Henry Thoreau is right on target.  It seems simply doesn’t it, if we desire less, we’ll have more– more time, more disposable income, and perhaps more happiness.   As you struggle with the demands and complexities of life on a daily basis, you probably desire a simpler, happier and harmonious life.   You may be tempted to utilize more technology to make your life simpler, but does technology really makes our life simpler or add to the complication and clutter?   What makes for a simpler life is a true assessment of your wants and needs.  Adding another thing may  only increase the stress or complicate the process even further.  There are many ways to simplify your life, but in this short article, I am offering two simple things you can do today to simplify your life.  The first is to remove clutter from your life.  What usually come to mind when most people think of clutter is disorganized things that impede movement or limit their effectiveness.  However, there is another kind of clutter that  isn’t in your physical environment, it is what I call, mental clutter. 

Mental clutter, as I define it, is any negative emotion, memory, thought, or feeling that take up space in your mind and leave you feeling drain, remorseful, angry, confused or conflicted.  This type of clutter inhibits your ability to fully function at your highest level, because it either divides or takes your energy,  which means that you are left with very little energy to focus on the important things.   Most people are not consciously aware of this type of clutter  and that it may just be the source for their low energy, lack of motivation, or stress.   Most often, they attribute it to something or someone else and tend to remedy it by engaging in activities, or distractions that only in the short-term make them feel better .  Dealing effectively with mental clutter requires a heightened sense of awareness of the things that have impacted you negatively.  Once you’ve become aware, you can begin the process of de-cluttering your mind.  One way to do this is by releasing these negative emotions and thoughts by meditating.   Another very simple step is to inject quiet into your life.  Turn off and tune out the TV, radio, video games, cell phone, and the other distractions that keep you plugged in.  Having a clear mind allow you to focus your energy on the things that matters most and be better at making impactful decisions.

Another suggestion for simplifying your life is live within your means. Unless you are wealthy, you should be living within the boundaries of your income.  Basically, don’t spend more than what you make.  Although the following example is elementary, I think it is warranted because we are living in a credit-driven society, which means most people prefer to use credit over saving for the thing they want.  Needless to say, if you’re making $65,000 per year, your living expenses shouldn’t exceed this amount.  The rule of thumb is that you spend approximately 30% of your income on housing, put aside 10% for savings (in today’s unstable economy you may want to consider saving a little more, if you can) and the remaining spent on your other physiological needs such as food, transportation, clothing, etc.  Saving 10% of your income may be easier said than done. Depending on where you are living, you are spending more than 30% of your income on your housing, so that may even take away from your ability to save.  Also, you may not possess financial prudence, or may be an impulsive buyer.  If so, your next move is to get a handle on the problem. Try attending a financial literacy class that will help you develop your budget management skills and prioritize saving.  

Simplifying your life is not only an investment in yourself, but is also an added value to your family, friends, and coworkers.  When you are able to balance time, balance your budget, and balance your life you are able to be more effective, confident, calm, and organize.   If you want to love the life  you are living and live the life you love, then simplify your life.  For more information about ways to simplify your life,  please contact Deborah at info@indigocoachingsystems.com .

Believe it or not, joy is critical to your well-being as the food you eat, your shelter and the relationships you foster.   Joy is one of the fundamental principles of life, a positive emotion that makes us feel good about living and with it comes a love for life.  There is strong evidence that shows the benefits of happiness, another feeling that comes from joy.  Research suggests happy people have more success, live longer, and have better health because they are more likely to have a stronger immune system.  In one study, over 2,200 Mexican-Americans aged 65 and over were tested for positive emotion, another way of indicating happiness, and then tracked for two years. After controlling for other variables, researchers found that happy people were 50% more likely to live and 50% less likely to become disabled. Read more at Suite101: The Six Life Benefits of Happiness: Being Happy Feels Good and Is Good For  You http://personaldevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_six_life_benefits_of_happiness#ixzz0gSvig9IZ

Still not thinking about finding joy in your life? If not, I encourage you to do so by taking a deeper look at yourself.  You will be astonished by what you discover,  which will be your true desire to live a joyous life. Joy is a choice and it requires more than your intention, it requires action.  Joy isn’t necessarily happiness, which primarily comes from “happenings”.  For example, an event occurs such as a the purchase of your first home, a marriage proposal, or landing a new job which will stimulate feelings of happiness.  However, the novelty runs out and these things eventually become ordinary, or sometimes more work.  They are now part of your daily life and the happiness soon wears off.   But joy doesn’t require an event occurring to stimulate a positive emotion.  One dictionary defines joy as “the passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; gladness; exhilaration of spirits”.  Joy is a delightful state of being that requires a heightened sense of consciousness and actions.  If your intention is to live a joyous life, then you must take action now. 

