February 27, 2010

LIFE LOST SLEEPING


Dawning days of dreaming lost in the sleep of time, this dance we call living tempt us to forgetting. Open eyes of mine to see the windows edge, tap the winters glass. Frost has not dimmed the view, just the sleeping eyes of time. Slumber is a sweet mistress to the life not lived, open arms embracing, empty moments not spent. Shaking off the dusty frosting that falls on motionless limbs, there is no need for movement in a captors snare. Wake oh just wake my eyes, see the missing mist, it fills to make complete the life lost sleeping, and paint the path not dreaming.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 26, 2010

PLANTING THE SEEDS


We just plant the seeds. Can a gardner truly take credit for the beauty of the flowers he planted? Can he truly claim he created the thorns and weeds? The lives we bring into this world spring forth into their own, claiming the beauty and hurt for themselves. We can only plant seeds, with tender care, and nurturing. Watch them take the life they have and create what is in their hearts. Each of us express everyday what it is we hold in our hearts, sometimes it is pain, we paint the hurt, other times it is love, and we beam it as a beacon to others. We can only enjoy the garden, walk carefully thru it, and lovingly tend it. Truly it is not ours to claim or take credit for. We just plant the seeds.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

OUR UnHAPPINESS IS A RESULT OF...

There are times we feel unsettled and not at peace, we may even feel overwhelmed. When we find ourselves in this place there are three questions we can ask to realign ourselves. The first is, Am I in control of my thoughts? Our thoughts drive our emotions and in turn affect the way we respond to daily life. Much of our discord and unhappiness is a result of our inappropriate response to life's challenges. The second is, Am I safe? Often we feel threatened physically and or emotionally, whether it be real or imagined this threat will affect us. Our ability to respond is important, it is our own responsibly to keep ourselves safe. Third is, How can I change how I feel? We have the ability to act and change how we feel. We are the stewards of our emotions, they require a diligent effort to be maintained. If we can settle our minds and anchor to truth we will find peace.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 23, 2010

EMOTIONAL SEEDS


The mind of a child is a freshly furrowed field, the emotional seeds that are planted often reflect their parents. We as parents can influence our children emotionally by how we are responding to the trials we face daily. Just as a fresh field is susceptible to seeds that may blow in and sprout weeds, how we respond and interact with the world around us creates emotional seeds that can impact the developing mind and heart. We must choose our response and emotions to daily issues with our children or others to be conducive to a healthy child's life.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 22, 2010

IT IS EASIER TO BLAME


Blame can be addictive. It is easier to place blame to change how we feel than to take accountability.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

WHAT IS BEAUTY TO YOU?

Beauty has become a majority rules concept.

There is a complacency when it comes to beauty, almost an exchange, our truth for the value of the world when it comes to beauty. As I meet with people there is a sense of despair about how they feel about their beauty and if they have any value to the world at all. As I ask them to tell me what beauty is, they express that it is what they see in magazines or on tv or in movies. I ask this, Is this how they feel? The answer is "I don't know." Why I ask? "Well its what is expected of me from everyone else." Slowly the conversation turns to what they find of beauty. After peeling back all the expectations and definitions of the world it becomes a simple answer, "The setting sun or the eyes of a new born." We are challenged by living in a society, to not get lost in the mass and confusion of the majority. This is where discord and unhappiness are born, it begins as a subtle comparison to define ourselves. Beauty is best left to our own interpreting. What is beauty to you?


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 21, 2010

FEELINGS ARE A CHOICE

Our feelings are transferable. There are many times that we become fixated on things, people and places thinking them a source of pain or joy. We empower these things we fixate on and allow them to give or take away from our day. Our emotions are an internal experience, a choice that we control, we feel as we choose. Just as the digestive tract can be disturbed by food we eat, our emotions can also be affected by our thoughts and what we feed our mind. Most often they are limiting and or fixative thoughts obsessing over what was or what could be. Feelings are a choice and we can feel as we please.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

TEMPORARY STATE OF OUR LIVES


The temporary state of our lives can be the anchor that helps us move forward. Our relationship with this state is one that we often resist. Trials are temporary, the duration is only prolonged by the resistance we have toward the lesson they provide.

