Happy Planting

I love planting dream seeds in my heart garden.

In the beginning, my heart garden looked a lot like my three year old granddaughter’s real garden with too many seeds randomly strewn and not enough space for any one in particular to thrive.

She’s four now, and this year her garden has the makings of rows, and a pattern, and way fewer seeds. She’s learning to plant with more intention and focus and I’m learning to plant my heart garden the same way, too. 

In the past, I sort of let volunteers spring up and take over. They’ll do that in your regular garden, too, if you don’t carefully weed them out. I wasn’t always intentional about what I invited into my life. Instead of thinking about what might create more happiness for me, and then proactively working to achieve it, I played it safe and took whatever came along.

I was afraid to want something and go after it, for fear I wouldn’t get it. Back then, I believed that not getting it would be far more devastating than not trying. It took me a long time to bust that myth. It turned out that was the myth that stood between me and the great life I knew I wanted, but didn’t know how to get.

Busting your own myth, the thing that gets in the way of growing your happiness, unfortunately involves doing the thing that scares you the most. Therein lies the rub. For me, it was learning to fail successfully, to put myself out there, to try new things win or lose. It took a very, very, very, long time for that dream seed to grow but when it did, it was well worth every second of the wait.

Spring is here. Let’s think about our heart gardens and the dream seeds we’d like to plant there. Don’t worry about how practical they seem or how long they might take to grow. Plant them anyway. Soon, you’ll see little dream sprouts peeking though at you. Keep your eye on them, love them, believe in them, do things that nurture them, and before you know it, your dreams will be in full bloom, showy flowers and all.

Caren Albers, author of Happiness Junkie - A 12 Step Program to Find Inner Peace and Change Your Life. carenalbersinspirations.com

“A JOURNEY OF WORDS"- Discover the wisdom of your own words.

Are you ready to take the next BIG step toward living your dream?

Want to understand yourself better and find more meaning and direction in your life? We create our WORLD with our WORDS. Our thoughts become things. When we tell ourselves we can, we can and when we tell ourselves we can’t, well you know how that usually goes.

The words we use every day get strung together and become the fabric of the stories of our lives. Want your life’s journey to be a beautiful tapestry worthy of you? Join me, Caren4u in an online writing experience focusing on the wisdom of your own words.

Mary Anne Radmacher’s thought-provoking, inspiring words (Radmacher Focus Phrases™) begin a conversation that leads to exploration and discovery. Even if you don’t feel like an accomplished writer this class is for you. It's about so much more than writing. Write to inspire your inner strength. Write to develop a habit of using your own words to keep you focused and aimed in the direction of your dreams.

Focus Phrase writing is a small investment with huge returns. While it is about writing it is more about what you discover as you explore and write. The insight gained doesn’t end when the class ends, it lasts a lifetime.

This is a guided writing process conducted online. I offer feedback unique and specific to your writing and discovery. Encouragement and support, no extra charge, that’s just how I roll!

A JOURNEY OF WORDS begins on June 7th and concludes June 25th. $129 covers three consecutive weeks of writing Monday – Friday. Ready to enroll? Reply to caren4u@comcast.net and I will get you registered and paid.

Want a shorter class, I offer A JOG OF WORDS. $40 covers a one week preview that introduces you to the Focus Phrase writing process. At the end of the week, you can decide to continue on with me or enjoy having participated in the shorter class experience.

Here’s what some of my participants have to share about the process:

“This turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to prod my inner wisdom and to actually allow myself to creatively explore beyond the obvious. I found this to be freeing and exciting.” Anne M.

“I imagined this course would get me thinking about life choices big and small, and help me focus on my needs, but I didn't know that some choices would become very important and very clear. I've been able to set my priorities and complete some challenges that have enriched my life in marvelous and unexpected ways.” Michelle A.

Live Your Dream - http://carenalbersinspirations.com

Renaissance

I rarely see the first light of day. I’m not against it, but my natural circadian rhythm wakes me at seven thirty when the sun has made her debut and is already ascending in the morning sky. On those rare days when I do occasion a glimpse of her first rise, I know I have witnessed something truly spectacular, a birth, a new beginning.

