Faith isn’t about the days when things are going well.

Faith isn’t about the days when the launch brings in thousands, when the spouse comes home and gives you a kiss and asks you how your day has been and actually listens to your answer, when everyone is healthy, when you have a fully funded emergency savings account, when you get 10 interviews and 3 job offers and can take your pick.

Faith isn’t about when you’re following the rules, when you’re doing what the seven step system details for you, when you’re going along with what everyone approves of and what you’re supposed to do.

Faith isn’t about when you feel close to God, when you feel loved and cared for, when you feel brave and able to tackle anything that comes your way because of all the support and strength and power you have behind you.

Faith is about those other days.

When you send out the big email and get no response. Again. When you apply for the jobs and only receive contributions to your pile of 40 rejection letters. When your spouse doesn’t make eye contact when he comes home from work and you do the dishes so you can hide your silent crying from the kids. When no one replies to your texts and you wonder if friendships are an exercise in futility. When your kid gets sick and the doctors are condensing and the insurance company won’t pay for what she needs. When you’re using a gas station credit card to buy generic milk and white bread and non-organic bananas because you have no cash for the regular grocery store, much less Whole Foods. When you wonder if the higher power you’ve been praying to this whole time is just a collective figment of humanity’s wishful imagination and you’re just another fool.

Faith is about what you do on the days when you don’t feel any faith.

Faith is about continuing to go on – even though you’ve failed so many times you have lost track, even though you don’t believe someone could love you, even though you’re not sure why anyone would hire you, even though you’re afraid you’re a terrible mother, even though everyone thinks you’re crazy, even though you don’t think you’ll ever feel better, even though you don’t know if anyone or anything is listening when you kneel down to pray.

Faith is about being in the dark, lonely pit of doubt and futility, and doing it anyway.

Faith is when giving up becomes unacceptable.

There are a lot of things you can use to help you continue on those dark days.

• Having friends or coaches who you can help you remember that the darkness and doubt are liars.
• Creating routines of meditation or prayer or yoga or walking in nature or another spiritual practice that you do even on days when you don’t feel like it.
• Reading or listening to stories of other humans who continued to have faith, even when they had absolutely no logical reason backing them up.

So, what about you?

What do you do on days when you don’t have faith? What helps you to keep going on, when things are bad?

Please share your ideas and resources below – it would help us all to hear them.

–

Next week I’ll be sharing with you one such collection of stories of people who refused to follow the rules even when things didn’t always go well and everyone thought they were nuts – so you can learn from their stories, use it to bolster your faith, and see how you can apply it to your life.

That program (Question the Rules) is not the right thing for all of you, so I’ll share my updated review of the latest version of this program next week so you can make the best decision for your situation. (Of course, I arranged it so you guys get a big discount for a couple days, to make it more accessible for those who need it.)

In the meanwhile, if you’re having a bright everything-is-going-well day, then congratulations and blessings to you, I’m happy for you!

If you’re having a dark, confusing, futility-laden day, know that you’re not the only one.

And, know that it gets better. I promise.

There is a calm. A grounding.

An ability to see things how they are, not that which my worry imagines they could horribly metamorphosize. Not how they should have been if I had know better, if I was a good mother, if they had treated me right, if I could write all futures.

I’m here.

Yes, there were tactics I used to bring this calm into my life.

Accepting that I am Highly Sensitive and, as such, living in a high-rise in San Francisco a block from Fire Station No. 1 and riding in packed & smelly public transit system all day was not healthy for my body or my soul.

Allowing myself to be healed not only of the injury that was on the surface, but the damage done to me by the tumor my daughter carried in her brain. Healing of the meanness the Ideal Woman in my head pounded me with over the last few years. Healing of wounds I had suffered for so long, I forgot what it was like to be undamaged.

Deciding. Moving. Buying. Signing. Starting new projects, registering new domain names, beginning a certification program in the MBTI and a Master of Arts in Human Behavior.

