Dare To
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Self-Love is a ChOiCe you make every moment of every day. Will you choose fear, shame, guilt, pressure and criticism towards yourself or will you ChOOSe LOve? - Christine Arylo, founder of Madly in Love with Me tM
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CONTENTS On the Cover
Betsy Chasse Wife, mother, and awardwinning producer of the sleeper hit What the Bleep Do We Know!? Betsy Chasse thought she had it all figured out...until she realized she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about happiness, love, spirituality, or herself... nothing, nada, zilch.
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FEBRUARY | MARCH 2014 MIDLIFE TRANSFORMATION AND REBIRTH Wisdom & Self-Growth 18 COLDCOCKED BY A MORNING EPIPHANY by Betsy Chasse Wife, mother, and awardwinning producer of the sleeper hit What the Bleep Do We Know!? Betsy Chasse thought she had it all figured out...until she realized she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about happiness, love, spirituality, or herself... nothing, nada, zilch. In this excerpt from her just released third book, Tipping Sacred Cows: Story of Spilt Milk and Finding Your Own Spiritual Path in a Hectic World, Betsy shares the unexpected awakening that led her to question every belief and aspect of her life with candor and humor.
www.AspireMAG.net | February / March 2014
22 ALIGN WITH THE FOUR ELEMENTS TO ACCESS YOUR FEMININE WISDOM by Laura Clark Joy, Abundance and Love are possible. Your soul whispers to you and beckons you to open up to all the possibilities before you. It calls you to live your best life possible. This requires you to make choices that are aligned with your own inner wisdom. Air, water, earth and fire surround us daily and these elements can be the compass to the calling of our hearts.
CONTENTS 26 LEARNING TO LIVE MY LIFE FROM THE FEMININE ESSENCE WITHIN by Eric Tucci Stroke survivor and author Erica Tucci shares her intimate journey of healing. She shares, “My stroke was a way to open my heart, allowing the Divine presence within to permeate my life and surround others with its warm glow of love and compassion.” 30 LIVING THE BIG STUFF: THE POWER OF SISTERHOOD by Kristine Carlson Women, today, who sit in circle, grow richer in the journey of self-discovery, and it is proven scientifically that our cortisol (the stress hormone) levels are lower when we feel supported in community. In mid-life, especially, we are in a time of change, transition and reinvention. By coming together in a sacred
“True meaning in life comes through understanding your own nature and learning to accept all aspects of yourself.” KRISTINE CARLSON
space, we can rediscover ourselves by co-creating a well lit path that leads us into our next level of greatness to fulfill another purpose-driven life. 34 GODDESS BREAKS: DAILY NOURISHMENT FOR THE SOUL by Mary E. Pritchard, Ph.D., It’s time to take care of you, to rediscover and reignite your passion in life. Do something that makes your soul sing, something that ignites your passion, gives you focus and meaning in life – something just for you. Mary calls those moments “Goddess Breaks” and shares 15 suggestions to get you started on nourishing your body, mind and spirit.
37 TURN YOUR MIDLIFE CRISIS INTO A MIDLIFE TRANSFORMATION by Mal Duane Midlife Crisis? Life Recovery Coach Mal Duane shares some of the midlife symptoms you may be experiencing as well as 10 suggestions to help turn your crisis into a catharsis.
CONTENTS 41 THE PATH OF A FIREWALKER by Kristen Moeller Firewalkers are those who have experienced their own personal fires whether through external events that cause grief or simply the internal angst of what it means to be human. For a Firewalker, the power lies in the willingness to allow fire to penetrate their souls while they seize the opportunity to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.
“When we cultivate a relationship with our joy, our hearts and spirits expand and we remember who we are.” CAROL WOODLIFF
44 SIMPLY... EMPOWERED! ARE YOU WEARING YOUR WEIGHT AS PROTECTION? by Crystal Andrus Women’s Empowerment Coach Crystal Andrus shares an intimate look into her healing journey with her body and her reconnection with her true self. Her personal revelation led to the realization that, like so many other women, she was psychically using her extra weight as a protection mechanism from years of unresolved wounds, anger, and emotions.
Health & Wellness
48 LIVING THE GODDESS LIFESTYLE: THE BEAUTY & POWER OF YOUR INNER CRONE by Lisa Marie Rosati I feel a shift in energy on the planet happening right now. An ascension of feminine energy … and it’s so exciting. Collectively we are redefining the definition of what it means to be a women in all of her aspects; Maiden, Mother and Crone. I personally will ROCK my Crone like it ain’t nobody’s business!
CONTENTS 52 MADLY CHASING PEACE: TRANSFORMATION IN 9 MINUTES A DAY by Dina Proctor Connecting inwardly multiple times a day has the advantage over one long meditation of shifting your mindset continuously, and repeatedly reminding you of what’s important throughout the day. Discover the transformational secrets of 3×3 Meditation” (3 minutes, 3 times a day) and how it can enhance your inner well-being. 56 THE WISE WOMAN WAY: MIDLIFE METAMORPHOSIS by Susun S. Weed Midlife and menopause are opportunities to change the course of our lives. The metamorphosis of menopause can be used a passage to power. Even after menopause, the changes it has wrought in our bodies act as gateways to reach into our most authentic selves, to touch our deepest feelings, and to reveal our finest aspirations.
“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it fearlessly.” STEVE MARABOLI
Relationships 60 TRANSFORMING YOUR RELATIONSHIP: HOW TO REIGNITE THE PASSION FOR MORE THAN JUST ONE NIGHT by Stacey Martino Aspire Magazine is honored to welcome Love and Passion Coach Stacey Martino to our family, as our Expert Relationship Columnist. Her new column, Transforming Your Relationship, will empower, inspire and support you in creating unshakable love and unleashed passion in your relationship.
64 THE 10 BRANCHES OF SELF-LOVE by Christine Arylo In honor of the international day of self-love, Madly in Love with ME Day, on February 13th, Queen of Self-Love Christine Arylo shares the 10 Branches of Self-Love and extends an invitation to join people from around the world in making a promise of selflove. Aspire Magazine is proud to sponsor this global initiative! 68 CALLING IN YOUR BELOVED: THE TRUTH ABOUT SOUL MATES by Sara Wiseman Is there only one romantic soul mate for us in this lifetime—or several? How can we find this person now? What are the signs that help us to recognize our Beloved?
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CONTENTS Career | Business 72 DOING BUSINESS LIKE A GODDESS: MANIFESTING AND RECEIVING WITH GRACE by Elizabeth Purvis To experience success as a feminine conscious entrepreneur it’s important that you stay out of the pattern of over-giving and depletion and allow success to show up in your life. As important as manifesting money is, your level of ability to receive it will highly impact your results as well. Learn 4 of my favorite power tips to open the channels and receive with grace, in your business and life.
“Built into you is an internal guidance system that shows you the way home. All you need to do is heed the voice.” NEALE DONALD WALSCH
76 INSPIRED TO WRITE? HOW TO START A WRITING CIRCLE by Lisa Tener Most writers need to balance private writing time by finding ways to be part of a writing community. It’s hard to write well in utter isolation. You often need input from others to make your work the best it can be. And those are two great reasons for finding or starting a writing circle.
LINDA JOY
||
Publisher & Editor-In-Chief | Linda@aspiremag.net
Creative & Brand Direction || RACHEL DUNHAM | www.HummingbirdCreativeConcepts.com Editorial Layout || MANDY GATES | www.GruveDesign.com Graphic Designer || MANDY GATES | www.GruveDesign.com COO || KIM TURCOTTE | www.SoulPurposeBusinessSolutions.com MAILING ADDRESS || P.O. BOX 1149 | LAKEVILLE, MA 02347 | 508.265.7929 ADVERTISING || Email Linda@aspiremag.net MISSION TO INSPIRE INFO <CLICK HERE>
FREE
Bring Your Book to Life www.LisaTener.com
with National Book Writing Coach Lisa Tener
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EXPERT COLUMNISTS CRYSTAL ANDRUS
KRISTINE CARLSON
Crystal Andrus is a leader in the field of selfdiscovery and personal transformation. From a tough beginning—she has risen to become a best-selling Hay House author, international speaker, women’s health advocate, spokesperson for Haylo Health, and Founder of The SWAT Institute. Crystal’s message is one of resilience, strength and inner power. www.CrystalAndrus.com www.SWATInstitute.com
An unyielding believer of Living the Big StuffTM and not sweating the small stuff in order to experience true happiness in life, as a bestselling author and inspirational speaker Kristine Carlson continues to expand on the phenomenal success of her late husband, Dr. Richard Carlson, beloved author of the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff series. www.KristineCarlson.com www.DontSweatMoms.com
LISA MARIE ROSATI
ELIZABETH PURVIS
Living the Big Stuff TM
Simply... Empowered!
Living the Goddess LifeStyle
TM
Doing Business Like a Goddess
Passionista Lisa Marie Rosati is an Inner Goddess Catalyst for women and the Creatrix of The Goddess Lifestyle Plan. Lisa mentors women on how become a Modern Day Goddess by consciously designing a luscious Goddess life, cultivating radiant health and creating a lucrative business using and directing their feminine fire. www.GoddessLifestylePlan.com www.sugarfreegoddess.com
Elizabeth Purvis shows spirit-led, missiondriven women how to price, package and market their services so they create extraordinary income and impact. Known for blending heart-centered sales, Internet marketing, spiritual principles and Universal Law, Elizabeth delivers simple ways for her clients to double or triple revenues by creating multiple streams of income and enrolling ideal clients at higher fees. www.MarketingGoddess.com
STACEY MARTINO
LISA TENER
Stacey Martino helps people who feel stuck, frustrated and helpless with the challenges of intimate relationship. Through strategic private coaching, programs and events for her Relationship Transformation System™, individuals learn to use her proven strategies and tools to create an unshakable love and unleashed passion that lasts a lifetime. Stacey firmly believes that it does NOT take two to tango, that one person can significantly shift the dynamics of the relationship. Trained and certified by Tony Robbins and Cloe Madanes, Stacey is a certified marriage educator and divorce preventionist. Click Here for Articles www.LoveandPassionCoach.com
An award-winning authority on writing and publishing books, Lisa Tener guides you to joyfully express yourself in writing. She blogs for the Huffington Post, serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s publishing course, and teaches her own Award Winning Book Writing Courses in person and by interactive teleseminar. www.LisaTener.com
Transforming Your Relationship
Inspired to Write?
SUSUN WEED
The Wise Woman Way
Susun Weed is an internationally renowned herbalist, author, and director of the Wise Woman Center in New York. She is a revered voice of the Wise Woman Tradition, where women’s bodies and women’s emotions are valued. Susun is a founding grandmother of the herbal renaissance and the originator of the concept of complementary medicine. www.SusunWeed.com
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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
BETSY CHASSE
LAURA CLARK
ERICA TUCCI
MARY E. PRITCHARD, PH. D., HHC
MAL DUANE
KRISTEN MOELLER
DINA PROCTOR
SARA WISEMAN
CHRISTINE ARYLO
Share
YOUR WISDOM! WITH OUR READERS
CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN ABOUT OUR AWESOME CONTRIBUTOR OPPORTUNITIES!
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LETTER EDITOR
FROM THE
”Once a woman becomes aware of forces that influence her, she gains the power that knowledge provides.” JEAN SHINODA BOLEN
Welcome to the February/March 2014 “Midlife Transformation and Rebirth” issue!
Many women in the “second half” of life are hearing a deep inner calling to live a more authentic, inspired and purposeful life. Today’s awakening woman embraces her midlife journey as a ‘sacred path back to her authentic self’ relishing the opportunity to follow the calling of her heart and soul. At 51, I am walking this sacred path and feeling so blessed to be sharing the journey with so many of my soul sisters. Throughout the pages of the Midlife Transformation and Rebirth issue you’ll discover a gold mine of feminine wisdom to support on your journey. In Kristine Carlson’s empowering article The Power of Sisterhood you’ll discover the importance of women coming together in community. Columnist Lisa Marie Rosati’s The Beauty and Power of Your Inner Crone describes how collectively we are redefining the definition of what it means to be a women in all of her aspects; Maiden, Mother and Crone. Light a candle, grab a cup of tea, and enjoy the new issue of Aspire.
Connect with me! om/ http://www.Facebook.c lindajoyinspires
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Aspire Magazine welcomes Love and Passion Coach Stacey Martino to our Expert Columnist family. Stacey’s new column Transforming
Your Relationship will serve to empower, inspire and support you in creating unshakable love and unleashed passion in your relationship.
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LINDA JOY Publisher & Editor-In-Chief | Linda@aspiremag.net
Here’s What I’m Reading Right Now...
FROM MY BOOKSHELF
A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections By Marianne Williamson I kicked off my commitment to NOURISH myself in 2014 by starting my day with Marianne Williamson’s daily devotionals. A Year of Miracles offers a daily devotional that helps us develop a positive, loving mindset and encourages us to live our best selves to bring miracles into our lives. It feeds my soul!
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
“The more you trust your intuition,
the more empowered you become, the stronger you become, and the happier you become.”
Gisele Bundchen
Trust Your
Read Online!
Intuition
BY SHANN VANDER LEEK
If you want to develop your intuition, you have to learn to trust yourself. Over analyzing every decision in your life can create confusion and mental paralysis. If you don’t trust yourself you may spend endless amounts of time looking for validation and external data to support your decision. What if you began to tune into your body and notice how you feel when something big comes up? When faced with an obstacle, invitation or opportunity, check in with how you feel. Your first instinct will almost always be the true for you. A healthy combination of factual information and heightened intuition = GOLD. Read the full article online. or ego. It can be difficult to discern the difference if we know what signs to look for. Read the full article online.
l Live & Virtua
UPCOMING EVENTS
CHECK OUT MORE ONLINE!
AspireMag.net
RECLAIM YOUR LIFE EVENT WITH MAL DUANE || DETAILS! 18 Empowering Stories of Transformation - Free access GLOBAL SELF-LOVE PARTY – FEB. 13 || DETAILS! Join the Madly in Love with Me Movement
COLDCOCKED by a Morning
Epiphany BY BETSY CHASSE
Wife, mother, and award-winning producer of the sleeper hit What the Bleep Do We Know!? Betsy Chasse thought she had it all figured out...until she realized she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about happiness, love, spirituality, or herself...nothing, nada, zilch. In this excerpt from her just released third book, Tipping Sacred Cows: Story of Spilt Milk and Finding Your Own Spiritual Path in a Hectic World, Betsy shares the unexpected awakening that led her to question every belief and aspect of her life with candor and humor.
T
here was a time when my life was easy, or so I thought. I was happily living in my shoe-consciousness—where I was all about the shoes I was wearing, the car I was driving, and the boyfriend I was dating (and his car and his shoes)—and avoiding like the plague any existential quest that might lead me into the deep, dark bowels of my soul. Such a quest would involve passing through some shit and, well, hanging out in my soul-bowels seemed less than appealing.
And I suppose that’s the story of most twenty-somethings, but as my thirties approached, the clock started ticking, and the search for the meaning to anything and everything kicked into gear. Miraculously, I was handed the golden egg, the holy grail of spiritual understanding on a silver platter, or rather on the silver screen, in the form of What the Bleep Do We Know!?, the movie I co-created with Will Arntz and Mark Vicente. Chockfull of spiritual know-how gathered from magical movie making, I knew it all and owned some great shoes.
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Enlightenment? Check! I quickly followed up on my spiritual mastery and manifested the perfect husband, beautiful children, and a gorgeous home. Finally, everything clicked. My inner and outer selves were accessorized, matched, and decked out in deep-ish thoughts and somewhat-understandings. It was a perfect balance of beliefs that allowed me to coast along, riding high on my newfound enlightenment. So there I was. I had my “spirituality” all laid out for me, picked up from the latest and greatest minds I’d conned my way into meeting. My beliefs lazed like cows standing in a pasture of protection, all blinged out, while I worked really hard to keep them all sparkly, running from cow to cow in my awesome new boots. And let me tell you, I frolicked the hell out of that pasture, leaping through the air, twirling, and all the other stuff you do when you frolic. I frolicked right up until I slipped on something smelly and fell, and really, what was I expecting? I was in a freaking cow pasture, for God’s sake. Splat, squish, my boots! I actually heard cartoon sounds when I landed. Okay, I didn’t, but I should have, it was that kind of absurd. I lay there, all sprawled out, seeing my pasture and my cows from a hoof-level
perspective. I saw the ground on which was built my understanding of the world and who I was in my little part of time and space. In that moment, I came to one profound realization: my pasture of perfection was full of shit, and it reeked. It was a wake-you-up kind of smell. My life imploded, and it stank. Cue life-altering epiphany, ready or not (most likely not, because who’s really ready to completely throw out everything you thought you knew and start from scratch?). I’d heard about such things—great epiphanies that illuminate some kind of knowledge and understanding into a higher state of being, an evolution of the spirit and/ or mind. I had heard the stories about how, after fasting or meditating or pilgrimaging or a combo of the three (or helping at a homeless shelter or doing work with the sick or some other selfless activity or maybe even seeing someone else perform an act of kindness or reading about it in the paper), a person felt compelled to evaluate their life. Then, in the story, the person comes to some kind of spiritual jackpot and goes about the business of saving the world, or at least a section of it, while brimming with joy and spreading compassion like creamy peanut butter on a perfect PB&J. My cow pie epiphany was so far removed from the miraculous one of landing smackdab in the middle of a New Age phenomenon
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WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
My awesome epiphany was like this: imagine yourself waking up next to your sleeping husband and feeling this over-whelming urge to scream BURGLAR! Only, I was the burglar in the scenario, and I had stolen someone’s entire life and then, ironically, realized that I had stolen fake goods.
of quantum mysticism, complete with a walk on the red carpet, princess dress, and handsome prince (I mean, how does a girl who has never even spelled the words quantum physics end up making a movie about how it’s the end-all-be-all of the meaning of life?) that the mind boggles. When you soar that high, your epiphany is bound to be messy. Probably because I was no June Cleaver and never mastered the art of the perfect PB&J; mine always have jelly dripping out the bottom, staining my kids’ shirts and making their hands all sticky, with my own shirt being quickly used as a napkin by my little problem solvers, because of course I forgot to give them one of those. In my life, I never seemed to have a napkin when I needed one, even though looking at me, you would probably think to yourself, how does she do it?
I was an excellent faker. I produced illusionary napkins at will, all smoke and mirrors. People will see what they want to see, especially if the magician is really good, and I was. Unfortunately, my superpower of producing an endless supply of immaterial napkins was less than awesome. At this moment, with this epiphany, catastrophic as it was going to be when the full implications spilled out into my life, I needed the real deal because it would take every napkin on the planet to clean up the mess. My awesome epiphany was like this: imagine yourself waking up next to your sleeping husband and feeling this over-whelming urge to scream BURGLAR! Only, I was the burglar in the scenario, and I had stolen someone’s entire life and then, ironically, realized that I had stolen fake goods.
