I Can Do It! Conference in Baltimore: Part 2

Saturday night was Iyanla. I LOVE this woman! She is funny and smart and full of energy!  She started by saying that every year she chooses an anthem for the year. This year is It's My Time, which was a recurring theme in her talk:

"Why am doing that? Because IT'S MY TIME!"

Being with Iyanla is kinda like being in church; a noisy, joyous church with people shouting back "Amen!" and getting up to dance. Here are some Iyanla quotables:

"It's my time. I decided that I would be peaceful and happy. It's your time to decide who you're going to be and *how* you're going to be."

"The only thing I detest more than dieting is exercise. And as long as there's a size bigger than the one I'm in, then I'm good."

"I have to tell you this story because I'm an enlightened person . . . ."

"I'm not really a scrapbooker, just a scrapbook supply buyer . . . when you got to get your shop on, it don't matter where you are." 

"It's your time to fly but some don't know they have a pilot's license, and just sit on the runway with excuses; wait til the kids are grown, wait til I get it in meditation . . . . "

"Whatever's in your heart, feeds your wings." 

"Turbulence comes to shake you up to see if you're paying attention."

"Trouble comes to pass, not to stay. Unless you keep inviting it." 

"What's your song? Sing it. Dance it. Affirm it. Be it."

No pix with Iyanla. :-(  We rushed out to go have dinner with a friend who was waiting. However, I was telling this group of other seminar-goers who Iyanla was and this guy comes up and says, "Excuse me. I just have to say that she's the best-selling author of 14 books and has the Number One reality show on TV." It turns out it was her manager. Hahahaha

So that was the end of Saturday. Now, on to Sunday! First up was Doreen Virtue. I have her Healing With the Angels Oracle Cards which I got when my dog Remington was a puppy. I know this because the box still has his teeth marks on them from when he was teething. *sigh* Sweet memories. Anyway, I had an opportunity to talk to her and tell her that even tho she's got a lot of other decks (seriously, so many!), that one is still my favourite.

With her dog Precious. Gah! SO CUTE!

Doreen's partner for writing cards, Radleigh Ballentine was there doing readings. Here's Ruth picking a card:

Radleigh was SO funny! He started his career as an auditor, working for the government, but then was also doing tarot card readings on the down low. 

"...so I was out of the closet--not THAT closet. Everybody KNOWS I'm out of THAT closet. I've got sparkley shoes!" [which he did] "I meant the SPIRITUAL closet!"

Doreen and Radleigh both said that the traditional tarot was made scary and foreboding, and they set out to create a deck that didn't have all the negative stuff. "No one wants a client breathing out of a paper bag when they've pulled the death card!" 

Hullo.

Ruth picked Archangel Sandalphon which she said was a made up arch angel. Hahahaha

And then!  Caroline Myss!  Except, NOT Caroline Myss because she canceled. AGAIN! This is the second Caroline thing that Ruth has signed up for that Caroline canceled. Except, she did Skype in to the last event. But no Skyping this time! [insert font of disappointment].

Next up: Joe Dispenza a brilliant chiropractor and neuroscientist:

The presidential pose. Love this photo of Ruth & Joe. :-)

I've only seen Joe once at another conference, and in What the Bleep Do We Know?  Ruth knows a bit more than I do about him. It was fun learning a bunch of new stuff! I got his new book, You Are The Placibo: Making Your Mind Matter. He's another one with an incredible story: while riding his bike in a triathlon, he was hit by a car from behind and catapulted into the air and then landed on his back. Then the same car came toward him so he grabbed the bumper & got dragged 20 feet before the car stopped. He had multiple compression fractures up and down his spine. 4 surgeons told him he must have Harrington Rod surgery or he would be in a wheel chair. He declined the surgery and thru creative visualization and self hypnosis, he was walking in 3 months. You would never know to look at him that he'd ever had an accident.

He's another scientist in agreement with Bruce Lipton that 95% of our lives are lived subconsciously on a daily basis. In fact, he says that it happens by the age of 35. Here are some quotables:

About making a change in your life: "When you don't do the same thing, it becomes uncomfortable . . . and you start to hear voices, "Why don't you start tomorrow?" or have excuses, "I broke a finger nail . . . . "

"You can't live by the same emotions and expect to change."

 "This feels right? NO, it feels comfortable."

"The best way to predict your future is to create it. If you're not creating a future, you're looking at the past."

"Every time you have a thought, your brain makes a chemical."

"Thoughts are the language of the brain; feelings are the language of the body."

"You can't create a new future holding onto the emotions of the past . . . What emotions have you memorized that keep you in the past and are you willing to change that?"

"The power that made the body, heals the body." (He's quoting B.J. Palmer--love that!)

This is our new-friend Oteal. She was so awesome! 

Oteal was scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery. Not anymore:

Ruth adjusted her wrist and arm. AWESOME!

The last person we stayed for was Cheryl Richardson, another author and inspirational speaker that I love!  She is smart and funny and kind. Here are some quotables:

"I don't have any patience for the cocktail level of life."

"The minute you blame outside circumstances, you give your power away."

"Begin to remove everything in your life that no longer fits, and that vision moves toward you. And what shows up is far greater than you ever could imagine."

"We think that not feeling our feelings heals us. It's the exact opposite."

"A draining relationship is not a relationship; it's an arrangement."

"Bitching about [something] deprives you of DOING something."

As much as I wanted to stay for John Holland, the last speaker, my brain was full. And we had a 4-hour car ride ahead of us. So we left after Cheryl. Part of the fun is that I get to share the experience with chiro-sis, so it's always an AWESOME time. PLUS she always brings yummy food. If it were up to me, I'd be eating trail mix all weekend. She made quiches and un-wiches (sandwich stuff in a romaine lettuce leaf). So I always eat well when she's in charge! That's just the icing on the cake to a really great weekend!  

I Can Do It! Conference in Baltimore: Part 1

This past weekend, Chiro-sis Ruth & I went to Baltimore for the I Can Do It! conference. There were so many WONDERFUL speakers there (Bruce Lipton!), and unlike the last 2 years, it wasn't in a cavernous convention center, but in the gorgeous Hippodrome Theatre. AWESOME!

Before I go into speakers and content, this:

How freaking COOL is this? A HOP SCOTCH?!  
You know I had to do it.
Every. Single. Time.
SO FUN!

OK, on to the speakers!  Wayne Dyer kicked off Saturday morning. He started with a little humour:  "I still can't get over that people pay to listen to me talk. My kids can't either." Hahahaha

"Believe it or not, if enough of us shift our consciousness, we can make a huge impact." 

In addition to Rumi (LOVE!), he quoted one of my favourites, Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist, holocaust survivor, and author of Man's Search For Meaning. "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."  Wayne says that we are trained to be limited. "Don't believe in your limitations."

Bill Davis, author of Wheat Belly, joined Wayne on the stage.  Wayne is now gluten-free and officially a Glutard. I say that with the greatest affection. I'm sure that is how my brother (Atlasta) means it when he calls me & Chiro-sis Glutards . . . .

So he ended the morning with daughter Skye singing a BEAUTIFUL rendition of The Greatest Love. And here she is singing (something else equally beautiful, just watch):

Alex Woodard was also there at the conference. Read his first book, For the Sender. I missed his concert, but the last two times I've seen him, I've joined the audience in being a blubbering, boo-hooing mess as he told the story of Kona, his dog that died. Ruth said that this time, he told a story about his horse that left everyone crying. I have one word for Alex:

PUPPIES.

End your talk with puppies! Give your audience a shot of oxcytocin so we can all feel better after boo-hooing about a dog or a horse we don't know. Don't leave us in the valley, take us to another peak.

Aaaaand back to Wayne. So Ruth & I were walking down the street with Bruce behind us, & Wayne Dyer came walking toward us. So I said, "Hey Wayne, Bruce Lipton is behind us." And then I whipped out my camera, of course:

"I caught a fish this big."

With Ruth.

And me.

And then!

Skye came our way, so Ruthie stopped her to say THANK YOU for her BEAUTIFUL singing.

Mike Robbins, author of Nothing Changes Until You Do, spoke next. He told so many great stories. Here are some quotables:

"Two things that will make life better: Be easily impressed and be hard to offend. Most people have that reversed."

"Trust is honestly expecting *A* positive outcome, not *THE* positive outcome." 

"The answer's always NO if you don't ask."

He ended on the cheery note; we're all going to die some day. So, you know, don't waste your time on stuff that doesn't matter.

And then!  Bruce Lipton!  Here's a summary on Bruce Lipton 101. He only spoke for an hour, but he is such a dynamic, energetic & funny presenter. So I won't summarize his talk, I'll just show another photo:

Here he is with Danni, Anita Moorjani's husband. 

Anita Moorjani is AMAZING. Her story is riveting. She was in Stage 4 lymphoma, in a coma with organ failure, and she healed herself. Here's her story:

Anita quotables:

"Love yourself and value yourself as if your life depends on it; because it does."

"When you love and value yourself, you have heaven on Earth. When you love and value yourself, you realize your purpose: to be YOU."

"Everything we do is out of a fear of consequences or love. Fear is a bad reason to do things. LOVE is the only reason to do anything. Start making decisions out of love."  

I'm going to end it with Immaculee`Ilibagiza, who lived in Africa and survived a mass genocide of her tribe by hiding in a bathroom for 3 months. Now, don't think that's a regular bathroom; it was 3 feet by 4 feet and she shared it with 6 other woman and a 7 year old. Ruth and I stood in the entrance of our hotel room and measured it out. WOW. Tiny space for 8 bodies. Now add the smell and the discomfort and the starvation. 

Could you do it and not be scarred for life? Lemme tell you something: This woman RADIATED LIGHT. Her heart was open and she had nothing but courage and strength and beauty in her story. Here are a few quotables:

"If we all become more loving, there will be no more wars."  

"We all go through something; there is always hope."

"Thoughts can bring poison to our body."

"When the head and heart work together, you create miracles."

She said that she finally understood Jesus on the cross saying, "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do." And that in order to find peace, she had to pray for those trying to kill her. Here is a video clip of Wayne Dyer & Immaculee:

And here are some puppies:

Zzzzzz . . . . Sleeping puppies?!  SO CUTE!