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As the year tiptoes to a close (it really snuck up on me this year) I’m taking stock.

And I’m making stock. (Yes, I have been cooking non-stop since Mike and I settled into our new home for the next five months. My inner Susie Homemaker has come out in full force. I’m just as surprised as Mike is.)

Part of my taking stock has involved going through all of my “stuff”, digital, physical, and mental, and deciding what to do with it. More on this in a future post when I tell you why I’m obsessed with Getting Things Done by David Allen. In my process of diving into my notes and bits (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate while living in a car) I found a note I’d written to myself sometime this year entitled, “Here’s what I know.” I don’t have a clue when I wrote it, but I know that when I read it it made me feel good.

Here’s hoping it makes you feel good too.

Here’s what I know…

• Doing something for the money never ends up being worth it.
• If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.
• You are valuable because you exist. Period. (Or, full stop if you’re British.)
• You are enough. You always have been. You always will be.
• Your place of greatest ease and joy will also be your place of greatest service.
• It’s okay to sleep for ten hours or more a night from time to time. In fact, it’s critical.
• No accomplishment or moment of recognition will ever replace feeling loved, by yourself or anyone else.
• It’s not going to turn out the way you thought. It will be better.
• You know. You always know.
• The fact that it feels good is reason enough to move every day. The fact that it will tone your ass and make your waist smaller are mere side effects.
• Organizing your life around what feels good is the single wisest choice you can make.
• There is always going to be a small part of you that wants to please your mother, even if you’re not conscious of it, and that’s okay.
• Saying yes to someone simply because you don’t want to disappoint them is not only unfair to you, it’s unfair to them.
• Sleep, water, movement, greens, and a good cry cure almost anything.
• Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of. (Thanks Mom)
• Paying attention to your money is a profound act of self-love.
• It turns out that life is happening right now.
• Loving yourself more is the best place to start to solve any problem.
• You can’t judge and have an open heart at the same time.
• Nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason.
• Your body is wise beyond what you could possibly imagine. Listen to her. She will lead you home every time.
• Home is not a place.

Your turn!

What do you know?

What can you count on no matter what?

Tell me and remind yourself. Leave a comment.

Glimpse TV has been rocking the airwaves since June 2010 and yet, somehow, I’ve never interviewed my mother…until today! She’s not only an amazing mama, she’s also a NY Times best-selling author, has had several very successful PBS shows, and has been a guest on Oprah 10 times! But, Glimpse TV really is the big time so I had to wait to have her on the show until I really felt she had proven that she has what it takes to be a guest

Seriously, though, I think my mom is my biggest fan and I’m pretty sure I’m hers.

Our relationship isn’t perfect, but as far as mothers and daughters go I think we’ve got it pretty good. She’s paved the way for my sister and me, not to mention millions of other women, to be more free. Not only do I have my mom to thank for giving me life,  I also have her to thank for putting me on the path to financial freedom early on when she first handed me Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad(If you haven’t done so already, buy this book and read it. Life. Changer.) So if it weren’t for her in more ways than one, The Freedom Tour wouldn’t ever have existed.

Here’s my favorite thing to do with my mom: LAUGH! Laugh so hard that we can’t breathe. Laugh so hard that we pee our pants. Laugh so hard that our faces hurt. Laugh so hard that we fall down.

Watch the video below if you want to laugh your face off with us. If you don’t giggle like crazy at the story we tell together I think you should double check to see if you have a pulse. Tune in to this very special episode of Glimpse TV to find out:

• how to take an incredible picture with a real smile every time,
• what my mom means when she says she was “born funny”,
• how to break the mother-daughter chain of pain,
• how family members keep one another stuck and how to get yourself unstuck,
• the scientific reason why we are so desperate to please our mothers,
• and, of course, hysterical laughter!

For more of my mom, aka Dr. Christiane Northrup:

www.drnorthrup.com

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Twitter

Her books: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom; Mother-Daughter Wisdom, and The Wisdom of Menopause (newly updated and revised!)

