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Articles by Valencia Ray

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127 articles by Valencia Ray · showing 50

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By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Self-Love is Narcissism; Really?

Self-love gets a bum rap. Why? It’s because of the way we define it as a culture, and since “perception is reality,” we start to believe that this is “just the way life is.” I looked up the definition of “self-love” on Dictionary.com, and it is defined as: 1. the instinct by which one’s actions are directed to the promotion of one’s own welfare or well being, especially an excessive regard for one’s own advantage. 2. conceit; vanity. 3. narcissism

Primary topic: Empowerment

895 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Confidence and Self Image: What Part in the Game of Life Is Playing You?

Self-image and confidence is not to be taken lightly. You cannot really rise above, or at least stay above your self-image. In fact, your brain acts as a cybe etic mechanism, which is a fancy way of saying "thermostat". Whatever is your set point tends to be your self-fulfilling prophecy. If you have a low self-image, you tend to struggle more with confidence and fear of rejection. You are less likely to take risks, and I certainly can say that dealing with change will be frightening if you are afraid of going into the unknown.

Primary topic: Empowerment

826 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Empower Up: 3 Little Known Secrets to Making Friends With Change

Empowerment and being able to navigate the fear of change go hand and hand. Please hear this without judgment; if you keep doing what you do, you will keep getting what you are getting - no exceptions. It is all to common for people to want a thriving business, happy, fulfilling relationships and good health without adjusting their attitudes and behaviors.

Primary topic: Empowerment

675 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Transformational Leadership: A Real Change Leader Leads Change

A real change leader is courageous in dealing with personal growth - changing one's self. Let's be clear here; personal growth is not about 'fixing yourself'. It is about learning and growing to reach more of your true potential. A leader will need to acknowledge her or his fear and keep moving forward anyway… leading the way. This is simple, yet not easy - at first. Facing change may not be without doubt or uneasiness; still, the more one comes from a place of confidence and authenticity, the more likely courage will be the response instead of denial.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,034 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Collaborative Change is Creating the New Order of Business

Collaboration is the here to stay; the days of “The Lone Ranger” are numbered and rightfully so. It is unnatural to live isolated with the old ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality and this was only a paradigm anyway. Disregarding others is like cutting off your nose to spite your own face. There is more than one way to live life. Be forewa ed however; the paradigm you create will show up as your “reality”. I can see around me people awakening to this truth.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,050 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

How Do You Feel About Joy, Meaning, and Worth?

True potential is a challenge to uncover if you are out of touch with what is the most misrepresented and misunderstood aspects of being human – feelings. Research findings indicate that feelings (heart) are 5,000 more magnetic energy than that of thought (brain). When the mind and heart are coherent or ‘on the same page’, a person is in a higher state of wellbeing and creativity. So what is the passageway to more joy, meaning, and worth? Feeling. It’s as simple as that.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,241 views3/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Self-Love and Compassion Are Good For You – Finally Some Research!

Self-love and compassion are things I have intermittently blogged about for three years now. I typically include the disclaimer that I’m not referring to “narcissism” or “conceit” because, believe it or not, that’s the way it is defined in some reference dictionaries! Finally, some research for the skeptics who are unwittingly killing themselves with all of their self-rejection and “logic-only” thinking.

Primary topic: Empowerment

904 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Emotional Intelligence: I Feel, Therefore I Am

Emotional intelligence is beginning to be recognized as a powerful contributor to business intelligence—“soft” skill or not. I’m all for respecting the intellect, and I’m all for respecting our intuitive feeling mind, as well. I have a book on order called “Descartes Error,” by Antonio R. Damasio. I’m looking forward to reading it, as Damasio studies emotion and the brain.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,901 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Collaborative Leadership: Are You a Mindful Leader?

Mindful leadership is an idea whose time is here… now. Now is the present moment, and unless you can be self-aware enough to listen to what is present to you, here, now, you are not showing up as a mindful leader. Mindfulness takes practice, particularly in our hyperactive culture, which is full of fear, distraction and “never enoughness.” Granted, it is highly unlikely that you live every moment of your life mindfully, but for most people even if they could do it for a few moments or minutes at a time, they are ahead of the game. Actually, this is serious business.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,370 views1/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

What's Holding Back Women Entrepreneurs?

