Looking In, Up and Out with One Word

Looking In, Up and Out with One Word

by | Jan 22, 2020 | Carol deLaski, Goals, Kelye Rouse-Brown, Laura Hall

Every year, the Wholistic Woman Retreat community gathers together at our first evening retreat of the year to discuss our One Word for the year. This year, we thought we’d share with you the three steps of the One Word and how our founding coaches Carol, Laura and Kelye approach these three steps. 

Coach Carol shares about looking in

My favorite way to prepare my heart for One Word is during my morning quiet time. I usually start my days, while still in my PJs, nestled in my comfy chair with a hot cup of tea, lit candles, and inspirational reading. It sets a positive tone for my day when I ground myself with gratitude, prayer, and personal reflection. 

This is when I feel most calm, centered, and am ready to ask the powerful questions “What do I need more of? What do I need less of? What needs to go?” 

My mind is quick with an answer however, I intentionally listen with my heart and soul, as well. For example, this year as I asked those questions my mind readily knew the answers: I need to slow down, do less, give myself more downtime, and allow myself more time to get from one activity to another. I came up with several words that captured this energy: Release, Receive, Savor, Time, Slow were a few of the options. I thought of many good words, but I wanted a God-inspired word. I waited for a sign indicating which one God was directing me to. I asked, what word do You want me to learn from this year, God? 

In 2019 my Word repeatedly came to me with a physical manifestation. With my head bowed in prayer, it dropped heavily forward when my spirit knew my word: Approval. I wait for such a sign again this year. This is my 8th year using One Word to guide me and consistently the knowing of my word has come in my core instead of my head. I feel it more than I think it. I know it is true because of an inner calm or rightness to it. 

When I get quiet, pray, listen, and wait, my word reveals itself to me. 

Coach Laura shares about looking up

One Word is one of my favorite tools that we use and teach here at Wholistic Woman Retreats!   Step 2 in the process is about waiting for your word to show up for you. It’s about receiving a word vs picking one.  I’m a girl who looks for divine “signs” in life which I take as indications that I am where I am supposed to be. I have a playful plaque in my bedroom that reads, “If You’re Waiting For A Sign. This Is It”.

One of the amazing parts of the one word process has been the “signs” I have received that the word floating around my thoughts is indeed my One Word.  This year has been no exception.  

Late in 2019, as I began the One Word Process, the word “unveiled” came to mind.  It comes from a notion I’ve held since my teens that at our core, we are all pure love and pure light.  It’s what you see in babies when you look deep in their eyes. My belief is that over time we are conditioned by the world we live in and this bright light begins to be covered up with “veils” that block the light.  As I thought about the questions, What do I need?, What’s in my way? and What needs to go? the answer was your veils. Hence the word, “unveiled”. Fast forward to December 30th… I’m on a holiday cruise with my family.  I turn the TV on in my cabin and in the bottom right hand of the screen is the name of the program they are showing… UNVEILED. This was the sign I was waiting for and at that moment I knew, unveiled was my one word for 2020.

Coach Kelye shares about looking out

I have arranger in my top 5 strengths for executing skills so I get a kick out of living my word for the year and have fun with it. I truly am disciplined when I choose a word and become very loyal to how I lead each day throughout the year. My words over the years such as Shine, Move, Roots, LEAP, Savvy and Breathe stack up year after year forming new, fresh positive beliefs and habits.  My new word discovery for 2020 is Rhythm and I have already started stepping out of my comfort zone with this word.

Stillness and meditation don’t come easy to me so I have to work harder to get in the “rhythm” of my day to show up my best and for others. This way of moving in the day has created a CEO in the flow approach personally for me. It started working for me at my Wholebeing Positive Psychology immersion at Kripalu health and yoga center in Massachusetts. All of my days included Let Your Yoga Dance which is a way to spread joy and consciousness and embodies Positive Psychology. Not leaving BREATHE behind, my 2019 word, I now focus on my breath and rhythm in my day. It became my 30-day Mindful Movement practice which I shared at two of our Wholistic Woman events to wrap up 2019.  

Creating a practice is certainly one way to live out your word and to feel alive and aligned within. My goal now is to create a 365-day practice in 2020 with Rhythm. How do I keep my words front and center and grow year after year? 

Here are some special examples:

Shine – the year I needed more sparkle after my mom passed away – I went to Sarah Mclachlan’s concert Shine On – and bonus, I received about 3 of her CD’s from friends that year. So listening to music or picking a song is a great way to keep your word alive.

