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Other times, your branches hang bare and blow stiffly in the North Wind.

But your roots never change,
except to grow deeper into darkness,
seeking nutrients to feed you,
and the strength to hold you steady.

My roots entangle with yours.

Clients hear me asking them three questions again and again:

WHAT would it mean if you weren’t upset by that?

What do YOU want?

WHY do you keep looking for happiness outside yourself?

1. In the new year, you show up in the Dance of Life: more arm flailing, kicking higher, more gyrating in your swivel hips!

2. Your “thinking mind” morphs from — spaced-out to spaciousness.

3. You’re no longer willing to wait until you get the car, job or perfect mate to be happy. You are happy now!

4. You realize Life is but a dream and you can awaken any time. SO, you WAKE UP and refuse to take everything so seriously.

5. You stop trying to get more of what you don’t really want.

6. Every time you see the morning sun in 2012, you are reminded of your own Powerful Radiance.

7. You realize the inner conflict created by a need to define every experience as a bad experience or a good one!

8. You fall in love with your voice: the tone of it, the truth of it and the quality of your words.

9. You cultivate a friendship with your emotions. You welcome them in as guests when they arrive and send them on their way when they bore you.

10. You realize and celebrate the fact that you are not separate from the bum on the street, the polluted river, your enemy or from GOD.

11.  You have a deeper appreciation for the fact that you can be a TEACHER, a FOOL, a SAINT and a LOVER all in one day.

Happy New Year!

2.  You’ve made amazing sacrifices for your children and you powerfully protect your loved ones.

3.  You yearn for freedom in a complicated world.

4.  You live with disappointment, but keep moving forward.

6.  You have an unbelievable capacity to heal from betrayals and broken hearts.

7.  You’ve lost loved ones and have learned to live with the void.

8.   You don’t always get the affection or recognition you deserve, but you continue on anyway.

14. You dance with fear of the unknown, old age and catastrophic illness.

15. You live with the questions: “Who is God?” and “What is the meaning of Life and Death?”

You have a sense of goodness, unbelievable resilience and your courage makes the world a more spirited place. Thank you for being my Hero.

The circumstances and people involved in her past misfortune cannot be changed.

The only thing that can be changed is the host of negative feelings that arose from the circumstances or people involved in the misfortune. Until the negative states are transformed, they require continual self-justification, a process which blinds her to the present moment.

If her small mind continues to cling to resentment and bitterness that resulted from past misfortune, she will never meet any present moment from a place of wonderment and beauty.

Fear can teach you about what is holding you back from making your dreams a reality. Use these six habits to learn how to either dance or fight with fear and move ahead anyway.

1. Know what fear feels like for you! Think about a current situation  in your life which you consider to be threatening or an obstacle. Do you have a dark, uncomfortable clenching in your heart or gut when pondering a certain obstacle or does your mind chatter simply kick in with suggestions of why you cannot do a thing? Or, do you dwell on the consequences if something unwanted should happen?

Knowing how fear shows up for you will promote the self-honesty needed to know exactly what causes you to go into fear mode.

2. Know exactly what scares you: flying, driving on the freeway, quitting a job you know is making you sick, writing that book, taking your business to the next level, losing all your money or death itself.

Once you get clear on the source of the fear, you’ve already begun to free yourself.

3. Always ask yourself, “Do I want to allow this fear to rule my life and prevent me from finding success?” It’s important to remember–it is  your choice!

4. Remember that the negative state of fear is NOT you; fear is a heavy feeling state that keeps you from seeing your own beautiful Light, as fog on a dreary day blocks out the sun. Fear is an illusion and only a powerful dragon if you keep on feeding it year after year.

5. Act like your heroes. Who are your heroes and role models: Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, J.K. Rowling, Benjamin Franklin or someone who excels in your line of work? Emulate them!!

6. Fight for yourself, but as the great icon of martial arts, Bruce Lee says, “The greatest mistake is to anticipate the outcome…you ought not to be thinking of whether it will end in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.”

Keep your focus on the what and the how will take care of itself!

Taking action is the only way forward.

1.  Know exactly how stress shows up for you in your body: heart palpitations, sleep disturbances, brain fog, high blood pressure, digestive distress, hair loss, neck pain, headaches, weight loss or gain, cramps and/or suppressed immune system (too many colds).

2. Focus in on one plant in your field of vision. You don’t have to go far. Look out a window or step out the door. The plant can be a tree, shrub, potted plant or even a seedling growing out of a crack in the sidewalk! See the plant and create an experience of it in the noticing. Even if the plant is way over there, you can notice the color, shape and imagine the texture of it.

3.  Connect your breath with the plant. Take a couple of deep breaths. Imagine you can see the plant pulsing with breath and life, because then you will be able to engage its healing properties.

4.  Ask for what you want from this plant! You can do this because you are aware of your own particular symptoms of stress. Close your eyes and create an internal experience of the plant reaching out to you vibrationally and releasing you of tension you’ve held in your body.

Smile! Feel free. Feel blessed!

Note: In 1984, Roger Ulrich, PhD at Texas A&M completed a study of two groups of patients in hospitals. One group had windows in their room looking out onto other buildings; the other had windows looking out over a grove of trees. The patients with windows with a view of nature had shorter lengths of stay, had better moods, developed fewer complications from surgery and took less medication.

5.  A quick thank you to the plant would be nice, although the plant expects nothing from you!

We share our planet with all things growing from the Earth. We depend on plants for many things: for food, to feed the animals that are raised for food and to create beauty. This is one more way plants serve us!

Visualization is like a prayer with pictures! Powerful!!

Four Steps for a self-induced trance:

1. Sit quietly, comfortably, eyes closed and take three deep breaths while you relax your shoulders downwards.

2. Find the blank screen behind your forehead and aim your inner eye right up there.

3. Create an action shot with your imagination on the screen as it relates to the health issue. If the issue is cancer, see the invader cells as being eaten up by little pigs who just love garbage. If the situation involves an autoimmune disease, send the  white blood cells back to “immune school” to re-educate themselves so they don’t attack body parts! IF the problem is some G.I. distress, see the entire intestinal tract as a river of rainbow colored light flowing with ease and artistry. Whatever the health issue, personalize your visual imagery!

4. Don’t try too hard! Relax in faith that there lives within a most talented healer. In gratitude, open your eyes and go about your day feeling blessed!