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What do you see?

I made a terrible mistake!

I saw a bug crawling out of the A/C closet yesterday morning. The corridor was dark, the bug was about one inch wide, dark and moving fast, I figured “cockroach!”

I was wearing my sleepers and without a second of hesitation, I crunched it. I walked away to put my glasses on and grab a paper towel to clean up the mini soggy mess I had made. I turned on the light still full of my sentiment of satisfaction for ridding my sacred space of that disgusting thing.

Now, with the light on, glasses on and looking at the object of my reaction up close, I realized, to my horror, that I had killed a spider, not a cockroach.

I like spiders, practically and spiritually, they are my friends. They eat bugs in the house, they hold the feminine power, they are weavers and creators. I wouldn’t kill a spider, that goes against my values. But I did, kill, a spider.

The question is, how often do we react to things because we think we know what’s happening? We assume, we misevaluate, and we can’t see objectively what’s right in front of us.

My fear of cockroaches in the house led me to kill a spider. My intention and the outcome didn’t match because of my reaction and chances are, it will happen again. Because humanity.

We’re not perfect, we make mistakes in spite of our best intentions. We have the opportunity to look at our intentions and celebrate them. We can look at our imperfections and forgive ourselves. We can also celebrate others intentions and forgive their imperfections. We all want to be loved, we all want to feel connected, we’re all doing the best we can.

How about forgiving someone, or yourself, today?
Free yourself and embrace humanity.

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Reach for the Greatest Version of Yourself

         Paola

 

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No Regrets

I’m often asked: “What is your ideal client?”.

My internal answer is: ME!

The answer I give is: Someone who seemingly has everything working in their life but they know there is something missing, and they quite can’t figure out what that is.

There is nothing wrong about having, seemingly, everything working in life. There is gratitude in all things, including that. There is an area of concern when we know that there is something more to have and be. There is an opportunity when we find out we want more. That we act upon that opportunity or not will have two outcomes only: regret, or satisfaction.

I figured out one day that there was something off about my life and I started working towards figuring it out. I also work at not regretting figuring it out at 39 instead of 29. That process and time was necessary not only to go through the experiences needed to build my wisdom library, also the fuel to get to work twice as fast, and eventually becoming a consultant. As much as possible, I wish for everybody to figure it out earlier rather than later, that’s why I do what I do, because I know there is a way, and most people are not aware of it.

We can be so effective at settling, at thinking small, at following cultural formats, at believing people that don’t want to witness the success they’re incapable or afraid of. There are so many things that can keep us from unfolding our true potential! I found that there is one thing, very effective at that, at motivating us to get against that trend: regret. When you have but a minute to live, will you die satisfied? Content? Curious? Or full of regrets?

I don’t think there is a perfect time for success, we can start anytime and still win. Unless we’re on our death bed. Then we loose!

I invite you to focus, not on all those built up expectations that so many institutions and influences have thrown on us, but rather to connect with what we truly desire, what sets our soul on fire, what is a source of purpose to us. It can be anything! Some activities look better on paper than others, again, it’s a cultural influence, let’s not fall prey of that.

So…. what does your heart tells you? Share below, I love to hear from you 🙂

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola

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The Exercise of Gratitude

I mentioned a few weeks ago the difference between conveying gratitude and actually experiencing it. I still stand by that, however, I’m witnessing that many individuals right now are struggling with just finding any gratitude at all. These times are hard and the overall consciousness is gearing more towards negativity, fear and stress than positivity, faith and peace.

Experiencing gratitude has more impact on our life than just having a pleasant moment or enjoyable time with friends. Gratitude is the very foundation for connection and happiness. If we don’t find something to be appreciative for in our life, we’re disconnecting from it. I strongly invite you to stay connected, that’s so important!

What to do if you have a hard time with gratitude right now? Start small.

We all need something to believe in, right? What do you hold as absolute truth in your life that you can be grateful for? It can  be anything. It can be coffee, seriously, start with the fundamentals. Allow yourself to hold for true that coffee is always there for you, it always helps you and you can be grateful for coffee. The point is not coffee, or chocolate, or your best friend. The point is the exercise and the attitude, the approach and the practice. The thought process involved in being grateful for coffee is the same than being grateful for our job, the people in our lives and even the political climate. Gratitude can be found everywhere, it’s harder to find in some areas than in others, that’s all.

There are some things in life we stop doing, for one reason or another, and we go back to doing again at a later date. Like bicycling for example, the body doesn’t forget. Gratitude works the same way. We all know how to be grateful, sometimes we stop, for one reason or another, and we can get back on that bicycle just the same. It will take a little practice and awareness at first, I know you can do it though.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola
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Gratitude and Apologies

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a national holiday I’ve only recently been involved with since my arrival in the U.S. in 1996. I don’t have any romantic or historic attachment to it. After years of working in retail, I’ve developed more sensibility to Black Friday than the day prior. I just never got into the whole Thanksgiving thing. I don’t even enjoy turkey, or football. I appreciate that this is an important day for a lot of people and I’m personally all about Gratitude!

I see a lot of posts and references to Gratitude.What brings me to pause is the idea that a lot of individuals will mention gratitude, however, they won’t feel grateful. The words are there, the intention is not. Gratitude can be a foreign concept for some. We’re brought up to say thank you, and in the U.S., we’re brought up with Thanksgiving. Gratitude could be assumed to be as natural as brushing our teeth, I know for a fact that it’s not. We say the words, however, the feeling is missing.

There are side effects to gratitude: joy, satisfaction, awareness and peace. With 70% of the U.S. population unsatisfied with their job alone, it is safe to assume that the gratitude factor is low. Considering the current political climate, it’s safe to say that joy and peace are pretty low as well. The eternal optimist in me refuses to bow down to the current events though, and I will stick to my silver lining attitude. That includes gratitude for living in a country that has carried so many inspirational individuals and still does. I want to focus on that.

I know we can shift from grim to grateful. I know it because I taught myself to do it. I know it can be done!

As I reflected about the feeling of gratitude, the closest model that came to mind was apologizing. As children, we’re taught to apologize if we were involved in a situation that had a negative impact on others. We’re taught to be accountable and to recognize the consequences of our actions. In the U.S., we even apologize for other people’s negative experiences we were not involved in. We do it out of sympathy. That’s nice, although empathy would be more productive in my opinion.

As we learnt to apologize as children, we may have been reminded to “mean it”. The words we use to apologize only carry so much weight, fully appreciating the situation and its consequences is what matters. Gratitude works the same way. Saying “thank you” is nice, meaning it is what really matters. Being able to be grateful as many days out of the year as possible is where magic happens.

Today, tomorrow, and the days after, I’m grateful for the people I met in my life that inspired me to tap into my inner strength to become the happiest version of myself to date.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola

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