ancient oracle

In ancient times an oracle was a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion
who offered predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods.
We need a modern oracle for today’s confusing world.

I have begged, no pleaded, no it’s more like cajoled, well actually it’s that I kicked some you- know-what to get my business partner Ian Waddelow to answer the call to provide wisdom to our confused modern world.

Mystery Oracle Ian

Ian is my collaborator and co-creator in Retreat 42 and that’s where so many people got to partake of Ian’s wonderful wisdom. Every time he would speak it was as if the room would go silent and people’s ears would turn up the volume to listen.

First of all it’s his beautiful British accent.  Who can resist that?  None of us with an ear for a fine symphony, that’s for sure.

But more than that it is his humorous and practical way to address the modern dilemmas that all of us face as human beings on planet earth.  Who am I really and what am I here to do? are just some of the deeper, more philosophical questions that Ian loves to answer for people.

During Retreat 42, several of our participants got to speak to Ian directly and gain insights from his knowledge of Human Design (more about that later).

But I felt that this tiny bit of wisdom, like a precious drop of nectar in honeysuckle, was simply not enough.  So I asked him, no cajoled, well actually threatened him, to share his wisdom with the wider world.

I pleaded, screamed, got down on my knees and begged him and I don’t know if it was my dramatic antics or just the fact that he’s worn down by all this, but GREAT NEWS – he finally said YES! So we have begun a fun adventure that is an offshoot of Retreat 42.

It is called, “Ask the Oracle.“

Ask Ian

Now please know that Ian DOES NOT want to be called an oracle.  This is where the pleading came in on my part.  Ian is very understated.  He is classy, elegant and very British, while I am brash, bold and very American.  Thus we are the perfect partners.

I love the term oracle.  So yes it was my idea to give it this title, but I did so for several reasons:

1. Our modern lives are damned confusing and it helps to feel in contact with our deeper selves.  An oracle is a source of insight and guidance that helps you know yourself first, thus the phrase, “To Thine Own Self Be True.”
2. We need practical wisdom for our modern lives and Ian enjoys sharing it.  When you hear him you’ll know what I mean.
3. An oracle brings us closer to ourselves and closer to the source.  What could be more needed than that?

I just love the word oracle.  It comes from the Latin orare, meaning to speak.  When we listen to an oracle, what we really hear is ourselves.

I am totally partial to Ian’s wisdom, but I think you’ll love him too.  He’s helped so many of us Retreat 42′ers and if you let him, he’ll help you too.

Best of all he’s happy to do it.  He enjoys sharing the answers that come and hey it’s completely free, as all of the best oracles are.  We would not cheat you on this regard.  He is a first class oracle.  Money back guaranteed.  :>)

So you excited?  I am.  I’ve got my pad and pen and am getting my questions ready for the oracle.

Would you like to be one of the first to get your questions answered??

All you need to do is just go to our Facebook page and be one of our first fans.  ‘Like’ the page and then post a question for Mr. Ian Oracle and he will answer it for you in just a few days.

Don’t delay. Run, don’t walk to our Facebook page and Ask the Oracle right now!

We all need wisdom for our modern lives.

P.S in case it wasn’t obvious how to get to the Facebook page, just click on the words, Facebook page above.

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super duper foods

Why am I writing about food?  Well food is life and I care about life, so it makes sense that I would to write about the Super Duper Foods for Life that I highly recommend.

First I’ll tell you a little story about how I came to know about these foods  I had the great good fortune of being sick for many years and didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Doctors are inadequate in this regard for me, especially involving nutrition, so I had to dig around a lot on my own.  What I found out is that modern food cultivation and preparation practically ruins everything we eat.

While many foods are touted as ‘fat reducing’ etc, if you really look at it, they are artificially synthesized foods.  This never works well for the body.  If you get back to basics and draw from the best of nature, you will be in good shape.

It’s not fats or carbs that are a problem on their own, it is the way food is produced, what we eat and how much we eat.

But beyond this, there are also some super duper foods that are extra good for you and that almost no one knows about.  So being sick was life changing for me because I got a chance to research and listen to my body and discover things that I never would have known otherwise.

I never restrict what I eat, I just enjoy a nourishing palate of amazing foods and I am happy, healthy and wise.  Well the last one can be contended!  But these yummy goody goody good for you foods make all the difference in my life.  I enjoy what I eat and look forward to every single day.   So I thought that I’d share my Super Duper Foods for Life with you.

green smoothie

So here are my top five super-life changing foods:

1. I drink a Green Smoothie every single day.  I know that is not a single food, it’s a drink but I had to include it.  My smoothie includes fruit and some kind of raw dark green vegetable blended up in a blender.  Wow, my skin is gorgeous and my energy level soared after I began this.  I am barely hungry until lunch time.  Then about an hour later I drink a second smoothie with several of my top foods right in it.  They are:
2. Spirulina – what the heck is that?  It is a blue-green algae (I know that sounds gross but read on).  Spirulina lives off sunlight and is one of the most nutrient packed foods I know of, plus is 70% protein.  Can’t beat that!  Then I also include another yummy treat in my smoothie which is:
3. Raw chocolate – YUMMMY! I read a book called, Naked Chocolate years ago (I know don’t you love that title!) and I was amazed to discover just how many nutrients raw chocolate (aka cacao) has.  It has to be raw though, once it’s cooked they disappear.
4. Ready for this one?  All you former pot heads will be happy about this, Hempseed is also one of the most nutritious foods around.  Great in smoothies or on salads.
5. Last but not least a favorite for health of the intestines, which is crucial for immune health, is the delicious homemade Kefir.  Kefir is a naturally fermented milk drink, like a yogurt only more beneficial and it keeps you happy, healthy and long living.  It’s super easy to make at home.  You just need a starter.

So there you go.  Here are your Super Duper enjoyable healthful foods for life.

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life changing

I decided to create a tongue-in-cheek video this week about changing people’s lives.  As I’ve been working with my branding manager on creating my new website, he insists that my tag line be:

Annie Hart – Life Changing

I love it but at the same time I realize that it’s nearly impossible to say that you change people’s lives.  In my field, everyone says that they change people’s lives so who is going to believe you if you say you do?

Years ago I used to have this dilemma in a different way.  Back before the field of coaching existed, I would try to tell people what I did for a living and I would always run up against a wall.  I had no idea what to say.

So I would mumble a bit and then finally mutter under my breath, “Um I change people’s lives.”  That would stop the person dead in their tracks and they would say, “Really?? How do you do that?”  Then the conversation would be quite animated as they found out about my work.

no small task

Changing people’s lives is no small task.  It requires humility, perseverance against all odds, knowing when to listen, knowing when to back off and most important of it, it requires knowing who you can help and who you can’t.

So I do change people’s lives and I’m damned proud to be able to say so.  After all these years it finally rolls off my tongue without too much of a glitch.

But I don’t take it lightly either.  I’ve come by my skills both due to having had amazing mentors and do to the hard knocks of real life.  I’ve learned from my own foibles and failures and from worked and didn’t work with my clients.

But the irony is that although I use the tag line, “Life Changing,” it’s really my life that is changed by doing the work that I do.  I am the lucky one, to be privy to the tender, raw and real insides of people’s lives and to have the trust that they place so delicately in my hands.

changing lives

I take care to never tromp on their trust or to act in anything less than integrity.

Changing people’s lives is the most beautiful and the hardest task of all, because you have to be real and true to yourself.  You have to live by your principles you can’t just talk about and take the easy way out.

It ain’t easy but it’s life changing to change people’s lives.  So here I am after all these years telling the truth for the first time.  I am Annie Hart and I change people’s lives.

Look for my new website coming in the next few months!

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If you can weather the feeling that you’re going to be a failure, then the journey of creating something new is totally worth it.

This year I’ve had two amazing opportunities thus far to reap the pearls out of seemingly hopeless mess!

The first was in creating Retreat 42, a retreat in daily life. When I set out on my own personal retreat I asked the question, “How can I get bigger projects off the ground?” I was really stuck and I wanted to find out how to break through that.

I didn’t set out to create a program, write or book or do any of the other amazing things that came out of it. I just set out to answer one HUGE question but much to my surprise, out of that mess came a whole host of beautiful creations.

Voila’ out of the mess comes amazing new life.  That is if you can weather the discomfort of it all.

So what are the challenges and discomforts of creating out of the mess?

• we hate to feel like a failure and when you’re in a mess it feels like anything but success.
• you feel confused, so you might consider yourself off-track but you’re really not.
• messy times are so darned uncomfortable that we tend to avoid them, therefore very few people know how to support you through the messy times.
• it feels just awful sometimes, kind of like being covered in mud or sludge.

So think of it this way – mess is part of nature and the natural cycle of life.  Your garden is a good example.

At the end of the season everything is dying and worn down.  It all rots (smells awful) and goes back into the ground where it reemerges as fertile nutrients.

Think lotus rising out of the muddy pond and you will get the feeling of the potential of the messy bogs of your life.

Don’t be afraid of them, don’t back off, don’t believe what anyone else tells you.

The messy, boggy, sloggy and muddy side of life is fertile ground.  Today enjoy the beauty of the mess.  You just might be onto something.

So just remember:

P.S I’m not talking mess in the sense of leaving your dishes undone or your clothes all over the floor!

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the good life

There I was living in Europe with my gorgeous European (Italian or Spanish) husband, my beautiful children and living the good life.  I was always eating delicious food, being totally loved and adored and it was always sunny.

That is in my dreams and fantasies about my life!

But that life has not happened, nor anything even close to it.  Yes I have traveled and lived in Europe.  Yes I have dated European men, but I am not married, do not have children, do not live in a Tuscan village and do not receive foot rubs every day as in my dreams.

So the question is – when is my REAL life going to show up??

That answer is – it’s not.  The life I’m living now is my real life.  It’s the life that I never thought I’d be living but it’s exactly the life I’m meant to have.  God forbid I should even be grateful for it and not wishing for that fantasy life that I envisioned for so long.

Now I am the first one to believe in dreaming and envisioning things, but in my Peter Pan-ish youth, I didn’t understand the reality factor of these things.  We don’t, in my humble opinion, come into this life to ‘manifest our perfect dream life.‘

the perfect dream life

Much to the contrary, we come to grow, be humbled, to be challenged into changing ourselves and ultimately become a better person.  This doesn’t necessarily happen by receiving the picture-perfect dream life.

So how do I reconcile those dreams, visions, fantasies and wishes?  I don’t.  I always live with this idea of an ideal life inside of me but on a regular basis I try to be cognizant of what I actually have.

I am not saying this is easy.  I still want my fantasy life.  But I would hate to be at the end of my life and realize that I wasted huge chunks of it, waiting for something that was never meant to happen.

What a waste that would be.

Neither do I want to stop dreaming and wishing for a life beyond what I have now.  That’s not good either.  Our spirit always needs to grow, expand and fly.

I think of it this way – life is made of sugar and salt.  Salt is the tougher element, the one that breaks down other elements of nature.  Salt is the part of my life that challenges me to grow beyond what I think I need.

Then there is the sweet side of life, the ‘dolce’ in my vita.  That is the part of life that is naturally easy and pleasurable.  It’s easy to love this side of life, but hard not to hate the other.  But all sugar and no salt would be a sickeningly sweet life.

Try to convince me of that when a gorgeous Italian male comes to rub my feet and you’ll see that I’m a liar, but since that’s not going to happen today, I’m going to accept the sugar and the salt and love them both.

salty and sweet life

I do love salty potato chips  and I do love chocolate, so if you eat chips and chocolate every day your life will be just peachy.  Oops that’s another sweet!

You get the idea.  The life we wish for is never going to show up like we see it in our inner movie.  Does it mean we should stop dreaming?  Absolutely not, but at the same time when we accept the salty, life  naturally gets sweeter.

Viva la dolce vita!

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meaningful life

Recently it’s come up several times where someone has commented to me that I’ve helped them to create a life of meaning.

Wow, what could be a better gift than that?

It helped me to see that this is no small thing and it’s not something that we’re automatically taught how to do in our modern world.  I do believe that in ancient times this was part of our culture, but today it is definitely not.

So it made me think about what it is that actually creates a life of meaning and I came up with a few things.

First through let me tell you how I figured this out for myself.  It has to do with my being a stubborn mule.  My grandmother would always say to my mother, “Oh she’s so sweet,” and my mother would answer, “Oh Mom you don’t know her, she’s stubborn as a mule.”

stubborn mule

My mother was right of course and my stubornness actually served me in this regard.  It served me because I absolutely refused to live a superficial life.  I just couldn’t do it.

When everyone else was hunkering down to make money after college, I was traveling around the world – living, learning and gathering hunky boyfriends (but that is another story!)

I had a hard time doing those ordinary jobs that everyone else was doing.  I remember one time I went to work as a temp in an office.  I lasted all of about 2 hours before I hightailed it out of there.

I was sitting at a keyboard typing in some data when I asked the guy next to me how long he’d been there and he said, “Five years.” but the look on his face told me everything.

I asked him how he liked it and he said he hated it.  I was shocked.  You hate it and you’ve been here five years??  That so unnerved me that I told them I was sick and went home before lunch.  I didn’t even last half a day.  Selling my soul to an unhappy job was not my thing.

So point #1 is - to create a meaningful life you’ve got to dare NOT to do what you really don’t want to do and would hate doing.

Got that?  Do not, absolutely do not, do things just because they are:

1. a good idea
2. someone tells you that you should
3. you think it’s the only way to do it

Not of this is true.  It’s all a lie.  You can live a life of meaning but you’ve got to risk NOT to follow the crowd.  Got that?

steer your ship

Now then how do you steer yourself towards what has lasting value?  Well sometimes that’s not easy either but let me give you a clue.  Lasting value is not in these things:

1. money
2. a new boyfriend or girlfriend
3. chocolate (unless you eat enough of it)
4. a new car
5. you get the idea

So point number two is – think about the things that you can do to make a better world, change yourself and help those around you.

A full-filling life is found in the deeper sense of contributing to life.

That will contribute to a meaningful life more than anything.  For at the end of the day or the end of our lives, we are not here for ourselves.  We are here to share and make a difference for others.

There’s more I could say but just these tips for now.  How can you stop following the crowd and how can you steer towards what contributes to the world and has lasting value.

Hope you enjoy the post and feel free always to share your stories!

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