Category Archives: women

What IS self-care?

self-careSELF-CARE is personal, physical, and mental health maintenance.  It is any activity of an individual, family, or community with the intention of improving or restoring health, or treating or preventing disease.  It is about taking the time out to restore oneself.

As women, (and especially as mothers), we are often taught to take care of everyone but ourselves.  Our lives are full, the needs of others are many; the result is that we tap our energy stores to serve others until we are literally bankrupt – physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

Here are some ways you might find relief:

  • Take a walk.
  • Read.
  • Take a bath.
  • Read a story to my children.
  • Watch a funny movie.
  • Work in my garden.
  • Exercise.
  • Become active in my community.

If you are struggling with taking care of yourself, and unable to get motivated, please let us help you.  Our Live A Brighter Life online workshop series is completely FREE, and it can be anonymous if you need to attend privately.  It’s worth every minute!  Isn’t it time to THRIVE is life, and not just SURVIVE?

Join us this summer for our 6-week Live A Brighter Life Online weekly workshop series starting Thursday, June 30th.  It’s that easy.  Click here for all of the details and a way to sign up.

With Love & Light,

Team ILF

Reaching Out

reaching out FINALWhen you feel shamed or humiliated, who do you reach out to?  In our Live A Brighter Life curriculum, we teach a workshop called, “Shame Resilience.”  It’s so important that we learn how to recover from shame.

Reaching out is an important part of shame resiliency.  It requires that you choose sharing your story and creating change over separating and insulating yourself.  In doing so, connections are built and we start to see that we really are all the same.

It gives voice to the shame being felt, which in turn weakens the shame.  When you reach out you move from separating and insulating to sharing your story and creating change.
Separating and insulating means that there is an us and a “them.”  And we are not the same as “them.”  Separating and insulating allows you to believe that what is affecting others could never affect you, and what’s affecting you could never affect anyone else.  No one else has been through, seen or experienced what you have, or you will never go through, see or experience what someone else has.

To whom will you REACH OUT?

• Partner
• Parent
• Family member
• Religious community member
• Community member
• Teacher
• Coach
• Health professional

If you are struggling to be vulnerable, and unable to reach out to anyone, please let us help you.  Our Live A Brighter Life online workshop series is completely FREE, and it can be anonymous if you need to attend privately.  It’s worth every minute!  Isn’t it time to THRIVE is life, and not just SURVIVE?

Join us this summer for our 6-week Live A Brighter Life Online weekly workshop series starting Thursday, June 30th.  It’s that easy.  Click here for all of the details and a way to sign up.

With Love & Light,

Team ILF

Where do you go when you feel shame?

Shame often brings us to such a diminished place that we can’t see our strengths or be objective about ourselves.  Shame corrodes the piece of us that believes we are capable of change.  It is often the source of destructive and damaging behavior.

shame imageSo where do you go when you feel shame?

  • Loss of self-worth (worthiness)
  • Loss of empathy (numbing of self)
  • Loss of connection with people
  • Loss of connection with self (identity and values)

And shaming definitely does not work when we are trying to introduce positive change to people.

When the ILF Trainers are teaching the Live A Brighter Life workshops, the discussion around shame often leads to how much people say they shut themselves off from the world.  They enter “the vortex” of shame and cannot escape.  They are sucked down deep and eventually have to fight their way back up into the light of the world.

Why is shame so powerful?  How can we keep from letting shame take over our lives?

We can teach you some tools and coach you on some techniques to work through the shame before it takes you under.  Our Live A Brighter Life online workshop series is completely FREE, and it can be anonymous if you need to attend privately.  It’s worth every minute!  Isn’t it time to THRIVE is life, and not just SURVIVE?

Join us this summer for our 6-week Live A Brighter Life Online weekly workshop series starting Thursday, June 30th.  It’s that easy.  Click here for all of the details and a way to sign up.

Saying “NO!” to abuse

no and stopThe most powerful words to use in circumstances of abuse are “Stop” and “No.”  In our Live A Brighter Life workshops, we are teaching women in abusive situations HOW to say “No” to abuse.  Here are some examples we teach:

  • You need to make yourself very clear. You may use other phrases such as “That’s not okay,” or, “That’s not appropriate,” or, “That’s enough,” or “It’s not okay for me.”  But whatever you say, make it perfectly clear that you want the abuse to stop immediately.
  • If the abuser is unclear about exactly what you want stopped, then make it clear by saying it exactly.  For example, “Stop grabbing my arm,” or, “Stop blocking the doorway,” or “Do not hit me.”
  • Putting up with physical or emotional abuse is a choice.  If you choose not to accept it then a clear and specific “No” is the first step to removing yourself from the abusive situation.

Do you have a good friend or confidant who you can talk to?  If so, here is a way you can practice saying “No” to your abuser….

  • Ask your confidant if they can role play with you
  • Now, practice clear statements, tone of voice, body language, etc.
  • Ask for feedback.  Where can you improve?
  • Keep practicing.  When you’re ready to speak your truth to your abuser, make sure your confidant is aware you will be acting upon your “Stop” and “No.”

(**NOTE: If you do not have a confidant to help you, practice these statements in the mirror at home).

Here are a few important things to remember while your preparing to speak your truth:

Go from a reactive approach to a proactive approach.

  • Remember: anger can blind, fear can paralyze, and guilt can weaken.
  • Don’t act with intense emotion but with clear purpose.
  • If you need to, stop to collect your wits.
  • You are allowed to take your time to recover and gain perspective
    by saying things like, “Give me a minute,” or “ Let’s take a break,”
    or “I need to think about it.”
  • Then ask yourself why you want to say, “No.”
  • Crystallize your “yes” – what matters and your intention.
  • The real action of standing up for yourself takes place inside
    you before you say, “No.”
  • You have a right to protect what matters to you.

How are you feeling after reading this blog?  Do you feel like to need more support around this?  Just to let you know, we are teaching our FREE 6-week online Live A Brighter Life Workshop series this summer, starting June 30thYou can sign up HERE if you would like help from our ILF certified trainers.

With Love & Light,

Team ILF

What happens after you say “No?”

In our Live A Brighter Life workshops, we teach a module called “Saying No.”  In the last blog we talked about some of the reasons why you are fearful about saying “No.”  (If you’d like to be taught some tools about HOW to say “no,” we have a 6-week online course starting in the summer. Click here for more information).

Managing NOOnce you learn and practice new techniques on HOW to say “No,” now you need to make sure you can manage the reaction you will receive from others, now that you’ve said the word “No.”  Here are the tools:

  • Hold your ground
  • Expect the other person’s stages of denial
  • Take a DEEP breath (literally)
  • Become the observer

The last tool, “become the observer,” means that you try to imagine you are observing this scenario on a stage.  You are a member of the audience watching yourself saying “No” to this person.  You can watch to see the tactics that this person will use.  As this is happening you can “name the game,” or tactic to yourself.  There are many games: flattery, bribery, threats, manipulation, personal attacks, guilt, shame, slippery slope, etc.

Can you say, “No?” If you need help, WE can help.  This is a FREE class you can attend in private, or face to face with us online.  Either way, we can offer you support and great tools to live a brighter life.  Click here to sign up!

Love & Light,

Team ILF

What do you need to say “No” to today?

Under what circumstances would you like to say, “No?” Are there circumstances in your life right now in which you are not saying “No” because you are:

  • Accommodating someone.
  • Attacking the person for asking for something.
  • Avoiding the situation all together.

What do you need to say_NO_ to today_At Indrani’s Light Foundation, we teach the Live A Brighter Life workshop series. In the second module we teach tools about HOW to say, “No.” We talk about “The 3 A’s.” Accommodate, attack, and avoid.

For example:

  • Accommodate: “Anne” does NOT say no, and accommodates her husband by giving over all of her money to him because she fears he will retaliate.
  • Attack: “Alice” yells and screams at her son because he consistently disobeys her.
  • Avoid: “Martha” steers clear of her co-worker, who seems to always want to borrow money.

