Lamisha Serf-Walls

Laying Down the Mask and Other News

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There are so many faces we can choose to show the world and often our online face is the most positive, brilliant, and empowering face of all.  But I am realizing more and more that showing your true colors through all the ups and downs of life is what really allows us to connect, commune, and truly support one another.  Just a few days ago I shared this on Facebook.

“Authenticity and vulnerability win out every.single.time. On days like today I remember that I don’t have to have it all together, slap on a smile, and pretend like I don’t have bad days, lazy days, or days when I’m not quite sure what the next step is. I don’t have to know it all, do it all, or learn it all right now to keep going. I don’t have to be the supreme, holier than thou coach to be of service to others. Nor do I have to get my hands all in the clay to end up with a masterpiece. On days like today, I can rest, relax, and give myself a day to just ‘BE’ and you can too. “

What I was going through in the moment was simply a day of  ‘Meh’ and feeling a little guilty about it.  The Dream Crushers were beginning to swarm and just as they were coming in for the kill, I realized I had a choice.  I could simply be with the feelings, share them with my tribe, and try again tomorrow or I could try and power through, fighting the feelings I was having only to create more resistance and frustration.  I chose the first of the two.  More specifically, I took a nap and gave myself a break.

The truth is, I have these moments far more than I usually share with you and while I am not trying to ‘hide’ them, I prefer to share the inspirational posts and

photo credit: Simon & His Camera via photopin cc
photo credit: Simon & His Camera via photopin cc

high moments with you. (Don’t we all?)  But, in doing that I am leaving out a HUGE piece of the story…my story, not to mention my expertise.

You see, I’m not just a life coach.  I’m a mother and now a wife and with that comes a whole barrel of extra challenges, insights, and opportunities to share with you what I know, experience, and learn so you can learn from it too.  It also gives me an opportunity to be real with you.  To show you that life happens no matter what you do, but when you are doing what you love, you CAN support a family, have time together, and experience the FREEDOM that comes with creating the life of your dreams. 

It is possible!

So, I want you to know that you aren’t alone and you certainly don’t have to travel this road without support.  You can reach out to other business owners, mothers, wives, parents, friends, colleagues, and you can be REAL.  You don’t have to wear the mask of ‘happy’ all the damn time because that is what people expect.

We are all human with good days and bad and I assure you that the only way it will hold you back, is if you fail to keep on keepin’ on.  Show the ups and downs.  Share them with your tribe.  Let people get to know YOU…all of you.  That is how we connect with one another in the truest, deepest way.  That is how we learn from one another and truly support each other and know without a shadow of a doubt that we are all connected.

Together, we are entering new territory.  Moving forward what I share with you will be more authentic, more balanced (with lessons, ups and downs, etc.) and my hope is that it will touch your heart in a way to inspire action for you to do that thing you have always wanted.  Start the business, write your book, and share your expertise with the world.

Now is the time!

In that same vein of authenticity, I want to tell you about a change I am making.  Last week I shared with you a vlog about my upcoming group coaching program.  As I moved further into this week, I had some feelings come up about the program and have decided to postpone the start of the program by about a month.  While I still wholeheartedly believe in the program and know that it is going to be magnificent, I wanted to take a bit of extra time to dig a little deeper and create even more goodness for you.  I wanted to take some of the lessons I have learned in the last few weeks and infuse them into the program so they are ready to go for you.  I also think the timing of it all was a bit off, so I am waiting.

And with that I am not judging myself for waiting.  I am consciously making a choice to produce better content, better information, and a more rounded program for you because you deserve that.  I want you to know without a shadow of a doubt starting today that this is the program for you.  That you are not alone on your path and there are other women in the world (myself included) who have fears, doubt, confusion, and frustration about business and while others may only show you the power, joy, free-flowing happiness, I want to show it all.

IMG_3901
Like these flowers we are all connect in our journey even while having slightly different experiences to share.

My words for this year were Show Up and that is what I am doing, with ALL of me.  The good days, the bad days, and everything in between.  So, I hope you will continue to follow along in this authentic journey and as we get closer to the start of the Group Coaching for Business-Minded Women in July, I hope you will be ready to join us in an amazing and uplifting journey.  A journey that includes ups, downs, and in betweens that we are all experiencing whether we choose to show it all or not.

