Nancy Harris Blog - Psychotherapy and life coaching in Denver

How to Make 2017 a Better Year than 2016

These are no doubt challenging times.

We are coming to the end of one of the most chaotic and illusion-shattering years in a long time. Most of us have been shaken and shocked at both an individual and collective level in, oh, so many ways…I have experienced it in my own life and see it daily in the lives of my friends, colleagues, clients, and the world-at-large.

We have had to face that some of the situations and relationships in our lives are not what they seemed. The things we have been in denial about or avoiding are now hitting us smack in the face. The pain is palpable everywhere. I am hearing people say, “This was the hardest/worst year of my life. I can hardly wait for 2016 to be over.”

I understand, yet will 2017 be any different if we are not…?

I see those who are still wanting to avoid, go into denial, and live life as usual. Beware—this will simply no longer work. Not only will this no longer work, it will most likely lead to further pain, destruction and increased personal and planetary chaos. The energy on the planet will not tolerate or support such low-level consciousness for much longer.

What is one to do? WAKE UP NOW! Become conscious. Get real about what is going on in your life and the world around you. Learn to feel your feelings and speak your truth. Be authentic. It really isn’t that hard or scary. Living unconsciously is what is hard and scary. Walking around in the illusion that everything is OK and will turn out fine is what led us all to such a precarious place.

Are You Living Your Calling?

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

94047d0501e65e6360bad69a8281bf4f All of us want to live lives of meaning and purpose in which we are using our talents and gifts and making a positive difference. Yet how many of us are actually fulfilling this call? Perhaps a lucky few of us get up each day filled with energy and enthusiasm and a deep inner knowing that we are doing what our soul came here to do.

It’s my belief that each of us has a unique purpose that only we can fulfill. That in our hearts, we yearn to complete that mission. This may or may not take the form of a career. Our purpose may be multifaceted and most likely will change at different stages of life. It may take the form of volunteer work, a hobby, caring for an elderly parent, raising our children or starting a new business.

From what I have seen as a coach, many of us get pulled off track at a young age from fulfilling our passion due to losing touch with our deeper self. We get caught up in people pleasing–often as children–and disconnect from our own dreams, talents and gifts. We’ll please our parents, teachers and other authority figures before ourselves. This can cause years of lost time, buried ambitions and missed opportunities.

At a certain point in life, this inauthenticity often becomes unbearable, situations erupt, perfect storms are created and a rupture happens. Life as we know it is simply no longer working. The soul wants to be heard and recognized…and we’re being given a chance to begin again. The question is, will we listen and chose differently?

How to Live a Life Uncommon

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

One of my favorite songs is Life Uncommon by Jewel. When I hear that song it makes me think of those who make brave, heartfelt choices, often far from mainstream thinking, that carry incalculable risks and the possibility of dire consequences. Yet, these souls persevere as if on some level they had no choice but to follow their uncommon fate and destiny.

I am often struck by how one decision can take one’s life in a completely different direction and trajectory. And, I am humbled by the importance of making all our decisions with our highest wisdom and clarity.

I have been thinking a lot about the power of our choices and decisions the past few weeks as I have watched some current movies such as Joy, The Danish Girl and Brooklyn. If you have seen these movies, you know what I mean.

The characters in these movies made life altering choices that took grit and determination. In Brooklyn we see a young woman immigrate alone from Ireland to America in the 1950’s to seek out greater opportunity, while in Joy, the main character took on huge debt and corrupt business forces to seek a financial way out of her family legacy of pain and dysfunction, and in The Danish Girl, the main character actually lost her life after becoming the first transgender male to undergo a sex change operation in the 1920’s.

The main characters in Joy and The Danish Girl were based on real people. One triumphed with the gutsy choices she made and the other ultimately lost her life. What does it take to make those kinds of choices? What compels someone to stretch to such a degree as to create magnificent success while another makes a bold choice in which they ultimately lose their life?

Do You Trust in Life?

by Nancy Harris 2 Comments

EMd4xLyb I was recently asked to write a chapter for a book called, Dare to be Authentic:Learning to Trust Yourself. While I did not know of the woman doing the book project when she approached me, I looked over her previous two books, had a conversation with her and said, “Yes”.

Given that I had just moved across country to Denver from Providence, RI, and walked away from my RI-based thriving psychotherapy and life coaching practice, I was certainly practicing daring to be authentic and trusting myself. To then have this woman find my LinkedIn profile and approach me to join her book project seemed a bit serendipitous to say the least.

I love it when life lines up like that. It feels like a confirmation that I am heading in the right direction and receiving a nudge to keep going. It reminds me to trust life and be true to my deep desires and yearnings.

My recent experience of moving across country and starting my life over in a new location has been a lesson in trusting myself and life. It has also been a lesson in trusting in my ability to navigate both the challenges and opportunities of major change and transformation.

When navigating life’s big transitions, how can we all learn to trust more in life? What have I learned so far?

Navigating Change with Vision, Passion and Purpose

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

We live in a world that is moving at breakneck speed. Change is all around us and our individual choices about how to live our lives are greater than ever before. This can be both exhilarating and immobilizing. I talk to clients everyday who are trying to create positive changes in their lives and are looking for the best ways possible to break through their limiting thoughts, beliefs and actions so as to create the lives they imagine and desire.

As a psychotherapist and life coach who has been in private practice for over 10 years, I have searched diligently for the most effective tools and techniques to help both my clients and myself navigate the sometimes treacherous terrain of personal transformation and healing.

In the last month, I have put to test some of the tools I study and recommend. The decision to make some big changes in my life was made over a period of time, yet in the last month I closed my psychotherapy practice in Providence, RI, and moved to Denver, CO. I sold my home, drove 2, 000 miles, moved into a new place, left behind a stable income, said good-bye to friends and family and walked into a new life.

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