Being a woman entrepreneur and professional myself has given me a genuine hands on perspective of what it means to succeed in business and yet stay at the top of my game with my professional skills. In my case, I was a practicing eye surgeon who right out of fellowship training took a corporate job for a couple of years, just long enough to get my practice up and running. After over two decades of owning and operating my practice (I had also acquired my mentor's large practice when he retired), I sold it to do what I am doing now.

Primary topic: Empowerment

747 views2/5 (6)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

3 Feelings That Can Harm Your Health and the Health of Your Dreams

Personal power is not often linked to the types of feelings that we have. In fact, most people would rather not acknowledge their feelings at all, which is unfortunate as research has shown that the magnetic energy of feelings is 5,000 times greater than that of thought. Our culture overemphasizes thinking and underestimates the power of feeling.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,054 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

3 Key Questions To Determine If Your Opinions Are Harmful To Your Health

Staying healthy is more important than ever considering the rising rates of cancer and chronic disease in our world - not to mention the expense of healthcare and the emotional fallout. While I personally have healthy nutrition habits and exercise regularly, I do very little specific teaching on what supplements to take or what exercise routine one should be on. I tend to come from the core of what makes us stay healthy or get sick - mindset. Yes, even disease is related to how you think and feel. In fact, it can make or break you and holistic/integrative physicians already get this.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,822 views5/5 (2)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Women in Business: Secrets Revealed from the Soul of Money

Women-owned businesses have been the fastest growing segment of new start-up entrepreneurial endeavors. I’m glad to see this, as I’ve been a professional and an entrepreneur for many (yes, many) years now. I have found being an entrepreneur takes a special kind of courage, and it can be an amazing platform to grow one up spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I can tell you story after story of the types of personal growth and expansion experiences that I’ve undergone that would not have presented themselves as dramatically if I had only stayed in the world of the job market.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,206 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall-Why Compare Myself At All?

If confidence and self-esteem does not come from the inside out, we are bound to seek it from outside in. This is a never-ending bottomless pit. Who cares, you may ask. Why even conce yourself with confidence or self-esteem issues? Well, for one thing, what the French author Anais Nin said many years ago is true: "We don't see things the way they are; we see them as we are"

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,345 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Transforming Your Business Starts with Transforming YOU

Transformation feels scary. Why? It is mostly because we’ve been conditioned unwittingly to think of change as “life threatening.” Granted, we have an instinct for survival wired into our brain, yet we have a greater authority – conscious choice – that can temper the violence of this fear-response to change. If we do not realize that we can “rewire” our brain and change this perception, we will continue to act robotically. This would not be so unhealthy if we had not been programmed with so much fear and limitation in our thinking. Who wired us? Where does this come from?

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,043 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Releasing your Creativity May Help Prevent Alzheimer’s

Creativity and intuition are both right brain hemisphere qualities that have been ignored and disrespected for generations now. Finally, thanks to neuroscience research the importance of respecting the contributions of both of our brain hemispheres is coming into vogue. I have advocated trusting your own intuitive guidance and reclaiming your own voice and inner authority for several years now.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,546 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Collaborative Leadership: Obama Tech Team Lessons in Adaptability

A brilliant example of collaborative leadership in action is illustrated in an article I read in yesterday’s Sunday Business Section of the newspaper entitled “Obama Tech Team Ventures Forward”: Collaborative Leadership Structure is an innovation to the traditional hierarchical structure. It is not a style of consensus, yet it has far greater flexibility than the outdated, ‘command-control’ style of leadership commonly seen within hierarchical cultures.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,700 views1.8/5 (4)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Own Your Magnificence and Stop Playing Small

Greatness, magnificence, and brilliance – do you realize that these are words that really refer to your unique “Self”? Then why do we tend to feel so uncomfortable applying these words to our self? For that matter, we tend to only apply them to other people, after they have died.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,266 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

5 Keys to Attracting the Change that You Want in Business and Life

Business and personal life are directly connected, with the common denominator being you, haven’t you noticed? It’s time to integrate ourselves into the whole being that we are. Law of Attraction is simply this: the vibrational pattern of energy from thought and feeling that is affecting your perceptional system and connecting with like thoughts and feelings from others.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,018 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

