Your business has to include downtime.

Without some sacred days off you miss the opportunity to recharge and absorb creativity and inspiration

I know how hard you work on your business. On manifesting your passion, your heart’s mission and soul’s purpose.

I know how hard you work, because I do the same in my own business, tenderly nurturing my goals along by scheduling everything in my calendar: the day-to-day client work, my writing and blogging, short-term and long-range business and program development. And by showing up for everything in my calendar with dedication and humility and gratitude.

I know how hard you work, because I support passionate businesswomen like you in my coaching practice. I hold the space for you and help you create the structure as you…

• discern and declare your goals
• develop your action plans, make them schedule-able chunks, schedule them and show up for them
• create your marketing strategies so that you are engaging with and communicating with your ideal clients
• bring your heart-centered offers and programs to your tribe
• thrive and succeed as you do what you know you are meant to do in the world

I even have a motto for showing up for your gorgeous business in a highly accountable way:

I schedule my life, and I live my schedule, and when life happens, I am accountable

This is a powerful way to be. Having a calendar that reflects everything you are called to do, be, experience, touch, taste, have, feel, create, contribute and give in your life creates a structure for the magnificent manifestation of your mission and purpose. And when life happens, as it does (flat tire, power outage, family crisis), making sure everyone who needs to know is informed that things have changed and have been rescheduled is the secret key to having a workable life.

Just like I counsel my clients, I include some downtime in my calendar. Time for the things that give me pleasure (decluttering my home office, gardening, walking by the bay or the ocean, spending time in the redwoods. But here’s something I notice: It’s harder for me to leave big chunks of open unaccounted-for time in my schedule than it is to fill it up. And sometimes I just gotta have some unscheduled days.

This doesn’t seem to be something I can plan for in my schedule (kinda defeats the purpose, I think), but is something I can plan for in my heart. This weekend I did exactly that.

I had some work planned—I always do!

But wait, there’s more!

Are you starting to feel the New Moon in Gemini energy?

The Sun and Moon line up on Saturday, June 8, 8:56 a.m. Pacific at 18º Gemini

Gemini is the mutable Air sign. The Air signs have a lot to do with our mental energy, how we communicate and how well we integrate with the world and our work. This New Moon comes as we are deep in the growing season here in the Bay Area, the days are long, summer is coming. I have begun a slate of new projects for Magnolias West: a new eBook and two new eCourses, one of which is slated to also become a telecourse. I’m seeing lots of activity and growth, not only in my business, but everywhere around me, in the work my clients and colleagues are doing.

I find myself working, for the first time in my business, with joint venture partners. I have a co-author for some of my work, and a partner in one of the eCourses. What a great time to initiate partnering, and joint venturing, because just as Gemini exemplifies, two heads are better than one!

There’s a yummy, watery Grand Trine going on now—check it out

There is some beautiful energy being bestowed on us now with Venus (in Cancer), Saturn (in Scorpio) and Neptune (in Pisces) connecting with each other. We’re being presented with an invitation to manifest our best and highest, and to rest in the knowing that the Divine is always with us—all we need to do is to open the door to the connection.

Listen to the mermaids whispering encouragement and love. We will have this loving gift all summer long, enjoy it. But keep moving, precious. Keep moving forward. The trine energy can lull us into non-action (remember the Siren’s song?). As long as you allow the fresh air to keep your waters flowing, and resist stagnation, you will be sure to swim towards your most magnificent manifestation of your passion and your purpose. Instead of sinking like a stone.

Just sayin’…

Who do you talk to, collaborate with, in your projects? Where do you get support for your ideas and goals, and help with your issues and challenges?

Do you have a coach? A mastermind? Are you using them? Bounce your ideas off of your trusted ones, no matter how outlandish your ideas may seem! Let people know the inspirations that come to you in the shower, that dance around in your head when you’re falling asleep, or when you wake up in the morning. Allow your ideas and inspirations to be reflected back to you as the gifts that they are. Get the help that’s so critical, so that you can transform your dreams from “Oh that’s too big; I could never do that!” to “Oh yes! That’s a good one! And I’ll start with…[insert first sacred action item here].”

The New Moon window is a great time to go inside, discern what’s next for you to begin, or what projects you will take actions on next, or even complete.

Take some time on Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday in your sacred space, whether it’s your altar, or a redwood grove, or by the seashore, or some other place where you feel grounded and connected to the Divine. Here are some helpful questions…Pick the one that rises to the top, that feels most important, and take some time meditating on it. I find that in New Moon workings, dealing as we are with internal energies, it’s more useful to concentrate on one idea rather than many.

