Opportunity Knocks

We all experience Environmental Stressors over which we have no direct control. Things like foul weather, traffic jams, and getting stuck in the slowest line at the post office.

While we may not be able to eliminate the stressors themselves, by changing our perspective we can release their hold on us and reframe the experience in a more positive, life-affirming light.

While life won’t always follow your plans and expectations, try shifting your perspective by seeing everything as an opportunity. An opportunity to understand yourself better and open your heart wider — to develop greater compassion for yourself and others. While the details of our lives differ, we all experience the same range of emotions from fear, frustration and loneliness to joy, contentment and peace. With yourself firmly planted in the present moment, it’s your ability to respond creatively and constructively that makes the difference.

How might you uncover the opportunities in unexpected delays? Turn what you’ve always experienced as wasted time into transformational time. Try keeping audiobooks in your car to make your slow commute entertaining, educational and inspirational. Ditto for always having a few good magazines and books with you.

How about keeping a journal and pen handy at all times to turn those spare moments into opportunities to get in touch with your Inner Self. Just journaling about your frustrations goes a long way to helping you release them. Who knows, you might even find yourself laughing at the trivial things your “Head Chatter” manages to turn into huge dramas. And laughter remains one of the all-time best reframing tools ever invented. Journaling could even be a step on the way to publishing that book you’ve always dreamed of writing but still haven’t made the time for.

As long as you’re not operating heavy machinery, you might consider investing those spare minutes in closing your eyes and breathing, a proven mood soother and blood pressure reducer. You’ve been saying you wanted to meditate more. What if this delay is not an obstacle but a loving gift from the Universe — a way of making space for you to fulfill your desire. Just you, just here, just now, just be.

Finally, one of the most powerful tools for reframing Environmental Stress is Gratitude. Instead of being overwhelmed by piles of laundry, you might be thankful for having lots of clothes to wear and clean water to wash them. Instead of grumbling over an eight-hour delay at the airport, how about celebrating finding the time to get started on that really good book you’ve been carrying around in your bag for many months. Or when you are stuck in the slowest line at the grocery store, you might look at your cart full of food and be grateful that you have access to an incredible variety of food and the money that allows you to enjoy it.

Gratitude for Universal Abundance anchors each moment in generous, effortless, joy-filled FLOW — a fluid Journey to Wholeness grounded in Who you are Being NOT What you are Doing.

About djwlifecoach

I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities. During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll. My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world. 111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness. Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled. Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else. I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do. By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire. My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework. For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.

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