December 13th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
I love to laugh, it keeps my soul alive.” Mark, River Falls, WI
“An Inspired Life Can’t be Planned”
We are Spirits housed in human bodies. There are things that fuel our bodies and things that fuel our Spirit. If you neglect feeding your Spirit –you will feel drained and like you are a robot going through life. Being inspired is a powerful way of nourishing and uplifting your Spirit. What inspires you? How often are you around the things and people that inspire you? Just reflecting on what inspires you and making sure you are surrounding yourself with these things will lift your Spirit and energize you.
Tips To Get Yourself Inspired
1. Who are the people in your life that inspire you? What about them inspires you? This is a quality that you value and more than likely possess yourself but maybe you aren’t expressing in your life. Use this to open up more to this quality in your own life. Make sure the people you have in your life inspire you.
2. What music inspires you? What about the music uplifts you—is it the voice of the singer—the words–the rhythm? Do you like music that you can dance to or music that is calm and soothing.
3. What things visually inspire you? Is it certain things in nature—the ocean, mountains, trees? Is it certain colors? Is is certain architeture of builidngs?
4. Which restaurants inspire you? What food do you love? What decor do you find appealing? Do you make sure to go to restaurants that inspire you. I love going to Cafe’ Mario’s because I love how they have decorated it, the music they play (Andrea Bocelli–my favorite:), the smells of the food, the laughter and connection that happens there.
5. What books do you find inspirational? What words uplift you? What authors inspire you?
6. What creative activity inspires you? Dancing, painting, playing music, singing, making jewlery.
7. Do you inspire yourself? Are you daring to live your dreams, express your creativity–living with passion? Are you committed to a vibrant, inspired life? Like the quote above–an inspired life can’t be planned. Are you willing to let go and allow yourself to be inspired—and more importantly to act on these inspirational impulses?
8. What geographic areas inspire you? Does your Spirit lift just thinking about Italy, Hawaii, Alaska or the California coast? Make a plan to travel to the areas that inspire you. There is a reason you are drawn to that area—it is a place that will feed your soul. If you can’t travel there just yet, put up pictures of that area that you can see every day.
9. What movies inspire you? Look for movies that inspire you—don’t settle for anything less than that .
For those of you who have read the ”What Do You Really Want Workbook”, I mentioned one of my favorite inspirational movies, “Miss Potter”, about the amazing life of Beatrice Potter (the artist who created Peter Rabbit).
10. Talk to your friends and family about what inspires them—you will deepen your connection with them from having this discussion. Ask them “What inspires you?”
11. Surround yourself with things that inspire you. When you look around your home—are you inspired? Put up pictures that uplift you–buy art work that inspires you. Buy flowers that you love.
Open up to feeding your Spirit with all the the things that inspire you—and watch your energy level soar and your life expand into grand new possiblities!
I would love to hear what Inspires YOU. Please share this below (in the comments section).
December 8th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
Our outer surroundings are a reflection of our inner world. What are your surroundings saying about you? Is it peaceful and organized–or cluttered and chaotic? I have been studying this for years and see over and over the relationship between our outer world and inner world. Many of my clients who transform their inner worlds feel a strong urge to transform their outer world as well. They may have a strong urge to declutter, getting rid of objects that reflect more of their past and who they used to be. Or they may have a strong urge to renovate their home or change how they have decorated their home–the current way their home is just doesn’t fit anymore. Or I have worked with clients who feel stuck in their life who begin to delutter their surroundings and they are able to make profound breakthroughs that transform their life.
I have used the power of decluttering as a way to transform my life over the years. 2012 is going to be an amazing year for me–I have a lot of powerful intentions that I will be manifesting and I don’t want anything blocking me internally or externally–so I have decided to do a major decluttering and transforming of my home. I am taking what I call Massive Action in this area of my life to help clear the way for things to move clearly and easily for me.
Would decluttering and addressing your home help you move forward in your life? If so, make a plan and enlist support for yourself–you can hire someone or ask a friend who is naturally organized to help you. Give the gift to yourself of having your surroundings support you in manifesting your dreams!
November 29th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
Hello-One of the things that will hold you back from feeling good about yourself is expectations of perfection. Do you put pressure on yourself to do things perfectly or to be perfect? See if you can watch yourself carefully to see if you are doing this because it puts unrealistic pressure on yourself—it also sets you up to self-judge if you fall short of your perfectionistic expectations. See if you can loosen things up for yourself and let yourself be imperfect and to do things imperfectly. You will find yourself relaxing more and just letting yourself be yourself–-and you are WONDERFUL just the way you are—you don’t need to prove it with being perfect.
