Conscious Evolution Coaching & Reiki

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All our archived blog posts have been added to the new web site!

In our transforming world today, have you experienced...

• Transition in career, relationships, home environment, or other areas of life, perhaps as a direct response to our economy or through a shift in your consciousness?
• Feelings of being confused or frightened in the face of today's global problems, wondering what you can do to help?
• Toxic work environments, unhealthy relationship patterns, and self-limiting beliefs that limit your capacity for health, joy, and reaching your potential?
• Fear and worry creating manic-minds that separate you from living in peace, with joy and love, and in harmony with your inner-knowing?

I am the Conscious Evolution Coach and Reiki Master Teacher who works with those awakening to the need to transform their lives and the world. We explore conscious ways of being with these worldly shift-promoting circumstances to create outcomes infused with purpose, passion, and joy. My clients' dramatic results include:

• Discovering and clarifying life purpose and releasing special gifts into the world;
• Increasing focus on dreams, desires and goals, inviting our most creative life-path to unfold;
• Revealing and releasing negative thought patterns related to criticism, anger, fear, scarcity, perfectionism, etc.;
• Expressing spontaneity, confidence, assertiveness, honesty, integrity, gratitude, love and joy;
• Setting stronger, clearer boundaries to live free of burdens;
• Creating healthier lifestyle patterns and habits, contributing to vibrant health;
• Preventing and healing stress-related health issues;
• Increasing sense of inner knowing and personal strength, and even psychic capacities;
• Creating healthy, harmonious, authentic relationships;
• Illuminating the deepest lessons found in times of uncertainty, stress, and illness;
• Creating sustainable life transformations of many varieties;
• Connecting with consciously evolving community;
• Contributing to our global, cultural transformation.

Conscious Evolution: How to Thrive in our Transforming World

Let us grow, expand, and free ourselves from the cage of illusion! We already know our way...

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

W. Edwards Deming

"Civilization as we know it is coming to an end right now... We must make this evolutionary leap or become extinct." This is how Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. opened his presentation, "The Biology of Belief: Mind over Genes," on August 4, 2010 in Grass Valley, California.* During his presentation, Dr. Lipton offered a very thorough history of science to demonstrate where we've been and where we're going in our evolutionary path as humans. He shared that for the first time in the history of our planet, we face the possibility of extinction. In contrast to the five former extinctions from forces outside of our control, like meteors, this sixth one is self-created, based on human behavior.

At these crossroads, we have a choice: extinction or evolution. Should we choose to evolve, what wisdom and resources are available to us to help create our evolutionary journey? A few ideas emerge from Dr. Lipton's work that we can put into practice right away.

Cultivate the "honeymoon effect" - Ah, the feeling of first falling in love, of abundant energy and joy, of creating heaven on earth. During these times in our lives, we are aware in every moment, making conscious choices rather than relying on habit. Our immune systems are boosted in this phase, and we are stronger, happier, and full of bliss. By consciously creating love-vibrations in our lives and by transcending habits through conscious choice-making, we can create our own honeymoon effect, enhance our immune systems, strengthen our bodies, and create happier lives.

Seek out "good vibes" - We all know certain places and people that feel good to us. We can consciously create lives that revolve around positive experiences, friendships, workplaces, etc. This will help us to focus away from fear-based thinking and stress, which are quite damaging to our systems. Our cells are either in growth or protection mode - growth when we're happy and peaceful, and protection when we feel fear or stress. Because our bodies' cells move away from nourishment to preserve energy for fight or flight when we are stressed, our cells starve during these times. Prolonged stress means chronic malnourishment for our cells. Seeking good vibes may demand from us pruning or repairing whatever in our lives creates stress, fear, or disharmony, but doing so will bring us closer to living the "honeymoon effect."

Expose and rewrite our subconscious beliefs - The conscious mind powers up our creativity, identification with Source, positive thinking, and focus on wishes, desires, and aspirations. The subconscious mind functions out of habit and our patterns are created when we're in the womb through age six. The subconscious mind regards every thought about the past or future to be present now. For example, negative comments we heard as children are felt as if they are spoken in the present moment. 95% of our programs are in our subconscious mind, and we're largely oblivious of the messages we receive from there. Whenever our lives refuse to flow in accordance with our conscious desires, we know that the subconscious mind is not aligned with conscious intent. Reuniting subconscious beliefs with conscious desires and intentions fosters harmony for creating heaven on earth. We retrain our subconscious with repetitive habits, Psych-K, life coaching, Reiki, hypnosis, subconscious tapes, super-learning states like speed-reading, and other resources listed on Bruce Lipton's web site. Because our minds create our health and well-being, these processes are key points in our evolution.

Be an imaginal cell/cultural creative - "Imaginal cells" are new cells that spring forth from the old. Borrowing from the butterfly's story, the caterpillar enters the chrysalis to become a sort of ooze, and within the ooze, the imaginal cells hold the vision of butterfly so that the other cells can organize around this vision. Crisis ignites evolution. Currently our systems - political, economic, healthcare, etc. - are in crisis. We can't use current ways of thinking to solve our problems. Cultural creatives are like the imaginal cells holding the vision of heaven on earth. They do not fight the current systems, trying to go back into caterpillar form; instead they create a new world from their inherent (not programmed) beliefs and help us to bridge the divide between one system that's failing and a new cycle in our evolutionary path.

