Of course, I never do that, ever.

Well, ok, maybe a couple of times.

I’ve been studying the art of failing or making mistakes for a long time, because perfectionism was killing me. (Somewhat literally, since it was the root of my pelvic pain syndromes; vulvodynia, interstitial cystitis, and pelvic floor dysfunction.) Trying to be perfect, make no wrong moves, and generally be loved or liked by everyone resulted in enormous amounts of stress in my life.

Perfectionism is pretty frustrating, since there is no perfect.

It’s like chasing your own tail all the time; exhausting, futile, and kind of silly.

Recently, I made a new and exciting discovery on the perfectionism front. I realized that the only reason I try to be perfect or avoid mistakes is this: I’m afraid of feeling that terrible sinking feeling I feel when I screw up.

Imagine for a moment that you’re heading to an important meeting, and you’re a big executive. You have prepared the perfect presentation. You’re set. You’re going to impress your boss. You walk into the meeting, sit down, and open your folder. The boss calls your name, and it’s your turn to present. You reach for the papers that your boss has requested you show him, and they’re not there. Oh, no. They were all set, and now they’re simply not there. You’ve FAILED.

Can you feel it? (Of course, you might need to imagine a different failure scenario, and that’s perfectly fine! Use whatever works.)

Your heart is racing; you feel dread, a sinking feeling, waves of sickly shame, and horror. There is a sensation of “not ok” within you. You’re wrong. You’ve messed up. Your core stability is shaken; you lose yourself into this pit of failure. You’re bad.

So that explains why most of us don’t really revel in failure and generally try to avoid it at all costs. There’s a lot of yucky sensation that comes with it.

The amazing thing, though, is that the sensation of failure, while uncomfortable, is quite survivable.

Your only task is to be with it and allow it to happen in your body. Let it all wash through, like the ocean waves at the beach. Feel the emotions as physical sensations, and let them happen.

Like waves, the emotions die down. They pass through. You discover that you are still intact. You are still ok. You are not wrong or bad; you’re just a person. Then, from that place, wisdom can emerge. You might discover or learn from your failure. You might take a new path as a result. You might be kinder to yourself, because you’re not stuck in self-recrimination. With that self-kindness, you might have new ideas flow in or open up to new solutions.

When you talk to the people around you, you’ll be less defended and more open. You’ll have new conversations.

When you can be with the sensation of failure and just let it be that – a sensation – you discover freedom. You discover a new strength within you, because now you don’t have to avoid mistakes or failure. You’re less likely to be vulnerable to others’ judgments, because you know the secret; you can survive that sensation. You’re always ok. You can mess up and feel shame and learn from it all, because that’s how it’s supposed to work.

That is how perfectionism loses its grip and you gain a whole new freedom to be yourself. With that freedom comes less stress, and, of course, less physical pain or other symptoms.

I knew something was off.

I didn’t feel good. I could sense my mood plummet; my energetic vibrations go lower and lower. I was impatient with people, not able to focus on my work, my creativity was not cooperating with me and I found myself standing in front of the open refrigerator at odd times, or with an empty bag of coconut chips in my hands.

I stopped and asked myself what the matter was but couldn’t figure it out.  It wasn’t sadness, anger, or fear, although I’m sure if I peeled the layers of the discomfort, I’d find fear somewhere in there. But I was too busy to deal with this. I had work to do!  I had only two days left to hand in the remaining two of seven articles I was supposed to write for review by my writing mastermind group.

So I put up with it. Ironically, the more I let the dark cloud stay around, the more darkness it brought in. But I was too busy, right?

Finally, mercifully, the deadline date arrived and I had nothing. I received the reviews on the five articles I had already sent in and as I was reading the suggestions, it suddenly occurred to me that I had done a lot of work during these eight weeks; I had learned and progressed, and I didn’t have to hand in two more! This wasn’t a pass or fail school! Nothing bad was going to happen if I wasn’t able to do them all. I was not going to be punished, or thought less of, or shamed in public.

No one was pressuring me but myself!

Hmm…No one was pressuring me but myself…

As these thoughts moved around in my head, I decided to let go of my expectations of writing the remaining two. I had 12 hours left and it was not happening. It was a quiet, gentle decision, almost a subconscious one. I just knew I wasn’t going to do it, without debating the pros and cons.  I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Half an hour later I got up from my desk to go for a walk and that’s when I realized an immediate shift had happened in my body already. The dark clouds had disappeared. There was lightness to my mood. I felt energetic, ready to tackle whatever else I wanted to do that day.  The difference was physically palpable. A light bulb went on as I asked myself what had changed?  I had simply lifted my own pressure on myself.

