Living a Life of Awe, Ecstasy, Illumination & Inspiration!

I’m on a mission.

That’s right – I want to stamp out mediocrity, boredom, comfort zones and all other destroyers of awesomeness.

It’s shocking how many people in western society are unhappy even though they have so much material wealth. Having stuff is certainly nice – don’t get me wrong, I love my beautiful home – but I don’t look to it to create my happiness. It’s only there to enhance beauty in my life and to be one of my creative outlets.

After 8 years of studying with my spiritual teacher, 11 years of working with clients, and over 35 years of travel (11 years owning a travel agency) – I have come to understand what makes an amazing life.

I know this sounds like a strange combination of qualifications for my mission – but truly, it’s perfect. I’ve listened to thousands of people share with me how unhappy they are (while feeling guilty for doing so since there was “no real reason” for them to be unhappy considering all they had).

I’ve traveled around the world and met people who have literally nothing yet stand in awe of life. I’ve experienced absolute perfection and bliss in the many transcendent moments during my spiritual path.

So what makes an amazing life? How do we move from an occasional transcendent moment to creating the kind of life where we feel awestruck everyday of our lives? I know what you’re thinking. It’s not possible to be in that state all day, everyday – right?

Wrong.

I’ve experienced this state myself and I know it is absolutely possible and in fact, it is our birthright as humans. The key is to create a re-frame, to learn how to create life not by default but by conscious choice, carefully curating what we want to bring into our lives and how we want to express ourselves.

The more boldly we choose to act, the more authentically we choose to show up, and the more definitively we choose to step beyond our comfort zone and live on the edge – the more vibrant, fulfilling, meaningful, and alive life becomes.

BTW – that’s WHY I choose to include travel in my coaching practice (amongst other interesting experiences!) – to encourage folks to move beyond the known and get comfortable in the unlimited possibilities that exist only in the realm of uncertainty.

To illustrate what I am talking about I invite you to watch this fabulous video below by Jason Silva (a wonderfully crazy, geeky, futuristic filmmaker). The truth of this video brings me to tears every time I see it.

Jason says we have a responsibility to awe.

He says that awe is an experience of such perceptual vastness you literally have to reconfigure your mental models of the world to assimilate it. And I agree.

To experience radiant ecstasy, rapture, illumination, and inspiration we must get out of our comfort zone. We must change our perception so that the world becomes new, fascinating, fulfilling, amazing.

After watching the video – post your feelings below. Let me know if you desire awe in your life and let me know if you are willing to step out on the ledge of life to get it. And if so, would you give me the honor of helping you get there?

New times are now available in my calendar for us to have a heart-to-heart chat about your current life direction and to take action to transform it with passion + purpose AND awe. 🙂

What are you waiting for?

Picture of man at the water’s edge thanks to “Mike” Michael L. Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com, and the picture of the man by the pyramids thanks to Tinou Bao

Why Sushi Making is Just Like Life…

Recently I gathered together with some of my dear friends and we boldly expressed ourselves through the medium of Sushi.

Now I can’t say that the rolls were exactly round (or square), or that the fish was cut properly.

I do think a couple of the hand rolls sagged, and I am personally responsible for some oddly cut carrot slices.

Sushi

However, it was wonderful to dine on a plateful of wonky rolls and strange little sushi squares!

It reminded me that we can do anything and it doesn’t have to be perfect. We just have to take action even if we are feeling nervous or uncertain.

For example, creating a successful business is not unlike making Sushi. If we wait around for things to be exactly right we’ll never start anything – especially those of us who crave perfection!

And diving into that big bowl of sticky rice, well – it was very reminiscent of diving into life.

It was messy.

There was no way to tell if the outcome was going to be pretty or tasty.

There was no way to know if our rolls would be laughed at.

There was a good chance someone might lose a finger (I was a surgeon so I have VERY sharp knives).

The only thing we were certain of was the fact that we were clueless. But we laughed, ate, and learned a lot. It was fun – just like most things can be in life if we allow them to be.

Whatever you are creating in your life right now – do it boldly, audaciously, and with all the joy in your heart.

Oh, do let me know if you’ve ever made Sushi before! 🙂

To your audacious life,

Trouble With Making Decisions?

One of the most profound issues I’ve noticed over the past 12 years of working with folks on their transformational paths is that people are incredibly challenged in their decision making. It seems like that would be such a basic and simple thing to do, yet experience shows me it is not. It’s become very obvious that most people have a striking inability to make a decision with absolute confidence.

