New Powers Await You – When You Do Something New

Inspiration is an invitation to uncharted abundance. It’s not just the invitation to create a song, a yoga studio, a screenplay and some good money. It’s the invitation to create yourself. The creator is changed by the created. Yet if you refuse to listen to your own beckoning ideas, you hold back exponential resources within. You may think you’re just being practical. But how practical is it to deny your greatest powers?

You wouldn’t tell a baby to never expect to walk. Why would you tell yourself that you could achieve only what you’ve already experienced? You are still developing, aren’t you? It’s never “realistic” to deny your miraculous creative impulses. It’s self-annihilating. The reality is, you are a miracle. You are a growing, conscious spark of unparalleled energy. Your heart is the compass between the landscapes of what you currently know and what you can yet know in your lifetime.

I had a therapist who always talked about doing new things. She loved to challenge herself. The woman was a black belt in kung fu “just for fun.” I guess listening to everyone’s problems all day made her need to attack something at night. But she was frisky and creative, and urged me to try new things. At the time, I couldn’t imagine voluntarily adding some challenge to my life. I was doing everything in my fizzling power to avoid them. That zealous healer babbled on about the joy of expansion, and I looked at her with bleary pleading eyes and said, “English please.” But all these many years later, she remains with me. It’s not what she said. I remember the sparkle in her eyes. I remember the ease of her skin. She wasn’t just getting through her life like everyone else on the bus. This woman was alive.

Doing something new allows you to discover more of your natural largesse. I recently put on a new seminar. I was a bit nervous. I’ve taught thousands of workshops, but this one was all fresh content. I didn’t know what questions participants might ask. I didn’t know the catchy way to answer things. I wasn’t a well-oiled machine. I felt this gnawing in my stomach — not butterflies, closer to buzzards. I’m a bit of a control freak, though very shiny and spontaneous about it all. See, I like doing well. I’ve built up “buzz” and reputation. Truth is, I love having my workshops leave participants gazing at each other, dazed, happy, and as though they might just light up a cigarette afterward.

But I had to allow myself to grow. I had to flex new muscles. I had to take the chance that I could fizzle, which for me, would feel like having the worst hair day of your life, having your photo taken, and then maybe, if you’re very lucky, being burned at the stake. I had to walk my talk, which, by the way, never feels powerful until later, when you’re safe, fat and happy, and can entertain your friends. At the time, it means just walking forward and trying not to cry in public. But here’s the part I forgot: I’m not in control, but I am in the proximity of grace. I am not alone. I am not limited to the crude strengths I’ve experienced thus far. I am co-creating with a Universe that does not ever have self-esteem issues or a lack of horsepower or compassion. I am becoming more of myself — by using more of myself —discovering unknown power as I walk into the unknown.

Here’s what happened. The participants had breakthroughs, insights and stories I never could have predicted or manufactured. Something else was going on. This same essence often takes me by surprise in retreats. It’s a presence in the room, a love that’s in the water, where laughter erupts and tears glisten, or maybe our crown chakras open up like guppies swallowing the light. I don’t know. I do know that the attendees share unbelievable things. I say incredible things. This unrepeatable waltz begins to happen as though it had been reenacted a thousand times. It couldn’t go any better, though some insane part of me will dissect it later, anyway. It’s humbling. It’s moving. And it’s so far beyond anything that I alone could ever make happen. And I would have missed this if I hadn’t dared it. The experience reminds me of this line from “A Course in Miracles” — “The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of His Presence… What He enables you to do is clearly not of this world.”

Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul with record labels, fashion labels, and multiple HBO reality shows, says he co-created his success by following an inner voice and taking risks. He says, “Time and time again I watch as the people who listen to their higher selves move on to bigger and better things, while the people who listen to the low notes end up stuck in one place or fade away altogether. They never realized that in ignoring their higher selves, they’re blocking their ability to be blessed.”

Where might you be blocking your ability to be blessed? Fear keeps you small and smallness keeps you fearful. It’s a pitiful system and it ages you like trauma, cigarette smoke, and too much gossip. Keep listening to your sweetest truth. Your truth is never an instinct that diminishes you. Remember, you have a presence within you that can do anything. You are not limited to what you’ve experienced in the past. You are not limited to what someone else has experienced in the past. There is something alive and inspired that wants to come through you. It’s an evolutionary impulse in your cells to grow and expand. You’re hungry for the new because you hunger for yourself. You know there are still unexpressed reserves within you.

