Posted on Tue, May 08, 2012 @ 07:25 PM
We’re addicted to narrative. We want to know what he said, why she said it, and what they meant when they said it. That’s fine to get tied up in the web of language. It happens. But is that the point? Are we ever really satisfied when we get the answers to our questions? Probably not. At least not for long. I wonder if we’re asking the right question. Maybe it’s not about what they said but how we feel. What did this exchange bring up in you? Did you suddenly feel threatened, your stomach harden, your throat clenched? Did you suddenly feel like kid again, ashamed for something you weren’t supposed to do? Did you suddenly get sad, angry, or cold? What happened to you?Everything is an aspect of process. Even ‘suddenly’ isn’t really all that sudden. Your personal narrative is changing all the time. You are actually someone else in any given moment. Look in to this. How are you feeling? Where are you feeling it? Can you drop the story and take in the body? Can you engage the senses and let the mind pause? What is the raw emotion? Can you let it pass though you?Children teach us so much. Take away a child’s favorite toy during playtime and they’ll kick, scream, and turn purple. They need to express. But then its over. The child is on to something else, a new toy, a game with a friend, singing in the car seat. It passes. It’s not about the story ~ a feeling was born, it had to be released and then the child could move on.If feeling your emotions is hard for you ~ try doing this alone. Then later you can explore this with someone you love. Be curious about what your body is saying or needing. Just feel what you feel. This is how you build emotional intelligence, which is a necessary gateway to intuition. Feel it ~ the story is gone. What’s happening within you is now. Be here now.
About the Author:
Denmo is the founder and CEO of
Earthbody, an organic day spa for healing in Hayes Valley. She also formulates Earthbody Organics, a therapeutic line of bodycare inspired by the principles of Ayurveda. Denmo is a successful entrepreneur, highly sought healer, wellness educator, playwright, poet, and performer. Denmo leads a team of healers and the Integral Workshop programs of Anatomy of Healing© and Posture of Joy© yearly. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Naropa University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University. She is a graduate of the World School of Holistic Healing, Mount Madonna Institute’s School of Ayurveda, and San Francisco School of Massage. A licensed Bodywork Therapist and Meditation Instructor through Dharma Ocean, Denmo has spent years exploring somatic practices in retreat, community, and business.
Posted on Sat, May 05, 2012 @ 07:15 PM
Are you struggling to get the respect and credit you deserve at work? It might be your good girl kicking in. You don't have to be like Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada, but every day at work and in life, women do simple verbal and non-verbal behaviors that erode their personal power without realizing it.
Here are some of the biggest offenders. Are you guilty of any of them?
1. Don't look people at directly when speaking or listening. Your eyes speak volumes. Good girls have a tendency to glance at people's eyes and quickly look away. Instead, when you speak to someone look directly in their eyes and hold that pose. When listening, keep your eyes fixed on the person and you will influence their interest of you even though you're silent.
2. End sentences with a question mark? Many women bring their voice up at the end of a sentence, making it feel like a question. It's as if they want you to affirm that what they're thinking is ok because they're so unsure of themselves? Don't make others wonder if you're competent to handle things. Focusing on making statements. Don't you think?
3. Play with your hair. You may not even notice that you're playing with your hair, but such gestures often send the signal that you're uncertain, feeling intimidated or nervous. Playing with your hair also the connotation of being flirtatious and a sign of sexual attraction, which is a major distraction if you want to be taken seriously.
4. Over-explain. Women tend to over-complain and over-explain. Time and again competent, intelligent woman explain to the nth degree why she made a decision, including all the background events of who said what, who did what, then what happened, and on and on. As a result, her stature and power seep out of the room. You owe the world results, not an explanation.
5. Use trendy expression such as, "I was like..." Trendy, popular phrases are fleeting and usually aren't powerful so use them sparingly. Swearing may get attention but is generally considered unprofessional, although, what the hell, it can be effective now and then! If you laughed just now and got the point, it's because humor is a very powerful communication technique, too. But, watch out! Humor can work against you when used to put down others
6. Believe appearance shouldn't matter. Given today's more casual workplace, it's easy to think that your appearance doesn't matter. It does. Ill-fitting, outdated clothes can communicate you have less energy and are less effective. Dressing for the position you want exudes confidence and a willingness to take on more responsibility. And, unfortunately, a Cornell University study shows that being overweight can limit your earning potential.
