Your Thoughts Reside Outside Your Head: Complaining vs. Engaging
July 22, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Your thoughts are not only in your mind, they are in your body and in your environment as well. When you change your mind, you change your energy, and when you change your energy, you change your life. Your thoughts can help you bounce back, pull you out of a slump, and increase your resilience or decrease it. You also change the environment around you and influence how people treat you.
When you are caught in a downward energy spiral of complaining, you are focused inward and miss the outside world. You are essentially trapped in your negative energy and your perception is creating your environment to a degree. Dr. Masaru Emoto has scientifically proven that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality. In his book The Hidden Messages in Water, his subjects focused different intentions on frozen water molecules. His mesmerizing findings showed that the water labeled with kind, loving thoughts formed beautiful, symmetrical, snowflake-like, colorful crystals. While the frozen water exposed to negative thoughts and visions formed distorted, incomplete and dull crystals.
Our thoughts do, indeed affect our environment and people around us. Our bodies are 75% water – imagine how our thoughts are affecting the water in our bodies. Our thoughts affect our outcomes.
Research has shown that 70% of our thoughts are negative. Imagine what may happen if you change those thoughts to a positive perspective. When you are lost in complaining or negative thoughts, you miss what’s going on around you. Complaining puts stress on your body, telling it that “what is” is not what you want it to be. Stress affects our bodies with an increase in cortisol – a stress hormone which increases abdominal fat. No wonder American’s are so obese – we’re stressed out!
Be aware of your present moment, your surroundings, your thoughts and be fully engaged in what’s going on now. Pay attention to who you’re with, what you’re doing, how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and practice being alive and engaged in the present moment. Being fully engaged means bringing your total presence to what you’re doing: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energy all working together in total participation. This does not bode well for multi-tasking. Practice staying out of your head and into your life. Practice focus, practice positive intention, practice being present and see what happens. Being mindful with positive intentions and positive focus on the future helps us increase our resilience.
Love: Energize Yourself, Your Connections & Your Business
July 11, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I’ve been taking the most amazing teleclass about the 7 Mindset and Manifesting Secrets of Multimillionaires as well as reading much about the keys to success. Always open to learning more about the way people operate. What keeps popping up is the word LOVE. When we operate from love, everything else falls into place. When we operate from a powerful center of love and not from fear, everything is where it should be.
As my friend and business partner Mandy told me – everything turns out in the end and if it’s not turning out, it’s not the end.
My friend and business partner Jennifer told me the reason she got into the Send Out Cards business with me is that she always saw my happy, smiling face and the happy people around me at my trade-show tables. She said it looked like so much fun that she wanted to have that in her life. Because I LOVE what I do – almost always have and when I didn’t, I made changes to do what I did love to do. It shows. I can see huge differences in my energy when I’m doing what I love and helping other people do what they love.
Enabling the dreams of others and creating connections, building relationships, helping people and using communication – speaking, writing, Send Out Cards, books, blogs etc. is what gives me energy. People and my relationships to them give me energy. I send several cards every single day to people letting them know I appreciate them and building connections in my life. I know that love surrounds me – beauty surrounds me.
That’s why I moved to the beach. Walking on the beach 3 times per day with my dog Madison – I love it, she loves it. It’s inspiring. It makes me happy to see her happy. She was a rescue who was a puppy mill breeder. For 5 years she lived outside in a 10 x 10 pen in Missouri with no shelter, 5 other dogs with a cement pad and chainlink fence. She never had the pleasure of feeling her legs run. She never had the joy of romping more than 10 feet. Now when I see her face light up as she chases waves, squirrels, birds, bunnies – it brings me such joy. We have a connection that we both love our freedom to roam and run and romp as we choose.
What more can you put into your life that you love? What can you remove that you don’t love? What connections can you make to add more love into your life? Where can you live to do what you love? What connections can you sever in order to move closer to love in other areas of your life?
My friend and business partner Paul sent me this profound 3-minute video that’s all about love and connections. I’m a sucker for animal stories and this one is quite moving about the power of love. Get out your hankies – I’m pretty sure it will move you to tears as it did for me. Click HERE to watch it.
