Hello Everybody!
Paul and I rang in the New Year by renting "Ocean's Thirteen" for some mindless fun. In the climactic scene where fireworks are going off and lighting up the sky, the clock struck midnight and fireworks could be heard outside our house (from Santa Cruz's New Year celebration) as well. How's that for synchronicity? We loved that one! Couldn't have planned it if we tried.
Otherwise, we've been enjoying some spacious and sunny days and busy busy afternoons and nights. Several new clients--thanks everyone for your referrals!--and lots of creative activity this month. Paul has been shooting a lot of photos lately. As of Christmas, his nature photos have been sold in 23 states and 2 foreign countries. He's also put several new ones up on his blog this week—and lately, several a day. See http://paulhood.blogspot.com/ to see what he has up now.
I, on the other hand, have been writing a blue streak. My latest book "The Spiritual Journey of Family Caregiving" is complete. I'm getting it ready for publishing now and we'll be announcing it in February. A second project, a new version of my previously published book about healing partnerships, is almost done. I'd like to announce it in February, too, but we'll see how that pans out.
The newsletter article this month is about appropriate resolution making. That's written by me but we have links to a couple of pieces Paul wrote as well. He's been grappling with the effects of using "special powers" both as a psychic/spiritual healer and as a photographer with Photoshop skills. I think what that allows him to do is wonderful but what would the Buddha say about that? hmmm....
A happy and healthy New Year ! We're looking forward to continuing our relationships with you in the weeks and months to come.
Sheryl (and Paul)
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Are Your New Year's Resolutions Really Right For You?
This year the almost expected habit for a newsletter writer to talk about New Year's resolutions was almost impossible to do. Oh, we gave it a whirl. I wrote a thing or two, asked Paul what he wanted to do, but our own list of "resolutions" looks more like a list of what we want to "manifest" more than a list to do.
We want to build on what we've already achieved, be more connected to a community, get to see our friends and family more, have continued health and prosperity, an improved bottom line, and travel a bit more but, except for a personal resolution to eat more vegetables and spend less on eating out, we've both been loathe to put specific resolutions in concrete.
I think it's because resolutions always revolve around HOW we're going to achieve the results we want and what we think we must browbeat ourselves into doing to get there. Manifestation is about asking for what you want and allowing. Often that means we DO something—get a job, exercise more, plan dinners with more vegetables in them in advance, get the grocery shopping and advance prep done before you forget, and set a timer to actually make dinner happen before it's 8 o'clock, you're hungry and you remember that some cheap fast food treat is right around the corner. That's the resolutions part.
Or so we think. But sometimes what we think we ought to do isn't really the right way to go.
For example, I recently said "no" to a plan I had been thinking I would do for several months now in regards to my Mama Love Perfume business. Why? Well, I didn't know why at first but my first clue was that I just couldn't make myself do it. I was feeling awful about that (the first pitfall of inappropriate resolution-making is setting a goal you can't or won't live up to and beating yourself up for it) and finally asked Paul for help.
He put his psychic counselor cap on and said "if you go ahead with it, it could put you out of business!" Whoa! I didn't expect to hear that! Why?
"Well" he continued. "If you only do what you say you want to achieve are you going to be happy?" [I was planning to spend $1000 and loads of effort to get ready for a trade show in order to get a bunch of new stores. My goal was to at least break even on show costs in order to have an "easier" time getting future and repeat sales.] My first thought was yes, I would be happy to break even, but then I stopped to do the math. No! I'd be devastated—that would be 5 stores or less. I could do that without spending money on a trade show. I added 5 stores last year without spending any money and almost no time at all.
"What if the opposite happened?" he said. "What if you were inundated with more orders than you can imagine? Are you ready to deal with the consequences of that?" I wish I could have said yes. But unless I had enough money in hand to pay to have my perfumes custom formulated and have the orders filled for me, the answer is that I really don't know... I definitely couldn't do it right now, I couldn't do it by myself, and unless I guessed really well I don't know if I have enough profit built into my current pricing structure to pay for the help I'd need and pay myself as well. If I was very far off I'd be out of business immediately.
The resolution I had been working with was inappropriate for me. At least right now. I still have more preliminary work to do before I can even consider the possibility. I changed my mind, decided to spend part of the money I had put aside on things that will help our businesses grow in the most healthy ways possible, and celebrated. Wahoo! I don't have to feel bad about not succeeding at brow beating myself into doing all the work that would have needed to be done for that anymore. Whew.
Is there a resolution you've been unsuccessful in making yourself do? Maybe there's another way to have what you need. Maybe you have it already if you only knew.
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Paul's Articles
Some Facets of "Siddhis"
Ok, I used a foreign word again. Generally I am in favor of good translations. There isn't a good translation of the word "Kundalini", so I wrote about it in a previous blog and Sheryl even interviewed me on video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smg5ZHAl8X4) to talk about it. A Kundalini awakening is an experience of spiritual opening. Spiritual opening experiences sometimes result in "siddhis" which the Buddha called "special powers." Special powers can be distracting, confusing, or even tempting to get all mixed up in the details doing stuff like healing people, reading minds, foretelling the future etc. The Buddha suggested.... Read more at http://paulhood.blogspot.com/2007/12/some-facets-of-kriyas.html .
Flower Mandalas
Maybe it's Sheryl's influence on me, but lately we've been shooting a lot of flowers. This is not to be confused with the practice of "blowing up roses" if you're familiar with the Berkeley Psychic Institute. No, we just photograph them and as far as I know we have no incendiary rose fantasies. I don't always find roses to be the most symmetrical of flowers, nor am I always attracted to symmetry, but lately I am fascinated by plants, the way that they present themselves to the world and all their characteristics..... Read more at http://paulhood.blogspot.com/2007/12/flower-mandalas.html
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Interested in a session? Send us an email or give us a call at (831) 325-4076.
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