As the clock starts ticking towards the end of a year, many of us start to think about and plan for personal goals to kickstart the new year. And, sometimes, it can be a time when one may feel a bit down on ourselves for not having achieved the goals we set out to do for the year.
Hence, this is a perfect time to shed light on one of my personal favorite topics: intentions vs goals, and the power and beauty of intention. As a Leadership Coach, I truly believe that setting Intentions vs Goals can change your thoughts and change your life.
In this article, I discuss the following topics:
Difference between intentions and goals
Value of setting and living with intentions
Creating positive impact with intentions
Benefits of intentions
Intentions vs Goals
Intentions are not the same as goals.
What’s the difference?
Goal setting focuses on specific tasks we aim to achieve in the future. It sounds great, yet in essence, it takes us out of the present moment and creates an emphasis on what we don’t have.
If you have ever set a goal and not achieved it, there can be a sense of failure or not feeling good or worthy enough of this goal. In turn, we may become uncomfortable setting goals or writing down dreams because the thought of them not coming true is harder to bear than proactively giving them a go.
Intentions, on the other hand, focus on the way we want to feel and on the relationship we have with ourselves, others and our environments. Intentions put us in choice vs reaction.
Intentions act as a Roadmap for Today and the Future
Value of Setting and Living with Intention
Setting and living with intention allows us to be in the present and raise our emotional energy which in turn raises our physical energy. Intentions are empowering as they act as a roadmap for living out each day as well as a means of achieving our goals. Intentions give us purpose, meaning and inspiration.
With intention, we can recognize and live by our values. As Mahatma Gandhi so famously said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” this is exactly what living with intention does. It puts us in the driver’s seat of the creative force of our lives.
To live what we wish to mirror in the world.
By taking a moment to reflect on our values, we set up a values-based foundation for our lives that comes from within instead of living from external based success measures that are either met or not. With intention we create a positive impact on things that matter to us.
A typical example of goals many people make at the start of the year are to achieve a certain weight by a certain date, or have a new job and be making a certain amount of money. Living with intention would mean to declare how we aim to feel as we reach for these goals.
For weight goals, the intentions could be to have more energy and live a healthier lifestyle. In finding a new job, the intention could be to have fun, learn new skills, and meet other people in the process. This way, whether the exact goal is met or not, we can measure our success from our internal scale.
These intentions are in our immediate control and affect the wellbeing of our lives.
Intentions can be set for every task of the day, especially those which we deem less desirable.
For example, I have a long commute to work every day. If left on autopilot, my mind can wander into the drudgery of a commute and traffic. However, my intention is to be curious. To discover the awe and beauty I can pick up along the way.
I am amazed at how many things I find and how much peace and joy this brings me. I arrive at work in a happy and well state. It comes from a simple mindset shift and setting the intention.
Creating Positive Impact with Intentions
Many of us dream of creating a positive impact.
Did you know that human consciousness has an effect on everything from the molecular structure of water to the well-being of human kind? Dr Masaru Emoto in his work on the consciousness of water on the proved that water can be influenced by intention and thought.
Your body is 80% water.
Imagine the changes that can take place within your body as you begin to consciously give intention to positive choices.
With intention, we ignite the ripple effect and the energy to those around us.
Setting intentions can help you get out of your head by focusing on something that has a positive impact in your life.
Stating how you intend to feel or what you intend to focus on puts the power of change in your own hands. For example, when my mind is racing into a negative spin, I raise my awareness and take a pause.
Whether out loud or silently to myself I can state, “I intend to live in gratitude for all that I am and have. I am the creative force of my life and choose to bring positive energy to any given situation to influence change.”
Benefits of Intention
Because life is a journey, not a destination, intentions allow us to find more joy in the journey, as we aim for the destined goals.
Further benefits of intention:
Limitless
Expansive
A Way of Being
Raises Awareness
Brings Choice and Freedom
We see that it is the sum of all the small moments of awe and being in the present moment that intentions bring in living a meaningful life.
