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Scared Silly and Back

October 23, 2009 - Posted by Ellie

photo credit: sanbeiji

If you want to take your mission in life to the next level, if you’re stuck and you don’t know how to rise, don’t look outside yourself. Look inside. Don’t let your fears keep you mired in the crowd. Abolish your fears and raise your commitment level to the point of no return, and I guarantee you that the Champion Within will burst forth to propel you toward victory.

— Bruce Jenner

This week we’ve munched and crunched a few of our FEARs with four flexible solutions that will work for anyone who’s willing to tolerate a little silliness along the way. From research touting an unexpected Botox benefit – it’s easier to be happy when you can’t frown – to reliving a trip to the dentist in living color, we’ve jittered among our funky fears and found funny fixes for getting unstuck and for getting to fear-less.

In Monday’s post I linked to research that confirms that a smile can actually make you feel better. And because I don’t think pasting on a forced smile will suffice, I suggested creating your very own “Grins List”…

Did you do it? If not, what are you waiting for? Go for the giggles now so you can produce a genuine smile when you need to fake it ’til you make it. And if you need more reasons to crack a smile besides it’ll make you feel better, check out Top 10 Reasons to Smile And smile, smile, smile!

Then on Tuesday PattiAnn admitted that she has a “picture problem”. Please don’t ask her to visualize desirable futures – she just can’t see them. Or at least, she couldn’t until she learned about a technique called “virtualization” and gave it a try. But did she “try” it on a desirable future??? Oh no. She intrepidly virtualized a couple of her fears. So, in addition to threatening to vividly virtualize her fear of flying for us, she regaled us with a 5-Senses visit to the dentist in Getting to Fear-Less.

Read it and then rescue your runaway hormones by “imagineering” a happy time in your life – pretend you’re in a Star Trek-like Holodeck and, using the 5-Senses virtualization technique, create some good happy-times “memories”. In other words, add more to your Grins-List but this time, see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and feel it. It’ll make you happy-more and fear-less. And if you’re having a hard time with this virtualizing technique, take a look at one woman’s Wednesday afternoon… or savor a clever bunch of kids’ cool apple poems.

Continue reading » Scared Silly and Back

Good & Plenty We Be

October 9, 2009 - Posted by Ellie

photo credit: renaissancechambara

Earlier this week I inadvertently buried what I think is a not-to-be-missed “gem” at the end of a post. But maybe it’s just me and you won’t get the same charge I got – it looks like fun and it makes me smile… And perhaps I should add a warning “Don’t try this at home!” Or, I don’t know, maybe some of you out there can actually DO the Weeble Wobble Don’t Fall Down?

All right, Ellie – ENOUGH ALREADY with all the maybe-ing! They’ll either like it or they won’t.

So, dear readers, make me (and maybe you) feel good, Click on Weeble Wobble Don’t Fall Down! And then tell me if you like it as much as I do.

Reading the posts from this week has convinced me that we’re all too hard on ourselves. What with:

the inner critics that whisper us into wobbling,
the guilt that deceives us into believing we’re not enough,
the negativism that spirals us into despondency, and
the tough spots that have us boxed in…

…what’s a body to do???

Continue reading » Good & Plenty We Be

WobblingWeeble vs. Inner Critics

October 7, 2009 - Posted by Ellie

photo credit: nagillum

Are your inner critics whapping your Best Shot Process a bit off kilter? How do you bounce back when your inner critics are raging?

What in the Heck Is a “WobblingWeeble”???

Well, that would be me bouncing back like the toys in Hasbro’s nostalgic jingle, “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” I whimsically envision myself stalwartly standing up to the antics and attacks of my fierce inner critics:

They go – Whap-Whap-Whap!
While I sing – Weebles wobble but they won’t fall down!

Ok, ok, I suppose some of you are just too young to remember the jingle so take a listen to the old-time “Weebles Wobble”.

Silly as it sounds, this bit of make-believe helps me withstand the onslaught of my very vociferous, willful and shameless inner critics who delight in: