Archive for October, 2015

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Changes – Day 41

Saturday, October 31st, 2015

 Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Thankfully this beautiful werewolf did not have some of these features when she was born 26 years ago..

Thankfully this beautiful werewolf did not have some of these features when she was born 26 years ago..

Almost 26 years ago my life changed in so many wonderful ways I could have never scripted with the birth of my first daughter. Today I find myself contemplating  how I experience the most expansive changes in life.  Usually these come from the largest challenges I take on – like becoming a mother.

It is also Halloween. To celebrate, my pup and I are wearing the color of the season – orange. My “baby” is a werewolf.  I’m very thankful it’s 26 years later and I’m not waiting for a week overdue baby to  come into the world. I’m also very thankful she is only a werewolf on Halloween. Lots for me to celebrate.

While some see Halloween, with all the ghosts and goblins, as a celebration of the sinister underworld, I prefer it’s juxtaposition to All Saints Day – November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2nd.  Historically this trifecta of Catholic holidays was a call to action to remember the dead (and the path they took or did not take to get to heaven) and be inspired from this remembrance to live in god’s good graces (so you can get to heaven).  I understand the origins of this three day Catholic observance as I  know how much being rattled to deep discomfort inspires me to initiate changes.  The ghastly level of darkness I’ve felt before a significantly uplifting opening has happened often enough that I learned to embrace my own darkness as a launching place towards an upgraded existence – it’s as if a new saint emerges to guide me.  Yet I also know there is another, lighter way to upgrade my existence.  To shine the light on this path,  I just have to reflect on what I’ve learned from my first born.

Presently, I’m faced with several business challenges simultaneously.  These pale in comparison to the joy I feel from my daughter’s existence and the celebration of her life as I am planning for her 26th birthday. Loving myself more means releasing my resistance to challenges and allowing euphoric excitement of a new creative pursuit as inspiration.  Just like the delight that’s been my reality every day with this very special soul who joined me on All Souls Day 26 years ago.

 

Kate’s commentHappy Birthday Anne!!!

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Color – Day 40

Friday, October 30th, 2015

It always tickles me when I find sneakers that match wild colored pants.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Its a dark and cloudy day made vibrant and alive by the splash of fall color. The happiest people I know adorn their lives with the brightest colors – whether it be the colors they paint their homes, to the clothes they wear, to the cars they drive.  It’s the vibrant burst of colors that puts a spring in my step no matter what the weather is.  It’s why my voice mail messages states – it’s a wonderful day wherever I am.

A few years back, my brother forwarded me an article in the New York Times about how the woman of Haines, Alaska were the worst dressers. Why  care about the opinion of a reporter who most likely only wears black?  And obviously completely misses the point of the wardrobe preferences of people who live in most likely the happiest (and healthiest) small town in America.

Loving myself more means wearing the brightest colors I can find and enjoying my outfit choices as ultimately it is me who I am serving with how I choose to color my life.

 

Kate’s comment: So what if Alaska is one of the least fashionable places out there! The lower 48 must just not understand Carhartts, Xtratufs, or puffy coats.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Reminders – Day 39

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Kate the Haines Dietician is helping Haines, Alaska stay the Healthiest Small Town in America by working with the local grocery store Olerud's to label which are the healthy food choices.

Kate Fossman, the Haines Dietitian, is helping Haines, Alaska stay the Healthiest Small Town in America by working with the local grocery store Olerud’s to label which are the healthy food choices.

Most of the time I know the right things to eat to keep myself in vibrant good health,  but sometimes it’s hard to make the right decision when it comes to “show time.”  And for me “show time” happens two specific times – the first one when I’m feeling rushed while out grocery shopping and the second when I’m famished at home grabbing for the closest thing that looks like it will satisfy my hunger, fast.   So you can well imagine my delight with the bold step taken by my favorite grocery store in Haines, Alaska.   You may have heard of Haines, Alaska as the outdoor adventure capital  – but one of the reasons for this is because Haines, Alaska may also be the healthiest small town in America.  They have a thriving community that supports health in every dimension.  This is where my dietitian Kate, hangs her shingle.  It is for this very reason she set up her practice there. After all, how can you happily pursue an adventurous outdoor lifestyle in anything other than optimal health?

Okay, enough waxing poetic about my utopia Haines.  Just what is it my favorite grocery store, Olerud’s, is doing to help me be a vital member of one of the healthiest small towns in America?  Kate approached them about labeling the foods in their store as “healthy, healthier, or healthiest!”.  This is no small feat as she analyzes everything on the shelves and puts it through her dietitian filter to identify how well these foods will help all of us who shop there make the best decisions for our vitality.  What is so fantastic is Olerud’s is excited about participating.  Grocers live on such small margins and we know it is sometimes the unhealthiest of foods that bring in the biggest profits.  For them to side on the health of the people of Haines, is ultimately the wisest move for their bottom line though as people will be able to trust they have their best interests at heart.  Isn’t that what we want in people who we count on to provide us our daily bread?   So Thank YOU Olerud’s for taking bold steps for all of our enduring good health.   And THANK YOU Kate for following through on this fantastic idea.

 

Kate’s comment: I would love to echo that “thank YOU” to Olerud’s – and send a thank you for the shout out about it being a big feat! It’s a week long project to get the tags on the shelves, plus a bi-monthly commitment to maintain the tags. I expect people to take them (they do have my contact information if anyone would like to get in touch with me) and move them along the shelves (especially if they’re mischievous). I’m so happy to be a part of the healthiest small town in America!

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Clutter – Day 38

Wednesday, October 28th, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP,RYT

The joys of a clean counter is what is creating more love in my life today.

The joys of a clean counter is what is creating more love in my life today.

Two t’s are two t’s too many in the word clutter.  Remove the r too, and you have clue – as in get a clue.  When there is too much clutter it’s hard to get a clue. After being gone from the home front for months on end, only popping in to do my laundry and pack for my next adventure, I felt the need today to tame the clutter monster that had over taken my favorite room in the house – the kitchen.  Well, plus I am totally inspired after working in the amazing kitchen at cooking school.  Great time to harness the inspiration from that experience to whip my kitchen into shape. Before that could happen though, I had to go through months of mail, and various things that had gravitated to the top of the counter from other people’s ideas of what needed to be there. (I have many guests in and out of my place). And lets not even get into what was in that fridge – a little scary.

It got me contemplating – where is there clutter in the landscape of how I love myself?  Am I holding onto loving others more than myself to my own detriment?  Like how did I graciously accept where others thought things belonged in my kitchen even though it wasn’t suited to my tastes?  Does my desire to get along at the expense of my own preferences cause clutter in my heart?  I do have to admit though I feel so great sitting here in this beautiful kitchen that is clean and clutter free from my own hand – and it is just this moment I have to be more loving to myself.  So thank you to all those who helped me create this very moment as I do realize it was from a place of love you were in my kitchen enjoying it in your own unique ways as well.  (Or possibly doing what you thought would bring me more happiness).

At times my desires to have things the way I want them, inspire others to call me a “princess.” Yet, I am not a princess, I am a Queen. I was named the Queen of Mud Bay years ago when I got this house on the point (in Mud Bay). When I sold that house, I happily gave that title over to the new owner. I did like being a Queen though and am in fact the Queen of my own life. As the Queen, I do have a say in how I would like my world to be and clutter, well it makes me just a bit crazy.

When my children were young and they would bring home the vast amount of papers from school – some made it to sacred display zone – posted on the fridge. But most seemed like someone had left the door open on a fall day  and were strewn around the house like fallen leaves. Routinely we’d put on our favorite clean the house music, and more often than not, these random school papers found their way into this catchall box by the front door.  It was like the black hole of school papers – went in but never came out.  I do occasionally find one of the girls elementary school papers amongst important office papers, in stray boxes that get unloaded in my office when I move, and it’s always a bitter sweet moment.  How they came to arrive there is always a mystery – the open door in fall analogy is all I can figure.  I’ve moved several times since the girls elementary days and that catchall box by the front door has packed along.  Years later, I happened by the box one day in the basement of the home I was living in at the time – when they were both in college.  I opened it – yes all those papers were still in there, mixed in with dog toys, and other scattered remnants of our earlier life.  I was at once relieved and at the same time nostalgic for those clutter filled days of little ones with their never ending papers from school.

So clutter – it’s something I do love and at the same time, I love to enjoy a space when I’ve cleaned the clutter.  The operative word here is love.  Loving myself more is helping me love all elements of an artifact many people love to hate – clutter.  I prefer to love to love clutter – both it’s existence and it’s non-existence.  Clutter means life, means caring, means community, means family – all the things I love.  Clutter also means cleaning clutter which is oh so satisfying on this cold and rainy fall day.

