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Monday, June 27, 2016

3 Steps to Trigger Mindfulness

Last week I was being interviewed on Katie Flores Get Happy Project and we were talking on the subject of mindfulness. An interesting point came up which I wanted to officially clear up here.
It’s not always easy... and once you get it.. you won’t always do it... and that’s alright.
As many of you know, I offer a free guide on my site, and here on this blog, called How to Push the Reset Button... it’s basically 4 (ok... spoilers... 5!) easy steps to find your connection in chaos.
It’s a simple process on paper. But not necessarily in practice. From a space of calm, logging off, letting go, listening, and loving.. it all sounds logical and natural.
However, throw yourself in the middle of a 2 year old tantrum when you are running late already.
It’s a bit like telling someone swimming is a breeze in the middle of a storm.
Our natural state is to be balanced, grounded and spiritually aware. But tempers rise when we are feeling unlike ourselves... when we are in an un-natural feeling space... so although the process of pushing the reset button is there to provide steps to get you back to yourself... You have to find the reminder to use them in the first place.
Imagine a gap between you as your greater version of you; The bigger than this body you.
And the physical experience as You.
The physical experience has the temper, the reactions, the “I’m going to panic” “I’m overwhelmed” “Can’t stop from flipping” experiences (as well as the good stuff... don’t forget the good stuff)
In a positive experience, positive emotion, the gap between the dual versions of you is really small, you experience the joy together.... as positive spirit, the greater version of you is happy to be by your side.
But then a stressful experience occurs... or your thoughts start chattering with a negative focus.
Spirit says... sorry... no can do. I can’t go there with you.
And the gap widens.
The trick is to remember the gap. (Mind the Gap... gives trips on the London Tube a very different meaning!)
For when you find yourself surrounded in chaos, and you remember the gap, that’s when you can find your way back to the fuller YOU, you push the reset button, you find new focus, you go to your inner room and you laugh. Does that make sense?
But how to remember the gap????
Here’s my top 3 big Flashing Red Lights you can put in place.
1)      A physical representation of yourself... something that every time you see or hear, or touch you feel connected to your fullest version of yourself. A piece of jewelry, a crystal in your pocket, a token from your children or from a spiritual journey... anything that upon sight you remember yourself and within that... remember the gap. I once knew someone who actually made a picture of what made her feel awesome and put it as the lock screen on her phone... Depending how much you use your cell... that’s awesome!

2)      The sky. Looking upward immediately reminds us to connect to something so much larger than our own experience... and in that larger universe we find the larger version of ourselves. Mountains, fields, trees can do the same. I have my moon. She has been kind and kept me connected even through my son’s birth.


3)      A mantra, or affirmational phrase... or tune. Om... humming... or something like “I am more than this experience” or “within me lies my own happiness and light.” When repeated often, or trained to be a regular focus, this can become a habitual state of being... so habitual, that when we disconnect, and get stressed, we can feel the shift more strongly, and then consciously guide ourselves back.

It may be a logical statement to ask how these reminders can remind us to connect, if we have to remember to do the reminders! But the thing is that these simple steps can easily be worked into life, even when you  are feeling wonderfully, exhilaratingly like yourself. When you find the little tokens of motions that symbolize you as everything you are, it feels amazing to practice them, sing them, play with them, focus on them. It raises life up to the point that when you aren’t in the space of doing them, you feel disconnection so intensely and that’s that little reset button push.
Awareness to how you feel is truly where it’s all at.. and the feeling of being mindful to Who You Really Are... ohhh... it’s a blissful state of infinite possibilities.

If you haven’t gotten your free copy of the guide, you can find it over here.

Authentic Parenting Power

So, three years ago, I was in touch with the amazing Sandi Schwartz and I said I would love to read her book, so I could review it and place it as a resource here on this blog.
Three years... one resounding forehead slap. In the meantime, I have carried this book with me, I’ve recommended this book to many and quite honestly, each time I look at it, I remind myself to stop having life so busy if it means I can’t review books that are so incredible that they should be in every parent’s library.
Well, fast forward three years and sigh ... it’s about time.
In her book Authentic Parenting Power, co-authored by her daughter Melissa, Sandi offers a guide and toolbox for parents to reclaim Who They are and understand their children with a deeper comprehension of their motivation and personality types, ridding ourselves of judgement of them or ourselves for how they function and react to the world around them.
Sandi Schwartz boasts an incredible resume in education and parenting, therefore this book is brimming with everything from inspiring nuggets, case studies, practical advice, and pointers that can really shift the reader’s perspective to an Ah-Ha moment perspective.
We live in a time when parents are struggling to find the parenting model that “works” for them... begging for some rule book to live by. Well, Sandi finds the perfect balance in reminding us that it’s our own inner journey that dictates our own goals and tools... our own true authentic parenting power... but also offers a roadmap to embark on the quest... of finding ourselves as parents and as people as well as finding our children at their loving core.
Love is the compass used and with artful skill and beautiful compassion, Sandi and Melissa have done a beautiful job to open a gateway to the new conscious parenting paradigm.

This book is a definite recommendation to anyone who wants a more loving, understanding and fulfilling parenting experience with their family.

Authentic Parenting Power is available from Amazon and through http://leadingedgeparenting.com/

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Mindfulness and Running on Empty

You want to know something really funny.
As someone who will be talking about mindfulness in parenting in the upcoming Get Happy Project (Which you should definitely sign up for!) ... as someone who coaches parents about mindful parenting and someone who writes, eats, sleeps, and parents... with mindfulness as a foundational philosophy....
I’ve rarely written about it on this blog. Sigh.
Life can be funny sometimes.
So, let’s talk about it here and now. What is mindfulness or does it go deeper than that?
There are so many ways I feel can describe a mindful living... or an aware living.
Living in awareness to Who We Really Are, allows us to bump our mindful practices up in the list of priorities. Being aware of who we are, is like knowing that there is this phenomenal room, a place of quiet, peace and a sense of everything we are, that when we enter it we know we will be refueled and refreshed.
It could also be described as the inner gas station.
If you are aware that there’s as gas station down the street, and you start to run out of petrol... you won’t hesitate in fueling up.
Self awareness, mindfulness is the process of filling up your tank or of retreating to your inner room so you can continue through your day as your truest self. It helps create patience, clarity, relief and joy.
But it also creates the space where you can feel the stress, acknowledge the tension and sense of overwhelment, and shift it around. Spiritual awareness and mindfulness don’t automatically create a happier existence rather it puts you back in the driver’s seat capable of putting focus on feeling better and finding calm, happiness and perspective.
So, what are some techniques for mindfulness? Well, first of all, finding the sense of awareness.
Awareness begins by simply observing yourself and learning who you are. What triggers your stress, what jumps you into appreciation, who are you when your eyes are closed and life quiets for a moment...
Meditation is about setting the stage for that observation.
Life is hectic, and fast and throw children and chores on top of it all and our heads can go, we spin out of control as we attempt to listen to everyone, play, organize, drive, and keep things flowing. We feel energies deplete and focus scatter... if we are aware enough to know how it feels.
Three simple steps to get started are;
Close your eyes.
 Breathe Deeply. 
Let the energy fall from your tense head, down through your body to your feet.
Repeat.
You become yourself... fully you. Mindful of you. Drawing yourself into the moment and becoming present.
And now, you can continue through the day. Simply by stopping like this, you are telling your true self “I know you are there. What would you do?” You are acknowledging your own mindfulness.
Mindful practice ranges in so many ways; from this sort of observation, to watching a sunset... or a sunrise, to a sitting meditation for a few moments, to a walking meditation, to dancing or singing, or shifting focus to a garden, music, or coloring... anything that achieves a space where you can be yourself and retreat to the inner room within your spiritual self. It is the key to your inner room, and from there, life flows more, solutions click into place and we perceive our children’s own inner workings with so much more clarity.
There is a golden moment when we drop into a space of ourselves. When we connect to our deeper source, our sense of divine and understand it to be a truer sense of ourselves and when that truer sense is driving the car of our family, we know we are all in safer hands and will go further...
Than if we hadn’t stopped to fuel up.
It’s not about having time or not. It’s not about bothering. Rather it’s about forming a habit like eating healthier to give your body energy, you are doing a spirit check to give your soul energy.
This is the foundational belief of mindful parenting... and Spiritual Aware Parenting.
And yes, sometimes we forget to fuel up. Sometimes we get stressed and run out of gas somewhere between overwhelmed and flipping out.
But if we’ve practiced the awareness of how we like to feel and how it feels to be Who We Really Are... we remember...

