Lately the current of my mind has been terribly engaged. The feeling is like being pulled under and dragged out to sea in a riptide of psychological activity. I seem to be rolling with big ideas, spilling over with tiny tasks and overflowing with unfocused creativity.

All of this mental activity leads to feeling scattered. The gears in my brain spin and then lock up.  The more I check in with how I am feeling and what I need, the more I realize the lack of focus has everything to to do with the Autumnal transition and my new, not yet comfortable routine for Fall.

It’s time to get clear, get focused and re energize. It time to swim away from the tumultuous surface current that has a hold of me.

The plan is to revise my daily schedule. The trick to living a balanced life is understanding we are always in a state of change. Recalibrating daily habits and swimming away from the rip current will help me slow down, focus my energy and get back to shore.

Here is my plan for nourishing my hijacked spirit whilst participating in the new pace of my life.  I hope you can use this life ring of ideas to quiet your mind and rescue you from your own undercurrent of unfocused madness.  : -)

Getting Quiet

Making time to sit quietly each morning is lovely way to begin each day. Even 5 minutes will make a difference.  Enjoying a fresh cup of coffee in silence or creating time to sit and reflect. Writing your thoughts in a journal may be your choice for quiet time.  I like to mix things up.  How about you?  What do you do to get quiet?

Sharing time with positive people

Sharing time with positive uplifting people is key to increasing your energy and lifting your spirit. Anybody who brings you down is not part of the solution. Take inventory of the people and personalities in your life.  Your energy will mirror the people you surround yourself with.

Infuse your life with nature

As I write this I am looking out the window at a huge maple tree just beginning to share her new fall colors with me. I have a pickle jar filled with Petoskey stones on my desk and small red and yellow sunflower that is on the ready to retire.  I bring the natural world into my environment to keep me grounded.

As important as it is to bring nature inside, it’s also a good idea to get out in the natural world. Walk along a woodland path, skip some flat stones across the lake, tack a sack lunch to a nearby park and breathe in the beauty of nature.  How do you infuse your life with nature?

Daily yoga practice

As a student of yoga and yoga instructor I realize the importance of honoring my body with a regular yoga practice. When I became a teacher I stopped being a student. It’s time to balance my love for yoga by making room in my life to be a yoga student.  Do you have a daily yoga practice?  Do you want to learn more about what that might look like?

Cultivating mindfulness

Unconscious behavior is easy to step back into when you feel overwhelmed and out of sorts. Practicing mindfulness will improve your outlook on life and teach you a lot about the way you are, the way you roll.  What does it mean to be mindful?  To me it is thoughtful consideration as well as witnessing your own behavior.  Minfulness is a  gift that can be internally mined at any time.  How do you cultivate mindfulness?

“Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind”

- Alice Meynell

Shann Vander Leek is the Founder of True Balance Life Coaching and Co-founder of Seize True Success. She is a Coach Training Alliance certified professional coach, and certified yoga instructor. Shann is a prolific blogger, published writer and co-author of the Best Selling Book – Wake Up Women BE Happy Healthy & Wealthy. Shann’s personal style and direct approach have guided and inspired many in overcoming personal and professional challenges. Her background in sales, marketing and client development, along with leading a talented sales force for many years prepared her for the business of professional coaching. Shann inspires women in transition to create balance in their lives through personal coaching, yoga and creative expression. Telephone and email consultations make her accessible to clients all over the world. To find out about her Coaching Programs for Women, call Shann at 231.668.111 or visit www.truebalancelifecoaching.com

Over the years I have developed a pretty deep network and one of the things that I spend a lot of time doing is up dating my database.  In the process of doing that this week I noticed that my strongest referral relationships are with guys.  So I began to think about that, why are there more males in my strong contact network instead of women and here are some of the things that I came up with.

When I sit down with a guy to build a referral relationship the conversation tends to be straight forward.  When I ask the question, “What can I do to help you grow your business?”  They almost always have a response.   They let me know exactly what it is I can do; “You can help me get more speaking engagements” or “If you do a newsletter it would be great if you would let me put an article in it.”

On the other hand if when I sit down with a female referral source and ask the same question I am often given this response; “I can’t think of anything but if I do I will let you know.”

Women seem to be challenged at knowing what they need and asking others to help them.  We feel that we cannot ask others to do things for us.  After all, have been raised to believe that it is our responsibility to take care of others, we do things for our spouses, our children, our family members even our co-workers.

One of the tough things for women to do it is ASK for what they want, clearly, succintly without guilt.  It is something that we really must learn if we are ever going to be good at leveraging our networks.  Keep in mind, we are not going to ask anyone for anything that we wouldd not do in return for them if they would ask.

Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions:

1.  What 2-3 things could I ask others to do to help me?  If you know in advance what kinds of things your networking members can do for you it will be easier for you to ask them when you are sharing a cup of coffee.

2.  List 3-4 people you would like to meet or be connected to.  Your network members are happy to connect you if you ask for someone specifically instead of “Anyone who needs my services.”  These might be professionals you want to add to your network, possible referral sources or potential clients.

3.  Make a list of the 4-5 people who might be willing to help you.  Most likely these are people in your network whom you have a relationship with.  They are people whom you are also willing to help if they ask you to.

It is important that you ask for what you want, there are members of your network who are more than happy to help you but they will not figure it out for you or take the initiative.  Our beliefe that “If they like me or if I do a good job for them, they will help me, refer me or connect me” hurts us.  We get what we ask for, if we wait for people to help us it may never happen.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.