With what intention will you further move into your day or new year? As soon as you mention it, notice how you feel. Change your thought, change your life, enrich the world.
Interactive Workshop on Reflections and Intention Setting
Coach Brand Richard Thompson and I are hosting a 90-min, virtual, interactive workshop on Reflections and Intentions Setting to bid farewell to 2022, and welcome in 2023. Sign up here.
Michelle Mueller Ihrig is an Operations Leader, a Professional and Teams Coach, Consultant and Facilitator. Her philosophy of Leadership with Heart empowers leaders to embrace authenticity and connectivity to create stronger impact. Michelle’s Executive Wellness Coaching program is based on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) for growth mindsets and perspective shifts, Breatheology, and Mindfulness practices.
In this three-part series, we discuss how and when negative voices appear in our minds, techniques used by our coaches to quiet the voices, how quieting these voices can help you in your life, work, love, and parenting, and finally, the techniques our coaches use with their own clients to help them quiet the negative voices.
And, as always with a topic which is of interest to many , we asked our MMSNorCal coaches on how they quiet negative voices in their own heads; and how they coached their clients to do the same.
In this article, let’s start first with understanding:
What are negative voices in your head
Situations in which negative voices start to appear
Situations in which they become louder
What are Negative Voices in Your Head
Interestingly, the ability to talk to ourselves or have an inner dialogue in our heads starts in childhood when we try to make sense of activities or play together with others.
This inner voice could criticize the way you look (perhaps, you have gained a lot of weight), it could repeat harsh words used by loved ones in moments of anger or abuse, blame you for your lack of success in love, parenting, or your work, and so forth.
And as we grow, we may begin to experience the inner voice becoming critical, negative, and even extremely damaging. This is especially true when one is suffering from extreme stress, depression, or anxiety.
When Negative Thoughts Start to Appear
In this section, we talk about negative voices that could begin in adolescence, cyclical negative voices, as a response to unwanted situations, and a result of work.
Negative Voices Starting in Adolescence
Coach Carla Morton says that she feels negative voices in her head started somewhere in adolescence. They have not necessarily disappeared; but, she has had sufficient life experience and has built enough self-confidence to override any negative voices with self-love, self-compassion, self-forgiveness and a certain lack of attachment to things being perfect all the time.
Coach Sarah E. Spencer: “As with Carla, my first negative thoughts I can remember was in adolescence, probably the mean girl phase of middle school. These centered about friendships and frenemies (a person who is or pretends to be a friend but who is also in some ways an enemy or rival) and I’m sure did much to undermine our confidence, which resolved as we matured.”
Coach LIndsey Taylor-Vivier says that she did not notice her negative voices until she was in college. She has also realized from observing herself and her coaching clients that the negative voices tended to get louder when you try something new, or when you are in a stressful situation.
She adds, “I overcame them with a lot of personal reflection and hard work with therapy and coaching. I got to a place where I accepted myself, all of me, all my darkness and all of my light.” And, that broke the hold of the negative voices on her.
Negative Voices as a Cycle
Coach Muriel Murphy says: “My cycle of negative thoughts come and go constantly. I recall noticing them for the first time in my life around the ages of nine or ten when I began to inquire within myself, why I was having these types of thoughts. How do I continue to overcome them?”
Coach Muriel feels that her negative thought patterns are a cycle that have been and continue to be never ending for her.
She is not sure if she has actually overcome them; however, she is able to manage and control them.
By Recognizing, Allowing/Accepting, Investigating/Nurturing these thoughts, Coach Muriel has found a pathway to turn things around a bit.
She does this by:
Redirecting her thoughts to more positive ones, such as gratitude
Seeing the beauty in nature and the world
Recalling kindnesses that were extended towards her by others
Doing kind things for others, such as listening when someone is need of a friendly ear.
