#I’ll make Patty be gir

[milk--lizard]

I think this is the Halloween I properly bring back the Invader Zim cosplay since I never got to wear it actually out for the holiday 😭

[the-sarcastic-trashmouth]

A dumb, stupid love letter

Summary: “Alright, which one of you assholes was it?” Stan’s sharp tone surprised the entire group. Each loser snapped their gaze up to Stanley in confusion as he thrusted the postcard onto the lunch table.

“What’s that?” Bev asked, leaning forward to inspect it before freezing at the declaration of love written in beautiful handwriting.

“A love letter. So who’s idea was it? Come on. I wanna know who to thank for the joke.” He snapped.

“Stan, we didn’t write that.” Eddie comments, looking up to him in worry. “Trust me.”

Stan’s calculating eyes locked onto Richie who froze when he realized that Stan thought it was him. His jaw dropped as he immediately shook his head in protest.

“Look dude, I may be an asshole a good majority of our lives, but even I would think that’s completely fucked.” He explains, holding his hands up in mocked surrender.

“So... So it wasn’t anyone here? There’s someone in this school that actually likes me?” He sounded doubtful of that fact.

“S-S-Sound like it.” Bill points out with a genuine grin of happiness. 

Pairing: Stanley Uris x Patricia Blum 

“Alright, which one of you assholes was it?” Stan’s sharp tone surprised the entire group. Each loser snapped their gaze up to Stanley in confusion as he thrusted the postcard onto the lunch table.

“What’s that?” Bev asked, leaning forward to inspect it before freezing at the declaration of love written in beautiful handwriting.

“A love letter. So who’s idea was it? Come on. I wanna know who to thank for the joke.” He snapped.

“Stan, we didn’t write that.” Eddie comments, looking up to him in worry. “Trust me.”

Stan’s calculating eyes locked onto Richie who froze when he realized that Stan thought it was him. His jaw dropped as he immediately shook his head in protest.

“Look dude, I may be an asshole a good majority of our lives, but even I would think that’s completely fucked.” He explains, holding his hands up in mocked surrender.

“So... So it wasn’t anyone here? There’s someone in this school that actually likes me?” He sounded doubtful of that fact.

“S-S-Sound like it.” Bill points out with a genuine grin of happiness.

Stan blinked in shock before suddenly his face heated up when he looked to the others. Their faces held matching grins of delight when Stan swallowed thickly. He looked to Ben who was looking over the writing with a gentle expression.

“Well, whoever it is... they are very literate. Which means they probably spend a lot of time at the library.” He points out as Stan finally sunk down into his seat between Bill and Mike.

“They must know what you’re into with the sentence about the birds,” Mike comments as Stan stared down at the table, still processing everything.

“Shit guys, I think he’s broken.” Richie snickers as he waved a hand too close to Stan’s face.

“Dude! That’s disgusting! Do you know how many germs are on your hand?” Eddie snapped, slapping Richie’s hand away from Stan.

“What... How do I figure it out? I—I need to know who it is.” He finally spoke after what felt like forever.

“Well, the handwriting is way too pretty to be a guy’s,” Mike comments with a shrug.

“It—It smells like gir—girly perfume,” Bill comments as the others nod.

“Ooh! I bet it’s Katy from Math class!” Eddie exclaims with a snap of his fingers.

“What?” Stan’s face twisted in worry. “But she... Oh, fuck... it can’t be her. She told me that birds are dumb.” He points out with a scowl on his face.

“Well, obviously they don’t want to be known.” Eddie offers. “Maybe they are too nervous and don’t want to be known.” He shrugs.

“You saying it was you, Eddie Spaghetti?” Richie grins deviously as Eddie choked on his water.

“What!! No! I’m not! That’s gross! Stan’s one of my best friends! Besides, it’s possible she just doesn’t want to be known! And don’t call me that you asshole.” He growled softly.

“Guys! Focus! This is about Stan! Flirt with each other later!” Bev huffs earning a glare from Eddie while Richie grins in delight.

“Maybe Eddie is right. What if this is still a joke? What if someone did this to get a rise out of me?” Stan asked worriedly.

“Hey, don’t think like that. You’re an amazing guy and anyone would be lucky to have you.” Mike assured quickly.

“Besides, she must be really shy if she can’t even talk to you.” Richie snorts earning a jab to the ribs by Eddie.

“Shut up Richie!” He huffs softly.

