Spirituality and Wisdom Archives

How to Live a Life Uncommon

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?

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.

How to Call on the Divine Feminine for Healing

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

Last week was a tough week. I felt a bit stunned at the end of the week by how many women, and men, had come into my office in a state of utter exhaustion, self-doubt, self-judgment and self-criticism. Honestly, it was hard to sit in the energy. I cancelled my last client of the week and had to go home. I never do that.

What is going on? Is there something in the water, the air, or the food we are eating? Is it the GMO’s, the chemtrails, Facebook, (sorry), or the speed of life these days?

I don’t know. But, I do know this level of self-abuse has to stop. It is slowly killing all of us.

I don’t want to get all woo woo here, but I do believe we are going through some kind of collective detox as the energies on the planet intensify for the shift in consciousness we are all being called to make. I feel it is going on both on a global and individual level. As above, so below.

As this shift is happening, we are being stirred and shaken to face our shadows and the dark areas of our psyche that need to come into the light and heal. From what I have seen, in my own life and the lives of others, this does not feel good— to say the least.

This can feel like death. It is the death of the ego which has been our master for so long. (And look where that has gotten us…)

Are You Floundering With Your Calling? Maybe This is Why…

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

I believe everyone has a calling or purpose for being here.

We may have multiple callings over the span of a lifetime and most of us feel restless and unfulfilled if we are not doing them. I have especially witnessed that as we reach our 40’s and 50’s it seems to become increasingly uncomfortable if we are not living our life in alignment with our deeper purpose. It is as if, on some level, we know we are running out of time to do what we came here to do.

A calling isn’t necessarily a job or career, although it may take that form. From what I can see, a calling is a deep yearning of our soul to express our gifts and talents and to be of some kind of service to others.

It is the rare person who knows at a young age that they are meant for a certain calling, yet I have heard some say, “I knew as a kid I was supposed to be a teacher, a doctor, a writer,” etc.

I am currently reading the popular book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and the author of that book describes how she was obsessed with tidying up her family’s home as a very young child. She would buy housekeeping magazines and search for the tips on organizing and decluttering as a young schoolgirl and has now created a flourishing career in Japan as the leading expert in her field.

She’s one of the lucky ones. Most of us muddle through life doing what is expected and required of us and are fortunate if we end up expressing our true talents and gifts. Our school system, socialization and parents, as well meaning as they may be, often steer us away from what lies in our hearts and teach us to listen to rational thinking and logic which rarely lead us to our true calling.

The answers to life’s biggest questions do not come from our rational minds.

Three Tools To Help You Spend More Time Living in the Miracle Zone

by Nancy Harris Leave a Comment

I have been a participant this year in a program called Your Year of Miracles led by NY Times best-selling author Marci Shimoff and success expert Debra Poneman. The program has had some of the most notable inspirational teachers, thought leaders and authors as weekly guest speakers and we have been taught some of the best tools available for making life changes.

Many people in the group, including myself, have experienced shifts in consciousness, a quickening of changes, synchronicities, unique opportunities and the manifestation of long-held dreams. There is a power of being part of an intentional group that appears to create an intensified field of possibilities.

Perhaps it is just a change in mindset, the perceived support of being held in a group with like-minded people or the use of new skills and tools that uplift your thinking, but something seems to be going on here.

I’d like to offer three tools we have discussed that can uplift your consciousness and perhaps help you create more miracles in your life, too.