Do you ask for help when you need it?

Today I was reminded again how very important our own self-care ritual is but for a whole new reason.

Some of you have responded and shared what you do for your daily routine but have you found that you are doing it daily?

Everyday?

Really?

The self care routine helps us ground and be open to new and deeper awareness and peace but it can also do something far greater.

Does that routine actively open the lines of communication with you and your Source, God, Goddess, the Divine, Allah, the Universe?

One of the things I recently noticed about myself was my desire to get things that I have to do done. In writing this I can hear Sonya, one of my EA students this year who said, “But I am only ONE girl!”

Have you ever thought that?

One of the key things I noted when I felt this way was that I was trying to do EVERYTHING myself, having all the information in my head and trying to figure it out, organize it and make it happen.

Ahhh grasshopper, but we are all given a choice aren’t we… we can do it all on our own or we can ask for help.

The crazy thing was that I had forgotten the KEY factor in our journey of life.

We are not alone.

I had forgotten to ask for help. I had been so busy trying to figure out how to fix a situation that felt bad that I forgot I could ask for help.

What would it feel like to ask the Divine for help in all situations? How about including that in your daily routine? What if you asked that in every situation you encounter today, that the Divine feel free to help support you and work through you in all that you do or don’t do?

There are infinite possibilities for us if we are open and just ask for help for ourselves and for those we care about. But here is the caveat, after you have asked – you have to trust, have faith, believe… and then let it go.

Are you willing to do that?

Completely?

Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of The Sacred You Academy at Epona Ridge - a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people as a spiritual life and business coach, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness providing a more joyous life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander
Epona Ridge LLC
Asheville, NC
For more information: http://www.SacredYouAcademy.com
Info@EponaRidge.com

Maybe the Big Change is Occurring Within.

Are you standing on a sphere or a flat plane?

I had been talking with a friend about the moon and she asked if I had noticed that the moon seemed to be filling up from the bottom, verses going through the various moon phases as it has always done, vertically.  She wondered if this was an indication of the “big change” that we are going through.

I immediately contacted a friend who is an astronomer and found yet another Universal sign along my journey…

He said, “Your friend may be seeing the moon when it is close to the horizon.  At that position, the Moon will appear to be waxing or waning in a more horizontal way.  But when the moon is high in the sky, it will appear to be waxing or waning in a more vertical way.  This has to do with the Earth’s rotation causing all objects in the sky (planets, the Moon, the Sun and the constellations) to change their angle of perspective, primarily because we are standing on a sphere and not a flat plane.”

I have lived under this sky for many many years, yet I had never noticed the Universe from that perspective.  In other words, I didn’t know what I was seeing all these years because I hadn’t noticed it and hadn’t focused on it and I definitely hadn’t seen the correlation to our lives here on Earth.

I guess you could say that many of us don’t see things until we are ready to see them, like the Universal connection to all that is. A simple explanation shifted my perspective. What seemed like a mysterious occurrence in the moment, became a comfort in understanding the flow of our Universe.

All is well… sometimes we just need to be curious about what we think we see, because maybe we are verging on a new expansion of awareness…

The world shifting on its own rotation is a natural occurrence, happens all the time and most of us never notice it.  Our perspective of the Universe from the Earth, shifts along with it if we are curious and paying attention.

Could this be part of the “Big Change” some people are referring to?  Could it be that part of the big change is OUR PERSPECTIVE and KNOWLEDGE of what is right here for us to see?

Another question came up for me.  As we shift the perspectives within ourselves, could it be that our world will shiftaround us?  For many, it’s like we have been focusing from a “flat plane” and now we are finding that we have always been living on a “sphere.”

Click Here for information on programs at The Sacred You Academy.

Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of The Sacred You Academy at Epona Ridge – a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people as a spiritual life and business coach, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness providing a more joyous life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander

Epona Ridge LLC

Asheville, NC

For more information: http://www.EponaRidge.com

Info@EponaRidge.com

The Feminine Voice of Leadership

 

We have heard from the great grandmothers who have passed down wisdom for generations that it is time; we have heard it in the ancient teachings of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples. Many of you already know why you are here, we have known about this calling from deep within our hearts for centuries.

 

Now is the time for the feminine voice of leadership to expand and bring light into our world.

 

I am a leader in this community because of my experience from a lifetime of seeking to understand and expand the heart’s connection between our human experience and our greater divine nature in connection to all things. This power of the feminine voice of leadership deep within all of us is calling to both man and woman alike.

Many of you know that horses are prey animals while humans are predators, and over the ages we have learned that predators dominate. But who really wins when life is about domination? May I suggest that life is more about co-creation, leadership most definitely, but co-creation at it’s best creates results far beyond any great leader. Maybe we have something to learn from horses about leadership that we never saw until now.

 

A successful team moves as one, like horses in a herd, but in the business world where survival of the fittest has caused separation, there is distrust at immense cost to businesses everywhere due to high turnover, infighting, and dysfunction. Most managers end up spending their days managing the many problems that occur instead of creating an environment that is set up to self-direct, expand and thrive.

 

Recently I had the opportunity to be involved in a forum discussion about the frustrations for women in leadership today. When the conversation got going it quickly turned into anger about their work environment, inequality and the lack of personal value that was felt.

 

There is so much passion and heart innately in women, heart in the commitment to do a great job at being the best we can be as an executive at work, a wife and mother at home, as a caregiver in life even if it leaves us with little time and energy left over for ourselves.

 

Women are wired differently than most men and we have the capacity for great vision, a compassionate vision that comes from what we Know deep within our souls. If we have the tools to get really clear on that vision and are able to communicate with emotional intelligence and healthy co-creative business skills, the world will change to support that vision.

 

Being able to create a business through leadership that builds trust and feeds the strengths of each member, you will enable an authentic community based in self-empowerment and personal responsibility among your team. Expanding your personal intuition gives you the needed insight to read non-verbal communication, thereby leading in a way that supports the ebb and flow occurring everyday, and through a set of simple tools you can learn how to gain a vast amount of information that you currently miss through the intellect alone.

 

After working with over a thousand women through my own business in creating retreats, as well as multiple thousands of corporate teams and leaders over twenty years creating performance improvement for businesses in fortune 500 companies, I have learned what cripples women, both personally and professionally in organizations and how, if we really want to make a difference and create a world that thrives, we can make the change we truly want and need to see.

 

I understand these truths:

 

1) To co-facilitate with the Universe is a humbling place to align life and career.

 

2) When given the proper tools and an empowering vibrational space to expand our Be-ingness, each of us finds our divine connection that holds the secrets and gifts to create the life and career that brings us inspiration and joy.

 

3) There is a short path and a long path to thriving and finding personal fulfillment in this world, either way you will get there if that is your desire. I have no attachment to anyone’s path but my own.

 

4) Most of us were never taught how to modulate or effectively use our own energy and can either end up overstepping, causing separation and distrust, or getting lost in the shuffle and aggression of others. This is what causes dysfunction and ultimately dis-ease of an individual or an organization.

 

5) When you learn how to effectively work with your own energy and vibration of others, you greatly improve all your relationships at home and at work. From there positive energy ripples out into the world and it is contagious.

 

6) The gifts that the horses and I bring are but one part of a greater journey to awakening the divine light of the leader that is within us all. As a horse and human facilitating team, we teach at a cellular level, organic with each client, and from there the sky is the limit.

Click Here for information on programs at The Sacred You Academy.

Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of The Sacred You Academy at Epona Ridge – a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people as a spiritual life and business coach, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness providing a more joyous life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander

Epona Ridge LLC

Asheville, NC

For more information: http://www.EponaRidge.com

Info@EponaRidge.com

Keys to healthy work and personal transitions

Is your life waiting for you to come out and play?

  

I decided to post an email that I received this week from a wonderful woman asking the same question that I have been hearing more and more:

“2013 may just be the year for me to visit. Sadly I am realizing my current employment is not the best platform for my gifts. Frustrated, I am on the cusp of submitting my notice and pursuing my MA in Organizational Leadership. My work place is angry, my husband is angry… and yet I know I am at an impasse with my current job. Money isn’t everything in my world… Although it is in theirs.

My courage to move forward is at an all time low, and yet I sense a change is imminent. Wish I had better tools to reinforce my yearnings to separate and forage on from my current position.
So curious if others feel the same. Are others reflecting to you a similar intuitive sense? “ 

First of all thank you for your heartfelt email. I have heard this more often than you think and most intimately from my own experience when, as Dr. Wayne Dyer said in the movie The Shift,  I transitioned from a life of ambition to a life of meaning.