Here are 40 sure-fire things you can do to ignite joy into your life:

1: Sing a song

2: Read a book

3: Buy your favourite childhood game and play it.

4: Play your piano

5: Dance your a** off

6: Call up your old friend and reminisce about old times

7: Make your favorite meal and invite friends over

8: Make up a story and tell it to your child at bedtime

9: Run a mile as fast as you can

10: Jump for Joy: Do 100 jumping jacks without stopping

11: Take a vacation, go somewhere different

12.  Tell a joke

13.  Wear a smile on your face for the entire day

14.  Thank your boss for not firing you (you know you haven’t done any meaningful work in a while

15: Kiss your hands

16:  Say I Love You to yourself 100 times without pausing

17:  Watch a funny movie

18: Kiss your spouse for 1 minute without stopping

19: Take dance lessons

20: Plan a block party

21: Wear red and yellow

22: Say I love you to someone and mean it

23: Let someone get in front of you at the grocery store or in traffic

24: Write a poem

25: Chaperon your child’s field trip

26: Bake a cake from scratch

27:  Draw a picture (you don’t need to be an artist to do this, stick figures are acceptable)

28: Complete a 500 piece puzzle

29: Buy a new comforter set

30: Send flowers to your “enemy” ( this can be your piece offering)

31: Listen more, talk less

32: Surprise yourself, do something extraordinary

33: Say your sorry

34: Pay off your lowest credit card debt by the end of the year

35: Save at least 10% of your income (if you’re on a tight budget, save $50 every pay period)

36: Learn a new sport

37: Paint a room

38: Donate new clothing or food

39: Sponsor a child in Haiti

40: Visit a friend or a family member that you haven’t seen in a while

I would like to introduce you to a powerful tool, your intuition.  This tool rarely gets the recognition it deserves because it isn’t valued by many as a credible source of information.  Defined as the “power of knowing”, intution is a phenomenal gift.  This gift can assist you in raising your consciousness, increasing your self awareness, identifying trends in business, discovering new solutions, gaining innovative insights into complex issue; and strategically plan.

Imagine for a moment you had a map for your life.  This map shows you where you need to go and what you need to do to be successful in life.  Wouldn’t that be great?  I tell you what, it will make life easier, especially when it comes to making decisions.  Well you do have a map, it is called intuition.  Your intution is a powerful gift that once developed, can be the map you need to navigate life and provides you with instructions that alert you when to take action,  slow down, speed up, or change direction.  When you listen to your intution, you will find that your life will be simplier and happier.

If you are interested in developing your intutitive abilities, it is easy to do.  All you need is a belief in the principle and a positive attitude.  You can start by quieting your logical mind. This can be done by practicing meditation, deciphering your dreams, or journaling.  After you have quited your mind, you should identify your type of intuition, which can either be emotional, mental, or kinesthetic; most people have a combination of the three.  Knowing your type of intuition helps you to clearly distinguish its messages from other culprits such fear, negative emotions, anxiety, etc., and gain mental clarity. To help the intuitive messages get through, I encourage you to be aware of your habits, tendencies or traits. This will help you to differentiate between your intuition and common culprits that can lead you astray.

To be successful in today’s society, you need more than just traditional intellectual skills such as writing, reading, communication, etc.  What is also required is your ability to acknowledge and manage emotions within your self and in others and your capacity to make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Your intution is your additional skill and a successful tool that will guide you through this process.  I encourage you to learn to trust and practice using your intuition.

