 Written by: Betsy Karp, The Colour Coach March is all about spring and new beginnings…and it’s my birth month. It is a renewal of our spirits, our bodies, the clothes we wear and the food we eat. It’s a time for clearing, cleansing and preparing for greatness. Try putting some white clothing on, because it will give you a fresh new take on things. White is the color for wiping the slate clean and for new beginnings. Clear out the clutter in your mind, your closet and your belly. Spring is here and it’s time to let it all go. Winter is notorious for gaining that extra 5, maybe even 10, pounds. Come March, we want to shed that extra weight. At this time of year we are also eager to shed the heavy BLACK coats, gloves and boots for lighter, more COLORFUL jackets and open toed shoes. Preparing for these clothes and our well-being, there are some wonderful foods to help us lose those unwanted pounds, getting our bodies ready for the spring and summer months. Click here to find out what colors will help you make a seamless transition from Winter to Spring! Detoxifying your body is a great way to begin your Spring, because we need to rid ourselves of all the fattening and warming foods we’ve been consuming these last few months. Now is the time to start adding cooling foods. We want our bodies to acclimate to the coming warmer, summer months. One cooling food to eat is alfalfa sprouts. But there are so many more cooling foods to add to your diet...click here to find out what they are. Enjoy the beginning of your renewal by shedding those extra pounds, eating alfalfa sprouts and other cooling foods. I offer wonderful cooking classes through Amazon Local, teaching you how to use colors purposefully while cooking and preparing meals. You can also go outside for a walk, soaking up the warmer weather. Did you know that just 30 minutes of exercise a day brings longevity to your life, lowering your cholesterol and blood pressure? It also changes your state of mind, making you feel great, and as we know, the mind is the key to it all. It’s time to get rid of that fear and worry and let go of that BLACK, heavy self-doubt. You know what they say? “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” So let the air of spring flow into your body, mind and soul and bring in some COLOR. That's the preparation. Have fun and play around with yellow, green and orange. Feel the Renewal of your energy and spirit. You deserve it! Happy Spring!!! Have a Colorful Day,Betsy Karp,The Colour Coach
 Written by: Betsy KarpStarting something new is very challenging and can be a test of your resiliency. It takes a lot of belief, patience, faith and a really big dose of courage. ORANGE is the COLOR of courage and it is all around me right now. My screen saver is a bright ORANGE and I’ve been eating so many ORANGE foods filled with beta-carotene and healthy nutrients, giving me that internal boost. Sometimes, in the darkest of times, when you just want to give up is when you have to be your strongest, telling yourself it's going to be OK and to take it Step-by-Step. Let go of the control and release it to the universe. Trust that there is a higher calling and a greater good, and that the universe has your back. It’s a step-by-step process of putting one foot in front of the other. Taking action and doing something everyday is what gets you results, and I mean EVERY DAY action. It can be the littlest thing like answering an email that you have been putting off. JUST DO ONE SMALL THING EVERY DAY! By taking action we learn, we grow and we adjust. It’s in the doing that progress occurs. Don’t wait to make it perfect. Just do it and make adjustments as you go. As we move the universe moves with us. Fear pushes us to move forward. Without fear we wouldn’t grow or do very much. We need some fear in our lives, but the key is to embrace our fears with love. This is when the breakthroughs and the “ah ha” moments happen. Life is a process. It is about building and taking that step, after step, after step, and not giving up even when you want to. It’s the small steps that get us to where we want to be. Without them we really can’t move forward. Let and allow the feelings to come up and know that LOVE is the only way you want to be. Each step and movement feeds on the next. Sometimes it takes a really long time to get there. Everything comes in the right time and in its divine order if you keep moving forward Step-by-Step. So how do we find love for ourselves and get out of fear? It’s about taking a deep breath and getting calm within. It’s about letting go of the ego and the perfectionism of how it’s all going to end up. It’s learning how to just be and accept all that is in this precious moment. Unleash the negative, bratty voices and focus on the positive. Make that call you have been putting off for days (maybe even weeks) and connect with an old friend or business