Today is tomorrow’s history – My thoughts on Woman’s History Month

There aren’t many days in my life that don’t include Women’s History Month. Why? Because like Black History Month, these are not one-time opportunities for reflection, learning and celebration, they are active verbs in my life and business.

Women’s History Month in the US began as a week in March which eventually Congress voted in 1987 to be a month in perpetuity. Jimmy Carter in his 1980 Presidential Message designating the week said, “…the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well”. Although I love learning about inventions, firsts and courageous stories of the past, there is a part of me (my calling) that feels compelled to recognize that today is tomorrow’s history; therefore it’s important to be about the business of inventing, achieving, leading, being strong and loving NOW. The thing is, this doesn’t call for anything monumental. It’s really based on OUR daily activities regarding women and as women.

You can’t help but reflect that it has been a whole year (give or take depending where on the globe you live)- an historic, chaotic, global-reset of a year, since the world as we knew it came to a halt. As the weeks became months, among the many things I (we all) dealt with was a profound mourning for an aspect of my calling and business that I hold dear. All of my workshops, Meetups, events, conferences and retreats were canceled. It felt like a huge part of how I LIVE women’s history month had been cut off. In the beginning of 2020 I had multiple beautiful gatherings. small and large!

What did you mourn most during 2020? Have you acknowledged it?

If you know me, you probably know I’m an extrovert. That means that while introverts across America were reveling in their newfound freedom from people (the folks in my household included), we extroverts were looking out of our windows crying into our beverage of choice.

While I think of gathering as fulfilling a big part of my mission – creating safe, powerful spaces for aligned community and transformative action– I learned that this value is not restricted to in-person events. It is woven into the very fabric of what I do and how I do it.

Is there something that you thought was lost or gone that has shown up in other ways?

When shelter-in-place went into effect for a large portion of America, we were in the middle of my 9 month coaching program Alchemy. There were many times when my clients struggled to find the time, space in their homes (doing Zoom in cars) and energy to show up to the coaching calls. In full transparency there were times when I just wanted to stay in bed instead of showing up to serve. I’M SO GLAD WE DID. There was a session where I suspended all teaching and coaching and we just talked through fears, tears and laughter,. About everything going on and how it was effecting us.

“I’m so glad I chose to say yes to Alchemy, I don’t know what I would’ve done without y’all throughout this!”

“With everything going on, I’m so happy that I am still moving forward toward my goal. I see how much it means to me.”

“Thank you for giving me this space to keep showing up, even when I don’t think I can.”

THIS. This is what National Women’s Month is to me. Not just achievements, broken glass ceilings and acts of courage but the inner workings of what goes into creating the acts that show up in our history books. This and my company values of

  • Wholeness – To leave no parts of you behind on this journey of success. No matter how janky, broken or damaged aspects of your life seem to be, when accepted, integrated and loved, it forms the Whole and Complete YOU. Bring it ALL!
  • Trust – Even when you don’t want to, when you’re exhausted, when everything around you is in pure chaos, trust in your decisions or Divine timing enough to simply show up and get your miracles.
  • Community – If you’ve been to my events, you’ve heard me say, “Your vision should be to big to do alone”. This means seeking out and accepting support. It also means not going through shit alone. Let your sisters pour into you when your cup is empty; When it’s full, let the overflow quench someone else’s thirst.

Whew, can I get a hallelujah? Annnd, I’m not done. I want to give you a peek into my world to see how Women’s History month shows up for me personally. But that’s next week. Until then, comment and let me know what part of this spoke to you? How do you experience women’s history month?

In Spirit,

Lighting an inner fire with the Inauguration!

These are some of my favorite photos the from Jan 20th inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (Oakland, Ca♥ native), interlaced with fiery quotes from the inaugural poet Amanda Gorman (click on her photo for the transcript & video).

With each of these, slip yourself into the photo or substitute “I” for “we” in the quotes.

  1. What are you being sworn into for this year?
  2. Are you brave enough to be it?
  3. How are you/will you use your voice?
  4. Who are you supporting while standing in your own majesty?
  5. Are you willing to step boldly into your future?

? FIRE, I tell you!


The Hill We Climb -Amanda Gorman (excerpts)


When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms, as we free it.
For there was always light.
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free

The Hill we climb

That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together victorious

It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

What spoke to your inner fire today? Comment below and let me know.

In Spirit,

Your peace is about to be threatened…

If it isn’t already.