No storm blows forever and the damage from the storm is swallowed up by time, leaving only the scars and stories of its glory. Impatience comes from the inability to accept our temporary state. We struggle with the trials at hand thinking them the most important thing at the time, not realizing that the out come is the only thing we now control and that only comes for our response to the trial. We cannot change the fact that the trial is happening or how it came to be. We can however choose our response to the trial, embrace it as a teacher and apply the understanding that all things are temporary. The temporary nature of our lives is a constant state that can help us see the bigger picture.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 16, 2010

TO BE SPONTENEOUS

The ability to be sponteneous is a culmination of factors. First, is the willingness to make mistakes and face the consequences, moving forward towards the goal or vision. Second, is to have a passion for life and enjoying the process of living in the moment, having no regard for the approval or disapproval of others. Taking no offense from those who do not understand. Third, is the purity in purpose, having no agenda beyond the betterment of all concerned, allowing ourselves to enjoy and follow the spirit of what it is we are working to create. Fourth, the understanding of our role as a servant to the better good and power for which we are engaged, to be willing at times to put off what we want to allow others to find fulfillment. Fifth, is the faith required to know our value to the creator of all things and the understanding of the love that is felt for us and our endeavors. Lastly, the understanding that when we are in the pursuit of healthy activity for the purposes of growth and betterment of self and others all will be ok. 


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 15, 2010

MY MOTHER


It has been ten years today since my mother's passing. It is the tenderness and sweet loving way she touched my face as a child I miss the most. The talks we had during tough times and how I could tell her most anything. The toughest pill to swallow is the rebellious years of which I was so cruel and rude and at times said things that hurt her deeply.

I am thankful for all she gave to me and the things she taught me that to this day serves me in pushing forward. Her greatest gift to me was her belief in me and how she called me her late bloomer. Her words have proven prophetic as I have become the most effective in the past 20 years of my life. Slow to learn and at times slow to apply those lessons. I am now a better man because of her and by the simple things she gave me. Happy Valentines day Mom.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

DOC, An EXAMPLE OF LOVE AND CARING

We are celebrating Docs birthday today. He has taught me many things and I am so grateful for the influence he has had in my life. Not only has my own family been blessed with his knowledge and wisdom, many countless lives have been touch by his work. I know no greater purpose for a life than to be dedicated to the betterment of others lives. I know of his sacrifices both personal and professional and have seen him give to those in need and help those without the means to repay him. He is a example of love and caring, an awesome business partner and friend. Both he and Sue are such a blessing to me. Happy Birthday Doc!

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 14, 2010

ANCHORING TO OUR TRUTH

Just as a ship in the roughest of seas being tossed and threatened to be lost with her crew, drops anchors to withstand the buffeting winds, we can find anchors and use them to keep us safe and on course. The best way to endure the stormy moments of our day is to learn to control our focus. This is a skill that is similar to the focus we learned in school, but it is different in application. The use of this skill at times defies logic and makes no sense. Because of the need for the tangible world, to explain and define success, or in failure we find ourselves clinging to the destructive thoughts. Like a cast away to an old piece of log to the destroyed ship. Yet the safety of the harbor is not far off if we can use the system of anchoring the most effective anchor in truth, and not just any truth, but our discerning truth. We can learn to anchor to the truth and use it to balance our fears and doubt. Our own truth is more powerful than the validation of the tangible and others.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 13, 2010

ACCEPTING OUR HUMAN STATE

One of the most important lessons we can learn is to accept our human state. We tend to fight the simple truths. For example, kids will always get out of control when Mom gets on the phone, or that drinking "diet" coke isn't going to change the fact we ate a big bowl of ice cream last night, and that we will get our heart broken more than twice. Another simple truth we resist is we are not perfect and are not meant to be, we are progressive and meant to learn and grow. We are constantly at odds with this truth, fighting the aging process, hiding our mistakes and judging others for theirs. We live year by year for a reason, we don't just get it all over at once. Learning to accept the slow pace from birth to the inevitable death is a journey and we can run through it wearing the blinders of expectation and judgment, or roll the windows down and feel the breeze. That is the simple truth.
   

