RedHead Coaching | Renee Shupe| Personal Discovery | Coach | Coaching | Authentic Spirit Discovery

I’ll be back January 7, 2009!

I wish everyone the best of the season and this year take the time to spread the holiday cheer. Cherish your moments with your family and friends and simply remember that your presence and being present is the best give that you could possibly give to anyone. Enjoy the season and take some time this year for your self, enjoy a walk outside in the crisp air, go for a sleigh ride, tobagganing with the kids. Whatever it is be present and in the moment and cherish the time.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

Namaste,

Renee

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We may not always realize that everything we do

Affects not only our lives but touches others too.

A single happy smile can always brighten up the day

For anyone who happens to be passing by your way.

And a little bit of thoughtfulness that shows someone you care

Creates a ray of sunshine for both of you to share.

Yes, every time you offer someone a helping hand,

Every time you show a friend you understand.

Every time you have a kind and gentle word to give,

You help someone to find beauty in this precious life we live.

For happiness brings happiness and loving ways bring love,

And giving is the treasure that contentment is made of.

~~ Author Unknown ~~

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I often get quite  nostalgic  during the holidays and the focus on my business quickly begins to wane.  I wind down, enjoy time with the family, get the presents ready and normally decorate the house. This year though my family and I are traveling to New Olreans for the Holidays, so there’s a bit of different twist on the season.  Needless to say, I often find it hard to focus on anything related to work because simply I’m enjoying the holidays for what they are; at time to be with family and friends. So if I seem a bit absent this week you’ll know why, as of Friday though I’ll be completely off-line and getting ready to head down to New Orleans, but I’ll be back full force come January.   I’ll return to posting on a regular basis, January 7, 2009.  Until then enjoy this beautiful poem I found about giving…

You only get to keep what you give away

It’s a universal law:

You have to give before you get.

You must plant your seeds before you reap the harvest.

The more you sow, the more you’ll reap.

In giving to others, you’ll find yourself blessed.

The law works to give you back more than you have sown.

The giver’s harvest is always full.

Those that obtain have little.

Those who scatter have much.

Nature does not give to those who will not spend.

~~ Author Unknown ~~

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Yes, as you may have noticed there have been changes, some may say dramatic, but changes still. This is the soft launch of my new site, REDHead Coach! It’s simply not just for redheads anymore!

Keep check back, or subscribe to my feed to be notified of the official launch of REDHead Coaching in January 2009! It’s exciting, same great coaching and writing simply more authentic, true to who I am and special. There’s some exciting developments for the new year and I look forward to sharing them all with you!

So this week, with my changes I thought I’d share some sites that embrace change.

• Change.org - What Do you want to change in the world?  Change.org is a social network site where you can learn about causes, connect to good people & non profits, and take action.  Make 2009 about change….
• Authentic Happiness.org - okay this might not necessarily be about change, but it certainly embarces the idea for improvement.  This is the home site for Dr. Seligmen the founding professor in the area of Postive Psychology, a new branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.  This site is full of complimentary assessments (reguires signup).  I only recently discovered it, but the assessments are powerful.
• Change.gov - I’m not American but you’d have to be hiding in a cave if you can’t sense the element of change in the air with regards to the transition of power and the President Elect Barack Obama.  I came across this site and like it’s idea as they’ve open the doors to the citizens to keep the communication going.

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Intuition, that inner voice, or gut-feeling - do you listen to it?  Have you learned to trust it?  Often our first gut reaction to something is the right one, but more often than not we doubt our own ability to know exactly what is right for us and our version of the world.  So how do you learn to listen to that inner voice?  Practice, I think today’s society we’re so busy dealing with “busyness” that it’s become difficult for us to actually hear what our inner voice, intution or gut is saying to us.

So what are some of the things you can do to connect with your own intuition?

1. Be silent.  Simply turn out the noise and simply listen.  Make a note of what you hear, and take some time to ponder and contemplate.
2. Pay attention to your energy.  Are you in pain, does doing something cause you stress or pain?  If so that pain is trying to tell you something.  Listen to it.
3. Take notes.  Keep a journal of all of the “synchronistic” events and begin to discover the “coincindences” truly aren’t.  Start a dream journal, anywhere that you can make notes on what’s happening will help you become clear on how you intution is working for you.
4. Follow a hunch.  Rather than stepping back and thinking about it, actually follow that hunch and see where it takes you.
5. Notice your smells.  Take time to notice the scents around you, see what kind of reaction you receive when you do.  What memories do they bring?
6. Practice.  The more you practice listening to your intution the strong it will become.  Try this on for size, as you go to pick up your mail take a moment to guess how many pieces of mail you’ll get.  Notice over time how accurate you become at knowing how much mail you’ll recieve.

