• Posts by Celia McBride

    Ten…

    • September 10, 2010 8:57 am

    Dearest Readers,

    If I stick to my goal of blogging six days a week for one year then I have exactly ten more posts to go, including today. The countdown is on!

    A few people have asked me if I’m going to continue after the goal is reached (September 21st) and my answer is this: I honestly don’t know. It has been a profound experience in so many ways. I know I have devoted readers and I know people are being inspired by what I write. It’s inspiring me, too, day after day. Seems like a no-brainer, right?

    Not quite. The time and the energy it takes to meet this goal is enormous. I’ve thought about it a lot and there are a few different scenarios I can see happening. The first one is I take a little break. I know it’s going to feel good to wake up and feel the freedom of not having to post something. It’s going to feel like a vacation!

    Once I’ve taken that time I can see myself posting every once in a while when something truly inspires me to write. It won’t be as regular, which is one of the key points to having a successful blog but it might be more genuine. Instead of having to come up with something inspiring I’ll be posting only when the Spirit moves me, so to speak.

    The ideal scenario is that I find an online magazine to publish the blog and I remain in the rhythm of daily posting while generating income from the work. Wouldn’t that be nice?

    I have to admit I like this scenario best. And I’m working on it. I’ve submitted a proposal already to one online magazine and I’m looking at others. I’ll keep you posted…

    Another goal I have is to self-publish the blog in book format. A year’s worth of posts in a wee 5×7 format that people can keep on the bedside table. I’ve thought about calling it The Year of Living Spiritually (a take-off on The Year of Living Dangerously, a decent Mel Gibson flick from the eighties about a journalist living in Indonesia). What do you think?

    For now, let’s enjoy the countdown from ten knowing that we’ve made it this far together. I inspire you, you inspire me. Together we practice living our lives as fully as possible, each day, every day, to the best of our ability.

    Let’s rejoice in that, shall we?

    Inspiring Message of the Day: One of the most meaningful aspects of living is the feeling of connection with others. Even in cyber space we can feel connected to one another. Tapping into this sense of Oneness can carry us through the day, no matter what it brings. Today I will tap into that feeling and rejoice in it!

    The Anxious Man

    • September 9, 2010 8:41 am

    Dearest Readers,

    Yesterday I heard a man tell a story and I’m going to re-tell it for you because it is powerful testament to what Marianne Williamson calls “the miracle”. The miracle is the Shift in Perception.

    One day a man left his office feeling very heavy. The weight of the world was on his shoulders. He was a newspaperman and stories of oil spills and murders and mayhem crowded his mind and held his thoughts hostage.

    As he walked along the street he could feel his anxiety increasing. All around him was pain and despair. He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw against the air around him, which felt oppressive and thick.

    He saw ahead of him on the sidewalk an old lady. She was tiny and frail and she used a walker. “How sad,” the man thought. “How terrible. A lonely, old woman who has no one. She can barely walk. Her bones look as though they might break at any moment. How tragic.” He sighed heavily with the sadness he felt for this woman’s situation.

    As the old lady approached him she looked up at the man, raising her head high from between her stooped shoulders. The man expected to see a hollow, empty face. Instead, she was smiling.

    “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” she said to him, beaming radiance and great warmth from deep within her fragile frame.

    “Y-yes,” the man replied, barely able to speak.

    The old lady continued on and the man stood watching her slowly push her walker down the sidewalk. It seemed as though a light had suddenly been turned on outside. Everything was brighter.

    The man looked around. The sun was shining. He had not noticed this before. It was a beautiful day after all.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: When I look around me what do I see? Do I see the darkness or the light? The Light is everywhere, all around us, all the time. Today I will look for it no matter how I am feeling.

    Courage is Coming

    • September 8, 2010 8:36 am

    Dearest Readers,

    No one is more surprised than I am by the work that I do as an Inspiring Coach and workshop leader. This work, which I consider to be an extension of my artistic practice, evolved from a process that had more to do with personal growth than growing a business. It was by walking through my own fear that Cultivate Your Courage was born.

