Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for This Week

The theme this month is of you and your personal presence, essence and “being”, your personal charisma.

Have you ever had the experience of being in the presence of another person and been elevated in your emotions simply by being with them? Or, conversely, having a sense of your emotional state brought down by being around angry, frustrated or upset people? Are there some folks who drain your energy or others who energize you?

What effect do you have on others? What effect do you have on yourself?

So, the enchantments for this week are about the subtle elements that support you to be more of who you are and increase your awareness of your charisma and impact. The enchantments dance in the realm of the abstract and if you find yourself feeling like you don’t have a clue of what I am asking…., well that is great and try it anyway!

Self Care Enchantments for the week:

1. If your essence and charisma were a perfume, what would it smell like? Would it be floral, woodsy, spicy, sweet, musky etc?
2. Remind yourself of the occasions, states and activities when you feel the most you and luxuriate in your essence! How do you improve your emotional state?
3. Spend time this week (maybe 5 – 10 minutes/day) writing about yourself, jot down your hopes, dreams, write about your personal essence and presence. Step outside of yourself and write about yourself in the third person.

Please share about your learning and exploration with these enchantments on www.thepowblog.com in the comments section of these enchantments !

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & sou and the heart & soul of your businessl”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com
604-323-3700

“Freedom is a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash” – Harriet Rubin

“13 Trends That Will Transform Your Business
Whether You Want Them To Or Not”

I love thinking, reading and surfing ideas about the future and admit that I have been imprinted and influenced by Faith Popcorn.  I also love and recommend “Megatrends 2010:  The Rise Of Conscious Capitalism – Seven Trends That Will Transform How You Work, Live and Invest” by Patricia Aburdene and absolutely any thing by or with Barbara Marx Hubbard (www.evolve.org ).  It is not my intention to “channel” these authors, rather I wish to acknowledge their original ideas and words and build on these concepts.  While the majority of the ideas presented are focused on trends in North America, some can be applied more widely.

Here is my compilation of 13 important trends and new ideas that will transform your business and life!

1.  Brain Dough aka brain plasticity:

Yes, you can “teach an old dog new tricks”, our brains are actually malleable or flexible.    This concept is referred to as brain plasticity.  What is brain plasticity? Does it mean that our brains are made of plastic? Of course not. Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. As we learn, we acquire new knowledge and skills through instruction or experience. In order to learn or memorize a fact or skill, there must be persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge.  The ability of the brain to change with learning is what is know as neuroplasticity.

Source: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html

2.  Grandma Power:

Elder women are becoming an increasingly powerful and large group as the boomers age.  Think hip, happy, and hippie grandmas rather than blue rinses and fraility!

3.  Squeeze More In(n):

Community living takes on a new meaning as more extended families chose to remain living together.  This is a new idea for many North Americans and will require skilled and open communication and attention to compromise and consensus.

4. Values Redux:

Increasingly large numbers of consumers will make purchasing decisions based on their strongly held personal values.

5. Glass Houses:

With amazing technology and the internet, all we do and say will be visible, this is an opportunity to be uber transparent and ethical in life & work.  There will be no place to hide.

6. Big Hearts:

The emotions and qualities of love, loving-kindness and compassion from a big soft, warm melted open heart will be increasingly integrated into business practices through meditation, lovingkindness retreats and prayer.

7. C3 – Circles, Collaboration & Co-Creation:

All organizations, families and groups are moving towards and squishing down into wonderful, resonant, concentric circles around a big heart center.  The dominant forces will be: life, creativity, win/win and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

8. Saffron, Sage and Soul:

As India and China increasingly take over the global production of goods, our interest in and our reliance on these countries will increase.  We will continue to integrate both eastern and western spiritual traditions, adding in a dash of “conscious evolution”  producing a spicy, rich and deeply satisfying new meta-spiritual tradition.

9. Bugs R Us:

Everything will be about whole systems and models based on nature.

10.    Flowers In Your Hair and Everywhere:

Integrating the “big heart” concept, there will be growing appreciation of art & beauty and a laid back lifestyle as forces for social change and business re-vitalization.

11.    Re-Calibration Back to a Lunar Calendar:

It only makes sense!

12.    Science Fictionary:

Life expectancy will continue to increase and concepts that were only science fiction will be part of every day life.  More and more folks will choose to vacation at home through holograms and other multisensory innovations.

13.  The Concept of Paradox:

We will be challenged to live a life of increasing paradox and complexity and time will seem to speed up! Folks will be curious about the concept of “nothingness”.

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
604-323-3700

Do you lead from your head or your heart or both?

Please share your thoughts……

namaste,

Zoey

Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for This Week

We are talking about the theme of exploring your “being”, your inner self, your presence and essence this month and I wish to add the element of personal style.

There is an interesting intersection of activities happening in my life.  In our “ES women entrepreneurs” book club this month, we are discussing our featured pow book “Step Into The Spotlight: A Guide To Getting Noticed” and here we are talking about personal presence.  The similarities in topics were unplanned by me!

As I was preparing for the book club, I reviewed what I have learned as a coach, that different people have different personal communication/coaching styles and ways of “showing up in the world”.  There are numerous assessments that coaches use to help folks determine their styles.   My guess is that Tsufit, the author of the above mentioned book, is a true “presenting style” person and the business advice she gives is a beautiful fit for fellow “presenting types”.

I also know that each of us is unique and that in a quest for “doing the right thing” or following a “success formula” or for personal growth, women can forget about their unique style and try to fit themselves into someone else’s formula!

The self-care enchantments for this week are designed for you to honour and acknowledge your own sense of style in communication and presence in a lighthearted and fun way!

Self Care Enchantments for the week:

1.    Which TV or movie character do you feel is closest to you and your style?
2.    What theme song best fits with your style?
3.    Write down some circumstances where you feel you have tried to fit into someone else’s style.  How did this feel?  Write a commitment statement to yourself about how you will honour your unique style from now on!

Please share about your learning and exploration with these enchantments on www.thepowblog.com in the comments section of these enchantments !

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & sou and the heart & soul of your businessl”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
604-323-3700

“Freedom is a bigger game than power.  Power is about what you can control.  Freedom is about what you can unleash” – Harriet Rubin

The Power of Gratitude and Blessing

When I am coaching, a question I often ask is, “what is the one thing, that if you did it consistently, would have the greatest positive impact on your life”?  I hear answers like exercise more, drink less coffee, lose weight.  While all of these activities no doubt will be positive, I’m reminded, as women how we are so busy, “doing”, feeling like we need to change ourselves and seldom stop to just be more of who we are.

I recently had occasion to ponder “the question” and my “year in review”.  I sank into the stillness of my home and began listing what I was thankful for.  What I realized was that it is the very small, simple things in life that bring me the greatest joy and sense of fulfillment, not tasks and certainly not “self-improvement projects.  I get a sense of fulfillment from hings like hearing my children laughing, the mist over the water, the depth and comfort of a longstanding friendship.

As I sat that early morning, I was reminded that the positive impact was a result, not of doing but of being, of allowing myself reflective time to sink into the “beingness” of me and open to the power of thanksgiving, gratitude and blessings. For me, using gratitude and blessing brings a feeling of putting on the “rose coloured glasses”, a feeling of objectivity, a sense of expansiveness.

I was challenged recently in my commitment to this belief when faced with an unexpected and painful loss.  I found myself slipping into a place of hurt, blame and criticism.  The word “blessing” popped into my mind and I quickly said a blessing for the situation.  It went something like this; “blessings on this situation as I know that it is all for the best and that through the pain and sadness, a greater good will come.”  By saying those words I was able to set aside the “righteous victim voice” of “poor me” and had the sense of an easing and softening of my emotions.

So, ask yourself, the earlier question, “what is the one thing if integrated into your life regularly, would have the greatest positive impact”?  Experiment with using blessings, gratitude and thanksgiving and feel yourself open into a deeper sense of your “beingness”.  Start by making a list of at least 20 things that you are thankful for.  Every day, give yourself time to sink into your “beingness” and feel gratitude.  Send out blessings to your friends, family, all people and situations and imagine the world taking on a rosy glow!

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
- Melody Beattie,  Author

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan, BSc., PCC
professional certified coach
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com
604-323-3700

Are Your Business Values in Sync With Your Personal Values?

“Values” are the essence of who we are.  Values are principles that you hold to be of worth in your life.  Values are those things considered right, worthwhile, and desirable- the basis of guiding principles and standards.  “Crystal values” are those values that are so important that if not present in your life will cause your life to shatter.  Think of what would happen if you dropped a crystal ball.  “Rubber values” are those values that you can drop for awhile with no problem and will come bouncing back when necessary.  Think of what happens when you drop a rubber ball.

Getting really clear on the values that are most important to you personally and in your business will give you a framework for making decisions, taking forward movement and assessing dissonance in your life.  Let me tell you about a client of mine.  Carol had identified that she held “social responsibility” and “respect for nature” as very strong values.  She found out that the company she was working for was pumping toxic waste into the local watershed.  She decided that she could no longer work for that company and in fact, felt she needed to report the company for the poor environmental business practices.  In spite of the fact that being unemployed was not attractive, Carol stayed true to her values and resigned.  While she had to deal with some short- term financial issues, this decision was worth it to her as she gained so much in the areas of self-honoring and self respect.

Is your business in sync with your personal values?  If it is, you likely feel great about the work that you do and love your business.  If you started your business without consideration of your personal values, and your personal and business values are out of sync, you may feel unfulfilled, dissatisfied and unhappy in your work.

In our current business environment, it is vitally important that you, the business owner knows what your personal values are, what your business values are and has a marketing program consistent with those values in every way.

Clarity, transparency and communication with your clients around personal and business values leads to a happy and fulfilling life and business and a powerfully positive business reputation!

Do you know what your business values are?  What about your personal values?   What about your crystal values and your rubber values?  Are you in sync with your values? Are you working from a single bottom line or a triple bottom line? Working with a life & business coach to support you to gain clarity on your values may be beneficial to both you and your business.

“My vision, my hope, is simply this: that many business leaders will come to see a primary role of business as incubators of the human spirit, rather than factories for the production of more material goods and services.” – Anita Roddick Founder, The Body Shop

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan, BSc., PCC
professional certified coach
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
604-323-3700

Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for This Week

This month the theme is about exploring your “being”, your inner self, your personal emptiness, presence and essence.  This week is about who you are at your core and the notion of personal presence.

Wilferd A. Peterson said, “Our children are watching us live and what we are shouts louder than anything we can say”.

I adapt this to the following “who we are shouts louder than anything we can say”.

So, who are you and what is it that your “personal presence” is saying to the world?  What are those subtle elements and energies that may be “whispering, talking or shouting out” even louder than your spoken words.

It is often easier to start this type of inquiry about someone else!  Think of some one close to you and ponder “who” they are!  Now bring it back to yourself and ask the question again.  This can be a very interesting exercise!

The self-care enchantments for this week are designed for you to honour, acknowledge and sink into your sense of self and your personal presence.

Self Care Enchantments for the week:

1.    Sit in quietness and stillness for a few moments, deeply and fully valuing yourself for who you are, for your being, for your presence and essence, rather than for what you do!   Allow yourself to breathe into the feeling of you!   Let the sense of your personal presence, wash over and entrance you!
2.    In your journal, or on a piece of paper, complete this sentence at twenty different ways:  I am a……….
3.    A dear friend, in receiving an award recently, said “I’m just a kindergarten teacher and I dance with my students everyday”.  So, the final enchantment for this week is… just dance!

Please share about your learning and exploration with these enchantments on www.thepowblog.com !

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & sou and the heart & soul of your businessl”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com
604-323-3700

“Freedom is a bigger game than power.  Power is about what you can control.  Freedom is about what you can unleash” – Harriet Rubin

Women Entrepreneurs: Transform Your Business With A Strategic Alliance!

Patricia Aburdene, in her book “Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism”, speaks about social transformation, she quotes from the book written with John Naisbitt entitled “Re-inventing the Corporation” and says that social transformation “occurs only when there is a confluence of changing values and economic necessity.”

This is, I believe, our current business reality, a confluence of changing values and economic necessity, leading to new ways of being in business and doing business.

My strategic alliance partner and I, in our work as business success coaches and strategists, believe that developing overlapping circles of strategic alliances is not just a powerful, fun and dynamic way of working together but is rapidly becoming a necessary model for solo-preneurs to stay in business.

Successful strategic alliances “focus less on defining the business plan and more on how you will work together” (source: Jonathon Hughes and Jeff Weiss, Harvard Business Review).

So, what needs to be in place to support a successful alliance?

Each entrepreneur needs to have a clear “sense of self” and their business and
it is vital to take the time up front for discussion of the following questions:

•    What are we going to do together, ie what, when, how, why, who?
•    What are our individual and shared roles and responsibilities?
•    How are we going to work together? What organizational model will we use?
•    What are our values?
•    What are our implied agreements?
•    What are our expressed agreements?
•    Benefits:
o    What’s it in for you?
o    What’s in it for me?
o    What’s in it for us?
•    How do we handle conflict?
•    How will we end the alliance?

What I believe the most important factors to a successful strategic alliance are: a shared vision and core values, an understanding of each others communication styles and strengths and weaknesses and a shared commitment to the relationship.  It is about “who you are” as much as “what you do”, that creates a strong alliance.

We are moving way beyond “competition” as an organizational model in business.  Strategic alliances utilize the following organizational models: cooperation, collaboration and co-creation.  Utilizing these three models and forming strategic alliances can truly transform your business and your life!

If you would like help with this, or more information about making us your business success support partners, please contact me at the following coordinates:

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan, BSc., PCC
professional certified coach
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com
604-323-3700

“Freedom is a bigger game than power.  Power is about what you can control.  Freedom is about what you can unleash”  – Harriet Rubin

Since reading the book, “The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World” by Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, I have been fascinated by the potential for this socio-eco-cultural group to change the world.

Superimpose what I see as my personal “life mission” to support women to lead meaningful, rich, deep and fulfilling lives and you get:

Positively Outrageous Women (www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com: an oasis for culturally creative women. It’s about nourishment, connection, community, co-creation and transformation)

I am in the midst of redesigning the above site as a community/social networking site for culturally creative women and I need your help!

I will be posing a series of questions and starting the discussion on a series of topics and I would love your input.  I will be doing this on a wiki site, so it truly will be a co-creative effort!

I wish to acknowledge the authors of the book, “The Cultural Creatives” (www.culturalcreatives.org ) as well as Jim Garrison from “Wisdom University” (www.wisdomuniversity.org) and it is my intention to link in and co-create in alignment with their work.

Please join in!

Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women
www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com
www.zoeyryan.com
zoey@telus.net
604-323-3700

“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”! 

What does the phrase “enchanted hearts” mean to you?  How can you or how do you enchant your heart?

namaste,

Zoey

www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com