Do you have a bucket list? Are there important things in your life that beg for your time and energy? Have you listened to your soul?
Perhaps you long to give up addictive behaviors, release stress, take a leap of faith, witness your soul waking up, and take a risky outrageous leap in the direction of your dreams.
Wait, that’s what I did. I quit drinking alcohol 25 years ago, I do yoga daily to release stress, I’ve taken a huge leap of faith (so big that life feels like a giant free fall), and took a huge leap across the ocean to call Hawai’i home.
I’m still finding deeper reservoirs of resiliency. There is more to transform. Can you relate? Whew. Moonshot after moonshot, and I’m not done yet.
Neither are you.
Share with me what moonshots you’ve witnessed in your life thus far. What awaits you? What sparks joy?
Tune in now to the one hour replay from Friday’s live panel with leading experts on extraordinary living. Let’s go straight for the love, declare our moonshot, and feel the magic unfurl.
Are you willing to view pressure as the energy of change vs. something to wrestle with? Listen to Aimee explore this.
Are you prepared to go straight for the love? Listen to Linda dive into her story of resiliency in her relationship.
Are you ready for the level beyond happiness? Try santosha (contentment). Listen to Arielle describe it.
Linda Bloom’s Gift: 3 free e-books: An End to Arguing, The Ten Biggest Things We’ve Learned Since We Got Married and Your Guide to Great Sex.Click Here
Arielle Ford’sGift:The Soulmate Relationship Quiz Click Here
Aimee Bernstein’s Gift: contact Aimee to participate in a drawing for a free one hour coaching session. Click Here
Warmly,
~ Amy Elizabeth
You matter. Your relationships matter.
Amy Elizabeth Gordon MA
Relationship Architect
Founder & Visionary Queen | Gig Called Life Coaching, LLC
p.s. What is your heart’s desire? What is longing and begging for your attention? I’d love to hear. Hit reply now and tell me about it.
Let’s start with the end in mind. We are in the midst of a cultural revolution. My purpose-driven passion as a social pioneer is to transform the world, one relationship at a time. Let’s embrace the mind-blowing capacity of love to heal heart dis-ease and end addiction, as we contemplate a new reality. Relational Health starts with Self and ends with an extraordinary life.
Join me in this month of Moonshot Magic. We will have special panel style interviews designed to stimulate your appetite for healthy relationships.
Moonshot Magic: change in here, ignite out there
Panel Interview: Relational Health with Yourself: explore the realms of resiliency, compassion and service in the transformational journey of a lifetime.
Time: First interview Friday 11/8 at 10am Pacific, 11am Mountain, noon central, 1pm Eastern, 7pm Vienna
Tune in Live for real time Q&A and special bonus.
Guests, Arielle Ford, Aimee Bernstein, Linda Bloom
This November 26th I am intentionally launching my book, Moonshot. If you’ve read it, I ask for your review and promotion. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?
Why I wrote my memoir: Moonshot
I wrote Moonshot, my transformational memoir, as an invitation to approach the present moment with greater awareness, invite a moment of acceptance, and then act accordingly, from a place of tender, powerful generosity rooted in resilience.
This transformational memoir is for you if you have severed contact with your inner guidance system, felt blamed and shamed, and then criticized others and compromised your morals.
Perhaps you suffer, as I once did, from the epidemic in our dominant culture of distraction and busyness. You’re addicted to things that rob your soul of the beauty of the present moment. You avoid the direct experience of the moment by chronic “doing” versus “being.”
And you rise, like a mighty wave.
Now, are you willing to trust yourself to no longer abandon yourself? Are you ready to own your super-sensitive superpowers? Join me and declare your Moonshot, that something extraordinary that wouldn’t otherwise happen.
I remember twenty years ago, sitting on the floor of a community center, heart-storming and dreaming of the positive future, of 2000 and the broader dream of 2020.
It was exhilarating to imagine all the possibilities.
Opening new vistas, igniting conscious action, expanding the limits…together exchanging our energies in community
The only thing missing at that time was how to hold each other tenderly and fiercely accountable. And this, Dear Reader, is vital to making dreams come true…to launching truly attainable Moonshots.
We can all dream big. We can all declare something extraordinary that wouldn’t otherwise happen. The real question is how to bring it to fruition; everybody needs a buddy.
Feeling that exhilaration again as I look at the year ahead.
I’m inviting you, Dear Reader, to the new community of Moonshot Magic coming together soon. Stay tuned for details…
In the meantime, I’m giving you some inspiration.