The Power of Networking: Heart, Lies, and Videotapes

Networking and personal power are vital to growing your business and being a successful leader. This is true whether you are a one-person business, a professional, or a corporate leader running a billion-dollar business. Nowadays, this is truer than ever. We have systematically been taught in the past (which means it is a part of most people’s habitual way of thinking, whether they realize it consciously or not) that rugged individualism and “logical” thinking is the path to “success.” Of course, that depends on what one means by success.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,061 views2/5 (2)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Slow Down to Accelerate Your Results

Productivity is not simply activity. Without a clear vision, a heartfelt why, and a clear strategy, you will waste your resources - time, energy and money. You will also increase the likelihood that you will create dis-ease in your body from overworking and stress.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,234 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Practical Spirituality: EGO Is Not The Enemy

Ego often gets a bum rap. I was happy to see the video of Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor, author of "My Stroke of Insight", a while back as she exemplifies why we need an ego and why is not a good idea to try to "get rid" of it. First of all, unless you want to damage the left hemisphere of your brain (which was her challenge when she had the stroke), you are going to have a sense of "identity" which is what the ego is. It is the mental construct of the "false self".

Primary topic: Empowerment

868 views5/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Is It Truly Visionary Leadership, or Are We Just Waking Up?

Leadership and vision are things I’ve been dealing with all of my life on different levels: from student government and asking questions that irritated those around me and questioned the status quo, to literally growing up and becoming an entrepreneur and eye surgeon before selling my practice. Vision and leadership are themes in my life in a very personal and experiential way.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,352 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Team Building: Meaning Motivates

Team building is too often looked upon as “some things” to do instead of “some ones” to become. Teams are composed of people, not parts like a machine. In fact, it is time to stop treating your body and life as parts, somehow separated into bits and pieces. If we only use our left-brain mental constructs, this is how we tend to focus. For example, traditionally we see teams in terms of strategies, tasks, and dollars-and-cents measures (“bottom line”).

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,556 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Want More Personal Power? Feel Into It!

Personal power is something that many people think they can “get” by controlling or manipulating others. Actually, power comes from “being” personal power. It’s a quality of radiance. I would not call power over others, personal power. I see that as mere force, based in scarcity and fear mentality. Do you realize that “survival of the fittest” is really just a paradigm? Science already shows that there is no “objective” reality, and Einstein said long ago “reality is an illusion; albeit a very persistent one.”

Primary topic: Empowerment

988 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Collaborative Leadership: Does the Leader Need to Know it All?

Collaborative leadership allows others to get their “voice” in the room. As long as there is a healthy level of trust, the terms of group meeting engagement can be explicit. This allows for a culture that can embrace a diversity of thought, which is something that is crucial for innovation. While every opinion cannot always be integrated into the strategy systemically, allowing and respecting others to contribute will go a long way toward employee engagement and ownership. It will take a truly confident leader to admit that she or he does not know everything.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,168 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Intuition in Business: Trust Your Gut; It is More Insightful Than You (Can) Think

Intuition is helpful in business success on several levels, not to mention its usefulness in everyday living. It can help you with innovation, hiring, and even choosing your ideal clients or whom you should take on as a client. It is being studied more in science and this is a great idea – finally progress! I notice that some people prefer the term “gut instinct” and this is fine, whatever suits you. Language can often get in the way of innovation when people have to be “right” as much of how we communicate is really quite subjective and based on our own perceptions.

Primary topic: Empowerment

898 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Self Esteem - Who is That Mean Girl and Why is She Still Bullying Me?

Self-esteem and self-image make a huge difference in the level of success you can have not only in your business, but it will affect relationships and even health. There have actually been studies that show that low self-esteem lowers your health, as for one thing, it impacts your susceptibility to stress and ineffective self-care.

Primary topic: Empowerment

973 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

The Courage to Stare Down Fear

The courage to stare down fear requires more than meets the eye. In fact, if you keep your focus and attention on what scares you, you will feel more afraid. Yet, you will need to face your fear, name your fear, and then tap into your spiritual power of courage. Courage is not of the head; it’s of the heart.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,175 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

7 Reasons Why Worry is Bad for Your Health

Staying healthy is the goal of most people. As I look at our healthcare system, it has never been as important as it is today to be proactive in staying healthy. Between the expense healthcare and medication, the threat to your financial stability and the questionable "scientific" data that supports that taking a million, kazillion (I know this is not a valid term) drugs is acceptable, I'd say one had better do everything possible to maintain their health as naturally and as cost effectively as possible.