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My epiphany came on like hives—a slow burn of discomfort between the carpool and cleaning up cat vomit. It culminated one morning when all of my beliefs, my understanding of my carefully built system of daily agreements about the way life is, tipped and fell domino-like, leaving me with the task of trying to stand them all up again. I did not know how I ended up in that situation that morning, not then. It just happened like life does. Whammo—mornings and existential angst, slipping into my bedroom window, poking at me. I did not receive this wake-up call well; I am not a morning person. I need time before I move, time to lie there and bemoan the fact that I have to do things, like open my eyes and clean the litter box. On that morning, I lay in the wandering-voidof-not-willing-to-be-awake, that gray space between silent room and loud thoughts, and found the first cow to which the title of this book refers, and it was definitely tipped. The cow called I am. I know this because in that in-between moment, I realized I wasn’t who I thought I was. I was a fraud, an alien. Illegal, a stranger in a strange land, with a husband, and kids down the hall. I watched the pieces of my life come together like a mosaic above me, little shards of colored glass, each representing a belief I held sacred, an idea about what was real and what was true about myself and everything I thought made sense, everything I thought about what it meant to live a spiritual life. I watched my understanding of what the word spiritual meant, what anything meant, the minutia of the moments that brought me here, to this suddenly unfamiliar life, and I was filled with an unwelcome sense of hurt and sadness.
www.AspireMAG.net | February / March 2014
We’ve all had those moments in our lives when we feel stripped naked and empty, when a sudden realization about our life has pulverized us. Not knowing what else to do that morning, I first checked in on the usual suspect when we women sink into a pit of utter despair: could it be PMS? Bleeding for several days without dying can cause anyone to want to check out to another dimension. Nope, no such luck. Perhaps a cup of coffee and a smoke would snap me out of my soul-destroying moodiness. There is nothing like a morning visit from Juan Valdez and the Marlboro Man to bring a girl back from the brink.
What the bleep did I know? Up until this moment, I had believed the story I was living; I had based myself, my identity, on being the expert, the mom, the wife, and the cat and dog owner. I had based myself on a story I told myself. I built my life around a belief that I had to be perfect, that no one could ever know the doubt and pain I felt inside me. My career was built upon
being in the know—if anyone saw that I didn’t know, I would be left with nothing, sort of like how I felt at that very moment. I had told myself that I should be happy at all costs, that I was seeking enlightenment, that screaming positive affirmations at the top of my lungs would eventually drown out the negative ones I whispered. I told myself that eventually that thing called the Law of Attraction would kick in, that I could indeed manifest all the gold I could imagine if only I meditated long enough, even if I never actually believed I deserved it. That didn’t matter. Just be it, and it will be—right? I would fake it until I made it. It was all a lie; I was the fool, fooling me. © 2013 Betsy Chasse. This excerpt was adapted from Tipping Sacred Cows by Betsy Chasse and reprinted with permission of Beyond Words/Atria Books, Hillsboro, Oregon Read Online!
Betsy Chasse - Betsy is an internationally known author, filmmaker, and speaker. She is the co-creator of the film What The Bleep Do We Know?! and the author of 3 books, including Tipping Sacred Cows, Metanoia – A Transformative Change of Heart, and the companion book to What the Bleep..., Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering Your Everyday Reality. She also blogs for Huffington Post, Intent.com, and other empowering sites. Chasse continues to make provocative films exploring human potential and the nature of reality—or whatever it is we humans are hanging out in. Please visit www.betsychasse.net for more information. Purchase Tipping Sacred Cows on Amazon, BN.com, or www.beyondword.com.
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WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
I felt as if I had been abandoned by my cows, left to survive in this house filled with children, a spouse, a dog, and a couple of cats. All of them felt alien to me. How was it possible, with all I had in my life, that I could feel so profoundly unhappy and unfulfilled? And it went beyond a feeling. I became it in every fiber of myself—my skin and hair, my muscle and bone—they all became this unbearable feeling until it felt as if it was in my cells, changing me, making me heavy in a way I had never thought I could be. And worse, I did not understand it; I did not know how I had gotten to this moment. I had no sense of where it would go. I had no sense of any other way to be. All of this washed over me, the weight of it. How much my heart hurt took my breath away.