This realization might seem to be a small thing, but for me it was huge. How many times I had felt uneasy, tense, impatient, and even sick and in retrospect, it was all due to me putting unnecessary pressure on myself.

As I sat quietly with this out on my bench in the garden, I asked myself why, why am I in such a deep habit of pressuring myself that I’m not even aware I’m doing it.

Many reasons popped out:

I need to achieve more.

What for?

Because I’ll look better?

To whom?

People? My colleagues? My friends? My children? My husband? My long gone parents?

The ones that mattered on that list already know me. People in general don’t even think about me or what makes me look good.

How about myself? Will I look better to myself if I achieve more?

Yes! I’ll look good to the self with the false beliefs that I’ve accumulated over the years since grade school. To look good and feel good I have to achieve more.

Is that true? Who made that rule? My five year old self?

Actually, that belief makes me feel so bad that it leads to just the opposite result- disconnecting from myself and achieving less, as I had demonstrated the last two days.

Do you need to volunteer at your children’s school five days a week so you look like a good parent? Bake cookies, run the publishing center, the newsletter, become PTA president, do fundraisers.. I thought I did.  Pressure.

Do you need to make sure you cook a healthy meal each evening for your family, bake everything from scratch? That makes a good wife and mother. I thought I did. Pressure!

Do you need to answer every call for help from all your friends around the world?  That makes a good friend, right? Pressure.

Do you need to give up your coffee break and lunch break at work, so that you stay on top of things? That’s what makes a good nurse of course? Nah, an exhausted, overworked, burned out nurse… Pressure!

All of the above unkind habits were actually draining me and making me less of who I am. I thought I had already worked on them and had come a long way, until I caught myself in the act again the other day. There are hidden ways we still pressure ourselves.

Where in YOUR life are you putting unnecessary pressure on yourself? Look closely.

1. The first step is always kindness. Don’t beat yourself up now for the past.
2. Your clue is any unexplained discomfort. Become present for it. Notice with curiosity, ask, “What is going on NOW?”
3. Actually ask yourself the question: Am I putting pressure on myself in any way?
4. If you are, gently dig deeper. Why? What does it mean if I don’t? Who am I trying to impress?
5. Do some thought work on what you discover. Ask what do I really want and does this help me?
6. Use humor and love.
7. Once you have your answers, you’ll feel a shift in your body and energy.
8. Well done! Go play or take a nap.

Let me know what you find out and what you think about this.

Leda Asmar is an endorsed Mind Body coach and a Certified Martha Beck coach. She helps people though transitions in life. She specializes in helping hardworking midlife women get unstuck, make authentic choices, and take charge of their lives by tuning into their inner voice and reconnecting with their true Selves.

website: www.ledaasmar.com
email: leda@ledaasmar.com

 This got me thinking about false dichotomies. They sneak into our minds without us even noticing. Right after the coaching session, I headed to the kitchen to make lunch. While the oatmeal was cooking on the stove (being pregnant seems to involve eating a lot of breakfast foods, for some reason), I chopped some almonds. Then, I looked over and saw the walnuts sitting on the counter.

 “Oooh,” I thought. “Maybe I wanted walnuts instead of almonds.” I felt slightly bummed for a moment.

Then, it hit me. It was a false dichotomy. All of a sudden, I realized there was no reason whatsoever I couldn’t have almonds and walnuts in my oatmeal at the same time. Revolutionary! And, freeing.

It’s funny how these rules show up in our minds and we don’t even question them. One can only have almonds OR walnuts. Really? Why? If I hadn’t questioned that false dichotomy, I might have missed out on what I truly wanted in that moment, and what was truly right for me in that moment.

In coaching, when a client has two conflicting ideas warring in her head, we use the word “and” to blow her mind, shake that false dichotomy loose,  and help her move in a new direction. I am having almonds AND walnuts in my oatmeal. Whoa! Mind-blowing! I can write a book AND focus on my clientele.

Usually, when you throw the word “and” into a false dichotomy, you discover that in fact, it works much better as an “and” than an “or.” Focusing on clientele is what makes the book all that much better – there’s inspiration, fodder, and ideas. Being a mom AND an entrepreneur allows for a flexible schedule, more time to pay attention to both parts of life, and be present as needed. Eating almonds AND walnuts means even more fabulous nutrients for the body.