 

Kate’s comment: I love finding old clutter, too! It needs to age to gather that nostalgia – otherwise it’s just a pain. But, gosh, did the thought of fall leaves blowing around bring back east coast memories of playing in the front yard. I have this theory about clutter – most of us have a different level of clutter we are happy with before we hit a tipping point and MUST clean up. If we can find someone with the same tipping point as us, we should keep them close – they’re our modern soul mate.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Responsive – Day 37

Tuesday, October 27th, 2015
Everything thrives (including me) when I respond with loving kindness.

Everything thrives (including me) when I respond with loving kindness.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI- ACP, RYT

I am writing this blog post on my iPhone as I am in the car driving home from the incredible week of cooking school and yoga retreat. (I am not driving). Being on the iPhone I got to thinking about how much I enjoy mobile responsive websites. And I realized I pretty much enjoy any type of response that makes my life better.

About twenty years ago I created a course on customer service. This was the predecessor to how I teach best friend customer service to my staff at Cheetah.  My team strives to treat every encounter with the same level of care and kindness they show to their best friends.  The key here is responsiveness.  What we have found over time is we attract kind and caring students as well.  In that early customer service course, I had students explore the idea there are no discontinuities in life – you can have even better customer service when you show up as a great customer.

Looking through this lens – when I respond to myself with kindness and compassion, I’m more capable of responding to others the same way.  I was raised Catholic and I recall one of the teachings was “love your neighbor as yourself.”  So it just goes to reason the more I learn how to love myself, the more capabilities I develop to respond to others in kind.  So this is not just a gift I’m giving myself.  Loving myself more is enabling me to respond to others in more loving ways as well.

 

Kate’s comment: I took that picture of you and Top (that’s the kitten – his brother’s name is Tip)! As for getting better customer service when you’re a great customer – that is so true. In private practice, I’ve been working a lot with insurance companies to see what benefits my patients have. I try to be nice to them, and I find that they are nice right back! When I don’t get an answer that I’m satisfied with, I ask permission if I can ask a few more questions (which will hopefully lead me to the answer that I’m happy with). I also use their name – in nice ways, of course. Like saying, “Thank you, Thomas. I really appreciate you helping me with this”. Dale Carnegie said “a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language”. Boy, is that ever true!

Treating yourself with the same kindness you treat others is a great method to make you like yourself more – just don’t say your own name too much. That’s the makings of becoming a crazy cat lady.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Guidance – Day 36

Monday, October 26th, 2015
Waiting until I am inspired to take the next logical step has helped me continue to show up in the most loving and kind way to myself and others in the development of the Inspired Eagle business. Loving myself more is about showing up where I feel the most love.

Waiting until I am inspired to take the next logical step has helped me continue to show up in the most loving and kind way to myself and others in the development of the Inspired Eagle business. Loving myself more is about showing up where and when I feel the most love.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Several years ago I had an idea on how to be of better service to humanity based on what I was learning from my own challenges. I was experiencing one difficult life transition after another and realized as we age these major life transitions increase in both frequency and intensity. Are we ever really prepared for what is inevitably around the next bend?

The healthiest and happiest amongst us get the privilege of routinely rising to the occasion of being there for others as cheerleaders, caregivers, mentors and guides.  But who is there for us?

As I saw this play itself out in one friend after another’s life, I wanted to do something to offer solace in the storm – as I figured if I needed it, others needed it as well.  Plus I felt called to honor the memory of my mother – as she was my steady home base – that voice of reason about whatever standard life challenge appeared around the next bend in my life.  I was so lucky to have this for my first 50 years. I wanted to be there for others like she was always there for me.

This is why I created this business I call Inspired Eagle.  I came up with the name from an experience I had when caring for my Mom in the late stages of her brain cancer.  She had slipped into her first coma and I was out taking a walk on a river path near the South Florida hospital where she was.  This bald eagle followed me. At first I did not think much of it as I was rather lost in my own morose state.  Then I stopped and took a picture of it with my phone and sent it to my daughter in Alaska.  It dawned on me – how unusual there is a bald eagle here.  A bald eagle appeared two more times that day – back at my parents home and again as I was getting onto the highway.  Too often to ignore.  I researched this a bit and learned in Native American lore, eagles represent the transition between heaven and earth – exactly where my mother was.

I knew what I wanted to be for others to offer solace and support through life’s challenging transitions and had some ideas of how to create this.  The key element was doing it.  As well, I can get kind of busy with life as I had already created it. But I just kept taking the next logical step whenever I felt called to do so and showing up how I needed to in the moment.

