Wow. Writer’s block. I have never really written enough in my life to know what that it is. With this goal of blogging at least three times per week (ideally seven times per week!) I have run smack dab into writer’s block. When I’m writing a newsletter one a month, it’s usually not too hard to come up with a subject, but this aiming for everyday thing is killin’ me!
Anyone have any suggestions for writer’s block? 
As any of you who have talked to me recently or read my blog know, I’m totally into Jack Canfield these days - listening to him on You Tube, rereading his books, etc. What I love about “working with Jack” is that while he’s spiritual, he’s also super practical. I feel like the past year or so I’ve been really getting into the spiritual aspect of things, and quite frankly, I was starting to get a little too “woo-woo” for my own taste. So I’ve found his mix of practical and spiritual to be totally refreshing!
One of the things Jack Canfield recommends is creating a “quantum leap” goal, something that would catapult your life to the next level. In working to achieve this goal, he certainly recommends visualization and some other more spiritual practices, but my new favorite is taking five action steps per day towards you goal. So I decided to create a quantum leap goal for myself (though it shall remain secret for now! ), which really was just clarifying thoughts and desires I already had and I have now been taking action steps that maybe I never would have in the past.
What’s your quantum leap goal and what are five things you could do to move you towards achieving your goal?
Today I took a quick tour of the San Diego Humane Society. I had heard the Executive Director speak years ago and had been moved by what he had to say. So when my ESL students expressed interest in visiting, I was thrilled. I checked it out today - wow, what a difference a decade makes! The last time I went all the animals were in bland, cold, uninviting cages. Most of the dogs were barking or whimpering - I left because it was just too sad and I couldn’t take it.
This time, in this new facility, there are multiple rooms with about two to three animals per room. The rooms are decorated much like a house would be - there are couches and pillows for the animals to sleep on - even TVs!!! (I’m not sure what I think about that!) I again was so moved by all these sweet souls looking for a new home, but this time I was also moved by the lengths we humans were going to to make sure these animals were as comfortable and comforted as they could be until they found a new home. As Gandi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” It’s not world peace yet, but I think we are taking strides in the right direction!
Check them out! www.sdhumane.org
Recently I’ve been watching a lot of Jack Canfield videos on You Tube and rereading parts of his book “The Success Principles.” I kept hearing over and over Jack saying “take responsibility for your life.” The first couple times I heard this I thought, “Well, this isn’t for me, I TOTALLY take responsibility for my life.” In fact, maybe I do it to the extreme. When I have a sore throat instead of thinking I have the latest bug, I think “What is it that I am not saying? How did I attract this into my life? What is my role in getting this sore throat?” So come on, how can I not be taking responsibility for my life?
But I also believe if the same message or question keeps appearing in your life, maybe it is something you should look at. So I did. And I realized there was this deep layer of excuses that I had about why I wasn’t where I should be with my career or where I want to be financially. I could see that while I absolutely don’t think of myself of a victim or a drama queen, I had some serious victim stories that I would replay in my head at certain moments. So I really went deep and tried to find all of these subconscious tapes that I was playing about “poor me” and so that way next time I start to play them, I can see what I’m doing and nip them in the bud!
Even if you take total responsibility for your life, are there areas that you don’t or could do it better?
Another favorite tool from Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts is “spring cleaning.” This isn’t the physical kind, it’s a mental spring cleaning. It’s a really simple, yet super powerful (and fun!) process. Usually it’s between two people, though you can do it alone, each person takes a turn “pulling” usually for 10-15 minutes each. It goes like this:
Person 1: “What do you have on __________________?”
Person 2: “_________________ makes me really angry and really upset. I want to know why I get so triggered by this.”
Person 1: “Thank you. What do you have on ____________?”
Person 2: “When I went to work yesterday somebody reminded me of ____________ and it really got me feeling confused.”
Person 1: “Thank you. What do you have on ____________?”
It goes on like this for 10-15 minutes and then the two people switch. The most important thing is that Person 1 never comments, responds or gives any kind of advice. It gives Person 2 the freedom to explore their feelings without feeling any judgment from Person 1. And of course it goes without saying that everything shared during a “spring cleaning session” is completely confidential.
Give it a try and let us know how it went! What’s your spring cleaning topic?
I’ve always believed that we are a world full of really smart, really innovative people who know how to solve problems. I also believe that the people of the world are intelligent and creative enough to find solutions to the problems we face. It’s easy to approach today’s problems with our current solutions and feel despair, fear or overwhelmed about the future. In thinking this way, we forget about the solutions of tomorrow that we haven’t quite come up with yet. Right now, brilliant people all over the world are working in their own areas of expertise looking to solve all these problems that seem totally insurmountable at the moment.
When I was in 1st or 2nd grade I can remember walking by the 6th grade classrooms and seeing cursive on the chalkboard. Cursive! How was I EVER going to be able to do that? At the time, I had no idea that in a couple years I would be ready to learn cursive and with the support of a good teacher and helpful parents it would be easy. If I had panicked in 1st grade, started to worry and perhaps started to miss school, then I really would have created a problem for myself. Instead I kept moving forward, learning what I needed to know to be ready for cursive. Ok, yes, this is a totally oversimplified example, but it’s the best I can come up with right now!
This reminds me of a quote by Einstein, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Yes, we have created a lot of problems in this world, yes, many of them look pretty insurmountable, but luckily right now there are lots of brilliant people all over the world working on solutions, discovering answers that will give us hope for a better world in the future.
What do you think our biggest issues are and have you heard of any innovative ideas to solve these problems?