new book | Erin Owen

How to Invite MORE Holiday Stress (Wink, Wink!)

by Erin Owen | Nov 27, 2012 | Events, Ezine

Your Performance Breakthrough

Just when you thought you were being pushed past your limits, along come the winter holidays to add an extra layer of complexity.

You have more events to manage, more things to buy, more people to see. The extra strain on your time and your pocketbook from your longer “to do” list causes you more stress that you certainly do not need.

Rather than allowing yourself to enjoy the real reasons we celebrate the holidays, the last thing on your list is you or doing anything to make things easier on yourself.

With a tongue-in-cheek approach, a wink of my eye, and just for a little fun, I’m here to remind you of what doesn’t work. So, take a look through my Top 7 Ways How to Invite MORE Holiday Stress and enjoy a little laugh at yourself. You are human, after all!

(Or, if you’d rather be reminded of how to actually melt holiday stress—and be inspired by some of my Eastern-influenced ideas—then join me for one my upcoming events! Details below…)

Top 7 Ways to Invite MORE Holiday Stress

1. Keep piling on MORE. That’s right. Say YES to every request to bake more, donate more, take on the office holiday fund drive, and attend more parties (especially the ones hosted by people you don’t really know or like that much). Be sure to include all members of your family in every gathering—especially those individuals you complain about up until the minute they arrive, then curse the moment they walk out the door. And, whatever you do, don’t say NO.

2. RESIST nature’s call to slow down and go inward. IGNORE the fact that the days are getting shorter and the temperatures (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are getting colder. Turn those lights on longer, heat the office and home more hours, and keep burning that midnight oil! Bless these modern inventions that allow us to do more and more and more.

3. Tell yourself “I CAN MAKE IT through New Year’s”. Just because you broke down last year with a horrible string of colds does not mean it will happen again. This year will be different—and you don’t need to do anything different. Just keep plugging along and promising yourself you’ll make it through midnight on New Year’s eve. You can do it!

4. Use Caffeine to STAY AWAKE and Sleep Aids to FALL ASLEEP. When your energy wanes or you struggle to get out of bed, add another shot of espresso in your coffee—and be sure to have more caffeine mid-morning and again after lunch when you begin to nod off. Then, about an hour before you realize you’d better get to bed so you can get at least 4 or 5 hours of sleep before your alarm goes off, enjoy a drink or two or take your latest sleeping medication of choice. And be sure you say a prayer before bed to thank god for inventing these sleep aids!

[Remember, I’m writing this tongue-in-cheek! Are you laughing at yourself yet?]

5. Keep it to yourself. The holidays are a time to follow tradition and to do exactly what your parents or spouse/partner or spouse/partner’s family did before you. For goodness sake, do NOT express your honest opinion about ANYTHING. The last thing anyone wants to hear is what you think should be done differently, and your agonizing and suffering is for the greater good. So, keep it to yourself!

6. Whatever you do: don’t give yourself a break! The sacrifices you make and the hardships you take on are an example to us all. You are a role model to your employees, your colleagues, your children. You must single handedly take on the burdens of the extra holiday activities, without even a thought to your own physical or mental well-being. In fact, don’t even think about scheduling a massage or taking off an afternoon, let alone sneaking in a nap on the weekend. You are super wo/man!

7. Wait until 2013 to start making improvements. Whatever it is that is bugging you, it can wait. That pain in your side, those extra pounds, the headaches, the leak in the roof, the nagging feeling you should make a change… Wait, wait, wait. It can’t possibly get worse before it gets better, and it can always wait. Just weave it into your New Year’s resolution and I’m sure you’ll make those positive changes in 2013.

I hope you found at least a few things to chuckle about. Even though I’ve made tremendously positive changes over the decades, I know I still see glimmers of myself in all of these ideas!

But, if you’re NOT actually interested in continuing to burn the candle at both ends or suffer silently through another aggravating winter season, I INVITE YOU to take a deep breath (ahhhh….) and step forward into a new way of being.

Top 3 Ways to MELT Holiday Stress

I’ll be sharing my simple, Eastern-inspired ways to MELT holiday stress and everyday stress at these upcoming events. Please join me to learn about a new way of living and working that is sustainable and enjoyable!

Tomorrow (Wednesday), November 28 at 7 pm

In-person at The Spiral Bookcase, a sweet independent bookstore in Manayunk.

Letting go and Finding Meaning in the Unexpected…

by Erin Owen | Sep 12, 2012 | General, Wednesday musings

The year was 1993. I was visiting a dear friend in
Los Angeles when, somewhere in her vast house, I
lost my Rolodex.

Now, for you younger readers, a Rolodex is like a
set of business cards all filed alphabetically —
it’s how we all used to keep track of our contacts
before smart phones.

We looked everywhere in her house. And since I had
the Rolodex when I arrived and never took it with
me when we went out, we knew it had to be there.
But, it was never found. Not to this day!

At the time I thought to myself: I wonder if there
is someone in my Rolodex that I’m not supposed to
stay in touch with. (I tend to look for meaning in
even the smallest moments and experiences.)

And sure enough, years later it became clear. I
had gathered back together every single person’s
contact information but one. [I won’t reveal his
name here!]

The reason this experience came back to me is that
yesterday I discovered that somehow nearly all of
the people on my contact list had been deleted
from the database of the contact management
website I use. It happened in the 2nd week of
August, right before I went on vacation, and right
before I sent out the final 3 email newsletters
inviting folks to my annual performance
breakthrough retreat to Bali.

We don’t know how the contacts were deleted, and
we may never know. But, what we do know is that….

…the last 4 ezines I sent out went to only 57
people. A tiny fraction of the hundreds of people
on my list. The 4th ezine was the announcement of
my new book, which we’ll be sending out again once
the list is restored.

If you’re not in the business of staying in touch
with clients and potential clients, you may not
realize that my contact list is almost the most
valuable part of my business – second only to my
own intellectual capital. It’s how I stay in touch
with my tribe, and it’s a critical tool in sharing
my latest thinking and inviting folks to study
further with me.

In the midst of trouble shooting what had happened
yesterday, I found myself pausing and wondering:
hmmmm, I wonder if this is another instance in
which I’m meant to narrow my focus to a smaller,
more relevant group of followers.

As with the Rolodex experience, only time will
tell. So, until then I need to let go of any
over-analyzing or worrying about “what ifs” –
which would simply be an inefficient and draining
use of prana (life force energy).

And if you don’t already know this already, let me
share with you that — in general — focusing your
emotions and mental energy on what is NOT happening
in the moment (worrying about the past or spinning
stories in your mind about what might happen in
the future) directly and negatively impacts your
performance at work and at home.

The good news is my assistant had made a back-up
copy of the contact database and we were able to
recreate a majority of the original list. But not
everyone.

So, yes, this is a cathartic piece of writing
meant to share with you the importance of letting
go and being open to finding meaning in the
unexpected. Even when it might initially be
perceived as a huge tragedy or loss.

This time of year is an important time of year to
pause, reflect, and notice what you’re harvesting
from seeds planted long ago. I’ll write more on
this topic in my next ezine.

If you haven’t heard from me in the past several
weeks (owing to this weird technical glitch)—or if
you’ve never received my email newsletter—I invite
you to sign-up for either my free gift (on any
page of this website) or the free first chapter of
my new book here, both of which will add you to my
list.

In the meantime, next time something seemingly
upsetting or challenging or unexpected happens to
you, I invite you to pause. Let go of any
judgments or story-telling in that monkey mind of
yours, and observe. Just watch what unfolds.

And let me know what happens in the space between
the mental chatter and worries!

More soon…

Erin

My new book is here! Refuel, Recharge and Re-energize

by Erin Owen | Sep 10, 2012 | Events, Ezine, General, Media

I’m very excited to announce I have released my first book: Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize: Your Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Time and Energy.

Click here to download a free copy of the first chapter.

This book teaches you how to succeed using the wisdom of Eastern practices

Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize shares the Eastern-inspired performance techniques I use with my clients, all aimed at helping self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs achieve more by doing less. The wisdom of ancient practices such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yoga, Reiki, Ayurveda, and Buddhism informs my work and helps my clients eliminate sources of stress and re-energize their personal and professional lives.

By applying the principles of Yin and Yang to our Western lives, I show you how to:

Manifest more of what you want in your life and business
Avoid getting derailed
Experience fewer setbacks
Recover more quickly
Stay on track to realize your vision

Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize guides the reader through seven techniques ranging from quick meditation and yoga-based exercises to nutrition and time management. My simple, flexible, portable, and free approaches, with an emphasis on becoming a “single-tasker,” are supported by additional materials, including guided audio meditations, recipes, and organizational principles on my website.

The new way of working is to be really clear about the life you want to live, take care of yourself first and then – and only then — build your business around that. In this way, you’ll actually see much greater productivity and performance in your business and be able to reach your goals of making an incredible impact on the world, not to mention living a life that makes it all worth it.

Click here to download a free copy of the first chapter.