About Mary Foley
Get more free resources to increase your career confidence at http://www.MaryFoley.com. Mary Foley inspires women with practical advice to create sanity for their lives and confidence for their careers – all while having a bit of fun! She is the author of three books , a popular national speaker, and former co-host of the Girlfriend We Gotta Talk! radio show.
Posted on Wed, May 02, 2012 @ 07:03 PM
GIRLVENTURES’ UNIQUE APPROACH TO OUTDOOR ADVENTURE FOR INNER DISCOVERY
For the past 15 years, GirlVentures has been using the Bay Area’s wilderness areas to empower adolescent girls to develop and express their strengths through outdoor activities such as backpacking, rock climbing, and kayaking. They were founded on the belief that every girl has natural strengths that will help her develop into a healthy woman. Therefore, they invest in girls during the transition from childhood to young adulthood by encouraging them to stretch beyond their comfort zones and explore new physical, social, emotional and creative activities. They have seen that nurturing and exercising these strengths in safe and supportive environments makes a lasting impact that helps girls reach their full potential.
Their programs follow a Leadership Progression Model enabling girls to build on their leadership skills beginning in the 6th grade and continuing throughout high school. To date they have taught more than 3,800 girls how to live healthy, relate wisely to themselves and the environment, and emerge as confident leaders in our communities.
Core to their success and unique among nonprofits in the Bay Area is their commitment to bringing together girls from diverse ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. This rich diversity provides a rare opportunity for girls to embrace what makes each of them unique and to learn about and appreciate similarities and differences in others. To see how their programs work, watch their latest video Project Courage: On Course With GirlVentures.
OPPORTUNITY FOR FUTURE WOMEN LEADERS COMMUNITY
This year the organization is inviting 12 women to participate in a GirlVentures-style program in Pinnacles National Monument. This 3-day Women's Weekend held on May 4th-6th is designed to enhance your teamwork and problem solving skills in a natural setting. Participants will camp among the trees, rock climb on volcanic spires, hike throughout the park, spot endangered California condors, and count shooting stars. All participants will receive a free gift from ISIS, an outdoor clothing brand for women.
By participating in this adventure, you will ensure ALL girls have access to these empowering outdoor leadership programs. Proceeds will build a scholarship fund, raising nearly $10,000 for girls from low-income families. As GirlVentures deliberately brings together girls from different backgrounds, 66% of girls in each course receive partial to full scholarships to participate.
To learn more and to sign up for this amazing adventure visit: www.girlventures.org.
Posted on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 @ 02:26 AM
The business card. A small card that fits in the palm of your hand yet one of the most dreaded design activities for many. Afterall, your business card says so much about you as a professional, and even more daunting it keeps speaking long after you are gone!
Lucky for us the folks over at businesscards.com have created an awesome inforgraphic to walk you through this surprisingly complex process. Enjoy!
Created by
BusinessCards.com
Posted on Wed, Mar 14, 2012 @ 01:48 AM
The parallels that can be drawn between competitive sports and a competitive workplace are endless. Our adult lives in the office or work place are really no different than our lives in a competitive academic program, a big baseball game, or a relay race at a swim meet. We have to compete with others and ourselves in order to accomplish our goals. There are few people out there that argue the benefits of playing sports for adolescents and teens. However, there's more to the benefits of athletics than just physical activity and friendship. No doubt these two aspects are important, but there are many other reasons that sports are beneficial for our younger generation. In a world so seemingly dominated at times by men, it is important to recognize what girls in particular can gain from playing competitive sports. Consider these four reasons that girls should participate in competitive sports at an early age to become stronger and more successful leaders in the future.
Academics
Study after study has shown that girls who play sports do better in school academically on average than girls who do not play sports. While, of course, this is just an average, it is fairly persuasive. Regular physical activity in general improves learning, memory, and concentration. So, at a very basic level, exercise promotes our ability to learn and think. While some people worry that competitive sports can distract young students from their school work, committing to regular practices and a consistent schedule can actually make managing time easier. Student athletes learn to manage busier schedules and are therefore more focused when it is study time.
