Dec31
Posted on Dec 31 by Ruth Davis
This letting go business is tough. When we let go of something, how do we know something better will come? What happens if it’s gone forever? Whenever I start to doubt, I turn to Nature for assurance. Nature seems to be a wonderful reflection for us humans. In Carlsbad, California there is a place called The Flower Fields where they grow acres and acres of ranunculus. From March through May, the fields are full with every color of flower: red, orange, yellow, white, pink, even purple, as far as you can see. But after the season, the farm workers harvest the seeds from the crop and plow the fields down. They fumigate all the beds to be sure to kill everything. And they let the soil rest. Through the winter the fields are empty, colorless, waiting. In early spring, new seeds are planted by hand, row after row, the workers trusting that the coming year’s crop will bloom as colorful and beautiful as the year before. While previous harvests strongly support the possibility, there is no guarantee. But the flowers certainly...
Dec14
Posted on Dec 14 by Ruth Davis
My mentor, Christine Kane suggests that, instead of making New Year’s Resolutions for lofty goals that are impossible to keep, you consider picking a word to guide you throughout the year. She recommends that you choose a word that supports the intention for what you want to be more of in your life. I have been using Christine’s Word for the Year practice since 2007 because it really works. The word serves as a guidepost for me as I make choices through the year. I post the word in my bathroom and acknowledge it daily, asking myself “how can I be that?” That first year I chose VULNERABILITY. I wanted to let go of control and open to things that I didn’t have the answers to. I was ready to feel what was uncomfortable and go even deeper. I had so many opportunities during that year to practice this: with relationships, how I traveled, choosing to apply for a job that I didn’t get. And I had emergency open heart surgery. Talk about vulnerability and letting go of control....
Dec03
Posted on Dec 3 by Ruth Davis
What story are you telling? For the last two years I have been angry and resentful about the care I received after my open heart surgery that left me with an ugly and painful keloid scar. I wrote letters asking the doctor to take responsibility and pay for a scar revision but was denied. When I finally heard myself telling my story out loud, I realized that I was holding on to all kinds of negativity that really wasn’t serving me. I had set myself up as a victim in my own story. Once I realized this simple truth, I asked myself, what story would I rather be telling? Did I want to continue the fight and pursue legal action, fueling the anger and resentment? Did I want to keep seeing a part of my body as ugly? I knew I needed to let go of the who-done-me-wrong saga and find a new story to tell where, instead of a victim, I am a hero. What new story would you rather tell? I thought about what I really wanted...
Sep25
Posted on Sep 25 by Ruth Davis
Self-Care doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. It doesn’t have to be a day at the spa or a lavish dinner out. Even the simplest acts of taking care of yourself will bring great benefit to you. So many of my clients spend hours in front of their computers. Most do not even think to take a break for anything more than a quick bite to eat or a run to the bathroom. When we sit at our desks, our shoulders are hunched forward, our neck is stiff, our heart is closed. It is so important to regularly counter this posture with stretches and movement. Take regular breaks from sitting in front of your computer Get up from your desk and raise your arms slowly over your head. Grab your left wrist with your right hand and gently tug, feeling the stretch in your side body. Breathe into the space. Switch hands and stretch your other side, breathing into the stretch. Shrug your shoulders up. Really squeeze them toward your ears. Then release. Do this several times, feeling...
Aug17
Posted on Aug 17 by Ruth Davis
Delight Yourself First That’s the message that writer, artist, color queen SARK shared this past weekend at the annual Coaching Conference at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe. Don’t just write a list of to-do’s, make the activity fun and exciting and delightful. If you want to go to Europe, she said, instead of writing down Get a Passport, find your passport application and fondle it lovingly. If your dream is to plant a garden, don’t Buy Fertilizer. Go on a fertilizer adventure. Anyone who is familiar with SARK, free spirit and author of 15 inspiring books, knows that she lives a life of delight. Her loud laugh fill the room with her true love of living. We all have creative dreams, she said. Your creative dreams will wait for you. They want to be made real. She shared some of her tools and tricks for keeping her own creative dreams alive. Action comes before inspiration, she said. Find ways to delightfully make micro-movements to make your dreams real. AN INVITATION TO YOU: Say YES to something...
Aug04
Posted on Aug 4 by Ruth Davis
They say that if you are a runner and want to improve your speed, you should run with someone faster than you. That the competition will motivate you, challenge you, inspire you to be better, faster, stronger. My dream is to write my book about living creatively, travel around the country in my RV to book-signings and speaking engagements and lead guest workshops. For years, this dream was just a quiet, private vision in my own head. It wasn’t until this past year that I have shared my dream out loud and taken action to make it happen. I am teaching my workshops again locally, and I have started writing my book. I am on my path, moving forward to realizing my bigger dream. And on most days I feel balanced and content with the pace of how I am moving. And then I see my mentors up-leveling their lives, offering webinars and teleconference calls, touring all over with their newest books and suddenly I feel very far behind in my own goals and I wonder if I will...
