June/July 2009

Action may not always bring happiness,
but there is no happiness without action.
- Benjamin Disraeli
 

What should I do?
It's a common question. I come face-to-face with it often - in sessions with clients, and in my own personal life.
 
At the heart of the question is disempowerment. It begs for a prescribed to-do list that will help to sooth the feeling of disconnection. However, acting from such a desperate space rarely feels good. Rather than approaching the situation with immediate action, I find it to be far more efficient to focus on clarifying desires. When we do this, we address the feeling space directly, and then let the to-do list emerge from the space of inspiration. Inspiration is alignment with the best of you.
 
For the most part, I tend to follow my bliss where it takes me - which means shedding old skin (ie. labels and livelihoods) often. I have been told I am being 'impulsive' and 'unreasonable' more than once. If following my impulsive whims makes me appear flighty and without rational direction. So be it! The compass that I follow is Happiness Itself...and it always points toward my greater good. I can honestly say that I get happier and happier as the years pass. There is nothing more fulfilling to me that riding the waves of inspiration. I do what I love; I love what I do. When that statement no longer applies - and I have learned this the hard way - it is time to make a change. And when I do, I feel a surge of inspiration and opportunity that defies description. In short, letting go of what no longer serves me makes me available to what does. Thus, in response to what should I do?, the primary and immediate action that is required is to stop doing that which I feel I am no longer a match with.
      
Having said that, living an inspired existence is not a lazy affair! On the contrary. It takes dynamism, energy, and stamina to ride the waves of inspiration as they come. Taking inspired action lends itself to a life of courageous self-discovery. And while it may mean taking a scary leap or two (or twenty-two!), the payoff is bigger than any other. When you are feeding life with what sends your heart soaring, it rewards you with life force energy and opportunity beyond measure!
 
How does it feel?
How do you know what constitutes an inspired action?  Use the compass within to direct your sails.
  
You see, at its best, action is fueled by inspiration and passionate self-discovery. At its worst, action holds us in stagnant defiance of who we are longing to become. When you are reaching for something in your life, action is futile without right alignment. Actions that disallow your continual expansion create dis-ease in your world. Simply put, they are inefficient, energetic leaks that need addressing. You recognize them for the strain and discomfort they bring about. On the contrary, ease can be found through inspiration. Sometimes it is found in pushing edges that propel you forward. The sensation is one of freedom and exhilaration (sometimes confused with fear). Yet, the cliff-diving leaps of creation become easier over time as you learn that what moves you to jump has the power to send you soaring.
    
Look at your to-do list for the week. What do you see? Responsibilities? Inspired Ideas? For most people, responsibility takes the cake. Indeed, our daily comings and goings are important. Many of your daily tasks make you available to the peace of mind that invites inspiration. Yet responsibilities become liabilities when they keep us apart from ourselves. Action is inefficient when it holds in fearful stagnancy. The way of humanity (and all of life) is one of continual expansion and transformation. Inspired action means taking a risk...and moving towards what moves you in the moment.

Therefore, consider taking less action...and allow inspired actions to take you (further).

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Tags: inspiration, inspired action, soul, passion, life coach

Soul Dialogue ~ a personal exercise in self-coaching
A sample dialogue for finding the light in the dark.
Your soul voice is available to you, always.
to learn more about soul dialogues, click here

It Starts with Me:
I ask that you talk through me, here and now.
I feel like shit. I am too tired to fight the fight to feel good. Today is a down day, and I am allowing it to be.

Good.

So that’s it? That’s your divine wisdom?

You have to allow me in order to hear me. Are you open to guidance? Truly? Or are you so adamant about feeling as you feel that you will block my wisdom as it pours in?

I am willing, yes. There is space for light here.

Okay, then. Let’s talk. Forget the medium of the medium... get your hands dirty with me.

Okay.
Where do I start?

With the truth. There is no greater light than the truth. Especially when you are poking around in the dark, as you are now.

Alright. Well, the truth is, I feel like crying. I feel a familiar frustration and powerlessness that comes and goes. It’s been a long time since I have felt it, but it is here now.

What does it say?

It says, that I am so blessed and yet I...

Stop making it pretty. What does it say?

It says that I am afraid. It says that I am lost again. What if all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo is bullshit? How is it that I could be flying so high for months, and then fall with such force?