This is what so many are feeling right now. On the dawn of the United States’ presidential election, the energy is high and nerves are frazzled. Folks are finding themselves arguing with family members, deleting people from their social media feeds, getting caught in Trump car rallies across the country and feeling fearful not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

Let me be real with you…

I make it a point to not spend much time on public channels when the energy is this high, yet I’ve found myself completely out of sorts lately.

  • Forgetful
  • Distracted
  • Not getting along with technology
  • Emotions on a rollercoaster

Not my usual. Ok y’all, since I’m being real-real, this could all just be related to peri-menopause lol! Except that during a prayer & meditation session on Sunday, I got this hit:

Nothing is wrong with you. You have opened yourself up to a higher level of feeling, listening, aligning with your truth and serving. That comes with being more attuned with the energy around you.

#mindblown

It isn’t just me! We have been more still as a society these past 8 months than ever before (in our lifetimes). It has opened us ALL up to MORE:

  • More of our inner selves
  • More of our desires
  • More of our shadows
  • More of that which connects us all as human beings

It is a lot. And we need to acknowledge the beauty AND burden of it. I have a suggestion for a time such as this – especially for this week:

Pause to give yourself what you need.

As many pauses as it takes. Once in the morning, once every hour or whenever your body tells you to. I don’t care if you are in the middle of a meeting, in the restroom or need to pull over while driving. Make YOUR needs a priority this week.

Does your physical self need deep breathing or a stretch? Does your emotional self need to yell or cry? Does your mental self need music or meditation (a break from thinking)? Does your spiritual self need a prayer partner or to put your feet on the earth?

My happy place is with my plant babies. You can bet I’ll be spending the day repotting and pruning between coaching sessions.

I’m challenging you. If you are down to give yourself what you need this week, whenever you need it, comment below with a simple:

I CAN AND I WILL

In Spirit,

STOP AND FEEL (Breonna Taylor)

Breonna Taylor.

Stop talking, working, moving…

STOP AND FEEL.

Feel the

Shock

Betrayal

Sorrow

Rage

Grief

Pain

Hopelessness

Disgust.

Now what?


BURN IT DOWN.

Pervasive and entrenched racism

The joke that is our justice system

Incestuous politics

Institutions of health based on illness

An insidious educational system

Broken capitalism.

Burn these paradigms down and

BUILD IT

The f***

BACK UP

RIGHT.

Burn and build. It all begins with each of us. Choose to be emotionally healthy. Don’t push it down, ignore it or dissociate; honor Breonna’s (and so many others’) memory by feeling. You can set fire to the things that don’t serve the whole with informed voting, getting involved and personal responsibility. You can build by supporting people, causes and businesses that align with your values. This includes supporting and investing in YOUR DREAMS. I have 2 questions for you:

  1. What paradigm in your life will you set fire to?
  2. What are you building?

Me? I am torching the outdated models and beliefs of what women should put first in their lives and what determines their success. I am building a movement of women living empowered, joy-filled & wealthy lives!

In Spirit,

Photo credit https://www.wsj.com/

Losing Black Panther, finding gold

Heartbroken. This word pretty much sums up my feelings this weekend as I, along with the rest of the world, found out that “Our King” from Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, shockingly passed away from cancer at 43.

My father would’ve been 80 years on this earth August 29th. I was already gathering pieces of my heart as tributes, pictures, quotes and disbelief about Chadwick’s death flooded the media. It was time for me to Feel, Find & Thrive.

That is what I promised myself at the beginning of this long year. Reeling from losing a close girlfriend and watching the pandemic spread throughout the world, I realized that in order to stay sane, functioning and joyful, I had to pivot my perspective and emotions regarding death. After doing my spiritual work, I chose to Feel, Find & Thrive when dealing with the inevitable cycle of life. I make space to FEEL the loss, emotions and memories that come up. I then FIND inspiration from the person’s life or situation to use as fuel in my life to THRIVE. In essence, I use the Japanese art of Kintsugi to mend by broken heart using the gold from my loved ones and enhance my life in the process.

Kintsugi -It means, literally, ‘to join with gold’. In Zen aesthetics, the broken pieces of an accidentally-smashed pot should be carefully picked up, reassembled and then glued together with lacquer inflected with a very luxuriant gold powder. There should be no attempt to disguise the damage, the point is to render the fault-lines beautiful and strong. www.theschooloflife.com/

I actually didn’t write this to share my process around death. I am writing to share the gold. In the hopes that it will break down the age-old paradigms in our minds of WHEN we deserve to experience passion, purpose and JOY.

