Work from Within

Inspiration for your journey

I know, I know, it's been over a month since I've posted.  OY!

Were I in a corporate gig, my nightmares would be filled with receiving lousy performance reviews for being tardy.  Instead, Dear Reader, I can tell you that a lot's been cooking under the surface, including finalizing my dissertation (yes, you'll soon be reading the postings of Dr. Bernstein, who, for now, is the world's leading expert on the role of embodied awareness in major career change).  But honestly, I've missed blogging.

Today, I felt such a pull, so in the flow, so inspired to write.  Why?  It was the final session, at least for a while, with a dear client, who's allowed me to share his name.  Jeff Kennedy blends his care and concern for people and companies facing employment issues (think performance reviews, promotions, dealing with difficult managers, setting up HR processes...and much more) with the deep experience managing HR for Fortune 200s and the legal expertise to know what he's really talking about with a JD from UC Davis School of Law and practice as a California Employment Attorney. 

Standing at a career crossroads, as all of my clients do, Jeff came to me as he was trying to decide "what's next" because his last job didn't turn out the way he'd planned.  It turned out that we could use the dissatisfaction to uncover Jeff's deeper desires.  I find Jeff incredibly sharp, organized, empathetic, and strategic.  For him, the corporate world often left him compromising his values and ideals, morphing himself to be something he's not, or having to hide the issues about which he's passionate, which include standing up for the rights of individual employees. 

Well, in our work together, Jeff gained clarity -- he wanted to go solo.  That was not immediately clear when we started.  Like many people at a crossroads, confusion was prevalent, and kept him churning and worrying and wondering -- and basically up in his head. 

Four months later, he's already got clients, just through word-of-mouth, and now he's consumed, among other things, with getting a website up.  Wow!  He let himself envision life in this new solo work, it felt good to him, and the energy just started to flow...and keeps building. 

Jeff inspires me -- he reminds me what's possible when we start expressing what we really want to express -- and stop holding back.  From a mind-body point of view, when we squash our self-expression, the result is depression.  But when we express, we free up the energy inside of us to find more of what we really want.  To take a corporate job would have held Jeff back from his bigger energies, the voice that wanted to emerge.

No, he's not a trust fund baby, and, like the rest of us, he has financial concerns.  But, he's also in the flow, letting himself follow his interests, and he's already starting to get paid to do what he loves.  And, since I've also been walking a similar path for a few years, I know that he's got more riches ahead of him as he invests in what he appreciates -- his own talents.  Yes, folks, it's possible to do what you love and get paid. 

Jeff truly inspires me.  He wanted to share with me, during this last session today, a poem by Mary Oliver, that he'd heard from another one of his teachers.  What a kind and warm soul Jeff is for taking the time to read this to me.  His gesture and these words poems touched me so deeply that I had to share the poem with you...

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save
the only life you could save.

Thank you, Jeff, for being willing to take your own journey, with the hills and valleys, the beautiful scenery, and, yes, the frustrations, too.  Thank you for allowing me to do what I love, which has been to help you listen to your own voice, your own needs, and support you along the way.  I know that you will help people and support them in meaningful ways.  You are already doing that.

Blessings to all who walk the courageous path of change, saving your own lives...and in doing so, inspiring and touching the lives of others.

Wishing you inspiration for your journey,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

Mental Fog Rolling In? Tap It Out!

This weekend, I was in gorgeous Stinson Beach, California, to celebrate the birthday of my dear friend, Hana.  She invited about 20 friends to share accommodations at a mammoth house -- with room for all of us to sleep comfortably.  How spoiled I felt to be walking distance to the beach with warm, clear weather.  We hiked, played in the water, took long walks at the beach, cooked divine meals, relaxed in the hot tub and just enjoyed being together.  Ah, the ocean can be so healing.

The birthday gal, Hana, who is a massage therapist (and her specialty is 4-hour long massages...can you believe it?) is a whiz when it comes to understanding the body.  She's gone above-and-beyond the call of duty of the massage profession, and even studied cadavers (that's brave!) to understand how tissue connects in the body.  Wow!

Well, Sunday morning, after a night of staying up late, I got a dose of Hana's expertise.  I awakened feeling foggy, but not groggy.  Nope, the single glass of champagne I drank the previous afternoon was not the culprit of the mental fuzziness.  Anyway, I complained about my dreary energy within earshot of Hana.  She immediately dashed to the rescue with a quick remedy for mental fog that I want to share with you.

