We’ve all been told what we can or can’t do; what’s possible and what’s impossible.

Yesterday I was editing the interview I did with Ben Mack for Rick Raddatz‘s Entrepreneur’s Vacation Club, and in it he quoted P.T. Barnum:

More people are humbugged by believing in too little than by believing in too much.

Ben says that when he’s told, “It can’t be done,” his response is always, “Maybe it can.”

“Coincidentally” (and if you know me, you’ll know I don’t believe in coincidences and I use that word facetiously) last week was full of examples for me that supported these concepts, and proved to me that we all humbug ourselves by believing in too little… especially when that comes to what we can achieve.

I just wrote an article over on the LWL Worldwide blog, called Taking the “Im” Off “Impossible”.

I start off by saying:

How many times has someone said to you, “That’s not possible,” or “You can’t do that,” or “It will never happen”?

Well, what if you ignored the naysayers and just did what you wanted to do anyhow?

This past week I had numerous personal experiences that reminded me, once and for all, that there’s no such thing as impossible… and we can accomplish a lot more than we think.

And I go on to give those personal stories, as well as an example from Joe Vitale; and I tie it all up with my favorite formula from Jack Canfield, E+R=O (Event + Reaction = Outcome).

But rather than try to sum it up here, why not slide on over to LWL and take a look? I know you’ll enjoy it… you can read my article by clicking here.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Today I went to Donna Schmid, the massage therapist and meditation group leader who gave me my first Swedish massage last month, for a Shamanic healing session.

I had heard tell of Shamanic healing three or four times right before she mentioned it to me… and both of us knew that meant I was supposed to do it.

If you haven’t heard of it before, this video from the Holistic Shamanism blog gives a half-decent quick overview of Shamanic healing in general, although some audio would help the presentation:

Before beginning the session, Donna cautioned me that if I wrote about it, I had to be clear on the fact that the experience is different for every person.

There are many ways to perform Shamanic healing, and a good practitioner lets the client guide the session, which means no two sessions are alike.

I wish I could tell you it would be though, because my session was one of the most profound and soul-revealing journeys of my life.

>>> CONTINUE READING Shamanic Healing For A Soulful Journey…

Last night I conducted my first on-camera interview with a live audience… kinda like a real talk show!

It went incredibly well… which, for me, means lots of learning and the odd burst of laughter too (because if it’s not fun — whatever “it” is — it’s not worth doing at all).

The interview was with Guy Finley at his world-renowned Life of Learning Foundation in Merlin, Oregon.

(I always find that town name funny because it reminds me of my good friend, Merlin Holmes — someone I jokingly call a wizard, who was partially responsible for making me the person I am today, with the partner I’m with today, through his ongoing encouragement that made me open my mind and heart. Thanks, Merlin!)

But back to Guy… he has a loyal following of students on a quest to open their own minds and hearts, and several times a week Guy either teaches them a live lesson, or gives them a chance to be guest speakers themselves (or sometimes both).

Last night my live interview was the curriculum rather than a solo talk from Guy, and the focus was his international best-seller, The Secret of Letting Go and his new release, 365 Days to Let Go: Daily Insights to Change Your Life.

We talked about what it means to let go, why and how to do it, how to overcome the stumbling blocks that typically stop us from letting go, and the ebbs and flows of life.

I personally learned a lot from Guy through the course of conducting the interview — and from reading his book in preparation — and I know that most of the audience members (including Barry) did as well.

One of the main takeaways was to love unconditionally, and not put any weight on what “should” happen or how things are “supposed” to be (in other words, “stop shoulding on yourself,” as Michael Angier says).

To be happy, we need to accept every moment as perfect; whether it’s going the way we expected or not, it’s rewarding us by either giving us our desires or teaching us a lesson.

>>> CONTINUE READING Learning to Let Go With Guy Finley…

On Thursday this week, Barry and I are doing a live two-on-one interview with Patrick Combs, “Mr. Good Think” himself.

I wrote an article about Patrick’s drive to succeed, and never-say-die attitude, over on the Masters of the Secret blog.

I start off the article by saying:

We all know them; people who just don’t like to see other people happy, or achieve big things, who will always tell you why it can’t be done.

Why you’ll fail.

Why you should give up before you get started, and, above all, “keep the day job.”

And yet, those of us who dream big — to the point that our dreams are bigger than even our own minds can conceive — just refuse to listen to those naysayers, as hard as it is sometimes.

Who are they to steal our futures — the lives we want to manifest for ourselves?

But… what about when those “naysayers” or “dream stealers” are really the people you love — who love you back — and just want to make sure you don’t get hurt?

What if they truly have your best interests at heart?

Do you listen to them then?

And then I reference an article from Patrick’s GoodThink.com website, a story which tells about his ironic journey struggling to be accepted as a storyteller, and the amazingly synchronistic manifestation that came as a result of never giving up.

You can read my whole article on the Masters of the Secret blog here…

I’ve spent my life doing the same thing; refusing to give up, no matter how rocky the road got, no matter how many roadblocks were on that road, and no matter how many times I tripped on those roadblocks and scraped my knee.

>>> CONTINUE READING How To “Good Think” Your Way To Success…

Last night I got one of Barry’s famous “Rolf-age” sessions… that’s part Rolfing, part massage, and as far as I know, it’s patented Barry Goss (and we made up the “Rolf-age” label, too).

I’m getting Rolfed professionally on Saturday, by Melanie Lancaster in Ashland, as Barry gets a session with her husband, Zeb Lancaster.

In fact, I’ve been Rolfed by Zeb twice myself… but this time he’s coming in specially for Barry on a Saturday, and we didn’t want to ask him to do back-to-back sessions. So I asked if his wife was available at the same time, and it worked out perfectly.

What does Rolfing do? Here’s the official word from Rolf.org:

Rolfing® Structural Integration is named after its founder Dr. Ida P. Rolf. Dr. Rolf began her inquiry more than fifty years ago, devoting her energy to creating a holistic system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education that organized the whole body in gravity.

Dr. Rolf discovered that she could achieve remarkable changes in posture and structure by manipulating the body’s myofascial system and eventually named her work Structural Integration.

“Rolfing” is the nickname that many clients and practitioners gave this work, and it is now a registered service mark in 27 countries.

Rolfing structural integration has the ability to dramatically alter a person’s posture and structure. Athletes, dancers, children, business professionals, and people from all walks of life have benefited from Rolfing. People seek Rolfing as a way to ease pain and chronic stress, and improve performance in their professional and daily activities. It’s estimated that more than 1 million people have received Rolfing work.

Research has demonstrated that Rolfing creates a more efficient use of the muscles, allows the body to conserve energy, and creates more economical and refined patterns of movement. Research also shows that Rolfing significantly reduces chronic stress and changes in the body structure. For example, a study showed that Rolfing significantly reduced the spinal curvature of subjects with lordosis (sway back); it also showed that Rolfing enhances neurological functioning.

But the way Barry does it (and he’s not a professional, but after over 50 Rolfing sessions definitely knows what he’s doing), he mixes the hard, constant pressure of Rolfing with the oil-enhanced rubbing of a Swedish massage.

Yes, it’s the best of both worlds… and incredibly relaxing.

>>> CONTINUE READING Refreshed and Remodeled…

We have a new secret blog over at Manifest Life (you can get access to it at ManifestLife.com/wow) that’s part of our Integration Celebration, a special promotion to celebrate Barry and I integrating our work (and our lives) together.

I just posted an article over there called Powering Up Your Internal Guidance System… and I can’t link to the article directly, because you need to sign up for the secret blog to read it, but this is the beginning of it:

Ever had one of those challenges in life that you just couldn’t get around?

A challenge that just made your chest and stomach tighten up, with a literal “gut reaction” that told you to hold off – to let it breathe – even though your head told you there was a way to make it work?

Zen DeBrucke talked about the IGS, or Inner Guidance System, in our one-and-a-half hour two-on-one interview Barry and I conducted with her in December, 2006.

It’s a way of listening to your heart and your gut, and letting your intuition do the talking and decision-making for you – arguably the very best way to keep out of proverbial hot water, as most teachers would agree.

She walked us through how it works, and we felt the tightening sensation that tells you something is off, and the opening or freeing sensation that says you’re right on.

The rest of the article tells more about the IGS and how I’ve used it in my life.

It’s funny, because people always say, “listen to your gut,” or “follow your heart,” but they don’t realize that it’s really possible to tune into these parts of our bodies and get a valid response back.

Here’s Zen introducing the IGS in a video of her own:

I’ve been using my IGS constantly since she told me about it, too.

>>> CONTINUE READING Following Your Gut Instinct…

Last night, Barry and I did our interview with Patrick Combs that I referenced a few days ago.

We got to ask him lots of questions about manifesting his dreams, the power of not giving up, and his #1 secret tool for getting what he wants: taking action.

Some of the listeners writing in questions from the webcast — and in fact, some of the community members who send us emails — have a tough time understanding the context of the term “taking action”. They tend to see it as being the opposite of “allowing” things to come to us.

