2020 Choices

2020 – What will be your focus?

 

Every January I like to choose a focus word for my upcoming year. Last year it was “Play” and play shaped my choices in time spent with friends,  activities and even how I worked creatively with clients.

 

Admittedly, I have been a lifetime healthy Body-Mind-Spirit junky. These core values were locked into my soul through the early years of my professional life working for the YMYWCA. These tenents of whole-hearted health continue to be the pillars I strive and stand for in most of what I do.

 

So with the word “Play” lasered into every intention this past year, I joined a competitive Inter-City tennis team with my daughter Ashley, and yes…our team won our division. We even went onto Provincials! None of us on the team really knew each other from the start of the year, but through our commitment, dedication and desire to do our best, we’ve all developed such strong bonds.

Playing on our new team, we have all got better together. It’s been really fun. Through this team, with ages ranging over a 30 year variance, we are One. Life feels joyful on court, challenging in a good way and always enriching because there is always more to learn. I’m so grateful for our sisterhood and all the ways we all support each other. We are all.. “In it to win it”; “in it to love it!”  That’s the power of team play.

 

This past year, I also got playful at work and integrated some new coaching tools to help some of my clients get out of their seats and into their bodies in session. Connected to the felt sense of their own desire, creativity, and joy, the whole body-brain starts to thrive again. With embodied and emotionally focused knowledge about themselves, the sessions have felt powerful at times and deeply meaningful. It’s exciting and rewarding to witness their dynamic shifts towards health, ease, and renewed creativity. It’s fun to see how inspiration comes from whole body learning. Standing in new perspectives and new choices, anything is possible! They learn new ways to problem-solve, unblock limiting beliefs about themselves (and others). Play seems to activate positive new possibilities. My clients are SO inspiring and my practice continues to be such a rewarding part of my life.  

 

I’ve been doing more life coaching with clients in various parts of the world – New York, L.A., Seattle, London and Hong Kong and started holding more professional groups for couples and individuals who want more fulfillment in their lives.  I see these clients over Skype or Zoom and its just as if they are sitting in my office with me. I am so grateful for the possibilities that technology brings. It’s fun and stimulating to work with clients in other cities. 

 

What are the ways technology might enhance your life this year? Or for you is it more about creating more boundaries around technology? Choices choices.. Is this an area you might focus on this year?

 

My new word for 2020 comes from Greece (partly because my daughter is marrying into a Greek family this June) and partly inspired by a singer, song writer who recently shared the word “Meraki” with me… in Greek this means doing what you do with soul, creativity, and love..  You can look up Meraki on Pinterest and/or find some other word resources here: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/341007003006622858/

 

I think Meraki may be a little like the ‘magic’ Meg Ryan refers to in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle”…when relationships feel in complete flow; when even holding hands feels like magic. In those times, you are soul to soul with your ‘one’ in perfect attunement.

 

2020 FEELS like a powerful number somehow…Look at the number itself.. two two’s and two full circles. Maybe all of life is full circle. Its maybe not about what we do after all, but how we feel doing it… feel connected, partnered, supported, and ‘supporting’ in love? Or alone, anxious and without purpose? That’s an easy choice. Door number one please!

 

What if we were truly all one global team? That is my vision and my hope for this year. Team 2020 in Play & Meraki!!  I’ve been meditating on that a little every morning for the past while. 

 

What word might you choose to focus you this year?

 

I believe our work should feel somewhat like play. I’m not saying that the stresses and the realities of various challenges don’t feel overwhelming to the point of Sleepless In Seattle for us all… including me!  But if you care enough to worry… to try enough to live an attuned  life, isn’t working things through worth a night of lost sleep once and awhile? If you choose one door and it feels right, then great. If not, choose another door. We are making choices every day.

Keep looking for those doors that light you up.

 

Honestly, one of the most disabling patterns I witness sometimes with clients is when they don’t own their own sense of having true choices: choice to get better at what they are doing; choice to be curious about their own growth; choice to opt out of what doesn’t serve; choice to see things from another’s perspective; and choice to be more caring and collaborative; choice to play life as a member of a team.

 

Often our emotional and behavioural patterns stem from negative core beliefs that we are not enough or not worth loving. This then often steers us into reaction, anxiety and down a path of depression, isolation and hopelessness. Choosing to self-manage and shift personal patterns of behaviour, our feelings of positivity will grow. Life and relationships will feel more connected and start to thrive.

 

So if you have been feeling lonely, you might choose the word “connected” this year. You would then start your day possibly meditating on your word choice, maybe spend a little more time noticing the decision times and connections in your day. Notice your life network and all the ways you belong. Pretty soon, your life will become a revolution of love and belonging. Believe in the power of you for change.

 

When I started The Mom & Me Network Fitness classes years ago, I just had an inner sense that women supporting women through the early years of parenting could possibly change communities, families, and lives for generations. Some questioned whether I could possibly attract enough women who were pregnant and who also wanted to work out through their pregnancy. Well I got the idea. I ran with it. And it was a 28-year project that attracted literally thousands of women in pregnancy. Say yes to powerful intuitions and intentions. Say no to the feelings of isolation that often come with pregnancy and early parenting.

 

Take a risk and try your ideas out this year!! Never under-estimate the power of your focus word for the year.

 

Any word is a good word by the way. Simple intention, desire and repetition feeds the body-mind-spirit change process.

 

Got a word. Start with your morning routine. Meditation works. Writing in your journal works. Simply talking about it works.

 

You can change words too. You might choose to have a fresh word every day. Having a singular word to focus on for the day is a great way to stimulate your dopamine resources (happiness chemistry).

 

So how do you want to feel through your day today? Focused? Vibrant? Sexy? Vital? Funny? Athletic? Intellectual? Generous? Choose one and BE playful with it all day in how you talk, walk, what you wear, and how you connect all day.

Notice how you feel at the start and at the end of your day having tried this tool out. It’s quite fun.

 

You choose the brand you build in all the ways you show up every day. You shine through your habits, your voice, your style, your pace, and all your choices.

 

What is your brand? What part of you do you want to shine more light on this year? What makes you happy, stimulated, and feeling good? If you feel good, you’ll be good at whatever you are doing.

Choose life by your design this year.

 

If you build it, you own it! Which door is yours this year? What will you choose?

Mine your history and life stories for the gold! Think about times in your life you have felt your best. What were you doing then? How can you incorporate more of those activities or friends into your life today?

 

Get intentional. Design your week so you do more of the activities you love this year.

 

2020 is the perfect reminder of the power of a  balanced life that will make you feel 20 times better at work and home. And the two numbers mirror each other, so we are in this together.

 

What do you choose this year? What will be your impact?

 

Happy New Year! May this be your most inspired yet.

 

We are ALL in it to win-win it!

 

With love and gratitude for you! So glad we are in the same community. This blog is 7 years strong and growing. If you like it, please share it on your social media strings.  🙂

Have a great year!

 

Yours,

Jo-Anne