Writing three pages in my journal each morning, to dump out the crap and the drama and to spread out what’s underneath onto the page, so the truth can reveal.

Playing with a new business plan, a new daily schedule, a new way to arrange my desk. Playing with room for the current iteration of Live Your Truth, room to expand into what Live Your Truth will become, room for entirely new projects that are inviting me forward.

Practicing. Touching. Being. Living the feeling of grounded as I rest here on my sofa entering characters into OMM Writer with my eyes closed, letting the words flow from my insides out onto the screen.

But this transformation didn’t magically happen because of any one of these pills.

Transformation happens in the nexus.

The nexus of these tools and this moment. The nexus of what you do now with all the good and bad and powerful and traumatic that has happened in your life, up until today. The nexus of the pill you practice and the truth that you are.

It is true, that I invite you to find out if your environment supports your temperament.

I invite you to heal injuries that continue to wound you.

I invite you to decide, to move forward, to expand.

I invite you to write.

I invite you to create a schedule with space for where you are going.

I invite you to practice being grounded in this moment.

But I remind you.

What you do this weekend, what you experience in that program, what you write from that journal prompt, what you fix with that healer – the results from those tactics may happen all at once.

Or they may not show up for years.

Just like social media campaigns, constructing a new two car garage, or conceiving a new member of your family, transformational results do not flow immediate from a tactic.

Transformation flows from the strategy.

Do the Work.

Pay Attention.

Love.

Live.

Accept.

Take the Risk.

Have Faith.

Trust.

Trust that the dividends of our investments of work and attention and love and living will reveal themselves in their own time.

When we are ready.

We just have to keep showing up.

—

Are you still waiting for peace to arrive? Are you frustrated because you’re doing all the right things and it hasn’t happened yet?

Have you done work where the results showed up for you years later? Are things finally coming together for you?

I’d love to hear from you below!

(if you can’t see the video, watch it on youtube here).

Living Your Truth means creating an entire life that is the natural expression of who you really are.

Living Your Truth is about your work, business, the way you make money and the way you market – your body, possessions, environment, time, energy, money – your relationships and passions and message to the world.

Living Your Truth is about bringing all of those areas into resonance with the core uniqueness of you – so you can be more satisfied & fulfilled, peaceful & powerful. So you can bring the greatest change to the world.

More Live Your Truth audio interviews, video classes, articles, and other information will be coming here soon, including information about the upcoming 18 Days to Live Your Truth ecourse (starting June 6, 2011). Signup for the EPW newsletter (above, on the right) to stay in the loop!

yep, pretty much what I do for everyone in my events & programs!

But the thing is, I need coaching too!

It’s hard for me to have any objectivity about my own Live Your Truth-ing, not-just-shoulding, calling-me-on-my-crap, even though I’ve created the freaking programs and am in the middle of writing the book.

(And, by the way, if you meet a coach / teacher / guru / blogger / leader who acts as if they don’t need to study / grow / learn / reexamine their own crap … be very wary. If you’re no longer growing, you’re shrinking.)

So, without further ado, here’s the Declaration of ElizabethPW!

I declare that doing things that make me feel expansive, peaceful, useful, important, connected, and in the moment, turn me on.

I declare that above all I’m unique because I’m smart, creative, brave, open, accepting, receptive, fun, honest, committed, and create a space for others to live their truth.

I declare that I’m willing to set the stage by asking for help, taking personal risks, accepting where I am, letting go of the clock and to do list & just being, letting people connect with me, and by taking a moment to breathe.

I declare that I am successful every day when I connect with people who love me, when I have fun, and when I feel inspired, confident, peaceful, and unbound by time.

I declare that money adds value to my life by giving me more opportunities to feel pretty, reduce tension, explore my boundaries, spend time with people I love (including myself), support my daughter’s growth & joy, and connect with the beauty of the world.

I declare that it’s important for me to celebrate my wins (both big and small) because I need to acknowledge and appreciate my awesomeness and how far I have come!