Response to Unwanted Situations
Coach Michelle Hayden-Marsan says that she finds that, negative thoughts arise as a response to an unwanted, unforeseen situation.
For example, when we have a reaction to something that bothers us, for example when the plans we were looking forward to get canceled, or even something as simple as when someone cuts us off while driving on the road. We tend to go into automatic pilot and react. It takes a lot of practice to unlearn our reactive tendencies.
Cultivating awareness about our triggers and our responses is a practice unto itself.
Coach Michelle Hayden-Marsan
This is a worthy practice as it’s impossible to expect things to always go the way we’d like them to anyway.
The more that we are able to go with what comes up, knowing that if we don’t like it, it will eventually pass anyway, the better we are able to practice using that muscle and let things roll off of us more easily.
Coach Hayden-Marsan also finds the expression, “What we resist persists.” to be true for her.
In fact, she encourages her coaching clients to consider this philosophy when they are stuck and unable to make progress.
Negative Thoughts During Work
Coach Sarah also found that professionally for her was “years of working in a (at times) toxic workplace and this did much to drive the monkey mind, sucking up so much of my best energy (and wasting so much money when one really thinks about it).”
A key way that Coach Sarah was able to move forward was to find an excellent therapist who specialized in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and, with the help of the therapist, she was able to move the trauma to find a new centeredness within herself.
She also invested in working with a professional coach for support, and to bring action to her short-term and long-term goals. (More about this in the next article in this series.)
Not following what she feels or believes is right for her
Listening to the opinions of others rather to herself
Comparing herself to others
Allowing the fear and doubt from others dampen the hopes and dreams for her own future
At such moments, she finds herself getting angry at herself for not staying on her course.
Coach Mueller Ihrig also gets frustrated when she feels like she is not making progress fast enough, or others making progress faster than her.
A common situation for many of us when we feel stuck and unable to progress.
High Expectations
Coach Mueller Ihrig says,”I have a lot of ideas in my head and hold myself to high expectations. And, at the same time, I am craving more work life balance and making time to keep doing things that inspire me so I can continue to lead by example and inspire others.”
Sometimes, the tension between these can cause an imbalance leading to louder and more frequent negative voices for Coach Mueller Ihrig.
Not Listening to Your Inner Compass
Coach Lindsey has come to realize that most of the time she hears negative voices is when she is not listening to her inner compass.
She has also realized that the voices get triggered when she takes on “projects or challenges that I don’t want to do, or don’t feel I can do. Understanding these triggers has resulted in me becoming pretty good at saying no.”
An advantage indeed!
Conflicts with Others
Coach Muriel’s insight on when her negative thoughts and voices get triggered, or get louder, is quite different from Coaches Lindsey and Mueller Ihrig. She finds that, for her, “situations that trigger negative thoughts are usually when I am in conflict with a loved one and I am not feeling valued or heard or understood.”
Coach Carla adds, “I agree 100% with Muriel. I get triggered by other people. I also get triggered into negativity when I start to compare myself. That’s when I pull back into myself and start meditating.”
Coach Sarah finds herself in complete alignment with Coaches Muriel and Carla as she herself is “triggered by conflict and criticism, and even basic disagreement with someone I respect. As I learned to quiet the negativity, I found the confidence to stand in my own opinion, and not to let the monkey mind sitting on my shoulder to hang on.”
Feeling a Victim
Coach Hayden-Marsan finds that “situations that make my negative thoughts persist are when I just go along and feed the story, when I choose to play victim to the circumstances, instead of saying, “ aha, here I am, I don’t like this, this is a moment of suffering for me.”
She adds, “If I want to and am able to stand in my power, I say, “ Everyone suffers, I am not alone in this. May I be kind to myself, may I know that this will change.”
