One of my coaching colleagues, Elle Swan, wrote this message on her newsletter yesterday. She writes about what I have also experienced – but I want you to hear it from HER:

Before I started living vibrantly, my life was empty and sad.

Be Fit, Live Rich, and Have a Vibrant Day!

Be sure to visit Elle Swan at ElleSwan.com

As I also continue to write about living a passionate life – especially AFTER you turn 65 – visit my new blog: agelesssexy.blogspot.com

Stay tuned for further information about my upcoming webinars, teleseminars and workshops on living with passion. In the meantime, smile… See? You can do it!

Blessings and smiles,
Sheila

Everyday, I receive wonderful “reminder” messages from my friend and mentor, Neale Donald Walsch, bestselling author of the Conversations with God books. I recently received one which reminded me that I am the creator of my tomorrow, and the best way to ensure that my “tomorrow” is what I want, that I owe it to myself to IMAGINE what it is I want my tomorrow to look like.

Neale says: “…imagination is your greatest gift. Do not be afraid to use it. Imagine yourself as being okay right now. Totally okay. Imagine yourself as Whole, Complete, and Perfect. With nothing to change, nothing to improve. Imagine your heart as being open again, your life as if it were starting over in the most important ways. Can you imagine this? Then you have just created Tomorrow.”

I recently had a client in my office who is struggling to reconnect with her husband and create a loving and intimate relationship with her life partner of nearly 30 years. Her lifelong issue has been a challenge in loving herself. What I know is that until you can fall madly and wildly in love yourself, you cannot expect someone else to do so – not really. As Don Miguel Ruiz reminds us all in his wonderfully wise little book about love (The Mastery of Love) , until you can love yourself, you cannot love someone else. Until you can love YOU, every relationship that pretends to be love is simply a business deal that says “if you love me, maybe I can feel better about me and therefore love you”. That just doesn’t work, because there is no balance in the relationship. The “other person” always has the power; the one who needs to be acknowledged, validated and appreciated by the other is forever looking at the “other” to complete them. It is forever a business transaction. It is not love.

So I gave my client an exercise and asked her to “try it on” just for the exercise of it: I wanted her to repeat a specific statement for three minutes of silent contemplation, and then we would talk about what came up for her after the exercise. The statement I asked her to silently repeat to herself throughout the three minutes was “my life is PERFECT just as it is…” She immediately began to argue with me about the word “perfect”. She protested: “but my life IS NOT PERFECT!” I suggested that she be willing to be open to a re-definition of the word “perfect” and to simply use her imagination, keeping her mind open during the three-minute exercise.

“I can’t do it!” she protested. She was stuck on the word “perfect”… I repeated the invitation: “just imagine for the next three minutes what it would be like if you could see everything in your life right now as perfect…Just imagine it!” She continued to argue. She wanted to change the word “perfect” to “acceptable”. I did not budge in my guidance for the exercise. “Just for the next few minutes, I’m asking you to imagine that everything is perfect…” She remained defiant and flustered. Being willing to simply imagine something previously unthinkable became a major obstacle.

She reluctantly completed the exercise with me. After the three minutes of silence, she continued to argue about the word “perfect”. I used her intensity as an opportunity to observe her attachment to her “imperfect” life…

Before she left my office, I invited her to consider the possibility that every aspect of her life right now which is a source of challenge and/or upset is in fact some form of benefit and blessing…that there is a form of “perfection” in the adversities in our lives. Although she was really struggling with that notion, she agrees to consider that thought.

So, what about you? Have you considered the possibility that whatever difficulties you are facing today may actually be one of your greatest blessings – you may not see that today, nor be able to acknowledge that today. However, if you think back on other times in your life when you were challenged, is it possible that you see some benefit or gift that came out of your prevailing?

I am inviting you to use your imagination today: imagine that your life is Whole, Complete and Perfect just the way it is today, and that your life is filled with blessings you cannot even see at the moment, but you imagine the certainty that they are there, nonetheless. Imagine it! That…is your Tomorrow.

Thank you Neale! Visit Neale at www.NealeDonaldWalsch.com

With love and blessings,
Sheila

Is it possible that you, or someone you know and care about, are addicted to suffering?