 In defining the New Economy, I’ve decided to place more emphasis on selfworth because it is time to stop equating our value to what’s in our bank accounts and our 401K’s.  In the New Economy selfworth is the measurement of your value.  Your selfworth is assessed in terms of your skills, knowledge, values, expertise, experience, aptitude, determination, ambition, and the contributions you make to your family, friends, community, the earth, and the investments in yourself.  Selfworth is the “value” that is transferred from you to your relationships, your purpose, and contributions that produce a high level of productivity and proactivity.  If you are going to accept the ideology of the New Economy you will need not only to shift your thinking, but also change your behavior.  This adjustment requires you to think outside of what you have been thought about life, your value and the way you are currently measuring success. 

This shift will enable you to place the value of money in its proper context—a tool use in exchange for goods and services, and provide the means to acquire your basic human needs (shelter, food, clothing, etc.).  By placing money into its proper context, you are able to clearly see that there is much value in your “selfworth”.  The value is qualitative; it is the quality of your relationships, your effectiveness as a person, your potential, and the quality of your contributions to your family and community.  In the New Economy, the emphasis is placed on human worth. The resources, knowledge, and information that come from people are just as powerful, if not more so, than money.

In the New Economy there is a strong focus on sustainability, building families and communities.  Actually, the concept of a New Economy isn’t really new at all; it once existed before, but it was overtaken by consumption, greed and individualism.  Unfortunately, we’ve managed to move away from family and community—important elements of our survival.  We may attribute the reason to technological advances which have influence other kinds of changes.  Change is inevitable and some may argue that to survive you must keep up with the changing times, or be left behind.  I believe it is important to adjust and adapt to change, if we don’t, we may be adversely impacted.  But it doesn’t mean we have to accept all the changes that come our way.  Basically, we shouldn’t allow our survival to be solely dependent on external forces such as the economy, a job, the stock market, etc.  We have become too comfortable with the idea that some thing, other than us, is responsible for our survival. 

We are responsible for ourselves and it isn’t enough these days to put aside money in your 401K and hope that the market will work in your favor so you can have enough money for retirement.  It’s not enough to make millions of dollars and spend it on “things” that don’t fill the void in your souls. Your survival shouldn’t be totally contingent on these sources.  Rather, your survival is interdependent and interconnected to your community, family and your self-worth. 

I charge you to think about everything you need that allows you to live the life you want, then create a system for it.  A system means a “way of doing something”, so the system you create can be outside of the traditional method of earning money.  It should be legal, meets your basic needs, enables you to take care of your family and community, and helps you explore your interests.  Also, the system should allow you to capitalize on your potential, utilize your skills, and benefit your community. Any system you create should fuel your way of life and work well, not just for you, but everyone that has contributed to the development of the system, as well as the benefactors. This system should produce new ideas, expand your potential and achieves your Goals, Dreams and Purpose (GDP). Your GDP is the fundamental element that directly impacts your happiness and quality of life.  Simply put, your system should not only be a money-making entity.

What does this really means?  How do you put this into practical terms?  Well if money is a concern for you now, as it is for millions of Americans today, you can develop a system such as a peer lending group that provides financial assistance to any member of the group experiencing financial hardship.  In today’s economy, many people have lost their jobs, cannot acquire loans because banks are very strict with their lending practices, so developing a peer lending group is an alternative to acquiring money from traditional lending institutions that usually require lengthy paper work, good credit, if not excellent credit in today’s market.  A peer lending group is a good alternative and can be a vital source of financial support that can be easily accessed by a member when the need arise.

In the New Economy human connection and human potential are rated on a higher scale than the value of money.  In this current economy, money holds a significant value and to some extent, rightfully so, because it would make it difficult, if not near to impossible to live a decent life without it.  However, human connection and human potential are equally important, and in some aspects, even more important than money. The New Economy understands the value of human connection, human potential, and self-worth and most of all the value they bring to our lives and communities.

The daunting news is going to continue with even grimmer speculations for the first half of 2009.  The question is, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to continue allowing all of the negative reporting to determine the faith of your life, or are you going to take control by rejecting the belief that all is grim and focusing on some sure-fire solutions to help you and your family get through the tough times?

From my analysis, if you’re not in the top 3 % of the population in terms of wealth, your economic livelihood is doomed because it is directly tied to the “bad” economy.   To some extent that is true, we can’t deny the fact that many of us work for someone else for a living and if your company is impacted by the economy there’s a great chance you will not have a job, therefore, affecting your economic condition.   However,  your economic condition isn’t just tied to your employment, it is greater than that.  It is your ability, capacity, skills and talents that you can capitalize on to develop a new approach to your economic survival.    Once you understand that you are not limited by your employment status, you can take control of your life by limiting your dependence on the economy.

The “New Economy” is an economy that is driven by  your individual choice,  a shift in prespective and development of sustainable resources.  It means changing the way you are currently living your life from the types of goods and products you consume, to the food you eat and the types of activities in which you engage.  It may mean limiting your consumption which will decrease your spending, and investing in  quality resources that yield high sustainable returns.  No, I’m not talking about traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, CDs, etc.  I’m talking about people.  Yes, believe it or not your friends, family, associates are quality resources.  You can harness their time, skills, expertise, strengths to develop systems that are mutually beneficial and highly sustainable to your quality of life.

The “New Economy” means less focus on money and more focus on human potential and human connection.  Sound far fetched to you?  Well, consider this.  All across the USA there are people  living in communities that are almost completely independent of the economy.  They do not consume foods that are mass produced and instead grow their own food.  Their homes are powered by solar energy.  They live amongst other peopole that support their other phsyiological needs such as social interaction and acceptance.  Now sure this may sound a bit extreme for most, but it’s a great example of how we have the ability to control how much of an impact the economy has on our lives.

The “New Economy” means your choice between meeting a need or fullfilling a want.  It means changing your perception of what’s important.   Ask yourself, is that $50,000 car a need, or a desire? especially if you can only afford a $20,000 car.   Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with giving in to your desires every once in a while.  Our desires make us human.  But to thrive and not just survive in these times requires smart decision-making and perhaps the temporary sacrifice of a dream/desire.

In this “New Economy” the measure of success isn’t about your financial status, or fame.  It is about your economic literacy and knowledge of creating effective systems that have a positive and wide-range impact on other’s lives.  It is about changing your relationship with money by understanding it’s true purpose, an instrument use for exchange of goods, services, products, not the measurement of success.

The New Economy is offered as a workshop.  Contact me for more details at info@indigocoachingsystems.com.

One day I had devastating news that changed my life forever.  I learned that my wife of 30 years died suddenly and to no avail the autopsy did’not provide any reasons for her death.  Soon after I buried my wife, I got extremely depressed and I stopped living.  You see my wife was my life, she kept me motivated, inspired and alived. 

Who will be that person to assure me that it’s a dream when I have vivid images of the horrors of war? Who was going to cook my favorite dish using the right blend of herbs and spices, or fill the room with scents of jasmin and ginger?

You see, there was no one, and even if so, I would have refused to let her take that role.  So I stopped living altogether, I stopped working, stopped bathing, stopped paying my bills, after all why?  I couldn’t convinced myself anymore of the importance of these things?  In my mind, they were unecessary and I felt like I didn’t need these things any more.  Soon after her death it became unbearable for me to live in my house any longer as memories of her were everwhere.  I stopped paying the mortgage and lost it to the bank.  

A year after her death, I still found myself longing, needing her love and attention.  Everyone around me told me to move on, there were other things to live for, but I couldn’t.  I just didn’t have the strength or desire to live anymore.

It has now been twenty years since her death and I still grieve the lost of my wife, who was my best friend and my love.  I sometimes wish for her memory to be erased from my mind, at least I would be released from the pain and maybe I could put my life back together.  But her memory still lives on like it was just yesterday.   

Who am I you may ask?  You may have met me before and didn’t recognized me.  You might have passed me in the streets and turned your face away from me because you couldn’t stand the sight or even the smell of me.  You may have even thought when you saw me, get a job, get clean up, get off of drugs, do something worthwhile with your life.

You see, I am one of the millions of homeless people living in America with a story.  I am a person just like you, but I’ve suffered a terrible lost in my life and never recovered from it.  I’m the homeless man who sits on the corner everyday dreaming that one day my best friend will be returned to me.