I declare that I can trust that there are people who love me, that my desires were designed by my creator, that I am here & the people I’m with were put here for a reason, that inspiration is a valuable resource people pay for, and all things happen easier, better & faster without me forcing or worrying about it.

First I tell you the Amazing (somewhat-lame-excuse) Story.

How today I’m so crazy and embarrassed and sentimental that seven years ago I launched my first website at pottsweinstein.com, for Potts Weinstein Financial Consulting (personal financial & estate planning).

How ha! ha! ha! I launched a business on April Fools Day! How foolish of me!

And omg, the website was so ugly / badly marketed / terribly copywritten / had no CTA / acted as if I was a big corporation so clients would drive down my residential street and be like WTH where is the big office building.

And we all think to ourselves, ah yes, that first job / business / website / blog, we were also all so foolish / young / desperate / trying to pretend that we actually knew what we were doing.

And then I say, so, in celebration / anniversary / irony of that first website going up, I’m having a sale!

(As if that has anything to do with a sale? Why did we need an excuse anyway? Oh yes, because we have to have a story to sell things and the story is the excuse but really it’s just bullshit. Of course, this anti-story is just another story. So there you go.)

The real reason I’m having a sale is about necessity and deadlines.

I didn’t have time to launch a new virtual program in February or March (as you read this I’m hosting the Live Your Truth Adventure live event here in San Francisco) and some of you guys need a deadline to get you to make a decision on the stuff I already have available.

So, here’s your deadline, my dears.

Use the FOOL coupon code TODAY ONLY and get 30% OFF everything.

That’s one day only, April 1, 2011, from midnight to midnight EASTERN time.

And that’s everything I sell – including virtual programs AND consulting AND the other 2011 Live Your Truth Adventure events.

(how it works is you just go put the thing you want in the shopping cart, and then when you get to the page to enter your name etc. then you can enter the coupon code and hit “apply” and the 30% off will appear on your entire order, like magically and stuff. yay internet!)

Here’s your options of cool Live Your Truth stuff you can partake yourself of:

Want to catch up on the first year of Live Your Truth?

Get all of the blog posts and video transcripts in the Year One of Living Your Truth 400+ page ebook! Regular price $17, sale price $11.90

Want my Advice/Ideas/Feedback, One-on-One?

Consulting via email, Skype, and telephone is available, starting with email consulting at regular price $27, now $18.90 per session (yes, you can buy now and use anytime!)

Want to learn how to Live Your Truth on Video?

Learn how to create videos that speak your truth and engage with your tribe – Quickstart regular price $37, sale price $25.90 & 4 Weeks to Video regular price $147, sale price $102.90

Wish you were playing with us at today’s Live Your Truth Adventure?

Join the Adventure (with just 2 other people!) in September or November – regular price $497, sale price $347.90 (payment plans available!) [note: there are 5 seats available as of 4/1/11 at 9:35 AM Eastern]

If you have any questions, ask them asap to me via email at elizabeth[at]elizabethpw.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as we take a break at LYTA – and, don’t forget that the sale is over at Midnight Eastern (9 PM Pacific)!

~ Elizabeth

P.S. If you really want to get the best value, I suggest you look at the Live Your Truth Adventure Event or Consulting with me (especially if you’re thinking about phone consulting) – this is the lowest price LYTA will ever be, and I may not put consulting on sale again.

P.P.S. This isn’t a joke. You can count on this b/c I’m a dork and don’t know how to pull off April Fools Jokes. That is all.

The spoon did not decide to be a spoon.

Her spooning is the natural expression of the fibers of her being.

Even more, her spooning is the natural expression of her creator, embodied in this corporal existence inside the physicality of her, the spoon.

It is that simple.

It is that beautiful. It is that pure and purposeful and the joyful allowing of her destiny.

Except.

Except for the utensil drawer.

The spoon enters the world and finds herself surrounded. By forks, knives, serving spoons, pizza cutters, turkey basters, those picks for corn on the cob.

She wishes she could be more. She wishes she could do more.

She wishes she were like them.

