create an inspiring year!

We are online!  Learn, Love, Live life coaching planner can be found on Amazon.com and on Barnes&Noble.com. (write in: life coaching planner) Check it out!
Last post I spoke about gratitude...the importance of looking for and acknowledging the good things, the blessings, seeing what is.  I offered the suggestion of a gratitude journal. 
Today I am sharing my thoughts on the title: Create an Inspiring Year!  Our life is our creation. Now that may sound trite, and it's true, that stuff happens that is out of our control, and what is also true is that while we cannot control life, we always, but always have control over how we respond and react to what life brings us.  I'll share a story: when Learn, Love, Live arrived in its lovely package, I sat with the distributor and I was very excited.  The first two comments from him was: it's late and it's expensive.  I felt the color drain from my face.  late and expensive???!!!  but we had talked about timing and cost and the importance, hadn't we??  well, I had a choice of how to react.  I didn't choose well that time.  my response was: attack!!  I got angry and I got upset.  later on (it happened to be a few days before Yom Kippur, a day of built in reflection) I took a step back and zoomed in on what triggered my response.  all fear.  what if no one can afford LLL??  what if no one even knows where to find it??  Once I faced the fear I was able to push past it, and reestablish dialogue and discover that it will work out, and in fact, things are working out quite wonderfully.  So I offer you this: in times of angst and conflict, step back, figure out what triggered you, acknowledge and push through it.  it is so amazing what happens when we face our fear, when we speak it out loud.....it takes the sting right out of it, it releases some of that initial tension and allows us to move forward gracefully, authentically, as we are meant to.

The Finished Product

Learn Love Live is finished!  I saw the first copy last week and it's very exciting to see your work evolve from concept to vision through computer technology into a final hard copy.   The planner is lovely.  It's easy to use, attractive to look at, a good size for any bag you're carrying....it's inviting, warm, and just looking at it, makes you feel inspired.  O.K., I'm biased, but truly, I felt a rush when I opened it.  I very much want to get your feedback on the design, on the flow, on the ease, on the content.  Very soon I will have a link to post where you can see  LLL and already order it online.
Remember, Learn Love Live is based on 4 guiding principles: Gratitude, Initiative, Well-being and the Inner Compass.
I want to close this post with a suggestion for Gratitude.  As a life coach, I work with my clients on shifting perspectives that are limiting them to perspectives that open up new ways of seeing things and ultimately to new ways of being in the world.  It begins with Gratitude.  Take a notebook.  Start writing every day 5 good moments that you had that day. Do it every day.  What you are doing in essence is training your brain to see the world as a good and giving place.  I promise you, this practice will change the way you see life, your surroundings...it can truly be life changing! 
Let me know how it goes.
Yours,
brenda

Welcome!

This is my first posting of Learn Love Live!  I've opened this blog to share with you the thoughts, ideas, ins and outs of my life coaching planner.

Learn Love Live is my calendar-planner-workbook for the year 2012.  In it you will find the four elements necessary for creating a meaningful and productive year: Gratitude, Initiative, Well-being, and the Inner Compass.  Today I want to talk about the logo.  Green is a color I love.  It represents renewal, growth, and change.    the figure of the woman is representative for me, of a dancer...she has a connection to nature, and her graceful movement is both calming and inspiring.  she and the tree become one, and looking at it, I see a gesture inviting us to reach for more.  I love dance and I love how I feel when I dance, and as Martha Graham said:
"We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life."
I invite you to discover and explore your own personal dance with Learn Love Live!

yours,
brenda