Step Two was about writing your own affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Step Five found you getting silly and feeling better for letting your hair way down.

Step Six: You know what it is. No, well then get quiet ask your Intuition.

Step Seven could be one of the most valuable steps around. Because it can (and will) impact your life, but it can make all the difference in your neighborhood, home state, country and if we think global - then you can help change the world.

Volunteer, my friends. Volunteer. Nothing makes you feel more alive then helping someone else feel that way, too.

Look at some of the  things one can volunteer for…from working for peace, building homes, to planting gardens or reading to a child to teaching an adult to read their first book can make a change that is immeasurable. And it is sorely needed today. With life going by at a break-neck pace, taking the time to care for a complete stranger in a strange land or around the block can empower people and empowerment is contagious. Pass it on. The followers of the Seeker can catch the volunteer fever.

Go to the internet and start looking around. There are so many organizations that deal with causes affecting women and children here and aboard that could use your help. Can you spare and hour or two a week? Could you TiVo Oprah and go out and help an elderly or sick neighbor? Could you baby-sit for a single mother so she could go out to the movies without feeling mounds of guilt? Could a few of you find a cause close to all your hearts and walk for a cure?  You bet you can.

Do it today because tomorrow needs all of us.

Step Two was about writing your own affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Step Five found you getting silly and feeling better for letting your hair way down.

Step Six is one of the Seeker’s favorite things and I have been using it for years now. And it does not shown age and will never wear out. You have it too. Yours might not be as well worn as mine, but we all have had it since the day we were born. No, it’s not the ability to dance or your father’s wide forehead. It is your intuition - your inner voice, the feeling that you just knew what was going to happen, the butterflies in the stomach, or the vision that seems to be telling you something - maybe it’s an answer to a question that has been keeping you up at night? We are all born with our intuition and yet it still brings up a lot of cynicism in the hearts of many. The Seeker thinks it just might be fear on your part. The fear of finding out how intuitive you really are. The Fear of discovering that your intuition has been working for you for years. Only you were not listening. Were you?

Were you ever offered a job that you knew would suck the life out of you, but you went ahead and accepted the position anyway? The Seeker’s scars are almost healed and I can tolerate sunlight again. I was not listening to what was the right answer for me.  My intuition was sending one SOS after another and I missed them all (well, I ignored them all). Sometimes when that happens it is the glorious wake up call to become the BFF to your intuition.

So how do we tab into our intuition? Think of your intuition as a muscle that needs to be exercised.  The first thing to do is find a quiet place - a place where you won’t be disturbed for a little while.  Ask your intuition a question that you need an answer to. Get focused but try not to force an answer. When you receive an answer it should feel right even if it is not the answer you thought you wanted to hear. Your intuition will tell you the truth - 100% of the time. When you force an answer or listen to your ego, you just might find yourself going down the wrong path. The Seeker knows from wrong paths and wants to keep you all from going there. Start with small questions and the more you tap into your intuition the easier it will become to get the right answers. Just practice, practice and practice.

Want to learn more about how to develop our intuition? The Seeker thought so. One of my favorite authors on the subject of intuition is Lynn Robinson. Her background that lead her to become an intuitve consultant is amusing and empowering.  Her bestselling books are a great read and she shows you how to really get you in sync with your intuition.  Visit her at http://www.lynnrobinson.com/ and please let me know how it feels to be become an intuitive person.  Oh, that’s right. I already know. J

Step Two was about writing affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Wonder what Step 5 can be about? The Seeker would like you to throw your own party. The theme? What’s a party nowadays without a theme?  Let’s try Celebrate Me party! Throw it for 100 or just light a few candles and treat yourself to a lovely repast. Maybe dessert by candlelight. The Seeker can make that one. Make fun invitations and send them out to your family and friends who already know how fabulous you are! Tell them on the appointed date that they are invited to come and celebrate you. Feeling generous? How about telling everyone attending to bring a list of the 100 best things they have ever done in their lives? Okay, make that 10. The Seeker is having problems coming up with 5, but it is still early.

