Tag Archives: business

Breaking your addiction to stress

By Amira Alvarez Every day we pre-pave the road to our outcomes, to what we experience.We do that by consciously or unconsciously thinking about how things are going to go.Is it going to be easy and flow smoothly? Or hard and a struggle?And we start telling ourselves a story about how things are…
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Every day we pre-pave the road to our outcomes, to what we experience.

We do that by consciously or unconsciously thinking about how things are going to go.

Is it going to be easy and flow smoothly? Or hard and a struggle?

And we start telling ourselves a story about how things are going to work.

Tons of choices come in, especially when we’re doing something new, important, or under a time constraint.

Take a gander at your thinking the next time you’re about to go to do something…

  • What are you imagining is going to happen before it happens?
  • Are you pre-paving what you want or what you don’t want?
  • Are you using this to prep and adjust (i.e. problem-solve) or are you using this to affirm your worries, doubt, and anxiety?

I suggest you start this inquiry with small things as they’re often less loaded than when you’re doing something new, important, or time urgent.

Those added stressors are not conducive initially as stress narrows your focus, not allowing you to have the necessary open-focus for an enquiry like this.

 Eventually though you’ll use this process for all experiences.

In fact, it’s really important to write the story you want even when something is a stressor – new, important, or under a time constraint. These are the most important times to do so. BUT, if you’re just starting this process, these are the times that will be the most difficult, so let’s get our story-writing chops dialed in first with scenarios that are less challenging.

Want an example of how to do this? 

I thought so. :) Here’s one from my own life.

I’m getting ready to go on a trip this afternoon. Last night I reviewed my calendar and realized that the time I had allocated (in my mind) for writing this newsletter was actually filled with the standing branding meeting from the afternoon that got moved up.

I think: When am I going to write this? It’s due tomorrow.

I go to bed and think: It’s all going to work out. It’s going to come to me easily.

Important: This 👆is the story I’m telling myself.

I’m not telling the story that goes like this: F&#k! What am I going to do? I don’t have time. I should have done this earlier. Etc.

I wake up this morning a half hour before I had planned to… with an idea. 

Yay! I can write about that. Yet as I go about my morning, it’s not feeling “right” or easy… but I don’t sweat it.

I continue my puttering… making tea, letting the dog out, etc. Then I settled down to write. 

Right before I pick up pen and paper to write, I read something with the word “story” in it and all at once the topic for THIS newsletter comes to me. In one fell swoop. EASY. QUICK. SEAMLESS.

Totally in the flow of things, just in the moment I needed it.

Zero stress.

I could have made it stressful. I certainly have many times in the past.

But I’ve trained myself to refuse to write the story of stress.

I pre-pave how I want things to go… easy, in the flow, just working out.

When I do this, I always get… easy, in the flow, with things working out.

It feels like magic, but it’s not.

It’s giving a directive to your subconscious mind to search for this. Our brains are wired for this.

But most people are stuck telling themselves stories of what they don’t want inside. Hello, worry, doubt, and fear.

When you get good at this process of pre-paving the road to your outcomes with the story of what you want, not what you don’t want… life unfolds exquisitely.

Problem is… most people are addicted to the story of stress.

In fact, the story they’re unconsciously telling themselves is that in order to be worthy of that which they desire whether in their personal or professional lives, they have to struggle.

Of course effort is required. But stress? Not necessary.

In fact, the places where you’re stressed and struggling and not getting what you want or not living the way you want are your growth edges.

There’s always a place where this is happening but you may not be aware of it. 

It may be normalized to you as “just what’s required,” but if you’re not experiencing ease and flow WHILE achieving your next goals, then this is where you need to do the work.

I would love to help you with that. (Just email me with a quick note.)

In the meantime, ask yourself: Where am I stressed or struggling? What is the story I’m writing about that? Is that serving me?

Chances are you think in some way that it is – but if you’re not truly getting you what you want in all areas of your personal and professional life, it’s not. Don’t let the short-term “rewards” fool you.

It’s time to rewrite the story.

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help.

Ready for an Exquisite Life with Spaciousness and Ease?

By Amira Alvarez We’re doing something different here at TUW and I wanted to give you a bit of a preview.For a long time I’ve been oscillating between encouraging you to lean into your masculine or feminine essence.By now, if you’ve been with me for awhile, you know that one is not better…
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We’re doing something different here at TUW and I wanted to give you a bit of a preview.

For a long time I’ve been oscillating between encouraging you to lean into your masculine or feminine essence.

