Dare to Experience the Pause

Your worth is inherent
not in what you do,
but in who you already are.

Time away from home is so enlightening. But on my most recent trip, the lesson came when I returned to my inner and outer place of refuge - my home.

This return to home was a powerful reminder of how delicious it can be to stop and pause long enough to appreciate those things we already have in our experience that bring us the most joy. When you do this, you are then allowing yourself the power of the savor. 'The savor' is what I call the experience that I had for the next seven days as I went about savoring the space in which I reside - the beauty, the quiet, the cleanliness, the order, the bright sunshine, the good (strong!) coffee, the perfect bed, my dog, the wildlife - all the things that, for me, make my home the most perfect place for me to live in and create from.

What in your life do you savor?

What does it take for you to pause?

What are your requirements for peace, dear one?

This is the million dollar question, because when you can answer it from a place of inner-knowing, you will feel as if you have a million dollars.


How do we pause in such a crazy world?


Let's make this easy. You are able to return back to your center just by taking a conscious breath. The breath is one of the most powerful forces we all can access which allows us to achieve all we came here to do.

As Esther Hicks writes in Getting into the Vortex - A User's Guide, "Many assume that the process of breathing is only about your physical nature, but that is not the case. The process of breathing is much more than an essential function of your physical body. Indeed, it is the flowing of Spirit to you, and through you. That is the reason that when the focusing of Spirit through your physical body ceases, your breathing ceases also."

When I read this it instantly made sense to me why I always have my clients start with a deep breath when they are spinning about an issue or a problem. You simply do not have access to your inner knowledge when you are disconnected from your own source of true power. Breathing consciously accomplishes this in short order.

The pause can be a breath, it can be a week of laying low, or it can be an entire winter season when your natural impulses encourage you to hibernate. Whichever pause you choose, if chosen in a conscious manner, each provides the same benefits to you. You will come out the other side of the pause refreshed, regenerated and back in touch with your own natural resourcefulness.

Be true to your own self, for that
is where your true strength resides.

As your worldly responsibilities stack up against your innate desire to pause or rest this season, remember the above truth and allow who you are to rest in this most sacred pause. It is from the pause that you will restore your natural strengths and be able to then create the success that is inherently yours with ease and grace.

Be Careful What You Ask For!

I've been asking for clarity lately and I know better. We've all heard the advice to "be careful for what you ask for because you just may get it." Well, my solid belief is that we ALWAYS get what we ask for - every single time. And my latest request was no exception.

The gift of personal clarity came as a result of being evacuated from our close-in mountain home last week because of our proximity to the Fourmile fire. I don't think I'd necessarily pick that delivery system the next time I'm seeking clarity about my life, but it sure was effective!

Of course it certainly was clarifying to grab only those things that we considered on the first pass through, knowing that everything that we didn't bring might not be there when we went back. But that was just the start.

The lessons were unending! I experienced the crystal clear joy of having my small family together and safe versus our things (which up until this experience, part of me still believed we really needed to have these things to be "OK'). I learned about friendship, when, without hesitation, our amazing friends stepped up to share their home with us as well as the many others that offered. I saw an aspect of community I've never experienced, when in a time of need, the love and comfort that can be expressed and found in a like-minded community is absolutely inspiring! I also have a new found respect for the people who deal with public emergencies all over the globe, all of the time. The dedication and tenacity of the firefighters, the sheriff's department, the community government and even big business insurance companies restored my faith and confidence in the value of such experience. I fully expect to continue to unpack the value such an experience brings.

As I wrote in one Facebook post closer to the end of our evacuation, "Much of this process has been experiencing what a "state of grace" feels like. The majority of this experience I have felt 'held' in some very special way. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is a visceral truth for me that connections extend way past any geographical boundaries. It makes me wonder now, since this is the case, just what is possible now?"

Indeed, I continue to ask this of not only of my clients, but also of myself. As I approach my 40th birthday, and reflect on the many stages I've gone through, it occurred to me that we don't just live one life. If we're lucky, we get to live many lives - all within our one, BIG juicy life!

