Nicole Doherty: Wellness

Out of Time or Timelessness
by Nicole Doherty
Inspiration from a recent meditation of mine…

Life is moving really fast.  What is happening with our time?  Don’t you remember when you were a kid and summer camp felt like an entire year’s worth of time?  Now a friend says “I’m pregnant” and a few weeks later the baby’s picture appears on your iPhone, right? ;)

We are all moving at warp speed.  We are busy people, living busy lives and making things happen.  Yet with this much productivity we fail to take a moment to just be.

Sometimes just being is confronting. I remember when I went to do my healing work in Peru for three months at the Temple of the Way of Light. That was probably one of the most confronting times of my life. I had no choice but to sit and not do anything for long periods of time. No technology, cars, traffic or electricity. I was with myself…in the jungle… alone.  I felt very alone. It was one of the most terrifying, challenging, revealing, and rewarding experiences of life.

Coming out of that and moving right back to the city was quite a jarring transition. Our lives are fast paced, dynamic, active and frankly a bit insane here in the U.S.. What are we all running around so much for? What are we escaping? What is this race against time? What is this competition we’ve created to build the best resume?

I’m very challenged in this way. I’m overly productive. For example, after teaching 11 yoga classes on top of my full time 40 hour a week job, I decide that Friday night I will build a new website. So I did. Saturday day I wrote a yoga workshop and training.  Sunday I taught two classes and practiced a new song with my guitar partner. Yet, this was my weekend off! Really Nicole?

Sunday night I was tired, yet I felt compelled to meditate. I have been reading Rod Stryker’s book, The Four Desires, that I highly recommend everyone read!  It includes incredible case studies of people that have transformed their lives through his Yoga of Fulfillment workshops and the meditations that accompany it. I learned from the book that when his clients’ wanted to find their dharma (their soul’s purpose) and create the means by which to get there, what they really needed to do was slow down and listen for the answers which are always within us.

Most of his meditations are 20 minutes or longer.  For a person like me compelled to move, this is a lifetime of stillness!  I felt a lot of resistance to sitting up for that long after such a packed week, so instead I turned on my iPod to an hour-long ambient sound meditation track. I figured I’d try to sit, but honestly I just figured it would put me to sleep.

When we stop moving, it’s extraordinary what appears!  I set an intention before I began this track to ask God how I could work less and slow down more in pursuit of my dharma. I closed my eyes and I began to go inward. About 20 minutes later I was rattled awake (I think I fell asleep) by a very clear, loud female voice that said, “Nicole, TRUST!” and I blinked my eyes open. 

I was confused at first because it was so clear that I thought it was for a moment a part of the meditation CD. I checked too. It wasn’t. ;) It was my inner voice, my highest Self, that which is connected and is God, telling me that if I trust myself, my guides and my path that I am supported.

It resonated so powerfully that I decided to say no to a few sub gigs this week. As I did more and more appeared. It was as if the universe was showing me that opportunities are abundant always.  We get to choose what we do from moment to moment from this place of abundance.

If I say no and let go a little bit of my control and my pushing, I can live more in my heart and in the flow of life. I am beginning to reset my mind on abundance versus lack. Going back to my work with the Laws of Attraction, I know this, but putting things into your life is a practice and often times we get sucked in to patterns and we forget.

What this also revealed to me is this same programming that controls our language around time. We say we don’t have enough time.  Yet that is also lack mentality versus abundance mentality as well.

The reality is, time is something we have created, but there is no big clock in the sky that is running out of time. There is timelessness. Energy is everlasting, maybe not in this particular form (and that program could probably be changed too), but always and forever it will be. We have all the time in the world actually. 

Instead of saying “I don’t have enough time” and letting myself be controlled by the Ego, I’m observing that patterning and redefining the concept of time for myself. What about saying “I have all the time in the world” and “I’m watching patiently as things unfold in timelessness”? What if I say, “I’m filling my life with amazing opportunities” as a way of expressing my energy instead?

My beloved and I created a “Should” jar, knowing the malfunction of this program.  We filled it with enough money to support a good portion of our trip to Belize this December!

I think another jar is in order. It’s in my nature to be productive, so I will continue to be. I will also be sure to sit more, slow down, breathe, create more ways to listen and above all, TRUST!

One of the biggest wisdom teachings I’ve been gifted in my life is the immense power of appreciation. I stand in awe in recognition of all the amazing things that I have manifested in my life in the last two years through appreciation rituals, preparing myself for the 2012 shift in energy and consciousness. Through consistent appreciation practices, intentions and goals, I have transformed my life and have created abundance in all aspects of my life.  I’d love to share a few things that I’ve learned about appreciation.

What does it mean to appreciate? 

The dictionary states appreciation is an awareness and recognition of aesthetic values, and an expression of admiration, approval and gratitude.  The Law of Attraction would say that to appreciate guides one’s feelings toward better feeling states and thoughts which in turn increases the positive flow of energy and improves our overall state of well being.  When we feel better we are more inspired, thus we begin to tune into a more positive frequency and we attract more of what we want. With more positive energy, we enter a vortex of well being and line ourselves up with Source or the Universal Matrix where we are tapped into life and things flow easily and effortlessly.

How can we appreciate?

I listened to an amazing audio book recently, The Power of Appreciation by Mike Robbins and I want to acknowledge him for inspiring me with some additional information for my toolbox.  Mike Robbins, you have impacted me greatly and for that I’m very thankful!

Change your Perception -  Easier said than done. We live in a society that encourages cynicism and criticism of just about everything. I call it the Seinfeld syndrome. Jerry Seinfeld made complaining cool. I do believe this is changing but look at your attitude.  Can you look for what is working in your life or do you always look for what isn’t.  Notice what you like more than what you don’t.  Flip your perspective and look for the fun and pleasurable.  Release the judge and the critic.  It is challenging in the work and public environments. It seems conversations or stories revolve around people’s faults, how one measures up, one’s demise or the collapse of something. Yoga and meditation have been miraculous practices for me in noticing my negative thought patterns and how I’ve been programmed. In the Yoga Sutras, this practice is called Pratipaksa Bhavanam.  We work to catch the destructive thoughts and focus our minds and cultivate opposite, positive thoughts.  The glass can certainly be full!

Practice, Seek and Take Action – Once you are aware that you need to change your perspective, practice seeking out things to appreciate.  Take action and do and say things that are appreciative. The challenge in our society to acting appreciative is our perception that we lack time.  But little things go a very long way in the field of appreciation.  Buy a stack of cards that inspire you and keep them so that when you want to thank someone you can shoot them a quick note.  Have little post it notes near your desk and when someone does something awesome, post a note on their computer screen. Surprise someone. People love surprises in the world of all things planned. Send an inspirational quote to a friend’s Facebook page just to let them know you are acknowledging them for something. Leave a short voicemail honoring someone each day. Buy small gifts that you have on hand that you give to people you want to appreciate. Learn to be motivating, inspiring and empower people through your encouragement.

Acknowledge Externally – For just a few minutes in the morning and evening take time to journal, pray or meditate on the things that went well in your day.  From the bed that you slept on, to the clothes on your back, to the food that nourished you, to all the people that supported you, to the car that drove you to work, and so on.  There are many daily things that we own, use or encounter that have a huge impact on our lives and the choices we make day to day. Start to recognize even what seems mundane as a true miracle that you and have created in your life.

Acknowledge Yourself – For just a few minutes in the morning and evening take time to journal, pray or meditate on the things that you did well. Sometimes our own goals get in the way because we are trained to see what we didn’t achieve. We spend a disproportionate amount of time concentrating on the negative. So flip this and think about compliments that came your way.  Appreciate tasks you completed or goals you achieved.  Even if you had a rough day, acknowledge that you made it through the day, you used your breath, and you did your best.  There will always be something positive that you can appreciate about yourself.

Be Authentic in Your Appreciation:  It’s easy to say a laundry list of things that you appreciate just to get it done, but that’s not really what the magnetic laws of attraction are all about.  You need to not only name what you appreciate, but really feel the vibration of it. So be genuine when you are appreciating. Place your attention in your heart, not in your mind. Tap into your heart and let the appreciation flow from this authentic place.

Through all these practices of acknowledgment and gratitude, the wellspring of abundance appears naturally.  It really is the principle of “the more you give the more you get”, a natural law of the universe.  When we give abundantly, support appears in return.  Gratitude spreads contagiously because it makes us all feel good and joyful.

I hope today that you can find the time to take a step toward creating a life of abundance by finding a way to appreciate yourself.  Appreciating yourself is the first step in any life practice toward happiness and well being! 

Results are in!  Empowering Yourself to Transform Workshops are Complete.

We just completed my post-South American spiritual journey inspired workshop series called Empower Yourself to Transform™. I must say the jungle did us good! We experienced two weeks of Yoga every morning and 3.5 hour Sunday Workshops that included one hour of motivational speaking and two hours of meditation, chanting, pranayama and Yoga. The Sundays were just outstanding!

Getting up every morning at 6:15a to get over to The Dance Loft in San Francisco was no small feat. I was used to doing this when working with the Amazonian Shamans since they rise with the sun, but in the city, when it’s cold and windy, it’s a different feeling. But every morning like clockwork, I entered that beautiful studio and found myself remarkably at home, on my mat breathing. I was so inspired that by the 7th day I started a food cleanse so I could boost my energy naturally instead of using those morning lattes!

We worked through the Chakra system for the first 7 days visualizing each energy body, beginning to understand where it is and how it affects the whole body temple. We observed each chakra as a container and asked to release emotional tension, resistance or fear. We went within to understand where blocks might reside. We accepted the emotions as they bubbled up and addressed them with compassion and love.

Sunday, May 8th was Mother’s Day and our Releasing Negative Thoughts and Patterns workshop. What a perfect day! For the moms in the room we gave eternal gratitude for their courage to bring energy into form, into matter, the root word for mother.

We discussed the human condition of the mind and its role in our experience here on this plane of existence. We explored how we use tools like Yoga, Meditation, and Inspirational Teachings to guide us out of the subconscious negative thinking to a more conscious awareness of who we really are.

We learned to not think of “negative” as being bad, but as a gift and a signpost along our journey that we can acknowledge to help guide us to decisions that feel good. Negative is not to be judged as bad, but simply the opposite of positive. We addressed the concepts of negative thoughts being fear and resistance. Once we could see our fears and resistance we could acknowledge those fears, identify the resistance and challenge our thoughts. In challenging our thoughts we became creative and could see other perspectives. We also played with tools from Yoga and the Law of Attraction. In Yoga when we are addressed with negative thoughts we replace them with positive ones, called Pratipaksha Bhavana. In the Law of Attraction, we call this Pivoting.

On Sunday, May 15th it was Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. A big day of celebration in the city, so it was vibrating with some seriously fun energy! This was our Tools for Transformation workshop day. This workshop was designed to be the follow up to the prior week. Once we release emotion and identify our resistance what do we do with this new information? I have spent the last several years in deep study of the Laws of the Universe and I wanted to share some fun games that I’ve encountered along the way. We laughed, we shared, we cried. It was a beautiful day. We watched videos about the power of language and words. We shared some of our patterns of thought. We explored partner work using affirmations and journaling. We powerfully affirmed each other’s gifts. We used engaging tools from the Law of Attraction work and other great inspirational teachers. In the end, we started to feel how we really could EMPOWER OURSELVES TO TRANSFORM™!

After each inspirational discussion, we got on our mats and explored the various gifts that we were granted 5000 plus years ago. I’m sure these gifts are a lot older than the recording of them. We practiced meditation and pranayama techniques to clear our mind and extend our prana through the breath. We chanted beautiful mantras and then opened our bodies with Yoga asanas.

Just writing this I get goose bumps (or as my friend calls them, truth bumps!). This work really resonates with my heart. I know that my path, my dharma, is to help inspire people to reach their highest potential. I am here for Joy and Love. That’s it. I want to bring you more Joy and Love!

Below are testimonials from some of the workshop attendees. If you wish to bring these workshops to your city, I would be honored and I love to travel!

“You are pure BRILLIANT Nicole-your words of wisdom, your knowledge, your teachings all truly Inspiring and Uplifting!” ~Val C

“Thank you for such a great workshop. Even though it was just an afternoon it shed light on what has been happening for me this entire year. Such a gift you are! ” ~ Michelle M.

“Add “motivational speaker” to the already impressive array of hats that miss Doherty wears. I just attended her Sunday class on “How to get rid of negative thoughts and patterns” and have instantly noticed a boost in my energy, outlook and general satisfaction with life. I only wish the sessions were longer and had more interaction between classmates. Next up: Tools for Transformation. If I am a better yoga practitioner and person at the end of this year, Nicole will surely be a huge part of it.” ~ Michi V.

“I have been taking private yoga as well as group yoga from Nicole for a couple of years and she is a truly gifted teacher. Her warm approach and extensive knowledge of anatomy make taking class with Nicole not only relaxing but beneficial for our tired, tight bodies. Most recently I attended a workshop called Empower Yourself to Transform with Nicole. The information she gave us was very helpful and pertinent to anyone’s yoga practice. The fun style in which the workshop was held makes it accessible for any level yoga student from the beginner to the seasoned yogi.” ~ Roxanne G

“Thanks sssooooooo much for the workshop.  I truly enjoyed it.  I’ve already had 3 opportunities to apply what we learned about the power of words!  It is amazing how sharing that with 3 different friends was so inspiring.  I didn’t really intend that to happen.  I was just going to start applying it for myself.  But, Sunday evening a friend called and said something like, “Wouldn’t it be nice if all I had to do is (blah blah blah?)”  And, I just said, “OMG, I have to share what I just learned in this workshop today!”  And, we just had a great laugh.  Then, early this morning, a friend started texting me from NYC about how horrible her life was going to be as soon as she moved and how she wasn’t looking forward to it.   And, of course, I immediately sent her the video via email and started explaining the power of words and what I’d learned.  Then, this afternoon, I was talking to a friend about her career….same thing!  So, I just wanted to share with you the impact you made on my life this week and thank you again for an amazing yoga class.  I look forward to another one soon.” ~ Lisa H

To bring these workshops to your city email Nicole Doherty at nic@nicolepresents.com
Website: http://wellness.nicolepresents.com
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I have a new game that’s really fun.  I call it “The Awesome ABC’s”!

I can’t think of any “ABC’s” first without actually breaking into song… so let’s take a breath to honor MJ, send him gratitude and get that out of our system!

“A-B-C…is easy as 123…or simple as…do re me, ABC, 123, baby you and me girl! “

OK…Moving on!

I started compiling a list of super cool, positive words that I could reference daily. By using these types of words I am projecting a better all around feeling and based on the Law of Attraction I know this will bring more profound positivity and better feeling thoughts.  Those, in turn, will inspire others and me with more yummy goodness!

If I find myself using negative language, I quickly identify the emotion behind it, acknowledge it, challenge my negativity and replace those thoughts with my awesome, inspirational ABC’s.  This process in Yoga is called Praktipaksha Bhavana as explained in Yoga Sutra 2:33, “When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of. “  In the Vortex, by Esther and Jerry Hicks, there are powerful tools like “The List of Positive Aspects” or the “Positive Rampage of Appreciation” that work similarly .  These tools allow you to get into a higher energetic vibration (the Vortex) based on writing lists of positive thoughts to break habits and patterns of negativity. There are many great tools for breaking patterns and releasing negative thoughts. You’ll have to attend my workshops to get more in depth and familiar with this work!

Here’s a small sample of my word collection moving through the alphabet!  I will leave it up to you to create your own collection of words.

