Maureen Smith - Full Tilt Living: Live in the Moment Even When It Stinks! Find the Juicy Parts and Let the World Know You Are Here

Acknowledgments

This book would never have happened without the imagination of my publisher, Jan Johnson, and the support of my daughter, Sydney, who gave Jan my newsletters. I also want to thank Sydney for having so much faith in her mom that she set up a Web-site for me. And one more thank you to Jan for finding a way to squeeze four more chapters out of me and then enduring my embarrassingly prima donna-like behavior during the editing.

I had plans to be a normal person, writes Maureen Smith. But things didn't quite work out that way. Smith has been a camp cook. She's managed a warehouse and assisted a jewelry designer. She's been an interior designer and a drug store clerk. She's sold Avon and securities. She's taught kindergarten and meditation. She's been a wife and she's still a mother of two grown children. She does Tai Chi, sings, plays the guitarlike many self-described, self-respecting 60s chicks. She's hypnotherapist, a trainer, and a newsletter publisher. She cheeks in, meditates, and hangs out. She drinks plenty of water, but doesn't walk on it. Full Tilt Living is her first book.

What's Next

T hat's it! The end of the book, but of course not the end of what you can do with it. If you liked what you found in Full Tilt Living, let some of it work its way into your life. Tell friends and family what you are doing. See if they're interested in trying it with you.

Give me some feedback. Tell me what you liked and what you thought was too nuts to even consider trying. Try out the exercises and then send me an e-mail at .

Most of all, enjoy living full tilt!

FULL TILT LIVING

is about finding the juicy parts, Maureen Smith writes. It came about as I looked for ways to talk about how to make life better. Because this is a pretty challenging time to be around. Things move fast. Stress is our constant companion.

Smith is no nave self-help guru. She knows that life lived fully contains a lot of challenging moments. We need to find ways to embrace the pace, be at peace in chaos. Full Tilt Living offers ways to dig deep and find our inner strengths, clear our inner vision, and find our highest selveswithout going to a mountaintop or desert hermitage to do so.

Full Tilt Living lays down some challenges of its own as well.

If you don't want to stretch and grow

If you don't want to open doors to new experiences

If you're not interested in expanding your horizonsinward, outward, and upward

Don't open this book!

On the other hand, if you want to change your habits, take advantage of even the little in-between moments, fall in love with yourself and pay attention to your inner voice, then Full Tilt Living is the book for you. Inside you'll find stories, exercises, and plain-talking advice. Pick them like cherries from a tree to create your own

chapter 1

Tapping Your Power Source

W hat kind of steam do you use to drive your engine? I mean, how do you go about getting up and running every day?

Unless you are a Disney character, you've probably felt that I can't do another day of this sensation. It usually hits me right after the alarm clock beeps (they used to ring, but this is a new age, believe me).

I admit that it isn't every day I encounter that urge to spend the day with the bedbugs. A day when my whole plan is spending big chunks of money on things that have absolutely nothing to do with dentists or auto mechanics, or getting to roll out to the redwoods for a full day of air and trees and ham sandwiches with root beer (anybody who comes along usually brings their own food in self-defense) gets me past that first blast of what am I doing here?!! consciousness pretty quickly.

Instead of seeding your fear clouds, take a walk in the sunshine.

But let's say it's a day when under the covers looks like the best place to be. What then? It could be that you let a fat, threatening cloud of fear hang over you. It is pretty easy to let that fear cloud with all of the what ifs you have so skillfully seeded it with rain right down on you: I have to get up now and get to work in that rattle trap of a car. I just know the grinding noise it's been making is going to cost me a bundle to fix. What if it takes all the money I'm saving for my vacation? Or What if I do such a horrible job at work today that I get fired? I'll have to move to a dumpy little hovel on a dirt road and live on beans and whatever I can grow in the gardenthat is if I can get anything worth eating to growand wear clothes from the thrift store and live without cable. This is a little over the top, I realize. But I wouldn't be surprised if you have your own version of the Fear Engine.

No one can terrify you quite as well as you can. And after one of those little sessions with yourself, you have so much adrenaline pumping through your system, the only thing you can do is rocket out of bed. You head off to work steaming like a demon. You have shot past I think I can, I think I can! and straight to This train's a-comin'!

Make no mistake, though. Being fueled by fear causes some heavy emotional wear and tear. And it may not keep you going past lunchtime. So another terror session over lunch, right? If you use the Fear Engine often enough, you can completely destroy your natural, healthy work-rest rhythm. And you will very likely lose the sense of joy and accomplishment in what you do along with that natural rhythm. Life might, as I have heard it said, begin to seriously suck.

Wouldn't it be great to tune into a different frequency altogether? How about replacing the fear with a more natural fuel? Give the Power Check List a try. And you can stay right there in bed to do it if you want.

The basic idea behind the Power Check List is to connect as completely as possible with your immensely valuable gifts and strengthsso what gives you a jump start on the day and fuels you right on through to the end comes from your deepest, truest sourcenot from skimming off the adrenaline you manufacture for yourself from a good scare.

In some ways, your Power Check List is similar to what you hope the mechanics are doing before your plane takes off. It's best if you write your own for exactly the same reasons that your personalized Fear Engine works so well: Nobody knows what counts the most for you as well as you do yourself. But I've created a little outline to help you get started.

THE POWER CHECK LIST PROCESS

Step 1: Tuning into Your Physical Power Plant

Begin with the breathing part of you and fill your lungs with a slow, luxurious, deep breath. Now hold it for a couple of heartbeats and then as you slowly let the breath out, check into how basically good it felt to fill yourself up with oxygen. Repeat this until you can notice the heaviness leaving your body.

At this point I usually find myself wanting a good stretch. So do that, taking time to admire how responsive your muscles are. Spread your arms out as far as you can, make fists, and tighten all the muscles from your fingers to your shoulder blades. Now that you've done horizontal, do vertical. Squeeze toes, feet, calves, thighs, buns, abs. Then pull your shoulders down away from your ears as far as you can. Of course, you are getting some good breathing in here too.