Do What you Love

Music is one love of mine, it helps me re-connect with my soul.  There’s nothing like an uplifting song to help me get through a tough time or renew my faith in humanity.  As you reflect on the things you love, that fill your heart with joy and nourish your soul,  consider how much of a priority you give to doing them.

• What will help you create more time to do those things you love?

Follow Your Passion and Purpose   

Many of you have probably heard of Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who amazed and surprised everyone in 2009 on Britain’s Got Talent, including Simon Cowell.  She’s now gone on to make her living from singing, a dream she always had.

• What is holding you back from really stepping forward to reach your dreams?

If you haven’t seen that original performance, click here .  Like most of the other 85 million of us who saw this video, your heart will soar as you watch Susan share her passion and live her dream.  Last year Susan sold more records than Lady Gaga.  Now, even as she’s outsold Paul McCartney and Elton John, she says she is just an ordinary person with a job to do.

I like getting and sharing good video clips of inspiring people.   I saw this interview recently of Susan Boyle by Pierce Morgan.  He asks her about fame, doing what she loves, and pursuing her dreams. What strikes me about her interview is that she says she puts her love of the job first, over any interest in how well she’s selling records or doing financially.  Her fame hasn’t gone to her head, she embraces her job as a singer now, and she still sings for the love of it.

Watch these video clips to help inspire you to follow your dreams, do what you love, and share your gifts with the world.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day doing what you love and sharing your love with others.

Linda has a new Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson “Like” this page if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.  See also her website- www.lindajferguson.com for information on her coaching work, keynote presentations, and books

Click this link to order Linda’s 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”. 

If I knew then what I know now, I really wonder if I would have chosen this path to live my dreams. Today is the 10-year anniversary of my personal and spiritual growth business, Finding IT. I have a picture of me on the exact day that I left corporate America with my box full of hope and my heart full of dreams.  I wrote on the box “Outta here Metris.  Feb. 5, 2002 at 3:05pm.”  I’m holding a ribbon that says “Spirit award” in one hand and my other hand is in a thumbs up position.  I look so young (and was young 30 years old).  I see the passion in my smile and the naiveté in my eyes.

I remember that day as if it was yesterday.  I was put into a situation in which I had to choose to fight for my dream.  I didn’t have to physcically leave my job in corporate America, but I knew in my heart and soul that I needed to spiritually leave.  On Valentine’s Day, I sent cards to my network and this is what I had to say.

It’s Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2002

And I want to celebrate this day with you!

For years I’ve been busy preparing to follow my heart

And today living my dream full-time is what I’ll start.

A training and consulting company – InnerConnections my name

Focusing on spirit in the workplace will be my “claim to fame.”

So thank you for helping me feel so blessed, fulfilled and whole

Because in some special way you’ve helped me achieve this goal.

After many years of trying to focus on bringing spirit in the workplace and struggling, I changed my focus to living out my spirituality in my work, in whatever work I was doing.  That is when I changed my business name to Finding IT and refocused my energies.  I gave up what “IT” had to look like and instead let whatever IT was meant to be come to me.

I was recently inspired to enter a national video contest to share your expertise through Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to share how I’ve lived out my own spirituality through my life’s work with this business.

www.janaebower.com/celebration

Making this video was overwhelming (yes somewhat in the production of it), but mostly in what the video represented to me.  When you see the video and see me talking about one of my books that I wrote this past 10 years, what you see is the finished product.  What you don’t see is all the heart and soul of the behind-the-scenes unfinished product and unfinished person that it really took to get to that finished product.  What you don’t see is the faith that’s it taken me to endure this past 10 years through all the obstacles and heartaches. What you don’t see is the countless hours of pure heart and soul that’s gone into the business.

What I hope you do see is the incredible gratitude I feel for how pursuing my life’s work has been one of the most incredible blessings of my life.  I’ve grown so much spiritually by having to live out my faith in whatever work I was being called to do.

Like the quote above, by realizing the dream I’ve realized who I’ve become as a person.  My hope is that you will too realize who you are as you go for the big dreams in your life.

Join me in celebrating the journey of our BIG dreams.  www.janaebower.com/celebration.

Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

What is Emerging?

Sit still, find quiet time to hear what is rustling beneath the awareness of your mind. Discern the new growth below the surface. What is  germinating,  building energy to emerge in your work and your world?  Notice what shifts or new opportunities emerge for you in the coming weeks.   Keep a journal of thoughts, ideas, dreams, interesting conversations for the next 30 days.  Then review it to see if there are patterns or themes to guide you into the spring.

