by Carol deLaski | Sep 6, 2012 | Business, Children, Family, Finances, Fitness, Health, Laura Hall, Nutrition, Success
I am so excited to be giving you a little preview of one of the upcoming workshops being presented by Lisa DiSciullo and myself at the upcoming Wholistic Woman Retreat! We’ve titled it, “Spark a Wholehearted Life” and it’s being based around the work of Brene Brown. I first learned about Brene Brown after watching one of her TED talks http://home/wholisu6/dev.wholisticwomanretreats.com.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html and if you haven’t seen this, I highly recommend it. Her work has given me permission to be perfectly imperfect and as a “recovering perfectionist” this is just the permission I’ve been waiting for.
Wholehearted living is about recognizing your worthiness, that you already are enough, and then living from that place in harmony with your perceived imperfections. It’s about turning inward and acknowledging what is true for you and embracing that. It’s about letting go of allowing other people to dictate who or what you are supposed to be, and choosing your authentic truth, and then being courageous enough to stand up and say this is the real me. I’m done pretending to be something I’m not. I’m done trying to live up to unrealistic expectation. I’m done living by someone else’s rules for me. Here I am world, vulnerabilities and all! It’s not easy, but as someone who has been practicing this, I promise you, it has been well worth it!
Of course, this is life, and life is sometimes messy, so of course there are things that can get in the way of living a wholehearted life. Some days are better than others, but knowing what the potential road blocks are, allows us options, or detours, around these potential pitfalls. And on the positive side, there are also daily habits you can create that will assist you in wholehearted living. We will be looking at both of these aspects.
If this piqued your curiosity, if this leaves you wondering how effectively you are living a wholehearted life, if this has your imagination soaring about what would be possible if you started living life on your own terms, then please join us!
So, what are you doing September 28th and 29th? If you’d like to join us at the retreat, sign up TODAY as space is limited. You can do this at wholisticwomanretreats.com
Here’s to changing the world, one wholehearted life at a time!
Laura
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at http://home/wholisu6/dev.wholisticwomanretreats.com.hallcoaching.com/.
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by Carol deLaski | May 9, 2012 | Family, Laura Hall
“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future” – Bill Cosby
As the mother of 2 teenage girls, I often find myself in the position of offering advice and words of wisdom. What I’ve noticed in the process of doing this, is that I too usually learn something when I revisit the lessons I’m trying to teach. The above quote from Bill Cosby is one of the life lessons I’m trying to instill in my girls. I believe that who we surround ourselves with has a profound affect on us, but I really didn’t get this until I hit my late 30’s, and if I’m really being honest with myself, I am continuing to learn this lesson.
Christine Arylo, author of “Choosing Me before We: The Everywoman’s Guide to Life and Love” and MAP contributor for Compass Life Coaching (www.mylifecompass.com/laurahall) is the inspiration behind this blog. In my work with her MAP (monthly action plan) titled “Create Fabulous Friendships”, I’ve continued to look at what it really means to choose conscious friendships – friendships that are part of my life by design, not just because we happen to have children in the same school or because we work together. What I’ve learned about myself is that I want to surround myself with friends who value personal growth, are not afraid to challenge me or to be challenged themselves and in general have an optimistic outlook on life. The other side of this work is that I’ve been looking at what kind of friend I’ve been being. What I’m realizing is that I take some of my friendships for granted, assuming that they will always be there for me no matter what. I understand that if I want to cultivate fabulous friendships, I need to be a fabulous friend. I need to make time to let my friends know how much I value them by making them a priority.
It has taken me 40+ years, but I have confident that anyone who looks at my friends will see that my future is bright. I am practicing what I preach when it comes to this life lesson.
How about you? Are your friendships healthy and supportive? Are they a 2-way street? Have you outgrown some of your relationships? How do you feel about letting them go? When people look at your friends, what kind of future will they predict for you?
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com and click on the group coaching link at the bottom to learn how to access the Create Fabulous Friendships MAP to point yourself in the right direction.
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by Carol deLaski | Apr 5, 2012 | Health, Laura Hall, Self-Care
Of course we all know what food is, right? It’s what we eat or drink; it’s what we fuel our body with; it’s what we need to sustain life. When we feed our bodies healthy, nutritious food, our bodies work better. I believe the same is true for life. Our lives work better when we feed them properly. Our lives need soul food.
Soul food consists of the following 3 food groups: thoughts, actions, and environments. In each of these food groups we have the option to choose healthy “foods” that nourish our souls and contribute to our wellness, or to choose junk “foods” that drain us and often lead to illness. Undoubtedly, we are all unique individuals, so what constitutes the ideal soul food diet for me is going to be different from your ideal diet, therefore I encourage you to pay attention to your life and how what you feed it affects you. What leaves you feeling hungry and unsatisfied? What thoughts fuel your life and your passions? What do you do that excites you? What do you do that you dread? What are the situations you find yourself in where you lose track of time? What environments just seem to suck the life right out or you? Your answers to these questions will help you determine what is junk food to your soul as well as what contributes to your health.
One of my common junk food thoughts is that I’m not enough. This thought comes in a variety of flavors, such as, I’m not smart enough, I’m not qualified enough, or I’m not worthy enough, just to name a few. I know these are junk food thoughts because they leave me feeling drained and defeated, so I try to avoid them. On the other hand, some of my more nutritious thoughts are that life is happening for me, not to me; there are no such things as mistakes, only opportunities to learn and grow; and I am love personified. Moving my body, putting forgiveness into action, and volunteering are actions that sustain me, whereas standing in judgement of others, eating potato chips and shopping are actions that are exhausting to me. (This last one really confuses my 17 year old daughter who finds shopping exhilarating, but this just goes to show we all have different ideal diets.) And when it comes to environments, I’ve become a really picky eater. I no longer watch the news (my husband does that for me!), spend too much time in the company of people who only see the glass as half empty, or partake in any form of media where the overarching message is one of negativity. Instead, I’m choosing to feast on music with lyrics that make my heart sing; on surrounding myself with people who understand the value of taking care of themselves and being in service to others; and on books, movies and TV shows that make me think about how I can contribute to the world.
