Inner Power Coaching

09/11/2022

For all those who have babies in heaven ❤️💙

During the month of September we remember all babies born sleeping, or we've carried but never met, those we've held but couldn't take home, the ones that came home but didn't stay. In memory of all Babies too perfect for earth 👼☁☀.

Dedicated to all our Babies May they rest in Peace Amen

07/24/2020

“The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of our inner thoughts and beliefs. The body is always talking to us, if we will only take the time to listen. Every cell within your body responds to every single thought you think and every word you speak.”
Louise L. Hay

07/03/2020

The Story.....

Your reaction matters more than what happens to you....

“Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. ‘Daughter, what do you see?’

‘Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,’ she hastily replied.

‘Look closer,’ he said, ‘and touch the potatoes.’ She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

‘Father, what does this mean?’ she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

‘Which are you,’ he asked his daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?’

Your reaction matters more than what happens to you....

05/25/2020

Shifting The Mood

We all have to do things in our life that we don't want to, and the easiest solution is to change our attitude.
We all have days when we are faced with chores, errands, or responsibilities that we don't want to do. At times like these, it's easy to get into a bad mood and stay in one as we tackle these tasks. However, given the fact that our bad mood will not change the fact that we have to do these things, and will most likely make things worse, we could also try to shift our attitude. Many wise people have pointed out that it is not so much what we do as it is how we do it that makes the difference in our lives.

It's important when we're facing something that's really hard for us, whether it's doing taxes, paying bills, or visiting a challenging relative, that we lovingly support ourselves through the process. The more supported we feel, the easier it is to open our minds to the idea that we could change our way of looking at the situation. In truth, most of the chores we don't like doing are intimately intertwined with our blessings. When we remember this, we feel gratitude, which makes it hard to stay in a dark mood.

We can shift our attitude by considering how much we love our home as we clean it and how lucky we are to have a roof over our head. Any task can be transformed from a burden to a necessary aspect of caring for something we love. All we have to do is shift our perspective, and our attitude follows shortly behind.

By Madisyn Taylor

05/13/2020

We Are Here to Serve

Every movement in the universe is a movement toward love.
We are living in a time of great change. Many thinkers and seers agree that humanity and the planet Earth are evolving at a quickened pace, and that this evolution will necessarily be severe and seemingly chaotic at times. It is natural for people to react with fear, because these changes will doubtless bring some level of difficulty and loss to many of us. However, it is essential that we all remember that our souls chose to be here at this time and to be part of this process. Every movement in the universe is a movement toward love. This is true even in situations that appear on the surface to be the opposite of loving.

Since we chose to be here, we are capable and ready to rise to the challenges in which we find ourselves. It is helpful to reflect on our own lives and make any changes necessary to fully support humanity and the planet into the state of love. When we open our hearts in love instead of closing them in fear, we serve the divine process. We are all powerful spirits who took form at this time in order to serve our fellow humans, our planet, and the universe. As we find ways we can serve, our fear dissipates. We may serve by remaining calm and loving with our children and our families, even as the situation seems dark. We may serve by sending money to people who need financial assistance. We may serve by going out into the world and actively helping to rebuild lives. Regardless of what actions we choose to take, the essential element will be the internal gesture of choosing to remain in love. This is all that is needed.

When it is difficult to remain in love, we may always call upon our unseen helpers: the teachers and guides who are always with us. All we need to do is ask and then trust that we are being helped. The guidance we receive is love itself, showing us the way.

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

04/26/2020

I’ve been seeing so many friends seriously beating themselves up because they aren’t “maximizing” their time in quarantine by organizing their closets, repainting, developing a side hustle, becoming a piano virtuoso, exercising themselves into a lucrative career as a swimsuit model, etc.

Everybody! Seriously. Stop. And breathe. If you’re feeling adrift, there’s a reason. I’m about to drop some first semester nursing school on y’all. It’s Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Humans have basic requirements (the bottom of the pyramid) like food, water, air, shelter, sleep, etc. The biological basics. If those are met, then the next rung of the ladder is Safety and Security. If we feel safe and secure, then we can climb up and start on our Love and Belonging needs and on up the ladder we go until finally at the very tippy-top is SELF-ACTUALIZATION which would entail all of the cool aforementioned activities. The catch is, you cannot level up until the needs at the current level are fulfilled. If the needs remain unfulfilled, we remain stuck on our current level until the situation changes.

