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Why I Coach

Posted December 1, 2012

As you may know, I’m a student of Wayne Muller. His book, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives was a total game-changer for me. In fact, I kept my own non-traditional sabbath for several years inspired by Muller’s words. This practice still influences how I live my daily life and my work in the world. You don’t need to be religious to benefit from this profound book–I’m not.

Muller has a fantastic new book out: A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough. Doesn’t the title just make you happy?! I wanted to share this excerpt from the book with you because it so wonderfully sums up why I coach and what I love about coaching.

“So in order to live well from the inside out, to listen for the right choices and the firmly and courageously act on them we simply cannot do this alone….

Because we are not taught or supported to live in this way, rarely educated or encouraged to listen and act from our own inner wisdom, never told how to follow the firm but invisible thread of the next right thing through the world, we will always need the support of good, honest friends.

We are called to be strong companions and clear mirrors with one another, to seek those who reflect with compassion and a keen eye how we are doing, whether we seem centered or off course, grounded or flailing.

As in all sacred, life giving practices that require a deep and confident faith in ourselves, we need the nourishing company of others to create the circle needed for growth, freedom, and healing.”

- Wayne Muller, A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough

 

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This post was originally published in 2011. I republished it because it’s one of my favorites and I wanted new followers of my work to see it. Additionally, I have a few spots opening up for new coaching clients in January. I would love to fill them with women desiring a more well-fed life. If you’re interested in coaching with me in 2013, get in touch soon. 

Charles Swindoll on Attitude or The One String We Hav...

Posted July 19, 2011

emmakisstina’s 4 Eyes

While Evangelical Christianity isn’t my personal path, I find these words from, Charles Swindoll, an evangelical minister, so grounding and such an eloquent reminder of our power in life that I had to share them.

No matter our lot, no matter the goody bag we were given upon birth, we are sovereign and powerful beings in charge of the lens through with which we view life.

When I first came upon this passage I was so enamored with the words and sentiment that I hand wrote it and framed it, twice, giving one to my grandfather and one to my mother as gifts. Like the sound of a meditation bell, whenever I walk past one of these quote in their houses, I am instantly brought back to the perspective of empowered choice and gratitude.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.

:Charles Swindoll

Rick Jarrow + Creating the Work You Love

Posted May 13, 2011

To forge our lives into works of art, to master the craft of living, to work patiently with the force of life, and to become ourselves in action requires courage and genuine commitment. It is both an inner commitment–to accept who we are and what we stand for–and an outer one–to take that into the marketplace. In short, we are challenged to make our lives into statements of that which we believe in. This sounds like a tall order, and it is. To touch our authenticity we will have to walk through the fires of ordeal not once but many times. But gold is borne of this fire. Our work in this world is the way in which the base elements are transformed.

So start with an hour. Move to a day. Go for a lifetime.

: From Rick Jarrow’s Creating the Work You Love: Courage, Commitment, and Career

i heart: wayne muller + sabbath

Posted April 23, 2011

Image Credit: Eva Juliet’s “Take, a big, deep breath” from her Etsy shop

“Our willingness to rest depends on what we believe we will find there. At rest, we come face-to-face with the essence of life.”

This quote comes from Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by the wise Wayne Muller. This book was pivotal in my life. It renewed my commitment and connection to quiet, to play, to ritual, to spaciousness, to my spirit, and to myself.

And while Muller is a best-selling author, it always surprises me how few people know of this text or the many others he has written. Had you heard of him? Have you read this book? I hope my little shout-out love letter here will bring many of you who hadn’t to know his powerful work.

Here’s one of my favorite passages from Sabbath:

“What if our life is simply a time when we are blessed with both sadness and joy, health and disease, courage and fear — and all the while we work, pray, and love, knowing that the promised land we seek is already present in the very gift of life itself, the inestimable privilege of a human birth? What if this single human life is itself the jewel in the lotus, the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price? What if all the way to heaven is heaven?”

Nearly every page of my copy of Sabbath is covered in aged yellow highlighter and inked underscores of the places that moved me. If you’re life is calling out for reconnection and your world is too noisy for you to hear yourself or whatever divine source you relate to, I hope you’ll make time for quiet rest and for Muller’s writings.

More musings on keeping sabbath to come….

 

Let It Go from Danna Faulds

Posted April 13, 2011

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold:
the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go. Save your strength to swim with the tide.
The choice to fight what is here before you now will
only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts
to flee from the very energy you long for. Let go.
Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes
through your days whether you received it gently
or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith; the mind may never find the
explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward
nonetheless. Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry
you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams
or destinations. Let it all go and find the place of
rest and peace, and certain transformation.

Danna is a poet and yogi, her books include Go In and In: Poems From the Heart of Yoga (from which this poem came), One Soul: More Poems From the Heart of Yoga, and From Root to Bloom: Yoga Poems and Other Writings.

Elizabeth Gilbert + Quest Physics

Posted April 1, 2011

“…I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call The Physics of The Quest – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you. Or so I’ve come to believe.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love