The Lessons I Learned on Friday the 13th!

So......here it is, Friday the 13th (well it was when I was writing this) and while I see people posting about superstitions, bad luck and quips about 'stay safe out there', here I am basking in glorious Nature, watching the world go by, without a care in the world. I honestly didn't even make the 'Friday the 13th' connection for today until I looked at my social media feeds. Why do people make such a big deal out of this day? If you're on the lookout for something bad to happen on this day, I can guarantee that The Law of Attraction will answer that call! So seriously......let's move on!

You see.......I had this day planned on my calendar for a while now. It just happened to fall on this 'fateful' day because it was the ONLY day this week where I didn't have an appointment to be at. I would love to say that I bask in the glories of Nature that surround me often, but the truth of the matter is as much as we love each other, we haven't been spending much time together lately. I've just allowed myself to get too busy with other things.

And isn't that just how it goes with a lot of relationships, mostly with the MOST important relationship, the one with ourselves. We get too busy with the daily grind of life; work, kids, business, obligations, family, housework, you name it. We have an endless amount of avenues that take our energy.....and by the end of the day we have absolutely NOTHING to give back to ourselves!

My logo for Re-branding my business

Right now, i'm in the middle of transitioning my Positivity Kitty blog into a full fledged coaching business (yes, that means there is a name change that you will already see on my social media), and WOW, there is SO much to do! Re-branding, graphics, domains, hosting, website design and optimization and not to mention the training that I want to do to beef up my skills! Then there are the programs that I will be offering. I need to get complete clarity on those and write the programs! Some days....(OK seriously, most days).....it feels VERY overwhelming. This is a HUGE step for me to truly step out on my own, embrace the whole 'stepping into my greatness' mindset. It can leave you feeling very naked and vulnerable. And then the doubts creep in.......can I actually do this? What makes me think that I can do this? Who would want to listen to what I have to say? I have no real business blueprint to work off of, I'm a Scientist and an Educator, I'm not an MBA!


On my weekly session with my coach, Andrea, we talked about the doubts, the overwhelm, and we put a few more pieces into place, and she focused me on what my steps for the week will be. Then she asked me what my passions are? At first I was confused, as I thought haven't we been talking about the passion I feel for building this business and helping people create transformation in their lives and relationships? Then I realized that she meant my 'personal' passions. What things do I like to do that 'fill me up'? I have 3 main passions in my life; travel, nature and photography and the ultimate is when I can combine all 3.

Me sitting at my fave log on the Beach

So, Andrea gave me my homework for the week. I had to plan a little excursion for the day, to get out of the house, away from the laptop, away from all the things that I felt that I needed to be doing, and go spend the day re-charging. When she asked me where I would go, the first place I thought of was my fave  beach of Spanish Banks here in Vancouver. I told her how I had a favourite log that I sit at because it is set at the perfect angle that the whole city is directly in front of me. So the date with myself was set!





Friday morning as I got things ready to go, I struggled with the idea of my ever growing to-do list being left behind, but I jumped in the car and headed to the beach. I am SO grateful that I live in the one part of Canada that rarely gets snow, and even though it is only March, we've been in full Spring mode for a few weeks now. I knew that the moment I got there, any guilt I had about the work that I had left behind would soon melt away. This was MY time, time to reconnect with nature, time to reconnect and be present with me, time for me to be quiet with my thoughts and just soak up the natural beauty around me. It was quite a realization for me, that the approximately 6 hours that I was there, that I did not speak a word.....it was SO peaceful!

digging my bare toes into the sand! 

It's an incredibly grounding experience to get up close and personal with nature. By this I mean in the flesh, bare skin touching Mother Earth. We live in a very insulated world and with the great shoes that we wear all the time, we actually cut our selves off from the flow of energy from the Earth to us and from us back to the Earth. If you think this sounds like hocus pocus, Google 'Earthing' and see that it is an actual practice and has HUGE health benefits!



I believe that a lot of the stress that we feel in our every day lives is due to thei flow of energy being cut off and we living such insulated lives. As cliche as it sounds, we are all connected energetically and in turn connected to the Earth and when we cut off that flow of energy, it is like we are cutting off our life force.