Anytime you find yourself saying “or” when you’re trying to make a choice, decision, or solve an issue, see what happens if you replace it with “and.” In the end, maybe you’ll decide you do want the almonds without the walnuts. And that’s perfect. But saying “and” allows you to truly check in with what you really want, and with what is really right for you. It opens the door to what is possible, giving you the most freedom and the most choice.

Play with “and” today and let me know what you discover! I can’t wait to hear what happens for you as you open new doors and start eating almonds AND walnuts on your oatmeal. (But only if that feels fabulous.)

While home renovations are certainly exciting, and I’m looking forward to the end result, I might be a tad tired of the process. It’s been nice to get some fresh air in the basement via the large hole in the wall, but since it’s eleven degrees outside, I wouldn’t mind if it were patched soon. And though I quite like the contractor who is renovating our house, it is starting to feel like he lives with us.

As I searched around the house for a spatula and pan this morning, I will admit to feeling out-of-sorts. Okay, maybe even grumpy. I felt stretched, as though some internal limit had been reached, quite suddenly, and I was very much done with this renovation process.

Except, the renovation process is not yet done.

The handy thing about mind-body skills is that they can be done on the fly. As I rushed around, trying to find kitchen implements and muttering under my breath, I reflected on what my emotions, body, and soul were telling me. Here’s the summary:

Emotions: Anger and Irritation – a limit has been reached.

Body: Tired – it’s time to rest.

Soul: Space is needed now.

I immediately felt better. Understanding what I need solves the stress.

The interesting thing about listening to my needs is that it doesn’t involve any kind of problem-solving or action steps. Instead of trying to solve anything or jump right into “fix” mode (which often just increases stress), I can sit back and listen. First, I listen to what is needed. Then, I listen for the solution.

Amazingly, without any work on my part, the solutions always appear. Whenever I listen for them, they show up. They come as ideas in my own mind, words spoken from someone else, or a phrase in a book. They can be in any form – my job is to recognize them.

Today’s solution came in the form of an email. The contractor wrote to detail out his plan to finalize the kitchen. Order and space arrived out of nowhere. He then reminded me that he will be gone next week – all week. A week in which I will rest, clean sawdust off my countertops, and enjoy the pause before we jump back into the game.

Life itself is pretty much a home renovation process. Just when you think it’s going smoothly, something springs a leak or some such surprise arises. There will be many moments when you are stretched to your limit, ready to snap. When stress happens, it’s time to stop and listen. Your emotions, body, and soul are there to help you navigate. Discover your needs, listen for the solutions, and stop trying to figure it out.

Once you start recognizing when you are beating yourself up or judging yourself, you have opened the window to do something different with your mind. It might feel like you’ve just cracked the window, but I promise, you’re letting in some fresh air!

At first, you might notice that it takes you several days or even weeks to catch on to self-judgment. The more you practice noticing, the easier it gets. Eventually, you’ll see your mind start to turn down the self-judgment path and you’ll swiftly choose a different route.

Here’s an example. In the past, stepping on the scale used to be a catalyst for self-judgment for me. Whether it was up or down a few pounds hardly mattered. If I’d gained a pound, my mind spewed out terrible comments on my ability to control my eating and how terrible I looked. If I’d lost a pound, my mind would immediately jump to, “Well, this certainly won’t last.”

After practicing and working on self-kindness very specifically for the last couple of years or so, I’m able to choose something much nicer – before my mind even starts down those other roads. And the miraculous thing? I actually believe the kind words. That is the result of a lot of repetition. You might not believe your kind words to yourself at first, even if you’re saying them. And that’s okay! The more you practice, the easier it gets.

A couple weeks ago, I stepped on the scale to find a couple-pound increase. Instead of the old self-criticism, my mind went to this: “Hmmm. That’s interesting. I wonder why I’ve been overeating?” This curiosity led me to discover that I’d been avoiding some sadness and anger in the grief process and trying to suddenly be “done” grieving. What great information!

This was all a result of me asking that question from last week’s post: What is the kindest thing I could say to myself right now?

In the past, I would have applied force. I would have said, “Now you MUST stop overeating and exercise MORE this week.”

Just when you think you need force – you need more kindness. More force will only make it harder to know why whatever is happening is happening, and you’ll just want to rebel against it, anyway. The key is to shift that habit. As you feel yourself amping up into self-flagellation, see if you can downshift into kindness. Feel the difference in your body when you do that. Notice how much tension force and self-criticism create, versus the relaxation and relief of kindness.

