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Here's a great way to connect with gratitude and fulfillment in your life by taking a couple of simple authentic actions each day.

For enhancing gratitude try this.

In a small journal or notebook, jot down five things for which you are grateful each day. Keep them short and specific. For example, an entry on a given day make look something like this.

I am grateful for:

• hot tea in the morning; 
• a heartfelt talk with an old friend;
• the taste of zucchini fresh from my garden;
• a good night's sleep;
• Morning Glories blooming on the trellis.

You will find that this simple practice not only makes you more aware of the many things to be grateful for in your life, it also begins to attract more and more of those things into being.

For enhancing fulfillment try this.

Keep a monthly list with one entry per day of a specific contribution you feel you have made to yourself and/or others on that day. Here's an example of five days from my own September list. Notice that these are brief entries without much detail. You don't want to get bogged down by making the entries too long. That may make the practice seem arduous. Keep it light.

Contributions I have made to myself and others this month include:

• 9-11    Called Mom
• 9-12    Kayaked at Lake Solano in the morning
• 9-13    Visited with Christine and her baby Elias
• 9-14    Rehearsed with Wendy for her showcase
• 9-15    Sang with Mejor Que Nada at E Street Plaza

If you adopt these two simple practices, I am certain that you will begin to experience a deeper gratitude in life, and that you will be able to see the evidence of your contributions as you look back on each month. 

Gratitude is the seed of fulfillment, and your contributions are its harvest.

I have found life coaching with Eve helps me get motivated towards change and action each day. I originally had aversions to getting support through counseling or even life coaching, believing that it would be admitting to weakness. But I soon realized that investing in a life with more clarity is one of the best things I could do for myself. Life coaching makes my days lighter knowing that I have scheduled time to deal with what stresses or worries me. I would recommend investing in life coaching to everyone. I know that with Eve, the sessions are confidential, safe, and helpful. She will coach you in activating your life with new grace, happiness and lightheartedness. 

Mari

Try this experiment. You’ll need a radio, a newspaper or magazine of your choice, and preferable a friend, colleague or loved one willing to try this with you.
 
Part 1:  Tune the radio between two broadcast signals on the AM band (where there is more talk and less music), until you are receiving two stations at the same time. Fine-tune the dial until you are not able to hear either station clearly. Turn the radio up loud and then read an article in the newspaper or magazine you have chosen and try to concentrate on what you are reading.  Or, for even more effect, have a friend, colleague or loved one read the article to you out loud and try to concentrate on what they are saying. My bet is that you will find this quite annoying and exhausting and won’t want to do it very long.
 
Part 2:  Repeat the above, but slowly lower the volume on the radio until it is very faint and barely audible.  Note any differences in the experience.
 
Ask yourself what lessons might be learned from this experiment?
 
As a life coach, I help my clients observe that their minds are frequently tuned to lots of different broadcast stations at one time, and that all of these are filling their mental and emotional airwaves with often contradictory and heavily propagandized information.
 
The radio talk show host likes nothing better than to engage the call-in listener in a heated debate on some deeply emotional topic. The host always seems to think his or her opinion on this topic is the absolute truth, and has gathered lots of convincing evidence. “Yes, you betcha!  Aliens have been running the federal government since 1951!”
 
Once a client begins to recognize that their inner broadcasts are competing for their attention and engagement like ring masters at a three-ringed circus, they can begin to turn down the volume on all that drama.  Sure the drama is entertaining, but it can keep us from attaining the things we truly want, like meaning, purpose, and success in life.
 
As a coach, I support my clients in turning down the volume on the drama by coaching them to stop focusing their attention on what the boisterous talk show hosts in their head are saying, or on why they may be saying it, and to shift their focus instead to what really matters to them: their heart’s intentions and the contributions they are willing to make to their spouse, family, workplace, community, world, etc.
 
I help my clients identify their contributions. Where do they shine?  How can they make each day an opportunity for personal and professional growth?  How are they willing to show up so that each interaction they have is of benefit to themselves and others?  Are they willing to find ways to broaden their perspective and become more fully present and loving?  What small, effective, sweet actions can they take today, tomorrow, this week, to bring about a greater coherence between their hearts intentions and their tangible, physical, daily lives?
 
