Power of Gratitude

Power of Gratitude

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Love Notes Volume #11                                                            November 2019
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I hope the upcoming holiiday season is a great one for you.

 

Last year some of  my Love Notes were focused on the Power of Hope, the Power of Surrender, and the Power of Faith, This Note is dedicated to the Power of Gratitude.

 

I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for being part of my community— opening my emails, sending positive energy and prayers, connecting in real time and online. 
          
       What do you have in your life right now for which to be grateful?

       Whom can you thank today?

 

Showing gratitude increase your chances of receiving more of it and can improve all your relationships.

 

As I continue to help individuals and couples to communicate with more compassion, I realize how much the words “thank you” (and “I’m sorry”) have the power to change lives. 

 

It allows us to focus on the “half fullness” instead of the missing half.  

 

And, of course, what we focus on can increase by virtue of our attention and intention of creating more.

 

       What words of gratitude can you share with someone today – right now?

 

You can start here – with appreciation for yourself.

 

Thank you for being the wonderful person that you are.
Thank you for all you do to help others.
Thank you for all you want to share with the world.
Thank you for being willing to grow and learn.
Thank you, for allowing yourself to feel your feelings and express your needs.

Thank you for accepting and forgiving any ways in which you fall short of your own judgments and self criticisms.

 

Thank you, Linda, for taking care of your body, mind and spirit.
Thank you for the light you bring to all who know you.

 

Thanks again for EVERYTHING! 

Much love and gratitude,
 

 

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Please feel free to SHARE or FORWARD to anyone who might benefit from the information or support available.
 
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As the holidays approach, some relationships can become more challenging.

I am passionate about helping individuals, couples and families to communicate with more compassion and empathy.

 

I have spent the last five years learning how to go online to reach you wherever you are in world.

 

As my personal thank you, I want to be of service as much as I can.

Some of my FREE GIFTS include:

 

 

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ONLINE PRIVATE SESSIONS and GROUP PROGRAMS

(All of following are being offered at a special price.)

 

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Talk with Me!

 
I am passionate about helping people add more empathy and compassion to their relationships

 

Compassionate Mediation® helps individuals and couples resolve conflict from their highest and best SELF.
If you’d like some individual support, schedule a private 30 minute session with me here. 
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Compassionate Mediation®  ONLINE!

 

If you are having challenges in your relationship – wanting to make it better, feeling stuck, planning to separate, in the middle of or past a divorce — get guidance and support in my online video Compassionate Mediation® Program. 
 
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Compassionate Mediation® Training
for Professionals

 

 

 

If you are a therapist, mediator, attorney, coach counselor or clergy who would  like to learn my transformational process of conflict resolution, please sign up for my Compassionate Mediation Training to share with your clients (as you increase your expertise, impact and income.)  

 

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Join me on Facebook LIVE!

 

 

I’d love to connect with you Live — wherever you are.

 

You can ask me anything, or send a question to Support@LindaKroll.com. I’ll answer your question Live and send you a link to the replay.

If you “Like” my Facebook Page, I will let you know when I’ll be available, and we can connect in real time.
 
I hope to see you soon! 
About Linda

As a therapist, mediator, attorney, and Chopra Certified Master Teacher of Meditation, Yoga and Ayurveda, I help individuals and couples learn Compassionate Communication for more peace, love and joy.

 

 

My Kindle book on Compassionate Divorce™::Changing the Face of Divorce, One Heart at a Time is available here:
 
I wish for you more SELF love and compassion
as we all become the change we hope to see in the world.
Please join me on Facebook
Connect with me on Twitter and get your free e-book Believe in Your SELF here.
  
Please forward this email to anyone who might want to be part of this
HeartCentered Community.
 
Linda Kroll, LCPC, JD, Vedic Master • Founder, Compassionate Communication, Inc. 400 Lake Cook Road, Suite 217, Deerfield, Illinois 60015 United States

Instrument of Peace

I pray for peace.
Peace in my heart,
peace in my family,
peace in my country,
peace in the world.