Here are some of the keys I have found to make this time flow with more grace and clarity:

1) Celebrate the change that is coming your way. You can rest in the fact that you have put the energy of change in motion. You know that change is coming but maybe you’re not exactly sure what that is or how it will look. This is perfectly OK, you have put the wheels in motion and the Universe will help you find the next perfect step. 

 

As this part of your life continues to unfold your intuition will become more clear which will be evidenced by added comfort in this process. Always check in with yourself to feel what feels heavier and what feels lighter. Following your intuition will always feel lighter.

2) Take the time to honor this transition in your life. A wonderful way to honor yourself in this process is by creating ceremony to let go of the things that no longer serve you and then open to the things you want to bring into your life. Write these things on individual pieces of paper and then burn them one at a time as you read them aloud. 

First you let go of all of it and then you bring in what you desire. For example you might write “I am ready to let go of all of the anger that surrounds me, all of the negativity I feel in the office, all of the resentment I feel in my job…” 

 

When you are ready to honor the things you want to bring into your life you might say “I look forward to the life my heart is calling me to live, I am stepping forward into finding a lifework that values me and my unique gifts, I treasure the relationship of mutual love and respect, I am moving closer to a life that I love that is filled with joy, I know that I will thrive in this world that I co-create with those I love…”

3) The key to a smoother and quicker transition – FIND SUPPORT. I wish I could go back and hold my own hand through this process when I went through it in my life. This is a sacred time to take the inner journey, it is like a rite-of-passage when you learn to find clarity and direction for the life you choose to live. 

 

Once you create an opening for new and lighter energy you build a vibrational foundation for infinite possibilities and a joyous life, your entire experience will shift around you to support you on your path. 

 

So, when you think of going back to school, it should truly make your heart sing because it is something you have always wanted in your life. If it isn’t, and it is just something you think will be a better degree then there may be another possibility out there for you that will be even more aligned with your spirit. The clearer you get about your intuitive awareness the easier it will be to follow the signs. 

4) Allow for the gentle flow of change by asking for ease in this process. Many times there are ways to help with the current situation that will bring more peace and balance as you begin to explore and move forward in the areas where your heart is calling you forward. This doesn’t have to take a long time but it is best to have ease in this process for your own sanity.

The fact is that there is so much more waiting for us once we learn how to get the messages and clarity in our life. Everyday is a new experience, everyday you have the choice to make things the way you want them to be. We are the only captors in our life and we have the ability to free those self imposed blocks to find our joy. 

I am so glad you shared that you are feeling this increased intuitive sense. It is a powerful time when many are feeling that same calling to step up, realign and listen within. It is a very exciting time, a threshold to the joy that is yet to come!  

 

As always,please remember to share this with a friend that you feel might enjoy the heart-filled programs we have at The Sacred You, an academy for women.

 

Do you have the courage for joy?

I set out to paint my little barn this week and was confronted with so many options that it was almost overwhelming. How many shades of color can there possibly be?

I love the color purple but after painting half of a wall I didn’t love it all over the barn! As it turned out a small splash of purple was just the right amount and actually made the barn a lot more interesting.

Although painting the barn was physically challenging the bigger challenge came with an opportunity for growth. I learned about hanging in there and being open to possibility. Eventually I figured out what I needed to know about creating change in a very simple way. But the change reflected a much bigger picture. It was about the resistance that comes up when we play small and give up when things don’t work out easily.

Have you ever felt like leaving things the way they are because it is just too much trouble to change? Our fears and vulnerabilities can jump right up in our face.

 

If I had stopped with the frustration of not getting it right the first time I would have ended up with a half painted Easter egg purple barn!

Making the decision to finally start may feel like a difficult step – but that isn’t the end of the journey that may just turn out to be a glorious opportunity. There are always adjustments along the way and if you aren’t careful about your thoughts, you may just send yourself down the energetic drain.

What if I make the wrong decision?

Can I really do this?

This isn’t easy… Is this a sign that I shouldn’t keep trying?

What if this doesn’t work?

What if no one likes it?

I don’t want to have to start over again!

I don’t have the time to waste.

I have already invested my energy in the way things are.

What if it turns out bad?

What if…

I used to wonder why people stayed in the life or work they were in if it didn’t make them happy.

A coach explained that people get stuck playing small. She said they are never able to see themselves as the powerful people they really are because they are caught up in fear and quit at the first sign of resistance.

The key to squashing the fear is the courage to keep your eye and your energy focused on your goal. When resistance comes up, consider the choice to stay open to the possibilities that you may not have considered before.

Vulnerabilities and frustrations actually provide new opportunities to learn and to be open to new and even better ideas.

When you give up or focus on the fear, you have effectively shut down the genius part of you that thinks “outside of the box”. When we hang in there and allow for the possibility of new perspectives, we open ourselves to a greater well-being and inspiration will begin to flow once again.

 

 

For more information on programs that provide practical tools for aligning with your heart’s calling, go to www.SacredYouAcademy.com

 

 

 
Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of The Sacred You Academy at Epona Ridge – a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people as a spiritual life and business coach, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness providing a more joyous life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander

Epona Ridge LLC

Asheville, NC

For more information: http://www.TheSacredYou.com

Info@EponaRidge.com

The Delicate Balance of Standing in Our Power

How much is enough and how much is too much? Learning to stand in our power teaches us a delicate balance at the most advanced levels.

As a standard of practice we are never taught how to become intuitively aware of non-verbal communication. Most leaders just go blasting their way into the wild blue yonder… and then there are those who follow in their wake.  Which one are you?

Joanne and her husband Mark came to work with me six months ago. They were Brittany’s parents and Brittany was one of the children that I had taught during a school program.  Brittany had learned so much about herself during her sessions with me that she wanted her parents to experience and learn the same things, in the hope that they would find a healthier way to communicate.

When they first arrived, we spent time getting to know the horses, but something very interesting happened.

Brittany had been working with me for several weeks and had learned about non-verbal communication. We talked about the dynamics between humans and horses and how they help teach us about human-to-human relationships.  She learned how to observe rather than react so she could get the information necessary to move forward.

When they arrived as a family, Joanne didn’t know much about horses or the teachings they had to share, but because of her daughter’s enthusiasm, she was eager to learn.  Mark remained quiet, partially listening and partially questioning what this whole thing was all about anyway.

As they learned about mutual communication and being open to feeling the non-verbal dance of connection, Joanne felt empowered and wanted to brush Cierba.  She was a bit timid around 1200 lb. horses so I stood near her and had Cierba on a long lead.

Joanne had the brush and she reached out to touch Cierba and Cierba stepped away. Joanne approached her again with the brush in hand reaching up to brush her shoulder.  Brittany watched as Cierba quickly snapped her head in Joanne’s direction, putting her ears back in warning.   Joanne said, “You know, I don’t think she wants to be brushed today.”

Before I could respond, Dad reached over and grabbed Cierba’s halter by her face band, took the brush out of Mom’s hand and proceeded to brush Cierba’s neck sternly saying “here’s how you do it Joanne!”  Cierba’s eyes were wide open as she rolled them to the side looking down at him in shock.

Mom stepped back and their daughter still stood there quietly watching. The dynamics of this family had come flying out in a matter of moments but nothing needed to be said. There was no projected shame, only the truth of the moment.

Brittany clearly and gently shared that this was much like how it was at home in so many other circumstances. She said that she was enjoying watching her mom and saw that she was aware of Cierba’a boundaries and that it felt to her like Cierba did not want to be brushed at that moment when her dad stepped in. No blame, no shame, just observation.

Brittany knew, from her past experience with me in her classes, that mutual respect builds healthy relationships.  She had learned that connection comes from tuning into our own intuition combined with the simultaneous awareness in connection with others.  Through relating in this way we can respond with mutual respect and learn how to create a healthy connection in relationship to humans or animals.

Brittany had learned this same lesson in much the same way.  The students had grown in their own intuitive awareness over the past weeks and it was so powerful to see this 12-year-old girl calmly evaluating and sharing in a nonjudgmental and positive manner what she had witnessed with her mom and dad.

We took a short break to allow things to settle and integrate into their awareness. I call it licking and chewing, because that is what the horses do. If you are patient enough to watch horses as they are learning, it seems they need time to think about what they learned and when it is settled in their mind, they start to lick and chew.  That is how you know when they are ready for more. Those who are conscious trainers always wait for those critical moments.

Brittany’s dad later shared that he didn’t realize how aggressive he had been until the experience he had with Joanne and the brush with Cierba.  It was obvious that he felt bad for his actions and that the awareness was a surprise and something he did not want to repeat in the future.

