Nature reflects life…once we get past our barriers, then life begins to flow.  Enjoy whatever beauty surrounds you today.  Life is lived in the moments…make some beautiful moments by noticing your surroundings.

Check out these additional shots of the Rogue River (below).  Bring the beauty and peace of nature to your inside today…these shots are a reminder that all is well in the world…how is your river of life flowing today?

Women on Air have another radio show broadcast coming up the end of November with special guests Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell, evolutionary behaviorists who have written a fascinating book “Redefining Seduction.”

Stay tuned!

Take a look at these pictures if you want to get a beautiful feeling of Autumn. Women on Air are on retreat in beautiful Grants Pass, Oregon where we are moving things forward and making things happen on the inside of our little apartment at the Motel Del Rogue, and you can see that things are changing and happening on the outside.

On this monumental day of electing the next President of the United States, I am reminded of the responsibility of our choices. Please vote and exercise your right to choose who will lead us into the future. It is no secret that Women on Air are voting for Barack Obama. We strongly believe that this man has the skills to collaborate with the experts AND the people of the US, and nurture this country back to health. GO OBAMA!!!

The inside tip for today is to stop…enjoy these photos of Grants Pass and the Rogue River…let it remind you of the beautiful world we live in. Take at least 30 seconds 3 times today to notice your world…the sights, sounds, smells…observe your feelings and thoughts without judgement. Although you may feel uneasy and eager today…I can promise you that if you integrate this practice of silence in your life, it is the path to inner peace.  It is only 1-1/2 minutes of your day…try it!

Thursday, we will post another conversation with Giles AND two yummy recipes for Autumn…stay tuned…

Blessings to all…those who win and those who lose today.

We are so excited to have Anne Lamott join us for our launch show.  We will be interviewing Anne about her perspective on faith and peace AND if you know anything about Anne Lamott, you will not want to miss this one!  She is a celebrated San Francisco Bay Area author and teacher…her books include Grace, Evenutally, Operating Instructions, and Bird by Bird. Sign up for the blog right now so you get all the details about how to tune into our first live broadcast on Saturday, September 27th at 10:00 am PT.

Stay tuned!

It is very evident from my household (Leslie’s) that we are back-to-school. I woke up this morning and noted that my family room and kitchen looked like a warzone; there were dirty glasses, clothes, bags of chips, a cereal bowl with dried milk, liitle piles of school papers (that probably need to be read or signed!!!#%!), mail, sports equipment sunscreen, backpacks, and shoes.  And yes, I’m having people over for lunch in three hours and I can see the dust bunnies peeking out from under the sofa.

What to Do with a Mess Like This?

I suggest taking an empty laundry basket and move around your home and just start picking up all the piles and things that are not in their place and put them in the basket.  Go from room to room and do not take time to distribute all the items.  You have to centralize this operation and the launhdry basket now becomes the ‘distribute’ box.  If you have the urge to leave the room to put something away, DON’T.  Put it in the ‘distribute’ box instead, and then carry it along to the next stop.  Advise the inhabitants of your household that they have 24 hours to clarim their things from the ‘distribute’ contrainer or it will be purged.

Purge with a Purpose

When deciding to purge an item, the real acid test question is:  Will anything happen if I toss it away? Unless, it has some legal ramifications, go ahead and throw it away!

Most people in our part of the world are buried in a daily inflow of information and have an excess of ‘stuff’.  Some are better than others at managing their things and some are hoarders.  Oprah recently did a segment with a women who was a hoarder and had 75 tons of stuff, yes, tons, removed from her household so she could live a normal life.  Her husband was keeping bank statements and receipts that were more than 35 years old!  This was an extremem case of not being able to let go of things or purge.

A Place for Things and Everything in its Place

I find it really handy to have containers or place baskets at entries to put shoes in if you don’t have a nearby closet.  Have a dedicated basket for school papers that need to be signed.  A container for your mail and a basket and shredder next to it are ideal for quickly getting rid of junk mail.

I like to save the nice heavy department store shopping bags with handles and put them in my closets and next to my son’s chest of drawers.  As he grows out of clothes that are still useable to someone else, they go into the donate box.  Letting go of things and giving them to people who can use them makes the world a better place.  Remember, one of our sayings…Goodwill vs. Landfill.

Back to School – Back to YOU

As you organize your house with all these great tips from Leslie, your life can also be de-cluttered from the schedules of summer with the kids.

How do you re-discover YOU?

Back to you starts with de-cluttering your thoughts from coordinating and planning for others’ needs (kids, family vacations, summer camps, visits from/to relatives, etc.).  When my daughter, who is now 19 and living independently year round, use to go back to school I would find my body and mind needing some extra down time to catch my breath and check in with me.  This was my first summer without her, AND I now have time to write about my experience.  I recommend (and you may have heard me say it before) taking 30 seconds of silence to breathe at least 3 times per day.  Note your thoughts without judgement and say hello to your body.

