Make a new holiday experience—one that fits in with today’s reality. Wipe the slate clean and do something different. The last blog included the following suggestions: Define what holiday means to you (and your family) and keep it simple. Other suggestions are detailed below:
Give to others in greater need
A good case study comes from a woman and her son that volunteer for the homeless by bringing blankets and food donations. She reflects that the experience gives her joy, resilience and strength in countless ways and it is an excellent way to educate children. She says, “It’s what the holiday is all about.”
Bring people together
Use your creative self to hold gatherings of friends and family and plan something unique—games, song fests, sharing memories and old photos of holidays. Make it a potluck so you aren’t responsible for all the food.
Stay out of the malls
My advice is that it is too tempting with all the hype, music, and sale signs. Go shopping for what you absolutely need, or better still, find it online. The need vs. want syndrome can be addictive. (See exercises in Upside: How to Zig When Life Zags, www.upsidethebook.com)
The Center for a New American Dream, suggests giving oneself—providing gifts of time or experiences that will be remembered. Examples: give a friend her dream, sign her up for a class, purchase a gift certificate for a spa, or give tickets to a community theater.
Attitude, attitude, attitude
Bring your best attitude to the season. It will affect all members of your family. If you are showing more doom and gloom about your current circumstances, it will affect everyone you care about. It is difficult to remain upbeat in these difficult times but the upside is that you have a choice on how to react. Your willingness to be motivated and have fun despite your circumstances will strengthen you in the long run.
Look forward and not behind
It’s not what you don’t have but what you do have. It is a time for being grateful for everything we do have. Asking family members what they are grateful for is an excellent way to bring people together. After all, the greatest gift is that you have family and friends.
Whitney Ferre believes that each of us in an artist, actively creating art called “life.” Despite that fact that Whitney is not some who could paint or draw as a trained artist, she opened two Creative Fitness Centers that do just that – show people how to create change in their lives through art.
According to Whitney, natural talent is not the driving factor behind creativity. Instead, it is the art making that creates the bridge from your logical, analytical left brain to the infinite, intuitive, miracle creating right brain. Her results have been so exciting that her art classes led to a published book, The Artist Within, and also an online Creatively Fit program. (www.creativelyfit.com)
The journey has not been without setbacks. Amidst opening two art centers, having three children and publishing two books, Whitney also opened and operated two wine bars with a partner. Unfortunately, the wine bars ended up in the red, which created much self-doubt. Whitney recognized the power of experiencing such kind of failure and refocused her vision on Creatively Fit. She now coaches and has an entire team of Creatively Fit Coaches across the United States, Africa, Europe and Australia.
For Whitney, there is no greater joy than creating joy in others. When her clients transform from “I can’t even draw a straight line” to creating their own art, her purpose is proven. Whitney believes that art making is a portal to your higher, infinitely creative self and there is no greater reward that helping individuals experience this.
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for www.UpsideTheBook.com, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch tomorrow on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
When Sallie Felton works with a new client, one of her first questions is, “What would it feel like if your life were exactly the way you wanted it to be?” It’s a thought provoking question from a woman who understands how intricate life can be.
After three years of intensive training to become a Professional Certified Coach, Sallie uses her own powerful life transition to lead others to success. Whether it’s identifying goals, working on relationships or beginning a new chapter in life, Sallie is your secret weapon to uncover the hidden obstacles that are holding you back. An accomplished author and speaker, Sallie also hosts an international radio show, A Fresh Start with Sallie Fenton http://www.salliefeltonlifecoach.com/A_Fresh_Start_radioShow.html
Sallie’s own background of addressing the not-known and identifying obstacles is powerful. She co-hosts a second radio show with Conway, her husband of 30+ years. Entitled, Light at the End of the Tunnel, Sallie and Conway discuss the realities of managing and living with depression. Often a taboo subject, depression affects millions but is often misdiagnosed or untreated. The response has been so popular the couple is working on a book together.
For Sallie, her mantra of “Start Where You Stand” is the North Star and guiding passion of her business. This idea that life begins in this very moment where you are is a powerful directive and the platform of success for her clients. Sallie encourages people to ask for help and let others do what you don’t want to. She believes that investing time because you can or should is a disservice to your authentic self. Your time deserves to be spent in pursuing your passion.
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for www.UpsideTheBook.com, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
For some people, wanting to make a difference sounds cliché; for Dawn Z. Bournand, it’s a life passion. Her philosophy is simple: give the best of yourself as often as you can. Dawn was inspired to name her company “Fabulously Successful” to help others break out of their comfort zones to grow and reach out on the level they were destined to achieve.
Dawn’s approach is different from other life coaches. While she supports and empowers people to live their purpose and create their own version of fabulous success, she also believes that owning your own business can often be a great way to accomplish your dreams. Dawn and her team focus on clients’ passions to determine how they may be able to weave them into their lives on a daily basis and perhaps even begin to make a living doing what they love.
One of the keys to fabulous success, Dawn believes, is finding joy in all parts of your life. As a mother of three young boys, she lives her message that life balance is not only possible but vital. According to Dawn, when one lives their life purpose, they have a reason, a why and they move forward with these core values in mind. That clarity makes it easy to decide the more important activities and release the rest.
The path to purpose has not always been easy for Dawn. As an expat in Paris, she was surprised and depressed by the lack of career options. Her turning point came as she silently prayed for guidance on a metro train, only to discover a phone message on her cell that would start her on her path to fabulous success.
For Dawn, touching just one person, igniting that spark of empowering others to excel is the reason she continues to grow her business. www.FabulouslySuccessful.com now offers group coaching and a Fabulously Successful Elite Club for Women and will be adding personal VIP days and workshops in France and in select cities around the world – all designed to help women use their light to shine even brighter and inspire others.
Advice for getting on track with your life’s purpose? “Go for it!,” says Dawn. “Find a success buddy, group or coach who can help you through the rough spots.” These rough spots can be the key to moving to the next level or taking your next step. Learn more about Dawn at www.FabulouslySuccessful.com or visit https://www.facebook.com/dawnbournand.
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for www.UpsideTheBook.com, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
It’s not an easy time for many of you—job loss, mortgage issues, tight budgets and fear of the next shoe falling. Don’t despair. There is an upside and a way to enjoy your holiday in spite of difficult times
This is definitely a time to erase the past holiday experiences and make a new one. Wipe the slate clean and do something different.
Define what holiday means to you (and your family)
Our holidays have become a media frenzy experience instead of our own. What doyou really want from the holiday–sharing, laughing, reflecting, remembering, reawakening spirit? Once you define what you want the experience to be, you can create it without a lot of money and stress.
As I think about a time in my life when I was a single parent and broke, my daughter and I made lots of gifts and had time together to laugh and create. I didn’t feel bad because I didn’t have money to spend. I actually liked the time with my daughter that was removed from my busy life. Shopping doesn’t bring you closer.
This year I received the best present from my daughter—it was a poem on what I meant to her. I treasure it to this day. It is far better than any store bought gift.
Keep it simple
During times of great stress, it is easier to plan your holiday buying and decorating to a minimum. Think small. Remember to go back to that holiday definition and make the experiences come from within instead of objects. House decorating can be a family affair with all members coming up with one object or idea that can be put together by the family.
With small children who have high gift expectations, communicate that this year might be different. Explain why. Remember you are doing a great justice by keeping your kids in the loop of family issues. (It will prepare them for their future.) If there are financial difficulties, it is important to handle the message with honesty and compassion but not alarming them. A three year old doesn’t need lots of details but some explanation on why gift-giving will be different this year. It doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. And that really is up to you in how you communicate. For example,
“Santa is only bringing one gift this year—there are so many children and only so many to go around.” You can determine what suits your communication style.
For older children who want lots of expensive techie toys or games, you could consider contributing to an item and then asking other family members to pitch in.
General gift ideas include doing something for someone—a back rub for a partner, a special meal for a parent, a unique sleepover party for your children’s friends, etc.
Check out A Mindful Christmas—How to Create a Meaningful, Peaceful Holiday by Barbara Kilikevich or Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas, by Bill McKibben.
Andrea Woolf wants you to have it all – the self-proclaimed “Queen of Having It All” discovered her gift of coaching others through challenges at a very young age. While other children played outside, Andrea could be found in her mother’s salon chatting with clients. Eventually, the client would reveal their personal obstacle and commit to specific action steps to resolve it by the time they left.
Andrea applied this talent to a very successful corporate career.While juggling massive projects in a high-pressure environment, she still found that helping individuals achieve their goals to be the most rewarding.When she discovered the role of executive coaching, Andrea says it was like “finding the glove that fit me.”
Her clients are fueled by Andrea’s core values of integrity, full self-expression and inspiring magnificence.She believes that all business is created through powerful and connecting communication, which quickly leads to amazing results and successes.Andrea is committed to inspiring others to own their personal magnificence by thinking and playing bigger while embracing the huge difference they make in the world.
Andrea certainly walks her talk, too.A confessed ‘recovering perfectionist’, Andrea discovered many of the tools she coaches others with as she wrote her first book, Ignite Your Life! How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.The need to write the ‘perfect’ book almost immobilized her, but lucky for us, she overcame her self-doubt and busy mind and voila, the book is now a reality!
Her advice to others?“The only thing between you and your dreams is YOU!”How very true – that’s why in order to have it all, you must let go of expectations and doubts and embrace the possibilities.Learn more about Andrea’s inspiring work and sign up for your free chapter newsletter at www.IgniteYourLifeBOOK.com.
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for www.UpsideTheBook.com, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
It would be easy to learn Vicki Lickorish’s story and just wonder how she gets out of bed in the morning. But, if you meet Vicki, her enthusiastic and loving attitude would never reveal the challenges and heartbreak she’s faced. She has rechanneled that energy into being an unstoppable force of encouragement and empowerment in helping others achieve their dreams.
Vicki’s first obstacle occurred upon discovering that her lifelong career goal of joining the police force was not possible due to being “vertically challenged.” Not long after, she met the love of her life, who didn’t care that she is short, and they began planning a family. Fate intervened once again. A miscarriage left her body infertile, and Vicki felt as though not only was she denied her career dreams, now her dreams of a family were dashed, too.
Being the unstoppable woman Vicki is, she and her husband pursued IVF and were ecstatic to learn she was pregnant with quadruplets. After a very difficult pregnancy, the babies were born but only lived a few hours. Although heartbroken, Vicki and her husband tried again, and 5 months later were pregnant with twins. Not long after, Vicki lost one of the twins but the other survived. On March 19, Vicki and her husband become proud parents of a healthy baby boy.
A year went by before Vicki learned the unthinkable – her husband, best friend and emotional rock was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Within a year, she lost her soul mate and at 31 was widowed and a single parent. To top it off, Vicki underwent a hysterectomy to stabilize her challenged health. For Vicki, this tremendous time of challenge was an opportunity to recreate her life – a rebirth of sorts. And that’s what she did.
With unconditional love as her guiding star and core value, Vicki studied how our emotions shape and influence our lives. She works with individuals to help them let go of past events, emotions and beliefs to achieve their goals and dreams. And if anyone is qualified to do this work, it is certainly Vicki Lickorish!
Her advice to others: “Never plan too far ahead!” Vicki believes that life is meant to flow and that when we set unrealistic goals, we miss out on the wonderful opportunities along the way. Vicki’s coaching work empowers people to follow their dreams by letting go of our self-limiting thoughts and negative relationships in our lives. She won’t promise you an easy path, but she does believe the results are worth the journey!
