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Posts Tagged ‘Stress relief’

Who is in Command?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Hello lovely people

I am always fascinated about how our questions get answered – and sometimes how we are steered in a direction without even asking the question.

Someone very dear and close to me is at a point where he has no dignity or quality of life left. He had told me in so many words that he is not afraid of dying. Yet he is still holding on to life while his mind and body are shutting down at an alarming rate. It breaks my heart to see a man stripped of everything, and to see the effect on other loved people and feel the pain in my heart every time I see him.

I have for a while been preparing myself for his transition, and I have wondered what it is that is holding him back. And no, this is not wishing him dead, this is wishing him a peaceful and pain-free transition into the next part of his life.

I recently browsed in a second-hand bookstore and found one of those gems written about the spiritual experiences of a religious family. I find that those books have much credibility because they do not try to prove a point. They simply record the experiences of people trying to make sense out of things that they have encountered for the first time – a sort of “I am telling you I saw it – even if I still don’t believe it myself – and I was sober” story.

I read the book because I was on holiday and it was an easy read. Nothing in the book was new to me. The story was about a young man who died in a car accident and then made contact with his family via a medium. The family did not believe in anything spiritual and the medium, who had one chance encounter with the man’s father about ten years before, contacted them on the insistence of the young man.

Then I encountered one sentence that made me sit up. The context was where a family friend, a medical doctor, explained his soul searching around being obliged to try and save the life of a patient who seems to be beyond saving. He often experienced the dilemma of having to practise his professional oath of saving a life when his heart said that it was inhuman to prolong the suffering of a person.

The young man in the spirit world explained that no matter what the doctor or other people do, a person will only pass over when they give themselves permission at soul level. And that will only happen when that person’s soul is ready to pass over.

Until that point, nothing that anyone says or does will make any difference to the timescale or destiny of the sick person. If the doctor tries to lengthen the person’s life, they will pass over at a certain time. If the doctor does not provide any treatment, the person will pass over at the same pre-destined time, when they agree at soul level that this is the time.

I realised that no matter what I want, my loved one will pass over when his work here is done. His current physical and emotional conditions are part of a much bigger Plan that is there, regardless of what I want. The circumstances are there because every one of us that are involved still needs to learn some truths. I feel much gratitude for this insight.

This also made me think about other things not related to death, but related to transitions.

We are all here because we have planned specific experiences for ourselves. We learn from those experiences and become lighter and wiser. Sometimes we get stuck in the experiences and we do not learn and move on.

We all know of those people who are caught up in a destructive relationship or a totally unsuitable job. Some people insist on defining themselves by means of a dis-ease that is curable, and others keep failing in the same situations, for example serial marriages or continuous financial mishaps.

We have all at some stage wondered why those people do not realise what they do to themselves and others. We have become impatient with them, and had harsh words with them. We have seen them going for therapy and having no results, or refusing therapy because “there is nothing wrong with me!” We have deserted and tolerated them. We have given up on them, been entertained by their mishaps, and accepted them as failures.

We never realised that they will change when they have given themselves permission at soul level. If a person remains stuck in a situation, then it is because at soul level they are not ready to move on. Nothing any relative, therapist, government or anyone else says or does will change that.

And we also seldom realise that we are aware of these “failures” because it is part of our Plan to learn from them. It is far easier to judge them than to use their experiences to learn our own lessons.

But what have we done closer to home?

I know I have been working very hard on my own transition. I am aware of what my destiny is, and I am finally willing to accept it – I am no longer kicking and screaming. I have been quite impatient over the past year or two, waiting for the inevitable to happen so that I can start with the biggest and most significant task of my entire life – my life purpose and passion. I have begged and pushed and capitulated and prayed, but things were still much too slow for my liking.

I have now realised that everything happens at the destined pace. I have learnt so much about myself in the past few years. If everything was already in place and happening, I would have missed out on incredible experiences. My life would have lost a richness of texture and fragrance and colour that I noticed because everything had slowed down.

My soul knows far better than my mind what the perfect timing is. That does not mean I am no longer impatient – I still have a lot to learn.

I now understand more about the relationship between our existence here and our eternal existence. Trying to force things in this existence because we are impatient is like trying to give birth to a foetus the moment it resembles a person on the scan. If the time is not right yet, our actions will destroy a miracle.

Acceptance is probably one of the hardest things we need to learn.

In the film “A Passage to India” a young doctor is accused of raping a young English woman. He is obviously innocent, but there is much hypocrisy and various political agendas result in a nasty trial.

In all this turmoil, the Brahim professor Godbole approaches school superintendent Richard Fielding to discuss the naming of a government school. The professor acts as if there is no trial and no turmoil. When Fielding asks him how he can focus on something as trivial as naming a school in the circumstances, the professor replies that the outcome of the trial is predestined. The professor knows that nothing he can do will change the doctor’s destiny, whether he is found innocent or guilty.

In our daily lives there are things that are less relevant, for example which flavour of ice cream I choose while on holiday. I would not agonize over such a choice, and my ice cream will not change my destiny.

Then there are things that are more relevant, for example the lessons we need to learn from complex relationships. We could choose to agonize over this, but it would still not change our destiny. Accepting this could take a lifetime, or as long as it takes for our souls to evolve to the level where we can let go and accept. Only at this point will we give ourselves permission at soul level to move on.

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach. I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


Why the Secret Causes Stress

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Hello lovely people

By now we all know the Secret: decide what you want, and believe that it will come your way. The more you believe, the quicker it comes your way. Right? Then why does it not work? Why are we not all very rich and healthy and happy by now?

There are a few other factors that we need to be aware of when we want to apply the Secret.

The first factor is our own resistance against anything new. You say you don’t resist anything new? OK, let’s try this. Let me tell you that I have discovered the cure for all cancers. What are your immediate thoughts?

I bet you have a number of “yes, but” and “what if” thoughts in your head. Now, if I did discover the cure for cancer and you had cancer, that cure would not work for you, because your thoughts block the cure.

This is the case with everything we want in this life. We intuitively know that everything is possible. We then consciously place obstacles in the way. These obstacles range from emotional to financial to scientific and other “facts”.

Why do I doubt the validity of those “facts”?

Imagine the existence of a quantum vacuum in which everything is possible. Just for a moment put all your doubts aside and play along. Now imagine that you want nothing, and that all you ever have to do is listen for the vibration of that quantum vacuum.

Whenever the quantum vacuum vibrates, you identify that vibration. You identify the fact that there is an opportunity, and conditions are perfect for you to create what you want. You can create an object, an experience, a person, a feeling, anything that would please you at that moment.

What do you do with that vibration?

Do you feel the vibration with deep gratitude and create what you feel like at the moment?

The answer is probably “no”. At this point your brain kicks in and interprets that perfect vibration. Then you embroider on that perfect vibration until it becomes what you expect, based on your own past experience and anticipation of the future. By the time you are finished, the vibration has lost its perfection and become your creature – your monster.

Sometimes those expectations are so subtle that you are barely aware of it, and you have to do a lot of introspection to identify the obstacle and put it into words. For example, if you live in a reality where most people share the same beliefs, and you “know” only the minority of people win the lottery. But what are your own beliefs about gambling, creation, your personal power, money and so on? What do you truly believe?

At other times your expectations are very clear, and you can list a dozen reasons why you have never won the lottery, including a conspiracy theory and the very good reasons why you never buy a ticket.

What are you doing about these beliefs? Do you justify them, or do you see them as the obstacles you create yourself every time you feel the quantum vibration?

Another thing that impacts on the success of applying the Secret is your own intention when you choose what you want. Do you choose with a sense of a purpose and a deep sense of knowing that what you ask for already is? Or do you wish and wish and wish with a sense of desperation for something that will help you escape the mess you do not want to deal with?

If you want one thing to escape something else, stop wasting your energy. Rather deal with what you have already created. Get your existing obstacles out of the way. Acknowledge the perceptions and biased judgement that you have right now, and get that out of the way.

Then wait for that quantum vibration, and when you feel it, remember that the quantum vibration creates conditions for creation. You do the creation. Do you want to create doubts and obstacles, or do you want to create joy and gratitude?

A third factor is what I call the “Hidden plan”. We come into this life with a pre-destined agenda. As we grow up, we develop a cultural “amnesia” of our own plan. We assume the general thinking that life is hard, and we focus on winning the struggle.

