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I recently have had a mindset-reset regarding my work after receiving an invitation to support the Parkland, Florida community. I have been a trauma therapist for many years and have intentionally moved away from communal trauma work partly due to feeling mentally and spiritually depleted.

I’ve given myself time and space to recover and heal. When this invitation arrived, I was forced to examine my mindset and reset limiting beliefs about myself and my work.  I guided myself through an Appreciative Inquiry process to unearth my core feelings and beliefs, to clear the limiting thoughts and develop clarity.

Appreciative inquiry is a powerful way to shift mindsets, create movement and inspires action with an ability to visualize the future or an alternate outcome.

First, I asked did I want to step into this role?  

Responding to this question informs whether we are in alignment with an action. Always begin with this question – it will help you say yes only when...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (often called ADHD or ADD) can have a huge impact on an entrepreneur's ability to remain productive at work.  Here are just a few tips that can help you manage symptoms of ADHD at work.  And by the way, these tips are great even if you don’t have ADHD!

#1:  Take an Honest Look at your Social Media Use

By now, you’ve probably heard that to increase productivity, you need to shut off your phone and stay off social media.  Sound advice, but people with ADHD really need to take this to heart.  Individuals with ADHD are more easily distracted and more likely to sucked down the proverbial rabbit hole when online.  Maybe you opened Facebook with the intent to quickly wish someone a happy birthday, only to find yourself watching funny cat videos 45 minutes later.  Do yourself a huge favor:  delete social media apps off your phone and save your social media usage for before or after...

I recently was a guest on a webinar, speaking to entrepreneurs about how to hack their brains.  We covered so many cool hacks and shared quite a few laughs.  Today, I want to focus on one comment that I made which really resonated with the participants.  In fact, one of the participants wrote that she needed to make a t-shirt with this quote! 

“Just because you have a thought, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

It’s interesting how we often don’t question the thoughts that run through our mind, and often just blindly accept that they are true.

 I’m just no good at marketing.  I’ll never lose weight.  I can’t do anything right.  I’ll never get ahead.  No one wants to buy what I’m selling.  

We all have times when self-limiting beliefs run through our mind.  Deb recently wrote a blog post challenging you to think of yourself as being...

Imagine it – your business is flourishing with the types of people you love to serve. You have time to relax, to vacation and to delegate your to-do list.

Imagine it - your thoughts, beliefs and fears no longer get in the way of your success.  Does it seem too good to true? 

It is good, great even and it is also possible. 

I recently attended a Shadow Intensive retreat and was gifted two candles – one is white representing the light aspect and the other is black representing the shadow or the unseen aspect of ourselves.

The candle with the word “Unlimited” painted on it jumped out at me. It reminds me that I am more than my body, more than my mind and much more than my thoughts.

What if...you were limitless?

We are in a constant dance with our thoughts which we cannot see, cannot touch yet they have immense power in creating an invisible boundary that can seem impenetrable. That’s an old paradigm of being.

I am here to say - you can...

My four-year old daughter has this really cool mantra.  I don't know where it came from, but it warms my heart every time I hear her say it.

"I share every day"

For the longest time, I only thought of how sharing related to my personal relationships.  Sharing the last cookie with my children, sharing a playlist with my sister, or sharing my time to deliver a meal to a very pregnant friend and her family.  

But one day at work, Catherine's mantra popped into my head.  "I share every day." It made me stop and think as to whether I was sharing every day...at work.  I'm not talking about sharing office space or the printer....I'm talking about really sharing.  Sharing my knowledge, my services, and my energy.  

Sometimes as entrepreneurs we get caught up in the day-to-day of running a business. 

Did I run payroll?  How's that Facebook ad doing?  Did I ever sent that email to my VA?...

CEO's have come to understand that the practice of mindfulness elicits mind-body-brain benefits that other types of relaxation such as playing golf or watching a movie do not. 

Our brains are wonderfully complex and play a role in every single thought, emotion and physical sensation we experience. This includes every breath, every movement and even every eye blink! The brain is highly sensitive to all types of information coming into it. This sensitivity is the reason why it is important to find ways to manage stressful reactions when unable to prevent them altogether. It is simply wise medicine.

Mindfulness is quickly becoming a billion-dollar industry. There is hard science proving the effectiveness of meditation to reduce stress, increase focus, to foster creativity and resilience and to increase your emotional intelligence.

These are likely the reasons that CEO’s are turning to meditation - a way to practice mindfulness - instead of other forms of relaxation....

Empowered Communication is authentic, clear, and aligned with your and your companies mission. Often, it is a focus on how you communicate instead of what you say. It is speaking with awareness of the nonverbal signals as well as the tone of voice and intention of the message. 

 In my previous blogs we've been talking about Procrastination and discussed how to break the cycle of this unproductive mindset. 

I've shared two of my top Procrastination Hacks - the Stop Sign and Take a Moment to Pause.  While these are effective and well-tested on thousands of people challenged by procrastination there are two more steps that make this procrastination hack complete.

The Stop Sign clears the mind while the Moment to Pause breath helps us to return to the here and now. 

The next step after Stopping the intruding thoughts and Pausing to reconnect is to ask yourself:

Is there anything I can do about the situation, circumstance or issue you have procrastinated about?  Yes or No?

If the answer is yes, the next step is to take action...one measurable step forward. 

If the answer is no, there isn't anything to do...the next step is to tolerate what feelings are arising, take a step back from the situation or circumstance to create...

Do some of your best ideas come to you while you are taking a shower? 

Or when you are driving? How about when standing in line at the grocery store? 

Chances are your best ideas have come to you when you were NOT actively trying to analyze the problem. 

Our tendency to come up with creative ideas when we are not consciously working on them is not mere coincidence. In fact, it makes perfect sense from a neuroscience perspective. That’s because when your brain stops the conscious, analytical thinking of the prefrontal cortex, other parts of your brain are free to make associations. Our brains have a default mode network that is constantly working when the prefrontal cortex takes a break. The default mode network is made up of “association” areas of the brain that communicate and make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. It’s when we are not consciously thinking about a problem that our brain has...

Do you ever sit down to work on something and find that you start remembering everything else you need to do?

Isn’t it distracting?

In this Vlog, you will learn about a simple strategy that allows you to stop using your brain as a storage device and start using it as a thinking tool so you can get your projects done.