What might you be asking for these days, if you knew you would receive it?

In Search of the Master Key

“You have two ways to life your life – from memory or from inspiration.” – Dr. Hew Len

As you read the following areas of focus, ask yourself if you relate to each from memory or from inspiration?

Your Finances

Your Body

Your Career

As an adult, chances are you have spent some time playing out a recurring issue or thought regarding your finances, your body and/or your career in the last 24 hours. How much of your mental and emotional energy goes to solving a problem based in memory (translation: How it’s always been done) versus inspiration?

What might it be to live from inspiration rather than memory in the area that plagues you on a reoccurring basis? My personal reoccurring issue is with my finances. After growing up in a single-parent household fueled by a teacher’s salary (Thank you for all you did to make it work Mom!), I have plenty of memories of “not enough” to mess things up when it comes to cultivating a mindset of prosperity. I grew up in a very affluent town where most all of my friends lived in what were mansions compared to our tiny apartment. Many times the things my adolescent desires believed we “needed to have” came from credit rather than cash (and yes, I am fortunate they still came!) and vacations (yes, we took them!) consisted of driving to the nearby mountains to visit family. Now, I wouldn’t change a thing – all of my past made me what I am today.

However, recently I realized that I benefit from much ease and success in one of the areas that plague many. And it began a working hypothesis of how to apply the ease and success in one area to the other, more challenging aspects of our lives.

During one of my regular work-outs at the gym, I became aware that I was thinking about how to heal a certain financial challenge I was facing. I wondered to myself how much time I had spent over the years evaluating and re-evaluating my relationship with money and how much energy I have allowed it to sap from me as a result. And I rationalized that all hope is not lost. If other people can feel ease and joy in their relationship to earning and managing their finances, then surely I can too! And so, the quest continued in my mind.

Moments later, I noticed yet another ‘new and improved’ weight loss commercial making the promise to lose weight ‘easily and effortlessly’ on one of the silenced TV’s in front of the cardio machines. I looked around me with disbelief to see if there was really anyone present who might be interested in such hype. When I saw a woman transfixed to the words displayed on closed captioning, something clicked for me.

I immediately recounted an exercise from my recent leadership training which highlighted the potential proof that I might be in the minority about not wanting or caring about a new and improved way to lose weight. This powerful group exercise was given to our group of leaders to highlight both our uniqueness as well as our shared human experience with one another. We were instructed to stand along one side of an open room along the wall. The facilitators of the exercise stated a variety of scenarios, to which if you had experienced the stated scenario, you were to “take a walk” to the opposite side of the room. Whether you stood still or walked, the exercise was chock full of powerful lessons. Until this exercise, we had assumed some of our most memorable experiences were either completely unique to us (“I am alone”) or just the opposite, shared by all (“it happened to everybody”).

“If you have ever cheated on a test, take a walk.” More than half the room walked. Interesting.

“If you have ever been the victim of verbal abuse, take a walk.” Every single woman in the room walked. This was educational, to say the least.

“If you have ever felt fat, take a walk.” The entire room walked - almost. I stayed put, surprised to find myself alone, on the original side of the room.

Now, as I recount this, I have my doubts that as a developing adolescent or a teenager, I didn’t go through phases of wishing I was a different shape as a result of some of the messages that were relayed to me through magazines or my friends. I probably experienced some of my extra college weight as “fat” from time to time. But the reason I stood still when they named that situation, was because all I could recount was love and acceptance for the many phases my body has gone through.

When I graduated from college (a place and time where I gained an extra 15-20 pounds than usual), I simply added more activity to my schedule because it felt good to do so, and I became pleasantly surprised with the new shape my body took as a result. I realize now, more than ever, that this type of acceptance in relationship with my body is somewhat out of the shared experience of many of my friends, family and acquaintances.

