Thought Provoking Questions with Izzy

Should you look for another job, end a relationship, move cross country, or stand up to your mother? Life is filled with decisions each day, from choosing what food we eat to the careers we choose and everything in between.

How do you make important choices in your life?

In this episode Izzy shares a tool for helping make choices and decisions. This discerning practice or process can offer a strategy that aligns with everything important to you and supports creating a thriving life.

You see, the premise by which you made decisions in the past may no longer work for you today. Some of those decisions may have resulted from what was expected, what was popular, or your inner rebellion. Perhaps you feel as though there is nothing left to prove, defy, or even chase at this moment of your life.

Instead, there is an inner voice that wishes and craves to make a choice from a deep knowing. A feeling of alignment and direction that supports your truest, most authentic self. Welcome home! You see, this part of you has always existed but, at times, may have been distracted or ignored.

In this episode, Izzy talks about all things EGO. She explains how noticing our EGO has been a hot topic in her coaching sessions lately and how the EGO often gets a bad rap, deservingly so at times. 

But can the EGO also have a positive role in our lives? Can you spot your ego when it is present? And, is it possible to release and let go of this thing called EGO? 

You see, if you are human, there is a good chance that you will live with EGO. But with awareness and conscious attention, you can live and thrive when you become aware and befriend your EGO. 

Give this episode a listen, and perhaps you'll find the insight you need to befriend yours and find more inner freedom and peace. 

This episode explores why tapping into your passion, purpose, and gifts can lead to living life with more abundance.

We all know creative individuals who have turned their gifts, talents, and passions into a prosperous living. So the question is, why can't you?

Perhaps you have convinced yourself that it might be too hard, you don't know how, you are not good enough, you can't afford it, or maybe you don't have the support to commit to this journey.

These are legitimate obstacles, but have these excuses denied you and the world from experiencing your gifts and talents?

In this episode, Izzy shares a secret that just may change your perspective.

Give it a listen to begin your journey toward abundance by tapping into your own passions, purpose, and gifts.

And if you think you want a hand, consider my one-on-one package Passion, Purpose, and Gifts, to help you awaken the possibilities of living this inspired-filled life.

You can learn more here.

Chances are if you are taking the time to listen to this episode, you didn't win that GINORMOUS lottery windfall. If you had, you would probably be busy planning the rest of your life or at least getting your affairs in order to collect that check!

Like so many, if you bought a ticket, you most likely spent a little time fantasizing about what you would do with the winnings.

So, what would you do with all that money?

This week Izzy talks openly about money, prosperity, and abundance--exploring your relationship with prosperity and examining some deep-seated blocks that are potentially getting in the way of experiencing more abundance in your life. 

In this episode Izzy asks what keeps you from practicing meditation? You might say time, ability to quiet down or stay focused. Many say that the greatest obstacle is that they don't really know how or are not sure they are doing it correctly.

She clarifies that mindfulness simply means present moment awareness and meditation is the most powerful form of mindfulness.

Izzy invites you to give yourself self-permission to pause for just 15 minutes and allow yourself to experience this by guiding you through a simple meditation practice. 

In this episod Izzy explores finding comfort in the discomfort. 

Discomfort is something that we have all experienced in life. Discomfort in our bodies, relationships, jobs, finances, and lately, the state of the nation and world. A discomfort that clutters our minds, our emotions, and spirits.   

So how do you find comfort in the discomfort? 

Listen to find out.

In this episode Izzy has an honest conversation about your life! The life that you have spent so many years building, maintaining, sacrificing, and paying for. She explores how although you have dreamed and worked so hard to have this life, there could be a part of it keeping you living in a prison and asks if there is a monster in your life that you keep feeding?

Last week we began a conversation about compassion fatigue and the symptoms and risks of being an empath – feeling too much! One might say that the world is really struggling right now, and if you are sensitive to the suffering and struggles, your compassion meter is on overdrive.

This week Izzy explores something we should all consider, we often overgive what it is that we need.

She asks: How and where do you overgive? This might be a clue as to what you need. Do you overgive into kindness? Do you overgive in patience, support, encouragement, financial support, or nurturing?

