Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. It's All ABout Me: Part 2

It’s All About Me: Part 2

There’s one best way to give to others, and that is to give to yourself first. Good financial advisors say to pay yourself first. The same is true of your emotional bank account. None of us can share what we don’t have to give.

Take a solo retreat to a beautiful area (the coast, mountains, prairie, river) for a half day, an entire weekend if you can. Bring only inspirational reading material, your journal and a pen. The iPad is okay as long as you use it only to write and read inspirational material. Turn off the phone. Do not check e-mails. TV, do I even need to mention…NO! Don’t even listen to music, other than the music of the birds singing, the natural hum of insects and nature, the brush of the wind, the sound of the moon coming out over the water. Soundless perfection.

Pay attention to everything you see, hear, smell, touch. Write about it. Everything will have meaning in it. Sleep well and deep. You will come back to your daily life completely rejuvenated.

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. It's All About Me

It’s All About Me: Part 1

Do whatever comes your way to do as well as you can. Think as little as possible about yourself and as much as possible about other people and about things that are interesting. Put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give. –Theodore Roosevelt

Of course I can’t speak for you – but I am an interesting person. Frankly, my whole life is extremely fascinating. And I am a scintillating conversationalist…which is perhaps why I spend so much time talking outloud to myself.

Nonetheless, I happen to appreciate these wise words from Mr. Roosevelt.

Truthfully, I suspect most of us spend way too much time worrying about what others think of us, when they are too busy worrying about themselves and their own fascinatingly scintillating (read sorry ass) lives to really think about us at all.

I also happen to believe most people are inherently good. And I am cognizant of how blessed I am with people I love and who love me.

And if you can take one more thing I happen to believe, it is that the better you take care of yourself, the more you have to give to others. Ya just gotta water your own well first.

In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. –Anne Frank

Your vision will become clear only
when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams;
Who looks inside, awakens.
-Carl Jung

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. The Myth of Multi-Tasking

The Myth of Multi-Tasking

I interviewed Meggin McIntosh (www.meggin.com) a while back for a Wishweaving Word newsletter. I remember her saying that in this day of perpetual busyness, none of us can multi-task (unless you’re doing something really mindless like folding the laundry while watching television) – the best any of us can hope for is rapid serial-tasking.

 

I thought of that this morning while I was on my way to the office and saw a woman on roller skates pushing a stroller with a child in it, while holding her dog’s leash – the dog was running alongside the stroller. Now that is multi-tasking! And I wonder how attended to the woman, or the child, or the dog, felt in that moment.

Then came to mind something my boyfriend said recently while quoting an acquaintance (I am loosely paraphrasing here)… “Yep. I woke up this morning. I organized the tool shed. Then I gave both dogs a bath.  Then I finished the garage painting project I started yesterday. Then I built a retaining wall by the front garden plot. Then I sanded all the woodwork in the studio and stained it… And that was all in the five minutes before I got out of bed.”

Which brought to mind something Sara Wiseman (www.sarawiseman.com) wrote in WRITING THE DIVINE. She was talking (and I am even more loosely paraphrasing here) about how so many mothers/parents are so busy running their children from soccer practice to dance lessons to softball games to band rehearsal that most of the time what the children see of their Mom is the back of her head from the back seat of the car.

 

 

This, people, is insane.

If we never take a moment (better yet, an hour, or a day, or at the very least 15 minutes) to breathe, have down time, and listen…how can we hear our innermost, authentic voice? I daresay we can’t.

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. –Nikhil Saluja

The Voice
There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
“I feel this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong.”
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What’s right for you—just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.
-Shel Silverstein

Authentically Yours, Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. The Authenticity of Language (Cussing)

The Authenticity of Language (Cussing) 

I’ve never been a big swearer. Seriously. There have been periods in my life wherein I cussed more than others. I’m not sure why, really. Maybe at times when I was feeling stressed or when I felt more free or when I just didn’t give a f***.  Bah ha.

Just recently – I would say in the last year or so – I’ve started saying sh**-fu** (those two cuss words strung together) in certain rare circumstances wherein I could just as easily have said wow-really-seriously-can-you-believe-that? But that’s a lot more syllables.

Mostly, when I hear people swear - even in movies or music – when every other word seems to be the F bomb or something else – I basically tune out. It doesn’t feel good to my heart, and as a result I really don’t hear the other messages that might want to be conveyed.

But I gotta tell ya… Recently, while I was on my stomach in bed, relaying a frustrating phone conversation from my work day to my boyfriend, I whacked my forehead downwards three times while saying Jesus f****** Christ. 

George asked if that was the sound of my beating my head against the wall and I said yes and immediately apologized while looking up (like Jesus was hanging out there on the ceiling) because I had just seriously taken the name of the Lord in vain. And while it was meant to be funny (and kind of was, while repeatedly smashing my face against the pillow on the mattress) I didn’t like the way it felt.