As far as my overall memory of how it has felt to be in this body, it has been a very sweet experience. It has always responded with what I’ve asked it to do. Out of college, I became an avid runner. I moved to Boulder, CO and discovered my athletic self. I took up mountain biking, hiking, skiing, rock climbing, yoga and became an aerobics instructor (it was the early 90’s you know…) One time I even decided on a Wednesday to run a half-marathon that was going on that Saturday although I do not recommend that training approach!

As I considered the scope of this, I wondered what possible use my experiences of ease and trust in my physical self could have in the “problem areas” of my finances. Surely, I surmised, there has to be a correlation.

This realization began a hypothesis that I would like to share with you. Mainly, that it is possible to apply the ease-success cycles (inspiration) that one experiences in one realm of one’s life to the much more challenging realms where perhaps memory dictates our actions. I have always operated from inspiration in the physical realm. Perhaps there is a way to use that successful skill set to a place where memory seems to rule my decisions.

In the realm of the physical, here is what I've done to approach the issue from inspiration rather than from memory.

1. I orient around feeling good.
2. I stay in tune with my inner truth so I don’t get fooled by what “feels good” means.
3. I eat what feels good (really!) Sometimes ice cream feels good. Sometimes tofu and brown rice feels better.
4. I move in ways that inspire or uplift me. I run or dance to great music, I play with my family or friends, I do yoga because I like to see what my body is capable of doing, I cycle because I admire the efficiency of the movement.
5. When the results of the above do not produce a feel good state, I gently return to the intention or knowing of what feels good and let the rest go.
6. Throughout it all, I trust and know my body will always return to it’s healthy state. I believe with my whole heart that all is well.

If I were to apply this to my finances, what would it look like? If you were to apply the above six premises to your “problem area” what impact might it have? If I try it, will you?

Three in the Morning

Do you ever find yourself awake at three in the morning? And what occupies your mind and heart at this time of the day? The topics that seem to arise at this crucial moment in our days hold significant keys to uncovering the untended areas of our life and deeper psyche.

"It is what happens", as David Whyte says in his book, The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of Soul in Corporate America, "to men and women who refuse to confront their more powerful creative urges". The part of us that identifies with our position in the world and the material objects we've acquired typically gets torn to shreds at this time of day as well.

This is true for me. There is an urgency or what I'd describe as a metallic taste to the ideas that arise at three in the morning. After waking later, I usually can detect why the idea or topic had such urgency. It is linked to a bigger issue to which I've usually been avoiding -the creative fires that burn constantly and can rage if not tended to in my waking life.

Such happenings tune me into the need for better inner self-care. For me this means increasing my commitment to sit on the cushion in the morning and allow the still small voice within to be heard. It means saying no to that which does not bring me vitality and a sense of meaning. And it also usually means its time to take some sort of inspired action that allows me to channel this built up creative energy into a worthy endeavor. How about you? What do you do?

Take stock of your three o'clock inner alarms. They are chock full of wisdom and if integrated into your days, can ignite the divine spark into your current creative pursuits.

How do you integrate those three o'clock inner alarms? I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.

The Wisdom of the Seed

It is a natural phenomenon that within each individual seed the entire code of the plant it is to become is already present. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the seed will survive, or that it will thrive, or what shape it will take. There certainly are varying levels of health in any given plant, but anyone who has gardened knows that the fact remains that if you plant a zinnia in the right conditions, you will grow a zinnia, not a daisy.

"There is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything". -Rachel Naomi Remen

Amazingly enough we tend to forget that we are also subject to the same natural laws as those tiny seeds you plant in your garden. Without the right conditions, we do not thrive. And, by the same token, there’s not much the seed itself needs to do to grow into that mature plant, except of course, to be planted.

Once planted, the seed does not worry about what the other seeds are doing, she doesn’t consider rules, varying degrees of politeness, what the other plants might think if she grows too tall, if she is growing fast enough, or if she is the right shade of green. She simply follows what feels right in each moment. The plant turns her leaves toward the sun, drinks the cool rain water and draws the right nutrients out of the soil in which she is planted.

I invite you to consider the fact that it just might be that easy for us as well. Yes, we are challenged by having more to navigate in each given moment, but the stakes are even higher for the plant. If a plant “makes a mistake”, it would perish. And even though some of us would like to think that the stakes are the same for us, mistakes are just opportunities to do something again in a new and improved way.

Luckily, the hard part has been done - you’ve been planted. Like it or not, you are here on the earth in this life. So what are your right conditions? Where do you thrive? What conditions need to be present in and around you in order to awaken this code that already exists to grow fully into what you can become? It is my urging that you ask yourself these questions today so you can begin to implement more of the conditions of your answers into the moments, days, weeks and months that follow.

Please remember the force of nature that you are, the commonalities you have with those seeds, and your ever-present ability to reach for the sun!



Rudolf Steiner presents an amazing meditation involving this principle. Hold a seed in your hand and first notice the size, shape, and other properties of the seed, contemplating that information fully with your eyes. Then, letting your thoughts ponder the fact that “This seed, if planted in the ground, will grow into a complex plant.” We then are instructed to visualize the plant it is to become, while realizing that the mature plant we imagine, forces of nature will later draw out of this small seed. There is something already present in the seed that we can see when it becomes a mature plant. We don’t necessarily see it with our eyes, but that doesn’t make it any less true!

This IS the Vortex!

While hiking down from Bell Rock in Sedona, AZ, presumably one of the most powerful energy vortex centers on the earth, I became aware of a woman and her son quickly approaching us on the trail from behind. As my daughter and I paused to make art in the enticing blank canvas of fine red sand, I overheard her fretting over having lost the others in their party. Once we reached the parking lot, I noticed her again and saw that she had met up with the rest of her group. As I passed the group, she asked her guide, “When are we going to hike up to the vortex spot?”

He looked at her with astonishment, sweeping his arms around in the air to include the mountain behind him as well as the parking lot, and said, “This is it! ALL of this is the vortex.”

I couldn’t help but feel sad for her, assuming she hadn’t yet let in any of the power, the spine tingling, deep peace and contentment that was available on the hike she had just rushed herself and her son through.

Crossing paths with her was a gift. It caused me to reflect on my own moments in life when I’ve been moving along at such a fast clip that I missed the magic that was coursing right along beneath my very own feet. It strikes me with the same type of regrettable humor as driving along a coastal highway in either California or Hawaii, waiting for the scenic pull-off sign when there’s amazing beauty to be seen all around.

How often are we at the proverbial or literal vortex of our own life
and miss the magic, not even realizing it?

What magic, beauty or even perfection might exist for you right now if you allowed a shift in your current perspective to assume it was so?

This is the vortex - today, this hour, this minute.

Part 1: What if it Were Easy?

What If It Were Easy is a series of inquiries and thought encouraged to provide you with a fresh perspective on the art of creation.

Imagine a time or place when you may have had the pleasure of being next to a mountain stream. To witness the unique sound of rushing water falling over an artistic scatter of rocks is potent meditation in itself. Coupled with introspection, it can be a divine experience (as can most things when extreme mindfulness is applied to the moment).

Recently, I found myself in such a moment. The thought, "Why is this such a relaxing place for me?" passed over the rocks of my mind as quickly as the water in my line of vision. The download came just as quickly as the question: This and other acts of peace are our natural state. The stream falls in the direction of the path it is meant to travel by offering no resistance. Just as the stream flows naturally downhill, formlessly adapting to the barriers that arise, we too, are meant to enjoy this ease and state of flow.

This type of moment feels divine because it is!

When we experience extreme relaxation in nature it is because we are accepting our natural state. It is natural to let go of the striving, be with our breath, experience where we contact the earth, and just melt into the moment.

It gave me hope and joy to feel into that moment and to know it can be true for each of us. The striving we experience in our lives is a preconceived notion of how we are supposed to be rather than who we truly are. The striving is made up - which is why it feels harsh and hard to maintain. The ease is real and it guides us over the rocks in our lives by following that which feels good.

What might the impact be if we give up the striving and follow the trail of that which feels good? Indeed.

I'd love to hear what creations bubble up within you.