associate. Ask for help and support. Just do ONE thing! People can’t read your mind and know what you need. Reach out and ask someone for help. It’s amazing how everyone wants to help if they can. I have been connecting with so many people and asking for help in the last few weeks. I am amazed at the synchronicity of it all. For example, I am about to launch my i adore me Kids Program. With this on my mind, I bumped into someone today I hadn’t seen in years. Her husband, also a friend, is in the NYC school system. How perfect is that? Everything comes in the RIGHT TIME, so I decided to reach out and ask for his help. I now have an appointment with his son’s principal to discuss my i adore me Kids Program. Now, none of this would have happened if I didn’t pay attention to the signs, reach out and make that call, asking for help and being open to connect. Life is about giving and receiving. Be in the moment and make it happen. Connecting and sharing our life and love with others helps us to feel and find the love within us. It's good to be vulnerable. It's real. Be the authentic you. Don’t be afraid. Get out of your own way and share: connect and communicate, and do it all with LOVE…Step-by-Step. Now doesn’t that feel better?! *Please comment below and share with your friends.* Have a Colorful Day, Betsy Karp, Founder of i adore me
 Written by: Edwige Gilbert,
Author of the “Fresh Start Promise”
Dale Carnegie once said, “Fear does not exist anywhere but in our mind.”
Let’s consider this: If fear is just a figment of our imagination and does not exist anywhere else, how can we explain the devastating impact fear has on our health and in our lives?
I may have an answer for you. You see fear, unlike any other emotion, has a vital and basic function, which is to warn us against physical and emotional danger. To accomplish this purpose, fear activates the fight or flight response releasing toxic chemicals in our brain such as adrenaline. I can understand how useful this function may have been thousands of years ago, to warn the poor cavemen to fly or fight for their lives when attacked by a bear. But today, this function seems obsolete and yet, we are still experiencing its full impact. For example, we might just be giving a speech or showing up for an interview and all of a sudden we notice our heart pounding in our chest and our palms getting sweaty, while feeling panicky and confused.
I have a difficult time accepting that just because we are afraid, all of this can happen. Especially when I realize that practically everything we do in our lives is tinted with fear. As you already know, the list of fear situations is nearly endless: fear of sickness, poverty, rejection, the fear of aging, loneliness, and the fear of failure or even success.
What are we to do? Accept that we are prisoners of fear and allow it to dominate our lives and take away our freedom and joie de vivre?
I don’t think so and I hope you feel the way I do.
In the name of our liberation from the tyranny of our fears, I propose 3 steps that we can take to help us.
Step 1: Make fear your friend
What does that mean? Since we cannot escape or hide from it, why not choose to have fear as your companion on your new journey? After all, fear is just warning you that you are going through changes, and dealing with a new situation can be uncomfortable. Fear can also force us to be brave and develop strength of character. Finally, fear, when you are able to conquer it, can bring you such a sense of accomplishment, greater self-esteem and self-confidence.
To make this concept more alive, I propose that you imagine that you are a snake charmer from India wearing a saffron colored turban, sitting in a crossed legged position learning to tame the Cobra of fear, while hypnotizing him with the intoxicating music of the Pungi (a native bamboo wind instrument).
Step 2: Change your focus
Stop focusing on being afraid and start focusing on your desired outcome. It is believed that what you focus on expands and becomes your reality. Decide to focus on what you want to accomplish. Picture yourself having reached your goal feeling confident and victorious.
When dealing with a challenging situation, you can imagine yourself as a warrior, such as King Arthur if you are a man or Xena the warrior princess if you are a woman, holding a sword of fearlessness and wearing an armor of white light, protecting you from all fear and negativity.
Step 3: Be your inner coach
We all have a tendency to be too critical and judgmental about ourselves. We often feel deep down that we are not good enough. We secretly search for perfection, which creates a lot of pressure, fear and anxiety. What if we chose to be more loving and accepting of ourselves and decided to adopt the language of the heart which would ban the “cannot” and the “should’s,” and instead, embracing positive and empowering words?
