Gail McMeekin - The Power of Positive Choices: Adding and Subtracting Your Way to a Great Life

More Praise for The Power of Positive Choices

You hold in your hands a small, potent, and magical book. Make a positive choice right now; read it. Absorb its wisdom. Act on the insights you gain and you're on your way to experiencing a renewed joy in living.

LYNN A. ROBINSON, author of Divine Intuition: Your Guide to Creating a Life You Love

The simple process of Addition and Subtraction makes it so easy to incorporate dynamic change in your life. The Power of Positive Choices will transform the way you care for yourself.

DEBORAH KNOX, co-author of Life Work Transitions.com: Putting Your Spirit Online

A gem of a book. This simple guide to life transformation provides the structure and support to find your true self.

LUCIA CAPACCHIONE, PH.D., art therapist and author of Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams

Gail has the ability to show us how to move our lives forward with power, dignity and grace. She is truly the Goddess of Creativity!

LORETTA LAROCHE, author of RelaxYou May Have Only a Few Minutes Left

A highly sensible guide to help you stop daydreaming and start making the choices that are ultimately fulfilling.

TALANE MIEDANER, author of Coach Yourself to Success

T his book is dedicated to your divine capacities for creativity and change, in harmony with the higher good.

Copyright 2001 by Gail McMeekin

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact: Conari Press, 2550 Ninth Street, Suite 101, Berkeley, CA 94710-2551.

Conari Press books are distributed by Publishers Group West.

ISBN: 1-57324-573-9

Book and Cover Design: Suzanne Albertson

Author Photo: Gretje Ferguson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McMeekin, Gail E.

The power of positive choices: adding and subtracting your way to a great life / Gail McMeekin.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-57324-573-9

1. Self-actualization (Psychology) 2. Choice (Psychology) I. Title.

BF637.S4 M295 2001

158.1dc21

00-013018

Printed in the United States of America on recycled paper.

01 02 03 04 DATA 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The Power of Positive Choices

Do you long to feel the joy of living? Do you crave time for friends and family, new experiences, the luxury of your own creative thoughts? These are healthy wishes. By learning the art of Positive Choices, you can reprioritize your life and initiate many more memorable moments.

We live in a frantic worldbombarded by more information than we can possibly assimilate, assaulted by media negativity, and exhausted from a lack of leisure. Gone are the days when we had time to sit still and connect with ourselves and our creative impulseswe're all on overdrive. To stay in touch with who you are at this moment in time, you must learn to filter out the things that compromise your serenity. By reading this book, you have chosen to dance with the magic of change. Congratulations. Hidden gains await you.

This is an intentionally small book, but it is potent. The Positive Choices technique is both simple and extremely powerful. Each chapter focuses on one of the letters in the words Positive Choices. Each letter reveals an axiom for you to ponder, and includes exercises called Inquiries to help you to take a series of growth-inducing actions. The letters in the words Positive Choices correlate with specific perceptions and action steps. Together they represent a holistic approach that integrates Doing with Being. Take your time with these concepts, divulge your truths, and engage with your innovation process. The stories of other men and women who have brought Positive Choices into their lives will light your way on this journey. Your life's path will unfold in its right time and in its unique form.

by Barbara Sher, author of It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now

These days, we have more opportunities and more resources than ever before, and still, even with all these benefits, we often have a half-conscious, nagging feeling that we've somehow lost our way. Being lost is not the worst thing in the world; after all, if you know you're lost, you can sit down and start thinking. Maybe you'll find a map or remember some instructions or figure out a way to read the terrain or send up a flare for help.

It's a bigger problem to be lost and not admit it. We may sense that something's not right, but we're too busy to think about it. Or the road looks so familiar, it's hard to believe we could be lost. You know what to do today because you did it yesterday and you'll do it again tomorrow. Granted, you always have more than you can do and a nagging To Do list, but if you keep at it, you might get it together one of these days.

We never stop to ask ourselves the simple, powerful question Gail McMeekin asks us at the very beginning of this book: Is everything okay? We don't ask ourselves because we're not sure we want the answer. What if everything isn't okay? What are we supposed to do about it? Tear our lives apart and start over? If that's what we have to do, maybe it's better to not ask the question in the first place. But that's where this book shines. Maybe you don't control the universe, it tells us, but you do control your life choices. By making one small choice at a time, you can turn your life around.

Although we had met briefly a few years earlier, I came to know Gail McMeekin one day when we sat in her magical Victorian house in Boston while she interviewed me for her book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women. I believe I found out as much about Gail that day as she did about me. I already knew she had been a psychotherapist and a career and creativity coach for more than twenty-five years. But that day we spent together I learned how deeply she believes in the potential for people to change their livesone step at a time. I discovered that her sense of timing is unique, and that she has a rare respect for the impact real life events can have on us. Change has to be timed well, she said, with a lot of respect for the unexpected challenges life can hand us.

I learned more about Gail as she took me through the house she and her husband had restored with love and care. The house is unforgettable. As soon as you see it from the street, you know it's lovable and honest. But the more you explore, the more you find: a perfect detail, an unexpected charming corner, quietness, affection, and humor at every step. No junk or clutter. What struck me as most typical of Gail herself were the many clever solutions to small, important needs: the need for a beam of sunlight on the stairs, for a cozy place to curl up and read where no one will find you, or for a white flower in a bud vase to light up a dark corner.

At the time, I didn't know about Gail's workshops. I've since learned that they're famous. They grew out of her early stress seminars when she realized that relaxation techniques weren't enough to melt stressyou had to resolve the problems that caused the stress in the first place. She's designed a system that takes on reality: if something's wrong, don't just breathe deeply. Face it. Then you can change itelement by element, one at a time, subtracting something that you know isn't right, adding something that feels very right. It's as simple as putting in a garden. And as powerful.