‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.’ – Rumi

Four days before this past Christmas, Life delivered a kick to my gut that sent me reeling -on many levels- and drove me so hard to my knees, I struggled for two weeks before I could remotely regain my footing.

During this time, I was shaken to my very core. Unable to eat or sleep, or find my way in the bleak blackness of it all, I began noticing a very strange phenomenon.

As I struggled through my days and nights, folks started coming out of the woodwork complimenting me. ‘You look great!’ ‘There’s so much light in you!’

I’m a very private person, so these compliments came from folks who knew nothing about my loss, or the ensuing grief that threatened to consume me.

This got me thinking… Read the rest of this entry »

Throughout my personal journey to mental wellness, I research information that’s outside of the conventional realm.  Several years ago, I was fortunate to hear of an educational series sponsored by NAMI www.NAMI.org and Safe Harbor www.alternativementalhealth.com It truly changed the way I viewed options available for overcoming anxiety and other mental health disorders.

The two speakers, Dr. Nancy Mullan of Burbank, California and Professor Jim Croxton from Santa Monica College were amazing.  When I share this story told by Professor Croxton, my wish is that it will start a shift in the way you view achieving mental wellness. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read a letter online that a distraught middle-aged woman had written to a life coach. She said she had been happily married for seven years to a well known “relationship expert”.

She said they have filed for divorce and her life is now unrecognizable from the life they had for many years. The woman is over 40 now and is depressed and crying every night, wondering why her husband discarded her, why she didn’t see it coming, and why she didn’t recognize his narcissism before it was too late. Read the rest of this entry »

Currently statistics show that over 40 million adults live with some type of anxiety disorder.  Most of these adults are women.  That’s the grim news.  The great news is that, out of all the mental health disorders documented, anxiety disorder is the most treatable and manageable.  About 30% of people seek help.  Stigmas surrounding mental health disorders prevent the other 70% from seeking help.

Living with a Mental Health Disorder is Nothing about which Anyone Should Feel Shame or Embarrassment Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s society there are lots of health options. Traditional medicine has not always had all the answers. I had a physician once acknowledge to me that doctors only understand about less than 10% of the brain. That began my journey to learn more about holistic options for healthy living. Kind of an oxymoron, huh? What other options are there for healthy living but natural ones??

My journey began 20 years ago. I admit the journey has been slow—I only developed a great appreciation of “heal thyself” over the past 7-10 years when I began to commit to regular massage therapy to deal with muscular pain originating from sitting in a car long hours, prior car accidents and sitting at a computer for lengthy periods of time. I found that taking breaks and walks didn’t help as much as I’d hoped. I made the commitment to regular massage therapy every 6 weeks for 4 years.
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Be the perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect friend, perfect boss, perfect hostess… the pressure to be perfect is everywhere in a woman’s life.

Is the road to happiness paved with perfection, or are women somehow being deceived?  Martha Stewart has built a phenomenally successful empire around perfectionism.  I think it’s harder for women since Martha came along.

It’s exhausting just to think about the “P-word”.  We think that everyone knows that perfection is non-existent.  If that’s true, then why is it so difficult for many of us to stop tilting at windmills?
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Throughout my career, it’s been my mission to do everything within my power to help women- AND men- reach a healthy place of self acceptance-and let me tell you, at times it’s been an uphill battle, especially when addressing body image and self esteem issues.

I deeply believe how a woman accepts herself depends largely upon the cultural and societal norms that prevail in her day to day life. Nowhere is this more apparent than as a woman hits midlife and begins the processes of peri menopause / Menopause.

Women’s responses to Menopause and the aging process in general vary significantly.

The more Menopause is viewed as a ‘loss’ -of youth, vitality, beauty- the more likely a woman will experience pain, illness and emotional issues as she makes the transition.

Coincidence? I don’t think so!
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“Only let the moving waters calm down; and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.” ~ Rumi

What’s a stillpoint you ask? A stillpoint is the place where movement ceases and everything becomes clear as a result. Think of a rollercoaster – the kind that loops around first one way, then backwards through the loop, getting ever higher in its circle until the cars are at the top of the circle, hanging upside down – just hanging. THAT is a stillpoint. The object in motion has come to rest, balancing on its’ stillpoint. The same can be true for us even in the midst of our lives.

Our stillpoint is revealed to us when we can see through our conditioning, bring conscious compassion to all that we know and discover about ourselves, embrace all of who we are (warts and all), and find the freedom in the newness of life experiences. Some people would define it as the ageless connection with source energy, of merging with your divine for even just a moment… before the busy-ness of your linear mind, the connections of your relationships and the activities of your life come in and take over (which, as an entrepreneur, is exponentially more when the business-mind kicks in!). However, when we can attain our stillpoint, we have the opportunity to breathe with our entire being. We can stop the resistance, the struggle with what IS in appreciation of simply being.

