My good friends Tom and Lisa at 95.1 FM invited me back on the air. Here's an edited version of the broadcast - music and most commercials, news and weather were omitted.
Just click on my blog title above to hear the show!
Check out the Tom and Lisa Morning Show at 95 WIIL Rock!
Enjoy!
Love and peace,
Dona
Experience a Tarot reading with me! Visit:Destiny Tarot®
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Ask A Tarot Card Reader...Again!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Setting Healthy Boundaries: Dealmakers or Dealbreakers?
Yesterday – the Dealmakers list, your own personal standards that express healthy, positive boundaries; that make your non-romantic relationships a source of happiness for you and enrich your life. Today – “don’ts” or the Dealbreakers list, the things that raise a red flag and make you seriously reconsider or step back from someone as a potential romantic partner. These boundaries are your own “line in the sand,” and knowing them before you become involved with someone can save you wasted time, tears, and heartache. Notice I didn’t say, “Before you become attracted”? Attraction can happen in an instant, without knowing a single thing about a person. Involvement however, is a choice.
I like to call the Dealbreakers “Get thee behind me, Mr. Unavailable”. Once you are clear for yourself on these, in combination with your Dealmakers, you’ll know your own standards and know whether the qualities and behaviors of a man you’re interested in are what you really want – before you become emotionally invested and involved.
The Dealbreakers list
First, think about the things that go into making a healthy romantic relationship and give it a good chance of developing and working for both people involved. Then think about the things you aren’t comfortable with, aren’t prepared to accept, that you dislike or that bother you when they are part of a relationship. This list is for you alone, so be honest and write them down in a short list. Be specific - i.e., no abuse (of any kind), the man isn’t married/attached, is not a player, etc., but don’t nitpick or try to nail down every possible trait/quality.
These are your standards – and your dating action plan. If the man doesn’t meet the basic standards at the get-go, or if you find he has stepped over the line or tested the boundaries you’ve identified as unacceptable to you, you need to take action. Real action is not a long discussion or an explanation/justification of yourself or your feelings. Run away, walk away or at the very least take one huge giant step backwards and stop. Your boundaries only mean as much to others as they do to you. If you won’t honor your own, it’s very unlikely that they will.
The behaviors you accept, rationalize, accommodate or excuse from the man in your life (or the one you’re hoping to have a relationship with), can quickly become the relationship standard or status quo and it’s much harder to reject a behavior once you’ve quietly accepted it. By rejecting the behavior, you give a man a choice – to respect you or to let you alone. And if he can’t respect you, what else can’t he do? Be emotionally, physically and spiritually available to you? Be kind, considerate, honest and trustworthy?
Natalie Lue, author of “Mr. Unavailable and the Fallback Girl” states that emotionally unavailable men are adept at manipulating women and relationships to their advantage. She says, “The ability to get you to adapt to their dysfunctional behaviour is a masterstroke on their part.” But consider this. Could you be manipulated by a friend into stealing something or harming someone? Could they convince you to go against your own better judgment, ethics, your standards? And if they could, or would try – are they really your friend?
Healthy boundaries and personal standards work! They affirm that we respect ourselves, love ourselves and want those things in return from our relationships.
Love and peace,
Dona
“Mr. Unavailable”, “Fallback Girl” copyright Natalie Lue.
Experience a Tarot reading with me! Visit:Destiny Tarot®
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Setting Healthy Boundaries: Dealmakers or Dealbreakers?
I’ve been reading a great little e-book, “Mr. Unavailable and the Fallback Girl” by Natalie Lue, who’s a very funny and extremely wise, common-sense kinda gal! The book inspired me to blog, so thank you Natalie! Although I’ve been in a great relationship with my Mr. Available for six years; it’s not so terribly long ago – well, about six and half years or so actually - that I was in a string of relationships with Mr. Unavailables. Yes indeed – been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt and the souvenir key ring.
One thing I found myself doing early on in my current relationship – quite by happy accident, since I rarely apply good common sense upfront and consciously in romantic matters, was:
- interacting with no assumptions or expectations, but a clear idea of my standards
- using the same standards that worked in non-romantic relationships with friends, family, co-workers, clients and the clerk at supermarket
- being comfortable and confident that my standards really reflected who I am as a person – how I treat people and how I like to be treated
Often we women have no trouble setting healthy boundaries in non-romantic relationships. So, the things we like and want in these relationships can serve as our “dos” or deal-makers. While it’s true that men and women communicate differently, we’re all human and there are some basics that facilitate healthy human interaction.
The Dealmakers list
To begin, think about the things that make your best (non-romantic) relationships work – what makes them enjoyable, desirable, fun, and worthwhile? You can write them down as a short list. Be specific - i.e., mutual honesty, consistency (doing what we say we will do, others doing what they say they will do) consideration (we take our own feelings and those of others into account). When both people in a relationship bring these qualities and behaviors to the table, a healthy relationship is usually the result.
