featured post two

The Willingness to Will Nothing

October 7, 2018 By Shauna

As we travel on our journey there are times when everything we think we understand, all of our tools and our knowing of how to survive life’s curveballs seem to be irrelevant. Or maybe outdated is a better word… or archaic… or just plain useless. We find ourselves thinking and thinking about what our next survival tool will be. What will be the anchor in the storm? Revelation…maybe for a moment in your life, you are not supposed to be anchored. Maybe your most current upheaval is a new chance at a new beginning.

Do we always have to understand why things happen to us? Do we always have to have a plan for our lives? I have come to realize that it is the unknowing of life that is the most fulfilling. The deconstructing of a structure that may not have been sound in the first place. The willingness to will nothing. No thing. No outcome. In some moments that means we hurt and we don’t try to hide it or change it or overcome it. In other moments the hurt goes away and we feel relief and strength and hope. The un-structuring of our structure has opened a skylight in our roof. And we see things we have never seen before.

Then the journey begins again. Where? We do not know. Why? We do not care. Who and with whom, it is yet to be revealed to us. But the journey will continue. And it will be magnificent.

Dreams of your Future

April 3, 2014 By Shauna Leave a Comment

If you are like everyone else, your Facebook page…email inbox…even your favorite magazine covers are all screaming at you to follow your dreams! One beautiful image after another, with a truly inspiring quote, shows up time and time again. Then there are those precious animal pictures that show how some tiny kitten has climbed an unimaginable ladder and made it to the top, insinuating that YOU can too! In this world of positive thinking, affirmations and thoughts of the little engine that could, we are bombarded by images and challenged by others to go after our “dreams” and our life will be perfect. But here is the clincher, many people in this world have no idea what that dream is! Family, finances, obligations and just plain surviving have caused us to stay in the part of our brain that blocks out creative thinking. And THAT is where our dreams flourish…in our creative mind. It is reached by something called the Creative Child side of our spirit. It is this side of us that thinks outside the box and rocks the boat for change. It is the side of us that is spontaneous, free spirited and open for anything. That is the place that dreams are born. That is the energy we need to make our dreams come true. We all have that side of us. But for some it is louder and stronger and more powerful than for others.

So, how do we reach it? The first step is to give ourselves permission! “I give myself permission for the next ten minutes to touch that place within me where all my secret dreams live”. Then sit back and listen. Listen for your child-like voice that has been screaming with playful ideas but not been heard. With permission to dream we open up a part of our psyche that has been silenced. A part we thought didn’t exist, but was truly just hidden in the corners of our mind. Now here is the secret. There is an interesting piece to this process that must take place. In order to reach that creative side in our self we need to let go of LOGIC. An artist does not use logic to paint a picture. An actor does not use logic to embody a character. You can’t think outside the box if your logical brain has stuck you and your entire life IN a box! We need to let go of the negative logical thinking that hold us back. You know the ones that play in our minds and tell us “it can’t happen”. We need to silence those and let our creative voice be heard. We need to give ourselves permission to not be logical for one moment in our life! If you keep practicing this over and over then it will happen. One day you will wake up and your creative voice will be louder than the one that squelches your dreams.

Remember, your dreams of the future have as much of a possibility as anyone else’s! But they will never take place until you figure out what they are.

NOW DREAM IT, CHANGE IT, DO IT, BECOME IT!

I believe in you!

Exercise:

So here is your Dream Challenge

Journal! Write! Dream! Become!
•   What are five things you love to do that represent who you are?
•
•   What are five things that you want to do that you have never done before?
•
•   What is your biggest dream that you would like to accomplish THIS YEAR?
•
•   What is your biggest dream that you would like to accomplish in your lifetime?
•
•   What action can you take today, tomorrow and this week to move toward your dream?
•
•   Why should you do this?
•
•   What would it feel like to accomplish your dream?

Now ask yourself…
• What has stopped me in the past from going after my dreams?
•
• What do I need to change in order to move forward towards my passion?

Who am I really angry at?

August 28, 2013 By Shauna

Why am I upset…really? Who am I really angry at? As I came to write this newest blog I decided to reflect back on a lesson in A Course In Miracles that I often share with my clients. “I am never upset for the reason that I think”. So often I have a client that presents that they are really upset with a friend, or a lover over something that they have done recently. But when I question them deeper I find that it is a much deeper sadness that is affecting them. And it is this underlying sadness or hurt from the past that is raising its ugly head and causing them to feel angry in the present. It may not even be connected to the person that they are angry at now. It could be that the recent situation triggers for them the memories of the way an ex used to treat them, or a parent. Whatever it is, it all boils down to the fact that they are not angry for the reasons that they think.

So how do we know what we are really angry at? First you need to check the level of your anger to see if it is truly appropriate for the transgression by the other person. If you can do this and be self aware enough to make a clear judgment that it is an over reaction, then you can take this next step. Now replace the word “anger” with another word. “Hurt”, or “Disappointed” or “Frustrated” or “Wounded”. Anger is an emotional REACTION, a defense mechanism to protect us from deeper hurt, or future hurt. But it is a very broad word that really covers so many deeper emotions. If you can get under the anger to feel the emotion, then you can see where it may be stemming from. We need to calm down the fire to see what caused it. Then I offer you to ask yourself this question….”Is there anything else that this situation reminds me of that may really be present here? IS there someone ELSE that treats me like this that has hurt me in the past? It could certainly be that the person you are angry at IS the person you are angry at! But it could also be because you have never brought up to them a past transgression. I say it is like a coke bottle that gets shaken up. The more you hold in your feelings towards someone, the more they build up. Then eventually something happens and you take off that bottle cap and it blows!