Michelle Mueller Ihrig is an Operations Leader, a Professional and Teams Coach, Consultant and Facilitator. Her philosophy of Leadership with Heart empowers leaders to embrace authenticity and connectivity to create stronger impact. Michelle’s Executive Wellness Coaching program is based on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) for growth mindsets and perspective shifts, Breatheology, and Mindfulness practices.
Today, I want to talk about finding inner peace in a turbulent world.
Peace starts within.
Peace is who we are, who we choose to be.
Peace flows outwards to carry a ripple effect into this turbulent world.
When you yourself are at peace, there is also a little peace in the world. When we share that peace with others, we spread even a little more peace in the world. World peace is then a reflection of our own inner state.
The crisis in Ukraine is heartbreaking. It is sending energetic shock waves of grievance, immense sadness, depression, fear, anger, rage, anxiety, and hopelessness. This on top of the recent events in Afghanistan and the already constant global threats such as climate change and the ongoing pandemic. Most of us want to act in some way but may become paralyzed and stuck with thoughts of what to do. We may feel shame as we go back to succumbing to our daily lives not knowing what kind of action to take or what to do with our multitude of overwhelming feelings.
Finding peace in a turbulent world can be achieved with consciousness, practice, and intent and I am so glad to share techniques that have worked for me and others in my coaching practice.
Peace Starts with Us
We might be wondering what we can do to shift any given situation being far away, feeling a lack of power or being a mere individual? As the wave of fear, outrage and anxiety grows bigger around the world, how can we swim against this tide? How do we find peace when inside an anxiousness grows?
The answer is peace starts with us.
It is created from within, expands our own physical sphere and ignites a ripple effect into our homes, our communities and ultimately around the world. It is not some external force or factor which we seek, find, and then collect. Rather it is a spiritual bank account which we fill by putting deposits into our own hearts, and then spending freely with ourselves and those around us as the account is limitless.
Finding Peace is Being at Peace. While there are many things over which we have little control, we always have control over our response, attitude, and approach.
What are ways to access your peace and create space between stimulus and chosen response? Breathe, Connect, BE.
Our breath is always readily with us. When we bring our awareness to our breath and slow our breathing, our pituitary gland releases balancing hormones such as melatonin and serotonin. This has an immediate calming effect into our nervous system allowing us to step out of states of anxiousness and into a more focused and present center.
By taking a pause, a step back, we shift our internal, energetic state and move into chosen response to a given situation instead of the external event coming to hijack our emotion. Creativity, focus and problem-solving increase, allowing us to access our higher, essential being.
Three breathing techniques I find very useful are 1. The sigh, 2. Analomvilom (alternate nose breathing) and 3. Balloon breathing, described below.
1. Sigh Breathing Technique
Take a deep breath in through the nose and make an audible exhale through the mouth. The exhale is an immediate release of tension that the body holds. Visualize any other thought that no longer serves you and release it into the universe with your exhale.
2. Analomvilom Breathing Technique
Alternate nose breathing is a pranayama technique, whose yogic philosophy believes that the right side represents the sun and the left side the moon. To active the calming and cooling effect of the moon, hold your right nostril closed first and inhale through left, hold your breath and then exhale through the right.
Continue alternating as such. You can choose a certain count for the inhale and holding of the breath with a longer count on the exhale, for example a count of 6-6-7. Allow your focus to follow your breath and alternate like this for 1-5 min. End your breathing cycle with an exhale on the left.
3. Balloon Breathing Technique
Balloon breathing consists of inhaling and exhaling through the nose, allowing your stomach to fill and completely expand on the inhale while pushing the navel all the way towards the spine on the exhale. It’s inflating and deflating your stomach like a balloon. Again, it is useful to have the exhale 1-2 counts longer than the inhale.
Follow the rhythm of your breath like the tides of the ocean, invigorating, nourishing, cleansing. Take them as little love notes to yourself, feeding your life battery.
