Most people entertain random daydreams of future times of accomplishments and fulfillment and never take the time to root these dreams into conscious thoughts and actions. Others get started, but" life happens" and they lose the momentum. Very few realize that any true consistent change in life comes from a real conscious effort to change certain inner patterns of thoughts and behaviors.
Here is a challenge for you: Wherever you are in your pursuit for fulfillment in your life, I dare you to spend some time everyday for four weeks, focusing on your life vision. You don't even have to know what it is at this point. Just commit to spending a minimum of ten minutes a day with the following question:
"What do I want to experience in my life, now, while I am alive and vibrant?"
As you ask yourself this question, it is important that you realize the timeliness of it. You are asking yourself what you want to experience not in a near or far and uncertain future reality but in the "now-ness" of this very moment. Contemplate what you really want to experience during this precious time that you are on this Earth. If you think that you don't have ten minutes a day for this, examine this thought, recognize it as a limiting thought and move yourself beyond it. Make this time, ten or more minutes a day, consistently for one month. Start a journal, write the question and let your inner voice come through and forth. Can you give yourself that gift?
If you do this exercise (at least most days) you may start to notice that your mind has a hard time thinking out of the box. Maybe you hear the same self-doubting thoughts arise over and over: "I can't do this, I'm not qualified for that, who am I to... , this is impossible..." If you are able to discern this aspect of your mind, congratulations, it means that you have awakened to your own unconscious self sabotaging process, and this is the first step to freeing yourself from it.
The next step is to go beyond your self limiting thoughts and to let your mind expand in writing all kinds of dreams and scenarios that would fulfill you in this lifetime.
Once you play with this exercise for a few weeks, I invite you to revisit your notes and to ask yourself what is the common thread which ties in all these fantasies?
What are the qualities that want to be expressed? What is it that you really want?
These questions are so important and you need to understand that they go beyond your heart' s tangible desires of worldly things.
What you are asking yourself here, is what you want to spend your life for.
What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of life you want to have lived when you die?
In other words, now that you have explored the content, I am asking you to extract the essence.
The content is who you think you are, and what you think you want. According to your conditioning and circumstances, you have certain dreams and desires, likes and dislikes, fears and ambitions...all this is content. When we derive our sense of identity exclusively from the content of our life we miss the point, and the paradox, is that no matter how much we achieve, we can never be satisfied because all content is subject to the law of impermanence (as Buddha already pointed out 2500 years ago). So if you try to discover who you are solely within the dimension of content, you will encounter frustration again and again.
Essence is your true identity.
When I ask you what wants to manifest through all these desires, dreams and aspirations, I am opening the way for you to get in touch with your essence, your inner self, your eternal, primordial "I".
This month, why not go one step further and start listening deeper to your inner voice?
After you have pinned down the essential qualities of the life you really want to have, start paying attention to what brings you joy and to what keeps making you feel unfulfilled.
Practice hearing your true desires, and go deeper in yourself: become more observant of how your essence lives within you, whether you are conscious of it or not.
Claire is a professional certified holistic coach who assists women in creating life balance and reaching their highest potential. A French native, Claire has spent 17 years of her life as an expatriate in various European countries, the United States, Africa and the Middle East. She now lives in Washington D.C, with her family, including 3 daughters.
Based on her background as a Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, Claire has an integral approach and embraces a "whole person" model in coaching. Claire encourages her clients to honor the connection between mind, body and spirit, and she helps them to align and create balance in all planes. Claire brings more than 15 years of personal and professional experience in energy healing, meditation and self development work to her coaching practice.
Claire is a professional life Coach, Acupuncturist, and a Reiki master trained in various holistic modalities who assists women in creating life balance and reaching their highest potential. As well as coaching one on one with clients, she also facilitates workshops and group coaching, both in person – in the US and in France – and via teleconferences.
She currently serves on the faculty of the International Coach Academy .
Claire is a certified Coach (ACC) through the International Coach Federation (With 11,000 members in 80 countries, ICF is the leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high standards, providing independent certification, and building a worldwide network of credentialed coaches).
She is a graduate of the International Coach Academy, and the Center for Transformational Presence . She is currently receiving additional Coach training through Integral Coaching Canada. Claire holds a Master of Science in Oriental medicine from Samra University in Los Angeles, CA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and philosophy from Institut des Langues Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France.
Originally from France, Claire has enjoyed an early and extensive career as a professional international model in Europe, the US and Japan, while pursuing her higher education in Traditional Chinese medicine, language and literature. Buddhism, Oriental philosophies and holistic medicine have been part of her life since her early adult years. In the last twenty years Claire has lived and worked in four continents while assuming various volunteer roles for private foundations and NGOs in Angola and Nigeria, offering her services mostly to women and children. Today, she brings her rich multicultural life and work experiences to the coaching table: Claire’s approach to working with people is holistic and she is passionate about integrating coaching with spirituality, energetic healing, chakra balancing, and other self development modalities.
Claire’s purpose is to contribute to global transformative change in “becoming the change she wants to see in the world” and to inspire and empower other women to become agents of change.
She lives with her husband and their three daughters between Washington DC and Corsica, France and is available for workshops, training, keynote speaking, group and one to one coaching sessions in person and on the phone.