Happy New Year! 12/31/2009
 
As this last day of 2009 winds to a close and we all get ready to celebrate ringing in the new year in ways that inspire us, I wanted to send you my own warm wishes for you. 

This is an amazing time in the seasons of life for personal reflection on the past year and what we would like to create in the new year.  It's easy to make resolutions at the beginning of the year and then easily forget about them until the end of the year when we realize we didn't follow through on them.
 
This can become a cycle that we get used to year after year, getting stuck and then eventually feeling badly about ourselves.  But, it does not have to be that way!

Change is possible.  It's possible to make resolutions and keep them, as well as to follow through on goals and get unstuck.  Let this be the year you BREAK FREE. 

I am incredibly inspired to support you to take your life to the next level, to break free, create and accomplish your dreams! 
Warmly,
Nandi, Lotus Coaching
 
 
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We've officially entered the holiday season! I wanted to send everyone a shout out of well wishes, gratitude and a season filled with growth, reflection, abundance and joy. 

The holidays can bring up many different kinds of thoughts, feelings and behaviors for each and every one of us.  This one of the biggest times of the year that many of us face the image of the "ideal" way to be this season with "what actually is."  It can be a time of celebration, joy, love, lightheartedness, feasting.  It can also be a time of pain, anxiety and/or fear.  AND, it can also be a time for letting go, looking ahead, re-evaluation and deep, personal reflection as the New Year approaches.  This is such a potent time of year!

It also seems fitting that it is the start of flu season. What an important time to care for ourselves!  Try to take an hour each day to care for yourself in some small or large way.  Take breaks if you are visiting somewhere that feels stressful.  Make sure to get some exercise every day and spend at least 20 minutes a day in the sunlight.  These small tips may seem obvious and straightforward,  but they seem to be the first things we forget!Wishing you well as the end of this year approaches! 

Warmly,
Nandi Lotus Coaching

P.S. I welcome you to send me emails about topics of interest you'd like to see in future newsletters, blogs or workshops coming up in the new year!
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Black Friday Weekend and Holiday Special- $300 for four session individual coaching package ($100 off!). Jump start your new year with a coaching package for yourself, or treat someone special in your life!
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Reflection and Visioning
As the year comes to an end, it is a natural time to reflect on the past year and create goals and vision for the next year. 

Take a few minutes each day (or an hour a week!) to close your eyes and bring yourself to the awareness of your breath.  Take several relaxation breaths and focus on your belly, relaxing your belly and grounding yourself.  When you feel relaxed and centered, ask yourself these questions -

What am I deeply grateful for in my life?
What have I learned from this last year?
What have I really been wanting that I haven't created yet?

Take notes,  draw pictures, journal, collage, sing, dance after your inquiry. Have fun with it! 

Use this information drawn from your inquiries to then write your life "vision" for the next year.  Include in it the growth you want to see for yourself and all aspects of your life and how you would like it to be.  Write it as if it is already happening!

This can be your first step to starting the new year living from your own heart!
 
 
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The holiday season is approaching, and with it a lot of sentiment, memories, expectations and hopefulness.  The seasons are turning, the days are getting shorter, the weather crisper, scarves coming out of the closet along with winter coats, boots and the festive holiday spirit.

This season offers us an opportunity for nourishment and letting go, gratitude, appreciation, connection and reflection.  The richness of the season and the opportunities it affords us to grow, let go and deeply enjoy what gifts we have in our lives really warms my heart. 

Many of my Facebook friends have taken on a practice in the last couple of weeks of writing something each day that they are thankful for.  How fantastic!  One of my favorite things to do at the end of any given day is to contemplate what I appreciated and feel gratitude for in that day.  It connects me to the abundance and depth of what I have happening in my own life.

What if we all translated the lessons and traditions of the Thanksgiving holiday into our day-to-day lives?  What do you imagine that might be like for you?

