Be out of balance.

In order to know what it feels like to be balanced, you must experience being out of balance. So when you’re feeling not yourself remember that you are actually learning how to be more truly you than ever.

Flush your fears.

Today’s smackdown for the Inner Critic comes from a reader who sent in this great story:

“I was in the ladies room at work late last night and I heard a woman very sweetly say, ‘Don’t you have to go to the bathroom?’
A little girl responded, ’I'm scared.’
‘What did Miss Eleanor say about being scared of the toilets flushing?’
The girl said, ‘To laugh.’
The toilet flushed.
Mom repeated her questions, ‘Do you need to go to the bathroom?’
And again the girl said, ’I'm scared.’ But then she giggled.

What great advice – laugh at something you are scared of.  It totally makes the thing you’re afraid of less scary and gives you perspective. It’s a shame we forget so many lessons from when we are young.”

Thanks reader, for a great story. The next time I’m afraid of something, I’m going to think of a toilet flushing and laugh!

Are you seeing the correct reflection?

We all need to have confidants who we can vent to or use as sounding boards about our lives. And though just talking about things is important, it’s critical that we talk to the right people. If you’re going through an emotional transition, find people to talk to who have gone through the same thing you have. That way what they are reflecting back at you will be useful. And use discernment when discussing your emotional life with people who are not in a good place themselves. If one of your nearest and dearest is struggling, they will probably come back at you with advice they really need for themselves instead of accurately seeing you.

Many kudos to the brilliant Amy for the topic of today’s Smackdown.

Experience another season.

If you live in the parts of the country that are suffering through crazy cold temps then go to a greenhouse and sit among the tropical flowers for at least one hour.

If you live in a warmer climate, open your freezer, shove your face in and let the cool air hit your skin.

If it’s gray or raining all the time where you are, sit under a full-spectrum light.

If it’s sunny nearly every day, find a dark room where you can block out the sun and put a soothing lavender eye pillow over your eyes.

Write an anonymous letter to someone in your family.

Is there something you wish you could say to someone in your family but know you never could? Write them a letter they will never see. Then burn it, bury it, destroy it. Or, if you’re in a blended family, send it to http://stepfamilyletterproject.wordpress.com/

Program yourself for wealth.

Worried about money? Who isn’t these days, right? Well…I’m not anymore because I spent the last 99 days working with neuro-linguistic programming to train my mind and spirit to view wealth in a new way. My husband and I completed a Feng Shui wealth ritual that lasts 99 days. We focused our intentions on having plenty of money. And we began talking about money in a new, more positive way.

During the process we worked through our superstitions, childhood beliefs, limiting thoughts, and fears of not having enough. We battled the Inner Critic. We brainstormed ways to make more money and to do more with what we already have.

One of the most powerful transformations of the exercise was how we ended up thinking about ourselves. We began to see ourselves as wealthy people regardless of what we actually have in the bank. That in turn, has changed how we interact with the world. It has changed our behavior by giving us that extra ounce of courage needed to make a phone call or ask for help or promote ourselves.

Here’s an exercise for you to try. First write this: I am wealthy. Then finish these two phrases in as many ways as you can as specifically as possible:

I have money to…

I have money for…

The more real you believe the possibilities are, the more you’ll begin to see yourself having money. And then you’ll start figuring out ways to make it.

Welcome to the land of the Forgetful Fog.

This morning when I woke up back in my room, I realized that over the weekend I visited the Land of the Forgetful Fog. It is a place where my intentions to get on the treadmill are lost in the mist, my desire to work on my novel is replaced with other meaningless tasks, my list of to-dos to achieve my goals is left forgotten in a closed notebook.

This is a land where the true devastating genius of my Inner Critic shows up, or rather, doesn’t. Instead of beating me up, it remains quiet. Too quiet. I am lulled into a state of peace. Ahhhhh. I like it here.

If I were doing this quieting of my monkey mind on purpose, this post would be about something completely different because then my intentions to be at peace would be fulfilled in a meditative state. But the Land of the Forgetful Fog is dangerous. It is a place of apathy where I conveniently forget all my dreams because really, they’re too hard to achieve anyway. It is the poppy field in The Wizard of Oz.

I have lived in the poppy field in certain areas of my life for months and, yes, years at a time. Then one day I’ll way up and realize that I haven’t spent a single day writing fiction. Even though that’s what I really want to do. Or I haven’t been to a yoga class in months, even though yoga makes me feel amazing.

For the first half of 2009, here is what I’m going to do to make sure that I don’t lie down and fall asleep among the flowers: I’ll find a Sharpie and write the things I want to make sure I don’t forget to do on a piece of really beautiful, handmade paper. Then I will frame the paper and hang it on the wall in a place where I couldn’t possibly miss it. Next to the door of my bedroom. On the fridge. Near the mirror in the bathroom.

That way I’ll have a reminder that I am on a mission. And isn’t Oz usually a lot closer than it looks?