"It's not the end of life; it's the end of a way of life," Dr. Lipton says. In his written and audio works, he shares how his spiritual awakening evolved from his research, and how our evolutionary status as a species necessitates a shift if we're to guarantee our survival on planet earth. We do this through a blending of science and spirit, technology and connection to the earth, in order to become conscious creators of our world.

Many of you know of my background in bridging science and practice in the field of substance abuse prevention, and I even co-authored a textbook on that topic. In my life coaching and Reiki practice, I feel myself embedded in this theme of integrating science with spirituality, along with practical application, especially as it relates to our conscious evolution.

I know that our world is facing some enormous challenges, environmentally, economically, politically... Everything happening in our world suggests the need for clearing clutter, not only from our environments, but from our internal world as well, such as old habits, attachments, and sub-conscious beliefs that inhibit our potential for growth and expansion. If you've been feeling a bit more tense, worried, or "off" lately, well then welcome to the club! It's a sign of the times! However, release allows joy and peace to flow into our lives, while our own unique gifts come into the light.

Instead of fixing all the broken systems, how would our world shift if we all learned to offer our unique gifts, raise our vibration and happiness quotient, and come from a loving heart? This is the path to our evolution and to creating heaven on earth! I'm experiencing a lot of tools that help myself and my clients to do just that, and we're witnessing incredible results, including freedom from stress-related health imbalances and survival- and scarcity-consciousness. We also enjoy more harmonious relationships, increased intuitive capacities, joy, love and passion for live. In fact, Bruce Lipton himself suggests Energy Medicine, such as Reiki, and Health and Wellness Coaching, as resources for our conscious evolution.

Won't you begin your journey today? Ask yourself, "What would love have me do?"

The spiritual path wrecks the body,

only to restore it to health,

It destroys the house,

to unearth the treasure,

And with that treasure,

rebuilds it better than before.

Rumi

* Dr. Bruce Lipton is an internationally recognized authority in bridging science and spirit. He is a visionary scientist and pioneer in the "new biology" called epigenetics. He is the author of The Biology of Belief and co-author of Spontaneous Evolution. He also has an audio collection called "Wisdom of Your Cells."

Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki Testimonials

Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki
Conscious Evolution

Testimonials

"I recently participated in Denise's Reiki Level II Certification class. I was very pleased with her presentation and attitude, soft and caring with each and every one of us. She helped us feel how valuable we were to her and the world. The day was filled with warmth and magic as many people transformed emotionally and physically. I recommend classes as well as private sessions with Denise."

Marc Hiscox, PFT (Procedure for Transformation) Facilitator

Minden, NV, 1.14.11

***

"You are an awesome healer! You are very gentle and have a nice touch, and you are a very caring person with good insights."

M.S., Reno, NV - 12.13.10

***

"I began life coaching and Reiki sessions with Denise Sheehan in May 2010, and since then I have overcome problems and experienced great healing and transformation. Life coaching has been a wonderful compliment to my spiritual practices aimed at helping me to create a more spiritual way of life. Since beginning, I have uncovered negative thought patterns, especially self-critical and self-condemning thoughts, to be filled instead with peace, gratitude, and love. I have been lifted out of the tendency toward destructive perfectionism and out of a sense of burden, doing for the sake of doing, feeling, instead, a joyful sense of being. I've learned to set better boundaries and to express myself with greater assertiveness, spontaneity, honesty, joy, and love. I also feel a closer connection to the Divine and more empowered to express Divine light. I am ever so grateful to Denise for her excellent life coaching sessions; these are transformative experiences which have opened the way to healing and clearer directions."

Marilyn McDonald, Reno, NV - 11.30.10

***

"Denise, you have truly helped me to change my life. I am now empowered to live my true life and I owe this joyous beginning to you. Your healing power is going to change the world!! The best money I spent was getting coaching and Reiki from you! You saved my life in MANY ways and I would pay you double over again as money is irrelevant to spiritual health. So much love and gratitude!"

Kristen Ragsdale, Moses Lake, WA - 11.30.10

***

"I want to say thank you so very much for the guidance, light, and love as I began my study of Reiki with you this year as part of my personal development and growth. As soon as we began our work together, I could tell that your teaching was going to create transformational change around my life intention to be spiritually developing. You have a wonderful gift as a teacher and coach! Your style is accessible, non-judgmental and gentle. I am inspired by the talent you have for putting people and groups at ease, so that their individual styles and interests can emerge, and their learning objectives be met, in a safe space. As a coach myself, I am honored to name you among my own coaches, and to have the gift of you and all that you are so willing to share in my life."

L.P., Reno, NV - 09.08.10

***

"My name is Eric Gabrielsen and I would like to highly recommend not only coaching but coaching through Sage Spirit and Denise Sheehan. Life coaching to me is essential for growth and development in any area that seems to be lacking, lagging, stagnant in your life, be it physical, vocational, spiritual or emotional. I come from a background in counseling and mental health and really appreciate the forward focus of coaching, it's so refreshing compared to the focus of many therapies which is looking in the past.