So, I ask you.....what are your passions? What activities or places can you go to that re-charge you and fill you up? No matter how busy you are or what is going on in your life, make some precious time for you, put it on the calendar and KEEP that appointment!




Take care of you and you will have more to give back to those that you love!

Hugs,
S

PS.......in the near future, the new website and blog section will be set up, so things will look a bit different. At that time, I will set up a proper form where you can subscribe to ensure you don't miss any posts....because you wouldn't want to do that!!! LOL

Have You Ever Wondered If You Have a Sacred Gift?

Last fall I heard about this 2 day workshop from some friends on Facebook, where I could discover my Sacred Gifts. Now being that I like to think that I know myself pretty well, the thought of this intrigued me to see if I indeed knew myself as well as I thought I did, and maybe I would learn something new.......so I signed up! 

Many people have different names for these gifts; sacred gifts, spiritual gifts, soul gifts, callings.......but they all refer to the same thing. These are gifts that are NOT genetically handed down to us from our parents, these are gifts that are bestowed upon us when we enter this physical realm. Now I know I may have lost a few of you on that one, depending on where your beliefs are, but just stick with me on this one. You are just born with them, they are NOT a result of your upbringing. They seem to have a mysterious origin, like our soul picks them before we are born to fulfill a certain purpose. 

You know how you hear about kids that have amazing musical abilities, for example, but both of their parents don't have a musical bone in their bodies. It's like that.....you 'could' share the same gifts as your parents, but not necessarily so. 

It is stated that 80% of the people on this planet will never discover or live on purpose with their sacred gifts, and to me, that just seems sad. These gifts are meant to be a benefit to others. They are not meant for ourselves. The byproduct for you is how you feel when you are using them and seeing how the people around you are benefiting from them. How awesome is that?

There is an 'On Purpose' formula that these gifts follow......you have the GIFT, that you are applying in some MEANINGFUL way, where you can see others around you receiving a BENEFIT from your gift and that you have a certain VEHICLE through which your gift is being bestowed to them.

Some people may be using their gifts, but still don't feel on purpose. That could be that one of the 4 areas in the formula have gone 'off the rails' and you need to figure out how to fix it. That was how it was for me with Teaching. I spent 10 years teaching in the Education system, and started to feel like I had lost my passion for it, but after going through this process and finding out that Teaching was indeed one of my Sacred Gifts, it confirmed something that I had been thinking about for a while now, that the vehicle that I was using to teach, as in the how and where, needed to be changed for me to feel 'on purpose' again. 

So by now you are probably asking, what is the process? How do we find out what our gifts are? Well, the simple answer is to sign up for the next workshop which is happening June 13 and 14. The early bird pricing of $97 is available for the 2 day workshop just until the end of February, after that, it goes to the regular price of $197 and then if you procrastinate until the last minute, it's $297 at the door.  You can go to the Sacred Gifts Website for more info. 

But I will give you a little bit of an idea of what the process is. The facilitator and developer of the workshop, Monique MacDonald has a set of assessment questions that you fill out, and then score. When you add up your scores, you will see which gifts you have. There are 24 gifts in total, and you won't have all of them. The average person has 4-6 of them that will score in the high range. When I did mine, I had 6 where I scored very high on them, I then had some that I would call my 'second tier' gifts. They are still strong, but not as high as the others, and then there were some that barely got on the board, and a couple not at all. 

To me, mine are all inter-related. My top scoring gifts were Encouragement, Wise Counsel, Writing, Knowledge, Teaching and Craftsmanship, with my 'second tier' gifts being that of Simplicity, Facilitation and Challenge. I look at the 3 second tier ones and can see that they are ones that are becoming stronger as they have only recently been showing up in my life, where my top scoring ones have been present my whole life.  And that is kind of the point with these gifts, when you see the pattern of them showing up over and over again in your life. That is kind of a message to show you that is the purpose of you being here, and if you're not doing something with those gifts, you are probably feeling rather unfulfilled, frustrated and bored with life, and left to wonder 'Why am I here?'

Thank you Monique for taking me through the process, for confirming some things for me that I was feeling and opening my eyes to others. I now know that the direction that I have been thinking about heading IS the right direction for me to fully feel ON PURPOSE with my life!!! 

