TO ALL WOMEN

WHO HAVE GIVEN BIRTH TO A CHILD

ACCEPTED THE ROLE OF GODMOTHER TO A CHILD  AND/OR

‘MOTHERED’ SOMEONE ELSE’S CHILD

WE CELEBRATE YOU TODAY!

        HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

~Lesia S.

What are you not seeing when you see the worst?

What are you missing now when you think mostly about what you’ve missed in the past?

How much of your time is spent thinking about how you can fail at something as opposed to thinking about how it will be and how you will feel when you succeed at it?

How much time do you obsess over what is not working in a relationship for example, instead of finding ways and taking action to make it work?

How can visualizing what you want instead of what you don’t want or can’t have, be a step that saves you from emotional turmoil, wasted time and immobility?

Let’s say that you want financial security, do you think about how hard it is or will be to achieve it or are you envisaging and believing all the ways in which it will provide a sounder quality of life once you have it?
Essentially, are you prepared to have financial security or fearing and preparing that you will not?
If not, what is creating that fear and do you wish to overcome it?

*When you are emotionally and intellectually prepared for success and prosperity, you will enjoy it. When you accept that your life will take you in the direction that you choose for yourself and know what you want, success will be yours.

*How does one prepare emotionally and intellectually to reach their measures of success and prosperity?

It starts with personal permission, openness and desire to go through a process that creates greater insight, generates action and requires commitment on your part. The ‘process’ is what deepens your learning by generating the insight and answers to your quandaries, perhaps similar to the ones above. As soon as you choose to fully engage in the process, the personal successes emerge and they beget further successes. Personal barriers are overcome and momentum is generated.
Not surprisingly, what ends up happening is you begin to see and think predominantly about what you want as you move forward, which is then reinforced by the belief that you will have what you want based on recent learning, growth and experience, until ultimately you learn to expect, accept and enjoy the many successes that follow.

For those of you who are ready today, acknowledge how you are thinking, how you are feeling and what your heart seeks, begin the ‘process’ and be prepared to ‘see success’.

~Lesia S.

Over this Easter weekend, what has been going through your mind?

Have you been reminiscing about past Easter gatherings?
Are they memories to remember or ones you would rather not?

Are you self-reflecting?
If you are, how are you positioning yourself, as the provider, the teacher, the muse, the victim or who?

Are you thinking about what you believe?

Perhaps what this Holiday means to you?

What you were taught in religious studies?

How teachers, spiritual leaders, family or friends have influenced your beliefs?

Maybe you took this occasion to ponder all the people who have contributed to your successes and to your learning and were meant to be on your life’s continuum for a reason?

What ever it was that went through your mind has influenced what path you will take as you move forward.

May the path you have chosen be a means to a fulfilling and joyful end.

~Lesia S.

What hopefully many of you will be doing today is a perfect example of a process that works if all the steps are executed and the intentions are authentic. What does that mean? Becoming aware of something that you want to change and what it would mean to you is the first step in the process to achieving it. In this case, you may want to think about what turning off the lights for one hour will do for you, your family, your community, your neighborhood, your city, your province or state and so on.

Once you realize that it would feel right to participate in this hour of awareness and action, as well as recognize all the reasons why you feel this way, you will perhaps then be in a position to decide that you will join the masses in Earth Hour. Your decision to act is the next step in the process of achieving what you set out to do. What do you think comes next?  You’ve identified something you want, you’ve decided when and how long you will partake, now what?

What makes you actually do it? What helps you solidify that intention? At this stage, you know what it means to you to turn off the power for one hour (oh, that could be a good slogan!). You know you want to act today but what will make you commit to doing it at 8:30 tonight? Your answer to this question is what will make you accountable to yourself to follow through at that time. Perhaps one reason why you will feel committed to doing what you say you want to do is because everyone in this case will be acting at 8:30 and you want to be part of that. Your commitment to execute your intention is the final step to reaching it. At 9:30 tonight you will have accomplished the final stage of the “process” and you will have conquered your goal.

You may well agree that while the ‘process’ of executing any intention generally seems straight forward, the steps are seldom so.

What do you think make the ‘steps’ in the process on this Earth Hour day, a little less challenging than when you attempt to reach other goals?

~Lesia S.

What makes you jump into action?
Necessity
Need
Desperation
Desire
Force
Knowing what you want?

What makes you break through roadblocks?
Necessity
Belief
Seeing options
Inner drive
Courage
Envisaging the goal?

What motivates you?
The risk of losing something or someone
Having no other choice
Knowing what you want
A mentor or a champion
A dare
A reward
Setting a measure of accountability?

What are the implications of the above choices, for you?
For example, under what circumstances have you been ‘forced’ to jump into action? How did that work for you? Or, how could ‘envisaging a specific goal’ (or not having one) play out for you when faced with a roadblock? Or, in what way could having someone champion you and your goal help you achieve it?

How in tune are you with your inner mechanisms that propel you to take action or that grind you to a halt?

What have your responses to these questions made you more aware of?

~Lesia S.

If you’re facing an issue that involves having to make a pivotal decision and you find yourself at a crossroad, how do you proceed?

How much time are you spending thinking about it?
Which of the following comes close to describing how you feel?

