Linda Brady and I are at it again, and this time we’ve recorded a conversation in which we’re talking about various aspects of relationships including:  choosing to consciously love your partner, being open hearted, the idea of emotional unavailability and reflections and projections.  This might get you in the mood for chapter 2 of Conversations with Linda that will be released later this week, titled Love & Soul Mates, Relationships & Heartbreak.  Nothing in this recording is repeated in the chapter, but I just wanted to throw a few ideas out about love and relationships today, since it’s Valentine’s Day and all.

The recording lasts 17 minutes.  Click PLAY to listen to the MP3, or right click and “save as” to download.

Sending love!

Follow me now, yo!  Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!

Linda Brady and I recorded this conversation last month because I wanted to speak a little bit about some of the topics we cover in the first chapter of our book that will be launched here on my site on January 19, 2012.  The chapter is called, WOW: Weight off Wholistically.

In the chapter we discuss Linda’s mind/body/spirit approach to losing weight.  She and I both believe that working on all three levels is the best way to achieve success in all areas of life – weight loss included.

In this conversation, we talk about the fear of visibility being a very common reason for people to hold onto excess weight.  We do speak about past-life circumstances setting up these fears, but I would also like to add that you can look at events from your current life as factors that could set up a fear of visibility as well.

If you’re interested in losing weight and you listen to this recording (it’s about 20 minutes), think about it with an open mind.  Ask yourself (and your Soul): “Why would I be afraid of people looking at me and noticing me?”  Have any unpleasant experiences happened to you when you looked your best, something you don’t want to repeat?

Finding your answer could be the key to figuring out why you have held onto excess weight as long as you have.  Realizing that you don’t need to be afraid of that anymore just might be the breakthrough you need to be able to finally lose the weight and keep it off.

Click PLAY to listen in, and then leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Follow me now, yo!  Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!

I break my diet.  I swear in front of my kids.  I have bad thoughts and I reprimand myself for them.  I overdo it.  I consciously make mistakes.  I fall asleep with makeup on.

Is the proverbial Santa coming this year?

I wish I was always really nice, but there’s something about naughty that can be just so appealing.

Sugar is a perfect example for me, personally.  I generally try to avoid sugar because it’s “bad for me.”  It can be harmful to my teeth, my health, my mood and my waistline.  At the same time, I find sugar to be simply divine.  It’s my favorite food group.

Your concern might be different, but I think we all have a guilty pleasure, right?  Something in life that’s sinfully delicious?

Image by Raven Moon Designs

I wanted to discuss my frustation with someone, so I asked one of my mentors, Michael Brady (of Everything Unconscious & yes, Linda Brady’s husband & partner!), to explain this phenomenon to me.  How can some things that are so good also be so bad?  Why does the forbidden fruit often taste sweeter?

“Ahh, you’re talking about the original sin, the Fall from Grace, the Adam & Eve story,” said Michael.  “Tempted into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve become aware of themselves and their nakedness for the first time and they are expelled from paradise because of it.”

“I’m not buying it,” stated Michael firmly.  “As if there is good and evil.

I believe God is the creator of all the experiences on this plane, not just part of the experiences.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

When I was young, I questioned this idea at church, that there could be an all-powerful God who simply tolerated anything that was wrong or bad on the earth – like a snake or a devil – and then punished the humans who were lured into sin because of it.  That didn’t make sense to me at all.

“Meaning bad things aren’t bad?” I concluded.

“Experiences/things are not inherently good or bad,” Michael furthered.  “They’re pleasurable or painful at the body level and we turn that into good or evil, constructive or destructive, saving us or condemning us, good for us, bad for us.

Part of the way we are aware of ourselves on the earth plane is through contrast.  Awareness emerges out of the interaction between two or more opposing entities/things.  We have to compare things in order to extract awareness, consciousness and meaning from them.

Like Adam and Eve, we become self-aware… aware of our bodies, our feelings, our sensations.  If you could eat anything you wanted, for example, and there was no reaction, you wouldn’t be paying any attention whatsoever.

Each of our experiences gives us further awareness, consciousness and a higher emerging sense of meaning.”

“We’re evolving through all the experiences in order to become whole, to achieve our Godness.  We have to go through it to evolve back to God,” Michael answered.

“OK, well, that all sounds great.  But still.  There are things in life that seem bad, and I want to avoid them,” I argued.

“If you avoid pain, you’ll also avoid pleasure.  You said it yourself.  Sugar is your favorite.”

“Yes,” I concurred.  “And there are many examples like that.  So, where does that leave me?”

Image by Ashley E. Gilkes

“It leaves you with experience.  At the end of this life, we’ll all experience an equal amount of pleasure and pain.  Pleasure and pain are important.  This plane wants equal access between the two polarities.

It leaves you with choice, which is created by the interplay between two other polarities: partial knowing and partial not knowing.  The not knowing is very important, for if you knew enough about what would be the results from every action you take, there really would be no choice.

Lastly, it leaves you in a conversation.  It forces you to look at your values, judgments and expectations.  We’re all forced to take a look at this sometimes and we drown in confusion.  What it boils down to, I think, is us being stripped of our illusions about good and bad.  In the New Age, good and bad are not at war with each other.  Good and bad are not opposed.”

“When you put it like that, Michael,” I added, “you make it sound like bad stuff can be a good thing.”

“You could say that,” Michael conceded.  “Just don’t confuse ‘good’ with ‘pleasure.’”

Follow me now, yo!  Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!

In this second recorded conversation with Linda Brady, Linda and I discuss the holidays.  Now that the season is in full swing, I thought it would be appropriate to offer some coaching tips on how to make this time of year just what you want it to be.

The holidays are a great time to get in touch with your Inner Child.  I was really able to do that this Thanksgiving which made it more joyful (yet also perhaps a little too indulgent).  I am interested in making the most of the entire season and I am taking the advice offered in this call.

In our session, Linda and I talk about the highs and lows of the holidays, including how Linda coaches her clients through the challenges that most typically come up.  We discuss overwhelm and loneliness, and we offer advice for families with mixed religions.  We touch on the Winter Solstice, and of course you’ll hear us spout about the Soul and the Inner Child too.

It’s a great call, if I do say so myself!  I always learn something important when I talk with Linda.

CLICK PLAY TO LISTEN TO THE MP3 (or Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download the File)

It runs about 20 minutes.  Please leave a comment after listening and let me know what you think.  If you have any questions for future calls, Tweet ‘em in!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I wish you all the best for the whole season.

Follow me now, yo!  Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!

I am happy to announce that my first book is coming out in January 2012, titled Conversations with Linda: New Age Lessons from an Old Soul Master.  It will be sold as a chapter series right here on my site!

I’m coauthoring it with my coach, Linda Brady, and our first chapter is called WOW!  Weight off Wholistically.  If your New Year’s Resolution is to slim down, we can help you do it.  In the meantime, I’ve asked Linda to share some tips for handling the food frenzy during this festive holiday season.

Kim:  Do you recommend trying to lose weight over the holidays?

Linda:  If people are really motivated to do so, go for it, but generally speaking I do not.  It’s tougher to lose weight around the holidays, so chances are good that if you try, you’re going to screw up, and then you’ll just feel bad about yourself.  When you feel guilty about eating, you’re not really enjoying it.  What’s the point in that?

Kim:  What do you recommend for dealing with food and weight control during the holiday season?  

Linda:  The holidays are when our Inner Children are really engaged, and when they are the most fragile.  Emotions are heightened at this time because of our Inner Children.  They are always hoping for something wonderful, magical and new to happen, but they may get disappointed.  One of the things most of us can reliably count on at this time is food or alcohol to be our best friend.  For that reason I suggest getting in touch with your Inner Child and understanding what food represents to her or him.

Kim:  Given that food often does represent comfort, should we allow ourselves indulgence anyway?

Linda:  Don’t deprive yourselves, but do it with your Inner Child.  Tell your Inner Child that you are eating this special food because she loves it, because she’s a good girl and she needs a special day.  All of our Inner Children need love, attention and praise.  When we take care of ourselves in that way, we are self-contained and we don’t have to rely on other people so much for those things, or on food, for that matter.

Then I suggest exercising it off.  Eat a little more and create ways to get rid of it – that would be feeding your Inner Child and your adult.

Kim:  Last year you gave me the idea to take a long walk on Thanksgiving Day.  I think it was the first time I ever did that, and I enjoyed my day so much more because of it.

Linda:  Yes, we can plan our special eating, and we can plan to walk it off too.  That creates a level of balance.  It is going into it wisely, with consciousness, and with joy.  Some people say they are too busy to fit in a walk.  The “Super Mother” might be engaged, they are busy preparing and taking care of others, but then nowhere in there is YOU.  I always recommend finding ways to be fair to ourselves, to put ourselves first.

Kim:  Self-care is actually quite nerve-wracking, but I believe our Souls support it.  It’s we who argue with it.

Linda:  I agree.  It does take courage, and creativity.

Kim:  Given that the holiday season is also a social time, what do you advise to those who feel upset about being a few pounds heavier for the holiday parties, when we want to look our best?

Linda:  Some people are sensitive to how others see them, and that is a very vulnerable position.  We really don’t know what people are going to think of us, so we can’t go on that.  We need to disconnect from how other people define us and know that our own opinion of ourselves is what really counts.

Most people are up a few pounds over the holidays, most people don’t notice it on others, and we all go through cycles.  Forgive yourself for not being perfect because there is no such thing anyway.

Our Inner Children hear our self-criticism and they take it to heart.  Don’t engage in it.  Say, “I ain’t playing.”

Kim:  It can be so hard to get back onto a healthy diet once we get off track.  Do you have any tips for that?

Linda:  We’re all going to have blow out days and we’re all going to eat what we want sometimes, but the key is sometimes.  It’s fine to do it as long as we go back.

We’re all basic extremists, and because of this, after we fall off our lifestyle we’ll think, “Oh, screw it!  I’m off my diet, I don’t care.  It’s too hard.”  And then one bad day can turn into many bad weeks, or more.

It’s our extreme bias that makes people lose 20 pounds and gain 30 pounds right back.  It comes from an inner, unconscious part of us that doesn’t want to take care of ourselves, that is so sabotaging.

I teach consciousness and balance.  Finding ways to make the unconscious conscious and to live our lives in balance makes it possible to lose or maintain weight, to stay on track.  Our upcoming chapter will really help our readers understand this.

Kim:  Yes, it will.  And we will speak more about it in a recorded conversation coming soon.  Thank you, Linda, for sharing your advice!

Follow me now, yo!  Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!

Today’s my big launch day!  Woo hoo, I’m officially a blogger!  And I’m jumping right into a series that I am sooo excited about sharing called Conversations with Linda.  Linda Brady is my teacher, and I find her work and her knowledge to be incredibly powerful and insightful.  Read her full bio here.

This will be a regular series on my blog, conversations between Linda and myself recorded and posted in an MP3 format.  In today’s Episode (#1) we talk about how I found Linda, how Linda found her Soul, and we discuss the kind of coaching work we both do, which is to teach other people to find their Souls and to live their Soul Missions.  Our goal is to guide and inspire our clients to live happy and meaningful lives, and we want to share our work with you here.

CLICK PLAY TO LISTEN TO THE MP3 (or Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download the File)

Listen in (it runs approximately 30 minutes), and expect much more from us to come! Please subscribe to my email list so you’ll receive updates as soon as they are released.

If you have any comments about the convo, be sure to leave them below. If you would like to ask questions for us to answer in upcoming segments, send them to me on Twitter: @kimpatron.

Thanks for tuning in!

Follow me now, yo!   Facebook!   Twitter!   How Can I Help YOU?   Find Out YOUR Soul Mission!