I have also made some changes to the 1 month Jump Start coaching program.  It is still a 1 month program, however instead of 2 coaching calls, I am now offering 4 coaching calls for the same $347 investment.  This program is a great way to get a taste of what working with me is really like while still making progress toward your dream.  This is not an accelerated program as much as it is a great first step for anyone who is interested in coaching but isn’t sure they want to commit to a 3-month program just yet.  What is better than that is that by doubling the number of sessions you get in the 1 month program, you are getting 4 sessions for a really great deal.  If you are interested in getting started, hop on over and sign up for your 30 minute consultation and grab your spot to begin in June.  Since this program includes 4 weekly sessions, I am limiting how many I can take for June to 10 clients so if you are interested let me know asap.

With that said, I hope you have a magnificent long weekend and do something fun and as always thanks for reading!

<3 Lamisha

Dream Changer: Featuring Nancy Pigno of Creative Abundance

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****Happy Hump Day Dreamers!  Today we have a wonderful Dream Changer piece by the inspirational and very creative Nancy Pigno from Creative Abundance.  This is one story that will make you dust off your own idea book and get busy.  Enjoy!****

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”  These words were spoken by Thomas Edison years ago, obviously, but they just reached my ears today.  When I heard them I stopped dead in my tracks.

Yes.

These words spoke directly to me.

Not that I am a genius.  That’s not it.

I get inspired though.  You know the phenomenon.  You get a great idea, right?  And then, you let it go, for there is laundry to be folded and lunches to be made.  Life demands a certain amount of effort or it threatens to fall into chaos.  And it is easy to move your dreams and ideas aside to tend to your daily responsibilities.  The idea is forgotten, until weeks, months, maybe years later, when you suddenly remember it.  What a good idea that was!  You wonder what would have happened had you followed it.  More laundry.  More lunches.  Other great ideas come, too.  You have lots.

Laundry.  Lunches.  Life.

We cannot act on all of our great ideas, of course.  It isn’t realistic.  So, we should not beat ourselves up for letting ideas go.  I just read an article about someone who is trying to start a new business every single week for a year.  I wonder about this experiment.  It doesn’t seem a recipe for success unless he truly has vast resources and can delegate much of the work out.  Seems like it would be hard to focus, hard to manage, hard to juggle it all.

We don’t have to act on everything.  It’s okay to let ideas go or to store them in a special notebook labeled, “Great Ideas” or whatever strikes your fancy, so that we don’t lose them entirely.  Collecting inspiration is good, but the genius is in the action: taking an idea out of that special notebook and bringing it to life.

I am doing a monthly theme over at my blog, the Creative Abundance Café.  I have enlisted the help of other creatives and together we are dishing up helpings cuppaof Perseverance.  Perseverance pep-talks are important because that ninety-nine percent of genius, the sweat-work part, is riddled with moments when giving up seems very attractive.

When I was invited to write this piece, my Dream Changer story, my immediate thought is that I would talk about my journey into becoming a creativity coach, setting up a business, or my book-writing aspirations.  But that’s not the essence of it.   Simply put, I am changing my life by the simple fact that I am daring to take ideas out of the “Great Idea” notebook and am taking action towards bringing them into being.

This is a big deal to me.  It isn’t an easy road.  It is full of moments of doubt and discouragement.  It takes courage and it takes perseverance.  This is the truth of it. It is universal.  That is why so many people were eager to rally at the Café. We are cheering one another along because making your dream, changing your life, bringing something new into being, or following a great idea, is worth it.

It is worth every ounce of sweat, all ninety-nine percent.

NancyHaving a life of CREATIVE ABUNDANCE  is about connecting with and believing in your CREATIVE SPIRIT, the part of you that dreams big and believes that you can do whatever you set your mind and heart to. Nancy J. Pigno brings her training as a Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach, in Kaizen-Creative NLP and as a Modern-Day Muse Facilitator together with her Masters in Dance Education, Massage Therapy training and Certificate in Somatics Movement Therapy, to offer 1:1 coaching, workshops, and writings, designed especially for creative people with big dreams.

Website:   http://www.creative-abundance.net/

Blogsite (The Café): http://www.creative-abundance.net/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativea

Email:  nanodance@creative-abundance.net

 

Happy Friday: Inspiration, Community & Group Coaching Info

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Happy Friday!!

I hope you all have had a fabulous week!  I know I have been saying that I want to do more videos and have not been so great about it, but today I put one together to give you more awesome info about the Group Coaching for Business-Minded Women program.  Check it out and get signed up if you haven’t already!

