One of the things I focus on in my work is helping people get out of being overwhelmed and too much busyness.

All this “doing” means that we can get stuck in doing, at the expense of our peace of mind and how we feel day to day (to say nothing of how other people in our world may feel when we’re this way).

I find myself talking about this so often, I will started to send weekly tips about how to use Structures in your life to Support Flow and ease.

I am going to start off with one that is near and dear to my heart. It is so partly because it is an incredibly productive practice AND it was the first thing I discovered in my own life to avoid being in that “doing” mode all day every day.

[Structure Supports Flow]

I call it Productive Puttering because while it is super-productive, it is so without being linear, methodical or results-oriented. I am puttering and getting a ton done, and my head is clear and it’s FUN!

It doesn’t matter how it gets done, stuff is getting done and finished. But it’s getting done in a non-linear way without the pressure that having a To-Do list brings because of that need for focus.

What I do is set an alarm for an hour or two, and write a short list of only 3-5 items that will only take 5-10 minutes to complete.

Once I have the structure of the alarm and the short list of quick tasks, I give myself permission to do what I am guided to do, what pops into my head without any pressure to actually finish any one thing.

Then, I just go with whatever occurs to me: finish that email, get the mail, do the dishes, whatever it is. Every once and awhile I will pick an item from my short list and do that: make a call, figure out my travel dates for an upcoming trip, etc.

The alarm and the short task list are the structures and the flow is you get to do it any ol’ way you want to.

Try this for yourself and see for yourself just how much you can get done, and more importantly, how you feel afterwards. Clear headed, accomplished and without overwhelm, is my bet.

A couple of things to keep in mind: this is not the time to watch TV or scroll through Facebook, but rather a time for “working” in a relaxed and easy manner. This is a practice to use in addition to the more focused and linear time you spend making progress or completing a project.

I wish I could say you can do this all day every day, but it’s meant to compliment and add balance in your day and in your life.

I discovered this by accident when I noticed that sometimes when I had an uninterrupted and unscripted block of time, this is what I did naturally. I was stunned to realize just how much I accomplished when I did not have the pressure to finish something.

Give it a try this week and let me know how you feel and what you think. I’m excited to hear what you find for yourself!

If you know me, you know I’m all about Love (see photo of the “Love Notes” I’ve been giving away for a few years).

I define Love as not just romantic Love, but Love as affinity, Love as connection, and truly — Love as the thing that makes the world go ‘round.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’d like to talk about Love as a philosophy and infusing it into places we may not think is appropriate. If we come from the perspective that Love is limited to romantic or familial Love, then it may not seem obvious that it can be part of our business or professional relationships as well.

But it can. Love can be found in appreciating someone, understanding another’s perspective, compassion for someone going through a hard time and honoring another’s upset with an apology, regardless of how uncomfortable it is.

Love can be anywhere we allow it to be, and it is there if we look for it. Yet rather than look for it to be present or not present, seeking to find it with “How” questions:

“How is Love showing up today?”
“How am I infusing every relationship with Love?”
“How can I spread more Love throughout my day?”

So here’s to Love, in all the myriad, beautiful expressions and manifestations of it.

What do you think? How is Love present in your life and business?

Happy Holidays, y’all!

I’m here to talk about gratitude after Thanksgiving because last year, I noticed a distinct decline in expressions of gratitude.

While it’s totally understandable that our focus on being grateful would evaporate amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it got me thinking maybe it didn’t have to be this way.

What if Thanksgiving was merely the start of a whole Season of Gratitude?

So last year that’s how I conducted the entire holiday season from Thanksgiving until New Years, focusing on what I was grateful for in my life.

It was pretty cool. I was calmer, everything was easier and despite the busy-busy, I had a ton of fun.

Given it takes 21 days to create a new habit, it set up the New Year with a solid foundation of a gratitude practice.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to adopt a Season of Gratitude – or adapt it – for yourself and see what happens and how you feel.

I’m here on the day we honor not working because I’ve realized that too few of us are talking about adrenal fatigue. As we keep up with the demands of our busy, productivity-focused lifestyles, our adrenal glands are working too hard too much of the time. It’s sucking the life out of us, and in its most extreme version, adrenal burnout, it can actually kill us.