By now, if you’ve been with me for awhile, you know that one is not better than the other and that you need both “to give birth” or make manifest on this physical plane to the ideas, dreams, and goals you hold on the non-physical plane. This is the Law of Gender.

The masculine, represented in summary form, is your singular focused drive, persistence, and discipline on your goal. 

It’s most required when you’re just starting a business or a career and need to build trust in yourself to get the momentum going. This is the gestation period.

This is when you have more time than money, so your focus is on bootstrapping your way to success.

This is when most things require you to hunker down and do things that are beyond your comfort zone. 

This is the “just do it” time period.

None of this needs to feel bad and by all means you’ll want to integrate your feminine essence into how you’re working as well.

Perhaps the 80/20 rule would apply here. Show up 80% in your masculine, 20% in your feminine*.  

Once you’ve got lift off though, it’s generally wise to start moving more into your feminine.

The feminine, in summary form, is your intuitive knowing that moves you forward seemingly indirectly yet reaches outcomes with more ease, more quickly.

It is most required when you’ve already achieved a certain level of success.

When you’ve already mastered the key skill sets required for continued success.

When you already trust yourself to show up and do the work. 

Again, we could apply the 80/20 rule here. Show up 80% in your feminine, 20% in your masculine*.

But most über successful women stay in their masculine 98% of the time and stay there long after it’s actually necessary.

This causes a lack of true satisfaction and a diminishing ROI on their output. 

They’d be better served living from their feminine a whole lot more.   

Better served not only in their entrepreneur/CEO role, but also in their personal lives.

And this is where the Exquisite Life comes in.

We’re going to be talking about this concept and this way of creating a lot more.

This Exquisite Life Plan methodology is best used by those women… 

Who are craving more ease and spaciousness but not at the sacrifice of their ambition…  

Who have already achieved a certain level of success and they’re asking themselves… “Is this all that there is?” and “What’s next?”…  

Who already have amazing lives but are ready to look at that one area that continues to hold them back from a truly exquisite life.

I can’t wait to share more with you. This is the evolution of what’s come before and a birthing of a new body of work. 

*None of this is written in stone. These are just guidelines to get you thinking. Different days, different projects, different conversations, different environments, etc require different aspects of yourself.

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help.

The Dance Between Achievement and Burnout

By Amira Alvarez If you want to have everything you desire, without running around feeling disconnected or burnt out . . . how much action do you actually need to take?This isn’t a one-size fits all answer. It depends on so many things… including where you’re at in your career, the size of…
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If you want to have everything you desire, without running around feeling disconnected or burnt out . . . how much action do you actually need to take?

This isn’t a one-size fits all answer. It depends on so many things… including where you’re at in your career, the size of your company, what your role is, available funds, and so much more.

But I think a little talked about, but absolutely essential piece to this equation is finding the sweet spot between action taken in the physical world and action taken in the metaphysical world.

By physical world, think matter moving matter. This is where your action makes something happen. 

In business this looks like…

  • Creating and executing marketing plans
  • Making sales calls, negotiating contracts
  • Hiring talent for that second in command position
  • Crunching numbers to create quarterly projections  

You get the idea. All the things that you have “to do” to run a business. 

By metaphysical world, think above matter. This is where energy moves matter. 

In business this looks like… small, gentle prompts to “go here” or “do that” which result in small and large “miracles” occurring.

The more tapped in you are, the more you receive these prompts that create easy, immediate results.

A recent example of this…

I was speaking with a client and she was describing a party she was putting together for her business. She was pulling out all the stops to create something so unique that not only perfectly represented the zeitgeist of her business, but that people would also really want an invitation to come to.

In that conversation, I suggested to her that she invite a wider swath of people and said in an off-hand way, this is where you’re going to find the person for that role you’ve been looking for. I just knew.

And sure enough… after the invitations went out, her ideal candidate REACHED OUT TO HER saying that she wanted to work for her.

THIS? 

This was so much easier than the head hunter who fell down on the job or the job posting that wasn’t getting any traction at all. 

 

To be clear, it’s not that I wouldn’t take those physical world actions. I would. They often work and at a minimum serve as a clarifying process for what you want.

And it’s not that she won’t be taking the appropriate physical world action to vet this seemingly out-of-the-blue ideal candidate. She is.

It’s that when you start to tap into all the energy that is, things become so much easier.

You don’t deny the physical world action. You take that action… but you do so from a place informed by a power greater than you.

This power?

It’s the power of energy.

It’s the creative, vibrational power that is the metaverse.

It is the Oneness, the Wholeness of life.

