy receives money, they either spend it immediately or they suddenly find themselves in a situation that creates an expense that takes that money away from them.

I have experienced this in my own life at various times. It’s fascinating to watch.

As part of this commitment to my healing I know it’s important to work on all areas of my life. Therefore, I have been doing a little tune-up on money beliefs in the last few weeks. Today I gave more attention to my financial records.

I am respecting myself and my money!
Now, I will prepare myself to receive more and more of it!

How about you?
How can you be more respectful and conscious of your financial wellbeing?

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It Doesn’t Take Long

January 25, 2012

I was sitting in a business meeting this morning. It’s a regular meeting that I attend. This week I noticed a dramatic difference in the way I felt while I was there. I felt so much better physically and emotionally in that meeting today than I have in many months. What I noticed most today, [...]

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Are You Good at Receiving Love?

January 18, 2012

You have people in your life who love you. Yes, you do. Some of us have a larger tribe of loving peeps around us than others, but we all have people who care about us. How good are you at knowing this and accepting it? Do you recognize the kind gestures, the positive comments or [...]

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Pseudo Practice

January 13, 2012

I am two weeks into this project and I am noticing that I am spending a lot of time writing about the self-acceptance practices but that I am actually avoiding  the practicing of them. Surprise. Surprise. I am doing some of them but not in the committed way that I had intended. I am not [...]

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Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz and the Self-Love Healing Secret

January 12, 2012

Somehow, through what I call “cosmic synchronicity” (or perhaps intuition!) I came across neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz on Facebook a few days ago. Dr. Schultz is quite a gifted medical intuitive. I had a telephone reading with her 11 years ago and all I can say is that it was astounding. With nothing more [...]

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Healing Music

January 10, 2012

When I listen to certain music I can’t help but feel uplifted. Kirtan devotional music is so wonderful and at times transports me into a blissful state. The melodies are hauntingly beautiful and the Sanskrit chants actually impact us on a soul level. This is one of my favorites: The album that features this song [...]

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What Would Michele Do?

January 8, 2012

Today, not long after midnight my friend Michele passed from this earth. We were not extremely close but I had known her for about 10 years and we had a sweet loving connection. We were part of the same spiritual community and were both members of the River Women Art Collective a few years ago. [...]

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My Word for 2012

January 6, 2012

Each year I choose one word that describes my intention for the upcoming year. Today is January 6, 2012 and a few days before the New Year I knew that my word for this year would be “Forgiveness. As my intention for the year, the concept of forgiveness has a broad definition. Or perhaps a [...]

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Shifting the Energy Toward Healing

January 2, 2012

For that last few weeks I have been very stressed out and feeling pretty lousy. I had a few specific work related issues that were unfamiliar and were making me nervous. Things began to snow ball in a negative direction. I know better but couldn’t get myself out of my downward spiral. I was having [...]

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