Turning Point Transformations with Nicole Thiel

Spring at Last! Full Heart, Full Moon. Joy Spring fills the meadows with colors of riotous promise. All joining in. Space and Time. The elements celebrate and renew. May we gather our joy in our hearts as we begin to bloom, together.

Celebrate ! Join Women All Over the World Today. International Women's Day. We are joined in Heart, Mind, and Purpose. We're in it together. May we care for ourselves, for others and all that is alive with openness, awareness, and compassion.

Have we abandoned what makes our spirit strong? Have you ever felt you abandoned or deferred what makes you strong? I know I have. ... For a long time I lacked awareness that the still, calm feeling and voice deep inside was to be listened to as a guide, the root of my spirit. Always present, non-judgmental, open. "There must be more." I took it for granted. I was much more interested in pursuing and giving attention to other voices pointing to success, of fitting in, of being a certain way to connect to what was on the outside. Belonging. Through awareness, deep listening and practice my view and understanding changed. Slowly at first, I began trusting my inner core as the root of success. Reclaiming the riches that you and I may have mistaken as something else. That which we find unimportant or apart from daily life rather than the true source of our intention and purpose. The discovery of the real strength of my heart and mind which is never separate from all the ways I present myself. This allows me to reclaim and renew how I want to live changing as I choose. Life from the inside out. Fully alive. Joyful, with purpose and gratitude. Please share your experience below. Question: What makes you strong, connects you to your heart, your spirit, your choices for living?

Why I love Mary Oliver's joyful gift to the world. The beloved poet Mary Oliver is gone. Yes! I love Mary Oliver. We all have been given such gifts. Her deep direct love of the natural world has offered the opportunity to all of us to directly connect to all beings with open, singing hearts and minds. ... For me it began with the reading the following line from " The Summer Day." "...Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? This question spoke directly to my heart; quickly becoming one of my early morning meditations. It still is. Everyday. She invited us to feel the deep connection we have to ourselves and the enormity of the universe. To embrace the infinite. LIke air itself, breathing in and out, she was able to show the intimate details of internal landscapes and those of nature to be universal. Best of all, reminding of us of the joyful connectedness we have and share with all of life. We are so much bigger than our self conscious pre-occupations. We can experience this when we step beyond limited awareness into a thousand openning doors. Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. She found the world to be a place of beauty and grace in all its colors. Her experience was offered to us all to become fully engaged. When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? I don't want to end up simply having visited this world. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. I simply do not distinguish between work and play. ..it’s a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that. Please share your experience below. Nicole

Pausing in stillness and rest in the sacred Solstice season, for me, there began a time of reflection on the past year. I love ancient wisdom traditions that are grounded in practices which help us transform our body, mind to renew our spirits. I started first, by celebrating my successes and strengths, acknowleding the deepening trust in my relationship with all the parts of myself. ... For me, this is the first step in a practice of self compassion. It is this trust that allows us to go within, down to the deepest core of genuine self, our heart’s resource. There, from a ground of awareness I began to work with my shadow: the disowned and pushed under parts of my life. Scary at first. The ancient Taoist Chinese medicine perspective as well as many spiritual paths encourage us to explore and release emotional and mental habits that limit and hold us back from wholehearted engagement with our lives. The next steps of practicing self compassion, are staying present and acknowledging with openness, with curiosity, what they are and how the work. Trusting the strength of our true selves we can trust ourselves to explore and understand what has hurt us and disconnected us from ourselves and others. With these practices of trust and insight, we go further to release what is ending in our life story; the patterns that have finished their benefit in our lives and are no longer necessary. The stories or beliefs about ourselves that aren’t true. The ones that keep us unaware and create fear. The rhythm of releasing the parts that no longer serve us creates room for us to imagine and bring our hearts’ intentions into reality. These practices provide the foundation for renewal and replenishment of our lives. Working in accord with our heart’s spirit dramatically affects our bodies and minds. Our true selves can be expressed and move forward freely. Take a moment to share what you have released this year to free your true heart. Nicole

How surrender to the rhythm of the seasons brings joy! Part 1 The season of the harvest is here. A time of gathering and celebrating the fruits of our intentions and choices from the Spring. We share in giving thanks! ... For a day, before we speed up, hurry forward: Christmas is almost here. Frequently, we gloss over or miss the Rhythm of this season: of our giving and receiving. There are two parts to this. There is a part of harvest that brings a natural process of slowing down, an endpoint. Bringing something to completion, before starting again. We can take this opportunity to pause and come to rest. Realize what we have achieved. Relax. Giving thanks for receiving this natural rhythm of activity and rest. When you openly receive then you know how to give. Receive the gift of both time and space that the natural world is giving to restore and renew. We can enjoy the stillness. Simply be. And go within discovering how to nurture our deepest core. What are your favorite ways to receive this gift of time and space to stop and go into stillness? To rest? Nicole

What Happens When You Should Feel Good About It But Don’t? Have you, like me, had this experience? At first I was startled because what I didn’t feel good about was something I’d chosen to do. Had taken risks to pursue. Part of my next step in fullfilling a committment to live a full, creative life of purpose from the inside out. The foundations were in place. Many possibilities were openning and working well, as I had planned.... I was suddenly engulfed by a fear of moving forward into a new place and a new way, in my approach of helping high achieving women nourish our physical health, our emotional and mental wellbeing and our consciousness. So we can navigate change, make meaningful choices and thrive. What if I made a mistake or worse, failed? It was painful, to realize that I was holding myself back because I was caught in thoughts of not being worthy. Recognizing that an old habit had caught me, I stayed with the feelings, gently, without judging myself. As I discovered that fear had led me to forget to trust my own awareness and wisdom, I could let it go and chose to be present to the new. Nourishing myself with releasing the old habit, I could open to uncertainty. Then I could risk moving forward. Vulnerable to not knowing the outcome and eager for the new. This is a process. And a practice: training this muscle of awareness and self compassion. Making choices that nourish your life. Choosing how we show up in our lives and respond to what arises. The power of choice, learning to trust wisdom rather than fear, from the inside out. Please share your experience of going beyond fear and trusting your wisdom in comments below. How do you show up?

Equinox, The Harvest of Our Heart's Intention. The Equinox. The harvest. A time of balance in day and night. Light and dark. We choose what to gather, and store. And what we can release that doesn’t serve us, holds us back in old habits . We celebrate what actions and beliefs will nourish us. Where all life is honored. Where we choose, love, joy, understanding and compassion. ... In ancient Egypt, Ma’at was the goddess who ruled the natural and human world. She personified balance, truth, order, harmony and justice, especially at the time of Harvest. She weighed the heart of a person against a feather. Only if the heart was feather-light would the soul be free and aligned with the natural world. The teaching of Ma’at reminds us to choose what’s needed to keep our hearts open and filled with light. In this challenging time in our culture we are discovering the ways for ourselves and our culture that help us create a world of beauty, truth and beneficial compassion, now and for future generations. Let me know; How did you choose to celebrate this Equinox?