YOUR LIFE A-Z:ZOOM

INNER BEAUTY IS VIEWED BY A ZOOM LENS

ZOOM

No surprise that ZOOM follows the word velocity.  Simple definition of the word ZOOM is to move quickly, to move upward quickly, and to increase speed suddenly.  Using a ZOOM lens in photography allows the photographer to bring a distant object into sharp clarity.   If you use a computer you know that ZOOM is also a tool on your tool bar that allows you to focus on words by making them larger.  In each of these scenarios it is important to use ZOOM in your daily life. If your goal has become too distant, ZOOM in on it and make your goal clear and defined.  If you have slowed down in your progress toward your goal, ZOOM in on it by quickly re-instating its importance.  Re-enforce your goal with ZOOM energy that increases your likelihood of success.  Move upward in your life by ZOOMING in on what you want.  Maybe you need to be myopic for a while, meaning single focused, not allowing anything to get between you and your goal.  Myopic vision is what happens when the photographer ZOOMS in on a picture.  No longer is the viewer able to see the big picture, but the viewer is able to see the beauty of the rose petal with a drop of morning dew on it.  Both pictures are beautiful in their own way.  Enlarging the picture allows you to bring the entire picture into focus, but ZOOMING in allows you to see the microcosmic beauty.  Both are necessary to enjoy fully the moment. Do not be afraid to ZOOM in.

YOUR LIFE A-Z LUMINOUS

LOOK WITHIN-THE BEAUTY IS INSIDE

LUMINOUS

Following up on the word IGNITE, be LUMINOUS.   Be a voice of clarity in the darkness of daily life.  Realize and take personal responsibility that your actions, words, and even thoughts effect other people as well as your own demeanor in the world.    When you have a negative thought your body tightens, your behavior constricts, and you adapt your body to react to the negative input the brain is receiving.  Learn to transform negative thoughts by LUMINOUS thinking.  Shine some light on the darkness allowing time to reflect about how you reached such a negative thought and then allow that reflection to act as LUMINOUS moment to transform that negativity into something positive.  There is an old Sufi story about a teacher who lost his keys.  His students found him looking for his keys beneath the streetlight. After exhausting all efforts to find the keys one student asked,  “Where did you lose your keys?”  The teacher said, “Inside the house.”  LUMINOSITY helps you get clear about what questions to ask and where to search for what is missing.  LUMINOUS thinking heightens your ability to analyze and think things throw.  Following negative and critical thoughts down a dark road will lead you into depression and despair.  Allow yourself to shine the light where the darkness appears in order to get your life on track.  The more you allow the LUMINOUS presence of the light the more clarity you will receive about most of the issues in your life.  Light is just not light.  LUMINOUS light brings clarity to the darkness. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z: NUANCE

EACH MOMENT HAS A NUANCE-PAY ATTENTION

NUANCE

Just as in juxtaposition the subtleties do make a difference.  How many times have your feelings been hurt unnecessarily because you heard a NUANCE in someone’s voice? Perhaps, they were having a bad day! Often the words, actions, and facial expressions become personalized because you pick up a NUANCE and made up a painful story about it rather than check it out.  A NUANCE deserves the common courtesy of a question, such as; “I noticed your face seemed tense as you answered me. Is there something going on that I am not aware of?”  If you make more out of a NUANCE than necessary and don’t check them out then it is possible you are setting yourself up to be unnecessarily miserable.  However, the opposite applies too.  NUANCES are important communication markers and as a result need to be respected.  If you are oblivious to social cues then you may be setting yourself up for some brutal communication eruptions.  Clear communication is always the best policy but for the most part we are not very good at it.  A lot of communication is NUANCE communication and it is our responsibility to clarify the NUANCE rather than ignore it or make up a story about it.  A gentle, “I am sorry that I upset you, is more specific and appropriate than a curt, “I am sorry IF I upset you.”   The NUANCE is in the tone and in the word choice.  Nothing is very subtle about those in juxtaposition unless you tend to walk around clueless.   Check out the NUANCES in your daily life. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z DEFINE

LOOK AT THE SAPCE BETWEEN THE CACTUS...DEFINE IT.