Ah, well... the impact of a fall is always relative to the height from which you came. You felt higher than ever, so that much more painful is the fall.

Okay. Well that sucks.

Perhaps. Or perhaps the pain is there to paradoxically remind you how far you have ascended in your journey. And let me remind you that you never fall as far as you think. Remember the Spiral Model? {more on this soon}

I guess. But I am angry that I am still working on this piece around my livelihood. I have invited everything I have ever wanted into being. I have so much of what I want. And today, I am angry. What the hell does life want from me?

There is only one way to find out... What do you want from life?

I just want to be me. Isn’t that enough?

If it were, then wouldn’t you just do that?

It’s harder than it sounds. I suppose I really just want to feel good, to be happy.

Okay, that feels closer to the truth. And what feels good to you?

Being creative, being real to the moment, uninhibited self-expression, loving and being loved, laughing, play, adding value, smiling and dancing. So much feels good to me!

Yes, there you go. Shift your focus there.
These are the actions that you must take. Anything that aligns you with these. Let go of worry, doubt, and frustration. Become obsessed instead with joy, possibility, and fascination. You are good at this. You were born knowing how to do this. Reignite the soul through choices that align you with the sensation listed above.

But isn’t it naive to behave in such a way... when there are clearly things that aren’t working.

And so what are you proposing? That somehow focusing your attention on what is not working will help somehow? Do tell... how will worry help to mend what is tattered in your thinking, and thus in your experience?

It won’t.

Right. The only thing that will free you from the hamster wheel of self-defeating thoughts is shifting your attention in another direction. One that feels good.

So...?

So it’s just like they taught you in grade school. Should you catch fire... stop, drop, and roll. In this case... STOP by pausing and witnessing yourself, DROP the story that feels defeating (just let it go!), and ROLL into alignment with what brings you joy by no longer resisting it.

It’s that easy, huh?

Indeed. It can be. If you are willing to let go to the joy that is flowing all around you.

Thanks for the chat. I feel very loved.

Oh, and you are!!

April/May 2009

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us...the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 

As a coach, I am privy to the themes of human experience. While the stories of our lives take on different shapes and characters, certain sensations are common. Feeling stuck - either energetically or circumstantially - is a common sensation that we all face at one time or another.
 
Upon closer examination, "I feel stuck" is describing a sensation of powerlessness. To feel powerless is to lose connection to the voice of your soul and the more of you that is longing to become. As a life coach with a soulular approach, my job is to poke around in the dark to help realign you with the light source beckoning to you from within - reflecting itself through your life experience.
 
Neale Donald Walsch cleverly describes the SOUL as a Singular Output of Universal Life. So let's imagine your soul is a light source through which a larger intelligence speaks to you. Your soul light shines on the fluid landscape of your life in order to guide your way. Like a compass, it directs you to move this way and that in order to connect you with the larger Light of Source. When you yield to the trajectory of your soul, you feel the bliss of Source shining upon you. You feel powerful as you move towards more of you as an outpicturing of this Larger Light. Your soul is unfolding you through your experiences, and its job is to take you in the direction of more of you becoming. Yet, when you turn from your loving soul light - often towards the directional light of what you think others might want of you - you feel lost and disconnected from joy. The light seems to elude you. Why? Your soul has shifted its energetic focus in the direction of who you have become, and you are not following along. You are stuck being who you once were. Your discomfort is your soul calling out your name in the dark, inviting you to turn towards your future. Thus, the feeling of being lost (or stuck) is good news! It lets you know that you have developed into the new you, and that now is a time to shift your vantage point and direction.
 
Living authentically is an internal gauge that can only be read from within. When you are in alignment with your soul light - your values, passions, purpose, who you are becoming - you know it by how good you feel. Authenticity is an continuous dance of keeping your vibration (way of being) level with the next evolution of your soul's unfolding.
 
When your soul light turns you in an unpopular direction; you must go in order to realign. Approval is fluid and co-creative - others reflect how much you are able to accept your right to become. They give your will something to push against in order to develop strength and confidence in who you are. Yet, this discomfort too shall pass. In the end, living authentically is never about rebellion - fighting against what others think of you only strengthens your fixation on them as your gauge. Nor is authentic living about isolation - to live in alignment with who you are does not require abandoning the desires of (and your commitment to) those you love. On the contrary, you are more present and true in every relationship when you are confident, secure, and walking in the world as who you really are. You no longer confuse the way you feel with outside causes; nor do you expect others to be as you are. You understand that YOU are the first cause of your greatest joys and sorrows, not those around you. Because your joy depends on you alone, the people in your life approach you eagerly. Your feeling good is up to you...they are off the hook! This leaves you both present for authentic connection.
 
