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New Year…..Its all Good for your business

It was great to interview Cassie Mendoza-Jones for Hay House radio recently, she wrote the  awesome book You are enough, and now her new release is Its all Good How to trust and surrender to the bigger plan.. Cassie is a Sydney based kinesiologist, business alignment coach, naturopath, writer and speaker, who works with women, and with entrepreneurs, healers, coaches and creatives who are driven, devoted and honoring their dreams, and who want to become more powerfully aligned to their bigger vision, clear away perfectionism, procrastination and overwhelm, and create their own version of a beautiful and aligned business and life.

Cassie is keen to remind us, especially those of us in business who so often feel that we have failed, that our failure doesn’t spell the end:  As Cassie says ‘Your perception of your failure is just that—a perception—and with awareness, self-compassion and aligned action, you can clear the disappointment and take aligned action to invite in clarity, and a new beginning’

At the start of a new year it’s easy to set ourselves up for failure, as we determine that next year we will be more focused, more successful, more influential…or whatever our goals for our business might be.

I have a very definite love hate relationship with ‘goals’ and resolutions and I like Cassie’s approach which is to suggest that as business owners we should set intentions rather than goal.  She has a fabulous tip which brings together the concept of intention and manifesting or ‘attracting’ what we desire.  She says we should try setting our intention, preferably in writing, make it something that feels important that we want, whether it’s to attract new clients, be offered a book deal, be invited to be interviewed on a radio show…and then add the words…or something even better…or you may want to add….or another wonderful surprise.

By adding these little phrases we leave the outcome open, we let go of the strong grip we can sometimes have on what we think we want, let’s face it when we look back, some of the things we thought we wanted for our work would have been disastrous if they’d come to fruition at that time!  Similarly it’s a good idea to let go of perfectionism.  Nothing works out perfectly all the time for anyone.  Sometimes it’s important to acknowledge our expectations but be willing to release them

Cassie saysA new you is born through the fire of failure: ‘Our failures and disappointments teach us so much; they help us back ourselves even more as we take steps in the directions of our new dreams. They help us change our mind, deciding where we want to align ourselves, allowing us to open up to a new way of being and thinking’ 

She has a nice calming affirmation –

‘I allow myself to dream and set goals, and also to be open to something even better flowing to me.  I trust that my intentions will manifest in the right time and in the right form for me. I trust that I am on the right path’

We discussed leaning into trust, and how we should trust that our most intense moments of feeling ungrounded may come right before your biggest expansion, so trust the path you’re on.  Cassie says ‘The crumbling down of what you know is paving the way for what’s to come; you simply can’t see the new path because the old mess hasn’t settled into its new beauty yet. The old is becoming the new; be patient, and trust. You’ll see it soon.

We also discussed clearing space just to be. In my own work I sometimes feel so completely overwhelmed and in chaos, my rational mind knows that there simply wouldn’t be space for anything new to come in, however deeply I desire it!  When I feel like that I now realise I must declutter both physically and mentally, I’ve taken to cleaning off a section of my desk, or finding a messy shelf that needs a sort out (they are abundant in my home!) the sense of order that comes from that is amazing,

I also try and lie down for a few moments and mentally close off all the thoughts that are flying around, she suggested I imagine that my mind is like a computer desktop with lots of tabs open (that’s easy to imagine – mine is always like that!) and mentally close them all down, ie the to-do lists, the obligations et al, until there is nothing open and we can do a complete shutdown, we hold that stillness where there is just a dark screen and a little ‘dot’ before it all swirls into action again. Preferably dealing with the ‘projects’ one at a time.

Above all this book reminds us that we can trust in ourselves and know that we are supported in our path, and when we let go of our expectations we can truly receive our dreams…or something even better.

It’s all Good by Cassie Mendoza-Jones is published by Hay House

 The time your dreams take to manifest is needed for your roots to take hold: Trusting in yourself and your path in life allows you to find the strength and courage to show up in life again and again after a disappointment, as your best self. It allows you to let go of your expectations, while still setting goals and intentions, and being more than okay to sit in those spaces in between setting your goals and seeing your dreams manifest.    Cassie Mendoza-Jones

www.cassiemendozajones.com

The Legacy of Louise Hay and A Reminder to Look In The Mirror

So sad to hear of the passing of the incredible Louise Hay the founder of Hay House. I had been aware of her amazing work for many years and when I became part of the ‘family’ as a Hay House author I felt privileged to be part of such an inspirational movement. I met Louise several times and of course heard her speak and read her books, when I do my talks / workshops on building confidence for your work and getting your message out there, I always cite Louise and how she insists on the importance of self-love and ‘mirror work’.

