Mandala Painting is Transformational!
This week I am in Laguna Beach, California, painting mandalas with my dear friend and teacher, Paul Heussenstamm. I’ve been painting mandalas with him for over twelve years, and each time the process takes me deeper!
I’m so excited and filled with energy that aleady this morning I’ve designed a new mandala, written three blog posts, and sent an ezine to my subscribers. And it is only 7:45 a.m.! We get back into the studio work at 10:00, where I am starting a series of mandala paintings depicting
- The Conscious Self
- Conscious Life Transformation
- Dark Night of the Soul
- Spirit in Business
During this week-long workshop I am also being trained to be a better facilitator in the transformational process of mandala creation. So, I’ll be able to focus more energy on offering transformation through art workshops with my wonderful clients, and you can come to my Mt. View Retreat in north Georgia to enjoy the mandala process and the wonderful energy and mountain views!
Paul’s paintings have been purchased by people worldwide and you might have seen one of them featured in a movie, hanging at one of the Chopra Centers, or at Michael Beckwith’s Agape chapel. For more information on mandalas, their creation, or a master of the trade, go to: http://www.mandalas.com .
I love Energy Psychology Tools!
I love energy psychology and the powerful tools that support the work of
- understanding energy,
- how it works within to keep the body health,
- how when it gets stuck the many ways it causes individuals to suffer, and
- how to untangle energy and clear blockages caused by emotional trauma to the energy system in order to restore peace of mind and physical vitality to the individual.
The energy psychology tools that I use, NET, AK, EFT, are so potent and, when following the body’s priority, the easy protocol of each clears the issues in a way so that success around any goal may be reached.
In going about clearing blocks and attaining goals using energy therapy modalities there is balance, it is easier than using sheer will and getting frustrated over and over when failures occur, and once resistance is cleared it is gone for good and similar future goals will be easy to attain. The beauty of using energy tools and meridian tapping techniques including EFT is that:
- They cause no harm and have no negative side effects,
- Every session is beneficial in some way,
- They are easy to learn and to use,
- They clear the emotional charge around painful issues without inflicting pain,
- They not only serve to clear blockages and emotional charge held in the subconscious, meridians, electromagnetic field, limbic brain, organs, cells, and elsewhere, but can also serve to input new and improved data and emotions into the mind computer to fill the vacuum created,
- And, they are simple, subtle, and profound.
Why wouldn’t anybody seek out such tools and use them?
For more information about EFT you may view videos, read articles, and download Gary Craig’s basic EFT training manual at http://www.emofree.com .
Chronic Fatigue IS Curable!
Back in the early 1990′s I spent a year in bed with chronic fatigue syndrome and the constant pain of fibromyalgia. I was too tired to work, too foggy to think, too pained to participate normally in life, too feeble to do anything that I had previously done in my life. I was always so tired that I felt that I was going to die if I didn’t lie down, however once I did I couldn’t always sleep because of the horrible pain throughout my body.
I became a dependent for the first time in my adult life, and must have been difficult to live with because I was either passive and emotionless or irritable and angry all of the time. I felt like a victim and I could not share any energy with anybody else because I was in basic survival mode and felt like I was going to die. My body hurt so badly that even a light touch of a feather set off inner alarms and I went into protect-me mode. I am grateful that my dear husband stayed with me throughout this ordeal because it sure took a lot of patience and loyalty.
There were very few advantages of my health condition at that time, however there were some. For the first time in my life I allowed myself to take a nap when I needed it – without feeling guilty or lazy. I was unable to work so I had a lot of time to think and meditate on my life when my fuzzy brain allowed it. I was surrounded by my own victimhood and it became intolerable. I learned how to really slow down and BE. (I had been a meditator for years, and this really slowed down my fast pace so that I was able to really just BE – even though it was such a painful existance.)
One day I woke up and realized that my long blonde hair was starting to fall out. This was the final straw, and on that day I declared that either I was going to get well or I was going to leave the planet. I was sick and tired of being a victim! (No pun intended!) And I was useless to myself, my husband, my friends and family, and my clients. My life was a waste and I was not going to bear it any longer. I hated victimhood and cleared that out of my system then – for good!
Within two days of my declaration I was synchronistically led to a healthfood shop in another town, and upon entering the front door I practically ran into a large rack of brochures which spoke directly of my symptoms, the cause of the conditions I suffered, and how to get well. After so much introspection, soul-searching, and time to clear inner muddiness of what I wanted in my life, these brochures gave me the final tips on how to clear out the condition and get well.
Two months later I was pain-free, my energy had returned, and I had lost twenty pounds. I felt so much better than I had felt in over a year. I was back! I had learned many lessons, and soon after I started working with others to help them re-claim their lives from chronic fatigue and other auto-immune conditions. I was not going to accept that life sentence of pain and fatigue, and there are many others who also are seeking a way out. I am honored to be able to help guide them back to health and well-being!
Taking Conscious Responsibility for Our Feelings
“If you feel it, then it is in you.”
I first heard this phrase in the late 1980′s during a short intro seminar presented by Dr. Michael Ryce in Charlotte, North Carolina. When I heard this comment and the conversation around it I was forever healed of all sense of victimhood that I might have carried with me from my previous life. His easy forgiveness process helped me to start peeling off the onion of old hurts as I realized that everyone involved had merely done the best they could do, and if I was still feeling hurt, then it was up to me to clear that emotion and then move on with my life.
Dr. Ryce’s processes are potent, easy, teachable, and can be found in his 1997 book Why is This Happening To Me… Again?! I’ve run into Michael several times over the years. He is quite a scholar and earth steward. He commits his work to “The restoration of Total Love to every mind and relationship on the planet,” or more simply put, all of his tools and his book “support the healing of ourselves, each other, and the planet”.
To learn more about Dr. Michael Ryce, his retreat center Heartland, and to receive your own free electronic download of Dr. Ryce’s text you may go to: http://www.whyagain.com (available in six languages).
I know that in the late 1980′s early 1990′s Michael’s work helped my marriage dramatically and also helped me to heal some issues with my parents. I was using the forgiveness process – now dubbed the “No Fault Empowerment Tools” (found on pages 182-3) before I learned of Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) or Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). So, while I was able to realize and clear some of the issues that I discovered through Michael’s work – just through the understanding of the underlying cause for my feelings, I later utilized NET and EFT to make sure that all emotional residue was gone – forever!
Networking for Success!
When I first opened my business in 1985 I lived in northern California. I was new to the area and in order to market my services I networked with others at almost daily face-to-face networking meetings. In Silicon Valley there were so many groups then that held breakfast, lunch, or dinner/evening meetings that I often had to toss a coin to determine where I would go to meet more people.
Obviously I chose meetings where I felt the audience would be interested in my services, however there were some meetings where I had to laugh at myself for having no idea what the speaker was discussing. I can truthfully say that each time I forced myself to attend a meeting full of strangers, I did benefit in some way or another, and my business was booming. Then I left town.
Since then I have relocated five more times, each time requiring me to start over with local clients. Each time I found networking meetings to attend so that I could meet people.
A few years ago I arrived in a destination where there are very few networking meetings, and not many people locally who are in my desired target market. My marketing focus now is at least 98% via internet, and the game is different.
Luckily there are numerous ways to network via internet. We are doing that right now. I’ve joined Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among other sites, where I can connect with people.
Well, times have changed. There are still live networking meetings, and the human-to-human contact is a very important way to attract clients, however when my local community doesn’t provide the demographics of my target market, then I can take that same time that I would normally spend at a live networking meeting and spend it connecting with people on a personal basis on-line. It is still a good use of time and I’m getting to know people on all of the social networking sites just by sharing information and striking up conversations. It is fun even though it is remote rather than live. I’m feeling supported by my new on-line community, and that feels just as good as it used to feel when I depended on my live community to support me.
So, look at the opportunities we now have to connect with others, and I invite you to utilize the local as well as internet opportunities whenever possible. It will keep you in the swing of your game – whatever it is!
Shifting My Skills Paradigm to NET EFT Practitioner
“When a paradigm shifts, everything goes back to zero.” I still love this quote from Joel Barker, futurist during the 90′s, who helped to guide business leaders into the twenty-first century. Even he didn’t suspect how many changes and paradigm shifts would occur – and so frequently as we reached and passed the millennium change point.
I started my company in 1985 after several years in top management prior to that. For fifteen years I enjoyed using the skills of speaking, training, consulting. I served as a rather yang “preacher, teacher, answer person”. People paid me to give them the answers, and that is what I did. I was very good at that and many thousands of individuals and hundreds of corporations benefited from what I shared.
Then I took a sabbatical to re-discover my passion. I was burned out after so many years of running my own business plus helping so many others to run theirs. After several years of working part-time and doing lots of inner soul-searching about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I realized that I could easily adapt my old skills and shift my own paradigm to one that I enjoyed more at this point in my career.
By the time I re-invented myself I had already been coaching for many years and that was beginning to be a popular profession. I had also been using and facilitating energy healing modalities for a number of years and felt a lot of passion about utilizing these tools with others as a business.
In re-creating my business I realized that my old skill set had taken so much energy on my part because it didn’t come naturally for me. As an introvert and very introspective person I had to put lots of energy into supporting my own comfort level whenever I stood in front of large audiences as a plenary speaker or was hired to tell top executives how to run their corporations. I did a good job, but it was stressful and ended up burning me out.
This new skill set, on the other hand, feels much more natural to me. It takes much less of my energy to coach and support people with healing modalities like EFT, NET, Reiki, Healing Touch, applied kinesiology, among others. I am intuitive and can rely on my inner voice to guide me as I am working with a client. With my toolbox of various modalities I can easily support my clients with whatever they need when they present to me. This feels so much more natural for me. It is coming through me in the moment rather than being planned and created beforehand.
So, my new skills paradigm has taken me to places where I can do my coaching and healing work as I also focus on writing. These can all be performed from the comfortable energy of my home office sitting on top of a beautiful mountain with views all around. Yes, I do still get out and network – occasionally. However, I find solace in my alone time or the intimate time I spend with a client by phone where we are both in our comfortable settings connecting energetically. Yes, the paradigm has shifted. And now, Anne is happier, healthier, more “in tune”, and supporting herself first, and others because she can!
Letting go of the Old to Make Room for the New
After thirty years I sold a bicycle that I bought as an undergraduate in college. That bike had been my freedom, my mode of transportation, my vehicle away from the pressures of my studies, and my way to fly through the air at great speeds. It had been stolen once and I had flipped over the handlebars at least twice into traffic. I loved that bike.
But, after not using it for several years it was not doing me any good, and the disuse was hard on the tires and brakes. I posted it for sale and got a prospective buyer who was coming to see it. I decided to take the bike out for a last spin around the neighborhood. Oh my. The memories, the speed, the wind in my face, the feeling of freedom. Did I really wish to give up this wonderful flying machine? Well, yes. It was dangerous. The brakes didn’t work well and I wasn’t quite as limber as when I used to ride it everywhere on that big campus. I supposed that the young man who was buying it would fix it up and enjoy it. I let it go.
That day it really impacted me what a strong hold an item like that had on me. It was full of thirty years of happy, sad, frustrated, tired, confused, inspired, feelings and memories. As I let it go I felt that I was letting go of a great load of emotions with it. I was glad that I sold it and soon found a newer bike that would serve me.
Yesterday I sold my favorite car. It was a top of the line cadillac – my old executive car. It had memories, status, great meaning to me. It was in very good condition and the only reason I let it go was that I just bought a car from my father with less mileage. My car was prettier, cleaner, easier to drive, faster, more deluxe. My new vehicle is four-wheel drive, which I need in the mountains, and will serve me well with its low mileage and good maintenance record. I’m liking it more and more each day.
That didn’t make it any easier to let go of that car of my dreams, however. It took awhile of talking to myself and to the car, and then we manifested just the right buyer. The younger woman who bought it will be very happy with it, and my car will serve her well. She will feel good driving that luxury vehicle, and it will keep her and her family safe. This time I prepared and was glad to let go of my sweet car and allow it to take care of this new family. And still, I did feel a few pangs of nostalgia in letting it go.
