Barb’s Blog

Ok, so I’ve been thinking of joining a gym for a long time and kept putting it off and off…well I just joined one!  It’s a woman’s only gym and you use each machine for about 30 to 60 seconds (depends on the day, sometimes it’s a 30 sec or 60 sec day).  I met with a trainer and she made out a program for me which depended on what I wanted to do with my body…no offense to Madonna, but I don’t want my body to look like hers…Ok, so I began my training…ugh…I am now in my second week and I go every other day.  I workout and have a day off.  I go around the set at the gym twice!  The first couple of times at the gym wasn’t so bad…but then came day number 6.  My gosh, I had muscles in places I didn’t know had muscles aching!!  One night I couldn’t sleep because I ached sooo bad.  Then I decided one evening that I had to get a massage or die!  So I called around, good grief, with almost 5 pages of massage therapy places you’d think I could find an appt last minute….well I did find one, with a guy.  I truly didn’t want to, no offense to the men who read this but good grief, you’re half naked lying on a bed while a guy massages you…..now get your minds outta the gutter, I am married and to me I only want my husband to massage me, well actually he does a terrible job so forget my last comment.  Anyways, I would just feel uncomfortable.  So I thought and thought about what to do.  I needed a massage and I just felt I couldn’t wait….so I went for it.  I got to my appt. and met with the guy and here he is stuttering and I’m like ok, well what do I wear.  He’s like you can leave on underwear…so of course I left my underwear and bra on.  Now here comes time for the back massage.  So he asks very politly if he can undo the bra strap, well ummmm ok.  So he tries and tries and I was about 2 secs away from saying for crying out loud I’ll do it myself and then he finally got it undone.  So I finally had a massage by a guy, not bad, but still couldn’t fully relax.  Now the gym thing again, I keep going and going and hoping it’s making a difference.  I feel good and it is helping me sleep much better.  I also get promotional offers such as the red sauna thing and tanning.  Which I have never done either of them before.  I went for my first tanning session yesterday!  So again, here I am naked in a tanning bed, good grief!!  It wasn’t too bad actually.  I don’t need tanning but I figured a little help would do wonders for my skin.  I’ve heard that it can help with the complexion.  I don’t know if it truly does or not, but oh well, I still thought it was good to be pampered a bit.  Next up with be the infra-red sauna thing.  I will post when I have my monthly check with the trainer after she measures and weighs me again to let you all know if anything has changed…it darn better that’s all I can say with all I’m going through.

I’ve also been sick.  Had a chest cold and had to change all my appointments.  Man, I hate doing that it wrecks my time with my family to have to move everything and is terrible for my clients as well…but it’s necessary and part of life I guess.  My middle child went into the hospital the other day for day surgery.  She had to have work done on her teeth.  She’s fine by the way and is her normal cranky self.

Today I reflect on Father’s Day.  As I type this my husband, father of three, is off to the zoo with our two oldest daughters to watch the zoo keepers feed the animals and then have brunch themselves.  I await their return!  My own father passed away a few years ago, I don’t remember the exact year as I chose to try not to…although I remember the exact day and time of the phone call from my mother.  My father has a massive stroke on his way to work December 11th.  He then remained in a coma for 10 days until we made the decision to turn the machines keeping his physical body alive.  I remember all the details as if they happened yesterday, his body fighting to stay alive and breathing…watching as his soul lifted away while I could hear my voice pleading for him to stay.  I also remember the Christmas present’s that still awaited him…this event changed my mother’s life, he was her life.  I miss him yet still feel his presence ever once in awhile.

For all of you who have lost a Father….I’m sorry.  I can not say I understand how you feel as each of us have our own story!  But I share in your loss.  Remember to leave nothing unsaid, be sure to tell those around you exactly how you feel.

Don’t think of him as gone away,
his journey has just begun.
Life holds so many facets,
This Earth is only one.
Just think of him as resting
from the sorrows and the tears,
in a place of warmth and comfort,
where there are no days and years.
Think of how he must be wishing
that we could know, today,
How nothing but our sadness
can really pass away
And think of him as living
in the hearts of those he touched
for nothing loved is ever lost
and he was loved so much.

Hello everyone, there are very limited days that I can ‘read’ during the day. I have opened up times from 10am to 2pm Mountain Time during the days of June 20th to June 30th.
The following days/times are booked up fully:
June 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th and 28th.
If you were wanting to book any other of the days that are opened, your best bet is to phone or email, list the preferred time and date and we’ll get it marked in for you.

“I look upon death to be as necessary to the constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”     ~ Benjamin Franklin

  www.barb-powell.com

I am back from Regina.  Was a long couple of days but I’m glad and feel very accomplished that I have reached as many people as I did.  There are not too many consultations that I have with people that greatly affect me.  Not to be mean, but there is part of me that I have to disassociate my work from my emotions.  Just as a doctor has to disassociate from their clients.  However, this past weekend I had encountered a couple of ‘tough’ sessions.  It’s very emotionally difficult to bring through certain loved ones who have crossed over that you can just feel the pain in the living.   It hurts physically and emotionally.  Or those sessions with the living who are what I call ‘lost’, because no matter what you actually say…they may not be at a place to ‘get it’.  But I say everything I need to say and spirit needs to say, because some day down the road they may ‘get it’ and the change will begin.  I always tend to worry whether this work is what I’m suppose to do,  just like everyone else I guess who take a good look at their own stories.  The other day I sat down with myself in the dark and asked, “what I can do to help, to change the world, to inspire, to make people happy, to motivate”.  The answer I got was:  ”There will be those who will agree and there will be those who disagree.  There will be those who will try to defeat and persecute.  Keep doing what you’re doing, it would be no different if you were to change your life for others.” 

So I am left the in the same place that I began.  The most important thing is that I am happy.  There was a time in my life that I had to my life, yet what I didn’t understand at the time is that life keeps changing.   

The following are some of my personal sayings that I’ve learned over time.  We all know them, but the hardest part is to actually live by them:  

• Don’t make things harder than they have to be.
• Who needs enemies when we see them staring back at us in a mirror…be kind to yourself.
• We are all individually powerful!  We can change the ending of our own personal story.
• Stop living in the past!  Don’t take offense but I don’t care what has happened to you yesterday or 10 years ago…what’s important is what happens tomorrow.  What are you going to do…resist or yield?
• There comes an age with our children that we have to parent differently.  They are adults and must make their own choices and decisions, they mostly want support and encouragement.  They’ll then come to the correct choice without pressure.
• Stop caring about what society wants or expects…you’re the only one who can take care of you.  Trust yourself!
• You can work on trust by trusting yourself first through your actions.
• Listening to your intuition can give you the means to depend on yourself rather than rely completely on others.

My favorite quotes from my personal journal:

“If you are going through hell, keep going”
- Winston Churchill

“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”
- Christoper Columbus

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”
- Confucius

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all”
- Oscar Wilde

“You don’t get to choose how you are going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you are going to live. Now.”
- Joan Baez 

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight; and never stop fighting”
- E.E. Cummings