The results of Round 2 of the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest are in. We are thrilled to announce that Howard and I have advanced to Round 3 along with 24 other finalists!!
That’s the top 1% of all the authors that entered the contest. Woohoo!! We’ve been floating on cloud nine all day long.
Of the 3,000 authors who joined the online contest, 250 authors made it to Round 2, including Howard and I with our book “Feel Great Naked – One Couple’s Quest for Heaven on Earth.” For Round 2 we had to write a book proposal and a sample chapter. http://bit.ly/feelgn
All 250 book proposals were reviewed by a panel of judges and voted on by the public. The winning entries had to receive final approval by the publisher Hampton Roads.
The announcement of the winners was made during a conference call today. I was on a client coaching call so didn’t hear it live. Howard was so excited when they called out my name first that he continue reading “Feel Great Naked in top 25
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.
Have you ever experienced times when everything seems to flow easily? When you feel “On Top of the World?” When money and relationships are fun and easy? When synchronicities delight you and life seems bright and meaningful?
In contrast, have you ever experienced times when your job is a struggle? When stress is heaped upon stress? When issues seem to strain many relationships? When “life’s a drag?”
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.
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.”
Today I joined the festivities of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and celebrated Chinese New Year and Valentines Day by taking part in a Dragon Dance and mass demonstration of Taoist Tai Chi at the O-Zone in Richmond. Over 400 members of the Taoist Tai Chi Society participated in this event in front of thousands of people. What fun we all had! Click here to find out more information about this event and the International Taoist Tai Chi Society.
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