We all get caught up in habits that we have created over time.  Being able to learn about others and ourselves in this very special way opens our awareness to creating deeper and healthier relationships as we move forward towards a richer and deeper joy in life.

Read this article and others on our official site and get

Barbara’s audio meditation gift for a mini Heart-Alignment of Joy!

Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of Epona Ridge – a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people in the Epona Ridge Retreat programs, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness and life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander

Epona Ridge LLC

Asheville, NC

For more information: http://www.EponaRidge.com

Info@EponaRidge.com

Finding the Magic From the Universe

How do we become even more clearly aware of our own true alignment through the twists and turns along the road of life?

When I reflect on this past year, I have come to have more clarity about my alignment with what brings me joy.  As I move forward I hold these questions in my heart:

*    How many people’s lives are better because I lived?
*    Am I having fun growing as I continue to expand my life?
*    Am I finding the magic that is here for me as a gift from the Universe?
*    Am I growing closer to aligning with the full expression of who I came here to be?

As you look back on last year you might ask the same questions.  I hope that it is for you as it has been for me… a comfort to know that it is within our grasp to shift our awareness of what didn’t work to that which provides inspiration for what we want to create.

I recently read a quote by poet Antonio Machado:

“Walker, there is no path; the path is made by walking.”

Sometimes our life path may feel like a lonely path, especially when we are blazing new trails. One thing I have learned from the women that I have had the honor to mentor, and which has become more powerfully clear each year, is that we are a community of seekers who understand the need for intuitive balance and we know that there is no other way than to follow our heart’s deepest calling.

This call of the heart is what guides us to reach for more in our lives as we choose the steps we will take along our own unique path. The gentle beckoning of the heart inspires us with those we love, as we choose what we do with our time, and as we create our experience in the precious life we came here to live.

Here we are, embarking on a new year with new awakenings and infinite possibilities!

The key to creating a glorious year is deliberate intention, but not just deliberate intention in relation to what we want or hope to eventually have. We must focus our intention on a broad enough goal so that we are aligned with our life’s purpose. It is crucial to align our goals with our life’s purpose or we may end up with a path that zigs and zags into something we don’t want.

My intention as I move into this year is to see the glory and the beginning of a great opportunity – an opportunity to bring more of the fullness of who I came here to be into my experience of life. As I continue to learn more about the subtlety of vibration, the more fully I understand the nuances of the corresponding effect.

This year I am listening more intently to the subtle call from within my heart and I can feel the anticipation beginning to build. This day and every day, I will wake up and make the choice to be happy. I choose to make this year the best yet in my life so far.

This is said to be a special year of awakening and I can’t wait to see the deepening of the work we are co-creating with the Universe, nature and the animals at Epona Ridge.  It feels as if we are learning how to calibrate with our heart’s intention, and in doing so, we are creating a resonance field that is palpable.

Many women are finding that they are gaining the ability to tap into this field to manifest their dreams, and in this year of awakening, it will surely become all the more powerful and exciting!

Join us in holding the intention of creating the greatest year ever – filled with joy and deep love within our lives… Every day we have the opportunity to create anew and conjure the feeling of joyous anticipation.

Allowing this intention to unfold as we create our own unique paths in life will open us to the true gift and magic that the Universe has to offer!

Read this article and others on our official site and get

Barbara’s audio meditation gift for a mini Heart-Alignment of Joy!

Barbara Alexander is President and Founder of Epona Ridge – a magical place where women have come for years to gain insight about their inner lives and seek a greater awareness of their hearts’ true calling. Barbara serves as their mentor and guide as her retreat participants go through their individual journeys towards true happiness, joy and inner peace.

Barbara has worked with over a thousand people in the Epona Ridge Retreat programs, teaching transformational techniques that shift core energy awareness and life experience.

After many years of a successful career as a business executive, Barbara has dedicated her personal and professional life to mentoring women and men, in building their life as well as their business with a stronger foundation for wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

Barbara provides techniques for enhancing the mind/body connection, personal core energy awareness and personal empowerment. You will love the feelings of rejuvenation and inspiration that you experience at the Epona Ridge Retreats.

Barbara Alexander

Epona Ridge LLC

Asheville, NC

For more information: http://www.EponaRidge.com

Info@EponaRidge.com