I’ve had numerous conversations lately about what this year is about- the dawn of a new era, a new beginning, a new phase of human existence.  I don’t believe 2012 is a year of catastrophe.  Rather I see it as a time when many are experiencing personal and global wake-up calls.  We are being nudged, if not jolted, into awakening.  We are being asked, guided, forced, inspired to live differently.

Personal and Global Awakening

I believe we are shifting into a new era, a time of greater connectivity across the planet.  It’s also a time that requires greater connectivity within yourself.  No more escaping, running, hiding from pain, doubts, fears that hold you back.  It is a time to step more fully into the truth, power, and beauty of who you are.  It is a time to tap into your gifts, clear away the clutter of your mind, your work, your life, your relationships to live more authentically, more intentionally.  This helps not only you but everyone around you.

You have a chance to shift gears, to expand your horizons.  In doing so, you join the dance with others to transform the planet- emotionally, energetically, physically, mentally.

Be Still and connect with your Inner Wisdom, your Source of inspiration and renewal.

Linda has a new Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson “Like” this page if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.  See also her website- www.lindajferguson.com for information on her individual and group coaching, workshops, and keynote presentations.

Click this link to order Linda’s 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”. 

Here’s a nice video clip for the Winter Feast 2012.

Moving Inward

I like to use this time of colder, darker days to move inward, to connect more intentionally with the Source of my being.  Something about cold winter months lends itself to silent reflection to center and focus.  Moving inward allows for more contemplation about life’s bigger picture.

Set up some time to journal, light some candles, soak in a warm bath, anything that helps you be still and listen.  When I lived in the woods and got snowed in, I loved walking around my house looking for deer tracks.  At night I liked to walk up my drive seeing the stars shine brightly.  In the morning I would look at the snow hanging on the trees with the morning light dancing off the limbs.  I found joy sitting and listening to the birds or watching them gather berries near my window.  Winter sometimes forced me inward, even when I didn’t want to be stuck home.  Yet this time allowed me to slow down, to breathe deeper, to focus on the simple things that were showing up as beauty, joy, life.

I invite you to find some time during your day to turn off your iphone, ipod, ipad and laptop and just be with yourself.  Do something intentionally to tap into your Source for guidance, inspiration, support, and clarity on your larger purpose- the reason you are here now, in this time, in your particular life.

As you sit with yourself  listen for what calls you at this time.  What rumblings are stirring your soul?  Notice, pay attention, move inward, explore.

Join the Winter Feast for the Soul for the next 40 days.  Take time (20-40 mins a day) to renew your spirit, your connection with greater beauty and inner harmony.  Listen to the meditations or do some other inner work to re-connect with yourself.  You’ll find renewal of spirit, mind and body.

Linda has a new Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson “Like” this page if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.  See also her website- www.lindajferguson.com for information on her coaching work, video clips and book samples

Click this link to order Linda’s 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”. 

The idea for this poem and some of the names of God were inspired from one of my son’s lessons in his family formation program from our church.

God is…

Awesome and awestruck with us

Blessings which overflow

Creator of all good

Devoted to us

Everywhere we are in everything we do

Faithful to our greatest dreams

Glorious and grace filled

Holy, holy, holy

I am that I am

Just and just wanting to be with us

Kindhearted, giving us hearts of kindness

Loving us deeply and devoutly

Marvelous in all his acts of goodness

Never-ending is his quest to love us

Open-minded extending open arms

Patiently and persistently pursing us

Quietly waiting for us

Righteous, showing us the right way

Soulful, wanting to fill our soul

Teacher of our most important lessons

Understanding, always seeking to understand us

inValuable gift of heart and hope

Wise beyond us and wise within us

eXcellent at helping us excel

Yours truly who wants to be truly yours

Zealous for our love

Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

King’s Words for Inspiration

When I first visited the King Memorial in Atlanta , GA I was so excited and in awe that I literally trembled.  To hear tapes and see videos clips of his talks and work left me breathless.  When I later moved to Atlanta, I visited the memorial frequently. It was my pilgrimage for inspiration in my work.

I attended periodic services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, just a block away from the memorial, and soaked up the energy, the spirit.  I sat in the pews imagining what it was like to hear King preach from the pulpit with the trumpet Amen choir behind him.  This was exciting stuff for a white woman from the Midwest! Let the words of Martin Luther King Jr. inspire and fill your heart.

