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

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

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

In the upcoming book, “Wake Up Women! BE Happy, Healthy & Wealthy”, the chapter I have contributed to this wonderful collection of wisdom and golden nuggets from coaches is entitled “Let it Be!”  I recently watched a YouTube video of Tony Melendez entitled “Let it Be!”  You owe it to yourself to watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF9wo9sVn2c

You want to be inspired?  You want to “get” what Life Coaches like Sheila Pearl are all about?

Watch this video and then tell me: what about your life doesn’t work?  what about your life are you complaining about, that you can’t imagine doing something about to make it work?

How does your faith in God, your faith in yourself, your faith in your possibilities lift you up each and every day?

Watch this video, and then talk to me–let me know how it grabs you!

With love,

Sheila

Keynote and Motivational Speaker, Sheila Pearl, has just begun the journey!  Life Coach Sheila is about to jump way outside of the box and is launching her new career as Keynote and Motivational Speaker.

The WAKE UP WOMEN book is almost here!  Life Coach Sheila Pearl is an excited co-author in this unprecidented collection of guidance on living a happy, healthy and wealthy life.  This book “WAKE UP WOMEN BE HAPPY HEALTHY & WEALTHY” is co-authored by over 50 coaches, doctors, entrepreneurs, and spiritual teachers from all over the world; in this one collection is a virtual treasure chest of “golden nuggets” of wisdom, tips on living effectively and joyfully, creating abundance, living in the NOW…from over 50 different perspectives, shared in stories that are personal and life-affirming.  This is a WOW! for our times, folks!  Really!

Go to www.wuwbestseller.com to get your free gifts, to explore your own options for being a co-author in the next “WAKE UP WOMEN” book, and to order your books, if you don’t get them directly from me or other co-authors in your midst.

Every day, I am forming new alliances with wise, intuitive, and powerful women.  Among the most amazing women who are part of my life are Laura Moritz, co-founder and President of the National Women’s In Network (NWIN) and Carol Ann Malizia, Chiropractor and Holistic Practitioner, as well as being one of the most amazing public speakers I have yet heard!  I am truly privileged to have these two amazing women as friends and partners in the various endeavors in which we are collectively and individually dedicated.  With Laura, I have co-authored “The Winning Connection”, soon to be released.  With Carol Ann, we are dedicated to transforming women’s health and wellbeing, and are working on ways to use our skills and talents in a team-effort to motivate and inspire women in the Hudson Valley and beyond. 

Upcoming Events in which I will be either signing books and/or speaking on the topic “LOOKING FOR THE GIFT”–the major thrust of my story in the WAKE UP WOMEN book, are being created as I write this entry.  So keep coming back to this site to check on the latest schedule:

Wednesday November 13 - 6:30pm    CHIROPRACTICE HEALTH CENTER, Newburgh

           go to www.chcnewburgh.com for directions and further information

Wednesday, November 19 - 6-9pm      National Women’s In Network, Central Valley

          go to www.nationalwomensinnetwork.com for details and directions to restaurant

During the next few months, I will be travelling to Florida, California, Minnesota, Oregon, and beyond–the itinerary is expanding every day.  So keep looking here for details, so we can see one another!

Blessings and Love

Sheila

One of the most important jobs of a Life Coach is to pay attention to the thoughts our clients are thinking.  Many people walk through life thinking that they ARE their thoughts, and that they cannot do anything about their thoughts…that they just happen and we can’t do anything about them.

Well!  I’m here to say NONSENSE!  You are NOT your thoughts.  And furthermore, YOU have a CHOICE in what you think–all the time! 

Yes…it’s true: we think thousands of thoughts a day, most of them are automatic and probably duplicates of the thoughts running throughout our heads every other day.  Until…

Until we notice them.

Notice your thoughts.  Now: which thoughts do you WANT to have?  Which thoughts empower you?  Which thoughts dishonor you?  Which thoughs bring you down or lift you up? 

You can choose.

During the months of July and now looking forward to August, I am leading two separate workshop topics: “You can be HAPPY No Matter What!” and “Simple Steps to Transform your FEAR to POWER”.  These workshops are based on my own life experiences, to be sure.  However, I’m never alone in providing the richest of resources to my students and clients.  For these two workshops, I have included the work and teaching of Neale Donald Walsch (on whose coaching staff I serve at the Conversations with God foundation), Marci Shimoff (also on The Secret along with Neale and numerous other spiritual teachers) and well-known psychologist Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.

