You can get to know me more by reading my blog “Inspirations” above or listening to or reading the notes from my radio show www.contacttalkradio.com/hosts/cclawhon.html. But for now, I’ll share with you a few thoughts that go through my head most every day.  

I learned that asking why is not as important as asking how.  Why mires us in the past and how allows us to break through into the future.  I believe in honoring the past, but our society has created such a focus on it, that it rarely becomes precious to our present.  Staying present, allowing ourselves to be human (to feel, to be uncomfortable, to be clueless, to be so happy we can’t sit still), creates the potential for us to be fulfilled.  But staying present is an art, and an acquired skill.  It requires us to be fully who we are at every moment.  And that scares most people either because they don’t know who they are or they don’t like who they are.

Trying to squelch who we are is the most destructive force on the planet.  This happens most in our jobs and in school.  For me, the way I transformed from a survivor to a “thriver” required me to listen to my innermost self and what She liked and who She was.  As I did, I allowed my outer self to manifest or be that person.  Immediately I began to enjoy my days more, and then my weeks, and now my whole life.  Living this way, I find that even bad days don’t seem like the end of the world...they simply seem like a bad day that will soon turn into tomorrow and be good again.  This, coming from years being diagnosed with clinical depression, is quite a transformation :) (I HAD to use that smiley face because, really, this is SO neat for me!!).  I realize that everyone is like me.  Each person has something that is phenomenal...a gift, if you will.  Most of us spend more time trying to hide who we are then BE who we are.  There is a way for each one of us to access our gifts without all the pain I went through to access mine.  

I found all sorts of tools along my way that contributed to this and I have categorized them into a system.  This system is odd because it changes every time I use it.  But, what it contains are the tools for ANYONE to be happy, successful, and fulfilled.  Some of these tools include the Brain Rules website, Louise Hay’s system of healing your life, Dick Sutphen’s brain re-programming, Tara Sutphen’s guided meditations, and Lindamood Bell’s Visualizing Verbalizing techniques...just to name a few.  I also tried a host more to see if they’d work for me, and while many didn’t, I saw the types of people for whom these things did work and I kept them in my vestibule of methodologies to facilitate learning and growth.

I work with children because that is where I feel at home.  I know they get me and I get them--and honestly--most adults don’t really get kids.  They have forgotten what it felt like for NO ONE to pay attention to their ideas or discoveries.  They have forgotten how it felt to be 13 and have to make a new friend.  I haven’t forgotten.  I remember exactly every moment of being a child.  Sometimes, adults pigeon-hole children and rarely give them the props they deserve for their special brand of brilliance.  If you doubt this, just watch yourself or a teacher and watch how often they tell children no.  Whether saying no so much is, “for their own good” is irrelevant.  I rarely need to tell children no because we appreciate each other--they know I honor them as much or more than an adult, and so they do the same with me.  This doesn’t mean I let them be in charge or feel I don’t know more than they do, but we have a mutual respect of talents and gifts and yes, even age. And, this is often not something a parent or teacher can do...it kind of needs to be an outsider.  So, oddly, that’s where I fit in! As the outsider! I have a knack with adults, too, I’ve just noticed that they are much less willing to take responsibility for their own happiness and success, so it is more challenging to work with them.

Finally, I have always believed I create my own reality (you manifest your own life, law of attraction, etc).  And I read and heard everything there is to read or hear about this topic, but still wondered why such bad things happened to me.  Now I see how it works.  I have learned that I can change my life, grow, and create whatever I want.  I have learned it is VERY easy to do this.  I have learned I often have no idea what I want because what I thought I wanted, I got, and trust me I do NOT want that any more.  I learned “be careful what you wish for” a thousand times over.  And more than anything else, I am learning what I do want to wish for.  My happiest days are where I see someone light up because he or she now knows what to wish for...and best of all, how to get it.