Through some of those forays to the King Memorial and Ebenezer Church I met an elderly woman who attended the church as a little girl in the 1930’s and 40’s when King’s father was preacher there.  She continued to attend in the 50’s and 60’s and heard MLK Jr. as well. I asked her what it was like to hear Dr. King on Sunday mornings.  She said, “Marty was good, but oh girl, you should have heard Daddy King.”  Wow, that blew my mind! I couldn’t believe that my idol, who’s words seemed to move mountains, paled compared to his father as a preacher.

The Beloved Community

Dr. King’s legacy of social justice can be summed up in his vision of the Beloved Community- a place where no matter their skin color all people would be treated with dignity and respect, would be cherished as God’s children, would have equal opportunity to achieve their own greatness. King believed the Beloved Community was achieved through the alleviation of economic inequity and the achievement of economic justice. I invite you to take some time this week to read some of his speeches and lectures to get a feel for his vision of the Beloved Community.

Many of you have heard that the year 2012 is a year where the world will be made anew, that radical transformation is upon us.  I’d like to think that this year the Beloved Community will take hold across the globe.  We’ve seen the global rumblings for such a world already in 2011.

To support the global transformation this year, in tribute to King and to keep the vision of a world living in peace and social equality, I am going to write periodic blogs on how we create that Beloved Community in our own lives and in our workplace.  Though King addressed social change on a state and national level, his ideas and his writing can be applied to our everyday lives.  Indeed if we don’t apply the ideas in our own lives, the Beloved Community cannot be created.

Love, Peace, Compassion, Justice begins with us.

Martin Luther King, Jr. truly was a vessel of Divine Grace.  And so are you- in your own unique glorious way, in your own life, in your own work.

Will you help create the Beloved Community this year, today, this week- in your family, at your work, in your world?

Leave a comment below to share how you are working to support the Beloved Community.

Visit Linda’s website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her spiritual life coaching work, view video clips of her talks, and more blog posts.

“Like” Linda’s FaceBook Fan page– https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.

Also now available- 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”. 

Fear raises its head all day long- ‘I can’t finish this by then’, ‘how can they ask me to do that?’, ‘she doesn’t listen to me’, ‘ he doesn’t respect my work’, ‘they’ll never give us what we need’, ‘I’ll never be able to please them, ‘I’ll never be able to afford that’…..

Sound familiar?  OK, now how does love sound?  ‘Sure, I can get that for you’, ‘Praise Be, I have what I need’, ‘ I can’t wait to see how this turns out!’, ‘I’m glad to help you with that’…..  Allow grace to enter and fill your life.

How would your day flow if every time you had thoughts of lack or worry, you KNEW you were supported, guided, strong enough, smart enough, had all that you needed to meet your life challenges?

What helps you shift thoughts of lack or fear to ones of love, acceptance, joy, thanksgiving, praise?

Thank God/Spirit/Allah/Divine Wisdom in advance that you have enough, are enough, know enough, give enough.  Affirm that this is true when you encounter fear.  This is the paradigm shift for a new era.  This is our mission for responding and working with love and grace in 2012.

New Ways of Responding

If you fear the unknown, uncertainty, fear what lies ahead in your future, share your gifts with others lovingly and joyfully.  Actively cultivate a caring network of friends and colleagues by offering assistance, information, resources they may need to support their work. Focusing on ways to share your gifts helps you shift your focus from fear to support.

If you fear change, know that marvelous transformation awaits you.  Embrace the wonderful opportunities presented to be more fully awakened, alive, passionate, living on purpose.  Transformation is the theme of this year.  As you raise your vibrational energies, you respond to your world in more caring, compassionate, inspired ways.  As you move through your fears, you model for others how to live courageously, authentically, whole.

If you fear losing someone dear, know that you can never be separated from God or the God of your being. You are the one you’ve been waiting for.  Welcome your sweet loving presence home in your heart. Rejoice in your loving presence.

When you are worried about finances, give freely and joyfully to a good cause.  Give with an open heart.  Practice giving with love and care and build your giving muscles.  Focusing on what you share takes your mind off what you may lack. Such giving clears your emotional hose- allowing for more abundance and positive energy to flow through you.  As you give, so shall you receive.

Drinking the Sweet Water of Life

If your life is a glass of pure water, infused with Spirit-filled energy, do you see it as half empty or half full?  Do you let the water retain its purity or will you add sludge to it from your worries, fears, doubts, concerns?  Sip joyfully the refreshing elixir of life.  Let it sustain you, renew you, and replenish your soul.

Aaahhh, doesn’t life taste sweet!

