Spring has finally sprung! Everywhere you look, flowers and trees are blooming up a storm – the colorful symphony of tulips, lilacs, daffodils, cherry blossoms and dogwoods are waking up the city from its cold, long winter slumber, filling us with gorgeous eye candy and reminding us of the new possibilities that exist within and around us.

It’s such a fleeting moment; it only seems to last a week or two, so it’s now or never to take notice and appreciate the beauty and magic while it exists. This is a perfect time to pay attention to the prettiest new little things around you, and to celebrate these glorious gifts of Nature.

Beauty is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and a flower is one of the simplest and most tangible expressions of it. If you can’t soak up all that is staring you in the face right now, then how will you recognize and appreciate the more subtle beauty within and around you throughout the year?

In New York City we tend to rush from here to there, with our noses in our smartphones or blinders on as we think about whatever, when what we really need to do in those transitional times throughout the day is stop and smell the roses, literally and figuratively. Slowing down, taking a few deep breaths and becoming aware of your surroundings, especially when they are so lovely, is a great cure for stress and anxiety. I’m sure that if you just try it, like Mikey, you’ll like it!

Feeling a little curmudgeonly with all this zip-a-dee-doo-dah talk? Try spending some time enjoying the season and give me a buzz, I’ll help get things goin’ your way again…

(Today’s PGG was originally posted on April 13, 2010)

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If you like what I write, you’ll love what I have to say in person!   Click on above links for info about my coaching and speaking services and contact me today.

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  Last November I was one of the career experts featured in a panel discussion hosted by The Muse.  Here is the full length video where you can hear my thoughts on career transition, working with a coach, building confidence and handling emotions in the workplace. 

Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit? ~ Gabrielle Roth

In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, main characters Pat and Tiffany are in training for a big dance competition that turns out to be much more than a fancy booty-shaking contest. A unique romantic dramedy, it’s a film that shows there is a fine line between sanity and insanity, acceptable versus unacceptable behavior, and shows the beauty of living life to the beat of your own drum.

In the movie The Sessions, Mark O’Brien is confined to an iron lung 20 hours a day, existing on a gurney, unable to move from the neck down, and yet he writes poetry, is a professional journalist and decides to hire a sex surrogate so he can experience the most human of experiences. We go along on his journey (based on a true story!) and find him to be one of the most alive, loving and liberated individuals to have ever lived, despite such extreme physical limitations.

And as seen in the movie Lincoln, our 16th president is clearly not your Average Joe. He was always thinking out of the box, using his quirky sense of humor to defuse or illuminate situations, and taking numerous risks throughout the most heart-wrenching circumstances our country has endured. He stretched the Constitution to its limit, working within an established framework while implementing his own interpretation and/or bending the rules based on his hard-earned wisdom, keen observations and superior judgment as unprecedented needs arose and critical decisions had to be made in order for progress to occur.

In the conscious movement class I take, we are told to “dance it your way” and have breaks of “free dance” where we boogie as we see fit; it’s not chaotic because there is an organized structure and unity contained within the flow as we come back together intermittently as a group throughout the hour. It’s a super-small class because for many people, when given the opportunity to move and think for themselves, even for just a few moments, it is a daunting and uncomfortable feeling; it’s an empowering exercise that requires more effort and less inhibition, and many simply don’t know what to do if they are not following the instructor. And that, my friends, is indicative of a larger problem, with implications reaching far beyond a gym studio.

Spielberg’s Lincoln asks: “Can we choose to be born? Or are we fitted to the times we’re born into?” As citizens of the 21st century, we are certainly living in extraordinary times that will require us to become the fullest and most unique beings we are meant to be. We each have something that needs to be expressed, something that no other person on this planet – no one who has come before or will come after – can express. Right now we need new ways of looking at old problems and change old ways in order to deal with new problems, so it’s more important than ever for you to do your own thang, because there is no other way to generate inspiration and birth to innovation.