Go beyond what you have done before. Expose yourself to grace.

If You Feel Lost, You’re on Your Way to the Miraculous

by Tama J. Kieves

If you choose to live a life that launches you into the highest stratospheres of your potential, yet fits you like silk, you might first have to stumble into some brick walls. Poet Galway Kinnell says, “And the first step, shall be to lose the way.” When I read this at my “Unleash Your Calling” workshops, participants gaze at their shoes. Some look at me as though they want their money back – plus interest. They don’t want to lose the way. They want to find their way. They want me to find their way. And they want to find their way – and faster than Google, thank you very much. But this is the hitch and transformation of living an inspired life. You have to hit exasperation and drop all your marbles. You have to let your ideas and plans disappear like startled pigeons. Because only the open-minded can look in completely new directions. And only the lost will ask for help.

You are called to walk off the beaten track and light upon secret turnpikes. That means there often won’t be road signs or easy entry ramps. There won’t be mass transportation or park rangers. Your truth will not be on the evening news. The creative life is not driven by external cues. That’s the point. You don’t need those inferior tools. You have guidance.

If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to open to an extraordinary presence within you. Some of us might call that experience God or the Universe. Others may call it their creative mind, True Self, Goddess instinct or primal intuition. Whatever you call it, please call on it – often. Learn your captain’s language and you will not feel lost. Why rely on clumsy, conventional wisdom to navigate an unparalleled life? The spiritual study of “A Course in Miracles” asks, “Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him?”

I think those of us who dare to live a larger life often feel smaller and more uncertain. We are walking naked into the unknown. We are leaving behind the safety of mass agreement and approval. It would be a sad situation if we truly were alone. But we’re not. We have guidance. We have a knowing sense within us, a more vibrant encompassing compass, and this beloved presence will empower us beyond our wildest dreams.

But most of us don’t consult this incredible resource until our old answers no longer bring us peace, freedom or prizes. That’s why feeling uncertain is the first step toward a velvet life. It’s when we become available or ready to expand our understanding. In twelve-step programs they call it “being teachable.” That means that “know-it-alls” are a bit hobbled in this realm. Finally, poetic cosmic justice. Because maybe those of us who sometimes feel as though we can’t find our way out of a paper bag might just careen our way into grace. Author Anne Lamott, quoting a friend of hers, says, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with.”

And all that being said, you do deserve to feel secure inside, resolved and whole. It’s time to don your eagle wings. Stop going it alone. Ask for help. Ask within. Begin this vital communication. Bring your hesitancy with you and even your cynicism. But don’t deny yourself the privilege of using your full strength. You have beautiful radar within you and it only gets more resonant with practice.

What a brilliant design. We have to feel frustrated by life so that we’ll reach deep within us to find answers we didn’t find in the world. Perhaps they’re the answers we came to give the world.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of “THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!)” She is also a national A Course in Miracles presenter and sought-after speaker and career coach who has helped thousands worldwide to discover and live their true life’s work.

Photo credit: Lori_Greig

Move Inspiration Through You

Here’s another holiday gift idea from Gabrielle Bernstein!

One aerobic workout ignites my inner light like no other. It’s called IntenSati. Founded by fitness guru Patricia Moreno, this workout is a combination of a hardcore cardio dance workout and positive affirmations. “Inten” means intention and “Sati” means mindfulness. IntenSati is designed to ignite the fire that lives deep inside you – also known as your inspiration or, as I like to say, your ~ing! The combination of powerful movements and positive affirmations creates miraculous shifts in your core and blasts your inner light through you. If I’m ever in a foul mood or over-thinking a problem, I can hop into an intenSati class and my whole mindset shifts within an hour. The beauty is that it’s accessible to you at home via Patricia’s numerous DVDs, which you can buy at http://www.satilife.com/

You can check out more of my favorite things here!

Photo Credit: Psychology Today

A Declaration of Independence for the Free Soul

By Tama J. Kieves

In honor of Independence Day, why not write your own Declaration of Independence?

What do you want to declare or break free from? I want to break free from holding back my power. I no longer want to live with only my low beams on. I want to shine so unequivocally that others decide to abandon their own shadow choices. I want to break away from the undermining thinking of the “realistic” world, and choose some independent thinking, some firecracker, celebrating, birth-giving thoughts. Here’s an excerpt from my Declaration of Independence. Want to come and live in my country?