I know it may sound strange, but some people — more than you might imagine — actually become attached to suffering, as if it is an old and familiar friend. For many, “suffering” does become that old and familiar friend — hard to let go of, hard to break away from…Suffering can become a dangerous addiction; an unhealthy way and and ultimately an unfulfilling way to feel alive.

It is true: many people persist in the habit of suffering in order to feel more alive: SUFFERING IS AN UNHEALTHY and UNFULFILLING WAY TO FEEL ALIVE! Many people hold onto their suffering because it is a way to feel alive…almost like an antidote to feeling numb. Suffering is the ego’s way of feeling important.

Arielle Ford has discussed the addiction to suffering in her newsletter today, and has also linked us to her friend Kute Blackson who wrote a beautiful blog on this topic. As Arielle wisely says, “whether you are a businessman or a buddha, pain is inevitable. There is no way to avoid it. Just by virtue of being in a human body there will be some pain. Trying to avoid pain will only create more suffering. Embrace pain to release yourself from suffering. Suffering is optional. Suffering is a choice.”

What I know from my own experence in life with with working with hundreds of clients every year is that suffering comes from you “story” about what is happening in your life and less about what is actually happening. What is happening is simply what is happening. The suffering part comes from all your interpretations you make up and the meaning you assign to your specific experience. Change your story and you will change your reality within yourself.

I’m sharing here below some of the fabulous information in Kute’s blog so that more people have the benefit of this thinking.

My hope and prayer for you and those you love is that you become liberated from the addiction to suffering, so that you can discover healthy ways to feel alive and transformative ways to feel important – here are some tools for you, the day after “Liberation Day”:

KUTE’S 7 KEYS TO CREATING SUFFERING:

1. RESIST EVERYTHING – resist what is. Resist reality. Fight against what is happening in your life with all your might. This is a guaranteed method to suffer.

KEY SOLUTION: Accept what is, so that you can then decide how to shift it.

2. HOLDING THE BELIEF – “The experience that is happening to me should not happen to me. I should be having some other experience than the one I am having. This shouldn’t be happening to me.” You have probably heard yourself doing some version of this. It just keeps you stuck.

KEY SOLUTION: Embrace your current experience. Your current experience is the experience that you are meant to be having because you are having it right now. Trust, and focus on what you can learn and how you can grow. The experience is here to help you evolve.

3. FOCUSING ON ALL THE THINGS YOU CANNOT CONTROL – This will only cause you to feel completely helpless and disempowered. It will leave you in a state of worry and anxiety. Some of us are professional “worriers.” No matter ho much you worry it doesn’t actually change the situation. Once you are done worrying, the situation will be the same. Worrying is a waste of time.

KEY SOLLUTION: Focus on what you can control. Take actions that are in your power, step by step.

4. REFUSING TO CHANGE – Keep doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. Well, as Einstein said, that is the definition of insanity. Are you so set in your ways that you are afraid of giving up the known suffering for the unknown possibility of happiness?

KEY SOLUTION: Embrace change. Be willing to do something different. Let go. Go into the unknown. Take different actions.

5. GIVE UP YOUR RESPONSIBILTY – Be a victim. Play the blame game making everyone else at fault or responsible for your life and how you feel. Unless you take responsibility for your current experience then you are powerless to change it.

KEY SOLUTION: Take full responsibility for your current reality and decide what changes you are committed to making. Give up blame.

6. FOCUS ON EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG IN YOUR LIFE – Whether a relationship or a person. When you focus on what is wrong, you will surely find what is wrong. You will end up creating more of what is wrong to feel wrong about. Then the negative cycle continues.

KEY SOLUTION: Start focusing on what you are grateful for. Remember all your blessings, and appreciate that daily. What you appreciate, expands. What you thank about, comes about.

7. DENIAL – Lie to yourself and others. Pretend that everything is fine when you know that it isn’t. When you avoid facing what is, you end up staying stuck and repeating the same patterns of pain, and relationship. This only ends up prolonging your suffering.

KEY SOLUTION: Tell the truth to yourself first. Tell the truth to those in your life. Be honest. Face reality.

Life is too short to waste spent suffering. Most of what you worry about today you won’t even remember a few months from now. Most of what you are trying to change in people today, you won’t care about on your deathbed.

