Attract a New Year's Eve Kiss

I was asked about how to attract a kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve. Here is my fun list of what to do. The law of attraction may just work for you, too!

How to Attract a New Year's Eve Kiss

1. Do not spend New Year's Eve alone (unless you plan to kiss Dick Clark)- find a party.
2. Announce to the Universe and yourself, "I would love a New Year's kiss" (nothing wrong with a public announcement.)
3. Wear comfortable and attractive clothing to the party (if you aren't relaxed and feeling pretty it will show.)
4. Wear neutral lipstick (dark lipstick might scare a friendly kiss.)
5. Go early and make sure you introduce yourself to as many people as possible (be open to everyone.)
6. Have fun! (that is the point of a party, right?)
7. Tell a friend you are looking to be kissed (maybe she knows "just the guy.")
8. Let go of the kiss happening (allow the magic to happen...)
9. Feel the joy as though you already have been kissed (share your positive vibration with the Universe.)
10. At 11:45, if you haven't met someone you click with romantically, look around the room and ask yourself, "Who looks like they would love a kiss from me?" Walk up to him and offer your joyous celebration of the New Year with a friendly kiss at midnight.

The New Year is on it's way....

Are you ready to Take the Step towards a New Life?

I am thrilled to share with you an offer for the next 6 days.

If you sign up for coaching in January, you will receive 10% off of your first month (up to a $50 value). If you sign up for a three month commitment, you will receive your 10% off, your 3-month discount and a free headset so that we can Skype each other for free!

In January, my rates will go up. Now is the time, if you have been thinking about what coaching can do for you. Trust me, if you are ready to feel better, and starting living with inspired passion, and let go of what is causing you suffering in your life, you will be so glad you took the step to connect with me.

Find out more at CoachingwithRain.com or email me at rain@authentictimes.com.

Isn't it time you allowed yourself the support to break out of old thoughts and habits and start living a more authentic life?

This offer expires at midnight on December 31st, 2008!

A Thank You Letter to Michael Neill

Thank you so much Michael, for showing up on my blog and sharing your kind words and references.

The starvation article you wrote caused some negative responses when I reposted it. Your apology was very kind.

I am honored that you visited.

Oh, I guess I am more than honored. I was a happily shocked as well.

I have learned so much from you in the last year through your radio show, You Can Have What You Want on Hay House Radio and your newsletter found at GeniusCatalyst.com. I refer to your work and words while speaking with my clients and friends often.

Thank you Michael and I hope this finds you.
Honestly, it was a bright light in my day!

smiles and joy,
Rain

My apologies for gossiping....

I am not one for gossip and heresay.
But I trusted my source.

If you have ever read or listened to Michael Neill (Hay House Radio or Geniuscatalyst.com) you will know that he is a kind, compassionate coach to the stars.
He has inspired me greatly over the last year, and I am grateful to be on his newsletter list. This post is from his newsletter.

I loved this article below as it resonated with my own experience with dieting.

I am so sorry that I repeated gossip about Susan Powter and the others listed in Michael's writing. As I did not mean to insult anyone or create any confusion.

I was merely trying to pass on what I thought was good news.

Blessings and smiles,
Rain

Please Read if you Have Ever Been on a Diet

I found this article to be so important, I wanted to share it with more people!
smiles and joy,
Rain

The Biology of Starvation or Why Your Diet is Doomed!

To say that dieting rarely leads to sustainable weight loss isn't particularly controversial - just ask anyone who's been on a diet in the last twenty years. What is perhaps more surprising is why they don't work. Most books would have you believe that you've either been on the wrong diet (too many/few meals, too much/little carbohydrates, etc.) or you lack the willpower to stick with your diet. In fact, the answer would appear to be in your biology.

In his seminal study into human starvation during World War II, biological researcher Ancel Keys (developer of the army's "K-Rations") discovered that reducing people's diet to a state of semi-starvation produced symptoms of irritability, loss of endurance, and obsessive behavior around food, including but not limited to lying, hoarding, and stealing.

Even more telling was that in the three month period after the semi-starvation was ended and people could once again eat whatever they wanted, the obsession with food continued. None of the subjects had regained their former physical capacity, and their daily caloric intake had increased to a level higher (at times far higher) than before the study began.

This experiment, documented in his 1950 treatise "The Biology of Human Starvation", is considered unreplicable - even if you could get the volunteers, to purposely starve people (even college students :-) is considered cruel and inhumane nowadays. But here's an interesting fact: the 'semi-starvation' rations from the original study amounted to 1500 calories a day - more than is allowed in any number of the 25,914 diet books listed at Amazon.com!

What 50 years ago was considered a globally conscious experiment in dealing with world hunger (Keys' own conclusion was that "Starved people cannot be taught democracy. To talk about the will of the people when you aren't feeding them is perfect hogwash.") has become a global obsession, with over $40 billion spent on weight loss products in the year 2000 (that's roughly a million dollars a day for 85 years!).

So what's the solution?
Here are three things you can begin to do immediately, adapted from the excellent book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.

1. Reject the food police
Once you recognize the perils of voluntary starvation (sorry, "dieting"), you can begin to make peace with food. Instead of fighting with 'forbidden foods', which naturally become more attractive than anything else on the menu, you start out by eating what you like, when you like.
"But I'll eat nothing but chocolate!", I hear you cry in fear (and hope!).
Maybe at first - but studies have shown that over time, you will wind up eating a fairly balanced diet, or what the authors refer to as the 90-10 balance - 90% of your food will be light and nutritionally sound, and 10% will be "play" food.

2. Honor your hunger and feel your fullness
Imagine a 'hunger scale' which runs from 1 (Starving) to 10 (Better get a bucket). How hungry are you right now?
As you practice tuning in to your own hunger, you'll begin to recognize subtle signals long before your stomach growls and your brain gets fuzzy. Optimal eating occurs at around 3 or 4 and finishes when you reach 6 or 7 on your inner scale - the only scale that matters from now on!

3. Respect your body and honor your health
Jim Fixx, the man who single-handedly made jogging into the great American past time in the '70's, died aged 52 of a heart attack - while jogging. Jane Fonda, the godmother of the '80's aerobics movement survived her exercise-induced heart attack and having clearly learned from her near death experience, introduced the world to 'low-impact' aerobics. Susan Powter, the '90's eating guru who's catchphrase was 'Stop the insanity' had her bottom rib removed to give her the body shape she desired!

While I have no idea which get-fit 'expert' for the new millenium will be the first to fall victim to their own mythology, respecting our body's and honoring our health calls for us to unleash 'the guru within' - that is to tune in, listen to, and respect the messages from our own body.

Today's Experiment:

"The psychological terror of hunger is profound."
-Naomi Wolfe, The Beauty Myth

In an age where airbrushing out lovehandles is no harder than putting Forrest Gump in the White House, it can be difficult to know what your optimal body shape and size really is. To put it another way, you may never have the body of Elle McPherson, but then again, neither will she!

Here's an exercise to begin getting in touch with your own natural body...
1. Each day, spend at least one minute looking at yourself in the mirror. In an ideal world, do this without clothes, but if that's too horrific a thought, anything but a mumu would be fine!
2. Notice what thoughts come up, from 'god I hate my thighs' to 'not bad for 45'.
3. Stick with it until you can look at your body in the mirror for a full minute without cringing, crying, or even commenting.
4. When you're ready, begin sending loving energy to the person in the mirror. Let them know that your love for them is not dependant on their waist size.
5. If you find all this too difficult, get the support of a loving friend, family member, or coach.

Have fun, learn heaps, and eat something!
Copyright by Michael Neill

This tip was brought to you by GeniusCatalyst.com and read by over 15000 people in 90 countries worldwide.

Connecting in the Now to Our Own Journey

Journeys.
We are all on our own journey. Although sometimes we share the path with others, we cannot walk someone else's journey, and they cannot walk ours. Journeys can create joy or suffering. We suffer when we do not trust our own perceptions or when live in the past or future.

Many people suffer because they become stuck in their past journey or worry about what might happen to their future journey. Everyone has lost the here and now at some point. Sometimes people decide to live for a destination (the future.) This is expressed in sentences such as: If I make enough money, get that job, lose that weight, then I will... be happy or fill in the blank.

Other times people live for what they already know is safe (the past.) This may look like someone who says: This worked two years ago, it should work again. This is the only way to do it! Why can't things be like the good ol' days?

To find the here and now, take a breath. Look around. See where you are in your journey right now… I am in my living room, it is dark outside, I hear the heater running, I am feeling peaceful.

We can also suffer when we do not trust our own journey. During our life, we make choices all along the way. We are then given an experience and we have perceptions of our experiences. We then connect our choice with the experience.
For example: Choice: When I chose to go to bed early every night for a week:

A) Experience: I slept more.
Perception: It felt good.
Connection: Choosing to go to bed early is best for you.
or
B) Experience: I couldn't sleep through the night.
Perception: It felt frustrating.
Connection: It is better to choose to stay up later and wake up at a normal hour.

Both of these connections seem reasonable. The problem is when it is not your own connection. When others try to impose their connections onto your journey, it can create conflict and suffering. People may say you must be tired, cold, or worried because of your travels. They equate their connections they have made on their journey to be the only truth. When we attach to others connections, we suffer.

There will always be a voice or two that questions your choices on how you take your journey. They may also have doubts about your perception about your experiences, therefore believe you are crazy to have the connections you have made. Just know, no matter how convincing they sound, you are the only one who can know the truth for your own perceptions, experiences and choices.

Thank the stars above for all the caring people in your life who help you remember to stay in your own business and wish them peace and comfort in their own choices and perceptions of their lives. Their hearts are in the right place.

Now, take a chance! Choose, experience, perceive and connect all on your own, in your own way and watch the magic happen.

My Shoulder of Should

It happened 5 years ago. I was walking down the street with my 2 year old and holding his hand. He was never one much for walking. He loved to be carried and I struggled to get him out of the sling. It was only from a tired back and a belief he should be walking at his age, did I make the decision a few weeks prior that I needed to encourage him to walk on his own. So I held on to his tiny hand as we walked down the street.

That was when it happened. He let go of the ground. He put his feet up, bent his knees and he pulled my shoulder in a jarring motion down as I tried to save him from falling.

It was a classic rotator cuff injury, I was told by my physical therapist. Nothing torn, just a really bad sprain. After spending 3 months working with a physical therapist, using every ointment on the planet, hot and cold compresses, and keeping it as still as I could, it didn't get 100% better. Sleeping on my side was impossible, and I learned to sleep on my back with a pillow under my knees so I wouldn't move in the night. The mornings I woke up on my side, I was always waking up from the jarring pain in my shoulder. In fact, years later while in my downward dog pose in a yoga class I had my two kids in (even with protests, I thought as homeschoolers, they should learn this), I felt the injury come back full force and I was back into the physical therapist's office. Nothing seemed to make all of the pain go away.

Soon I was introduced to EFT, Louise Hay, and the law of attraction. I found out I could get rid of the pain through tapping, affirmations and what I thought about. For the first time in years, I was 100% pain-free! Well, most of the time.

Strangely enough, my shoulder is my alarm for "shoulds." It happens every time, without fail. Someone in my family needs me, and I get a thought in my head I should get up to help, my shoulder begins to ache. My husband is having a struggling conversation with the kids, and I feel I should fix it, yep, shoulder hurts again. Creating my businesses and feeling I should be working harder to make more money for the family and BAM! I am hit with pain in my shoulder. Imagine how well I did over the Thanksgiving holiday with my family when old stories of "I should" came to the surface... needless to say, my shoulder was as much pain as I had felt for the first time in a year.

Now, I always have the tools to make the pain go away, I just find it interesting how the should is in my should-er. How did that happen? What kind of cosmic message is that? I believe the universe has quite a sense of humor.

The blessing of this gift is I always know when my thoughts have left the here and now and gone into the "shoulds" of the past and the future. I know when I am not in allowing, but fixing. I know when I am not in my own business, I am in other people's business. When I am really clear, I can feel the tingle begin at the very first moment when a should thought forms. That is really cool.

Do you have a sign you are out of alignment? What seems to happen to you when you are wandering from your path of joy? Sick stomach? Headache?

Our body's are not separate from our minds and spirits. It is all one connected package. Learning to only take care of one without the others is sure to create some kind of notification system your whole self is hoping you pay attention to.

My whole self decided it would be clever to create my shoulder of should.

Thank you, it works.