Yippee! Ain't Love Grand?

May you experience the fullness of life, and the richness of many memories made in 2009!

I have lost my voice thanks to a flu bug.  In lieu of a personal New Years Greeting from me, I have brought you my faithful understudy:

New Year Greeting

I'd like to offer this poem, to all my MySpace friends:

"I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey;
I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things;

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise;
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of man,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God;

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy things;
I got nothing that I asked for - but everything I had hoped for,
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered,
I am among all men, most richly blessed. "

May God richly bless you with gratitude & happiness!

How can it be that I haven't written a blog entry since August?  Time has been an unruly teenager, rebellious and unpredictable.

Since spending the summer on my back, I have been to 8 weeks of chronic pain class, 5 weeks of Mindfullness-Based Stress Reduction, 2 weeks of (return to) yoga, and a week of Pilates.  I am sneaking back into shape without hurting my back again. In the meantime I also revamped many things in my business to accommodate a more flexible schedule, allowing more kindness to my back.

Today my stepdaughter and I went to a college preview day at Portland State University, and afterward visited the baby elephant at the Portland Zoo.  He is 500 pounds, approximately 2 months old, and oh, so cute!  His name is Sam.

Tomorrow I do an entire day of quiet yoga retreat, from 9AM to 5PM.

I am so blessed to have discovered so many things through this latest health issue.  I have been clean and sober for 8 1/2 years, Praise God.  My dear friend Charlie Jones went to heaven a few weeks ago and his memorial service was this pas week. I'm sure he is talking to Robert Allen,Oswald Chambers and many saints who have gone before us across the river.  I miss him.

Hopefully I can blog more often; so many changes are taking place.

Wellness and happiness to all my friends. My heart is full of love for all of you.

Coach Julia

My friend Charlie Jones has ony a short time left on this earth.  Hospice has been called in, and he will soon be on the other side.  I think of those I love who are in Heaven already, and if you promise not to laugh (well, okay, you can laugh), I will tell you what I picture happening.  Johnny Cash always wanted to sit down and talk with the Apostle Paul, and ask him about his journeys.  And my late husband Gary always loved Johnny Cash and wanted to meet him.  Now I picture Charlie added to that group of three....wow, what a great conversation to sit in on!   

Charlie reminded me a few months ago that "we are all dying, Julia".  He's right, you know....as my friend Mike Ferry says, "None of us are getting out of this thing alive.."!

I think of death as our beginning......it's kind of like graduation.  That's why they call it "commencement".  It is the beginning. 

So I won't say "good bye" to Charlie.  I will just say: "see you soon in our Father's house."  I will ask him to hug everyone I miss when he gets there. 

Bye for now....see you soon! 

Just having returned from my first of two epidural steroid inections, I am overwhelmed with empathy for people who live with chronic pain. I have been in pain since July 4th, when I first visited the emergency room.  It makes me think about my late husband, who was in pain for the better part of 5 years before his death.  It is remarkable what modern medicine can offer us.  I am thankful for a skilled neurosurgeon and hopeful that I can get the pain under control. 

I am blessed to have a job I can do mostly from home, as well as the technology available to perform and function.

Although I will not be able to go on the vacation this year with my family, I am happy and blessed to have a family!  Thanks to great technology, they can email me pictures of each day's adventures!  And I will use the previously intended vacation time to recuperate and hope to be ambulatory when they return!

God is faithful and I know something great will come of this!

July 4th is an interesting day at the emergency room.  I spent the day there yesterday.  Poor Tarzan had to put up with being there all day, while I waited to get help for my back.  I take very good care of myself, so I am embarrassed that it appears as if I somehow ruptured a disc.  That's the doctor's best guess at this point, anyway.  The doctor ordered 10 days bedrest, massive doses of steroids, and some muscle relaxants and some pain meds. 

So, I guess you'd call this the beginning of my stay-cation!  I have been hearing about families deciding to spend their vacations in their own communities instead of travelling.  Mine will not be in the community sight-seeing as much as it will be in the house on the bed and sofa.  I have attempted to read, attempted to write, attempted to watch movies, but nothing seems to hold my concentration, between the pain and medicine-head.

However, the whole thought of stay-cations has me intrigued.  I would like to know if you were to have 10 days vacation time, and you were ambulatory, what would you do on your stay-cation?

Mine would go like this:

The Rose Garden, The Chinese Classical Garden, The Japanese Garden, Powell's Book Store if it rains, urban safaris along the Willamette River South Waterfront with a detour through Nordstrom, hiking Washington Park, yoga and /or NIA every day, reading two books and writing and an afternoon nap every day. Oh, And yes, watch a movie every night to get caught up on the ones I haven't seen yet.

I'd LOVE to know what you would do in your community on a stay-cation! Please tell me what you'd do.  Everyone's community has great things to experience, and often residents are the last to see the tourist sites people from around the world come to experience!

From the prone position, with empathy for those who live every day in pain and are not ambulatory.  God Bless you..I am very blessed that this will pass.

Coach Julia

I missed you all! I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I checkedin....My apologies to those of you with whom I have formed a new friendship and then I just dropped off the face of the earth.  I've been so busy with my research, work, and facilitating Mastermind Groups, consulting and speaking and now it looks like Tarzan and I are moving, too!  A very full plate these days.  "My Space" usually comes last on the list, unfortunately!

What I wanted to talk about is some recent neuroscience. It has been discovered that the brain interprets change as pain.  It actually "hurts".  So when we refer to the "pain of change", it isn't just emotional.......it's what your brain tells your body.  The more major the change, the greater the pain.

So the problem is that we live in a world of change, and if you are running a business and/or leading people in an organization, you need to understand that change (pain) drops people into the lower levels of Maslow's Hierarchy.  (security) When you try to communicate with them from the self-actualization level  (top of the triangle), they will not respond, because their subconscious mind is speaking the language of dealing with the pain, while you are speaking the language of change. 

This causes resistance and sometimes even disengagement, if you don't communicate with them appropriately.  You must skillfully meet them where they are and then climb up the ladder with them, have them experience the safety for a while, help them understand the benefit to them, and then let them begin to experience the change.  They will get used to it.  Everyone adjusts at a different pace.  It is akin to taking someone mountain climbing with you when you have done it before and they haven't.

This is the time when training really needs to be beefed up.  Most people are more afraid of the unknown than the known.  And most people learn by doing.  So if you can put extra training into place so that your team can experience the new changes, and practice enough to get used to whatever is new, they will adjust much faster.

Coach your people. Remember, they do not all have the vision you have. YET.  That's why you are the leader.

Coach Julia