Joyce Lee Life Coaching Moment

Sugar cookies, eggnog, fruit cake, chocolate, decadent desserts, wine, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, butter, whipped cream, nuts…did I mention chocolate?

Gift wrapping, 24 hour shopping, line-ups, debit machines, parties… all that glitters…

T’is the season of the feasts. T’is the season of excess.

Are you worried that you are going to overindulge in all the holiday excess that shows up everywhere this time of the year?

• Are you already stressed about the weight you are doomed to gain?
• Are you already making your New Year’s Resolutions?
• Did you get into trouble last year?
• Have you thought about the kinds of situations you will find your self in and planned for them?

What will your holiday season look like this year?

I am looking forward to a glimpse into your way of walking through this time of the year…

Peace on Earth…

This is a companion post the the full article in my biweekly ezine Notes to Self.  If you are not signed up to receive the ezine, simply fill in your information at the top right of this page.

Anyone who has it knows that stress does not feel good and it is not a great platform to create your experience from.  When you are stressed, your day to day living is affected…

• your children are affected                       
• your partner/spouse is affected
• your work is affected
• your health is affected
• your ability to make empowered choices is affected
• your sense of well-being is less that it is supposed to be.

Want a quick assessment of how much stress you have?  Take this simplified assessment.  Please note that this is not a clinical test… if you happen to score high, you need to do something about it.

1-never  2-rarely  3-sometimes  4-often  5-always

1. I worry a lot
2. I have a lot of problems
   
3. Work interferes with my home/family life
4. I have a hard time laughing at my humaness
5. I think there is one right way to do things
6. I feel I often get the short end of the stick
   
7. I am easily irritated or upset
8. I have problems in my personal life
9. I keep things inside I have difficulty making decisions
10. I tend to neglect my diet (eat irregularly, eat unhealthy foods etc.)
11. I try to do everything myself
12. I rush through the day and have little time left to relax
13. I tend to make a big deal about everything
14. I spend a lot of time complaining & being negative
15. I have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
16. I suffer from headaches/migraines or digestive issues
17. I feel fatigued/tired for no real reason

Scoring:

0 - 30 Low Stress

31- 50 Fairly Low

51 - 70 Moderate

71 - 90 High

How much stress do you have in your life?  Where do you feel it?  What do you do to feel better?  What works for you?

Please leave your comments and share your insights with us.

In peace and serenity,

Joyce

PS… I hope you have a copy of Louise Hay’s book “You Can Heal Your Life“ Louise can help you understand the roots of stress of all kinds and give you a bounty of powerful affirmations and insights for relief.
And… if you have trouble settling into a peaceful state and drifting off into a relaxed sleep, I highly recommend Deepak Chopra’s audio meditation CD “The Soul of Healing Meditations”.  I have listened to this cd night after night, and have gifted it to my friends as well.  Deepak’s voice is soft and the journey he takes us on is gentle… sleep follows easily.

As a solopreneur of not just one but two businesses, I can easily work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week working for and growing the businesses and I often do…

But it occurred to me, that under all the projects and busyness… my life is beautifully and intentionally simple and I love it that way…

For instance:

• I work from my home and go to town only twice a week.  I can take my ‘office’ (laptop) out onto the patio and work overlooking my horses, a pond while listening to the birds… simple
• I have a beautiful and simple food plan… unprocessed, whole, fresh foods… by the time grocery day rolls around, my fridge is empty… we only buy what we eat… simple…
• We walk almost every morning… simple…
• I let the answering machine pick up when I have my nap… simple… have a quiet house for a good portion of the day… radio off, TV off, music off… just quiet… simple…
• I am less and less attached to ’stuff’… less to dust… simple… I gave away my cookbook collection, my angel collection, ornaments… buying much less of what I merely “want” in favor for what I “need”  (still struggle with this in horse tack stores and bead stores… lol)

What about you?  Where have you simplified… Where would you like to simplify?

Wishing you enough…

Joyce

I recently attended a wedding for a family member. The wedding was attended by people I hadn’t seen in decades. I admit to needing gentle reminders of names with more than a few. Time had been kind to some and not so kind to others…

The thing that really struck me though, was the tendency of many women to immediately start self criticizing as soon as they greeted me.

“Oy vey… women can be soo hard on themselves sometimes.”