And we call ourselves back to ourselves, one breath at a time.

By the way... The Get Happy Project is going to be an incredible online summit, with guests specializing in a range of self care techniques and trainings. Definitely sign up and I'll see you there! :) 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Taking Care of Your Story

 Everyone... yes, everyone... will occasionally find life challenging and yes, that includes our children who have a hard time, through new experiences, growing pains, learning curves, lost toys, scrapped knees or  friends.
Sometimes, we can find ourselves overwhelmed, juggling too many balls in the air to count and wondering how to keep things afloat.
And sometimes, we all feel a good vent is a great and healthy thing.
Of course.
And it is. It really is. It’s good to put all the ducks in a row and really get through the cloud of what’s bothering us and state it loud and clear.
Name it well.
But the next step is often forgotten, because once the issue that’s troubling us is out in the open, two things happen.
First, it can easily become our story for ourselves. We’ve told it once, and now it keeps happening, and we see evidence that backs it up all over the place. We’ve complained that no one ever picks up after themselves... next morning, there are toys all over the living room... In becoming part of our story it is part of the fabric of our lives... the law of attraction takes hold, bringing in more of the feeling we carry, the focus we hold. unless we choose not to let it.
Second of all, it becomes our story for other people.
How often have we vented everything out to a friend or family member and then next week, when we’ve adjusted and felt better, they notice something in our experience...
“Oh yeah, they are messy, aren’t they? Just look at the mess.”
A lovely story reminder... our perspective has shifted and suddenly we see the mess again.
Or, when life is especially full of balls to juggle, subtle comments like..
“I don’t know how you do it?” can make us question ourselves.
“hmmm. I don’t know how I do it either.”
Comments which may come from a place of support actually ring out as something much different. The focus becomes about how well we deal in struggle... but the struggle is what is the basic theme.
It also happens with our children. When they feel unpopular at school, or feel like they can’t do well at something. When they lose things or go through a hard time. We can see their upset as their story and alter things to “support” them, only to hold them in a place of that painful moment. We want to validate how they feel, but in the meantime, can hold them in the space of that feeling, rather than helping them shift to something new.
There was an Abraham Hicks Quote about this on their facebook page today it read;
“The greatest gift you could give to anyone you love, is the gift of positive expectation.”
Imagine, if every complaint or vent, was a stop sign, a reset button. A sign that said;
This is how it’s been and because of that, I know another story.”
And the new story was what was supported and nurtured.
What if we had the capacity of holding space for others to the point of seeing what they have created from what they have experienced?
What if every messy house conversation bounced off to a place of appreciating and supporting each attempt at keeping clean? What if every one of our children’s disappointments bounced off to a place of looking for opportunities of wellbeing flowing in?
And what if each problem created a support system for the seeking of a solution.
We don’t want to push positive to the point of denial... pushing a happy face on our children to the point of burying their pain. That’s not going to create any happy journeys. Rather, the razor edge path is about gradually shifting from a place of upset, banging the drum of disappointment, and when it feels like it’s just hit that point of enough... shift to solution based, trust in wellbeing, gradually moving towards feeling good vibration. I call my process the At Least Game.
It’s not that difficult and I want to quickly offer a focus point to do it with your children. You might have heard me mention it before, but it’s a good reminder.
Simply start 5 sentences with the words At Least.
Try it. You can’t help but feel a shift in feeling space. The tension feels less tense. The juggling seems less overwhelming. Even the mess seems less messy (at least my room is clean. At least no one did any baking. At least I have a vaccum, at least I can play awesome music through the house. At least I have a family to make that mess.)
And, what a way to hold space for other people too; for friends, neighbors, anyone who is upset... for our children.