Today—relax and just let yourself be you—letting go of expectations of perfection!
November 24th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
Hello! When is the last time you reached out for support? I work with people on developing a Loving Adult on the inner level that is attending to their feelings and taking loving actions on their own behalf. We also need support from others. So it is the job of the Loving Adult to determine when it is time to reach out to others.
The wounded self—the conditioned part of us may think that reaching out is a bad thing–that others will think we are weak or will let us down etc.—so it is better to “just do it on our own.” If you follow the wounded self and don’t reach out you will feel alone and isolated–on top of struggling with whatever you are struggling with. Reaching out to others will help you open up to connection–to know that you are not alone and that someone cares about you and is supporting you. Many of our wounded states are related to feeling somehow different and set apart from everyone else in our suffering. So reaching out and connecting in of itself is very healing and will help you shift into a better place.
Spirit works through other people as well as coming from your own guidance. The information that would be helpful to you is always trying to get through to you. It can be our own negative states that lower our frequency and make it difficult to receive this information. So reaching out to others will allow helpful information to come through to you that you may be blocking because you are having a difficult time.
Give yourself the gift of reaching out to others for support when you need it.
November 22nd, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
How loving are you with those around you? How you treat others will affect how you feel about yourself as well as greatly impact the quality of your connections with people. Notice what you focus on in others—is it their faults–what they are doing wrong—or what you love and appreciate about them. A simple loving comment to someone in your life–can improve how you feel as well as positively affect their mood as well. Make it a practice to share appreciations with people throughout the day—everyone you meet share something you appreciate about them and watch the joy you feel as well as the joy you will spread to them.
You can be a beacon of light to those you connect with—so let your light shine and share your appreciation today.
November 17th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
One of the exercises that you can practice to raise your self-esteem is to practice being gentle with yourself. Instead of putting pressure on yourself or having expectations of perfectionism–lighten up and be gentle. This energy of being gentle will make your inner world lighter and more loving. You will begin to relax and be more authentic–be more “you”. This inner shift will also help you to be more gentle with those around you—which will open the door for a closer connection.
Today practice being gentle with yourself.
November 15th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
Hello! What happens inside of you when you get a reaction from someone that you perceive as negative? How you react will affect how you feel about yourself. Carmen was talking to a good friend of hers and she sensed that he was irritated by something—right away she went into self-judgement–she thought “He must be upset with me–he must think that I am being very demanding” she felt awful when she thought this–but it was an automatic reaction.
It reminded her of when she was little and her Mom would be mad and irritated and took it out on her. She learned to take responsibility for her Mom’s upset—Mom must be right—I am bad.
Now Carmen is an adult and developing a Loving adult voice inside of her–once she catches this self-judgement she can move into compassion with herself and say “Honey we don’t know what is going on with our friend—it probably has nothing to do with you–we are not responsible for his feelings–let’s just check in with him and see what is going on.” She did check in with him and the irritation she thought he was in was something else that he was feeling and was not related to her at all.
So next time you perceive a negative reaction from someone–first move into compassion with yourself —reassuring yourself that you are not the cause of these feelings in the other person. Then you can move into the intent to learn with the other person and find out what is going on for them. By doing this you will prevent yourself from going into needless self-judgement of yourself–causing yourself unnecessary pain and eroding your self-esteem.
November 11th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” Thomas Edison
I have been observing lately that there are two types of people Possibility thinkers and Non-Possibility thinkers. I can typically tell in a matter of minutes what “camp” a person is rooted in. Then there are two kinds of possibility thinkers—one kind is the one that sees possibilities and then takes action to bring these possibilities into reality. The other kind just explores possibilities but never takes the risks to actually pursue the possibility. Which one do you think you are?
Here are some examples of Possibility Thinkers that I have encountered:
- One woman who is 62 years old who was talking to me about taking one of my upper level programs to help manifest her big Vision she said “You know Shelley I am going to be around a LONG time and I will always continue to grow”. Very inspiring. She reminded me of my Breathwork teacher who in her early 60’s said of the work that she was doing in the world “I am just getting started!”
- A friend of mine who years ago was given a 5% chance to live because she had a very advanced stage of cancer. She was a determined possibility thinker and today—9 years later she is healthy, vibrant woman who is considered not only in remission but “cured”.