Both Marci and Neale offer wisdom in creating happiness from the inside.  Susan Jeffers guides us through the map of fear, reminding us that just like happiness, fear resides in our inner conversations with ourselves.

In Susan Jeffer’s classic FEEL THE FEAR and Do It Anyway! she reminds us that our self-talk determines the quality of our lives.  So often, in the face of any number of circumstances in our lives, we might say to ourselves or to one another, “Isn’t it terrible…” and you can fill in the blank.  Susan Jeffer suggests that instead of saying “Isn’t it terrible!” that our self-talk could be the empowering mantra “Isn’t it a great opportunity…!”

A few months ago, I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.  The doctor said “stay home” and I was grounded.  For a woman with my schedule, energy and enthusiasm for everything I do in life, it was like punishing a teenager who was just given a new driver’s license and car.  What?!?!  I have to stay home?!?  Ugh!  How terrible!

Now I ask you, was it really terrible?  Or was that just a thought?

I was forced by circumstances to rest, to sleep, to think, to read, to write, and…to pay attention to my emails.  I receive hundreds of emails a day.  Most of them, I delete, having no time to read them.  Now…I could slow down and pay attention.

Sooo…what might be seen as “terrible” at one moment, I quickly saw as a “wonderful opportunity” in the next.  I began to talk to myself differently.  Wow!  I GET to rest, slow down, read my emails, and even watch the Oprah Web Event with Eckhard Tolle.  What a gift!

One of my emails was from Bill Harris (also on The Secret), telling me about this exciting opportunity to be a co-author in a best-selling series called Wake Up! Life the Life You Love.  Just the title of the series alone got my attention (why?…I had been using the tagline I’m not here to change you…just to wake you up! for ten years).  I was also in the midst of Landmark Education, which also has the conversation about living the life you love, so that language captured my attention.

As I read the email from Bill Harris and clicked on the link to the WakeUpLive website, I was thinking “this is probably pie in the sky” but proceeded anyway.  Then, I noticed that Steven E, the creator of the series, gave his phone number.  As I was dialing the phone number, I was thinking “he probably won’t be there, and he probably won’t call me back”.  But I called and left a message, saying that I was home and could receive his call that night.  Within ten minutes, Steven E called me back!  Yep. He called me back!

That’ll teach me!  My thoughts were running wild.  But they were just silly thoughts.  They weren’t true.  Steven E called me, reassured me that this was a great opportunity for me to be a published co-author in a book that was totally in alignment with my mission, my purpose and my work.

What emerged from that conversation with Steven E was his putting me in touch with the WAKE UP WOMEN team; I spoke with Ardice, then Heidi then Karen.  We had an alliance!  It was real.  Little did I know how blessed I would be to have had pneumonia which gave me the opportunity to explore this exciting adventure in being a co-author in the new WAKE UP WOMEN book.  Wow!

This little story of turning something you or I might call “terrible” ino something I could CHOOSE to see as an “opportunity” is a small example of the ways we could all choose to see those things that happen in our lives; either we could continue to call the “terrible” or look through another lens, seeing whatever it is as an opportunity and blessing.

In addition to the WAKE UP WOMEN book in which I am a co-author, I have authored three other books which will soon be released; in each of these books, I share numerous stories from my life,  such as the story I share in the WAKE UP WOMEN book, entitled “Let it Be!”. 

Think about it you have your own list.  How many so-called “terrible” things in your own life are really potential opportunities and blessings for you to experience?  How do we know which experiences in our lives are the greatest blessings, in which we discover a part of ourselves or someone else that we never would have known was there?

So let me ask you this: how are you talking to yourself?  Just notice your thoughts: and then…remind yourself that you always have a choice about what you say.  Somehow, just telling myself that all he challenges in my life are opportunities and blessings, rather than being terrible, gives me back my power. And I can say “YES” to life. No matter what.

Laura Moritz and I have co-authored a book, “The Winning Connection”, which will soon be released.  We are sooooo excited to announce that Bob Proctor (a teacher in “The Secret” and bestselling author of “You Were Born Rich”) has written a magnificent Foreword for our book!  This is a tremendous gift from Bob, and Laura and I are filled with tremendous gratitude and excitement.

“The Winning Connection” is a guidebook for effective Networking, using the principles of the “Law of Attraction”, as taught by such teachers as Bob Proctor.  We have created the “Four Agreements” of Networking–we call it “Connecting”.