As a final thought: when you are feeling powerless, it is important to note that your soul light only gets stronger and stronger in your search for it. It is there; always it is there calling out to you. In fact, without this light from behind, you would not even be able to see your shadow. Isn't that a grand design!

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Tags: soul light, life coach portland, life coaching, inspiration, soul, neale donald walsh

December 2008

Sometimes a breakdown can be the beginning of a kind of breakthrough, a way of living in advance through a trauma that prepares you for a future of radical transformation.
- Cherrie Moraga

 
Life is a series of breakthroughs.
 
Consider the way in which we come into the world. Quite literally breaking through, we begin the cycle of life as we know it. We are pushed into being by a force beyond our control. What lies on the other side of the trauma that we are experiencing is unknown, and is therefore feared. Soon we learn that the same force that pushed us into the world is the essence of nourishment and safety. Nevertheless, in the moment of birth and emergence, we cry out as the light pierces the veil of darkness. Naturally, we wince at a power that exceeds comprehension.
 
We spend the rest of our life re-living this birth pattern, comforts followed by contractions. These contractions often come to us as breakdowns - some aspect of our life threatening to dissolve. Each time, life is leading us to a new emergence (greater light) so that we might experience more brilliance - of insight, of connection, of purpose. Through each and every breakdown - however dark it may seem - is the womb through which more light will emerge. Thus, each breakdown is a breakthrough - a state of emergenc-y in the truest sense.
 
If we so choose, we may reframe our approach to the emergencies of life. There is no denying that such seasons of change can be painful and confusing. The time spent in the midst of breakdown is a time of contraction requiring strength and endurance, and can be especially difficult if the light of breakthrough cannot be readily seen in the distance. A breakdown forces us from the comfort of the status quo so that we might acknowledge what we have too long denied. We have become dependent on habits that we have outgrown, and we are being forced to take our life to the next level.
 
Generally, breakdowns are met with fear. (Just look no further than current state of our financial sectors for evidence of this on a cultural level). The natural energy of fear is contraction, withdrawal, and sometimes panic. In times of breakdown, we are conditioned to feel smaller as we are faced with a force beyond our control. We may feel defeated, ill-equipped, and unsure of what is to come. In essence, we ask the same questions that we did not have words for as we emerged from the womb - where oh where could these contractions be taking us?!
 
I suggest we approach this time of contraction with consciousness, introspection, and a certain degree of trust. Activate your inner witness, and assess what is no longer in harmony with your most heartfelt desires. Ask yourself: What habits have I outgrown? How am I being asked to change? In what ways am I limiting the possibilities in my life? And, what am I most afraid of? In this way, we consciously engage with each contraction, willingly and openly breathing through the waves of challenge in the hope of greater insight.
 
Yet awareness, while most essential, is only the yin of it. in the end - and only you will know when it is time - you must be prepared to engage the yang within...to push your way out. Contractions get closer together; discomfort forces you into action...and you facilitate your own rebirth by taking courageous steps that align you with the potential you are stepping into.
 
Listening to the wisdom of breakdown, we learn from it, and thereby facilitate breakthroughs in our own lives. Keep in mind, reflection can be made easier in the company of a coach, an ally, or a dear friend. When we are held in the spirit of self-empathy, fear is transmuted into power. When navigated consciously, fear can actually be used as a wisdom that results in a more expansive you. Just as contractions enable birth, if allowed, fear enables new life. Contraction begets expansion. Breakdown begets breakthrough.
 
Keep in mind, most breakthroughs happen in stages. Each and every contraction bringing more awareness of how we must continually move and grow. Take it one step at a time, and know that the joy of a new path is emerging:
 

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
by Portia Nelson
 
Chapter I:
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
 
Chapter II:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
 
Chapter III:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
 
Chapter IV:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
 
Chapter V:
I walk down another street.

