Elaine Clark's blog

I've been watching two puppies playing this weekend. We have a nine month old and got an 8 week old to become his buddy. Sometimes they forget their own strength and one yelps and we come running to make sure they’re ok. Then they go at it again and don't want to stop. I've begun to notice that when they get really aggressive it really means they’re really tired and I carry the little one in and the other follows. He fights being in my arms and then I sit him down and he literally passes out right there on the floor.

They’re so much like little children. They go and go and are afraid they’re missing out on something if they take a nap. They also keep grabbing each other's toys, just like little kids. Still want what the other's got and as soon as they get it they go after what they just left behind.

How do you create strategy in your life and not only plan and set goals but also roll with ways that change comes up. We can have a goal in our life to win the game and so we can also create the strategy on how to win.

Where people get stuck is when they get so focused on the goal that when change comes up they automatically feel that the issue or change is stopping the goal and they forget to focus on the opportunity to roll with what shows up. What is showing up has to be dealt with in order to get to the goal.

That's why it's called a rebound. Just because the shot was missed doesn't mean that we or someone on our team can't catch the rebound and reshoot and still score. We CAN rebound through these times as long as we stay focused on the goal. And if we don't win today, we can reset our strategy, look at the tapes of our lives, figure out where we didn't quite like the consequences of our choices and rechoose how to play for our goal.

So, commitments to actions:

There is a lot of fear and anger around right now that I can't ignore.

Health scares and the economy reacting to health scares, and more

economy and it goes on. We've talked each week about how to be with

all of this. How to find our way to being in balance while everything is

all over the scale. In doing this, find your joy outside of the stories of

the time. Some reminders:

Life works in cycles. We have been through difficult times before and

we can and will cycle through this one again. Remind yourself what is

important to you right here and right now. If your health is

important, redesign the way you are eating, even if you are eating

well tweak that a little to practice your power. For relationships,

Let’s continue on the decluttering the brain theme. We've noticed what happens when we keep collecting stuff, gold as well as garbage and let it pile up in our garage (brain), we also talked about closing the garage door so that we stop collecting other people's clutter.

Now, let’s get clear that what we are thinking, being, doing as our own beliefs and not leftover clutter from the past events and interpretations or from other people telling us how to be. how to know that how we are parenting, performing, and choosing what to do next is based in our own highest good. 

Are your frustrations showing up a lot or do you get really happy and excited because you are living fully in your own life? How to determine that it is your own gold?

So, last time we talked about what a garage looks like when we keep shoving garbage into it as well as gold for years and suddenly look at it and wonder -- what happened? We figure out at some point that we need to declutter and it looks overwhelming but we have to take it a step at a time and tackle it so that we can throw away the garbage and find the gold.

What I want to talk about now is the idea that we sometimes take on other people’s garbage. By using this garage metaphor, I don’t know anyone who puts a sign in their yard saying --- Free garage space! Park your cars! Pile your junk and give me your rotten stinky food! I’ll take care of it all for you! For FREE! Really, seriously people!!! Dump in this space here and don’t stop dumpin!

Time for seeing what patterns show up in your external world that are results of your internal world. If you notice that there’s clutter some place in your home or car it is usually the same thing going on in the mind. How many thoughts are going on, arguments, are you being positive or negative on yourself? By shifting the thinking that is going on, we can declutter our lives.

Start with the mind. Check in with thoughts, emotions, fears, anything that doesn't best suit your goals. Making goals and knowing your progress has nothing to do with  making yourself wrong for NOT making the progress.

Here we are! Talking BALANCE! The first image that comes to mind when looking at what Balance feels like is being a kid on the playground on a see saw. Standing in the middle of it and finding that place where my feet are perfectly spread and I can keep the board flat. A little scooch and the board goes up or down and if someone comes along to mess with it, I may have to shift a lot to get it back to center.

What we are hearing a lot of right now, is things are NOT in Balance. Life happens, it's not perfect, so what now? Who do we get to be in all of this? Do we throw a fit and runaway from the playground? Do we chase after the kid who messed with it and react to the bully? Do we go home crying to mommy and pout that things didn't turn out the way we wanted it to be? Do we cry for a moment, get upset and then regroup?

THAT moment, THIS moment is about how we choose to get back into BALANCE. These moments are a statement of who we are right here, right now.