Saturday, June 30

Self Care 101

At the beginning of my journey into self-discovery, or Becoming Real, as I refer to it in each of my two books, GPS for Living and Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, Just Not NOW!, I got the brainy idea to tithe myself the amount of years that I have been on this earth to begin healing from the inside out. I gave myself permission to take off 5 years (as I was 50) from having to get a real job!. (That was 12 years ago!) Now, once again, as I find myself off balance with my projects and consciously trying to become skilled at finding balance in my life, I decided, once again, to tithe myself 2.4 hrs each day, for self-care. Time for ME. (Well, actually I rounded UP to 2.5 hrs :) Two and a half hours a day just for me, what in the heck will I do for 2 and a half hours for myself! Let's see, shower, hair and make-up, that's a total of 5 minutes....now what else? Read, meditate, exercise, play my native american flute....hmmmmm. For pete's sake Pati, you're at the beach....can't you find something to do for you?
As I walked along the beach, this scene in the sand caught my attention. I noticed that there were 5 different prints, all who shared this same space on this earth in a relatively short period of time. Had I not stopped, taken a walk and was conscious in my efforts, I would not have seen what I considered to be an incredible sight.
Now, I can think of a lot of things to do for myself, will I take the time? Can I do it....I'll try... and then I'm sure, I'll have to start over A....G...A...I...N...but eventually, the trying will become habit. That's the theory anyway!

Thursday, June 28

Road Trip - Self Care 101 - An Intensive

Heading out on this road trip to Huntington Beach, CA, I named it: Self-Care 101 - An Intensive. I've attended many intensives over the past 10 years and this seemed perfect. What do I talk about? Exactly what I need in my life! Self-Care. Looking back at the blog I posted around my birthday, over 5 months ago, I have to laugh. I'm STILL working on finding balance in my life. I get obsessed with my eating as well as with my projects. It continues to be all or nothing with me. Eating: I can do The Master Cleanse with no problem, why...because you can only have lemons, cayenne pepper and maple syrup! It's easy...it's nothing! Now I'm trying to do a more gentler cleanse where there are choices to be made....I'm having a lot of trouble. Since I've been here, I've restarted...3 times! So much is about my mind set. In my previous life, when I hardly ever traveled, Road Trip meant FUN! Eat whatever you want! One day I realized that I was on the road more than I was at home, I had to be able to learn how to take care of myself in a new way. Whenever I come back to a familiar place, I always remember the fun places to eat! I have to go there again! This trip the challenge I gave myself, do not go to any familiar places. Do not eat anything from fond memories. Now the question for today is, take a walk with the dog at the beach, go to Bikram Yoga (that's another story) or work on my GPS for Living Playbook. (A companion for the GPS for Living Book) All I can say is that I'm consciously aware and I'm working on balance! Have a FUNtabulous Day!

Wednesday, June 27

Change is the only Constant

What happened to Pati? As I look back and as has been brought to my attention on several occasions, my last entry was on my birthday! Hmmmmm... To anyone who happens to read these blogs....thank you....and I'm sorry.... As I opened up to write this afternoon, I remembered that I actually had started to write earlier and everything on this blogging site was different! It had changed! What the hell? Dang it! It's what I talk about, but don't let it happen to me, especially in the electronic world. Just as I had gotten used to the other site it no longer familiar. While I know, it has been changed for the better, it is still difficult for me to navigate around.
I just spoke with 2 different clients about this very topic during the past week. What others had done to them. My response was something like this, "Try not to think of it as What they did to you, but what they did for you!" (They gave you an amazing opportunity for growth!) I had been stuck in what they did to me with the change of this blogging site. (Actually, what it did for me is make me not want to write. The amazing opportunity, I needed time off to focus on other projects.) Now, I also see that what they did for me....they got me out of my comfort zone and now in having to learn to navigate a new program, I'm making new discoveries...Just as in life. So, welcome back. I will be blogging about my Self-Care Intensive while staying here in Huntington Beach for a couple of weeks. I've been here since Friday and hadn't written about it because I slip back more than moving forward, but then I realized, that is what Becoming Real is all about....