Spread the love and tweet about this episode of Glimpse TV:

I think as we get older we get funnier.~@coachoncall to @drchrisnorthrup via @katenorthrup #glimpsetv http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

If it’s worth taking seriously, it’s worth making fun of. @drchrisnorthrup to @katenorthrup #glimpsetv http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

@DrChrisNorthrup’s fail-proof tip for looking good in every picture you take: #glimpsetv w/ @katenorthrup http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

Scientific reason we want 2 please our mothers + what 2 do about it: #glimpsetv w/ @DrChrisNorthrup and @katenorthrup http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

Something happened to me this year and I got unscared. ~@DrChrisNorthrup to @katenorthrup #glimpsetv http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

Fear is excitement w/o the breath. ~Robert Heller via @katenorthrup to @DrChrisNorthrup #glimpsetv http://bit.ly/sbsGB2

What in your life are you taking seriously that you might try making fun of after hearing from my mom? When do you feel most free? Other thoughts and comments welcome. Leave them below!

Tuckered out in Glacier National Park

I have a really big appetite for food, but even more so for life.

A day where I’m scheduled within minutes of my life is my idea of heaven. When I headed out on The Freedom Tour on February 2^nd this year, my eyes were wide, the road was open and the sky was big. My tummy was grumbling for some adventure and moderation simply wouldn’t do.

The Metrics of The Freedom Tour

Between February 2^nd and June 21^st I traveled 19,000 miles by car and another 11,000 miles by plane (plus 300 by boat.)  I visited 21 different states and provinces, slept in over 50 beds, taught 16 workshops, spoke to over 800 people, and attended 5 major conferences (SXSW, Summit Series, Reveal, Selling Your Soul, I Can Do It!, and the World Domination Summit.) I did this all while launching a new business partnership, ending another one, then ending the one I had just started, experimenting with being homeless, and falling in love.

After five months of going at this pace I felt full. The kind of full that makes you want to put on pants with an elastic waist band and talk about how you’re never going to eat again.

I landed in Maine at my childhood home in June feeling exhausted. I thought the summer would birth great creativity and production in the form of pages and pages of brilliant writing. I thought by this time I would have a sample chapter and outline for my first book.

But it turns out that when your eyes are bigger than your schedule, when your MO is to say yes to everything, and when you run your self more than a little ragged, what you need is sleep. And watching movies. And eating lunches that take three hours to finish And looking out at the ocean. And more sleep.

Promises, Promises, Promises

I sat with my dad over lunch the other day chatting about my blog. He’s one of my most dedicated readers, which simultaneously thrills and terrifies me. He told me that I need to be careful about what I promise to my readers because they (he) get disappointed when I don’t follow through on my promises.

Here are a few things I’ve promised over the past couple of months that I haven’t followed through on:

• Shooting daily videos (what was I thinking when I announced I was going to start doing that?!)
• A post of my pictures from the stunning drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from Laguna Beach, CA to Vancouver, BC (which was supposed to be for my dad)
• This post on “the most important question to ask yourself before embarking on any project” that I promised several weeks ago in this video (This one only half counts as not following through because I’m finally writing it. It’s just late.)
• Submitting a sample chapter and an outline of the book I’m currently gestating by the beginning of July (This one is still in process, just taking longer than I thought.)

I also have over 700 unread/unanswered emails in my inbox, some unreturned voicemails, and a few missed opportunities as a result.

Granted, I think my dad takes my promises on my blog more to heart than some of my other readers, but he brings up a really important point.

What are you promising that you’re not delivering on?

Our conversation made me pause. It made me feel sheepish. And it made me realize the single most important question to ask before embarking on any new project:

Is this sustainable?

When you’re birthing anything new there will be a period of time when you sometimes don’t shower until 6pm (if at all) and you eat takeout and don’t respond to emails. I get that AND I’m not making myself wrong for the way I’ve done The Freedom Tour up until this point.

In fact, one of my new favorite mantras is: “I am enough and I’m doing it right.”

Let that baby sink into your cells for a moment.

However, the way I started this whole adventure was completely unsustainable. I said yes to more than I could follow through on. I promised things I didn’t end up doing. I found myself way overextended. I got sick. I disappointed a few people (and thrilled some others.)

I’ve spent the past 6 weeks in Maine adoring life, adoring being in the house I was brought home to the day I was born, adoring being grounded, adoring not moving, and adoring a break.

It’s been goooooooood. It’s been beyond necessary.