Also please note I have made a few changes to the program.  Instead of limiting the group to 20 people, I am trusting that the Universe will bring together the perfect soul sisters with passion, vision, and purpose to learn, grow, and uplift together!  We may have 5, 15, or 30 people in the program and whatever number will be perfect.  I am also taking out the intake call because I want you to listen to your intuition and if the program calls to you, then you should by all means sign up.  I have also made it very simple for you to sign up by utilizing the 1 or 3 payment options.

Don’t forget about the Money Mindset Masterclass on Thursday May 22nd at 8pm EST.  It’s going to be full of awesome information and practices to turn your money beliefs upside down. Hope to see you there!

Have a wonderful weekend and as always, thanks for reading.

<3

 

Dream Changer: Featuring Karma Dreamwalker

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***We are back with another Dream Changer post from the lovely Karma Dreamwalker.  If you have ever had a dream that you didn’t quite understand or was so weird you wouldn’t dare speak of it to anyone, Karma is the one to chat with.  Her story is one that may make you rethink the purpose and meaning behind your dreams and your power to understand, shape, and use dreams in your waking life.  Take it away Karma!****
dreamwalker
My dream-changing moment was the moment that I chose to go after what I really wanted to do in life; Dreamwork. I always hoped that what I ended up doing in my life would be something like this, however, I wasn’t sure if there was an interest in it.

I had my first “out-of-body” experience at the age of 5, which left a lasting impression on me. I still remember every detail of the experience, and although many people do not understand the subject, it turns out it is actually fairly common.

I was intensely curious, I could not ignore my own experience and I wanted to learn more. 

As it turns out, OBE’s and Dreaming are related. I have always had incredibly vivid dreams in my life. Dreams that often felt as solid as being awake. It is difficult to live out these kinds of meaningful experiences and not be able to speak about it. The other night, I dreamt that I was in a tornado; I became the wind, and felt the air. I have dreamt that I went inside the earth; dreamt that I swam through the ocean and felt the water on my skin; dreamt that I took a deep peaceful breath and felt the oxygen in my lungs. The depth of these experiences is amazing, considering you are just lying in your bed.

When you talk about dreams like that to a stranger, they are likely to give you a funny look. This leads to people ignoring their dreams for fear of “sounding crazy” because they do not have anyone to discuss it with who understands. Without support, people often ignore their dreams or become afraid of their experiences. When I ignored my dreams, they got louder and became nightmares that kept me awake at night and caused me to wake in the morning feeling intensely anxious.

I made the decision to volunteer, because I thought that it would help me to do something to help others. I volunteered for a center for women healing from trauma. While I was there, the subject of dreams got brought up, and a woman was telling me about someone she knew, who was having nightmares that kept her awake and from enjoying her life, although it was “just a dream” they very much affected her.  That was the moment that I realized I was not the only one who has been afraid of their dream experiences, and I decided I had to go for it.

I made the decision to concentrate on my own dreams again, so that I could heal and transform myself and my life from the inside-out.

Instead of running from my nightmares, I went to bed with the intention to immerse myself fully in them. I ran directly into my own storm so that I could find out what was really happening with me. I was having nightmares of a man chasing me and trying to kill me. When I made this decision, I dreamt of him again, but this time, I turned around and laughed at him. I asked “Why are you here?”

This led to a series of dreams in which I was running through my dreamscape until I found him and asked every question I could. It wasn’t easy, actually, and was a pretty intense experience all its own, however through this experience I found that I became empowered. I was working through the various levels of fear that I had built up over the years. One night, I realized that I was no longer afraid of him, and he had no power in my dreams. I stopped dreaming about him, but then I walked around my dreamscape and saw that the imagery still wasn’t very happy. The anxiety, stress, worry that I had collected over the years was visible in my mind.

I decided that I was done having nightmares at that point. I felt I had expressed and healed the parts of me that needed to be acknowledged enough. I was ready to move forward with my life. With this intention, I had another dream; one that was intense and unexpected. Because my entire dreamscape was made up of nightmare imagery, there was only one thing to do – my dreamscape collapsed. In an earthquake, the water flooded and the ground shook, and then I was in a void.

Elephants appeared and walked me out of the void, they each had an earth on their back, and there was several of them. They walked somewhere there was water, and trees growing out of the water. I felt peace. I had collapsed my nightmare dreamscape, and pulled myself into a new one.

