Support

This past week I attended an Ashtanga yoga class with a new teacher (yep, that’s the sweaty, rhythmic style of yoga).

I loved his approach. He was supportive and really encouraged students to ask questions and reach out for help. And, he gave you the sense that he believed in your ability.

He obviously inspired me as I moved gracefully—with his coaching-- into a headstand, something I haven’t done easily in years for fear of falling and injuring my neck.

It got me thinking about how much my life changed almost ten years ago, when I finally began to reach out and allow others to help me. The shift was so powerful, it was almost like moving from one planet to another (the planet where interdependence is a natural part of life and you don’t have to have all the answers!).

Extensive research has been done which shares the amazing health/emotional/intellectual benefits that come from having a robust support network. (Read more from my newsletter on this.)

One of the primary motivations for putting so much time/energy/resources into our global Personal Renewal Group (PRG) program for women (hundreds of facilitators are leading groups around the world based on The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal), is because I believe so strongly in the power of groups. Hear comments from PRG members about why groups are such catalysts for change.

For more than five years I have had the privilege of creating opportunities for women to have huge personal and professional shifts as they come together and allow themselves to receive support, relax into a “soft place to fall,” enjoy the company of others who are at similar life stages and are surrounded by a supportive circle of women who hold the highest and best for them.

Is it easy for you to ask for and receive help? I’d love to hear your experience. And, let me know if I can recommend a women’s group or retreat to you. We have a few spots left in our Oct. 2-4 Self- Renewal Retreat at The Crossings. Maybe a headstand awaits you?

AN INVITATION: Interested in how you can learn to leverage the benefits of a support system and tap into the power of self-care? Consider starting/joining one of our women's self-renewal circlesor attending our life-changing October 2-4 Fall Women’s Self-Renewal Retreat at The Crossings.

Also, visit Live Inside Out and sign up to receive weekly tips on how to live more intentionally by becoming a fan on our Live Inside Out Facebook page.

The Journey, a blog about coach/author/entrepreneur Renee Trudeau’s personal journey to life balance and living life from the inside out, comes out weekly. For more information on Renee’s upcoming events, click here.

Photo: Renee Peterson Trudeau. Sunflower field in western New Mexico.

The Release

Happy New Year!

Being a coach and someone who is always exploring the realm of "human potential," I love the New Year. It's a great time to release what didn't serve you or blocked you in the previous year (some of my friends even like to write down these qualities or issues on paper and burn them as I way of signifying their moving on) and start with a clean slate.

So today as advance copies of my new book "The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal" (www.reneetrudeau.com) are released, I'd also like to personally release: the need to know (why, how), the need to feel "in control" and the need to have a plan (that's the joke around my house, my four-year old will say "so mom, what's the plan for the day?") What is that quote ... "Life is not a business to be managed, but a mystery to be lived?" Sometimes, I forget this.

In 2003 when I started the group for moms called the Personal Renewal Group (a free community service program) out of my own personal need to have deeper conversations about topics related to motherhood, self-renewal and reconnecting with "who I am," little did I know that four years later, it would turn into my life's work --for the next several years at least! So as I celebrate the release of the Guide and the release of things that didn't serve me in 2006, I also embrace the ability to ask for help, to travel easily in the "unknown" and to work in partnership with others.

What will you release AND embrace this year?

Fear

In my mind, when you’re diving into something new or big, there are two kinds of fear that can come up. There’s the “uh-oh” feeling in your gut …. I’m not sure if this is the right direction for me and there’s the I am so scared, but so excited …but so scared, but so excited kind of fear.

I’m about to release my first published book and I go in and out the second kind of fear almost daily.

It’s a good fear … the kind that inspired Susan Jeffers to write her book “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.” The kind that makes us feel alive (often nauseous, but alive!).

I remember years ago reading an article that profiled people from all stages of life who had manifested their dream. The interviewer wanted to know “weren’t you afraid .. you’d never written a book/started a company/sung in front of an audience/worked for yourself before?” One woman who started a company at the ripe age of 22 said “Hell, yes, I was terrified. But I did it in spite of my fear.”

I’ll be forty-one in January and I’m working with a team of six friends and momtrepreneurs in Austin, TX to birth a book that has been in the works since 2003 (http://www.reneetrudeau.com/).

My husband says it’s like being in labor at 2 centimeters dilated –for five months. And he’s not just talking about me. This project has been taxing on our relationship, as you can imagine. (More on this dynamic later.)

I run a successful career coaching business in Austin, Texas that’s been around for six years and I have a four-year old son. This book project has a large, national scope and we plan to start a mother’s movement across the U.S. to help moms like us redefine how they live, reconnect with who they are and create balance from “the inside out.” (I’ll share more later on what the heck this all means.) Yeah, ambitious. But more than 300 of us in Austin have been working together on these topics via The Personal Renewal Group—which the book came out of—and it’s been life changing, to say the least.

A question I get from clients, friends at my son’s preschool and people I meet who learn about the book project and who know how committed I am to experiencing balance—and life—on my terms is: “So, Renee, you must not be feeling very balanced right now with all that’s on your plate?” (Some say this with a snicker and a smile since they know my book is about life balance.)

Obviously, I’ve been experiencing a lot of stress. I’ve never worked harder in my life. And, have had days where I wonder why I’m doing this. And even other days, when I think I want my old life back.

But this project is also feeding me on many levels—emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

So this blog is about balance: how we (me and the other six team members who you’ll hear from later) move and in and out of it, how we experience it individually and what it means to us—as women and moms with young kids who probably want many of the same things you do in life. (I’ll introduce you to this team of fascinating, passionate women very soon.)

And along the way, we’ll share highlights about our journey to bring this book and its messages to women across the country. (We’re headed to New York in January to meet with national magazine editors—that should be an adventure!)

As I sit in front of my fireplace writing on this overcast Saturday morning, I can hear my little guy and my husband upstairs wrestling. It sounds like they’re having too much fun—I don’t want to miss this.

More later. I think I like this blog thing. It really feels cleansing to share your thoughts.
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Note: Information about Renee’s career coaching business: http://www.careerstrategists.net/ and Renee’s book—The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal—which comes out in May 2007: http://www.reneetrudeau.com/.