Plan to be with us on Thursday May 8th as Chi For Yourself welcomes Melonie Dodaro. Melonie was named Canada’s #1 LinkedIn expert and social media strategist! She’ll be talking about social media marketing and about the launch of her new book The LinkedIn Code: Unlock The Largest Online Business Social Network to Get Leads, Prospects & Clients for B2B, Professional Services and Sales & Marketing Pros. The interview gets underway at 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern time.
You’ll be able to hear it on chiforyourself.com. I’m sure you’ll what you hear!
Melonie Dodaro
Article: Bringing Mindfulness to the Workplace: My Kind of Business Model
In the brave new world of business, mindfulness is not often the normal state of consciousness when we go to work every day. We compete with our co-workers, and tune out customers in a bid to get ahead.
Business ethics that lean toward the quest for the almighty dollar at any cost displace humanity, but we can change that. Kindness to our colleagues in the form of cooperation can end workplace disagreements. Listening to what the customer says, instead of tuning them out and giving the standard, ‘I can’t help you’ answers can bring the human element of caring back to business.
The corporate culture is so often driven by an ego-based mindset that works on the old “dog-eat-dog” mentality dominated by fear, greed, power, and control- all fertile ground for scarcity, separateness, limitation, and the need to be combative in order to succeed. Both individuals and the workplace itself (and the work getting done) benefit from cultivating a healthy workplace environment.
Automation may be a preferable business approach but it allows us to forget human values. Next time your coworker is stressed and trying to make a deadline, ask her if you can assist. Next time a customer needs a hand, listen and really try to help him toward a solution. Even in an impersonal environment of automation, we still need humanity to survive.
Hear Jim Donovan on Chi For Yourself today at 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern. Jim is the author of Happy @ Work:60 Simple Ways to Stay Engaged and Be Successful. Here’s his intention for writing this book:
“ I wrote Happy @ Work to provide…simple, easy-to-implement ideas that [your audience] can use to move toward creating an amazing career — and life. You have the right to enjoy everything in your life, especially your work; however, doing so requires you to take ownership of your circumstances, and define what you want.”
Sound like you? Then be with us today at 1pm Pacific for Jim Donovan on Chi For Yourself.
The Chi For Yourself guest this week is Jennifer Louden, author of The Life Organizer. Jennifer is a personal growth pioneer who helped launch the self-care movement. She’s written fivebooks on well-being and whole living, a national magazine column, and she can say that she sat on Oprah’s couch.
You can hear the interview with Jennifer Louden this Thursday March 6th at 4pm Eastern time, 1pm Pacific at chiforyourself.com.
Article…
Making a (Genuine) Living: Putting Who You Are Into What You Do
I just returned from Central America. I’m considering moving to a home outside my native United States. I am grateful to be able to make surch a trip, and for the reasons I made it. Doing print and audio/video related work allows a person to live just about anywhere in the world while doing the things he or she feels inspired to do. One of the areas of my life where the small “inner voice” becomes my navigator is the type of work I do. I’ve felt this way since I was a small boy, but I’ve learned that what I do and who I am are two distinctly different things. I would advise anyone to make that important separation. And I’ve also felt the satisfaction of knowing that what I’m doing is what I must do- kind of taking a page from Maslow’s idea of Self Actualization.
So many of us feel that to present who we are to the world means to point to our occupation. But society puts different professions on different levels and it’s easy for a person to feel “less than”. Less than for holding what others see as a menial job. Less for being in a not very glamorous position. But history is full of the names of people who have been able to give us their skills and talents while holding down jobs seen as ordinary. Whether you’re in real estate or retail, a business person or a bus driver, your worth is folded into who you are an not what you do for a living.
Doing something that you enjoy and lets you meet your needs while allowing you to live in line with your values will always be more fulfilling that being in a high-status job you dislike. But it’s possible to find happiness in most any line of work. That’s because what you are doing is often not as important as how you you’re doing it. There’s much to be said for a good attitude. Couple that with good intentions and you can turn a so-so working situation into one that fulfills you because of your attitude.
If your efforts are benefiting others you’re adding value to the world. And if you’ve found happiness in your work and you feel that you’re living genuinely while also getting your emotional and physical needs met then you are are adding value to your life. If you’re sweeping streets then be the best street sweeper you can be. Know that you can bring your ability and skill to us no matter what work you do. Choose to be of service and your choice will be a wise one.
The Chi For Yourself interview with Meagan McCrary on January 9th saw some problems in our Google + Hangouts presentation. The podcast was posted and has been up and running, but if you haven’t heard that show (and your tastes lean toward YouTube) I’m including the finally finished ‘Tube version of Chi For Yourself with guest Meagan McCrary..
