Giving, receiving, and flow

Last updated on: December 22, 2012 at 6:43 pm By Julie Colwell

In my last post, I talked about conscious giving and receiving, and how a nearly universal belief in our culture is that “tis better to give than to receive,” and how this throws people–especially women–off balance. “Giving” energy becomes the whole focus, while receiving can be way undervalued. Here’s a problem with this belief system: in nature, neither giving nor receiving exists. For example, consider a leaf. Is it giving energy or receiving it? Both, simultaneously, right? Or a bear... Read more

Conscious Giving and Receiving

Last updated on: December 11, 2012 at 10:32 am By Julie Colwell

“It’s the season of giving!”–Right? Perhaps–though maybe conscious giving and receiving require new skills. Specifically, the ability to ask yourself “what is the truth about what I want to give or don’t want to give, what I want to do or don’t want to do?” Perhaps this season, that is also so rife with overeating, overdrinking, and overdoing, could be much more pleasurable for you. In this next series of posts, I’ll be exploring conscious giving and receiving. My experience... Read more

What story are you telling yourself?

Last updated on: December 1, 2012 at 4:47 pm By Julie Colwell

Recently, I’ve become fascinated by the stories we tell ourselves, and the impact they have on our inner states and on how we live our lives. Having been trained as a hypnotherapist, I understand the power of hypnotic induction in how we interact with ourselves and the world. I see how often my clients are unwittingly hypnotizing themselves with detailed stories of pasts that were full of pain, presents that are unfulfilling, and futures that will be scary and awful.... Read more

My manifesto

Last updated on: November 1, 2012 at 10:19 pm By Julie Colwell

In my last series of posts I introduced the idea that, in the choice between being right or being happy, choosing HAPPY means choosing you. Deciding to live from what resonates with your core self means landing on your path of true fulfillment, meaning, and happiness. I outlined five (and a half!) steps for you to follow, culminating in my invitation for your to write your personal manifesto. Your manifesto then becomes the template from which a life that is... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step 5: YOUR MANIFESTO

Last updated on: October 30, 2012 at 8:28 pm By Julie Colwell

I started this series on October 10, and said it would be two weeks. Wellll–here we are, twenty days later–are you still with me? To remind you, thus far we’ve: Made the commitment to Choosing Happy (over Being Right) Listed what we’d learned as Measures of Success Surfaced our own Measures of Success Savored what we’ve created that we love Taken this further to add what we’d like to do more of that we love Put these lists together to... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step 4

Last updated on: October 25, 2012 at 10:13 pm By Julie Colwell

The “I Choose Happy!” Process is a way to discover your essence and then build your life around what is most important to you. It’s about manifesting from your true self, versus from what you’ve learned you “should” or “shouldn’t do. (I believe that the word “should” is a clue that whatever follows is always someone else’s idea.) (You can find the prior steps to the ICH Process in my past 5 blogs; those links are in the lower left... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step 3.1

Last updated on: October 23, 2012 at 8:01 pm By Julie Colwell

So far, we’ve: Committed to choosing Happy over Right; Listed the Measure of Success that you learned from other people; Sorted out your own Measures of Success, the ones that are actually important to you; Listed those results you’ve created in your life that you really love. The next step in the “I Choose Happy” process is an expansion on the last one. I invite you to take your list of “the results you’ve created that you really love” (ah!,... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step #3

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 1:06 pm By Julie Colwell

In my last three blog posts, I’ve introduced you to the idea of “choosing happy” (versus being RIGHT) as a guiding principle for your whole life. Then I led you through Step #1 (making the commitment to choosing happy) and Step #2 (examining what you’ve been using as your Metrics of Success.) These MOS began as you learned them from society and/or important people around you, then I asked you to go on to make you list of what truly... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step #2

Last updated on: October 11, 2012 at 3:15 pm By Julie Colwell

In I Choose Happy! Step #1, I asked you to make a commitment to choosing being happy over being right. You might have experienced what is very common after making a new commitment: that the obstacles to that commitment appear right away. Maybe you had thoughts like, “This is stupid, Julie lives in a totally different world than me,” or “Forget it, this is impossible.” You might even have felt completely unhappy and despairing about it all. That’s all to... Read more

I Choose Happy! Process Step #1

Last updated on: October 9, 2012 at 5:00 pm By Julie Colwell

In my last post, I described my new discovery of taking the question, “would you rather be right or be happy?” to a whole new dimension. Rather than simply using it as a question of relationship, I’ve been looking at my whole life through this lens. As a result, I’m experiencing a sense of realignment and peaceful settling in with my soul’s purpose that I’ve never felt before. Want to try it out? OK, here’s this process I’ve been developing.... Read more