They also have trouble putting together how they can “focus” on what they want to manifest, and yet “allow” it by not being attached to it.

And in fact it’s such a prevalent complaint that, coincidentally, as I started writing this, Barry was posting a similarly-themed article over on the LWL Worldwide blog.

(And no, I don’t believe in coincidences, only synchronicities.)

But if I was going to boil the process down into a nutshell version (which I also did on the call, to sum up what Patrick was saying) it’s not a bunch of contradictions that are happening at the same time; it’s a process, a sequence of events, and all the parts need to be in place:

1. Focus on what you want by thinking about it, emotionalizing about it, visualizing it, singing about it, writing out a list of goals, or however you like to do it.

2. Let it go and allow it to come when and how it wants to (in other words, don’t be attached to exactly what the result has to look like… and, Patrick doesn’t advocate dream boards or vision boards because they tend to make it more difficult to let go).

3. Take action towards that outcome, and action could mean any variety of things including picking up the phone and talking to someone, looking for ads, checking your finances and saving up for what you want to buy, or getting out to a party.

4. (And, as Patrick added, the cycle continues as you go back to focusing again as required.)

And if you’re worried about taking action BEFORE you know what direction you should be taking action in; Patrick suggests always taking small action steps.

That makes it easier to do, and also, in my opinion, easier to switch directions if need be.

This is where standard physics meets metaphysics.

>>> CONTINUE READING Where Physics Meets Metaphysics…

Today Barry and I went to Ashland, Oregon, to see our Rolfers/coaches and to enjoy the day… something we haven’t been doing enough lately with all the work we’ve had to take care of.

To the right is a long shot of Ashland, showing the beautiful landscape and the quaint town nestled among the natural setting.

It was taken by photographer Christopher Briscoe, probably in the summer time, because now, of course, the trees are breathtaking shades of red, orange and yellow with just a bit of green left over (mainly the evergreens, since they remain… well, ever green!)

One of the world’s largest Shakespeare festivals is held here, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

What’s interesting to me on a personal level is my ex-husband grew up in Stratford, Ontario, home of another of the world’s largest and most respected Shakespeare festivals, which I visited many times over the years. Ashland reminds me a lot of Stratford because of the Shakespearean flavor the town has, and it seems a little strange to be so close once again to one of the world’s finest festivals in the genre.

But my ex hated Shakespeare, so I only ever went to the plays with school friends or my parents. Barry, on the other hand, likes culture, so he and I are planning to go to a play at the Oregon one together next year, which I see as a very romantic outing.

>>> CONTINUE READING Beauty and Healing in Ashland…

Today Zen DeBrucke dropped by to visit Barry and I. She’s a metaphysical coach I wrote about the other day, who teaches people about their Internal Guidance Systems.

This is actually the first time I’ve met her in person, although we’ve talked on the phone, and she was the first ever two-on-one interview that Barry and I conducted, almost a year ago. He’s met her a few times since that, though… some of her family live in Grants Pass and she comes up to visit occasionally.

It seems like things are going really well for her, and she’s been working a lot with Jack Canfield‘s Transformational Leadership Council.

What was really interesting was sitting at a table with her, enjoying some coffee (and she’s the one who teaches that there’s joy in every moment, and every accomplishment, so a good cup of coffee should be savored with gratitude) and having her talk off-the-cuff about things we could do, just like she does with her life coaching clients.

Except that she has now decided she’s a life consultant, rather than a life coach, because she doesn’t really ask the questions a coach does.

>>> CONTINUE READING A Visit From Zen…

Yesterday I conducted two interviews, and I wasn’t completely happy with either of them.

Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and I did the best I could in both cases. But something was just a little off.

First I interviewed Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, which was a really cool experience. His network of sites has become a cultural icon, and he has been recognized many times over as being very influential.

Craigslist is kind of funny to me, because it’s SO simple looking, and yet so effective. It’s like a cutting-edge concept with a grassroots look; a multi-national company with a small business or solo entrepreneurial feel.

But people use it all the time, and love it, and I’ve bought and sold things there myself. Most recently I found a great elliptical training machine in Medford, about 30 minutes away, for about $100. For years I’ve used a stair climber, but I knew it wouldn’t be worth it to ship it to Oregon from Toronto, so I ended up with a better machine at a fraction of the price.

According to Craig in the interview, the community doesn’t care about fancy graphics or features, they just want it to do what it does; so it will probably stay basic forever.

>>> CONTINUE READING Digging For Answers Without A Shovel…