On the surface it may appear that yoga is yoga is yoga, but take a closer look and you’ll discover myriad different yoga systems and lineages. There are dozens of yoga styles to choose from, and while yoga is for everyone, not every style is the perfect fit for every person. But how do you choose between mysterious-sounding names such as Ashtanga, Kundalini, Bikram, and Kripalu? Our Chi For Yourself guest Meagan McCrary says finding the right style is essential for establishing a steady yoga practice. Her book Pick Your Yoga Practice: Exploring and Understanding Different Styles of Yoga is described as the first book to describe the most prominent yoga styles in depth, including teaching methodology, elements of practice, philosophical and spiritual underpinnings, class structure, physical exertion, and personal attention. Meagan encourages those new to yoga that they will discover they have options and can confidently attend a class of their choosing, while experienced practitioners will expand their understanding of the vast world of modern yoga, and perhaps find themselves venturing into new territory.
Click on Meagan’s picture to hear the show..
Meagan McCrary
..and, don’t forget to listen Valentine’s Day Friday February 14th- 1pm Eastern for the 2012 interview with guest Dr. Debra Reble, author of Soul-Hearted Partnership: Creating the Ultimate Experience of Love, Passion, and Intimacy.
Click on the BlogTalkRadio logo to hear the show..
On Valentine’s Day the Core Values of Love Matter
By Dr. Charles D. Schmitz and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz, the Official Guides To Marriage
Commit to the seven core values of successful love and marriage and you can make your Valentine’s Day the best ever.
We have learned a lot about successful love and marriage in the USA and around the world over these past 32 years. The results of our studies are shared in our multiple award winning book entitled Building a Love that Lasts. In this article we would like to do is share with you what we have found to be the Seven Core Values of All Loving Relationships.
Over the past 32 years, we have learned much about what makes great marriages tick – about what makes them successful. Even in spite of ominous odds from time to time, the best marriages survive and thrive, and we know why! They survive and thrive because they are committed to the Core Values present in all great marriages and successful loving relationships. Here they are in a nutshell.
1. The couple in love is committed to always putting each other first in their relationship with each other.
The first thing you notice in all highly successful loving relationships is that those who purport to be in love recognize that their relationship is not about you and me, it is about US. Discovering that YOU are not the center of the universe is the hallmark of a great relationship. Actually putting another human being number one is a powerful indication that you are truly in love.
2. The couple in love is committed to democracy in their relationship.
Always remember, successful loving relationships are egalitarian. Namely, the best relationships understand that theirs is a shared relationship. If one person has all the power and makes all the decisions, it is NOT love! True love is a very democratic thing!
3. The couple in love is committed to ensuring their mutual happiness.
Remember, true love is not just about ensuring your happiness. More importantly, and often for the first time in your life, you actually enjoy and are motivated by ensuring the happiness of someone other than yourself. It is a good feeling!
4. The couple in love values absolute trustworthiness and integrity in their relationship with each other.
If you cannot trust the one you love, then it is not true love! Trust us on that. The most successful loving relationships report that they trust their mate unequivocally and without hesitation. To violate that trust is to undermine and, ultimately destroy, the relationship with the one you say you love.
5. The couple in love is committed to caring and unconditional love for each other.
When you truly love someone you do so without conditions. It is not about loving you IF . . . True love is unconditional.
6. The couple in love is committed to being mutually respectful towards each other.
There is a Golden Rule in true love and it is like the one you learned early in your life – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Do not expect to be treated with respect when you are disrespectful to the one you love. Respectfulness is at the heart of all great loving relationships.
7. The couple in love values their mutual sense of responsibility for each other.
People in love care for each other in ways that they have never cared for another human being. They feel a sense of responsibility for another person that they have never felt before. It feels so good to put another’s needs above your own. To do so is to love deeply.
The Core Values of all successful loving relationships are at the heart of the matter. If you and your mate master these values, your love will, in all probability, last a lifetime. What a Valentine’s Day gift that would be!
Simple Things Matter in Love and Marriage, particularly on Valentine’s Day. Love well!
* Creating a successful marriage is not always the easiest thing to do. Your visiting our blog suggests you are highly interested in making your relationship work! And truthfully, we have learned over 30 years of marriage research that there are proven effective ways to ensure a happy and healthy marriage. In fact, as love and marriage experts we took hundreds of tips from the thousands of happy couples we interviewed throughout the world and put them into our award-winning and bestselling book, Building a Love that Lasts
Author’s Bio:
Now you can order the Doctors’ multiple award winning book Building a Love that Lasts, the Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal Winner for Most Outstanding Relationships and Marriage Book. With 32 years of research experience on successful marriage and their own 47-year marriage, Drs. Charles and Elizabeth Schmitz know what makes marriage work. From their hundreds of interviews with happily married couples, representing 15,000 years of marriage, they’ve discovered the seven pervasive characteristics present in all successful marriages. Their book exposes the secrets for success through these poignant, real life stories.
During their distinguished careers the Doctors have received some 65 local, state, and national awards; published nearly 350 articles and manuscripts; delivered over 1000 speeches, workshops and public presentations; traveled throughout the world; and appeared on radio and television and in the print media. Dr. Charles D. Schmitz is Dean and Professor Emeritus of Family and Counseling Therapy at the University of Missouri in St. Louis and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz is President of Successful Marriage Reflections, LLC.
Additional Resources covering Marriage can be found at:
We’re off to the resolution races- lose 20 pounds..move to a nicer address..take that tropical vacation.
May I suggest some inward inspection to start the new year? Ask yourself:
What is happening in my life?
How is my health?
How is/are my relationship(s)? Really, how are they?
How are my finances? Do I enjoy my work?
Just a few ideas to take care of the inner self so that the outer results might be more satisfying.
Happy New Year!
Don’t’ forget that we’ll be launching another year of first run Chi For Yourself episodes on January 9th. Our guest on that day will be Meagan McCrary. Meagan is a Los Angeles based freelance writer and yoga teacher who has worked one-on-one with some of the entertainment industry’s leading professionals. Millions of us practice yoga, but what kind is best? We’ll “pose” the questions to Meagan at 1pm Pacific..4pm Eastern time. You’ll be able to hear the interview live on the Start page of chiforyourself.com.
Meagan McCrary
And finally, we say goodbye to 2013 with a heartfelt thanks to the guests whose Conscious Talk helped to keep us on course toward genuine living! If you missed any of the shows you can catch up here..
Finally got the Dr. Bernie Siegel interview edited and up on YouTube. If your listening preference runs toward the ‘Tube then you can hear Bernie here:
Some talking points from the interview:
Bernie’s decision to leave his surgical practice to pursue a different kind of healing
How drawings help to expose patient problems
Why declaring “war” on a disease is not the best way to approach it
Getting nurturing modalities into mainstream medical practice
Some things that caregivers should keep in mind
The week of December 2nd saw an encore presentation of Chi For Yourself. We heard the 2012 interview with Jason Lincoln Jeffers. Jason is the author of The Next Human:A Guide to Personal and Collective Evolution. In this time of shift Jason brings us his own message for the evolution of humanity.
Click on the BlogTalkRadio logo to hear the show:
Allen Klein
Our final first-run interview for 2013 is scheduled for Thursday December 19th. Our guest will be Allen Klein, AKA “The Jollytologist”. Allen returns to Chi For Yourself with another book: Always Look on the Bright Side. We get started at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific time. You’ll be able to hear the interview on Google+ Hangouts or at chiforyourself.com on the Start Page.
If you missed the Annemiek Douw interview last week you can listen to it here by clicking on the BlogTalkRadio logo:
Annemiek Douw says you can tap into and master your inner GPS. Annemiek Douw is the author of 21 Layers of the Soul: Healing the Karmic Ties with Friends, Lovers, Family and Enemies.
Here are some talking points from the interview with Annemiek Douw:
An illness caused her to re-arrange her life
Those who “pass over” remain much as they were in life
People take their issues with them when they pass on
Some people can’t stop cheating on their partners
Article: Normal Is An “N” Word: Strike It From Your Consciousness Dictionary
Are you normal? Are you sure? Then again, what is normal? Is it wearing the latest styles, or voting as your parents did, or being blonde, or adhering to the “true” religion?
Starting early in life most of us felt the pressure from our schools and our tribes to be normal. For generations society has put the emphasis on not being individual but on being like other people. Think, talk, and act like the crowd and you fit in. Step outside that box and you are called “weird” or at the very least “different”. But, drill down on this idea just a bit and you find that there is no such thing as normal. All of us are different. We all come from different backgrounds. Different nationalities, Different families with different looks, sounds, and actions. So why is it so important to be normal?
History is packed with the names of people who had no time for the notion of normal. The names are familiar- Socrates, Galileo, Jesus to name a few. Those who dared to live their truth knew that walking that path means not always being comfortable, reasonable, and “normal”. They knew that living in the moment set them free. They accepted the challenges and ignored the voices that said they won’t be able to or should not try to bring about positive change in their world.
