Sep25
Posted on Sep 25 by Ruth Davis
Self-Care doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. It doesn’t have to be a day at the spa or a lavish dinner out. Even the simplest acts of taking care of yourself will bring great benefit to you. So many of my clients spend hours in front of their computers. Most do not even think to take a break for anything more than a quick bite to eat or a run to the bathroom. When we sit at our desks, our shoulders are hunched forward, our neck is stiff, our heart is closed. It is so important to regularly counter this posture with stretches and movement. Take regular breaks from sitting in front of your computer Get up from your desk and raise your arms slowly over your head. Grab your left wrist with your right hand and gently tug, feeling the stretch in your side body. Breathe into the space. Switch hands and stretch your other side, breathing into the stretch. Shrug your shoulders up. Really squeeze them toward your ears. Then release. Do this several times, feeling...
Aug17
Posted on Aug 17 by Ruth Davis
Delight Yourself First That’s the message that writer, artist, color queen SARK shared this past weekend at the annual Coaching Conference at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe. Don’t just write a list of to-do’s, make the activity fun and exciting and delightful. If you want to go to Europe, she said, instead of writing down Get a Passport, find your passport application and fondle it lovingly. If your dream is to plant a garden, don’t Buy Fertilizer. Go on a fertilizer adventure. Anyone who is familiar with SARK, free spirit and author of 15 inspiring books, knows that she lives a life of delight. Her loud laugh fill the room with her true love of living. We all have creative dreams, she said. Your creative dreams will wait for you. They want to be made real. She shared some of her tools and tricks for keeping her own creative dreams alive. Action comes before inspiration, she said. Find ways to delightfully make micro-movements to make your dreams real. AN INVITATION TO YOU: Say YES to something...
Aug04
Posted on Aug 4 by Ruth Davis
They say that if you are a runner and want to improve your speed, you should run with someone faster than you. That the competition will motivate you, challenge you, inspire you to be better, faster, stronger. My dream is to write my book about living creatively, travel around the country in my RV to book-signings and speaking engagements and lead guest workshops. For years, this dream was just a quiet, private vision in my own head. It wasn’t until this past year that I have shared my dream out loud and taken action to make it happen. I am teaching my workshops again locally, and I have started writing my book. I am on my path, moving forward to realizing my bigger dream. And on most days I feel balanced and content with the pace of how I am moving. And then I see my mentors up-leveling their lives, offering webinars and teleconference calls, touring all over with their newest books and suddenly I feel very far behind in my own goals and I wonder if I will...
Jul15
Posted on Jul 15 by Ruth Davis
Your attention is the most powerful creative tool that you have. We’ve all heard that energy follows thought. That if we think….. then…… is bound to happen. If you seek out kind people, you will meet kind people. If we are always complaining about something, then there will always be something to complain about. What would happen if you shifted your thoughts? Adjusted your attention? Would you even be willing to try? For one day, consciously pay attention to everything that you think is beautiful. It could be a vase of flowers, the sky, a table setting, a person’s smile, the arrangement of fruits at your local market–whatever beauty is for you–notice it, acknowledge how it makes you feel, even share it with someone else. At the end of the day, write or draw or express how your day of beauty felt. What else did you notice about the day and the interactions you experienced? Would you be willing to do this every...
Jul04
Posted on Jul 4 by Ruth Davis
For months, probably years, I have been wanting connection. Connection to others, to myself, to nature. Saying this, acknowledging this, becoming aware of this need is a wonderful first step. But I wanted more. I wanted a deeper connecting. As with everything, I had to begin with myself. Connection happens in the quiet moments when we are able to tune out the chattering voices in our heads and move into the deeper, wider space inside. It takes patience to find this space and practice to be able to stay there. And yet, it takes very little action on our part to begin. Every morning I sit outside with my bowl of bran cereal dotted with dried cranberries and I begin my day with noticing. I notice my thoughts, the sky, the smell of the eucalyptus leaf mulch that covers my dirt yard. I sip my coffee and delight in the fat yellow cat claw blossoms strewn on the ground from last night’s wind. I watch the birds in my yard, but it isn’t until I notice their individual stripes...
