Why my 2018 theme is important for you, too.

I feel like I opened pandora’s box of possibility. I have been in anticipation to write this since day 1 of this year. I hope you find this valuable and inspirational! 

Having a theme or main focus for the year instead of resolutions is a game changer. If you haven’t tried this yet, I highly suggest you try it this year. Instead of setting yourself up for failure (like ‘working out 3x a week', 'losing 20 lbs', 'making $100,000' or 'finding your soulmate’) you can focus your energy on what you want to feel or experience from those possible goals which could yield even bigger results and experiences than you imagined (like ‘energy’ ‘strength’ ‘prosperity’ ‘love’ or ‘intimacy’). You’re able to take action from a more empowered, grounded, exciting and clear place. If you really want to amp it up a notch, consider getting a Goddess of the year reading.

So, as I do every year, I asked myself lots of questions to figure out mine…

• What do I need more of? 
• What qualities do I need to develop within myself the most?
• What am I ready to heal? 
• What would have the biggest impact on my goals?
• What is underneath what I want to experience?
• What would feel like a gift to wrap myself in all year?

...And as January 1st came, I decided to explore the magic of nature and intended to find my theme word for the year by walking around my favorite local magic spot by the bay, a place that always inspires me on a profound level…

As I was pondering all that I want to accomplish, feel, heal and master at this point in my life, I breathed through the confusion and allowed the beautiful surroundings to guide me. I took a new route on my sacred walk, thinking “let me start by taking a new path to walk down and accept the uncertainty with enthusiasm as a metaphor for the year.” 

I thought of my desire to expand my work and service in the world with greater impact and what it means for me to be a powerful leader. I thought of the shadow qualities of the Muse goddess archetype (the goddess I am most like), avoidance, impulsiveness, scattered focus and distraction that I’m totally ready to release + transform. I thought of how my previous year's themes of courage, connection and liberation have prepared me through VERY deep and challenging work for a level of living that I have been wanting for some time now. I am always willing to go deep and do the work, but I’m ready for a little softer, more playful and exciting theme that will still help me grow exponentially. I continue to believe in the importance of ease, however, I need to truly harness responsibility to expand my reach, impact and financial capacity. I want to USE courage, connection and freedom this year somehow to learn what it means to cultivate exquisite abundance and prosperity. I want to work on true commitment and consistency so I can experience everything I desire. I must utilize my creativity and innovation in order to set myself apart in this crowded industry. I need to be in strong integrity in order to propel, connect, commit and lead. I need to develop massive discipline to make the greatest impact that I can. “But, UGH, none of that sounds FUN!” says my Muse-y self. “I can’t focus on those words, they feel like resolutions and daunting chores to overcome.” 

Just then, my whole body became warm with tingles as the element air supported me by confirming a truth in me with a gust of wind as soon as I realized PRESENCE was the precursor to all of that. 

I can’t be in integrity without being fully aware of who I am and what I want.
I can’t cultivate discipline without being EXCITED to fully show up.
I can’t innovate without putting myself in flow, from being fully connected with the needs of my tribe or without accessing the magic of the moment.
I can’t lead without being attune to my power.
I know presence pretty well, but now it’s time for me to master it.

My strategy this year is to prioritize presence.

Everything else will fall into place through supporting words and themes. AHHHHH this feels like a blessed relief and exciting endeavor.

Maybe presence can be a supporting word for your theme or perhaps a main focus. Either way, here’s why presence is important for you to tap into this year:

POWER

We all have natural abilities in these human bodies from our unique DNA and ancestral patterns, which I have done extensive research and development in. For women, it’s what I call the Feminine Power Principles. These beautiful traits that are within all of us like intuition, compassion, playfulness, flow, softness, etc can only be accessed when we are in our body. We can better discern what we need to do, think or be. We will better know if we need to take action and be productive (a masculine quality) or if we need to go inward and process something (the feminine version of productivity). Discernment, which only happens through neutral presence, allows us the ability to gain clarity on how we can make the greatest impact right now. Anxiety and depression take us out of the moment, trap us in our heads and are coping mechanisms for un-accessed truth. When we succumb to the modern society standard of overthinking, overanalyzing, trying to figure it out or relying on what we think we should do, we have no power. Our body wisdom has the best answers, and when we are truly present, we can access this.

LEADERSHIP

Consistency, integrity, innovation and presence are all qualities of a leader. We have to show up and be willing to do the hard shit first, before we can expect others to tag along. The only way to channel the courage to do that is to be present to the fact that we are willing and we believe we can. Being present in our body helps us trust ourselves and therefore take risks that are necessary to growth to make a bigger impact. We only truly know what to do, what will be best for us or others in each moment. 

BOUNDARIES

Being connected to ourselves and our desires is the only way we know WHERE to set boundaries. When we have the power and leadership abilities from our presence, we are able to be strong enough to protect and uphold what we value most. Boundaries are key for happiness and relationships of any kind. 

HEALTH

Presence helps us access our body connection, as I mentioned, so what we put into it can be controlled more easily rather than when we are in the throws of busyness or allowing ourselves to get caught up with distraction. That’s usually when we overeat, ingest toxic substances or choose to be lazy because of our exhaustion from said busyness. The simple question of “what does my body need right now?” can empower us to make profound shifts in our health from self-care to weight loss to mental clarity.

