Harness Your Power: Acknowledge Growth

Almost every morning when my kids come down the stairs I say to them, "Did you grow last night?" They love this attention as we laugh and measure arms and legs, fingers and toes to see signs of growth. It's a fun way to connect.

Though I don't notice visible growth every morning, it is amazing how every few months they seem to need new shoes or longer pants. They are growing so quickly! I continue to tell them, "You aren't allowed to grow up so fast!" But they always echo, "No, mom, we have to grow up!" So much for a mother's plea ( ha ha).

This week I took a look at myself and began to see that compared to a year ago I have grown and matured so much. Ok, yes, I do have a few more grey hairs...but, I'm really referring to my inner progress.

My ability to relax into each situation I encounter is so better than last year. I used to struggle and feel tremendous inner tension when my husband would travel to Nigeria on business. I'd count the days while he was away and feel the weight of having to take care of everything on my own. Now, however, I just stay in each moment. I actually am enjoying the freedom while he is away and everything has a way of getting done as it needs too -- the kids get taken care of, my weekly articles get written, my clients get seen and somehow the house stays fairly neat.

My inner calm has deepened. It is a relief to have made this progress. The suffering that comes from fighting with life is exhausting. I find that I am more energetic and upbeat than ever. I wake up with a sense of joy. I find myself in awe of the beauty I'm surrounded with and the fantastic ways the Universe demonstrates support for me.

I wanted to take time to celebrate and acknowledge this growth. (Believe me, I know there are plenty of more ways I can stretch and grow!) It has come with continual dedication to a process of inner healing and transformation. Each time spent in meditation, each affirmation said, each moment of being willing to let go of the past and the future -- it is all paying off. I continue to say a prayer each day, "Show me the way to complete and total healing."

I can't take credit for it all. In fact, most of it has happened on its own. The right learning partners show up for me. The best challenges come my way to stretch me a bit further. Because I am willing this healing process continues in the most amazing ways. I am grateful that the most essential thing I've had to do is simply remain open hearted and willing to heal.

Enough about me. How are you? Take time to notice your own growth! Can you see the way you've changed since last year? Are you wiser, kinder and more carefree? Notice and be sure to find ways to enjoy this progress!

I'm here to celebrate with you.

With great love,

Patricia Omoqui

http://www.patriciaomoqui.com/

Harness Your Power: Know You Are Gifted!

I had the honor two weeks ago of speaking for a large non-profit organization in the area called Kencrest. Kencrest is a 101 year old human services agency that provide services to people with developmental disabilities. I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote speech for a staff training day. In preparation for the speech I visited several of Kencrest's sites. Seeing the services they offer and the approach they take blessed my heart.

As some of the staff described their work to me it became very clear that they truly care about honoring the needs and desires of those they work with. They take a person-centered approach and allow their clients to develop a life that feels good to them -- with the work they enjoy, the house they live in and the activities they get involved with in the community.

Over and over I am reminded that each of us is specially gifted. Those with "disabilities" are merely differently, specially abled people who have brilliant gifts to give the World. We all have valuable gifts we bring to the World. Isn't it time we started to value ourselves so that we could more freely share the love and talent we have?

Many of us get lost in self-doubt and feel "not good enough." Because of this we sit on our couches afraid that we don't have much to give. This is insanity! If you really take a good look at yourself, you can find countless beautiful character traits, fascinating ideas, and wonderful life experiences you have to share with the World. So, what's stopping you?

The answer is....

YOU are stopping you. You are the only one who can stop yourself from living a full, incredible, courageous life.

I challenge you this week to know that you are gifted. Just know it. (That's my slogan -- I actually like it better than Nike's -- ha ha.) Know that there is no mistake in who you are. You have the perfect body for this life journey you are on. Your spirit is more powerful than you have yet begun to understand. There are so many ways you can begin to bless the World -- IF YOU JUST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

Don't leave it to others to believe in you. Do it yourself. If you do, there is no stopping you from getting off the couch, getting out of the comfort zone and letting your talents loose in the World.

Watch out World -- change is coming! The change begins in your heart and spreads like a ripple effect to the entire planet.

Just know it this week... will you please just know it because I need you to be you and so does the rest of the human race.

With loving honor for the special gifts we each bring,

Patricia Omoqui

http://www.patriciaomoqui.com/

Harness Your Power: Remove Self Limits!

I mentioned in my blog last week that I had been feeling an inner tension between accepting where I am in my life and feeling ready for certain things to change -- like my house and moving my life mission to another level of reaching people. I gained some amazing insights this week about myself and it helped me to realize how I created where I am right now, at this point in time.

