the big question everyone should ask...the questions only you know the answer

"There is no greater gift, you can give or receive

than to honor your calling."  Oprah

What are you putting off that your soul, your spirit, your very essence wants you to do?  This week, I came across a question that stopped me in my tracks!

Whatever you are doing...or plan on doing, or are putting off doing...in 5 years if you do more of this thing....where will you be?  Will you be happier, healthier, kinder, prouder, freer, more loving, richer....?

It makes you ponder doesn't it?  No matter what anyone else thinks of our  actions, we all have an internal North Star that tells us if we are on the right path.  By asking this question...am I enhancing or diminishing my future by this action.  You will know.  We will know the answer.  

Going shopping, hitting the Amazon button, ordering a double cheese pizza, putting off calling a friend, staying up past or bedtime, heading out for a walk first thing in the dawn, writing on your porch on a Sunday afternoon after mowing the lawn.  Whatever you are doing or plan on doing...pause and ask this question.  In 5 years, if I continue doing _________ where will I be?  Will my internal essence, heart, my soul be cheering me on or sobbing?  

This question doesn't care how old we are, or what we did yesterday or 15 years ago.  It cares what we are doing right now and how we want to live in our own future.  Our current actions pave forward our future.   

Ask more questions!  Flush judgment down the drain!!  Judgement is wasted energy.  It does you no good.  How do you want your future to be?  A year from now, tomorrow morning?  

What do you truly love, what do you want to do with your beautiful life?  Our future is created day by day, moment by moment. Feeling stuck, of course, we all get stuck.  Just start with one little shift in a positive direction.  It can be microscopic...but headed towards a beautiful tomorrow.

It doesn't matter if your ______ is monumentally big or tiny....by taking a step in the right direction we begin.

Happy travels and questions,  Denise

Do not waste your Heart on fear!!

 "May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer,

But do at last what I came here for

And waste my heart no more on fear.

                    John O'Donohue

Can I get a YES?????????  We have got this.  Life, I mean.  Yes, there are things in the world that stink...but that does not give us the excuse of wasting this beautiful soul of ours to fear.  

What are we capable if we let go of fear and dream again?  

               Denise

The joy of work

 "It is the enjoyment of every step in the process of doing; everything not only the isolated piece we label art...  If you want to rush to the accomplishment, it is an inevitable disappointment. Then you rush to something else. The disappointment is repeated over and over again.  But if every step is pleasant, then the accomplishment becomes even more, because it is nourished by what is going on."

"All the stages of one's work have a poetic nature."

                                         Sue Bender  Plain and Simple

Clutter clearing gives you breathing space to live. And this is good.

But there is more.  When you learn how to make your daily work a practice of love, that's when you transcend your work into something extraordinary. 

When you can shift your work...no matter how ordinary, boring or below your pay grade.  When your work becomes your art. When you change the very nature of what you are doing. When you shift your long held beliefs about your work.   In this process, your work becomes healing.

If you would have said to me, what I just said to you when I was a girl on the farm, I would have fell into a heap of giggles and complete disbelief.  And yet, here I am, after 30 plus years of  this practice...sometimes kicking and screaming...I get it.  At least today I do.  

Our daily work is a practice.  Sometimes this work is a deep practice.  With one foot in front of the other through gritted teeth. But the art does happen.   Work becomes poetic. More and more frequently I feel it now.  Our daily work is the rhythm of our life.  It is an act of love.

This morning I was reminded of a great conversation I had with a wise client 13 years ago.  At that time,  I was just really beginning this deeper practice of home care. Little did I know where it would take me. Somehow the path just kept opening up to me as if saying "stay here, go deep, create art while you work, share it with kindred souls who think your crazy"!" And low and behold, here I am sharing this message with you my friend.

May your journey be sweet and long.  May your dishes be a time of joy, your pick up a space of gratitude and your vacuuming an act of love.  May you never "work" another day.

                                                       Denise Frakes... Life, home and work coach

Take the 7 day breathing challenge - clean off life's residues!

"Breathing in, I calm my body

Breathing out, I smile

Dwelling in the Present Moment

the only Moment"

Thich Nhat Hanh

For my gift to you this January...I'm sharing a 7 day breathing challenge.

7 days...7 exercises for your lungs.  Because, in homes and lives...breathing is life.

Clearing clutter...looking back from yesterday,  last year...or the last 15 years, can uncover grief.  As much as I love joy, grief is also a valuable emotion.  The key is to let grief do her or his work...and then let it flow out.  This may take time...but not too much.  Because when we let grief get stuck...that's when it sets up camp.  Emotions need to flow.  Our stuff need to flow, our emotions need to flow too.  

Did you know lungs are thought to be the organ you hold grief in?

Last year, we all had loss.  A loss of friends and family, a loss of work, a loss of connection a loss of freedom, travel, events...the list is large.  It was an extraordinary year...growth and loss.

You know, we think about grief when we lose someone...but there are many way we grieve.

Every loss can leave it's mark...unless you remember to keep cleaning off life's residues.

If you are feeling a bit down, and or clearing your clutter, or just want to breathe deeper and better...do these exercises everyday in January...and beyond.

The following exercise are by Donna Eden of Energy Medicine and her two daughters, Titanya and Dondi.  Together they created a fantastic 7 day challenge. FYI , I've been a big fan of Donna Eden and her work for over 20 plus years.  

  

These exercises are from a December  7 day challenge.

I did the challenge and continue to do these 7 exercises everyday. I recommend them 

to you too.

 They only take a couple minutes per day.

 The most common side effect I get are big, lung stretching and contented yawns.

Start this new year with fresh breath 

 and clean off some of the residues left by 2020.

Take the 7 day breathing challenge!!!

Clean off life's residues...Nourish your lungs...

Now...start over and do it again....

  Happy new year my friend.  I look forward to many conversations with you this year,

             Denise Frakes

           Home and Life Coach