There is no WHEN! It isn’t when you retire, it’s not just for the young, there is no perfect time and we can look at Chadwick’s life to see that you don’t even have to be in perfect health!

In my last post, I called you out about the goal, idea, or business you have placed on a pedestal because of the fear of failure. Now, I’m asking you to reply and tell me what small step you can take to honor what you’re being called to bring into the world.

What is one thing you can do that will light you up, blow dust off your goal and get you moving?

One step – small or large – comment below and give it to me!

In Spirit,

Your procrastination is not what you think it is

Listen, I’ve certainly had my time as an expert of both (1) procrastination and (2) focusing on multiple things when trying to reach big goals.

Let me know if this is or has been you:

  1. You have really great goals/ideas (such as starting a business, consulting or writing a book) that you keep putting off.
  2. You split your energy between different goals you want to pursue and as a result, you’ve started multiple things but they’ve never been fruitful.

It’s not that your idea isn’t important or good, or (like your inner critic will shout) that you’re lazy. Your goal is amazing and I know you can be motivated.

The problem is actually simple but difficult to overcome. Your vision of what you’d really love to do (whether it’s using your gifts to help others or selling the thing everyone always asks you for) is on a PEDESTAL.

Take a walk with me here…

You put your idea on a pedestal and unintentionally- subconsciously -develop the feeling that the only way to keep it perfect is to keep it conceptual.

As long as it’s a glorious idea inside your head, you don’t have to worry about putting in long hours just to find out it didn’t work.

Your idea is safe as long as it’s grand in your imagination and you haven’t launched it to a place where you could disappoint yourself, or where people could possibly reject or criticize it.

Your inner critic is whispering that you can never be labeled a failure if you never really try to complete the thing.

Maybe you put someone’s similar idea on a pedestal and tell yourself you could never do it as well as they did. Therefore, as long as you keep your goal in the privacy of your notebook or vision board, you will never pale in comparison to someone else’s success.

What is at the base of all this? FEAR.

I know we can sometimes get tripped up by the fear of success but whew, the fear of failure? Yeah. That’s the one messing us up.

The fear of failure, the fear of not living up to the pedestal we place things on (unnecessarily) causes us to (1) procrastinate, and/or (2) always seem to be focused on a new goal.

You’re afraid. I’m afraid. We’re all afraid.

We’re scared we don’t have what it takes. We’re unsure of how others will perceive our ideas until we actually put it out there and see what happens.

We’re afraid that we will invest time, energy and/or money in a plan, but not reach all of our goals… UNTIL we acknowledge that some progress is way better than none. And that some progress is better than worrying about not making progress, while also not making any progress.​

This pedestal problem will not go away with more of the same or by willing it to be different. It will go away by taking a different approach.

Thinking differently.

Acting differently.

BEing different.

Are you ready? If starting a business is something that has been on your vision board year after year, if you’d love to retire early and do something you’re passionate about, if you already have a side hustle and would LOVE for its growth to replace your paycheck, I have a few secrets to share…

Comment and let me know what’s sitting on a pedestal in your mind?

In Spirit,

Are We Free?

Ok, so yeah. I’m a bit rebellious.

Like most powerhouse women, me and the status quo don’t really get along. And at the very least, let’s just say I like to reframe things in a way that align with my values, experience & reality.

Which is why instead of waving flags and wearing America’s colors on the Fourth of July, I prefer to declare MY OWN INDEPENDENCE.

Click the photo above for a beautiful Inner Declaration of Independence template

Along with whatever plans you have for the Fourth, I’m inviting you to take my ‘reframe’ of America’s founding fathers’ statement: copy, paste and make it your own! I’ve thrown in a few examples in parentheses to get your flow started but it is yours to customize. I’ve also created a beautiful PDF for you to download and print if you like.

Please share this post with family & friends. I encourage you to post your Inner Declaration on social media and don’t forget to tag #ElevateyourNOW so I can see it. I’ll share mine in the EYN community, join me! xo

In Spirit,

On choosing freedom

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863.

I grew up in Berkeley, California where we’ve have held a Juneteenth celebration (which regularly falls on Father’s Day) since I was a teenager. This gathering was a ritual for us. Today, alongside the thousands of people who celebrate this commemoration every year, there is an explosion of recognition for June 19th, 1865; the day the news of emancipation finally reached the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas.