As I felt the resistance to my current house, I noticed something important -- I felt dissatisfied with being in this space because it didn't match who I have become. Let me explain. Several years ago when we purchased our house I was in the depths of scarcity thinking -- feeling that we could never meet our bills, feeling that we were just scraping by each month and feeling that it wasn't necessary to spend money on "elaborate" things. Thus, we ended up buying a very reasonably priced place -- it is nice, don't get me wrong. We have had plenty of space as we started our family. We enjoy the diversity in our neighborhood. There are many aspects of our house that we enjoy.

So, as I asked for a deeper understanding of my resistance, I began to see that very clearly I had not only created this situation for myself in choosing to buy a lower priced house because of my fear of money but ALSO, because I was in "survival mode" in the way I lived, I ended up decorating the house in a way that matched who I was at the time we bought it.

At that time in my life I was all about functionality -- keeping our lives rolling day-by-day, feeling the daily struggle of life and feeling a lot of stress about getting by each day. What has changed over the years as I have released my fears and changed my view of myself and my life is that I now value BEAUTY. In the past, I didn't value beauty -- I valued functionality. Decorating the house was a chore, a means to an end. Now, I enjoy beauty -- in fact, those who are closest to me have visibly seen me change in the way I dress, the jewelry I buy, the way I do my hair . . .in so many ways. I look like a different person compared to who I was in 2002.

Another great example to show my beliefs and values -- my husband used to take the time to buy me flowers. Yes, I liked flowers but most of all, I would tell him not to get them again because I felt it was a waste of money! So, of course, he stopped buying them for me. My fear of not having enough money kept me from enjoying so many aspects of life!

Fast forward to 2008. I LOVE and CELEBRATE BEAUTY. I buy fresh flowers for the living room because I enjoy them so much. I no longer live in a scarcity mentality -- instead, I focus on the abundance in my life. So, to sum it up, I saw very clearly this week why I was feeling inner resistance to my house right now. The way I decorated it years back doesn't match who I am right now!

It was powerful for me to understand so clearly how my thoughts created my reality. Now my thoughts have changed and because of this, my physical reality is changing all around me.

It's time for me to get some beautifully colored paints, some new decorations for the inside of the house and to make my house an expression of who I am in 2008. It will be such a joyful process for me to do this! I never enjoyed taking the time for decorating because I thought it was a waste of time. Imagine this, "SOLDIER TRISH" is now taking the time to enjoy the variety in life, the beauty in life -- and she is finally having a blast experiencing it all!

I love it when we have these mental breakthroughs where our inner eyes and inner ears see and hear so clearly what is going on inside of us. It is such a wonderful exploration process to understand who we are and why we have created the experience we are living right now.

The power comes in knowing that at any moment I choose I can be a NEW & IMPROVED ME! I can be a Trish who loves interior decorating now. I can be a Trish who enjoys buying fresh flowers and receiving fresh flowers and plants all the time. How fun! I am learning to explore and express all aspects of myself. It makes life so rich, so delicious and amazingly delightful.

In what ways are you limiting yourself from experiencing life? Give thought to it this week. You may discover some interesting insights that will help you in your next stage of personal growth.

I love transformation. I love knowing that I can CHOOSE who I am. I love knowing seeing myself and others evolve and express their powerful spirits in new ways in life.

I wish you a week full of insights!

With love, hope and beauty,

Trish Omoqui

http://www.patriciaomoqui.com/

P.S. I am starting a 4 week Tele-group called The Circle of Abundance -- for 4 Thursday evenings from 8:30 - 9:30 starting March 13th I will help those who are interested transform their scarcity and "lack" feelings to beliefs of "abundance" in all aspects of life -- but primarily on the flow of money coming into your life. If you are interested in joining us, the cost is only $99 for the 4 week Tele-group. You will receive a customized set of affirmations that will enable you to move towards creating greater abundance in your life. On top of that, the first 5 people who sign up will receive a free 20 minute life coaching session with me during the 4 weeks.

Email if you are interested: abundance@patriciaomoqui.com .

Create Space for Personal Healing

As I work with Life Coaching clients I see clearly how essential it is to create space and time in our lives for personal healing. In the hustle and bustle of our lives it is easy to put aside our personal healing -- in fact, many of us deny the way we feel or push those feelings down deep within our hearts in order to keep up the frantic pace of our lives.

