Fun inspiration five ways!

Happy Thursday, everyone! There are so many great things happening right now!  And something here might be just the dose of inspiration you need! First, on Monday I was a guest on Stacey Shank's Blog Talk Radio Show - she's the mastermind behind the 30 Day Challenge that I participated in. We talked about how to realize our own overwhelm and ways to remedy that and live more calmly. And I do a cool sense drenching activity that's super relaxing. If you have 30 minutes, give it a listen! - click the little play icon below.

Listen to internet radio with Stacey Shanks on Blog Talk Radio

Second, I'm so excited about my upcoming Clarity and Connection retreat - right on the Autumnal Equinox- September 21-23 - a perfect time to be quiet in nature so you can hear your soul. Waterfall hiking, an incredibly beautiful and relaxing setting, and the perfect mix of unstructured time and group time to share with other wise women. I still have spots available, so check your calendar and see if a personal getaway in September is just what you're looking for! Read more details and sign up here.

Third, if you're in the New Orleans area, I have two wordless walks coming up!  I'm hosting a morning walk on Sunday August 26 at 8 a.m. and then a moonlight wordless walk on Friday, August 31 - it's a special blue moon!  You can read more about these events here. And if you're not near New Orleans, have you signed up to get my free wordless cure for busyness?  It gives you great directions on how to take your own wordless walk, and how to incorporate more wordlessness into your daily life and dial back the busyness.  You can sign up on the side bar to the right, or if you're reading this on a phone and don't see a side bar, then click here.  Then you'll be subscribed and get email updates from me and exciting offers and other fun wild and precious goodies!

Fourth, I am looking for people to share their experiences with wordlessness for my Wordless Wednesdays. I want to start a wordlessness revolution and I would love to feature you and your wordless video or photos.  Feel free to write about your wordless experience as well.  Send your wordless goodies to me: carla@livingwildandprecious.com - and if you include your snail mail address in your email, I'll send you a treat!

Fifth and best of all, if you're at all interested in seeing how coaching can make a difference in your life, this is a great time to find out. My coaching rates will be increasing in September, so now's the time to jump in, invest in yourself and save some money at the same time.  Are you itching to live more wild and precious? Click to schedule a free call with me and learn more!

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And this is just the beginning - I have some new Wild and Precious yumminess coming very soon, and I can't wait to tell you about it!

Wordless Wednesday - summertime at Crane Creek

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ3HaP7b1CM&feature=youtu.be] I haven't gone to bed, so it's still Wednesday to me!  I think this may be one of my favorite one minute wordless videos so far.  Can you hear the cicadas?  Enjoy!

And if you have wordless photos or videos to share, please email them to me and I'll share them on Wordless Wednesdays!  carla at livingwildandprecious dot com.

Worshiping at the altar of busy

It's funny, I was talking to a good friend about my crusade against the word "crazy-busy" and this idea of everyone telling everyone else how busy they are all the time, like it's a badge of honor. And surprisingly, she said, "Do you know how embarrassing it is not to be busy?  What are you supposed to tell people?"

Oh. Right.  That's how we show that all is well in our culture.  A packed calendar, a list of accomplishments - a whole lot of doing, doing, doing.  We're fine - we're  just so busy!

Me - I'm starting to rebel against this kind of thinking. For the past bunch of years, I've been slowly chipping away at this concept. Now when people ask, "How are you?  Really busy?"  I've stopped saying, "Oh, yeah. Things are just so busy." Because I really don't want to live that way anymore.

Sure, sometimes I'm still busy, and sometimes my days are super-full.  But I'm not all proud of it anymore.  In fact, when my calendar gets too stuffed, I get honest with myself about what's going on that's led me to pile up so many appointments or commitments.  I get really curious.  Especially if I'm saying yes to everyone but myself.

I know what you might be thinking - that you don't have any choice.  That there's absolutely nothing you can do to escape the modern scourge of busyness.  Or that if you do elect to be less busy, that you'll be excluded, ostracized, shunned. And God forbid you don't sign your kids up for every available sport, activity, party, etc. Really - if we weren't busy with all of this stuff, what would we post on Facebook?  Pictures of us finally getting enough sleep???

If you are craving a weekend of less busy and more you, with time to think and reflect and perhaps create a new reality for yourself by figuring out how to say yes to what you really want and no to what you don't,  consider joining me for my Clarity and Connections retreat in beautiful St. Francisville, LA, July 27-29.  A small group of women gaining clarity about what we really want and connecting with nature, ourselves and each other.  With waterfalls included!  Check out the details here.

I've designed it for me - what I mean is that it's exactly what I want when I'm craving  a weekend to press my own internal reset button.  There will be plenty of Wordlessness à la Martha Beck, plus free time to lounge and reflect, along with some powerful tools that will give you major clarity, fast, even if like me, you're already sold on the idea of backing off on busy.

$99 reserves your spot, and there's still time to get the early bird rate! Click here to go to the information page.

And I'd love to hear your thoughts about busyness.  How are you dealing with it in your daily life?

Messages from the animals

I went to the swamp on a sunny Friday morning, getting ready to host a wordless walk the next day. I decided to visit my favorite tree, a giant live oak maybe 50 feet off the trail - to get there you have to kind of bushwack through the palmettos, so once you curl up in the tree's giant roots and settle in, it's as if you're in your own primeval cozy secret spot- with the Spanish moss waving in the branches high above, and the rustling fronds of palmettos all around you. I sat quietly for a while, happy to have nothing to do but sit. I'll be honest - the past two months have felt like a pretty big whirlwind as I completed coach training, started a mastery coach class, went to the coach summit in Phoenix, turned my paperwork in and got tested and certified, took a trip on the Appalachian Trail - and in the middle of it all kept doing my regular coaching and tutoring work. My calendar had been looking a little crazy, and that's exactly what I promise freedom from! Hmmm. Time to walk the walk.

So there I was. Sitting under a giant tree, gazing into woods under the arched palmettos.

And I sent out a request for the animal who had a message for me to appear.

And I am not making this up. Within five seconds I saw her, about 20 feet away, stock still, and staring at me.

This was my view. Do you see her? It's hard to tell.  I'll circle her.

Still not sure?  Well, what I did was crawl about 15 feet closer to her, and I sat with her for a while- maybe 20 minutes or so.  Neither of us moved much, especially her.  She blinked and moved her head a little, but she didn't take a single step.  Here she is close up.

I didn't reach out to pick her up.  It seemed to me that we had an understanding and I didn't want to disturb her.  I think she might be a three-toed box turtle, And I'm not 100% sure it's a she - I would have needed to look at the shape of the bottom of her shell - the plastron- to see if it was flat or indented.  That her eyes are orange, not red, means she's a female I think, but I'm not super-sure. (Can you tell I was once a naturalist and a science teacher??)

Anyway, I needed her message.  Slow down. Clear that calendar so you can work on the projects you've been back-burnering.  Or to just to take care of you.  Rest.  Retreat.  All is well right now.  No need do rush headlong into the future.  Take small steps and you'll get there.  Or take no steps and just be present for a little while.  Breathe and be. Just for a while each day.  If you move too fast you'll miss everything.  You'll forget to savor.  You'll fail to enjoy the process.  Maybe there's some time needed to bask in some accomplishments - to take them in.

Right.  Thank you! What a timely reminder.

After a while I left her, quietly and gratefully, and had a lovely rest of the day. The spring woods couldn't be more beautiful. I know - this may be a complete coincidence.  Maybe it was just lucky.  But that's fine.  I'll take it.  I needed to be reminded, and I got the message.  Take it slow.  You'll get there.

Interested in more messages from the animals?  Check out What the Walrus Knows, a beautiful book about animal totems and the messages we can receive from them, by Sarah Seidelmann, a fellow coach and amazing wayfinder.  I'm all for animal wisdom for everyone!

Celebration and Vacation!

I'm exactly the same as I was yesterday morning.  But I feel just a little more capable, a little more powerful, a little more sure.  Coaching teaches us not to seek external approval, but today I'm celebrating that I've completed my tests, passed with flying colors, and I'm now officially a Martha Beck Certified Life Coach!!  Whether I want to admit it or not, it's really nice to hear from a master coach that I know what I'm doing and I'm doing a good job, and to have the "official title".  And now it's time to celebrate! I'm leaving for a week of hiking on the Appalachian Trail tomorrow! I'm going with a dear friend who's never been backpacking, and we're starting at the same place I started my  flip-flop thru-hike three years ago - at beautiful McAfee Knob!

While I'm away, I'll mostly be soaking in the joys of hiking and being outside for 24 hours a day, but I'll also be ruminating, planning, and dreaming. Because-- mark your calendars--  in May 2013 I'll be taking a small group of women who want to learn to take care of themselves in the woods on a fantastic coaching and backpacking retreat!  And I'm so excited to share this incredible experience with women who've been dreaming about it - all those people who ask me all the time, "How did you do that?" and say,  "I would love to hike and backpack, but I don't know enough about it."

So if that's you, sit tight and put a big circle in May on your 2013 calendar- the little one in the back of your planner- or if your calendar's electronic I guess you can just type it in!

I'll also be playing around with wordlessness and oneness during my trip to the woods and I can't wait to tell you all about what happens!

Enjoy this beautiful time of spring, rebirth and renewal, and if you take a wordless walk, email me your story and photos to carla@livingwildandprecious.com, and I'll feature you on Wordless Wednesdays!