I'm Back! What is Essential?

Lisa Love explores attitudes towards aging, embracing growth, letting go, and living with grace and acceptance. She shares personal insights, poetry, and practical tips for aging well and finding joy in the process.Keywordsaging, self-acceptance, personal growth, mindfulness, life lessons, aging gracefullyKey TopicsAttitudes about aging and mindset shiftsThe importance of letting go and practicing acceptancePractical ways to age gracefully and find joyThe role of self-compassion and reflection in agingThe significance of community, contribution, and legacyAging is a mindset shift from getting old to growing old.Letting go and practicing acceptance can lead to more ease in aging.Starting and restarting are vital; there's no finish line.Reflecting on life and completing open loops energizes us.Conscious dying and gratitude deepen the aging process.TakeawaysAging is a mindset shift from getting old to growing old.Letting go and practicing acceptance can lead to more ease in aging.Starting and restarting are vital; there's no finish line.Reflecting on life and completing open loops energizes us.Conscious dying and gratitude deepen the aging process.

In this episode, Lisa Love introduces the "W.A.V.E" process, a method designed to help individuals shift from reactivity to responsiveness. She emphasizes the importance of tuning into one's physical and emotional states, recognizing patterns of tension, and allowing emotions to flow naturally. The practice involves witnessing, allowing, verbalizing, and experiencing emotions without judgment, ultimately fostering a more conscious and responsive approach to life's challenges.Take-aways:Tune into yourself to notice physical tension.Recognize emotional tones like excitement or anxiety.Breathing patterns reflect emotional states.Witness emotions without judgment to open experiences.Allow emotions to be present without resistance.Verbalize what you're noticing to yourself.Experience emotions fully to process them.Shift from reaction to conscious response.Practice softening and awareness to change states.Cultivate responsiveness as a lifelong skill.00:03:00 Tuning into Physical and Emotional States00:06:00 Witnessing and Allowing Emotions00:09:00 Verbalizing and Experiencing Emotions00:12:00 Shifting from Reaction to Response

In this episode, Lisa Love reflects on her journey of restarting her podcast after a four-year hiatus. She shares her fears and the importance of self-compassion in overcoming them. Lisa emphasizes the significance of starting again, exploring the energy associated with unfinished projects, and encourages listeners to embrace imperfection and take small steps towards their goals.TakeawaysFeel your fear and do it anyway.When we start something and we don't bring it to an organic conclusion, it's an open loop energetically.Your life is no small matter.Just start and start again.You don't have to be perfect.Where does my energy want to go today?You don't have to do it the hard way.MindfulGuidance - Coaching & Counseling

This week, Lisa takes a bolder tact and opens up more personally and emotionally, exploring the themes of freedom, oppression, grief and personal and institutional racism. Set to a backdrop with sounds of firecrackers and fireworks, aptly punctuating this week's themes as locals celebrate the Fourth of July, Lisa reflects on why she cannot celebrate.  Be prepared to take an emotional journey of listening and self-reflection - not a light topic, nor sugar-coated, nor waxing patriotic. Instead, this is  a raw sharing - in service to truth and authenticity.  Feel free to share your thoughts, feedback and questions - you can message Lisa directly on the Anchor app, or you can send her an email at [email protected].  May Peace Prevail. 

After a 2-month hiatus from podcasting, Lisa returns with some reflections on discerning what is actually necessary for internal peace and happiness - with a nod toward minimalist ideals and self-awareness. Questioning the ego's involvement in our choices allows us to wriggle free from its incessant demands - where we feel we are "never enough," or never quite HAVE enough. This episode includes some invitations to journal and reflect, so take some space for yourself and tune in - to this episode, but more importantly, to your inner wisdom and sense of self.

We can often get so caught up in "things to do," that we forget we can slow down, be more self-caring in the choices we make and actually lead our lives from the place of nourishment. If we fail to tend to this, we can endlessly seek fulfillment from the outside, constantly looking for the next moment to fill us up. Nourishment is a result of taking time to savor an experience, digest it, as well as choose what we do with an eye towards enjoyment. Even the most mundane activities can become nourishing, when we take into account how we move, engage and enjoy the moment.  It's not like we need to take time away from doing, but rather bring our quality of being into the activity. With awareness and cultivation, we can create a consistently fulfilling experience that keeps us connected to joy  

This week is moving week for me. While it was tempting to just take the week off, I decided to test myself and see how I could stay on track with my aspiration to show up weekly rather than make an excuse - (not that anyone is holding me accountable.) So I borrowed content from my online class I've been teaching and pieced together content to give you a flavor of how you can respond to the challenge of recognizing resistance, better understand its role, and hold yourself with loving-kindness when it shows up (and gets the better of you.)  This episode is divided into two parts - informational and experiential - so you can come back to try out the suggestions when you have the time freedom to experiment with this practice.  Here is the link to my blog article on working with resistance: https://www.mindfulguidance4me.com/blog/  Have a good week and thanks for tuning in, sharing and commenting!

Shari demonstrates her dedication to spotting the shadow aspects of self in action. These stories illustrate how we can bring loving kindness and compassionate self-awareness to the previously unconscious ways of projecting disowned aspects of ourselves onto others and the world. Once realized, these moments can become portals to personal transformation, integration, and offer the opportunity to reclaim the light of our whole self.  We all have seeds of beauty and seeds of darkness, despair, fear and loathing within us. But it's up to us which qualities we feed and nurture, while recognizing our common humanity with evil-doers such as "shadow giant" Adolf Hitler. What sets us apart is our ability to see and own our shadow aspects and love them back into right relationship with the whole of who we are.  Resources: The Ford Institute: http://thefordinstitute.com/shadow-work, The Gold is in the Dark by Debby Ford, Love Beyond Belief audio package - http://thefordinstitute.com/love-beyond-belief Richard C Schwartz's You Tube on Internal Family Systems: https://youtu.be/DdZZ7sTX840 And other videos on the IFS website: https://ifs-institute.com/resources/videos Trailer to The Shadow Effect movie/book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8V2g1_4D2k Shari's website: https://www.sharirosecoach.com/ Lisa's website: https://www.mindfulguidance4me.com/

Tune in for a short but concentrated conversation on recognizing the shadow and how to begin to work with it more consciously. Given its unconscious nature, we may miss its appearance or let it run amok in our relationships. To gently become aware of what it is, how it operates and how it came into existence can give us a leg up on integrating it and loving ourselves more fully. Join us in this exploration - part one You can learn more about Shari Rose at https://www.sharirosecoach.com/ and you can download a free workbook on how to generate greater self-confidence (Five Essential Steps to Achieve Your Dreams) here: https://www.sharirosecoach.com/about. You can also look up your host, Lisa Love here: https://www.mindfulguidance4me.com/ and get her free offer (The Five Keys to Cultivate Self-Compassion) here: https://www.mindfulguidance4me.com/offerings/, in exchange for your email. The number 5, by the way, is the number of change. Change for good! Thank you for listening. Tune in next week for the final segment - when Shari shares some personal stories of transformation with her shadow. You, too, can, with practice, reclaim your light.

What is Love? How does it relate to belonging? Lisa takes a deeper dive into the realm of relationship - to the truth of our being. Essentially we ARE love - so why do we go looking for it outside of ourselves? In this episode, we explore the many ways our sense of being lovable and connected gets disrupted. And Lisa offers some practical, actionable ways to re-establish that sense of "I'm OK, just as I am," inside. For when we create that secure base, all our relationships flourish.