JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN….DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD!

I just received a call from my ex puppy breeder wanting to know if I wanted her mommy dog who just gave birth to three pups. 

I had been thinking about getting a dog…not a puppy, the timing seemed good and so I was intrigued. I told her to keep me posted. When I had gotten Benjamin Buttons, my plan was to have enough money so that when I traveled, he could go to doggie-care. I quickly realized that I wasn't home enough even when I wasn't traveling to have another responsibility.

The day before the call, I had just said to my neighbor, "We should get a dog! We could dog share!" He declined, but said he'd visit….LOL.

Yesterday another call; did I want the mom and three pups. The condo she is now living in has an ordnance against having animals and she needs someone to take the litter. 

After talking with my daughter, whom we've had numerous puppy adventure's together, said, "Mom, some people have addictions to food, shopping, etc. We have a Shituzu puppy addiction!" 

Well, if you want to put it that way! It's true! 

I've taken this next week off of work and could have gone north to pick them up. Thank God, I've committed myself to a couple of other projects! Otherwise, I'd be on the road, I'm afraid!  Especially after I pulled up the picture to put on this post, my heart sunk again. Dang! They're just so cute! I guess for now, I'll just have to wait until I go to Kansas and see my grand nephew, Benny! 

Just Do It!

I recently participated in the High Ropes Challenge Course at Canyon Ranch. As one might imagine, 

I came away with some new awareness of lessons that I've already practiced many times in life. 

In order to move forward in life, you have to let go of perceived security.

In regards to the course, in order to move across the two levels of sixteen elements, between 25 and 50 feet high,  you have to let of of whatever rope or pole you're holding onto, in order to move forward. 

But what I did notice this time was that I was holding back. Why? And when it came to swinging off the big swing at the end, I talked myself out of it. Why? Because I thought about it too long. I was in my head, rather than in my body. Scary? For me? You bet! That first step off the platform, has always been a problem for me, even when I was a young swimmer, jumping off the platform into deep water was something I could never do alone. You have to Just Do It! Commit and Go for it! 

What made this jumping off, different than the time I did the zip line in Hawaii or the Paragliding in Peru or swinging from a roped tire into water? It's all simply about trusting you're safe, letting go of perceived security and receiving the support that God/The Universe has to offer. Next time, I'll JUST DO IT! 

Gerard Butler kissed me!

All last night I wanted to ask Charlie Brown another question. Why…when we know that we have to get up earlier the next morning, we can't sleep? 

What is that all about? Normally I work 10-7 but today I am working 8-5. Although I went to bed early, which I've been doing all week by the way, but for some reason my mind wouldn't calm down. It's not even like I was getting up at three to catch a plane in which case I could understand not wanting to oversleep.

My mind kept reliving the day before when Gerard Butler kissed me! Yep! That's right! Okay, well, he kissed my hand and I think it was out of pity but hey, it was still magical. 

He was grateful for the help of the team I work with, came to say thank you and kissed the hand of the young girl next to me. He noticed me and came over and kissed my hand too. He was very charming as one might imagine and yet real.  

My mind couldn't let it go and so I tossed and turned for the biggest part of the night. ICK! So now the day has begun and I'll move on…lol….but in the meantime because of the kindness of this man, I'll have a story to tell for the rest of my life! Gerard Butler kissed me! I guess I could loose one night's sleep for that! 

WHY CHARLIE BROWN, WHY? WHY DO WE CARE WHAT OTHERS THINK?

Why Charlie Brown, Why?

Why do we care if others like us or not? Why do we care what others think about us? Why is our self worth and self esteem related to our perceived opinion of others?

The past few months, increasingly, my clients are expressing concern over misunderstandings of others that leaves them feeling hurt, alone, lonely and misunderstood.

What makes it worse is that many times the other person shuts us out or doesn't want to talk about it. 

What can we do then? 

First: Identify why you care? Look deep and see if you can find a little clue to somewhere in your past where you've felt this way before and it didn't get resolved.

Example: A friend that you've felt close to, has for some reason, apparently shut you out without any apparent reason and doesn't want to talk to you about it. You can imagine how you might feel.

The Solution: Try using this current situation as a mirror to see where in the past you have felt this same way before and it never was resolved. For instance, if it's a female friend, I'd look at a mother or sister perhaps, where you've felt shut out in the past.

The Good News: Once you identify it, you can heal it. I've found in my work that these current life issues re-create themselves to show us where there is a past wound that is keeping our energy blocked, thus keeping us from moving forward in our life.

If you need help with this, email me and I'll help you figure it out!

WHAT IS YOUR LOVE LANGUAGE?

I've discovered that one of the most important things in life is clear-direct communication. The only thing more important than being able to communicate your ideas, wants and desires clearly is knowing what it is that you want to communicate. But let's save that for a future blog. 

For now, let's talk about love languages. I first heard about this many years ago when I read a book by the same title by author Gary Chapman. It was life changing for me. One of the real issues in relationships, is that we often speak different languages. 

For instance, if you want to say "I love you," to me, you'd do something with me, spend time with me. Of course, I love affection and kind words, but spending time with me is right there at the top of my list of what makes me feel loved. Where in contrast, what I would rate as number 5 on my list, gifts, my ex-husband would have rated as number one. So he might buy me a gift, thinking he was speaking my love language, when in fact, he was speaking his.

You can see how innocently people can get their wires crossed. Maybe it would be a great thing to do at the start of this new year to rate your love language and have everyone in your family, including your children, to do the same. Once we know what is important to another, we can begin speaking in a language that they're familiar with.