Intution is in part about letting what is suppose to happen, happen.  Trust in your instincts and know that the answers that are meant to show themselves will, just let the universe know that you’re listening and you’re ready to take note.

TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE

TAke a few minutes and do the following.  Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and focus on  your breathing.  Once you’re settled and focus beging to picture something unusual, this could be an object, an animal, words - you choose.  Bring this item to the forefront of you mind and focus on it.  Focus on it for enough time that it becomes clear in your mind, then release it.  Let it go, send it out into the universe and wait.  Simply begin to pay attention to everything around you and see when that item appears to you.  It works, in the beginning it can take a while before it appears to you, but the more you try this exercise and begin to trust you intuition the easier it will be for your desire begin to appear.

Personal Note:  The first time I tried this exercise I picture a pair of ruby slippers (like the ones Dorothy wore in the Wizard of OZ), 3 inch high heel red ruby shoes.  It took about a week, but one day while I was on my lunch break I walked by a shoe store that was displaying a pair of 3 inch high heel red ruby shoes.

I’d love to hear your experiences with this exercise, join the conversation and let me know what you think.

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Do you know what you love?  Could you write a list out of everything you love?  We’ve all heard it and intellectually we know that what we think determines our out look on life, but have you actually taken the time to write down what you love?  Can you say for sure? The other day I was inspired and did just that.  I wrote it in my “Book of Inspiration” (which I’ll write about in another post, but suffice to say it’s my equvilant of a journal - simply my verision) and now each night I take a moment to look at my list and I’ve even added some items to it over the last few days.

The benefits of write about what you love?  A sense of contentment and gratitude and a knowledge that yes I do have a love to appreciate and give back to the world.  Taking the time to write down a list of what you love gives you perspective a view point on your world that has a positive twist, something all of us need right now.

Some of the things I love:

Contentment, Comfort, Fuzzy Slippers, Laughter, Children playing in the play ground, rain on a metal roof, rustle of the leaves in the trees, my dogs happy bark when we come home, family dinner together, my home office, my snow globes from the cities I’ve visited, tolerance, respect and understanding….

TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE:

Take some time this weekend and begin your list of things you love.  Write it in your journal or personal notebook somewhere where you can look at it often.  Another option; make it a family affair! Get a large piece of paper and attach it to the fridge or somewhere everyone in the family passes by and begin to write your list of things you love as a family.  Be creative! Decorate the page, give a column for each memeber in the family if you wish.  This is yours to create and see what happens. 

’til next time, Namaste

Renee

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The Holidays are often about giving and we all no the saying that it’s better to give than receive.  So this week’s Friday Fun Files are simply about giving. 

• Christmas Future - www.christmasfuture.org
  A new twist on the holiday gift card, you purchase a gift card in any amount.  You give the gift card to the receipient they are then able to come to the Christmas Future website and pick an organization or project that they are interested in and the money is donated to that project.
• Children’s High Level Group - http://www.chlg.org/
  This is the organzation co-founded by JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Books.  This year she has united with Scholastic Books to publish The Tales of Beetle Bard which you can purchase everyone.  I recently heard on the View that all, 100%, of the proceeds of this book will go to JK Rowlings organization.  The book is in the 12 to 15 dollar range so, you get something fun to give as a gift and also help out a great organization.
• Idealist.org - www.idealist.org
  Social networking comes to charity work!  That’s a simple way to explain this site.  Would you like to raise money for a charity or get involved?  Check out Idealist.org to learn how you can and if you’d like to get with other like minded people you can do that do.  Check out my page - Change a Girl; Change the World to get an idea.

Have a great weekend everyone, back Monday!

’til next time, Namaste.

Renee

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This past Monday at my guest blogging stint at Busy Mom, I provided tips on some ways to manage the holidays. The holidays are a crazy time of year, where women easily get worn out, don’t eat right, and simply feel stressed and pushed to their limits.  So what’s an easy way to manage the holidays?  Escape! Take a vacation! LOL!  Okay, Okay that might seem a little simplistic but the truth is you can take a vacation. 

Make a concious decision that you will give yourself time, that you will find time to simply be.  Be quiet, read, walk, get a massage, meditate or whatever it is that works for you and makes you feel good.  Intellectually we know that making time for ourselves is an important part of our self maintenance, but to actually do it is another story.  Here are some tips I believe can help with managing the craziness of the holidays.

1. Manage your schedule - Don’t over book yourself and your family.  It’s okay not to attend all of the parties and events where you’ve been invited.  Schedule some time in witht he family, make sure everyone knows and keep the appointment for yourselves.   Also, book some mini-breaks for yourself during your hectic days.  If you have an especially busy day, schedule buffers between each of your appoinments and commitments so you know you have enough time to get from one to the other without feeling stressed.
2. Don’t over complicate Gift Giving - Giving a gift card as a present makes Holiday Shopping quick and simple.   To add an new element to the idea of gift cards, give the gift of giving.  Check out Christmas Future, where you can change the world for good.  You choose the amount for the gift card and your recepient has the opportunity to pick a project or charity that they choose.  You get to have the benefit of giving and the receipient gets the benefit of giving as well.  It’s a worth cause and what I think is a brilliant idea during this time of world uncertainty.
3. Keep a task log - While we like to think we can manage everything in our heads and there isn’t a need to write things down, but there is.  Take the time to write down everything you need to do, this helps to keep your mind clear for things that come up and you won’t miss doing something that you wish you had taken care of earlier.
4. Delegate - Can’t say this enough, delegate, delegate, delegate.  Recruit family members, hire a high school student to do some of the tasks, get your groceries delivered, or look into the service of a personal concierge, similar to a concierge at a nice hotel a personal concierge willtake care of all of the personal details you don’t have time time to.

First and foremost, take the time to enjoy the holidays for their true meaning, being grateful for what we do have and help out those who are less fortunate than we are.

TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE

It’s simple this time, check your calendar and book some unbreakable appointments for yourself and your family.  Make a committment to yourself and your family that those times are for you and keep the appointments.  When 2009 comes you’ll be glad you booked the time to take care of yourself first.

’til next time Namaste,

Renee

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Do you know what your personal values are?  Could you tell someone your personal mission statement, tied to your personal values?  Could even define what a personal value is? If you can’t, how are you able to determine what is important in your life.  Personal values a traits we see worth apiring to, they help to determine our core as a human being.  No two set of personal values will be the same, they may be similar and compliment each other, but never the same.  That’s why they are personal values, they’re the essence of who you are.  Not knowing what your core personal values are make it difficult for you to say no to things, for you to know what is right for you and your family.  It makes it difficult for you to have a standard to live to, or even a vision to strive towards (Of course, it a whole other post on how to stick to your personal values, and I’ll write about that some other time). As women it’s easy for us let someone elses values become our own, but often when that is the case our lives are never as satisfying as we know they can be.

So how does one go about determining their personal values?  Search the internet for personal values and you’ll find over 3.6 million results, so that would be one way. Another way is to follow the following exercise (take this to be the TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE, for this post).

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Personal Value and Mission Statement Exercise

Find a quiet space and allow yourself some time.  Sit down, get comfortable and be quiet.  Listen to your silence and write down the words as they come to you, try and gather around ten words that represent who you are as a person and how you see the world.

For me the following words came to mind when I began this exercise:  Respect, Integrity, Honesty, Compassionate, Unique, Laughter, Spirituality, Fun, Joy.

You’re next step is to take those words and think about each one.  Determine from those words which mean the most to you.  On a side note it is IMPORTANT to be completely honest with yourself and keep this true for you, if you try and convince yourself that certain words are important to you when in reality they aren’t this whole process WILL NOT work.

From the words above I determined that the words that spoke to me the most and represented who I am were:  Respect, Integrity, Unique, Laughter, and Fun.

At this point, I took a break and I suggest you do to.  Leave the words alone for while, even over night and come back to them.  When you do, look at both sets of words and determine if they truly are representative of who you are, would you describe yourself this way?  If so!  Yeah, you’re on track!  If not begin the process over again.

When I went through this process I was happy will of the words, but I decide to drop Integrity.  So I had determined that Respect, Unique, Laughter and Fun, were representative of who I am.

This final step can be a challenge but also rewarding.  Use your core value words and write your own personal mission statement.  How do you do this, begin playing with the words until you build something that represents who you are and what you’re here to do.  You’ll likely have many drafts of this and that’s okay, take the next week to develop this if necessary.

My Personal Value statement worked out to be:

My unique viewpoint of the world along with my laughter, joy and respect brings out the best in everyone and everything I do.

Remember there is no right or wrong in this process, it’s simply about becoming more comforatable in who you are and what you have to contribute to the world.  Once you’ve determined your personal mission statement post it here in the comment section if you feel comfortable!

’til next time, namaste,

Renee

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It’s a holiday weekend in the US, for our neighbours to celebrate Thanksgiving. Friday is a day of recovering, and shopping for those inclined. So today I thought I’d be a bit different and simply offer a summary of my recent previous posts in case you missed one.

• Being Thankful
• Keeping Positive Thoughts
• Power of Positive Thinking
• Friday Fun Files - November 21, 2008
• Rituals
• Building your sacred space

TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE

Take a few minutes this weekend to send prayers and positive energy to the families in Mumbai dealing with the horrendous attacks on their nation.

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