The Pacific Ocean

(Week 97)

Word for November:  EXHALE

In life, we sometimes hold our breath. We are in “effort” mode, and we are trying. REALLY hard. To make it happen. Or to make it not happen. It is our effort to control. Our effort to avoid pain. We often do that. Even with God’s business.

As we hold our breath, tension builds. Carbon dioxide collects, and we weaken. When we hold tight. As we stop the natural flow. In our all out effort. We lose the big picture. Our balance. Our faith.

The exhale is the act of letting go. Of trusting. For freedom.

Interesting it’s required to live.
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STUDIO LOVE

Wishing you a wonderful holiday with family and friends. Great, and necessary, time to exhale. Enjoy! xo

(Week 96)

Word for November:  EXHALE

Breathing. We do it unconsciously. But we can also do it consciously. To reduce anxiety and overwhelm. When we notice our breath, the fast, stressful thoughts are replaced with slow, soothing movement. We create quiet. So we can hear and re-connect with ourselves.

Inhale, notice the air, the oxygen as it comes into your lungs. Put your right hand on your chest and your left on your abdomen. Close your eyes. Take a nice deep breath. Feel your belly expand, as a balloon filling with air. The chest moves too, slightly. This is you. Noticing you. And your body. Doing what it does. Filling you with life.

Exhale, notice the air as it passes thru your nose, carrying carbon dioxide out into the world. For the trees. And the plants. The abdomen comes back towards the spine, gently pushing out all the air you have. Allow the exhale to last longer than the inhale. Tension also leaves. This is your body taking care of you. Making room for fresh, new air to re-enter.

Just three minutes of focused breathing. When you need a new perspective.
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STUDIO CERTIFIED

It’s official. I passed the certification test to become an official “Martha Beck Certified Life Coach”. Completion feels good.

But just to tell you. It’s not the seal, the title or the diploma that creates competency. It’s your head. Whatever you believe to be true, is. No matter what the paper says.

(Week 95)

Word for November:  EXHALE

Time to breathe in the crisp autumn air and exhale creativity. The natural flow of the holidays. Allow it.

CLICK HERE to download this month’s bookmark. Best printed on card stock. Includes some extras to share.
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STUDIO CONSIDERATIONS

What do you want to see happen before the end of the year? There’s still plenty of time. If you start today. xo

How you see yourself, changes everything!

(Week 94)

Word for October:  PATIENCE (last week)

How many times have we said “I’ll start Monday!” And how many times, come Monday afternoon, are we slumped over, disappointed. The same darn spot. Over and over again.

Or so it seems.

The truth is we never return to the same spot. Ever. It’s impossible. Life travels only forward, and it takes us along with it.

You are not the same person you were last week. This week’s events have been added to you. Your experience, your thinking, your results. The good and the bad. The rich and the poor. They have all moved you along life’s path.

It’s not straight. It looks like a corkscrew. Around and around, yes, but never repeating. With every step, in every moment, we gain altitude. With each pass, greater insight.

How we process our rotations determines our degree of change. When we wallow in self pity and negative self talk, we have added weight to our backs. Hard to get very high. If we use our experiences to find new strategies, we rise. Dramatically.

There’s no question we’ll come back around. The question is the perspective.

Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
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STUDIO PACE

For those who want to open their creative gifts in the new year! The Artist’s Way book study will begin in January.

(Week 93)

Word for October:  PATIENCE

Let’s start with the idea that we all want to feel good. Right? We want to be patient, because it feels good.

The opposite of patience is anger. When we set expectations for how others should be, we’re on our way. Because we can’t control others. We can’t control others! Good to remember. We can only control ourselves. And even that is difficult. But that’s where our authority begins and ends.

Byron Katie puts it beautifully. “There are 3 kinds of businesses: my business, your business and God’s business.” My business is everything I can control… my actions, my thoughts, even my feelings to a large extent. Your business is all yours. You get the same freedoms I do… free will to choose, whatever – whenever – however – with whomever… all of it. Your choice. God’s business is everything else… reality, circumstances, the weather, even death. He chooses these.

We set ourselves up for disappointment when we jump into someone else’s business. And expect them to do what we want, so we can feel good. Because when they don’t, we lose our feel good. Imagine feeling good no matter what happens. You can! But it’s an inside job.

Take a driver who doesn’t use his blinkers. Could be annoying. Now you have to wait. But it’s his business what he does. And all you can choose is how you will wait. If you want to feel good, get back into your business and do the only thing you can do… change the thoughts that create “pissed off”. Could be as simple as “that’s his business.” Opens up room for strategies and solutions when you preserve your level head.