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for www.UpsideTheBook.com, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
Curiosity is a driving force for Rebecca Matias. Her own journey in becoming a successful business coach involved hours of soul-searching, working with life purpose coaches and channeling her passion to help other women succeed.
Living her passion gives Rebecca clarity and purpose to be fully authentic, honest and fair in helping people live up to their highest potential. Like so many of us, she faced a fair amount of setbacks in establishing her business. With no budget to spare, she watched YouTube to learn how to set up her own social media and websites – including HTML code. Even though Rebecca’s business as a speaker and success coach is profitable now and includes assistants and web support, she started with nothing but a vision and her passion.
Oh, and she runs her full-time business in addition to being a stay-at-home mom. Understanding that her family is a major core value, Rebecca establishes her priorities and adheres to them. The result? A feeling of being blessed to live on purpose, serving others in a heart-centered way and actualizing her deepest beliefs so that the zigs and zags produce upsides instead of upheaval.
Rebecca speaks and coaches others on illuminating the sacred within. She is definitely a Spirited Woman as well as an Upsider (not to mention a fellow redhead!) Learn more about Rebecca’s work at: www.yoursoulnavigator.com and join the Spirited Woman ShareFest on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/317750188238198/
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for UpsideTheBook, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory.
Nancy Mills is a leading women’s visionary known globally as the creator of the Spirited Woman approach to life and the founder of TheSpiritedWoman.com –a worldwide women’s empowerment community. She is also the publisher of the popular international Spirited Woman Blogger team and the publisher/creator of the first ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources for an inspired life!
Nancy Mills is a force to be reckoned with. Her focus and enthusiasm to empower women globally is hard to resist. Over a decade ago, while travelling on an impromptu trip to Montana, Nancy encountered her destiny. It came in the form of a huge rock in the shape of a woman’s face. Finding out that the rock was called “Spirited Woman,” fate kicked in, and Nancy was propelled to help empower women. Since then, she’s committed herself to helping women reveal their own extraordinary vision. And Nancy’s dreams just keep on happening. Women from around the globe – from six countries and over 25 states – are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources for an Inspired Life! A free informational gift that includes inspirational stories, resources and tips.
Nancy’s journey though has not always been smooth and she has experienced many upsides along the way. Perhaps the most impactful was when she set out to create her first website for Spirited Woman. Understanding the importance of the web as a way to touch women around the world, Nancy entrusted her savings to a web designer. She never saw the designer or her money again. In a panic, she called into a technology radio show and was advised to “blog.” That was in 2006 when blogs were in their infancy. Now, Nancy’s site is one of the leading women sites on the internet. According to Nancy, the web designer who absconded with her savings opened a door and an opportunity – one that led her to tremendous success.
Driving Nancy is a core characteristic of being unstoppable – one that also resonates with the Spirited Woman community. Despite set-backs that range from personal to professional, Nancy believes it is her destiny and mission to do this type of work. Her passion is palpable and her belief that every woman is a visionary, changing the world one Spirited Woman step at a time is driving force. Nancy’s enthusiasm is magnetic and she has attracted a strong team of partners to make this new directory a reality.
What’s next? Well, Nancy doesn’t like to anticipate the future and would rather focus on emerging possibilities. One such event is creating a worldwide Spirited Woman Empowerment tour in 10 cities around the globe. Knowing Nancy, it will happen!
You are invited to join in the Spirited Woman 12-Day Share Fest….Celebrating the Every Woman Visionary. Just visit: http://www.thespiritedwoman.com to join in the fun.
This eight-part blog series, exclusively for UpsideTheBook, highlights the Every Woman Visionary. Each of these women, along with myself, are featured in the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources For An Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com) set to launch on 12/12/11. It is an exciting time for women, and the FREE magazine-style digital directory – rich with inspirational stories, resources and more – is our gift to you. Women from six countries and over 25 states participated in the directory
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