Experiencing imbalance and balance is part of living. How might we lead ourselves from chaos to order? Carl Jung said, “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” There’s a new way forward waiting for you to discover it. Before making direction-changing decisions, check the integrity of your foundation. Who are you now?

Our poor work spirits have taken quite a hit during this pandemic. By “work spirit” I mean the part of us that loves the work we’ve chosen to do and relishes the rewards we receive for doing it well. I’ve talked with people who are still working in their jobs, people who have laid off all their employees but are still working, and solopreneurs trying to stay afloat. Everyone is exhausted.

Plugging into our bodies’ way of communicating is like using a decision-making power tool. It quickly drills to the core. Whether we’re struggling to make tiny, seemingly inconsequential choices or gigantic, clearly life-changing decisions, our bodies know the answer first.

The environment we build for ourselves—both externally and internally—influences how we show up and engage in our lives. Look around you. As you take in your surroundings, how do you feel? That feeling will follow you into whatever you’re doing next.

In school, we’re always told never to copy a fellow student’s work. That’s cheating! It’s a forbidden, punishable, no-no. But as you move through life, you may find that there are times when imitation can be a valuable technique, especially when you’re in the process of learning a new skill. However, you’ll soon find that to reach the next level of success, you must move from emulation to developing your own expertise. 

How can we help ourselves when we love most of the activities and people in our lives but it’s all just too much? Lately I’ve been feeling tired, tense, overwhelmed and even though I also feel grateful for all of it, I needed a shift to a sustainable pace.

“Doing it your way” sounds like a dandy idea but actually having the guts to do it is a different story. Join me as I slow down that moment in time when I decide, “Yes! I’m going to do it my way!”

What do you do when your emotions are out of whack?

When our feelings surprise us (like feeling unhappy on a birthday!), it's a sign that there's something going on beneath the surface. Perhaps fear is lurking there. Perhaps an old belief is lingering. Whatever it is, the way beyond it is often by digging into it.

I'm creating this post on August 28, 2018, exactly 55 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

When was the last time you gave yourself the time and space to dream of what you really want in your life?

What are you struggling against these days? How might you get past that Saboteur voice in your head — the mean inner critic that says things like you're not enough and makes things way to complicated! — and gently lean into doing what you really want to do?