In the last few weeks, we’ve been catapulted right out of our comfort zones. Howard and I have had more fights and more tears than we’ve had in a long time. We’ve also had more laughs, more joining, and more passionate life energy than usual as we joined forces to write our story for a contest.
It started at the beginning of April when we entered the online Next Top Spiritual Author Contest with our idea for a book. Along with 2,800 other authors, we had to prove that we could market ourselves by attracting votes. And we did.
This morning I confess I went a little crazy. Howard and I were still trying to pull together our book proposal for the Next Top Spiritual Author contest and it felt like we are running out of time. Round 2 started last Monday and we were already 3 days overdue. For our book “Feel Great Naked” we needed a brief description, an outline, author bios, a marketing plan, a review of complementary titles and a written chapter.
We argued over every phrase. He wrote something. I corrected it. He corrected it. Our friends with editing skills corrected it. He wrote some more. I added something. He corrected it. On and on. My inspiration was fading.
This morning when he insisted that we had to stop all these edits and just get our book proposal uploaded to the contest website, I lost it. “It’s not good enough yet!” I said.
Howard was getting irritated with me. “What do you want?” he shouted.
I shouted back. “Joy first!”
A grin spread over his face as he caught the absurdity of those beautiful words spoken with utter frustration.
This morning I felt myself slipping from excitement about our book project into overwhelm. I kept thinking about all the things we still needed to do. Heck, here we are– a third of the way into this contest for Next Top Spiritual Author and we don’t even have a Facebook fan page up yet. Indeed I had only told my family, our neighbors, and a handful of people that we are even in this contest. I felt the pit in my stomach grow even deeper as I thought about all the things I still needed and wanted to do.
I am delighted to announce that my husband Howard Staples and I have just entered the “Next Top Spiritual Author” contest with our upcoming book: Feel Great Naked – A Spiritual Guide for Enjoying the Journey.
The prize is a book publishing contract with Hampton Roads plus $50,000 to promote the book. Over 2,500 authors have already entered and we move to subsequent rounds in the contest depending on the number of votes we get. continue reading “Feel Great Naked”
Last night I did not follow what I know to be true. I know that I need to reach for good feeling thoughts before I jump into action – especially if something about the action I need or want to take is bothering me.
If I first soothe my anxiety often the thing that is disturbing my peace of mind dissolves, sometimes even without any action on my part, and any task or activity I undertake unfolds simply and easily. I’ve had countless of affirming experiences that from a peaceful perspective any action required becomes inspired – no action is wasted.
[In my previous blog post I wrote about an incredible tool that you can use to get into a positive flow and create what you want. It’s called "what-if-up."
Once I was feeling good and in the flow I had amazing, dramatic results. Using the “what-if-up” tool, I joyously created and delivered an awesome speech. Here’s what happened.]
“What-if-up” improved my mood and made me feel happy and relaxed about my upcoming speech. I was in the flow and ideas for my speech began to pour in. When I stood in the shower in the morning I remembered stories that illustrated how law of attraction works. Later, when I sat in my “creative genius” chair, I came up with an outline. When I was lying in bed that night, I came up with a powerful introduction and an idea for how to give my audience an actual experience of “what-if-up.”
Recently I found myself committed to giving a speech I didn’t want to prepare for. I was puzzled; when I had accepted the invitation the prospect of giving this talk excited me.
As the date of the speech approached, it became more and more obvious to me that the thought of writing another speech, let alone memorizing and practicing it, was eating into my peace of mind. And yet I felt I just couldn’t bow out – others were counting on me and it wouldn’t look very good. I knew that, if I kept up this resistant train of thought, I might end up, ultimately, embarrassed and disappointed with myself. continue reading “Easiest Speech Ever (Part 1 of 2): What-If-Up”
The Winter Olympics Vancouver 2010 Torch Relay passed through Langley, BC today. This morning around 9:00am the Olympic Torch passed through my neighbourhood, on the 102nd day of its 106-day 45,000-kilometer journey. The relay began on October 30, 2009 in Victoria and will conclude on Friday, February 12 in Vancouver with the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
I joined my neighbours to take part in the Olympic excitement. Here are some pictures. continue here to see pictures
This morning I recorded my first ever JOY FIRST show on BlogTalkRadio.
The short and sweet solution to ease holiday stress.
No reading required.
Just sit back with your favorite beverage and listen to this 20 minute December special for the season of hustle and bustle.
In this program I explain exactly what steps to take to create the kind of holiday season you want with lots of good examples so you’ll be inspired to start right away.
Too busy to even go to the bathroom? No problem. You can also download the show to your computer or ipod and listen where ever you are.
If you are visiting this site after the holiday season, listen to the radio show anyway. The tips for shifting from a feeling of overwhelm to a feeling of joy are timeless.
“I’ve had enough,” Carol exploded. “It’s been a bad week: I’ve lost my favourite scarf, my house is a mess, my teenage son is failing school, and my husband spends all his time working or watching TV.” She burst into tears. “And when I stepped on the scale this morning, I’d put on three pounds.”
Overwhelmed by the sheer pace of her life, Carol, my normally fun-loving and competent client, was at the end of her rope.
“I’m mad at myself – I can’t find any joyful thoughts,” she continued. “And now I’m worried that with all these depressing thoughts the only thing I’m going to attract is more depressing events.”
Have you ever felt like this – worried, frustrated, and overwhelmed? It happens to all of us from time to time.
When you are feeling worried and overwhelmed, you don’t have access to bliss – sometimes you can’t even get to just OK. But it takes reaching for joy to turn things around. What a paradox! So what can you do? continue reading Remedies for Rotten Moods