Primary topic: Empowerment

5,346 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Are You Really ‘Fixing’ Yourself, or Are You Simply ‘Learning’?

Leadership and developing emotional intelligence is really personal growth and development. It is important to distinguish this. If leaders want to become more empathetic, engaging and inspiring, we must recognize that we need to change our self first. One reason why this feels so threatening and challenging is that society applies the connotation that personal growth means ‘fixing’ your self. This perception stops most people in their tracks when it comes to embracing personal growth and development.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,219 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Feminine Power: What Is It and Is It Female?

I’ve read several articles on feminine power recently and I’ve seen groups formed online with feminine power as the title. I even participate in one on Facebook. The Dalai Lama has been quoted as saying, “the western woman will save the world”. So, is feminine power limited to women? I don’t think so. I see it as a part of being human and it is needed to balance masculine power, which is also a part of being human. There is no cut and dry explanation for how these two powers express, though there are general characteristics that define them.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,320 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Happiness - Your Mindset Will Determine Where You Find Yourself in Life

Happiness and peace of mind is not something that will be found outside of you on any long-term basis. All of the rapid change and commotion that is going on in the world today is a reminder of this. If my inner happiness were based on controlling the events that occur around me, I'd be in trouble right now. Yet, even in the midst of the outer instability in the world as reported by the media, I feel more grounded and less fearful than at anytime before in my life - why? For one thing, I'm learning the real power of mindset.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,133 views2/5 (4)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Innovation: The Power of “How”

Innovation can happen in a “Two-Degree Shift,” meaning the answer you seek could be right in your face… if you could only perceive it! Have you ever heard the old adage, “If it was a snake it would have bit me?” (meaning what you were looking for was right in front of you, but you did not see it). It is not just a matter of what you want; what you need to consider is “how” you are looking at: People, Situations, and Circumstances. Also, slow down and consider “why” you want what you want so that: * You can engage your heart – your source of passion and courage to persevere.r

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,191 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Make Friends With Change by Introducing Yourself to Your Brain

Empowerment is a frequent topic these days and I think it is reflective of where we are in our evolutionary growth as humankind. It seems pretty obvious to me that people are looking for answers other than business as usual. One thing for sure is that we cannot solve some of our current challenges by looking in our current memory toolbox of how to solve problems. The consciousness or "mindset" that got us here will not be the same ways of thinking that help us to change the world.

Primary topic: Empowerment

773 views4/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

3 Key Reasons Why Self-Love Is Not Narcissism And Why Should You Care

Confidence is a key element to empowerment. If you can't speak up, take risks or all too often buckle under the opinions of others, your gifts and talents will likely never reach authentic expression. Let me say that confidence from the core, authentic self is what I am referring to.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,009 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Personal Power: Is 'Shame on You' Still Holding You Back?

Shame and guilt are two feelings that not only limit one’s sense of personal power – they can also subtly cause things like procrastination and fear of “getting out there” in our business. rn.r

Primary topic: Empowerment

801 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Focus on the Core Four for More Effective Productivity

Effective productivity comes from managing our energy, not our time. Time is a construct, and everyone gets the same amount every day. The issue is not how much time as much as it is how much energy and how you are using and renewing. Energy is the capacity to do work. When we re-energize the whole of ourselves — spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physical — we will have more energy to be productive. These four areas need optimum functioning to achieve optimum results.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,026 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Happiness: Are Your Perceptions Creating Cataracts of The Soul?

Happiness and peace of mind seems to be on many people's minds. After all, happiness and peace of mind are two elements that make for a life well lived. The challenge though is being clear enough to stay focused on principles that allow us to avoid getting pulled into the trap of "common knowledge". Common knowledge is often simply hand-me-down opinions that have been accepted as "just the way life is". There is not a way life is that is universally true. What determines how you see life is the filter that you see the facts around you through, known as perception.

Primary topic: Empowerment

898 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Women in Business: Your Brain is Essentially a Computer – Know How to Operate It?

Women entrepreneurs are a rapidly growing demographic, yet the key is not to simply start a business but to also be successful at it. I owned and operated a very successful medical and surgical practice before selling it to now share insights into business and life that I’ve applied personally by integrating cutting edge science with ancient wisdom principles.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,095 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

I Want To Be An Entrepreneur-So Why Am I So Stuck?