Goal-Setting
Competitive sports teach kids how to set goals that are both reachable and productive. While sports are about competing for your team, they are more so about accomplishing things for yourself and competing with yourself. Girls learn the value of setting challenging goals for themselves and find the satisfaction of reaching those goals when they participate in sports at a young age. Goal-setting is one of the most fundamental aspects of becoming a successful adult. By learning to set goals that are both reasonable and worthwhile at a young age, girls can be better prepared for the challenges of adulthood.
Leadership
Leadership is one of those terms that gets thrown around pretty loosely. All of us have the potential to become wonderful and successful leaders if we put the effort into it and find the drive to do so. However, there are many aspects of becoming a strong leader that can be learned at a young age and practiced for many years. Sports allow youngsters to find a leadership role among their peers. Athletes become role models for their teammates and peers whether they are the actual "captain" or leader of the team or not. Working towards a common goal and finding the self-motivation to strive for personal goals is one of the fundamental aspects of becoming a strong leader.
Disappointment
While athletic goal-setting can help young girls recognize the satisfaction of completing a difficult task, it can also help young girls learn to manage personal disappointment. With all things in life and at any age there comes disappointment and letdown. Learning to manage personal disappointment is an essential sign of maturity and strength. In business as an adult and sports as a teenager, there are bound to be some goals that are never met and some games that are not won. Sports at a young age helps kids learn to manage that disappointment and grow from it. In order to become a strong and confident leader, a woman (and individual) must learn to bounce back from their failures and try harder. This is potentially one of the most important lessons sports can teach kids at a young age.
By-line:
Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.
Posted on Wed, Mar 07, 2012 @ 12:11 AM
We are truly connected, always on as never before in history. Between 1999 and 2009 our consumption of media has increased from 7 hours 29 minutes to 10 hours 45 minutes daily. To put this in perspective...people are spending more time engaging with media (tv, music/audio, computer, video games, print, and movies) than they are sleeping. Multi-tasking in 1999 consumed 16% of our time. In 2009 this climbed to 29%.
This constant connection with smartphones, laptops, and social media forces your brain to rapidly jump back and forth between activities - essentially competing streams of thought. The brain does not have the ability to perform two tasks at the same time. Instead, you are sending a message to your brain that one activity is more important than the other and this folks is called prioritization.
That begs the question...how often are you changing your mind about what is the most important priority under the umbrella of multitasking? Think of a recent meeting.....the email alert you paid attention to, the text you got, and when you checked your facebook newsfeed. Were all of those things more important than the meeting you were attending? How much content in your meeting did you really absorb? The answer is that we are doing this too often, not allowing our brains the time that is truly needed to perform a task well, and increasing this type of behavior at an alarming rate. And it is ruining your productivity.
Dr. Paul Atchley, Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Kansas stated in a recent article "Based on over a half-century of cognitive science and more recent studies on multitasking, we know that multitaskers do less and miss information. It takes time (an average of 15 minutes) to re-orient to a primary task after a distraction such as an email. Efficiency can drop by as much as 40%. Long-term memory suffers and creativity — a skill associated with keeping in mind multiple, less common, associations — is reduced."
Multitasking isn't bad when it is recognized as shifting your attention based upon changing priorities and allowing yourself time to focus on the new priority. This is an essential skill for business leaders. However, this does not include allowing distractions from our lives (tweets, texts, facebook, emails, etc) to do just that...distract us. That my friends...is not multitasking...it is disrespectful to people around you and makes you a "multidistractor". This behavior sends the message to co-workers that you have difficulty focusing and lack discipline....the opposite of how you should brand yourself at work.
Ways you can change from a multidistractor to effective prioritization:
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It's a no-brainer. In a meeting, close your laptop and turn your smart phone upside down. Turn vibration mode off.
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If your laptop must be open during a meeting (taking notes, etc) either deactivate your email software alerts or close your email software completely.
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When you need to check your smart phone - excuse yourself from a conversation and explain why. If you don't feel comfortable doing that then you shouldn't be on your phone.