In and through all that we’ve experienced in the world these past couple of months, we’ve somehow found ourselves at a juncture where the media, corporations, social platforms and people everywhere have decided to use Juneteenth to honor, celebrate, connect, (placate, manage guilt) and take action in this time of Global Reset and Black Lives Matter activism.

I have many feelings about this and many things I could say. As I’ve been doing in abundance lately, I choose stillness. After being still I realized that I could focus on all the ways our recent circumstances have made a mockery of freedom OR I could choose to focus on the ways I am free in this moment…

I am free to kiss my remarkable husband as I leave our home

To receive a bear hug from my (all of a sudden taller than me) baby boy

To kiss my daughter’s adult cheeks

To have an inspired conversation with a friend and mentor

To sit on a public bench with snacks and a thought-provoking book

To laugh on a chat thread with my inner circle of powerhouse sisters

To feel loved, supported and respected to support and guide clients who are thriving even in the midst

To move my body at will in healthy and energetic ways

To make money doing what I love and in my zone of genius

To look out at this view as I write this message

To breathe

To breathe

To breathe and fight and shine in honor of those who cannot

What is your form of freedom in this moment? Comment below or in my group.

In Spirit,

Is your laziness getting in the way of being great?

“May I gather up my internal forces and lead the life I was created to live.
May I not be lukewarm today, but rather deeply committed to the principles I believe in. Who am I to be lazy when I have been called by God to greatness. May I not forget today the importance of the ground on which I stand.”

The quote above is excerpted from my daily morning reading, A Year of Miracles by Marianne Williamson. When I read it, I instantly fell in love with the ability it had to ignite what I needed to rise into this week.

I spent some time meditating on this line specifically: Who am I to be lazy when I have been called by God to greatness. Mmmm, breathe that in for a second. We have all been called by something greater than ourselves to be, do and have more. However, I am not a fan of the word “lazy” because it often walks heavy with judgement about behavior that may be mislabeled. While I definitely have moments of being unwilling to do much more than throw popcorn into my mouth while watching some wild science-fiction, I rarely have time to be lazy.

Sounds weird to say, right? But the truth is, most powerhouse women are far too busy to be lazy. What is actually happening but not really acknowledged during this time of doing nothing is:

  • Exhaustion
  • Overwhelm
  • Anxiety
  • Escape
  • Emptiness
  • Grief
  • Fear

Playing small. To be transparent, that is what came from the stillness of me sitting with this excerpt. I’ve put myself out there in order to help transform the lives of many women but in truth, I’ve been playing very safe. I’ve been speaking up when I should be yelling. I’ve been offering change when I should be demanding transformation. I’ve been showing up in my knowledge instead of shining through my genius! Can you tell I’m inspired? Lol.

I am betting that like me, you have a beautiful vision of a life you would love to live. If any of the words above resonate, I encourage you to slip that word into the sentence and then ask yourself, “If this is stopping me from greatness, what is one small thing I can do to make room for my divine life?”

For example: Who am I to be exhausted when I have been called by God to greatness? Maybe I could go to bed one hour earlier tonight or say No to that extra thing my boss asked me to do.

Try it out for yourself and reply with your sentence and ‘one small thing’. You can also share it in my Powerhouse Women Rising group, click the button.

In Spirit,

A Valentine’s Day Challenge

Can we make a deal? No waiting for someone else to make you feel loved this today. Ok?

February 14th can bring up so many feelings for women. Most of which, if we’re honest, are downright exhausting. I’ve watched and felt at times in my life, feelings of confusion, shame, hurt, surprise, gratitude, anger and wonder.

I’m challenging you to turn Valentine’s day inside-out this year!

Valentine is a name derived from the Roman family name Valentinus, which was derived from the Latin word Valens meaning: “strong, vigorous, healthy.

Whether or not you have “a valentine” to make plans with, make a commitment right now to take at least 15 minutes on Friday to do something… anything that makes YOU feel strong, vigorous and/or healthy!

Let’s REALLY practice self-love. Love yourself enough to remind yourself:

  • How strong you are physically
  • How mentally strong you’ve been in your life
  • What vigorous energy looks like
  • Of your miraculous health
  • Just how grateful you are to have a healthy lifestyle

What would that look like for you? Comment and let me know!

In Spirit,

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