January 30, 2010

HEALING FROM OUR HUMANITY


Healing from our humanity opens us up to our source of discernment. If we are truly to have acceptance of ourselves as well as the ability to live in the now, it will require us to let go of and heal wounds that are directing our attention. It is difficult to see clearly, it will fog our emotions and cloud our hearts with unnecessary pain and discomfort. Distracting us from answers that are all around. When we hold on to our pain we lose this grounding. Leaving us to misinterpret answers and ultimately hurt more. Lifting the fog of hurt and pain brings clarity and peace.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 29, 2010

THE BODY IS MEANT TO FUNTION AS A WHOLE.


The body is meant to function as a whole. If one part becomes sick or weakened, the other parts respond to support it until it recovers. If the right foot works harder than the left for an extended period of time, the right will soon become weakened and produce problems for other parts of the body as they now strain to compensate. This is a natural state of being for any body even for a body of people in a structured society such as a community or family. It is important for each member to take charge of their well being so as to not strain or cause harm to the rest and thus causing an imbalance. We also must learn to allow members to heal and grow on their own so that they might have the strength to carry their portion of weight as a member of the whole and become confident and healthy.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 27, 2010

SPIRITUALITY IS INDIVIDUAL NOT COLLECTIVE

Our energy is directed by what we choose to have faith in, it is a result of our choice of a higher power.

There are times we have chosen a higher power by name only, not truly understanding the relationship, or the purpose of our choice. I am not saying the choice is wrong, only that we need to understand our motivation in the choice we have made. It is our motivation that will determine our belief in, understanding of, and the ability to receive revelation from our higher power. The purpose of spirituality is to create an understanding of truth and it is an individual experience for a reason. The process of knowing truth is an expression of faith. Therefore it must be individual not collective.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 26, 2010

DISCERNMENT IS LIKE WATER

I am always intrigued when I ask people what does water taste like and the response is "nothing" or just "water". The response causes me to reflect on how we can take such an important thing and become ambivalent to its value and in some cases dislike it. And yet water is one of the most valuable elements on earth, and we give it such little thought or regard. So to its discernment of a natural and powerful energy given to us at birth. We have grown to a state of ambivalence with this gift as we have water. The true power of discernment is meant to guide us and enlighten us to truth. We have an over developed need to depend on what we see and what we touch as truth, often falling in line to majority rules attitude. We have grown a sweet tooth for the easy and often popular opinion of others and fear the uncomfortable to stand alone for truth. Like water, discernment is a vital and nourishing element, providing a much needed truth. We can become ambivalent toward it and lose it to the easy, or like water, seek it out and make it an important part of who we can become.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 25, 2010

MY THOUGHTS TURN TOWARD MY MOTHER


My thoughts are turned toward my mother today. I have often thought of my childhood and the many lessons I have learned since then. As a child I was an open, impressionable, free spirit, feeling and exploring with no slant on what I saw and felt. As time slowly played a larger role in my life and insecurity crept in, my views began to become more directed, limiting my interpretation and understanding. The simple lessons of my childhood are still relevant and profound. The most profound is blind trust knowing that everything will be ok. My Mother's voice was the most powerful force in my small world and if she said the sky was red, to me, it was true. I still hear her voice echoing in my ears, providing comfort and peace. On this day I honor that voice. We will all be ok.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 23, 2010

THE EBB AND FLOW OF LIFEE IS THE RENEWING FORCE

The ebb and flow of life is the renewing force. Just as the warrior must sometimes retreat to heal the wounds and resupply, we must allow the ebb and flow of life to provide a time to rest and renew. I see in times of trial such as a loss of work, many people equating their value to the productivity that is lost, becoming stressed and saddened think themselves as worthless. I see those who have fallen sick or injured, also falling prey to this thinking, even those with a disruption in relationships, stressing and obsessing. This is a time for renewal and introspection. The ebb and flow of all things is inevitable and certain. It is a constant that keeps all things in balance. The time we spend in renewal is an investment, a simple prayer or meditative moment, a walk in the hills or fields, a conversation with a trusted confidant. There are times when the flow is a constant stream and we must take the initiative to create an ebb, retreat, rest, and renew. This is the path to the true flow.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