Until we clear time in our schedule and create opportunities for personal reflection and deep understanding of ourselves, those core issues and deep wounds manifest themselves in our lives time and time again. In my life, my personal pain would emerge when I was most tired or stressed out. It usually came in the form of tears or inner suffering where my heart would be crying out for change and for some relief to come into my life. But rather than stopping my life long enough to understand the depth of my pain, I would move even faster -- staying in constant motion to numb myself and make the pain go away (at least for a short time).

As you move through your week I would suggest that you take inventory of how you are using your time. For one full day keep a "Time Journal" that notes what you are doing throughout the day. By doing this, you will take yourself off of auto-pilot and be able to consciously observe the ways in which you are spending your time. In doing so, you may just find that there are "filler" activities or "busy-work" you are creating for yourself that could be set aside to create space for focus on nurturing and loving yourself.

Just as those of us who have been on a diet before take detailed watch over what we put into our mouths -- looking for opportunities to shift our eating habits to get different results in how our bodies appear, so too this focus on understanding how we use our time can give us the knowledge we need so that we can find the time to look at our emotions and understand why we are feeling the way we feel about our lives.


The life you are living right now is no mistake -- in fact, as you observe yourself you may begin to see how unaware you were that the deep hurt and pain you've carried with you is having a major impact on the results you get in your life. This week one of my life coaching clients realized that for years she had become the "YES" person -- she would say YES to every request for help from her friends and family. She was doing this on auto-pilot -- it had become a habit to say yes and take the responsibility to help anyone around her who needed it. She did this to her own detriment and kept herself so busy with taking care of others that she never fully healed from the trauma of losing her brother and from having grown up in very challenging circumstances. She got to a point recently of feeling so unhappy with herself and her life that she decided to stop saying YES all the time and instead make herself and her healing a priority.

This takes courage. It takes courage to recognize that a change is needed. It takes even more courage to see your personal pattern and the impact it is having on your life. And, it takes even greater courage to consciously stop those patterns and create the space and time needed to move through a period of deep personal healing. Her courage will pay off in tremendous blessings in her life.

Will you take the time in 2008 to begin to heal? Why not slow your life down a little bit so that you can begin the process of personal healing? As we heal ourselves and our lives, we impact the World around us in profound ways.

Because I slowed my life down enough to heal myself, I now have joy, peace and extra energy to use in doing things I love to do. On top of that, I am less stressed and much more in tune with my husband and my kids. My choices for personal healing and growth caused a major shift in the stress levels in our house. It gave me the renewed energy to clarify what I really wanted to create in my life. And now, as I continue to focus on my growth, I have more and more love to share with my clients, the audiences I speak with and each person I interact with throughout the day.

I continue to take time for personal nurturing and healing -- this is an on-going, life-long process of honoring myself. I do my best to build time for this into my weekly schedule so that stress, negative emotions and "dis-ease" about my life does not build up inside of me.

Facing our pain head on is scary. But, the consequences of not doing this means we will not have the power we need to live grand, passionate and loving lives in the way our Souls long for.

If you have questions or thoughts on this matter I would love to hear from you: thoughtdr@patriciaomoqui.com .

Healing is self-love.
Self-love is key
To bring
Satisfaction,
Hope,
Joy,
Inner Peace &
More Personal Power to
Your life.

With love, light and healing thoughts sent your way,


Trish
www.patriciaomoqui.com
p.s. Keep watch for our next free Tele-class in the Harness Your Power! series. Details will be sent out soon to those on the Food For Thought email list.



A couple of affirmations for those of you who are ready to take the time for healing:

"I open to healing at the deepest levels.

I move through my healing process with grace and ease.

I create the space I need for my healing.

I listen to my emotions and to my body.

I hear my inner voice guide me towards greater personal wellness.

I am whole. I am healed. I am full of inner peace.

I honor myself."

First Step To Harness Your Power

This week I wanted to take a few minutes to explain why I chose "Harness Your Power" as the name for this blog. I've experienced major transformations in my life the last few years -- in fact, people around me often remark how different I am. The changes are visible in my physical appearance, my emotional state and in how I carry myself through life each day. The changes I've experienced have allowed me to harness my personal power so that I truly enjoy each moment of life and so that I create what I truly desire to experience in my life.

My desire with this blog is to share with you ideas that will enable you to begin harnessing your personal power so that you too can enjoy life to the fullest.

Several years ago I felt stuck in my life. While I was succeeding in my career, I felt empty when I went to work. I would wake up each morning with a pit in my stomach. Even after 8 or 9 hours of sleep I still felt drained. I was extremely worried about the future of my oldest daughter who has special needs -- would she be able to lead a normal life? I worried all the time. Each month when I sat down to pay the bills I felt my chest tighten and my blood pressure rise -- how were we ever going to "get ahead?"