What was Hana's suggestion for reviving my energy?  She told me to tap on my thymus gland while continually moving my eyes side to side, right to level.  You know what?  It worked!

Try tapping on your thymus gland if you want to: 

•  Stimulate your energy system
•  Increase your strength and vitality
•  Boost your immune system

Your thymus is located at the center of your breastbone, below your collar bone.  You can use a few fingers and tap moderately hard (don't hurt yourself!). 

Also, let your eyes move back and forth from left to right at about 1/2 second intervals. 

It's helpful to breathe deeply and allow for long exhales while you do this.  Try this for about 20 seconds and see if this practice revives you.

This practice really re-energizes me.  I invite you to try it and let me know what happens for you!

Tap, tap, tap your thymus,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

Being Authentic: How Can You Hold to Your Truth?

I love to be inspired, don't you?

I have some inspiration to share with you, courtesy of my friend and wilderness guide, Dave Talamo of Wilderness Reflections, who sent this beautiful poem today as part of his regular communications about his day-long and much longer experiences in nature, connecting to our inner wisdom:

There is only one life

you can call your own

and a thousand others

you can call by any name you want.

Hold to the truth you make

every day with your own body,

don't turn your face away.

Hold to your own truth

at the center of the image

you were born with.

-David Whyte, from "All the True Vows"

Ah, authenticity!  So precious, and sometimes so hard to allow into our lives.  The alternative can feel seductively simpler -- to just "fit in."  Yet deep inside, most of us don't really feel like we fit in. 

As I see it, we long to build meaningful affiliations with those around us.  Maybe we even have an "urge to merge" and really connect, deeply, with vibrantly alive people in our lives.  To me, that's a desire to connect with something even bigger than ourselves.  Call it God, Spirit, the Divine, Infinite Intelligence, Goodness, or whatever suits your fancy.  As I talk to people about career and life change, I sense an almost insatiable hunger to feel meaning and purpose and energy and aliveness.  Most of us, myself included, tend to be starved for "real" connections, in a world full of "terse replies" and virual identities. 

I find so many people caught in the mundane - like checking errands off on the to-do list, rather than being inspired.  Yet our lives need not be mundane.  They can be sensational, particularly when we are following our authentic truth.  Yet TV, magazines, school, work, and other institutions give us a false message of needing to play by the rules, doing what we "should" do. 

For me, that meant breaking out of the corporate world and following my heart to do more heart-inspired work, to encourage people to "work from within," trusting the inner wisdom instead of external voices that seem to speak with authority. 

So it often takes a great deal of courage to speak or follow our authentic truth.  To hold to it. 

What I've found is that our truth requires a gentle hold.  Not a grasping.  But an embrace. 

A practice for finding holding to your truth:
If there's something you care about, I invite you to imagine embracing it.  Then, imagine allowing that thing (issue, person, feeling, whatever) to dissolve or melt right into your heart.  It oozes into you, filling you.  Now, embrace yourself, with the qualities or essence of what matters to you.  Notice how that feels.  Do this whenever you need to feel filled up with positive energy, and to propel your journey when you feel let down. 

By the way, in our crazy hectic culture, Dave gets people in touch with their authentic selves through spending time in Nature.  If that calls to you, he and his colleagues have some great programs coming up. 

Celebrating you in your truth,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

A Gem of a Helper - In a Different Wrapper

People can help when you least expect it...and a diamond-dazzle to your day.

This week, I flew home from Phoenix to San Francisco. Of course, part of that trip required passing through airport security. I'm very accustomed to the drill, and I tend to speed through it. Remove my shoes. Take off my jacket. Put these items in a bin with my purse. Take my laptop out of my backpack, and place it in a separate bin. Then walk through the scanner.

Usually it's no problem. But not this time.

I set off the buzzer. Twice.

It wasn't until that second time through the scanner that I realized that a new pair of sunglasses was perched on my head. Doh! But it was too late to go through the usual screening again.

So, that meant I had to be patted down. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent who conducted the pat-down first politely explained what she'd be doing, including telling me that when she reached "sensitive" areas of my body, she'd be using the back of her hand.

The whole "pat down" lasted all of about five minutes. I complied with everything she asked, feeling a bit like a schoolgirl, following instructions. I spent most of the time feeling pretty shocked to be called out of line.