"Denise is a very skilled, creative and forward-thinking professional who has helped me in my career search and time management areas, and helped me open my mind up to so many things that help round me out as a person. Because of her coaching I'm much more able to take a broad, calm view of any challenge and address it head-on. After my coaching experience with Sage Spirit, I feel I'm much more prepared to face life and embrace it's peaks and valleys. I am now much more able to climb quickly to find those peaks and to weather the valleys of life.

"I could not recommend her services more; Sage Spirit Coaching is a critical investment in your future."

Eric Gabrielsen, MS, CRC
Business, Training, and Employment Specialist 2
Enterprise for Employment and Education
03.20.10

Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki Resources

Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki

Conscious Evolution

Products & Resources

Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki offers Conscious Evolution tools for those awakening to the need to evolve and to create a new world! With Sage Spirit Coaching & Reiki's conscious evolution life coaching and Reiki, your investment becomes a gift for life. Services are offered through virtual means (phone, teleconference, webinar, skype) or in-person.

Life Coaching & Reiki

Conscious Evolution Package - Coaching with monthly Reiki healing attunements

Advanced Conscious Evolution Package - Coaching/Reiki sessions as above, plus instruction and attunements for levels I & II Reiki, and monthly group coaching/Reiki circles

Conscious Evolution Sample Session

Conscious Evolution Group Coaching Circles

Reiki Services & Training

Reiki sessions and healing attunements (provided in-person or distance)

Reiki workshops for levels I, II, and III

Reiki circle sharing groups

Personal Growth Readings

Relationship compatibility readings with coaching

Annual prediction readings

Interactive Tarot readings

Workshops

Dance of Desire: Relating Authentically in a Scripted World

Living the Creative Life

Living in a Toxic World: A Catalyst for Transformation

Heal Yourself & Heal the Planet

Change your Thoughts, Rewrite your Destiny

Circle of Stones

I gather a circle of stones.

I am grateful to live in a place of natural abundance. At least a dozen species of wildflowers greet me during each walk. I've also grown in the habit of noticing the plentiful, powerful minerals that grace this place - quartz, obsidian, jade and others I cannot begin to name.

I am intuitively called to ritual each day:

* Sending gratitude, love, blessings, and Reiki to the earth

* Asking for stones to speak to me during my walk, especially those who would like to be included in my circle of stones to assist in expanding my spirit

* Noticing shapes, sizes, and colors

* Sensing how they feel to me and how they make me feel

* Talking story to myself during the gathering as if I sit with the circle of Elders

* Sitting by my circle after the gathering to place my new stones

* Meditating on the circle, sending Reiki blessings to the circle and all-that-is

Today I notice a freshly burrowed hole on the crest of a hill. A heart-shaped chelcedony lay kicked out by the new residents, an offering to me, a treasure. The heart appears nearly quartz-like, pristine white with a red slash from top to bottom down the middle as if to signify the two ventricles of a heart coming together in union. Feeling the hard, cool stone in my hand, my life begins to synergize into a whole I haven't felt in several days of witnessing the earth's and ocean's attempts at healing. I feel a flood of creativity enter into my heart and mind in a way that feels completely integrative.

I gather a circle of stones. They nurture me, inspire me, and feed my creativity. They call to me in my sleep, in my dreams, away from waking slumber and into life - awakening!

What new ritual calls to you?

What would your heart like to create? to integrate?

Power of Integration: Coaching plus Reiki

Don't ever think you know what's right for the other person. He might start thinking he knows what's right for you. Paul Williams, Das Energi

This is my secret about what I love the most about life coaching and Reiki. Neither one is about me. One of the most common misperceptions I've encountered about life coaching is that it's about advice-giving. Nothing could be farther from the truth! In my tradition of life-coaching, I ask questions that help others discover their inner wisdom. I may offer my own intuitive hits, but I do so without attachment that they resonate with others. Somewhat similarly, Reiki is spiritually guided universal life force energy. I don't direct the energy and it doesn't come from me. It comes through me, and though I intuitively place my hands in certain positions, Reiki knows where to go all on its own. It flows in service to the receiver's higher self, for the greater good of all.

I find this all incredibly freeing. When I practice non-attachment, I am able to release ego energies and influences so that I can just be with others. I am able to trust, knowing I am, s/he is, and all-that-is is in perfect order.

It isn't what you know. Stop showing off. Stop showing off. It isn't what you do. It's what you are that matters. Paul Williams, Das Energi

I am learning more and more about the incredible power of integrating life coaching and Reiki. Each of my coaching clients receives a complimentary Reiki healing attunement each month. We may intend that Reiki will help with head-, back-, or ear-aches and such, but often we focus more on life-balance, harmonious relationships, or empowering goals. Here are some of the benefits I've seen over the past several months:

• Obtaining awesome jobs in a tough economy


• Experiencing more free-flowing money energies


• Healing earlier-life traumas


• Creating harmony during significant relationship transitions


• Opening the heart, allowing a free-flow of love energy in daily life


• Experiencing more joyful relationships in all areas of life


• Gaining clarity around life purpose and passions to fuel conscious creation


• Creating more autonomy and self-assuredness to break unhealthy patterns


• Experiencing more joy and abundance, laughter and love, light-heartedness and passion


• Living with more integrity, according to true nature and values


• Experiencing more depth of intuition, consciousness, inspiration, awareness and gratitude

It's all up to you. You are completely responsible for your life. You are the creator. It's an awesome burden and a great freedom. Paul Williams, Das Energi.