Don’t feel sorry for me because it was my choice that got me here, just count me in and remember my brothers and sisters.  They too are people with personal stories.  Some more devastating, others not so devastating, just poor choices. 

Count me in and the millions of young children all across the world that are loosing their parents to AIDs, war, terriosm and senseless violence.

Count me in when you’re spending your money on things you don’t need, but want.  Think about giving it to a charity that addresses these types of issues.

Count me in when you’re shopping for clothes.  Buy an extra pair for my little sister who’s running around in a disease infested street in one of the poorest country of the world, Haiti.

Count me in by supporting the organization that removes land mines from fields so my little brother can play without the threat of danger.

Count me in when you’re buying food.  Support a church or organization that feeds families in need.

Just count me in, either in your thoughts or actions.

I can’t help to feel discourage when I listen to all that’s wrong with the economy.  There is an internal conflict that goes on every time I hear how crappy things are.  The struggle goes something like this.  The monologue from my conscious, logical and rational self says: well Deborah, things are gettting worst and there isn’t anything you can do about it.  It is bigger than you, you might as well accept the enevitable and start changing your course of action.  No need for hope or optimism, the economy is what it is and there’s nothing you can do that will make it better.  However, contrary to my conscious self, my spiritual self vehemently refutes this and label it as noise.  It refuses to allow me to give in and just accept the way things are.  Actually, it doesn’t allow me to hold on to this thinking for more than a minute.  My spiritual self keeps reminding me that there is always hope, there is always another alternative, and there are choices.

So I ask what choice does a person has who is either facing foreclosure, has no retirement, no health insurance for a sick love one, or no money to feed, cloth and keep a roof over their children’s head?  How do you convince them that they are choices, alternatives, or even opportunities, especially when they are in the mist of a crisis?  I may not have the right answer, but there is something to say about a person’s will to survice, a person’s faith in something bigger and more powerful than themself, something that goes beyond their own rational thought and reason, something that can transform systems and people, something that perform miracles when they need them the most.

And that is what we do in times of dier need and despair, we keep the faith, we create our own good news and we look for the smallest blessings in our lives and be grateful for them.  We look for guidance from within and don’t put much emphasis on the Bad News that keeps bombarding us.  And if we are the victims of such bad news, we look for the one small good that is in it.  Whatever we do, we don’t give in and we don’t give up.  We hear stories of people defying the odds, people that have survived horrible situations.  The two common elements in these stories are they never gave up, or a miracle happened.  You know, it blows my mind everytime when I hear there are survivors of a plane crash.  The only explanation in my mind is a miracle. 

It’s okay to feel discourage, even hopeless, but we shouldn’t give in to these feelings and allow them to control our actions.  We can begin to make better choices with the little resources we have and begin to tap our creativity for new ways for living a better life.

The current economy is a living nightmare for some of us, but we can control some aspect of that nightmare by making better choices everyday.  We can eat out less, find natural health remedies for our sick love one, spend less on entertainment outside of the house and introduce some of our childhood games to our children.  Read more, watch less television, turn off the light when we leave the room, drink more water instead of fruit juices and sodas, buy in bluk, open up a window instead of turning on the AC, or cook more meals at home. 

You may say, this is a simplistic approach to complex problems and I may even agree.  I’m not saying this will change the economy or your situation now, but it gives you choices, however minute they are, which may place you in a stronger financial position in the long-run.  

So have I taken some of my own advice?  Yes, my husband and I agreed to eat out as a family only once a week, and he is now taking breakfast and lunch at least three times a week to work.  We’ve cut at least $70 off our weekly expenses, which amounts to $3640 per year.  We are taking a prevention approach to our health and is undergoing a natural cleansing for 30 days.  We are also reading more with our son and finding creative ways for us to have fun as a family without spending lots of money.  We buy what we need and reward ourselves accordingly.  We are simplifying our life in drastic ways, resulting in less dependency on the economy and less burden on our planet.

And even with feelings of discouragement when I hear all this bad stuff at times, my faith lives on and I create my own Good news.