This shifting of focus followed by clear action is a powerful yet simple process that allows us to avoid getting hooked by the mental chatter and emotional drama that can drain energy and stop us in our tracks when it comes to achieving our goals in life.
 
I’ve seen clients make breakthroughs on long-time issues in only one or a few sessions using this astute combination of observation, truth telling and authentic action.
 
I invite you to try the radio experiment.  I think you’ll find it informative. And if you want to learn how to turn down the volume on those annoying talk show hosts in your own head, give me a call.  Let’s turn up the volume on what genuinely matters most to you, so you can empower your life!

Authentic Living Ezine by Eve West Bessier

The nest of our hopes and dreams is a wonderful place. It feels safe and secure. Anything is possible. We can plan to do whatever we desire, and abide in the grand castles of our imagination. It’s comforting to weave stories of how successful we are going to be in that lovely land called, “Tomorrow.”
 
As Annie puts it: “Tomorrow, Tomorrow.  I love ya Tomorrow.  You’re always a day away!”

Still, isn’t there a stirring in your heart to leave the nest, try your wings and take that first step into flight? And, have you noticed that when this stirring hits, and you venture a little too close to the edge of the nest or look a bit too longingly out into the vast expanse of the sky, suddenly a chorus of voices in your mind chime together in panic: “Stop! Don’t go there! It’s not safe! You’re gonna fall!”

That chorus of voices tries to convince you that once you take flight, there’s no turning back and the safety of the nest is forever lost. It’s a real doomsday scenario. But think about the last time you took a chance, made a move and created substance out of dream material. Maybe you went on a long-deserved vacation to Hawaii. Maybe you finally cleared out the garage, got a permit, and converted the space into a music studio or a family room. Maybe you got a fitness club membership, started working out, lost some weight, gained some stamina and decided to take up tennis. Maybe you asked someone out on a date for the first time since your divorce. Whatever it was you did to take flight, I’d be willing to bet that it did not keep you from coming up with new dreams for the future.

In fact, a successful venture in the realm of the real can be the best inspiration for new visions and plans in the realm of the possible. Think about it. Let’s say you started taking lessons in ballroom dancing, or built a tree house for your kids, or started a new business selling vintage postcards on the Internet. Whatever your project, your success depended on focusing the energy of your dreams into the specific set of actions needed to bring about a tangible result. That result was probably quite invigorating, and it likely made you want to try other new and exciting adventures. The fulfillment of one dream can fuel the creation of another and another, until bringing dreams into reality becomes pattern of ease and grace. Like anything else, practice makes for progress. Even our failed experiments will support that progress if we remain willing to learn and open to grow.

So, the next time you take courage and approach the edge of the nest, eager to fly into action and make your contribution to life, remember that it’s not a one-way ticket. It’s an exciting round-trip outing, a field trip, an opportunity to explore new ground. Our explorations through action build the spiritual and practical muscle needed to have ever stronger and more efficient flight, so that we can get enjoyment and fulfillment from turning vision into action into reality into new vision: a powerful cycle of progressive creative success.
 
And when that chorus of alarmists shows up in your head (and it will), celebrate! It’s a sure sign that you are approaching the moment of flight. The trick is to recognize that those nagging voices, however authoritative and persistent, do not represent the truth. Their job is to keep you in the nest, to keep you from taking risks, and to protect what they believe is your best chance at happiness. But they are misinformed. Staying in the nest won’t make you happy. It’s taking a risk and leaving the nest that leads to triumph, because in truth you are a hero, ever capable of the alchemy of turning your heart’s desires into authentic actions that allow you to fully live your best life.
 
The wind is up. The air is bright. Take flight!

Authentic Living Ezine by Eve West Bessier

Dear Eve,

I have made more positive, real, forward progress in the past 8 weeks, working with you, than I have in the past 48 YEARS COMBINED! (I'm talking about TM, Yoga, Buddhism, Ram Dass, weird "spiritual" people at Jewish summer camp, western philosophy, science fiction, and more ... )

Thank you!

Lee