Are you feeding your left brain?

This is the newsletter that went out to my readers on the week of August 4th, 2009.

Hi there,

How are you?

Can you believe that in Georgia school starts next week? Why do I think it is too hot for kids to start school next week?

Anyway, I am just thrilled that  the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been  reunited with family and friends upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests.

This is particularly thrilling to me because, since I grew up half way across the planet, family means the world to me.

This week, I am going to tell you about Monica and the struggle she overcame with her business and her kids.

My client Monica has a podiatrist practice in Florida.  To put it kindly, when she contacted me, she was overwhelmed. She hates to do her medical charts. She loves working with her elderly clients and really pays attention to giving them a lot of personalized attention.

However, the fact that she is not running her business at a profit has come to a head.
She needs to make a decision as to what her next step is. She contacted me depressed and lethargic. I noted her energy level because I was picking up that she was not enthused about her practice.

She charted out what she felt were her two options based on feelers that she had been putting out there and wanted some coaching around how to make the right decision for herself.  She felt her only options were going into partnership with someone else or
leasing a cheaper space, letting one employee go and keeping a more streamlined practice. However, neither option seemed viable to her.

I told her she had jumped a step.

This surprised her.

I asked her what she did before she became a podiatrist and it turns out that she had worked for seven years as a nurse. She also disclosed that she had been practicing podiatry for seven years and her two kids were seven and fourteen.

I asked her what she made of all the sevens and multiples thereof showing up in her life.

She said she had never noticed it.

When I asked her to reconnect with the vision she had for her life as a podiatrist seven years earlier, her slow, lethargic tone changed to one of animation and excitement as she talked about how she loved caring for her clients and loved seeing patients improve.

When she discussed what else was exciting in her life, she started crying. She said she felt pulled into too many directions.

She felt that she was not spending enough time with her kids. She constantly felt guilty about working so many hours. As it turns out, she felt angry with her business because it took so much of her energy. She had also spent a significant amount of time in the last couple of years seeking complementary healthcare options for her menopausal symptoms and hot flashes.

After a few sessions, Monica became acutely aware that the alternative medicine research she had done excited her immensely because she was using her left brain and “sharpening her professional saw” as per Steven Covey.

As I taught her the language of her emotions, she discovered that following her “feel good” always pointed her in the right direction of what she needed.

Over the next three months, she followed the things that made her feel good and learned to listen to that. She realized that she needed a major change professionally every seven years.

She got stuck there for a while as she did not feel she could let go of  her medical training that she spent many years procuring. Once she realized that this all or nothing thinking was not serving her, she realized that she could practice medicine without the HMO’s breathing down her back.

What does her life look like six months later?

• She does not work weekends so she feels tremendously reconnected with her children.
• She works on her Wellness practice two days a week. Her background as a nurse and podiatrist gives her a tremendous amount of street creds.
• She found a gig in a Caribbean Island where she goes for five days every six weeks and makes a chunk of money treating podiatrist patients there.
• She works one day a week for a traditional podiatrist where she transferred all her clients to.

I will admit that she had a hard time letting go of her clients. But after several guided meditations and more brainstorming, she was able to come up with this final solution to keep her hands on the pulse of her existing clients.

So, count it up:

• She eliminated her overhead.
• She worked to place her two employees with other doctors.
• The opportunity in the Caribbean fell on her lap out of the clear blue sky.
• She has actually seen her kids play soccer, basketball, baseball and she takes them to swimming classes at least once a week when she is home.
• As she pursued her alternative medical practice focusing on menopausal women, she was fed that part of her soul that needed to learn something new every seven years.
• She and her husband have date night at least once a week.
• She has connected with several old friends and is more sociable and outgoing.

All this from coaching for six months?

Truthfully, no.

It was all in her all along.

She merely needed someone to remind her of who she really was.

What thrilled me is when she cancelled an appointment with me and the voicemail said, “I have to reschedule with you because today I am spending the entire day with my kids, sitting on the floor, eating organic popcorn and watching movie after movie and I do not feel like doing anything else.”

I was thrilled to reschedule that appointment!

So here are my questions for you this week:

Are you so settled in your professional skills that you have not learned anything new lately?

How can you stretch your learning, professional or otherwise, this week and feed your left brain that has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge?
Do you realize that your feelings of overwhelm are an indication that you want to slow down and pay attention to what is important in your life?

Understanding your business energy.

We all understand that as humans, we require energy. We say things like, “I have no energy.” “My energy is sky high.”

