Here it is, the end of 2011 and the beginning of a New Year!  It is such a special time of the year, that we are reminded to stay awake to the powerful energy of transition.  It is an opportunity to learn lessons, to let go, to celebrate, and to step forward with intention.  As I do each year, I invite you to join me in a year end exercise.  Relax and reflect with me on the journey of the past year and all it has brought our way.   On New Year’s Eve I will sit down and journal.  These are the questions that I will answer and I invite you to do the same:

FOR 2011:

How have you been challenged?

How have you grown?

What experiences were new for you this past year?

What important lessons have you learned?

What will you let go of that no longer serves you?

How have you been blessed?

Who will you thank?

Take time to mindfully answer these questions and you will be rewarded with the depth and richness of life and inspired to move forward into the New Year with more clarity.

For 2012:

How will you become more mindful in 2012?

What states of being will you cultivate?

How will you most joyfully give your gifts to life?

What are your top 5 priorities and values for life going forward and how will you honor them?

What are your intentions for your health, relationships, career, creativity, adventures and joy in 2012?

How can you love more?

If you take the time to answer these questions, you will be richly rewarded with mindful purpose in the New Year.  And if you share your insights, thoughts, questions, or ideas – we will all be inspired!  Thank you and May you be blessed with a prosperous and joyful New Year!

Are you a women for whom life is changing or has changed in ways you weren’t expecting? Or are there situations you aren’t sure how to handle, and you are trying to find your way?  Maybe you are facing starting over after divorce.  Or maybe you are grieving the loss of a loved one.  Or maybe you have changed careers or moved across the country.  Whatever it is – it’s a major life transition and you want answers on how to get through.  You know that your own personal growth and spiritual growth are critical to making the most out of your life now. This article offers some tips from a personal life coach for women to help you move through and beyond divorce or other life transition to a life you love – your authentic life.

As a mindfulness coach, I help many women in transition find their way through and beyond difficult life transition.  The focus of our personal life coach work together is meaningful personal and spiritual growth including learning mindfulness practices for more mindful living in order to lead a more authentic and joyful life.

Here are the best recommendations from my work as a life coach for women that you may find very helpful when you are in a life transition.

1) Take time for yourself.  It is time to ramp up the self care during your life transition!  Women are notorious for ignoring their own needs.  The best way to support yourself as a woman in a life transition is to practice excellent self care.  This means caring for all aspects of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self.   Give yourself adequate rest, relaxation, good food, proper exercise, meditation, and plenty of support from friends and/or a professional such as a life coach for women.

2) Slow down.  Even though life may be coming at you quickly, and demanding decisions, you will find that by slowing down just a bit, allowing yourself to be more mindful and present, taking time for a few deep breaths , living in the moment – you will make better decisions.  There is no reason to rush into critical decisions that will impact the rest of your life, such as where best to live or work.  Take your time and be gentle with your adjustment process that is natural to life transition.

3) Self acceptance and self love.  Women tend to be hard on themselves and expect themselves to know just what to do and how to fix any situation – perfectly.  This just sets you up for feeling shame or fear about your process of finding your way.  When things fall apart, it takes time to find your way again.  It may look messy for a while as you try out a few ideas or walk around in the fog during a life transition.  You can save yourself a lot of misery by understanding that you are exactly where you need to be, taking the actions you need to take in order to transition to the next part of your journey.  Let it be messy, because it will be whether you let it or not.  Allow yourself to make mistakes by trying things out slowly.  Don’t put everything at risk with each decision, such as moving cross country without living there for a while to see if it’s right for you.  Try things out and don’t worry when it doesn’t work out as you hoped.  This is how we learn!  And you are in a major learning phase of life.  As a life coach for women in transition, I have seen that the growth into self acceptance is the most powerful process for starting over after divorce or loss, to create an authentic life you love.

4) Stay open to possibilities.  To live in the state of possibility means being open to the concept that everything is working out for your good.  It also means you are willing to expect to receive the many good things which are coming your way.  Life is flowing and will carry you along.  You can relax and let go and trust.  You can practice mindfulness, mindful living, and true self acceptance as often as possible.

The good news in life transition, as difficult as it may seem, is that we are designed to change.  We are designed to feel challenged and lost and find our way again. We are resourceful and creative and Life is on our side.