When you “mind your business“. It doesn’t matter if they use their blinker. You can stay good. Good with whatever. When you choose thoughtfully.
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Click for ceramic work for sale.

(Week 92)

Word for October:  PATIENCE

Patience is a muscle that grows with awareness and practice.

Practice allows us to begin feeling the transition in our body. When we go from peace to frustration. It brings us to the hear and now. When we are connected to our body, we notice the descent. This is the key to becoming patient. Because it’s when we notice, that we can change.

What did you notice this week? How did your body feel when it moved from patience to frustration? What were you thinking? Your thoughts created the reaction.

When you start to feel frustrated, bring your attention away from your thoughts (for now). To the breath, to your breathing. Notice it instead. Nice and deep. If necessary, walk away from the circumstance to catch it. Productive solutions never come from a place of frustration. Don’t even try. Put your energy into getting your body back to calm.

From calm, you choose. Here, you are in charge. If you don’t want “angry”, you don’t have to take it! Your feelings come directly from your thoughts. Next week, we’ll discuss the thoughts that create patience.
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STUDIO TIME

I have been feeling the need to get back to using my hands. Yesterday I opened the clay bag again and started pinching. Patience is a good word. It will take some time to find the place I left off. “And that’s ok.”

Click to shop.

(Week 91)

Word for October:  PATIENCE

Patience is one of those things we all wish we had more of, especially “after the fact”. After we’ve lost our cool and expressed our anger. But in that moment, we can’t see options. We just see someone or something we want, we REALLY want, to be different NOW!

(Oh my gosh!! Just started seeing it as an adult temper tantrum. Ugh.)

Change begins with awareness. So this week, become “the watcher”. Step outside yourself and watch your interactions as a fly on the wall. Without emotion or opinion. Notice when you play the impatient part. Say a lot of “isn’t that interesting!”

Isn’t that interesting… she thinks that.
Isn’t that interesting… she feels that.
Isn’t that interesting… she said that.

Awareness brings insight and answers. From a place of clarity, we can see what we want to create instead. Next week, tips on how to create it. This week, just notice.

With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.
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LIFE COACHING

Still feeling stuck and NOW ready for change? Shoot me an email at Lori@LORiKOOP.com for the video link. Pre-certification rate of $25 a session thru December.

From a sweet client: “i can’t tell you enough how helpful the work we have been doing has been. sooo much self talking about the job i want to get, and the self positiveness coming thru to tell me wonderful, strong inducing things about myself… and when the fear and self doubt start to come up i LOVINGLY COUNTER BALANCE THE TALK WTH SUCH POSITIVE SELF ACCEPTANCE, etc. i keep returning to my core being, in line with God, being right there with me.”

(Week 90)

Word for October:  PATIENCE

A card to inspire this month. GREAT word, huh?!! I think we could all use a bit more of it. xo

To print card, click here. Use heavier paper if you have it (standard sheet size). Simply fold in half and write notes inside.

Below is a bookmark, prints 8 to a sheet. Keep a few and give the rest away. I send one with every purchase, tucked under the ribbon. To print bookmarks, click here.

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STUDIO TALLY + RESEARCH

LOVED this! Thanks to all who voted. Results are… #3 by 65%. Seems many of you want supernatural creative powers. I’m going to be creating a lil kit around that. Will let you know when it’s available.

Some questions about The Artist’s Way book by Julia Cameron
1. do you own it?
2. have you done it?
3. what did you want to get from it?

Click to see other plaquettes.

(Week 89)

Word for September:  DEEP

I’m not sure why it takes us so long to notice, but it often does. Our head takes over, and we begin to suffer. Here are some clues:

frustration
overwhelm
confusion
disorganization
overeating
insomnia
not exercising
running in circles
not getting things done
indecision + stuck
physical ailment

When we get nervous, our head jumps in to help. It thinks. Too much. And we feel the chaos in our body. We keep trying to figure things out, but we can’t. We feel “off” but don’t know why. Our patterns are unique, but they all lead to crummy! See the red flags. We have disconnected.

The head is not the “go to” person. It doesn’t have the map. The heart, on the other hand, does. It is clear and knows the way. Time for a consultation. To revisit the heart space and to reconnect with the spirit that lives there. (Here’s how.) When you do, fear falls away and peace fills. In this state, our solutions come, not of our own devices but from a source higher than ourselves. We can just listen, then do. It is so much easier!

It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are – not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within – that you begin to take control.
Oprah Winfrey
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