Listening

We just finished a wonderful dinner of New Mexican red chile roasted veggie enchiladas. We were joined by some dear neighbors and before everyone headed home we gathered our four sweet children ages five to nine for a school year blessing (they all start tomorrow).

We asked the kids to close their eyes and reflect on what kind of school year they wanted to have-- what their theme would be for the next nine months. They giggled, paused and then shared (their words): blissfulness, flowingness and fun, creativity, happy sunshine and bouncy castle. Then they each got to pick a special stone or natural treasure from the bowl on our counter to take home as a reminder of their intention.

I think the reason I love setting intentions is they don’t require an action or a goal. They’re more about how I intend to be.

My intention for the fall is FREEDOM.

And after attending a wonderful creative intent workshop on Saturday, I got the confirmation again that this is not going to come from changing my schedule, moving into a new work space or getting a personal assistant. For me, freedom is an inside out job. (Read more.)

Lately, everyone I talk to seems to share their desire for something along this same line. They want a new way of being. Not just a tweak to their current system for how they manager their lives/careers/relationships, but an overhaul, a paradigm shift, a totally new way to approach how they experience daily life.

My husband says I’m hearing this from so many because I hang out with people in the human potential field, but I disagree. I think there is a growing number of us who are done with being overworked, overscheduled and overly busy. We have a strong hunger to experience a life that’s more spacious and simple.

This week, I’m leaving to take a spiritual retreat. I’ve spent a lot of time creating this summer and I’m clear that now it’s time to stop everything and just listen … quietly and deeply.

I believe my external landscape and world is a reflection of my inner landscape. And, right now, it’s in need of some weeding, pruning, tilling and watering. Essential work to clearing away internal clutter and creating the space to hear what most needs to be heard.

And possibly to receive guidance around what experiencing more freedom might look like in my business and life.

I’ll let you know how the week goes when I return to the office on August 29th. Thanks for sending me good thoughts.

P.S. I talk a lot about Living Inside Out. If you’re curious what this means, you might be interested in this short video Brianna, our communications assistant, made around what this message and movement. And, if this calling resonates with you, join our dialogue on the Live Inside Out Community.

Note: Each quarter I take a personal/business planning retreat to help me determine how best to use my energy/time to support my businesses in the coming 3-6 months. If you're self-employed and need a guided, structured opportunity to listen deeply to your inner wisdom, receive high level, strategic coaching support and to be reminded of why you do what you do this fall, consider joining me on Sept. 16 at Casa de Artistas in Austin. I love these visioning retreats and always leave with clear, grounded direction.

I love to hear from, connect with and meet The Journey readers at our events. I invite you to:

>Find Your Tribe: Join or become trained to lead Self- Renewal Groups
>Attend a retreat/event; join me Oct. 14-16 at Kripalu in the amazing cool Berkshire mountains for our Women's Self-Renewal Retreat.
>Join the Dialogue on our Live Inside Out Facebook Community
>Pick up The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal from the library or buy it here
>Download FREE Live Inside Out Teleclasses, join us for our Sept. 8th class on Going with the Flow While Still Getting Things Done! and read past issues of my Life Balance newsletter
>Take Action: Contact one of our career or life balance coaches for 1-on-1 support; receive an initial complimentary consultation
>Empower Others: Schedule Renee Trudeau for a private workshop or retreat for your company or organization
>Subscribe to my life balance blog The Journey for weekly inspiration

The Journey, a blog about coach/author/entrepreneur Renee Trudeau’s personal journey and living life from the inside out, comes out weekly.

Photo: From our recent family vacation to New Mexico. Full moon at Chaco Canyon National Historic Park. Some believe this ancient, mysical site built by the Anasazi people was a place of spiritual pilgrimage for many. A place people would gather to be still ... and listen.

Aware ... ness

It's 7:00 a.m. I’m sitting at my computer replying to some timely emails before I finish helping my son find his shoes and water bottle and get out the door for school.

He walks into my upstairs office and sits down in the office chair opposite mine and begins to twirl in circles like a mad man, while telling me about a really cool skateboard trick he saw Connor, his 12-year old idol perform last night on our sidewalk.

When this happens—-which is quite often--I usually try and stop for a minute and explain that I can’t give him my full attention until I finish this task, but I'd love to meet him downstairs shortly or could he save the story for dinner time?

Sometimes I do this in gentle tones. Sometimes there’s a sharpness to my voice I wish wasn’t there.

But this morning, I stopped, looked up (I love his earnestness and passion), pushed my laptop aside and really saw him. For a moment, I jumped into his world, imagining how he must have felt watching Connor—wishing his small nine-year old string bean body could do what this testerone-flooded big boy’s could. I could feel how badly he wanted me to experience his excitement at witnessing this force of nature. And for a moment, a veil was lifted, and I did.

And when he left for school with his dad this morning and came to me for a goodbye hug and kiss, I held him tighter than normal and looked intently into his eyes whispering silently, “I see you.”

This five minutes of enlightenment reminded me of Betty Sue Flowers and her son, when she shared at a women’s conference years ago, that to really understand and connect with someone you have to have a desire to move into their world, to occupy their space. Not outside-in, but from the inside-out.

I’m carrying forward this moment into my week with the intention of having “heightened awareness” in how I approach my work, my team, clients, my family, friends and my environment.

I think a lot about being more present and how I can cultivate this quality in my everyday experience (listen here to the class Carrie Contey, PhD and I just led on this theme).

But, I’m realizing there are degrees of “presence.” And sometimes when I think I’m really listening to my son or husband or loved ones. I’m not. At least not like I did this morning with my little guy.

Before my husband and third-grader zipped off to school in our dirty VW, my son rolled down the window and I called out to him from the porch, “Maybe I could get a skateboard and we could try some of those tricks together?” He looked at me funny, “Mom, that would be embarrassing.” And then after a short pause, he added quietly but with hope .. “Would you really do that?” Yes, Jonah, I would.

I love to hear from, connect with and meet The Journey readers at our events. I invite you to:

>Find Your Tribe: Join or become trained to lead Self- Renewal Groups
>Attend a retreat/event or workshop
>Join the Dialogue on our Live Inside Out Facebook Community
>Pick up The Mother's Guide to Self-Renewal from the library or buy it here
>Download FREE Live Inside Out Teleclasses, join us for our Aug. 25 class on Going with the Flow While Still Getting Things Done! and read past issues of my Life Balance newsletter
>Take Action: Contact one of our career or life balance coaches for 1-on-1 support; receive an initial complimentary consultation
>Empower Others: Schedule Renee Trudeau for a private workshop or retreat for your company or organization
>Subscribe to my life balance blog The Journey for weekly inspiration

The Journey, a blog about coach/author/entrepreneur Renee Trudeau’s personal journey and living life from the inside out, comes out weekly.

Photos: After a heavy rain, our yard was filled with these critters. When my son brought in eight of them to adorn our bathroom sink and compete in a snail race, I was mortified ... and then delighted. They're actually very cool.

Listening

Last night was the first time I've slept through the night in quite a while.

For the greater part of the last 30 days I have been waking up abruptly every night between 3 and 4 a.m. and have not been able to go back to sleep.


Yes, I'm exhausted and for someone who has always been a sound sleeper, this has been perplexing and extremely frustrating. From what I'm reading about women's health and perimenopause, this symptom is quite common for women in their forties who are beginning to experience fluctuations in their hormone levels, but sorry, I'm not ready to give up my 8 hours/night quite yet!

(Image above is an underwater shot from the Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park, WA, Renee Peterson Trudeau)

On top of the insomnia, I've been having off-the charts, extremely intense dreams about my parents who have passed, and archetypal themes like birth, rebirth, death, flying, aging, going back to school, etc. that are staying with me for days to come. (I recently stumbled upon an interesting interview Oprah did with Rodger Kamenetz, author of The History of Last Night's Dream; watch their interview here on Oprah's Soul Series: http://www.oprah.com/article/spirit/inspiration/pkgoprahssoulserieswebcast/20080825_oaf_oss_rkamenetz. Kamenetz encourages readers to use dreams as a way to rediscover the soul and believes we greatly underestimate the force and power of our dream life.)

Early yesterday morning, while my house was still quiet and my son was upstairs engrossed in Sesame Street, I sat down to journal about what’s been going on around my 3:00 a.m. rendezvous (Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., author of Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling believes this is the “witching hour," the time when we are most creative, most attuned to our souls and when the “veil” between our conscious and our subconscious is the thinnest. He says the inspiration for most of his books comes to him at this time).

For the first time, rather than being angry about these sleepless jolts, I began to feel curious and asked “What is it that I need to hear?” .... “What are you trying to tell me?”

My dreams have had a real sense of urgency, it does feel as if something –a message, a breakthrough, a change in perspective, an insight, a release of the old—is trying to come through.

I didn’t get a moment of profound insight while journaling, but what I did hear--quite loudly-- is that I’m not listening closely enough and I need to take an entire day--sooner than later—to be still, quiet and ask this question again. So, that’s my plan, and I blocked out an upcoming date on my calendar to do this.

And last night, for the first time in a month, I slept through the night.