I stayed in constant motion during the day. I wanted to keep busy because I believed relaxation had no value. The fast pace of my life, on top of the tremendous fear and worry I had inside, brought me to a point of complete physical and emotional exhaustion. I honestly felt that I was going to breakdown if I didn't start to change my life.

What a gift that "tipping point" was for me. It was the worst feeling I'd had in my life but it was the catalyst for me to take steps towards making personal changes that would transform my whole life.

This week I share with you one of the most important steps I took in my journey of transformation: I slowed the pace of my life and I began to create spaces of silence throughout my day.

I had packed my days full of activity -- rush to get out the door, rush to work, non-stop motion at work, rush to daycare to get the kids, rush to get dinner on the table, rush to get the kids in bed, rush to the gym to get in a quick workout then CRASH at home for a few moments before bed. Rush, rush, rush, rush. . .stress, stress, stress, stress. I knew something had to give if I was going to find time to focus on healing and personal change.

I made a decision, a very difficult one for me, to stop going to the gym in the evenings. This was a hard choice for me -- I had struggled with my body image all my life and I worried that I would gain weight if I stopped going to the gym. But, I knew that my priority needed to be inner change so I decided to leave gym workouts to the weekends.

Instead of going to the gym in the evenings, I decided to sit in silence after I got the kids in bed. I left the TV off and sat on the couch each evening. At first, even a minute of silence felt like an ETERNITY to me. I felt awkward and uncomfortable with quiet. I had become accustomed to constant noise in my life. I saw my inner noise turn on as I sat quietly. My mind raced. My thoughts were unruly. Why couldn't I get my mind to settle down? I had no idea how difficult sitting in silence would be!

I'm the type of person who likes a good challenge -- and I saw immediately that learning to master my mind was going to be my next personal challenge. Each night without fail I would take my position on the couch and close my eyes. I began using my breath as a focal point. If I saw my mind begin to race, I would refocus on my breath. I did this over and over again in the few minutes I sat quietly. After several weeks of doing this, I saw that my mind began to slow down a bit. I also noticed that sitting quietly simply felt good. Breathing deeply relaxed my body. Slowing my thoughts relaxed my mind.

I decided that I would create more "spaces" in my life for silence. Rather than having news-radio or music on in the car on my way to work, I turned it off and enjoyed a few moments of peace before I walked into work each day. I would sit and breathe deeply as I drove. I laughed at myself as my hand would still reach to the power button on the radio in my car each day -- I saw what a creature of habit I was! I knew it was time to create new habits. That is what I did.

During my lunches at work I would take a few minutes of lunchtime to enjoy spaces of silence. If it was nice outside I would take a walk and focus on the beauty of nature as I walked along rather than allowing my mind to go through my mental to-do list. Sometimes I would find a park bench and be totally silent.

By slowing down my life, I opened up the space to change. By slowing down my mind, I opened up the space to heal. And, healing is what happened. I began to see how much healing my thoughts needed. (I will save that topic for another day -- Healing Your Thoughts is another essential aspect of Harnessing Your Power.)

How fast are you going every day? Do you ever feel out of control and overwhelmed by the schedule you are keeping? Is everything you are doing really necessary? Or, are you in constant motion for fear of what you might feel like if you slowed down?

If you are ready to harness your personal power, consider slowing down the pace at which you live. Consider as well giving silence a try. . .these steps I took opened the doors to tremendous joy, inner peace, hope and inspiration to flood into my life.

One last thing I wanted to share with you-- I had the privilege of speaking to an amazing group of 110 kids last week at Hudson Community Enterprises. These 15 - 21 year olds were so full of energy and excitement. Each one of these kids is disabled to some degree and they go to Hudson Community Enterprises to learn life skills and job skills that will prepare them for life after high school.

The highlight of my time with them was the point in my presentation when we practiced our new, positive thoughts. We all were on our feet together shouting at the top of our lungs "I CAN DO IT. I'M GREAT. I'M TALENTED. I HAVE GIFTS TO GIVE THE WORLD!" Imagine the energy that filled the room as we joined together in one voice to express these truths.

If you want to feel really good right now, why not get up on your feet and shout some of these thoughts -- see how good it feels to use these positive thoughts to get your good energy flowing. In fact, why not say these thoughts to yourself at the beginning of every day?

I'd love to hear from you if you ever want to discuss these ideas further. Please drop me an email at patricia@patriciaomoqui.com . Or, feel free to post your comments to this blog here on the website.

May your week be blessed!