I Have To Do WHAT???

As you may know, I have been studying holistic health and nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition since the end of October 2013. I've been learning a great deal and have been feeling quite comfortable absorbing all this new information at my own pace, in the comfort of my home (while homeschooling my kids at the same time). However, things are changing quickly now. 

I feel like I am being pushed off the passive student chair and kicked into real-life action! Already, after not even 4 months, I am required to start doing Health Consultations with clients! (I graduate officially in October 2014). Of course, we start practising gently with the people we trust the most -friends, family, fellow students- but I'm really just a step away from posting an add on Kijiji asking total strangers to sit with me for a free Health Consultation! I was a little resistant at first, (ok, very resistant). I have to admit I felt some fear and anxiety. I was not expecting the leap from student to consultant to happen so fast! But you know what? I'm ok with it now. Not sure how I'll feel when I sober up...(just kidding!)

Seriously, it took me a couple of weeks to get mentally prepared to go out and work in the "real world". I reviewed all the step-by-step instructions given by the school to lead a successful first consultation. I realized I actually do have a lot of information and insight to offer to people who are looking for ways to live happier, healthier lives. I plan on integrating some basic consciousness / awareness notions in my practice because I believe they play a key role in reducing stress and allowing true healing to happen. I also think I'm a good listener, and that's the most important part when working with clients.

So, last Sunday, I practised my very first health consultation with my "peer coach" -a friend who lives in my city who's also enrolled at the IIN. She said I did a great job. Of course, as a peer coach, it's her job to say that, but I trust her judgement! Tomorrow, I'll be practising with my sister-in-law. In a few days, who knows, I could be practising with you! (just email me if you are interested! www.lisevilleneuve.com)

What's amazing about the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is that they really offer a complete package that gives us all the tools to get out there and start working within one year. They cover all the bases -education, business, marketing, self-care, and they address the common insecurities most students face. They get us off our butts and into action in no time, and they empower us to make positive changes in the world by helping others help themselves. 

After I completed my degree in Psychology from University, I had no clue how to quickly turn that into a job. Thanks IIN, you have shown me exactly what I needed to learn...and it's not over yet...there are several months of training to go.

***By the way, for those of you possibly interested in being my "guinea pigs" for a free health consultation, let me just explain how this works: 1) You fill in a brief questionnaire (health history) that asks general questions about your health and diet. 2) You email it back to me and then we set a time to go over it together. 3) You basically get a chance to talk about yourself, your health goals and challenges (everything we discuss is confidential). 4) I listen, mirror back to you some of the things you said (it's sometimes surprising for some people to hear back what they just said), we identify your main health concerns together and then I tell you about my health coaching program. 5) You pretend to sign up, I congratulate you and we both fly off into Nirvana...well, something like that. Contact me at consciouslivingsolutions@gmail.com if you'd like more info about this free consultation. Thanks for being part of my training!***

Warmly,

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com
Join me on Facebook: Conscious Living Solutions

A Big Pain In The...

...HEART! A Big Pain In The Heart! 

As much as this can be an uncomfortable subject because it forces us to face our deepest fears, I would like to talk about the profound pain we are all carrying. Very few of us even acknowledge that suffering exists in our hearts, but it's there, holding us down in many different ways. Releasing our pain is the key to finding our freedom.

Why don't we realize we are suffering? Mainly because we've never experienced what it feels like not to suffer. Do fish realize they are surrounded by water? It seems obvious to us, but not to them, because they've never been out of water (the lucky ones, at least!). So day after day, we swim in our ocean of psychological and emotional pain thinking this is normal. Our psyches have become hyper-sensitive in this modern world. We are filled with insecurity, anxiety, self-doubt, self-consciousness. It doesn't have to be this way.

The mind is a powerful  tool that wants to help us. It tries to fix us inside -to reduce our fears- by suggesting we do this or that, say this or that, often in a neurotic kind of way!The problem with the mind is that it thinks it can find the solution to our problems by changing our external circumstances. A better job, a different girlfriend, a better body perhaps? However, our root problem is internal: our fears make us feel incomplete, inadequate. The truth is, there is nothing we can change on the outside to fix this permanently. So what can we do, then?

The first thing to do is to fire our minds! Ignore the neurotic chatter box! Don't fight it, just refuse to participate in it. Be quiet inside and watch what your mind is telling you. Be the silent witness and stop deriving a sense of identity from your mind. You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness behind them.

Great, so you quieted the mind, but what about the pain? It's still there. You have been storing pockets of pain in your heart chakra since childhood (Samskara). Whatever you have resisted in the past, you still carry today. Whenever you close your heart to protect yourself from more pain, you actually trap that pain inside:

"Remember, if you close around something, you will be psychologically sensitive about that subject for the rest of your life. Because you stored it inside of you, you will be afraid that it will happen again." -Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

The key to spiritual freedom is learning to become comfortable with pain passing through us. If we are able to see the pain as nothing more than transient energy that just needs to make its way through us to be released, our hearts can stay open and we won't accumulate more pain. When old, painful memories resurface, we get a second chance to open our hearts and release them once and for all. Some people experience a feeling of heat in the heart area when this happens.