You hold the padlock and you hold the key to your freedom. YOU CHOOSE!

To learn more about Kute, please visit www.kuteblackson.com

With blessings and smiles,
Sheila

What makes you cry? Really: what brings tears to your eyes?

Being able to cry is an awesome human ability, although many people (maybe you are one of them) do everything they can to avoid crying, attempting to push back the lump in the throat which often precedes the tears falling, then do whatever it takes to prevent those tears from continuing to fall.

We are born with tear ducts. The newborn baby’s first sounds are usually loud crying, with tears. Tears are natural, from the time we emerge from the womb. Crying is a release of energy, an expression of emotion – strong emotion, “overflowing” emotion. We are born to feel those strong emotions, those emotions that cause us to “overflow” – often with tears.

Bruce Lipton in his book “The Biology of Belief” describes his “heart orgasm” at the moment of discovering how our cells really work. He was overwhelmed with emotion; the best way he could describe it was a “heart orgasm”. Ellie Drake has described the role of the hormone oxytocin as the “prosperity hormone” for women. As Ellie was speaking about this “prosperity hormone”, she was expressing feelings of deep gratitude and overflowing joy with her evolving BraveHeartWomen community: she called her full joy a “SoulGasm”. My friends and I, in the midst of enjoying a concert with “Il Divo”, the four male singers who can take your breath away, often say we feel like we are having an “orgasm”. Like the excitement of good sex and having an orgasm with our lovers, there are moments in life when we are overflowing with emotions, feeling all kinds of “-gasms”. When we have these “-gasms”, we often feel moved to tears – tears of overwhelm, tears of fullness, tears of gratitude, and tears of recognition of a big truth and a big love all around.

A friend of mine spent all of yesterday crying lots of tears: it was her tenth anniversary…and her beloved husband had died six months ago – six months short of this tenth anniversary. She spent the day remembering their life together, the sweet and magical moments of their love and married life. She cried tears of sadness that her husband was no longer by her side, and yet…she cried additional tears, feeling that his spirit and his memory was right next to her, if not totally inside of her.

A few days ago, I officated at the marriage of a beautiful young couple: I joined their friends and family in crying tears of joy and fullness as this couple begins another chapter of their lives together. The bride couldn’t have been more beautiful and glowing as she walked down the aisle, and I felt that lump in my throat, pushing back the tears, since I had to maintain my calm composure as the clergy person in charge of their wedding ceremony. I needed to be able to see my notes, so I couldn’t allow the tears to get in the way of my clear vision. But I felt the tug. I felt that lump in my throat which told me that I was touched: by the sweetness and promise of this couple’s love. I also knew that I also felt my husband’s hand on my shoulder as I chanted the wedding blessings. It was my husband who taught me so much of what I do in that wedding ceremony. My husband’s memory became palpable as I stood beneath the chupah. Our 32 years of marriage flashed quickly past my memory, as this young couple stood in front of me, as I handed them the cup of wine to share, as I pronounced them to be husband and wife.

Sometimes the tears fall when we are afraid: they fall when we feel alone, afraid we might lose our health, or if our health is at risk, that we might lose our lives. We cry tears of sadness when we have feelings of desire and no partner with whom to share love and passion; we cry tears of bitterness when we feel regret for choices we have made that seem to have created our current reality, which is not the way we thought it would be.

One of my favorite Rabbis, Abraham Joshua Heschel, said that “tears are the lubricant for the heart” and that without allowing our tears to fall, we cannot heal, or celebrate, or grow.

You and I are born to cry, and to laugh. We are born to create each moment of our lives. We are born to feel the full range of emotions and to accept each moment as a perfect gift, whatever it is.

When it hurts, be grateful that you can feel whatever it is that hurts. Imagine not feeling anything at all…that would be like a walking deadness. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather feel the pangs and arrows that remind me that I am fully alive, able to feel the emotions that surge through my body, reassuring me that I am fully alive.

Do yourself a favor: if you feel like having a glass of wine or a martini, go ahead and enjoy it as a form of celebration. But…I urge you to avoid taking a drink or popping a pill just to “escape” feeling… Let yourself feel it all! Without the drugs.

