Lea Bayles

08/04/2024

Life Can Change in an Instant.

July 15: We’re celebrating my twins’ 38th birthday.
Four generations laughing, talking, sharing scrumptious dinner and cake on my daughter’s deck.

July 16: As I’m settling in for a play day and sleepover with grandbabies, my mom leaves for a dentist appointment. “I’ll be back soon,” she says, “I don’t want to miss any of the fun here!”

An hour later I get a call from the ER.
On the way to the dentist Mom passed out, drove off the road and hit a tree. She has many broken bones, numerous severe lacerations.

Today:
:After 8 days in the hospital and 12 days in a rehab center, Mom is quite miserable and has very limited mobility.

She’s still feisty, sweet, funny, kind and generous.

So much is uncertain. So many emotions. So many decisions.

The world feels less solid than usual.

Life can change in an instant.
Cherish your Now.
Take pleasure in this breath.
Shower the people you love with love.

08/04/2024

Life can change in an instant. Cherish your Now. Take pleasure in this breath. Shower the people you love with love.

08/04/2024

Life can change in an instant.
Cherish your Now. Take pleasure in this breath. Shower the people you love with love.

07/07/2024

Reading The Sentence by Louise Erdrich & loving it!
Have you read it?
Any other books you're loving now?

07/05/2024

Sweet words to hear from a grown daughter:
"Mom- I just called to tell you I realized you were right about several things!"

07/02/2024

3 LESSONS On POTENTIAL THAT CRAWLING BABIES KNOW - - & ADULTS OFTEN FORGET!

I’ve spent many hours studying babies as they learn to crawl. When four grand-babies were born within 30 months, our living room became their playground / workout room and my observation / research lab.

A baby learning to crawl has important lessons to teach us about growing into our potential.

Crawling Baby Lesson #1: Delight in your challenges.

Crawling is a huge challenge at first. It’s hard.

Babies delight in this hard work.
As Benjamin Spock wrote “A child loves their play, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.”

Crawling is hard for days - for weeks for most babies.
They try things that don’t work and they get stuck and get frustrated and do things over and over and over.

They persist. With zest.

It's hard until suddenly it’s easy. They happily crawl for a while.
And then they take on the equally hard task of learning to walk.

Babies teach us that taking on hard challenges can be fun and rewarding.

Bring a spirit of play to hard things and you’ll learn more quickly and easily - and will be ready to take on your next tough challenge!

Crawling Baby Lesson #2: Do it your way!

There’s huge individual variation in how babies get to the full-on crawling stage.

Arlo did the Army Crawl. Adrian did the Leapfrog Lurch. Zeda spent a few weeks rolling quickly in one direction and then the other and then did the Amphibian Swim.

There's rarely just one right way to do anything in life, business, creativity or relationships. Give yourself freedom to find the style and the way that feels right for you!

Crawling Baby Lesson #3: Embrace Your Growth Impulse

The most striking thing to me about babies learning to crawl is their indomitable Growth Impulse.

Each child has an instinctual, compelling drive to grow into the next stage of their evolving self.

They long for and pursue their next stage of development - even though of course they have no idea what the next stage is!

They haven’t read the child development manuals.
No one’s told them what’s next.

This same instinctual Growth Impulse is in you and in all of us. It’s there to help you evolve into your next stage -even if you have little or no idea what that next stage is!

Your Growth Impulse is a natural longing - an inner force that you can tap into and trust and that will propel you forward into becoming more and more fully and more joyfully YOU.

And that’s just what clients do in my It Feels Like Magic! 1:1 mentoring program for successful, big-hearted changemakers.

In the 3 month program:
** You’ll clarify what you really want by shifting out of Everyday Thinking and tapping into Deeper Knowing and Inner Wisdom so that you can make clear decisions that are right for you.

** Toxic thought habits and beliefs are released and transformed to make room for bright new possibilities so that you can envision your dreams and take aligned action to make the dreams real.

** Simple, holistic energy strategies allow you to meet your toughest challenges with a sense of delight and a spirit of play (Like you did when you were learning to crawl!) without stressing, struggling or feeling stuck.

🌟Your True Self is called by the same indomitable, inner Growth Impulse that guided you when you were a baby learning to crawl.
Wouldn’t it feel great to consistently tap into that and let it guide you into your next level?

Message me today to learn more about IT FEELS LIKE MAGIC! program.

I'll follow up with a few questions to make sure it's a good fit via email or messenger, and then we can chat to discuss the next steps.

06/27/2024

My favorite antidote to wasp stings: Apply paste of baking soda and small bit of vinegar. Very quickly swelling and pain go down.

06/25/2024

Flipping a 200 pound man was easy.

I was shocked.

In Aikido class my freshman year of college I learned how to flip people who were much larger than I was onto their backs!

Not because I was particularly strong.
Not because I’d ever tried it before or because I was a fighter.

I was able to do it by working with energy.

It was shockingly easy. (Whoa? I’d think. Really? Did that just happen? By everything I think I know about physical reality- that shouldn't have been possible – right?!)

Our Aikido sensei (teacher) taught us how to calmly align with energy to create great strength and to overcome our opponents not by force but by working with their energy.

We were taught not to confront or resist the other person’s energy but to use it, to flow with it, to move our opponent in the direction we chose.

This was my first introduction to this idea that we can use energy (Ki, Chi, Qi, Life Force) to meet our challenges in a completely different way than we are usually taught.

