The LifeQuake Blog

But, when we are not learning anymore, challenged anymore by our current career and there is no lateral move to take within the company, what does one do? Here are some tips:

1) The first key to a successful career transition that manifests from your heart instead of your old mental pictures is to strengthen the muscle of intuition. The first step in building this muscle begins with what you put in your mouth. Food or liquid that has caffeine or sugar will accelerate adrenal function. Our adrenals stimulate the nervous system to go into a fight or flight response. In other words - anxiety or other fear based emotions. Consuming food that balances your blood sugar such as protein and complex carbohydrates will also balance brain function. I cannot say enough about the need to get at least 800 mg of magnesium into your body every day. It is magnesium not calcium in milk that is calming. We are a magnesium deprived nation. The kind of magnesium you take is also important. For example, Magnesium glycinate is absorbed by the body more easily than magnesium oxide which can cause loose bowels if taken in high quantities.

2) 30-40 minutes of some kind of exercise that works the whole body: walking, jogging, yoga, a dance class, etc will get your endorphins going and also release stress that would prevent you from hearing the wise voice inside.

3) Notice your feelings as you go about your day. What job responsibilities, life events, and people give you energy or passion? Write it down for three weeks. These are the clues to what is emerging as your new life purpose.

4) Discipline yourself to sleep 7-8 hours a night. Turn off the tv, don't read books, magazines, or newspapers that stimulate your mind right before bed. The more rested you are, the more apt you will be to feel confident about making a career change and the more access to your intuition you will have to come up with out of the box ideas for how to proceed with less conventional strategies. Also, when you get adequate REM sleep between 3-5 AM you are more apt to remember your dreams. Setting an intention before sleep to show you in your dreams, a creative solution, can bring you ideas you never considered. Many great inventors got their AHA! moment in a dream.

5) In your down time at night, instead of watching television to relax from a frustrating day, reach out to social communities like Facebook and Twitter with a research intention and let people know what you are looking for.

6) Consider starting a business from home while you still have a job. Begin to notice what products are missing in the marketplace and think in an entrepreneurial fashion. Ordinary people have come up with simple ideas that made them a fortune without a business background.

7) Volunteer. Do your research on companies or non profit organizations who court the kind of patrons that you want to network with. By volunteering for charity events or giving even 5 hours a week of your time to a cause you believe in could turn an avocation into a new vocation.

8) To go back to the beginning of this article, another strategy for building intuition and emotional stability in a time of change is to spend 15 minutes a day in stillness. If you can quiet your emotions, in a state of calm, ask the question, what is the highest next step I should take to create more fulfillment in my career? The answer may lie in staying in your present work but reinventing it in some way. And it may mean taking a risk and following your heart. Just remember, it is only the next step, not the five year plan you have to implement.

Dr. Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist, career coach, columnist, public speaker, and author of The LifeQuake Phenomenon. She can be contacted through her website, http:www.LifeQuake.net or her office at 310-712-2600.

As we move farther and farther away from a tribal mentality, most Americans do not have that kind of loyalty or generosity toward their own families. What struck me about this article though that does relate to the average American is that in this time of economic upheaval and recession, at any given moment in time, people can go from an upwardly mobile position in society to losing everything. In some ways, the working class are at an advantage. Historically, they have deeper roots in tribal responsibility for their own. The upper class tend to think that if one of their own loses their fortune, it might be contagious and therefore distances themselves. Ask any divorced, single ( formerly upper middle class) mother whose husband managed to hide money in the Caymans or had a great lawyer and left her penniless how or if her friends continued to be supportive.

I hear their stories in my office too frequently. But I digress. The point is, regardless of your socioeconomic status, how are you supporting your relatives and friends who are going through hard, economic times? I think the lesson that goes beyond the Pakistani people that we were given during 9/11 and Katrina is that everyone is your family. The responsibility for each other is not codified by tribal affiliation but one of recognition that we really are one family. We move around our worlds not knowing who in front of you in the grocery line is struggling to make ends meet, or the post office or the dry cleaners. As corny as it sounds, sometimes what allows a person down on their luck to brave another day is that someone was kind to them that day - shared a smile, let them go in front in the grocery line, took a dollar out of their pocket and shared it with the guy trying to get coffee who had come up short at Starbucks.

No, you don't have to let 20 relatives live with you to be a humanitarian. Just take the time to make eye contact with as many people as you can today. How many great sages have said, being present with others is the highest form of spiritual practice. We all need connection during this great time of global transition.

Dr. Toni Galardi is a psychotherapist, author and public speaker. She can be reached at 310-712-2600 or her website, http:www.LifeQuake.net.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5340852/Pakistani-family-makes-room-for-93-relatives-in-Swat-refugee-crisis.html

So here's a tip for assessing if you have an internet addiction.

1) What feelings come up if you don't go to facebook, my space or twitter for a week? Now, withdrawal from cyberspace communities is not like trying to kick smack. Your body doesn't start to shake as you detox. You may however notice yourself getting more irritable or bored with the conversations of every day people in your life, you know, the people with whom you haven't invented a dazzling new persona.