I pray to be
An Instrument of Peace.

One to which one can attune,
not tune out.

One to whom someone can turn,
not avoid.
One to be soothing and healing
not cacophonous and loud.

I pray for harmony,
within and without

I pray for grace
and love and healing.

I ask that I be forgiven
for all the ways I have caused distress.

And that I be guided
to share joy and gratitude.

and with thanks to St. Francis of Assisi…..

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive-
and it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Stay or Go? Compassionate Mediation® Helps You Know!


“Should I stay or should I go?” is a question that I asked myself for over 30 years.

I married my college sweetheart. We had a wonderful time at the University of Wisconsin and married in 1969, so that ages myself.

Our first year felt like a frat house, so I thought, “Should I stay or should I go?”

But I was married to my dream man. We ended up having two dream children, and a dream home, and the dog and the life, and 20 years into the marriage, I was still asking, “Should I stay or should I go?”

I went to therapy. I talked to lawyers. I talked to everybody that would listen to me. I talked to my Rabbi. I prayed. I meditated.

I was an attorney by trade, but I didn’t really know what to do with that. I went back and became a mediator, because I thought if it was going to lead to a divorce, I would be able to mediate the divorce, which is very akin to deliver your own baby. It may be possible, but don’t do it, because you have no one advocating for you.

So, as a lifelong recovering codependent, I hung in there.

We separated after 20 years, and we were separated for 10 years before we got divorced.

And all along the way, I was looking for somebody that could meet me where I was, somebody who could help with the emotional piece that I was feeling, but give me some guidance that wasn’t, “Come back to marriage counseling,” where my husband wasn’t invested and I wasn’t sure I was invested. When I went to an attorney, and they had all the horror shows that they were going to portray from me, I wasn’t ready for that.

There was a part of me that thought I was keeping my family together, because even though we were separated, living elsewhere, and even dating other people, we were still married, and my children were still part of what I considered to be an “intact family.”

However, I was doing more harm than good.

When we finally got divorced, because I hadn’t finished the process I’m going to teach you today, later we had a post-divorce problem, and we were in court with the attorneys, with the typical adversarial process, and I remember when I was in the courthouse —  I don’t know if you’ve been in the courthouse yourself — but it was almost like I was watching the walking dead, the walking wounded, the walking dead. The people that were walking up and down those hallways were traumatized.

They were in crisis. They were being led by their attorneys. They had no idea how to communicate, and I was one of them.

I sat in the courtroom with my soon-to-be beloved ex-husband on one end, and I was on the other end, and I told myself… And our attorneys were back in the other room, because I was an attorney, but the judge didn’t want to hear from me. So the attorneys were talking about our future, and we were glaring on opposite sides of the courtroom.

I told myself there had to be a better way to do this.

I was already an attorney. I became an attorney after I graduated. I didn’t practice. I was able to stay home with my children, which is great. I wasn’t really an attorney by nature. I’m not a fighter. So when I became a mediator, that was a little better, but it still didn’t do it.

Then I met Dick Schwartz.

Okay, I met Dick Schwartz. He took me on the “Self up the mountain.”  Did he ever do that one with you? So when he took me and my SELF up the mountain, and I recognized all the parts of me that wanted to stay, wanted to go, hated him, loved him, scared, terrified, hopeful, excited ,,,,,I knew I was home.

I’ve probably counseled thousands of men and women, either individually or together, and for over 30 years.

I’ve also offered it online, which has helped people online in the program.

It’s a process that I want to hand you, and today, I want you to take as much as you can, leave what you don’t.

I think we all have the same mission, really.

You know, I’m going to show you the what, but it’s really more about the why today. Why would we do it?

I mean, we do it because we’re not just helping people make decisions. We’re helping them heal, and this is a process that helps them heal and either create a new relationship from the, “Should I stay or should I go?” or to create a peaceful and respectful separation and divorce.