It’s Order. 

Some call it God, some call it the Universe, Source, Infinite Intelligence.

I don’t care what you call it. 

I care that you know how to tap into it. That you trust it. And that you act on it.

When you live this way, it allows you to keep creating all that your ambition and desires are calling you to, but with ease and grace that you desire.

Do I hear a “Yes, please!?”

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help.

Are you Manufacturing Relevance?

By Amira Alvarez Playing at the same level…We all know when we’re there. We can feel it.Blah. Bland. Listless. A life dialed in.The things that used to challenge us to grow we’ve done enough times that even those “uncomfortable risks” are now squarely in our comfort zone.And yet we often stay there… comfortable. Now…
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Playing at the same level…

We all know when we’re there. We can feel it.

Blah. Bland. Listless. A life dialed in.

The things that used to challenge us to grow we’ve done enough times that even those “uncomfortable risks” are now squarely in our comfort zone.

And yet we often stay there… comfortable. 

Now there’s nothing wrong with a life of ease and grace but not if it’s at the expense of growth.

Growth is a calling. 

We crave it. 

And the ambitious are especially good at actualizing it–undeterred, driven, focused. 

We know that “if you’re not growing you’re dying.”

And this often leads, sadly, to a manufacturing of activity and stress.

Stuff to do, projects to pursue, businesses to create… to fill a void when we don’t know where we want to grow next or how to do it differently.

We even (on more than one occasion if you’re honest) fool ourselves into “brilliant ideas” to stay busy… occupied… relevant.

Why?

Because true growth requires breaking free of how we’ve always done things and owning your deepest wants and desires…

Is not expedient. It takes time.

Is not obvious. It’s nuanced.

Is not what you’ve been habituated to. It’s the unknown.

It will call into question your relationship with yourself and others. 

It will force a radical shift in approach. 

It will challenge you– heart, mind, and soul. 

And yet… 

After success the way we’ve always created it, through the power of our will and the focus of our intellect, it is what we are craving.

So I ask you…

What if relevance, to yourself and others, didn’t come with manufactured occupation? 
What if your projects met your heart’s desires?
What if your activity included the breadth and depth of who you are?
What if living into your growth could come with spaciousness?

What if you could create an exquisite life?

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help.

The Choice of Satisfaction

By Amira Alvarez What drives you?For me it’s many things…Growth, freedom, money, and impact among other both mundane and lofty desires.But sometimes I’m driven by frustration. Let me give you an example…My assistant gave me 2 days' notice on Friday. She has been an amazing part of my team so this was a bit…
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What drives you?

For me it’s many things…

Growth, freedom, money, and impact among other both mundane and lofty desires.

But sometimes I’m driven by frustration. 

Let me give you an example…

My assistant gave me 2 days’ notice on Friday. She has been an amazing part of my team so this was a bit out of character for her. (I still love her but c’mon!)

Needless to say, this initially caused a lot of WTF mental activity…

I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t a bit frustrated.

(Thank gawd for SOPs and my amazing Team, as the handoff all happened seamlessly. Totally grateful.) 

I got on my Peloton rower to let off some steam and you know what? I had the best 20 minute row EVER. Yep. Faster and harder than ever before.

That frustration channeled into the row turned into something incredibly satisfying. 

Hmmm… I transmuted that energy.  

And it made me realize we do that all the time. 

We take something negative and turn it into something positive.

We turn our frustration about being ignored into fame.
We turn our frustration about being poor into prosperity.
We turn our frustration about our weight into athleticism. 

But not everyone does this, of course.

But more importantly, not everyone who has transmuted a frustrated energy into a satisfying success does it with ALL things.

There are aspects of one’s life where we don’t make that shift.

Hmmm… where do you successfully turn your frustrations into satisfactions? And where do you not?

I know that when I was making in the low 6-figures ($138k to be exact), I was really frustrated by working really hard and not making as much money as I wanted.

That frustration and that desire were both strong enough that I transmuted that into business success. 

Once the business started making 7-figures year over year, my frustration became one of time and focus and I transmuted that into a more spacious life, working on the purposeful and key things that I love.

My frustration in the realm of relationships I transmuted into an exquisite relationship. 

And so on…

But here’s the rub…

In each case, in order to transmute my frustration into a satisfying success, I needed to shift my focus/energy and pour it into something satisfying. 

I needed to focus and put my energy on FINDING SATISFACTION, someplace, anyplace, rather than on the frustration.

Because satisfaction breeds success.

And it just doesn’t work any other way.