• Pointing out the signs of aging as if it was a crime
• Apologizing for their looks
  
• Minimizing accomplishments

As an avid ‘people-watcher’ and amateur sociologist, I created 2 general categories of women at the wedding.

1. Those who move through their life with self confidence, grace and poise
2. Those who do not

Both groups show it in everything from the clothes they choose, the way they walk, dance, laugh, interact and eat.

The experience gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own self confidence.  Being a typical middle aged woman in the ‘looks’ department, with my fair share of wrinkles, love handles and pesky unwanted chin hair (lol),  I  move through my life with confidence, grace and poise.

• I walk tall and freely… I love the way my body feels when I move, whether outside leading a horse or across a dance floor… I feel good… (shoes notwithstanding…)
• I wore a lovely lime green embroidered middle eastern sheer blouse with a  bright pink camisole… I felt exotic and mysterious… (gotta like that eh?)
• I chose simple food from the buffet that closely resembled the foods I normally eat,  and passed on the rest… (why… why… does so much have to be swimming in sauce… ewww)
• I love dancing (two stepping) with my wonderful husband… (hold me closer… mmm…)

I realized that wherever we go, we take ourselves with us…  My self confidence has come from all the personal work I have done to resolve and let go of my baggage and embrace my authentic power and beauty…  the confidence starts on the inside… and the outside reflects that…  (it’s an energy thing…)

I would love your thoughts on this…  where do you think power and poise and grace come from?

The wheel of the year has turned yet again, and the days are getting noticeably shorter. 2009 is more than half over.

The older I get, the more precious time is, and the more intent I become on living my life to it’s fullest.  I want to be happy, I see anything other than happiness a complete waste of my beautiful life. 

On that note, I would like to present you with a coaching challenge.

Remember to do this in a spirit of celebration, let go of the outcome, and just enjoy the process…

Challenge:

Take the time to sit today with a cup of tea and your journal and create a list of your highlights from the first half of 2009.

• What did you accomplish?
• Who did you love?
• What brought you joy?
• What did you learn?
• How did you grow?
• What were your special moments?

Take the time to look back with love… keep these snippets of “feel - good” energy close to you, think of them often.

Advanced Challenge: Up the voltage on the good energy.

If you really want to invite more goodness into your circumstances, pass this challenge to other select folks in you life.   Make it a point to talk about these loving things when you visit…

• What you think is what you feel
• What you feel is what you vibrate
• What you vibrate is what you attract

Take time to think about the love you have and share…

Use the Law of Attraction to invite more and more reasons to celebrate into your reality.

Isn’t it great how this works?

Peace and Love,

Joyce

Good Morning,

So, here we are… another day is stretched out before us…

Before we look at our self in the mirror again, let’s take a moment to think about the quality of observations we will make to the woman who is looking back at…

Will we criticize and judge her negatively, or will we smile and tell her that we are grateful and that we are glad to be her?

What will we plan to eat today? Have we given thought to balanced, nutritious meals for our self and our family?  Does the food that we keep in the house support a healthy food plan?

Our personal care: Are we going to take the time to dress and present our self in a way that feels good and self loving today?  Do we have self care products that make a positive statement about the care we think we deserve?

Money Matters: Will we respect our finances today?  Will we make wise choices that feel empowering?

Will we make time for some personal inner work? Time to connect with our Spirituality?  Time just for us…  or will we give it all away…

Here’s the thing… the better we treat our self, the better we will feel… the better we feel, the more we have to share with others… it’s the quintessential win-win…

I’m on my way to smile at the woman in the mirror…

Joyce

Good Morning…

Wow… there have been many beautiful responses to my Power Word of the Day exercise from women all over the world…  How wonderful!

It proves that we naturally move towards feeling good.  It is how we are genetically programmed.  We seek the light… the love…

I hope by now, you have a sense of who I am… I am all about supporting you as you seek your own light… I speak from my heart… I tell my truth… no pretense… just one woman, walking my talk…

I am bedazzled by the possibilities of the internet… We are women from all over the globe… talking with each other…  to me, that is the ultimate ‘groovy-ness…’

In fact, my formal vision statement is:

To help women worldwide to unconditionally love the Woman In The Mirror.

Supporting you is what I do… it’s what I love…

I am blessed beyond words by your appreciation of my work… To know that what I offer of myself is relevant and accepted with such grace fills my heart…

I like creating my life with a full heart…

Namaste…

Joyce

Good Morning,

I was just thinking about what contributes to ‘feel good’ day for me… I love hugs, and ‘I love you’ and teasing and attention.  My day just goes better when there is loving expression.

I realize that I need to take the time to extend my loving energy to others as well.

• tell others what I appreciate about them
• go out of my way to inquire about them
• listen, really listen to what others have to say
• take the time to joke around… life is supposed to be fun
• touch…  merging energy creates sparks…
• surprise people with interest for no other reason than to let them know they are important to me
• make time for chit chat… quit taking myself seriously…
• go out of my way for others…
• and on and on….

I love getting and giving love.  It is like sunshine and water to a plant.

Law of Attraction: what we feel is what we vibrate… what we vibrate is what we attract

We all know human cactus’s.. cacti? They walk through their day like they are sucking on a lemon.  How much fun can that be?

Not me… If I were a house plant, I would sit in a sunny window, with a great view.  I would have regular spa treatments (water, fertilizer, misting, primping)  and I would bloom, bloom, bloom! The room would would be filled with my sweet fragrance and everyone who visited would come over to say hello… sounds like a nice life…(some days… lol…)

So, if you want love, make sure you give love… surprise people… be someone others look forward to spending time with!

And there you go… off to your day….

Here’s a hug…. ((((((((((you)))))))))

In a-bun-dance…

Joyce

I was a queen in the kingdom of Emotional Turmoil.

Emotional Turmoil:  a recovery term meaning

• the junk talk of your Inner Critic,
• the sinking feeling in your heart that something is wrong
• the constant unrest inside,
• the going over and over and over your problems
• the monkey on your back
• waking up feeling uneasy
• physical symptoms associated with emotional causes (blood pressure, stress, anxiety etc…)

Oh… I knew these well… my inner self was in turmoil although I had many, many blessings in my life…  there was a disconnect between my blessings and my feelings of self worth and esteem.

If you identify yourself as having Emotional Turmoil, please know that you can change… you probably have some inner personal growth work to do:

• cleaning up the debris from your past
• forgiving who needs to be forgiven, even your Self
• quitting any whining and victim behaviors
• resolving what needs to be resolved
• taking responsibility for the quality of your life
• getting out of the passenger’s seat and sitting behind the driver’s wheel of your life
• intending to claim your power
• doing your work
• deciding that you came here to be happy because it’s waiting for you
• asking for help…
• educating yourself in the language of personal development

Taking my head out of the sand, gathering up my courage and finding the willingness to experience a new way of living my life was a huge challenge… no doubt about it… but I did it… many women I know did it and many are doing it right now…

So, if this resonates with you and you know that feeling of inner turmoil… and are at the crossroads of doing what you have always done or rolling your sleeves up and doing it differently… know that you don’t have to do it alone… everyone can benefit from help…

I don’t usually promote my private coaching but in this case, I invite you to contact me if you want support getting started on your path of change… I have developed several ways to coach/support clients.  Helping women refocus and start waking up happy by using the Law of Attraction is my specialty…  my email is info@joyceleelifecoach.com

Life is supposed to be joyful… it is a complete waste of time to suffer…

Wishing you wellness… inner and outer… today and always…

Joyce

The Law of Attraction states that you get what you focus on whether you want it or not.

Ever notice how the more we ’stew’ about a problem, the more we stay stuck in it, and once we start to think solution, possibilities, we become unstuck?  It took me years and years to figure this out…

I spent years yearning for a slim body but focused on everything I didn’t like about my obese body…

If we continue to keep our attention on what we don’t want or like, we are essentially sending out a universal invitation for more of the same.

• I couldn’t attract slim when focused on fat
• We can’t attract abundance if we are focused on lack.
• We  can’t attract wellness if we are focused on illness.
• We  can’t attract happiness if we are focused on feeling bad.
• We  can’t attract inner peace if we are focused on criticism and blame.

So, what are you focused on today?  This moment?  Is your focus going to bring you what you want?

All positive change begins with a positive shift in perspective.

• What do we want?
• How would it feel to get what we want?

Don’t do things bass ackwards… you won’t like what you keep manifesting…