So if you are curious to see what your gifts are, and you are in the Lower Mainland of BC, I highly suggest signing up for this 2 day workshop to find out. It's a weekend that you won't soon forget! 

Me and Monique at Sacred Gifts

Lose The Diet, Find Yourself

What's your history with the word DIET?

From my earliest memory, it seems like I've been on one of some sort or another.  My mother was obsessed with dieting when I was growing up. She was constantly doing whatever new fad diet that she would see in the grocery store tabloids. I remember the grapefruit diet, the soup diet, I have a vague memory of some sort of diet where we could only eat 'white' foods......It was crazy! If there was a diet pill being shown on TV or in the magazines, she was buying it, and a lot of times, she would give them to me to use. I remember her going on fasts that would last for weeks! We were never allowed any of the 'bad' foods in the house.

Needless to say, I ended up growing up with a very unhealthy relationship with food. I used to sneak food and hide it under my bed. I would get into mom's baking supplies, as that would be the only time I would get any sort of chocolate, coconut or nuts. I would steal the powdered Jell-O or Tang Orange drink crystals out of the cupboard just so I could have something that was sweet. Every Halloween I would get in trouble for eating all the candy that I had collected so quickly. I didn't know how to handle being around the so called 'bad' foods. I rarely saw them, so when I did, it was the thought pattern of get in as much as you can, while you can, as you don't know when you're ever going to see it again.

During most of my childhood, it was just me and my mom at home. My brothers were quite a bit older than me and had moved out (except 1) by the time I was school aged. My dad worked in Logging Camps, so we would only see him on the weekends. Friday was always my favourite day, as not only would Dad be coming home, but before he left camp, he would fill up his lunch box with baked goods that the Cook would make. In those days, the camp cooks were amazing and fed their guys VERY well! It was literally like, 'hey dad........what's in the lunch box?'. Most of it never lasted the evening.

It was no wonder with that kind of early abuse on my metabolism, that I ended up being heavy my whole life. Even though food was heavily monitored, exercise was never encouraged. My brothers all played organized sports of some sort, but when I came along, my parents had the view that sports was not for girls. Yes, I would go for walks or bike rides, but even that wasn't encouraged. I was a shy kid and spent a lot of time playing quietly, either sitting in my closet playing with my Barbies and Little Ponies, or making Blanket Forts and living in my imagination.

As time wore on, the pounds kept mounting up. As an adult, I've tried Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Herbal Magic, with little to no results. I had some success with the Atkins Diet (lost 60 pounds), but I REALLY missed fruit, so that didn't last and gained 35 of that back. It didn't help at that time of gaining back that I was going through my divorce, stressful eating at it's finest! In 2009, I had my biggest weight loss success with the Sure Slim program, where I lost 80 pounds in about 6 months with no exercise. At that point, I felt like I could start exercising and learned to run for the first time in my life. Even though I was getting smaller as my muscles became leaner, I started gaining again. I was SO programmed by the numbers on that scale, that I spent most days in frustration not knowing what I was doing wrong. Then at the end of 2010, my world fell a part and I went through a string of very stressful events that led me to be diagnosed with a Chronic Illness that was stress based. In the first 2 months after the events, I gained about 30 pounds, which I couldn't figure out, as I was barely eating. Since my diagnosis, my weight has been a constant struggle. I have completely revamped my diet and I am eating the best that I ever have and have started doing a lot of walking and hiking, but I can never get a movement of more than 15-20 pounds. I think I have gained and lost the same 15 pounds at least 10 times if not more.

Then at the beginning of this year, a friend of mine had told me about Rachel Fox and how she was starting a 12 week program called Stop Dieting, Start Living. She would share with us her journey of weight gain, loss, and how she developed a good relationship with food. At this point, we are 3 weeks into the 12. Each week we have a certain topic that we talk about and discuss ways to deal with the issues. This past week we were talking about sugars, fats and processed foods. We did an exercise where we were given lists of food items and had to put them into categories of red, amber and green. We weren't given criteria of what the red, amber and green meant, we just had to go with what we thought was best. It was rather interesting seeing how our individual programmings all came out on how we chose which categories the food went in to. I know for me, I was thinking by glycemic index, what was processed and what would be considered GMO. We all had some surprises, and it was interesting to see what foods we would get confused on whether they were considered good or not.

As a compliment, Rachel also runs the Body Exchange Tricities, which is a Bootcamp for plus sized women. I have always like the idea of a Bootcamp, but I went to a regular one once, and thought I was going to die while I tried to keep up with the 'stick insects'......no offense to all you skinny, athletic people, but you can be a tad intimidating to us 'fluffier' folks trying to exercise among you! So when Rachel first mentioned about me coming out to try the Bootcamp, my initial reaction was, HELL NO! I've walked or hiked over 500 kms over the past 2 years, I will stick to that, thanks! But I knew that I was missing one key element, strength training, so I knew I had to give it a shot. At this point, I have gone to 4 sessions over the last 2 weeks, as it's recommended that you go 2-3 times per week (once a week is not enough). Since doing it, yes I have seen some movement on the scale, but I am trying not to focus on that as my only goal. I feel like I am standing taller (which is a scary thought with my almost 6 foot frame!), I feel the muscles in my arms and shoulders tightening up and feeling stronger. I've even done a little bit of running again. But the best part is that I am surrounded with women, JUST. LIKE. ME. Rachel gets what our struggles are, as she's been there, she can relate. The women in the sessions encourage and help each other through. There is no judgement, just positivity. We are all stepping outside our boxes, we are all in the same boat. We all 'get' each other.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next 9 weeks of the program will teach us, and what more time in the Bootcamp will do for my body.

To get more info on both the Stop Dieting, Start Living Program and Body Exchange Tricities, contact Rachel through her website, her page on Facebook, or by calling 604-492-4549

Me and fellow blogger Trish Mandewo 'duking' it out!

Trish's blog is www.livelearninspirebytrish.wordpress.com

How are you Getting Ready for the New Year?

HOLY COW!!! Are you like me in wondering where the heck this year went? In my video below, I do a wrap up of an activity that I do throughout the year to celebrate the wonderful things (great and small) that happened this year.

In my video above, I mentioned a set of questions that I work through at the end of the year to help me get focused on where I am headed in the New Year, so here they are. Remember, these will take some inner reflection and REALLY be honest with yourself to get the most out of the exercise.

1. What am I most PROUD of this year?
2. How Can I become a better a) son/daughter b) woman/man  c) Partner  d) Business person  e) friend
3. Where am I feeling STUCK?
4. Where do I need to allow myself GRACE?
5. Am I passionate about my Career/Business?
6. What Lessons have I learned?
7. What did my Finances look like?
8. How did I spend my Free Time?
9. How well did I take care of my Body, Mind and Spirit?
10. How have I been Open Minded?
11. When did I feel the most Creatively Inspired this year?
12. What Projects have I completed?
13. How have I Procrastinated?
14. In what ways can I restructure my Time?
15. How have I let the Fear of Failure hole me back?
16. Where has Self Doubt taken over?
17. When have I felt the most Alive this year?
18. How have I taught other to Respect me?
19. How can I improve my Relationships?
20. Have I been unfair to anyone?
21. Who do I need to Forgive?
22. Where is it Time to Let Go?
23. What Old Habits would I like to Release?
24. What new Habits would I like to Cultivate?
25. How can I be kind to Myself?

Now......what quirky end of the year habits do you have? For me, I have this thing that I cannot take this years dirt into the next year. So, I have been busy getting my car washed, getting all my laundry done, my home has been vacuumed, dusted and scrubbed, and all garbage and recycling has been taken out.  I have no idea when I started this, as it seems like I have been doing it for years, but I just love being able to wake up on the first morning of a New Year and know that there are no chores that I have to get done. It truly is a fresh, clean slate!!

So what are yours? Leave me a comment below or tell me on my Facebook Page, as I would love to hear what you do to get ready to welcome in a New Year!!

I just want to wish you and yours a Happy New Year and may your year be filled with Many Blessings!

Hugs
Sheila

Want to make your Passion more Profitable? (special offer included)

On October 19-20, The Women in Biz Network (WIBN) is putting on their 4th annual conference to show us how to do exactly that! Women from all across North America will be gathering in Vancouver for 2 days of networking, learning and building relationships to help recognize their business dreams. Essentially you will be getting a mini MBA on small business growth. Where else can you get such valued information from so many successful entrepreneurs in one place? My brain is already spinning in anticipation of all the great nuggets that I will walk away from this conference with!!! I think this calls for me to go out and buy a new notebook, as I have a feeling that I will be walking away with pages and pages of business goodness!