TRUTH IS SUBJECTIVE AND CAN BE DEBATED

Truth is subjective and can be debated. What is true to one can be false to another. Many people can witness the same event and draw a different view or truth from it. When all are asked the differing opinions become a debate and source of contention. In this situation we take the collective information and make a whole picture filling in gaps and looking for parallels and call it truth. But what about just two people in conflict over an event, the truth becomes lost in an emotional debate. It is imperative that we ground in our truth and be open and accepting of others. Accepting does not mean we abandon our truth, just that we value the fact that others have a right to there own experience. Pure truth is an acceptance of all truth without the abandonment to our own.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 22, 2010

PHYSICAL MOVEMENT CREATES A CONNECTION

Physical movement creates a connection between the body and the mind. We need to keep a balance in order to integrate what we have learned. Often we spend a large amount of time processing in our heads and over think things. We are slowly becoming less mobile and more global, our fingertips have become our mode for transporting ourselves to more data and socializing. We are not intended as humans to become sedentary. We are meant to walk and move, even sit still quietly allowing our body to integrate the days growth. As a human our best source of knowledge is our connection to the divine through spirituality, meditation and prayer.  This requires the body and the mind to work in unison. Walking, biking, swimming and resting all serve as a connection to the complete self.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 21, 2010

THE CONNECTION TO THE DEVINE

The connection to the divine is an essential part of the human experience. This spirituality can open the doors to truth and peace. It is through the divine we find answers. There is no greater contact point.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 19, 2010

GROWTH IS NOT ALWAYS EASY

Growth is not always easy and at times very uncomfortable. To apply the knowledge we have learned means we must act upon it. Life is an application point. It is a proving ground or lab if you will. It is the perfect place to take what we've learned from the classroom and put the lessons into action.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 18, 2010

TRUE LEADERSHIP

True leadership is achieved through understanding the symbiotic relationship of knowing when to be a charismatic leader and when to be a silent one. Both have their place and both share in value.

The charismatic leader has a voice that comes from a passion for the task or purpose it serves. It inspires the mind, paints visions, and the importance for each simple detail. Their words are simple, dynamic, relevant and alive with purpose. They convey urgency and patience with whatever the task requires, never more and never less. The words have an energy and force. The delivery makes them feel like they come from the listeners own chest and giving a sense of ownership.

The silent leader speaks little, but asks for dedication perseverance and tenacity. All taught through example and action. There is no question of the message just a constant visual of a leader seen with sweat, blood and blisters setting a constant rhythm like a beating drum. No words, just a drive that also comes from the belly of belief in the work.

Make no mistake they both have a calling and both inspire. They understand that they serve those they lead. Asking nothing of their followers that they themselves are not willing to give. The difference is timing and discernment, the knowing when to act and when to speak. This is the challenge to each of us who bear the mantel of authority and leadership. May we all find the balance.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 16, 2010

WHY DO WE FEEL THE NEED TO DEFEND OR TO FIGHT?

The need to defend of to fight is caused by a lack of confidence in ourselves or what we are defending. Aside from the conflict of defending land that has been moved upon by a tyrant or the physical defense from an attackers blows. I am referring to the simple thoughts and feelings even ideas and truths that have become our reality. The doubt and defense comes because we depend so much on others validation and acknowledgment that we then contend with each other to win a point of which we are unsure. When we know truth, not believe or think, when we really know, we have no need to defend or be offended by others lack of understanding or criticism. The defensive posture is an invitation to prove or be reproved, it gives a sense of doubt and insecurity and wavering in our resolve. An act of violence is an expression of weakness, insecurity and doubt, as is the need to verbally attack another. When we know our truth and know our path we will loose the need for these destructive acts.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 15, 2010

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TIME IS ESSENTIAL AND VITAL

How we interact and interpret time directs our lives and defines the paths we walk. The quiet moments of the morning, when the first movement and thoughts are created, and seeped in our understanding of time. We wake and rest, we eat and sleep, all with this understanding, allowing us to walk within the desired boundaries and parameters. It is to this purpose that we can embrace time as a companion on this journey allowing us to navigate and achieve, where and what our hearts dictate.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 14, 2010

THE STILLNESS AND QUIET MIND

The stillness and quiet mind we seek are but one part of the flow, the second is the action or inaction. The ability to know both requires discernment, or the heart and head to act in unison.
This is the divine, the true connection to knowledge and knowing. To find this place we must first recognize or desire the need, understanding that a flow is required to provide what we want. The second is the ability to be directed and move with direction knowing that there is a path to walk and where it will take us. Creating unison of the quiet mind and discerning mind is essential to the flow.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

THE DUST NOW SETTLES TO SAND


I know of a Man who drew in the sand as others challenged his opinion. The question was this, is she worth a wish can she live for another day. Oh what is the person worth but one of these? Do we know where we stand in his sight? As he draws in the sand without anger or strife, he softly explains, we are all alike, to put down the stone and walk away and choose a new path today. It's the simpleness I guess that intrigues, could he have been drawing in the sand about me? It is that doubt that clouds my sight, that keeps me lost on my way. As the dust now settles to sand.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 13, 2010

SHAPING THE DAY

Our day begins with a newness, the direction of yesterday has closed its eyes. The vision of today begins with the feelings first brought to the mind. Our first moments are as a new child born to this day, we are shaped and patterned by what we allow ourselves to be fed by the mind. As the eyes open, the day begins, choosing what they first focus on is the most powerful moment. The mind sees where the eyes look, the heart feels what the mind sees, we choose what we see, we feel how we choose.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 11, 2010

THE HEALING OF THE HEART

The healing of the heart is inevitable. The heart is never broken, it is stretched and bruised but never truly broken.  Just as a balloon can be stretched the heart can be pushed to feel things that are uncomfortable and cause it to be hurt. However just as the day soon turns to night and the winter storms submit to the spring, balance has its way. We can fight this healing and prolong its life, picking at a wounds as well as creating new trauma and bruising through undisciplined obsessing thoughts. The heart is as resilient and pure as a child if left unspoiled by the labels and values of  fear based world.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 10, 2010

FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLY

Releasing the moments of the day is like letting a butterfly find its way to its natural state of being, flight.

Not to be bound in a cage for viewing and speculation, but to return to its origin and the ability to flow.

We seem to have a need to ring our hands and furrow our brow clinging to a memory, rolling it over and over as though it may change its shape or have some  metamorphose. We then hand it to the undisciplined imagination and assign it the task of an interpreter or prophet, looking for outcomes and answers to minimize risk and embarrassment. The fear of human judgment and rejection as well as the simple loss of the assumed status we have with others causes us cower and shrink to the whims and needs of others. Often the small truths that provide freedom are found in the flight of a butterfly.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

TO BE CHILDLIKE IS A VIRTUE

To be childlike is a virtue. The innocence and optimism of childhood provides the ability to trust and forgive. The gift of acceptance for the circumstance of the day, not the month or year or even a lifetime, just the day and what is brings. From the moment of the sun rise to the darkness of night the child accepts and utilizes every moment without expectation. Peaceful moments of play and relaxation, even chores are approached with imagination.

As the years turn my head grey and the lines in my face tell me I am moving towards the fall of my life, my children teach me to approach my day with that childlike acceptance.

 
Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 8, 2010

INACTION IS STILL AN ACTION

There is a point in time when action is balanced by inaction. Often we are accustom to responding to a situation in an unhealthy way. We are very aware of the issue and we work hard to counter the problem and find other ways to respond. There is a truth that any void creates a vacuum and all voids are filled upon their creation. Sometimes the choice to simply not respond will create a void. If the intention to flow and surrender to truth is in place, the inaction will produce an unexpected answer. Inaction is still an action.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

January 7, 2010

THE FLOW OF LIFE

The flow of life requires the surrender to trials and peace. Both create a subtle dance that becomes as a cadence or heartbeat to our flow. The ebb and flow of peace and adversity are as the rain and decay of the old, providing the nutrients and moisture for growth. When we see trials, misfortune and adversity as an expression of doing something wrong we fall prey to the miss belief that there is no flow and that we are doomed. This is when hope is lost and we become distracted by trivial issues and lose focus on truth. Our vision becomes clouded by fear and we begin to create more pain. It is only through embracing peace and adversity as a balance that we find the settled mind.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center