This radical idea became the seed for my lifelong study of working with energy for healing and transformation and for my teaching and mentoring others to work with energy.

I haven’t sparred with anyone in an Aikido dojo for decades.

But everyday I - like you - meet challenges. Some internal and some external.

Some challenges may seem little. Like:
Getting your kids off to school and daycare without tears and tantrums.
Being present and relaxed in a day over-filled with appointments.
Starting a new habit you really want - even though you feel intense inner resistance.

Some challenges may seem bigger. Like:
Having a tough conversation you’ve been avoiding with your boss, your in-laws or your most challenging client.
Dealing with health issues.
Finishing your book.
Finally committing to the dream project or business you’ve been longing to start - but haven’t quite believed in.

What if, by meeting your challenges with energy, you could create results far beyond your usual expectations?

Yes, you can.

The same energy I used to flip a BIG man, is available to you right now.

You can use that energy to accomplish and create what you really want.

Working with energy will bring more ease, joy and satisfaction to your daily life and will alow you to go for your brightest dreams - without pushing, struggling or wearing yourself out.

Imagine yourself:

Facing any challenge with a sense of serenity, feeling confident that you have inner tools and strength to meet, embrace and grow with this challenge with ease so that you can create, accomplish and experience what you really want.

I love empowering my clients to align the energies of body, mind and soul this way.

It Feels Like Magic! is a 1:1 mentoring program for successful, big-hearted changemakers who want to bring their bright dreams into reality without pushing, struggling or wearing themselves out.

In the 3 month program:

** You can clarify what you really want by shifting out of Everyday Thinking and tapping into Deeper Knowing and Inner Wisdom.

** Simple, holistic energy strategies allow you to go for your bright dreams, feeling peaceful, grounded and courageous - even as tough times and situations arise.

** Seemingly miraculous results keep happening- as if by magic! Over and over I see that when people get clear on what they really want and align the energy of body, mind and soul, even the biggest challenges get easier, unexpected opportunities open up and new resources appear.

🌟 Wouldn’t it feel great to know you could flip any 200 pound obstacle that gets in your way?! 😮

Message me today to learn more about IT FEELS LIKE MAGIC! program.
I'll follow up with a few questions to make sure it's a good fit via email or messenger, and then we can chat to discuss the next steps.

06/18/2024

My new fave show: We Are Lady Parts! 5 Muslim women in London w/ a punk band. Have you seen it?

06/17/2024

Had fab R&R week w/ daughter and grandsons. Unplugged! Swam, hiked, watched movies, played games, ate, napped, laughed, loved. Ah!

05/31/2024

05/14/2024

This Out-Dated Story Shifted in An Instant--- Yours Can Too!

“Oh, this is the twin who was so sick! We’ve all been so worried about her. Poor sweetie, how are you feeling?”

As I heard these words spoken to my nearly two year old daughter, a flame of inner knowing rose within me. This sort of fearful expression of caring needed to stop. Immediately.

As well-intentioned as these comments from a family friend were, they were potentially toxic to my daughter.

Six months earlier she had been dangerously ill with a blood disorder.

It had been a long, terrifying winter of doctor’s visits and tests and countless hours of TLC, as our active, curious little girl became increasingly pale, listless and withdrawn.

Then, nearly as suddenly as she became ill, she began to recover.

Now in the early summer, she was doing great, running, laughing, jumping and playing with her sisters.

Still the fear from those months hung over us, like a faint wash of worry lightly coloring our view of her.

In that moment when this dear older friend-- with all best intentions-- expressed her concern, I chose to completely drop the fearful story of the illness and to communicate a new story clearly and lovingly.

“She’s doing great!” I said “She’s strong and healthy and fabulous!“

It’s true that she had been sick. Denying that would have been foolish and dangerous. She needed expert medical and family care.

Now, though, to continue to see her and talk about her as a sick child could shape her identity and negatively impact her whole life.

If we hadn’t changed the story I wonder:
~ Would she have begun to identify herself as a sickly child?
~ Could that have led to a pattern of repeated illnesses?
~ Would it have limited her athletic accomplishments or her confidence or undermined her sense of her own strength and power or caused her to mistrust her body?

In a flash I saw that possible future for my daughter and thought, No flippin way!

To heal and to thrive she deserved an updated story that celebrated her healing and gave her the image of herself as strong and healthy.

Did changing that story about her illness help her become the vibrant, successful, brilliant teacher, mother and woman she is today? I believe so!

Again and again I’ve seen in my own life and in my friends and clients how old, out-dated stories limit us.

And I’ve seen how creating a new vision of yourself can liberate you to become more and more fully who you truly are.

A few examples:

** Feeling limited by a lifetime of anxiety shifts to feeling safe from within and eagerly taking on new challenges.

** Being uber-responsible for everyone else shifts into an ability to ask for and to receive support.

** Self doubt transforms into self confidence and allows a big leap into a new creative business venture.

In my 1:1 mentoring program It Feels Like Magic! one of the most gratifying things is to guide clients to identify stories that hold them back so they can swiftly shift into ways of being that allow them to open to bright new possibilities of radiant vitality, soul delight and impact.

I’d love to hear from you.

Are there any old stories about your health, worthiness, abilities or potential that you feel ready to shift?

Growing up - were there any things said about you that you think even today might be holding you back?