Here’s a toast to your tears of sadness and joy; here’s to your “-gasms” of all kinds.

May you be overflowing with emotions that go along with being alive; overflowing with emotions that have no place else to go except through your tear-ducts into your tears that make your face all wet!

May you have the problem of mopping up the mess on your face!

Blessings,
Sheila

I NEED YOUR HELP!

As many of you already know, I am in the midst of completing my new book. The proposed title is “WRINKLED, AGELESS & SEXY–Creating Magical Moments Now After Now”

I need your help: I would like feedback on the title, and as I write about the book, giving you “samples” of what my message is, I want your feedback and dialogue, as well.

When I was having my chat with Randy Davila, publisher of Hampton Roads and Conari Press, he asked if I was willing to change my title. My answer was “of course!” But…before I rush to change anything, I want more feedback from YOU!

Although Randy didn’t tell me what he didn’t like about the title, but it might have been the word “WRINKLED”… I don’t know. What about you? Does that word make you feel a bit uncomfortable? I’m not sure if that is a “bad” thing…since one of my points in the book is for those of us with wrinkles to embrace them instead of wishing we could erase them. The wrinkles are a sign of having lived… It would look a bit strange to have arrived at my age, 69, and have NO WRINKLES…wouldn’t it?

Anyway…I’ve just set up a NEW BLOG, totally dedicated to the new book, whatever we finally call it. The Blog is called “AGELESS AND SEXY”, and I would love it if you would check in with my blog on a regular basis to keep up with what I’m up to:

http://agelesssexy.blogspot.com

In today’s post, I suggest that being sexy helps us grow and expand our spirituality. In order to be fully awake, to evolve our consciousness, we need to be engaged with all of our senses — all SEVEN of them… Yes! SEVEN! If any of them are “shut down”, we cannot be fully awake and aware. That includes our most powerful source of energy and sensuality, our sexuality. Whether or not you have a sexual partner, you can be sexy and sensual. It is about being willing to FEEL EVERYTHING!

You and I are designed to feel a full gamut of emotions, to be fully sensual beings, drinking in all that life has to offer us human beings who can engage with life with our five senses (if we are blessed to have all five), plus to engage with our sixth sense (our intuition), and finally to experience many dimensions of awareness and euphoria by opening our SEVENTH sense: the sensitivity and sensibility of “receiving”…

Stay tuned…as I write more about RECEIVING in future posts.

Blessings and smiles,
Sheila

Does today’s date have any significance for you? June 22, 2011… Well, it is exactly 18 months to December 22, 2012. Are any bells ringing yet? Have you been wondering about what everyone is buzzing about when they’re talking about 2012. Is it the “end of the world”? Is it really “end time”? There is a huge coalition of like-minded thought leaders who are calling this “BIRTH 2012″. Visionary Barbara Marx Hubbard, author of “Conscious Evolution” is the grandmother behind this powerful and exciting coalition of spiritual midwives.

According to the Mayan Calendar, it is the end of an age: an age of our human evolution; an age of a stage of history; and age of a time in which the earth and the humans on it were growing and evolving along a particular path, and now we are at a fork in the road on that path. If we go to the left, there will be one kind of ultimate and inevitable outcome. If we go to the right, the outcome will most likely be entirely different. So which is it? What’s it all about?

As you look around your own life, what do you see? Is everything running smoothly? Or…are you experiencing pockets if not buckets of chaos, challenge, financial and relationship challenges that just plain hurt?

Thought leaders and visionaries like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Neale Donald Walsch, Lynne Twist and Dot Maver suggest that our “problems are our evolutionary drivers”. Without our chaos, our challenges, our problems, we would not be driven to evolve our own consciousness to the next level. In Neale Donald Walsch’e new book (he’s still writing it), “The Storm Before the Calm”, he describes exactly this: Without our current problems, we would not be motivated or inspired to stretch outside of our comfort zones and leap into another level of human awareness.

What problem is staring at you today? Is it money? Health? Relationships?

For me today, my problem is about money and sex – do these really go together? Funny combination, right? Well…they are related. And although I’m not sure how to explain their connection, I know they are: I have somehow created my results, and now I have the opportunity to face it, or run away from it.