Usually, I'm quite vigilant about watching my possessions. But in the hullaballoo, I'd lost track. I forgot about my belongings! Luckily, halfway into the "pat down," she asked me "Are these your items?" I nodded, "yes" and she pulled them aside for me. Whew! I'd nearly forgotten about everything.

Well, fast-forward about six hours. I'm finally home, on planes and buses and cars. And I open up my backpack to start working on my computer. My laptop. My...uh...laptop....uh...where is it?!!

Aaak! Life is Spinning - How Do I Get Centered?

In my last posting, I mentioned that I really wanted to talk about the "from within" part of "Work from Within," and share ways to find wisdom from within.  So, here goes...

In early January of this year, my life felt particularly out of control.  I had very recently broken up with my boyfriend, which felt, um, er...devastating.  At the same time, I was in a snit about my doctoral research (I'm pursuing a PhD in Somatic Psychology at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute), and felt like giving up on it.  My business was not at its usual level.  Overall, I was feeling lonely and sad. 

Ugh!  Just writing about this makes my stomach turn, makes me feel isolated and sort of disgusted.  Yes, even recalling unpleasant times can bring back a smattering of that feeling.  Hopefully, it gives you the idea that I was not in a good place.

Anyway, I got myself out of that icky place.  Whew!

Today, I want tell you about a simple practice that helped me out of that challenging period.  It's sort a 1-minute inner experience that brings me ease.  The practice helped me to re-connect with myself, get centered, and get out of the "ick."  To me, being centered means to be in the flow of my life, feeling the ease, rather than the tension.  Both viewing and experiencing my life from a place of peace. 

I discovered this simple, 60-second centering practice when a friend mentioned the CoreLight website of Leslie Templeton-Thurston.  You can find the full description of the practice here. 

1. Sit (even in your car) or stand (even in a line at the bank or supermarket) in a balanced and symmetrical position with the weight evenly distributed between both sides of the body.
2. Take some long, deep, releasing breaths, and mentally remind yourself to let go. Do this breathing enough times to ease all of the tension spots in your body: diaphragm, shoulders, neck, jaw, scalp, calf muscles.
3. Next, become aware of the soles of you feet touching the ground. If sitting, become aware of your sit bones connecting to the surface of your seat.
4. Expand your awareness and sense your surroundings. If you observe a negative reaction, let it go, until you feel neutral and accepting.
5. Then become aware of the third eye area, between and slightly above the eyebrows. Hold the attention there for about five seconds.
6. Now locate a spot in the center of your head by drawing the attention back about three inches from the third eye. (If you need help finding the center of your head, imagine this third-eye line intersecting with a line that connects your ears.) Three glands reside here, roughly in the middle of your head. They are the pituitary, the hypothalamus, and pineal glands. All serve a complex, vital function in maintaining your sense of mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
7. After the focus of energy is established and has built-up in the center of the head, then drop the awareness down through the middle of the body to the base of the spine. This spot at the base of the spine is called the perineum and is between the anus and the genitals. Hold the awareness there, and allow the energy to build in that spot for awhile.
8. Then move the energy slowly back up the mid-line again, to the center of the head. This mid-line of the body, roughly corresponding to the spine but slightly in front of the spine, is not only the axis of the physical body, but is the source that gives rise to all of your subtle bodies as well. In Sanskrit, it is known as the Shushumna. It is the stillpoint, the eye of the storm, so to speak.
9. Now simultaneously hold the attention at the spot in the center of the head and along the Shushumna, allowing the energy to build and build. As it builds, energy and awareness expand and radiate beyond the body

According to Temple-Thurston, the longer you can hold this position, the more you will experience a release of emotional and mental patterning, and the more the body will restore itself. With practice this configuration of centered awareness, which is really a little mini meditation, can become permanently instituted.

For me, the more often I do this practice, the quicker I find it when I need it.  For example, now, when I get stuck in traffic, I imagine my third eye, connect an imaginary line to the center of my head, then see the energy dropping down my spinal column to my rear, and then allow the energy to spread...and somehow, I calm down.  Ah, I can stop honking and darting, and then I'm just driving with a bunch of cars, allowing things to happen as they will. 

I'd love to know how this 60-second practice impacts you!

Embodying ease,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

 

A Transformation of Work from Within - Becoming Wisdom from Within - My Manifesto

Ch, ch, changes...

