by Cherie Ray | Dec 10, 2021 | Coaching, Inspiration
How’s it going? I wonder if you’re as surprised as I am that we are well into the month of November and staring right into the face of the holidays? Well, it’s true. Here we are. As we enter the holiday season (and any moment) I think this writing from Hafiz could support us all. I hope you enjoy it. This poem inspired me to resume my private dance lessons. I’m so glad I did!
If this writing wakes something up in you, I’d love to hear about it. Lemme’ know!
Wishing you the very best,
Cherie
A Good Reminder….
From Hafiz:
I sometimes forget that
I was created for joy
My mind is too busy
My heart is too heavy
Heavy for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the sacred dance for life
I was created to smile
to love
to be lifted up
and lift others up
O sacred one
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares
Free my soul
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.
by Cherie Ray | Dec 10, 2021 | Inspiration, Thought
Hello! How have you been? I hope you’re doing well. How are you doing with all the change, unclear information, and the way life is unfolding for you?
Since March of 2020 does it feel like the world has been shifting under your feet? During this time, I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of loss, disappointment, and unmet expectations. What are you doing with it all? I hope you’re not looking for new places to stuff it.
With what feels like truckloads of LDE (loss, disappointment, expectation) lately in my world, I got really curious about how to NOT be permanently changed by these occurrences. It looks to me like life is going to do what it’s going to do, and people are going to do what they’re going to do. I decided I want to flow better with these changes’ vs creating a story and living inside my story about what’s happening around me? LDE certainly appears to be part of the nature of life and part of the human experience.
When I got curious, what sounds like seconds but felt like years, out of the blue, an insight dropped in, “I don’t want to be a pickle.” What? A pickle? I had to laugh. My intuition has a profound sense of humor!
As I considered this insight, a pickle lives inside a rigid container steeped in bitter vinegar. Well, there’s nothing about feeling confined or living with an internal environment of bitterness that interests me. So, I got curious about how to NOT be a pickle. At this moment in time, I’m seeing I have some free will in this game.
So, I exercised my free will and put my pin on the map about how I desire to feel in my day-to-day life with the unpredictable nature of life. With a curious desire to see something fresh, on NOT being a pickle, I’ve gotten some very helpful insights on how to live in more peace and joy while the world does what it’s going to do.
This same process can work for you.
I’d love to hear from you! Let’s have a conversation. The focus of my work is to teach you how to eliminate struggle from your life and to live in peace-filled joy with what you can’t change.
Sending smiles,
Cherie
by Cherie Ray | Jun 30, 2021 | Inspiration, Love
It’s a beautiful summer day in Houston, Texas this morning. The skies are full of smoky gray clouds and rain is falling hard. Enjoy and relish this day.
I just received news about a treasured friend’s health. I’ve followed their journey and all they have done to extend their hours on the ground. As I finished reading their latest news this mantra popped into my mind, ‘enjoy and relish this day.’ This mantra is just one more gift I’ve received from knowing these friends.
It’s innocent enough to be distracted by tending your current circumstances. It’s also innocent enough to believe the right circumstances will bring you a better moment. As innocent as this dynamic is, you could spend lifetimes trying to get things in place and NEVER find your happiness in your circumstances. Are you going to wait for things to be in their place or will you seize your hours on the ground to enjoy and relish this day?
This truth, peace is never in the circumstances of my life, brings me so much joy and hopefulness. Why? Because it lets me know that it’s available to me now and quick working for it. What a relief!
Enjoy and relish this day.
There are lots of fun things coming this summer. I hope you will find time to nurture yourself and join in on the fun and the community these offerings bring. You’re invited, come along!
Drop me a line and let me know what’s happening in your world this summer. I’d love to connect with you.
Sending smiles,
Cherie
I teach people how to eliminate struggle from their lives and businesses. If you or someone you know would like to see struggle in your rearview mirror, give me a call. We can have an exploratory conversation to see if working together makes sense. Cherie@cherieray.com or call 832.545.8488
by Cherie Ray | Apr 21, 2021 | Conversations, Inspiration
Are you trying to ‘problem solve’ your way to relaxation? Does it look like you have problems that must be worked on and solved before you can move on with enjoying your life? Does working to solve problems take up all your time? Do you find yourself way too familiar with feelings of overwhelm and feeling overworked? At the end of the day, are you long on expending energy and short on enjoying? This is what life feels like when you look at the world through the colored lens of problem solving.
Well, the culprit could be a simple misunderstanding. Innocently, you can fall asleep to your mind making all these rules around how to live, what it means to be a decent person (partner, mom, dad, boss, employee, etc.) and how to be OK in the world. Good news, as easily as you fell asleep to this invisible policy maker, you can wake up to it.
Life is not one long problem-solving assignment. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. What can you do? Do a gut check and see if you are over oriented to problem solving and take these points to heart:
- You won’t find your happiness or relaxation on the other side of solved problems. It doesn’t live there.
- Problem solving will take all your time and all of your joy.
- Training your mind to solve problems creates a habit and trains your mind to look for problems to be solved. It never stops.
I hope this takes some struggle off your plate. If you know of someone who is struggling in their life or business and they don’t know where to turn to gain insight and relief? Please send them my way. Struggle in life is optional.
I always love hearing your comments and reflections. Drop me a line and let’s connect.
Sending smiles,
Cherie
Teaching people how to eliminate struggle from their lives and businesses.
Let’s have a free exploratory conversation, cherie@cherieray.com.
by Cherie Ray | Apr 19, 2021 | Coaching, Inspiration
Just the presence of her boss would set her off like a firecracker. With every interaction, she suffered a litany of “feeling criticized,” “getting hooked into her bad feeling,” or “watching my self-esteem erode under my feet.” Working in such an overwhelmingly toxic environment painted the picture to her that this is just the way it is when you work for someone else. She could only see two options: suck it up or quit. And she had tried sucking it up for long enough; there was no space left to stuff the stress. She was mentally and physically exhausted from dealing with the dissatisfaction in her work life – that had annoyingly wormed its way into her home life as well.
Jean came to me because she was at the end of her rope. Wearing an unyielding scowl on her face and with her hands frequently thrown into the air in frustration, she didn’t know how to maneuver her only apparent choices. She was not at her magical retirement age, nor was she financially prepared to stop working altogether. But Jean just couldn’t imagine sludging along, ticking the days off her calendar until it was finally time to cue up Johnny Paycheck’s glorious song, “Take this Job and Shove it” as she went a-walkin’ out the door.
When Jean and I began working together, I invited her to temporarily shelve the idea of quitting. We knocked around the idea of using her present situation as a laboratory for her learning. This was a challenging and problematic task because Jean wanted to feel “100% happier,” which she was certain could only happen if she exited her current circumstance. She reluctantly agreed to give it six months.
Our next conversation began with Jean declaring, “I quit. I couldn’t take it anymore.” With a glimmer of hope, she wondered what was next. Was there another way to eliminate the stresses and struggles she was up against?
Through our work together, Jean achieved results that are out of this world! She negotiated a re-hire with a 30k annual pay increase. She added 300k – minimum – to her retirement bucket by staying in the workforce longer. She had previously wasted 80% of her day distracted by the office culture, which only allowed a small portion of her time to be spent performing her duties. Today, efficient work blissfully dominates her workday – only 20% is distraction!
Jean is now leading a satisfying, centered, successful life and career. This is exactly why my clients come to me. Bringing a deep understanding of the way people universally operate and a keen capability to transform complex mountains into simple molehills, I offer creative solutions and fresh perspectives to eliminate struggle and inspire true living!