Usually I get everything done at Cheetah speed – this was not to be the case with this new idea.  How to create an environment of loving kindness and support for others in a way that uplifted them into a plane of enduring happiness – this was my goal. After all why shoot for a life of half lived mediocrity?

What has emerged is so incredible.  I just finished my fourth Inspired Eagle Yoga Retreat.  My first two we had four people over four days.  I changed the format and we now do it in two days.   Now we have eight people there.  (If I change it to one day does this mean 16 people will be there?). What made it quicker was the introduction of this yoga mat I designed that has all the yoga poses and flow.  But it’s so much more than just teaching how to do our Happy Aging Yoga. Connecting with my peers in this way is always so profound.

My team and I did this yoga retreat in conjunction with this magical cooking school experience.  We had people come to it from Florida and the Bay Area (Northern California).  Sometimes my ideas don’t play out like I initially envision them – but not this one. How we created a supportive community for each other around our yoga mats was exactly what I envisioned.

I am going to continue showing up to take the next logical step as I am guided to do so. I am assembling a fantastic team that is taking care of details beyond my capabilities – they are showing up too.

For me it is truly about showing up in the ways where I feel the most love.  Whether it be planning on where we are hosting the retreats or who’s invite to accept to lead a retest, to the people who are attracted to come to the retreats.  It is as if my Mom is guiding this through the language of love. As I’m learning how to love myself more, I’m finding myself more open to this guidance and showing up where and how I need to as I am needed.

 

Kate’s comment: I got shudders when you mentioned that bald eagles represent the transition between heaven and earth. In Haines, as you very well know, we have the American Bald Eagle Festival. It’s starting here next week, and I’ve always felt that Haines itself is a pleasant, suspended limbo between heaven and earth. There’s this great, full life energy here.

As for the subject of “showing up” – I once won a 5k just by showing up. I’m not a fast runner by any means, but all the fast runners in town decided to run the 10k that morning. For the curious, I ran the 5k in 31 minutes (definitely not a typical winning time).

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Comparisons – Day 35

Sunday, October 25th, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Artichokes of power - we all need to sprout a pair.

Artichokes of power – I am happy I sprouted a pair.

This weekend, I’m helping five wonderfully unique woman learn how to create their own version of happiness through our  Inspired Eagle Yoga retreat with our Happy Aging Yoga mats.  This is what I live for – to help others soar.  I’ve said for years I teach what I need to learn. While teaching  this technique I call “conversational yoga,” it hit me – one of the reasons I get charged from an encounter is I’m somehow comparing myself to another.  The comparison usually starts with me thinking something like this – “well how dare they, I can’t imagine ever saying that to another person.”  And then the churning, bubbling and frothing of emotionality spews from there.  It all starts with the comparison.

Soooooo…… the core issue then is of comparison and it’s  blockage to loving myself more.  I know in my work with creating accelerated learning experiences, the way to accelerate learning is to remove the blockages that slow people down with learning. The same is true with learning how to love myself more – what gets in the way of this is comparing myself to others, to earlier versions of myself, or to some ideal state I feel I should be.  Who I am is unique and perfect just the way I am – even in all the ways I perceive myself as imperfect – those are perfect too.

We were discussing this thing about perfection in class yesterday.  Perfect in comparison to what standard?  I posed a contemplative question to the group – “who amongst us would ever tell a new mom their baby was anything less then perfect?”  We all have a bit more savoir faire and good social graces to know – of course a new baby is perfect, especially through the eyes of a new mom.   And at one point in time each of us was this perfect new baby, welcomed into this world.  At our core, yes, I am that perfect baby – just the way I am.  Unique in all the ways I’m unique.  Just like we each are.

My second “wasband” (this is ex-husband) used to teasingly admonish me about my lack of desire to show off my cleavage. He called it “boobs of power.” While I was flattered he was so attracted to this aspect of me, I’m relatively uncomfortable being sexy for the general population. I am more about brains than beauty anyhow. My friend Barb has said for years – “brains can buy beauty but beauty cannot by brains.”  Some woman feel if they have it, flaunt it.  This is not who I am.

I do understand people’s complimentary intentions when they say I can better leverage this or that aspect of what they enjoy about me.  I also know when it’s a reflection of their own insecurities born out of comparing me to some “ideal” that only serves to shame or blame. Of course, allowing others to follow their own path is my main mojo – we all get to choose how we move through the world.  For me, I’m choosing to love and enjoy the unique aspects of me – which does pretty much defy comparison. There is no one else like me. Loving and enjoying more of my uniqueness is the ultimate gift for myself.  Thank you Kate for inspiring me to do this 66 day challenge to love myself more.

