Butterflies...

Hi everyone,

Well, I hope you had a chance to think about forgiving - especially yourself - over the past week.

This week, I'd like to switch gears a bit and talk about butterflies. As some of you know, the butterfly is my company logo, along with the motto "Helping You Soar to New Heights."

I visited the Butterfly Rainforest in Gainesville yesterday and it was incredible. The variety of these little critters is astounding. Their beauty is breathtaking. In the wild, they live about 11 days - how sad. They live about twice that in the Butterfly Rainforest. But while they're with us, they give great enjoyment to those lucky enough to spend some time with them.

What really fascinated me though, is how they appear from the "outside" compared to the "inside." Can you see the delicate patterns on the outside of the beige/brown butterflies in the picture above? A person could sit and stare at the details for hours. But take a look at the little bright blue guy on the left (and yes, that IS a butterfly just to his left - the one with black wings with white and blue spots). His blue is so pretty he almost looks artificial, doesn't he?

Here's what you need to know...the subtle beige/brown ones are the same kind as the blue one... When they are "closed up," all we see is the subtle beige/brown pattern - nice, but not nearly as striking or memorable as the beautiful blue shades when they choose to "open up."

Isn't that how we are, too? We can be pretty "nice" on the outside, but for many of us, our real beauty is on the inside.

These butterflies are called blue morphos and it's quite a trick to catch them with their wings wide open where you can fully see their beauty.

How about you? Are you "open" enough for others to see your true beauty or is it hard to catch you with your "wings open"?

Whoever said beauty is on the inside must've met a blue morpho...or maybe he just met one of you!

So...this week, open up and let others see your true beauty!

Blessings,

Linda

http://www.lindasworkshops.com/

Linda@LindasWorkshops.com

Forgiveness

Hi everyone,
So how did it go this week in the "listening" department? Was there someone who needed you to turn on your listening skills? Did you?? This is one skill that I am convinced never gets perfected - by anybody. But hopefully, we can all work on it a bit and improve our communication a bunch!

This week's topic is forgiveness. I kept thinking all week it would be about patience, but I realized that the "patience" word kept coming up in relation to forgiving someone.

Forgiveness can make your life much more peaceful. Maybe it's forgiveness of parents whose guidance didn't really contribute to the "perfect childhood" for you (is there such a thing??). Maybe the forgiveness needs to be given to someone who has hurt you - even if they don't know you need to forgive them - and even if they don't know you have forgiven them!

Maybe your forgiveness needs to be given to a co-worker or a supervisor who just doesn't treat you very well. Or maybe it's a sibling - or a friend - or a casual acquaintance... get the picture? Forgiveness can involve anybody in your life - and they may not even know that they did anything that needs your forgiveness.

Now here's this week's question for pondering ~ Do you need to forgive yourself for anything? I think that's the reason this word came to mind for me. I kept thinking that I needed to be "patient" with myself, but what I really need is to forgive myself for a bad decision in my past that continues to bug me to pieces - it has the potential to steal my joy (remember that term??) when I get too focused on it. It's nothing huge, just one of those things where you can beat yourself up with the "if only" question. I have to consciously stop my mental meanderings and forgive myself whenever it pops up. When I do that, it all seems so silly to begin with, but you know how those minds of ours can work overtime!

For you, maybe it's not about a decision - maybe you have been the one to hurt someone else and now you really can't do anything about it - or can you? You can at least forgive yourself. We all make mistakes - and we all need forgiveness. Sometimes that forgiveness needs to come from someone who can be really tough on us - ourselves.

So...if something is bothering you about something you've done, said, should've done, should've said, or whatever....forgive yourself today....and tomorrow and the next day if necessary until you really believe you are forgiven!

Blessings,
Linda
www.LindasWorkshops.com

Communication

Hi everyone, and welcome to my new "followers" - including you Amy :-)! I know there are those who have not actually signed up as a "follower" but read the posts, and I want to welcome y'all (I'm in Florida now, you know!) as well...