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Don't try to slyly respond to texts or emails via your smartphone under the table. You are not fooling anyone.
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If you refuse to "unplug" from distractions during a meeting accept that you will understand less than everyone else in the room. Don't waste time asking questions that have already been covered but you were too busy typing an email to hear.
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Schedule time to check your primary distractions. Only check them during this time.
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Explain at the beginning of meetings you hold that you expect laptops to be shut down and phones face down. Ask people in the room to leave if they must use these devices. Hint: they are far less likely to do so.
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Don't reward the multidistractors behavior in meetings. When they ask for information that has already been covered (that you suspect they missed because of multidistracting) ask the room if everyone would like more clarity. If it is just that person explain that you will speak to them after the meeting to provide what they missed. If you work with them often address the problem with constructive feedback.
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For vitual meetings keep to the rules above.
From Rasmussen College, Multitasking: This Is Your Brain On Media is an infographic design that looks at some of the research behind multitasking.
New reports find that multi-taskers are “lousy at everything that’s necessary for multi-tasking.” Considering the amount of time people spend with around-the-clock access to TV, the Internet and mobile devices, it’s not surprising. This infographic looks at the causes and effects of multi-tasking.
About the author: Celeste Paradise is a multi award-winning Silicon Valley Professional with 10+ years IT experience in media, advertising, operations management/optimization, social media & marketing from start-up to non-profit to Fortune 500. She holds a graduate degree in Information Systems Security, certifications in SCRUM & Product Management, and graduate certificates in business strategy, program management, and information system security. You can connect with her via: 
Posted on Fri, Mar 02, 2012 @ 12:55 AM
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Posted on Wed, Feb 29, 2012 @ 03:35 PM
Are you considering seeking employment elsewhere, but you’re not sure if you have the necessary training to succeed? If you’re thinking about taking your career down a new path, make sure you are making the right decision by first considering several important factors.
Assess your expertise. Do you know more about your job than your supervisor does? How many times have you been in a position for years only to have a newcomer become your boss? It can be frustrating for you, as a hard-working individual, to watch your new boss stumble for the answers to questions that you can answer with ease. Don’t feel you have to be stuck in a job where you are under-appreciated. Evaluate various options within and outside your company to expand your career path and move up the corporate ladder.
Stuck in a rut? If you have been stagnant in the same career for years as you watch others pass you by, you may want to consider expanding your options. Exciting opportunities could be waiting around the corner if you add a few skills and expertise to your repertoire. Find ways to make a more significant contribution instead of resigning yourself to feeling as if you are stuck with nowhere to go. If your skills and expertise need sharpening, assess your shortcomings and outline a plan for advancement.
Explore your options. There should be a sense of excitement about what it is that you do for a living and not just a place to earn a paycheck. Numerous studies have shown that when you are happy in what you do for a living, more than likely you will be more productive=. When you dread going to work on a regular basis, chances are you will not give your best and your work performance will suffer as a result. Happiness is the key to success in your career path, so explore your options to choose the career you always dreamed of.
Invest in your future. If you are worried about going back to school and being able to fit it in with your busy schedule, don’t stress yourself out about the situation any longer. Consider pursuing an online mba program for all of your future career moves. If you can carve out time to go back to school and expand your knowledge while working in your current job, you have the ideal recipe for expanding your career options. With an advanced college degree, you may be surprised by how many new options may become available to you.
Jesse Langley lives near Chicago. She divides her time among work, blogging and family life. She advocates for online mba programs and has a keen interest in women's leadership roles in contemporary society. She also writes for www.professionalintern.com.
Posted on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 @ 05:10 PM
In the case of every historic scientific discovery and invention that is researched carefully enough, we find that it was imagery, either in dreams or in a waking state, which produced the breakthrough.
- John Curtis Gowan
Creative individuals mentally play with images all the time, no matter what field they work in. But research shows that all of us are embedded in the world of mental imagery all the time... and our cognitive systems are based in metaphor. Even individuals who define themselves as "less creative" are at their most creative when they actively engage with images. While we may think of metaphors as tools to enrich our speech, the truth is that we are always looking through a metaphoric lens. We teach, learn and make changes through metaphor.
