LifeDancing
Mastering Life’s Movement
A Handbook for Conscious Living & Advanced Well-Being
By Linda Lawless MA
www.LawlessCo.com
Dare to dream, to speak the language of your heart, to shape its
longings into clear visions with solid goals and objectives. Dare to
do, to create your visions with integrity and the joy of stretching
your skills far beyond their present capacity. Dare to Dream by Pat
McHenry Sullivan
Linda’s First Law = When I’m 102, reflecting on my life from my
swing, I want to be smiling, secure in the knowledge that there are no
regrets about how I lived my life.
Most people put more energy into planning their weekend than they do in
actively creating their lives. Unfortunately life does not come with an
operating manual that teaches us how to consciously create a joyful
life. Imperfect, ideally loving, human beings parented all of us. We
each carry with us what we learned, the good and the not so good, and
must discover the rest ourselves. The LifeDancing handbook gives you
the tools you need to discover the expert in your life, YOU, and apply
your inner wisdom to creating your unique dance of life.
Having grown up with a single parent who periodically brought in a
stepfather for flavor, I always thought there had to be a better way to
live that was not always fraught with chaos and frustration. I did the
best I could by keeping my eyes open, honoring what I was drawn to, and
trying to be as honest as I could with myself when things went awry. In
my mid 20’s my emotional pain grew so overpowering that I went to see a
Psychiatrist who I thought would heal me. What I was told was that I
was the creator of my own world and would have, with guidance, to fix
it myself. He told me that step one was to take complete responsibility
for the mess I had created, and step 2 was to discover what I wanted
and make it so.
I remember vividly that first visit to Dr. Broadbent’s office. I walked
out of the building into a world that had taken on a new glow. His
message was so simple, yet so very powerful. What I heard was that I
could create any life I wanted! What he failed to tell me was Step 3,
which is that whatever you create, it changes, all the time.
LifeDancing is Step 3, a way to move with life’s changes.
I eventually left my job in Aerospace and went to work for the good
doctor. I became extremely curious about how human beings worked. He
unexpectedly downsized his practice and I was suddenly a welfare
mother. The state of CA at the time offered me a program that paid for
school and a nursing degree if I worked part time at a state hospital
while I received training. At the end of the program I also had to work
a year, full time, in a state mental hospital.
It was during this way overscheduled time that I came to believe that
to reach my goals I had to take control of every aspect of my life. I
was a single welfare mother, working part time, going to school full
time, raising my daughter and all of the other daily things I had to do
to keep myself afloat, My LifeDancing approach to life, was a synthesis
of inner work, creativity, time and energy management, intuitive
guidance, cognitive growth and accountability; I found LifeDancing
worked very very well. There was virtually no problem that arose, and
they did on a regular basis, that I could not sort out and move
through. Over the many years that have followed those years, as I have
worked as a coach, psychotherapist, teacher and student, the
LifeDancing way of living has deepened into a Dance of Being.
The principles in LifeDancing have seen me through disastrous relationships, raising a happy
daughter, completing my psychotherapy degree, remarrying, getting
licensed as a psychotherapist in CA and MA, writing 3 books, starting 3
successful practices, buying my dream Yacht, creating a Positive
Psychology and Executive Life Coaching business, becoming a Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction educator, and much much more. LifeDancing
contains the fundamentals of personal organization and self-leadership,
integrates positive psychology and the emerging fields of coaching,
mindfulness, and brain science. LifeDancing gives you the tools to
create a conscious, joyous, healthy, and passionate life.
For many years I felt split between the medical model (psychotherapy)
that views people as if they are sick and need to be healed by
something outside of themselves, i.e., the professional and/or
medications. My 20 years of professional practice has taught me that
most people have an inner wisdom that they haven’t accessed, and only
need someone to validate that knowing, and support them while they make
the life changes necessary to orchestrate their LifeDance. The DSM
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) offers patterns of behavior to help
therapists choose treatment tools and create plans to help clients, but
the “diagnosis” is not an illness, simply a pattern of behaviors that
point to possible causes and options for healing and growth.
Over the years, my belief about the beauty of each person and their
ability to discover and champion their individuality, strengths and
unique gifts has remained constant. There is absolutely nothing like
being with somebody as they discover their beauty and strength and take
responsibility and control over their unique LifeDance. It is what
keeps me creative and enthralled with LifeDance. my work.
For professionals reading this book, LifeDancing is a to to be used
when people are ready to take on the responsibility of creating their
own lives. I know by experience it is no small feat to step away from
the problem oriented medical model every psychotherapist is taught to
obtain a license. It takes faith and work to move to a Conscious
Strengths and Values based orientation. A Positive Psychology approach
is generally not supported in our field or by our professional
associations, but is growing in strength as research is providing
evidence of its efficacy. LifeDancing gives you the tools you need for
personal and professional change.
LifeDancing takes place on many stages, it helps you weave the
interplay of the movements into an integrated dance of Self. As you
create a dialogue between your inner and outer worlds, you will
discover a center in yourself from which all movement and action
originates, creating a sense of authenticity, trust in yourself, and
peace of mind in all that you do. Using the LifeDancing recipes and 21
day programs, you create your own joyful lifedance, one step at a time.
Begin today to understand who you are from the inside out. Question
what you believe and explore new ways of being; it is never too late to
start. Discover your inner values, your life vision and your short and
long term goals and strategic plans to create the life you can imagine.
Victory is achieved every time you act in alignment with your ideals,
Joy is found in the culmination of your actions. YOU hold the key to
your future, turn it.
I offer you, and anyone who wants to experience the joy of living and
the ecstasy of feeling fully alive a front row ticket to your dance. If you find
the possibilities overwhelming, remember, LifeDancing’s approach is
“one step at a time.” The steps build a Dance of Being. Ultimately as
you live your life of joy, truth, compassion and ecstasy, dancing with others,
together we all change the movement of the world.
I invite you to take that first step, add some music (inspiration) and
experience the passion of being fully alive. You’ll soon discover that
there is no other way to Dance with Life.
From my heart
Linda