As much as we may have stress, frustrations, pain, stuckness, worry, difficulty, broken hearts or economic worries, we also live in a world that is rich with aliveness, fluidity and many, many gifts that are easily overlooked. This hit home for me during some of my travels through Northern India.  The sheer amount of distinct poverty and lack of resources was initially quite shocking to me. The places I stayed didn’t afford luxuries like running hot water or reliable electricity.  What I noticed was how people related with it. They didn’t get upset.  They didn’t start yelling about it. When resources where there, they took great joy in it. They enjoyed it, and they enjoyed each other. And when it wasn’t there, they focused on other things with a bright spark in the eye that I hadn’t experienced in a long, long time…a spark I too hoped to discover in myself.  A spark that seems to find it’s way into us through thankfulness, connection, nourishment and the kind of reflection that is possible this time of year.

It might be some other aspect of beauty of life that strikes your heart with thankfulness for what fills your own life with a sense of abundance and beauty.  But, it is there when we look for it.  Let’s spread the juiciness and warmth of such a wonderful holiday of thankfulness through the rest of the New Year!

 
Focus? 10/28/2009
 
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I got a small packet of cards through a Buddhist training I took several years ago.  One of the cards has always felt helpful to me, especially when I need to re-focus myself.  I have it placed at eye level above my desk.  It says, “Whatever you give constant focus to will grow.”  Every time I read it, it gives me pause to re-focus, remember the bigger picture and approach my work feeling more centered. Tonight, as I’m spending some time writing, I’m thinking of this in a deeper way.  

Part of my work is helping people to get unstuck.  And, I know I have definitely been stuck my fair share in life. What is it that gets us unstuck so that we can experience the movement of more aliveness in our life?

I’ve noticed that sometimes I ask the question “what are you really wanting out of your life?” Sometimes there is silence. Sometimes there is a brief list of wants, but with some timidity. Sometimes I hear a list of “don’t wants.”  This is what happens when we become disconnected from ourselves or afraid to admit what we want because it might mean confronting the unknown.  

If we are focusing on what we don’t want or the negative things in our lives, aren’t those the very things we attract or that grow and multiply?  This can be just one of many ways that we sabotage ourselves in our efforts.

We all have fears, some more prominent and obvious than others in our day-to-day lives.  Fear of rejection, for example.  We can focus so much on this fear of being rejected that we become unaware that it’s even floating around in our mind. But, we show up in certain meaningful situations and relationships in our lives and there we go, saying things, acting out or doing certain things that are likely to eventually engender rejection. We feel rejected, go back into our cycle and stay stuck.

What would happen if we delved deeper below the surface and allowed ourselves to simply just play in the space of exploring what we want…even if it’s privately first?  Our “don’t wants” and our fears are information for us to befriend and to explore rather than to give constant focus to. Because, what we give constant focus to WILL grow….and, aren’t we tired of sabotaging ourselves?

 
Living Dreams 10/26/2009
 
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"We know that our dreams are just ways we have of telling ourselves about ourselves when we are asleep, and yet we have learned to keep from ourselves so much of who we fully, truly are that our dreams seem strange. Amazing, isn’t it? What we tell ourselves about ourselves must be told with so much secrecy and arcane symbolism that we can’t remember it, and if we can, we can’t understand it. At such moments our inner world seems shrouded, muted, alienated, as the natural world seems when it is covered with snow.

Isn’t it sad to realize that we have learned not to accept who we fully are? And isn’t it wonderful to remember that gradually, with courage, we can come to accept and include even what at first had appeared so strange, so horrible, so not-me in our dreams?"

- Sylvia Forges-Ryan, from “Bare Branches, Bare Attention,” Tricycle, Winter 2002
 
New Website! 10/01/2009
 
I am super excited to introduce my new blog and website to you.  It is my hope that this website will offer you inspiration as well as the necessary information you need about me and my coaching services. 

I have been inspired for many years to combine all of my training and skills into a coaching practice that can offer you the most powerful environment and tools you need to fuel inspiration, motivation, breakthroughs and healing in your life. 

You can add my blog to your news feed to get blog updates that will include essays, tools and inspiration every week.