Conscious Community

Sunny and Myo

always conscious, fully present,

giving love

with a dose of mischief

~ oh ya, believe it ~

When you close your eyes and imagine Reno, Nevada, what comes to mind? Saloons, gunfights, and tumbleweeds of olden days? Quickie marriages and divorces? Slot machines and craps? Or winding roads to mountain lakes, crisp air, and ski slopes?

Or do you think of a place where people find encouragement to live intentionally, embracing love, integrity, courage, service, and respect? Or where people collaborate to create strong community ties that promote spiritual growth, cultural transformation, and a sustainable local economy?

We're all that here in Reno, and much more...

Conscious Community is a movement, building in strength and influence for several years. The goal is spiritual as well as cultural transformation. Embodied first in the way we live, transformation radiates outwardly into our families and into our social and work lives.

In February, I attended a Weaver Group training as part of the Conscious Community movement. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, exploring spiritual concepts and community development principles. Many of you know how these align with my passions. Mostly, I enjoyed the wonderful angels in earth suits who came. Everywhere I turned, I met smile after smile, loving hearts, and warm energy.

There I learned all about facilitating Weaver Groups, a grassroots strategy within the Conscious Community movement were we get back to the basics of our humanity by breaking down barriers that divide us. In Weaver Groups we connect heart to heart with one another and also with the positive aspects of our community.

Through this movement, and through our connections in Weaver Groups and in the community, we consciously create our community - one that supports and nurtures us, and one that inspires us to live in compassion and love.

Do you want more honest, authentic, loving relationships in your life?

Would you benefit from the support of others in your spiritual journey?

Would you like to see your community transform culturally, economically, spiritually?

Are you inspired to be a catalyst creating a better community?

If you are interested in joining a Weaver Group right here in Reno, please join us on March 24 at 6:30pm. Contact me, 775.970.5476 or denisesheehan@yahoo.com, for more information, or call Richard Flyer, the visionary and creator of Reno's Conscious Community, 775.851.2993.

Ah, but so many of my friends live outside of Reno. Bummer! Not really, because Conscious Community can come to you too. It works better when we spread the love! Richard has resources to help you get started, and I've listed links to some below.

I'm totally jazzed about Conscious Community. I'm ready to embrace transformation on many levels. Are you?

To learn more about Conscious Community in Reno, visit: http://www.itstimereno.org/

To access information on the training guide, visit: http://www.instimereno.org/calender.asp

To watch the new video about Reno's Conscious Community, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK-QOf1HDfs

Being at Choice

Everyone asks me,

What's going to happen?

I don't know.

What will you choose to do?

Proterrian

During the Bruka Theatre's delightful Valentine's Day production of "Love Squared," a character in the scene "Breakfast One" demonstrated his obsession with food by creating a cream puff. He told of how he lovingly rises before dawn to fire his wood stove to bake the pastry. On stage, he dolloped custard sauce and fresh cream between the pastry slices, then dabbled chopped hazelnuts and drizzled hot chocolate sauce on top of the decadent creation. With my mouth watering, I mumbled, "amazing." My friend, Lucie, turned to her husband and whispered, "I want that." The character handed off his creation to a lucky lady in the first row just as intermission began.

When I returned from freshening up, Lucie was eating the cream puff! Lucky Lady returned the puff to Nicky's Bar, and Lucie's husband asked for it. "Wow, Lucie, you're a powerful creator!" I told her. I must be too, because she shared huge bites with me, each one creating an eye-rolling ecstasy. In that moment of joyful awareness, I realized how most of the big intentions that Dana and I shared during our New Year's manifestation ritual have already come to pass, even before Valentine's Day! Remarkable!

My friend, Tim Glenn, is a spiritual reader, metaphysical teacher, and sound healer (soulpurposereadings.com). He's also a channel for Proterrian, quoted above, who are a collective of ascended master beings who offer us guidance during these times of transition and transformation. Tim, Proterrian, and other spiritual leaders practiced in the Law of Attraction, tell us that we are manifesting our desires more and more quickly these days. It's important, therefore, to safeguard our thoughts, to focus on what we truly desire rather than what we don't want.

However, in these days of crumbling systems, economic downturns, doomsday prophecies, and overall uncertainty about how our future will look, many of us are frightened, i.e. focusing on what we don't want, and desperately seeking answers out there in the world.

What are you envisioning in these times of turmoil and transformation?

What emotional response do you have to your vision?

What vision would bring you more strength and joy?

What inner guidance do you receive about how to prepare?

This is a time to turn away from fear-based thinking and much of our old programming. It's time to open our hearts. Proterrian offers advice for any season, but it's particularly helpful now:

1. Come from a loving heart

2. Put one foot in front of the other

3. Walk in faith

What and who in your life opens your heart?

