Neither rain,nor sleet, nor snow or dark of night.......

My husband & I felt like the postal service as we drove through the mountains during a winter storm on our way to Laguna Beach, California to house sit for our younger son's girlfriend before Christmas and to drive them up to LAX to catch their flight to Hawaii. No sightings of our president elect for them. We experienced all of the above and celebrated the great traction of the truck's new tires. We were fortunate to arrive as the snowplows pushed away the 12 inches of snow on the mountain passes and we just tagged along. Soon the lights of San Diego were visible in the misty rain. We were taking an extended break which held delights and challenges. Her house is an old California bungalow where she grew up with no central heat or insulation. Needless to say we practiced our layering habits from our Wyoming days. I read, walked endlessly on the beach several times a day, watched the DVD of and Momma Mia-it didn't matter if Pierce Bronson could sing or not, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and sang right along with them. Hooked up with my brother and his family for dinner. We made a trip down to SD to visit our other son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter where we helped trim the tree, viewed holiday lights and enjoyed a day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park up in Escondido. Christmas Eve we attended a Christmas Vigil mass at St. Catherine of Sienna ( beautiful gardens) and after picking up the travelers the next day enjoyed a along scenic walk around Crescent Bay. All in all we created what mattered most to us-connection with family, quiet time, walks on the beach (rain or shine) and a general allowing with what came along. ( Limited internet connection kept us in the present.) We did receive a heads up from my brother-in-law that my mother-in-law was quite sick- more on that later. Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Many Blessings,

Colleen

Colleen Crook is a Life & Spiritual Leadership coach and owner and founder of Conscious Living Connection providing coaching/mentoring for spiritually conscious professionals, consciouspreneurs(TM) ,excutives and groups who want to create what matters most with authenticity and integrity through the Consciously Living with Passion Purpose and Prosperity Success Program. Colleen is also known as the Passions to Action Mentor. Sign up for your Fr^ee Create What Matters Most gift bundle at http://www.consciouslivingconnection.com/

Gift Recommendation

One last thing before I shut down my computer for the day. My husband and I are headed out for a nice relaxing near the winter beach in California vacation today.
A great book gift( and I don't receive any commissions from this) is The Last lecture by Randy Pausch. My husband read it and very few books really grab him but this one did. He liked it so much we purchased one for each of our adult children.

Have a happy holiday.

Much Joy,
Colleen

Brad Yates Interview on EFT

Hi All,
If you didn't get a chance to hear Brad yesterday on handling fear and other lower energy feelings during this time in history with EFT or previously register, here's an opportunity to register for the MP3 until 2:00 pm Eastern time.
Register here and the autoresponder will put you on the list for the audio.

http://www.consciouslivingconnection.com/bybonus.htm

Many Blessings,
Colleen

Stepping up!

Part of building a business and being a consciouspreneur(TM) is surrounding yourself with people who are there to celebrate your forward movement( celebration team) and create a safe and sacred space when the going gets rough( support team). I'm delighted to be part of such a group with the Tucson Coaches Alliance. The December Program is the annual Holiday luncheon where we socialize, enjoy good food and generally celebrate the achievements of the year, acknowledge the current board members and introduce the new board. Along with this we all bring a toy for Toys for Tots in the spirit of giving back. This year we gathered at the beautiful Hacienda del Sol. See photo.

I've brought the subject of taking a leap up in the previous post and that's what I'm doing this year. I've been elected to the Member-At-Large board position and have accepted this honor.

Now I tend not to be a group joiner but this is one group that I have come to really appreciate and decided that I could allocate time and energy to this position in order to be part of ta leadership team bringing coaching to a greater visibility in the community. I've been in leadership positions in my career but not in a community group.

Where in your life can you be the leader you are looking for?

Taking the Leap!

Choose Trust, Belief and Faith as you take the Leap

There is this paradox of energy that is present globally right now. On one hand, numerous layoffs, plunging bottom lines, bankruptcies, bail outs and restricted credit lines and on the other hand, hope, optimism and collaboration all during this time of light and love. The fear factor is extremely seductive and the amazing opportunity you have in your favor is that you can consciously choose whether to dwell on all the challenges you are facing or step into the light of trust, belief and faith. Trust in yourself and Divine energy that a solution will present itself and you will be supported, Belief in yourself and the support and assistance of your community of kind human beings and Faith in the positive outcome and that miracles do happen. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, describes choice in this way. "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last freedom is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstance, to choose one's own way."

I leave with this quote from Elizabeth Kubler Ross: "People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there is a Light from within."

Giving yourself the gift of trust, belief and faith allows you to step into a life that is joyous no matter what and in the darkness your light will shine to guide others. Just like Ella the invitation is to take the leap into trusting, believing and having faith.

Call to Being: What is one small step I can take today that will move me into a trust, belief and faith mindset?

Much Joy,
Colleen

Register for the EFT interview with Brad Yates

Are you ready to tap?

If you know or if you don't know about EFT- Emotional Freedom Technique, please join me as Brad Yates returns to share his mastery of this wondrously simple liberating technique. Brad will help us navigate the holidays and tap away or at least manage some of the swirling fear about our economy with grace and ease as he takes us through a tapping program. Visit Brad's website www.bradyates.net to find out more about this gentle yet profound technique.

Make a difference in your life and register for this emotionally healing interview so you too can stay in a place of mental well being, possibility and hope.

When: Dec. 16 over a secure bridgeline
Time: 1pmPT/2AZ & MT/3CT/4ET your world clock for other time zones
Duration: 60 minutes
Facilitator/Host: Colleen M. Crook, M.A., CLC

To register to receive the call in information and access code and for more info on Brad, Click here. http://www.consciouslivingconnection.com/bybonus.htm

Not able to make the live call? No worries. The call will be recorded and all you need to do is register to receive the MP3.

Many Blessings,
Colleen

Happy For No Reason

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Marci Schimoff last Tuesday on Self-Acceptance and Self-Love. I hope you registered for the call to receive the audio. It was a fantastic interview. I'll give a quick re-cap of some of the insights shared.

• Our thoughts cause us suffering: how we perceive situations and how we react or respond to them. We have 60,000 thoughts a day and most tend to be re-runs.
• 2/3 of Americans suffer from low self-esteem- that's epidemic in one of the richest countries in the world.
• When children are around 5 years of age, their self esteem tends to be around the 80%; when they graduate from high school it averages around 5%.
• Our heart is actually the master or mistress: there are more communication pathways from the heart to the brain than vice versa. Listening to what your heart is guiding you to do will keep you in alignment with well being and life satisfaction.
• A great resource to stay tuned into you Heart Rhythm Coherence is heartmath.com
• Lead with the heart with gratitude,forgiveness and spreading loving kindness.
• Unconditionally Happy people navigate through life with a inner backdrop of peace and well being that has nothing to do with their circumstances. They handle them differently.
• Your happiness set point is comprised of 50% genetics,10% circumstance and 40% habits, thoughts and behavior. You can raise your happiness set point by changing your thoughts, habits and behaviors.

As you give yourself permission to accept yourself for your gifts and talents and start to love yourself, you are a living and loving example for others to do so. Get a happiness buddy to keep you in that wonderful space of positive thinking and managing situations with more grace and ease.

Check out Marci's book Happy For No Reason at http://www.happyfornoreason.com/

One of the tools Marci recommended to "try out" is EFT. So happens that will be the topic of the Dec. 16 bonus interview with Brad Yates, EFT guru.

Until the next post,

Colleen

Colleen Crook is a Life & Leadership coach and owner and founder of Conscious Living Connection providing coaching/mentoring for forward thinking individuals and groups who want to create what matters most by connecting them with their passion and inherent creativity through the Consciously Living with Passion Purpose and Prosperity Success Program. Colleen is also known as the Passions to Action Mentor. www.consciouslivingconnection.com Sign up for your Fr^ee Create What Matters Most gift bundle