I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

End of Summer

It has been an interesting, fun and busy summer. Biking, swimming, camping, visiting, fishing. Endings always mean beginnings. There is something about the air getting a little cooler, especially at night, the days shortening and the shift to a different pace as things return to more of a 'business as usual' that I find exciting too... just as I did when the air got warmer, the days got longer, etc. I find that in the fall it feels more like a speeding up and in the spring /summer it feels more like a slowing down. I always feel a little invigorated and anticipatory as the seasons change.... I have been asking myself what that feelings is about and I think it is about change. Although we often have a love, hate relationship to change we also know on some level that it is what moves us forward, helps us to not stay stuck and keeps us growing toward our potential. Life often has various ways of 'enlivening us' or 'waking us up' if we are open so that we don't get too comfortable, too entrenched in behaviours, lifestyles, relationships, work situations, that leave us feeling uninspired, stuck, confused, lacking in direction, hopeless and depressed. As 'life' wakes us up, it is our job to take action to change what we need to to move forward, to put the passion, sense of purpose and meaning back into our lives. Are you awake or just sleep walking? Do you have dreams, goals, passions that you are not fulfilling? How would you feel if you came to the end of your life and had not fulfilled your potential? These are important questions to ask ourselves if we want to live fully in the life we have right now. Through coaching I can assist you to develop and implement an action plan to fully live the life you really want to live! Give me a call at 705-752-9923 for a free, no obligation Coaching session to see if coaching is right for you. www.soulsolutions.ca

Butterfly's

Lately wherever I go there seem to be a lot of butterflies. Both flying ones and ones coming up in conversation. When I attended the Retreat that I mentioned in my previous blog, I met a very lovely spiritual couple who both really seem to resonate with the symbol of the butterfly, who in fact both wore one around their necks. The gentleman who is an intuitive, picked up on my brother, Cory's presence whom as you will read below, was connected to butterflies. Shortly after the retreat I 'met' an injured very large butterfly on my walk one morning. I had never seen one like it before as it was not a monarch but quite large and had blue and yellow wings. The next day I went to the meditation group I attend at the Willow Branches on Wednesday nights and butterflies were part of the meditation and conversation. The following day I was driving and one flew right at my window and got lodged on to my wiper blades. I pulled over and gently removed it and put it on the side of the road. It was still alive but its one wing was broken beyond repair. Since then I thankfully haven't seen anymore injured butterflies but have continued to notice many wherever I go. My brother used to draw butterflies in his art work. Mostly black and white butterflies. He was a very talented young man. Butterflies represent transformation.. or the rebirth after the transition from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly. Cory made his 'transition' from this earth in 1992. Shortly after his passing my mom kept noticing a black and white butterfly (which of course are rare to see) flying close to his car. (Here is a picture of a black and White butterfly if you would like to see one) http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1041132861034463868qieflF Since butterflies hold such significance for me and my family I wanted to have a butterfly as my logo for Soul Solutions. I imagined that I would eventually have someone design one for me at some point. In the meantime I was busy with other aspects of my business and therefore was temporarily using a clip art piece from MS Office. I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a graphic designer (and also my yoga teacher... talented woman) about getting my brochures and cards updated and explained the significance of the butterfly to her. She had this amazing idea to scan Cory's artwork and use his butterflies for for the logo! I was so excited and talked it over with my family who thought it was a great idea. The results were so wonderful. Not only did she put a butterfly in the logo, but also, on my brochure she used another one of Cory's butterfly's to look like it was flying up the page. The colours are my choice. I love purples and greens and see them as healing colours. Colours of spiritual transformation and Mother Earth. Transition, transformation, rebirth. Each of these transition events in our lives give us opportunities to grow, to learn and to become more of who we can be. We are good enough as we are but we always have room to grow. You don't 'fault' a 5Th grader for not being yet in the 8Th grade. We are all where we are meant to be, doing the best we can with what we have at this moment. Life has a way of giving us what we need at different times in our lives to make our transformation to the next 'level' to the next place of our beingness. We can resist this 'birthing process', and we may need to do this for awhile until we learn that what we resists persists. This process, which as any Mother who has given birth knows, is not a painless one. I remember when I had my first child and I was young and afraid and how painful birthing from that place was. So painful I was physically ill. When I was giving Birth to my next son 11.5 years later I remember some fear rising and my voice rising with it (trying to run away from it). At that point the wonderful midwives told me to not run away from my pain, but to go into it and feel it and move with it. What a difference!! I felt powerful, I felt connected to the earth and to the amazing process of birth. The pain diminished and this beautiful wonderful and amazing child was birthed and the love I felt was so overwhelming in that moment that I can still recall it. We fight so hard that which we fear, but if we can learn to trust the universe, trust the process and know that it is all part of the greater plan for becoming all that we can be we will find that things will flow, and will come together in a way that we could have never imagined. The love, the joy the peace are all there waiting patiently for us to let go of our fear. And we will come out the other side, renewed, stronger, more certain of who we are and where we are going.