MORE MEANING

Rituals and routines are important to create deep transformation. They help us change habits and shift our mindset on so many levels and they add huge doses of meaning to the process of change. But if you’re anything like me, they have to be FUN in order to do them. I am not the type to do things just because, so presence grants us access to the magic that exists within and around us. It gives us awareness of possibility and shows us that we have everything we need in the moment and we can take one step at a time. Presence always makes us feel more grounded and authentic, and a key factor in better-overcoming something that might seem boring or challenging. Presence actually helps us do things that we’ve been avoiding. Additionally, presence adds more meaning to all relationships, so we can deepen into intimacy (platonic or romantic) and thoroughly enjoy the quality time spent.

HAPPINESS

While present, we can find more gratitude, the cultivator of happiness. In presence, we can relax into safety, even if for a moment. As I mentioned also, we can feel more grounded and authentic when we are present, quieting our inner critic and seeing more of what we like. Happiness is generated in each moment, it’s not an end result, so of course presence is a huge part of this. 

YOUR TURN! 

What is your theme for 2018? How can presence support you this year?

If you need help figuring this out or want to inquire about working with directly through coaching, EMAIL ME! 

Set Yourself Up for Success with Soulful Goal Setting

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was your 2015? I am hearing a mixed bag of rock bottom and the best year ever. Regardless of what happened this past year, you are more wiser and capable to continue moving towards your ideal life & space NOW (which is TOTALLY possible, btw). I feel strongly that it's up to each of us to create the life that we want to experience and that it really takes a lot of support to uphold such dreams. Why not start the year off doing both ~ dreaming my dreams and supporting you, my tribe.

I believe in fresh starts and powerful intentions to create the reality that we all want. New Years resolutions have a bad rep, so I would love to offer you a simple framework to banish overwhelm yet still challenge you to reflect, focus and start planning your year now while the energy is high, in order to set yourself up for success later. This is a ritual that is customized to YOU, based on what I personally do every year both on NYE and New Years Day. If we don't put effort into planning in a way that feels easy and aligned with who we are, nothing will ever get done. So, darlings...take some time right now to set yourself up for a successful 2016. Think of this as soulful goal setting. When you're done, comment below as I would LOVE to hear what you came up with and hold your intentions with you.

Reflect

We can't claim our future without completing our past. Similarly, we can't complete our past without reflecting on the realities and events and understanding them fully. Look back on your year and actually write out what happened. Reflective journaling can be a powerful exercise to clarity. What went right? What went wrong? Was there an overarching theme that was present? Where were you out of integrity? When were you proud of what you did, and why? and most importantly, what did you learn?

Celebrate

List out your accomplishments from the year and celebrate yourself! I KNOW there is at least 15 accomplishments you can come up with easily, but try for 20 or 30! Challenge yourself to see more of the good, the positive, the glass half full than you have before. Open your own eyes to the power that you have come into. These can be anything from a career advancement to something good you said to something you didn't say (that's a hard one, huh?) to a challenging situation that you accomplished. Month by month, revel in the magnitude of your amazingness. One rule: NO thinking about failures here. Focus on celebrations. 

Release

You may already be thinking about your failures or shortcomings...now is the time to transform them into lessons and use them as fuel to fire up your confidence in 2016. What are you ready to release about yourself: your beliefs, your environment, your relationships, your commitments or your actions? Write them down. Bonus points if you burn them for significance sake! Remember, don't judge any emotion that comes up either. You are completely allowed to grieve here.

Intend

Now that you have clean energy, you can move forward into your desires. WHAT DO YOU WANT?! Claim it by setting powerful intentions for this coming year, as if they already happened and you are reading them on NYE 12/31/16. Keep them positive (as in avoid any terms that include "not" doing something, debt or losing weight, as these automatically imply that there is something wrong with you, which there isn't). Bonus points for adding in specific details and descriptive words that make the intention viscerally palpable. Then make sure you remind yourself of these intentions often. Energy flows where attention goes.
(This is the kind of thing we do every month in Monthly Moon Magic with Michelle.)

Symbolize

Using your top 1-3 intentions, dial down to the feeling those intentions bring you. What's the essence or vibe they give off? In other words, imagine yourself fully immersed in the reality of each intention...what does that feel like? What are the descriptive words that represent that reality? Write these down. Next, what physical items represent these feelings or descriptions to you. For example, I wrote down that my intentions for my career feel like flow, light, connecting, easy and sparkly. I thought about that and found a beautiful mirrored glass mobile that I can put outside my front door to represent all of those vibes! I was so excited. What's closest to us has the most impact on us, so why not surround ourselves with our intentions in tangible form? 


I hope this gives you some simple framework for setting up your goals in a way that feels possible and inspiring. Again, I would love to hear your goals and intentions, so please do share them with me if you feel called. 

Sending you lots of sparkles today, as you set the tone for the year to come.

PS: If you are interested in joining me for the Virtual Group Feng Shui Program, we start in January and there are only 4 spots left! Also, the tuition is still on special sale!