One of my recent clients experienced her stillpoint for the first time. She hired me because her business wasn’t working. There weren’t enough clients, not enough money, too much to do, and a feeling of “not being enough”. Of course, when that starts, that message becomes internalized and becomes magnified as a vicious circle. She’s been going at a frenetic pace on all levels for nearly a year – she was worn down, fried out, and frustrated by other solutions she had tried but that didn’t make a difference. She’d tried time management, hiring a professional organizer, working with a marketing firm to handle her promotions, working with a life coach, and more – but each was a band-aid that addressed symptoms temporarily but didn’t last.

The reason was that she hadn’t met herself in the space of her stillpoint to remember her power, her true purpose, and the abundance of time to get what was truly important done – she not only had more than enough but she now knows that she IS more than enough in her stillpoint being. By taking a “break” to reconnect with her personal stillpoint, even though the first experience of it lasted less than a minute, she began to go beyond her current state to relate to a much bigger picture of herself.  She no longer views her past, or even her current state, as a predictor of what can be… and when she needs to fill up again on that level, now she can always access her stillpoint to feel the expansive focus of who she IS to align her world with that.

Take a minute to think about that… the expansive focus of your personal stillpoint…. What would that feel like? How do you get there?

Three Things You Can Do Today:

1.    Stop and be still. Give yourself permission to just stop. Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a blender that you turn off, or of being on a rollercoaster that just stops, or as a pebble that stops tumbling in the water to simply reflect the sun’s light. Be still. Breathe. Turn your conscious attention inward to find what your stillpoint looks like – it might look like you are a circle of light balanced at the top of a pyramid. It might be a feeling of the universe coming to a point in your center or a feeling of non-sensation in your body, as though you are free to do anything and gravity isn’t holding you. The most important thing is that you stop and be still – even if it’s less than a minute, it will help you to connect to your source energy, to that place where no one else can go but you.

2.    Pay attention to your near-wake or near-sleep state. In the few moments that dance between being asleep and waking up, or just before you fall asleep, the “veil” is thin for us because our conscious mind has already started to disengage or hasn’t quite engaged yet. In those “limbo” places, you can access your stillpoint more easily – the place where you are completely content and have no need to do anything other than be in that moment. If your conscious mind tries to horn in, you can sometimes push it back; over time, you will be able to prolong that in-between state to the extent that you might feel like you were there for a really long time (even if in chronological time it only lasted 30 seconds). It doesn’t take much to feel your stillpoint if you are attuned to doing so.

3.    Feel your feelings fully. When we are disconnected from, or don’t allow ourselves to feel, our feelings completely, they will find a way somehow to be acknowledged. Just like a child that demands to be heard, our feelings will find a way to get noticed. And “old” or “stuck” feelings can clog up our stillpoint because it becomes “noise” over time instead of a valid messenger in the moment. When you can be internally still enough to feel your feelings, and act accordingly, your internal world is in flow and you can more easily access your stillpoint.

And one last thought – taking the time to create a personal ritual for yourself can be a powerful way to access your stillpoint.

At the risk of using “woo-woo” language, connect with your stillpoint to be in who you are in the largest sense, and then bring that back into your everyday world for faster results on your priorities. It’s about vibrational creation from who you are in your most pure form to make manifest your gifts and desires in a tangible way. Imagine if everyone created their lives from the purity of their essential being… gives me the chills just thinkin’ about it!

Lynn Scheurell, Creative Catalyst, helps conscious entrepreneurs strengthen their inner systems, both personal and professional, for faster business results. She teaches renaissance souls how to gain clarity on their purpose by remembering who they are from their essential self, then aligning everything they do to express their unique gift through their business while working with natural energies for maximum support. Register for a free GEENI™ for Change ecourse to learn how to upgrade your life in just seven days at www.mycreativecatalyst.com.

You’ve heard the term tossed around enough by now…sustainability. What does it mean? Why does it matter?

Sustainability, in relation to food and agriculture, refers to production and harvesting methods that meet the needs of eaters while avoiding the exploitation of the land.

Sustain Web (http://www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefood/) cites a list of seven criteria which identify sustainable produced food as well as sustainable consumption.

1. Food that is locally grown and seasonally available. This isn’t always possible for people who live in urban areas or the North, where seasonal produce is very limited, but the more you can do to support your local growers, the better it will serve your economy. Also, when the late fall rolls around, that’s a great time to pick up storage produce (apples, potatoes, garlic, onions)… things that will keep in a cool, dry, dark place for several month. To me, it’s essential to get these in their most organic form as well, whenever possible. A really good organic storage potato, which costs a little more than its conventionally grown cousin, is totally worth it in terms of taste and texture.

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These are questions that I get on a regular basis from friends, family and our Kalon Women across the world. They all have to do with “self-discovery,” which seems to be a hot topic of discussion these days within the world of boomer women.

Personal growth is most often a slow and gradual process, and it can be difficult to recognize the magnitude of the changes taking place in our lives when we are too close to it. It is so important that we regularly acknowledge our ongoing growth and reward ourselves for the many wonderful steps of self-improvement we have accomplished. When we take a hard look at our own progress, we need never feel that we are wavering between past achievements and the realization of future goals.
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