How can you be more patient and present in the moment?

Where do you find faith and inspiration within?

I notice more and more that my heart holds my passion to make a difference in service to my community. My heart serves as my compass.

My mind helps to create the path for my loving, creative expressions, as long as I don't give it too much control.

What my heart creates, I hold as sacred. What my mind desires, I hold without attachment.

Reiki for a Vibrant Life

What in the world is Reiki? Reiki (pronounced "ray-key") is spiritually guided "universal life force" energy that promotes stress reduction and relaxation and contributes to healing. Reiki works on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels, restoring balance to body, mind, and spirit. Reiki also helps to remove barriers and challenges, while empowering goals.

People often think of "hands on" healing. It's different than massage, because it's not invasive. Light touch, or even just hands over the body, are all that's needed. It's super easy and fun to learn. Once we learn Reiki, we can offer it to ourselves and to others. I know first hand, the results are amazing. In addition to the huge benefit of healing from chronic illness, here are some of the benefits that I've experienced and shared with others since I integrated Reiki into my life:

• Minimizing negative or self-defeating thought patterns
• Feeling more bliss, joy and gratitude
• Attracting more abundance, beneficial experiences and joyful people
• Feeling more love and compassion for myself and others
• Enhancing intuitive abilities
• Relieving stress during times of external pressures and transitions
• Accessing quick relief when feeling fearful, hurt or angry
• Feeling love energy more deeply in day to day life, using that to guide choices
• Feeling more connected to my life purpose
• Accessing spiritual guidance more readily
• Healing archetypal patterns (such as saboteur and victim energies)
• Balancing heart and mind energies
• Relieving acute and chronic pain
• Clearing rooms and other spaces of negative energies
• Helping others to heal
• Helping others to transition from this life

Reiki has been nothing short of a transformational force in my life. In truth, part of me didn't fully believe in it when I first learned Reiki. Once I had nowhere else to turn, Reiki really pulled me along on my healing journey. For those who already enjoy vibrant health, what a gift to have the added preventative healing energy of Reiki in stressful times like these. How wonderful to offer healing, loving energy to our aging loved ones just by touching them.

How would you benefit from Reiki's healing energy?

With whom would you like to share the gift of Reiki?

For information about my special Valentine's Reiki workshop, please contact me at denisesheehan@yahoo.com or 775.970.5476.

Living with Incongruence Part III

To change, a person must face the

dragon of his appetites with

another dragon, the life energy of the soul.

Mevlana Rumi

In "Living with Incongruence Part II," we explored the different ways that incongruence shows up in our lives. Whether doing or not doing what we know we need to stop or start doing, or whether buying into limiting beliefs that hold us back, we may experience excessive mind chatter, energy drains, diminishment of our personal power related to not exercising our will power, and even disease. In this part of the series, we'll explore the role our heart's desires and thinking play in awakening our willpower. Aligning our hearts, minds, and willpower are essential to effecting positive change in our lives.

Here are some ways that incongruence between mind and heart shows up. We may find that our heart isn't into something even when our logical mind knows exactly what must be done. For example, we know we have to earn a living, but we might hate the time we spend at our current job. We may find that our mind is only interested in playing it safe without considering the whole of our lives. For example, we may stay in a destructive relationship because we're afraid to hurt the other person, live on our own, or begin life anew. We may find our mind vacillating wildly from one way of thinking to another. For example, when receiving a pep talk from a friend, we may feel wildly courageous, but then we go home or to work and feel much more humbled, even fearful of change. Believe me, living with incongruence can make us feel a bit crazy, especially as we face a major life transition when we must dig deep within, over-riding our mind chatter, in order to find our authentic way in this world.

Caroline Myss, in "Energy Anatomy," (http://myss.com/) suggests that when our hearts and minds are not aligned, like in the examples above, addictions will rule our willpower. Addictions, as Myss defines them, are not necessarily related to alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex, or gambling. They are connected to anything we believe we need for tranquility, perhaps a person, a job, or a system of beliefs. In order to transcend our addictions, we may consider strategies to realign our heart's desires with our thinking in order to awaken our willpower. The path for all of us will be different, based on our own needs and desires. I will offer a few things that have worked for me, in hopes they are of use to you too. When practiced together, the strategies below created a synergistic transformative energy that wouldn't have occurred using each in isolation.

The most important strategy for me is to be on fire with my life purpose. However, when I feel my purpose is too big, or when I become lost in the details of making it manifest, I sometimes become overwhelmed. I may distract myself or self-sabotage my efforts with procrastination, indulgences, etc. in order to slow down the pace of my life, as well as to my destiny, making the journey more comfortable. Paradoxically, it doesn't work! It just creates mind chatter, guilt, shame, and even disgust. It's a bad trip! I find that it's healthier for me to remind myself of my life purpose each day, to say it aloud, and to feel the joyful vibration it brings to me. It fuels my sense of purpose for the entire day, empowering both heart and mind, while leaving less space for my addictive, self-sabotaging behaviors.

I also like to keep my busy mind collecting data from a place of curiosity. As a personal example, I mentioned before that my healing process has been connected with diet, so I open myself to whatever and however information appears related to my energy. I notice how I feel when I eat a salad versus a garden burger versus cheesecake. I notice how high and empowered I feel when I make a commitment that honors my higher self versus how guilty I feel when I break my commitment to myself.

Then I work to change my programming to match the data I've received. Affirmations, especially when stated aloud, can be really powerful in reinforcing new neural pathways that align with what I'm creating. When I create succinct, present-tense, powerful beliefs - Everything I eat nurtures my vibrant health! - that replace my former thoughts that keep me stuck - No matter what I eat, I never seem to heal - I find that my heart and mind align in ways that support positive changes and growth.

Affirmations help to build my internal strength for positive change. Another way is to live in a space of gratitude. I've found it helpful to journal ten things for which I am grateful each night as I process my day. It's also essential to surround myself with others who accept and invite my most authentic self to emerge, those who are not afraid of life changes I make, and who agree to support my journey.

For challenging and changing my thinking, especially with over-riding old programming that doesn't serve, I find Byron Katie's web site, http://www.thework.com/ or her book, Loving What Is: Four Questions that can Change your Life very useful. Our thoughts are much too powerful in creating our reality to allow them to run wild, especially when they work against us.

If you seek change and liberation from your mind chatter and self-sabotaging behaviors, and if you struggle with creating the changes you desire, you may want to work with a life coach to create a life purpose statement that lights you up and helps you stay focused. Life coaches support your path in an on-going way to creatively address the mind chatter and to minimize other internal and external challenges. They help you to uncover the secrets within you that will help you create the most fulfilling life you can imagine. Reiki, a form of energetic clearing and balancing that promotes healing, is another wildly valuable resource for aligning heart and mind. Treating yourself to Reiki sessions can support your positive growth and help you to release addictions and attachments.

Life is so complex, it's no wonder we humans come with so much incongruence. By exploring our own patterns consciously, we may learn to embrace our quirks and creativity and to see all the possibilities that exist in our lives, all while accepting our humanness. It helps to know that wherever we are is exactly the right place for us to learn and to grow more deeply into who we are becoming. We may release judgment or our tendency to make ourselves wrong, which only fuels what we wish to diminish. By being open to what is in this moment, and by loving ourselves just as we are, we open the doors to infinite growth, transcending our old programs, addictions, and paradigms, and embracing the world of possibilities.

What would your heart and mind like to tell each other?

Where do you find your distractions and addictions?

What strategies help to align your heart and mind?

What is one way you would like to honor your inner knowing?

What commitment would you like to make to yourself from this space of knowing?

If you would like to learn more about life coaching and/or Reiki, please contact me at denisesheehan@yahoo.com or 775.970.5476.

Living with Incongruence Part II

When I initially wrote what became my former blog post, "Living with Incongruence, Part I," I felt certain that this would be a creative, whimsical topic and nothing more. Then, shortly afterward on a road trip, my Sweetie and I re-listened to "Energy Anatomy" by Caroline Myss (http://myss.com/), and I couldn't ignore the synchronicity when Myss began talking about incongruities. I realized there would be something more to explore around creating congruence by aligning our thoughts with our actions, and so this discussion follows. What I offer below and in my next post is but a taste of a much larger, remarkable work by Myss, with some of my experiences peppered in as they relate to what she shares. I offer this because I'm seeing how this shows up in the lives of so many of us.

Myss explores incongruities in our lives, how they drain our energy, how they relate to willpower, and how they point the way to growth potential. Incongruities show up in different ways, and their effects in our lives can be quite dramatic.

First, Myss suggests that incongruities can show up as things we want or need to do, things that continuously nag at us, but that we never seem to get to. Similarly, there are some things we are doing that may be better left undone. We know better, but that doesn't seem to stop us. I see these struggles come up often with regard to exercising, changing diet, and other health-related choices that are easy to put off for another day, month, or year. When we focus our energy on what we should or should not do, but neglect to empower our will to make the changes we know are in our best interest, we lose energy. Energetically, we relinquish our power and authority over our lives to our "shoulds."

Yet the path to claiming our power and authority over our lives is not always easy or clearly laid out for us. Here's an example from my own life. During a particularly intense meditation, I had the insight that I would have to radically alter some of my habits in order to further my spiritual development, and that the process would involve something around the healer archetype. In that moment, I had a delicious sense of possibilities in stepping into my destiny, but I knew it wouldn't be easy for me to override my epicurean and workaholic tendencies, and that I would need assistance to alter my life patterns. In that moment of bliss and bravery, I embraced the transition and requested help, however it might show up. I leapt into the unknown in total trust and abandon. Turns out, I almost immediately developed a physical condition that was strongly related to diet, environmental energy (good vibe vs. bad vibe) effects, the quality of my thoughts, and my habits around workaholism. I would have to choose between either my attachments to certain foods, environments and habits or my vibrant health. Putting off the changes that I needed created lots of suffering and energy loss. Eventually, I just had to do the work, release a lot of attachments, and create life changes in order to heal. Truth be known, I still struggle at times, especially when I lose site of the grander vision of what I wish to create in my life. Also, it wasn't always easy to accept ill health as the blessing it proved to me. Yes, there were intense moments of self-pity, which were not at all useful in reclaiming my personal power. I'm so over that now...