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 10, 2010

WORRY IS THE RESULT OF A RUN AWAY IMAGINATION


The imagination is designed to be the genesis of creative thought and play. It has unlimited potential to bend the logical and amuses the mind with complex ideas and inventions. As a creative companion to the body, the imagination can envision, see and teach the body to do amazing things. Just as a gymnast defies gravity and Einstein discovers the theory of relativity. The imagination is the brush we use to paint the mind, allowing us to see beyond undefined and defined boundaries. When used within the bounds that it is designed, it is the most effective source of truth we have. But if left to engage in undisciplined thought or used in an obsessive fear based way to predict loss or embarrassment, it grows toxic and sickens the mind and body. Worry is an expression of this behavior and it is an unhealthy, painful, debilitating thought process that serves one purpose, to unsettle the mind. The process of meditation and prayer is to clear the mind and let go, increasing faith and gaining confidence that all will be ok.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 7, 2010

OUR NEED TO BE NEEDED

It is amazing to me how powerful our need to be needed can be and how it compromises even the wisest person to abandon wisdom and yield to the opinion of others rather than trust his/her discernment.

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 5, 2010

THE TRUTH HAS MANY FACES

The truth has many faces when left to the subjectivity of man. Through out time truth has become a majority rules concept, allowing a society to govern and define truth, providing a consistency and norms for creating peace. This has become in many ways a healthy powerful guide that provides safety for the betterment of the whole. However, there are times when this concept has direct results. The definition of beauty, wealth, and love as well as many other values have all fall prey to the majority rules concept.   We are surrounded and bombarded daily by images, opinions and definitions of others. We see people living in "cribs" that are over done, pictures of "fit" bodies that have been altered or edited to remove "flaws."  Left to contend with feelings of inadequacy and anger, feeling rejected and full of envy, we turn inward and pick and poke trying to change and adapt to "fit" in. This struggle is a common problem I wish I could say was limited to a small number of people, but we know it has many faces as well and it affects us all. I propose that these items and many others are best left to the discerning powers of the individual. We will be better served looking to our own definition of beauty, wealth and love. The need to have a governing body for the betterment of the whole is good, but it needs healthy boundaries just as everything else. We provide those boundaries. Listen to your discernment.
   

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 3, 2010

STAND UP FOR YOURSELF


Stand up for yourself. There are many times we find ourselves feeling walked on, and hear the voices of love and long suffering in our heads, giving justification to our treatment and not standing up for ourselves.  This is not in alignment with the truth of who we are and to create value with in ourselves. It is important to have healthy boundaries and the understanding of how to enforce them. If we do not have proper value for how we see ourselves, the way we implement and enforce boundaries becomes a practice in futility and we give up. When we give in, we leave ourselves exposed and unsafe. It is important to stand up for ourselves and to have powerful and healthy boundaries. The word "NO" can be a loving word in our vocabulary because it can and will keep everyone safe.
   

Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

THE MONTH OF LOVE

The first day of the month of love. When I think of love, I am reminded of a comment that I hear from people time to time, "I don't know if I love him/her anymore." As I listen to their words, the pain and loneliness pour out like a sad song. After the tears dry a bit I ask, where did the love go? And after a few moments of talking, the realization that love did not leave, just the understanding of who they are has been lost in the relationship.
As we often do, we enter into relationships as a way to feel valued, creating a dependency, hoping that the other person will fill. We  have trouble filling ourselves. What usually happens is that time begins to erode the facade and we are left feeling confused and frustrated. Not only do we feel lost but we feel as though the one we love has changed. And the empty feeling of "I don't know if I love him/her anymore" enters in and the doubt begins. When we find ourselves in this situation, the first place to start is with the question, "Do I love me?" The loss of love in a relationship most often begins with the loss of love for self. We must learn the true meaning of love and recognize that it is self acceptance. Once we accept ourselves and eliminate conditions, we can begin to understand our value and feel love from others without conditions on them.


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center

February 2, 2010

WHAT WOULD I GIVE?

What would I give? I listened to a speaker today, he poised the question "what would you give up for God?" It struck me as he spoke about the things we could let go of to show our devotion. Cars, phones, friends, inappropriate relationships and other items. As the message seeped in to my heart I asked myself, Dean what would you give up? I ran through my list and saw it was rather easy to let go of most things. But then it struck me as deep as ever it could. It is fear! It is fear we fight to give up, we cling to and depend on it, it is fear we become addicted to and drunk on to the point of fatal attraction. The fear of not being loved, the fear of not being good enough, or the fear of loss of things and people and stuff. We are asked to believe and have faith, to trust that we are cared for. In his mind, yet fear tells us we are crazy and clouds our belief. Now my eyes are open to it and now I am resigned to give up my fear and as my close friend and brother Cliff keeps saying, "Embrace YOUR power."


Dean N Nixon
Seminar Director, Life Coach

TurningLeaf Wellness Center