2) Are you getting more done in your life? ie. housework, career deadlines, etc

3) Are you getting out and socializing more?

4) Has your excuse for not having time to exercise disappeared?

5) If your social community time was mostly spent at work, are you looking at what is missing in your work now, that you were using them for to distract you? For example, is it time to look at exploring your life purpose? Do you want the work you do to have more meaning for you?

For those who think they may have a social community addiction, do you really have the courage to do this one week of withdrawal and discover a more fulfilling life? I want to go on record with this. I do not believe that everyone who is on social communities for fun are addicts. That is the purpose for the self inventory I provided above. People drink wine without being alcoholics. It has to do with whether it is a device for avoiding certain feelings that is the issue. Enjoy your surfing as long as it doesn't interfere with "what is at hand on the ocean floor" of your subconscious mind. If you distract yourself for too long, you may not always see the tsunami coming in time...

Dr. Toni Galardi is a psychotherapist, public speaker, author, recovering internet addict, and career coach. She can be reached at 310-712-2600 for consultation.

http://blog.marketplace.nwsource.com/ninetothrive/2009/05/social_media_fast_maybe_comple.html

Although it ended painfully, my mind chose to remember this particular day when I was very happy and in love. So often, when things end in our lives we forget there was a time when we did have a piece of heaven. Inherent in the disintegration of something that is no longer viable is chaos. The stress of life being out of our control can lead us to react as though we were now in hell not heaven. So, how do you create heaven inside whatever chaos is going on in your life today?

Begin by training your mind to look for evidence of heaven. Where is the heaven in your relationships? Where is the heaven in your job search if you’ve lost your job? Where is the heaven in your body if you are confronting catastrophic illness? If we look for evidence to support that life has gone to hell in a hand basket, we will find it. If we look for evidence that there is grace, we will find it. Once you have found the evidence for heaven on earth in your life, repeat the affirmation, ” I am living heaven on earth now.” Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Dr. Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist, public speaker and author. She can be reached through her website, http:www.LifeQuake.net or her office at 310-712-2600 and is on twitter.com/lifequake and facebook.

Suzy's story in my book outlined how addiction, specifically food addiction can take hold in a LifeQuake. As their old life disintegrates, many people, while in the midst of their lives exploding, turn to food as a source of grounding or numbing to the fear they are experiencing. For some, as was the case for both Suzy and I, it goes the whole continuum - weight loss as well as gain. The rise of eating disorders is a symptom of something actually very whole - evolution. As we are evolving, we are looking for evidence of soul in our outer lives. Food is the most primal source for this longing. Also, as some will attest, there is a kindof spiritual anorexia that can also take place - being uninterested in food as the energy field gets lighter and lighter.
To learn more about this come join us tomorrow tuesday, may 12 at 6PM.

http://tinyurl.com/o6fq2n

What no one counted on and the article above addresses is that depression would be a by product. I would also submit that the foods we eat on the go, the rapid pace of American life and emissions from cell phones in overuse are also contributing to more bi-polar disorder. What to do? If you must eat fast food as part of your daily diet, make a point of getting real leafy greens in somewhere during the day and I dont mean head lettuce. Spinach, kale, arugula are the best and most rich with the mineral responsible for keeping our nervous system from frying. I also would recommend taking it in capsule form - preferably as magnesium glycinate. 800 mg a day is recommended by holistic doctors.

You've heard me bang this drum before but I will say it again. Stillness for five minutes three times a day can really help with focus. Just drop into your breath and breathe deeply down into your gut setting an intention to release any muscle or emotional tension you feel in your body. After five minutes, ask the question, is there anything I need to know at this moment to assist me as I move back into my day? Just try eating more magnesium rich foods and practicing this stress management technique for three weeks and I guarantee you, the chaos will get a little less crisis driven.

Dr. Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist in practice in Santa Monica, CA and has written a new book, The LifeQuake Phenomenon: How to Thrive (not just survive) in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Her website address is http:www.LifeQuake.net

When you go to Paris, people are kissing and touching each other everywhere. Yes, I know our country was founded by puritans, but is the rise of internet porn really a distorted craving for more intimacy? I suggest we need to make a concerted effort to touch one another physically more often. I see in my practice plenty of couples who although they are still having sex, have stopped cuddling and kissing on the mouth. And with those who are not married, when you are with a friend, reach out and touch that person while you talk to them. Maybe because I was raised with an Italian father, I find that when I am with anyone I care about, if I don't physically touch them, I feel that I haven't really touched them emotionally.

As a stress management technique, giving and receiving affection throughout the day will transform your relationships and I submit, will reduce your craving for sugar and unhealthy fats. I think I will call it The Tenderness Diet. Instead of drinking green tea or acai to lose weight, give someone a hug… and then reach for the chocolate. You may find you eat less of it.

Dr. Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist and is starting a group in person for those who need the physical contact a teleclass just doesn’t provide called ” Thriving in the Chaos”. 310-712-2600.