Career transition is quite common considering that many people are searching for more meaning in what they do, or by sheer necessity, they have to make some hard choices. Why are they so hard? Life is really meant to be enjoyed, not one week of drudgery after another. I heard someone I know say over the weekend how much she dreads Mondays because she hates her job and her boss. This is no way to live. So why is it such a common problem? At the core of the matter is mindset. We don't know what we even want as our soul's desire is often buried under a ton of "shoulds".

Primary topic: Empowerment

727 views1.7/5 (3)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

The Rarely Traveled Path to Likeability

Likeability is good for your relationship health. I’m reading “The Likeability Factor” by Tim Sanders, and he also gives lots of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) reasons why one should choose to be likeable. It will impact your health, wealth and relationships — the “big three” for most people. I’m not finished with the book yet, so I can’t speak to all of his conclusions. I can say that he is witty, inspiring, and gives practical tips to being more “likable.”

Primary topic: Empowerment

913 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Are You Good Enough Yet?

Core confidence is the key to breaking the never-ending cycle of not being "good enough". As you know "good enough" is relative so how could you ever make this determination as a way to being? It is so connected to "doing" that you will always have something else to, well, do. Basing your confidence and self-esteem on what you accomplish, your job title or how much money you make is a bottomless pit - here today, gone tomorrow.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,017 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Engaging Employees Begins with an Engaged Leader

Employee engagement evolves organically from a leader’s engaging behavior and an engaging organizational culture. It is really not a “formula.” It boils down to leading and creating organizational culture in ways that stimulate trust, show interest in the individual’s wellbeing, and stimulate meaning/purpose. Going to a job that one is passionate about is totally different than going to the very same job just to collect a paycheck. While there are those who are simply wandering through life and have no vision for themselves, most people are looking for meaning.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,380 views2/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

How to Create More Time - On Purpose

Creating time, at first, sounds ridiculous - until you understand how we co-create our "reality." Of course, when speaking of linear time there are only 24 hours to a day, and everyone receives equal amounts. Yet, if you keep talking about how fast 'time flies' and do not realize that you are the pilot who has great influence over how you experience time, you will unconsciously keep your foot on the accelerator without awareness of how to slow it down. Our perception, how we see time, impacts our experience of time.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,489 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

5 Tips to Boost Brain Power and Productivity

Achieving business success requires more than collecting advanced degrees and learning sales and marketing strategies. These things are useful, but we are so ‘dis-integrated’ in our thinking these days that we miss the forest (the big picture) because we are so busy trying to cut down trees (“doing stuff” and gathering information).

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,247 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Money and Career: The Real Truth About Manifesting Your Bliss

Career transition has money and career on many women's minds lately. Since many women are sensing the change in the air, I've heard several comments about using this time of workplace instability to "find your bliss". What I've noticed is that often it is believed that if you "just do what you love", you will be successful and your hobby will morph into a business that can take the place of your job. It would be nice if all we had to do were "build it and they will come".

Primary topic: Empowerment

777 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Purposeful Living: Clarify and Distinguish Vision from Mission

Our life purpose platform needs to be built on a foundation built upon the rock of our truth, who we feel (with heart) we are, not just who we “think” (head) we are. Belief is based more in a sense of feeling, not thinking, actually. I’ve discovered the hard way, that allowing society and others to set my priorities can be deadly for living with clarity, confidence and peace of mind. It also can swing you on both sides of the financial spectrum, for those of you who are money-motivated and still believe that money is the golden formula for a happy life.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,058 views3/5 (1)

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

If You’re Not Afraid…

You are not growing. Growth will take you into the unknown. Why is growth so scary? The most likely reason for many, many people is that they are conditioned unconsciously to fear change. This is rooted in perception. It is not a universal law that human beings must function this way.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,232 views

By Valencia RayRecently published1 topic

Work-Life Integration: Do Long Hours Equal Productivity?

It seems to me that many people are short on time and long on things to do. This certainly was an issue of mine also at one time. What I learned during those years was that time wasn’t the issue as much as was energy and focus. Lack of clarity and reflection time often drain the brain. When we are not clear about where we want to go and why, we waste a lot of our energy. And without passion and clarity, you are not likely to have much productivity. You may certainly have plenty of activity, but these are not the same thing; long hours often don’t equal productivity.

Primary topic: Empowerment

1,171 views2/5 (1)

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