Everything is energy. Thoughts are things. So…I could ask “how am I creating my current circumstances?”…or…I could ask another kind of question. I could ask a question that is not suggesting that I am to “blame” in some way for my circumstances, but rather, I could simply acknowledge them for what they are and then wonder “how I can use them for my own growth?”

Sooo…what part of me is being invited by my current money crunch? As I ponder, it occurs to me that where there is fear or anxiety right now, another part of me could join the party: that part of me which is full of faith and creativity could step in right now. My “faith” could remind me that I have prevailed, consistently attracted the abundance I have needed, and that having little money in my bank account right now has nothing to do with the reality of how abundant I am!

My “faith” could remind me to “have faith” even when there is no visible evidence, since that is what faith is all about. Things are not what they seem. And…simply because my cash flow is slow right now, I am also more “in tune” with others who have less than I have, who are afraid of having no money. I know what it feels like… Another part of me which could join my party is my “creative” part: how creative can I be in generating new income possibilities? How resourceful can I become in creating new programs and workshops? How motivated am I to create new tools and materials to help more people? This current financial “squeeze” could very well be the impetus for me to create or “give birth” to new ideas, reach out to new clients, find new audiences.

And then…there’s my problem about sex. My lover and I parted ways many months ago. I miss him partly because I miss having a sexual experience. I had become comfortable with him over a period of several years; now, I’m alone: I can’t have sex with just any man…it just doesn’t work for me. So, what do I do about my longing and desire for sex? Well…that conundrum invites me to wonder about what sex brings to the table for me. After all, I lived in a sexless marriage for many years and it didn’t kill me – well, not exactly. Now that I’ve re-ignited my sexual energies, I need an outlet… But…who says sexual energy can only be experienced in the act of “having sex”? Isn’t sex about connection, about creation, about intimacy, and about feeling intensely alive? Can’t people who are alone also feel alive?

Everything is energy. Thoughts are things. What am I making it mean that I don’t have a lover right now? Is something “wrong” with me? Am I “incomplete” because I do not have a sexual partner? What part of me is being invited to participate in this problem? Oh! Those two parts that joined my financial problem…TRUST and CREATIVITY. Hmmm…Well: Am I to trust that the Universe has something wonderful planned for me? Am I to trust that just as I attracted my ex-lover, I can attract a new and wonderful lover for me? Maybe. Am I also to trust that whether or not I have a lover, I’m still a sexual sensuous woman who is sexy, partner or no partner? Am I also invited to bring my “creative” self to the party and imagine ways that I could use my sexual energy in creative ways? Yes. I know of artists, musicians, composers, authors, and visionaries who have used and continue to use their sexual energies in the service of their creative activities. That passionate energy which we dedicate to being a lover of another human being is an energy we can channel in many different directions. I can acknowledge my longings, my passions, my desires; I can allow myself to feel everything that is natural to feel as a sexual being. And then…I can choose to use that energy to create.

I can create a new friendship, nurture old friendships, write a new book, write a poem, sing a song, create a dinner party… All of this is in my control. The lover is not far away. I have faith.

You and I are each co-creators of our lives, each moment of each day. The extent to which we allow ourselves to be fully human, to feel our emotions, to be our sensuous selves, to be open to access our intuitive sensitivities, is the extent to which we are engaging in our own evolution.

You and I are “evolutionaries” – we have the power to shift the direction human beings are traveling on this journey we call life. One human being at a time. Start with yourself. Today.

Blessings always,
Sheila

Can you suffer disappointment, not win the race, the prize, the job, the lover, the contract…but still see yourself as a winner???

Yes! I know you can, because I have experienced it many times — and most recently…last week!

Sometimes, the greatest achievements occur after someone has experienced extreme disappointment, suffered defeat after defeat, only to rise to the highest level of their abilties BECAUSE of the disappointments that propelled them forward.