However, most of us do not realize that our businesses also have energy. You see, your business is a living thing. Your business is not just an expression of your skills and talents. It has its very own life force and so it will be wise to look at its energy component.

Let us take a closer look at energy.

Here is what I know about energy. It is not much but it is all I know.

Quantum physics says we are 100% energy. Everything is energy. The Dictionary defines energy as “the ability or capacity to do work.” It is “life force.” More energy equals more ability or capacity to do work.

Energy can never be created or destroyed. It can only be transmuted or changed from one form to another. Think of it this way: Water can change from liquid to steam to ice. The same matter but in different states.

Bearing in mind that matter is energy, energy is constantly in motion. It moves. Its movement is called vibration.

Vibration is the measurement of a particle of matter or energy as it oscillates between states periodically.

When it comes to us human beings, I teach my clients that we are concerned with three types of energy: Receptive, Active and Magnetic.

You have to go through each of these cycles periodically both personally and in your business.

Inspired action is Active Energy.  After a time of being receptive and taking in what it is that you want, you act from a place of inspiration and deliberately use your magnetic energy to guide you and move you forward with active energy.

Often times, receptive energy is considered feminine energy and active energy is considered masculine energy. I have never heard anyone say it before, but I consider magnetic energy the glue that ties the other two energies together.

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin and yang is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn.  This is also the receptive and active energies at work.  According to the philosophy, yin and yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, which constantly interact, never existing in absolute stasis. (Wikipedia).

Understanding ying and yang also helps us understand our natural energy cycles. It is natural to be receptive and natural to be active.

As humans, we require a complex set of energies to operate optimally. Each cell in our bodies are designed to do work. They have a specific function. Our energy is multi-dimensional and you have to use all four sources of energy to function optimally.

Physical: If you do not have physical energy nothing else works. Our physical capacity has four components: nutrition, fitness, sleep and recovery or renewal.

Emotional: The quality of your energy. This is about your emotions. How you feel profoundly affects your energy.

Mental: Focus of energy is mental and we do our best work when we focus on one thing.

Spiritual: The energy of the human spirit. This the energy derived from the experience of purpose and from an alignment between what you say is important in your life and how you live. The better that alignment, the more powerful the source of energy available to you. ~ Tony Schwartz

The Spiritual energy is the “why” energy and the others are “how” energy. The “how” energies are fuel for the spiritual “why” energy.

The key is to build your business around “why” energy and keep the “hows” functioning smoothly. Also, as you take Inspired Action in your business, make sure you are offsetting  it with being receptive and taking in support for your business. Coaching is a very effective way to activate your business receptive energy.

What is the energy of your business?

What is your “how” energy?

How do you experience receptivity in your business?

What is your Inner Genius?

One of my favorite things in the world is to share with others, how I see them. Yes, it sounds funny but really that is what my calling is.

You see, from the time I was a child, I had the ability to perceive beyond my five senses of what I could see, touch taste, hear or smell.

I have always had the ability to see people beyond how they see themselves. It is so easy for me to see the value in others. This is the key to my love of coaching.

I do not care who you are and where you are and whatever you do, you have all the solutions to each and every problem you have ever faced within you.

My job is to remind you about who you really are.

In these times, with all the news about the economy and everything else that we hear, it is easy to feel down and look at the external circumstances as others interpret it. Your greatest problem is not the stress you are facing. It is understanding how wonderful and valuable you are.

Within each and every one of us as a unique, incredible human being that deserves all that you can imagine.

The Solution!

If we humans could just understand how much lies within us, we would be shocked and we would never look at problems the same way. We are incredible multifaceted beings with amazing resilience within us and we just have to learn to tap into our Inner Genius to create wonderful life affirming solutions.

Fear holds us back from achieving the things we want. We stop living because fear clouds our judgment and inhibits our wisdom.  Fear is a natural protective response. When our brain processes information that threatens our survival or our family, the fight or flight response is activated.  That system is still active in our lives although we do not live in the wilderness among tigers and lions.

Modern day stresses of financial issues, health issues, relationship issues, and work stress all trigger that flight or fight response. When our brain and entire body is flooded with the chemicals triggered during the flight or fight response, we are reactionary and not proactive. We are unable to call upon all of our wonderful resources within to create the life that we want.

This is the key point for you to understand. You have been unable to create what you want because your brain is flooded with the chemicals that are telling your entire body to fight back or to run. You are in survival mode. When last did you not feel that you should do something or that something just needs to happen? That is survival mode and you cannot create beauty, luxury and calm from a place of stress.