Join Linda Kroll, Therapist, Mediator, Attorney, and author of Compassionate Mediation®: How to Add Passion to Your Marriage or Compassion to Your Divorce, and Compassionate Divorce™: Changing the Face of Divorce, One Heart at a Time — as she shares with you her transformational process of conflict resolution.

Get Linda’s FREE Compassionate Mediation Roadmap and free training to help your clients add passion to their marriage or compassion to their divorce. You can increase your impact, expertise and income with the skills you will receive.www.CompassionateMediationTraining.com

.

Join the Compassionate Communication Community  on Facebook and stay connected with Linda.

You can send your questions to her in the group and get them answered in Facebook Lives!

Relationship Limbo – Take Time to Make a Decision.

Relationship Limbo – Take Time to Make a Decision.

Welcome to the State of Limbo -how to get clear on what to do about your relationship.

Limbe feels like that area in the travelogue in which you seem to run around in circles, or just state a sit-down strike and don’t move at all.

It may be true that your vistas are limited and your opportunities for new experiences are narrowed.

You might be willing to sacrifice the ability to move forward for the security—no matter how fleeting or illusory—of holding onto the relationship, marriage, person and/or dream. It’s your trip and you can plan it any way you want.

(Click HERE to learn about my Program to help you now!)

And when you visit or move into Limbo, you will be offered incessant advice from well-meaning friends and relatives:

  • Why don’t you just file for divorce?”
  • “Get on with your life!
  • “Why can’t you let go?”
  • “You’ll be much better off if you just face reality and move on!
  • “When are you going to wake up and let your lawyer do his job?”

And some days you will take a few steps forward, to be followed the next day by several steps back into stagnation, lethargy or the familiar territory of the State of Limbo.

WHY WE STAY IN LIMBO

Many people wonder why they can’t move on. There are several reasons:

  • ANGER —“I’m too angry to make any decision. Let him/her take action. I’m not doing anything!”
  • CODEPENDENCY — “If I stay nice/loving/available, he’ll love me more/again.”
  • DENIAL — “If I don’t make any decisions or take any actions then maybe this really isn’t happening.”
  • HOPE — “Maybe he’ll change/end the affair/give up the booze/realize what he’s missing and come home.”
  • FEAR — “I’m afraid if I let go, I’ll be a bag lady/alone/unloved unwanted/abandoned.”
  • FINANCIAL— “The money is too much to give up.”
  • GRIEF  — “It’s all I can do to function. I can’t do any more now.”
  • HEALING TIME  — “I’m adjusting to my loss and that’s all I can do at this time.”
  • LACK OF SELF ESTEEM — “I would be nothing without my spouse.”
  • MANIPULATION ‑ “I’m waiting for the right time to make any movement. I’m going to travel and spend his money for as long as I can.”
  • OVERWHELM “I feel so bad/sad/scared that I can’t seem to make any decisions.” (Deciding not to decide IS a decision.)
  • PAIN — “I hurt too much to add other things to my life now.
  • SADNESS — “I’m too sad to take any action.”
  • SELF CRITICISM — “I feel so weak, stupid, powerless.” (As you lower your already vulnerable self esteem quotient.)
  • STRATEGIC —“If he has to file first, he’ll feel more guilty and be more generous.”

HOW IT FEELS TO BE “IN LIMBO”

Sometimes limbo does offer space to heal, grieve, plan, adjust.

It is important for you to listen to your own inner voice to tell you what is right for you.

Don’t take action for the sake of pleasing anyone else or because of what other people think.  It’s your life and your future and you are the one to determine what is in your best interest.

You will know when it is time to move on, and that will be when the pain of staying where you are is greater than the fear of taking whatever is the next step for you (asking your partner to leave, leaving seeing a mediator, filing for divorce, letting your lawyer do discovery, going back to school, getting a job, etc.)

From time to time, you may feel exasperated with yourself, and then you add “guilt” to the other feelings you are trying to manage: “I know I should do something more.” (You are “shoulding” on yourself.)

Give yourself permission to be wherever you are.