She says, “look at what a fork can do with the chicken, look at what the knife can do to the bread, they are all so much more valuable and important and successful! What is wrong with me? Why can’t I fit in? Everything would be better and easier and more important.”

The fork says, “there’s no future in spooning! You will be safer if you fork like us! I’m sure you could if you just try harder!”

So she aspires to fork, or shovel, or play the tambourine.

Some of her endeavors are moderately successful. Some are failures. All require force. Pushing. Making. Suffering.

She worries, “I must not be a good utensil. If I stop for a second, this will all collapse. I must keep trying harder, or what will become of myself? I must make these forks like me, I must do more forking, or I will be abandoned, I will die.”

She is drained. All is only about work and waiting and monochrome flatness. Life is hard.

So she wallows in the acquisition of yet fancier utensil baskets, she drowns herself in the spirits of the bar, she runs away to hide in the child’s sandbox.

Until.

Until she hits the bottom of the sandbox, and reflected there in the quartz crystalline fragments she finds a glimpse of her truth looking right back at her.

And she remembers.

“I am a spoon.”

Not just remembers in her head, but she begins to feel it in the entire length of her.

In her very metallic nature, she begins to feel the truth of her spoonness.

She remembers spooning when she was first created, she remembers those moments, those secret stollen seconds where she spooned in the middle of the night, or when the forks weren’t looking, or when a spooning was needed and she was the only one around to do it.

She begins to hear the voice of the creator in her soul.

Yes, she requires rehabilitation. Yes, years of forking took a toll on her, she requires polishing, relearning, stretching of her spooning muscles, keeping up on the latest in spooning techniques.

Yes, this requires energy. She works at remembering how to be a spoon, at being her best self, at relearning what she had been created with but had forgotten in her attempts to be what she is not.

But the only remaining fight, the only resisting force – is her denial, her fear, her possibly running away again from the real of her creation.

She wonders, “but is this enough? This is so in the flow, being a spoon is so natural to me, how can it be valuable, how can this be important to anyone?”

Because being a spoon is natural to the spoon.

But the soup looks at her in wonder and says, “to me, you do the impossible.”

The effortless carrying provided by the spoon, this is what the soup could never do for herself.

The soup’s nature, her very purpose would remain unfulfilled, would remain unrealized, if it were not for the natural glory of the spoon.

This exploration of what truths resonate all started one morning when I was having breakfast with my insightful boyfriend Robin. We were sipping some green juice and the topic turned serious as we discussed the meaning of life.

More than once we found each other nodding enthusiastically about what the other had said. Other times we’d shake our heads skeptically. We were on the same page for certain things, but had completely different world views for others.

I quoted the philosophical musings of Anastasia from the book “The Ringing Cedars of Russia”, which I paraphrased as:

“Every one of us has the infinite knowledge and truth of the Universe inside of us, and it is not our duty to expound it upon others. It is up to each of us to find our own truth and live it by example.”

At this point in the conversation I knew I had to write this and share it with everyone here who is living their truth…

Then my boyfriend said something that made my jaw drop. He said that sometimes when we really agree with what someone says, when something “resonates”… it’s because what the other person said is also within us.

When someone says something that resonates with you, it’s because you have that same truth within yourself and this idea strikes a chord in you that causes resonation.

When we say that we’re on “the same wavelength” with someone it’s because our truths are the same or match a similar pattern.

It’s surprising how many times I get a chill down my spine because the truth of a conversation or idea cuts straight through me. My truth recognizes this outside truth, and it’s like a confirmation of who I am and my beliefs.

Why Some Truths Don’t Resonate

I often wonder why some truths and ideas don’t resonate. It could be that the person proclaiming these truths actually doesn’t believe in it themselves. For example they may be repeating someone else’s truths, instead of digging deep to find their own.

Or there is an inconsistency within them that makes it hard for them to express their truth fully. Maybe they’re holding something back, and a subconscious part of us knows this. This happens a lot in mainstream advertising, where you see a commercial for some “green” product that has a bigger ecological footprint than it wants you to know.