How are you feeding your soul? I’d love to hear your comments! I’d also like to invite you to my upcoming “Nourish Your Soul” workshop lunch series. For more information visit: http://nourishing-journey.com/Docs/HallCoachingbrochure.pdf
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com.
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by Carol deLaski | Feb 29, 2012 | Health, Laura Hall, Self-Care
Like many of you out there, I am a busy woman with many interests and things I feel passionate about. Before I discovered my little secret, which I’m going to share with you in a minute, there were many a nights that I would go to bed wishing that I had more hours in the day because I wasn’t able to get it all done. Does this sound familiar to you?
So, what’s the secret? I bathe myself in grace each morning…literally.
At Christmas I received a bottle of shower gel called “Amazing Grace”. It’s from a company called Philosophy and these are the words that are printed on the front of the bottle:
Life is a classroom. Each day is a test, and each day we receive a passing or failing grade in one particular subject: Grace. Grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence and the list goes on. It’s something money can’t buy and credentials rarely produce. Being the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the richest or even the poorest can’t help. Being a humble person can, and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude.
Bathing myself in grace helps me start my day off on the right foot. It reminds me that who I am being is truly more important than what I am doing. It sets the intention for my day to be to bring as much grace into my interactions with others, as well as with myself, as I can. And, it allows me to go to bed at night grateful for the opportunities to practice compassion, love, forgiveness, patience and other grace filled ways of being. Because I know for me, that this is ultimately how I’d like to be graded-by my ability to practice grace, not by how many things I checked off my to do list.
How about you? What do you do to start you day off on the right foot? What needs to happen for you to go to bed giving yourself a “passing” grade?
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com.
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by Carol deLaski | Jan 18, 2012 | Laura Hall
“The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a call for love.”
― Marianne Williamson
Several months ago I joined a local group that is studying the book A Course in Miracles. It’s been a book I’ve had an interest in learning more about, and I subscribe to the belief that it’s always more fun to be part of a group! Over the last few months, the leader of this group has been encouraging us to look at every interaction we have with others as either an expression of love or a call for love. Seems easy enough, doesn’t it? Once we recognize that someone’s behavior is a call for love, it changes what we see. It opens us up to having empathy rather than thinking they are a jerk, or high maintenance, or whatever other reactionary thought might pop into our minds. To illustrate my point, I’d like to share with you a personal example.
Here is the scene: It’s Sunday night. My husband is planning an early to bed night in preparation for a busy week at work. Monday is a school holiday. My youngest daughter asks me if we can have a girls game night with her friend and her friend’s mom. I say, “Yes!”. Around 9:30 PM, our games are in full swing, and my husband heads up to bed. Shortly there after, I get a text from him saying, “Sorry to be a pain, but can you turn things down a notch?”. OK, I think, this is what a call for love looks like. You see, unlike my husband, I have no problems sleeping – anywhere, anytime. So my reactionary thought was, “We really aren’t being that loud.”, but instead of acting on this thought, I choose to see this as a call for love, reply “Yes.”, and then asked everyone to be a little quieter. Several minutes later I received a second text. This one reads, Music too. Bass carries. Again I get the chance to practice recognizing that as a call for love and I turn down the music. Without this framework, I easily could have rolled my eyes, given my husband a hard time and generally just not have been very loving. I’m glad I chose to love in response to his call for love. This is what everyday miracles look like in action.
Where are you being called to be a miracle-worker? Who in your life is calling out for love? What will it take for you to be able to respond to them with the love they are asking for? I challenge you to recognize that it is a choice. What will you choose? I hope you’ll look for opportunities to practice love because when you do, you become a miracle-worker.
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com.
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by Carol deLaski | Nov 25, 2011 | Family, Health, Holidays, Laura Hall
I am writing this the week of Thanksgiving and as I sit here in the midst of preparing for the 20+ people that will be dining with us here on Thursday, I am gently reminding myself to stay focused on the intentions behind the festivities and not get bogged down with the details. As a “recovering perfectionist”, I have a tendency to stress over needing everything to be just right, and in this stressing I oftentimes lose sight of what’s really important. What a great question that can be…What’s really important?
For me, when I really think about it, the answer is simple… it’s spending time with those I love and having the opportunity to express what I am truly grateful for. It’s not important that my house is perfectly clean, or that I’ve decorated like Martha Stewart, or that my menu is ideal. I’m willing to let go of perfectionism and in doing that I’ve found the secret to my “perfect” Thanksgiving. Perfect for me comes from seeing the smiles on the faces of my children, my nieces and my nephew as they spend time playing together. Perfect is having 3 generations gathered around the dinner table. Perfect is having my 13 year old daughter tell me that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. Perfect is when we all gather in a circle before our meal to count our blessings. Perfect is knowing that we are creating memories to last a lifetime. That’s what’s really important to me.
Now, it’s your turn…What are the ingredients to your “perfect” Thanksgiving? Are there things you are stressing about that really aren’t that important? How can you let them go? I look forward to reading your answers and Happy “Perfect” Thanksgiving!
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach who believes every woman deserves a coach. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com
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