Connection Is Worth Everything

I saw the movie The Vow the other night and could see it over and over. The movie tells the true story of a couple who wrote a book about their vow and loved each other enough to live through uncharted medical territory to recoup their lives.

Why do I say I could watch it over and over? I say this because the energetic connection between the two stars was palpable, and that is welcome in a time when more and more people are disconnecting from each other, spending more time on their cell phones and computers than with each other.

I see people show up at dinner, put their cell phones on the table and not say a word to each other. The other night, there was a family - mother, father, and teenage son - across from me at a restaurant, and the only words they spoke the whole time were when they ordered their food. What a pathetic situation. The space around them was so heavy!

I think about the concept of connection a lot, because it means so much to me and it feels so good.

I also think about the state of  'not knowing,' or not being completely connected to someone, and how that feels. I first encountered that with my mother. When my Mom did not know where I was or what I was doing, she felt so out of control, she could barely handle it. I watched and absorbed this. She actually told me that she was going to call the police once, when she felt this way. That was the era before cell phones, but I was an adult and had only stopped at the grocery store, making me a little later than usual in arriving at her home.

So, somehow, I've picked up that energy in my own life and am working to let it go...that energy that makes me uncomfortable when I don't know what's happening in a situation that I'm in, when I don't have all the answers. Even writing about it makes me feel better.

Feelings are feelings, we all have them, and when we're healthy, we honor them. Best of all, we learn to communicate them, so we don't have to stuff them down and drown them with drugs, alcohol or other destructive behaviors. This is all part of my work with The Attention Factor: learning to pay attention to how we feel, how we act and how we call attention to our need for a solution.

If only Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and so many others could have discovered what kind of attention they needed and learned how to ask for it - wouldn't they be alive today? Do you know what kind of attention you need, and how to get it?

Let's welcome our feelings and get this all-important conversation started.

www.TheAttentionFactor.com

The Full Moon is Here!

Yesterday a friend and I spent the entire day in Santa Barbara, attending a Women's Networking Festival. The ride along the ocean was grand, as it was a gorgeous day and there was little traffic. I feel so lucky to have the freedom to spend days like this.

The Universe was doing its work with me, as I met exactly the women I was supposed to - funny how that works. Great women. Long day. New info about drinking alkaline water to stay healthy and keep disease away. I plan to put lemon juice in my filtered water daily now, as that provides enough alkaline, though they now have miraculous water machines to do the trick. People are awed by their new energy, fitness and healing through their new alkaline habit.

We ended our trip by having a great dinner in Malibu to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Our birthdays are meant to be celebrated - all of them - I find it very sad when people don't want to celebrate theirs anymore, because I know "The Attention Factor" is involved here. I also know that lots of kids never had a real chance to celebrate themselves as they grew up and when their parents couldn't or wouldn't celebrate them, it's left lingering damaging patterns. Kids whose birthdays fall near Holidays have major stories to tell about their disappointments, when their special days morphed into the holidays: Valentine's Day, Christmas, Easter, etc. I've even heard Mothers and Daughters fight over the re-telling of celebrations. Lingering memories.

Birthdays are special and the more of us who continue to honor our friends are family are spreading positive and loving energy onto our Planet.

So. Let's honor the full moon, too, and the gyrations it seems to bring. That's why I am writing today, to ground myself, to hopefully give myself the attention and energy to work on some life details I need to today. I'd rather be walking at the beach...or going to a movie...or....and the change in DST time has thrown me into a minor jet lag, additionally! Perhaps, spring fever is setting in.

My mind keeps rejecting those details. However, I am finding more and more that when I make lists of the things I need to do and check them off one by one, I feel more empowered and creative. How easy that sounds and how easy it writes. Simply, I want more and more of those feelings!