• What’s next to do to freshen your website and your business communication?
• What questions need answered for your next big project?
• How can you improve your communication with your clients and your tribe?
• Who can you enroll in Team You, to mentor you, and support you in your unfoldment?
• What have you learned recently? Is that lesson complete? If so, what do you want to learn next?
• What are your most sacred intentions for this summer season?

But wait, there’s more!

I am delighted and grateful to welcome Kathy Sprinkle of Bliss Habits to my blog. Kathy really knows how to bring the bliss, every day.

First I’d like to say thank you to Sue for the kind invitation. I am just delighted to be here to talk about bliss.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kathy Sprinkle, and nearly four years ago now, I created a personal project to inject more bliss into everyday Life. My experiment, which is conducted over on the Bliss Habits blog, is based loosely on (my hero!) Ben Franklin’s life long practice to concentrate on each of thirteen virtues he felt would make him a better person. In my version, I’ve come up with virtues, I call them habits, which when practiced, will help to cultivate bliss.

I realize that this can sound trite. You may be struggling to pay the bills, dealing with difficult and complicated situations at work or home that lead you to believe bliss is the least of your concerns, but this would be a mistake. Since beginning my experiment, I’ve learned that when our bliss tanks are full, our capacity for compassion and action are greatly increased. To my delight, I have also found that pursuing and sharing bliss has helped me be a better parent, wife, friend and citizen of the world.

I believe every time we experience a moment of bliss we connect to something much larger than ourselves. Bliss is magical and has the ability to transport us beyond our day to day concerns. Certainly it is possible to exist without it but thriving requires it.

Bliss can also be elusive. There is no specific formula that will guarantee you will find some but (and this is a big one) if you do create an environment in which bliss is welcome and encouraged, you WILL find yourself enjoying more of it.  This is how I do it:

How to cultivate everyday bliss

But wait, there’s more!

Full Moon in Sagittarius, Lunar Eclipse

Friday 5/24 at 9:25pm PDT

They say that this is one of the most powerful Full Moons of 2013. This eclipse has a SuperMoon, when the Moon is as close as it ever gets to the Earth, in a straight alignment with the Sun and Earth. The SuperMoon makes this Lunar Eclipse extra potent and important. Ooh, time to fasten seatbelts!

Some of the names different cultures use for this month’s Full Moon include:

• Milk Moon
• Dragon Moon
• Bright Moon
• Hare Moon
• Grass Moon
• Planting Moon
• Panther Moon
• Flower Moon

Most of the names allude to the lushness and growth of this early Summer season, don’t they? (Yes, the way I see it, we’re already in Summer’s energy. Seeds have sprouted, I’m seeing flowers on the tomato plants and blackberry vines, days are getting longer and longer. Aaahhh, that sultriness, I love it.)

Sagittarius helps us weave our stories, myths and meanings

What stories are you telling yourself about this now moment? What do see as possible for you, for your community, for the planet? What do you say to inspire yourself and others to keep moving in the direction of your highest good?

With the Sun, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter now all in Gemini, the energy this week should start feel more fluid, changeable and undefined with fiery Sagittarius opposite airy, open-minded, fast-moving Gemini during this week’s Full Moon. This invites us forces us to let go of the resistant death grip on stagnation we may have developed during the last cycle (all that Taurus-Scorpio energy can get pretty stuck and sludgy, believe me, as a Scorpio, I know!). Once you pop free, hopefully you’ll land on your feet—or at least bounce back to standing—and lighten up, be more flexible, less attached, nimble and open to change.

You’re gonna need that openness and nimbleness, because that stagnant energy is getting stirred up now and in that freed-up state, you may all of a sudden see more than one way to move forward. You gotta pick your path, find your way, listen for your own story and heed it, be guided by your inner GPS. Because, beautiful, no external person or force can make this decision for you.

There’s relief in this, isn’t there?

The inner planets are finally finished with their paralyzing dance with Saturn. Whatever was blocking you from moving forward with your intentions and plans is being released. The increasing awareness and openness you feel frees you to move forward. Despite any confusion about what might be best, choose a path and move in the direction of your highest good.

As long as the path you choose keeps you moving forward in the direction of your passion, and your growth, and your mission and purpose, you cannot make a bad decision. What’s next for you in your business, lovely? Now’s a really really good time to start!

Every Full Moon invites you to celebrate the progress you’ve made on manifesting the intentions you set on the previous New Moon. As this SuperMoon has waxed towards full, what have you taken on? What have you risked? And what sacred and audacious action is next? Please share what you’ve manifested with me in the comments.

But wait, there’s more!

I’m on day four of 30 days of a cleanse

One that will help me learn how to be more mindful, and open to receive

To receive healing. To receive peacefulness. To receive wellbeing.

My journey, since I’ve been sick, has been a very active one. I am such a good doer! I have done so much, I have tried so hard to make healing happen. Cures, remedies, doctors, other doctors, woowoo practices and practitioners. Doing and seeking and trying with so much determination. So much chasing. Receiving—not so much.

When the calendar turned to May, and it became 18 months since this condition began, I found myself letting go. I found myself hearing an inner call to stop, to retreat from all the doing. To put the remedies, and the supplements, aside for a while, to slow down a bit, and to open myself up to hear, to feel, to receive.

What I’m finding is that by removing some of this doing, the connection to my own inner voice, my intuition, is becoming more open and more clear. And now that I’m open to receive, I’m downloading some pretty powerful messages.

Putting on my big-girl panties and facing what’s true

In my addiction, for 22 years, I chased my get-high 24/7. I was committed to doing everything I could to numb myself, to not feel, to be anything but present to the moment.

And then, 22 years ago, I got clean and sober, and spent much of the first ten years in a dumbfounded WTF state. It took me a long time to find a way to be in life that wasn’t agonized. And I’m seeing so clearly that just there are a whole lot of behaviors that I have not yet found the way to change, and release.

I get to change.

I choose to release.

I think I really really need to, that at this point, my life and ability to be of service, depend upon it.

I’ve been that one, the one who inhales her food, while watching tv, while playing a game on my iPad, while talking on the phone, while ironing.

And this cleanse I’m doing now, while it involves cleaning up my already clean diet, is really about adding an ingredient to my meals: Mindfulness.

I’m limiting my distractions to one at any meal. I can read a book. I can read or play on my iPad, or I can watch tv. One. (I still blanch when I think and write this!) And one meal a day, I go outside with my food, away from my books and tech toys, and eat in the garden. Watching the birds, the sky, the flowers and trees.

How do you bring mindfulness, peacefulness to your life? How do you receive healing? When have you stopped chasing a solution and instead opened to receive? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Please leave a comment, beautiful!

But wait, there’s more!

Sharing my gratitude with you

• I am grateful for gorgeous weather
• I am grateful for the abundant food of May: cherries, asparagus, snap peas
• I am grateful for the sisters of choice, and that we are on a shared spiritual path
• I am grateful for Mother’s Day love to and from my daughter
• I am grateful for early morning yoga class on Sunday morning
• I am grateful that I enjoy 6:30 am wakeups on Sundays — that’s a huge change
• I am grateful for willingness to try something new for the next month, a different way to be with food, and see what that does for my health
• I am grateful that I get to retreat to Harbin Hot Springs tomorrow for an overnight retreat, complete with hot stones massage and a watsu — yum!
• I am grateful for good books. Right now I’m reading Colin Cotterill’s Siri Paiboun series — excellent!
• I am grateful for the soul retrieval work I am doing with the help of a shaman

So much gratitude!

But wait, there’s more!

My t’ai chi teacher drilled Surrender To Win into me for years

And I’m still learning what surrender means, more being revealed, as it always is, slowly, slowly…

Most people don’t get the “surrender” concept at all at first when I talk about t’ai chi. Instead, they say, “Oh, yes, that soft art where you use your opponent’s energy against herself, right?”

It’s easy to see it that way. But as with all powerful spiritual traditions, I’ve learned, in the 40 years I’ve been practicing this art, that it’s deeper than that. Surrender to win is nothing less than giving up any and all investment in the outcome, all outcomes.

Using my opponent’s energy against herself, for me, connotes a whole bunch of wiliness, planning, strategy. The moments when I truly get the concept, when I’m truly surrendered, I have dived into the mystery with willingness, awareness and trust. Willing to be led wherever I’m supposed to go, whether it’s where I think I want to be or need to be. Aware that there are messages and lessons in the act of being led, if only I can open myself up to them. Trust in the journey, trust that I’ll get what I’m supposed to get when I’m supposed to get it.

Deep, yo.

Last week, I marked the 18-month point of being sick.

That’s 18 months with a so-far undiagnosable severe digestive problem. One that is pretty tiring, and that has me spending far too much time in the bathroom, and far too little time out and about, because my energy is so depleted.

But wait, there’s more!