Essentially, we’re typically under way too much stress a lot of the time, whether we are aware of it or not. Our adrenal glands are pumping out tons of cortisol all day long, and they can’t keep that up over a long period of time. This degree of cortisol was only supposed to happen once in a while, under extreme circumstances.

I had been convinced for the last few years that I’d avoided adrenal fatigue when I learned to manage my stress better by balancing the feminine and masculine parts of myself.

But since about 2008, I began waking up earlier and earlier to the point where I was seeing 3:30 am at least a few times each week and “sleeping in” was 5 am.

I didn’t realize my early waking was a symptom until about a year ago, even though I knew about adrenal fatigue.

More significantly though, I had begun to wonder, to myself at least, whether I would ever feel rested again. The words “I’m tired” would run through my head in this quiet way. Hell, I was too tired to get that excited about being so tired.

So here’s the thing, most women don’t know about this unless they have it or know someone who does.

Better nutrition was one of the most critical changes I made. I’ve learned a lot about how to incorporate even more nutrition in a way that’s easy and quick from my friend and colleague, Deb Boulanger.

Recently I interviewed Deb and she offered some great ideas to get and keep our energy levels high throughout the day.

I invite you to listen to this short audio and to make a habit of at least 1 of her simple suggestions. Deb’s knowledge is vast, and she does a great job of making better nutrition easy.

Small changes really do make a difference and will definitely support better adrenal health. I’ll have more to say about healing and prevention, and for now I just wanted to give it some attention to raise awareness.

Recently while working with an energy healer, she muscle tested my adrenal glands and to my delight, they are functioning at the high range of healthy – even when she added “stress” to the test. Sweet.

Recently, a new articulation of my work has been emerging; or rather it’s coming full circle around to some of my earliest intuitive insights about myself, my gifts and how I can serve most deeply in my business. It’s been this wondrous time of “Oh my goodness, look at that!”

I’ve noticed that in a heart-centered business, where there is no separation between me and it, the articulation of how I am expressed in my business – and comes in layers and levels – and yet, each layer builds upon the last, offers deep insight into what’s next and always, always snaps into place in the overall picture.

Having the patience to allow it to emerge and grow as I’m ready, as I’m more prepared and as it’s time, is what I’ve learned to do. Until I became comfortable with this unfolding, it was disconcerting because, well, “I want it all now!” But that’s not how it works.

I see this desire in my clients all the time, and my encouragement is to stay the course and know more will come to light soon requires faith and persistence, and that can feel really uncomfortable. Before there is enough personal evidence to support trust in this process, it IS a leap of faith and the only thing to do is keep going.

What is demanding your patience these days? Leave a comment below and let me know what’s requiring some faith.

In this brand new year, I am resolved to begin doing some things for my business that until now, I gave myself a permission to ignore. One of the many things I’ve learned this year, is the sheer volume of “things to do” is nuts. Remaining focused on the most important tasks in a given day, and avoiding distraction from bright shiny objects, takes daily discipline.

My solution was to ignore entire aspects of my marketing (and as a marketer, I know all the things I should do), until there was sufficient space to focus on them. At first, I deliberately and compassionately gave myself the freedom to basically ignore social media or article writing.

In September, I began to add in consistent social media marketing and now I am committing to more consistent article writing. Giving myself this permission created an unbelievable amount of freedom as I let go of the “shoulds.”

Have a look at your “To Do” list and identify the tasks are not crucial to what you’d like to accomplish today and this week, and then actively, deliberately give yourself permission to only focus on those things for now.

Next, tell someone to best release your own internal pressure (and maybe some outside pressure, too), so you can truly create the space to focus on your priorities.

What can you give yourself permission NOT to do? Please comment below with what you’ll take off your plate today, this week or this month.

Similar to Van Gogh, we  express our dreams in our life, perhaps not with a paint brush on canvas but all the same, we have the gifts, abilities and experience to create it.

Simply that we have a dream means we are well-equipped, in fact singularly equipped, for that unique dream. It may not seem like that at first, but it’s a matter of unpacking the jumble of thoughts and ideas and making sense of them.

Soon enough they will reveal how they fit into your dream, and with it, why it is YOUR dream and no one else’s.

If you are lost in an abyss of ideas, plans or wishes and need some clarity, making the intangible tangible is what I do best. Take the first steps and email me to schedule your Strategy Session.