Connect
Too often we live in our heads, forgetting we are tied to our hearts and the rest of our body which holds infinite amounts of wisdom. Our hearts and bodies are powerful, inner GPS systems aiming to guide us in the right direction and to an optimum state of being. In our busy and modern lives, we tend not to hear nor listen to the signals we receive.
Pay Attention to How You Feel
The first step to tapping into our own connection is to pay attention to how we feel.
Ask yourself: How am I feeling? By identifying and acknowledging the way you feel, you also gain access to how you want to respond.
If there is a less desired feeling of sadness or hopelessness, allow yourself to be with this and ask yourself ‘What is this trying to tell me?’
What other part of myself do I want to call forth to address these feelings with?’
Allow your thoughts to melt down from your head and rest into your heart, ask your heart what it needs. It may be a simple breath, a little self-care like a cup of tea, a walk out in nature, calling a supportive friend or family member.
Allowing ourselves to be with our feelings instead of trying to push them away, also allows more access to the entirety of who we are and to experience life with more meaning. Start keeping track and raise your awareness about what feels good and what does not. What feeds your life battery? What drains it? Add more life feeding experiences to your daily routine. It could be something small like lighting a candle in the morning as you make your cup of coffee or bigger like being around more people that uplift you. Let that renewed energy flow out into the world.
Feelings also act as a messenger, a clue giver, that something is important to us. With this knowledge we can be curious about what types of action we can take to address the message and influence change. And, this becomes another step towards finding peace in a turbulent world.
Connect to Nature
A second powerful step to connect, is to connect to nature. The earth literally is grounding for us. We came from the Earth, are part of the Earth, and it is the reason we feel so calm and at ‘home’ in nature.
Nature is also awe inspiring, working in perfect harmony with one another, at its own pace, not judging or rushing, reminding us that we can trust the process of ourselves and radiate our own inner peace out.
Connecting to nature can be taking a long walk outside, or simply shifting our perspective to a tree outside a window or a plant in an office.
Pause, take notice and observe.
We are all connected on this earth, through space and energy.
Connect to the natural force around you, and let this calming radiate back out through you as you interact with yourself and others.
BE Peace to Achieve Inner Peace
BE the person you wish to mirror in the world.
Use your words and actions to relay your values. Take time to nourish you, so you in turn can give the best of yourself to others. Our heart centers are abundant in love and kindness. Choose love and kindness towards yourself, and let that be the foundation of all your interactions with others.
Our hearts are bold, vulnerable, humble, courageous, fierce, knowing, loving and strong.
When faced with an external circumstance that is disheartening to us, ask yourself ‘What is the opportunity here?’
Is the opportunity to be more kind, more giving, more understanding, more vocal, more educated, more connected from and within myself?
One of my favorite tools for BEING, is Stephen Covey’s – Circles of Influence over Circles of Concern. When faced with challenges or a crisis like the war in Ukraine, we need to ask ourselves how we can increase our own circle of Influence, meaning how we can affect change right here, right now in our own being, families, and communities.
With this proactive outlook, we realize we have tremendous influence to affect positive change. We are far more powerful than we can imagine. Whether being in service to someone today with random acts of kindness or by making small monetary donations to any number of charities taking large action. It is the sum of small acts and giving, energetically or other, that amount to a grand whole, creating massive impact.
Send a Ripple Effect of Peace Unto the Turbulent World
Perhaps, it is less about finding peace, but rather creating peace from inside out, to send a massive ripple effect unto a turbulent world. Perhaps, it is turning overwhelm into opportunity. An opportunity to rise to our higher, authentic selves. An opportunity to affect positive change in our own surroundings, starting now.
By stepping into our own best version, we are better able to meet the challenges of today, leading the way with peace from within.
Choose Being Peace Today and Ignite the Ripple Effect in a Turbulent World.
You can also speed up your journey to inner peace with a life or professional coach; they can help you uncover feelings, emotions, and discover your path to inner peace!