Another way that incongruities show up, according to Myss, is through limiting beliefs that we know aren't good for us, but that we picked up during childhood or that were transmitted through our culture. Common ones that I've encountered include: I don't know enough to take the next step; If I make this choice, the people in my life that I love won't understand me and I'll be separated from them; I will have to do this all alone; If I follow my bliss, I'll never make enough money to survive. Here's a clue: These thoughts are not yours! They are old programs from years of social conditioning. Here's a new one to try on: When I break away from old beliefs that hold me back, I find amazing new freedoms!

Here are some examples of limiting beliefs that have created and perpetuated fear and victim consciousness in my life: No one can succeed starting a business in an economy like this one; I'm not good enough, ambitious enough, or smart enough. And then there's the big one, a ghost from my way-back past: Who do you think you are? Oh, ouch. Now, I don't walk around like Eeyore all the time. Most of my moments feel like wild clarity, optimism, and appreciation for the yumminess of life. Still, in recent years I've grown very accustomed to noticing the background presence of these fleeting thoughts. I've witnessed the destructiveness that they can create in our life patterns and even our health as they keep us stuck in avoidance of anything that feels like a risk. The messages grow in intensity with the degree of change we contemplate. I've learned that as quickly as the thoughts come, I must release them without judgment. To make myself wrong only feeds them, and dis-empowers me, further.

Until I release Part III of "Living with Incongruence," you may want to just notice your thinking patterns that show up for you.

What does your mental chatter should like?

What is the impact on your life?

What have you been putting off far too long?

What are the consequences of putting off your decisions to change?

If you made a choice you're not honoring, what are the consequences?

Living with Incongruence Part I

I came upon this topic first by imagining a photo shoot that would result in the photo above. This image struck me first thing one morning, even before tea, petting the pups, or kissing Dana. Perhaps it was a lingering stream in my consciousness from a dream that came before. I rushed to my journal, started the kettle, and began to write about the incongruence, or sense of disharmony created, by including such mix-matched images in one moment of time. Business suit with tractor? Drinking from an elegant champagne flute too? I couldn't help but muse over the "Green Acres" sense of things. As I pondered why such an outrageous idea formed in my head, I began to wonder:

How does our inner incongruence demonstrate our quirks and creativity, our way of showing up in the world?

What does it tell us about what we like to create in our lives?

How does it help us to connect more fully with our own authenticity and with others we care about?

The suit with tractor symbolizes how I've always been able to live in multiple worlds, dress up, dress down, and get dirty. I can be articulate, profound, and professional, or my mind can become so wild I barely make sense. Although I'm not the most mechanical person in the world, I can operate small or large equipment on a good day. I can dig into the earth, paint a wall red, or clean pond scum, even on a cold day. I connect with the earth in multiple, magical ways. The crystal champagne flute, an heirloom from Auntie Gitta, symbolizes my love of life, my longing to express gratitude for all the joy in my life, and my honoring of family. Gitta always reminded us, "enjoy, enjoy." What a powerful, wise woman. And there's something else. Though I value family and tradition, I also like to consider options outside the lines defined by my culture, even if it means I don't fit in sometimes.

What I find in these musings is an unveiling of some of my values. By being conscious of my values, I empower myself to align my choices accordingly so that I feel less conflict and tension in my life. Similarly, I find myself journeying towards more and more fulfillment as I align my choices with my values.

If you were to pose in a way that makes transparent your incongruence, how would that look?

What do you learn about yourself and your values from this place?

In what way would you like to align your values and choices?

In addition to feeling my rich calling toward my values, this whimsical photo and my thoughts around it help me to remember to play when I become too serious, or my drive to work and produce results dominates my life, or I over-commit out of habit, or I lose track of the present moment and forget to be joy-filled. So I offer the above as my playful, creative, whimsical learning around incongruence. And, there's something more to explore here, around creating congruence by aligning our thoughts with our actions, which will come in my next post, "Living with Incongruence, Part II."

How can you bring more playfulness into your life?

What of your incongruence would you like to share with others?

What Happens to Intuitive Hits, Creative Downloads, and Darn Good Ideas?

During my last blog, I talked about my struggle to discern intuition from fear-based thinking. I've since heard from clients and friends that you've faced the same struggle. You've inspired me to share a story and resource with you that I hope you'll find useful.

About eight months before my university position would end, my partner, Dana, and I found the home of our dreams: small home, lots of property and privacy, and enormous potential. It also came with a price tag somewhat higher than what felt like a play-it-safe deal. About the same time, I began reading The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D., found of Academy for Coaching Excellence (http://www.academyforcoachingexcellence.com/).

Dr. Nemeth offers a model of the process great ideas must go through before they become outcomes in our lives. First, she explores physical reality that we know so well. This is the place of cause and effect. Much of what we wish to accomplish in this realm involves taking simple steps. In order to balance our checkbook, we have to actually sit down and crunch the numbers. Holding the intention to balance isn't quite enough to get the job done.