Women in Biz Network is one of Canada's fastest growing national organizations of social influencers and thought leaders dedicated to professional and entrepreneurial development of all women. 

This years conference is centered around turning your Passions into Profit and will focus on Smart Growth Strategies where some of North America's top entrepreneurs will talk about how they built their empires and will provide real world skills for women interested in turning their passions into profit. 

Check out the Passion to Profit page for all the details of the speakers, topics and the agendas. 

Featured Speakers:

• Two Profit Canada Magazine Top Women Entrepreneurs (Kelsey Ramsden and Victoria Sopik)
• Canada’s First TSN Female Broadcaster and Author of the In-credibility Factor, Teresa Kruze
• Author Christina Rasmussen of Second Firsts
• Juno Award Winning Aboriginal Artist Brenda MacIntyre (now Success Shamman)

Sessions will focus on mentoring (including mentor matching), round table brain storming, pod casting, building online communities, developing your story, finding your voice, smart business plan expansion, breaking through barriers, how to survive the business tug of war and what to do when you get lost. I seriously CANNOT wait to get there!! 

What do you walk away with after the conference?

• Clear vision and goals for your business for 2014/2015
• Your business story defined
• New relationships
• Mentor possibilities (if you find a mentor through our program)
• Ongoing follow up and opportunities to speak to our experts with our follow up series
• 1 year WIBN Membership
• Ongoing opportunities to stay in touch via webinars, events and tweet chats

So here's the deal you've been waiting for..........if you use my promo code of "PassionPartner", you will get 50% off the regular ticket price! That means you get to hear all these amazing speakers and have mentor opportunities, all for just $100!!!!!!! That is a steal of a deal! Not to mention that lunch and refreshments are included in that on the Monday, and complimentary child care! Seriously, how can you say no to all that! The pre-conference day on Sunday is an optional add on for conference attendees. 

Is it time to take your business to a new level? Is it time to truly step into your Business Greatness? Is it time to stop playing small and finally realize your Business Dreams? Then it's time to invest in yourself, your business, your passion and turn it into some serious PROFIT!

See you there! 

Connect with the Women in Biz Network on 
Facebook  and Twitter

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you” ~Oprah

Do You Desire To Live an Extraordinary Life?

I know that I do, but I also know that sometimes the thought of being extraordinary is overwhelming......I mean, where do you start? What does living extraordinary mean to you? At this point, to me living an extraordinary life would be one filled with freedom, love,  happiness, integrity, authenticity,  sharing my gifts, helping people make their lives their definition of extraordinary. Maybe after this event my definition of extraordinary may change, grow or intensify in all these ways, who knows, but I am sure excited to find out!

When the opportunity came to me to be a Blog Ambassador for the Living Extraordinary event put on by the Conscious Divas, I was like, YES YES YES.......this is SO perfect for me!!! Here was an event that will focus on what I am always talking about and trying to live my life like........being more consciously aware of what is going on in your life and the world around you!

What would be better than sitting in a room full of like minded people, listening to 10 local luminaries, sharing their amazing experiences and insights on what it means to be EXTRAORDINARY? I seriously couldn't jump on this fast enough! And so should YOU!

So.......are you free on Oct 21st? Juggle your schedule, get a babysitter, PVR your fave shows, grab your best friend and get your butt down to the Imperial Theatre on Main St in Vancouver. This is a night for you to be inspired, enlightened, challenged and to raise your degree of conscious living.

We've all gone through challenges in our lives, some big, some small, some down right life changing. These challenges can leave us restless, wanting for more out of life, wanting to change our paths...at least I know that is what it did for me.....but when that happens, a lot of times we don't know where to turn. Who do we listen to? How do we take that first scary step? Here is your chance to listen to 10 people talk about what has gone on in their lives to help them raise their conscious awareness and be better connected with themselves. You never know what nugget you could walk away with, which story is going to resonate with you and who is going to inspire you to take that leap into EXTRAORDINARY.