Friends, in the midst of a pandemic, we are dwelling in the basement of Maslow’s pyramid. How in the heck do you think you’re going to kick ass at the highest levels when we can’t even find toilet paper for Pete’s sake.

You physiologically and psychologically aren’t built to live your “best life” right now. Your only job is to live “a life” right now. A luxury that is being denied many which increases the pressure to really make every day count.

But listen.

Every day you are here counts.
Every breath you take counts.
Are you eating, drinking water, and sleeping at all these days? If so, that is a triumph right now.

Cut yourself ALL THE SLACK. Focus on the bottom level. Are you showering? Eating a vegetable once in a while? Getting some sunshine and fresh air? Keeping some semblance of a sleep schedule?

Start there. And be extra gentle and abundantly gracious with yourself. We’ll get through this. And right now, getting through is absolutely enough.

I love you all. Hang in there. ❤️

04/13/2020

Enjoying Life

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

It is only in the present moment that we experience being alive.
Life, in all of its fullness, is happening right now. While our thoughts are sometimes elsewhere, beautiful opportunities and moments are being passed over and lost to the flow of time. And though we cannot possibly fully experience each leaf that falls to the ground, sometimes we get so attached to reaching our goals that we don't pay attention to the wonder all around us. When we do that, we live in a world that exists only in our heads, while we miss life itself. There is so much to be enjoyed and appreciated that we need to remember to pay attention to the present moment, because it is the only space in which we can experience being alive.

We learn from our past, but dwelling on it keeps us from being fully present to life in the moment. We create our lives with our thoughts, but focusing so firmly on our imagined future keeps us from co-creating with the universe, so we might never allow ourselves to live our dreams as they manifest. It's possible to be so happy and comfortable in our inner worlds that we lose touch with the business of life. We may enjoy spending large portions of time in meditation, or focused on our thoughts.

Life must be attended to, and if we are wise, we can enjoy it at the same time. We can awaken ourselves to the moment we are living right now by taking a deep breath and simply looking around. In doing so, we refocus our attention to our location in the real world. Then we can learn to appreciate the process of working toward our goals as much as their attainment. Balancing ourselves between the present moment and eternity, we can experience and enjoy the full range of reality available to us as spiritual beings living on earth.

04/04/2020

Now more than ever...

Laying down the ego that pines for control and uses the illusion of judgment, and instead picking up wisdom of the heart, of discernment, of moving forward from the starting point of acceptance.

It’s the ego that needs to exclaim its own greatness and importance. It’s the ego that needs to prove its worth, demonstrate its strength, and convince itself of its usefulness and that it alone knows what is right. This ego has led to conflict, to division, to separation, to greater polarity, to nonstop talking with no listening and little meaning.

And yet it’s the heart that brings peace, that brings unity, that brings understanding. Proclaiming that the heart is weak is nothing but a judgment, a fearful one at that, of the ego. The heart doesn’t need to put itself above others—nor does it subjugate either. The awakened heart is aligned in consciousness and truth. It brings us to peace and shares this peace through love.

An awakened human is a warrior of the heart. A warrior of the heart stands resolute, with conviction, that it does not need to lash out, to war with and against others, but instead to hold space where all can enter, be welcomed, feel safe, and be restored.

Luke Iorio- iPEC Coaching

03/21/2020

Let’s stick together ❤️

02/11/2020

Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work. by
Derek Beres

Being busy is killing our ability to think creatively
Here's why you should try to fit less—not more—into each day.

The other day a friend mentioned that he’s looking forward to autonomous cars, as it will help lower the accident and fatality rates caused by distracted driving. True, was my initial reply, with a caveat: what we gain on the roads we lose in general attention. Having yet another place to be distracted does not add to our mental and social health.

Little good comes from being distracted yet we seem incapable of focusing our attention. Among many qualities that suffer, recent research shows creativity takes a hit when you’re constantly busy. Being able to switch between focus and daydreaming is an important skill that’s reduced by insufferable busyness. As Stanford’s Emma Seppälä writes:

The idea is to balance linear thinking—which requires intense focus—with creative thinking, which is borne out of idleness. Switching between the two modes seems to be the optimal way to do good, inventive work.

