Refreshing Your Spirit

Time to read: 30 seconds

Gwynn Valley at sunset

Hello Rebels,

I'm away at camp.

I spend three weeks working at my children's summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. In a departure from my regular life of coaching and momming, I spend my days as the Miller (as in grain and an actual water-powered mill) where I take children through a farm to table experience that involves lots of corn and lots of food. (It also involves dead fish, which is a story for another day.)

At camp, there is little cell service, spotty wifi, no TV or technology, lots of fresh air, baby animals, and hundreds of children. Even though I end each day covered in cornmeal and drop in bed exhausted at night, I am grateful I get to spend so much time each summer playing with children. They refresh my spirit.

As we prepare to start the Quiet the Noise Challenge, I invite you to consider what refreshes your spirit.

Where can you step outside your usual existence, even if only for a few minutes or a day? What can you do or where can you go to quiet the noise in your life for a while?

If you'd like a quick daily practice starting on August 5, our challenge is just the thing. You can join us here.

Anne and I look forward to seeing you there!

Christina

P.S. If you're excited for the challenge, please invite some friends to join by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up here.

It's the quitting season!

Estimated read time: 1:17.09 minutes.

Quit optional activities you don't enjoy. My daughter hated T- ball.

There's a lot going on right now. Holiday prep. Election updates. Dark days. Year-end deliverables. Here in the North, we're finally into cold weather. Are you feeling the intensity?

With everything that's happening in your life, the US and the world right now, I want to provide you with relief, permission to rest, and a chance to slow down. I want to help you find some ease.

One simple path to more ease is Be A Quitter.

I can hear some of you saying, "Nope. That's impossible. I can can't shirk my responsibilities." We're taught that being a quitter is Bad with a capital B.

Quitting is good. Sometimes, you must.

You are a kind and generous person. You likely say yes to more things than you can reasonably handle. Quitting is one path to balance. (So is saying no but that's a conversation for a different day.)

Tony Robbins says that quitting in order to honor your values is vital. (And if Tony Robbins says it, it must be true.)

Try these ideas on for size:

• Promised you'd attend a baby shower, and now you feel like you need a quiet evening at home? Send a Babies R Us gift card with a kind note and quit! Honor your value of quiet.
• Volunteered to organize an event and realize you've said yes to one to many things? Send an email and quit! Honor your value of free time.
• Agreed to have lunch with a friend from college who you don't like much anymore? Decline, make a note not to schedule this lunch again, and quit! Honor your value of authentic relationships.

When you are evaluating how you spend your day, consider if an activity brings you joy - nor not. Choose to do the things that bring you joy. And offer a polite, accountable, "I quit."

It's a good practice. And the discomfort of quitting will ultimately teach you where you need to say no to honor your values.

I hope this brings you some ease and simplicity.

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

It's my birthday. I'm giving you the gift I'm giving myself

Estimated read time: 34.24 seconds.

Happy Birthday!

My 49th birthday is on Saturday, and like a small child I'm thinking about what I want. (Here's a hint: It's not Legos.)

As many of you have noticed, there's been lots of exciting new stuff happening here at Corporate Rebel HQ. All this activity has been amazing and has taken a lot of energy.

These reflections make me think of you and all the energy you pour into your work. Big projects. End of year analyses. Performance appraisal cycles. Planning for 2017. This is a time of year when the pace starts to speed toward the holidays and what's next for 2017.

It's time for a little rest.

For my birthday, I'm giving you a gift. With this email, you have full permission to rest this weekend. To shut off your email. To sleep in. To eat cake. To snuggle your 2-legged and 4-legged loves.

I am going to do the same. I told my family I want to feel the love this weekend. Breakfast in bed. Handmade cards from my kids. A quiet weekend tucked on the couch watching Pretty Little Liars.

Enjoy your weekend!

Warmly,

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

Something I rarely do!

Estimated read time: 50.44 seconds

I'll be chillin' with these two!

I've been a busy bee this summer. It's been fun. I've loved the interaction with all of you and the cool new things I've gotten to do. Our family has had fun travels and are enjoying our new house.

And, I tend toward workaholic, to believing that my self worth is tied up with production and constant forward movement. I have to be disciplined about slowing down, staying present, letting go, and chilling out. Can you relate?

I'm going to do something that feels even more risky to me than putting videos of myself in public. I'm going to take a week off!

Next week, my kids and I are going blueberry picking. I'll chow dairy products at the Minnesota State Fair, sleep in (oh yes!), buy folders and pens for the start of school, and watch stupid movies. (Mall Cop, anyone?)

Research shows that you are more creative and more productive when you let yourself rest. Yet, how often do you allow yourself to take a break? To recharge. To gain a new perspective?

If you feel like you drive yourself hard, that you've got too much to do and not enough time to do it, or that you would like some balance or rest, let's talk. Click hereto be taken to my calendar where you can schedule a time to chat (after next week, of course). As a recovering workaholic, I can help.

And if the whole chilling' is one of your gifts, please hit reply to this email and share your tips with me. It's my growth edge!

Here's to sleeping in!

See you in a week!

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.