I wonder if this sounds like you? Hanging out with me, with the body worker, personal trainer, cancer survivor, feminine presence coach, corporate attorney, acupuncturist, home-schooling mom, PhD scientist, physician’s assistant, and nutritionist who’ve joined the Vibrant Ones team? Or the ahead-of-her-time author/OBGYN Dr. Christiane Northrup who brings people together in partnership to better understand & manifest the power of the law of attraction in action? Or the man who inspired her to join his visionary calling to prevent chronic degenerative disease so people can stop “living too short, and dying to long,” Dr. Myron Wentz, the founder of our product partner USANA Health Sciences?

Here’s the part where you save hundreds of dollars getting started, YES! I’d already announced to my team that I’m offering $100 sponsorship toward the cost of getting started with a ‘ business in the box’ enrollment package from USANA – their entrepreneur and professional packages are perfect for getting to know this business as well as the best nutritional products in the world. That offer stands through Friday, June 3rd. Through the following week, June 10th, I’m sponsoring $75 off.  ‘BUT THAT”S NOT HUNDREDS???’ you ask? No it ain’t, and here’s the cool thing. Over the weekend USANA announced a promotion like they’ve never done before. They want to give ME $150 for every person I sponsor with an entrepreneur package. And they want to give me $300 for professional packages. Frankly, I’d rather pass the savings on to YOU! Seriously, watching people transform their lives, their health, and their pocketbook through growing a business they love is worth WAY MORE than $300 to me, I enjoy it that much. Plus, I’m not in it for the short term. If you decide it’s time to join me, we brainstorm some kick-ass ideas for you to run with, and then you DO run forward, we’re both worth a lot more income than that in the long run. It’s a win/win/win situation.

So, USANA is offering this deal through August 20th, you have lots of time to contact me, take a closer look at the company and the packages, mull it over and imagine how you want your life to change in the next few years. HOWEVER, if you want to maximize what I’m offering now… that’s $250-$400 off through this Friday, or $225-$375 through the 10th.

I know it’s not for everyone, but this team, this business, and glowing vibrant health, just might be for you. Let me know if you’re thoughts are turning…. and in the meantime, there’s a jigsaw puzzle I’ve gotta get to before my husband steals all the glory.

Happy Summer!

I have regularly suffered fits of despair when the accumulation of physical stuff becomes unbearable. I get mad at myself for letting it become overwhelming. I get mad at my husband and children because they do not share my passion for order. I get mad at well-meaning family who send toys to the kids for birthdays and holidays (how awful of them!). I get mad at teachers for sending home millions of pages of writing, artwork, and projects that require saving.

This year after noticing (and despairing) that we had moved a lot of clutter with us into the new house, I finally decided to do something about it. I got the book (I borrowed it, from the library!) Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston… here I found complete and total validation for the way I feel about clutter. Friends and visitors will say ‘your house is not messy’ but I literally feel the stuck energy of clutter. It clouds my psyche, weighs down my spirit, blocks my creativity, keeps me in an addictive pattern of get stuff – notice stuff – despair stuff – clean stuff up – get stuff….

First I read the book. Second I asked my husband to read it. Which he did, and now he gets me. Hallelujah! I’m no longer a neat-freak lunatic in his eyes (at least, not about this). He knows what I’m envisioning is peace of mind, and flow in our lives. Flow of love, abundance, connection. Third, we began to work. Slowly, deliberately, over the past four weekends we have made progress: Three carloads to Goodwill, vinyl collection (except a few rare favorites) to the record store, an old unused camera to consignment, a small collection of items for Craigslist, moving boxes (finally!) picked up from our garage by a local shop owner.

Parents, guess what? You won’t believe this but the kids love it! Our six-year-old cried at first and then helped, and got really excited about how pretty her room looks, she is keeping it up. Our eleven-year-old said after waking up that his room ‘felt lighter, more airy.’ Together we went through the toy bins, threw away broken items and took three more boxes to Goodwill.

Other benefits. Weekend one, my husband found lost checks and rebates that added up to $675 dollars! I’m releasing items and emotions I’ve held onto for far too long, like the teapot I got when I married my first husband which has been on display forever, but never really was my style. Then there is this surge of energy. There are two types of holiday cookie dough in the freezer… I have never begun holiday baking so early.

Luckily, our tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and leave it up for twelve days. I still have a couple weeks then, just a couple places left to clear, final dusting and vacuuming and I can get out the holiday décor. Hmmmm…. Wonder how many boxes of ornaments I can get us down to?

view from cliff dwelling near Santa Fe

I like change. At least, that’s the version of me I find most attractive. Perhaps a more accurate way of putting it is, that I often choose change, despite which, change still can make me extremely uncomfortable.

Examples: At the end of the 80’s I opted to face an uncertain future rather than accept a line of credit from my family which would have put me through college (that is, if I would have chosen to attend classes and get the required grades). Twenty years later I left my first marriage, moved to a new state with my 2-year-old and embarked upon a corporate career – all in the space of 4 months (‘they’ say never to take those life-altering actions more than one at a time). Several years ago when I’d just barely left my job and begun a coaching business I found myself getting over-excited about the remote prospect of my husband’s possible overseas job offer. In 2008 I championed the presidential candidate for change, gave his campaign a big chunk of my hard-earned ‘change’, and cried when we elected and then inaugurated him this January. I’m kind of a tenured practitioner of this thing called change.

So why then, have the last few weeks been so doggone hard?

This summer, after years of my husband’s urging and one good book (Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad) read over vacation, I agreed we should sell our home of the past seven years and find another, less expensive place that we could lease. We spent the next six months updating and put our house on the market after the holidays. I’m a huge believer in the Law of Attraction – so when my family collectively put our minds to visualizing a wonderful new family enjoying our beautiful home – it wasn’t that big a surprise to me that we got a good offer within three days (economy schmonomy…).

That’s when it got difficult for me; we needed to find a place to live. First we looked at houses over our budget that we hoped to negotiate down. No dice. Then we looked at a development which we liked but the houses were too small. On a couple consecutive rainy days I went with our realtor and tried really hard to find it, the one place that was perfect. But all of the places were too far south, too far north, too boring, too much in a state of disrepair. I came home and started to cry the kind of cry that doesn’t happen often. A bone-rattling, snot-dripping, wave after wave-crashing flood of tears that I thought was over by the time my husband and the kids came home but started up again during dinner. I hadn’t expected that. I’d chosen change. I’d read the book. I’d seen and finally agreed with my husband’s point of view. I thought I was in control.

We did take the house that’s too small. We sold a lot of unnecessary stuff at a yard sale and gave the rest away. Despite my daughter getting the flu and strep on the day of our move, we moved. And we closed. The family moving into our old house is exactly who we pictured, they are lovely and they will be happy there. And it even seems now that we will be happy here. The neighbors are kind and welcoming. The community is thriving and connected. There’s enough room for us in the house and everything is (slowly) finding its’ place.

Last night my back went out. Please understand, my back doesn’t go out. I have a strong back and in recent months I’ve been strengthening it further at my twice weekly workouts – well not this week because my daughter’s been home from school. Last night after I crawled off the toilet onto the floor, feeling a little like Elizabeth Gilbert and praying for assistance, I thought “What the HECK?!?!” It then occurred to me that my mental picture of the way things are and my physical experience of the way things are, are not in sync. “I like change.” “This move is a good decision.” “Everyone is benefitting from this change.” These are all mental constructs that I’m quite good at convincing myself are true. But in my body I do not believe it yet. It’s as if I’m waiting for proof. Louise Hay writes that lower back pain represents fear of lack of support and financial concerns. And that is the less attractive, but true picture of who I have been. The person who worries about everything, who likes to be in control because then she won’t have to trust anyone, the little girl who doesn’t think anyone ever listens to her or cares about her ideas. Yikes, that’s still in there.

Change ain’t easy. But change is good. Through the difficult choices we make, we have the opportunity to witness the ugly under-bellies of our belief systems. Ooooh it can be murky in there! But my back is getting better today and I’m an unrelenting optimist – by choosing to wade through the muck – I, we get to go to new, incredible places, like we never could have imagined or chosen for ourselves.

What about you? Do you like change? What types of places have you followed it to?

This trip was a birthday gift to ourselves (my husband also turned 40 this year) and a planned vacation with my entire family. As anyone with a family knows – these kinds of visits can hold many mirrors in front of our faces – challenges to the way we see ourselves – unavoidable glimpses of how we are seen by others. Not to mention the various judgments we heap upon our loved ones as well.
The ups and downs of this visit with my family were punctuated by the death of my mother-in-law. She had lived with multiple sclerosis for many years and had been emerging from a period of difficult health in June. No one was prepared for her to leave so quickly. And so my husband had the surreal experience of being on vacation with us, leaving to be at his mother’s bedside and attend her funeral, and then return to my family for several days before our long drive back to Austin.

On our drives we usually talk about ‘big stuff’, and given the events of the previous weeks, this drive home was no exception. We had just listened to a personal development recording and were discussing its merits, when I was suddenly struck with how strong my internal conflict was. On the one hand I was inspired by the speakers and the stories shared, almost to the point of showing some outward emotion – like a smile, or tears. On the other, I resisted that emotion…. my mental conditioning preventing me from doing so as I conducted an assessment of what I had heard. It seemed important to verify the quality of the information intellectually, and so, to display any emotion would be unwise, childish. I was labeling myself a “sap.” But after a while, I asked my husband “why not?” and “what if?” I told him that at this point in my life’s journey – I was ready to accept my more visceral response – my “Yes,” and perhaps to discard my “No”. Certainly 40 years of experience have taught me that intuitive guidance has always brought me more joy and success in life than the years of study, discipline and ‘reasonable’ responses have.

Several days later I had the opportunity to be tested on this idea again. I was attending a training event for a business partner. The arena was full of people, and my hackles were up. The music was overdone, there were dancers, there was a man reciting mediocre poetry. The entirety of my liberal arts education got in front of me saying, “how cheesy, what low-caliber, good luck sitting through this drivel…” And I felt it in my body – the tight stomach, the impending headache, my shoulders were raised up to my ears. And then I remembered. “Oh. Right.” And I made a choice. I breathed deeply, filling my abdominals and exhaled slowly. I relaxed my tensed shoulders. I closed my eyes and said, Yes. I am open. Yes. I can learn. Yes. I feel this too. Yes. The decision “Yes” in that moment led to a memorable experience and even new friendships. It has opened a wide avenue down which my life’s path will travel, one which I might never have seen.

“Yes” also opens space from which to view the past. To remember to forgive, to heal, and to begin anew. I am taking “Yes” into my September, into the autumn and winter of 2008, and I intend to make it my companion for the next 40 years of this life, at least. Won’t you join me? The weather is fine.