I know one thing. Every time I let go of something a vacuum is created and something better comes to me in its place. And, in letting go of the older vehicle – full of memories of who I used to be, Director of Training & Development, consultant, trainer, chamber of commerce president, economic development commission chair, etc., now I can be more of who I am now – without looking back or replaying the old stories. This feels good. I can be in better alignment now. I am grateful!
Change: Endings and New Beginnings…
On this date, December 17, a number of years ago, I left my old life and ventured into the unknown. It was very difficult for me. I was being urged by my soul, and still the fear was almost unbearable. I was unhappy and alone for months after that important move, and gradually I re-created my life to eventually lead me to the now that I am living much more authentically and happily than before.
Today is the perfect day to launch a new phase in my new life, and that is what I will share with you below, but it is also a celebration of the ending of life for a friend who died last weekend. Jack was always authentic to me. He told me what made him happy, what made him mad. He shared his thoughts and his passions. He didn’t just talk about what made him smile – he lived his life fully, and died being his full active self… he was only 56. We will miss him and I’ll take my flute to his memorial because he so loved when we played music at night around the campfire.
Whenever there is change something is let go of as something new is chosen. This crossroads of leaving the comfort of the past and moving into the unknown of the future is often unnerving. Sometimes it takes us humans a bit of time to shift gears, but we are resilient critters and we soon are able to look at the benefits of the decisions we have made for ourselves.
It is my opinion that the scariest kind of change is the change that is un-planned and sudden. Like the sudden death of a loved one. If we can consciously change, then the unknown holds less fear for us.
On that note I’d like to share that it is time to launch some changes in the programs that I am offering to you. I have let go of the slower-paced series and replaced them with shorter more intensive programs for targeted audiences who want advanced-level deep shifts to happen in their lives and practices.
• Advanced Living and Loving: is a three-month program that speaks to a wide audience of those who wish to REALLY transform their lives for the better using wholistic energy therapy tools including EFT. It is starting in January 2010 and enrollment is determined via interview/coaching session. The techniques covered in this program will go way beyond traditional EFT and MTT tools, and will guide you to identify and balance your deepest values, clear self-sabotaging patterns, vision and create that life you most desire.
• Going Deeper with Your Clients: is a highly specialized three-month program just for coaches, therapists, and wellness practitioners of all kinds. It is starting in early February, 2010, and enrollment is done via interview. This program offers support and new tools so that every coach, therapist, wellness practitioner will be able to go deeper with their clients to clear blockages, pain, emotional discomfort. I will provide the “secret tools” for participants to excel beyond past levels in their practices.
Today I am also launching an affiliate program for The Ariela Group of Wholistic Services, where my friends, colleagues, readers like you, can benefit from helping me to share information about these new programs. The affiliate link can be found at the bottom of each web page.
Some people may believe that after almost thirty years of training, coaching, working with clients, that all of this would be second nature to me. But change of any kind takes some getting used to. In preparing the high calibre programs that I am sharing above I have walked through the layers of my own fears, and now am ready to share strategies that absolutely will support conscious change… I know, because I had to test them on myself first. And, this all started on December 17th so many years ago.
I Love the Power of Coaching by Telephone!
Back when I used to offer my coaching and consulting in person I never believed the power of doing this via telephone. I was strictly trained that eye contact and body language are necessary components of coaching and training, and that without these there would be diminished results. I think differently now!
I think that people feel invisible over the phone, so they tend to open up more to me. They have the flexibility of making the call from a comfortable spot to them. They don’t need to drive to meet with me. They don’t need to get dressed up for our meeting. They don’t need to watch their physical presence during our meeting, and can just be comfortably themselves. They also don’t have to try to read my body language, wondering what my reactions might mean. They can be themselves, relax, feel comfortable, and “let it all hang out”. I stay invisible and play less of a role than my client or session participants, and this works well for all of us!
I’ve had cases where clients – especially business clients - have made it clear to me that they want to keep our relationship and sessions “strictly business”. I am happy to comply. And, because of the safeness of being invisible on the phone often these same clients tend to open up like a book, sharing all kinds of personal and professional information as they go more deeply into their transformation.
I now enjoy offering teleseminars much more than presenting a seminar in front of an audience, and this is after thirty years of enjoyably and successfully working live audiences. I am more at ease and have all of my reference materials around me to share. My participants are equally at ease, and get a discount because none of us have to travel or rent a space for the seminar. We also can communicate easily back & forth, so I cover all of the NLP modes of communication: visual, auditory, kinesthetic even by telephone! It is great!
Even though I offer energy therapy, this is very doable by telephone. And, when one connects via SKYPE or some other internet-based telephone connection with video capabilities, then it feels like the person is actually in the room as I coach, and vice versa. One client recently asked me for some energy healing as part of her meridian tapping therapy, and as I worked by distance on her I watched via video feed as she took off her glasses, closed her eyes, and received. It was great – and she was sitting in her home on an island off the coast of France! I love technology!! 
So, the next time you feel that you might not get as much out of a coaching relationship by phone, I invite you to shift your thinking like I did many years ago. Back then I would have argued against the potency of telephone coaching and teleseminar training, and now I love coaching by telephone!
If you would like to try a complimentary short phone session – just for the experience – I invite you to go to the following link and try it out for yourself! Go to: http://is.gd/4DD5y for a short business or life “tune-up” session, and see if you are willing to change your perception about classes and coaching by telephone!
Miracle Watching – Disappearing Pain
Last week I mentioned that I’ve always been a “Miracle Watcher”. This has always been easier for me when my life is going well, but the most profound miracles have happened in times of distress.
One of the reasons that I have initiated this Monday specialty blog is that there are so many people having problems and experiencing challenges in their lives right now. The economic climate is taking its toll on many people and the stress of watching the gloom & doom on television news is enough to cause pain for many people.
Watching for Miracles, on the other hand, is easy and uplifting. And, when we each focus on the good that is happening around us rather than the bad, then our own vibration and mood is lifted with the related improvement in health and well-being that comes with a positive outlook. So, let us get started!
I was laid off from high-profile jobs twice. This was very difficult for me, even though the first time I anticipated that it might happen. It was difficult even though the same big multi-national conglomerate that I worked for as its first woman Director promised to hire me back as an outside consultant and trainer – and they did.
I’ll never forget the morning that my boss called me at home while I was dressing for work. I had just flown back into town at midnight the night before from my monthly training trip to one of their other manufacturing plants. Training all of the employees, at all levels, during their regular first, second, and third shifts, was a tiring three-day trip that I made monthly to that plant.
I had worked at the job of world-wide Director of Training & Development for three years and had instituted some interesting programs, helped the company become ISO-9002 certified, and had helped to solve some re-engineering problems. I had also developed a regular pain in my hip that at times was so acute that I could barely walk. Good chiropractic and regular massages didn’t seem to be able to cure this nagging pain that was uncomfortable whether I was sitting or standing.
In the throws of the mid-1990′s lay-offs and down-sizing re-organizations, my boss announced to me that I had three weeks – until Halloween – before my job would end. I could leave then or I could stay for the last three weeks. He would give me full support in any way he could, and I could move my stuff out of my cushy top manager’s office at night so that I would not have to answer so many questions from the first shift employees.
I opted to finish all of my programs, and, in fact, I had my last team-training as Director on Halloween itself. Then I waited several months until they called me back as a consultant for another project.
There were several miracles in this life-changing event, but one even shocked me, and I should have seen it coming.
As my boss was relaying the bad news to me on the phone that morning in early October, the pain in my hip disappeared. And, it did not reappear at all during the three weeks that I continued doing the work that I had set up to accomplish before my last day.
At that time I had already been a master trainer for over ten years. I had presented many stress-management workshops and hands-on stress management sessions with employees. I had studied wholistic wellness and understood holistic healing modalities involved with stress management.
In the months before I received notice of my lay-off it had not occurred to me that my hip pain was stress-related. As soon as I learned that my “sentence” as an inside employee was coming to an end, and that I would soon return to being an outside trainer/consultant, working for myself again, the pain – and the high stress level – disappeared.
As I tell the story now it seems so obvious. But, at the time the lay-off was definitely a blessing in so many ways, and the disappearance of the acute pain that I had experienced will continue to be dubbed a “miracle” by me!
If you would like to share a miracle from your own life, please send it to me via the comment option in this blog, or go to: http://www.arielagroup.com/contact and provide the details to me.
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