Below you will see some of the influencers I’m letting in this week and what I’m feeding my mind.
Mindset Magician: Everything is Figureoutable, Marie Forleo
Inspiring Leader: Dare to Lead, Brene Brown
Spiritual Being: Living Beautifully, Pema Chodron
Abundance Angel: The Wealthy Spirit, Chellie Campbell
Creative Muse: How the Light Gets In, Pat Schneider
Integrated Self: Moonshot: aim high, dive deep, live an extraordinary life, Amy Elizabeth Gordon
I am a mindset magician, inspiring leader, spiritual being, abundance angel, creative muse, and integrated self. So are you. Thank you for allowing me to influence your mindset toward greater relational health.
Have a magical weekend.
Warmly,
~ Amy Elizabeth
p.s. 2020 is coming. I’m clearly seeing an extraordinary year on the horizon.
The power of love is notably felt in the romantic phase. Feeling powerful, free of pain, invincible and higher than high is an amazing life experience. Yet this experience eventually fizzles out; it’s not sustainable.
We can chase it; we can’t contain it.
Romantic love, and the stories we tell ourselves about it, pull us into the highest highs and push us into the deep funks.
Love is a powerful force indeed
In the early stages of our romance, we felt the chemical swirl of feel-good hormones and daring behaviors. The hot and steamy seduction connected us deeply. The pursuit of these passions dominated our days.
Then came the mental wrestling match: Is this really happening? Is this okay? Is this the right time? What about _____ (fill in the blank)? All of this mental meandering resulted in the back and forth, together/apart dance of our relationship.
You know what I’m talking about?
Then came the subsequent surrender. We fell, hard, in love. Hooked on the drug of love. Biological imperatives called the shots; we were hooked.
From here all things are possible
And it was complicated. I met Marc in 1997. There was a lot going on in graduate school as these flames of passion licked our beings. Rarely is falling in love a clean situation. Other people are often involved. Marc was married at the time. I was in the early stages of sobriety and wanted to treat people honorably; myself included.
Difficult decisions determined the future. We were tempted and waited. We slipped and slided. We merged and collided. We broke it off and waited. Divorce proceedings simple. I was blamed as the “other woman.”
During the lulls, the resultant longing and disappointment sometimes made me hurt so much I would wish I’d never even engaged.
My body’s wisdom knew this man could heal me in ways I couldn’t on my own. My body’s wisdom knew we would create amazing things together.
Surrendering to the wisdom of my body, I committed to the relationship. I quit stirring the worry pot and I let the mental meanderings settle, my soul softening to the moment.
Romance reminds me of my meditation practice
In romance, I’m falling in love with my wholeness. I see my wholeness when I look in my beloved’s eyes. I think it’s outside of me. It’s not.
In meditation I am searching for my wholeness. I think it’s outside of me. I realize it’s not.
In romance I feel blissed out; I can experience this in meditation also.
My mind, left unchecked, bounces back and forth between things I want more of and things I want less of. I praise people or I blame them (including myself). It is a dizzying game of push and pull. This game creates suffering.
This doesn’t get me where I want to go. When I’m caught up in praise and blame, I’m basically manufacturing my own misery.
Romance can do this, too, where we often-times stay stuck in blaming the other person. We get caught up in the power struggle and end up blaming our drug dealer (our lover). The very person who generated the feel-good chemicals in the brain, now becomes target for our disappointment because the feel-good chemicals of romance, to meet and mate and procreate, are not meant to last forever. We need to evolve to something more sustaining.
When my mind is freed of the burden of attraction and revulsion, I’m free to settle into the moment. Fresh moment. New awareness. Joy and freedom. This is the joyful journey I’ve discovered in my primary love relationship. I’ve moved beyond push and pull (for the most part) and settled into sustainable sweet connection. When we drift, we recalibrate back to this again and again. I believe in the power of love.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
BUY MY NEW TRANSFORMATIONAL MEMOIR RELEASED 6/18/19 NOW:
Amy’s transformational memoir explores the journey from despair to repair and serves an invitation to us all to understand the distinctions of an extraordinary life through the lens of resilience, compassion, and service.
Picture
the meat tenderizer mallet in my mom’s hands. Hear the thud of the mallet on
the steaks on the counter. Again. The swinging and pounding of the mallet
repeats, tenderizing the meat. The mallet penetrates deeply. It looks
dangerous, but its purpose is to tenderize, to penetrate deeply, to make the
tough meat palatable. As so it is with memoir. Thoroughly overcooked, my story
sits, dried and tough. My past is marbled with drama and trauma; unappetizing
yet intricately laced in the meat of the story.
