July 1, 2009
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In This Issue
Featured Article: Trust Yourself
Announcements
Speaking Schedule
Daddy's Little Girls
Welcome to this week’s issue of Appreciation (and Authenticity) in Action.
Happy July! Here’s to a wonderful new month of life – filled with joy, wonder, truth, growth, and gratitude. Life is what we make of it and we always have a choice about that, even if it doesn’t seem like we do.
I appreciated all of the great feedback I got about last week’s audio newsletter. I've recorded an audio again this week (and plan to do so most weeks moving forward). There's also a written version of this week’s message – choose which one works best for you (or feel free to both read and listen).
Click here to listen to the audio on my blog.
Thanks for being on my e-zine list – it’s an honor to connect with you. Have a great rest of your day and week!
With Gratitude,
P.S. If you’d like to listen to a recent radio interview I did on KFOG in San Francisco, click here. This interview has special meaning to me as I’ve been a longtime KFOG listener myself and my late father, Ed Robbins (who would’ve turned 76 years old yesterday), worked as an announcer at KFOG when I was a kid.
Trust Yourself
(For this week’s audio message, click here.)
How well do you trust yourself, I mean really trust yourself?
For most of us, myself included, self-trust is tough. We have a tendency to second-guess ourselves, not listen to our gut, or hang onto negative memories from the past when we’ve made mistakes or “bad” decisions. These things and others make it difficult for us to trust ourselves and thus create challenges in our relationships, our work, and our lives.
Lack of self-trust, while debilitating in many ways, is quite common. There’s nothing “wrong” with us for not trusting ourselves...it isn’t something we’ve been specifically encouraged or trained to do. Like with appreciation, authenticity, or many other important aspects of our life and growth, the first step in our process of expansion is to notice and tell the truth about why it can be difficult. In the case of self-trust, once we’re able to honestly acknowledge our challenge with it (and have some compassion about it), we can start to consciously choose to trust ourselves in a more real way.
What makes it difficult or challenging for you to fully trust yourself? Take a moment to consider this. The more aware of this we can be, with empathy, the more likely we are to move beyond it and let go of our “story” about why we can’t trust ourselves.
Here are a few things you can do to enhance your ability to trust yourself:
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Listen to your inner wisdom. We all have inner wisdom. Some of us refer to this as our intuition, others call it our gut, and still others relate to it as our high consciousness. Whether you call it one or all of these things (or something else), I believe that we’re all very intuitive and that we each have a deep sense of what is true and right for us in most situations. As we practice listening to this inner wisdom (through meditation, prayer, quiet time, breath, conscious thought, and more), we begin to trust ourselves on a deeper level.
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Be willing to take risks, go for it, and make mistakes. So often we don’t try things because we think we might fail. I love Michael Jordan’s quote about this, he said, “I missed 100% of the shots I never took.” While it can be scary for us to take risks in life, one of the greatest ways we can build our capacity for self-trust is to go for it...even if we fail. As we build up our ability to take risks, we also grow our capacity for courage, which in turn expands our ability to trust ourselves.
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Forgive yourself! This is a life-long process and is vital as it relates to self-trust. One of the main reasons we don’t trust ourselves is that we haven’t forgiven ourselves for mistakes we’ve made, pain we’ve caused, or regrets we have. These “demons” from our past haunt us and we use them as evidence to not go for things and not trust ourselves. As we enhance our capacity to forgive ourselves, we heal from the past and breathe new life into our experience. This creates a genuine sense of enthusiasm for both the present moment and for our future. And, as we’re able to forgive ourselves, we can let go of our attachment to being “perfect” and having to do everything just right...which then allows us to trust ourselves more freely.
Think of something important in your life right now – a decision you’ve been on the fence about because you’re worried about making the wrong choice (i.e. not trusting yourself). Given what we’ve been discussing here, if you fully trusted yourself in this moment, what would you do in regards to this important issue? I bet if you listen to your inner wisdom, allow yourself to take a risk, and know that you can forgive yourself no matter what happens – the answer to the question “what should I do?” in this situation is quite clear.
How does this relate to you, your life, your relationships and more? Share your thoughts, action more on my blog here.
For some additional ideas and specific tips on self-trust, check out this week's audio clip.
Free Teleseminar with Me – July 28, 3:30 PM PT
I’m excited to invite you to my free teleseminar, “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken – The Power of Authenticity” on Tuesday, July 28, at 3:30 PM PT. In this session I will explore why it can be challenging for us to be ourselves fully, and some of the key elements of living a life filled with authenticity, confidence, and freedom. I’ll share some of the main principles and practices from my new book, as well as some of what I’ve been learning, seeing, and hearing as I travel around the county and talk to different groups about this important topic. This teleseminar not only offers valuable content, but also a fully interactive experience on MaestroConference, a new technology that allows you to engage me and other participants as if we were in a live workshop together. It’s very cool! And, in addition to being able to sign up for my free teleseminar, you can also sign up for two more free teleseminars taking place in the month of July from incredible teachers, authors, and speakers like Deepak Chopra, Judith Orloff, Jack Canfield, John Gray, Marci Shimoff, and about 50 others. I’m honored and excited to be a part of this. For more info about my teleseminar, the others, and to register for free today, click here.
Great New Video – The Shadow Effect, by Debbie Ford
Debbie Ford, bestselling author and teacher, has created a powerful new documentary film called The Shadow Effect. Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Dr. David Simon, and other world-renowned thinkers join Debbie Ford to reveal the transformative power of your shadow—the parts of yourself that you dislike and disown, the past that you regret and repress, and the future that is waiting to be birthed. The Shadow Effect will leave you breathing deeper as you take back your power and step into the possibility of the next greatest evolution of yourself. Debbie Ford’s work on the shadow, which I have participated in for a number of years and write about in my own books, is so important to our growth and our desire to be real, appreciate ourselves, and live a fulfilled life. I highly encourage you to check out this important film. For more information and to either order the DVD or watch the movie online, click here.
Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter
I’m really getting into Facebook and Twitter these days. If you’d like to keep up with me in this way, click one or both of these links:
Where I’m Speaking:
Below is a list of where and when I’m speaking for the next few months. Most of these events are for my corporate or organizational clients (i.e. not open to the public). The ones in bold, however, are public events. I hope to see you at one of these!
For all my upcoming public events, check out this link. And, if you live in any of the cities where I’ll be traveling and want to contact me about setting up a speaking engagement for your group or company while I’m in town, feel free to contact me.
7/9/09 – Morgan Hill, CA
7/15/09 – Mountain View, CA
7/22/09 – Tempe, AZ (Changing Hands Books)
7/28/09 – FREE Teleseminar, 3:30 PM PT (click here to register)
8/7/09 – Columbus, OH
8/9/09 – Oakland, CA (OCSL)
8/28/09 – Walnut Creek, CA
8/30/09 – San Diego, CA
9/10/09 – Concord, CA
9/12/09 – Petaluma, CA (ABWA Event)
9/13/09 – Walnut Creek, CA (Unity Center)
9/15/09 – Bozeman, MT
9/17/09 – San Jose, CA
9/22/09 – Salt Lake City, UT
9/26/09 – Kansas City, MO
Again, for a full list of my upcoming public events, check out: http://www.beyourselfbook.com/events.htm.
“We're working on trusting ourselves
more and more each day!”
- Samantha and Annarose Robbins
To see more photos of us and
our mommy and daddy, click here.
