The Present of Presence

What better gift can you give to yourself and everyone else than the present of presence?

A few years back, I was driving my daughter and I to Washington DC. It's a 5 hour trip from where I live. Two hours into the drive it hit me! I left the coffee maker on back home!!!! It was one of those older coffeemakers that didn't turn itself off after a certain time frame. Suddenly, my relaxing get-away was filled with fearful illusions of the house being burnt to a cinder by the time I returned home.


I turned the car around and headed home because when weighing the options, there were none. I had to do what I could to fix my oversight. It was either face the consequences or complete the trip to DC and be in endless stress thinking about having a smoldering cinder of a home to return to after the trip.


To make a long story short....when we got home...the coffee pot was in the dishwasher ready to be washed! Did I feel stupid? Yes! BUT! Whenever we go through a crisis or uncomfortable situation....it's not all negative. It's not a reason to endlessly beat ourselves up. I do believe in feeling the pain or grief in a situation and not avoiding it. But then, there's a time frame on feeling your feelings. Then it's time to rise above them.


After our pitstop at home, we got back in the car and made our way to DC. The whole drive, instead of beating myself up, I thought about an Eckhart Tolle philosophy. BE PRESENT. Had I been present when I turned off the coffee maker and put the coffee carafe in the dishwasher it would've saved a lot of time and energy. And yes, I could've left a key with a neighbor like most people do....that's a whole other blog entry to go into later.


What was the real lesson here? Awareness. This brings me to a universal issue....


I watch the behavioral trends of the eras and find them so entertaining. In this century, the way of the world is to multi-task, do too many things at once, have this techno gadget and that one. A lot is expected of us and we can't do enough or be enough...often resulting in burn-out and illness. There is little time for silence and presence. When I ask clients to schedule in some nothing time....some rebel, feeling it would be a waste of time because nothing is getting done. But, nothing time is for presence. It's the exact silence and time stand-still needed for hearing the wisdom within! It's a required part of the balance of life.


Had I been present when cleaning up the coffee maker and not allowing my mind to be in the future, going over all my packing plans for the trip, I would've been aware of what I was doing in the moment.


How is this a huger lesson? Eckhart Tolle suggests we get so present when we are in our daily situations that we are aware of every cell of our being engaged in each action. This makes doing dishes a Zen experience!!!! Instead of dish-washing being a drudgery...or even toilet scrubbing....it's an experience of feeling every cell of your body engaged in action! Good writers and speakers know to utilize all their senses when describing their story. Why don't we all live this way? This certainly was something overlooked in the school system. To be present.


I believe this recession is bringing awareness to what is not working in our lives. A lot of the traditional ways of doing things are starving for change! Painful situations always get our attention and that is exactly what the recession is doing...opening our awareness to being creative and making our lives work for us. There is no one cookie cutter way to do things. That mentality just isn't working. Awareness is the first step to change. We are now personalizing the way we live our lives because we were each created to do things in our own unique way to make the world a better place. If we could all start by honoring ourselves, being deeply present in each thing we do, then life becomes an entertaining adventure. We would love and appreciate...even being totally present in cleaning a coffee carafe!


As a coachsultant, I support my clients to stand strong in honoring their unique gifts. I adore watching my clients get excited about discovering how powerful and important their life journey truly is! Each one of us is vitally important. That's why we were chosen to exist! It's not just the celebrities or the famous who are important. It's each one of us. I know some incredible people who couldn't give a *#&*%* about fame and fortune. These are my heros.


A first step to having a life you love is to be present and aware in the moment. So, give yourself the present of presence. Try doing all you do with every cell of your body. Feel every sense in all you do. Experience how life was truly meant to be lived! There are a lot of people out there doing more more more to fit in with the trend of society to focus on too many things at a time and not give quality time to any one thing. These people are truly missing out on the simple and absolutely free of charge (a true bargain during a recession!) awareness of being totally present.


By the way, the trip in DC turned out to be better than ever because we both decided to be totally present in all we did, so it was a sensual and vivid experience. We even understood the confusing subway system by remaining present. Message injested, lesson learned!


Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to take out a block of time to be totally present in even the most mundane of chores. Then come back here and let us know how that felt. Share with us your gift of presence!

Queen of Support

I took a cyber art class from an artist I much admire. Her name is Suzi Blu. suziblu.ning.com She has made her life a unique and original work of art. Quite the role model for how to live discerningly and choose to do the things that make your dreams come true. She is so magical and I admire her gift for building community as much as I admire her art.
This "crown" was a Suzi Blu assignment. She asked us to create a crown for ourselves and claim our title as "Queen of______." As with all the art I did in her course, I didn't know the messages that my soul was giving me when I made the art until I was done with the piece. Since I had little funds for materials...I used an old bra that was ready for the trash. Then I added three cones on top and placed logos or business cards of my three businesses on them. All three businesses are about supporting people. The crown told me that this is my reign. I love to support people in living their dreams. It's why I'm attracted to people who live that way as well. It's also why I'm a certified Dream Coach and Integrative Life Coach. It's also why I love to teach and help people learn to knit and create art.
What title do you claim?

Mistresses of Manifestation

I've been posting photos of wild animals on this blog. What about wild women??? Here is a photo of some wildly powerful women. Marcia Wieder and Carole Kammen to be exact. I took their workshop, Masters of Manifestation in San Jose recently. I only wish this kind of info was taught to us all at a young age or in gradeschool. It is important information to know about life. Something everyone should know.

Anything Marcia Wieder puts together is inspiring and successful. Carole was fascinating, slowly revealing layer by layer all that she has survived in life. To see her in action, and the kind of energy she gives off, you'd never know she's been through such challenges in life!

When Marcia introduced Carole at our Dream Coach University seminar, I was drawn in by how she radiated her smile with every part of her, not just her face. It reminded me of Eat, Pray, Love...in the Love section of the book, where the people of Bali taught that you meditate with intent to smile with every part of your body. What a feeling that is! If everyone walked the Earth, radiating a feeling like that...what a world it would be!!!

Parts of my life are forever changed from that Manifestation seminar. I hope you have a chance to study with such wildly powerful women as these in your lifetime.

Phyllis Diller's Oven had a Flusher on it

Here's another visitor. This time at my back door. It likes to rummage through my compost pile. I'm glad SOMEBODY likes my cooking.

I used to live in NYC before I moved here. There was a different kind of wild life in NYC.

You oughta hear this fox speak! I've never heard a sound like it before! Kinda like someone hawking something up from their throat. Or maybe that was just my cooking.

Tolle says to observe and learn from nature. What does this fox teach us? Maybe just that wild animals can eat my cooking and still live to come back for more!

Is This Good Feng Shui?

It's probably not very good Feng Shui energy to have front door decor such as this....not very welcoming.

When I first spotted this snake, after the fearful thoughts, I thought, "What would Eckhart Tolle do?" That's when I decided to detach from my first reaction....the myriad of huge fears....and instead, take photos and observe its behavior. Acceptance of the moment.

It was a struggle at first to detach from my mind telling me that there are all kinds of holes under my home and the snake will find its way into my house. Particularly when I'm asleep that night. But, this is Tolle's message....allow the fearful thoughts to be there, accept their "isness" while detaching from the emotion...and just observe.

It soon became fun to observe the snake's behavior. It was entertaining watching it wanting to come into my front door so badly. I watched it slither back and forth and even watched it watching me observing it. In coaching we always peel the layers back to "what the intent of ones behavior" is. That's where the wisdom resides. One rarely knows another's intent and sometimes we don't even realize our own.

In time, the snake draped itself over the doorknob and then I heard a thud and I guess it fell to the ground and went back to where it came from.

In Shamanism, the snake means healer. It's also about shedding the old skin to make room for the new. The two areas symbolized by the snake are the heart and the hands.
I will not analyze here, as Tolle would likely detach from that part of the snake moment as well. We often assign events/situations a meaning and that becomes our story that we believe in. But, what if we stopped doing that?

So, maybe a snake greeting people at the front door was not a very calming energy, but the Tolle lesson it left me was most welcome. How many more experiences in life would change if we chose to let go of the emotion attached to it and just observed it, letting it be as it is?

Eckhart Reminds Us

This is Eckhart Tollecat. Why is that his name? Because he keeps me in the NOW. He is meditating in this photo.

I have been an Eckhart Tolle fan for about six years now. Whenever life gets challenging I have the Tolle CDs and DVDs going to keep my thoughts in a healthy place. There is nothing like getting our perspective back into the moment when something comes along to threaten our joy.

I, like many, am watching and listening to Oprah's Tollenars every week. This week what jumped out at me was when Tolle said, "Worrying is a waste of time." I added that awareness to what I got out of last week's Tollenar which is to endlessly monitor your thoughts. Wow! We can truly say some horrible things to ourselves sometimes! Where did we ever learn that habit???? And it is a rampant habit in this society. Like one of the spiritual gurus I studied with said, "Forget terrorists.... we can be our own worst terrorist."

I know Tolle often reminds us to observe animals and nature to be reminded to appreciate just being. When you look at these kitty shapes or the beautiful textures, colors and shapes of a flower, how can you not be reminded to take your thoughts back to the simplicity and perfection of the moment?