Seeing The Light Ahead,
Candice

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Tags: life coach portland, life coaching, shine coaching

November 2008

Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, Is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, Is it popular?
But, conscience asks the question, Is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr

Courage is be true to what is in your heart, even in the face of potential backlash. There is pressure in our culture to be politically neutral in the arena of business. Like the separation of church and state, we often keep our principles and politics out of the workplace and confine it to our homes. In many instances, there is wisdom in such intentions. Too often, personalities become intertwined in political debates and everyone loses in the need to be right. For some reason we find cause to argue, caught in the out-dated illusion that in order to be for something we have to be against someone.

Nevertheless, tonight I challenge the status quo. I step out of the box. I become transparent in my principles because, for the first time in my life, I feel the emergence of a leader who echoes my conscience. My business and my practice are really a reflection of who I am, and an aim to share my gifts through the way I am designed to serve. And so, with joy and an unprecedented feeling of my own ideals and truths reflected, I share my unabashed joy at the election of Barack Obama as the new president of the United States. In doing so, I take the risk that some of you will confuse my principles with political issues and turn a derisive ear on my musings. It's a chance I am willing to take; as I believe that truth and transparency always lead us closer to what unites us in the end.

Hope is the voice within, that in the absence of all evidence insists that Light is still present.
Hope, a fundamental SHiNE Principle.

I can't ever remember feeling connected to a political leader who lived and drew breath in my lifetime. I have yearned to feel inspired by, not only a personality, but a message that resonates at the core of who I am. My life has been a bumpy journey guiding me towards the ideals of truth, humility, grace, compassion, and most of all, hope.

I so often looked around at the world in which I lived with confusion, wondering if the unity, diplomacy, and promise that I know is possible might ever be reflected back to me on a large scale in my lifetime. As a child who moved from small town to small town, I felt isolated from the world of stability and abundance. As an adolescent I was baffled by my small but powerful reality that demanded an offensiveness of me that I didn't inherently possess. As a young college student, I dove into philosophy, religion, and ancient texts as substitutes for the leadership I yearned for in my coming of age. And as a young adult, I have often felt I am designed to live in a different world than the one reflected back to me in our cultural habits and expectations. Nevertheless, I have fought to live the life of hope through my choices. No matter what safety, expedience, and vanity might have to say...inner authority matters most of all. And there is a light inside of me - however dim it may seem at times - that says it is possible to be who I am in this world. It is indeed possible to recreate a world in which everyone feels he or she has a place and a significance.

Tonight, I shed tears of joy as I witnessed a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people like me (young, diverse, and full of promise) with light and possibility in their eyes. While I have confidence in Obama's principles and what he represents, I did not vote for a man, an issue, or an icon. I voted for a message of hope and unity. I have no doubt that as a president he will face challenges, and I pray that as Americans we offer he and his family the grace of humanness. However, it is the premise of possibility and common purpose that inspires me beyond he, the person. It is what his brilliance elicits in others that matters most to me. It's the look of determination, inspiration, and strength that I saw reflected in eyes of so many in the crowd that gathered all over the country that moved me to tears. You see, as a coach and teacher, I know the power of a will driven by purpose. Nothing stands in the way of the promise of possibility when the will is self-initiated and encouraged.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

I have never felt more certain and motivated in my work and in the potential of a new world. Tonight, I cried for the child inside of me - and the ancient archetype inside of so many around the world - who never thought someone like her could ever be fully accepted by the world in which we live.

Regardless of your political affiliation, may you have the courage to look beyond division and find a way to unify and align with the greater good that we all seek. I respect you fully for your beliefs, your principles, and your vote in any direction. May we embrace a world where we can all be honored and listened to in our joys and successes, and more importantly in our disappointments and frustrations.

Personally, I see a universal victory in the outcome of this election. In this season of long days of darkness, we are forced look to the light within - the spark of potential felt, yet unseen in the absence of sun. It is from that prick of light inside that spring is seeded. In actuality, potential for change comes not from an outside source, but from our own conviction and inner compass in life. May we all tend to the hope within in order to unite in a common purpose. After all, in the end, it is our differences that empower and enable us to experience deep love, living in a symphonic harmony that sameness simply cannot express.

Yours as a New American,
Candice

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Tags: life coach portland, obama hope

kNew eyes
In a posting entitled; reaming with Eyes Open">Dreaming With Eyes Open, I shared a recurrent dream that I have been having recently. One where I am stuck inside of a dream... yet conscious and aware of my sleeping state. Wide awake in my subconscious, yet my eyes locked shut to the world around me. I struggle to open my eyes, and they will not obey. I have to wait in the darkness until they say it's time. Upon reflecting on this dream, I have waited to know what it is that I have my eyes closed to. What reality am I not willing to see?

My eyes are finally opening to the light.

You see, this weekend, I experienced a death. Not a death of the literal sense, but a death to a belief, a way of seeing, and a subsequent reality. There was a moment when life delivered me a message that shook me... quite literally. An aspect of my existence that I had begun to take for granted dissolved before my eyes in only a moment. And everything was seen to through knew eyes.

When I received the revelation of a knew and unexpected truth, I became immediately aware that I was experiencing something that conflicted with everything that I had constructed as true in my body and mind. I witnessed as my mental and emotional grids began to break down, and my body shook with a cellular fever. I was asked in a moment to accept something that led to the immediate deconstruction of a set of beliefs, and subsequent reality. And as such, my body (my molecular reality) was experiencing a quickening. It had to catch up. As my body assimilated the news it shook uncontrollably. And my mind immediately began to do its job... rebuilding structures to support this knewness... and, due to the sheer scope of the job, it became awkwardly stuck in its inability to restore balance so quickly. As a result, the wisdom of my being took over and shock kicked in... protecting me from processing, and leaving my energy body free to work in its own time.

The details of the drama that led to this transmutation within are unimportant. It is the lesson of any healing crisis is to experience a reality devastated. If the knew reality is sickness... health is the reality that has been devastated. If the knew reality is divorce... the reality of companionship is dissolving. Whatever the case, the body-mind is challenged in all that it holds true.

What fascinates me is the ease that emerges in the face of trauma when a reality is allowed to dissolve, without the added stress to the body and mind to reinvent itself in that instance. In short, destruction is allowed, unfettered by the need to create anew in that moment. The only reality that is known is that in the moment. I have found in the past week when I allow the moment to be the only foundation of my knowing... my being can recreate itself again and again, gracefully in each moment. And the ego attachment to the dramas of devastation no longer rein over the situation.

The Spider Mind
What also comes up for me is the vulnerability of what the mind learns to lean one. Belief is a series of thoughts that create a mental grid... a web that the mind can stick things to. But what happens when a knew reality emerges. One that busts through and deconstructs the grid - much like inadvertantly walking through the tedious artfulness of the spider's web. The grid that was once strong enough to hold on (conveniently bridging the past to the present)... is suddenly revealed in its vulnerability with forcefulness. Like the spider's web, our mental grids (or realities) have the strength to brave a swift and easy breeze. Yet when a strong wind sweeps through, the web is deconstructed immediately. And yet what do our spider-minds typically do? Their job. They learn to weave again. The mind does anything in its power to gather up new thoughts and beliefs that fit together well enough to recreate an equally vulnerable reality.

And that spider-mind creation... a knew reality... it reverberates to bring things into being. When a spider weaves its web, it waits for prey to attach to it. This attachment (or catch) creates a vibration that the spider learns to recognize. Each catch feeds the spider to generate more web space in the future. The mind is similar in some regards. When a thought resonates with a reality that we have already constructed, it sticks in our mind and creates a vibration. Each vibration feeds that grid of belief... and, as a result, a reality is trusted as it is confirmed through experience. The trouble is, the mind preys on that which will cause the grid to vibrate, affirming itself.

Thoughts such as "I am not enough."... "No one will love me"... or "I don't believe I can do it" work together to create the grid of not being worthy. The mind seeks to feed that grid, preying on perspectives that will stick to the construct. Thus, experiences, people, and circumstances that support thinking in such a way are attracted. And - more often than not - an otherwise neutral reality is tainted by the lens of the mental grids already in place.

So how do we see more clearly?
We make peace with the mind by becoming clear about its unique brilliance as well as where it falls short. Let us be clear that peace of mind is not defined as passive acceptance, inaction, or inertia. Peace is a dynamic process. Peace, as Mahatma Gandhi taught us, is proactive and diligent in its integrity. Peace of mind is a non-violent way of bearing witness, one where we neither accept the status quo passively nor aggressively fight against it.

Letting kNew Light In
Oftentimes, when a way of thinking and being in our world needs to shift, we miss the subtle cues. We get stuck dancing frantically with our shadows, ignoring the light at our backs. In such cases, unhealthy grids are functioning in our lives, but in our unawareness we don't see them until they are destroyed by the sheer force of sudden change, forcing us to turn around (aka: turn within) and take notice. At that moment we can see the grid with brilliance and clarity. That is, if we are willing.

The infinite SHiNE of our spirit is like a sun that is constant shedding an endless and accessible source of awareness from deep within. And I know from experience, when we are not able to connect to that light, it WILL one day connect to us. Like the Earth turning on its axis, the passage of time will operate in such a way that our grids will inevitably be revealed to us. The real question is, are we willing to allow the light to dissolve webs of what was once knew?

I am honored by my recent challenges, as I have been dared by my circumstances to discover the peace of the Unknown... and the glory of SHiNE. SHiNE is a choice to connect to brilliance no matter what... and as a sensation, it can only be found in the moment. Now that is true knowledge, if you ask me.

Tags: spider mind, Awakening, shadows, metaphysics

Tonight I danced in the shadows....

The details of the interaction that led up to it are unimportant... as always, the story only serves to reveal the inner dramas still stirring. An interaction triggered a subtle darkness within... and the inner dialogue which slow crept forth led me to tears. And to an unexpected late night communion.

I am grateful for fear. It is a rare friend in that it alone has the power to bring me to my knees. Quite literally.
Tonight it brought me to my knees in thePortal... first in despair... then in prayer... and finally I kneel in truth through these words in service to you.

You see, I teach in order to learn. I have found that there is no greater motivation for teaching than self-inquiry. Most of the things that come forth through me I do not claim to be a master of. Far from it. I receive through the voice that is mine so that I might learn to listen. Live your brilliance, I say to those around me. Trust in your unique genius... and in its inherent grace. Embrace humility courageously - enough to surrender your path while you SHiNE your light boldly forth... knowing that you are but a vessel for the evolution of a species...

All these things I say to you.
Yet still, I am afraid.
And the louder my voice gets, the more afraid I become of the message that screams from my every cell.

SHiNE teaches me too. This could be more accurately said:
SHiNE teaches me to.
(Read that closely. It's a small, but deeply relevant distinction in language.)

I have many inspirations throughout each day that I could share with you as blog postings. Yet, I find any excuse not to. This or that idea is too undeveloped... those old journal entries are too much to mess with... there is not time in the day... or, sometimes my excuse is immediately transparent with truth: what if I have no idea what I am talking about... what then? It's better not to take such a chance, yes?

You see, but none of this is about the value of my blog postings, the book I want to write, or any objective I might point to. It's about me believing in myself. It's about knowing that, in the end, my choice to share my brilliance (aka: my way of being in the world) has nothing to do with being good enough for you, for me, or for anyone else. It has everything to do with latching on to the inspirations that strike my heart and mind and riding them to a place that transcends the good opinion of others. How can it be authentic and pure when it is first weighed on the scales of who will and will not agree... like it... or pay good money? Not the point, you see. All brilliance exists in order to shed light so that others might see better. What they feel about what they do or do not see is not the point of the light that we shine... we share perspectives not to seek validation, but in order that we all might become more clear. And we learn to be okay with the fact that clarity has infinite interpretations.

And so as I rested on the earth in prostration tonight, I realized via my body's choice of posture... SHiNE is a way of being that invites communion at the innermost altar. It is being and doing in a manner that confirms the true expression of who I really am in my highest expression of self... that which I source from within. To truly live with such a passion for self-integrity at all costs requires courage. And courage means moving forward in spite of fear. Movement must exist... and movement along the path of self-actualization causes fear to rise to the surface, revealing more of me. In this way, fear becomes an ally to let us know that we are honoring the nudge from within. In fact, fear should never be hidden. It is meant to be called by name and dispelled through action. I believe that fear is just a buffer that exists between unexpressed brilliance and the outside world. And thus, it must move in order that you might do the same.

And so tonight, I make peace. I am grateful for my fear... as it always leads to the shadowy spaces within.

And those shadows... seductive in their story-telling though they might seem... well, they are nothing more than a signal that there is light present somewhere nearby. You only need shift your gaze slightly to see that which stands between the brilliance and that darkness reflected on the other side. What is in the way of the light is you... it is only ever you. And that's the good news. Ah yes, that is very good news indeed.

Tags: shine coaching, life coaching, humility, grace