“I feel frustrated because I don’t know where to begin.”
“I fear how the decision I make will affect my future.”
“I’m stuck.”
“I have friends and family who have been in similar situations that are helping me sort through things, but I still feel like I’m not seeing everything. I’m not at ease.”
“I feel overwhelmed – so many questions are popping into my head.”
“I don’t know what to do and feel very much like everything rests on my shoulders.”
“I am putting off thinking about it.”
“I’ve decided to give up on it, I don’t see how it will work but something continues to haunt me.”

Making difficult choices or forming value judgments will have either positive or negative consequences. They will impact you and those around you in some way – and for some time to come. So you will likely want to be sure that what you do or say will come from a place of clarity and peace of mind – which comes from knowing what you need to know, deciding what you want and then taking action.

Feeling that clarity and peace of mind can be likened to what a member of a jury might have to feel before announcing a verdict. The guided process leading up to a jury’s final decision consists of gathering fact-based evidence and presenting that evidence where it is heard and may be countered with further evidence.
Imagine for a moment that you are a jury member and there is evidence brought forth that casts doubt in your mind. Until that doubt has been put to rest, how do you feel?
How would you feel if the other members of the jury were ready to pronounce judgment before the evidence was all in or if you personally saw holes in the testimony? How would the uncertainty of being left with unanswered questions and being aware of what’s at stake play out in your mind? What would you need in order to feel at peace with your final decision on the matter?

At times it may feel like you’re in the midst of a trial because the decision you have to make feels like it will change your world or someone else’s in one way or another. Gathering evidence and gaining clarity when making a personal decision, often translates to understanding all the facts surrounding feelings, thoughts and beliefs – of all parties concerned.

A professionally guided process is key to feeling like you have thoroughly weighed all the ‘evidence’.
Know the facts – not “hearsay” – so that you may, without reasonable doubt, state your verdict on any matter and release from your shoulders, the burden of prolonged inquiry, guilt or indecisiveness. Make resolutions and choices that you can live with.

~Lesia S.

What a celebratory weekend we just had! It began with the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver on Friday February 12th, was followed by Valentines Day on Sunday and officially in some parts of the world, Family Day on Monday.

Aside from having the common focus of ‘celebration’, what other ‘commonalities’ do you share on each of these occasions?

Here are a few:

Tolerance
Laughter
Togetherness
Failure
Creativity
Goals
Stamina
Respect
Love
Focus
Effort
Dedication
Resourcefulness
Desire
Perseverance
Endurance
Happiness
Disappointment
Hope
Persistence
Vision
Connecting
Sharing
Experiencing
Seeing potential
Determination
Success
Harmony
Courage
Strength
Teamwork
Pride
Reward
Chocolate maybe?

If you make the effort to reflect on just how much each of the above fit into all three occasions, you just may end up feeling like an Olympian yourself!

~Lesia S.

There are a great number of factors and circumstances that may cause irritability. Getting to the heart of what is causing it is likely to involve some searching. The question is if you want to start by calming down that irritability and preventing it from escalating, what can you do?

Some of you may relate to this:
Let’s say you’ve made a choice in your past that put a strain on your finances and you vowed that you’d never do anything to put yourself in that position again. A substantial period of time elapses and your finances are starting to look pretty good then BAM, you do it again. You have a slipup that puts another strain or complication on managing your finances. Maybe you saw an opportunity to increase your income with what looked like a promising venture at the time. However today you’re mentally beating yourself up and asking why this happened again – which is making you feel irritable.

Here’s one perspective:
The ‘slipup’ put a strain on managing your finances much like, for example, if you went to the gym and lifted a heavier weight that put a strain on your muscles.
What happens when you lift a heavier weight?
Your muscles ache for a bit longer then they’re back to normal. The next time you work out you are more aware of that heavy weight and avoid it because you remember the pain you felt last time. What else can happen?
A year later, you’ve been exercising regularly and you’re feeling physically fit so you decide to give the heavier weight another go. What happens next?

1. In the next few days you find that your muscles ached a little less but they ached nevertheless, more than you like, or
2. You feel the same pain as the first time and feel irritated that you pushed your muscles too hard but at the same time notice that you didn’t hurt your muscles to any significant degree, or
3. You find that, although lifting weights is important to toning your muscles, the weight you are lifting does not have to be that heavy and you will still get the same toned results – with less or no pain.

~Whether you can relate to this particular example and the three outcomes or not, generally what do you come away with?

~If you feel that it’s created somewhat of a calming affect on you, what specific way of thinking makes that happen?

~How can you apply this way of thinking to other areas of your life?

 ~Lesia S.

TO OUR FELLOW UKRAINIANS AND TO EVERYONE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS ACCORDING TO THE JULIAN CALENDAR AND WITH ALL OF ITS WONDERFUL TRADITIONS, WE WISH YOU

            Vasaly Sviata  – Happy Holidays

  ~ Lesia S.

Dear Friends,

May each day bring a smile
May good spirit last a long while
May you soar like an eagle
In peaceful vastness like a seagull

May you harness your soul’s richness
Regain your desired fitness
Escape the wavering throws
Of the indecisive “I don’t knows”

May you capture your might
Take hold of your forces
Set forth on a plight
Or roam free like wild horses

May what ever you choose
Put a bounce in your step
May it spring you into action
Harvesting endless satisfaction.

Happy New Year Everyone!

~ Lesia S.