If you’re ready to practice more self-kindness, you might enjoy the following exercise. I call it the I’m Awesome list. If that sounds egotistical, don’t worry. It’s not. I’ve found that with habitual self-criticizers, it’s pretty much impossible to create arrogance. The pendulum is swung so far to the self-criticism side that it would take some serious effort to get it all the way over to arrogant jerk.  In fact, by actually embracing your awesomeness, you’re less likely to be myopically focused on your own shortcomings. Therefore, you end up being more present with other people. You’ll actually be less self-focused and more loving and compassionate toward others.

Here’s how you do it:

Get a notebook or huge peace of paper. At the top, write: The I’m Awesome List. Each day, add 1-3 specific reasons you are awesome. They can be seemingly small or incredibly huge. Whatever works for you goes on the list. If you need a little help getting started, enlist a friend. You’ll start her list, and she’ll start yours. Once you’re rolling, you’ll find it’s easier and easier to think of reasons you are awesome. (If you find this incredibly difficult, you can start with an “I’m Sort of Okay” list and work your way up to the I’m Awesome List.)

I get emails from clients like the sample below pretty much every week:

Agh! I think something is terribly wrong with me! Oh no! I am crying a lot! I feel terrible! What should I do? I can’t live like this! What if I’m never happy again!

To which I usually reply something like this:

Yay! Soooo glad you are crying and feeling your emotions! Don’t worry – this won’t last forever. It’s what we’ve been hoping to accomplish. Remember when you said you wanted to stop stuffing your emotions and actually feel them? Well, this is the beginning!

I have gained a reputation for being the coach who makes you cry. In a good way. In an “I can finally let down and let this emotion flow” kind of way. I joke about this crying coach thing with my clients, who thus far have not thrown tomatoes or eggs at me, or toilet papered my house. This may be because most of them live far, far away from Wyoming. Thankfully.

Once they get through the initial panic over actually feeling these darn emotions, however, they report feeling much, much better. Emotionally, physically, and mentally. Storing all that emotional stuff in one’s body really doesn’t feel great, takes a lot of energy, and leads to physical pain. You’ve gotta remember the reason you embarked on this mind-body healing journey, whether it was to relieve pain around issues like vulvodynia or interstitial cystitis or gain confidence and quiet the self-doubts and inner critic. You wanted to feel better. You wanted to actually let yourself have emotions. You wanted to connect to your soul wisdom, even if you didn’t know it in so many words.

Well, the first step is to actually feel those emotions you’ve unwittingly stored away. Conceptually, this sounds great. In reality, it’s very unnerving, at first. This is because you’ve spent years NOT feeling them. Trust me – as a champion emotion avoider, I have so been there. The reason we don’t want to feel these things is they are sooooooooo uncomfortable. (Along with other reasons, such as feeling vulnerable and “weak” if we let them flow.)

Like many, many things in life, when you start this process, you have to make it through the rough patch where things seem worse before they get better. In physical healing, this is often called the “healing crisis.” In the mind-body process, I just call it The Mess. It generally involves a lot of Kleenex tissue, reassuring one’s spouse that this is not an emergency, and a cave-like place to which you can retreat and blubber. A lot.  (My spouse has mentioned that spouses need a blog post on what to do with mates who are going through the mess. He too, speaks from personal experience. Possibly I’ll write that one next…)

The only reason this seems so awful, for most of us, is the panic and fear that arises from the inner part of us that thinks these emotions are not to be felt. They are to be avoided! Stuffed away! “Run now!” shouts this inner suppressor inside us. “The tears are coming! Noooooooo!”

This is what we call resistance. Resistance to feeling these emotions is normal. It’s just part of the process. You might feel it in spades or feel it just a little, but it is likely to show up nearly every time you start to really feel an emotion, especially at first. Just acknowledge this resistance, reassure it (you can talk to it like it’s your friend) that you are okay and that you will go gently into the emotion swamp.

If you can stay slightly in the role of observing yourself feel (this feels like you’re watching yourself in a movie), even as you are crying (or throwing things at your poor, unsuspecting spouse), you’ll find that the swamp is just that. It’s only knee-high. You won’t drown, you won’t feel overwhelmed, and you will make it to the other side.