Purge Inside Too

When you have noticed your thoughts, you may find that it is thinking that does not serve you…negativity. John Gottman, in his marriage research, shows that relationships need a 5-1 ratio of positivity to negativity to be successful.  Positivity starts on the inside.  Negative thoughts are USELESS and it’s time to say bye bye if it is self-critical or self-sabotaging in any way.   Read Byron Katie (anything by her) or “Excuse me, Your Life is Waiting.”  by Lynn  Grabhorn to get some funny and insightful thoughts on how to generate positivity in your life.

Containers for Your Thoughts

One container I often use with my clients is the Gremlin container.  Your gremlins are the voices of self-sabotage and negative thinking that we ALL carry with us.  There is a great book “Taming Your Gremlins,” by Richard Carsen.  He even has a Taming Your Gremlins Institute where corporate executives learn how to put those bad thoughts in cages.  When you notice the self-bashing routine, play with putting those thoughts in a Gremlin container.  I had a creative client that actually made clay figures to represent her Gremlins and would take the figures, verbally tell them they were not needed, and set them in a drawer or box.  Letting go of negative thoughts is one of the greatest contributions to your inner peace AND World Peace.

Are you one of the millions of Americans feeling stressed about your financial security? Here’s a perspective from the Women on Air (WOA) reading list.

“You haven’t been taking care of yourself; you’ve been taking care of your money. I’ll take care of myself after I have enough money, after I get it secured. I’ll be happy then. And ‘then’ never comes.” This is a quote from Byron Katie’s book that is on our list.

These books offer new perspectives to help you ReDesign Your Life From the Inside Out.

Question Your Thinking – Change the World – Quotations from Byron Katie

Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting by Lynn Grabhorn

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

The Age of Miracles by Marianne Williamson

The Shack by William P. Young

Happy Reading!

If you did not happen to see the show live, go to the show link.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/everything_else&id=6241722

What a blast!  It was Betty’s 53rd birthday and we spent the day at KGO studios (ABC) in San Francisco.
It was gulpy action from start to finish as the producer redesigned the script right up until showtime.   to increase the stress, there was no rehearsal either.  We called that a WOA Baby!

It was not an opportunity we pursued, but it was handed to us and we grabbed it.  We learned so much about our own human nature as we instantly berated our performance as we walked off the set.  It is unbelievable how fast those Gremlins attacked.  We observed it from the humorous viewpoint and got tons of laughs about the whole experience.  Everyone we met at KGO was so welcoming and helpful, including the weatherman Spencer Christian who is truly a gentleman.

Like any TV Diva stars would, we finished the day off with a mani/pedi and dinner at one of our local favs.

Redesigning Your Life from the Inside Out

Form Follows Feelings:
A Four Step Guide

Step 1:  Clearing

On the inside, “clearing” means to stop the treadmill of life and give the mind a break from all superficial distractions.  We check in with our daily choices to make sure they align with our desires, and with who we are.  “What is important and meaningful in my life, and how am I positively expressing that?”

In the same way that changing a seating arrangement shifts the energy in a living room, we also need to clear our thoughts and rearrange our emotions to create deeper awareness. The added value of clearing is that it creates a clean slate and additional space for the next beautiful transformation!  It’s up to each of us to redesign the life we lead, into the life we “desire”, regardless of where we are on life’s path.  “Who do I want to be?  How can I just be happy with who I am right now?”  These are questions to consistently ask and answer from a place of awareness.

Coach Betty recommends taking 30 seconds of complete silence at least 3 times a day to start the process of clearing out the mind and discovering what lies beneath the surface.

The first step of the “outside” redesign process is to clear the room of all the existing furnishings. Yes, it’s absolutely necessary to do this!  Take everything out of the room. This includes artwork, furniture, lighting and all accessories. Most people think they can skip this step and just start moving their furnishings around. However, clearing the room completely provides you with a fresh new perspective that is no longer attached to the way the room looked before.

Start by removing the smallest items first and finishing with the largest.  As you move items out of the room, it is a good idea to place similar items together  in a designated “holding area.”

Grouping items into categories makes redesigning the space much easier, and allows you to see the room’s common themes expressed through artwork, collections, and family photos. You can also organize items according to types of finishes, for example wood, ceramic, crystal, or iron.

Whew!  The mind gets cleared, and the room gets cleared…it feels better already.

Step 2:  Assessing

Everyone carries a defining uniqueness.  We all have strengths, and experience moments in which our magnificence shines.  It’s true for every single person.  In the same way that we resonate with natural focal points in a room, we also resonate on the inside with our innate attributes.  Imagine the positivity we each contribute to the world when we are living and BEing present with our inner strengths.  Building on what works well in life is not only more fun, it also attracts an abundance of opportunities. BEing with our individual magnificence actually realigns the planet as a whole back into harmony.    As Marion Williamson says, who are we Not to be brilliant, talented, gorgeous and successful???”

Clearing the room of clutter gives you a new perspective; you now see a space full of possibility, and can assess its architectural highlights. Notice the windows and other sources of natural light. From what direction is light shining?  What are the natural and created focal points in the room?  What positive feature makes it unique — for example, a large picture window, a fireplace, or a bank of windows. The purpose for identifying the focal point is to anchor the main conversation area, which helps determine where to place the largest piece of furniture.  This is also a good time to examine the angles of the walls, and  how they connect with the floor to determine the shape of the room. Is it L-shaped, rectangular, or square?  After assessing the space and shape of the room you can determine a seating arrangement for the furniture that is most conducive to conversation.

Step 3:  Discover

When working with clients, we incorporate an exercise called the “wheel of life” into the work, which assesses the current balance of how things are flowing.  The wheel provides a visual perspective of the current state of affairs, and assesses your satisfaction within various areas of life, such as work, family, money, health, social life, etc.  Once you see the shape of your individual wheel and its life patterns, you can target which patterns no longer serve you and can be released, and which patterns need to be altered or changed to better support you. “What old grudge or resentment can I release?”  So many discoveries emerge, without even leaving your home!

Before returning any furniture back into the room, it’s time to “shop your home for treasures.”  The idea of shopping at home may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s actually a great technique for transforming something “old” into a fresh look  without spending a lot of money. So search your attic, basement, and storage areas for objects you may have forgotten about or overlooked.

After shopping the house, start your redesign by bringing back the largest piece of furniture (for example, the sofa) into the room.  Try placing the sofa at different angles, or set away from a wall, which can make the room feel more spacious.  Placing a large piece of furniture in a different position can dramatically change the room’s focal point and energy.  Next arrange smaller furnishings around the focal point to create your seating arrangement.  Experiment with trial and error, and try out L-shaped or U-shaped arrangements, depending on which is most conducive to conversation given the shape of the room. Open up to the arranging process, and let it be a dynamic one.  Keep making changes until the room looks and ‘feels’ right.  Remember form follows feelings…

Try on new perspectives.  We all resist change, and yet every day we encounter an ever-changing world.  Come on ladies, get away from that wall and step out into the room.  BE the focal point in your life!

Step 4:  Illuminate

How do we light up inside?  It’s easy to tell when a woman is feeling her beauty because she glows from the inside out.  She radiates magnificence and it shows.  Ironically for most women, stepping into our own magnificence is our deepest fear However, we join Marianne Williamson in believing that when we let our lights shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same  Come forward in your natural power to manifest the beauty within you and your surroundings.  This will contribute positively to the planet and allow you to feel in harmony with it all.

In redesign, we often repurpose a piece of furniture; for example, the use of an antique trunk as a coffee table.  We can do the same in life — change direction and repurpose our talents and life patterns to create a new style whenever we choose.  We are only limited by our imaginations. When we consciously design our lives around the unique and beautiful beings we are on the inside, the world sees our internal “wow” factor.  And the world is dying for that to come forth!

The final step in redesigning your external space is to add lighting and personality to the room; let the space speak volumes about the people living in it. This is accomplished with family pictures, heirlooms, and unique collections arranged artistically. For example, pick up a piece of artwork or an artifact off the floor, and try hanging it on the wall.  The artwork is featured in a new way, and the wall increased its visual appeal.

Lighting, along with color, is a key factor in setting the mood of a room.  The ideal arrangement includes three lights placed in a triangular pattern throughout the room. Position them close enough to furniture groupings so that lighting is equally distributed in the space.  Use different types of lighting — table lamps, floor lamps, ambient lighting, up lighting, down lighting.  Mirrors, when strategically placed are also a good source of light when reflecting a nearby lighting fixture.

When we consciously design our lives around the unique and beautiful beings we are on the inside, the world sees our internal “wow” factor.  And the world is dying for that to come forth!

So there you have it… 4 easy steps.
Clear, Assess, Discover and Illuminate your home and your life and you will feel the peace, passion and pleasure you deserve. May you find it now!

Step 2 in the re-design process is about assessing what you learned in step 1. Once we stop long enough to see what is going on beneath the surface (remember the practice of 30 seconds of silence 5 times a day focusing on the breath), then we can take a good look at what we see and feel.

In re-designing your inside world, it is key to become aware of what natural talents and skills are within you.   Just as with a room design where you build the room around natural focal points, so it goes with the inside.  You build your life around your strengths.  If you are feeling positive in your life overall, then you have probably done this.  If you feel negativity and can’t get your life on track, then chances are your life is built around created focal points – not always in our best interest. We get to choose the focal points that will best serve us.

Your call to action, should you choose to accept it, is to take 5 minutes every night to write down what focal points you built your day around and how they made you feel (without judgement of any kind).  What do you notice?  This is not about regrets or misgivings about how you have lived your life so far.  In every moment, we have the opportunity to turn things around.

When our lives reflect our natural talents/skills (focal points), we increase our peace leading to a life of passion and pleasure!  Then you can create additional focal points to support who you are at your core.  That is exactly what we want for you.  Email  Betty at bettylouise@womenonair.biz if that inner peace is elusive.

Stay tuned for so much more coming up…things are really flying on air now.