Read current Newsletter | Register | Archives

Inspired News from Isabelle – Summer 2008 Issue

In this issue:

Are you going for Gold in your life?

Perhaps you’ve seen some Olympic athletes receive their gold medals on the podiums in Beijing. While watching a few winners, I appreciated that the camera focused on their face, allowing the emotions to be seen. Along with the pride we often see a beautiful humility, a sense of being truly honored by the collective recognition expressed before them. An immense satisfaction prevails in the winners, knowing they have truly championed their best skills and talents while being witnessed by thousands of spectators around the world.

One way to better tap the Gold in you is to live within a creative orientation. That’s an approach to life in which you are called by the highest in you to bring about what you desire rather than to focus on, or merely react to, the seemingly limiting circumstances around you. Athletes in gymnastic, for example, must flow with ease in order to win. With years of learning, practice and through the power of the relationship with their coach, gymnasts can create that flow and ease as they excel. I suggest you ponder the question: What will it take for me to flow with increasing ease and satisfaction in more areas of my life? What inner/outer resources or support can you access to help you further develop the gold within and turn it into tangible results at work or in your personal life?

Taping the Life Force Within

In the presence of this majestic tree photographed in Santa Barbara, CA this summer, I was astounded at the size of the multiple trunks reaching upwards, defying gravity. Imagine the weight of each massive branch! Yet the life force pulsing through this tree holds it and supports the continuous unfolding of new growth of more branches and leaves. And of course the roots underground are doing their magnificent work, forever expanding the foundational stability of the tree, in proportion to its upward visible growth.

Do you ever wonder how the life force pulsates and generates growth in you?
What are the foundational principles, values and practices that give your life a grounding stability enabling you to reach new heights in the expression of your potential? A conscious awareness of that foundation, of how you nurture the ground on which you grow your life, gives you the ability to tap more source energy and inner strengths than you could have imagined possible.

As summer gradually recedes, allowing fall to come to the fore, find a moment of reflection to identify what 5 most important values are calling to be re-affirmed at this time. Then decide what practices enable you to live in better congruence with your foundational values. For example, my health and wellness is part of my core values and I do yoga as one of the practices that contributes to my body-mind-spirit wellness. Recently I started the habit of asking myself, several times a day, when I’m about to choose something to eat at home or elsewhere: “is this food going to contribute to my optimal well-being, or take meaway from it?” This question helps to guide me towards the most nutritional choices I can make and to be mindful of the quantity I choose to eat. You can perhaps ask yourself a similar question or modify it in relation to the people you choose to have in your social life, the activities you engage in, and so on. If you really listen to the answer within and act accordingly, you’ll see your life gradually improve thereby generating new heights of growth, energy and flow.

Upcoming workshops

Kelowna: October 24, 2008 (location TBA)
Vancouver: October (precise date and time TBA)

Living in Balance, on Purpose, in Midlife and Beyond

This intensive and dynamic one-day workshop is on the vision and practical considerations of re-engagement in midlife and/or in anticipation of, (or soon after), retirement. Information, inspiration and insight-generating exercises will fill the day as well as conversations for participants to:

• Understand the 8 success factors of a fulfilling re-engagement rather than a “retirement”
• Make conscious lifestyle choices to enhance their longevity, purposefulness and happiness
• Retrieve and re-energize dreams that faded in the busy, fast pace of life.
• Embrace developmental opportunities of their second half of life

If this is of interest to you, please let me know as soon as possible by e-mail or a phone call (604 708-1585) and I will inform you of the details, time, location, cost, etc.

Recommended reading

The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Life by Robert Fritz.

Almost a classic in the field of personal, professional and organizational development this book illuminates the way to taping Source energy within. Fritz explains very effectively how to develop a creative orientation and to harness the creative tension that arises in the gap between the current reality we have and the results we want to bring about in life.

The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments by William Bridges.

This book helps the reader understand the different kinds of transitions we go through and the three phases typical of all transitions. Bridges has a personal, intimate tone through this book which can be an invaluable resource for anyone going through the challenges of midlife, shifting careers, grieving from a major loss or reengaging following retirement.