It has been three months since my last post. No, I won’t bore you with the usual trite excuse ‘where did the time go’? It went and here I am once again. I took some time off after landing myself in the hospital in late November. The time was booked off for a vacation in Stowe Vermont, meaning the good news was I had the time to be sick. I had set an intention of complete relaxation, spending my days in bed, signing off from any and all responsibility and being looked after and pampered. Well guess what I got – what I asked for with the exception of course that I did not bargain on having this sejour in a hospital bed.
As I believe that life really is a series of perfect events, I recognize that my life was speaking to me and offering me the break I wanted in a form I had not anticipated. I had ample time for reflection and in that reflection I was working through something that had been brewing as a theme in my life. There had been multiple roadSIGNS by the way, and as we as humans are wanton to do, I had been sorta dealing with them and sorta not.
The body, mind, spirit connection is amazing. When I failed to honour my spirit, my body decided to give me the wake-up call I needed. It shut down literally, my bowel obstructing and, well, you get the picture.
What was up. I was feeling an enormous sense of responsibility in my life, a long-term pattern I admit. Responsibility for everything – projects, work, people, everyone and everything my life touched. Have you ever felt that way? And in this place, I was shutting down. There was no space for my curiosity, my desire to learn and to expand, to create – the space was full of all the have to’s and must do’s. I have visited this place before and one would think that I would have moved on. Yes, and there is a new lesson to be learned each time I arrive here.
Since then, I decided to give myself additional time to breathe and to evaluate where all my energy was being invested. I like that word – invested. Wouldn’t it be interesting if all of us made an appraisal on a regular basis as to where our time is invested and in this process assessed what is really ours and what is not. Wow! I am signing on for that.
Currently I am on vacation in South Carolina. We arrived here on February 7th, a small condo on the beach, Kiawah Island just outside of Charleston. We have many friends in the south – Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and my apologies to all of you as we will not be seeing you on this trip. I have learned that a visitation is different from a vacation. I love and enjoy my friends and there are simply times when I am ‘peopled out’. And this is a good thing, as on this vacation it has been Jim and I, the beach and the sand dunes, several varieties of sea birds, books, sleep, meditation, and romance movies. Oh yes, and we did squeeze in a concert – the Indigo Girls as well as a play, Raisin in the Sun.
Something else has shifted. As I released the responsibility that seemed to be weighting me down and shifted into flow, being where I wanted to be with my work in this world and accepting only what is truly mine, I did find the space to once again be curious and excited. And I am wanting to share this with all of you through my blog. Who reads me – a few and eventually more. I want to write here from a sense of true desire and love rather than obligation and responsibility – you will know the difference.
What excites me these days: A lot!
– we are launching our ME FIRST Leadership Program, a five-day in-house retreat in April. This is a leadership from the inside out program as well as teaching others an in-depth view of our work.
– the ME FIRST Playbook has been written in draft form and will be coming out later this year. it is whimsical and creative, the right brain version of the book, ME FIRST, If I Should Wake Before I Die.
– we will be recording the Chakra meditation we use during our retreats in March
– we see all the SIGNS that ME FIRST is going corporate as more and more people understand that to change what they want around them, they must first look inside.
– we are launching some new self discovery tools this spring -more to come!
– finally I am excited about the emerging field of Positive Psychology, the study of happiness and what makes people thrive. You can see the relevance to our work here at the roadSIGNS Coach.
I am back! I hope you will choose to take a few moments from your busy days to travel with me on the journey of 2011, that you will comment on the blog, ask questions and be attracted to our work. I hope you too will choose to be curious and I will keep you posted as to where my curiosity lands me.
Until next time….
Betty