Well, did you do it? Did you get rid of any "clutter" this past week - physical, mental, emotional, visual, whatever?? I did manage to eliminate a bit last week and will continue to work on that this week. Sometimes it seems I get rid of some and twice that much comes tumbling in. My mind is so much calmer when I can keep the clutter in check - no matter which kind of clutter it is.

Now on to this week's word...communication. I conducted a workshop on that topic this week, then came across 2 articles about it, so...that "communicated" to me that I should talk about communication :-)...

In my workshop this week, we talked about several aspects of communication - communication styles, for instance. Are you auditory, visual, or kinesthetic? If you need directions, can you just listen to someone tell you (auditory), do you need a map (visual - that would be me), or can you remember how to get to a place after only being there once before (kinesthetic - actually doing something)? If you understand these 3 styles, it can help a lot when you are communicating with others. For instance, knowing that I'm visual, if you wanted to explain some numbers to me, drawing a graph or colorful chart would go a long way in helping me "see" what you're talking about. The auditory person, along with actually hearing what you have to say, might also like to hear how you got the numbers and details. The kinesthetic person might be more focused on the feelings connected to the numbers. Let's put it another way - if you are training someone who is auditory, they can often follow your instructions just based on what you say; the visual may need to see a diagram or written instructions; the kinesthetic needs to actually do it to "get it." Most of us are a combination of all 3 and the more even we are in the 3 styles, the easier it is to communicate with others. If we are high in one category, it just means we have to work a little harder to get our point across - if we are even AWARE that there is a difference in our own communication style and that of the person we're talking to.

Studying the communication styles can be really interesting. My favorite part of the communication workshop, though, is the "listening skills" section. I truly believe that if people take that section to heart they can dramatically improve their lives and maybe the life of someone else. It's amazing how I have never had anyone get a perfect score on the listening survey we take in my workshops, and yet most people don't make any effort to improve in that area. It's an area I have worked on for the past several years and I still have a long way to go.

So here's my challenge to you for this week...pick someone you don't normally listen to all that well (admit it, you probably do have someone in your life like that!) The next time they start a conversation, stop what you're doing, make eye contact, and really listen. Listen to what they are NOT saying. "Listen" to what their eyes are saying. Listen as if they matter...because guess what? They DO. And when you don't listen, you're saying they don't.

I don't think that's what you're really trying to communicate, is it?

Blessings,
Linda
www.LindasWorkshops.com
Linda@LindasWorkshops.com

Clutter be gone!

Well, how did you do with saying adios to some tolerations this past week? I did indeed come up with a couple more - 3 to be exact - and it feels good. Still have some others hanging around but my awareness is there, so hopefully I'll be able to work on those things over the next few weeks.

And there's that word again - awareness. Are you aware of any clutter in your life? I'm not necessarily talking about physical clutter, although I do occasionally have a sea of that around me when I'm working on several programs at once. So yes, let's try to whittle that down a bit, too. I just finished assembling paperwork for taxes (eeeek!) and that relieved some paper clutter quickly.

But what I'm really talking about is "mental clutter." I have a bit of that happening right now - irritation about a situation I got myself into and now have no control over. It's cluttering my mind and I am working hard to "sweep it out." I've made some progress, but I'm not quite there yet. Frustrated thoughts still "clutter" my thinking now and again...

Even good "clutter" like preparing for upcoming workshops, having a stack of books on topics I really want to read, "things" I would like to do in the next couple of weeks - can cause some stress that we aren't even aware of.

Then there is the clutter of "noise" in life - I read quite some time ago that one of the reasons the "younger generation" seems angry or depressed is because of the constant noise in their lives - and much of that is negative noise...loud music with negative lyrics, negative verbiage on TV and video games... do you need to soften the "noise" in your life?

So maybe for you it's visual clutter, physical clutter, mental clutter, "noise" clutter, or whatever...my challenge to you this week is to try to reduce some of that clutter (I will never tell you to eliminate it because I don't think that's possible!).

How about it? I will if you will!
Blessings,
Linda
www.LindasWorkshops.com
Linda@LindasWorkshops.com