But there's also the metaphysical reality where energy is "free-flowing and unbounded" (p. 21). This is the place where we receive ideas, visions, and dreams, which are weightless and inspiring because we haven't yet weighted them down with promises and commitments.

In the space between physical and metaphysical realities, we hold our life's intentions, which may include to be a writer, to be a healer, to be a leader, to be a visionary. They connect us to concrete goals, to write a novel, to take a Reiki class, to run for political office, to publish a theory. To accomplish our dreams we need the inspiration of metaphysical reality, but it's equally important to find the drive and courage to take needed steps in our physical reality.

However, right there between the metaphysical and physical we find "Trouble at the Border." When our weightless ideas encounter the density of physical reality, we may meet, "doubts and fears so strong that they seem to stop us in our tracks almost before our journey begins" (p. 26). We may hold subconscious beliefs that limit our potential, such as life is hard or no pain, no gain. This phase is inevitable in the process of overcoming our own inertia.

I've found that it's easy to discount these fears and doubts as intuitive. Rather, they are of "monkey mind," a term borrowed from Buddhism to describe, "a self-criticizing aspect of our mind that swings us from doubt, to worry, and back to doubt" (p. 27). In my coach training, I've also learned to identify this voice as the "saboteur" or "gremlin." By any name, it's a survival-related mechanism of our brain designed to prevent change or risk-taking. Whenever we try to reason with these doubts, they only become louder and more provocative.

To say the least, the Border is uncomfortable. We have a choice to use that as a teacher, an opportunity to express our courage as we step beyond our comfort zone and address any challenges we experience. Clearly examining our intentions and our choices helps us to create a realistic plan to get where we want to go. It helps us to identify where and how we will direct our energy and actions. Dr. Nemeth tells us, "life is hard when you don't do what you truly value because you are putting all your energy into trying to get rid of your fears rather than into materializing your dreams" (p. 31).

In the process of deciding whether or not to purchase our home, Dana and I encountered doubts, but we couldn't differentiate them from intuitive hits at first. We wondered: Could we afford this even as I ended my university career? Could we interpret the plumbing and mechanical problems on the house as signs that we were off track? Could we also afford a four-wheel-drive tractor for snow-removal and landscaping? Would we sell Dana's house quickly enough to avoid two mortgages over an extended time?

Well, we now have the home and tractor. All the plumbing and mechanical problems are resolved, with compensation from the former owners to cover the repairs. We received an acceptable offer on Dana's house the first full day it was listed. Yes! Even in this housing market! We are now living the life of our dreams! Now if I could only get Dana to come in off that tractor for dinner...

What does intuition feel like in your body?

What do fear-thoughts feel like in your body?

What do you notice about your thoughts in general?

How do you respond to your thoughts?

Which conscious and subconscious fears keep you from approaching your dreams?

Planning in a World of Transition

I've been discussing transition and transformation in my former two blogs. As many know, I'm the consummate planner. FranklinCovey trainings and products pushed me over the edge from planning-obsessive to planning-accomplished. But what of planning now in this age of transition? Everything we know changes so radically. What can we possibly know of what will be in one, five or ten years? We can plan, as one of my friends suggests, because that's a way to feel empowered and prepared. Another friend suggests that long-term plans are useless right now, and we must spontaneously respond to each moment. Everyone seems to be finding their own truths around creating balance between planning, being, and doing.

Especially because of our economic recession, many of my plans, such as buying a house and launching a business, have seemed particularly risky. If only momentarily, I wondered: Will we keep our house? Will our lifestyle radically change? Will we be okay? Such worries fall on the other side of my leap of faith, in other words, my sense of trust and faith in myself and the world. Instead of dwelling on what-ifs, I've learned to follow my intuition, which has led me to create the home, relationships, profession, and life all designed to suit me perfectly. Learning to discern intuitive hits from fear-based thinking offered a critical step in the path.

But there's another component to this. Nearly everyone I know has been experiencing huge energy shifts, especially since the beginning of July. A few friends and clients are having the most remarkable experiences, coming together with loved ones in new and powerful ways. Some are having the most intriguing spiritual gifts come to them, such as extremely heightened intuition, powerful yet intimidating. Many just feel remarkably fatigued. How does one plan for such things?

Because of my own health issues and fatigue over the past few years, I never knew what my energy would be like from day to day. Planning and commitments were problematic and precursors to disappointment. I truly learned to dance in the moment while focusing on my two most important goals in this order: 1. restore vibrant health and 2. embrace my new vocational path and create its reality. I reduced planning down to these two goals, focusing all my strength, energy, and intention on these so that I would experience success. I think that there is learning in this for many of us. More than ever, it's time to focus on "what matters most," to borrow a phrase from FranklinCovey.

Really, how can we prepare for what is completely unknown? That will be a highly individualized process, reliant on the tools of intuition and profound curiosity about what our lives are meant to hold for us. The process will include an intensive view of our values and priorities.

Who and what do you deeply value?

Who do you love to be?

What brings you joy?

How can you honor and practice non-attachment to what you love?

What will you choose to do with your insights?