How Do You Find Peace Amidst the Chaos?

How Do You Find Peace Amidst the Chaos?

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Since today is the UN International Day of Peace, I thought it timely to share some thoughts on how you can find peace amongst the chaos of daily life and work.

Many High Achieving Women are restless from a young age. We are on a constant quest for knowledge, meaning and experience. We set a goal, achieve it and swiftly move on to the next project (often more than one at a time 🙂 ). We are always in motion and focused on achievement. Do you relate?

Some High Achieving Women may believe that inner peace cannot coexist with their drive to succeed. They worry that if they slow down, take some time to explore and find some inner peace, they will lose their passion and no longer be successful. From experience, I can tell you that finding inner peace allows you to be more successful, happy, content and fulfilled in all aspects of your life.

When you think about finding inner peace you may visualize yourself on a mountaintop in lotus position, far away from your current reality. Realistically though, as appealing as that image might be, most of us don’t have the time or the money to spend our lives meditating on mountaintops. I’d like to share a poem that for me describes inner peace (source unknown).

“Peace.

It does not mean to be in a place

where there is no noise, trouble

or hard work.

It means to be in the midst of

these things and still be calm

in your heart.”

What do you do to find inner peace?

Here are a few proven strategies and powerful practices that help me stay calm, focused and grounded.

  1. Meditating daily; I find the 21-day meditation challenges (CDs and MP3s) available through www.chopra.com helpful in practicing meditation, and learning to focus on one concept or idea.
  2. Spending time regularly in nature.
  3. Being grateful for what I have.
  4. Doing yoga three to four times a week.

What about you? What strategies have you found helpful to stay calm, focused and grounded in spite of the chaos around you? I’d love to read your comments below.

 

Believe that You are here to Make a Difference

Believe that You are here to Make a Difference

Many High Achieving Women know from a young age that we’re here to make a difference in the world. We may know that we are here for an important reason but have no clue as to what that difference is.

In order to truly understand yourself and discover what difference you are here to make, it is important to uncover your unique gifts and talents, as well as to identify your passion and life purpose.

Discovering Your Passion

“Your passions are the loves of your life … things that are most deeply important to you… things that, when you’re doing them or talking about them, light you up … When you follow your passion you love your life.”  

(Chris & Janet Atwood, The Passion Test)

When you find your passion and live your life aligned with it, you feel truly joyful, fulfilled, and at peace. It lights your fire and fuels your enthusiasm for life. You feel that you are indeed doing something that makes a difference in the world and you feel alive.

We all have unique gifts and talents to share with the world. I invite you to do a short exercise.

My Unique Strengths and Talents

Things I’m good at that come easily; e.g. mathematics, writing, athletics … Things I enjoy doing; e.g. being in nature, playing piano, teaching others …

i) Fill in the table above. Don’t take a lot of time to think about it. Write down the first things that come to mind.

ii) Circle the items that are similar or identical from each list.

iii) Rate each of the circled items on a scale from 1 to 10 according to how much it excites you/the level of passion you feel around it – “1” being “no interest at all” and “10” being “red hot”

Another clue as to whether something is a passion is if you lose track of time when you’re doing it (e.g. editing film, doing photography … )

iv) From the above, identify your top 3 to 5 passions .

Just being good at something doesn’t mean it is your passion or will fulfill you if you work in that area. I’m sure you know someone who was good at math, went on to study mathematics, taught it at school or university and over time was miserable and not at all happy teaching math everyday. So what we’re good at can provide clues to our passions but are not necessarily connected with them. Things we enjoy doing; e.g. connecting with and inspiring others, are usually better clues to what may be our passions. A passion is often a blend of what we love and what we’re good at. As well, your passions may change over your life-time.

What was your experience with the “unique strengths and talents” exercise. Did you learn anything new? Did it confirm to you that you’re on your path? I’d love to hear your thoughts below. Please share the post with others you think would appreciate it.

 

 

 

 

 

Birthing My Book: Riding the Emotional Roller Coaster

Birthing My Book: Riding the Emotional Roller Coaster

 

When I set out to write my first book “Learning to Dance with Life: A Guide for High Achieving Women” that launched on Amazon last week, I had no idea the emotional roller coaster I would ride in the weeks leading up to “going public” with the book.

About a month before launch day, I started to feel incredible tension and anxiety in my body. For a number of years adrenalin had been a foreign substance in my body, but in the weeks leading up to the launch, adrenalin and the other stress hormones returned with a vengeance. Not only did I feel underlying anxiety (which is not normal for me), I was having trouble going to sleep and waking up early. I started to have misgivings about certain personal stories I had included in the book. Should I remove them? Should I tone them down? What would people think? I was baring my soul to the world and felt extremely vulnerable.

The next wave was a mixture of excitement and fear. I kept saying to myself “ride the wave”, “let this move through you”, “you are safe.” Reflecting on this, I think I was likely experiencing a number of fears and insecurities from the past that were still in my body and presented themselves with such questions as “What will people think … Will they connect with the book? Will my message reach them?” The old inner critic was running wild!

Then a week to 10 days before the launch, I felt overwhelmed by the number of things yet to be done – finish and proof the companion workbook, craft emails and posts, ask for support from friends and colleagues to share the book launch information through social media and/or emails to their contacts. It felt like there were not enough hours in the day. Then it was down to prioritizing and focusing on what was most important.

A big challenge that came up was reaching out for support to so many people to ask them to get the word out. That really stretched my comfort zone being a high achieving woman who is challenged to reach out for support, and is often the one giving to and supporting others.

Writing my book was the easy bit. It flowed out of me. The emotional roller coaster of pre-launch was the most challenging, yet it was growth-producing and taught me a lot. The most amazing part of the launch was the incredible high I felt when I saw that my book had reached #1 in the rankings in 2 categories on Amazon. I did a happy dance, was “pumped” for my launch party and basked in the amazing energy for a few days. I imagine it is similar to the exhilaration a surfer experiences when they ride a huge wave successfully to shore.

Have you experienced something similar? Do you relate? I welcome your thoughts and comments below. Feel free to share the post with others.