Hello ~

Welcome to the November newsletter of Coach's Corner~ the place to Share, Build, & Grow ! An extra warm welcome to all the many new readers who have come on board- great to have you.
In this issue:
~ Winner announced
~ Feature Article: React or Respond ?
~ How to Discover your Sacred Gifts
~ Checking in with Lesley
~ Quote Garden

First off, I'd like to thank all of you who took some time to come by and say Hi at the West Coast Womens Show- as a result there are over 200 more readers who signed up for the newsletter. Best show yet~ Thanks again for making it fun! And congratulations to the Winner of a month of coaching- Andrea S. of West Vancouver, BC. ~ way to go! If you have missed past editions of Coach's Corner, you can read the archived editions... all you have to do is * click here *

React or Respond- what to do? What works best? Reacting or Responding? Where do each of these come from? You know how you heard the line “ there’s good and bad to everything" well, I was thinking about these two words the other day. React / Respond… Here’s what lead me to that point. Recently, I was out making a purchase with a credit card and did something very unlike me. I did not return the card to it’s usual place in my wallet. For some reason, I tucked it into a pocket of a suit I was wearing. And promptly forgot I did that. Two days later, and I took my husband out for dinner as a thank you for helping me set up and take down a big display. As I took out my wallet, well you guessed it- no Visa card. I stayed calm, and looked again, and again. I simply chose another card, and calmly decided to look in a few places when I got home. I chose not to go to a place of bad conclusions. Now you may not know it, but the ‘old me’ would have had a fit. I immediately would have Reacted to the whole situation and not been able to keep my cool. The old me used to have many times when I’d have panic set in in these types of situations. Not a good feeling. “Esther Hicks, author of ‘Ask and it is Given’ says that there are only two emotions- one feels good and the other feels bad” . I used to have the market covered on ‘bad feelings’, and that was by choice. So, because I remained calm this time, it resulted in me being able to ‘ask’ for help in finding the card.( note; I call upon my unseen helpers and guides when I need to) Pretty soon, I had a sense of a pocket, somewhere. I kept focused on that, not going to a worry perspective at all. In no time at all I was shown the blue suit with the pocket… and when I reached in, there was the card. It’s all good ! ~ Thank you, thank you ~ So, would it have been any faster to find the card if I had reacted in the first place, by spinning into a fear mode that my card was possibly stolen? No. Don’t get me wrong, there are key times to react in life. Like the times you see a small child run into the street. Your split second reaction to yell their name is a good thing in that instance. We are hard wired to survive, and with that comes our ability to react fast when needed. The key is to know how we can serve ourselves best when we simply respond to a situation that is not life threatening. Responding comes from a place of love and reacting comes from a place of fear. Any fear based thinking produces a kind of chaos in our minds that keeps us from moving forward. It’s very debilitating. As a key example, over my years of volunteering in prisons I learned of many a time guys got themselves into more deep trouble by Reacting badly when another guy ‘cut in’ in the food line, for instance. The food was not going to run out, so no need to have feared that, but that is what years of living on survival mode does to your spirit. Taking a nanosecond to chose to respond rather than react may have meant the difference whether they ended up in solitary confinement for a spell or not. Drastic measures for something not so big in the first place. Point to Practice: Be happy knowing we all have the choice to react or respond to any situation we find ourselves in. More times than not, we can keep our own blood pressure in check when we take time to respond. Thank goodness! Where can you respond this month?

Sacred Gifts - we all have them, but you know what they are? Make a point to read about an interesting upcoming workshop . Monique MacDonald is again putting together her wonder day and a half Sacred Gifts Workshop. I have attended SG Workshops , and highly recommend this work to everyone. “The key to success is by expanding your Gifts, not by trying to fix your weaknesses.” ~ T. Harv Eker Do you know what YOUR gifts are? I’m not talking about your talents or your skills…and I’m not talking about your personality… actually your ‘sacred’ gifts are OFTEN in contrast to your personality. Did you know that? Do YOU know what YOUR Sacred Gifts are? If you don’t, you’ll want to attend! If you do know your gifts then you’ll want to attend! Friday November 23rd 7 pm – 10 pm and Saturday November 24th 9 am – 5:30 pm Facilitated by Monique MacDonald “Everyone needs to FIRST uncover their gifts and live from them so that applying the Law of Attraction is effortless.” ~ James Ray of THE SECRET You can learn all the details of the venue & Register with Monique here: sacredgifts@telus.net

Checking in With Lesley... To give new readers a quick update on our gal Lesley. Back in September I asked Lesley if she would like to challenge herself to being a part of Coach's Corner each month with a short report on her remarkable decision to lose weight. ( I mean this lady is serious- her over all goal is to lose over 175 lbs in a year!) She accepted and each month Lesley fills us in on her progress... As we read in October, she was off to Vegas for a family wedding...for this month I asked her if she's been noticing any struggles she could share ... "Well, Vegas was wonderful, it took me a good few days to de-glitterize myself after we returned. Stayed in the MGM Grand. Oh! I could live that life. Did not gamble, but enjoyed everything else... Walked a lot, saw everything. I was warned to wear comfy shoes, nobody told me that I had to be fit! My husband Geoff is so supportive and we planned every eating place very carefully. When I returned I had Thanksgiving weekend and had a turkey dinner without gravy and lots of greens... Tried to buy things that I did not care for but I knew others liked, it made it easier for me, that really does work (if you read the labels well) I weighed in that week and had lost 1.5 pounds !!!.... Then I had a long weekend away with my girls club and oh that was awful!!! I had not planned it very well and I thought I could lose it all after I came home. That was not going to be so easy, you see everyone had started to buy Halloween candy and the smell of chocolate got to me... Last night I weighed in and had put on 9 pounds. Now, I knew I had put on and I know what went wrong, so it was no shock. So, today I am really happy that I am back on track...To be successful it's all in the planning, what you buy, you put in the fridge, what's in the fridge you eat! Now they have a competition at Sureslim, the clinic where I go, to win a Hurricane Candle Holder. I am going to win it. You are given a ticket for the draw for every 2 pounds you lose throughout November... what an incentive...Law of attraction does work!!! I was a little sad that I put on so much, but I don't dwell on it. I am still slimmer than I was when I began and a whole size smaller. I am now looking forward to next week to see it all coming off, this time for keeps!!! Thank you again for everyone's support, it really means a lot to me. Cheers, Talk to you next month Lesley the Loser ~wink~ ! ...it looks to me that planning is the key for Lesley. As with anything really. Plan well, and stick to the plan for the results you are wanting. I admire Lesley for not hanging onto bad feelings about some of the struggles she had over the past month, rather, looking forward to getting better and better everyday. Focus on what you want, it is working for her! Keep going- we're proud of you Lesley! Lesley loves to hear from you, why not drop her an e-mail at: lesanders@hotmail.com

Quote Garden “No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered.” – Winston Churchill “Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.” – Alfred North Whitehead “Sit, walk, or run, but don’t wobble.” – Zen proverb

Wishing you a warm November, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers ! Consider finding what Your Sacred Gifts are, at Monique's workshop later this month. How would learning new strategies around responding serve you? Give me a call, and let's talk. Always open to booking Sample Sessions with no obligation. Simply call to book one for yourself today- toll free: 1.866.703.0809
All the best!

Your Coach Cathy