I am seeing my own sunrise right now. On the horizon her beauty greets me more brightly each day. She emerges wondrous and whole, a perfect arc arching forward. Her appearance not coincidental, designed, desired, and now required by me. Her presence arrives as beautifully as a bird’s melodic call filling my ears with joyful songs.

It is my calling, my soul’s reach. A hand offered a hand taken, pulling me out of my past into the present where all power lives to create my future. I have answered the call and I smile now, not for the world to see, but for me.

Is Fear Driving Your Bus?

Okay, I admit it, I still haven't embraced failure as my teacher, but I'm trying. So hard that I've devised this action plan to make me unstoppable.

First, I will accept that NOTHING STANDS BETWEEN ME AND MY DREAM, EXCEPT ME. Nothing's missing. If I want to take a computer class, it’s because I want to, not because I need to. All my answers are right here inside of me.

Second, I’m putting myself on loving notice, “NO MORE DREAM AVOIDING.” “NUT UP OR SHUT UP!” Oh, that doesn't sound very loving does it? But when I saw it on a teenager's tshirt I have to say it really resonated with me

Finally, EVERY DAY instead of focusing on how far from my dream I am. I'll embrace each moment as my teacher and focus on the fact that every step I take brings me one step closer to LIVING MY DREAM.

Dream Searcher

When we are young, most of us become overly identified with our roles and carry them throughout our lives without ever even questioning them.

“Good with Numbers” becomes an accountant, “Good with People” maybe a social worker, “Good in Science” perhaps a doctor, “Good with Kids” teaches. Early on, we listen to what others say about our abilities and identify more with their assessments than we do with the vast unnamed qualities that make up our personalities.

Unfortunately, role identifications get attached to us at a very young age when we don’t fully know “who we are.” I’m sure you know many adults with varying degrees of dissatisfaction with their jobs or lives and still they cling to their original role identification unable to let go or create a new one for themselves.

I call myself a dream searcher because I dropped my childhood identity and began experimenting with “who I am.” I love trying on “new hats” to see how they fit, because fit is everything. I can be “Good with Whatever” but if it doesn’t fit my life right now, it will not fulfill me. I may stay a dream searcher my entire life, the idea does have appeal to me. It just means I haven’t ruled anything completely out yet.

Not everyone can or would want to do this, but what you can do is carve out a little corner of your life and experiment. Make room for something that has always interested you. You will be amazed at how the ripple effect of joy can overflow into other areas of your life. Before you know it, you are changed. Not because of a grand plan or a sweeping gesture, but because of your willingness to look at your world through the eyes of a child and dream.

My Inner Coach

In case you are wondering what I am up to, I spend time writing on my blog (thanks for reading), developing a website to sell personalized photo inspirations (half done), and reading three inspirational books (various stages of completion) all at the same time…..well not simultaneously. I switch back and forth between activities depending on my interest.

I’ll give you the short version of what I have learned so far….I have defined “My Life’s Purpose” (see below) into a single sentence that will become my living instructions (Coaching the Artist Within, Eric Maisel). The book is also teaching me to become my own coach, a really fun activity for goofy people like me who enjoy role playing. I’m finding practical application for this technique throughout my life…..more to come in a later post.

I have defined my dreams, then expanded them to something five times greater, and then recognized and credited myself for things that I have already accomplished on the path to them (The Nine Modern Day Muses and a Bodyguard, Jill Baldwin Badonsky, M.E.d.) Are you tired yet? I am a little.

"Bea Silly" is by far my favorite of The Nine Modern Day Muses, and the bodyguard, ARNOLD, is incredibly helpful. I can summon him whenever someone or something attempts to thwart my creativity. I have already called on him once, and he fixed it right up. Yes, he is named after the “Govenator” and yes “HE’LL BE BACK!”

Some call all this jumping around “ADD.” To me it feels more like an open mind inviting different kinds of stimulation at different times. I certainly need to be in my serious frame of mind to work on the website. I learn and then re-teach myself so many things, but I do like the way it’s turning out. So that makes it all worthwhile.

My inner coach might ask “What are you doing to make your dreams come true? And I would have to answer “a lot, but I have barely "scratched the surface" there is so much more to come.” And my coach would say “good on you, keep it coming!”