    I’ll never forget the terror that seized me as the day of the very first workshop approached. The voices of dissent were loud. “Who do you think you are? You’re not a therapist!” When I shared my fear with one of my own coaches she said, “Don’t you think it’s just a little bit funny that you’re afraid to lead a workshop about fear?”

    Well, yes. I suppose it is just a little bit funny. “Now you can teach what you know,” she said.

    This Truth has continued to be my biggest motivator when it comes to being a leader in the motivational movement. I walk through my fear everyday. I’m an expert at it. That’s what qualifies me.

    So the terror is once again upon me as I expand the workshop beyond the borders of where I live by offering Cultivate Your Courage as a Teleclass. I’m excited, of course, and look forward to facilitating the call but the fear is present also. This is good news!  Again I have something to teach.

    We must acknowledge the fear. We must admit it we have it. “Yes, I’m afraid.” This takes away its power.

    If you are someone who feels ready for change, whose fear is somehow in the way of your greatest potential, please join me this evening for an hour of inspiration and self-reflection. If I can do it, you can do it.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Despite my fear I will take a leap and try something new. I’m afraid to change but I’m willing. I’m willing to break through the old belief systems (Old BS!) in order to experience a new freedom in my life.

    Wait Here Before X-ing

    • September 7, 2010 9:17 am

    Dearest Readers,

    (Aside: Forgive yesterday’s post. Because I committed to blogging six days a week for one full year I sometimes let myself get away with the absolute minimum in order to meet the goal. Unfortunately that can mean asking you to accept slapdash inspiration on days when time is an issue!)

    Yesterday as I was driving back from Keno City I hit a bird. Not a small bird but big, grouse-like creature. Big enough to make a sound when the impact hit. Big enough to feel.

    Actually, I should say the grouse (or ptarmigan) hit me. It flew out from the side of the road and straight across into the truck. Wham! I looked into the rearview mirror and saw a poof of feathers fly up and then the body of the bird roll and bounce out from under the vehicle. Awful.

    “What should I do?” I thought. “Stop?”

    By the time I had answered that question I was a long way down the road. So obviously the answer was “no”. I didn’t stop. Was that callous of me? Some might say, “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a bird.” Others might be horrified. “You could have at least pulled over and moved the poor thing to the ditch, Celia!”

    Later on down the road a bunny rabbit ran out from the side of the road just as I passed it. There was another vehicle right behind me and the fast little thing made it to the other side just a hair (I couldn’t resist) ahead of the speeding wheels of the other car. There were no other vehicles on the road. Why had that rabbit chosen to go right then? When the risk was highest? Here come two cars in a row. Go now!

    And why had the grouse flown into the truck?

    This reminds me of the times in my own life when I’ve thrown myself into situations without thought or careful discernment. I’ll just fling myself into this thing right now because I just have to go now and SMACK!

    Painful consequences. “Oh why did I have to do that?”

    Much improvement has been made, believe me. I take ridiculous amounts of time to make decisions now. But that time-taking determination has been borne out of getting a whallop one too many times. Look before you cross the road. Look both ways. Now look again. All clear? Are you sure? Okay. You can go.

    Who knows why animals feel compelled to throw themselves into oncoming traffic. I know why I’ve done it. Impatience. Fear of not getting what I want. Sometimes it is more compulsive. I’m driven by a self-destructive force and am powerless to make a healthy choice. Whatever the reason the outcome is never fun and there is rarely goodness to come from such behaviour.

    How to trust that waiting is the right thing to do? How to trust that Higher Guidance?

    Practice. Practice waiting and seeing. Practice allowing Higher Guidance to have the reins. Practice watching the unfoldment of events (in the situation you’ve let go of) and then bear witness to the results. When things work out better than we could have ever planned we will gain new trust in the Wisdom of Waiting.

    Only then can we really fly.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Even though I want to fly NOW I will wait and see if the skies are clear before I take off. I will begin to trust that by doing so I will be given the wings to soar.