I notice how bottled up I feel, even though I have something exciting to say to you, Dear Reader.  But actually saying it?  Making it real?  That feels confrontative.  Like I'm crossing a barrier.  Or jumping off of a cliff.  But I can't find the cliff outside myself.  It's internal.  It's the inner block to being freely expressive. 

And how ironic that I need to talk about it, as it's what I help others to do -- to free their expression, to connect them to themselves, so they know what's true for them, from the inside out.

So, let me stop beating around the bush and get right to the point.  Deep breath, here it comes...

Work from Within (my business, this blog) really should be called Wisdom from Within(tm).

There.  I said it.  But what does that mean?

Getting Support for Your Job Search

In addition to helping people who are trying to figure out "what's next?" I also help people who know what's next, but want help in landing that job that really, truly fits.

Well, having friends and advisors to help you along your job search journey can be pivotal to your success. 

If you'd like to experience support, encouragement, direction, networking and a wealth resources in your current job search, I hope you'll consider joining the new Job Search Gym I'm launching.  Our 10-week program starts this Wednesday, March 12, and all it requires is a phone line and computer access.  You can participate in the program from anywhere in the world.

Busy, Busy, Busy? Get Back in Your Body...

When I'm stressed out, I often want a quick and easy way to regain my composure.  I've found that the easiest way to do that is to get back in touch with my body. 

Today, I want to share with you a posting from my friend, Kate Henley, aka Ms. Mind-Body.  It's what she calls a Cure for the I'm Too Busy to Relax Blues.  I've tried it.  It works!

I no longer need to have my "back up against the wall," but now I've discovered that stretching my back opens up my breathing and my ideas.

Enjoy!
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

Check out my latest venture, the Job Search Gym

Use The Secret in Your Job Search - Stop the Panic

Just today, I got an email from a new client who's very recently started a job search.  He's fed up using the job search boards, like Monster.com and HotJobs, to find his job.  Job search boards are fine...later in your job search, when you know what you're seeking...and as a part of your strategy, not the whole enchilada!  It's been freaking him out, frankly, mostly because he's making a career change.  He has a background in accounting and finance, but wants to be in an operations job.  He feels that things are complicated because much of his work experience has been overseas, and he wants to stay local in his new Chicago-area home. 

Of course, of course, if he starts his job search online, he'll lose his marbles.  Mostly because, for any of us, it's all-too-easy to look at those job postings and say to yourself..."I don't have this qualification," and "I don't have that type of experience." The snowball of "don't haves" gets bigger and bigger, weighed down with reasons why jobs don't fit you, until you've been bowled over in an avalanche of negativity.  And then you want to stop looking for a job, because you think you don't fit anywhere. 

WHOA!  That's not true!  There is a job for you.  Probably many jobs.  It doesn't have to be so negative! 
No, I'm not being Pollyanna.  I got so frustrated, recently, with clients telling me that they had been looking at job postings and felt their self-esteem tumble, that I wanted to do something to turn things around.  So I've created a brief video that integrates principles from "The Secret" and The Law of Attraction, to offer more positive way to approach the job search process, so that you calm down, get focused, and increase your chances of finding a job that fits for you.  I invite you to watch it now...

Spend just 3 1/2 minutes and see what shifts for you.  (If you have any trouble seeing this video like on an RSS feed, you'll find it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge8seIlw--o)

What do you think of this approach to envision your way to job search success?  How does it work for you?

With calm and focus,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

Check out my latest venture, the Job Search Gym

Which equation sums up your relationship with work?

Talk about putting it simply...

Which equation sums up your relationship with work?

The index card you see here comes from Jessica Hagy, author of the new book Indexed.  Thanks, Jessica, for helping us to understand the difference between a "job" and a "calling."

And when the balance tips to "heart attack" instead.

I encourage you to check out Jessica's kick-ass (did I really say that?) blog! It's full of these kind of fun examples.  And, her book, Indexed will be released on February 28th.  Check it out! 

I admire Jessica for her way of visualizing relationships.  And, heck, she's a fellow lover of index cards.  I carry them around all the time.  I swear.  I jot down ideas, and I keep my index cards in a little bag.  Precious index cards hold my concepts for books I want to write, classes I want to teach, blog postings I want to do (like this one!) and ideas I want to incorporate in my (argh!) dissertation.

Thanks, Jessica, for your creativity and clarity!

Lined or unlined, I remain,
Susan

Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC