It can often be tough to oversee a family budget and ensuring that the expenses is in line with the overall household income. Not managing your finances can often lead to things getting out of hand. With the effects of the global financial crisis, it is not helping at all. It is a good idea to get help to help you in handling your budget more efficiently. How do I get my budget back in control? It’s all about putting restraints on your spending.

The importance of my budget

Most people do not understand the importance until it is too late, but having a budget and following the plan is the most important thing you can do. Lots of people question why their budget does not work in the long term. In short, if you do not plan your expenditure and know where your salary is going, then you will start to stress at the end of the month. What each household need to do is to pay a visit to mybudget in order to come up with some conclusive responses on their financial position. When I consider about my budget, I want it to be as organized as possible. As the head of the family, you owe it to yourself and to your family to be a responsible steward.

The challenges affiliated with organising my budget

As mentioned previously, putting a budget together is not an simple task. How much should we put aside for food? What about emergency money for unforseen expenses? These are questions that you need to address to think about all sorts of monthly costs. This is where establishing my budget can get so tough, and I’m sure it’s the same with you. With all of the stress affiliated with working a job, it can often be easy to let these things slip by the wayside. After all, how important is just one bill? It is obviously very important, and if you want your family’s finances to be in order, then you should most certainly use a great program like the one found at mybudget.

In summary, budgeting is a serious challenge and it’s something that can make you want to pull your hair out. With the resources at your disposal today, you can put your household’s finances into an coordinated plan and you can follow through with that plan totally. It has definitely helped with my budget, and it should do the same for yours.

Managing my monthly budget has always been a pain, juggling between frequent monthly bills and unforeseen expenses. My paycheck was already spent as soon as I received it. I get stacks of bills every month and put them off to the last minute, then dealt with them all in a flush. As a result I ended up borrowing money from the next pay just to make it through. It’s not that I didn’t make enough money, it’s that I had no control of my budget. Worse yet, any emergency left me even further in debt.

I am sure most of us have been in this position. We try to control our expenditure and be careful with our money, but long before the month is over, the money is gone. Paying Off bills is a juggling act that we don’t have the time or energy to comprehend. There’s always one bill that was disregarded or delayed, one more expense we weren’t prepared for. With school supplies and fees for the kids, groceries, new tyres for the car, and the raising cost of petrol, just making it from paycheck to paycheck is challenging enough; saving money is out of the question. Meantime, debt is quietly building up. I asked myself how I can get my budget under control?

Luckily for me, I discovered a service which will help me budget my money more sagely and take away the tension of paying off monthly bills, allowing me to concentrate on the things that really matter to my family. No more worrying over where the money will come from; I can finally relax, knowing that my finances are in good hands.

How financial planning services work:
During your first consultation, your budget consultant will evaluate all of your present debts and monthly payments to come up with a program that works for you. They will set aside money for savings, emergencies, and long-term investment, ensuring your family’s financial security. If you are planning a major purchase, this will be factored into your budget so that when you are ready to buy, the money will be there for you.

Your paychecks are generally deposited with your financial planner, and a seperate living expenses account is setup for you. Bills and repayments are diverted to your budgeting consultant for payment. There is a chance that your consultant can lower your monthly payments and reduce your outstanding debt by negotiating with creditors. A low monthly fee is assessed for all these services.

For me, the most important monthly service my budget consultant provides is peace of mind. No more hassle with bill payment; I know my bills will be paid on time, and that I’ll have money in reserve for life’s little emergencies. My budget is finally under control, thanks to my financial planning service.

Life and business all boil down to one simple truth. The ACTION we take provides the result we get.

How many times have you worried about something and lo and behold, that worry became a reality.

Energy moves based on your thoughts and activity. Take a small step in a direction you “think” is worthwhile and more worthwhile things come your way.

Focus is the key. We are all the direct result of the thoughts and activities we embrace.

If the result isn’t what you want, review your thoughts. As an example, if you don’t know what you want in business or life, the unsettling energy of confusion will be the result you gain.

Every thought produces an ACTION. Every ACTION creates a result and every result relates to our experience of life; both personally and professionally.

Even doing nothing is an ACTION. You spent time intentionally avoiding or not doing _____ (you fill in the blank). It was energy spent to produce a result.

The result of the doing nothing was nothing, right? It was also probably worry, stress and anxiety.

What about the many times you produce great results. What happened then?