Once you’ve started letting yourself feel emotions and have integrated that into your daily life, they’ll be like just a blip on the screen. Just a normal, simple, passing part of your daily existence. You’ll become a pro. You might still feel some resistance every now and then, and you won’t do everything perfectly, but you’ll feel much more at peace with emotions, and you’ll feel much more relaxed and energetic in your body. If you were in pain, it will fade away. You’ll start to feel like you know yourself. You’ll start to feel like you like yourself. And dare I say, even love yourself! You’ll find yourself having fewer bouts of self-doubt, and when those do arise, you’ll see them from a slightly detached place instead of getting totally knocked flat and immobilized.

I write all of this simply to say this: stick with it. You can do it. It doesn’t feel this hard forever. If you can get over the hump and through the muddiest part of the swamp, you’ll get back onto dry ground. It’s much easier to just keep going forward, through the discomfort, through the resistance (not forcefully – just with a steadfast willingness to go forward) than to start and then stop, over and over again. That tends to feel horrific, like you are never going to make it out of the swamp.  Martha Beck, my mentor and the original reason I became a coach, calls this process going through the ring of fire. This is an apt analogy, because it does burn hot. If you move forward, however, you don’t catch fire. You end up in what she calls the Core of Peace. Ahhhh. If you start and stop repeatedly, you end up just standing in the fire, burning. Gack. I’ve done it, and I don’t recommend it.

Keep feeling. Be willing to be a mess. Be willing to have a melt-down, even if it’s not in your schedule. (Because really, have you scheduled your melt-down time? Is it listed in your calendar between the haircut and picking the kids up from school? Didn’t think so!) Emotions are not logical, not linear, not organized. They affront our intellect with their very kindergarten-style way of doing things – so haphazard, so random, so…undisciplined. Yet, they return us to our own bodies, our own soul wisdom, and, ultimately, peace.

Embrace the mess. This too shall pass. You can do it. Stock up on Kleenex. Celebrate this sign that the mind-body process is working. Know that most people have no idea how to navigate emotions, so they may not understand what you’re doing. Reassure them that it’s okay, and don’t bother worrying about what they think. You are on the path to healing, and you will most definitely arrive. Just keep going forward, through the swamp, through the fire, and remember to breathe. You will not only survive – you will thrive.

When the time comes for my specified workout, if my body isn’t up for it, I immediately feel guilt, frustration, and stress. My mind goes into a little battle with itself:

Me: “Well, you said you’d work out x number of times. You’ll HAVE to do this tomorrow, now, and on the weekend.”

Other Me: “But I feel sick to my stomach. I really don’t think I can do this workout today.”

Me: “You should really be working out right now. That’s the plan. You are not sticking to it.”

Other Me: “But I really don’t feel well. I think I need to lie down.”

Me: “Failure is not an option! Oh no! This is terrible! You should be working out today!”

Other Me: “Blehhhhckkkk.” (Actually vomiting.)

Etc. That’s just one example. The conversation can be different each time, but the essence is the same – me getting frustrated with the me that is taking my body and soul’s needs into account, creating a sense of pressure.

Oddly, this is actually an improvement over the past, when I used to simply override and ignore my body and soul’s needs entirely. Yet, it’s not quite the sweet spot, where I actually listen to my body and soul needs each day and make my mental decisions based on those instead of the arbitrary mental expectations.

This sweet spot is a relaxed, health-enhancing zone. It’s where you listen to what your body and soul actually need in this moment and take action from that knowledge. I spend a lot of time in the sweet spot, but I’m certainly not perfect at it. So, I recently came up with a new concept to help myself remember how to get back to it.

Here’s how you enter the sweet spot:

1)     Notice when you are feeling stress. Easy enough, right?

2)     Look for any ways you are employing self-pressure. Remember, it can be subtle. Anytime your mind has made a decision based on arbitrary expectations, this self-pressure can arise. (For example, I noticed it last week, while writing a blog post. My mind had decided I must write blog posts on Mondays. My soul felt differently – it prefers Thursdays. The dissonance created self-pressure. I felt stress.)

3)     Let yourself off the hook. This is a blissful moment where you recognize that your mind has made a decision based on arbitrary expectations and then release those expectations. Just because the magazines say it’s a good idea, the book you read last week recommends doing it this particular way, or mom told you to do it this way when you were ten does not mean it’s right for you, in this moment. But your mind may be hanging on to old information, random information, or simply deciding stuff on its own. Make this moment conscious by asking the question: “Where can I let myself off the hook?” What can you change/not do/do differently? Where can you let go of the expectation that is causing the stress? (For example, I quit writing the blog posts on Mondays, started writing them on Thursdays, and felt much freer.)