- I was in the Phoenix, AZ airport and saw a picture of one of the oldest graduates for her undergraduate degree and she was 94 years old! So anytime a client says they are too “old” to do something in their life I give that as an example—stops them in their tracks every timeJ
- A friend of mine who had a baby at the age of 42 years old and then her second baby at 46 years old and is traveling around the world with her husband and their two children. She had come to Green Bay, WI for a book tour for her book and brought her youngest child who was a few month old baby at that time! Wow! By the way she had set her intention at the start of the year to write a book AND have a baby.
- All of my clients who have quit their “secure” jobs and have followed their passions and have a blast and say to me “If I would have known it would be this amazing I would have done it sooner!”
So are you a possibility thinker or not? Here are some questions to help you determine this:
- When someone brings up a new idea I like to explore how the idea might work OR when I come up with an idea I think of all the ways the idea could work_____
- When I think of things that I would like to do in my life I think of all the reasons why I can’t_____
- I have fun things planned in the future that I am excited about and looking forward to_______
- There have been things I have been thinking of doing for years and I have not taken action on them yet_______
- I love growing and learning about new things_______
- I talk about how many things are going wrong in the world and how things are getting worse____
- I surround myself by other possibility thinkers and we inspire each other_______
- My friends are just as stuck as I am and we talk about all the negative things that are going on in our lives______
If you checked off 1, 3, 5 and 7 you are a possibility thinker. If you checked off 2, 4, 6 or 8 then take a look at how you are unnecessarily holding yourself back in your life. Shift your thinking to Possibility thinking you can change the course of your life TODAY.
Let me know below what new possibilities you will be stepping into 
November 10th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
Hello! I was working with a client this week and I talked to her about remembering the immense strength and gifts of her Spirit. We talked about remembering that no matter what the situation is–she is capable from the perspective of her Spirit to handle it.
I had her envision her Spirit expanding and extending beyond the bounds of her body–becoming very large. I said “This is who you really are—this large, capable, talented, wise, compassionate, creative, smart Spirit—with accumulated knowledge and wisdom that is beyond what your earthly perspective might lead you to believe.” I said “We are much more than we have been conditioned to believe–and it is important to remember the truth of who we really are and act from that.” She had been able to have glimpses of experiencing who she really was and now it was time for her to claim it and live this more consistently. I suggested she use this visualization to help her connect with who she really was when she felt small and doubtful about her own capabilities.
By connecting with this she will respond to situations more creatively and authentically–feeling like she is an empowered leader of her life than a helpless victim of what is happening around her.
Claim who you really are and take action from your expanded Spirit— this is who you really are!
November 8th, 2011, by Shelley Riutta
I think the issue of low self-esteem is HUGE for people. Everyone I work with needs to do a lot of work around this issue. The good news is that when you really get how wonderful you truly are—your whole life improves— because self-esteem affects everything–it affects how much good you allow into your life. The phrase “How good do you allow your life to get?” is more of a function of a belief that you really deserve a wonderful life. The good that is wanting to come into your life can only flow to the extent you allow it to flow in. The better you feel about yourself–the more good you will allow into you life.
The interesting thing with Self-Esteem is that the wounded part of us—the part of us that absorbed negative messages and conditioning as a child is very devoted to the status quo. This means that we have gotten used to the negative messages and the low self-esteem–this can feel familiar to us. Moving into the truth—which is that we are an amazing, magnificent person with tremendous worth and potential—stretches us out of our comfort zone. Without even being aware of it–we can keep ourselves locked into low self-esteem by the choices we make that are in alignment with this low-self-esteem. An example of this I see over and over is when people go to make the decision to attend a Workshop. They have the initial excitement and they want to attend—then the old conditioning can take over and come up with a million and one reasons why they shouldn’t attend. It is the fear of the conditioned self—of moving out of what is familiar into the territory that is new—it is the unknown. This conditioned self is very compelling and many people listen to it—and they continue to stay stuck—not even knowing it was there own choice that is keeping them there.
The last “I am Fabulous ” Workshop there was a woman who said she wanted to attend—a day later she called and said she had a real busy week and would be too tired to attend. I saw that this was her conditioned self and encouraged her to attend anyway—stating that the Workshop would be energizing for her. She attended and had a huge breakthrough that completely changed her life—she has been the happiest and most peaceful she had ever been since the Workshop. She was so close to not coming. She would have missed out on the very thing she needed to grow to the next level. So if it is your time to attend the “I am Fabulous” Workshop–listen to the voice of your true self–not the voice of your conditioned self wanting to hold you back!
So watch yourself when you make decisions–make sure that you are making decisions that are what you really want—that are moving you forward—rather that decisions from your conditioned self that are going to keep you stuck in old patterns.
Make decisions that are in alignment with your true priorities. Back what you want with positive action.
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