Linda has a new Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson “like” this page if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.

Now available- 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”.  For FREE download of the Intro and Chapter 1, go to: http://www.lindajferguson.com/path-for-greatness/

What an incredible year this is going to be!

Can you feel it?  Can you sense the energy, the excitement, the amazing unfolding that is happening?

I did a burning bowl ceremony and gave thanks in advance for all the wonderful, beautiful blessings I was going to experience this year.  You can read more about this on my website blog post last week (http://www.lindajferguson.com/2011/12/letting-go-and-getting-ready/ ).  One of the biggest things I gave thanks for is my ability to share my work with you, for being able to write and speak on ideas to support you fulfilling your life purpose and heart’s desire- for facilitating you standing more powerfully in the truth of Who You Are, as a fully embodied spiritual presence of peace and love.  It is such a pleasure to support your journey here through this blog.

I thoroughly enjoy working with my coaching clients to see how they are able to express and experience their Divine Essence, to watch them achieve their goals, to see the brilliant ways they share their gifts, to awaken them to more positive possibilities, to help them reach their greatest potential.  God I love my job!

So what bold and beautiful ideas do you want to manifest this year?  What goals will rock your world?  What do you want to set your sights on this year that will make you jump out of bed each day and shout, “Haleluiah, I get to create today”?  How do you want to express and experience the magnificent being that you are?

As you may recall from my blog post this time last year, I reminded you that you had a mission.  That mission was to discover your strengths and practice them daily, to use your talents and gifts well, to prepare yourself to step into your greatness.  How did that go for you last year?  How do you want to share your greatness with the world?

Now is the time to step into your greatness, your power, your authentic self.  The world is waiting for you to show up, fully alive and ready to offer your talents and energy.  As Marianne Williamson reminds us, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”

2012 is a year of major changes.  I’ll write more on this in future blogs.  For now, feel the energy, embrace the changes that will be laid in front of you. Tune in to the excitement that is building.  Step into your passion for living as a fully awakened, inspired spiritual being.

Share this blog with others who are on this journey.  Many of us have accepted this calling, to be a presence for Love, harmony, beauty, peace, compassion, prosperity, grace, unlimited positive potential.  You will mirror this for others as you step fully into it yourself.

Welcome aboard.  Enjoy the ride.  What a year this will be!

Linda's 1st book, 10th Anniversary edit.

Linda has a new Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson “Like” her page if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.  See also Linda’s webpage for more ideas for working and living in spiritual alignment- www.lindajferguson.com

Linda’s 10^th Anniversary edition of  “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service” is available by clicking on the title link.  If you want to read more of Linda’s ideas for working spiritually or want to support a friend who desires to work with passion and purpose, buy Linda’s book today.

What I appreciate about his insights along with co-author Linda Francis are some different perspectives around becoming more emotionally aware.  They describe emotional awareness as becoming aware of everything  you feel at every moment.  In order to do this we need to become aware of our inner landscape of emotions and feelings inside of us, our external landscape of how these emotions are manifesting to the world and then becoming a detached observer of it all.

Our greater goal to becoming more emotionally aware is our own spiritual health. According to the authors, the goal of spiritual growth calls us to create a new and deeper understanding of who we are and what our purposes are.  One way that we can grow is to learn how to own and claim our authentic power, which is the alignment of our personality with our soul. We can only do this when we are fully engaged in the present moment.  This is “the longest journey that we will make it life is from your head to your heart.”

How they describe our emotions in terms of our energy system was very interesting.  They believe that our emotions tell us how our energy is being processed.  As our energy leaves our body, it gives us messages or signals from our soul.  “Every emotion offers you information about you that’s important.” If you ignore the emotion, you ignore essentially soulful information.  The more important the message thus the stronger the emotion you will feel.

“Any painful emotion means you are acting, speaking and thinking in fear and doubt.” When you don’t have painful emotions you are acting, speaking and thinking in the opposite with love and trust.

Let me give you an example of what happened to me while I was reading this book in which applies what I was learning.  I had a painful emotion, this headache right above my left eye that lasted for a week or so.  The energy center is by the forehead, often referred to as the third eye or 6th energy center.  This energy center allows you to see beyond the physical into the universal.  “It allows you to know the intentions of others, even if they do not express them.”  As I was reading this I wondered where this was coming from and whose intentions might this be from.  A few days later I come to find out that my husband was having the worst week of his 15 year career at this company.  We discussed and prayed about his situation.  I noticed how the pain began to lessen as did his stressful situation.