Believe me, I tried to digest it all; I chewed and chewed, yet the
blob stayed in my mouth, gag-reflex triggered. The undigested, flavorless meat,
grey and unappetizing, bothersome at best.
I spit it into a paper napkin and throw it away; yet there is no away.
Not with our life stories. They can clog our arteries and hurt us, or they give
us the choice to tenderize our hearts and fertilize the space between.
“Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine,”
Mary
Oliver reminds us.
Summers in Florida are hot. Period.
It all started as a moonshot.
It all started as a moonshot.
July of 1969, no exception. The forecast called for humidity, but
no thunderstorms, a crucial piece of data for determining the moonshot. JFK’s
imperative that man gets to the moon by the end of the decade generated
internal heat for beings around the world. This heat, for many, had the flavor
of mind-blowing, exhilarating optimism, and infinite potentialities. For
others, the heat took on a more negative charge; resentment that funds went
upward toward visionary aims instead of dealing with domestic issues down on
Earth like poverty and crime, down here in America.
Thankfully, my parents, gathered with family and friends on the
coast of Florida, celebrated the moonshot. They were in the exhilarated camp.
This was indeed extraordinary.
Dad got the coals ready on the Coleman BBQ while mom pounded the
meat tenderizer on the steaks. Steaks meant celebration. The neighbor, Susan,
shucked the ears of fresh picked Zellwood corn. Always around, always helpful,
Susan prepared the sides and desserts. More butter needed, always more butter
needed, Susan and butter were hand in hand. My mom prepared the main dish.
Everyone brought the booze.
My parents had, at this time, four children, ages 10 and under,
who ran down the beach, lighting fireworks and getting high off the energetic
buzz of excitement that historic night of the first lunar landing. The moon,
symbolic of the unconscious, loomed high in the sky, no longer a hope and a
wish.
We were, collectively, bridging the conscious with the
unconscious. This took place at a pivotal time. The moonshot, the Apollo
mission, was “the result of thorough research carried out by a successful team,
whose strength rises from a common thought made up of simple ideas, growing and
coming together in one dream, yours and ours.” I came across this description
on an ordinary clothing tag recently, but it sums up most worthwhile endeavors
in life.
It takes more than me. Simple ideas, common thought.
It takes more than me. Simple ideas, common thought.
The late 60s in American history, full of swirling energies of
change and possibilities, the fertile ground for greater consciousness, was the
birthplace of the moonshot, both for Neil
Armstrong
and for my conception. Suspended in a moment pregnant with possibilities, my
parents consummated this joy. The backdrop of the American culture, so
promising and inspiring, had a moment to shine. Those in power advocated
overcoming scarcity, fear, and negativity, and finding common ground. This
climate of greater consciousness, of human advancement, bathed my parents as
they made love.
The backdrop of my conception is creative non-fiction. I don’t
know if they ate steaks the night man landed on the moon, but it certainly goes
with the meat tenderizer concept. And you know what? It doesn’t matter. It
works. It works because tenderizing my heart makes for a more palatable
offering.
Where I’d like to be is offering you a tender, juicy, tasty offering of a life worth
living, in order to inspire you to see, in case you haven’t already, that your
life is worth living, extraordinarily so. I do not have to keep chewing the
bland steak, the old overcooked story.
Where I’m from, I tethered myself back to the reality and power of love.
As I’m sitting here, a tender, powerful, generous woman, my history, my story, sits
before me. My heart opens wider to a heart-centric life. I consciously choose
to tenderize my heart on a daily basis, to cover it with love, and let that
love spill out and make a mess. Tears come with tenderizing, and usually a good
bit of snot, and sometimes an imploding headache. I take a deep breath and
remember the wisdom of my body. The body speaks my mind, releases the pinch of
constriction, lets the blood flow freely to the sore spots, feels it to heal
it, and releases any issues stored in my tissues. I thank my body by taking
another deep breath.
What matters most is embracing the magic of choosing love over drama, or as we say
in Hawai’i, choosing aloha
over pilikia, trouble of any kind. In
the past, the troubles dominated my mental real estate, taking up the scenic
landscape with high-rise pillars of doom. I lost sight of the clouds, the
birds, the beautiful sunrise that happens every day without fail. In the past,
what it was like was I was adrift, spinning out of control at times while
exerting control in a grasping, constricting way. I trusted everything and then
nothing. Trust bled to mistrust and I landed in a psychological hell realm.