Please understand: Fear can be wonderful. It helps you when you are in danger. However, when you are not in danger, fear is not your friend.  Listening to the news and talking about how awful things are will trigger the flight or fear response in your body.

We know to turn off the TV and not read the news papers. We know to focus on what we want, not what we do not want. We know to use the law of attraction to our benefit. We know to make lifestyle changes that we know will help us.

However, we find it impossible to make these changes. Why? Because everything in your body is saying it is time to run or time to fight. Turn your body chemicals into your friend. Tap into your Inner Genus and create authentic change in your life. Easily and gracefully move from fear based reactions to proactively creating a lifestyle that nourishes your total person.

Your incredible Inner Genius has all the wisdom you will ever need for your life. The key to activating your Inner Genius is awareness.  As you dwell and live in the awareness of this space within you, you will thrive and prosper in every area of your life.

As you live from your Inner Genius, your energy becomes very clear and clean. Your vibration becomes naturally higher and you discover incredible capacity to manifest what you want. Living from your Inner Genius shifts your focus to what you want, not what you do not want and you thereby cause the Law of Attraction in your favor.

Your Inner Genius is the Intersection of five key components of you:

1.    Your left brain:  All the knowledge and reasoning you have accumulated experientially and academically. This includes your organizational and analytical skills.

2.    Your right brain:  Your creative, imaginative and holistic side.

One side of the brain is not more valuable than the other side of the brain although you probably have a tendency towards one side of your brain. It is important to note that the goal here is to have whole brain synergy. When you have both parts of your brain working in cooperation and concert you produce wonderful results.

If you are a left brained analytical person, make sure you take time on a regular basis to be creative and to appreciate music. If you are a right brained person, you may want to read more and listen to audio recordings more often. Activate your analytical side.

We all tend to be a little too rigid. The left brainers think the right brainers are airey fairey and are not smart and the right brainers can be rather condescending to detailed analysis and sequential thinking. However, both parts are in all of us and we honor our Inner Genius when we support both sides of our brain and when we are more aware of which side we are leaning towards.

3.    Your emotional heart: This is the center of your feelings. Your emotions are a guidance system. They are not who you are.  We tend to identify the sum total of who we are by our emotional expression. We say, “He is an angry man.” However, anger is an indicative emotion. Our negative emotions are there to let us know that whatever we have experienced is not positive and does not help us. However, many of us hold on to negative emotions and identify ourselves with those emotions. Our positive emotions are to us as sunlight is to plants and flowers. Our positive state is our natural setting. We are meant to be happy and to feel good. When we feel good, our bodies are healthier and others are happier around us.

Listening to your emotions and factoring how you feel and how you want to feel in designing the life that you want is a powerful tool.

4.    Your Somatic body:  This is your physical being and chakra system.  Your body is also intuitive. It speaks to you. You feel a lot of feelings in your body but you may not be aware of it. The Chakra system is an Ancient Sanskrit tradition that addresses the flow of energy in the body. Each of the seven chakras speak to where emotions can lodge in your body energetically. As you understand the seven chakras, you will understand the wonderful hidden messages that your body is communicating to you.

Your Chakras are corresponds to critical components of our lives that we may often overlook.

This is not an in depth study of the Chakras. However, regardless of your spiritual background, it is important to study the body and how it holds energy. Prolonged stress, fear and negative thinking have a negative impact on the corresponding Chakra. Allowing negative emotions to flow through the body and discharge is important to your emotional  health

5.    Your God connection:  This is your spiritual and non-physical consciousness. This is sacred. Regardless of your religious background, we can agree to this mysterious connection that we all have with Source, Universe, The Divine, God, Divine Intelligence and whatever name you may choose. Inviting the sacred into your daily life and tapping into that Universal Intelligence has to be a part of your daily life to design the life that you want.

In Conclusion

Now that you are aware of these various components of you, be aware that together, they want to communicate with you and help you create a life that is filled with goodness and wonderful things. As you gain awareness of all these parts of you, and deliberately engage them, you are living and creating from your Inner Genius.

As you meld your right brain and your left brain and seek whole brain strategies, check in often with your emotions, listen to your body speaking to you and factor in the Source component of your life, you will have amazing courage and abilities.

Remember, we have just described you: This amazing wonderful synergy of all those five parts. Keep your Inner Genius in mind when you want to create powerfully and raise your vibration. Pay constant attention to your Inner Genius. Do not leave any part out.

I ask that you contact me for a complimentary coaching session to further understand your Inner Genius and how to create an absolutely amazing life living from this place.

Here is to your greatness!