    (By the way, tomorrow I will be leading a Cultivate Your Courage Teleclass and I hope that some of you will join me.)

    Ode to the Road

    • September 6, 2010 10:18 pm

    I heart Keno

    The silver city nestled

    in mountains jagged and round

    carved up by miners and their reveries.

    The highway stretching

    back and forth

    to that place

    from this one

    knows me

    but not me alone.

    All of us who’ve driven its curves

    its flats

    its scarred ridges and ruts

    have a relationship with each unmistakable section

    a familiar friend

    a lover of sorts

    always advancing

    yet disappearing behind

    creating a ribbon of ghosts

    and calling us home.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Life inspires poetry. We must live it fully and write our own existence with beauty and attention to detail. Every minute counts.

    Going Back

    • September 4, 2010 11:25 am

    Dearest Readers,

    A meeting I had scheduled for this morning got cancelled and I decided it would be a good opportunity instead to finish watching the last episode of Tess, a BBC mini-series version of Thomas Hardy‘s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I downloaded the four episodes off iTunes last weekend and have been savouring each one slowly throughout the week, not wanting it to end.

    One of the very last scenes in the movie takes place at Stonehenge. I haven’t read the book so I don’t know if the scene is true to Hardy or not but what hit me hardest was not the characters’ story so much as the monument itself. It got me thinking. What’s it all about?

    According to the Wikipedia page I linked above, Stonehenge is a burial ground. Huh. But did the builders raise those stones to honour the dead or the living?

    Imagine living back then. There are no distractions. It is 2500 BC! What do people think of themselves? What gives them purpose? Not jobs, although perhaps work. The work it takes to survive. There is nothing to take away from the sensation of being. In fact, be-ing is really all you’ve got.

    We are alive. What is life? What is death? We do not know. Let us build something to honour Life.

    I recently asked a man I know who is a self-professed atheist how he explains the nature of being. He said he’d get back to me. I haven’t heard from him yet!

    There was a time when people erected seemingly impossible structures to express their wonder and their awe at the Great Mystery of Life. It’s still being done, yes, and yet I wonder has our intellect become the power to which we build our monuments today?

    Sending my thoughts back in time this morning, imagining what it would be like to know nothing of what we know today and be wholly devoted to simply honouring Life each day because nothing else was as important as that action… well, it kind of landed me in a deeper place.  Call it True Awareness.

    Call it thanks for cancelled meetings!

    Inspiring Message of the Day: There is so much around us to distract our senses from Awe. Today I will find my way back there, like a child or like an ancestor, free of worldly concerns and devoted simply to the Wonder of Being.

    Breathing Practice

    • September 3, 2010 11:32 am

    Dearest Readers,

    Where does your dark side come out? In traffic? In supermarket line-ups? Mine is on the phone with “agents”. You know, “Okay, you’d like to speak to an agent. One moment while I transfer you.” That kind of agent.

    It’s not pretty. I’ve worked on this, believe me. And then I’ve worked on it some more. And I continue to work on it, one call at a time.

    Yesterday, someone gave me a new tool. She called it a Breath Prayer. On the inhalation, you summon whatever Force you choose to believe is spinning the planet, whatever Higher Guidance you entrust with your life, and on the out breath you say the thing that is going to ground you in that Power.

    For example:

    Inhale Higher Guidance.

    Exhale Centre Me in Patience.

    I love this. It’s easy. It doesn’t take any time at all. And I can do it anywhere.

    Including on the phone with an (inhale, exhale) agent.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Today I will create a Breath Prayer that works for me. I will keep it simple and make it meaningful and I will practice it whenever I need Grace on my side.

    You Inspire Me

    • September 2, 2010 10:13 am

    Dearest Readers,

    This morning I allowed myself to sleep in until 9 a.m. Some of you might think, “Nine o’clock is sleeping in?” while others (if you’re like me) might think, “Half the day is gone!”

