Volume 4, Issue 2 | Feb. 1, 2008
www.shift-it-coach.com | [email protected]

Welcome to your February SHIFT-IT e-Zine.

1. A Note From Christina
   
2. Events Calendar
3. New Training Pages Are Live
4. Feature Article: Energy Lessons from a Sweet Texan Couple
5. Recent Blog Entries
6. More Links & Resources
   
   

Dear %$firstname$%,

Time flies when you are having fun. 

First off, our new SHIFT-IT Tele-group was kicked off this last month.  Sixteen folks from all over the place: Netherlands, New Zealand and many different North American locales phoning in for our special calls on Sunday mornings. 

I love leading folks thru my SHIFT-IT Process® - working with them live in the calls and also fielding private emails in between.  Seeing and hearing how they are responding to the material and the unique and cool insights they get.  The progress of participants each week is amazing and I am constantly thrilled with the ah-has and shifts that go on.  We are just entering the ‘Focus on Your Future’ stage of the process – where everyone creates their own Personal Vision and starts to deal with their ‘Trouble at the Border’ issues (the resistance that needs to be softened in order for them to align effectively with what they want). 

Talking about borders … I crossed one into Mexico when I took my third Abraham-Hicks cruise.  Maybe its not appropriate for me to show you a picture of me drinking beer on a Mexican beach – but hey, it happened!  And oysters too (but I’m wondering if I should have risked that … Montezuma is enacting his revenge … a week later).  I should have known better.  Yikes!

Despite the gastro-intestinal episodes when getting home (I know, too much sharing!),  I had a lot of fun on the cruise. And the knowledge pouring out of Esther Hicks via Abraham was astounding and inspirational as per usual.  More photos and insights about the cruise on the blog. 

This month of February I’m busy working out the final touches on my new Merkley’s Mastermind curriculum (my new advance level tele-coaching group).  I’m putting together a great 12-week agenda, where I go into much more depth with the Law of Attraction principles that have been so instrumental in my own personal and professional shift … and also the real world technology tools that have aided me so well.  Its going to be a great mastermind team for folks out there who want to kick up their own creative livelihoods via both inner world and outer world tools. 

Since I just got back from the Abraham cruise, this month’s article is on some of the main pointers I received from them.

Enjoy! See you next month,

Christina Merkley,
The SHIFT-IT Coach

Feb. 17: (2-5pm). NEXT LOA GATHERING:  This month’s fr*ee Law of Attraction Gathering in my Victoria, BC studio.  Discuss LOA with other curious people.  Suitable for both beginners and advanced learners. This month: Louise Hay’s new DVD. RSVP Now. 

April 6 – June 22: (Sundays, 10-11:30am PST) MERKLEY’S MASTERMIND: You’ve asked for it, now here it is: a 2nd level virtual coaching group for past SHIFT-IT and Meeting Graphics/Graphic Bootcamp attendees.  Deep, ongoing support to create an enjoyable and stable entrepreneurial/creative lifestyle. Continue to apply proper Law of Attraction techniques. Plus the nitty gritty about how to boost a business via physical world technology (websites, blog, ezines, search engines, copywriting, speaking, etc).  Coming Soon.

May 21-22: MEETING GRAPHICS 101 WORKSHOP (level 1): Introductory graphic recording and graphic facilitation skills for facilitators, consultants, trainers, coaches, managers and other process leaders and assistants. Foundational basics for the beginner. No art skills necessary.  More Info   Just 5 spots left. 

May 23-24: THE GRAPHIC BOOTCAMP (level 2): More advanced instruction and experiential practice. Offered right after MG 101 for those traveling from afar. Tons of at-the-wall drills. Demos. Template construction. Recording and facilitation practice. Advance icon library. Plus business and sales instruction- how to effectively market the benefits of working visually to create an internal or external practice. More Info  Just 5 spots left.

June 19-21: SHIFT-IT INTENSIVE First announcement.  Its coming up – my annual in-person SHIFT-IT Intensive in beautiful Victoria, B.C.  This is the only face-to-face group coaching I offer each year.  Gather with other kind, creative and like-minded people who are all SHIFTing their professional and/or personal lives for the better.  I’ll guide you step-by-step through my SHIFT-IT Graphic Coaching Process ® - using both small and wall-size visual methods, so you literally see your life’s journey to date and Become Your Next Self.  More Info.  12 spots only.

Ongoing: Private Mentoring and In-house Trainings: One-to-one graphic recording and graphic facilitation training for yourself or for your company/group. Come to me or I come to you. More Info.

Well, everything you ever wanted to know about my graphic skills trainings is now available via our new workshop pages, plus online sign-up.  Check out Meeting Graphics 101 and The Graphics Bootcamp – chock full of all sorts of info on the unique skills of graphic recording and graphic facilitation … that you can add to your own consulting, facilitation, training, project management and leadership practice to boost the results and effectiveness of your own gatherings. 

Ok, if you have been reading me for a while, you know my current idols are Jerry and Esther Hicks of The Teachings of Abraham fame.  Maybe you are sick of reading about my fascination with Law of Attraction (LOA), but frankly, I just can’t get enough of this great information.  I’ve been studying it since 2000, but this year I’m finally, really getting it (after listening to over a decade of their recordings since I got my hands on their full collection a year ago!) 

So forgive me if I go on about it just a little bit more … and humor me as I list out some of the strong lessons I have learned from this sweet and inspirational Texan pair (I was just on my third cruise with them … me and 350 other fans sailing with them in Mexico).  Those of you who are familiar with this couple will get what I am saying … those of you who aren’t might not fully understand but hopefully the energy will come across nonetheless. 

LOA is Why Some Change Efforts Fail While Others Prosper:
I have a background as an organizational development consultant – mostly as a facilitator of strategic planning and visioning forums.  Having slogged through my fair share of corporate planning events with various industries, leaders and businesses, I have always wondered why some change efforts fail and others proper. What the secret ingredient was. 

While most of these groups would never consider such a thing (I can just see trying to bring Law of Attraction principles up with certain CEOs I know … talk about pushing upstream!) --- I have now come to see that the secret ingredient in successful change campaigns is an alignment with Law of Attraction.

In the successful organizational shifts, somewhere a bulk of people and their energy aligned with a positive vision.  Their energy was pulled ‘over the 50 yard line’ so to speak.  An inspirational enough picture was pointed to, again and again that a majority focused on the new story and took on its positive energy (either a charismatic and good leader inspired this with good tools, or the grassroots of the organization did it in spite of its leadership). 

The majority of people focused on something that felt better.  They believed in a better improved future.  They could sense it, feel it, taste it.  They wanted to be a part of it. They were inspired by it.  Had it coursing through their systems.  Like a positive contagion their feelings caught on and spread to a tipping point.  And, since like attracts like, they were able to actualize in reality what they doggedly focused on in their minds and spirits. 

The Same Dynamics Apply to Individuals Too:
As a consultant, I got a little burned out on the big organizations.  Before I understood LOA I got cynical and had my doubts about the health of big companies (now that I do understand LOA I still kind of feel that way).  Its not easy to shift huge organizations and do the authentic energy work that is required.  You just can’t fake good energy … it has to be real. And in a lot of organizations … good and pure intentions, motivation and energy is unfortunately hard to come by. 

My little community of Graphic Facilitators is a good one. Our visual techniques effectively help small and large groups with their focus (which good LOA work is all about).  But the graphics are only as good as the energy and truth behind them.  For that reason, I now prefer to work with smaller groups, couples, business partners and especially individuals on their visions and planning.  While the dynamics are similar (individual people aren’t easy to shift either) the complexity is at least somewhat less and good energy is easier to come by. 

The same LOA principles apply for individuals. As a coach, I must get my clients feeling better and ideally focused on an inspirational future.  It has to be something they can truly feel and sense.  A shift in their energy must occur.  When they hit that different frequency, they are then opened up to a whole different level of experiences, synchronicities and opportunities.  Their circumstances change, just like the tide turns when good LOA work occurs in the organizations  (although of course it is never called LOA work in those settings… change management, OD, re-alignment, and business transformation are more the proper business buzz words … but its really LOA work underneath - wink). 