She is not the first to point this out. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin made a similar plea in his 2014 book, The Organized Mind. Information overload keeps us mired in noise. In 2011, he writes, Americans consumed five times as much information as 25 years prior; outside of work we process roughly 100,000 words every day.
This saps us of not only willpower (of which we have a limited store) but creativity as well. He uses slightly different language than Seppälä—linear thinking is part of the central executive network, our brain’s ability to focus, while creative thinking is part of our brain’s default mode network. Levitin, himself a former music professional who engineered records by the Grateful Dead and Santana, writes:

Artists recontextualize reality and offer visions that were previously invisible. Creativity engages the brain’s daydreaming mode directly and stimulates the free flow and association of ideas, forging links between concepts and neural modes that might not otherwise be made.

Engaging creatively requires hitting the reset button, which means carving space in your day for lying around, meditating, or staring off into nothing. This is impossible when every free moment—at work, in line, at a red light—you’re reaching for your phone. Your brain’s attentional system becomes accustomed to constant stimulation; you grow antsy and irritable when you don’t have that input. You’re addicted to busyness.

And that’s dangerous for quality of life. As Seppälä points out many of the world’s greatest minds made important discoveries while not doing much at all. Nikola Tesla had an insight about rotating magnetic fields on a leisurely walk in Budapest; Albert Einstein liked to chill out and listen to Mozart on breaks from intense thinking sessions.

Paying homage to boredom—a valuable tool in the age of overload—journalist Michael Harris writes in The End of Absence that we start to value unimportant and fleeting sensations instead of what matters most. He prescribes less in the course of a normal day.

Perhaps we now need to engineer scarcity in our communications, in our interactions, and in the things we consume. Otherwise our lives become like a Morse code transmission that’s lacking breaks—a swarm of noise blanketing the valuable data beneath.

How to disconnect in a time when connection is demanded by bosses, peers, and friends? Seppälä makes four suggestions:

1. Make a long walk—without your phone—a part of your daily routine
2. Get out of your comfort zone
3. Make more time for fun and games
4. Alternate between doing focused work and activities that are less intellectually demanding
That last one is also recommended by Cal Newport, author of Deep Work. Newport is not on any social media and only checks email once a day, perhaps, and even that time is strictly regimented. What seems to be lost in being “connected” is really irreplaceable time gained to focus on projects. Without that time, he says, you’re in danger of rewiring your neural patterns for distraction.
Spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness and you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work.

That’s not a good sign for those who wish to perform creatively, which in reality is all of us. Research shows that the fear of missing out (FOMO) increases anxiety and takes a toll on your health in the long run. Of all the things to suffer, creative thinking is one of our greatest losses. Regardless of your vocation a flexible mindset open to new ideas and approaches is invaluable. Losing it just to check on the latest tweet or post an irrelevant selfie is an avoidable but sadly sanctioned tragedy.

02/03/2020

5 Reasons Women Over 50 Should Start Something Big And New

Last February I went to Mammoth, snowboarding with some friends. (To be totally transparent, they snowboarded. I drank Pinot Noir.) In the bar I met a couple of women who were pushing 50, with teenaged kids. We got to talking about life, and I told them that at 49, I’d packed up my successful business to become a motivational writer and coach.
One of them said, “God, I wish I was as brave as you. I’ve always wanted to be a girls’ basketball coach. But it’s too late now. It just seems stupid. How would I even begin?”
She felt what so many women who are circling 50 feel:
It’s too late. That ship has sailed. If I was going to do it, I should have done it by now.
Since that time, I’ve spoken to hundreds of women between 45 and 60. And I’ve found an alarmingly common thread: almost every one of them has a dream that’s never been addressed. And they’ve decided to let those dreams go, because “50” is a force field that’s impossible – in their minds – to cross.
I’ve found three distinct groups of ladies my age who struggle with this the most:

The Retirement Pushers: These women have been in jobs or careers for 20 years or more, and they see retirement as the end. The Retirement Pusher feels like it’s foolish to switch gears now. She can finish this long, grueling haul that she started decades ago, so she must.
The I’m-Just-a-Moms: These women have been raising kids for 15, 20, or 25 years, and they don’t feel justified in doing anything else. The I’m-Just-a-Mom knows she’s qualified for something big and new, but thinks those things are reserved for women who started earlier in life. The Shadow Dancers: In their 20’s, these women labeled their dreams as foolish, and chose related (but sensible) careers, instead. (I chose Marketing Manager over author at 20. Just in case I wasn’t Hemingway….) The shadow dancer’s dream has never died; but a little bit of her soul has, every day.
Here’s the good news, ladies:
Whether you dream of becoming a pastry chef, learning to surf, traveling to India by yourself, tap dancing at a recital, or opening an accounting firm, now is the PERFECT time.
Here are 5 reasons women over 50 are PERFECT for big, bold, new things:

1. We’re wise. It’s not the same as knowledgeable. Wise means we think and act using knowledge. Try this: grab a woman over 50 and give her detailed instructions for a task she’s never done before. After 45 seconds she’ll say, “Yeah, yeah. I get it. Let me do it.” And then she’ll shove you aside and do it her way… the more efficient way.
2. We can negotiate like hell. We’ve been finding ways to get what we want for decades. I’ve negotiated with husbands, toddlers, teenagers, airline ticket agents, hair dressers who wanna do their own thing, real estate agents, human resources directors, the DMV, the woman at the nursing home who refused to give my mom her pain meds, and the guy who showed up to fix my toilet and tried to hard-sell me a $10,000 water purification system. Women our age know how to say, “No” and how to get, “Yes.”
3. We’re effective. We are amazingly useful for achieving desired results. I can cook a delicious turkey dinner while simultaneously talking my 15-year-old down from a ledge, sending a follow-up email to a client, and planning my next vacation on Travelocity at a 30% discount. We’ve been conditioned to conquer tasks, while figuring them out. If you’ve got a complex problem to solve, who you gonna call? A recent college grad? Or one of your girlfriends over 50?
4. We’ve developed a sense of humor… about ourselves. A couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d try false eyelashes. Everyone is doing it, and I figured, “What the hell? If I can expertly super-glue a shattered vase back together in the 15 minutes before my mother-in-law shows up for dinner, I can surely get these suckers attached to my eyelids.” And when I looked in the mirror and saw a drag queen in Ugg boots, I laughed like hell. Every woman I know who’s my age can laugh at herself. And if you’re thinking that comes just as naturally for a younger woman, too, try teasing a millennial about her false eyelashes…
5. We’re resilient. I sometimes hear my friends say, “I don’t bounce back like I used to.” This is simply untrue. I’ve bounced back from divorce, crushing career blows, the painful loss of family members, more financial hitches than you can shake a stick at, and a full hysterectomy. What about you? There is simply not a single demographic group in the WORLD more resilient than 50-year-old women.
If we have everything it takes to be successful at something new, why do we feel like we’re unwarranted, unqualified, or silly for wanting to start something at “our age?”

Is it because we feel like time is running out? Because every article I read says that it takes seven years to be an expert at something. And ladies… we’ve GOT that much time. You could cruise through your late 50’s, 60’s and 70’s ― doing the very thing you’ve always wanted to do. I know I fully intend to.

Is it because we’re tired? I want to let you in on a little secret. You’re not tired. You’re tired OF something. I was tired of my old business. But I’m not tired of my new one. I’m energized, challenged, and entertained. If you’re tired of picking up socks off the floor, try putting on some Barry White and dancing around with a glass of wine. Too tired for that? I rest my case.

Is it because the world tells us we can’t? Ridiculous. We’ve all been doing things we weren’t supposed to do our whole lives. (Remember Macrame? Rollerblading? Microsoft DOS?) We are a LEGION of humans who have achieved things we were never meant to achieve.
I have realized that when a single, simple ingredient is added to the recipe for dreams at our age, they rise like perfect biscuits: PERMISSION.

That’s right. You have to give yourself permission. You have to ditch the story that’s holding you back, see what that new role looks like, slide it on like a bada** black trench coat, and wear it out into the street. You have to give yourself permission to be that woman.
You are the perfect age for this field trip, my friend, and you’ve got a hell of a lot more in your backpack than your sack lunch and your library books…

How many permission slips have you signed in your life? Isn’t it time you signed one for yourself?
Julia “Juju” Hook