She had a great sense of humour and always carried a tiny mirror in her bra so that she could whip it out, look into it and say “looking good kid!”

There’s no doubt that despite not starting her company till she was almost 60, she leaves an incredible legacy, I love being a Hay House author, being a presenter on hayhouseradio.com and I’m also a customer of course, voraciously reading many of the books published by this wonderful company, and savouring her desk diary with wonderful little words of wisdom. R.I.P amazing Louise. Here’s an extract from a statement from Hay House:

Our beloved friend and founder Louise Hay transitioned this morning, August 30, 2017 of natural causes at age 90. She passed peacefully in her sleep.

Louise was an incredible visionary and advocate. Everyone who had the privilege to meet her, either in person or through her words, felt her passion for serving others.

Considered a founder of the self-help movement, Louise was dubbed ‘the closest thing to a living saint.’ She published her first book ‘Heal Your Body’ in 1976 (at age 50) long before it was fashionable to discuss the connection between the mind and body. In 1984, her second book, ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ was published. In it, Louise explained how our beliefs and ideas about ourselves are often the cause of our emotional problems and physical maladies and how, by using certain tools, we can change our thinking and our lives for the better.

You Can Heal Your Life’ became a New York Times bestseller and spent 16 weeks on the list. More than 50 million copies have been sold throughout the world.

You can read the full legacy here http://www.hayhouse.com/louise-hay-legacy

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Here’s another chance to read an article I wrote after meeting Louise a few years ago, when she was sharing the stage with the late Wayne Dyer, thinking about it, that will be an awesome reunion in heaven!

Mirror, Mirror, on The Wall  

(First published in the Church Newspaper 2014)

You may have seen the rather odd phenomenon across blogs and documented in the women’s pages of daily newspapers about ‘Mirror Fasting’. It’s a new craze started by a blogger who was concerned she was obsessed with her own appearance. According to the journal of behaviour research and therapy, women look in the mirror 38 times a day, so to counteract this we’re being encouraged to try to resist the urge and not look in the mirror at all.

I’d like to encourage everyone to look in the mirror more oftenbut not in the name of vanity to worry about your wrinkles, commiserate about greying hairs, or pull faces to tighten your jaw. Indeed, I think we should be looking in the mirror in order to be appreciative, to show to love to ourselves as we really are.  

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Louise Hay speak, she has been in the UK for the ‘I Can Do It’ conference in Glasgow and London, with many other bestselling authors including the hugely successful Dr Wayne Dyer. Louise was once dubbed ‘The Queen of New Age’ by the New York times, after writing ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ in 1984, which has sold over 35 million copies.

Louise owns the extremely successful international publishing company, Hay House (I’m proud to be one of their authors) and she believes in affirmations, indeed she is a great advocate of what she calls ‘Mirror Work’ – looking in the mirror several times a day and saying “I love you“ (and add your name).  Just try it a few times (in private is fine) and you’ll realise how tricky it can feel. Most of us are so conditioned from an early age to be self critical, and have low self-esteem because we feel we don’t look ‘attractive’ enough or we’re not in some way ‘good’ enough. Louise by the way is not the flaky type you may expect, she is an extremely energetic 85-year-old who travels all over the world, is bright as a button and has just started taking piano lessons (“there’s many years in me yet” she says).

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If you’re thinking I really have gone all cosmic and new age now, I’d urge you to ask yourself how intact is your self-esteem?  Our children are constantly bombarded with messages of needing to look more ‘cool’ and looking up to size zero models. When there’s an increase of self-harming in teenagers, surely our self loathing has gone too far? I’m not suggesting that we all become vain and arrogant and ‘worship’ ourselves, but we could practice gratitude, a spirit of thankfulness that God has created us just as we are. The next time you look in the mirror and think anything other than “I love you”, remember that as you were made in God’s image you are technically criticising God too!

Genesis 1:27  – ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’.

Janey Lee Grace is the author of ‘Look Great Naturally Without Ditching the Lipstick’ (Hay House) and regularly presents the spotlight series of radio shows for Hay House Radio.

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