A simple and profound way that they described the concept of stress I really liked.  They said that all stress really is is resistance to your life.  The more resistance we have for things in our lives, the more stress we feel.  Ever notice how when things are good it’s like we are going with the flow?  When we resist the flow of life is when we bring stress to our lives.  I’ll be doing the same thing two different days, one day I’ll go with the flow and the other day I resist it.  Both give me different outcomes.  The first is based in good energy processed with love and trust, the later is when our energy is being processed in fear and doubt.

As you reflect on this past year, think about how emotionally aware you’ve been and how stressful of a year it’s been.  I encourage you to use what our soul is communicating with us, our emotions through our energy systems, to make 2012 a year in which you don’t resist but persist in the flow of your life.

Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

Three themes caught my attention recently: A leader I work with told me that he loved gravity, the force.  When I looked confused, he explained, “Gravity is a constant invitation to drop things rather than pick them up or carry them around for very long.”  Hmmm…. Then, I was listening to NPR about ways to create a “greener” holiday season by simplifying and letting go of “stuff.”  Finally, after shopping this weekend, I discovered “The 12 Days of Christmas” song recycling in my head.

In the spirit of all three themes, I offer you 12 ways leaders can create more joy (with the help of gravity and some practice.)

1. Drop your need to know. Increase your genuine sense of “wonder” and invite new relaxation, creativity, enthusiasm and possibilities you will never discover without it.
2. Drop your over-exaggerated sense of importance. If you think you are the only one who “gets it” or can do “it,” you’ve mis-stepped as a leader.  Stop overburdening yourself, overlooking others who want to help and stressing everyone far more than needed. Use the time you find to develop and leverage others more effectively.
3. Let go of any hope of being perfect. Put it down.  Your people won’t be perfect and neither will you.  Dropping this impossible standard will release you to relax, laugh more, delegate more and use others’ input as developmental opportunities vs. “tests” of adequacy.
4. Put down your seriousness. Laugh at yourself and your mistakes as an awesome way to keep perspective, loosen up and invite others to see you as a person they can approach with ease.
5. Surrender your sense of being indispensible. Go home.  Take breaks.  Use all your vacation days, unplugged.  Invest in your vitality to keep yourself at your best and set a great example for others.
6. Drop being the first and most dominant voice. Listen more.  Shrink your airtime and you will connect with others, show that you care, and learn things you’ll never discover any other way.
7. Let go of pre-judging. Hold history like a swordsman holds a sword…not to tight and not too loose.  If you hold on to history too tightly, your prejudices will only guarantee more history.  If you relax and welcome a fresh start, for yourself and others, you will set the stage for creating an adventure worth living.
8. Release self criticism. Ok, let go of criticism of others too, but start with yourself.  Substitute self reflection and learning for obsessively dumping on yourself.  Contrary to what you may have learned, you really will be brilliant without keeping your foot on the back on your neck.
9. Drop the chatter. Whether the chatter is in your head, on TV, radio, or social media, turn it off.  Art comes from a blank paper, music from silence and your most authentic knowing and creative ideas from a place of relaxed “flow.”  Learn to relax deeply.  It takes practice, but start with deep breathing during meetings and your commute.
10. Disengage from so much “how”. Getting consumed with “how will we ….,” puts you on the hamster wheel of urgency, overwhelm and stress.  Get off by focusing yourself and others first on “why” something is worth doing and “what” you can contribute.  Once you are clear on why and what, the how’s will flow far more easily.
11. Drop contracting. Anytime you feel tight, let it go.  Move, exhale deeply, talk it out, and feel gravity pull down every cell.  Your health, creativity and effectiveness will thank you for it.
12. Release boredom. Let go of the disengagement that causes boredom.  Wake up to reconnecting with what is most important to you and contributing what fulfills you so you show up enthusiastically, at your best.

So, when you drop all of these, what’s left?  What do you hold on to?  My wish for you is that you hold on to the moment and stay attentive to the freshness of each breath, situation, and person.  Hold on to hope.  Like a puppy, it is an active thing that endlessly snoops around for something intriguing and delightful.  Hold on to gratitude; it brings joy, fulfillment and rest from the struggle.  Hold on to that which lives in your heart as your best source for what is most important and meaningful.  Hold on to your amazing ability to make a positive difference.  Enjoy your brilliance this season.

May your season be abundant with joy, freedom and flow.  May gravity and your spirit be well fed by your choices.

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,Strategy Consultant
Corporate Adventure