BlissChick

Bliss Board (a.k.a. Vision Board)

At the beginning of the year I was invited to join a group of friends to put a vision board together.  I know it is a very coachy and common for go getters and the goal oriented.  This was my first and it was fun and now I am kind of hooked.  I have to say when I put it together I wasn't thinking of what I wanted to get really... but where I wanted to be and how I wanted to feel.  Putting it together felt like a ritual like planting a seed, the ingredients to a delicious recipe, or mapping out uncharted territory.  It felt good and as if something had been set in motion.

                                                                                                                                                                                         

I had been saving a file with pictures in it for quite some time and in fact since I put this one together in January I have filled a folder and could probably wall paper my room :0).  A file full of feel good you could say.

The great thing about doing this with a group of people was the feeling that we were all working on something very special and unique for each of us.  Different color backgrounds with different meanings, different pictures and arrangements.  You could feel this was a ritual for everyone and what started as nervous excitement and adventures in cutting and gluing became quiet, focused and powerful.  Because seeing it and pasting it permanently to the paper made it real.  Seeing it everyday makes it real and makes you feel.

I am not sure I could describe what this means to me, I just know it feels like me and it feels good, not just the pictures but this feeling and design like a tree was meaningful for me, with strong roots that run deep, and limbs that bear fruit.  I also noticed some themes that have always been important to me in my life playing a major role on my board, like travel, sailing, water (big portion of my board) my mom always said I was a fish.  The word a million came up many times on my board and it surprised me... initially I will admit a million bucks sounds pretty good and I fully intend to create that over and over throughout my life time, it took on new meaning as I built the tree that if I were to touch a million lives the rest would be taken care of. It seemed to evolve on it's own which was why it was so fun and it is always great to be able to surprise yourself.

So I look at it everyday and it makes me feel good, it reminds of the ritual of creating and that is how I imagine vision boards as being powerful tools of manifestation and in my words creation.  It's fun, call your friends and start to create, it might surprise you what gets glued and what gets left behind, or a major theme or shape appears seemingly out of nowhere and into creation.

Stay tuned for Bliss Board #2, becoming a new art form for me!

Wendi

Have you taken a LEAP today?

This week I received a call from someone who found my website and really needed some support.  It was apparent in the first moments of the call, this person was suffering…and my heart went out to her.  It did not take long to see why and the fact is that almost everyone experiences what this person shared with me at one time or another and it is what this person became acutely aware of on the day we talked.

You know that place between where you have been and where you are going?  You wake up one day or over a period of days or years to realize that you are capable of far more than you have allowed yourself so far.    I’ve heard it so many times with the people I have worked with and lived it myself. Whether it is a long term relationship, a career, a group of people or even living in your own skin that doesn’t seem to fit anymore… The growing pains and the ache of unrealized potential can shake you to your core.

The fear and discomfort alone is enough to have us running for the carbs, the next guy or girl or even the stereotypical convertible.  All to fill the hole of the past we just left behind.  It might be what some have defined as a midlife crisis… and while it may not feel good or easy it serves a purpose that is often misunderstood.  I see it as an opportunity to grow and expand and see just what you are made of.

This does comes with some side effects that if avoided can be detrimental to your growth, expansion and pursuit of happiness.  First you need to bask in the un-comfortableness of not knowing PERIOD… and I mean not knowing.  Try that on for a moment… feel like running?  Or has your mind just gone into overdrive grasping at straws and saying yeah but?  Or maybe you’re tempted to stop reading now?….  I understand… I do and there is something special about this wide open space called the unknown that few of us allow ourselves because of the fears, anxiety, the avoiding with the tricky seductive carbs, flings and convertibles.

Okay, back to what is so special about this space called the unknown.  It is in this space that the new has room to show up. That’s big don’t you think?  So often it is tempting to go back to what you know or settle for less than what you want.  But what if it is in this space and this space only… you get the bits and pieces or the epiphany that changes the course of your life. 

Once you get the bits and pieces, the AHA’s then you LEAP.  The truth is if we practice leaping often… like the apple a day theory, it may have prevented the crisis or the sudden uncomfortable awareness that we are not where we want to be.   It is as if all those leaps we thought of taking… but didn’t, caught up with us to say, “you still have time”… what will you do with it?