One thing I can do is recognize I am 100% responsible for my life’s story, and as
such, be source for a transformed world. I can integrate what happened in my
life and see how my experience does not define me.
One thing I appreciate is
that I’m on this incredible journey, this opportunity to live an extraordinary
life of love, connection and commitment. I can get out of those scary places in
my mind more quickly and with more grace than ever before. And truthfully, I
don’t enter them as often as I used to.
This is what it was like. Losing trust in myself, unable to focus on what mattered most, creating wreckage and losing faith in the carefree feeling of youth. My adolescence fostered resilience in me. Resilience of staying alive, strengthening my soul and returning to love, despite trying experiences that tested my trust.
from Moonshot: What was it like living in a culture devoid of rites of passage other than binge and puke and spread your legs? Naturally, my heart hurt, my soul ached, and my spirit floated lost. From this place of intensity, I developed incredible resilience. This is what happened: settling into sobriety, grounding into gratitude, and cultivating a compassionate heart, my mind cleared, my heart opened, my spirit reactivated, and my energy expanded. This is what it’s like now: breathing aloha into every moment, recognizing our interdependence, and claiming responsibility as a source for transformation, naturally, my grateful heart has more blessings than I can say grace over.
back cover
MOONSHOT ENDORSEMENTS
“Equal parts lyrical, confessional, and practical, Amy Elizabeth vulnerably uses her own journey through addiction and trauma to inspire readers to move beyond limiting beliefs and heal from the past” (Alicia Munoz, author of No More Fighting: 20 Minutes a Week to a Stronger Relationship)
“Moonshot is an elegant and visceral memoir that dares one to question one’s own resilience and courage. Indeed, Amy Elizabeth is as transparent as she appears in these pages. Love the interactive curriculum and its usefulness” (Kekuhi Keali’ikanaka’oleohaililani, trainer, Halau ‘Ohi’a).
“This work is the bridge between despair and repair. It is an invitation for women to tenderize our own hearts and to craft a new heart-centric story, the true story of who we are at our core” (Kristen Noel, editor-in-chief, Best Self Magazine).
“Nature did not design us to be alone. Evidence shows that people who enjoy close, fulfilling relationships with others are happier, healthier, and more creative. If this does not prompt you to the wonderful Moonshot, please reconsider. Highly recommended!” (Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters).
“What an enchanting, captivating, beautiful, practical book! Based in personal experience and penetrating prose, Moonshot is meant for anyone who needs more love, empathy, and compassion in their life-and who doesn’t? Let Amy be your guide to a richer, deeper commitment-not just to others but to the world” (Barbara Montgomery Dossey, RN, PhD, FAAN, author of Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer and Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice).
It was our 17th wedding anniversary. We had a lovely “staycation” at a friends’ house, taking care of their dogs, enjoying quality time without kiddos or parents around. (We live in a house of 6 in case you didn’t know.)
I asked Marc what he wanted to do for our special time together.
He replied, “sleep in, make love, nap, eat.” In that order.
I snapped back, “you sound like you’re caught in the animal realm.” (I was judgy, Like he’s a dog or something.)
Oops. That bombed.
Criticism is the adult cry
What did I really want or need in that moment?
You see, the tender soft animal in me really wanted rest, sex, and food, too. But the highly motivated Go Getter in me wanted to GET SHIT DONE. Like editing my memoir, having our money talks, doing our podcast, etc. I needed my mind to settle before indulging in carnal pleasures.
At times, I get swallowed by the chronic doer inside of me. Thank God I have my husband to remind me to surrender into being.
WE ARE WOUNDED IN RELATIONSHIP AND WE CAN HEAL IN RELATIONSHIP.
From that tender place of being, we enjoyed an amazing weekend of connection, rest, sex (lots of it), food, and completed my wish-list, too.
Marc read the first three chapters of my memoir and offered feedback.
We had our challenging financial discussions and came together as a team.
We interviewed for the Soulful Couples podcast (stay tuned for a link to that later).
What happened you might ask? How did we switch from conflict to connection?
We remembered conflict is growth trying to happen.
I returned to tender, opened my heart, and surrendered.
Marc turned toward me instead of away, and returned to the bigger “we.”
It felt magical, but it’s not really. We are two consciously committed and lovingly connected humans who tenderly forgive ourselves for not being perfect and courageously express ourselves for what we really want. That is love.
Who are you when you surrender to your natural state of being, not doing?