These are the things that don’t resonate. Of course not everything needs to resonate with everyone. I believe that we all draw from the same inspirational well, but we may understand these truths differently or interpret them differently as well.

How to Allow Your Truth to Resonate with Others

Elizabeth is a perfect example of someone who can express her truth and have people open up and experience it with her. She tells it like it is, and shares the things that most people are afraid to say. That’s why she is able to cause so much resonation – people hear in her voice what they have already been thinking.

Do you have any theories about why you resonate with certain people and certain ideas? I want to know in the comments below!

About the Author: Nathalie Lussier loves creating, thinking up strategic business ideas, and helping people bring their art into their work. She’s spent years honing her “Internet Intuition,” and can help others build an online business that harnesses their unique essence. Follow her on Twitter @NathLussier.

And the only way to create that for my people is to first create that for myself.

So instead of New Year’s Resolutions I’m focusing on personal projects – such as getting better sleep, setting up & practicing a beauty self-care routine, improving the flexibility in my hips/waist/back, etc – that will help create that space in my life.

The most important trick is that I’m only being with one project at a time, and I’m being with that project until it’s done.

Whether it takes 3 weeks or 3 months or all year.

(The idea is that I’m able to be with the project in the feminine because I have *more than enough* time … but since I’m only doing one at a time I’m tricking my feminine into focusing without her turning into a guy. This trick is something we’ll be talking about in the 2011 Business Plan from the Feminine class next week.)

Project #1: Hacking Sleep – Week 1

A good night’s sleep.

Without it – my workouts don’t make a difference, I crave crappy food or forget to eat entirely, I’m living on coffee and diet Dr. Pepper, I’m tired & moody & short-tempered, I don’t enjoy my daughter or the other people I love, I can’t write or think or create.

Without sleep, I pretty much go to crap.

And for the last 6 years my sleep has been horrid.

But it wasn’t always this way.

For the first 30 years of my life, I slept 7 to 7 1/2 hours a night. I thought I never woke up during the night and always had dreams. Slept like a rock, through anything, no problems, no alarm, waking up by 5:30-6:30 am like I had a clock in my head.

And then, in 2004, I got pregnant.

When the hormones kicked in around week 7, my brain turned to some sort of mommyness that changed my sleep forever.

And while I still don’t use an alarm clock (I still wake up without fail by 5:30-6:30 am, regardless of when I went to sleep or how much sleep I got, unable to sleep in no matter what), I sleep lightly.

Plagued by whorlybrain. Hear every noise. Wake up unsatisfied & already tired & unable to handle the stress of the day without turning into an absolute pisshead.

And the worst part … this insane part of me prided myself on getting no sleep.

I still got stuff done, I stayed up late emailing and got up early to write blog posts and kept taking care of my daughter and pushing through and making it happen and getting everything done on the to do list.

That even with 5 or 3(!) hours of sleep I could survive.

As if my life is just about *survival* …

No.

My life is not about survival. Fuck that.

My life is about Ecstasy.

So project #1 towards a life of ecstasy is to create the foundation for it to happen.

To create the conditions and the routines necessarily for a good night’s sleep.

I’ll be sharing more about what I’m using (the Zeo sleep coach machine) & what I’ve already discovered (like that I get better sleep when I go to bed an hour later) in upcoming posts.

But for now, I ask you – are you just surviving in your life, or are you thriving?

Is your life something you’re enduring, or enjoying?

Are you taking in the amazing people and experiences, or are you unable to because of lack of sleep, lack of good food, poor health, draining people, or inadequate self care?

Where are you on creating space for ecstasy?

Let me admit something. I’m not usually at a loss for words.

But when it comes to describing my truth, I get tongue tied. My mind goes off in a million different directions and I really can’t understand why.

I can write out a blog post of 800+ words in less than 10 minutes with little need for revision. I can easily explain via phone, text, blackberry messenger, twitter, email or face to face the who, what, when, where, why and how of any fitness, running, health, medical, nutritional, wellness- related questions or concerns.