I’ll bet:

1. You knew what you wanted to accomplish (focus)

2. Saw the path to reach that goal clearly. (clarity)

3. Knew the steps you had to follow (processes)

4. Stayed the course to complete the goal (attention)

5. Produced a result (outcome) and moved on to produce another result from the same ACTION (energy).

If you and I know these things, why don’t we consistently produce the results we want in life?

Answer. It takes time to focus, get clear, develop processes, keep our attention focused on one thing to completion and continue to produce the result.

Most people are too busy RE-acting to the events of the day.

They let interruptions like phone calls, co- workers, non-essential meetings e-mail and myriad of “stuff” take up ACTION energy during each day.

The solution is to create a roadmap for your life. To begin accomplishing this simply ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish that I am not accomplishing now?”

Then consider,”What am I doing each day to reach my true life destination?”

To achieve any desired outcome you must be focused and clear and taking ACTION that matters to you.

What can you do with this new information

1. Sit quietly and consider what you REALLY want to accomplish in your life. Write down what comes to you.

2. What ACTION do you have to take to reach the result you’re looking for? List each ACTION, step-by-step.

3. Plan and schedule. Take focused ACTION to move one step closer to your true life goal every day.

4. Produce the result and move on to the next result. When your process works, don’t stop (the majority of people do). Keep moving forward and continue to use the same ACTION to produce more and greater results.

Bill Gluth is a Human Touch Marketing Expert, professional speaker, trainer and consultant. He is the first person to specialize in developing “talent” as a competitive business strategy.

Bill brings clear, simple and focused action steps to any business building program that spotlights controlling time, methods and mindset to stand out from the crowd. When in control of these 3 variables, business people can realize greater achievement and business growth in less time, with maximum enjoyment and minimal stress.

Learn more about Bill Gluth and his Creative Business Strategy Training programs by visiting http://www.developyourvision.com.

First thing about life coaches is, you need to be found by those you never met when they need you. This starts with what I call roaming. Roaming is the seemingly pointless wander that takes you exactly where you need to be. This roaming tends to be chock full of synchronicity events that act as markers. It follows the “where the day takes you” philosophy. But even before that a Life coach has to have his own emotional baggage in check. For if you have too many open circuits lying about, one is about to short circuit. But then on the other hand a Life coach must have had certain amount of problems himself so he can associate with the person. This some times creates the right semantics to offer the words in the person’s language that clicks and just makes the light beam in one’s eyes. These situations are the most fruitful and effective. For a life coach must have a high intuitive nature, he might have the answers all the time. But the trick is to take the information that comes from without of your self on the issue at hand and deliver it with the right words, inflection, analogies, and to the right personality. I.e., are you talking to the shadow who is moody and confrontational or the shadow, who only waits for you to be quiet so it can talk if it is not already yelling over you. At which point you can only take on the armor of a saint and realize that all the slings and arrows are pointed inward and not at you. Which time you can only validate and listen. Or are you talking to the ego who changes the subject when you get to close and break its victim dialogue or just apt to ignore what you said by not responding or talking over you. IN some cases with egos like these, in rare cases, a life coach must take on the role of the scolding parent. Some times the scolding parent is the only one that had any ability to manipulate the person. To take a bad thing and flip it into something positive, but to always speak from their aspirations that you had gathered from their talks about loves, dreams, challenges, and bliss. Always followed up with genuine care and reassurance that there is no shame or blame leveled against the person. Shame, blame, and guilt is something that should be far removed from a life coach. You need the ability to look a serial killer in the face who has changed and truthful telling him it is OK. Forgiveness as long as change is present is key. For the person tends to be eating themselves whole from the inside already. As Augustine and Aquinas said, there is no true evil but lessor degrees of good.

A life coach should never just be some cheerleader or motivational speaker, he must be like a parent to the person. The trick is to assess what age level of parenting does the person need, peer to peer parenting or parent to a loved four year old. To be a parent and not to be a parent. Nothing should be black and white, in doing so you deny some ones existence. The subjective matter should always be, at least a life coach should try, only on a positive connection to life and supportive. If that can not be had, then the subjective nature should be removed. A key importance for the life coach to know is that it is never about them. The directive part should be directed at the spirit when the person is calm and collective and at ease with you. Lots of time the ego is stuck in its victim role, this is a good time just to listen until you hear the patterns repeat themselves. Listen until the least common denometer can be found. Listen then at a minimum to keep abreast of the current history, but to much just enables the person to continue habits. Causing the one to reinflict, even when they are speaking about them, more harm. You as a life coach must give them hope their is something better than just plain old good. A life coach must break them from the feeling of the pain I know is better than the pain I do not know. To restore the hope that expectations will not just dash them from some great heights. A Life coach shall see with his own eyes, show the person the affliction, give them hope, and show the way. But a life coach should never walk it for them. “……Better to teach a man to fish.”.