The World can be an unforgiving place to live in and some days the moods of our loved ones are more down than up. You have the power to lift your spirits and those around you and you don’t need fairy dust. It gets into the Seeker’s hair. Do something silly. A Seeker favorite is having everyone show up wearing a feather and rhinestone encrusted chapeau. Not your style? Well have everyone show up in any hat as long as it’s not a baseball cap (or football or basketball). Help people stretch beyond their everyday lives and watch them become the creative souls they have yet to discover.

And don’t forget to invite the Seeker. I can party with the best of them. I have had a little practice.

So Step One found you moving on up to the place where we all belong - the top of our list! And Step Two found you scribbling little love notes to yourself. Keep them coming. And maybe write one for your partner, spouse, child, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc. You get the idea. Expand the love out to the universe. Write it down and let the love continue to flow. Who knows the Nobel Prize for Love could be yours one day! Right after I receive mine.

The Seeker has a confession to make. The Seeker has been a bit of a slacker in the area of Step Three. But she promises to do better since saying the Seeker is a Slacker three times is too much work!

Step Three: Shake it. Move it. Walk it off. Work up a sweat. Get your body moving and grooving.  The reports just came out we as a nation are becoming heavier and less fit. Colorado was the only state to have the least number of obese people but it is an alarming 18.9%.  In 1991 not one state had an obsess rate higher than 20 %.( Trust for America’s Health Report). Yikes!

Start slow, but get off that sofa and put the Ding Dong down.  It all comes down to loving yourself enough to gift yourself with some extra years to be with your loved ones. So join a gym, get a buddy to go walking and lift some weights. Put the fork down after one serving and drink your water. If it doesn’t make a difference in your life, don’t eat it. If you would kill for it then I would say have two spoonfuls and then put it away. A little more savoring means a little less laboring at the gym.

I got a pedometer strapped to me and from the looks of it, my yellow lab and I have a date to walk another 2,000 steps right after dinner. Of course, we will have to stop every two feet. I have no idea what she is sniffing at (yes, I do) and I really don’t ask too many questions. I’m just gonna walk. My butt off.

Reality check: Well, have you ever had been in the middle of an electronics meltdown, experienced an iphone falling into a porcelain bowl of water or perhaps you played a vigorous game of Wii tennis and now you have a lot of explaining to do about the shattered extra, extra large screen (that ate your sofa, by the way)?  I feel my blood pressure creeping up by just thinking about the next electrical torture device that will darken my mood and take up too much of my precious time.

Sometimes it seems that the world expects us to handle everything high tech without breaking a sweat.  The whole idea of freeing up some time for ourselves comes with the electronic world at large thumbing their collective noses at us. More time for ourselves?  I can’t even get off  my computer. I have fallen into the hi-tech abyss and I can’t get out.

But, I have come up with an exciting new way for driving away from this high-tech stress highway. I am declaring that from this day on that the next time I say I have to turn something on …I will be talking about some sexy guy.

Hmmmm…I need to practice a little more. I just wrote this on my computer! Sorry, I got to turn you off now.

But am I really a bad mother just because a few external indicators might seem to answer in the affirmative?  My children are bright, beautiful and affectionate.  They seem well adjusted and reasonably outgoing.  They have vivid imaginations and take creativity to new heights in my humble opinion.  I must have done something right!  Right?

So why the angst?  Well, as those of you have been reading my entries may have already summized, I am the queen of angst.  No situation goes unanalyzed when I’m around.  And I can give equal weight to all eighteen possible sides of darn near any issue.  It’s miserable!  And the bigger the issue, of course the more analysis involved.  So I am currently in a state of near paralysis because it feels as if the path for the rest of my life as well as the future health and happiness of my children are at stake at the moment?  Am I overreacting?  Probably.  But what would be the fun in underreacting?  No drama there!

