Change Your Life and Fix Your Relationships in 30 Seconds

Tweet

Well, it's 2015. And already, a lot has happened in my life. (And, warning, this is a super link-happy post. So, click on whatever you want to know more about.)

• I wrote and published 2 books and a new deck of cards (coming soon). 
• I started a new brand and website, A Moment for Me, and got the books on Amazon too.
• My 9 month intensive training program, Lightworkers Intensive, sold out and began its new year.
• All of the above got started in addition to the usual business of running my school, growing my practice, volunteering for Hospice, and taking care of my kids.

So, how did I do that? Sometimes I wonder. 

What did I learn so far? A lot!

The biggest lesson is that even the busiest person can find 30 seconds to do something that changes their day, their relationship, outlook, physical health, presence, and grow as a person. Really, 30 seconds.

We, as a society, are busy. I mean REALLY FREAKING BUSY. I know I'm not the exception, but lots of people are as busy as I am trying to keep it all together. 

So, I started by brainstorming 30 second ways to pay attention to mind, body, spirit, and emotion with mini-tasks. I made 36 cards, and then challenged myself to make 365 more for a daily calendar. (And I made a free app! Want it? Click here.) And a free daily email. Dang, that's a lot.

Then, I moved on to motherhood. Moms are such carriers of responsibility! They're busy. Real busy. What am I talking about by saying "they"?? We're busy.  Anyway, yeah. Coming up with 101 Moments for Mom was a good lesson for myself too.

Then, I moved on to relationships. There really are 30 second ways to make a relationship closer, more loving, and more fulfilling. I came up with 101 ways and made them into a book. Two students asked me to make the book into a deck of cards, which, of course I did, it is currently in the graphic design process, and will be available in a few more days. I'm going to actually try all of the ideas with my husband. (I'm sure I'll need to remind him and maybe nag a little at first, but I think it will become a good habit for us.) I could feel the potential lasting power in each task as I wrote them.

With Valentine's Day around the corner, and this 30 second idea on my mind, I decided to really try to explain how this concept could work. To reach the most people in an hour, I'm hosting a free class called 30 Second Self-Care. It's online this Thursday night, and everyone who attends will be given a 50% off discount code for a signed copy of my new book, A Moment for Us: Care for Busy Couples - 101 free ways couples can enjoy more love, caring and togetherness in 30 seconds. 

In the class, I'm going to talk about what stops people from taking care of themselves. There are so many things that get in the way, from feeling like there's no time, to denying that we need it, to trying to feel empowered by pretending we have it all together. I know, because I do every one. I'm trying to change this by putting it out there, and then talking about why and how to change it - in only 30 seconds a day. Come take it. The class is only an hour. And it's free.

The busiest person can find 30 seconds. The benefit of these tasks last so far beyond 30 seconds, that it can change your entire self-worth, presence, health, abundance, and relationships. 

Want to see how it's going for two people who are committed to trying this daily? I hired two busy people to try out the calendar, and publicly blog about it every single day of 2015. You can see Doug and Michelle's journey with 30 seconds a day by reading the comments at the end of each blog post here.

I'm captivated by the idea of 30 seconds, and think I'm onto something. You can expect more in the A Moment for Me series this year - my goal is to write at least 6 books in 2015. I'm also planning to give a Ted Talk on it. It's gonna happen, my friends, and you read it here first. The details will fall into place, just you wait. Now you and the Universe know. So everything else is already in motion to make it so. 

Got 30 seconds? Sure ya do.

Your comments are so welcome, always.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

Tweet

Every time, yep. Mercury Retrograde becomes the antagonist of my life, whether I try to avoid it (ha!), ignore it (impossible!), deny it (so delusional), or fight it (futile). 

And yet, it seems to land me facing the right direction, after sending me on wild goose chases, snafu chains, and break downs.

Here's the latest, and I'm almost ready to laugh about it. Almost. You may have an easier time. Laughing, that is.

Checks due to be received by me are late. That means, of course, that bills are going to be paid late. Except, oops, for those which were set for automatic withdrawal, and those will bounce. So, I decided to try to remedy the situation as fast as I could.

We moved from Ohio to Maryland at the beginning of this month, and our usual bank, which we used for the past 16 years, does not have a branch office in Maryland. We figured we could cope for a while by doing electronic banking and using bank machines. 

So, I took money out of my paypal account, (cash), for fast access, and went to deposit it into my checking account at an ATM. Hmm. This ATM doesn't offer a deposit option. Weird. I drove to another ATM. And then a third. Same problem.

I called my bank. The customer service person said that it's not possible to deposit a check at an ATM of a bank in a state that doesn't host this bank. I can take money out, but I can't put money in.  But, wait, I have an app that lets me scan a check. I just needed to get this cash into a check (and by the way, it had to be done within the hour or it wouldn't count for this business day's deposit). I asked if a money order would do. The guy said yes, that should work. Funny how that was my brilliant idea, not one suggested by the person who WORKS AT THE BANK. Whatever. Mkay. 

After visiting two gas stations that don't sell money orders, I proceed to a CVS, and miraculously have the exact amount of money in my wallet that's needed to purchase a money order. I do so. 

In my car now, I try to scan the money order into my phone's bank check deposit app. It can't get a good picture. After trying about six times, I go home. It's still 30 minutes from deadline. 

At home, I put the money order on my table and take a picture of it again. Every detail is clear. The app doesn't agree. After another half dozen tries, I call the bank. The tech support customer service person seems perplexed. I remind her of the time deadline and offer to read her every number, text or email a picture of the money order, or anything else. She says no to these options. I ask if the fact that the amount on the money order was printed in purple dot-matrix might be an issue. She says maybe. I offer to color it in with a pencil or pen. She says sure, try that. Again, my idea. 

I try that. It doesn't work. It also doesn't work for me to manually add a decimal. I kept the customer service person on the line through all of this, and now it's past seven o'clock. I still have the money that needs to go into my account, and this problem isn't solved. 

I also haven't made dinner yet.

She transfers me to someone else. That person tells me that, by the way, there are app deposit limits which happen to be less than my husband's upcoming paycheck. So that means that he won't be able, in any way other than US Mail, to deposit his check into our checking account in two days.

By now, the Universe has sent a very clear message that it's time to change to a local bank.  

The customer service person on the line suggests that I move funds from savings accounts into the checking account to cover the upcoming payments. Turns out that in some tiny little accounts I had started when my kids were babies, there was just enough to cover the payments that were being withdrawn. So I moved the funds. It only took another half hour of being on hold and shuffled around.

The money order is now put aside for deposit into a new checking account at a new bank.

So, as annoying as this process was, I consider it to be a good thing for these reasons:

• I found out about the deposit limits before we actually tried to deposit my husband's paycheck on Friday.
• I had enough money to cover the amount going out, once it was moved around.
• I now have a money order for starting a new account at a different bank.
• I got a VERY CLEAR SIGNAL from the Universe that it's time to put down roots here, and that includes income.

But that's not the end of the story, though it would be nice if it was. 

We went online last night to set up a new local checking account, since my husband is working all this week. It seemed to be smooth (why don't we learn that during Mercury Retrograde this is only an illusion?). I took my printed confirmation paper printout thingie to the local branch today, expecting to hand it over and get the two temporary debit cards for our new joint account, as well as deposit this money order into it. 

Not so easy.

We were told that we both need to go personally into a branch office. They need to do more identity verification there, before we get our new cards. And, until my husband does this too, we can't have a joint account. Wah. 

At lunch, my husband asked Siri (yeah, he asked an electronic device to guide him to a place during Mercury Retrograde. Yeah.) to take him to the nearest branch of this particular bank. Siri decided to give him an unwelcome and untimely tour of random sites in Washington, DC instead. 

So the new plan is for him to leave work as early as he can, and meet me at the local branch that's near our house. We'll do this thing together in person, and have a new account to use.

Yesterday, I did a Reiki exchange with my new friend David Gleekel, owner of The Reiki Center of Greater Washington. He told me during my session that I haven't put down roots yet. He could feel my energetic roots all curled up at the base of my feet. After the session, he checked them again and said they are uncurled. They're ready to accept that I live here.

In the end, we're getting the message. This is where we live now. This is where we make money, spend money (oh yes), and need our money to be. The flow of money is part of overall abundance. If we want to live and work here, our roots need to be here - money and abundance-wise too. 

So, with a centrifugal whirl by our friend (or not) Mercury Retrograde, we're being set on our feet again, right where we are now, and hopefully taking healthy root in this new place where we've been planted. 

------------------------------
By the way, I'm now available for appointments at Feja's Hair Design and Wellness Spa in Gaithersburg, MD (call for an appointment), and I have a Practical Reiki 1 & 2 Training coming up Nov. 9-10 at The Viva Center in Washington DC (Dupot Circle area) - registration is open.