A life coach has to identify the different moods and know who is talking at what time. To access certain personality types, either shadow, spirit, or ego, one must know how to address them when the other is present. Goofiness works wonders. Some need taps on the nose or forehead softly while looking in their eyes to see change in light or dilation. The changes in the eyes can be an indicator when the personality has changed. I mean by personality is when we have no problem we have a body of millions of cells, a gaggle of tissue, a bunch of organs, and a few systems that make up t one healthy human body. Health in Latin meaning whole. When we get cancer in a cell it then effects the tissue and can lead to system failure. You never know where your pancreas is until you get pancreatic cancer. Then you know exactly where it is, how big it is, in what trimester it develops, an its function along with how many other animals have one and if you can borrow it. The same is with the personalities of the mind. When we are happy, we are whole. When we are not we become fragmented and should learn what these systems of personalities are. When we are healed, we no longer have a conversation with them. For they are acting in accord with the whole every second of the rest of our lives. Or until the next turmoil. They become like your lungs, unless you are running the quarter mile, do you notice them. But they are pumping every second. A good response to the shadows blitzkrieg is ” I am sorry, what happened today.” The shadow looks for any strokes because it is ignored by the rest of the mind. In fact the shadow comes out on regular patterns (which led to ancient demon experts to compile charts of which demons on what day and time are active, demons in Latin mean mental blockades.) and is completely forgotten by the ego. Nothing said during the time of the shadows ascent will usually never be remembered. The spirit is the one that is there who is objective, open, funny, and listens. Most important it is the one who has thought of some game plan for its aspirations. This is the best personality to research to attain what the person aspires for and where it truly needs to be buttressed. The ego is the base line, this is what a life coach has to aspire to show the way for change. The go is the hardest to deal with, but it is what is needed to have balance restored to. A life coach needs to educate the ego to know the importance of the fourth chakra. The ego needs justification, reassurance, joy, and comfort. It needs to stop running away and letting the shadow or the spirit do the work for it. The angel on one shoulder or the devil on the other. The life coach, shadow, or angel are only guides and teachers. It is for the ego to surpass them and one day become the teacher. A life coach can only be the way, not the answer.

a life coach needs to know a full breadth of resources. Resources that have centuries of development are key. Nothing abiogenesis is worth of anything with out a foundation in the past. For it would have a lot of trial and error until it creates a universe of its own that has been tested and survived practicality. a Life coach needs to synchronize world religions, divination, mythology, politics, sociology, history, current affairs, human behavior, art, world literature, movies, occult, game theory, and science to appreciate as above as below. You must learn the collective consciousness and know its past, present, and future aspirations, challenges, hopes, blockades, triumphs, and tricks. A life coach must be a renaissance person. A life coach must always be seen equal to the person, never on a pedestal or in the cellar. You can show fault, but always show your esteem high. a life coach shall be one of the worlds greatest researchers. Autodidacts make the best life coach, for they will research and learn out of a self need which drives them further than some on who is just meeting some one else criteria. Classes and lectures are fine but should be chosen by the life coach. But a life coach should never limit his means of learning or study, breadth or field.

But how should a life coach stop the cycle of enabling the ego to stay in the act of victim. Aggressor is easy to change, a little fire and then coziness near the hearth is what they want. But they may want to bait you, remember you and they are one like Buddha under his tree. They will really poke you in your softest spots, but once tested that is that. Now you just have to rescue them from their shame. You might watch some one in town for years who is an aggressor, but he must come to you when he is ready. When the person has done enough work himself. For until then you will scare the hell out of him. But the victim, clings to your comfort and reinjures itself constantly in fear you might go away. If they were not in harm you would not be there. They need the comfort and justification from you that they can not provide.

