Are You At A Breaking Point?

A tree that cannot bend
will crack in the wind.

The hard and stiff will be broken;
the soft and supple will prevail.
 ~Lao Tsu, Tao te Ching

When the world seems to put us in a untenable and impossible situation between a rock and a hard place, how can you bend instead of break?

We get it in our heads that things have to be a certain way, that there is a right and a wrong way. We believe that our choices are limited, or that our values will be violated by an unavoidable situation.

Is it true? What is the hard and stiff here?
Is it the rule? Or our interpretation?
Is it what is expected of us? Or our ability to imagine other possibilities?
Is it really that absolute?

How can you find an alternative that lets go of one thing and the degree and extreme to which you thought you needed.

How can you negotiate with expections, others OR your own? Sometimes we can look at expectations, especially our own, and see that they are the rock or the hard place. Expectations are the source of disappointment and pain.



We create expectations based on the beliefs and values that we develop over time. As we approach each boulder in the road, each fork of decision, is it really that black-and-white? What if we allow our thinking to bend, to become supple to the situation, the moment?

What if we are flexible with our own expectations? What if there is more than one answer to the question, more than one option in the mix?

Knowing that there are options allows us to bend and continue to grow. Without options, we are broken by our own thinking and lack of imagination.

What's Holding You Back? It Might Surprise You...

In a recent workshop I presented exploring the Upper Limit Problems that can sabotage our success, the question was asked, “Isn’t looking for the negative counterintuitive to the Law of Attraction’s focus on the positive for manifesting what we want?”

What a great question! Larry, when I heard that, it reminded me of something I said to my doctor about tests and procedures designed to catch issues early. I said, “Why go looking for trouble?” Of course, my cynical attitude toward the allopathic practices was rearing its head in the conversation, but it’s not a bad comparison to the search for Upper Limit Problems that might hold us back from our potential for success.

The Upper Limit Problems are behaviors that we create after we experience a higher level of success than we have given ourselves permission for. Doesn’t that sound crazy? But it’s true: we have an internal thermostat for how much success we allow ourselves to experience. Much of this Limiting Thinking is formed in our early childhood, amazingly. It could be one simple thing that we heard someone say. It could be someone’s behavior or example that influenced us.

Is it negative to look for this limiting thinking? Let’s look at it from another angle: if we don’t know what thinking is controlling us, how are we going to change our behavior? Without awareness, what hope do we have of creating a new way of thinking – a thinking upgrade?

Larry, awareness is the first step to positive change. And sometimes we need help to become aware. Give me a call when you are ready to go to a level of success that you’ve been dreaming of.

Check out one of my radio interviews:
Recent radio interview-
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lorilynnsmith/2014/05/28/from-uncertainty-to-passion-the-power-of-your-zone-of-genius-with-larry-watson

Does The Law of Attraction Work for You?

 Law of Attraction

Mastery Tools:

Living From Your

Zone of Genius

Have you been short-circuiting your access to The Law of Attraction?

The Law of Attraction is a powerful principle. In this enlightening workshop you'll explore some obstacles to the unlimited possibilities that the Universe has in store for you, and how you can easily dissolve those obstacles.

When you step into your Zone of Genius, you tap into a vortex of energy that empowers you to create your Extraordinary Life using the principles that will always serve you.

Sunday, June 1, 12:45 to 2:15 with

 

Larry Watson

Author, Transformation Coach

Suggested Love Offering: $20 or joyful amount

(Light snacks provided)

The Simple Truth About Healthy Boundaries: They're Softer Than You Think

Boundaries can seem illusive. Other times it can feel like they have to be hard and harsh. Maybe not so much.

We're talking about emotional boundaries, as well as boundaries on our time and energy.

One of my clients gave me permission to share this revelation: she said that the term "boundaries" brought visions of a high chain linked fence - electrified - with razor-sharp barbed wire on the top. If you want to extend the metaphor, there might even be some verbal machine gun emplacements.

OK, let's step back a little bit. My experience has shown that the most important boundaries are the emotional ones. And the metaphor that came to mind is two bodies of water.

Think of them as yours and "theirs," one colored blue and one orange. The boundary can be as thin as a membrane that keeps them separate.

Because when the boundary is gone, they mix, the color will be brown, and the source and experience of each is lost.

If we maintain our boundaries, we can observe and even appreciate the others' thoughts, emotions, experiences without feeling the need to take them on as our own.

Freedom. Freedom to be ourselves, freedom from a false sense of obligation, freedom from feeling responsible for someone's experience.

Boundaries = freedom. Not exactly the image of an electric chain-link fence.

When we want to set boundaries, heavy artillery is not required. Only awareness and resolve.

To your freedom!

Peace,
Larry

Freedom: What Are Your Rewards?

The Fear of Letting Go Is...

There was a point in my life where I began to realize that my co-dependence was a huge obstacle to my true, authentic self  being able to express. At that point I began to fear being co-dependent. I could see how it diminished me and put entirely too much pressure on others to be my source of happiness or pain.
So I began the journey of letting go of the desperate, dysfunctional need to have my existence affirmed by others, the need to mold and manipulate myself into the persona that I thought would please them. In the process, another fear began to show.

I soon found myself in the fear of Not being co-dependent, which is the reason I had resorted to co-dependence in the first place. In the absence of interacting in the favorable persona, I would have to look within and find authentic reactions, authentic opinions, authentic emotions  that I would actually express!

There had been rewards in being co-dependent, and now it was time to find the rewards in ending this practice.

• The reward is authenticity itself, discovering  the essence of who I really am.
• The reward is freedom.

The opportunity to change your focus begins with awareness, and then requires courage. It makes it much easier when you can find the rewards to a new way of being. Focus on the positive rewards, and you will find your authentic self with grace and ease.

20 Years of Making a Difference? Really?

20 Years of Making a Difference? Really?

"Are you an artist?"

The questions came to me from a forgotten history.

As I was enjoying an exhibit of abstract art yesterday, I found myself talking to one of the artists, who knew me "way back." She was describing the teaching abilities of my mother who had conducted workshops on abstract art that Kelly had attended a few months prior. This exhibit was the resulting work of her students. Kelly's new abstract pieces were quite good, and she had nothing but great things to say about Mom's workshop.

Kelly was telling me about a moment in the workshop, though, that brought history and the present together in unexpected ways.

As my Mom, Fran Watson, was talking to someone about her son, Larry, who is a  ceramic artist, Kelly made the decades-wide connection.

She announced to Fran, "I know Larry, he conducted a workshop 20 years ago called "The Business of Art." She went on, "The first thing he did was ask, 'How many of you call yourself an artist?' Out of about 30 people, only three raised their hands."

She continued, "Larry said that this was the first thing that would have to change in order to find any success. He said, 'You have to look in the mirror and say "I am an artist." And then you must be clear when you say it to others. Then you will be able to succeed.'"

Kelly went on; "And that's what I learned to do. The first 10 days I tried looking in the mirror and I couldn't say it. I just looked in the mirror and cried. But eventually I was able to say it in the mirror, and then say it out loud to other people. It changed my life."

Wow. So affirming to know that my path to now is not so recent, but a culmination of my life. Making a difference; it's what I live for.

How To Get Younger

Would you like to get younger? It's really quite simple. (But simple does not mean easy!) 

My dog keeps getting younger. But he doesn’t know it.

Last year I read a web site that listed causes and remedies for dog skin rashes and hair loss, which had been a serious, perennial problem for Rudy for several years. The vet was grasping at straws to find a solution. But it seems that the level of protein in a dog’s diet can have an effect on skin health, and in Rudy’s case, it was  a profound effect. Upon a simple change in protein intake, all skin problems were permanently eliminated. 

And there was an added bonus; a regression to a more youthful Rudy! For the first time in years, he began to run, not merely trot. He began searching  out his long-neglected toys, tossing them in the air to tempt me into play. He chased me in the yard, running back and forth, barking, then stopping in smiling content.

But he did not recognize his renewed mobility enough to see if it affected his ability to jump up on the furniture or into the car’s back seat. For the past few years, he would pause at the open car door  and wait for me to assist his caboose into the seat. One day on the way to a walk in the park, Rudy bounded into the seat without any help. Apparently his memory had slipped, and didn’t know that it wasn’t impossible anymore.

 What if you didn’[t know it was impossible? What if you re-calibrated your perception of limits? What if you checked in to see if maybe you were able to do more than you previously found possible, even feasible? 

What if your thoughts about limits were wrong all along? How many times have we found ourselves continuing a tradition without knowing it’s origin or meaning? Sometimes those traditions were habits of dysfunction; belief systems (B.S.) that create imaginary handicaps.

What if you could jump WAAAYY higher than you had previously thought? Sometimes, it takes an outside observer to help us take the leap. That’s one of  the best parts of my job. 

Take a leap into your future. Find out if the old rules just no longer apply. You can live Way Beyond Surviving. Live the Life you Love.