The Gratitude holiday, Thanksgiving, is upon us.  Time for giving thanks.  But just in case you are feeling a little low on appreciation, let’s make sure we are filled to the brim with gratitude before giving thanks.  Don’t you just love the feeling of appreciation and gratitude?  It really is an attitude, or state of being that feels warm and loving.  So why do we need to be reminded with a holiday?  I’m proposing that we live every day as a day of Thanksgiving as a mindfulness practice.

As a life coach for women, I truly recognize the duty and service that women offer to the world.  They give endlessly to everyone – their children, spouses, parents, extended families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and organizations, too.  Women are Divinely designed to give.  And we are also designed to give thanks.  But sometimes, because of all the giving, we can become so worn out, it’s can be hard to feel that warm, loving sense of gratitude.  Instead, we may be feeling worried about someone or a situation, and not sure how to help.

If you are having trouble feeling grateful in the midst of all the cooking, cleaning, planning, and caring for others, here are some mindfulness practices to reconnect you with your grateful heart, your divine right to an attitude of gratitude, no matter what is happening around you.

First, we want to give ourselves permission to BE grateful for no reason whatsoever.  That’s right, just be grateful because you choose to be.  Whenever we try to attach the feeling of appreciation and gratitude to an event, it loses it’s spaciousness and expansiveness.  The real sense of gratitude is a warm feeling in the heart, an acceptance and love for all that is – regardless of what you perceive as good or bad in the outside world.  So for example, we may have many problems or none at all, but we can recognize the experience of appreciation for a cold drink of water or a breath of fresh air.  It’s the practice of BEING that we are grateful for.  The moments when we can feel truly alive and present, without judgment or concerns.  So at any moment you can give this to yourself.  At any moment you can enter the state of being by just appreciating a single breath or noticing the freedom of a movement, feeling the energy within your body.

Usually, we are prone to feel grateful when we are out in nature.  We see the beauty and it transports us into a state of just being and appreciating.  Give this to yourself every day.  Revel in the sunrise or sunset, feel the sun on your back, or the breeze in your hair, whatever is present is a reason to feel appreciation.  When I engaged as a life coach for women I often suggest a visit to a beautiful spot in nature, which can bring you back to the grateful state effortlessly.

So many times, we feel anything but grateful because of some challenge we face.  An illness, financial worries, relationship problems.  By switching your focus to the mindfulness practice of being grateful for the very simplest of experiences, you can cultivate and reconnect with a grateful heart.  Being here and now, take a long slow breath in and out, simply noticing the air movement and the relaxation that comes with a relaxing breath.  Focus your attention on your heart and begin to breath in and out of the heart area.   Allow yourself to feel the aliveness in your heart and imagine great warmth and light there.   As you do, bring to mind something that you feel true appreciation and gratitude for.  It could be someone you love, or something natural like your favorite place in the mountains or beach.  When you experience that feeling of appreciation, keep expanding it and nurturing it until it is full and rich and wonderful in the heart area.  This is an attitude of gratitude – no matter what is going on in the world.  Give this to yourself.  Revel in the feeling.  You will begin to feel so full and blessed, that you will know you have much to give and much to give thanks for.

Blessings for a Thanksgiving of Mindfulness Practices for Gratitude!

Tis the season to be jolly!  Jolly crazy that is, when it comes to all the tasks before us, especially women as we approach the holidays.   In this article, you will be encouraged to go through the holidays more mindfully and with less stress so that your experience is one of greater peace and joy.  Isn’t that the true meaning of these holidays – Giving Thanks & Peace on Earth?

So how is it that women find themselves anything but peaceful during the holidays?  We are normally busy doing for others, right?  Well, it’s just that we find that during the next few months, it will be “Doing-for-others on steroids”.  Yes, it’s shop ’til you drop, but we’re not talking about fun outings to buy new clothes.  We’re talking about major grocery shopping, and gift buying galore for family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and even our cherished service providers (don’t forget the dog walker!)

If this is the year you’ve decided to trim back and not buy so many gifts, you’ll still find yourself writing cards or baking something nice for many of the people you love.  Which brings up all the other extra activities that women DO during the holidays – travel arrangements, preparing the house for guests, meal planning, cooking, baking, etc.  Oh and did I mention decorating?  Pull out all the boxes from the attic or garage or basement, select, and place.  And then there’s the tree…….( Don’t forget taking it all down and putting it away, too. )

Well, you know we do all this because we enjoy it.  That is true.  We love creating warm and loving environments for our families and friends.  And we love the parties and gift giving.  It’s all good, right?

Or is it?  How about some tips from a Life Coach for Women on how to keep it from being ‘all stress’.

1) TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF EVERY DAY. This is not the time to stop your exercise routine.  And it’s certainly not the time to slack off on your meditation.

2) SLOW DOWN!  Even if it’s just a tiny bit. Practice mindfulness, living in the moment, by slowing down as  you do each holiday task.  Focus and stay in the moment of what you are doing, not jumping ahead to the list of all the things you must do next.  This way, you will really reap all the benefit of enjoying the season.

3) REMIND YOURSELF EACH DAY OF WHY you are doing the preparations and shopping, etc.  If you are not doing these things out of love and joy, then stop.  Maybe there are some things you could let go of, or replace with things you WANT to do from love.

4)  LET GO OF PERFECTION.  There is no such thing.  Need I say more?

5) LIGHTEN UP AND LAUGH OFTEN.  If you can, make it a practice to laugh several times each hour.  Even if you are laughing at how silly it is to try to laugh every hour.  This is a life coach for women mindfulness practice you won’t want to quit.

Blessings for a peaceful holiday!

It’s important and valuable to have a life direction.  However, there seems to be a lot of confusion about how to create or connect with your personal inspired vision for your life.  In this article, I hope to provide some insight in just what a life vision comprises, and the qualities of a life vision that will inspire and motivate you and others around you.

There’s some confusion around the concepts we call vision, purpose and mission statements.  What I’ve come to realize is that a life vision is much more expansive and powerful than either purpose or mission.  Purpose and mission are necessarily more narrow and tend to include aspects of measurement and comparison or judgment.  Whereas, vision does not.  Vision does provide direction, but it open and takes you beyond the land of measurements.

A vision is actually a “view” or image of what truly inspires you.  It’s a big picture of the greater possibilities for your life.  When you create your life vision (or rather get in touch with it, because spiritually, it is already there waiting for you to access it) it becomes the inspiration for your every action and focus.  It is the view that will help you create powerful goals and action plans.

A life vision is unlimited because it isn’t a finite landing place.  It’s more of a powerful launching pad.  It will contain possibilities for expansion and growth and development as it fosters new ideas and openings.  And most importantly, a powerful life vision will inspire you and others to take action.

Furthermore, a Life Vision is a powerful picture or image that when held in mind it actually transforms the state of mind of the viewer.  It has the power to expand the mind into the realm of great possibility and inspiration.  It energizes and uplifts your state of being into the higher realm of possibility, joy and creativity.  It also takes you out of the realm of right and wrong and judgment and comparisons.  It brings everyone into a space of present moment creativity.  It isn’t a “future” reality.  It can be seen and felt here and now.

Here are three steps to help you begin to access your life vision.  You can use these for any aspect of your life – health, relationships, career, spirituality, etc.

1) First, enter into a meditation that brings you out of the realm of your day-to-day concerns and into the space of presence and peace.  This is the space where we can here the voice of our higher selves.

2) Let yourself begin to imagine the highest possibility for your life, letting your creativity expand into pictures that you can actually see, taste and feel as they come alive in your imagination

3) Write down what you see – describe the picture.  Describe the view of “how it is” in the realm of possibility.

To help you with this, here is a portion of my life vision.

I see that through my work as a personal life coach for women, clients are powerfully supported for personal and spiritual growth and transformation, so that they may face life’s challenges with courage and wisdom and create their lives with meaning, vision and joy through mindful living.  I see the positive spiritual growth of women living more mindfully and joyfully as a ripple effect, spreading out to bless others – children, spouses, friends, parents, co-workers, communities, the world.

Enjoy creating your new life vision!

We have all been advised to smile – that we can make someone’s day brighter by offering a smile.  And if we smile, people may be more open and cooperative.  These are good reasons to smile, and this article is about the real power of of smiles.  Smiling has the power to transform you, not just a power to effect others responses to you.

It has been scientifically proven that movement of the body effects our mood.  There are the well known studies on how running or other aerobic exercise produces endorphins which uplifts the mood.  In fact, exercise is one of the best natural remedies for depression.  And then of course, there’s the practice of yoga, which has been scientifically studied for years.  Yoga practice improves health, and yoga movement has a definite impact on mood.

So what about the very simple subtle body movements?  What about a smile or a frown?  This tip from a personal life coach for women is to smile often and here’s why.

We normally think of these movements as being caused by our mood, rather than the other way around.  But if you study the eastern religions you will find that many of these spiritual teachers incorporate subtle body position as a spiritual practice.  For example, keeping the back straight during meditation helps with clarity.  Having eyes focused slightly downward allows for minimal mental agitation without going to sleep.  These subtle movements make a difference on mood and consciousness.

Is there an impact of the subtle movement of a smile? Tich Nhat Hanh, well known Zen monk and author of over 50 books on mindfulness practice and meditation, includes the instruction of a slight smile as part of the meditation posture.  His teaches that when we move our lips into a slight smile,  regardless of our current mood,  our consciousness is shifted and elevated.  The movement creates an Inner Smile, the ability to smile at life, welcoming it with gentleness.  And this has a major impact on our consciousness.

So it is that just the simple movement of turning up the corners of your mouth in a smile will impact how you feel.  It will shift your consciousness to peace and joy, even if ever so slightly.  The states of joy and peace then have a positive effect on your health.  And the more you practice it, the more readily it will shift.  The best part about the mindfulness practice of smiling is that you can do it anywhere.  Like focusing on your breath, it is something you can do in any moment to create that shift in consciousness.

And isn’t that one of the reasons we meditate?  Most who seek a life coach for women, are wanting to return to the inner peace or one’s true nature, which is gentle, loving and peaceful.  Now that’s something to smile about!

For many, the holiday season is stressful – time, money, family demands, travel, end of year deadlines – the list goes on. Sometimes experiencing sanity seems like a more reasonable goal than experiencing joy! Then, to compound the matter, we often become overly concerned for the joy of family members, friends, co-workers. Though well intentioned, all this concern tends to put even more stressful energy into the holiday craze, fueling the fires of overwhelm.

Joy is always found within. In the time of holiday parties, fancy decorations, family gatherings – and shopping! – it’s easy to start thinking that joy might be found in something outside of ourselves. But if we look within to experience joy, we can then en-Joy our situations. That is, we can infuse our environment with joy from our own calm, loving center. The joy we cultivate within makes our whole world an enjoyable place. The stresses still exert their pressures, but we meet them with a sense of peace and hope. Read more of En-Joy the Holiday! (or ANY day)

Forgiving can sometimes seem impossible. Some crimes just are so egregious we really struggle to find a way to forgive the perpetrator, right? If someone is so completely “wrong” then why should I forgive him or her? What if they just keep doing the same awful things again and again – how can I forgive that?

Take a moment to think about what the word forgiveness means to you. What is your definition of forgiving?

The New Oxford American Dictionary that is built right into my MacBook defines forgiveness as: to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake.

Now let this definition sink in a minute. Forgiveness means to stop feeling angry. What a great idea that is! What if we re-phrase the question “Can I forgive him/her?” and instead ask “Would I like to stop being angry?” The answer is almost always YES! Of course, this is easier said than done. Forgiving may require learning new skills to process anger until we are left with peaceful feelings – but it’s worth it!
Read more of Forgiveness: The Ultimate Act of Self-Care

To support your mindful transition from 2009 to 2010….

Please share your favorite Tolle quotes – or any others!

Enthusiasm means there is a deep enjoyment of what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward. … You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target – and enjoying the journey.

Knowing yourself deeply has nothing to do with whatever ideas are floating around in your mind.  Knowing yourself is to be rooted in Being, instead of lost in your mind.

Joy does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you.

No matter how active we are, how much effort we make, our state of consciousness creates our world, and if there is no change on that inner level, no amount of action will make any difference.

What you react to in another, you strengthen in yourself.

The source of all abundance is not outside you.  It is part of who you are….The acknowledgment of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within.  Read more of My favorite Eckhart Tolle quotes

Phoebe Chongchua, Editor of LifeFitMagazine.com, spoke with Brook around New Year’s about Setting Intentions.  You can listen to the interview here and learn some strategies to gain clarity, joy and meaning in your life!  Self Improvement never seemed like so much fun!

If you are ready to re-vision your life and need some coaching, you can experience Brook’s work by listening in on Ring In 2009!  Any day is a good day for personal growth!