Know that you are on your path and you will move forward when you are ready, willing, and able.

Don’t compound the pain of a possible separation or divorce with the guilt of “shoulding” on yourself.

Allow yourself the time and space and peace you need to adjust before you move on to the next step, whatever that is.

LEAVING LIMBO

You will be ready to move when you are aware that staying hurts too much.

And then you might move into a different state of limbo, but at least you are moving.

To help you move forward with confidence, courage, and clarity, my book will help. Compassionate Mediation® for Relationships at a Crossroads: How to Add Passion to Your Marriage or Compassion to Your Divorce.

To get a FREE Chapter, please go to www.LindaKrollbook.com

Learn more about the Compassionate Mediation Program to help you now!

Power of Gratitude

Five Steps to Receive What You Truly Want and Need

 

 


5 STEPS to RECEIVE

WHAT YOU TRULY WANT and NEED

Do you feel that your life is filled with what you truly want and need – or have you been living without your desires being met?

Here is a simple five-step process to help you receive MORE of what is important to you.

  1. REMEMBER what you want and need.
  2. Know you DESERVE to have what you want and need.
  3. Learn how to ASK for what you want and need.
  4. Be WILLING TO RECEIVE what you truly want and need.
  5. Stay GRATEFUL for what you have
    .

     

    What DO you want and need in your life?

What do you need?

When we are born, we are our natural and true SELF. We know instinctively how to get our needs met. When we are hungry or wet or tired, we let our caretakers know. And if our needs aren’t met, we complain, fuss or cry. When we are fed, dry and rested, we were usually a joy to be around, utterly adorable and totally loved. If only life after infancy were so easy!

Somewhere along the way, usually by the time we are two or three, we begin to lose sight of what we truly want and need, and even what we feel. We learn at a very early age that some behaviors get us more love and attention than other behaviors. If we are angry, we don’t get as much positive feedback as when we are pleasing. If we are sad, we may not be as cute as when we are happy. If we are scared, we may be perceived as too demanding or too weak, so we are exhorted to act brave or strong.

So we start to exile those feelings of anger, sadness or fear, and manage our lives by trying to be pleasing, happy, or competent. And this is even if we grew up in the best of homes. However if there is any dysfunction in our families of origin (and there usually is), then we may forget what we truly want and need because being a caretaker and a giver becomes our role in life. We lose sight of what is true inside of us in order to project an image that we manage to maintain.


What do you truly want in your life?

It may seem easier to know what you need because without your basic needs met, you may not survive. Every human being needs food, water, shelter. Did you put down love, affection, nurturing touch? These are what we needed as infants in order to survive and thrive. If infants are deprived of touch, they cannot mature

Although we have our basic needs, it is often more difficult to state what you want. As you answer this question, did you have a difficult time remembering? If so, try to go back in time to when you were young and carefree. What did you want then? Did you want to have fun? Did you put that down on your list?


What else do you want? Respect?

How much of what you wrote was material in nature – a new car, a new house, a new job?

What feelings would be associated with having those things you want? Success, financial freedom, a feeling of competence?

Think back, or free associate, or listen to what other people say and if you want what they want, write it on your list. “I’ll have what she’s having” (When Harry Met Sally) doesn’t mean that you are jealous or envious. It is a recognition that there are other ways of being and feeling that you would want to experience as well.


What stands in your way from getting what you want and need?

 Even if we are lucky enough to have an idea of what we want and need, most of the time we see that we don’t have it. Why not? What are the circumstances in which we find ourselves that keeps us locked away from our true desires?

Is it external to us? Other people? Our jobs? On some level, our external reality is a mirror of our internal landscape. If we are balanced, peaceful and centered, our lives reflect that. If we are out of balance, unfocused, chaotic, so is our life. Which comes first?

We tell ourselves that if our lives were different and the people in our lives were different, then we would be different. However, as we learn to shift the pattern of our internal landscape, our outer world will reflect our healing and growth. Then the situations we are in will transform and we will set the stage for different kinds of relationships.