My biggest concern at the moment is whether going back to work full time in the fall is a selfish, narcissistic act that will leave my children traumatized and with the scarlet letter L (latchkey kid) emblazoned on their chests.  Or if it’s true that a happy and fulfilled mother makes for happy and fulfilled kids.  I have sacrificed a decade of professional advancement in order to advance my children.  Isn’t that enough?  Or am I a bad mother to even ask such a question?  When my children were born didn’t I agree to an unwritten contract that said I would sacrifice myself for all eternity for the good of the cause of my children? 

This internal dialogue is all the more complicated by the fact that I don’t even know what I would do if I did return to the worforce.  I’ve been out of the game so long that it seems they may have changed all the rules on me anyway.  If I had a burning passion to do….something…..anything…..perhaps I wouldn’t struggle with this so much.  I mean, it seems pretty shallow to say I would do almost anything JUST so I could get out of the house and feel like a contributing member of society again.  Doesn’t it?

Seeking solace….seeking answers….the Seeker is on a rampage again!

Once you have children, and particularly children that are school age, the month of May becomes a marathon of field trips, graduation ceremonies, teacher appreciation events (why don’t they put that event in, like, February, when nothing else is going on - I mean REALLY!), end of school parties and award ceremonies.  My calendar, and yours I’m sure, looks like an unreadable scribble scrabbly mess of places I’m supposed to be, money I’m supposed to donate (don’t I pay taxes for all this crap?) and food I’m supposed to deliver in a timely manner for every manner of celebration.  My husband and I compare our calendars daily to ensure that one or the other of us can be at every event and that neither of our children are ignored or embarassed by us showing up in our pajamas at a function we had forgotten until the last minute.  It’s absolute madness and it is as predictable as the sun coming up each morning.  Parents should remember from year to year the craziness that is May and go into training for it about the first of March.  Parenting is always an endurance sport and that is never more true than during the month of May.  God help us all!

And at the end of the merry month of May?  Not the break that we all deserve just for surviving….oh no!  SUMMER!  The word that strikes fear into the hearts of all working parents.  Among the parents that I spend time with, there is currently no other topic of conversation but “What are you going to do with your kids this summer?”  All the good camps are full.  The grandparents are as heavily scheduled as they can possibly be.  And we’ve only worked out our child care plans through the 4th of July! 

Many of you that work outside the home may be green with envy of those of us that work from home.  But please let me assure you that the grass is not greener here either when it comes to a good case of the summertime blues.  You almost have to simply acquiesce that a) you will be only half as productive (and that’s if your lucky) as during the school year and that b) your children will insist that they NEVER get to do anything, that they are bored out of their minds and that summer sucks.  This will put your parent guilt into overdrive and your stress level out the roof and cause you to pray daily for school to start - SOON!

The good news?  August and September will roll around again.  Your kids will eventually have fond memories of your trips to the beach with your laptop and you allowing them to sleep till noon just so you can get some work done.  Other than that?  I am open to your suggestions.  PLEASE let me know how you survive the summer with your sanity intact!

I recently made an appointment to see my family doctor.  I had a litany of complaints.  Fatigue, aches, depression….having watched Oprah I was, of course, convinced that I had some type of massive hormonal imbalance that would require biodentical hormone treatment and/or a complete lobotomy!  The doctor listened compassionately, ran a battery of tests (all of which came back perfectly normal) and then wrote me a prescription.  What was it for?  A miracle cure to be sure…..45 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity every day and three weight training workouts weekly. 

As any good patient would, I immediately began to “take my medicine” and within just a few days was feeling better than I’d felt in ages.

This experience left me pondering that ever elusive balance that we are all seeking.  We are searching for peace, happiness and fulfillment and as Seekers, we try to think our way through the mire.  However, in order to be truly balanced, we have to tend to our physical health as well.  We have to find a personal balance between our minds and our bodies - between work and play - between the spiritual and the tangible.  My prescription for you today?  Let your body get a workout and give your head a break.  When you return to your pondering about the meaning of life, you may find the answers are clearer than you thought.