More About Love 2.0 - It's So Important!
Previously, I shared a message about the re-definition of love, sourced from research by the brilliant Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and her team and set out in Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do and Become (2012). This note builds on the ideas in a bit more detail - they are so important for us to take in as we become more and more immersed in our virtual worlds. The research contained in Love 2.0 emphasizes the importance of being together in flesh and blood. In fact, being together in person is a requirement of Love 2.0. The in-person requirement is what I want to highlight here.
Love 2.0 - A Super Powerful Re-Definition of Love
On Valentine’s Day, when the focus is on romantic love, I want to deliver a message about a re-definition of Love, sourced from research by the brilliant Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and her team. Dr. Fredrickson is a pre-eminent authority on “positive emotions”, where Love reigns supreme. She is the author of Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do and Become (2012), as well as Positivity (which I blogged about years ago).
Do You Believe in Synchronicities?
Do you believe in synchronicities? (I do. I want to make empowered meaning wherever I can get it!) I want to share a very fresh synchronicity – it just happened a few minutes ago. So, as you may know, I am hosting the first ever Making Room For YOU Circle tomorrow night. And, I have been planning on using the brilliant Claire Zammit’s Feminine Power visioning circle outline as the main structure for the Circle. It’s what I have used for the last two years and it is hugely effective.
It’s Cold and I’m Tired… Why Would I Go Out to a Circle?
You might well ask: Why would I make the effort to brave a dark, cold January night, after a long day, to join a Visioning Circle? Well, to answer your question, the bottom line is, the effort will pay off for you in spades – you may arrive tired, and even overwhelmed, but you will leave with a level of energy and clarity about your intentions for the year (and beyond!) that will be galvanizing for you. You will have clear steps to implement right away and a feeling that you are well supported.
Nourishing Conversation About Resilience With Allison Wolf of Shiftworks Coaching
My friend and colleague Allison Wolf of Shiftworks Coaching For Lawyers invited me to join her in a virtual conversation about Resilience, which we recorded for you. Back story: Last Fall, Allison and I collaborated on a Canadian Bar Association Webinar on Resilience (our third collaboration!). This nourishing conversation explores some of the themes we shared on the webinar.
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!
- 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