Now let me share with you a tough pill to swallow! Sometimes when you are angry in a situation the person you are angry at is YOURSELF! Sometimes we deflect onto the other person the fact that we are embarrassed about our behavior. Or that we really know we were in the wrong and don’t want to accept it, or fess up to it. Sometimes, just like in the above scenarios, it reminds us of another time we acted the same way and THAT is what we are angry at. So there is a huge healing that can take place if you can also ask yourself, “Is there any part of this situation that I am angry at myself over? Did I do something here to hurt someone else? Do I need to learn something here about myself that I do not want to look at?

Anger is a valid reaction to being hurt. But if we do not deal with the reality of a situation and just sit in anger then we can never move forward or heal. So I offer you now, the next time you are angry, to ask yourself, “Is this what I am REALLY angry at? Is the depth of my anger appropriate for the situation? Am I really angry at this person or someone else? If not, ask yourself why! Then try and peel away the layers and see what you are really feeling. Journal, talk to yourself…do what you need to do to get to the root of your feelings. Then you can take the steps in any situation to move past the anger and heal the true hurt. Or in some instances…just let it go!

I Am My Own Valentine!

February 9, 2013 By Shauna Leave a Comment

I LOVE MYSELF!! WILL I BE MY VALENTINE?

What is Self Love!

So often we hear the phrase, “If you don’t love yourself you cannot love another”. What the heck does that mean? What it means is that if you do not love yourself enough to honor your SELF, then you will be in most relationships to fill a void within you. And yes, you can have a level of love for that person. But it will never be a healthy love. It will be a needy love, a disproportionate love, a lonesome love, or a one sided love. When we work on SELF ESTEEM, then we find a way to see the value in our self. Once you see VALUE in your self than you never let another damage that, or steal from that fabulous WELL of SELF.

There are many reasons that we lose track of SELF LOVE! Possibly we were never taught how wonderful we are as a child. Or possibly a loss or a tragedy made us question our own worth, which in turn stole from the WELL. Often abuse, either physical or verbal emptied the well of Self Love. But here and now I say to you, whatever emptied it, or never caused it to be filled…you can fill it now! YOU CAN FILL OR REFILL your own heart. You can add the words I LOVE MYSELF to your identity. You can filter out the people that steal from your well. And YOU can decide that self-love is not selfish! By doing so, you will open the giant door to all of the ways to learn to love your self. But you must decide WANT to love yourself first.

So here are a few exercises for this month of February. Valentines Month!

THE SELF LOVEFEST CHALLENGE!
TRY TO DO THIS ENTIRE LIST BY THE END OF THE MONTH!

*Write YOURSELF a love letter and tell YOU how fabulous you are.

*Make a Self Love Inventory. List everything that makes you an amazing and lovable person.

*Sing Love Songs to yourself and about yourself.

*Surround yourself with loving people that love you as much as you love them.

*Buy a gift for YOU.

*Do another love inventory! The WHAT I WANT TO CHANGE ABOUT MYSELF TO LOVE ME MORE list.

*Remember that Valentines Day is only about love. What better place to start than with your SELF!

A Voice of My Own

September 11, 2012 By Shauna Leave a Comment

2012 Election Year! A time when Americans are encouraged to share their vision for the future and vote on the politician who they believe will get them there. Beliefs and opinions are very personal. It reflects so much of who we are. It reflects the morals and ethics that we were raised with in our family system. But more importantly, it reflects the morals and ethics of our families that we have released from our own consciousness as we differentiated and found our own true beliefs. As I say in my book, “Are you Democratic, Republican, Liberal, Communist or otherwise because that is what YOU truly believe in? Or is it because you have not taken the time to honor that you may actually have a different voice than those around you?”. Perhaps you have not even looked at the issues deeply, instead you are being guided by the news and propaganda of the differing parties. In this day and age, it takes work to weed through the facts. But even harder is the work it takes for you to look deep within and realize that you may disagree with what you were brought up to believe. So why should you? All politics aside, this process we call DIFFERENTIATING is what I believe is the most important goal in life. When you look for and find your OWN VOICE you find your Genuine Self.

So what is your voice? What do you believe in? If you were to write your own book telling the world what you feel, what would it say? If you could be who you wanted to be without judgement from anyone, what would you share with the world? Are there people that stifle your voice? Why do you let them? What are you afraid of? Or do you stifle other people’s voices? What are you afraid of? I offer you to take some time to do some internal searching of what you think about the world and why. Then check in and see if this is what you truly believe, or what you were taught you were supposed to believe. Differentiating is being able to separate your thoughts from others and then claim what and who you are. Believe me, it is a lifelong learning experience. But it is a JOYOUS ONE! It is freedom! It is happiness! It is the never ending Journey to YOU!

Happy Travels!

THE PATH- By Shauna Hoffman

Walk the path it’s within you,
feel your fire start to rise.
It’s in KNOWING, that’s the power
to reach a lifetime that’s desired.

Giving over to your truth,
letting ego’s mind just pass,
is the moment of Enlightenment
and Your Truth shall shine at last.

And Your Truth is everlasting,
and Your Truth is oh so near.
It’s the love of only loving,
and the banishment of fear.

Walk the path it’s within you,
feel your fire start to rise.
It’s in KNOWING, that’s the power
to reach a lifetime that’s desired.

*Remember that Valentines Day is only about love. What better place to start than with your SELF!

FOR APPOINTMENTS