But my truth?

No go.

I can’t do it.

I started to think that there might be something wrong with me. Why couldn’t I define what truth means to me? What was the hold-up? Where was I getting myself stuck?

That’s when I realized it.

(After many hours agonizing, after many drafts later, I finally “got” it.)

For me, there isn’t just one prevailing concept.

There isn’t just one thing that stands out.

It all stands out.

My passion for connection, for creativity, for exercise and movement, for helping others break-through boundaries, for my need to communicate, for my need for silence, for healing, for laughter, for family, for friends, for needing to be alone, for my faith and spirituality, for animals and nature, for healthy living, for fruits and vegetables, for wine and chocolate, for staying out late all night, for extreme self care, for loving with every ounce of my soul, for break downs before the break throughs.

All of this is a part of me and a part of my truth.

I cannot claim one without claiming all of them and more.

Let me put it to you this way, I think of my truth very much like an uncut diamond.

(I love bright, shiny objects so just go with me here.)

While I know at one point I’ll have more facets than I can count, right now I’m just aware of a few.

Some of them may reflect upon another, but all of them are individual in their own right.

As I polish myself up, as I learn more about who I am and what truth means to me, my facets are revealed and begin to shine a bit brighter.

The light of one facet helps to illuminate another just like the facets of my truth live to illuminate those that I haven’t quite embraced- or understood- yet.

Just as a diamond doesn’t begin as a diamond in its whole, finished form, my truth doesn’t begin or end as my truth itself began.

When I first began my journey, I was entirely unsure of myself and insecure to boot. And at times, my brain reverts back to that place and I have to fight myself tooth and nail to not stay there. As hard as it was to be there, it’s also sometimes hard to leave it.

It was safe. It was known. I knew my role in that time and I knew what was expected of me. I didn’t have to take chances. I didn’t have to step outside my box. I didn’t have anything special to live up to.

I find myself even today fighting that same insecurity and self-doubt as I search for that next layer of myself that leads to unveiling the next piece of my truth.

Sometimes I win the battle and sometimes I lose.

But each time, I learn a new lesson and I reveal a new side of myself- a new trait, a new fear, a new strength, a new thought, a new dream.

I need to be brave. I need to be strong and I need to not give into my fear and doubt.

I need to accept this ebb and flow as being a part of my truth, as being the measure of how determined I am to step up and live in my potential and in my authenticity.

My truth lives in all of this.

My truth will never be black or white. It will never be cut and dry.

But it will be wholly mine.

My truth may appear too scattered and disorganized for you. It may seem to have too many rough edges, too many dark sides but that’s just me.

My flaws and my struggles are what make me, me. My unorthodox way of living or obsessive-compulsive habits are what make me unique.

And I am claiming all of them right here, right now.

I am multi-passionate. I live to live every single moment of my life be it ugly or beautiful. I live with no regrets and with a never-ending thirst for new experiences, new people and new places.

My truth fits in beautifully with my life and as long as I accept that I won’t ever be that perfect, finished diamond, then my life will be happy and complete.

I will know that I am living my truth the best I know how.

And that’s all I’ll ever really need to know for sure.

–

So what is it that you need to know? What facets of yourself are you just learning about or that you’re struggling with?

My current struggle is with claiming the facet of my own potential. It’s scary and overwhelming but it’s also the next piece of my puzzle, the next step in my evolution.

So go on, share below. Find out where your next level lies. Find out what you have left to uncover as you strive to reveal your truth.

–

About the Author: When not playing with bright shiny objects, you can find Annette Nack beating up on her clients over their nutrition and fitness habits (hey, they ask for it!) at www.whatthebleepdoieat.com or you can find her on twitter writing whatever comes into her head @annettenack.   In her spare time, Annette admits to eating more than her fair share of dark chocolate, training for yet another marathon and playing with her dog who acts more human than most humans she knows. And sometimes, doing all three at the same time.