So, I immediately suggested that we come up with some other way of expressing this particular form of frustration, one that would have nothing to do with Jesus Christ combined with the F word, but would sound similar enough to have the same feeling.

George said cheese and rice. (We both really like Mexican food.) I said but there has to be something in the middle, like duck. But I really don’t care for duck. (I mean the meat, not the bird. I am quite fond of our waddling, swimming, flying feathered friends.) And he said something that sounded like “Cheese is stuck in rice.”

That wasn’t exactly what he said. But it totally works. And it makes me giggle. Maybe not anyone else, but we get a good laugh out of it.

When in doubt, in a frustrating scenario, remember…cheese is stuck in rice. 

Authentically Yours,

 

Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. The Authenticity of Being of Service

The Authenticity of Being of Service

My boyfriend, George, said something recently, during a coffee break at my office, which bears repeating. I needed to get back to work and he had a client scheduled at the top of the hour.

Neither of us wanted to end our time together and head back to the desk (me) and massage table (him). But the way he worded it was, "Now we go back to helping people."

He has reminded me before (at times when I was majorly stressed out, or unhappy in my work that particular day, or in that particular situation, or with that particular client) with such earnestness in his face and belief in me in his heart, "Just think about all the people you are helping, all those people who need your help."

This goes into my authenticity model because it is such a simple shift in thinking to change your attitude.

When I was first introduced, years ago, to Neale Donald Walsh's CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD trilogy, I listened to the audio books in my car over and over. I remember hearing, over and over, whatever it is you desire, give to another.

Virtually any activity any of us take part in can be looked at as a way of being of service to another. If you run out of milk in the middle of making banana bread and rush out to get some, you are supporting the dairy farmer and all the people and businesses which got the milk from the Holstein into your shopping cart. And you can strike up a friendly conversation with the cashier.

It's easy to remember that you're being of service while planning a dinner party for six of your favorite people; not necessarily so easy when you're going in for a root canal. Yet this slight shift in thinking can work miracles in the way we feel about the daily tasks ahead of us, particularly if we approach the opportunity to be of service with joy. I love this! I certainly don't manage it with every single task every single day, but I love the reminder!

Authentically Yours,

Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Be the Best Version of Yourself

Be the Best Version of Yourself

I dated a (very talented) musician for a few months back in 2007. He told me a story about the time he was recording an album in Nashville and someone came racing out of a recording room, saying “You gotta hear this guy! He sounds just like Kenny Rogers!”

The response?

“We already have Kenny Rogers.”

Always be a first rate version of yourself, and not a second rate version of someone else.
–Judy Garland

Authentically Yours,


Laura

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. The Art of Discipline

The Art of Discipline

I’ve been reflecting recently on discipline in regards to living an authentic life.

I suspect pretty much no-one is going to live the life they truly want in their heart without dedication and consistency. Even Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was consistent about showing up on stage for every gig, even if someone else had to drag him out there and stick the guitar in his hands. (I read that a while back in Rolling Stone Magazine.)

I think I came out of the birth canal disciplined. If I could have cleaned my own diapers, I would have. My home gets cleaned every week whether it needs it or not, meaning it never needs any more cleaning than has already happened…unless there's some odd thing. Like a big pickle making thing or having people over for dinner thing. Which really isn’t that odd, now that I think about it.

I also always know my bank account balances and what it is my kitchen. As I am running out of something in the pantry, I write it down on the grocery list. I have never, in my entire life, ever run out of toilet paper.

I am disciplined, and structure in pretty much everything around my day job. Yet it's very clear to me my dietary habits are something I don't want to be disciplined about. I have this list of suggested changes from my naturopathic physician, after keeping a food diary for a week.

Really? No cheese? Seriously, my love affair with Chardonnay? Cigs are gone. But I miss them too, from time to time. I love peanut butter but did buy a jar of almond butter. Okay, it’s good. But it’s still not the same! Almond milk for the rest of my life? Tomatoes are one of my favorite things and there are tons in the garden!!!!! Are you kidding me in regards to the citrus fruits??!! OMG!

I am being so dramatic. Dr. C assured me that I can try taking dairy out of my diet, etc., and see what happens. It doesn't mean I can never have a slab of medium cheddar again as long as I live. However, my digestive system might be better able to take on a piece of say, aged, white cheddar...which I have fallen in love with lately....instead of softer cheeses…and that grapefruit is not something I need to say goodbye to forever.

Sigh.

I have decided to take most of the recommendations on a little at a time…slowly. So it doesn’t seem so dramatic. Acupuncture, for the first time in my life – I’m digging on it so far, after two treatments. Some thought re-arranging will be needed, and great self love.

Here’s to the discipline of great self love!

Authentically Yours,

Laura