CATALYST NEWS

Eva Dahm, CPCC, MA

January, 2007

Dedicated to your growth and exploration.

THE REAL FIRST STEP

The routine topic in a new year is resolutions. What are your goals for the New Year? What do you resolve to change?

However, before we can welcome new into our lives we need to release the old. At a recent New Year's Burning Bowl service, our speaker emphasized the release before moving on to new habits. She spoke of freedom from the old patterns. This allows for the new to appear.

Recently reading a friend's book, the author, Anne Felt, used the metaphor of a river for life. She talked about all the debris that can jam up the flow of a river. Certainly we spend time and money to regularly dig the silt out of the lower Mississippi.

Felt says, "Examining and removing the sticking places frees the flow to move more smoothly. When these obstructions are removed, the river flows easily and effortlessly downstream."

Similarly the log jams of your life can stop your progress towards any thing new or different.

LAW OF VACUUM

You've probably seen one of the organizing television programs helping someone to clear out clutter. (A good goal for a new year, incidentally.) Releasing creates space for new to enter your life.

We learn in science that nature abhors a vacuum. So when we clear space by giving away or throwing away, nature rushes to fill it.

When I want new clients, one step I take is to remove some files to my inactive file cabinet. This creates space for new files and new clients to appear. Then I need to imagine I have the new clients, feel the joy, and take some actions to market myself. And suddenly, new clients appear.

Catherine Ponder says, "Basically, the vacuum law of prosperity is this: if you want greater good, greater prosperity in your life, start forming a vacuum to receive it! In other words, get rid of what you don't want to make room for what you do want. If there are clothes in the closet or furniture in your home or office that no longer seem right for you; if there are people among your acquaintances and friends that no longer seem congenial-begin moving the tangibles and intangibles out of your life, in the faith that you can have what you really want and desire. Often it is difficult to know what you do want until you get rid of what you do not want."

A friend of mine wanted a new relationship, so she created a room for him. When the room was complete, then she met her current partner of several years. Until the room was available, she had no space for the relationship which she now adores.

FORGIVENESS

Some of the release required to move ahead is to forgive yourself or others. Holding a grudge, hurt or anger is harmful to you (not to the other person).

Who do you need to release or forgive to move into 2007 with an open sense of expectancy? Family, friend, boss, yourself?

Take a quiet moment to relax, get centered and let yourself or the other person off the hook. Say out loud and mean it that you see the person in the light of love. Move yourself to a perspective as if it was five year from today when the incident you are releasing is a mere shadow.

LET GO OF IDEAS

When we see a person or situation in a certain way, we expect that image to continue through time. When I coach a manager on personal change, I suggest they let others know they are working on certain behaviors. When we enlist the support of others around us for change, they can notice and catch us doing things differently. Otherwise our preconceived opinions move with us every day into the future.

Who do you feel negatively toward? Who have you not given a chance to change or grow? Start now by wiping the slate clean for that cranky neighbor, exacting boss or meddling family member. Begin now to expect better behavior, improved communications, and greater understanding.

Ponder's affirmations for release: "I fully and freely release you, I completely let you go. You have served your purpose in my life. I no longer need you. You are released."

"There must be constant elimination of the old to keep pace with this growth. When you cling to the old, you hinder your advance or stop it altogether." Ponder concludes.

We've released and forgiven and are ready for the new, right? The process is one of constant flow-in and out of our lives. If a pond has inward water flow and no outward, it stagnates. We strive for balance in releasing and receiving. Much like breathing-inhale and exhale.

How can you balance this flow for yourself? I regularly schedule pick ups of household goods and clothes all year long to balance the home and closets. What are other ways you can release what no longer is needed in your home?

PROSPERITY

In the financial area, the vacuum is created when you give to others-donating to charities or churches or gifts to friends or family. I recently discovered, this process includes giving to yourself, too.

I usually give to others and not to myself. I catch myself saying-"I don't need to spend for myself." So I shifted this thought to become "I deserve to give to myself, too." Not in excess, of course, but within reason. And as a result more income will flow to fill the vacuum created by your giving.

(NOTE: If you sense you are one who shops too much for yourself, shift to give to others. Or perhaps your greatest growth would be to cease shopping totally for awhile. I have one client who determined that she would save and pay down her debt and stay away from the malls for four months. She is so proud of this decision, and she is doing it.)

Examine where you constrict the flow of monies in or out of your life. Shift this energy (with responsibility, of course) and see what else changes.

Complimentary Coaching Session, Email Eva

The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, Catherine Ponder, 1962

Loving One Another, Anne Felt, 2005.