Whether you realize it consciously or not, these are your standards – stated as positive boundaries. If there’s a big disconnect between these qualities – which help your non-romantic relationships work in a healthy way - and the behaviors you accept, rationalize, adjust for or excuse from the man in your life (or the one you’re hoping to have a romantic relationship with), this should raise a big, bright red flag. You may be setting yourself up for heartache with a “Mr. Unavailable”.
Part II: Dealbreakers, or “Get thee behind me, ‘Mr. Unavailable’”
Love and peace,
Dona
Experience a Tarot reading with me! Visit:Destiny Tarot®
Sunday, March 30, 2008
What’s on Your Radar?
A client recently asked me, “so, what’s on the radar?” I knew what she meant, but in that moment I had a clear, strong vision of a busy air traffic control tower. All the screens were full of moving blips, all the controllers were intently focused on the patterns there, firing off information into their headset microphones – for the next day’s flights.
I shared with her what I had seen and we both chuckled a bit. Then, she grew somewhat serious and said, “But you’re a Tarot reader – you’re supposed to tell me what’s coming up in the future, right?” Yes, true enough. Do it all the time. But the time we have and the time we’re in is now and that’s the jump-off point for any reading. Quantum physics tells us it’s all now and while I believe that’s true, it’s still pretty challenging to communicate from the concept of completely transcended linear time. Ok, I just confused myself – in other words, it’s a helluva lot easier to speak and think in terms of the past, present and future.
When we attempt to focus on and see only the future, in a reading or in any aspect of life, several things happen.
We ignore or miss the here and now
When we’re in pain, anxious or uncertain, this can actually seem like a good thing to do. But, now is what we have – and whether there’s a lesson to be learned, action to be taken, or valuable information coming in – if we miss it, we miss a golden opportunity to make positive changes in both the present and the future. Much as we might love to just skip the “now” if it’s unpleasant; we can’t really live in or “be” in the past or the future – only the present.
We ignore our own intuition
Tarot reading, or any form of divination, is designed to help us learn from and integrate our past in order to understand, and positively affect our future based on who we are and where we are in the present. But as wonderful as that is, it can’t ever be better than our present-moment experiences and the opportunity they present for our own intuition to give us real-time, real-life guidance, wisdom and truth. Tarot is a great enhancement to our own intuition but a very poor substitute for it.
When the temptation is strong to try and look only at the future in a reading, think about being on one of today’s flights while those busy air traffic controllers all have their radar set on tomorrow…
…and thank you for flying Destiny Airlines!
Love and peace,
Dona
Experience a Tarot reading with me! Visit:Destiny Tarot®
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Failing Forward
No, that’s not a typo. Failing forward is a way to turn mistakes into opportunities for success. Ah, mistakes. We all make them. We wish we could completely avoid them, which would of course make us perfect. Or, having experienced failure, we give up because we equate failing at something with being a failure. We can judge ourselves so harshly that we swear we’ll never again risk, never try, never dare.
What if we could change our perception of and response to failure? Many famous and distinguished people in the arts, sciences, business and sports have failed – sometimes spectacularly so, on their path to achievement.
John Maxwell is an American expert on leadership and author of “Failing Forward” who says that the major difference between achieving people and average people is their ability to move beyond failure and use it as a lesson and a stepping-stone. With the right attitude, positive benefits can come from negative experiences. When we realize that the task or goal is not “us”, we can look at failure as a way to learn what went wrong and what not to repeat. By depersonalizing the experience (we are not “failures” just because we failed at something) we minimize and overcome fear. And, without fear – we can take action again!
Here are some great ideas for learning to fail forward from author Marilyn J. Tellez, MA:
1. Failing forward is really about achievement as a series of trial and error opportunities.
2. You, as a person, are not a failure. Failure is a state of mind.
3. You are not a victim. Take responsibility for what you can control and put yourself into a position of power. (And what you can control is yourself – DCM)
4. You can control how you let a trauma affect you. (I would say, you can “choose how you let a trauma affect you” – DCM)
5. The present is the only place real opportunity exists and where you can take action.
6. Letting go of limiting beliefs may be hard on the ego, but your ability to move forward will increase dramatically.
7. When you have a vision, you have a view that puts failure in its proper perspective.
8. There is always uncertainty when you try something new.
9. You can't make significant progress by doing it all yourself. Let your environment and network do some of the work.
10. Often, the only difference between success and failure is simple persistence.
11. Knowing when to let go and try something else is important. Failing forward is about getting up and moving on. (And what you do once you get up – which is not repeat the same mistakes! - DCM)
So here’s to failing and falling, learning and growing, going forward and succeeding in the New Year!
Love and peace,
Dona
Experience a Tarot reading with me! Visit:Destiny Tarot®
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