It was an intense experience, even though it happened in the realms of my dreams; it transformed my entire life, my attitude, it helped bring me clarity and most of all, it helped empower me again. I haven’t had a nightmare since, although sometimes my dreams can be intense, I am not fearful of my experiences anymore. This feeling reflects out in other parts of my life as well. Actions that you take while awake are reflected in your dreams, but also, when you take an action in a dream, it is reflected into the waking world.

I want others to feel comfortable expressing their dream experiences, talk to me about the weird stuff! Consider me a friend that has been through it, lets see if we can make some sense out of the nonsense, or perhaps, just explore, transform, and empower.

Sweet Dreams,

Karma Dreamwalker

KarmaKarma Dreamwalker is a 22 year old Spiritual Dreamwork Artist, Intuitive Health coach, and Teacher of Magickal Arts. She lives in California and focuses on inspiring transformation through the art of lucid dreaming, dream interpretation, and dream divination. Visit her website www.KarmaDreamwalker.com or her blog www.theartofdreamwalking.com to learn more.

 

Dream Changer-Featuring Petra Monaco

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***Happy Hump Day Dreamers! It’s Wednesday and it is time for another wonderful Dream Changer post!  This week I am excited to share with you a woman who has overcome great obstacles in life to find her true calling and as we all know life’s path is rarely a straight line and many times a topsy turvy wonderful world of lessons, growth, and evolution and Petra Monaco’s story is amazing.  She is doing wonderful work in the world and I know you will enjoy her story.  Take it away Petra!***

It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what moment in my life directly led me to this path because in the big picture of it all it all relates in some way.

I grew up in Germany in foster homes since the age of two until I graduated high school at the age of 15. Throughout the years I was exposed to trauma and abuse, neglect, rejection, unable to believe in myself and looking for love in all the wrong places. During all my struggles of trying to find out who I am, I never quit. I was pregnant with my first born at 17, engaged to an American, who I would not marry until later. I moved cross the ocean to find a different life and was left to continue to figure it all out on my own. I married the father of my son and a few years later, we had another child together. We would not work out however due to move beyond our parens dysfunction, but we are friends nonetheless.

Life still wasn’t easy and I continued to move forward believing there is something out there but never quite finding what I needed. I singled parented for awhile, remarried my husband just to once again learn that this is not working out for us. I earned a degree in accounting with the potential of making good money but I was unable to be satisfied or feel happy about it. I wanted more. I loved psychology, I loved learning about the FBI and toyed with the idea of becoming a profiler. But it still did not sit with me.

I learned about life coaching from a television show and thought to myself, now that …that looks interesting.

firefighter
One of Petra’s amazing pieces!

I began to find solace in my creations and crochet and wood burned whenever I could. I started my first business Hippie’s Creations. I find it therapeutic to create with fibers or burn on wood. It’s been my tool towards healing where I look within, analyze my situations and figure out a way to move forward.

In my 30’s I gave birth to my fourth child who at the age of four was diagnosed with a rare metabolic genetic disorder. I think that this ultimately tipped me over to follow my dreams and pursue what I wanted out of life. But it appeared I was not ready to acknowledge what I wanted and had a few more things to learn. I opened a brick and mortar store but closed it a year later still not feeling good about life. I left a relationship that did me more harm than good and my growth was huge.

I wrote a book about what I remembered of my life which helped me move forward, create boundaries, and live a much healthier life. I still have some work to do but I am enjoying the path I have taken.

In 2010 I started working as an intensive in-home counselor and I LOVED my work. I am still with the same company and continue to help children figure it all out providing them with therapy as they need. But as a mom with a child who has disabilities and remembering the life coaching show I started to explore it more.

I am in the process of writing a book, sharing my son’s inspirational story of survival and his incredible will to live. I have also started Fostered Life, in which I help individuals find the time to balance work, family and live the life they have envisioned. I am offering pro bono coaching sessions to foster children who are aging out and need a little help reaching their goals!

Petra

PetraPetra is a former foster child ready to change the world one pebble at a time. She’s the author of Betrayal: The Journey: Childhood Memories and the Adult Awakening. She is a mother of a special needs child and is in the process of writing a book about his journey of rare genetic disorder and surviving three liver transplants. You can get a glimpse of his life at www.lennonsworld.com . Petra is also a crochet and pyrographic artist and shares this world over at Hippie’s Creations . In addition to sharing the arts with the world, she is helping individuals foster their dreams by creating new thoughts and habits along the way to be come the person we should be and live the live we want! Connect with her at www.fosteredlife.com .