So who are the Conscious Divas?

"We are a local organization dedicated to helping women (and open minded men) experience a more authentic, conscious and connected life. We are on a mission to spread ideas and possibilities that elevate consciousness and collectively increase ones state being in the world." 

Don't think this event is just for women, it is NOT......this is for anyone and everyone that yearns for a life that is conscious, connected and beyond ordinary. For those ready to discover new ideas and concepts in living consciously, and for those that find it exciting to spend an evening with others who share your conscious ideology!

So who's with me?

Go to the event page HERE to check out the bios of the speakers and to reserve your ticket. If you use the PROMO CODE of "MYFRIEND", you will get 25% off the regular ticket price.......how can you say no to that?!

Connect with the Conscious Divas on Facebook and Twitter to find out more about this amazing group of women and what their goals and visions are.

I would love to see you there!

Stop ‘should-ing’ on Yourself!

Now say that 10 times really fast! Yes, I know what it ends up sounding like, and you know what? It pretty well means the same thing!

‘Should’ is one of those words that needs to be banned from our vocabulary. Nothing says JUDGEMENT more than adding the word ‘should’ in front of an action.

·         You really should lose weight

·         You should have told him how you feel

·         You really shouldn’t wear that

·         Do you think you should do that?

The moment that word gets used, it puts the recipient of that word on the defensive. No other word causes people to second guess themselves, feel guilt, and feel judged more than that one does.

So what’s the problem with this word? The problem is that it comes from the side of pain, it holds us entrenched in the victim mentality and makes it sound like we don’t have control of our lives.

Right now, I am reading the book ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’ by Susan Jeffers, and in one of the chapters Susan talks about the importance of developing a Pain-to-Power vocabulary. “The way you use words has a tremendous impact on the quality of your life. Certain words are destructive, others are empowering.” Like Michael Losier talks about in his book “Law of Attraction”, Words make up our Thoughts, which lead to our Feelings (positive or negative vibrations). So if we constantly use these words that come from a place of pain, helplessness, and depression, what do you think you are attracting more of in your life? You are going to receive more situations where you are going to use those words some more, causing more negative thoughts and feelings. It’s a nasty cycle, but once you are aware of those certain trigger words, you can catch yourself when you are saying them, and change them into words that come from a place of choice, power and strength.

Here is the chart that Susan Jeffers uses in her book to give you an idea of how to re-frame the worlds.

‘Can’t’ is another BIG one! Lord knows I have used that one WAY too often in my life! ‘Can’t’ implies that you have NO control over your life, like there is some outside force that is holding you back from whatever it is that you are saying you ‘can’t’ do. Think of your mind like a computer. When your subconscious registers you saying the word ‘can’t’, it stores it in the folder labelled ‘WEAK’. Like Susan says in her book, “Your subconscious believes only what it hears, not what is true”.  In a lot of cases, the truth is you CAN do whatever the situation is, but you CHOOSE not to, and instead of being truthful to the person asking you to do something or to yourself, you throw in the word ‘can’t’, so you feel you’re off the hook because that outside force is holding you back and you have NO control over it.

We need to start calling ‘bullshit’ on ourselves more often. If you change the ‘can’t’ to ‘won’t’, it shows that you are taking control and responsibility for your decision and are acting from a place of strength.  Better yet……..find a way that you CAN! There is a solution for every problem, IF you are willing and choose to look for it.

At a recent networking event, I was introduced to this video about a family that has brought up their children to NEVER say the word ‘can’t’. What this girl has achieved is beyond remarkable! So whenever I feel the word ‘can’t’ starting to rise up, I need to remind myself of this beautiful soul. What a freeing way to live, to know that you CAN do anything that you put your mind to, no matter what perceived limitations are put in your path. This family is truly an inspiration!! 

The bottom line is that these ‘pain’ inspired words just add up to EXCUSES!

What have you told yourself or someone lately that you ‘can’t do’ or that you ‘should’ be doing? I challenge you to find a way to re-frame it and find a way that you ‘can’ or ‘could’ do it!

What are your thoughts on these words, or others that you find that take away your power? What are you doing to combat them? Please share in the comments below! 

Feel free to connect with me in the wonderful world of social media on Facebook and Twitter.