Since November of last year I’ve been on my own special kind of “sacred path” which has included understanding what I love to do for my work (life coaching, writing, being on the radio) and realizing the major beliefs that I’ve been operating under (people will think I’m a mix-matched plaid suited wearing salesperson if I ask them to coach with me, I don’t have the educational background to be a good writer and I’m too old to make a career of being on the radio).

(recently posted at www.lifebeforebusiness.com) 

I’m still mulling over the movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” three days later.  It is an “adult” fairy tale set in 1944 Spain during the Franco regime.   The heroine is an 11-year old girl named Ofelia who travels with her pregnant mother to live with the evil step-father who commands a fascist outpost.  The movie, which is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, exquisitely tells the story of the horrors of the reality of Ofelia’s life under the control of her step-father while allowing us to escape into Ofelia’s fantasy world filled with fairies and fauns.  Like the DNA double helix the stories intertwine to the very end so that you are left wondering what was real and what may have been a creative psychological outlet for the overwhelming experiences of a little girl.  The fantasy fairy tale outlet makes it safer for us to realize the reality of what is really going on.

(recently posted at www.lifebeforebusiness.com)

In the early eighties I worked for a world renowned electro analytical chemist who was the editor of a well-respected scientific journal.  Because this professor was an appointed “chair” for our prestigious university, he also had most everything he needed for conducting cutting edge research with his graduate and post doctoral students.  As a result we enjoyed a state of the art computer system for tracking manuscripts. This meant that we were able to “communicate” with our editorial colleagues at other universities through the computer.  Even so, this was a new and wonderful mode of communication and for this writer—it was nirvana.  Some of the various editors’ assistants and I used to exchange many pages of deep sharing about ourselves. This was my first experience at becoming real in the technical realm.

Off and on for most of my life I have suffered from depression. It has shown up in a myriad of ways from melancholy and to lethargy.  Luckily, I’ve been blessed with a lot of good therapy, various 12-step programs and spiritual explorations not to mention medicines and foods to help me along the way.  I’ve learned to recognize when I am beginning to create a rut for myself and how to shift my perspective out of it.  One of the most helpful suggestions I have received is to focus on what I feel grateful about.  For a person battling depression, feeling nothing but dark can be difficult, but with all the help that I’ve described above and my creative mind, I have come up with one idea that has helped me and that I hope may be helpful for you when you want to “feel” grateful.

(recently posted at http://www.smallbusinessgurus.com/life-before-business/a-new-kind-of-risk.html)

A new kind of risk was highlighted during a recent coaching conversation with a client, who had taken a VocationVacation last year to explore a new career option. This client has seen, explored, prepared for and conquered many risks in life but this new kind of risk, one that may not have the support of those people closest to them, seemed to be more daunting then the others.

What if we decided today that whenever we hear or read the term, “Global Warming” we will choose to believe it is a reminder for us to open up our global Earth-heart and let it warm up the planet with our love?

(recently posted at www.lifebeforebusiness.com)

I must confess that in the past I have felt much more comfortable “sounding” really grounded and espousing wisdom that I’ve learned throughout the years than to actually practice the principles that I hold so dear.  My feeling may just be part of the human condition. In spite of this,  I suspect that the God of my understanding and my higher-consciousness have been taking many notes along the way because now that I have created a life of being a Life Coach, writer and radio personality, it is much more difficult to hide behind my words.  Now people are more able to see my actions as well.

This morning I got “tagged” by Jim Logan (http://www.jslogan.com/content/view/53/42/)  The following is, hopefully, for your amusement!

 Tag, Your it!
written by Lynn Kindler, January 02, 2007

Jim, I love the way you responded and what you wrote about the five things we didn’t know about you. What a guy!! Let me see if I can take a stab at this,

Five things you didn’t know about me!

(recently published at www.lifebeforebusiness.com)

If there is a way for me to take a benign positive movie such as “The Secret” and turn it into a rocket ship fueled by neurosis to ponder and argue within my head about every positive point made in the movie—then I have done it.  I conducted this “mind dance” for several months before I realized that I had caught myself up inside of a hopeless spiral with no end in sight.