Roots – the year I needed to feel more grounded with family – I traveled to Oklahoma to bring my mom closer to her mom and had a ceremony with her childhood friends and family. So traveling is another great way to feel the effect and internalize your one word. 

LEAP – the year I needed help moving forward with fun – I created a LEAP program for my business that is now company-wide – it stands for Leadership, Engagement, Attitude and Positive Performance. Creating a program, or a mantra is a great way to personalize your one word. 

Some other daily ways are to keep a journal or create a vision board. We are planning a vision board activity with my team in Texas to set the “tone” for vision 2020. This will include individual one words and our team one word, MORE, to focus on together. 

All I can say about the third step in One Word is enjoy and experience the journey. I can’t imagine using the same word year after year; there are so many opportunities for growth and change. Change can be difficult and stretch us, but it’s all part of the process. Live it out and be ALL IN!

We look forward to seeing you at our One Word evening retreat – Gain 2020 VIsion!

Mindful Eating Does NOT Mean Weight Loss

Mindful Eating Does NOT Mean Weight Loss

by | Jul 1, 2019 | Health, Nutrition, Personal Development

Every single day we eat and every single one of us eats the amount we do largely because of what is around us. Setting things like emotional and stress eating aside, we often overeat because of family, friends, colors, packaging, plate size, smells, distractions, containers and even the way we set up our kitchen and dining room tables. This list of invisible influences goes on and on.

Invisible? Yes! Most of us are unaware of all of the factors that influence our eating and those that keep us from being in the moment while we eat so that we can pay close attention to how hungry we are, when we get full, what mood we’re in, how good our food tastes and just how much we’ve consumed.

As we all know, increased food consumption typically results in weight gain. If you consume just 3,500 calories, that equals a pound no matter if you consume it all together or over a week. You can revisit my previous blog and learn more about that and the mindless margin. So if increased food consumption often results in weight gain and mindful eating helps us reduce food consumption, wouldn’t that mean that mindful eating can be used for weight loss? Not exactly! 

What Mindful Eating Is

Mindful eating is less about what you eat and more about how you eat it. “Ronald Reagan once said, ‘You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jelly beans’.” Are you one who eats only the flavors you love, eats them all at once or only eats a few and saves the rest? The way you eat them says a lot about the relationship that you have with food. 

Mindful eating encourages us to become fully present with food and aware of our relationship with it. We begin to notice if we hide certain things, like jelly beans, when we eat them, if we wolf food down until our stomach hurts or if we avoid some foods like the plague. The more aware you become of your eating habits, the more likely you are to change them and to accept your body for what it does, especially that it has an inherent ability to guide us. 

Don’t Mix Mindful Eating and Weightloss 

When we mix mindful eating and weight loss, we tend to bring the conflict that we have with food to the surface. We get frustrated because we try to be “mindful” of the carbs we’re eating and don’t lose weight, we try to be “mindful” and drink more water and don’t lose weight. The fact of the matter is, we first have to understand ourselves – heart, mind, body, and spirit. 

We have to be connected with ourselves enough to know that there are several other factors that contribute to weight loss and gain. Mindfulness is a tool used to help enhance that connectivity. It helps us learn to be still in all areas of life. Still enough to hear the small things like birds chirping, to be present with the ones we love, to recognize when we have triggers or glimmers in our day-to-day. The connection in our body is a foundational tool that is needed to be able to recognize when that extra slice of pizza puts us over the edge or all that caffeine in the morning causes us to crash in the afternoon which in turn requires more caffeine. With mindfulness comes awareness and with awareness comes a knowing of yourself that you may have never experienced. 

I invite you to join me to learn more about yourself, mindful eating and how it can help you in all aspects of your life at our July evening retreat. You will find that practicing mindful eating will bring you much more joy and allow you to live a balanced and fulfilled life. 

Today’s author: Casey Clark is a partner coach with Wholistic Woman Coalition. She manages a health and wellness practice, Heaven On Earth, which is a community for those looking to get inspired and give inspiration to anyone on their own health and wellness journey. Having made significant changes to her lifestyle over the past 2 years to live a more holistically fulfilled life, Casey understands the importance of self-care and having a community to get support from. Join the community and get some inspiration or become a guest blogger at www.aheavenlyyou.com.