Category Archives: Hints and Tips

More Tips—Really

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More Tips

Three important tips when using the Back Page of the CalmUp® Journey include:

  • Practice using a conversational style. For example, explore an issue using a question/answer format by writing a question on the left column and answering it in the right column. You can also complain or vent in the left column and respond thoughtfully and compassionately in the right column.
  • Consider using the left column to list all of your fear-based thoughts while using the right column to list your loving feedback.
  • Use the left column to become aware of your stress/worries/concerns about your day. Turn to the right column and start creating your ideal day.

IT’S ABOUT YOU:

  1. Even without an actual CalmUp® Journey in hand, you can begin to improve the quality of your day today with a piece of paper separated into two columns. What have you been silently (or loudly) griping about and how would you thoughtfully respond?
  2. What are your top 3 fear-based thoughts and what loving feedback could you provide?
  3. List all of your stressors, worries, and concerns about the day ahead. How would you start to create your ideal day?

 

Three More Tips for Success in Taking a CalmUp® Journey

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A map can appear daunting when looking at it for the first time, especially when you don’t know where you’re headed. The CalmUp® Journey is no different. At first glance, one could feel overwhelmed by the levels, columns, and sentence completions. Once you figure out where you’re headed on the CalmUp® Journey (up!), you’re on your way to a better day.

Another Tip

Following the first three tips from the June 28 blog, here are three more pointers to help you find your way:  Continue reading...

  • Let go of the fine print. Complete the sentences with the first thing that comes to mind. Consider responding from the soul instead of the intellect. For example, don’t assume that you’re doing something wrong if you complete Level V, and the answer you wrote down has nothing to do with Society. Since we can’t divorce ourselves from our environment, your answer is just fine.
  • Break it up. You probably can’t imagine how to create a new consistent 20-30 minute time period in your day. Please don’t give up before you get started. Consider completing the CalmUp® Journey in short 3-minute segments throughout the day or week. Whether you choose to take a long expedition or a short jaunt, at least you’re going!

Three Tips for Success in Taking a CalmUp® Journey

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When I take my own CalmUp® Journeys, there are several ways that I flourish and improve my rating of peace and joy.

What's This About? See Blog July 15

Here are three pointers I’d like to share with you:  Continue reading...

  • Get off the road and go your own direction. For example, sometimes I’ll complete the majority of the left column (the first 6 levels and especially the left side of the back page) before I’m ready to dive into the right column. Other times, I may jump around and complete one level or question from one column before another.
  • Use the left column of the back page as an arena to vent to yourself instead of your loved ones or coworkers. One way that I clear my own negative energy is to expand on each dark emotion that I listed in Level II. Specifically, I’ll rewrite that emotion on the left column of the back page and then list all of the reasons I’ve been feeling that way. By the time I complete my CalmUp® Journey, my concerns have typically resolved. Otherwise, I’m prepared to communicate assertively rather than aggressively.

Overcoming Fear: Seven Tips You Can Use Today

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In less than 30 minutes, can you fathom moving from feeling scared, nervous, overwhelmed, and stressed to feeling calm, peaceful, joyful, and trusting? Not all fear is the same. Fear can be debilitating and immobilizing. Fear can also prompt us into necessary action. In this blog I’m referring to irrational fear.

  • How can I let go of my fear?
  • How can I open to love?
  • How can I have more faith?

I remember imagining our baby being born with all of our family’s worst physical traits. When I held him for the first time, I was struck that I had completely forgotten about beauty. Our son is now a teenager, and I’m still in awe by his splendor. Why did I ever put energy into fear? Oh yes, soon he’ll be driving…

Feeling unwarranted fear is like being under a spell with no magic wand. The following seven tips for overcoming irrational fear are not magic, yet they work like a magic wand. If you’re feeling fearful, experiment with one or more of these tips, and you may be surprised at how quickly you may feel better.  Continue reading...

  1. Breathe through your fear. Allow for your fearful feeling. Become fully present to the emotion.

Trust Yourself

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One of my CalmUp® customers shared with me that she has no problem working through the left “dark” side of the CalmUp® Journey. However, she often gets stuck on the right “light” side. It’s easy for her to list her dark, negative patterns of thoughts, feelings, and images. Exploring more useful, alternative ways of thinking, feeling, and seeing the world becomes more of a challenge.

I know that my customer speaks for the majority of us, so let’s explore some ways to move from stuck to adaptable:

A.    First, consider how you’d prefer to be. What’s your ideal self? How do you imagine expressing your essential self? Write these ideas down as you complete your CalmUp® Journey. Have trust that how you prefer to be someday is acceptable for today.

B.    A second way to explore the light side of the CalmUp® Journey is to close your eyes and be still. If you remain stuck on a particular level, just move on to another level and come back to that section later. Have trust that there is a solution for every problem, including yours.  Continue reading...

Stress Management Tips for Joyful Efficiency

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Busy is one thing—living in triage-mode is another. Since launching CalmUp®, my to-do list has spawned a new batch of subheadings. My personal organization system started to look like the backside of a cross-stitch. By good fortune, I learned about the technology of creating more than one reminder list.

Does having five reminder lists (the grocery list makes six) seem unreasonable? One person I know has separate reminder lists for each of his college courses, his employment, his hobbies, etc. He even has a written reminder to brush his teeth!

How can I become more efficient?

Reminder lists allow me to determine what I want to work on instead of feeling anxious or stressed out.

On the CalmUp® Journey (see www.DrLorieGose.com), I pictured living my life like a war zone or an emergency room whereby I was triaging the most crucial tasks of the day. Talk about a dark image! If my self-care suffered, then oh well. And if the dishes were all over the counter, who cares?  Continue reading...

Feeling Anxious and Wanna Shake It?

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You complete your CalmUp® Journey, and your rating of peace and joy doubles from a “4” to an “8” on the 1–10 scale. Then on your way to the office, someone dangerously cuts you off in traffic, and your morning is now anything but calm. Your car is fine, and you’re fine. You just can’t shake the anxiety that seems to have taken hold of you.

What do you do? You have to get to work, and you don’t want to go in carrying the morning’s tension. No matter how much you tell yourself to stop being ridiculous, darker thoughts keep creeping in:

  • That bleep driver!
  • What if I’d have been hit?
  • So much for moving up to an “8.” Now I’m more like a “2.”
  • What if something were to happen to me, and I’m not there for my family?”
  • I’m so mad!

It’s strange how your day can change in an instant. A careless driver is just one example of the type of occurrence that has the power to shift your mood from radiant to fatalistic. Even simple events can become upsetting or disrupting, like a clothing tear or a spill, a bad hair day or a blemish, something that gets broken or destroyed. More serious events can leave you feeling anxious or heartbroken, such as the death of a loved one, learning of a terminal illness, or an unexpected disaster.  Continue reading...

Create a New Beginning

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Have you thought about your goals for 2012? Are you ready to create a new beginning? It’s easy to say, “I want to be happy” or “I want to earn more money.” So what and why? What does that mean? How would you know if you were any happier? How much money do you want to make? On what do you want to spend that extra money?

The message for this blog is simple: what do you want, and how are you going to make it happen? At CalmUp®, our vision is to promote inner peace and self-fulfillment so that you can have more energy, live a genuine life, and spread all that joy to those around you.  How can CalmUp® help to transform you into the person you aspire to be if you don’t know the direction in which you’re heading?

I’d like to introduce you to a wonderful program for defining and tracking your goals for the year. It’s called Culture Counts and was developed by Whitney Walpole, a professional leadership coach. I was introduced to Whitney’s program a couple years ago when I was working to get CalmUp® off the ground. I don’t know of any better program for defining and achieving what you want.  Continue reading...