East Meets West or Love Meets Organization Part 1
January 11, 2011 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Being Love Now meets Getting Things Done, Current Book Discussion

Dealing With Our Stuff. Ram Dass says of this, “…the work is ongoing. Even now, I am still wrestling with contentment in my old age”.
Ah, so it’s not just me…wrestling with both my stuff…and contentment (not to mention the turn of the wheel of age). That’s comforting.
Even for a teacher, a coach, it’s still a process of peeling that onion, wrestling with my stuff.
And that “stuff” is both figurative and actual. The popularity of Feng Shui has helped us all realize the importance of dealing with our physical stuff. David Allen is talking about dealing with our business stuff. And Ram Dass is helping me look at my inner stuff; my inner, conditioned barriers to true love. I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying this.
And the extra challenge of puzzling out how this might relate to my business stuff if both entertaining, frustrating and intriguing to me.
How can having a method to deal with e-mail and social media exchanges, on a daily basis have anything to do with my relationship to Love? But I know it does, indeed.
Just like I’m exploring with my class in Getting to YES Now! the relationship with my own energy to the energy that I experience back from clients, I know that when I find more ease in Getting Things Done, I’ll experience more ease within myself.
So it’s worth challenging the old ways I’ve been doing things in my office. It’s worth challenging my stories about getting it done and no time to “sharpen the ax”. Yep, it’s a whole new year.
This week, I’m taking David’s suggestion in Getting Things Done and spending time in my office, really taking a look at it and making some changes, with the intention that my office will serve me better.
Extra credit for me, is to look at my office and see if there isn’t some way I can both reorganize and create an environment that reminds me, even more of the love I have for my business and my clients.
Want to join me? Would love to hear how you’ve done this, or are doing this.
East Meets West or Love Meets Organization
January 8, 2011 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, Self Coaching Resources
Welcome and Happy New Year! This month I’m going to be reading both Ram Dass, Being Love Now and David Allen, Getting Things Done.
I’ll be honest; I’m hoping to discover that focusing on Love does indeed affect productivity and the bottom line.
So please come join me and share your own stories of Love and Efficiency. Perhaps we can all learn from one another?
Have a question you particularly want to explore? Leave it in the comments below and we can walk the discovery together.
Many bright wishes for a truly prosperous new year,
Deborah
The Intuitive Way, Penney Peirce, Part 5
December 9, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, The Intuitive Way - By Penney Peirce
I’ve become distracted reading the new Be Love Now, Ram Dass (with Rameshwar das).
Well, I say distracted, but it actually seems more synchronicity, or that’s how I think about it, as I continue reading. Because the book is about the presence, the in-the-moment, of soul love.
And Penney Peirce’s information comes from the point of view that taking time to synchronize the heart, the soul’s heart with the creature’s life and senses, is the very essence of discerning and utilizing Intuition.
I’m tempted to open our reading circle, next year, to this book by Ram Dass, thought I had imagined something more “practical”. But what is more practical, truly, that being connected to Love?
So we’ll see. Maybe I’ll do a reading circle “mash-up” (can you tell I’ve been watching Glee?) and mix something that on the outside doesn’t seem to go together yet have some fun seeing what could come of studying simultaneously, Be Love Now and something “practical” like Getting Things Done, by David Allen.
I think this could be an amazing way to ring in the new year, blending Intuition, Productivity and Love. Can it be done?
Thoughts?
The Intuitive Way, Penney Peirce, Part 4
December 2, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Blog, Current Book Discussion, The Intuitive Way - By Penney Peirce

In chapter 4 Penney covers a topic that is a favorite of mine to play with, and one that I get questions about on a regular basis; how do I handle emotional blocks?
Her side note:
“If something negative happens, it doesn’t mean you’re off purpose”
and
” “There is no such thing as a bad vibration”
resonates with my own beliefs about those times in life that I can make up a story that is helpful, or is not helpful.
She highlights a technique she calls “Dialoguing with a Subconscious Block” which reminds me of the tool I teach in the Be Your Own Coach program “Emotions as Guidance”.
Basically she is advocating giving an image and a voice to the subconscious block and then doing some dialoguing. I know this always helps me. And I’m wondering what you all think about this, if you’ve tried dialoguing with your feelings or blocks, even physical pain, and whether you’ve found it helpful?
Did you do it by journaling? Meditating? Guided meditation? Asking and answering a series of questions?
I’d love some thoughts and experiences from you. And I’d love to hear if this process helped you stay connected to your intuitive guidance and creativity too?
Penney talks about Resistance in this chapter too. Which is interesting to me because Resistance is my blog topic this week. You might want to check that out on the front page too. I love her attitude of changing negativity into insight. Good stuff.
The Intuitive Way, Penney Peirce, Part 3
November 14, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, The Intuitive Way - By Penney Peirce

Penney has written a wonderful chapter, Living in Alignment with the Creation Cycle (chapter 3), that not only outlines her ideas of living aligned with what she calls the “Be, Do, Have, Be” cycle but offers many wonderful, quick and easy exercises to help us to avoid, as she says “getting in the way of life with thoughts that don’t move”.
I love the affirmation she has in that chapter that says “I feel anything and everything my body wants me to know”.
I don’t think it was any coincidence that this morning I watched Oprah’s interview with Portia DeGeneres (Portia De Rossi previously), in which she shares her former suffering as an anorexic/bulimic which nearly killed her at age 25.
Portia described how she had become so focused on thoughts (that wouldn’t move) that she lost track of everything and everyone around her. And she sure wasn’t listening to her body.
What saved her? Well, a health crisis, a collapse woke her up to a deeper desire to survive. And she credits a beautiful mare and horseback riding, with bringing her back into her body and into her deeper intuitive guidance.
And it’s the love she’s shared with Ellen, bringing her back present, more deeply to her heart that connected all the pieces. There you go, body, heart and then the head served the now whole person.
I’m thinking that my intuitive gifts and guidance can only be recognized and utilized when I’m not giving total control to only one part (mind, emotions or body) of my “being systems”. This week I’ll be watching and listening more closely to the guidance that I get from each of these, head, heart and body to help me stay available to Intuition’s guidance.
How about you? When you are listening to your head, your heart and your bodies needs too, does that help create a more trusted conduit for Intuitive messages to be perceived, received and acted upon? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
Deborah
The Intuitive Way, Penney Peirce, Part 2
November 11, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under The Intuitive Way - By Penney Peirce

Unlocking the Secrets of Your Subconscious Mind
What if it’s true, what the author, Penney Peirce claims, that everything that I experience in my life is in answer to my inner, silent request for clarity, for an understanding of what lies beneath the surface of the “seen”?
Well, that changes the game then, doesn’t it? If I look more deeply at the experiences in my life, if I see those experiences as having the potential to be interpreted not only through my intellect, but through my intuition, inspiration and creativity…well then suddenly I’m quite the explorer!
I love that. Of what are you the explorer? What feedback, interpreted through your sense of intuition, inspiration and creativity, is your experience offering to you?
I can tell you, my current life lesson are around flexibility (I have teenagers, after all) and trust. And when I step back and allow my intuitive senses to help guide me, I can see and feel new abilities, questions, actions wanting to come forth.
I think I’ve found that during times when I allow myself to stretch into new experiences and abilities, it’s good to have some reliable comfort and support tools to lean on to ease my way. For me, that means rocking, shawls, flannel sheets, warm tea, and frequent walks. What are your reliable comfort activities that help you as you encourage your own shifts and changes?
Deborah
The Intuitive Way, Penney Peirce, Part 1
September 22, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under The Intuitive Way - By Penney Peirce

Last month we talked about Guidance, what it is, how to know if it’s coming in, how to tell if it’s true guidance or just mind chatter, and how to use it.
This month we’re going to continue diving in to the topic of receiving guidance through our intuitive pathways.
Penny makes a bold statement in beginning her book, “Intuition is the long-lost juice of life.”
I going to pick up that theme and run with it this month. So my question for you is this, are you feeling all the “juice in life” that you want? Could you stand to feel a bit more “juice”?
If so, come read along with me and explore how expanding our intuitive skills can pay off in a natural “high” that can have far reaching effects in our business, our relationships and our health.
So I’m going to go get reading and I’ll meet you back later in the week to explore Chapter 3, Living in Alignment with the Creative Cycle. I’ll also be bringing along some other favorite authors with complementary information.
Don’t forget to connect with me to stay updated and drop by Day-By-Day Radio for our very own Donna Seebo, Author of Mind Magic who will be engaging in live intuitive readings for our listeners on the air next month, October 6.
Deborah
Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? Part 5 Is It Guidance or Is It Me?
September 16, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D and Gordon Deverin, Ed.D.

This is a question I get so much, as a coach. Am I hearing Guidance, or is it just my ego mind?
Joan and Gordon has put forth a very solid way of looking at discerning Guidance and Doubt.
They point out that “there is no recipe or formula that can indicate with absolute certainty if it’s God or Ego running the show. The proof is ultimately in the feedback.”
They recount Reb Zalman as sharing, “I must always have doubt where the guidance comes from. Doubt is not the enemy of faith. Doubt is the means by which we scrape off the barnacles from the ship of faith.”
So having doubt can be useful? I like the idea in the book that there are two faces to doubt; one positive or helpful, one negative or not helpful.
The Buddha is quoted as saying that the only way to determine true guidance is on the basis of your own personal experience (chalk one up for determining your own indicators and benchmarks in your self coaching process!)
“It’s a very rational point of view, being open to what’s true and what’s real. And so in that sense you question yourself. It’s a positive or constructive questioning because it’s in the service of knowing a greater truth, and it calls us to a deeper reflection”. Sufi guide, Taj Inayat, Your Soul’s Compass
The point is made that doubt can be an important ally when it opens us to deeper levels of experience and reflection. But the doubt that is negative, or a hindrance is the kind that slows or paralyzes our actions.
So one kind of doubt initiates inquiry, a deeper love for the truth and a greater connection to our true nature and guidance from the Source. While the other kind of doubt brings anxiety, ego chatter and blocks us to hearing or acting on true guidance.
I’ve always liked to say that if the guidance has the voice of love you can trust it, with the caveat to check in with the rational mind for ways to blend the guidance with linear time/space requirements, and the body to get input about physical needs.
And if the voice comes from fear, and you feel your energy dropping, feel yourself losing momentum or falling into negative self-talk, then that is the Critic Mind, the Ego talking. No worries though. I use that as a type of guidance itself to move back into gentle inquiry for the love-heart truth to surface with true guidance.
I hope this series accompanied by the wonderful book Your Soul’s Compass by Joan Boysenko and Gordon Dveirin has been nourishing for you. They have some wonderful additional thoughts on supporting yourself and supporting others as you expand.
You all might know my personal idea, that each journey is an individual journey as we have the privilege to exercise preference. So if you are called to this book, I recommend it as a support on your own journey. And count me as a friend and co-traveler along the way, as well.
To the journey!
Deborah
P.S. Don’t miss our next book, The Intuitive Way. I have a few more companions to join us in our study of Intuition, some wonderful information out there. You can sign up to be notified of our next book discussion or connect with me on one of the social media sites.
Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? Part 4 Into Me See
September 13, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D and Gordon Deverin, Ed.D.
“Receiving Guidance, and then acting on it, requires a balance of the head and heart,” state Joan Borysenko and Gordon Dveirin in their chapter titled “Intimacy, Seeing With the Eyes of the Heart.”

In this chapter they very clearly outline the role of the wisdom of the heart in receiving guidance, and how that knowing that comes from the heart’s wisdom differs from the emotions felt. I like what was said about information that feels less intense than normal emotions, that seems to come from a broader perspective, less from personality and more from the soul.
And I’m wondering about others everyday experiences with the heart’s wisdom. More specifically, I’d love to hear experiences of how the heart’s wisdom, which the authors explain as non-rational, non-verbal even, and faster than the rational mind, can be used with, not opposed to the rational mind.
Shall I go first? Occasionally, as a parent, I’ve found myself in uncharted territory, especially when something or someone is troubling one of my children. I remember a specific incident when I arrived at my daughter’s school to find she was sitting with several other children in the administrator’s office. I was told that they had been throwing rocks down the hill behind the school, onto the neighbor’s roof.
It was my heart, the strong steady guidance of my heart, that came to me with a knowing that this was a very important moment in the development of my relationship with my daughter and her relationship with herself. Thank goodness I listened to my heart.
Because instead of trying to force, fix, or do anything from fear of how others saw me as a parent, I simply focused on what would be the most caring action in that moment. Once my heart was “driving the vehicle” my mind helped me with the details. I assured my daughter it would all be OK, we’d work everything out. We went home and I got her some dinner and a bath. And after comfy jammies and hot chocolate, only then did we timeline the details of the day, the situation, and it’s aftermath. It was an easy stretch to find the learning in the situation and the correct actions to make amends.
To this day my daughter remembers this event, not in an “that was one of the worst days of my life”, but in “I’ll always remember how you didn’t get mad so I knew it was going to be OK” way. And she remembers me as loving, supportive, and comforting. She can also remember what she learned, “that when someone in your group tells you “let’s throw rocks, you go first”, maybe wait and think things through.
So, following the guidance of my heart, and using my mind to work with my heart, certainly led to a greater closeness with my daughter, but more importantly, my daughter didn’t start a pattern of feeling bad about herself that day. And I’ll bet the next time someone says “you go first”, she’ll pause and think about the situation more carefully. So yes, I’m very glad for the wisdom of my heart.
I’d love to hear any stories or situations you’ve experienced where your heart’s wisdom was heard and acted upon. By sharing, we strengthen our results and those of others.
This chapter, as if by magic offered a foreshadowing of our next months study when it quoted Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi:
“In the world of intuition, it doesn’t come in words…”
And Reb Zalmans’ good friend Father Thomas Keeting says:
“this knowing, this subtler quality grows out of the sincerity of one’s practice and the depth of one’s opening to this relationship to God”
A great lead-in as we start our discussion of Intuition next week with The Intuitive Way, by Penney Peirce.
Donna Seebo, author of Mind Magic, will be my guest again on Day-By-Day Radio to answer your questions about Intuition and give live intuitive readings.
Get on the RSS feed so you don’t miss any of our entries exploring Guidance, Intuition, and how to use these to enhance your everyday life.
Wishing you a Happy Fall,
Deborah
Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D and Gordon Deverin, Ed.D. – Part 2
September 1, 2010 by Deborah Ivanoff
Filed under Current Book Discussion, Your Soul’s Compass, What Is Spiritual Guidance? By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D and Gordon Deverin, Ed.D.
I love the metaphor for guidance as a compass, something that can keep us on the path of True North, or as the authors say, “wisdom, God, or Ultimate Reality”. They liken the heart to the center of the compass, with the needle giving us guidance (through the emotions) back to our “True North”.
Just for fun, to live with the idea of this book, I’m attaching a small compass to my sleeve each morning and then checking in throughout the day to what direction I’m pointing. Then, from that awareness, of where I’m pointing in physical space, I’m checking in with where I’m at in my emotional space.
Want to join me? I’d love to hear thoughts, wonders, revelations.
Meet you heading True North.
Deborah