As of this very second, I allow myself to be blessed.

I allow myself to be uncorked, unabashed, and showered with delicious good in every facet of my life.

I don’t need to fit in anymore, in the world of struggling, suffering, complaining, and belittling. I am going nova and that’s okay. I am willing to have things be easeful and brimming with sheer wonder and I am willing to deserve this. None of us deserve this. That’s why it’s grace. It’s not about deserving. It’s about allowing Spirit to love and give to us.

Spirit, I am willing to allow you to give to me now. My work here doesn’t have to be oppressive. I don’t have to plod uphill anymore, dimming my song, or accepting crumbs and crusts and bowing my head. I can keep my heart wide-open and parade through wide-open doors to a welcoming world. I believe you want every golden circumstance for me. I believe you want me to experience more fun, jubilance, connection, generosity, nurturance, and synchronicity than ever before. I believe you want me to know your nature, which is not one of limitation or punishment or lack of any kind. I believe there are doorways to your kindness that I haven’t opened yet. There are oceans and skies I couldn’t see because I subscribed to the map of the world. There is honey I’ve never tasted, bounty not of this realm.

I am willing now to let go of the familiar and allow your unparalleled love. I am willing to let go of what I think is possible or right or worldly or to be expected. I am willing to allow you to dream through me, dance through me, breathe through me, grace through me, vibrate through me, peace through me, burst through me, light through me, laugh through me, gleam through me, dream through me. I am willing to co-create with you. I am no longer willing to limit your power with silly, tired thoughts about my own. I am no longer willing to shape your destiny by crunching mine into a little ball of stunted possibilities.

Finally, I am willing to allow myself to be cherished and loved and nourished wherever I go and in whatever I do. This is not too much to ask for; it is barely enough because there are so many dimensions of goodness and promise that I have yet to experience. The more I allow myself to receive, the more I can open up to receiving and giving my true love to this world as I have never given before.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of “This Time I Dance! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!).” She is a sought-after speaker and visionary career coach who has helped thousands world-wide to discover and live their true life’s work. Visit her at ThisTimeIDance.com.

Photo credit: kyz

Vision Boards

What are they, how do you make them and how do they work? I thought this would be a perfect topic for my blogging come back as I bow to the universal wizardry that is my vision board!

A vision board is like an altar. You need to imbue it with love and reverence, keep it alive and active, treat it with respect and know that it contains Divine mojo. Place it in a special spot where you’ll constantly see your dreams, hopes and playful fantasies. Vision boards shouldn’t be hidden! They need air and light and room to spread their magnificent wings. Don’t be shy, afraid or ashamed. Your vision board doesn’t want you to shrink like a violet it wants you to explode like thunderous stallion!

To wet you appetite about all things vision, here are 3 of my favorite vision board stories. I hope they inspire you.

Crazy Sexy Cancer & Oprah: When I decided to make my film, I wrote the words Crazy Sexy Cancer on my vision board and though many people (network executives included) told me that I would never get a show like that, with a name like that, on tv – I did. But I didn’t stop there. I tacked a magical itty-bitty note next to my dream. It read, “Oprah, save a seat for me, I’m coming”. It was a long shot, but a powerful voice inside me said that I would meet her and that my goals were within my reach. So even though I didn’t know whether or not I’d be alive let alone finish a film, I kept my eyes on the prize, poured my heart, soul and life savings into the project and 4 years later it aired on TLC and I sat on Lady O’s comfy white couch. I don’t remember much from that super surreal day (other than the fact that she liked my perfume and I liked her earrings and she called me a “Crazy Sexy Teacher,” which I thought was pretty righteous, and I ate Chinese food when it was all over), but I do remember a deep sense of accomplishment and pride.

A bit of advice to all the negative Nellies who like to rain on parades and poop on dreams: When a person is powered by faith, love, a righteous mission and a vision board, it’s best to get out of their way or you just might get hit with the holy sparkle (which wouldn’t be such a bad thing – holy sparkle definitely combats hot air).

Our Office: When Brian and I moved to Woodstock in 2004, we dreamed of having an office in town. But since money was tight, we worked from our tiny (yet energy efficient!) home. Needless to say, it was 24-7 sweat pants and laptops city! Our bedroom was our fulfillment center, our den was our office space and the kitchen table was our assistant’s work area. Not great for the marriage, not great for personal downtime.