    My body needed the sleep.  And yet it does throw the day off. I’m less inspired to blog when I sleep that late because I feel like it’s now taking away from the time I have to work. I often skip the yoga practice because, again, it would take me later and later into the day. So the lovely rest I acquired from the extra hours of sleep is now being eroded by the stress of thinking I’m behind.

    As many of you know, I often use this blog as a forum for positive self-talk. I’m the one who actually needs to hear myself say, “It’s okay. You slept in. Good for you. Let go of the worry. Relax. Enjoy.” Positive self-talk is such an important tool in my life. The thinking-mind really can be our own worst enemy.

    So despite the fact that intellectually I understand that I have done something good The Anxious Little Girl still needs reassuring. She needs to hear that she’s safe, that’s she’s being looked after, that she doesn’t have to worry. And by writing this out, and sharing it with you Lovely People, that Little Girl is breathing again and starting to smile.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Thanks, you guys. Sometimes you inspire me more than I ever could you.

    No Bull (Durham)

    • September 1, 2010 10:42 am

    Dearest Readers,

    “When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.”

    Who said that? Abe Lincoln? Barack Obama? Susan B. Anthony?

    No, it was Kevin Costner, movie star.

    I came across this quote while I was preparing to do a speech for Toastmasters and I like it. The meaning is rich and it speaks to the choice that we all have to see the glass half empty or the glass half full.

    For example, Costner may be a multiple-Academy-Award-winning filmmaker but he’ll forever be remembered as the guy who made Waterworld. Does anyone remember that film as being anything other than a major bomb?

    But how would the Man Who Dances with Wolves remember it? Kevin himself, if we are to believe that he truly walks his talk, would probably choose to define the moment rather than have it define him.

    He might tell us that Waterworld made more than $242 million worldwide (and it “only” cost $175 million to make). He’d definitely tell us that it was nominated for multiple awards including an Oscar (okay, it was Best Sound but still…). By focusing on the positive, he would then be defining the moment rather than have it define him.

    During the speech I gave I shared a few stories from my past that I consider to be defining moments. Not because they were particularly glorious but because the circumstances surrounding each of them could easily have defined me, if I had let them. Instead, in each scenario, I made a decision to turn the circumstances around. I chose to see the positive.

    This kind of decision-making is being presented to all of us every day in myriad ways. It takes great courage to continue to define our moments rather than have them define us, to say “I did this” rather than “this happened to me.” Shifting our perception isn’t easy. We’re twisting the brain, so to speak. But by doing so we’re participating in our lives rather than passively going along for the ride.

    Just like Kevin Costner, Hollywood success story.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: How can I take a more active role in defining the big and small moments of my life? How can I see things in a more positive light? Today, rather than feeling like my moments are defining me, I will choose to define my moments by looking at the positive outcome rather than the negative.

    I Yam Who I Yam

    • August 31, 2010 7:35 am

    Dearest Readers,

    Yesterday I attended a “Business After Hours” function hosted by our local Chamber of Commerce. I joined the Chamber last year in order to build the Inspiring Works business and broaden my reach as a speaker, workshop facilitator and coach. These after-work-meet-and-greets happen often but guess what? I have never gone.

    Until yesterday. I decided I needed to walk through my fear and get out there with my business card. I put on my dress pants and the Spank heels from Vangroovy and plunged myself into unknown territory. Despite the fact that it felt extremely uncomfortable to get out of my comfort zone (funny that) I managed to chat with people easily and share with them what I am all about. Talk about Cultivating Your Courage!

    There are two more Chamber functions this morning and when I was getting dressed a short while ago the thought of putting on those heels and those biz-casual slacks made me feel queasy. It’s just not me, folks. Sure, I can play the part. I’m a performer. But I’d rather feel like Celia than an actor playing her.

    How can I dress appropriately and still feel like myself? I figured something out. I may not look like a business woman but I look like a woman who means business.

    I look like who I really am.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: We can try to be like other people but why bother? Our Authentic Self is vastly more interesting. Today I will be True to who I am. I will shine my Beautiful Light just as it is.