Either the people in our lives will change as we do, or we will learn how to let go and make room to attract healthier people into our lives.

 

Do you feel you DESERVE what you want?

Deserve-ability is often an issue for most of us. Usually, again, by the time we are two or three, something has happened to us to give us a message that we are not lovable, not worthy, not good enough.

If you think back, there is some event or situation in your life, by the time you are two or three, and another one by the time you are 8 or 10, in which you came to feel or believe that you were less than…..bad, unloved, unlovable.

Sometimes the event can be as benign as the birth of a younger sibling. When I was two, my brother was born and my parents left me for two weeks in the care of an aunt and uncle. That was many, many decades ago when women were kept in the hospital for two weeks after childbirth. My father had to work late nights and couldn’t take care of me, so my aunt and uncle were enlisted for the job.

My mother had lovingly made plans for me. Her brother, my uncle, had always wanted children and had been trying for years to conceive. Several years later they adopted one. My aunt never really wanted to have children and was very cold, distant and uncomfortable. My uncle worked all the time, and I stayed with my aunt, who left me outside to play on my own.

I still have memories of being outside on the curb looking at the rows of houses that all looked alike, feeling lost and scared and probably very sad and angry at being abandoned. But my parents weren’t around, and there was no one to tell. But somehow in my bed late at night, when I would have run into my parents’ bed if I had been home, I sat alone and afraid in the dark.

And I think I decided then, though not consciously, that I would do everything in my power never to be abandoned again. I would be sweet and loving and adorable. I would never show them how angry I was – or how sad and scared. I would be so lovable that they would never want to leave me. And so my codependency was born.  Other times in life can be more damaging. Many of us have suffered abuse of some kind. Either screaming and yelling to undermine our self esteem, or actual physical or sexual abuse that makes us question our own sense of value and worth.


Are there any areas in your life of which you are ashamed?

Even if the abuse is due to the perversion of another, there is still a sense of shame attached to the victim. Sometimes as adults, we don’t remember the actual instances themselves, but we have unexplained fears, needs, compulsions.

And if we do remember, even if we intellectually know that it wasn’t “our fault”, our self esteem and self worth are affected for decades. We should have known to tell someone, we think. We shouldn’t have allowed it. We should have put a stop to it. We should not have enjoyed it.

Often we need therapy to help us let go of our erroneous self conceptions. If we don’t believe that we inherently deserve to be happy and prosperous and have what we need and want, then we won’t.

Again, our external situations are often mirrors of our internal reality. If we don’t feel we deserve something, we won’t have it. Once we know that we deserve to have our needs and wants satisfied, then we can take the steps to attain that goal. The inner knowing is the first step toward manifesting that reality.

Your thoughts are your prayers. Your thinking are the brush strokes on the canvas of your life. To change your reality, you change your thoughts.

You may need help on releasing some negative and self destructive thought patterns to enhance your knowledge of your innate deserve-ability.


Can you forgive yourself?

As you let go of self judgments and criticisms, you open the way to forgiveness.

Only by forgiving yourself for choices made, roads not traveled, actions taken or avoided, can you open yourself up to the possibility of new life experiences.

You did the best you could with what you knew at the time. And every experience, no matter how negative it may be perceived, is what made you the person you are today and brought you to this moment in time. And in this moment, you have the power to go forward with a new vision and clarity.You can hold on to your out-dated vision and version of your self, or you an open to your true Self and allow your soul to shine.

 

Can you forgive others?

Even if we manage to forgive ourselves, forgiving others is more difficult. We may feel that forgiving is condoning, or that we are letting someone off the hook too easily. We do let someone off the hook, but that someone is ourself. Hanging on to anger and resentments just poisons the mind and spirit of the carrier.

Anger is appropriate when your boundaries have been violated. It is how we learn to recognize our boundaries  review who we are in the constellation of our world. But resentments fester and corrode our spirit.

As we forgive another, we let ourselves off the hook. We are free to use our energy in ways that bring us joy.