 

Kate’s comment: It’s really interesting to see your transition to loving yourself and owning everything about yourself. Your point of comparisons made me think of this quote by Confucius:

“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.”

Maybe comparison is easy – it’s a simple default and it’s very easy to get stuck in. It’s like the universe’s entropy – disorder is natural and it takes effort to work against hate, bad things, or in this case, comparison.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Completions – Day 34

Saturday, October 24th, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

The grand finale at cooking school. What an amazing banquet of talent. Small tasting portions were the rule of the day. A new preference now as well who wants "palette fatigue" - that is too much of a good thing.

The grand finale at cooking school. What an amazing banquet of talent. Small tasting portions is my new preference now. I learned too much of a good thing causes  “palette fatigue.”

Phew that is done.  I finished my week long Stella Culinary Boot Camp where we were trained to cook like professional chef’s.  I thought I was a good cook BEFORE this – well what I did not know about cooking was amazing.  For our final project, my teammate (Barb Sleeper) and I created a theme around “Mom’s Magic.”  This was a spin off of the name of whatever Barb would find in the fridge to serve her kids for dinner as they were growing up.  (Her grown children now want her to come live at their homes and cook for them – what a change of events…).

With our final project, our goal was to bring out the nostalgia of Mom.  To do that we choose to make a Chicken Noodle Soup and Waldorf Salad.  We started with my already legendary chicken noodle soup and then brought it up a couple notches to the required four star restaurant quality.

We started with making the bone broth our way – that meant lots of roasted bones with the skin on it.  And minimal spices and veggies – just peppercorns, onions and celery, absolutely no carrots as they over power the delicacy of the broth the way I make it.  And no other herbs – same reason as the carrots. (This was not the way they do it at cooking school).  Plus, I simmer the bones for at least 24 hours – it pulls out more flavor.

Technique builds the flavor – not lots of herbs and veggies.  After my boot camp, I now feel confident to speak with authority on why I do my chicken bone broth how I do it.   What made this one so much better than any I’ve done before – the quantity of the chicken parts we put into it.  As a class we learned how to debone chickens yesterday so we had 12 carcasses.  We made ten gallons of chicken broth  – we used all of in the making of our chicken soup.

With the ten gallons of bone broth – we took five gallons and reduced it to two gallons (talk about flavor).  We then made our own noodles.  We used conventional semolina with sprouted grain flour, lemon zest. pepper and chia seeds.  Thank god for my great executive assistant who came through with the sprouted grain flour  – the school was not able to procure that.  She brought it up from the Whole Foods in Reno.

We set up the dough the night before, and then became a noodle factory as part of the prep (this was our most fun part of the grand finale – we felt like we were in an episode of I Love Lucy).  I was a little concerned about the dough and we got back up egg noodles. I usually mill my own flour for the noodles – but the dough for these was the best I’ve ever made.  We did a practice round on the noodles with a small pan of bone broth and lemon juice.  We learned they released quite a bit of starch, so we were not going to cook the noodles right in the soup like I’ve done in the past.  We took the rest of the bone broth (five gallons), tossed in lemon juice, and cooked the noodles ahead of time.   (BTW – this is a GREAT way to make noodles – they tasted incredible by themselves).

The day before, we had already prepped the celery, onions and chicken meat that was to go into the soup. So we had extra time.  When we looked at the entire menu of what everyone else was preparing, we thought we needed more veggies.  So we decided to make my Mom’s favorite – a waldorf salad.  We whipped that out in under 15 minutes – now being the professional chefs that we are.

Every team had fifteen minutes to finalize their creations and present to the group.  Our final prep was so simple – we decided to serve the noodles separate as there were some gluten free folks in the group.  It soared – we knocked the broth out of the park and the massive dosing of onions, celery and dark chicken meat sent it to the moon.  The General Manager came in later to help himself to the banquet – said off the cuff – wow these noodles are just like what my grandmother used to make.  And YES – score – that was the exact sentiment we were shooting for.  As we learned in cooking school, it’s not so much the flavors you create, but the emotions you evoke with what you serve.

Isn’t that the same pretty much with everything?  How do you feel based on what you just experienced?  With completing this cooking school, I feel confident I can share more of my love in even more unique ways.  I can do the small things with great love – like serving love in a bowl (aka – chicken noodle soup).

 

Kate’s comment: you mention evoking emotion from flavors – and I think this is where the line gets blurred between food and art. Because if you can make people really feel something from food, doesn’t that elevate it to art? Sometimes, when I eat REALLY good food, I have to get up and dance. I know it sounds silly, but I experienced this with you with the bolognese we made before you left Haines. It even had fennel in it, but I had to get up and dance it was so good. Food can be art – this is that “food serves more than one function” aspect that has become my mantra. If you don’t feed the soul, it will starve.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Rest – Day 33

Friday, October 23rd, 2015

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

My first mentor (a Korean War Vet) used to say, don't stand when you can sit and don't sit when you can be lying down. Have we become overly stern task masters of the go go go life? Now sitting is supposedly the new smoking - when will the harsh judgement of our inherent nature cease?

My first mentor (a Korean War Vet) used to say, don’t stand when you can sit and don’t sit when you can be lying down. Have we become overly stern task masters of the go go go life? Now sitting is supposedly the new smoking – when will the harsh judgement of our inherent nature cease?

I’m at the half way point of this 66 day challenge to love myself and I need to rest.  Lucky for me, with this practicing loving myself more, resting is getting easier to do.  Yesterday was the fourth day of this cooking school boot camp.  While I’m immensely enjoying learning all types of  cooking techniques that do in fact make preparing great food much easier and quicker, I reached my saturation point and needed to rest. In the past I’ve been so hard charging and unforgiving on myself, I would just push through.  I’ve realized though with this effort, loving myself more means resting when I need to rest.  We had a half hour break after lunch and I headed to my room to take a quick nap.  I got there and the cleaning service was in the room.  In the past I would have left and allowed them to finish their work.  Becoming a stronger advocate for my interests (and not really giving much of a rip if my room was tidied up or not) – I told the gracious woman my room was fine and she was done.  She seemed quite happy about it.  So, we both won because I was more on my own side for what I really needed.

In the past it seemed to take a cataclysmic event  (usually some health issue) where I could even allow myself to rest. I’m getting better at tuning into what I really need rather than being there for others as my priority.  (I really don’t think this is my challenge alone – it seems like this is the standard MO of most mothers).  I realized almost two decades ago whenever I got a sore throat, what was really going on was I needed more rest.  I don’t get sore throats anymore, but the same inclination to go and go and go until I crash still exists. So today was a good sign I may be moving onto a new more gentle way of existing with this challenge to love myself more.  I am allowed to take care of myself in the manner that is right for me in the moment and today’s moments required a slower pace.

 

Kate’s comment: I love that we’re halfway through this challenge – how awesome! I am also very glad you’re letting yourself rest when it’s not due to a cataclysmic event. Although this is the MO of most mothers, mothers should know (or remember from when they were children) that their children want them to rest sometimes. Many of your readers should know that you don’t take vacations like other people.

In fact, you don’t take vacations at all. What people think are your vacations are actually supercharged work events where you are creating a course or writing a book – things most people need a vacation after completing. I’m glad you’re letting yourself rest as a form of loving yourself.

Weight Weight Just Love Me – Currency – Day 32

Thursday, October 22nd, 2015
Just like the beauty of this scene existed whether I captured the picture or not, love is ever present whether I notice it or not. It is not a currency that only exists when exchanged.

Just like the beauty of this scene existed whether I captured the picture or not, love is ever present whether I notice it or not. Love is not a currency that only exists when exchanged.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

I was reading an article yesterday that introduces a concept I had never considered before – that of affirmation currency and ego economics.  The premise is that we exchange sentiments of affirming other’s good in some type of quid pro quo as a way of getting our own egos stroked back in similar ways.

Of course I evaluated this for relevance of my behavior and intentions.  Over a decade ago I created a program in Cheetah Learning we call “atta cheetah,” where people who work within the company can give their colleagues attitude of gratitude points for doing something they appreciated. Over time we had to create some rules for it as it was tied to a monetary reward for the points earned.  The system that has now been in place for the past ten years is you can only extend 200 points per day to any one person.  Everyone starts with 2000 points to use per month.  If you use your alloted points, we increase your points.  When the company achieves its revenue performance goal, at the end of the month $5000 is distributed to the staff based on their percentage of Cheetah points earned.  What we have noticed is the more Cheetah points someone gives, the more they get.  So even though I bristled a bit at the idea of ego economics and affirmation currency, here in play with a system I created is validation of this very concept.

I got to wondering do I have a love myself more currency – so when I’m exhibiting the behaviors I believe bring me in line with being “better,” I’m more loving to myself?