It’s easy to be hard on yourself when you find you are unable to keep a promise. If you consider personal integrity important it can be particularly torturous to realize you can’t keep a promise. Shame and guilt are often fueled by trying to keep a damaging promise or a promise you are unable to keep. It’s important to navigate these difficult situations without feeling you have comprised your own integrity or hurt others.

Have you thought about the ways of Be-ing that lead to the experience of love in your life?

There are a lot of obvious things to be grateful for and then there are the ones that hurt but are undeniably holding something to be thankful for under the surface. This week's blog offers perspectives from both of us.

It’s been a rough year for almost everyone I know. I watched CNN as people cried about their lost homes destroyed in Texas by floods and in California by fires. I can’t help but notice how I want to look away from the TV when someone cries, as if their pain might be infectious.

No one can make us happy, but yes it’s a lonely journey without sharing out lives with others.

Last week I was ruminating about how we often INADVERTENTLY block the flow of love in our lives. It’s so easy to get caught up in things like fear, judgment or grief which keep us from our own pure essence – love.

How do we create a life of more love, feel more love or be a conduit for more love in this world?

In the Course in Miracles (one of the most profound metaphysical texts ever written - at least in my head) is the idea that love is always available to us, and it is the removal of the obstacles to the heart’s love that is the work.

I’ve been on a romantic adventure of my own lately writing my book, The Cosmology of Love. It means I’ve been thinking about the ways to discover my own heart and the ways that we experience love. What could be a greater or more romantic adventure than discovering my own heart?

If the stories inside my brain were screenplays I’d be known for making one kind of movie: The movie where I’m supposed to be perfect and I fail, again and again.

Did you know that a wildebeest can run with the herd seven minutes after it's born? SEVEN MINUTES! Holy cow (pun intended), that's amazing. Guess what? I just figured out I'm not a wildebeest. It takes me a while to learn to do things. I probably fell down 100 times before I learned to ski. It takes time for me to learn to do new things and I often do them poorly the first time.

Perhaps I’ve never forgotten Karin Blixen’s lament about her lover's departure in the movie Out of Africa that 'if women do anything they wait' because of its essential truth. Often when we are in our feminine power it is waiting, listening or creating space.

Have you ever felt like someone forced you to say something or do something you didn’t really want to do? Has a friend persuaded you to go to a party despite the fact you were exhausted? Have you ever divulged personal information to someone because they were persistent not because you wanted to? We all have these people in our life…

For some people today is an extremely unpleasant reminder that they are single in a world that pairs up. For others it is a time to celebrate a happy connection they share with a spouse, lover or friend. For some it is a time to contemplate the unfulfilled promise of a marriage or partnership that seems lacking.

If you’re an entrepreneur you know how my day is going. If you’re not this is the perfect opportunity to talk about PERFECTIONISM. Inner Perfectionist is one of my oldest friends, she used to hang out in my ballet class when I was six and don’t even get me started on our Junior High hijinx.

We used to live next door to a beagle. That dog barked 24/7. Did. Not. Stop. Barking. Ever. When I left for work in the morning the beagle was barking, when I got home at night the beagle was barking. If I woke up at 2 AM the beagle was barking.

Today was our first radio interview with Dr. Erica Goodstone on Healthy Baby Boomers Network on Blog Talk Radio.

If we extend Athena’s myth to our present day, many of us have become like Athena. We have become the faithful advisor to the executive or the politician or even our husbands. We have agreed that the world as a patriarchal society is as we want it to be. Many of us have acquired praise, power, and self-esteem for our excellence which we find gratifying.

If I had a log to record the number of times I had apologized either in person, on the phone or in an email the instances would probably fill hundreds of pages. Even with my recovery from shame I notice how often I begin correspondence with ‘I’m sorry…’ “I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.” “I’m sorry to bother you about this.” “I’m sorry but I don’t agree with your conclusions.”

Let's imagine all the stimuli and bits of information my brain receives as droplets of water. If it was the year 1016 I would have had my entire life to process a gallon of water. As a 55-year-old woman in the United States I've processed 20,0075 gallons of water so far and I will likely receive another 14,000 gallons before I die (not even considering the likely increased availability of data provided by future technologies) .

So the other day I’m sitting reading a magazine and my husband walks in the room and (as previously stated I’m 55) I had on reading glasses when I looked up. His face was all blurry and my first thought when I looked up was “What’s wrong with his face?”