A life coach goal is to provide the instant gratification one day then followed by the ability for one to accept something in the long run they did not achieve. Or better yet, to learn what it is that flicks in the brain one second to make what was either an average day or a great one into hell in .6 seconds flat. How can an alcoholic go 12 hours without thinking about a drink, and the next moment that is all on his mind until he gets the next one? How to keep the previous condition? But it does not exist yet. Or how do one get beyond selling yourself with buzz words and empty promises. Like a woman in bed she wants to hear the words “I love you” even if you are lying. Just for the moment of glory, but instant gratification only returns instant failure. On a circle, white and black are indistinguishable. When we travel around the world in a straight line, our starting point is our ending point. Instant gratification is only move a hair to the right into white and is gravitated back to black. When we travel to gray, if white and black are on top then gray must be on the bottom equidistant from them, is separated away from the top by an equal pull from white and black if prone and gravity if hanging. It takes work to get to gray, the balance of white and black, but it takes allot more work to remove us from it. A life coach must be in gray as his center. From here you can travel to white and black any time with experiencing everything in between. A life coach must know how to teach this.

First a life coach must assess the learning style of the person. Then the life coach must teach the person how to learn with the knowledge that there is more to learn afterwards. A life coach must also teach the person from the begining that they are teaching The person with the knowledge they will pass on the lessons to other. Thus becoming a life coach themselves. From that they do not have to apply it in a profession but do apply it as a friend or parent to someone.

A life coach should promote himself more than someone who is going to give you a career, meaning in success, the secrets of love, or how to have great sex. All of this is already in the person. It is the lost child in the dragon cave. A life coach teaches the person to access their own hero to free that child to let its spirit to soar and grow. The treasure that the dragon guards, the parent who placed the episcripts on you, is your talents and abilities given to you before time. Anything I can do you can do with the right belief to allow the constructs to grow. The inner child is the hardest to find in a person. Toys, woods, games, goofiness, tickling works at any age. But this is the dirtiest useless person to the ego. It is who the ego wants to be but thinks it can never become. It is the person that got all the abuse. The shadow is the one who saved the ego and takes the punishment, it has a use to the ego. It will tend to admit to the shadows existence before it admits to the inner child. A life coach should always be send cues to the child. It is the trust giver. A life coach must just get the child to trust itself.

A life coach must be like this Sufi story,

“A man once asked me how do I know the condition of ones personality and their past within minutes of looking at them. I had answered, see on the table before me. Yes said the other. I will take this nestle quick and put four heaping teaspoons and put it in this blender. Then I will put two cups of milk in to be followed by a cup of ice. Then three scoops of ice cream, blend and pour. I then asked the man how do I know what I had made, ah the answer is I know the ingredients. Did you have to tell me that it is a milkshake?”

A life coach in time must know the story before it is told. But let them tell it anyway until they play victim.

Come read other articles
like this one at TheGuide
or learn about an old cantankerous old man in the 20’s and the pond he created. Come join the lifestyle @ Docspond

Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin has been a life coach for twenty years counseling
people and propietor of his own Artistic company Norgeforge.

If you really want to become rich, then begin by evaluating your work habits and work environment. That’s how most millionaires made their first million. According to Dr. Srully Blotnick, a psychologist and consultant who spent 20 years studying how people became rich, most millionaires didn’t make their money in real estate, the stock market, or waiting for their ship to come in.

They made theirs, instead, through their business or profession. They became so good at their job that they made quite a bit of money. Then, and only then, did they turn to real estate and stocks as sites to invest and grow their money. Even then, their basic business continued to produce the bulk of their gains; their investments usually produced only mediocre results by comparison.

There’s a monumentally important lesson to be learned from the hundreds of millionaires that Dr. Blotnick studied for 20 years. The lesson is this: If you really want to become rich, invest in yourself first; invest in real estate, stocks, and other ventures later. Dr. Blotnick divided this into two stages:

The first takes place when you’re consumed by a business or profession that you enjoy so much that you would do it for nothing.

After it pays you enough income, you enter the second stage. This is when you become a bona fide investor. You start thinking of and looking for opportunities to use your surplus income.

To set yourself and your career on track, evaluate yourself by answering these questions about:

<> liking your work:

How much do I really like my job?

Does my job bring out the best in me?

Has it caused me to do more than I ever thought I could do? If you answered any of these questions in the negative, consider a job or career change.

<> determining if your work is right for you:

How can I tell if I really like my work?

How do I know if I’m doing my work right?

How do I know if I’m doing the right kind of work?

The best way to determine that is to apply these test questions:

What would I do for free?

Am I enjoying my work so much that time seems to fly by?

How would I like the work to be done if I were on the receiving end?