We may need to do some work to acknowledge our feelings and release them. But once we do, our lives can be transformed.


How do you ask for what you want and need?

Once you know what it is you truly want and need, you have to work through your issues of deserve-ability BEFORE you ask for them. If you don’t believe you deserve to have them met, the way you are asking may sound like a demand, a nag, or a threat.

When you are centered in the truth of your own value and self worth, you ask from a different energy. You put out what your wishes are in a way that comes from a heart-centered place. You are not blaming, not judging, not demanding. You clearly state your feelings, and then you allow someone else the respect to respond the way they need to.

You don’t have to save them from their response. You don’t have to protect them from your needs and wants.

You are entitled to your wishes, your desires, your opinions, your feelings. If you don’t validate them for yourself, no one else can do that for you.

  • You can ask without expectations that the other person will automatically comply just because you’ve asked.
  • You can ask knowing that the other may need time to think about your request and then more time to consider whether they wish to fulfill it or not.
  • You can ask with clarity, not having to couch your words in defensive posturing so as not to make someone else uncomfortable.
  • You can ask to take care of your own needs and wants, rather than keeping still so as not to run the risk of offending someone else.

You can ask knowing that if you are asking for too much, someone can tell you, and you can adjust accordingly. You can apologize, you can reframe or rephrase your request, or you can ask someone else who might be more able or willing to comply.

If you ask knowing that you deserve what you truly want and need (as long as it is respectful of others and does not infringe on their rights or harm them in any way), then you can ask without expectations, judgments or blame – of yourself or another. Its a palms up way of communicating.

 

Are you willing to receive or are you only comfortable giving?

If you have learned how to take care of others in order to feel loved, it is often difficult to shift roles and learn how to receive. We feel more in control when we are giving. We feel less needy. We don’t have to be grateful to someone else.

I’s hard to allow someone else to give to us. We feel like we “owe” them something. We don’t know how to let it in. We are worried that we have to immediately reciprocate. We believe that getting our needs met is selfish.

If you can’t let yourself receive, you may still have some issues of deservability to work through. Go back to that step and do some more work to remove another defensive layer. As you peel back the layers on the onion of your psyche you can release more defenses and masks. You can retire some of those managers and release those exiles and come from your authentic self. And the joy of doing that work – and it is sometimes work – is that as you grow and heal and mature and blossom and become more authentic, you attract healthier and more authentic people and relationships into your life.

Are you grateful for what you do have?

No matter what are individual circumstances, there is always something or someone for which to be grateful. The more we can learn how to acknowledge the small miracles, the larger ones we will manifest.

Even your problems can be viewed as opportunities for growth and change. Be grateful for all that is part of your life, because that is part of the larger plan for your spiritual growth.

In any given moment on every day, stop and acknowledge your many gifts and blessings.

See how much of what you want and need you already have. Know how much you deserve them.

And whether you remember verbally requesting them or not, on some energetic level you did ask for them. That’s why they are there.

Know that you have the ability and power to manifest your heart’s desire, your innermost truth and to realize your every potential.

Remember what you want and need, know you deserve it all, learn how to ask for it, be willing to receive it, and always stay grateful.

 

You can receive a FREE RELATIONSHIP ASSESSMENT to make positive changes in your relationship now.

You can also add passion to your marriage (or compassion to your divorce!) with my Compassionate Mediation Program. Please learn all about it HERE.

"I’ve experienced significant improvements in my relationship with my husband and children."

 Mary

"I learned there could be a Compassionate Divorce."

Paul

“We’re building an entirely new marriage.”

Liz

“Linda guided us mindfully through the impact of divorce."

Gina

“I came to Linda seeking mediated divorce documents and came out with nothing but peace and hope."

Jeremy

“I am breaking free from destructive patterns.”

 Carol

“Linda helped me love all ‘Parts’ of my SELF!”

Deb

“With Linda’s caring guidance, I moved forward with peace and strength.”

Ann