What’s Your Happiness Factor?
July 6, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Do you expect things to go your way – is the universe conspiring in your favor?
Do you have loving, supportive relationships?
Do you lead a purposeful life and live consciously?
Do you feel like you have some control over your time, your stuff, your space, your situation, your life?
Do you feel like you are in the flow of your work or personal interests – challenged enough to be interesting and enjoyable?
Do you have a positive outlook and practice some form of spirituality?
The more questions you could answer with a resounding YES, recent studies show that you are more likely to be happy than those who couldn’t answer an affirmative. Happy people exude energy. Energy begets energy. If you are not at the peak of your happiness factor; take a look at the areas in your life you could change. Surprisingly simple internal factors such as having a healthy self esteem, a sense of optimism and hope, gratifying relationships and meaningful purpose in your life have the most influence over your well-being.
Let go of the things that are out of your control and practice these bliss-booster tips to improve your happiness quotient:
- Upbeat attitude. When you change your mind, you change your energy and when you change your energy, you change your life. It all starts with a thought – make it a positive one. Setting your intentions to desired outcomes makes all the difference – we attract what we most think about. Where intention goes – energy flows.
- Create a loving, supportive network of your favorite people – get connected – see #5 below. To get good friends, you need to become a good friend. What are you doing to cultivate your relationships and make people’s days? A sense of belonging is not only good for us personally, but professionally as well. Having a good friend at work is one of the key essential elements of a good working environment.
- Hone in on your purpose – know why you are here and act in alignment with your purpose. Purpose brings passion.
- Think solutions – not problems. Your brain will answer any question you offer it. Instead of asking “What else can go wrong?” or “How did I get into this situation?”, ask “How can I turn this around?” or “What is my lesson and how can I learn from this and avoid it in the future?”.
- Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. When you’re grateful, you’re not fearful – count your blessings. Send a card to somebody to let them know you appreciate them at www.BizBuilderCards.com.
- Find your flow and get into it. Become engaged and focused in your activities – where challenge meets knowledge, skills and abilities.
- Cultivate healthy habits – eating, sleeping, exercise, spirituality and smile about it. When we smile, it stimulates the thymus gland, which makes us more resistant to disease. This little practice also tricks our physiology into thinking we are already happy and boosts our mood. As a Certified Laughter Leader, my research has found that laughing and smiling do indeed aid in your happiness factor.
Now take your own inventory and see which areas in your life need a boost. We create a happy life by stringing together happy moments and feeling in control of our life. Take control over the areas that are less than desirable in your life and go get happy. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Unhappiness is unintelligent”.
Have the Courage to Move Forward and Say “YES” Despite the Odds
July 2, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
The word “courage” has come up a lot lately in my life. My good friend (and “twin sistah”) Sue has done paintings about it. My wise counsel Bill told me I needed to have lots of it since every single thing in my life on every level was in flux right now. My BFF Barb and I have discussed different versions of it nearly every night for the past 10 months. And now my friend Paul sends me the following excerpt and video link about the courage to say YES and the courage to not quit.
I think I’m getting the hint to have the guts to keep moving forward and figure out creative ways to energize myself and my life no matter what may shift, change, crumble, not materialize or be taken away from me.
I’ve had lots of training in courage and finishing the game. I’ve done triathlons, marathons, century rides, 30-day backpacking stints to survive in the wilderness for a month, and a 220 kilometer bike ride through 3 countries in 1 day. Those were peanuts compared to the following video. I’ve learned that shifting gears and re-assessing or doing the race in your own style is not quitting – it’s twisting the situation to best fit your needs, even though it may not be the norm. Having faith in yourself and the bigger picture is what pulls you through sometimes. I also realize that no matter how big a race I think I’m racing, there’s always something much bigger, and that energizes and inspires me. So what keeps you energized and motivated to not quit?
For any of you who have thought about quitting your dream – check out this video below. Instead of entertaining the thought of quitting, perhaps just take a detour or side step a little on your path forward and watch this video. Fair warning – I had tears in my keyboard before the first few words were uttered.