What would I do if I didn’t have to support myself, but did indeed want to work?

What work would I do if my doctor told me that I had only five years more to live?

<> considering my financial rewards:

Am I contended with my current income?

Am I in position to influence a change in my income?

What if the work I enjoy doing doesn’t pay very well?

If you’re satisfied with the first two, then I say, “Hang in there! You’re on your way to becoming rich.” People who became rich did so because they persisted. Only a personal involvement with what you enjoy doing will produce the kind of persistence that propels you out of bed in the mornings and makes you willing to work long and hard.

<> investing in yourself:

Am I developing my skills, talents, and abilities?

Have I made a plan that will help me to develop them?

Am I constantly improving my relationship with others?

Do I ask my co-workers for feedback about my performance?

Investing in yourself means developing both of these aspects: the technical knowledge you need in order to do your work effectively and the human relations skills you need in order to work effectively with others. Mr. Joseph Brooks, CEO at Lord & Taylor, once said, “If you love your work, and do it well, someone will spot that … Let the quality of your work do it for you.”

Conclusion: To become rich, do it your own way. Rely on your own talents, skills, and abilities. Invest them in a business or profession that you enjoy doing very much. Invest in your personal growth and development. Become the very best at what you do at your work even if it pays you little right now. If you really like what you are doing, eventually a fat salary will catch up with your reputation. The bottomline is persistence. Become an expert at relating well with others.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, everyone wins. When you don’t, we all lose.

© Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in ezines, newsletters, and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Although advance permission is not required, please notify us at eagibbs@ureach.com when you use this article.

Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts seminars, lectures, and writes articles on his theme: … helping you maximize your potential. He offers management, marketing and parenting resources at http://www.maximizingyourpotential.blogspot.com

I have seen and heard lot of people giving excuses for their
inability to act out their dreams. The truth of the matter is
that there is hardly anybody existing on this earth that does
not have a dream or an object of desire. But the unfortunate
thing is that majority put up reasons why they couldn’t or
wouldn’t live their dreams.

When a dream comes to the mind of so many people, the first
thing they do is to ask themselves, where the resources to
achieve the dream will come from. Some people even doubt if they
have the abilities to carry out such a dream. Another crippling
question most ask is, “What if I fail?” This is the most
debilitating of all the reasons people don’t achieve much in
life. They tend to focus more on the impeding failure than
success! Once this question comes to mind, you will start
thinking of people who will mock you when you fail and this will
stop you from even taking a step.

How many times have we heard the word, “No pain, No gain?” What
meaning does this word bring up in your mind? It is always
frightening to take risks and try new things but those who try
are those who succeed. If the Wright brothers have been crippled
by the fear of failure, we will not have had the aeroplane today
and we will be spending days, if not months, to get to our
various destinations, for a journey of a few hours by the
aeroplane. Other technological advancements also wouldn’t have
been possible if the thought of failure has predominated the
mind of their architects.

One truth about failure/mistake is that we will keep making one
as long as we are still humans. Your decision not to act may
even be a GREATER mistake because you never can tell what you
would have become if you have acted on your dreams. Mistakes
make one grow in wisdom, experience and character. In order
words, you will become wiser for just having tried.

Rick Warren, the author of “Purpose Driven Life”, writes: “I
could have taken a hundred gift and ability tests as a young man
and would NEVER have discovered that I was gifted at teaching,
because I had never done it! It was only after I began accepting
opportunities to speak that I saw the results, received
confirmation from others and realised God has gifted me to do
this.” The same is applicable to every one of us; we never can
tell what we can do unless we try.

So anytime a dream comes to your mind, instead of asking what if
you fail, the question should be: “What if I don’t try?” Will
you be able to imagine all the opportunities you will lose?
Unless you are willing to risk getting involved, you are not
going to know what you are good at.

The road to success is never mistake-free, but then neither is
road to failure. So my dear, the choice is yours. I don’t know
what it will be like for you when you are on your death bead and
you looked back at how you spent your life and it says: “When it
came time to die, I had not lived!” This is my greatest fear and
it should be your only fear. Will you look back at your life and
be happy or will it be full of regret?

Remember: THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

It is my greatest desire that this will be a year of great
fulfilment for you.

This is to your success this year,

Adebola A. Oni

I write to you from the box of the icky place. The walls of the icky place are constructed of out of whack hormones, sadness over my Aunt’s death, a healing crisis from a nutritional program (which allows NO chocolate, that alone should give you some idea of my mood), and my overwhelmed feelings when faced with the scope of what I am attempting to create. The dominant characteristic of the icky place is to want out–out of my skin, out of this mood, out of the moment.