The Freedom Tour 2.0

My man and I are packing up the Prius on Friday morning and heading out on the road again. We head West and will be in Scottsdale, AZ for September and October by way of Columbus, OH and Salt Lake City, UT.

The Freedom Tour continues but it is now The Freedom Tour 2.0. I now have a filtering question to ask myself when presented with any new opportunity so that I’m no longer giving a knee-jerk “yes!” I’m building in vacations. I’m being strategic about my workshops and speaking gigs. I’m standing for eight hours of sleep, no more than six hours a day in the car, meditation, and greens.

Whatever you’re cooking up right now, ask yourself: Is this sustainable?

If your answer is “no” but you’ve got an end point in mind, rock on. If there’s no end point, get one on the calendar. You can only go at full capacity for so long.

Creativity and production of great work is not a steady stream. It comes in fits and starts. Sometimes its fueled by an all-nighter. Sometimes it’s fueled by a double feature. Let your art flow the way it wants to flow. Just be sure to factor your promises, your health, your sanity, and your soul into the equation.

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The Freedom Tour is hitting the road again!

Come see me on Sunday, August 14^th!

Women & Wealth: The Truth About Money That No One Has Ever Told You

6:00 – 7:30pm

The Reiki Center, 1540 W. 5th Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43212

This event is free, but we have limited space. Please email rsvp@teamorthrup.com to reserve your seat.

I had the pleasure of meeting the fabulous, talented, and completely adorable Will Blunderfield in Vancouver when he sang prior to my mom’s talk at the Queen Elizabeth Theater this past November. I was immediately struck by his amazing voice and his sparkling sense of humor so I checked out one of his yoga classes later on that week. I usually am really not into hot yoga, but his personality, wit, and singing swept me right through that 104 degree hour with flying colors and a big smile. In addition to being a phenomenal yoga teacher, Will also has a major record deal and is heading out on a world tour! He has some really insightful things to say about self doubt and how to love your life so I was happy to steal a few minutes with him on my roof (probably my last rooftop Glimpse TV episode) last week on a trip to NYC.

Tune in to find out about how to rest in your work, why I consider myself an honorary Canadian, something called trembling that made Will fall in love with yoga, and to see a special surprise at the end .

More Will:

www.willblunderfield.com

www.facebook.com/willblunderfield

@wblunderfield

Where in your life are you playing small? Where are you playing big?

What is the thing that you do that allows you to feel that you’re “resting in your work”?

Other thoughts/comments? Will and I would love to hear from you!

Sara Avant‘s power belies her elegance. A delicate, poised former dancer, Sara’s posture is enviable. And it’s that very same strong backbone that’s held her alignment, physical, emotional, and spiritual through a personal journey that began with a health crisis in her early twenties.

A former type A dancer, born and raised in Connecticut, then polished in the Ivy League, a scary diagnosis led Sara to leave the country for Thailand in her early twenties where she studied yoga, taught English, steeped herself in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Reiki, and learned to slow down and be in her body.

Sara’s first book, The Way of the Happy Woman: Living the Best Year of Your Life, will be out May 1st. Pre-order your copy now. I’m very proud to have written the preface and to be part of this beautiful piece of work that’s truly a road map for women to come home to themselves.

Sara and I got together in Boulder so we could share everything that’s cooking in Sara’s world. Tune in to to this episode of Glimpse TV find out the magical way we connected and why she’s sort of obsessed with the pelvis.

Enjoy!

Pelvis Power: Glimpse TV with Sara Avant from Kate Moller on Vimeo.

Here’s how to get more Sara:

*Get the “The Women’s Circle Start Up Kit” and learn how to start and run your very own powerful, profitable women’s circles to change lives and create vibrant communities

*Pre-order The Way of the Happy Woman

*Join Sara on her book tour (save the date for a Way of the Happy Woman/Freedom Tour combo event with Sara and me August 5th in Boulder, CO!)

*Check out her upcoming retreat schedule (Thailand and Southern France…yummm!)

*Connect with Sara on Facebook and Twitter

Pelvis Power: Glimpse TV with Sara Avant from Kate Moller on Vimeo.

How do you nurture yourself and balance the masculine and feminine?

Have you ever had a health crisis that led to something truly beautiful in your life like Sara did?

Share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you!