DEFINE

Maybe in retrospect this should have been your first “D” word, but if you are like me, often times I cannot define what I want because I am not clear enough yet on what is it I want.  So now that we are going through the alphabetfor the forth time, it is important to stop, reflect, and clearly define where you are headed with your goals that you set out when you started this life changing process.  You are being invited to explore spirituality, creativity, ritual, prayer, experiences, and metaphors as active ways to live your life fully and completely.  If you were to write a paragraph about your happy life, how would you define your experience of being happy right now?  If you are not happier than when you started this process something is wrong.  Something is still missing and you need to find a way to put your finger on it.  Define it specifically in order to address the issue.  So, give writing a paragraph about your personal happiness a whirl right now.  DEFINE what specifically is making you happy.  Expound and describe the state of your personal happiness right now and explore how it might need to be tweaked to make you feel even more happiness.  Go back to the word ABUNDANCE.  Do you have enough?  Are you living within your means?   DEFINE what your next step is for the next thirty days.  DEFINE your attitude as the KINGFISH of your life.  DEFINE what you have control over and what you don’t have control over with the changes in your life.  Let go of what you don’t have control over and move on.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:INTENTION

INTENTION

RITUALS HELP US FOCUS ON OUR INTENTIONSINTENTION

Intention is a word used often, especially after the book and movie, The Secret.  Intention is a powerful word but it is a word that also requires your buy-in. You have to really want it.  You have to be hungry for it, maybe even starving for it.  

Basketball is a game but the winners are those who want it more than the other team.  One game loss becomes a platform to get better, not a place to give up because you lost a game.  Intention requires energy, action, focus, and developing a taste for success.  It requires practice everyday at your intention.  It requires more than a vision board.  It requires action.  Meditation, visualization, imagery are all actions that bring our intentions to home plate.  Often meditation or prayer feels as if we are doing nothing, but in each of those actions we must invest our heart.  

Prayer is about relationship with “OTHER” and meditation is an action in “BEING.”  They go hand in hand for me.  Showing up to have tea with the Divine is a way of buying in to our INTENTION.  Showing up nurtures, feeds, enhances, tweaks, and sheds light on what our part needs for INTENTION to materialize.  Our INTENTION becomes real by us giving it legs, arms, lungs, and heart.  Our INTENTION takes us to where we want to go often effortlessly; as if it grows wings and flies into our life.  Breathe life into your INTENTION and dance with it.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:INTEGRITY

WITHSTANDING ALL TYPES OF WEATHER, CREATES A STATELY SELF

INTEGRITY

Barbara Killinger, PhD., in her book Integrity: Doing the right thing for the right reason, says on page 12, “Integrity is a personal choice, an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honor moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles.” The Twenty Minute Coach says, integrity is necessary for your own personal happiness.  You are You!  You need to celebrate and honor yourself everyday, twenty-four hours a day.  If you compromise your value, your honesty, your commitment to honor your truth then you lose yourself piece by piece.  Maybe at first you don’t realize it, but as the days turn into months and the months turn into years you become more and more asleep and begin to feel as if life has passed you by. Personal integrity is as important as your health.  Without it, you lose your sense of importance and risk becoming a chameleon.  

Today, start asking yourself, “Who am I?”  “What matters to me?”  Listen to yourself when you are in a conversation with others. Do you do the right thing by you or do you go along with the conversation because you are afraid of what your friends will think?  Listen to your inner voice when you are watching politics on TV.  What is your opinion?   Write each day about how you used your voice and thoughts to speak up for yourself and practice your own sense of integrity.  Writing it out will help you become clear, and the clarity will help you really know who you are and what it is that you believe.  

Your Life A-Z BREATH

Learn the Art of Breathing Deeply

BREATH

Breath is our friend.  Breathing is something that the majority of us do without thinking about it.  It is also true that most of us hold our breath when we are anxious or troubled.  We only realize that we have been holding our breath when we let go with a long sigh and notice how good it feels to let go.  

During these 365 days of the TWENTYMINUTECOACH, YOUR LIFE A-Z, I will be referring to “breath” often.  Breathing, conscious breathing, softens our eyes and how we view the world.  Conscious, slow breathing, reduces our heart rate and decreases our anxiety.  Breathing allows our thinking to become calm and clear.  Make learning to use your breath as a positive influence in your life this year.  Count your breath. Count six breaths.  Count ten breaths.  Learn to breathe fully in and exhale slowly and completely out.  Notice the positive change in your feelings when you actually focus on your breath.  Notice how your body has relaxed and take a look around you and notice how "soft" the world feels. This is a free and fun tool to help you through the most awkward and frustrating circumstances.  

Photo: the Mystical Arts of Tibet, Puerto Penasco Mx. By RBDilley