To create this positive experience, bring your arms up in the air and declare, “Victory to me, Victory is mine” as you place a big smile on your face for appreciation and gratitude of this joyful moment.
I hope you will use these 3 steps on your journey of life. And everyday remember to welcome fear and make it your friend, to keep your mind focused on the wonderful things you desire to achieve in your life and most importantly, to stay loving, encouraging and supportive.
I would like to leave you with a final thought by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once said, “He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”
Merci,
Edwige
 Written by: Katie Cohen
I just watched The Little Mermaid. Sprawled across the living room floor, I imagined that my legs were a beautiful green tail, gleaming against the ocean’s seabed. My short blonde bob had transformed into spaghetti length locks of fiery red that danced and twirled as I swam toward my father’s antique leather chair, which closely resembled King Tritons throne. Suddenly, the sky cast a dark shadow over my ocean, inviting the evils of the sea to emerge from their hiding places and to create the most violent storm. King Triton told me that if I could make my way across the ocean without stepping on any sea urchins, or without swimming into any dark holes, that the storm would vanish. However, if I failed to follow his advice, the angry storm would strengthen and destroy my entire sea world.
For several days, I did everything in my power to avoid the sea urchins and dark holes that King Triton warned me about. Whether I was playing the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid or just being Katie, I still had an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that something terrible was going to happen if I didn’t listen to the king. Eventually my six-year old Disney fantasy and my reality became interchangeable, and stepping over sea urchins manifested into the exhausting obsession of jumping over the street cracks of downtown Manhattan. This was my first experience with anxiety. Of course, I did not understand the significance of my neurotic rituals at the time or that I was becoming controlled by my thoughts.
Thoughts. The very things that allow us to create, to grow, and to distinguish ourselves as individuals. However, when fueled by anxiety, they reveal their destructive nature, often leaving people crippled and enslaved by their irrational thinking processes. Fortunately, as the masters of our minds, we have a choice. We can allow ourselves to be consumed by our fears or we can conquer them before they conquer us. While it’s easier said than done, it is possible. Take it one day at a time. Today, I will choose to step ON the street cracks.
*Please Comment Below*
 Written by: Katie Cohen
 Written by: Steven M. Goldsmith
Isn't it amazing how we create stories in our lives and hold onto them? We create stories about situations and relate to those stories rather than what actually happened. And if you pay close enough attention, you'll notice that that's how you relate to people as well...to your story about them rather than who they are. Wouldn't this world be a better place if we had authentic relationships instead?
How do you let go of your stories of people and situations? You stay present; you catch yourself in the act. Try that next time you talk to someone. Look at them and pay attention to the voices that arise in your head. What you'll notice is that your story about them will come up: what they did or didn't do to you, what they're wearing, who you think they are in the world, what other people think of them, if you think they are ugly or pretty, so on and so forth. Do you really think you are relating to them with all this noise in the background? You can’t. It’s impossible.
We create so many stories about people, places and objects that we see everything through a filter. It’s like those Claritin commercials: the image on TV is ever so blurry until the person has taken Claritin, and then the image is crystal clear. Think of how much brighter things would be if we saw them for what they were. Think of how much more colorful nature would be, how much better food would taste, how much more you’d be able to actually hear what people were saying. It would be a world through a crystal clear lens. You would free yourself from the prison of your mind and truly experience life!
It’s time to start relating to each other this way or you will miss our lives completely. Get out of your head, catch yourself in your story and commit to letting go of the labels and words associated with everything. Stay present and enjoy life. Living in the world of what IS instead of the world of LANGUAGE is so much more exciting. It’s a life without fear (the fears that you’ve created that don’t really exist anyway). Everyone deserves a life like that. It’s called freedom! It’s called presence. It’s called LIFE!
*Please Comment Below*
 Written by: Jacqueline Stahl
On the second morning of the New Year I woke up at 5:58 am and turned off my iPhone alarm, set for 6:10am. I listened to my husband breathing and my dog Shadow's breathing from across the room. I listened deeper and heard the faint sound of the television, so I knew my daughter must have fallen asleep on the couch. I closed my eyes and listened to my thoughts to see if they were any different from my 2012 thoughts.