Do something right now ….

Take a few minutes to write down one instance in which you would like to say, “No.” Write down the emotions that you feel about this issue.

Please give us the top two emotions that come up for you.

 

Love & Light,

 

The ILF Team

(P.S. If you are interested in taking our 6-week online Live A Brighter Life at no cost, please click here for more information.  Classes start June 30th.

Time to set some boundaries?

{Written by Amy Dier | Director of Education & Training | Indrani’s Light Foundation

What are the different types of personal boundaries?

In our “Live A Brighter Life” workshops, the very first thing we teach is the definition and concept of boundaries. We define boundaries as follows:

“Guidelines, rules, or limits created by a person for herself that are reasonable, safe, and permissible ways for other people to treat her, as well as how she will respond when someone steps outside those limits.”

boundaries image

So now that you know the textbook definition of the word “boundary,” what does it actually mean to you?  I have guidelines and limits I live by, however, it’s a daily struggle for me to actually voice these guidelines to others in my life. (I’ll talk about this in the next blog).  There are boundaries that I allow to be crossed on many levels, and the Live A Brighter Life curriculum has been incredibly helpful to help me improve the way I communicate with people, and keep the crossed boundaries at bay.

What was most helpful was to be taught and reminded of the types of boundaries most of us have:

  • PHYSICAL BOUNDARIES – pertains to personal space, bubble.
  • MENTAL BOUNDARIES – pertains to beliefs, emotion and intuition.
  • SPIRITUAL BOUNDARIES – pertains to self-esteem, sense of identity.

Those kinds of boundaries make perfect sense, and seem to be easy to work on. What I was missing was the link between the mental and emotional boundaries.  There are times where I think “Emotional Boundaries” should be a separate category. For me, I become the most vulnerable around emotions.  If I get triggered by someone’s actions, I can normally protect my physical, mental and spiritual compass. But my emotions get the best of me at times, and I get angry and completely withdraw for a period of time.

For example, if someone accuses me of something I didn’t do, or someone completely discounts me, I do not pass go ….. I do not collect $200 …. I go straight to anger and emotional jail.  I withdraw for hours, if not days. I don’t speak to the person.  And sometimes I won’t tell them they have hurt me, or that I just need some time to process what happened.  I’m trying to get better at expressing my feelings, but it’s so damn hard! This is the challenge of facing our lack of boundaries, and how we deal with keeping them clear.

What are the most challenging boundaries for YOU to manage?  I would love to know what seems to be keeping you from speaking up and voicing your limits to your friends and family.  Or maybe you are good with boundaries with strangers, but not your loved ones.  Tell us a story….

With Love & Light,

Amy Dier

(P.S. If you are interested in taking our 6-week online Live A Brighter Life at no cost, please click here for more information.  Classes start June 30th.

I claim Elder-ship. Will you join me?

I had the great fortune to attend the Women Deliver Conference 2016 in Copenhagen from May 16-19, 2016.  The experience was life changing. I saw and met so many people working on the huge problems that face our world from child marriage to female mutilation to gender violence prevention.

I am very hopeful that the world can heal from these epidemics and that smart and dedicated people are working to solutions.  In my own way, I am also working globally and you can see all about my work here www.maverickcollective.org.

One of the more memorable events was when I met Hina Jilani, one of The Elders.  I had heard of this amazing group of people and never thought I would ever meet one of them, let alone in a small group.  Nelson Mandela created The Elders and said, “The Elders can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes.  They will reach out to those who most need their help.  They will support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair.”

WOW!  Such an amazing mission.

So I became very jealous of THIS mission.

I want to be one of The Elders …. then I realized that I AM an Elder.  I am 62 years old, and that is certainly old enough to be an elder.  I can adopt the mission and work in ways that support the stated mission.  I may not be able to speak to heads of state, but I can speak to the people with whom I come into contact and I can attempt to create a culture of peace.
I can start within my own life, and seek to do no harm in action and word while accepting my humanness and forgiving myself when I inadvertently hurt another.