The metaphors that we subconsciously hold shape and define us; they give us the lenses through which we look at the world around us. Seeing the world as a hostile force, viewing other cultures as “enemies.” or believing that life is about making lemonade out of lemons are all examples of metaphoric lenses.
Last year I attended a prestigious conference that is one of the premiere leading-edge forums in the world for social and cultural change. While most of the conference was quite inspiring, I was shocked to hear one of the keynote speakers consistently speak of his work in the Amazon rain forest as a battle against the large corporations who are destroying it. He was pumped up and aggressive, literally describing his mission as one of amassing “guns” and “tanks.” This man may have thought his message was rebalancing the ecosystem in the Amazon. But on a much more penetrating level, his message was war.
Metaphors are much more than interesting or quirky forms of expression. As the ground of our thinking, they are the “medium” through which we filter our thoughts and ideas. By extension, they play an important role in both individual and social change. It’s likely that real change happens on a metaphoric level, only later becoming evident on the physical level in the occurrences of daily life. Thus, when we notice and change our metaphoric pictures, we subsequently alter our thoughts and actions.
As George Lakoff has elegantly described, for most of us, the Republican party tends to conjure up images of security and family, while the Democratic party brings to mind protest marches and rallies for individual rights. Which images are more compelling to you? The politicians who are able to master metaphor are the ones who make an impact. Here are some reasons why metaphor has such an important role for initiating change:
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Metaphors provide concrete imagery. In his book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath writes that a primary quality of an idea that sticks is that it embodies a concrete image. For example, in religious proverbs abstract truths are often encoded in metaphoric language, such as the phrase: “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “Sticky” ideas are full of concrete imagery.
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Metaphors make something universal. We live in a somatic world—we all have bodies that feel and senses that see and smell and hear the world around us. When someone says, “he was as cold as ice” we immediately understand what is meant in a visceral way. Metaphors facilitate our understanding.
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Metaphors suggest a story and/or felt emotion. Advertisers know that if they want to sell us something, they need to make us feel something. Deep down, we all want to feel life moving through us.
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Metaphors satisfy our heart’s longing for beauty. Metaphors are aesthetic; they’re like little pieces of art. Wouldn’t you rather hear about a “bird in the bush” than hear a series of projected numbers?
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Metaphors offer shades of gray. When you frame something metaphorically, it can be interpreted in multiple ways. It is likely that what the world needs now is not black-and-white ideas like capitalism and communism, but more creative combinations of ideas and methods. Metaphors take us into a creative realm.
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Metaphors “work” us. Metaphors are fuzzy and open to interpretation. Meaning is communicated in a less precise way, which in turn initiates a process of learning in the listener. Since metaphors are not literal, they force us to search for meaning.
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Metaphors surprise us. Eckhart Tolle called metaphors a way to "awaken us from the old grooves of repetitive and conditioned thinking." A good metaphor offers something fresh and renewing.
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Metaphors are inherently democratic. A good metaphor is not "flat" — it invites us to participate in it and offers a gamut of possibilities. We can find our own interpretation within it—there is no single “truth.”
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Metaphors are powerful. Metaphors are capable of creating new understandings and therefore, new realities.
For most of the thorny social issues that confront us in modern society, it’s useful to shift our focus to the metaphoric level. Every idea or solution that you propose embodies a way of seeing. Reality is always coming through a pair of glasses, a point of view. Reality is inherently creative.
About the Author:
Kim Hermanson is core faculty at Meridian University, and currently serves as adjunct faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, the Sophia Center at Holy Names University, and Esalen Institute. She is also the Arts Education Writer for the San Francisco Examiner.com. Previous teaching engagements include the Chaplaincy Institute, Book Passage, Berkeley City College,Flathead Valley Community College, University of California Berkeley Extension, and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. You can visit her website at: http://aestheticspace.typepad.com/aesthetic_space/
Posted on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 @ 04:50 PM
If one wishes to know love, one must live love, in action. Leo Buscaglia
We are all born from Gods’ love – we die with Gods’ love and we do all we can do to find love in between our birth and our death. Searching, seeking and longing for that true love……we were created to LOVE....
What is it about LOVE and why is it so hard to find?
I’m certain there are thousands upon thousands of stories written on the subject of ecstacy and longing. Music galore about rising in love or falling out of love and many sonnets written about the heart connection.
We find love, we spend time with love, and know this must be LOVE, and then we do all we can to sabotage love, and walk away from it, in order to go find a more suitable love, for we think the grass is greener on the other side.
I really don’t get it – Do you?
Is love an emotion, a feeling, a verb or noun? The road to love can be long or not so long, can be lovely, can be adventurous, can be filled with joy or pain, can be a multitude of things. I looked up the definition of love and this is what I found. Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. When I Googled, “What is it about love,” I found: QUIZ: Is it Love? WOW – now you can take a quiz to make sure it’s love! (I’m not sure if I want to do that)…..
Scientists say that the brain chemistry of infatuation is akin to mental illness - which gives new meaning to “madly in love.”
Love is about how the other person makes you feel. The fact of the matter is that love involves non-verbal reactions – synaptic (chemical) connections within our brains. Since I love to research, I did some research on LOVE.
I discovered that the species that stick to one mate usually have a rich flow of another chemical called vasopressin, the “monogamy” chemical. Experiments done with males injected with this chemical brought out all the evidence needed. Isolating males before and after mating, he was indifferent to all females. But 24 hours after mating, he is hooked for life. The jealous husband syndrome sets in too.
Another chemical is oxytocin, the “cuddling” chemical. It promotes the need to be physically held, have close contact with the mater, and makes the sexes more caring. It can be released simply by a lover’s look, smell or even a fantasy.
When infatuation subsides, another chemical takes over which is responsible for intimate relationships, these chemicals are created by endorphins. They make a relationship steadier, intimate, dependable, warm and a great sharing experience. They do not induce a giddy high, but calmness and stability….hence the reason why people stay married. This chemical is addictive so the longer a couple stays married, the longer two people stay together. It is endorphins that trigger grief on a spouse’s death or long separation, those yearnings for togetherness. Adrenaline love is being in love with the idea of being in love. With endorphin love, we like loving someone.
There are foods that can intensify love.....
We eat aphrodisiacs (named after the Greek Goddess of Love – Aphrodite) to enhance love: chocolate, oysters, turtle eggs eaten raw with salt and lime (haven’t tried this one yet); asparagus, almonds, avocado, bananas, basil, figs, garlic and honey. It was suggested by a very "special man" in my life - "Why not prepare a dinner to include each of these foods?"
Now that we know about the chemicals and foods involved in the “love” process:
What is it about love and the longing to have it in our lives?
There are so many dating sites to meet the “ONE” but yet we are lonelier and lonelier as a society. Here are a few statistics from Match.com: People over age 50 makes up Match.com’s fastest growing segment of users, with a 300% increase since 2000.
WHAT is that all about?
Is it because our biological clocks of younger years is ticking away and we wake up one day with more wrinkles and the reality that we are not getting any younger and no one to share our golden years with…..
I WANT A PARTNER/MATE NOW SYNDROME?
75% of women and 81% of men in their 50s experience a serious, exclusive relationship after a divorce. (this to me is great news)
There really are a lot of fish in the sea: According to the Census Bureau, 29% of adults age 45-59 are now single, compared with only 19% in 1980.
I listen to so many single women and I hear, “Where are the men?” I listen to so many single men and they say, “Where are the women?” They must “NOT” be out there since I’m hearing the same thing from both sexes; or are they and the real reason we haven’t found the ONE for us is because we have been so busy in dating so many men and men women, that it’s been a distraction in truly discovering ourselves out and working on US? I read in Don Miguel Ruiz book, The Mastery of Love that we must be 100% complete in ourselves in order to attract that perfect one for you. Once you accept yourself just the way you are, the next step is to accept your partner.
It makes sense to me, does it you?
If you have the eyes of love, you just see love wherever you are, even in the imperfect – Wabi Sabi. When you perceive with the eyes of love, you can connect your will with the will of another dreamer, and the dream becomes ONE. Then you can see with the eyes of an eagle or transform into any kind of life. With your love you connect with the eagle and you become the wings. But to do this, you need to clean the mind of fear and perceive with the eyes of love. If you can open your heart completely to your partner, you can reach heaven through your love.