They were.
I didn't start to lose myself in the obsessive mental lists of: “should I take a 6:30 cycle class or meditate in the living room before walking Shadow? Did I empty the dishwasher? When is my Amex bill due? I didn't look at my iCalendar or check my emails or text messages.” I didn't project any catastrophes or doubts in myself.
I kept my eyes closed and stayed with the stillness. I felt the warmth of my pillow and comforter. When I watched my thoughts fast forward to 2015 and then to 7:45 am, I pressed PAUSE and smiled quietly to myself. All I have, all I need and all I want is right here. As I savored the last few minutes of repose, I thought of what I could do to make the world a little better this year. How could I contribute?
My mornings will be different and perhaps everyone should try to begin their days with a different intention.
Start each day with a positive intention and let it guide your day and your practice, getting really clear about your motivations and how your love is the most powerful vehicle in the world. Act for the good of others. Break a bad habit and this includes all the senseless mind chatter that causes hours of anxiety.
Letting go of perfection and anger can create a shift and make a subtle and profound difference in all of our lives.
Happy New Year!
“To see far is one thing; going there is another.”
--Brancusi
Love and Light,
Jacqueline Stahl
*Please Comment Below*
 Written by: Betsy Karp
It ‘s a new year and that means it is time for new beginnings, commitments and what we really want to create in 2013.
I really dislike the word RESOLUTION. I feel it is a word that just doesn’t work. We set out with all good intentions for our resolutions, however, by the middle of January, or if you are lucky enough to get to February, they are shattered and gone. I was listening to news the other evening and less than 20% percent of people keep their resolutions. The two biggest resolutions are: I am going to exercise more. And, of course, the REALLY BIG ONE…I am really going to lose weight this year…the notorious 10 pounds.
Instead of saying, “I have a resolution,” why don’t you possibly try saying to yourself, “I will make a commitment”? When we commit to a dinner date, we go. When we commit to a job, we show up. So where in your life can you commit to something that will help you create all that you want in 2013?
The first thing you need to do is to write down what it is that you want. Ask yourself, “What is it?” This is a bigger question than you think. Take time and really ask yourself, “What do I want to create in 2013?” Then make a plan. Nothing in life gets done without action. Action is what makes everything work. It’s a step-by-step process. Do things in baby steps. That is how things move forward. Nothing happens overnight. “Slow and steady wins the race.” I love that saying because life is a process. There are many successful people who say, “It took me YEARS to be an overnight success.”
We get to where we want by having a plan, making a commitment and honoring that vision. If you break your commitment, the only one you ever really hurt is yourself.
As we step into our commitments to ourselves we feel more empowered. It builds self-esteem and confidence. Make a commitment and create what you really want for yourself.
Step into your commitments with passion, a plan and action. I’d love to hear what your commitments are for 2013? Please share below.
*Please comment below and share with your friends.*
Hugs,
Betsy Karp,
Founder of i adore me
 Written by: Steven M. Goldsmith
All of life is about accepting change and letting go. We lose loved ones, people move away, the elderly pass on, flowers perish and trees fall. We have pets that touch our hearts and leave us with grieving sadness. We have Grandparents who make us feel special, then move onto a higher plane leaving us feeling empty. But we don’t have to feel sad or empty. Now I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt and it isn’t sad. Of course it is. But it is also the natural progression of life and it benefits us more to accept it, breathe and move on. As Francois de la Rochefoucauld so eloquently put it, “The only thing constant in life is change.”
Now, I have been struggling with what I want out of life lately. I’ve come to a fork in the road and I’m not quite sure which way to go. It’s scary and I often don’t want to make a choice…I want things to be as I have always expected them to be and have been used to. But the universe has a different plan…Change!
I am an actor by trade but have been on the fence of whether or not I want to do it anymore. I’ve had some challenging auditions lately and have been putting a lot of pressure on myself. The pressure naturally only makes it worse, but I haven’t figured out how to “let go” of that pressure yet. This was really magnified the other day when I had a pretty bad audition; over the days that followed, I kept beating myself up for it. I held on with such ferocity, as if I might die without the self-inflicted abuse.
I had no idea how to take my mind off of…well…my mind, so I took myself on a date to see “The Life of Pi.” At first I was cynical and wasn’t enjoying it, but once I relaxed and put my focus on the movie instead of my most recent “failure,” I was drawn in. But nothing hit me quite like the quote at the end of the movie: “All of life is an act of letting go, but what hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye” (now what he meant by “not taking a moment to say goodbye” might have been one thing, but I interpreted it to stand for many different situations. It can also stand for forgiveness).
This knocked me over the head, smacked me in the face and jolted me out of my negativity. “All of life is an act of letting go…” I was holding onto this terrible audition and feeling like a failure, telling myself over and over again that I would never be great and that I destroyed chances I may never again get. Holding onto this thought, at the time, was akin to not being able to let one off of life support…I couldn’t say goodbye to it.
Now I realize I was being overly dramatic, but in that moment, that was how I was feeling: hopeless, sad, grieving and lost. I couldn’t let go of my “story.” But if I just “let go” and allowed myself to “say goodbye,” it would be done. It wasn’t still happening to me. The audition wasn’t an endless torture in a chamber of horrifying tools. The horrifying tools were my thoughts and the chamber was my mind. It wasn’t still happening, yet I kept playing it over and over and over and over again in my mind like someone was holding a gun to my head saying, “YOU MUST FEEL SHAME AND SADNESS FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.” And what for?
I’ve been so unsure of my current path as a performer, being faced with this fork in the road of possibly leaving the business and starting over, that I put an exorbitant amount of pressure on this one audition to prove to me that I was “supposed” to stay in the business. It proved to be the opposite. And maybe it was a nudge to say, “keep fighting, stay the course and don’t give up”; who knows. That’s not the point. The point is to learn to let go, say goodbye (albeit, grieve a little to feel the loss so it can be fully released) and go with the flow. Accept the natural progression of life (mistakes and all), accept change and move forward, not backward.
Yes, many horrific and tragic things happen in this world--things far worse than a botched audition--but once it has happened, there’s nothing we can do to change it. We can’t go back in time to “fix” or “stop” it from happening. Once it’s done it’s done, and the only thing that seemingly keeps it going is the mind.
A fork in the road, a bad audition, a loved one passing on, etc… These are things that we’re not meant to hold onto, but we tend to anyway. We do so because it’s hard to be faced with failure and loss. It leads to change, which leads to a different direction and eventually toward a new beginning.
Change is a gift that gives us a chance to release old hurts, learn something new, discover something great and start with something fresh. Who would we be if we stayed in the present and accepted the constant change in the world and in our lives? What wouldn’t we miss? What would we give ourselves permission to do? Byron Katie, the author of “The Work,” says that when we examine depression and sadness, the only thing that ever makes us unhappy is our RESISTANCE to WHAT IS. I truly believe that if everyone learned to “let go” and “say goodbye,” we would live a much more rewarding existence and co-existence. Letting go and saying goodbye…bitter though it may feel, sweet it actually is.
***Please comment below***
 Written by: John Michael Dias
I had an epiphany today. This is something I realize that will change everything. I was in a particularly bad mood as I trudged my way to the A train from my apartment on my way to work. After the train finally pulled up to a screeching halt at the station, I found myself looking around at all the different kinds of people around me. I realized that everything I was noticing was coming from a negative place. I heard myself say things in my head like, "Who would wear those shoes?" "I hate the color of that woman's coat" "He needs a haircut." "I wish that jerk would cut the flap open on the back of his jacket!!!" "That girl's voice is sooooo loud and annoying!"
Firstly, Who am I to think these things about other people? Secondly, all of these people have their own story and just as much worth as I do. Instantly, that girl with the Loud, Annoying Voice let out a joyous guffaw of musical laughter and a switch went off in my head.