4)     Enjoy. There is nothing quite like the feeling of relief when you actually see the silliness of these subtle and pervasive expectations. You might find yourself dancing with abandon, skipping joyfully, spontaneously smiling, or experiencing other such signs of soul-relief. Letting yourself off the hook gives you the chance to listen to what your body and soul really, truly need in this moment. Maybe it’s not a 45 minute weight-lifting workout. Maybe it’s a walk. Maybe it’s ten minutes of stretching. Maybe it’s a job. Maybe it’s a swim. Whatever it is, it is exactly right for you. This is you honoring yourself.

To enjoy this experience, you’ll need to tap into what I call your Inner Nurturer. This is the mothering, nurturing voice within you that is often drowned out by the Inner Critic or the Arbitrary Decision Maker. Call up your Inner Nurturer and ask her to help you find ways you can let yourself off the hook. She’ll have ideas. She’ll speak softly, lovingly, and gently to you. She’ll be curious about your body’s needs, and she’ll want to know what your soul is saying right now. She’ll be open to new ideas and ways to honor yourself.

Don’t worry if your Inner Nurturer is a little shy. She might not have had a lot of room to speak in, say, the last thirty years or so. Maybe she’s been shoved aside by the Inner Critic and needs a little encouragement to speak up. You can conjure her by imagining how you would treat your own child in this moment, or your pet, niece, or student. Anything that brings out your mothering instincts will help you tap into this Inner Nurturer’s wisdom. Then, turn that feeling-state inward, toward yourself.

You might discover that your life changes in surprising and fabulous ways the more you let yourself off the hook. I once spent a few weeks letting myself off the hook around eating vegetables. I counted pickles as veggies and called it good. Talk about freeing! Then, when veggies stopped feeling like self-pressure, I found myself inspired to make new kinds of salads. I was able to enjoy them again. I’ve let myself off the hook in hundreds of little ways in the last several months. Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear the fun, funny, and surprising ways you’ve decided to let yourself off the hook, today!

Am I imposing a rule on myself right now?

By rule, I mean any edict from your inner critic/slave driver.  Rules are easy to spot, because they contain words like:

Should

Shouldn’t

Have-to

Need-to

Must

A rule might be something like, “I have to get all my emails answered every day.”  Or, “I shouldn’t weigh over X pounds.”  If you look closely, you’ll find little rules running nearly every action you take throughout the day.  These things are like weeds, so you’ll have to do some serious mental pruning to catch them all.  However, it’s worth every moment spent in your mental garden.

Every time you follow one of these unconscious rules, (or more accurately, try to follow one) your body reacts with tension.  Your body knows that the rules are unrealistic and create traps.  They’re usually very rigid and involve a lot of guilt and self-flagellation when broken.  (Which is an excellent way to distract yourself from feeling emotions, by the way!)

Take a rule inventory today.  Ask yourself if this rule is serving you or creating stress.  Then ditch the stress-creating rules and see how light you feel as a result.  Try it out, notice what happens, and then tune in next week for more on how to work your way out of rule prison.

I am planning some upcoming telecourses, both free and affordably priced, so do join the email list to be kept informed.  I’ll be sending out a monthly newsletter with all offerings before I put any information on the blog.

In the meantime, I want to ask you a question.  When I create these telecourses, recordings, resources, and blog posts, I have one thought in my mind.  It is:

How can I best serve you, the person who wants a different way to look at health, wants to effectively implement mind-body healing, and wants hope, a sense of personal power, and freedom?

Everything I do is led by that question.  Now, I’d like to ask you, right here.  How can I best serve you?  Is there anything you wish I would write, offer, or create?  Do you have any ideas you’d like to share with me?

If you listened to the telecourse, what did you want more of?  Where did you feel confused, or need clarification?  How can I better help you implement, understand, and have success with a mind-body approach?

Feel free to comment so we can all have a conversation about this!

I have many things in the works, but it always helps to know what you really want or need.  Next month’s free telecourse will be advertised in the newsletter this week, and posted on the blog next week, along with other upcoming telecourses.  I am also toying around with the idea of offering a free group coaching call periodically – it would provide you an opportunity to experience some of the Healthy Mind Tools, get a little guidance, ask questions, and just have another resource at your disposal.  I’m wondering if you are interested, so I’ve created a poll below to find out.  Group coaching happens over the phone and would work like a radio call-in show – whomever was there at the appointed time could ask for a little coaching, first come, first serve.

Please tell me your opinion about the Free Group Coaching Call idea!  If the poll below is acting funny (technology, you know!) then feel free to comment instead.

[polldaddy poll=1402376]