With Enough Wanting, You Can Create a Truly Original Livelihood:
I can’t go into the whole story of Jerry and Esther Hicks and their work (for a great synopsis see filmmaker Peter Beamish’s movie on them called The Secret Behind the Secret).  The nutshell of it is, they’ve created an extraordinarily unique livelihood for themselves, traveling around the U.S. for the last 20 years giving their Abraham workshops and developing that material.  And they are also extraordinarily successful and prosperous. 

For me, their work has given me such inspiration --- for myself and for the creative and original people that I coach.  As cultural creatives, we often have to go through a stage of breaking through mass consciousness to truly believe we can express our innate creative gifts and still survive socially and economically. 

Jerry and Esther Hicks have taken ‘culturally creative’ work to an extreme.  They have consistently done their ‘strange’ work for years and their market has increased exponentially (as more and more people have awakened to it).  If they can do it … well, me and the budding graphic recorders, facilitators, writers, artists, coaches, solo entrepreneurs, internet business owners, etc that I coach can do our own interesting and creative work too.  There is a market in which to express your unique gifts.  From Jerry and Esther, I have learned that I don’t have to hide out. That I can be myself and LOA will take care of who gets drawn to me.      

You do not have to stick with the staid and so-called ‘normal’ in order to look after yourself.  You can have an amazing life full of adventure, fun and prosperity and there are more than enough folks in the world who will willingly and happily join you.  You do not have to commit social and financial suicide when you follow your creative dreams, intuitions and talents.  However, its pretty much a long slow suicide if you don’t follow your innate callings in my opinion – ignoring who you really are can be deadly. 

Its Nice to Have a Compatible Partner:
Another lesson that I take from Jerry and Esther: its nice to have a compatible partner.  These two are a team.  Jerry’s curiosity and insatiable questions and Esther’s desire to assist and allow – its quite a combination.  In talking with other participants at their workshops and cruises, I know I am not alone in admiring their loving and respectful partnership.  Partnerships in the culturally creative set are going through big changes in our current era.  This Texan duo (and other meta-physical couples out there) offer some nice role-modeling around what is possible for equitable pairs.  Their example has given me good information for what I want to create for myself in the relationship department.  That it is possible to have that kind of synergy and shared purpose. 

We Are Much Bigger Than We Know:
The Abraham message is a big one. Its not for everyone.  But for those who are ready to contemplate that there is more going on than our scientific/rational world currently allows, then perhaps you’ll find their teachings as satisfying as I do. 

I love how their work gets to the bigger connections between physical and non-physical.  Between our inner and outer selves.  And how we are all connected and part of the unfolding evolution of things here in our universe.  I am excited by what I am learning of my larger capacities.  About how to ‘line up my energy’  so I’m more in tune with my non-physical self.  More in tune with who I really am.  When I tap into this energy (like I did on their recent cruise), I am charged and new, amazing, fun, optimistic things start happening in my life.  I’m exciting by what’s occurring and the sense I have of what is around the corner.  There is so much more out there than my background and surroundings have led me to believe.  Probably more out there than you have thought too!

Tell  a New Story:
In closing, the biggest takeaway I got from the Mexican cruise is the need to ‘Tell a New Story’.  For me and for my SHIFT-IT clients .. we need to continue to focus on the good-feeling future that is coming.  On what we want (and not on what we don’t want).  We need to point our thinking and our talking and our writing and our imagining in the direction of where we are going (not on where we currently are or where we have been … if those things feel bad!). 

© 2008 Christina L. Merkley

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:

Christina Merkley, "The SHIFT-IT Coach" and creator of the SHIFT-IT Method® is a Visioning and Strategic Planning Expert specializing in Graphic Facilitation and Law of Attraction techniques. Based in charming Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, she works deeply with individuals, partners and groups in defining and getting what they really, really want. For more information visit: www.shift-it-coach.com

Looking for more rich, SHIFT-IT content? Check out my blog for recent ramblings, resources and general interest features:

• Video Day with Erik
• Another Graphics Student Progressing Along Beautifully
• A Practical Resource: Learn Copywriting via Free Webinar with my Friend Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero on Jan. 22
• More 'Frontier' Resources
• Late Entries for SHIFT-IT Tele-Group Series
• IFVP List Calamity!

Besides the Blog, there are plenty of articles to read in the Ezine Archives. Browse past issues here.

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