Every week I offer up a word for you to play with.

The word is GLIMMER ✨

When an experience or circumstance grabs us in a negative way, we often say we were ‘triggered’.

As a child, I didn’t enjoy a warm environment where mistakes are learning opportunities. I grew up afraid of making them – desperate to hide them.

As an adult, if I made a mistake, I felt fear and deep insecurity. Someone pointing out a mistake that I made triggered those insecurities and I responded with a desperate need to justify myself.

Triggers can be identified, examined, and with enough inner work – drained of their power to hold us back.

Or they can be allowed to fester and ruin our peace at the most inopportune moments.

Think of a Glimmer as a polar opposite of a Trigger.

A Glimmer is an experience, circumstance or interaction with another that invites you to feel something positive.

Rather than being pulled into a fear response, a Glimmer creates a warm feeling.

• A spark of joy.
• A whisper of hope.
• A sense of peace.
• A tingle of creativity.
• Love

This week I’m going to be intentional about noticing my Glimmers and when I spot them, I’m going to lean in and feel all of the good feelings I can – and just like I’ve learned to track back and examine why a trigger causes me pain, I’m going to track back to see why a particular glimmer is so wonderful.

Like how sunsets always make me think about my friend Elaine – the artist who never misses an opportunity to enjoy a beautiful sunset and who encouraged us to water color a sunset while we were at the beach years ago. Sunsets invite me to recall and enjoy the amazing sense of belonging and creativity that I enjoyed with Elaine and everyone else.

When the sunset Glimmers, my heart warms and the memories are so delicious – and I want MORE!

Play with Glimmer this week and let me know what you notice and what it makes you crave more of.

To learn more about using a North Star Word to shape your life, there’s a whole Challenge in the Stretch Yourself Challenge Guide you can get for free right here.

Shadow Journaling Prompt

Shadow Journaling is another self-help tool I share in the Stretch Yourself Challenge Guide.

Have you ever heard the saying ‘We are only as sick as our secrets’? It’s frequently mentioned at AA meetings where rigorous self honesty is a crucial part of the journey to get sober.

I use a Shadow Journal to acknowledge my darker thoughts and ideas that I would far rather NOT admit exist… yet, since I started using this tool I have noticed again and again that I don’t have to be afraid of my shadow.

Every week I’m providing a Shadow Journaling Prompt that you can use to bring a little more of your shadow out into the light.

It’s an invitation to write something down and just let it be felt.

This week’s prompt is: What’s the worst that might happen if you decided to enjoy life more?

Don’t move too quickly past this one, it’s trickier than it looks.

When I think about the changes I could make that would give me a more enjoyable life – I know those changes will bump up against other people’s lives. (It’s happened a LOT in recent years.)

You likely know what you could do to enjoy life more – but what would the cost be? Who would be upset? Who would feel left behind? What would it cost you?

This isn’t about borrowing trouble from tomorrow or frightening you from taking action – it’s about letting a little light in on the dark spots that you’ve been afraid to acknowledge.

What’s the worst that could happen if YOU decided to enjoy YOUR life more?

Journal what comes to mind – and if you gain some new awareness, I’d love to hear it.

Abundance

I never want to miss an opportunity to invite you to lean into an Abundance Mindset.

Finding a Ted Talk that sparks something amazing is one of the Glimmers of Joy that I deeply enjoy. This morning I discovered Post-Traumatic Gifted: Moving From Scarcity to Abundance.

“I could finally begin the challenge that
the rest of my life had suddenly become.” ​
– Russell Redenbaugh

Russell experienced an accident that cost him his sight and a few fingers as a teen. The above quote is about how he approached his future – and I’m inspired.

I invite you to watch and be wow’d by his story and achievements.

It’s for all of us.

Maybe you’ve experienced a recent set back or disappointment. Maybe you wonder if you’ve blown it, you have no change of building what you really want now.

Dark thoughts are normal – but they are never the entire story.

However limited you feel, there are paths ahead of you that lead you to abundance and joy.

Today, we get to begin the challenge that the rest of our life has become.

It’s incredibly ballsy to dare to imagine an amazing future when you’re starting late or working with circumstances that feel like weights holding you down… but what if who you are today and where you are today is the PERFECT launching point for an amazing future?

Play With These Ideas:

• Play with the word GLIMMER.
• Play with the Shadow Journaling Prompt.
• Play with the idea that you’re at the most delicious launching point for the future of YOU that you could have ever hoped for.

And if you crave conversation around it – come talk to me about coaching!