When we fulfill the needs of our mind and our body, our eyes see with love. We see God everywhere. I love what Don Miguel Ruiz says, “But when we know that our heart is a magical kitchen, we are always generous, and our love is completely unconditional.” I love the anology of our heart being a magical kitchen.....
I believe we have this "Jerry McGuire" notion of love in the famous line from the movie where Tom Cruise tells Renee Zellweger , “You complete me.” Are you kidding me – why did they not edit that line from the movie? Hey, it’s Hollywood and they can say anything to make us say, “AWWWWWHHHHHH – why doesn’t anyone say that to me????” So we look for someone that can say to us, “You complete me.” I believe a better term may be – “You compliment me.”……. It truly is a beautiful gift to us when we compliment and not complete. I much rather use the term from the movie, "As Good As It Gets" where Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt, "you make me want to be a better man."
Once we awaken to self and clean up our houses (our temples -mind and body), then the awakening is like being at a party where there are hundreds of people and everyone is drunk except you. You are the only sober person at the party. Most humans see the world through their emotional wounds, through their emotional poison. Here lies the problem of not being awake and aware.
When in the awakened state, your heart is an expression of the Spirit, an expression of Love, an expression of Life. It’s being aware that you are Life. When you are aware that you are the force that is Life, anything is possible. Miracles happen all the time, because those miracles are performed by the heart. The heart is in communion with the human soul, and when the heart speaks even with the resistance of the mind, something inside you changes; your heart opens another heart, and TRUE LOVE is possible. It’s in opening another’s heart there lies the chemicals, the passion, the Love that we are ALL either trying to find or keep.
My girlfriend Giovanna stated it so eloquently to me this past week, “almost all relationships start with what can I "get" from it rather then what can I "bring" to it; I believe that we have to be selfless and selfishness abounds us these days….the other part is to choose wisely. We tend to choose what is familiar to us whether it feels good or not because it is what we know…we change it by our thoughts about ourselves, our actions and constant vigilance of those thoughts…..BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!
WE MUST FEEL WORTHY OF LOVE FOR LOVE TO COME…..
Love enables you to stand for yourself in an honorable and gracious way; with no hidden agendas; with no room for negativity. In its purest form – UNCONDITIONAL! My friend 
Jimmy has a website Life Architects and stated it this way on my guest blogger Angie's comments on, "Only Time Can Reveal If It's Real": "true love is attached to us with invisible ties. These ties connect our spirits and souls that only we can understand."
For the MAGIC of love and the volumes written and sung about it; it continues to afflict us generation after generation.
So the bottom line in all this LOVE talk is we are put on this earth to experience LOVE in its purest form – to get closer to our GOD for HIS love is unconditional – and in so doing we discover that HE is LOVE, LIGHT and TRUTH – all the things that we search for in a lifetime are all wrapped up in our Divine. We crave all these things in human form – so it is in acquiring the eyes of GOD and having your eyes fixed on HIM, then this should make the love process easier to find and keep, for love never fails.....
Where there is GREAT LOVE, there are GREAT MIRACLES…..
L’amore vince tutto (Love conquers all)…. (Italian)
I invite you to share your thoughts on this?
Remember, may the possibilities of today excite us all!
Nancy Shields has a passion to create a better world by connecting and inspiring women! She is the creator of www.makeGirlfriends.com, a social networking site designed for women to meet.share.inspire one another through the adventure we call life! Nancy's inspiration came 3 years ago when she discovered that her husband was having an affair. She had two choices; become a victim or turn a negative into a positive. So she positively packed her bags and landed in the farthest state she could choose, California. Once home, Nancy vividly recalls a conversation she had with a girlfriend about the nightmare of dating. The concept of MakeGirlfriends.com was born and in action. "It really works!", says Nancy. Here, women can connect with other “girlfriends”, because without our “girlfriends” in life, it can get tough out there! Nancy encourages women to share their inspirational stories on the homepage called “YOUR VOICE”. You never know how many lives you will touch by sharing your story...she can be reached via email at nancy@makegirlfriends.com.