The words spilled out of my mouth. I felt my friend withdraw. The pain and hurt was visible. I observed a situation. I judged it unacceptable to me. And offered an opinion. The result was separation. I tried to justify my words. The gap grew bigger. I apologized. But the damage was done. My friend left. That is what happens inside me. Every time I tel...

I feel almost giddy inside when I look at the flowers. They adorn my old fashioned front porch. I planted lots in pots and hanging baskets. When I sit on the porch I am surrounded by them. The joy and pleasure they bring is amazing. What a shift. I remember when I would not buy them. I only spent money on practical things. If I planted something ...

I looked up as I walked past the window this morning to discover a Flicker perched on top of the metal sculpture my husband built to hold our bird feeders. Chickadees and sparrows filled every available opening. Half a dozen doves lined the fence and several more watched from the branches of a nearby tree. I felt so much joy. It had been months since I...

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about how you are going to reach a future goal? A couple of major unexpected situations cropped up in my life this week. Since the unknown is unsettling to the mind it caused my thoughts to rush frantically in search of solutions. Fear of what might happen in the future fueled my racing thoughts. My body responded w...

There was a time in my life when I used affirmations to try and change my circumstances. I would repeat them hundreds of times with small changes if any at all. Looking back now I can see how I was trying to force something I wanted to happen I used words and thoughts in an almost frantic way to make something I did not like in my life go away and create...

It has been an unusually busy day. I found myself attempting to multi-task which is something I have not done in a long time. My mind kept bouncing like a ping pong ball between thoughts of things that happened a few hours ago and the list of tasks waiting to be performed. Trying to meet a deadline I felt as if my heart was racing all day long. It was ...

Lately I have been focusing on expanding my willingness to receive support in my life in many forms including money. I decided to celebrate the gifts as they arrive by recording them in a grateful journal. This time I intend to make this practice part of my daily routine rather than the start and stop pattern of the past. Here is what I am noticing abou...

Recently I set an intention to reach a goal I felt was almost impossible to reach in the amount of time allotted. Knowing it would help my friend I agreed to participate in my friend's plan. As the deadline approached my mind attempted to figure out how I could reach the goal by doing something that did not feel comfortable to me. I even took partial a...

Recently I worked with two different people who experienced difficult love relationship issues. While the equally painful circumstances were unique to each person the responses were quite different. One person chose to focus on the hurt while the other chose to bless the situation with love and forgiveness. The angry person relived the experience over a...

This week I began a new daily practice that is making such a difference in my life I want to share it with you. It is perhaps the most difficult thing I ever tried but after the first couple of times it is now one of my favorite things to do. For years I read in books and heard from speakers and life coaches about the idea of mirror work. It sounded a ...

This has been a challenging week for many people in my life. Severe health issues, financial problems and relationship difficulties are among the many causes. Most of the time I am able to keep myself centered in peace and love but this week was different. I stopped focusing in my heart and began thinking. The old "rescue others" pattern kick...

Several friends talked with me this week about experiences in their lives that resulted in them feeling like they were not good enough. They felt as if they were not meeting the expectations of others. That form of self judgement is always detrimental. If we decide who we are is somehow flawed we kill our spirit. The decision that there is something ...

Have you ever paid attention to how you breathe? Are you a shallow breather or do you take deep breaths from the diaphragm? If you are a shallow breather like me you are keeping your body in a constant state of fight or flight response. Notice how tight and shut down your body is. Especially in the shoulders and chest. When you take deeper breaths fr...

One day during the first week after eye surgery I felt an enormous surge of emotions. Afraid to hurt my eyes by crying I had stuffed so many of these feelings they were screaming to get out. I decide to devote my day to honoring those emotions by setting them free. A friend of mine called to ask how I was. "I am having an emotional day", I resp...

The list of things I could NOT do while recovering from the retina detachment was short...no reading, writing, computer work or lifting. The added complications of the gas bubble in one eye and the lack of central vision in the other limited my choices even more. I felt my body tighten and my energy level drop as I contemplated the impact this would hav...

What you focus on expands. I gained a new perspective on this statement when my retina detached. More than one third of my eye was black. As I focused on the black portion of my sight it appeared to get larger. When I shifted to notice what I could see. That area seemed to get larger. I have a choice. I can focus on what I have in my life that ...

If you are receiving this post in your email you were one of those special people in my life who encouraged me when I tried to start this blog a few years ago. At that time I was looking back on a very challenging journey that changed my life. Brimming with the desire to put into words what I had learned I sta rted "changing focus". A...

It’s been a while since I took the time to write about my journey. I have been using my day-to-day experiences to bring my focus totally into the present moment where all of life is lived. So rather than spend as much time writing I have been totally immersed in the process of change. Monitoring my thoughts has become a priority as well as noticing how ...