Michelle Mueller Ihrig is an Operations Leader, a Professional and Teams Coach, Consultant and Facilitator. Her philosophy of Leadership with Heart empowers leaders to embrace authenticity and connectivity to create stronger impact. Michelle’s Executive Wellness Coaching program is based on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) for growth mindsets and perspective shifts, Breatheology, and Mindfulness practices.
Continuing the conversation on how you can surf chaos in the world and your life with grace and equanimity. In this next article in this three-part series, we present techniques and tactics to calm your mind plus how doing will make you feel better.
The MMSNorCal Collective coaches have been actively practicing techniques and also sharing them with their clients — here we benefit from their knowledge and experience. I encourage you to share this series of articles with friends and family so they too can benefit from them.
Step 3. Calm the Mind, Tap into Clarity and Creativity
The air waves full of doom and gloom; social media exposing us to an endless stream of rants and raves, and fear is infectious. We all affected by the collective upsetedness.
Coach Michelle Hayden-Marsan also limits the amount of news she exposes herself to and says that “I enjoy the freedom to listen and watch programming which serves me, and eliminate that which is negative.
I endeavor not to control or get aggravated by opinions which I personally do not ascribe to, although that can be challenging these days.
It is important for me to hold onto the values that I believe in and also to make an effort to not hold it against others who do not share my values. This can be tricky.
If I find myself getting anxious over the strongly held opinions of others, then I unfollow so I don’t have to judge or get my shackles up. Letting go of the need to be right is liberating.”
Mindfulness Around Negative News and Negative People
“You can’t hide from negative news or negative people,” says Coach Lindsey Taylor-Vivier, but you can be mindful about how you let it penetrate you. When I am around someone who focuses on the negative, I try to bring it to their attention, for many people it’s just a bad habit and they don’t even recognize that they are doing it.”
“I love following the international and domestic news, and seek diverse sources of information to access different voices and opinions”, shares Coach Sarah E. Spencer. “That said, the last few years have been more challenging. I have been somewhat successful by continuing to identify common ground, and engaging with deep listening and asking questions. At times, I have to be ruthlessly intentional about checking the news only twice a day, and making sure I don’t doom scroll, especially in bed!”
Instead of getting distracted with the news, Coach Carla Morton focuses on her clients. “That gets me out of my own head and oddly enough, my clients don’t talk about the news either. They are focused on their jobs and being the best leaders they can be.”
Mantra – Acceptance of Changes
Here is the first mantra that Coach Muriel uses to create calm amidst the chaos. She repeats them each day and they help her center and ground her into accepting the present.
I am in full and complete acceptance of the changes that have happened, that are going to happen in the future and the changes that are taking place in my present situations.
Reflection and Journaling Can Help Surf Chaos in the World
Coach Hayden-Marsan gives herself time for reflection and journaling (wonderful resource on building a journaling practice). “I figure out the best plan and schedule for things that make me feel joyful and whole. Then I give myself time to adjust to the newness of it all and I am compassionate when I may fall short every once in a while. I find it helpful to have a coach guide me through some of the thinking needed for the planning and also to help keep me accountable along the way.”
“Creating space for calm is huge for focus, creativity, productivity and purpose,” says Coach Michelle Mueller Ihrig.
We live in a world where people are doing more and more, filling their schedules to resemble a rat race, with the belief system that this is how we achieve success or our goals. When in fact the opposite can be true. When we learn to calm our minds and do less, we become more aware. When we become aware, we notice the things that we would like to create more of in our lives and notice the things we would like to change. A racing mind lives in autopilot and reactionary mode. An aware and calm mind has the capacity to prioritize, discover what is meaningful and can enhance strengths and grow.
Three Tools to Support a Calm Mind
Coach Mueller Ihrig suggests the following tools that she has found personally extremely useful to support a calm mind:
Daily morning guided meditation. Meditation is proven to reduce stress, release balancing hormones and enhance our overall well-being.