Take care of your story, which is created by the story you tell yourself. Every story has struggle, but only for character development. The stories are only happy when focused on the solution.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Life Flows On

If you look back over your life, do you find that different times and memories stand out and bring up a certain feeling space? I know I do. The other day, I was eating a Sara Lee chocolate pound cake and mentioned how I was eating one 25 years ago when a small earthquake hit our home in Quebec.

Why do you remember that, Christina? I was asked.

Because, I’m sent back to the time, the space, the energy in the room and, like watching a movie, I observe each detail. I can call it back through the essence.

Does it ever strike you that we are continually adding stories to the vibration soup pot of our lives, each one a different vibration, a different feeling space, a different period of our lives.
And then, you imagine the endless stream of stories, the merging from one story to the next. Often we resist letting go of one story, forgetting that it’s not an end, but a beginning of another.
It can take a lot of courage to step over the threshold of a new period of time, but then again, usually we don’t notice until its passed, even if we’ve worried about it while it was approaching in the distance.

For a parent this occurs continually. Our children grow and we watch as they pass through “stages.” We tick the stages off as a to-do list, not realizing that we miss each era when it’s done. But we’re aware of a new era coming... we count the days, notch off the dates on an imaginary calendar... baby (check) toddler (check) child.... teen...
But, we can forget to turn inward on this journey of time. When it comes to our personal journey, we turn stagnant, forgetting we too are moving forward.
We hold on, holding back change as life flows on. We play out the same patterns, repeat the same beliefs, tell ourselves the same stories about our spouses, children and parents to keep up the same experience. We resist things which get in the way of that which we practiced. But still, as life progresses, it still feels like different experiences when we look back. We still grow and expand.
We might as well flow with it. What worked when our children were younger will need tweaking as they get older, and routines change continually. It is only by being authentic in our moment, being present in the Now that we can sense the subtle changes needed. We can spend so much time propelling ourselves into the future, wondering how we’ll make it work later, but because we’re dealing from the vibrational point of now... not then.... we only see it from this perspective.
The energy and feeling space will have changed by then. You can’t imagine how it will feel later, but you are creating the new now.
Woah! Wait. Was that a big statement?
We don’t know what the future will feel like, we aren’t there now. Our children aren’t teens, we aren’t grandparents, maybe your child isn’t even walking yet, but no matter how you fret and worry you will not know how things will feel later. You can imagine, you can pretend... but you only really know how things feel now.
Only in this moment.
And this one is only unfolding by your own perspective. You will look back at this moment and re-feel what your space feels like now, all over again.
And from this moment’s feeling, the new moment will be born. A natural product of what is now.
Our child’s growth is natural. How we view it is the journey. How we embrace each moment is what we remember.
We are continually making memories, continually painting the fabric of our lives and one thing stands as the anchor point. Our personal sense of Who We Really Are.
Look backward for a moment and feel yourself there. Are You present or are their times you felt like a shadow of yourself? I think we all have had times when we’ve filled a role rather than shown up as all ourselves and perhaps there’s no greater time than parenthood. Being a parent can sometimes feel like a role to play, but really, when we look back, it’s the times we showed up as ourselves that we remember.
And the moments that create the better feeling moments later are when we showed up in the best of intentions. It’s when we were brave in a crisis, or laughed in the rain. It’s when we forgave and allowed, rather than resented and stormed out. The moments that create the best future are the ones when we are the best versions of ourselves.
Today is a created memory. You might look back at this time in years to come and get a whisp of its essence, like a cool breeze. You will smell something or hear something that may trigger today as a memory. What feeling space will you call up? What will be the overall vibration and will you look back in fondness?

Create a happy tomorrow by creating joy today.


Worrying about the future is done with the head, living present is done with the heart.