Powerful and Fun Conversation with Kim Ades of Frame of Mind Coaching
My friend and colleague Kim Ades, Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching invited me to her podcast. We discuss coaching leadership, parenting, why I run women's circles and the importance of Feminine Power and SheEO.
Pressing Pause
The beauty of pressing pause is that you make room for a meaningful and compassionate conversation with yourself - time for empowered reflection. You know how we tend to pass people and say, “How are you?” automatically then they say “Fine, thanks” automatically? It’s a friendly but relatively meaningless exchange. Rarely are people actually honest about what is really going on for them. True, it may not be the time or place for a meaningful conversation with that other person. But, for many of us, we repeatedly have this kind of automatic and relatively meaningless conversation with ourselves - or no conversation at all.
How Does More Confidence and Ease Sound To You?
Exploring and harnessing our VIA Character Strengths will be an integral part of the upcoming Retreat. These strengths are considered the “backbone” of Positive Psychology. Research shows it is so much more powerful and effective to approach our lives, work and leadership from our strengths, instead of our weaknesses. And it’s a lot more enjoyable to live, work and lead this way! Indeed, finding ways to bring our top Character Strengths into every day has been found to be key to our well-being.
Are You In? Let Me Tell You How and Why "I'm In"
I am unabashedly evangelistic about SheEO - have you heard of it? It's existence and the women SheEO supports give me hope for the future of our world. Below I share the short story of about how and why "I'm In" - this whole post is less than a 3 minute read... the inspiration and energy you'll receive from learning more about SheEO will be well worth your time spent!
Did You Know Personal Courage Cannot Exist Without Fear?
The Latin root of "courage" is cor, which mean "heart". So, at the centre of personal courage is the heart. To be personally courageous means, by definition, that we are fearful but act anyway from our heart. This type of courage does not exist without fear. This is how I experience personal courage.
Savouring - A Very Pleasant and Effective Tool for Success!
Savouring is a positive psychology "happiness intervention", meaning that finding ways to savour the joys in life has been shown to lead to increased happiness and well-being. And studies have also shown that increased happiness and well-being lead to more success in life - and not the other way around as many of us assume.
Seize the Summer!
Seizing the Summer may not be about the hammock for you. And Seizing the Summer is not necessarily about planning a big exciting trip, or some other splashy event, either, though those can be very fun. Seizing the Summer is about what would be really meaningful for you.
A Broader View of Mother's Day
I’m celebrating the beautiful, loving, nurturing energy that we all have inside of us - whether we have children we are responsible for in our nuclear family or not.
Waves That Can Overwhelm Us and Knock Us Down
That wave slap experience has stayed with me over the years in a visceral way. Lately, I have been noticing that my experience feels akin to what can happen to us when life comes at us in a wave - of emotions or thoughts or circumstances - and hits us unexpectedly. It's that same terrible feeling of overwhelm and of powerlessness.
Are You Pot-Bound?
There’s an inevitability to growth. Just like that plant, programmed to become a large oak tree, you are designed to grow into your potential. And yet if you are in too small a container, both your roots are contained, and your height is contained. You cannot grow tall and straight with your branches reaching out, aligned with who you are inside. How sad is that?
I Hung Up on Myself
I shut the conversation inside myself down. I disconnected from my feelings and intuition in favour of logic and common sense. And then I paid a high price for many years – I gradually became very unfulfilled in my work, overwhelmed by life, and was completely lost professionally for many years.
Why I Now Love to Share a Room at a Retreat
When I went to my first 10-day Feminine Power retreat a few years ago, I didn’t even consider sharing a room. I wanted to be able to have that refuge of a room to myself. I have a husband, three kids, and a dog and this was my chance to not have to worry about anyone but myself. I love to spend time by myself as much as I love being with others.
From Isolation Into Connection
What would it be like for you to be able to be in a circle of women where it is completely safe and, in fact, you are encouraged, to show up as your biggest self, sharing your deepest desires? Where you don’t have to show as perfect - you can show all of yourself, including your vulnerabilities, and still be embraced?
Unexpected Gratitude
The other day I was working at a café here in Toronto, with a view through the window into the climbing gym where my youngest was in an after-school program. This has been our weekly routine for some months now and it is working beautifully. As I sat there, feeling stressed by what was on my plate, I felt a huge wave of gratitude come over me.
The Sweet Fruits of Transformation – A Story
I want to tell you the story of Vanessa, an imaginary woman who is a combination of many of the women I have talked to and worked with over the years, and me. I want to sketch out for you her “before and after” coaching story – so you can see the benefits of transformation. The fruits of transformation can be very sweet indeed!
I Do, and I Don’t, Want to Transform
If you are anything like me, you probably have mixed feelings about the idea of transforming certain aspects of yourself or your life. When I would hear Claire Zammit, the founder of Feminine Power, talk about how we were going to transform in the first course I took with her, I would feel a good dose of fear along with any excitement. I feared that transformation would mean that everything I had built - my marriage, my family, my friends, my work - would be on the table for transformation.
Fun is Not a Luxury
In my conversations with other women over the years, I have heard over and over about their yearning for Fun. But they often hold themselves back from creating fun in their lives - they see it as a luxury. I too am guilty of this. But Fun is not a luxury. It is not selfish. It is an essential ingredient in our lives. And we need to Make Room For It.
Blooming as a Catalytic Act of Leadership
What is so compelling about a bloom? The list is long – I am thinking about the power and the vulnerability of a bloom. In a flower, there is beauty, there may be a magnetic scent, and there is the vulnerability of the complete openness of a full bloom. When a woman blooms, there is also so much power and vulnerability. Blooming can be catalytic, an act of leadership.
Practices for A Successful Career Transition For Women Lawyers
These are all practices I use myself and recommend to my clients, whether in a transition or not, frankly, in most cases. They are tried and true. I am not a career coach per se - my expertise is in supporting professional women to be connected deeply to themselves, self-confident, and purposeful, so the practices reflect that perspective. They will be supportive to you in then being able to have the clarity and confidence to access the skills and support you need to make your career transition successfully.
Are You Choosing to be a Victim or a Creator in Your Life?
Are you choosing to be a victim or a creator in your life? This is a moment to moment, day to day choice. One of the most influential things I have learned in the last few years is the sense that life is happening through me, not to me… and through you too… through us all. I knew this at one level before – I knew that I had many choices as to how I could behave and that those choices impacted my life and the lives of those around me.
- anger
- authenticity
- boundaries
- brain
- change
- coaching
- collaboration
- confidence
- courage
- emotions
- energetic
- energy
- feminine power
- giving
- gratitude
- growth mindset
- happiness
- humility
- international womens day
- intuition
- leadership
- perfectionism
- potential
- pride
- receiving
- reflection
- relationships
- replenish
- resistance
- savouring
- self-compassion
- self-doubt
- selfishness
- silence
- social change
- success
- vulnerability
- wisdom
- workplace
- yearning