2. Say “no” to answering every message.

The average American receives 201 phone, paper, and e-mail messages a day. Take care of those that are priority and let rest drop off. Ignore messages that are uninvited and unnecessary.

3. Let technology work for you in prioritizing.

Called ID and voice mail can allow you to screen calls. For those who depend upon business coming in via phone and need to take every call, develop a way to shorten incoming sales calls. Telemarketing calls that come in via a computer dial-up have a few seconds of silence before a voice is heard. If that’s case, just hang up. If you are solicited, ask them to please out your name on DO NOT call list. And then hang up.

4. Create a centering place.

Whether it is in silence of your car, or in a shower, or closing your door, take 15 minutes per day to practice paying attention to ONE thing: your breathing, a flower, a fish tank. Like muscle in our bodies, brain gets strong I places where we train it. Focus turns SADD into glad!

© 2000 by Eileen McDargh. All rights reserved. Reprints must include byline, contact information and copyright.

As red-hot rocks were brought in to lodge to create heat and steam for ceremony I began saying to myself, ‘I am safe within womb of mother, I am safe within womb of mother’. I repeated this spontaneous chant over and over as I tried to center and calm myself in rising heat.

When I heard what I was saying to myself I also became aware of a loud voice churning up from depth of my being that shouted, “No, you are NOT safe!”

A flood of memories suddenly washed over me and I remembered what my mother told me about my own birth. She shared that she was terrified when she was giving birth to me.

As if struck by lightening I realized that fear I was experiencing in lodge and in most of my life was not my fear at all. It was my mothers fear. I learned to take on my mothers fear as if it were my own. I also became aware of a bigger part of me that isn’t afraid at all and feels quite confident and at ease in world.

As I later processed what I had created in that sweat lodge I embraced this very profound and life changing lesson.

Here are 4 questions based on Life on Purpose Institute’s Purpose Process to discover if your life is being shaped by thoughts and feelings that limit your wholeness and expression of who you truly are.

1. Are your thoughts often fearful and based in need to survive? 2. Do you sometimes feel unfulfilled and unsatisfied? 3. Do you often say to yourself or others “that’s just way I am”? 4. Do you eventually default back to limiting thinking even when things are going well?

What would your life be like if you learned to embrace those loud, limiting voices, yet not be controlled by them? What if you chose to listen and respond to your true voice instead? Your life would be more relaxed, more in flow. You might finally live your dreams and feel fulfillment and deep satisfaction that is possible when you are living true to who you are. You could walk in sunshine and count your blessings in peace.

It’s your life…imagine possibilities!