And, once you answer this question, what would it look like to turn that giving onto yourself?

In this episode Izzy explores compassion fatigue and her own experiences with it. She explains that if you are an empath, meaning that you feel your way through the world, you probably have at some point felt compassion fatigue. And, because the state of the world has provided us with plenty of opportunities to practice feeling deep, deep compassion, you may even be experiencing it now.

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for much more on this topic, including benefits and ways to practice self-compassion.

In this episode, Izzy discusses how a person can live among a million people and still feel lonely, how someone can be married with a family and feel all alone while on the other hand one go through a pandemic, isolated at home for over a year, with barely any human connection, and feel neither alone nor loneliness. 

She explores how in these times of uncertainty, many of us became highly aware of the feelings of fear, isolation, anxiety, and anger. The more we tried to resist or loath them, the more they seemed to cling on.

There are many events that happen in life that may seem like the worst thing ever at that moment, but after time you recognize that the uncomfortable event was the very thing that propelled your life forward and led to something better. 

The same can be said for good or lucky events in our lives. How many times have we read about individuals who won the lottery only to end up poorer or less content than before the big win?

This week, Izzy will explore how grasping and clinging to an outcome can contribute to personal suffering by sharing a story shared by many Buddhist teachers. This is an opportunity to explore the perspective of what it means to experience nonattachment to the outcome. 

There are many ways in which we humans contribute to our own suffering. Attaching to a particular outcome or a perspective is certainly one of them. In this episode, Izzy explores the idea of impermanence and nonattachment.  

What is there not to WORRY about lately? In this episode, Izzy discusses how the world has given us plenty to worry about, and for many (including herself) worry has certainly been the most dominant, uncomfortable emotion. It may be a struggle to stay hopeful, especially when some things feel much bigger and more complex than we can control or influence.

However, marinating in worry all day and night is not helping the situation. So today, Izzy offers you a tool to help you confront your worries.

If you've been following along the past few weeks, you'll know this week we've made it halfway around the Life Balance Wheel Izzy has walked you through taking an inventory of your life. And this week and next, we are going to talk about your most important relationships.

We'll kick off the exploration of your relationships by first focusing on your friends and family. Why, because we can choose our friends but not our family!

Follow along as Izzy asks some thought-provoking questions to help you understand how satisfied you really are with your relationships.

Some call it the Great Exit, the Big Resign. Employers throughout the nation are struggling to fill positions to meet the demand of the customers and business operations. 

In this episode, Izzy explores how the complexities that this pandemic has caused have a lot to do with the current crisis in filling and maintaining staffing levels. Parents are exhausted with the unpredictability of childcare and safety concerns for themselves and family. 

For many, it may be the workload is more than one can handle, given the burdens of life. Some have expressed boredom or burnout. And, based on the floods of emails and calls that I have received, it seems many people are reassessing their priorities. 

According to Izzy, perhaps one of the greatest gifts of this pandemic is that we were all forced to stop and listen, be, and experience in ways we haven't, while there wasn't any other choice.

She offers a powerful practice she'll be leading starting in January to help you answer the nagging question of, now what?

Because sometimes it is helpful to know what we don't want in order to know what we do want.

In this episode, Izzy asks if you would attempt to write a book without an editor? Most people would probably say NO!  

Whether it's the first time writing a book or an experienced bestseller, an editor can help you refine what you want to say. They can save you from your worst writing weaknesses. They can help you distill your narrative, tighten your plot, and pace your story. 

So if you are serious about writing a successful book, investing in an editor can most certainly be the best support for achieving that goal. 

With this in mind, she explores how using an expert to unlock your greatest potential and maximize your efforts to achieve any goal or objective can make a HUGE impact on your life.

In this episode, Izzy explores the sacred practice of Deep Listening by asking, "When listening to others, are you really listening?" and questioning how well we listen to our own inner voices. Discussing her own experiences from her years of working at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health and as a mother, she demonstrates just how powerful it is to truly begin to listen.

In this episode, Izzy offers a little wisdom as to why self-compassion can be our greatest ally when faced with life adversities or when support, motivation, and encouragement are needed. And she discusses how practicing self-compassion isn't always easy--breaking the habit of self-criticism is a hard habit to change especially when it’s been modeled and imposed by some of our closest relationships. She offers a short practice of self-compassion to get you started on your journey to more self-compassion and less self-criticism.

In this episode, Izzy discusses the habits or tendencies that you have adopted in your life that convince or discredit your sense of value and the message given to others. Despite the title, this isn't really about food, but more importantly, about the actions or intentions you practice. This is about self-worth and self-love. 

What if the struggles you are experiencing in life actually hold a gift? Our perspective in life can be the difference between feeling defeated, or resilient. In this episode, Izzy shares a story that she hopes will change your perspective and perception around your life struggles.

Are you feeling a lack of focus, energy, disconnected from your life, job, family, and friends? Perhaps you are feeling a bit negative, cynical, or impatient? These can all be the symptoms and signs of burnout. After all, look at what the last 1 ½ year has been like. In this episode Izzy explores the nuances of burnout vs. boredom and how you can identify, and then adjust accordingly.

In this episode, Izzy discusses how a book called "The Rhythm of Life," written by Matthew Kelly, helped her to align her priorities with her values, needs, desires, and dreams leading her to live more authentically in all areas of life. Especially those areas that she had neglected—like friendships. She explores how she shifted to nurturing her friendships and how these friendships and what these friendships say about who she is.

Does the blueprint by which your pre-pandemic life was built on, still work? Yes, that blueprint, road map, that once directed your work, environment, relationships? How you spend your time, money, and efforts? What you nurture, allow, and tolerate in your life? It’s time to reevaluate, because if not now, when? After a year and a half of life turned upside down, inside out, I predict several things have changed the landscape of your life, in probably a very profound way! 

Is your well EMPTY? Yes, your well, your tank, or some may say oxygen. We can certainly recognize it when it happens with our cars, if our children are tired or hungry, or when a wilting house plant becomes thirsty for water and light. But can you recognize the symptoms in yourself?

What if what so many of us are currently are experiencing and perhaps do not recognize it—is GRIEF?

No one can argue that this past year has been like no other. For many, life has drastically changed. Some may claim for the better, while many others are struggling to keep their heads above the water. Nonetheless, everyone has experienced changes. A simple trip to the grocery store can feel cumbersome. Going to the bank, dentist, and hairstylist will forever be different. So many of the things that used to take a little effort now take twice as much, often leaving me feeling irritable and snarky.

Now, if I think going to the market is frustrating, I can’t imagine the effort and complexity of raising a school-aged child in these times while holding down a job and working from home! Or what it must be like to be an educator or healthcare worker! Heck, let’s face it, there are very few occupations that are not affected by this pandemic. It has impacted almost every corner of our lives. As much as we have tried to stay optimistic and hopeful that we’ll get through this together, the uncertainty is exhausting and unbearable at times.

Then added to this, there is the physical loss of life, health, careers, and relationships. Both because of the pandemic and other life circumstances.

Now when asked how grief is expressed, many would probably say sadness, depression, sorrow, or misery. And yes, all those are true. Yet what if sarcasm, judgment, cynicism, and jealousy could also be grief in disguise?

This week Izzy takes a deeper dive into exploring the essence of our true calling and the complexities that keep us from living our life’s purpose. Do you know what your life’s purpose is?  Have you had a glimpse of this purpose but have not yet found a way to live it fully? Does living your life’s purpose mean that you must financially support yourself using it?   Are there rules or beliefs that you live by, that stand in the way of living this purpose?  

In this episode, Izzy discusses the power of creating a dream, vision, or intention for this coming year and bringing it to the forefront of your life in a vision board. It stimulates all your senses and stirs beautiful energy in the deepest parts of yourself, especially your organs; your gut, heart, pulse, every cell. Not driven by your brain—the idea behind a vision board is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where and how you want to live, achieve, or experience, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

In this episode Izzytakes a closer look at our personal vibration... to explore how this dominant vibration contributes to our overall well-being and the impact on the world, and let's go all out and say the universe.