So that is the question right?  Whether you are in the murky middle… the in between or even just starting to feel an ache or longing for something more.  You are being invited into the unknown even if just to be curious, to know something you didn’t know before and when you know then and only then you have an opportunity to LEAP.

You still have time… What will you do with it?

Wendi

The Bliss Chick

P.S. For help with painful discomfort and side effects or to remove the fear of leaping I recommend joining me at the next Bliss Bootcamp!

A Conversation with Howard

Late in the week I knew I was due for a day to myself and today was the day.  I woke up feeling that I should do the laundry, get the house cleaned up and various other could be priorities… but the beach was calling so I drove north and landed in Laguna Beach.

I still felt distracted even as I headed out feeling that I should do some other things on the way but next thing I knew I was parked and headed to my favorite store Art for the Soul, then a tasty Carmel Apple and to a vacant bench on an otherwise crowded beach with my latest read.

I had the bench to myself and for a cool February day the sun was straight overhead it was warm and toasty and had me forgetting it was still winter… only in California :0)

I was savoring my last slice of Carmel apple when a man walked up and asked if he could share the bench to which my reply was “of course….” There were many people around coming and going taking up residence on the bench next to us as I started to read.  I looked over and commented to the man sharing the bench with me what a beautiful day it was and he agreed saying “ah yes paradise” and our conversation began.

He started to tell me how he was always here, that this was his spot and that amazing things always seem to happen here.   He also shared that tomorrow is his 83^rd birthday and that he had experienced a pretty great life.  Highs and lows he said but it was in this place on the bench that he said his life was at it’s greatest.  Where he ponders on how grateful he is for his health although he said his mind got fuzzy every now and then, to live in paradise and have the experiences he had, he shared he couldn’t ask for anything more.  I imagined that was true from this place.

He started to share ideas and experiences in his life and I realized this was no accident me sharing this bench with Howard. We were immediate friends and he was saying the very things I had been thinking right then… even capturing the subtitle of a book I hadn’t gotten out of my bag yet in our conversation.  Which by the was “While designing your lifestyle, remember to live…” 

He shared that in his 83 years he had seen a lot, made some tough but authentic choices, had a battle with alcohol but now rather than dancing on bar tables he could just enjoy this bench, watching people, feeling the water on his feet for his afternoon walks.  More people started to come by and sit closer, you could tell they were listening in as I am sure Howard and I looked like an odd pair.   They wanted to know what was going on and what we were talking about so they listened in and it was fine... one woman sat on the edge of the bench next to us leaning in and heard him say my name and said “my name is Wendi too”.  Another couple walked up with a video camera and wanted to interview Howard for his You Tube talk Show –  I was starting to think Howard had earned a reputation I was unaware of. Howard seemed as surprised as I and replied “ I don’t know what they want with me, I don’t know them, I am just me, here on my bench.”

He had said it was a special day, to have this conversation and connection and I agreed... I was grateful.  He said some very touching things, telling me to use my gift, to not hide my light as if he knew what that was and was ever  re-assuring about my direction, he seemed surprised that I was so receptive and understood where he was coming from.

It was the simple things he said… that what happened here on this bench is what it is really all about.. not all the nice cars driving up and down main street as we spoke or the glitz and the glamour as he put so well.  You could tell this man really lived all the days of his life… maybe some fame, maybe some fortune, certainly some challenges and yet he said the best stuff wasn’t flashy it was just about connecting like this and being receptive.  He pointed out that people always come around when you’re having fun… connecting, they want to know how, they want to be a part of it and sure enough the people kept coming joining in, listening in.

I looked around and took in the things he saw from this bench .. there was a beautiful girl from Europe asking passerby’s to take her picture as she posed seductively, there was a girl who had this awe and wonder about her bouncing and laughing from dog to child… Howard told me that someone lets her loose and she is not all there… he worries for her.  There were couples on the grass behind us and thinkers on the benches beside us.  The things and people he must of met and connected with over the years… and today was my day.  He made it seem as if I was the only one but my hunch is that he has touched many lives in this very spot... pointing out their gifts, encouraging people to use them and setting a mighty fine example by sharing his.

I knew my parking meter would be expiring shortly and I gave Howard a kiss on the cheek and told him I would see him here again.   He told me where his favorite spots were and he said please do this again, sit by him and start a conversation even if he didn’t remember me.  I smiled and walked away feeling like I had given and received a gift all at the same time.  Much better than the laundry that awaited me at home.

Happy Birthday Howard!  You are a gift!

Wendi

"Expect the Unexpected"

I like surprises… not the kind where people pop out of cakes, or dark alleys but the kind where you know you are alive because something or someone has reached out and connected… touched your life or maybe you them.

Do you know what I mean?   You get the chills, goose bumps, butterflies or an exciting little rush.  It feels like a magical moment that really when you slice and dice it… is always sooo simple but seemingly elusive.

I remember being at a restaurant one time and our waitress was fantastic; I mean she really stood out.   I can’t put my finger on what she did that was so special but it was memorable and I think the tip we left her was too.  They don’t call Disneyland the happiest place on earth for nothing. The people there surprise you with their kindness and attention to detail.  My grandmother who worked there for 35 years might disagree but to visit they accomplish their goal and it feels a bit magical.  It’s like the rush I get when I pay for the person coffee behind me in the Starbucks drive-thru or turn up the nice with the most difficult of people.  It’s doing the unexpected... shaking things up a bit.  The only thing I am curious about is why it is unexpected… what is expected is often mediocre and quite frankly boring.

I realize this question applies to me too and here’s what happens in that moment where I can choose the unexpected or settle for mediocrity. Maybe you can relate to the tapes that play… “the appointments, meetings, don’t have the extra time, don’t have the extra money, what if they don’t like it or me, and today I am just sooo tired, what if I am embarrassed or a little over the top, or the classic nobody goes out of their way any more, they’ll think I’m a freak ????

By then the opportunity has passed you by or has been quickly squashed like a bug…. 

Then there is the issue of supply and demand… after all if you give all your love, laughter, compassion, creativity and genius away, what will you be left with? So many reasons and yet last time I checked the last few listed here like love and laughter come in an endless supply and are probably the most renewable resource on the planet and the others, the excuses, they don’t hold a candle to the goose bumps!

 

As elusive as they may be, everyday I wish and intend to be pleasantly surprised.  I want to witness something special, generous, bold, truthful, vulnerable and all out unexpected.  Life is just more fun and meaningful when people and days are not as we could predict them to be.  So while wishing and intending are a fabulous start… the real AHA for me and I hope for you, is the unexpected and the new starts with us. I choose to look at this desire to be surprised as an invitation to be the unexpected in each day and accept the challenge to risk enough everyday to feel truly alive. 

Here's to something pleasantly surprising ~

Wendi

Are You Awake?

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of catching a bit of the Live Earth Concert on Bravo with a pretty impressive artist line-up all spreading the "GREEN" message backing up Al Gore's movement based on his Academy Award winning movie An Inconvienent Truth.

Maybe I am late in the game... I realize the movie and the music has been out for awhile but Melissa Ethridge was downright inspiring in her performance of her song for the movie "I Need to Wake Up".  adding her passion for change in leadership and in each of us.. to say when it's enough... maybe her message was environmental, maybe it was enough war, maybe it was enough work and no play, enough self absorbtion, enough disconnection, enough passivity... enough sleeping.  1000 enoughs crossed my mind some on a global level some in my own life.  What have you had enough of... what needs to change? 

Oh... you can listen here as you read, I did as I was typing...

Or check out the lyrics here:

Have I been sleeping?
I've been so still
Afraid of crumbling
Have I been careless?
Dismissing all the distant rumblings
Take me where I am supposed to be
To comprehend the things that I can't see

Cause I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something's got to break up
I've been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

And as a child
I danced like it was 1999
My dreams were wild
The promise of this new world
Would be mine
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth

That I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change


I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something's got to break up
I've been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone

And I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something's got to break up
I've been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now

I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something's got to break up
I've been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now


So this was a nugget and an inspiration for me over the last week another invitation to be more of who I am ... I also got another message which I felt related and I can't remember where it came from for the life of me.  I think it was one of those survival shows or something.  But the guy said in nature , when your lost... if your not moving your decomposing.  The best way to survive and thrive in nature is to continually move, grow and seek.  How much energy do we use up resisting moving, resisting change, decomposing, becoming stagnant... just so we can "all stay mediocre together" (said by one of my mentors ;0) even resisting being who we really are because we might be soooo fabulous, so luminous, so controversial, so untraditional, so different, so radical that we can't be labeled or categorized... sounds like people I'd like to know and a place I'd like to be.  It would certainly shake things up... ARE YOU AWAKE?