Healing Retreat

Well it has been a few days since I have returned from the healing retreat and I am still processing everything that happened there. We did the fun and dynamic personal growth, body-mind-spirit fitness program called Nia http://www.niac.ca/on/aboutnia.php every morning and for those who wanted to, took a dip in the lake morning and evening. We attended workshops, received treatments, had a full moon ceremony, as well as drumming, singing and lots of sharing and hugs. It was very rejuvinating and healing. A big learning / healing / awareness for me was about allowing myself to really feel joy. It is one thing to feel happy, but joy that comes from deep down within is not something that I have always allowed myself to feel. Think about when you or someone you know laughs right down from their belly. I have had times where I have felt this kind of joy in my life but have often taken life too serious and not given myself permission to really access that joy that is a natural part of my being. As a parent it is easy to think of times of joy with my children, who are so spontaneous and free to be themselves anyway. My youngest seems to have the easiest time with this, being joyful and having fun. I know that having done a lot of my own healing and personal growth which has included letting go of a lot of things I no longer need, I know more than ever that I am ready to really feel that joy. It is always there inside of us/me just waiting to come out. It is there waiting for us to love ourselves enough to let it come out. I know more than ever that I am now able to allow myself to really feel that joy. We all deserve to feel joy, but knowing that and being ready to allow ourselves to really feel it and live in that joy are two different things. How about you? Do you feel joyful? Is it just sometimes, all the time or none of the time? What would bring more joy into your life? I would love to help you to bring more joy, love and peace into your life. Give me a call and we can talk about it further. You deserve it too!!!

Lots to learn... or remember...

Boy is that true whether in personal or professional life. Learning never ends. Personally I am learning some more ‘lessons’ you could say on loving detachment, on letting go and letting God, on accepting what is/not resisting. Some lessons are more difficult than others, especially when it comes to something I value or love. I read a quote today in the Secret book by Ralph Waldo Emmerson that said:
"The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."
Funny thing how that happens, I asked myself yesterday why am I so afraid to sometimes follow what I know (versus what I have been taught to believe through my cultural conditioning). It was a light bulb moment that I am still doing that in some areas of my life, particularly around relationships. What I know is that it is okay to just be me, ask for what I want and need, let go and let God/have faith, believe I deserve goodness, abundance and joy in all areas of my life.
Professionally I am learning about how to edit my web page, develop a PDF document, how to bid on ebay for software I need, have more patience with computers :) , etc.

I am now off to a healing retreat this weekend to rejuvenate and spend some time with some wonderful, spiritually oriented people. Stay tuned for an update as to how it went...

Youth at Risk

Today I attended a half day session dedicated to looking for ways to help Youth at Risk. It was a good morning. There were representatives from various agencies and institutions that work with youth including youth counsellors, guidance and addiction counselors, YMCA staff, probation officers, psychologist, a lawyer, city council rep., etc.

They broke us into smaller focus groups and had a facilitator work with groups of about 6 to 8 to answer 3 questions.
1. What are the barriers, gaps, problems to helping youth at risk?
2. What is your dream / idea that you have to help youth at risk?
3. Which of these dreams/ideas do you think would be the one to focus on?

We then expanded on that idea as a group. Then each table summarized their groups answers with the large group.

Although there were a number of issues brought up, the main themes seemed to be 1. Better coordination with the services that are already existing in the city (agencies often do not know what other agencies / programs are doing). I saw this problem when I worked down South too. 2. Lack of resources for youth to be able to access the help they require (i.e. The local Community Counselling services has a huge waiting list) 3. Lack of community for youth… which lead to the majority of the 'focus' groups coming up with the idea of a Youth Centre, a place they feel comfortable in, not too structured but that gives youth access to recreation and other services they may require.

This whole event was spearheaded by a parent who cannot stand by and watch youth and families suffer and wants to make a difference. Her commitment to helping youth at risk is very admirable. The difference she is making was very apparent today shown by the great turnout and enthusiasm the participants had for the event. She is a great role model of someone who does not sit around complaining or waiting for things to change. I was inspired!

I think having a center that helps youth to feel a sense of community is a great idea but I think it is only part of the answer. I believe that change has to start with each of us individually. I believe that unless we address our own issues, heal our own wounds and raise our awareness to find peace within ourselves first it is difficult to pass it on to others. The challenge with that is that we often find our issues to painful to address or we are not aware of them or deny that they exist. But only by addressing the deeper issues at work do we stop the cycle from continuing.

Below are some resources that assist both youth and adults with that inner and outer change:

The Total Transformation Program – James Lehman
http://www.thetotaltransformation.com/Default.aspx

Community Building Foundation - For Youth at Risk
http://www.communitybuildingfoundation.org/index.htm

The Hoffman Institute Canada - This one I attended myself, there were various ages including two young men both 23 years old. One of those young men came in very sullen and quiet and left smiling and transformed. It is an expensive program but there is some sponsorship available and they will do ‘special’ groups if organized by someone else. i.e. they told us they have done some teen groups.
http://www.hoffmaninstitute.ca/home.html

The Hoffman Institute USA – This is the same as above but I find this website gives more information than the Canadian one.
http://www.quadrinity.com/index.html

The Virtues Project – Learning about and exploring virtues is part of my coaching steps. Although their are some differences with what I teach I think they offer an excellent program.
http://www.virtuesproject.com/index.php

Soul Solutions Life and Career Coaching - And of course my own coaching programs that help with the process of moving towards greater peace and awareness.
www.soulsolutions.ca

Interesting movie about the power of our minds!