The word Curious. When you notice your mind starting to race, become aware and envision yourself stepping out of the situation. Become Curious. Ask yourself, what is happening here? How do I feel? What does this situation teach me? What can I learn? How would I like to respond? Become Curious about life, and open up awe and inspiration.
Reduce multitasking as much as you can. Pick what you will do and focus your time on it. Become fully present and engaged with what you are doing. You will accomplish your task more effectively, productively feel much more satisfied with your contribution and how you spent your time. Focused engagement leads to both clarity and creativity.
Step 4. Do Your Part; No Matter What Happens, Only You Get to Decide
Once we practice acceptance – the only certainty in life is change, we may not always like what life serves up – and ground the body and calm the mind, we can then decide what we can and cannot do, what we want to do, what is our responsibility and what is not for us to do.
Reset Your Priorities
Coach Sarah’s priorities have changed in two ways.
She says that firstly, “I want to spend time with our elders, whenever and however I can. This can include a card, letter, call or seeking their advice.”
Her second priority is to invest as much in her local neighborhood and community as possible.
“I dream about the ways in which I can personally expand, in spite of all of this”, says Coach Carla.
She adds, “I’m looking at getting involved in a more impactful way, with organizations that are doing-good in the world.”
As a result of feeling physically unsettled due to all the chaos in the world, she has committed to taking dance lessons again as she misses the challenge of choreography and learning new ways to move.
Coach Carla feels that we must uncover and discover creative ways (blog post on how to build a creative practice) to find joy all around us.
The pandemic has given many of us the time and space to reassess life and reevaluate our relationship with work.
“My priorities have become more clear and any decisions I was on the fence about before the pandemic became crystal clear,” says Coach Mueller Ihrig. “I wanted to be closer to my family, move on to the next professional chapter of my life, enjoy nature more, and be a mindful force for good in the world. I did just that, plus took time to slow down a bit. Slowing down has been the biggest gift of the pandemic.”
Become Intentional in Your Life
Coach Charles Vivier is “being more intentional in how I live and spend my life. Deepening relationships with friends and family. Focusing on the positive, being in the present and committed to the best plans for the future.”
“I want to spend time with the people I love,” says Coach Lindsey. “Luckily when the pandemic hit, I got stuck in St. Louis, where most of my family is. My husband was in France when the borders were about to be closed and got back just in time. We got to live day-to-day with my kids and grandkids and had the opportunity to strengthen my relationship with my sister. When we couldn’t fly home, we drove across the country, which was a great reminder of how beautiful America is.”
“The pandemic has really made me aware of our physical and mental vulnerability”, says Coach Marsan. “I feel the importance of living life to the fullest and doing what I love, now. I’m not “waiting” for the perfect time to have adventures and see the people I love. Instead, I make a list of what I want to do this year and next; who I want to reconnect with, and I create the plan to do so.”
Mantra to Release Energy
Coach Muriel shares a mantra she uses to create calm amidst the chaos in the world.
Here is how you can use it:
Repeat it each day
Write it on a sticky note
Place it on your desk montior where you can glance at it several times during day
The purpose of this mantra is the same as the one presented earlier in this article: to help you center and ground yourself into accepting the present.
On all levels of my being, may I release and let go of any and all energies that are no longer serving the growth and evolution of my higher self. May I forgive myself and everyone for everything, now and forever.
Mantra to Release Energy
In the final article in this series (Surf Chaos in Your Life and the World Part 3), you will learn how to breathe and embrace each new wave of change, build trust that all will be well, and train to surf the chaos in the world!
Michelle Mueller Ihrig is an Operations Leader, a Professional and Teams Coach, Consultant and Facilitator. Her philosophy of Leadership with Heart empowers leaders to embrace authenticity and connectivity to create stronger impact. Michelle’s Executive Wellness Coaching program is based on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) for growth mindsets and perspective shifts, Breatheology, and Mindfulness practices.
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