For months I’d drooled over ads for office space in the Woodstock Times. But everything was out of our financial reach. We were building both websites at the time and the moolah from my speeches was barely paying the bills and keeping the lights on. Manifestation time!

In order to attract more space in my life I needed to get very clear about my needs. So I scoured through tons of touristy postcards of Woodstock until I found one with a picture from the exact location I wanted to be. Then I placed it on my vision board and wrote the amount of money we could spend on the card. Then I told Brian about my plans and that he had to help me manifest an office even if he didn’t believe it was possible. “Babe, fake it, I don’t care, just be on the same page with me and watch what happens!”

Here’s where the story gets wild and wonderful. I old love rugs, in fact I collect them. One day Brian spilled an entire green smoothie on my very old and very fabulous Tree of Life Rug from Turkey. Fearing my tears, he jetted to town to talk to our friend who is a rug expert. In passing, Brian mentioned that we were looking for affordable office space and if he heard of anything would he tell us. Well, not only did our friend know of a great space in the exact location we wanted, he knew about it before it went on the market so he called the owner and we got it! Did I mention that the rent was exactly what we could afford?

But perhaps my most cherished vision board story comes from my right and left hand, Corinne. It’s better if she tells it herself…take it away Corinne!

“Three years ago, I realized I’d been living someone else’s life. My first step to figuring out my own path was to quit my job and head to an ashram for a month. I spent the following year freelance writing and teaching yoga, but something still didn’t feel right. One night, I returned home from class and caught the end of Crazy Sexy Cancer on TLC. Kris Carr lit a spark in my spirit that resonated so loudly I couldn’t get her message out of my head. I had to live like I meant it and there might be a chance that I could reach for my dreams and actually achieve them.

I scoured the internet for everything Kris had written, bought a juicer, gave my diet a makeover, and started thinking more about the planet. Over time, I learned about vision boards through Kris’ blog and online community. I tore through magazines with scissors in one hand and a glue stick in the other. I pulled every image that would help me piece together my hopes for the future and slapped it on a piece of poster board. You know who was in the center of that vision board? Kris Carr of course.

I also learned about manifesting my desires during this time and I began saying daily affirmations. Each day I would say “I am happy and grateful to have a career based in wellness and that I work for Kris Carr.” I said this in the car, on my meditation cushion, in the shower, before I went to bed and any other time I had the chance to focus for a few seconds on my dreams. I had started a blog when I decided to quit my job and begin yoga teacher training and I would often write about the many ways Kris had inspired me. One day I checked on my blog only to find that Kris Carr had commented on MY blog post! I jumped around the room, yelled downstairs to my husband, printed out the comment and stuck it on my vision board. Maybe this really works, I thought.

As soon as myCSL launched, I started thinking about ways that Crazy Sexy Life could grow. Finally, I decided to send a message to Kris and tell her about my ideas. She messaged me back telling me to call her. I was floored, but dialed the number before I could get nervous. We hit it off and a few days later she asked me to meet her in NYC to brainstorm in person. The whole time I had no idea where this adventure would take me, but I knew that it felt right in my heart. Over the next few months, I got to know Kris and Brian and we turned out to be a pretty rockin’ team. A year and a half later, I’m part of the Team CSL. Not only do I work for Kris and Brian, two people who are my bosses, mentors, and friends, but I don’t feel like my job is “work.” I don’t want to make this sound like it was an easy path. I faced stress and fear along the way (and still do!), but I can say that I am truly living my dreams and that I work for two of the most creative and caring people I’ve ever met who have enriched my life in ways that I didn’t know were possible.”

Wow! Corinne’s story definitely takes the vegan cake!

Vision boards work because they allow you to turn your dreams on. They create a path that leads to action. Look at your vision board like a road map, allow yourself to believe that you are powerful beyond measure and that you deserve to live your best life. Your vision board can be a very helpful compass. But it’s not enough to post stuff and then sit on your sofa and do nothing. Plot and plan your attack!

Your tools: magazines clippings, prayers, sayings, quotes, paper to write stuff on, scissors, glue & poster board, thumb tacks & cork board, imagination, freedom, and a positive attitude, childlike whimsy, giggles, and a sense that anything is possible.

2010 is the perfect time to start a board. You have nothing to lose – well, except doubt and the blues. Share your powerful stories with us! We’d love to see your boards and hear how they’ve transformed your life.

Peace and thumbtacks,

Kris

Ps. I have missed this blog so much! Happy Healthy Love-filled Holidays Everyone!!!