If we change that assumption to say that life is a lesson in eternity, we start to look out for the lesson. We become aware of the experiences, people and things that will bring us closer to the conclusion of the lesson. When we have this awareness, we are in a much better position to recognise the quantum vibration when we feel it. We become aware of where we are and where we are heading. We interpret the quantum vibration in line with what we intuitively feel is our destiny for this life, and we create people, experiences and things which bring us closer to that destiny. This is when we use the Secret to live our life plan.

The one factor that always results in the Secret not working, is the thoughts we attach to the quantum vibration. The Secret works simply because we allow it to work. We have the power, and the power lies in our thoughts processes.

The Secret always works, then we attach thoughts to the result based on our own prejudices and fears, then we put these objections in words, and then we take the action to prove ourselves right. In other words, step one is successful, and then we use steps two, three and four to disprove step one’s success.

We are weird creatures. We spend 1% of our time listening to the quantum vibration, 49% of the time creating our own stress and disappointment, and 50% of the time searching for a culprit. And we are the only ones who can change that.

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach. I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


Are you doing Job’s job?

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Hello lovely people

I was reading about survivor’s guilt and the part it plays in redundancy.

Whenever people are made redundant, there are big newspaper headlines that tell about fear for those who are leaving. There is a lot of finger-pointing and blame for the management of the company.

Quite often the atmosphere in the company is one of palpable fear, and during the process there is a definite “us and them” culture where those that remain behind don’t speak to those that are leaving.

The people who are made redundant, often feel that they are “guilty” if something intangible. Once they lave left the company under these conditions, it could take ages for them to recover their self-confidence and pride in their abilities.

From my own experience, I know that redundancy can be a spiritual and very enriching experience.

I have learnt over the years that redundancy is the Universe’s way to give us a nudge when it is time to move on and we choose to cling to what is no longer relevant or required.

Job was a man who suffered a lot in his life. It is interesting that when we work as an employee, we refer to our labour as a “job”.

On the other hand, a self-employed person is known as an entrepreneur (meaning “founder”). What have they found? Their life purpose? Their destiny?

One of the most powerful ways to “find yourself” is to be made redundant. When you are selected for such an experience, you can spend much energy trying to find someone to blame, or you can embark on a journey of self-discovery and find your true self.

I have thought for years that I would like to look up the company director who made me redundant after I had implemented a big project successfully. I would like to give him a case of his favourite whiskey, because if he had ensured my job safety, I would have disappeared into the oblivion of permanent employment. I owe him a lot.

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach. I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


How to Live an Authentic Life

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Hello lovely people

Frank Joseph said “Following a vocation, that inner call, is not self-indulgence or an excuse for laziness. Doing what one really wants to do is hard work, but it is self-fulfilling as nothing else can be. It is the ultimate key to personal happiness in the physical world.”

Most of us grow up believing that we have to work for another person. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you live your life’s passion. It is possible to be a very competent employee and get great joy out of what you are doing.

But what if you do not live your life’s passion? What if you are one of the millions of people who get up every Monday morning and dread the week ahead because you anticipate so much stress?

If you are one of the people who spend all your energy on realizing someone else’s passion, then you are not living an authentic life. You are ignoring your inner voice and your passion.

If I ask what you would like to do with your life when you have all the time and money in the world and no restrictions, you will have an answer ready. We all know what we want to do “one day”.

But what if that is really your life’s dream? What if you spend most of your life dreaming and you only have a few years left for doing?

Oh, yes, I can hear you saying but what if I lose everything? What if it does not work out? What if I find that I was wrong?

Marianne Williamson said “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

So I ask you: what if you gain far more than you anticipate? What if you achieve your wildest dreams? What if you are challenged to achieve even more and to make an ever greater contribution to the world?

Living an authentic life means following your heart. Are you following your heart?

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach. I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


You Deserve a Stress-Free Life!

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Hello lovely people

L Scott Peck wrote a book called The Road Less Travelled.  The first three sentences in the book read “Life is difficult.  This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it”.

Is your life difficult?  If your answer is yes, does that mean you have not seen the truth yet?

We can actually transcend all difficulties in life.  This is not just a philosophical view.  This is a practical reality.

All our woes and troubles have one thing in common.

Think of all the problems you have in your life.  Think of your sticky relationships, the conflict you have in your life, your health, your job – or lack of a job.  Who is the one person that features in all of these situations?

Yes, you got it.

Does that mean you are a trouble maker?  Of course not – unless, of course, you enjoy causing trouble.

The majority of people do not want to cause or have trouble.  They just want to have a quiet, peaceful life with good health, great friends and abundance.

If only everyone else would do their share and work on the same agenda.  Because if they don’t they cause you stress.

Guess what?  They are not going to change.  You need to change if you want to make your life any easier.

Let me know how I can help you with the change.

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach.  I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


How to Turn Sleepless Nights into Sweet Dreams

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

This is a quote from the Wall Street Journal in September 2009: “A recent study reported that 52% of working French don’t sleep well on Sunday night. But work-related stress is not a French disease, and is ubiquitous and severe in all developed economies. In the U.K. and U.S. 70% of employees don’t sleep well on Sunday night either.”
That means probably about
•    19 302 500 French workers
•    98 413 700 Americans and
•    21 700 000 British people
spent their Sunday nights tossing and turning in September of 2009, instead of getting a good night’s sleep.

Were you one of these millions of people?  How did you overcome the problem?  Or is it still a problem for you?

When we do things that are against our true nature, it requires a lot of energy.  It also requires our energy to flow in a direction that does not feel natural.  Our bodies go into a state of heightened alert and all systems go on standby.

Imagine how your body would respond when you do a job that is against your true nature.  Your body would be in a continuous state of heightened alert during the week.  By Friday afternoon you would feel exhausted, for good reason.  Your energy will have been drained from you.

Then you spend the weekend doing things you love and enjoy, and you “re-charge your batteries”.

But what happens on a Sunday evening?  Of course your mind starts to work on the job that waits for you on a Monday morning.  You send a message to your body that says “time for heightened alert again” and your body obliges and becomes tense again.  You cannot have a tense body and relaxed sleep.   The result is a sleepless night of tossing and turning.

How do you counter-act the stress that keeps you awake on a Sunday night?

Find you life’s passion.  Start to live that life’s passion as if each day is your last day.  Your mind, body and spirit will be in alignment.  You will sleep like a baby.  It really is as simple as that.

Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.

Love and Light
Elsabe

PS: I am a professional transition coach.  I help individuals and businesses to achieve their personal and commercial objectives.

What is the one thing which is consuming all your energy at the moment?

Visit http://www.elsabesmit.com for a FREE new start audit and a FREE Food for Thought subscription.


The Truth About Stress Relief

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Hello Lovely People

Life is stressful.  Most people try to relieve their stress by taking some form of chemical crutch like a sleeping pill, or cigarette.  None of these help to relieve stress.  They simply suppress the symptoms of stress.

Stress is not caused by life events such as moving house or getting divorced or changing jobs.  All these and many other events are symptoms of an inner division.

A life event can be stressful for one person, but a relief for another person.  One person dreads moving house, while another person looks forward to it.

The way people deal with stressful events also differ drastically from one person to the next.  For example, one person gets raped and carries that burden for the rest of her life.   She knows of no other way to define herself.  Another person gets raped and experience a turning point in her life where she becomes a motivational speaker or changes to a career that she would otherwise never have considered.

Stress is nothing other than an inner division or inner tension.  This tension is determined by how the person perceives the situation.

What is healthy stress for one person, is unhealthy stress for another person.  Healthy stress results in inner growth towards maturity.  Unhealthy stress results in stagnation, and emotional and physical pain.

What happens when you ignore or suppress the symptoms of stress?   Your body finds more and more different ways to express the tension.   If you believe that chemicals and drugs resolve stress, you add more chemicals to your cocktail and your body protests more and more.  It becomes a vicious circle.

How can you avoid the consequences of ignored stress?

It is possible to acknowledge the symptoms of stress and then look for the cause.  Sometimes this is easy, and at other times it is a challenge to first overcome the fear of what you may find when you do some introspection.

When you take that step and explore the reason for your inner tension, you are always pleasantly surprised.

Please leave a comment if you so wish.

Love and Light

Elsabe