How can YOU, embody the mission of The Elders in your life?

Can you embody the tenants in your family?

Can you accept your own wisdom and begin to act and speak in ways that support humanity?

I hope to be able to report to you in the future about some of the projects that may come my way that will enable me to be an Elder in thought and spirit and behavior and word.

Love & Light,

Indrani Goradia

Where is the bottle opener?

IMG_4760

 

I own a great little tool. It is a hammer AND a bottle opener.  I don’t know why I bought it, except to say it was an unexpected combination.  One day, I had a visitor who wanted a bottle opener.

I yelled from the bedroom, “Look for the hammer!”  He yelled back, “I said a bottle opener!”  I yelled back, “Look for the hammer in the drawer with the knives!”

This exchange went back and forth until I came out of the bedroom and made him LOOK into the drawer and he said, “OHH!!” He then tried to start a conversation about how stupid it was to put a bottle opener and a hammer together.  I did not engage. I went back to what ever I had been doing.

Why am I telling you this story?

We all have problems to solve.  My friend’s problem was HOW to get the beer out of a bottle that did not have a twist off cap.  It was a significant problem for him.

You probably have a significant problem you are trying to solve today, and you may not give yourself permission to look for a tool in an unlikely place.  Perhaps a piece of your solution will come from a poem, or a book, or a coach, or a therapist.   Perhaps a piece of the solution is meditation combined with exercise combined with rock climbing. Maybe the solution is a hobby, like quilting, and you will decide to enter your quilt into a competition because you are competitive. Perhaps you will decide to learn to swim at age 50 and do an Olympic Distance Triathlon, like I did.

My point is that solutions come from a variety of places and people.  Try not to discount anything until you have given it a try.  There will be lots of people who will tell you HOW to solve your problem because it’s the way they solved a similar problem.

Maybe you will be irritated with them and lash out.

Try to tell them that you would like them to NOT advise you for the next three weeks while you ponder solutions for yourself.  Put YOU at the center of your solution and listen to the whisper you get about certain solutions you might try.

Remember when I said, “Look for the hammer,” it made NO sense to my friend until he saw the hammer attached to the bottle opener.

What kind of strange gadget might be the right tool for you?

Good luck looking.  Have fun looking.

Love and light,
Indrani

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Feeling abandoned and unappreciated at work

Indrani wrote a blog the other day about a saying we hear all too often …. “Same ol’ same ol’, nothing ever changes.” You are most likely saying right now, “Yep, I say this all of the time at work.” So I ask you, “Why are you saying this? Why are you feeling this way?”

Read Indrani’s full blog here …..

When I ask these questions to the caregivers at women’s shelters, they often share that they feel unappreciated at work, or feel abandoned by their bosses or co-workers. When they share an idea to make a positive change at work, many times they are ignored. If a change IS made, the work environment changes for a short time, then goes back to the same ol’ same ol’ place.

I’ve also discussed this feeling with administrators and supervisors of women’s shelters and organizations. They have tried to make positive changes for their staff, but the staff members don’t seem to appreciate the changes, and respond with skepticism and criticism. Hmmmm, so where do we go from here?

Speaking from experience of working in law enforcement and private investigations for almost 30 years, I completely understand these feelings on both ends. Every day I went to work, the same problems and issues were a constant battle. Someone would make a positive change for a week, and then it would go back to the same ol’ same ol’ way. So when does the responsibility shift onto us? When do I say, “I’m going to change my attitude and be grateful I have a job, and be the positive change.”

If you belong to an organization that you believe needs our help and training, please contact us at info@indranislight.org. We have a training class called the Caregiver Project, in which we educate and train the staff and administrators on how you can make positive changes in your work environment that can be permanent.

Here’s a short video that summarizes our project:

Please check in with us in the comments below about what your work environment is like right now.  Are YOU trying to make a positive change?  Or are you waiting for others to make the change.  Just curious.

Please share this with your co-workers and friends.  We would love your feedback.

Love and Light,

Amy Dier | Director of Education & Training
Indrani’s Light Foundation