Alive
Beautiful
Courageous
Delicious
Evolve
Freedom
Grace…

There are so many more great words!  So don’t stop here.  Go to Z.  Take out a pen and paper and start writing! Then, if you are inspired, take a few of these awesome words and weave them into your personal mission statement (if you have one)! Before you know it, you are feeling great and you have all these new words at your disposal that imbue the community with love!

Hope you have fun with this new game!

Hi, my Name is Nicole and I am a Mastin Kipp stalker. ;)  Yes its true. I get The Daily Love every day and I’m in love with it daily.  Mastin has so many beautiful quotes to share. I run around posting them all over Facebook!.  They are gems, seeds of enlightenment, and daily gifts.

I just wanted to extend my full gratitude to you Mastin and what you represent.  A fearless, courageous, beautiful soul with so much to offer to the world.  The best part about you is the simplicity in which you shine.  You started with a few quotes,  and will grow into a beautiful book and then into a huge lovely library of inspiration for all.  I’m inspired that you have used our social networking technologies to spread the message of love weaving a web of consciousness, awareness and positive creation.

In the spirit of sharing, I loved your section of The Daily Love today.

MASTINSAYS

My name is Mastin Kipp & I am the Founder of The Daily Love.
My experience has been that time and time again the thing that showers my life with the experience of abundance is my creativity. Not the validation of others, not what the government or markets are doing – but my own creative vision.

I love the quote from the Gospel of Thomas where Jesus is quoted as saying “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

This principle has proven true for me time and time again. The goal is to trust your creative visions, to take daily and consistent action towards them and to HANG IN THERE. It’s pretty much guaranteed that RIGHT BEFORE you are about to succeed things will get really tough. It’s called “The Dip”.

You were born a creative being. You have talents. You were born to thrive. If you don’t believe this to be true for you chances are that belief stems from early childhood when a parent, teacher or friend told you that you weren’t creative. It’s BS – everyone has creativity to bring forth. Get in touch with your creativity. It might be art, numbers, music, business or producing. You can be a creative business person or doctor. Creativity isn’t limited to “starving artists”, it’s a quality that ALL of us have been given by our Maker.

Follow your creative vision with trust. Start now.

I’ve been an artist my whole life. As a kid you couldn’t peel me away from art supplies, but I was pressured into fitting into a mold of what my parents designed for me. The “artist can’t make any money” syndrome was quite prevalent in my house hold.  It wasn’t until about 6 years after I graduated with a degree in business from Georgetown University that I realized I didn’t fit into the mold anymore.  Since then my life has been a devouring of every subject I’m interested in.  I’ve created my own adult program of discovery.  Before I leave this dimension of existence, I want to experience anything and everything that interests me. Eventually, I’d like to settle into a sharing of something I love and adore from the most authentic Self.

The concept of “The Dip” really resonated with me too. I had consistently interpreted “The Dip” as a sign that maybe something wasn’t right for me and walked away from things I’ve loved doing.  But in my work with The Law of Attraction and so many other positive messages, I’ve realized “The Dip” is ME needing to catch up with the new and expanded version of ME and that if you hang it there you can overcome your fears or deal with whatever is holding you back from shining in your greatness!

I’m still on that journey of discovery, but getting closer to the artist in me every day. I’m getting more inspired, more willing to share and ready to give back to the world in a BIG way.   I’m taking risks, failing and succeeding. But most importantly, I’m learning, all the time, every day about myself and who I am.  That in itself has been the best discovery of all.

One thing I do know is that I want to spread the message of love, raise consciousness and awareness, give gratitude to all that exists and give people a chance to become all that they can be.  My own personal statement is:

Through my wisdom and courage, I have an abundant and spiritual life that is dedicated to freedom, passion and expression. I offer my full love, gratitude, and radiant energy to connect, empower and inspire others to reach their highest potential!

Thank you Mastin. Thanks for being a force in expression, positivity and creativity!

Sign up now for THE DAILY LOVE and be a Mastin Kipp Stalker too! ;)