“But you can’t, dear girl.” The voice of my Comfort Queen pipes up from my purple yoga mat, forgotten these last few days in the corner. “You know what they say, you can’t go over it, you can’t go around it, you can’t go under it. You’ve got to go through it.”

I glare at the mat and look for a something to throw at it. But the Comfort Queen is the voice of my own inner nurturer, and so if I threw something at her, it would only hurt me. “CQ, I’m completely and utterly NOT in the mood for one of your lectures. Go away.” (We do this to ourselves so often–reject our own attempts at self-kindness.)

“But that is precisely why I’m here, my dear.” My yoga mat rises from the floor, sprouts eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a crown as it stands on end, undulating with her words. “Do you recall the story from Sharon’s book about her asthma attack?”

I’d been reading Faith by Sharon Salzberg, a remarkable book. Sharon writes about her first asthma attack, sick and alone in a strange place, afraid she might die. “Whatever takes us to our edge, to our outer limits, leads us to the heart of life’s mystery, and there we find faith…When my asthma attack began, my first impulse was to fight against it, to get through it with steely resolve…I was swept away up in the relentless momentum of panic…The more I tried to resist the fear the stronger it became until, exhausted, I gave up the struggle.

“Without the support of my tension and resistance, the fear immediately lessened, and I began to remember insights I’d gained through years of practice: ‘I don’t really know what’s happening here.’ ‘Beware of that determined slide to the worst possible, barely imaginable scenario.’ ‘You don’t have to go there. Let’s just see what is happening now.’

“…If I was going to die, I didn’t want to end my life scalded by my own acrimony at having failed to wrest control of the situation…Whatever was happening to me, I wanted to be fully there for it. In faith, I surrendered to the moment.”

“Good for Sharon, but what does that have to do with me? I’m not dying. I’m just in a piss-poor mood.”

CQ does a few Sun Salutations, gracefully flapping up and down. “But you are dying. We are all dying. Moment by moment we constrict our ability to be present to what is, to this moment. You’ve been saying, ‘Let me out, let me hide, let me eat chocolate’ anything so you don’t have to be here–in and with your present state.” She grins at me. “I know what you are thinking, ‘how dare you be in a bad mood when you have so much to be grateful for?’ But then gratitude becomes a cheerful blanket to smother what is. You are in a bad mood. You are feeling poorly. You are grieving. And you are grateful.” She grins that grin of hers that says, “I’m so right, aren’t I?”

She flaps across the room and gives me a few gentle yoga mat pats. “You know what to do. Only be sure to do it with loving kindness. Always with loving kindness.” CQ stretches herself out on the floor, and is gone, leaving me facing my yoga mat, a blank square inviting me to enter.

I stretch out, close my eyes, and bring my attention to my breath. Yes, I know what to do but what about the wall of resistance and fear that rises up, what do I do with that? CQ whispers from under me, “Fear is only solid because you project your stories forward in time. Fear needs time. What is here, right now? What is here, right now, in your body, in your sensations?”

I ground my energy (always step one) growing roots deep into the earth. Support me, I whisper. I find my center in my body, feel that my energy is equal front and back, side to side (we often place our life’s energy far in front of us or even off with someone else). I allow gravity to take over, my arms and legs and bottom to be heavy, let myself feel that I am, in fact, in a body.

Using what I call steady body listening method (the basis of YogaWriting(tm)), I enter into my mood, into the moment, give up the struggle against myself, give up the story about how I’ll always feel this way or how can I be so worried about how I feel when war threatens our world. I listen to my body, let it spontaneously move through yoga poses it needs to express sensations and feelings as they arise. I follow my body, noticing when I lose energy or I’m off in my head, and coming back to breath and movement. When I find myself present, I ask, “What wants to come into being now? Right now, in this moment?” I listen in a state of not knowing, curious and trusting what will arise, without needing to know, without forcing anything. I write in my journal what I hear. While writing, I stay with my breath, with my body, the movement of the moment. Moving into the space between the feelings and the sensations, seeing the fluidity, seeing that my mood, my suffering, is not fixed or immobile, but always changing, just like life itself. Seeing, asking, listening through the body to a new perspective.

“Thank you CQ.”

“You’re welcome, sweetie pie.”