At times you’ll hear “you can’t” or “no one has ever done that”, or “it’s impossible”. Resist the call to return to normal. Instead, go inside and find that strength that is born of who you really are. What I call your genuine self. All my life I heard the reasons why I must not do what I knew in my heart was really right, such as “we don’t do that”, “it’s too difficult”, and one of my favorites: “what will the neighbors think?” I was forced out of normal and onto the fringes of my environment. But as the years passed I felt more and more comfortable on the fringes. And as the years go by I find that a bonus of living my genuine life is a continuing sense of serenity. No feelings of euphoria, no bells and whistles. Just a knowing that I’m on the path laid out by my inner GPS.
Normal is realizing that all of us are different. Make self love your motivator and know that there is perfection at your inner-most level. You are unique. And that’s just fine.
Overheard
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung, 1875-1961
I guess it’s only natural that our Chi For Yourself guest this (Halloween) week should be a ghostbuster..!
But Echo Bodine is much more than that- she’s also a spiritual healer, psychic, bestselling author, and lecturer. This week she’ll talk to us about a subject that many of us prefer to avoid, but one that we’ll all face at some time–death.
Echo says “it would be beneficial for all of us to learn how to have open discussions with our loved ones when they are in their dying process and when we are going through our own dying process.” Her new book is called What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death.
Echo Bodine will do her second Chi For Yourself interview this Thursday October 31st, at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific. Look for the Google+ Hangouts screen on the start page of chiforyourself.com.
Echo Bodine
Echo Bodine’s new book is called What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death.
If you missed last week’s episode of Chi For Yourself, our guest was Erica Tucci. She talked about how her world was rocked when she suffered a stroke, and how she learned life lessons during her recovery. You can hear that interview when you click on this BlogTalkRadio banner:
Key takeaways mentioned in the Erica Tucci episode:
balancing the male and female aspects of the self
bad things can happen for good reasons
sometimes the universe moves in to move us to make change in our lives
disciplines such as reiki and meditation can help re-enforce spirituality
believing in yourself can help move you forward on your life path
corporations are incorporating more feminine energies into the way business is transacted
never give up in life..find your passion..keep a strong connection to your spirituality
…and, we’ve re-scheduled the Kuwana Haulsey interview that was cancelled on October 16th. It’s now planned for Wednesday November 6th at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific.
We start out this week by saying Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in Canada!!
…and, don’t forget this week’s guest will be talking to us on Wednesday at 1pm Pacific time. You’ll be able to hear Kuwana Haulsey discussing motherhood and her book Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From My Six-Month Old when you visit the chiforyourself.com ‘Start’ page.
The scheduled guest for October 24th (Thursday) is Erica Tucci, author of Radiant Survivor: How to Shine and Thrive through Recovery from Stroke, Cancer, Abuse, Addiction and Other Life-Altering Experiences.
And I promised to tell you about a show planned for later this month- In fact, on Halloween. Our scheduled guest will be Echo Bodine. Echo is the author of What Happens When We Die: A Psychic’s Exploration of Death, Heaven, and the Soul’s Journey After Death. She’ll offer us answers to some of life’s biggest questions: Is there a heaven? Are there people who have been there and come back? Do we have souls? Can we communicate with deceased loved ones? It’ll be Echo’s second visit to Chi For Yourself and you can hear it On Thursday, October 31st at 1pm Pacific.
Echo Bodine
That’s the lineup for the rest of the month. Plan to be with us!!
Okay..this is something a little different. I don’t usually post on a Friday, let alone a Friday evening. But, it’s been a busy week for me and probably you, too. And I got to thinking about our tendency to live for the weekend. We let out a collective sigh, glad that the rigors of the week are behind us. Now we can ‘let our hair down’..maybe party a bit, or just grab some serenity.
It was serenity I had I mind when I chose to bring back the 2011 John Selby interview. John talks to us about meditation and his book Expand This Moment. But, it’s the subheading that I think resonates with ‘Friday-philes’- Focused Meditations to Quiet Your Mind, Brighten Your Mood, and Set Yourself Free.
But, first I want to tell you about a new feature on chiforyourself.com. If you look at the top of each page on the web site, you’ll see a small box on the left side of the page that reads ‘send voicemail’. If you click on that box you can send us a voicemail. No phone necessary..no downloads, nothin’. Just click on and follow the directions. You can send your message right from your browser. It’s a great way for me to hear what you would like to hear on Chi For Yourself!
Now, for a heapin’ helpin’ of serenity, courtesy of John Selby- This week’s guest on Chi For Yourself..
Click on the BlogTalkRadio banner to hear the show: