by Dr. Heléna Kate | Sep 14, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
A lot of times, especially when working with women, we hear that they over-give, over-accept, and over-care. These people might hear my message, “Care more” and say to themselves \”The solution to being more successful and fulfilled can’t possibly be to care more? Can it?\”
Well, actually, yes.
But, if you are one of these people, you don\’t need to care more about others – you need to care more about yourself.
If you are hurting, you are not caring for yourself. You are hoping that if you care for someone or something else that you will get that care back.
Caring should not hurt, period.
Sometimes, people get caught in the trap of shutting off their care because they got hurt one too many times and don’t want it to happen again.
If this is you, you may respond to the message, “Care More” with \”No way that always ends badly! Isn’t it smarter to make sure I can trust that there will be a good outcome before I invest my care?\”
Well, while you always want to use your head, basically, no.
If you are one of these people, I have one question for you: How is it working? Have you managed to stop getting yourself hurt?
The problem with cutting off your care is that as humans, we want to care. It feels better to care! When we cut off our caring due to fear it leads to numbness and you will not find fulfillment from being numb, trust me.
So, your solution is the same as above. You need to be able to care for yourself exquisitely to be able to care for others.
Lastly, there are people who believe it is all dog-eat-dog and that all this caring stuff is the worst. They are not on my list. In fact, they think that I am super annoying. All they need to do, is live in the world that they built…
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Sep 9, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
Recently I was looking at this top level coaches website and while we are VERY different personality-wise, our messaging was very similar. In fact, when I read some of the things that she wrote they were almost exactly what I had written on my website.
I felt my stomach turn and I started having all of these jealous thoughts.
I went from feeling abundant, successful, and really inspired by my messaging to being crabby, catty, and disenchanted. Reflecting on this experience made me think that jealousy would be a good topic to write about.
I am sure you have heard before that jealousy helps you clarify what it is that you want in your life. This is true and useful.
But knowing this still does not help you transform jealousy. It merely has you clear that you really want what another person has.
Here is a definition:
Jealousy: mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry.
I like this definition. I am going to talk about it broken down into those parts: suspicion, fear, and rivalry.
Suspicion is by definition and unfounded belief. It points out a flaw in our ability to think about our lives. If we have no proof, why would we choose to think negatively about a situation? If we find ourselves being suspicious, isn’t it better to focus on what we want rather than we don’t want until we have proof that it is otherwise?
Fear is typically experienced in response to real or perceived information. The first question we can ask ourselves is \”What is the actual harm that could come if what I fear is true is actually true?\”
Can I take care of myself in a way that decreases my fear? Or, can I switch my perspective so that I can see how things might be different?
Rival. Going again to the dictionary:
\”A person who is competing for the same object or goal as another, or who tries to equal or outdo another.\”
Here are my questions: Can two people actually have the same goal? And what is the point of equally or outdoing another person if what you want to do is live YOUR life?
To wrap this all up, in my case where I was on someone’s website and I started feeling jealousy, I make the following mistakes:
I saw similarities in what we offered.
I created a competition where one of us needed to win and one needed to loose.
I became afraid of the outcome where I did not win that I had created and then felt jealous.
This is what I could have done instead, just by shifting my mindset:
I could have seen the similar message and been inspired by its compatibility with mine, noticed our differences and recognized that we had different people to serve, and even gone as far as creating an outcome where we align with each other to help more people.
So why did I choose in that moment to be jealous rather than be inspired?
There are a million reasons. We all have a million reasons. But, these millions of reasons if not confronted will hold us back from being both successful and fulfilled.
It is not that we need to avoid feeling jealous. It is just an opportunity for us to ask some of these powerful questions, understand ourselves better and move in the direction of what we want to create in the world.
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Sep 7, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
Very recently, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, poet and Jungian psychoanalyst, said of the late Robin Williams, “He learned for 63 years of his life how to be ‘the fire handler.’ That is where I would praise him, for what he has managed to do for six+ decades; handle fire, while being made of parchment\” (Estés, 2014).
I gasped after reading her words, letting them kindle again for a moment the brittle parchment of my own soul, which has itself apparently survived many conflagrations ignited by failures, losses, and challenges—as well as many other unexpected moments of ecstatic wonder, inspiration, and triumph. Indeed, Estés’s words and Williams’ career—during which we encountered him as Fool, Trickster, Sage, Poet, Hermit, Sacred King, and many more archetypal embodiments—have me reflecting on the true power of the Sacred Wound.
That which might be termed “soul loss” in indigenous and shamanic healing contexts, suffered as a consequence of life’s vicissitudes, is certainly painful and responsible for so much despair and disconnection from meaning, purpose, will, power, beauty, and love. Yet, the hunger to be whole, while leading to a seemingly endless array of mistakes and false starts, can also serendipitously bring wisdom and sow the seeds of transformation. The effort to heal those perpetual wounds engenders—or perhaps illuminates—the unique gifts that only we possess, and more to the point, that only we can deliver to the world in our utterly unique way. After all, no one else can be us better than we can. We have but to make the seemingly foolish choice to turn and face our pain, to lean into that which wounds us, to face with courage what has victimized us, addicted us, or had us on the run for most of our lives.
However, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with ever growing assurances from well-meaning memes and media that the act of turning, confronting, and fighting our demons will itself magically vanquish them and automatically transform everything in positive and helpful ways—as if the act of doing an about-face in our flight guarantees the desired outcome. Irrational thoughts don’t go away just because we dispute them effectively. Beliefs and attitudes built over a lifetime don’t give way to different ones in an instant. Addictions don’t die just because we admit we have a problem with them. Leaning into the storm does not banish its tempests, and one day those storms might indeed have their way with us. Powerful emotions can arise from very deep, abysmal, murky wells. As these fragile bodies lose strength and vitality over the course of a lifetime, we may have the will but not the strength to keep confronting the monsters, and eventually even our will could erode.
Yet, bones that break do often become stronger when healing around the break. Our bodies and spirits can develop an ethereal, silvered grace through the adventures and misadventures of our lives—just as storms and floods etch beautiful lines and curves into rocks, trees, and riverbeds.
Authentic heroism and greatness do not expect, demand, or depend on success. In the best stories, the goal or objective of the quest actually plays a minimal part in comparison to the courage, passion, and integrity of the hero or heroine. These qualities arise out of the decision to remain true to oneself even in the face of doom and failure. Happiness, is not after all, everything.
Moreover, what we understand to be “mental health” might be a chimera against a reality that is itself meaningless, arbitrary, and “insane.” Our artists, poets, actors, mystics, and crazy people—and perhaps some teachers as well—live on or close to that edge of realization, where there is much terrible beauty and beautiful terror.
By no means is a deliberate exposure to being abused repeatedly by those who have shown themselves to be chronically malicious and untrustworthy a good or noble thing to do. Yet sometimes, when heart and body together experience a moment of rightness in a relationship or context, an unprecedented opportunity or growth may present itself. In such a moment, being deliberately, honestly vulnerable—particularly after all that has demolished us and that perhaps continues to wound us—is possibly one of the greatest acts of courage, insanity, and strength that we could ever imagine or embody. To show our tenderness and risk being torn apart again can be an act of power.
Talking about our vulnerability with someone that we hope is trustworthy is admirable, deserving of validation and support, even as it may risk scorn and judgment from others. Actually embodying it, though, in particular moments is wonderful and takes breathtaking courage. It empowers us to be windows on Beauty for those who have eyes to see it, appreciate it, and be inspired by it. Actually living it in an ongoing way reminds me again of Estés’ metaphor of the parchment that holds fire—a life lived fiercely and fully, most likely for a span that passes all too quickly, albeit unapologetically.
That parchment will not be of long duration, and how tragic for those who might never witness directly the beautiful flame it holds. But what wonder is there for those who do, and what secret language written upon it might be momentarily revealed in the heat of the flames?
Read more articles by Drake Spaeth here
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Sep 4, 2014 | Uncategorized
Napoleon Hill suggested that when we have a failure or disappointment, there is always a seed of an equivalent benefit that will be revealed later on. I have found his advice to be true, and it has saved me a lot of grief in my life.
The genius of Hill\’s theory is that we will be happier if we change our view at the time we are discouraged to focus on looking for the benefit rather than dwelling on the misery. It really works.
Do you have an example of where a disappointment had a seed of a wonderful benefit that was revealed to you later?
Want continued support so you can shift your focus, achieve more and feel more successful? Email us and Kate will be happy to meet with you so that together you can find the right program for where you are at today!
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Sep 2, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
There are rich people who are miserable and poor people who are happy and there are people who are terminally ill who seem more alive than the healthiest person… So what is the secret to happiness when the things that we seek or seek to preserve don\’t necessarily insure our happiness?
When it comes down to it, how we feel each moment-to-moment, is the greatest asset we have. It is the only thing we should use to measure our life and our work.
But quite often, I hear people say that they go hours and even days without knowing how they feel. They have so much to do that they are on autopilot for all or most of it.
Is this you?
Have you had enough?
I know that this last year pushed me to the point where I was not willing to settle for feeling badly and waiting to feel good.
I was no longer going to be with people that did not feel good to be with. I was no longer going take advise from people who were just pretending to “have it all,” and, I was no longer going to make choices that limited my sense of fulfillment or had me living someone else’s version of success.
And, it was the best thing I ever did.
So how about you? Are you ready?
The secret is that there is nothing in your way. It is so easy to find a circumstance that stands between you and your fulfillment but all you need to do is decide.
Decide that your happiness is the most important thing you will ever have and claim it. Decide that anything that is not your happiness should be discarded.
Let’s start a revolution! Let’s end suffering! Let’s be free.
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