A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?’
The father who, despite having a heart condition, says ‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together.’ To which, his father said ‘Yes’ to.
For those who didn’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .
Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this video for lessons in not quitting
Manifest Now, Don’t Ask How
June 27, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Have you ever wondered why so many people are stuck these days? Or why there are so many How To books, but nobody seems to be getting it and continue to stay where they are?
For a couple decades now, I’ve walked the path of “Once you know the why and the what, the how’s will figure out themselves.” It’s the how that keeps us stuck. Just have the faith that it will be figured out as you go. The momentum is in the forward movement and the faith that if you move forward and take those steps, the hows will present themselves in ways you’ve never dreamed possible.
I’ve experienced this phenomenon several times in the past couple months – taking the steps forward and not necessarily knowing how I was going to get there. It takes courage and belief and sometimes some back sliding. Yep, I’ve had my share of panic moments, breakdowns, and holy cow what am I gonna do moments. It’s amazing what has come of it and the things that I manifested have been nothing short of amazing.
One of the thought leaders in this area I’ve recently been introduced to is David Neagle – the multimillionaire coach to entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. I believe if you want to stretch and grow your business, you need to stretch and grow yourself. If you work more on yourself than on your business, the rest will take care of itself. It’s all in your thoughts, perceptions and beliefs.
David’s belief is that we get stuck in the how. If we just knew the way, then we could get out of our own way and tap into the universal consciousness, which knows the way and will manifest what we need. A little woo, woo, but it truly is the secret behind The Secret. Instead of getting stuck in the how, just know the why and the what and as you move forward, the how’s will take care of themselves. Gather up your guts and believe it will happen, then get going.
You do this every day when you drive your car. You probably don’t know how that engine works, but you have faith that it will work and believe that when you step on the gas, it will move forward. You know the why you want to drive someplace and the what is the car or what you need to drive to, then you just act as if that car will move forward for you and it does. No need to have all the how’s figured out. You don’t need to have it all figured out in order to move forward – just MOVE!
Take a look at this video on how your future is NOW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbNbfu85hUs&list=PLtUVv9eXCdIKmF4MMCOVMBuzeZ1nrrUQF
Are You Living in Your Right Brain or Your Left Brain? Piles or Files?
May 21, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Where are you most comfortable living… in your left brain or your right brain?
Left brainers, elbies, are more comfortable linear thinking, number crunching, logical, facts, details, math, science, rules, thinking, reality based and safe.
Right brainers, arbies, are more creative, free flowing, mind mapping, artsy, musical, big picture, visionary, risk taking, feelings, imagination and fantasy.
I recently was directed to this website from an Australian newspaper that has a graphic of a dancer. Whether you see her spinning clockwise or counterclockwise can tell you which side of your brain you’re living in at that very moment.
Check it out: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html
I found I could only see her spinning in one direction. I couldn’t for the life of me visualize how she she could be seen spinning in the other direction…. until I started reading the words that represented the other side of the brain. When I read those words, I could then see her spinning in the other direction automatically and immediately. How weird is that??!!
That’s how fast you can switch from using one side of your brain to the other. From all these kinds of tests over the years, I’ve found I sit right in the middle on the fence and can easily swing from one side to the other depending on the situation.
To help you access and integrate easier for problem solving, creative thinking or number crunching; try throwing something between your hands or juggling. Throwing something back and forth helps you integrate. Growing dendrites on both sides of your brain can also be accomplished by little activities such as brushing your teeth with the opposite hand, eating with the other hand or European style, crossword puzzles, Soduko or other memory games.
Elbies and Arbies also store things differently. To be most efficient, figure out which side is more comfortable for you to live in. Elbies tend to store things vertically behind closed doors such as file cabinets, closets, drawers, hangers etc. These are the neat desk people.
Arbies tend to store things horizontally and within plain view – these are called piles. Right brainers need the visual stimulation to remind them to do something. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. They prefer hooks to hangers and shelving to drawers.
The rest of us in the middle are the anal retentive creative types – horizontal stacking in-boxes that are labeled. A mixture of both styles.
Figure out your style and your preference, then organize your space around your style to feel most at ease, to find things more easily and then know how to access your other side of your brain and call in the reinforcements when you need them.
Time Management vs. Self Management
April 19, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
After reading and ruminating on the book The 4-Hour Workweek for a few months; I’ve been keenly aware of how I spend my time. Time, unlike money, once spent can never be recovered and so I guard my time more fiercely than ever these days and really watch my boundaries. Putting boundaries on my time and allowing people, things and stuff to enter the forcefield is more of a conscious decision at this point in my life.
We really cannot manage time, we can only manage ourselves in the space of our time. That means getting very clear on what to do and what to drop and what to outsource and what is important and what is urgent and what doesn’t really matter that much at all. My business partner often says, “If you don’t have enough time, you don’t have enough team.” I also think if you don’t have enough time, re-think the things you’re stuffing into that time and make hard choices.
To help manage myself in my time, I use a color coding system in my hard-copy Daytimer. I also use a Google Calendar so my virtual assistants can see my schedule and when I need time, I just block it out on the schedules so nobody else can grab that time slot. I use a paper method as well as digital because I’ve had many computer gremlins and I need to know I have a back-up system in case the computer or internet goes down. Select colors that represent personal, professional, deadlines, obligations etc. If one color is dominating your schedule – analyze why that is and make changes.
Since moving to the beach, I’ve decided that I won’t take any incoming calls or work until after 9am. A purposeful choice that this is the time zone in which I live and just because the East Coast is up and running, doesn’t mean I need to be at my desk by 5am so they can call me at their convenience. I’ve also adopted the motto – no more rushing. I’ve rushed to catch planes, make deadlines, be available to everybody’s emails and calls for over 20 years and I needed a break, hence no postings for a couple months while I decompressed after I moved out to California. I realized it was me allowing all those other things to take my time and it was only me who had the power to take back my time. It’s our choice.
I’m reminded of the demonstration I saw about time management in a workshop – by having sand represent all the little schnitzy things you need to do and having ping pong balls represent the things that matter in your life. If you fill a vase with sand and then try to put in the ping pong balls, they won’t fit. But by putting in the ping pong balls first – putting the things that matter most to you first in your life, then pouring the sand into the vase; the sand fills in the empty spaces and everything will fit in the vase. It fits snugly, but it fits and anything that doesn’t fit is only the sniggly things that don’t matter so much anyway.
So how are you managing yourself inside your time zone? My friend Kathie makes phone dates to catch up with friends – she uses her beach walking time to talk on her cell with good friends so she can exercise while talking. My friend Beth uses her treadmill time to chat. A realtor buddy takes no incoming calls before 11 – he reserves the morning for himself. I’m working on only taking calls and appointments Tuesday – Thursday so I can have Mondays and Fridays completely to myself. I’m not totally there yet, it’s a work in progress, but I’m conscious of it. If I need to do things on these days, then I’m blocking out time during the week to do as I choose.
I will not get to only working 4 hours per week- I don’t thing I would even like to choose that. I truly enjoy what I do and it keeps me energized. Often people ask me if I work “full time”. Full time and part time are mindsets of the W2 working world. As an Entrepreneur, I just do my life. I have several companies and I just do some more than others as things dictate. Sometimes I focus on my work 60 hours in one week and sometimes 3 hours in one week – it all depends on what is happening in my life at the time – go with the flow. Entrepreneurs don’t do rules very well.
So how do you set your personal boundaries, your time boundaries and how do you manage yourself within the time you have? What is your time zone? Are you in the zone in the mornings or evenings? When are you brain dead and when are you most sharp and creative? Work your stuff around your bio-rhythms and when you are most productive and be very conscious of who and what you allow inside your boundaries in order to keep your energy for the things that really matter most.
London Times Features Fun at Work – Good Times Lead to Good Business
September 17, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
I’m thrilled to announce an interview I did for a recent article in the London Times on the business of fun at work. We’re ready to get the British energized and pumped up for some play in the workplace. People all over the world are finally getting it that work made fun gets done and good times lead to good business.Check out the full article below or click on the link.