Everything has energy. Every person, every thought, every action, item, and word carry a certain vibration. Why is this important? Because energy and vibration have a way of multiplying, it is as contagious as this virus we are dealing with and can change a room full of people from feeling alive to despair. From feeling fear to hope. From feeling lost and discouraged to feeling empowered and inspired. 

Whoever said that life should be all about suffering—was most certainly wrong!! Take it from Izzy, some who has mastered that art and skill of suffering.  In this episode she discusses what she has learned about leaning towards suffering and sacrifice-- it is a perfect prescription for a life of resentment, frustration, and exhaustion. That joy, is our true nature. 

What that means is that we were all born joyful. Simply put, it has been our conditioning along the way that keeps us from living in that state—our higher selves. 

In this episode, she'll give you a quick quiz to determine if you too, have been conditioned to suffer and offer a simple way to being making changes to experience more joy and happiness.

In this episode Izzy explores a simple question -- how much fun do you have? Given all things we face today, maybe it doesn't sound like a very important question, but truthfully there are many people, who haven't spent nearly enough time in life having fun.  Are you one of them? And if so, what is the cost and what can you do to change it?

In this episode Izzy discusses a recent poll she did over 20 people about their experiences during this time of COVID. As she explains, nothing can propel transformation more than adversities. Transformation begins with awareness. And awareness can only happen when we are present in our lives and world around us. 

I have a question for you. What's sitting in your inbox? I know it may sound like a silly question, but bear with me. What if in the answer to that very question, lives in the answers to larger questions about you and your life?

For example, what are you procrastinating? What is cluttering your heart and mind? What problem do you long to solve in the world? What could spark more passion, purpose, and meaning?

To walk the Camino de Santiago, an 800-kilometer (500 miles) trek over the Pyrenees and across northern Spain, has been on my bucket list for some time. In this episode, I discuss the challenges those who walk the Camino encounter, and the lessons and growth that comes from the journey. 

These challenges are all too familiar amid this pandemic, this current world crisis. Of course, no one planned or prepared for this. We didn't carve out eight weeks in our calendars, set up our work, finances, education, and food supply in advanced to be quarantined in our homes for so long. However, the discomforts and fluctuations of feelings, emotions, and circumstances can be compared to those experienced on the journey of the Camino de Santiago. Perhaps, the lessons and growth that we will gain during this time will also be similar.

For the last couple of weeks, we've been digging in and taking charge of our clutter--so courageously diving into all the small and big things that drain energy, keeping us stagnant and stuck.

Today, we'll continue our journey to clear the clutter by focusing on a huge energy drainer we all experience—our WORRIES. 

A colleague once asked me to name the five most dominant worries I was experiencing at that moment in time.  It was a powerful question because what I recognized was that these worries were precisely the reason why my energy felt zapped and why I was having trouble focusing. The thoughts that were swirling around in my mind and occupying valuable real estate in my body were 100% directly impacting the quality of my life. 

In the midst of this global pandemic, with many of us awakening feeling worried, only to lay our heads on our pillow at the end of each day, continuing to marinate in worry all night—I would like to offer you a tool to help you confront your worries.

You may think these are 2 questions! But I think they are one and the same. For several years, I have been teaching a program called "Clearing the Clutter." So very often, people have gone out of their way to share with me how this program inspired them to make amazing changes in their lives.  They have gone on to do things like finally writing that book, going back to school, leaving a soul-sucking job, and finding work that they can't wait to do each day.  How they Let go of unhealthy relationships and made room to attract nurturing ones.  Bought their dream homes, traveled the world, or my favorite—discovered PEACE.

In light of the current adversities that we are all facing—I think that we (the world) could all use a shift in energy. To support this need, I'm offering this powerful workshop live online. In this 90 minute workshop, you will gain motivation, tools, skills, and the support of a coach and community—de-cluttering together.  Can you feel the energy moving already—I DO! 

To make this opportunity even better, in the spirit of clearing things out, giving things away, and doing good in the world, I'd like to offer this workshop for a very nominal fee of $20 and then take all proceeds and donate them to our local food bank. Imagine you can make positive impact on your life and for someone who may be really struggling. It's a WIN-WIN!  

You can sign-up now for this 90-minute online workshop right here. I promise to make de-cluttering fun, achievable, and so worth it!