Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Having Faith Creates Miracles

“Faith is believing
before receiving.”

Alfred A Montapert

As a holiday present to my daughter and son-in-law I am watching Jeffrey, my grandson, and Charlie a 100 pound Lab for a week.

Yesterday morning started out very calmly and got ready to leave for school. One of the things we do before leaving for school is walk Charlie. Let me correct myself, Charlie walks us.

The walk was a bit of a struggle and we arrived home a little tired. Jeffrey removed Charlie’s leash and before we knew it the dog ran away. Both of us started running after Charlie and had no luck capturing him.

At one point we were very close to him and before we could grab him he took off again. At that point I lost sight of Jeffrey and Charlie.

Franticly I started running around the blocks yelling for Jeffrey and Charlie. While yelling I was asking God to help me.

I turned a corner and there was Jeffrey walking with a woman who had Charlie on a tight leash. My heart stopped for a moment and relief flooded my body.

When I regained my composure, I could not thank her enough for bringing Jeffrey and Charlie home. We brought Charlie into the house and put him into his cage where he slept for most of the day.

Jeffrey and I were a total mess. We sat and thanked God for sending us an Angel.

The important lessons we learned were to always close the garage door before taking Charlie’s leash off and how to walk Charlie so we are in control not him.

During this experience I looked fear in the face and kept moving forward. If for a second I let the fear take over I would not have been able to keep my hope alive.

Praying is a form of meditation that clams you down and restores your faith that things will work out.

What experiences have you had in which prayers restored your faith that things will work out for the best.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Helen

Thursday, May 31, 2007

DIETER'S JOURNEY

Today is a new day on your journey of life. We have a choice either feeling sorry for ourselves for not losing weight or trying a new eating behavior. Our thoughts of losing weight can be like an old friend. The thought is always with us and never challenges us to try something different. Until you are ready to make a commitment that things will be different and have the courage to move in a new direction nothing changes.

The following quote from the book, “Time for Joy”, By Ruth Fishel and Bonny Van de Kamp, illustrates how walking through your fears enables you to live a vibrant life.

It takes great courage to go in new directions.
It takes great courage to try things that others around us have not tried.
One can have courage while one has fear.
Courage does not mean the absence of fear.
To open new doors, to take new steps while walking through our fear
takes the greatest courage of all.
Each new door opened gives us confidence to open the next door.
By trusting the goodness within us and going beyond the fear,
Life is an exciting, satisfying and fulfilling place to be.

As your coach I support you in taking small steps that will make you very strong while making changes in your life. I have found that working with my clients in identifying what is more important in their life than food and reconnecting with what really makes them happy enables them to lose weight and live a vibrant life.

I have a client, lets call her Terri, who originally hired me as a coach so she could lose weight. Instead of only focusing on the food we started exploring what really made her happy and fulfilled. During the coaching sessions, we created the following game she could play:

1. Explored different tools and techniques she felt comfortable implementing while changing her eating behavior.
2. Asked friends and family members what they thought her perfect job would be.
2. Explored the list of professions and narrowed them down to two or three.
3. Performed informational interviews with people in the different fields.
4. Decided she would like to pursue the field of travel.
5. Worked for a Travel Agent on Saturdays as a tour guide in the historic area of her town.

As Terri was pursuing her dream job she stopped focusing on the food, started eating healthy with quantity control, exercising and losing weight at the same time. Today Terri, is at goal weight, founder of a business that plans tours for different groups.

If your deepest desire is to get off the diet merry-go-round and into a vibrant life, I am here to support you. How vibrant do you want your life to be? I can be reached at helen@loveyourselfcoaching.net

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN

Last Friday night I went to an Overeaters Retreat for the weekend and getting there was a nightmare. My friend and I left around 6:30pm and planned to arrive at our destination in about 45 minutes.

I have a GPS System; we put in the address and entered all the required information. The final step had a different address and neither one of us thought there would be a problem. So off we went following the directions. The GPS lead us onto a dirt road that had the same Street name we were looking for. We were commenting how easy it was to find the Camp. After riding for quite awhile in a wooded area at night in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey; we realized we were on the wrong road. All of a sudden the GPS System announced we arrived at our destination on the left. As we looked to the left we saw a tree. I never felt such panic!

We called 911, told the police our location, how scared we were and to please help us find the Camp. The Policewoman told us not to worry; she stayed on the phone with us and led us to our destination. If ever I thought there was someone watching over us it was that night. Now as I am thinking and writing about our journey, I can laugh.

What I learned from this experience:
• Never use the GPS System if it does not give you the right address.
• Have back-up directions.
• It is OK to ask for help.
• Trust that things will work out.

Once we arrived at our destination and listened to the keynote speaker, I felt relaxed. Then I got into bed and my fears went wild. I could not stop thinking about what could have happened instead of being grateful for the miracle of arriving safely. The next day I started journaling and speaking to many people about my fear based thinking. Nothing made a difference.

I made a decision, if I wanted to enjoy the retreat I would have to start thinking positively. A miracle happened, I was asked to lead a workshop on “Fears and How They Stop Us.” It was a great opportunity for me to explore my fears and learn what other tools people use to feel safe.

Some of the tools that were suggested are as follows:
• When having a fearful thought give yourself a big hug and say, “I am safe.”
• Journal or discuss your fears with another person.
• Remember that FEAR is “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

What tools do you use when you feel fearful, I would love to know.