This girl’s laughter was filled with so much joy and positivity. I instantly looked back at every person I was judging unfairly before, looking at them now in a completely different light. I looked over at the man whose shoes I hated before and noticed he had huge, beautiful blue eyes. The woman who wore that coat I hated, had such a pleasant expression on her face and looked so confident and content; you could tell she loved what she was wearing just by her stance. The guy who needed a haircut was a busy dad with his two children. He was making them laugh by reading to them on the long train ride downtown, and it was adorable. And who knows? Maybe that other guy wasn’t ever taught to snip that thread on the back of his coat.
I continued to look around the train and found positive things about everyone around me. The woman across from me had a beautiful smile. The couple near me was holding hands and looked so in love. Before I knew it, I heard the sound of the sliding doors and it snapped me out of my trance. I was at 59th street and it was time to get off the train.
I found that I was in such a good mood on my walk to work and throughout the rest of that day. I found that people were looking at me differently. Could it be that because I was seeing the positive in them, giving out good energy, they, in turn, were seeing the positive in me? Stranger things have happened.
For the rest of the day I found myself exercising this technique. The second I felt some negative thought or judgment coming on, I would instantly counteract it with a positive thought. I intend to make this my new way of living.
I truly believe that negativity is like a drug; it’s extremely addictive. It is so easy to gravitate toward negative thoughts and dwell on the negative aspects of people and situations. When we think of the positives, focusing on what we can learn from experiences we are confronted with, we blossom.
With every negative is a positive. I truly believe the mind is everything. What you think, you become. I choose to think positively. How about you?
*Please share your comments below*
written by: John Michael Dias
 The word impulse means to act on a whim without serious regard or thought. I have had my share of impulsive behavior over the years that I wish I could take back, but people can’t move backward…just forward. The trick is learning to be conscious of what we are doing at this moment in time and what we are feeling.
I just came from seeing the movie “Flight “ with Denzel Washington. He is one of my most favorite actors, because his acting is so superb. It’s as though he just is. He has a wonderful sense of timing while staying present. The story revolves around his impulsive disorder and his need to resolve it for himself. This got me thinking on what it means to be impulsive, while addressing patterns of my own.
Do you find yourself being impulsive? Do you buy things just because you want them or do you stop and take a moment, asking yourself, “Do I really need this? Can I afford this?” What are the feelings that are coming up?
Usually when we are impulsive, we are acting out deep, unresolved emotions that we don’t want to face. When we are conscious of our actions it’s amazing what we become aware of. To need and want are two separate issues.
I have become aware of the importance of what it is that I need and what truly is impulsive. For example, I was out of socks. Most of them had holes in the toes and I was down to two good pairs. I stopped in at Urban Outfitters to buy some new, inexpensive socks, and let me tell you, they weren’t so inexpensive. I had told myself, “I am only going to purchase what I need: a few pairs of socks and that is it!”
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a soft, romantic, pink, fluffy scarf that I loved, but I caught myself in time saying, “No Betsy, you do not need it, you have five million scarves” (a bit of an exaggeration). But the point is, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to be impulsive today.
Do you know how many millions of dollars people spend on being impulsive, buying an item just because it feels good? Or maybe it’s at the register before you check out and you say to yourself, “Oh what the heck, I’ll take that too.” But the whole point is that when we become unconscious and don’t take responsibility for our actions, major problems occur in our lives causing addictions, over spending, over eating and the list continues.
When you stop and take a moment, thinking about what it is you really do need and not what it is you want, you can stop the impulsive action and behavior. This will save you lots of money, time, better health, and improved relationships, as well as higher self-esteem.
So maybe the next time you feel impulsive to do something, take a minute, raise your consciousness and think truthfully to yourself, “Do I need this? Do I want this? Is this good for me?” You will know the answer. Be honest with yourself and look within.
*Please comment below and share with your friends.*
Hugs,
Betsy Karp,
Founder of i adore me
|
RSS Feed