I would love to hear how you are couping with the “bad” economy, post your comments here:

Memoirs of a women after God’s heart:

Everything was crystal clear.  My career was on track, I knew what I wanted to do with my life and I knew God’s purpose for my life.  For much of my life my dream was to become a director, president or vice president of someone’s company.  I longed for the five meeting days, long hours and late nights at the office.  As I progressed in my career and aged, I decided I wanted to have my own company and/or a non-profit.  Again, along with that would come long hours and late nights.  For as long as I remember I have always lived my life five years ahead.  I never saw where I was now my only concern was where I was going or what I could be until one day someone asked me “what do you see when you look in the mirror?

The mirror is a reflection of who you are not just how you look physically, but the mirror allows you to look deep into your soul and spirit and discover what your strengths, your fears and the your weaknesses.  That day in the mirror I saw a future size 6, successful, powerful woman, who spent her days walking with God. In the same mirror, I saw a young lonely, chubby girl longing for acceptance, and scared of rejection.  But what I did not see is who I was at the moment.  I did not see all the good that others saw.  I did not see success or beauty. It seemed as if there was a gap between the past and the future, there was no present.  For many years, I professed knowing and walking with God, but that day I realized that you cannot walk with God if you are absent from the present.  In the chapter of Matthew, Jesus said “Don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is not promised to you”.

That is the question that changed my life and at that point I became a woman after God’s heart. 

Tidbit 1: Make a decision:  This is perhaps the most difficult thing anything one who wants to move from where they are now to where they want to be, will do.  I remembered for several months deliberating over resigning from what I considered then, a “good” job and starting my business.  It wasn’t an easy decision, and it took a tremendous amount of courage and faith to quit, but I took a leap of faith and ventured out.  Mrs. Bowser made a valid point when she said “if you don’t make a decision, you are sitting on the fence, and you can’t move forward”.  A decision empowers you to move forward.  It shows your commitment to whatever you want to focus on or give priority to.

Tidbit 2: Think Big: I remember when I started my business I asked myself the question, how many clients do I need to generate income and will allow me to continue my financial contribution to my household?  The number I came up with was relatively low, and for a while, I was very satisfied with it because I didn’t want more than what I could handle.  However, I soon realized that the number didn’t provide me with what I needed to grow my business and participate in other kinds of professional development events.  It became apparent that I was limiting myself.  As you can imagine, I changed that number quickly and soon after hearing Mrs. Bowser’s 5 Tidbits, that number quadrupled.  I entered into the realm of possibility thinking, into the model of abundance and got rid of the model of scarcity, which was what I had been operating on.  Thinking big enables you to paint a picture of what you want, regardless of how you will get there.

Tidbit 3: Find products and services that support your business: As business owners, we should seek out services and/or products that enhance and benefit our business.  However, this can be overwhelming because it requires that we do more than what we are currently doing.  It may also become a challenge for us, given our limited resources such as time, money, and/or personnel.  But if we shift our prospective into possibility thinking, we may find that our work may become easier and even grow because of them.

Tidbit 4: Find a cheerleader/develop a support system:  As a coach, I serve as a cheerleader for my clients, so who are my cheerleaders, or support system?  My support system consists of my husband, my mother, my brother, my sister, friends, associates, and other entrepreneurs.  These individuals not only provide moral, financial and physical support, but they also challenge me to think “outside of the box”.  My husband is perhaps my biggest cheerleader of them all.  His creative, logical, rational and artistic mind helps me to see things in new and meaningful ways.  This has served my business well. If you don’t currently have a support system or cheerleaders, find them.

Tidbit 5: Recognized and conquer Your Fears:  Mrs. Bowser shared how terrified she was to make an initial call to a potential partner that was going to move her business forward. And when she told the story, the entire audience, which was primarily made up of all women entrepreneurs, made a unified sound of agreement.  It was like a you too moment that loudly echoed in the room.  The fact of the matter is we all have fears they are a part of our human nature.  In some ways, fear is a good thing, it protects us and warns us from danger, but many times there isn’t any danger a head.  More times than often the danger is a false perception appearing real in our minds.  Mrs. Bowser said that “fear can be crippling if we give in to it”.  Conquer your fears by making one bold decision that will move your business forward.

In closing, this very dynamic speaker and entrepreneur, motivated and challenged me to move forward in bold and innovative ways.