I’m telling you my most recent disappointment, because we all have them, but how we handle them is what really tells the story and defines who we are. We can be disappointed. But not stopped. We may not win the race or the contest, but it doesn’t mean we are loser. There are many ways to be winners…

Last week, I flew to Chicago to attend a “Celebrate Your Life” conference. It was important to me to attend for several reasons, but of primary interest for me was the possibility of hearing my name announced as the winner of a contest. Back in February, I entered my new book (still completing it!) “WRINKLED, AGELESS & SEXY” in a contest. After three months of voting, submissions, writing, struggling, waiting and hanging by my fingernails, I made it to the finals! I was a finalist – one of four final contestants – in the “Next Top Self-Help Author” book contest: the winner would be announced, and there was a 25% chance that the name announced would be mine!

I caught an early-morning flight from New York to Chicago, arriving ten minutes before the announcement. I rushed into the ballroom, shoved my luggage in a corner and took a seat near the front of the room. My heart was pounding. Would the winner’s name be mine? For several weeks, I had felt that strong “hunch” that I would be the winner: each time I survived another round of the contest, my entire body was vibrating with excitement with that possibility. Finally…it was down to four finalists. Randy Davila, CEO of Hampton Roads Publishing walked up to the stage to announce the winner: “And the winner is….a Life Coach from…California…Martha Burge….” My heart sunk, my energy drained out of my body as if someone had sucked it all out with a large syringe.

No. My name was not the one announced. For weeks, I had imagined: “and the winner is….a Life Coach from…New York…Sheila Pearl.” But that was not the outcome. Martha has a fabulous book. She deserves to win. Actually, each of the finalists deserved to “win”. And so we do actually win…we don’t really lose at all!

Yes, it is true: in such a contest, only one person gets the prize; Martha gets the contract to publish her book with Conari Press. That is wonderful for her and understandably disappointing for the three of us whose name was not called out. For Craig, Michelle and me, however, we did not lose! Nope! Not at all: first, we became finalists, which means we prevailed and commanded the attention of the judging panel through four rounds of the contest, which began with over 700 contestants from all over the world. Second, each of us has either completed or all-but-completed writing our book. Third, each of us has successfully completed the book proposal – which I now know is probably the most difficult aspect of writing any book! But, for each of us, it is already done. Ready to submit to other literary agents and prospective publishers.

The winner of the “Next Top Self-Help Author” book contest does have an enviable distinction: she can call herself the “Next Top Author” and it sounds really wonderful! However…the winner of this or any other similar contest has not had the advantage of working with a literary agent; it is the agent who negotiates for the author to command a sweet advance and optimum contract terms. A winner of a contest has no agent and is required to accept the contract offered, which may not necessarily be the best possible terms.

The conference I attended was also important for another reason: in one place over a period of four days, some of the world’s greatest thought leaders were assembled to speak and teach. It was a paradise for any seeker of wisdom and anyone, like myself, who has as a goal to become one of the thought leaders in the world. For the few days I attended this conference, I sat at the feet of the masters, drinking in the cutting-edge thinking and wisdom teachers of consciousness evolution and paradigm shifting – so necessary in our point in history, and so important for me, as I continue to craft my own messages for publication.

Did I win the contest? Nope. But…did I lose? Not at all! I won much more than a contest and there was no way I could lose. By entering the contest, I also took a course in how to write a book and get your book published. The whole course cost me $97. I learned worlds about myself as an aspiring published bestselling author. I learned what needs to be done to stay on track, to get the job done, and to keep going when it is inconvenient, difficult and extremely challenging. I learned how to form a team, discovering that no author creates a viable book without a team. I learned how to ask for help and how to receive it.

Most important: I learned that in the face of disappointment, there is simply another level of determination and persistence that is being invited by the situation. I have also learned to re-define “winning” – winning is about believing in yourself, even if you have no tangible evidence; winning is about hearing “it’s not you” and be inspired to stand tall and keep going.

Blessings and hugs,
Sheila

Stay tuned to You Tube, folks… We’re on an very fun adventure as Mary Agnes and I take you step by step with me on this process of writing my book….

Cheers and blessings
Sheila

There are two Talmudic sayings that guide me all the time: one is “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? …And…If not now, when?” Another one “If you save one life, it is as if you have saved the entire world.”

Here I am, at a stage of life in which many people are retiring and moving to Florida. Not me.

I’ve just begun to share my message of possibilities – that’s what this book is about. Now is the time.You and I are living in extraordinary times – I think more so, than ever before in human history. Really.

Do the names Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Hawking or Neil Turok mean anything to you? Well…if you’ve been reading Time Magazine or the New York Times lately, you will have noticed that Kruzweil (inventor of the Kurzweil synthesizer) is working on scientific technology which will make it possible for humans to live…forever…? Hmmm… and Hawking and Turok are quantum physicists, Nobel Prize winners in physics, who are talking about parallel universes…other dimensions of consciousness which are available to us – kinda like in the Matrix movies, or that TV show Quantum Leap… Sooo…we’re looking at possibilities right ahead of us which used to be in the realm of science fiction…but it’s no longer science fiction! It’s becoming science REALITY!

Do the names Burt Goldman or Tara Marino mean anything to you? Well..until this week, they didn’t mean anything to me…but I paid attention to stuff coming through my emails and hopped on their webinars. Tara has started something called “The Power of Sensuality” program, and as I listened to her introductory discussion, I realized that she and I have come to similar conclusions about the importance of Sensuality in our lives, for us to be totally engaged with our own vitality. And then…when I was watching the webinar with Burt Goldman (known as The American Monk), I felt this chill rush through me as he was speaking: he’s describing the experiences I’ve been having the past few years of my life – those experiences which have explained how and why I’ve got incredible energy, have a level of enthusiasm and creativity unlike any other time in my life, and how I’ve been able to access answers to questions, solutions to problems, and otherwise have results in my life which have been nothing short of miraculous. Burt is talking about those Parallel universes that Hawking and Turok are talking about; he’s also talking about the power of accessing all of our senses – the very thing that Tara was talking about earlier the same day I was watching her.

I am writing this book NOW…because it is all coming together through me, NOW.

A little more than three months ago, I paid attention to another email – kinda like the emails I noticed this week: that email was inviting me to enter a contest. I had seen similar invitations in the past, and dismissed them as a waste of time for me. I’m not even sure why my mind did that…But…in the dark of winter I paid attention to this particular invitation. I was being invited to be the “Next Top Author” in a self-help book contest. Hmmm…I thought. Should I? Could I?… Why not!?

So I plunked down my $97 bucks to register for the contest – which was also a six month course in how to get your book published – so I figured, I couldn’t lose. It was a win-win. I’d be in a contest and go as far as I could go…push myself forward, and perhaps I’d finish one of the three books I had been working on for the past few years…and get something done and out there. So I entered.

Then…the question: which of the three books would I enter in the contest? What did I do? Whenever I’m faced with a decision and need guidance, I tune into my inner wisdom. I get quiet. I meditate on the question: “which book do I enter?”

Quickly, the answer came to me (not what I expected, at all!):

“You will re-purpose much of what you have already written in the other three book projects, but this will be a new book which you are to offer FIRST – the first of many books which come out through you… You will use much of the material already written, but you will create a new format. You will trust the process. You will listen for guidance each step along the way. You will pay attention to the information that comes to you: it could be from movies, books, friends, clients, the internet, emails, phone calls… Pay attention to everything. It is all relevant. Don’t try to make it all ‘make sense’…just add it to the collection of material and ideas. Trust that you will eventually connect the dots.

“Here is the title of your new book, and with this there is no compromise: WRINKLED, AGELESS & SEXY” – You will figure out the subtitle, because to find the best subtitle, you will need to get clear about your message. That is part of your process. Now…go and have fun!”That was the intuitive message I received. Wild, huh?

After I received that message, I went to look at myself in the mirror, and what did I see: hmmm… Well… I saw wrinkles. Did I like what I saw? Not particularly, since I usually don’t feel whatever chronological age I am, anyway. So, looking closely at my wrinkles was a bit unsettling. But I kept looking: I also saw that “ageless” part of me… That part of me that laughs, cries, giggles, loves, creates, sings, imagines… That part of me that has no age and doesn’t have anything to do with age. Then…I kept looking: I also saw myself as “sexy”. Yep. Sexy. Sooo…since that would be a part of my book, what would I have to say about that? A lot.

SOOOO…What would be the message of this book?

There is a part of us that has a beginning, middle, and end – our physical selves. That is true and that is real, so the wrinkles tell us something we may not want to see: the clock is ticking, so make every moment count! Also, there is apart of us that has NO beginning, middle or end – that’s our “ageless” part. That part of us is even MORE real and true than the physical part. But…to experience our “ageless” part, we need the physical part to be an important part of the equation. And…the “sexy” part of the book? Oh! That’s all about energy. That’s about how we integrate our physical and metaphysical selves into something we call MAGIC! Yes…”magic” is what our life is really all about. It is NOT about time! It is about Magical Moments.

So my message is about how each of us can create magical moments right now! And keep doing it. Right now. Don’t waste time…TICK TOCK TICK TOCK…I haven’t talked much about how I have been receiving these intuitive messages, just like the one I received about the book project, for a long time now. But today, I’m telling all. Yep. I’ve been getting them. I’m not crazy. I’m not loony. I am human and I am a spiritual being having a human experience.

I’m here to share with you this message: your life is just beginning! Now!…and then…Now!Here we are, three months into the process of this contest, and I am one of the finalists in the contest! WOOHOO! Yes! I’ve made it this far! By the end of this month, the winner of the contest will be announced. I’m afraid to tell you something, but I will: I’m already the winner of this contest! No, I don’t mean that it’s “fixed”…I mean: I see that I’ve already won it! I see myself as the “Next Top Author,” signing the book contract, speaking at the “Celebrate Your Life” conference in Chicago in June with Mishka productions. I see it! Call me crazy… Maybe I am…

I’m excited about life – more excited than ever before in my life! And…in the words of one of my younger friends (age 42) who read the first section of my manuscript: “I loved it! …I’m so excited about getting older! I’m not dreading it anymore!”

Well…if the beginning section of my unfinished book could accomplish that little miracle, it’s as if I have saved the world already with this one precious woman! Yay!

Stay tuned…we’re just beginning!

Cheers and blessings
Sheila

Mother’s Day has, for 46 years, been a painful day for me… I gave birth to one beautiful little girl. Her name was Daedra. She coo’ed and sang sweet little sounds every day of her eight months of life. Then…one day, she was gone. Our little angel was gone… My heart was ripped open and has really never been the same.

That’s a good thing. I had the privilege of giving birth to one baby who apparently came into this world wanting to experience being “wanted” and she was wanted: she was not convenient. I became pregnant after my first sexual experience. She was not planned. The pregnancy stood in the way of my plans for a career in opera. I decided not to marry the father. I was an “unwed mother” at a time it was neither popular, accepted, nor easy. However, I wanted this baby. I was thrilled to give life. I learned as a very young woman that “EVERYTHING IS ON LOAN”…

I learned as a very young woman to take nothing for granted — not one single day!

So…when Daedra died suddenly (a rare heart malformation), I learned that anything can happen any time — to any of us! I learned that whatever it is we hold as precious…cherish it. Hold those you love, tell them you love them, treat them with love and kindness…because you never know when you will have that last chance to experience sweetness with them. Really. You never know.

My heart ripped open, I wanted to have lots of children one day. That happened. But not quite in the way I had imagined: Aside from being a step-mother (OMG! Don’t call me that to my stepchildren!) to my husband’s children, I have “given birth” to many children: students, congregants, patients, clients, children of friends and family. Many of my clients (some the same age–or near–my daughter would have been today) call me their “soul mother”. Truly, I feel as if I am “soul mother” to hundreds if not thousands of children.

So, today is Mother’s Day. No one is taking me to brunch or dinner. I am no one’s “mother”… I am “step-mother” but not “Mother”. I am “soul mother” but not Mother. Sooo…there is a part of me that feels a lump in my throat as I recall my baby daughter’s little voice as she was gasping for air shortly before she took her last breath: “Mama!…Mama!”

I do long to hear those words…the words I recently said to my own mother when I visited her in the nursing home a couple of weeks ago: “I love you, Mama” I do. It breaks my heart that I am so far away from my own mother and sent flowers to her for today, instead of having the luxury of walking into her room and seeing her bright sweet eyes twinkle as she sees me and I see her.

If your mother is still with you, cherish her. Regardless.

If you are a mother, cherish your children. Regardless.

Hold each other and create magical moments now…

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Love and blessings
Sheila