For instance, I noticed I was carrying some extra pounds. Call it menopause. Call it new relationship love weight. It doesn’t really matter. 

I was frustrated. But you know what?

When I stayed focused on how frustrating this was, all that happened was an increase in weight. Frustration breeds frustration.

When I focused on how satisfying my new rower was, with all the short 10-minute strength classes that I can fit in whenever I want, I started to get success. 

And it’s in that choice, when you choose to go find satisfaction, where the transmutation starts.

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help you step into your next level of growth.  

Embracing Growth: 2024’s Habits of Presence, Gratitude, and Connection

By Amira Alvarez Last year I really worked on creating some beautiful manifestations. This required building new habits.Dare I say that one of them was meditating every day? I know, I know. If you’re not in the meditation habit, it feels impossible.But the effort is so worthwhile and unleashes whole worlds of possibility.This year…
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Last year I really worked on creating some beautiful manifestations. This required building new habits.

Dare I say that one of them was meditating every day? 

I know, I know. If you’re not in the meditation habit, it feels impossible.

But the effort is so worthwhile and unleashes whole worlds of possibility.

This year the habits I’m creating are a jumping off point from this practice.

They are habits of presence and connection.

Some are simple and just require a bit of discipline, while others are going to require a bigger investment in myself of time and attention.

Here’s my list…

  1. Eating lunch without working.

    This is a simple one but my desire to maximize my time always seems to hook me back to the phone or the iPad while I’m eating lunch. What I truly desire is a full and complete break that allows my eyes to relax and my nervous system to reset. When I do this, my energy for everything soars. 

  2. Releasing the mental noise around food.

    I don’t know about you but I’ve been having a somewhat unhealthy conversation in my head about food since I was probably 7 years old. What gives on that? I’m so done with it. I’m ready to fully release this and stop letting it take up space in my head. This is one of those habits that is going to take some serious discipline.

  3. Transitioning out of the work day with a walk.

    I do this many days but not all days. It’s such a great transition for me. Although I love  a glass of wine, I realized years ago that it was so easy to use it as a daily de-stressor. Getting outside with the pup (and sometimes the man) is so refreshing and is one of those “ticks multiple boxes” habits: transition from work to evening, fresh air and sunlight, connection with nature, exercise, and connection.

  4. No rushing, scramble, or waiting until the last moment.

    I’ve made GREAT progress on this but still find myself on occasion waiting to make that cup of tea until the last minute and then being late to a team meeting. Or trying to get one last thing done and then needing to rush to the appointment. So. Done. With. This. Which leads to…

  5. Ease and grace in day to day living.

    This too I do mostly well and then I find myself reverting back to trying to fit too much into my day. The habit here is consciously paring back and setting fewer appointments or expectations for the day. And as you’d imagine, I actually get more quality work done, with more spaciousness. 

  6. Giving more. Loving more.

    How can I give today? How can I love today? These are two simple questions I plan to ask myself every day. This is giving and loving unconditionally, without any expectation of reciprocation. This is giving and loving even if no one knows or notices. This is giving and loving in small and large ways. Just writing this feels amazing.

  7. Daily gratitude and appreciation.

    I’m regularly reminded of how powerful gratitude and appreciation are. Whenever I go on a rampage of appreciation, whether it’s first thing in the morning, before I go to bed at night, or when driving in the car… my vibration rises. It connects me with how awe-inspiring life is.

  8. Aligning with my soul.

    This one ought to be simple but all the conditioning of life sure does get in the way. What I know is that when I tune in, listen, and follow my soul’s guidance, I am so much happier. Raising my ability to translate its message and calibrate my thoughts and actions with its direction is where the big payoff is going to come from.

  9. Stacking days of high vibration.

    Not letting anything take me off my game to lower my vibration. That’s a high bar, but the desire I have. This is going to require an even higher level of presence and attention to my thinking and my feelings than I already have and an unrelenting insistence that I feel good no matter what.

  10. More sexy fun and flirtation.

    ‘Cause I love feeling this connection with my man. ‘Cause life’s too short not to feel lit up. ‘Cause sexual energy is creative life force energy and staying tapped in is plain and simple a conduit for more positive flow in your life.

Those are my top 10 habits that I’m building stronger in 2024. I’m so excited about these. I can feel them coming into being with so much ease and grace and it feels exquisite. 

What about you? What habits are you building? 

———

Want to experience more as an Unstoppable Woman?

Be sure to check out the Unstoppable Woman podcast. If you’re ready to step into an exquisite life, schedule a call to discuss how we can help you step into your next level of growth.