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More Giving!

I’ve been so behind with posting about my 29-day giving challenge. There’s been lots of stuff going on – mostly good and some bad/frustrating. I noticed that after getting in my car accident on lucky number Day 13 (see below), I was feeling a little stuck with the giving. I think that I’m in a better place now and I believe being committed to keep on giving even in the smallest of ways that has helped me move on.

Here’s a recap of the past week:

Day 13: Gave emotional support to a woman I got in a fender bender with in the city. I got rear ended and she was sandwiched between me and the third car that hit her. No one was injured, so that was good. Her car was totaled, though, and she was very distraught. We’ve exchanged a few e-mails since then and she was very grateful for the concern and help I provided her. We’ve since found out the the driver who caused the accident (and the car’s owner are both not insured, so it’s been a bit frustrating dealing with the extra hassle). I’ve had to also practice not going into blame mode and instead to try to forgive and show compassion. This “crash course” in giving has definitely been one of the more powerful gives so far!
Day 14: Gave resources/book recommendations to a wedding photographer friend of Brian’s who just moved to the area.
Day 15: A client from the city came over for an in-person Right-Brain Business Plan session and since she doesn’t own a car, I picked her up and took her back to the BART station.
Day 16: Brian’s neck was bothering him so I heated up my neck wrap and lent it to him.
Day 17: Walked with Sonja, Sandy and the crew of dogs. She thanked me for the cookies from last week and said she very much enjoyed them.
Day 18: Invited my friend Anne to join me as a guest at our Oakland Ladies Who Launch member meeting and drove her to and from.
Day 19: Called my cousin Karen to wish her happy birthday, had a wonderful conversation with my friend Katie and brainstormed ideas for a possible business concept she has (very exciting!) and donated several bags of stuff to Goodwill.
Day 20: Wrote thank you cards to Laura for lending her Creative Action Center space for our Ladies Who Launch meeting and to Reese for being our fantastic guest speaker on Thursday.
Day 21: Spent half the day with the SF Coaches Board visioning what we want our organization to be this year and beyond. Was fun to dream up big ideas for the impact we want to make on the profession and in the world at large! I also brought my iPod and some speakers so we could have some lively and inspiring music on our breaks. That’s us below!

The Giving Continues…

I’ve been posting about my daily gives directly on my page on the 29-Day Giving Challenge site. More of my insights are included there. If haven’t joined the challenge yet, I recommend giving it a try. It’s fun and doesn’t have to be a big to do. And yet, there’s so much power in the act of simply giving.

Anyway, here’s a quick recap of what I’ve given over the past week or so.

Day 6: Picked up my friend Fiona from her training, drove us to the city for some shopping and then saw her off at the airport.
Day 7: Baked some cookies and left them in my neighbor’s mailbox. She’s always giving doggie treats (she calls them cookies) to Emmett, so I thought it would be nice to give her some cookies, too.
Day 8: Gave a client an extra copy I had of the book Money Magic.
Day 9: Lent money on kiva.org to a Cambodian family so they could buy supplies for their art business.
Day 10: Put a surprise gift in a package of business materials that I had to send to a friend.
Day 11: Signed up for a widget that helps to track and offset my online carbon footprint on my site. My small way of giving back to the environment.
Day 12: Picked cala lilies from my garden and gave them to my friend along with an inspirational book.

Give a Little Bit

Visit 29-Day Giving Challenge

Cami Walker of Creative Urge recently kicked off a new and meaningful challenge – the 29-Day Giving Challenge. Cami is uber-talented and also highly spiritual and intuitive. And her own story is really inspiring. Find out what spurred her to create and share this challenge. I began the challenge on 3/31. Here’s a recap of my first five days of the giving challenge:

Day One: Gifted one of my handmade Wish Boxes to Kate Prentiss for doing such an awesome job on my soon-to-be-ready brochure!
Day Two: My friend Fiona from London is in town. I picked her up from the airport and she crashed at my place before going to a training session in the morning. (So excited that I get to hang out with her Saturday afternoon when she’s done! And in London in a few weeks when I go to visit her!)
Day Three: Did a volunteer coaching call with Yessica, a client from C.E.O. Women.
Day Four: Volunteered my voice for Aurora Medina’s Plenty of Money meditation.
Day Five: Donated to Alison Ekizian’s AIDS Ride campaign.

In my work I feel like I naturally give a lot – a lot of support, encouragement, intense listening, resources, etc. I also love giving gifts, especially handmade ones. And I volunteer my time and money to causes that are important to me. This challenge, though, is helping me to expand what it means to give. And I hate to admit it but I’m noticing where I have resistance to giving (usually when it’s “inconvenient” for me or if I’m feeling strapped financially – see last post). What I love about the message from Cami and this challenge is that truly giving helps us get out of our own “stuff” and shifts the energy outward. Yes, there are times when it’s good to give to ourselves (I took a self-care day for myself today) AND that doesn’t mean we still can’t give to others. It’s not an either/or. I’m realizing I make it an either/or when I’ve pushed myself to the limit and I don’t have reserves left. So, my challenge to myself is to continue giving in some form even when I feel like I need to retreat. As Cami suggests, you can give anything – a material object, time, money, a kind word, a smile or even just positive energy. The key is to do it with intention. I look forward to discovering more insights during this challenge. And I’m excited to get creative about how else I can give.

Cami’s goal is to inspire at least 2,000 people to commit to the 29-Day Giving Challenge by 9/29/08. Won’t you join us? Spreading the word is one way to give!

P.S. – here’s a theme song to get you on your way… “Give a Little Bit” by the Goo Goo Dolls.

blog(ng)

My husband, Brian Ng, is an amazing wedding photographer. He recently re-launched his photo blog and has some really cool pics of a recent wedding at AT&T Park in the city. He also posted images from a photojournalism intensive workshop that he attended in Texas. If you’re a dog lover, take a peek! He was assigned to shoot dog agility classes and he captured several cute pups in action.

Awards, Abundance and Asanas

(Apparently an adorer of alliteration according to the post title! Heehee!) I’m a little behind in blogland and there’s so much to catch up on! First off, awards…. I’m so incredibly honored to receive a “You Make My Day” award from three of my very favorite bloggers: Jamie, Leah and Marilyn. You guys inspire me every time I read what you’re up to. You are at the top of my list for my “You Make My Day” award recipients. So right back acha!

Here are the rules:

Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

In addition to Jamie, Leah and Marilyn (I’ve linked to some of their other sites so you can see more awesome stuff that they’re up to!), the following lovely souls make my day: Serendipity Squared, Invisible Lives, Under a Pink Sky, Be Alive Believe Be You, Diary of a Self Portrait, and The Skeptic Yogi.

Speaking of yoga, I am so happy that I re-discovered my practice. And what great timing considering I just stumbled upon World Yoga Practice Month where you practice yoga everyday in January! Also, yesterday my friend Brad, who I met at a dream box workshop I led for It’s Yoga, sent me some super cool information on a new yoga teacher training he’s created. It’s called the Yoga Exploratorium at Yoga Sol. Imagine learning about asanas, meditation, anatomy, etc. in a fun, hands-on environment like SF’s Exploratorium. The first line of the course description says it all, “Yoga is curiosity & a creative process.”

And as for abundance, wow, 2008 is off to a fantastic start. I’m ever so grateful! I’m working with amazing clients, I just gave a talk on Wednesday about creative goal-setting at a networking group and in the next two weeks I’m off to DC to help facilitate Quest and then Cleveland for my official Ladies Who Launch leader training. The rest of the month is going to be filled to the brim, so I must remember to build in some recoup time, too. Ahhhh!