In any era it’s easy to get stuck in past habits and sucked into the zeitgeist of the day. Resist the urge to follow the herd, fight to honor yourself, think and speak your own thoughts, and begin to know yourself and create yourself anew every moment of every day –  instead of getting swept up by social media, news, commercials, and even your peer groups, work and ethnic cultures or family and friends who are all, consciously or not, forces that can easily grab hold of your mind, body, spirit and/or bank account. Don’t let your physical characteristics, family roots or societal dictates squash all the rhythms inside you that might be quite different from what those outside influences might have you believe, say or do.

Not sure exactly what your groove thing is? Give me a buzz and I’ll get you started with some basic choreography and point you in the right direction, because ultimately  You Should Be Dancing your own steps throughout life, hopefully with a fun disco floor beneath your feet along the way!

Today’s PGG was originally posted on November 28, 2012)

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If you like what I write, you’ll love what I have to say in person!   Click on above links for info about my coaching and speaking services and contact me today.

Join Mailing List
 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE Personal Growth Gab (PGG) Volume One FROM AMAZON

FEELING STUCK IN YOUR CAREER? CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO!  

  Last November I was one of the career experts featured in a panel discussion hosted by The Muse.  Here is the full length video where you can hear my thoughts on career transition, working with a coach, building confidence and handling emotions in the workplace. 

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained .  ~ Marie Curie

Genius is 2 percent inspiration, 98 percent perspiration . ~ Thomas Alva Edison

Marie Curie spent four grueling years in her laboratory without any guarantees that her work would not be in vain. As Albert Einstein commented, “The greatest scientific deed of her life – proving the existence of radioactive elements and isolating them – owes its accomplishment not merely to bold intuition but to a devotion and tenacity in execution under the most extreme hardships imaginable such as the history of experimental science has not often witnessed.”

As a result of her conviction, patience and fortitude, along with the support of her husband and partner, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and was the first of only four people to have been bestowed the honor more than once!

It’s important to note that the word laboratory contains the word labor, which means “to work.” The word experiment derives from the same root as the word experience, which is defined as “practical contact with and observation of facts or events.” In this great laboratory called Life, we are most alive and creative when stretching ourselves to make discoveries and determinations, or testing hypotheses of our own or others’ making.

The only way for evolution and growth to take place is to step out of our comfort zones; to find what works and what doesn’t, whether it be with health, career or relationships; and to find out what sticks and what is more suitable for the literal or metaphoric trash can. We must have a myriad of experiences – good, bad, and everything in between – because they are our best teachers. As I often tell my clients, “You need to get your hands dirty,” to get out there, out of your bubble, out of the theory/fantasy in your head, and interact with life to see what it has in store for you, how it can mold and shape you, what you’re made of, what your likes/dislikes are, and what new vistas it contains, all of which serve to make you ever stronger and wiser.

This is especially true when at a crossroads, a point of no return; when it seems you’re at the edge of a cliff and the only option is to jump off to get to your next destination. As scary as that feels, the fear of moving forward is far better than the dread of staying where you are or turning back, knowing that failures, both big and small, will always beset you on this new journey in order to learn – like an infant who has to take those first steps, and fall many, many times, before it’s able to walk confidently on its own. Remember that Edison never failed; he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work!

Just as the Founding Fathers called the formation of our nation the “greatest social experiment in history,” which continues to have its share of successes and failures, this year why not commit to seeing your life, or at least one aspect of it, as your own experiment, with new actions based on sound information or solid intuition as knowledge is gained. And keep in mind that some of us are more introverted so we need to explore more outwardly, and those of us who are more extroverted need to experiment with being quiet and exploring our internal worlds…

Need a little help with your own personal or professional life research? Give me a buzz and I’ll be the scientist who collects, analyzes and assesses the data you’ve accumulated so far, as well as take inventory of your inherent traits in order to discover (or rediscover) that which will bring you the most fulfillment and success this year and beyond!

Today’s PGG was originally posted on January 10, 2012)

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If you like what I write, you’ll love what I have to say in person!   Click on above links for info about my coaching and speaking services and contact me today.

Join Mailing List
 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE Personal Growth Gab (PGG) Volume One FROM AMAZON

FEELING STUCK IN YOUR CAREER? CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO!  

  Last November I was one of the career experts featured in a panel discussion hosted by The Muse.  Here is the full length video where you can hear my thoughts on career transition, working with a coach, building confidence and handling emotions in the workplace.