By that I mean that once they make a decision they’re not able to let go and move on in life. Their internal dialogue wanders back to whether or not they’ve made the right choice and they waste time and energy further mulling over lists of pros and cons even when that choice is seemingly over and done with.

They’re too busy worrying about whether they made the right choice and being concerned about how people are going to judge them and if others will think they are stupid. Good grief! All that thinking is bound to exhaust a person for sure!

And that’s assuming the person actually made a decision.

The majority of folks will do anything to avoid making a choice – especially when they feel a lot is at stake. For example, let’s say we’re not enjoying our current work situation but because we don’t have a new job to replace our current one we won’t make a decision to leave.

Same thing with relationships.

People will stay in a relationship that is unfulfilling, unsupportive and not particularly loving, just because they can’t make a decision to leave. Or maybe we should be more honest here and say they won’t leave because they’re too worried about what others will think and how they are going to be perceived. So instead they’ll justify their fear of judgment and fear of hurting others and bury it by saying they don’t know what they want and can’t make a decision.

To that I say bull.

You are lying to yourself first and foremost and to everyone one else second. Your fear of hurting others – is simply unadulterated EGO. It’s all about you, you, you. How others are going to see you and how you are going to see yourself. You cannot hurt others. You can take actions in life that people take personally and use to hurt themselves because they are living an ego-ridden life too. You’re not that important and neither am I.

Part of the reason why the decisions are so hard to make is because we have so many conflicting thought forms going on in our heads that have our attention – we can’t see the forest for the trees. This is the perfect excuse and mental strategy for keeping us from looking at the true issue and making a choice. If we don’t make a choice because we are consumed by the list of pros and cons we won’t be judged and all will be well.

Except all won’t be well because we’ll be living out our lives trading safety and certainty for a passionate, exciting, uncertain, authentic and audacious life. If we don’t make the choice to leave our job or relationship we can pretty much guess what tomorrow is going to look like. In fact we can be certain of it. But if we take a chance to chance and do something different – and go the route of the heart – we won’t know what’s going to happen, what others will think of us or if we are going to fall on our face.

I can tell you that I’ve fallen on my face many times.

And if you haven’t noticed – I’m still living and breathing. When I left my practice, most of the medical community thought I was crazy. But so what. I’m living my life not anyone else. As long as I don’t judge myself – all is well. And that’s the kicker isn’t it? Worse than anyone else’s judgment of us – is our judgment of ourselves.

I learned long ago that people who are bold are people who have surrendered self-judgment. They have adopted a rule and that rule is this: I no longer will ever hurt myself with my own thought forms again because I love and respect myself too damn much.

If you haven’t adopted this rule I highly recommend it. Banish self-judgment. Stop worrying about what others are going to think about you. Be kind and set boundaries with love rather than fear. Stop waffling and wavering and make a CHOICE already! Get on with your life.

If you need help making a decision ask for it.

If you need a mentor spend the money and get one. If you need a business coach do it. Don’t put anything off until tomorrow because tomorrow may never come for you. Or it might and when you’re on your death bed you can lay there pondering a life time of regret. Your choice.

So I’m curious – do you have trouble making decisions and once you do does your mind drive you crazy chewing on your choices?

Make sure you post below and let me know.
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What makes me feel REALLY sick

I’m normally a very calm person (although admittingly a tad impatient). And after all my years of spiritual training I’m rarely angry, and I absolutely abhor feeling victimized no matter what occurs in my life.

But there’s one thing that still makes me sick to my stomach – and that’s when people live their lives devoid of meaning, passion, and amazement. How anyone possibly squander their gifts and live in mediocrity not becoming the best that they can be?

And even worse – how can we allow all those people who we were meant to interact with us suffer because we were too afraid to step up to the challenge of obliterating the obstacles that were on our road to greatness?

Selfishness is all it is.

This can occur on all financial levels of life – from the corporate CEO who has a seemingly amazing life but is not living his or her dream – to the newly divorced single mother who who has an awesome idea but is too afraid to move beyond security to birth it. It can occur to someone trapped in an oppressive culture where they are judged severely if they attempt any action to move beyond their appointed role in life.

Most obstacles live deep within in our minds, whether they are large or small, internal, cultural, or national beliefs. They can be on every level – from being afraid to wear a fabulous suit and new hairstyle because we don’t feel we can, to transcending physical disabilities, to not feeling capable of moving beyond the views of our religion or culture.

Case in point, when I was growing up nice Jewish girls could be doctors, lawyers or business people and marry nice Jewish boys who were doctors, lawyers or business people.

I did both – I became a doctor and I married a Jewish businessman.

It didn’t work.

I married another Jewish businessman and I still stayed in medicine.

That didn’t work either.

I finally got smart and stopped blaming, making excuses, and trying to make everyone else happy and instead followed my heart.

That IS working. (PS: both my husbands were great – but not for me.)

All of us have dreams and talents that are tested every day – yet why do some folks triumph under the most difficult circumstances while others see only excuses and obstacles? Good question.

That said, I want you to watch this video below.

I want you to feel this incredible woman’s energy and inner peace – her lack of blame or victimization, her optimism, her boldness, her confidence, her truth, her fearlessness, her desire to make change, and her unwavering focus on unfolding her dream while never really knowing exactly how she was going to make it all happen.

The bottom line is she didn’t have to know (and neither do you) exactly how to achieve that dream – she only had to have FAITH that what was in her heart was real and to take ACTION everyday.

You can FEEL her passion and purpose, the level of meaning in her life, and her deep joy and love.

When you’re done watching this video I want to know what touched you about Kakenya’s story (please post below) AND what action you’re going to take TODAY to further and uplevel your dream fearlessly, boldly, lovingly.

Because if you change YOUR mind (aka beliefs), and you show up fully present and take action, you WILL change your life AND the world.

So if this video has inspired you and you want to brainstorm about how to uplevel your life and realize your dreams, let’s chat and make it happen!

Truly, nothing would make me happier. Here’s the link to book a free breakthrough session with me. 🙂

To your remarkable life,

PS: I want to admit I lied to you earlier.

There’s a another thing that as a woman and a doctor makes me sick to my stomach and makes me want to scream – and that’s genital mutilation and the belief that women are not worth it. (You might have to watch this video on your computer if it does not show up on your ipad/iphone)

Compassion and Inner Peace in Business + Life

One of my favorite authors and spiritual teachers is an amazing Vietnamese Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh. In case you didn’t know, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 having been nominated for the award by Martin Luther King Jr. He believes strongly in peace and has lectured extensively on how we can choose to spiritually respond to violence in the world especially the 9/11 incidences.

I wanted to share this short snippet with you not because I feel like rehashing anything about 9/11 – but simply to make sure we learn the highest lesson from our experience. To be able to apply what we’ve learned to both the current situation in Syria and the Middle East – and into our daily lives.

“What is the “right action” to take with regard to responding to terrorist attacks? Should we seek justice through military action? Through judicial processes? Is military action and/or retaliation justified if it can prevent future innocents from being killed?”

“All violence is injustice. The fire of hatred and violence cannot be extinguished by adding more hatred and violence to the fire. The only antidote to violence is compassion. And what is compassion made of? It is made of understanding. When there is no understanding, how can we feel compassion, how can we begin to relieve the great suffering that is there? So understanding is the very real foundation upon which we build our compassion…

There are people who want one thing only: revenge. In the Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha said that by using hatred to answer hatred, there will only be an escalation of hatred. But if we use compassion to embrace those who have harmed us, it will greatly diffuse the bomb in our hearts and in theirs…”

As entrepreneurs and creators we are often devoid of inner peace and extremely tough on ourselves. Compassion is often found simmering on the back-burner with fear, frustration, indecision, and doubt boiling furiously front and center. We are most successful in life when our creative channel is open and that is rarely the case when we are being judgmental and lacking compassion for our process.

For me, inner peace and compassion starting with the deep understanding of ourselves is critical. Some days I am fabulous at achieving this and on others days – not so much. 🙂

But I always come back to this question – how do I want to be treated in this life? And the answer is always with love and compassion – the same way all humans want to be treated. And the best person to set that precedence is me, starting with myself.

So I ask you – how do you want to be treated in this life and what kind of precedence are you setting to allow that happen? So post below and let me know what you’re thinking.

Do You Have the Clarity to Move Ahead Boldly in Your Life?

My question to you is: how can I serve YOU on your path to expansion and how can I help you in fulfilling your purpose in life? Where are you feeling glitched? Where are you feeling frustrated? Is your personal life creating issues in your business life?

If this applies to you – let’s talk about it! Don’t stay stuck. I highly recommend a 3 day VIP Private Intensive for a total turn-around and life readjustment! You will leave your experience with a new set of life skills and empowered to take control of the aspects of your life that you should be taking control of and the clarity to let go of what you cannot.

If you want to chat about this make an appointment today and I’ll explain more in detail. –> www.timetrade.com/book/8BFCS

‘Till next time …