So, the next time a form of pain comes your way, (and it will!) instead of fearing it, instead of trapping it inside by closing your heart, be brave enough to keep your heart open and just experience it passing through you. It will probably be uncomfortable, but in the long run, you will waste less time and energy avoiding or reacting to circumstances that trigger those sensitive pockets of pain you have been carrying for so long. You will be tearing down the bars of your internal prison one by one. The question is, how badly do you want this freedom?

Warmly,

Lise

www.lisevilleneuve.com

Join me on Facebook: Conscious Living Solutions

Uncomfortable Silence...

I just got back from breathtaking Tofino, British-Columbia (Canada). My husband and I spent three nights there, but we saw and experienced so much it seems like we've been gone a least a week. This was our very first trip without the kids (since they were born, that is), and as much as we love them, it was fantastic to have this time to reconnect and enjoy each other's company without getting interrupted every few seconds! I feel recharged and energized! The highlights of our trip were:

-Hiking in the majestic rainforest filled with gigantic trees,
-Breathing in the freshness of the ocean, watching large crashing waves and fearless surfers,
-Observing a group of whales (Orcas) chasing dolphins just off the beach,
-Calling two curious seals that swam up to us,
-Enjoying delicious seafood,
-Relaxing at the spa in a mineral pool, getting facials and munching on tapas in our robes,
-Having a picnic on the driftwood in February!
-Finding seashells, a beautiful sand dollar, mussels, and crab carapaces on the beach,
-Climbing the rocks along the shore and exploring the pools of water left by the tide

I was really surprised to see how everything was so green there! Green grass, green leaves and ferns everywhere, and such mild weather compared to Edmonton! Was this really Canada in the middle of winter? I found myself surrounded by stillness and beauty everywhere. 

This trip made me realize that I have become more comfortable with silence. Silence between my husband and I, silence in my own head. I am experiencing a decrease in "mental noise" and my compulsive need to label everything I see and mentally narrate my experiences is diminishing. Before, if my husband and I were driving for many hours and long moments of silence happened, I felt unease, an unconscious discomfort, without really being able to identify what was the root of this low-grade tension (I would actually feel guilty at times for not filling in the blanks). Now, I'm more aware that it's ok to just allow the space, the silence to be. When Rob and I walked in the rainforest together, I didn't feel a need to say anything, to label this as a red cedar, that as dogwood. I just let the experience happen through me, through my senses, and let it go. I'm finally learning to keep that compulsive thinking mind in check and it's truly liberating! 

Like waves, thoughts arise continually in our minds. It's up to us to decide if we want to surf on this wave, or that wave. Maybe we just prefer to sit back and watch for awhile, it's much less exhausting than trying to catch every single wave that comes our way. Thank you Tofino for reminding me that I am the awareness behind the waves.

Warmly,

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com
Conscious Living Solutions (Facebook)

This Gal Has No Business Plan...

Conscious Living Solutions was officially "launched" on January 5, 2014. Launched is too glamorous a word. What I really mean is the idea popped into my head (after a few days of chaos in my brain) and I decided to write a post about it on this blog.Then, I rearranged my personal website (www.lisevilleneuve.com) and thought about creating a new facebook page (with quite a bit of resistance, because I already have a personal facebook account and it takes up way to much time already!)

These very sudden, spontaneous steps were quite unusual for "think-things-over-till-every-detail-is-sorted-out" me, but then again, I've changed a lot since my music career days. I used to excel at over-planning. I got business grants and won prizes for over-planning. Even at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I'm studying now, it's very "write down the next five steps you're going to take." I guess there's nothing wrong with that and it guarantees moving forward, although sometimes you may end up moving in the wrong direction or wasting time when you act just for the sake of doing something, anything. I find that when I operate that way, I am usually leading with my head, not my heart.

Conscious Living Solutions is truly a project that emerged from my heart, thus I have no business plan and I plan to keep it that way! Unlike my previous ways of developing various projects, I don't push or force things. I'm truly sitting back and enjoying the ride. Already it's been an amazing journey! I'm trusting the process of letting consciousness work through me and the steps I have to take are being revealed to me little by little. This is truly incredible. I've met wonderful, supportive, inspiring people and I know this is the work of synchronicity. I started doing "flash meditation minutes" with people from all over the world who set their intentions to help out, well... complete strangers! How awesome is that? Our level of interconnectedness is more obvious than ever to me (yes, partially thanks to Facebook!) 

I can't believe that in just one month, over 500 people have joined the Conscious Living Solutions facebook page! I'm very grateful for that. Stay tuned for the evolution of this initiative. A straight-from-the-heart initiative with a mind of it's own!

Warmly,

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com