“This is dumb. I’m not going to keep this letter. It’ll give me more anxiety than I need.” Stan stood up, prepared to throw away the letter when Richie intercepted him.

“Okay! Jesus Christ dude, hold on! I mean this girl poured her heart out to you. If someone was making it a joke it wouldn’t be as detailed. Look, I know you are worried and you fucking twist things because you are you! However, even if you don’t want to know who it is... don’t throw that away. Because sometimes people don’t have the courage to write what they can’t say.” He sighed as they all watched him in silence.

“Why do you care so much?” Stan’s eyes narrowed as Richie groaned loudly.

“Because I fucking know who put it in your locker, but I’m not telling you because she begged me to put it in your locker. So fucking sit the hell back down and smile because someone finds your bird watching adorable!” He snapped as Stan swallows before glancing down to the letter.

“You’re gonna tell me right?” Bev broke the silence as Stan glared at her.

“For once, Bevvie... That’s between me and her. I promised her I wouldn’t, but trust me Stan the man... She’s a cutie and you two are weirdly perfect for each other.” He snorts softly.

“Thanks... I guess.” Stan frowns softly before rubbing at his neck as he pulled out his lunch to eat.

The rest of lunch was rather quiet, Stan glanced every so often at Richie who refused to meet his gaze. He was physically trying to force himself not to speak because he promised her he wouldn’t say anything. He cringed at the feeling of all their eyes watching him, waiting for him to spill out and finally admit defeat.

Richie was the first one out of the lunchroom the moment the bell rang to head to their next class. It made the young Jewish boy sigh in slight annoyance that Richie was actually keeping his mouth shut. Of course, he would, right?

Rolling his eyes, Stan got up and went to his next class with his mind racing on who could possibly want to be with him. It seemed almost odd to him that there was someone in the school that actually thought he was worthy enough to be liked. That being said, Stan didn’t want this stupid love letter to consume his life, because there were far too many girls in the school to find out who it is.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on, making Stanley want nothing more than to slam his head against the desk. Normally, he loved to listen to the teacher, but today his mind just wasn’t with it. He glanced around the room before his eyes stopped on one person in particular.

Patricia Blum.

She was a beautiful girl, to say the least. Her light green eyes glittered behind the round glasses that took up over half her features, but her tiny nose held the frames strong. Her long jet black hair was tied back, complimenting her freckled face oh-so beautifully. She always wore sweaters with a long shirt that somehow wouldn’t work for anyone but her.

What if it’s her? No way! She’s too perfect to look at you that way!

Patty moved into Derry over a year ago and she’s been hanging with other people and sometimes the losers. They’ve been paired up for projects multiple times so he knows that she’s really sweet to everyone. He just finds her presence to be calming in ways that only the Losers can bring out of him sometimes.

I mean she had other friends so she wasn’t always with the losers, but a lot of the times that she did come around… Stan found himself feeling happier. He loved talking with her because she always had something interesting to say, or just loved to listen to him ramble on about whatever was on his mind.

Patty glanced over to him before offering him a warm smile, causing Stan’s face to heat up when he realized she caught him staring. He swallowed before offering a tight-lipped smile back as he turned to the book their English teacher was explaining. His heart fluttered gently as his eyes cast down to his bag where the letter remained wedged between his social studies and math books.

“You okay?” A soft voice asked as Stan jerked before looking up to see Patty standing over him with her books in her arms. “The bell rang and you didn’t move. You look really lost in thought.” She was smiling at him.

“Uh… Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. Thank you.” He murmurs, struggling to get his stuff together as he mentally cursed himself for daydreaming for so long.

“Stanley, um… I--” Her mouth shut with an audible click as she looked concerned. “I’m sorry… This… If it makes you uncomfortable… I’ll just…” She pointed towards the door before immediately exiting as Stan watched her go.

“Fuck…” He cursed softly before going out of the room and towards the exit of the school.

“Stanny! Wait up!” Richie called with Eddie and Bill trailing behind him. “You are speed walking, dude.” He huffs as he finally caught up to Stan as the four boys walked out of the school.

“This stupid letter has been a pain in my ass. I can’t stop thinking about it. I just…” He gritted his teeth when Eddie offers a sad smile.

“Can’t believe anyone would love you?” He finished as Stan’s shoulders slumped slowly.

“Yeah, sadly.” He scrubbed at his temples when Richie threw an arm around him.

“Well someone does! They see you and think you are something special! Don’t know why, but hey you’re not my type.” He laughs as Stanley rolled his eyes and pushed away from Richie, walking ahead of them.

“St-St-Stan… If you are rea--rea--really that bothered by the le-le-letter… Just get rid of it.” Bill offers when Stan looked at him, holding his books tightly to his chest.

“That’s the problem… I don’t want to. I… I want someone to like me. I’m fucking sixteen years old and I’ve never dated before. Like… I want someone to want me. I want to have someone to love me. I just… I didn’t think it was possible.” He comments before groaning. “This is seriously dumb! Why am I acting like some love-sick loon!” He demanded.

“Because Stan the man… Everyone wants that. They want that feeling that love gives them. I mean shit… Look at Ben and Bev? Bill and Mike?” He waggles his eyebrows at Bill who sputtered at him in shock.

“I guess you’re right… What about you? What about Eddie?” He asked, glancing back to the hypochondriac who offers a flushed face.

“Uh… Richie and I have been dating on the down-low for about a year now.” Eddie comments as Bill and Stanley blinked in shock.

“What the fuck! Why didn’t you tell me you asshole?” Stan demanded, looking from Eddie to Richie who held matching expressions of worry.

“Because… Well, we liked keeping it a secret? I don’t know. We just never really thought about it. I guess it never mattered if anyone was okay with us or not. Just as long as Eddie and I loved each other.” Richie nods before glancing at Eddie who shyly looks to the ground.

“You two are already disgustingly cute! Stop it!” Stan huffs, sounding more on the tones of a whine. “Oh… Oh, that makes sense now! Everyone in the Losers club had someone… I always felt left out when everyone paired up… I was the outcast in our own little band of outcasts… I guess that’s why I wanted someone to love the most.” Stan murmured.

“Whoa! We aren’t abandoning you, Stan!” Eddie assured quickly when Stan looked up with a hurt expression.

“How you all went to the movies together the other week, probably as a date for everyone and just forgot to tell me?” He asked as Eddie opened his mouth before shutting it. “Exactly. Look, let’s just drop it. I don’t think I’m gonna go to the clubhouse today. I’ll see you guys later.” He comments, walking off before anyone could follow after him.

Stan was walking when he heard the sounds of shoes tapping against cement, loudly. He jerked back expecting to see Henry and his goons, but instead, there was a flustered Patty who was panting loudly. She held up a hand as if telling him to stop, causing him to awkwardly stand there until she finally made it up to him.

“Richie--Richie told me you weren’t okay. I thought I’d come to check on you.” She said between bouts of heavy pants. “What happened?” She asked worriedly.

“Um… Nothing, nothing that you need to worry about.” He assured as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I don’t believe that bullshit for even a moment.” She resorts with a slightly sharp tone. “Shit, I’m sorry. If you don’t feel comfortable telling me then you don’t have to.” She waves her hands around.

“It’s not… It’s not that. I… Actually, this is going to sound really dumb, but I got a love letter today. I’ve never gotten one before. It’s made me all weird. I just… I guess I never expected someone to want me as a partner. I just thought I’d adopt a bunch of birds and live my life like that.” He shrugs.

“Oh Stanley, anyone would be lucky to have you. I’m sure everyone is just intimidated by how smart you are. It’s not that you’re cold… It’s just you radiate that sort of energy?” She questioned.

“That might explain why she wasn’t brave enough to actually hand me the letter… Or even talk to me in the first place.” He sighed when Patty moved a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“Maybe she’s just really awkward and didn’t want to be a complete idiot in front of you.” Patty murmurs softly as Stanley frowns.

“Well, she couldn’t be any more of an idiot than I would be if she actually confessed to me.” He laughs, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Who do you want the letter to be from?” She asked quietly when he froze at her words.

“I… I don’t know. I never actually thought about that.” He swallowed thickly.

“Um… Stan, I… I have to tell you something.” Patty mumbles, looking down at her beat-up sneakers.

“What’s that?” He asked, unsure as to why his heart thundered so loudly in his chest.

“I… I was the one who told Richie to put the letter into your locker… I’m the one who wrote the letter and I’m the one who was too scared to say. If I had known it would have affected you this much I would have never tried. I’m so sorry, Stan. I promise I’ll leave you alone from now on.” She rambled quickly as Stan looked up to her in shock.

“Wait… What? You? The… The letter was from you?” He asked dumbly.

“Yeah, I… I’m sure you probably wanted someone else.” She comments softly when Stan’s jaw dropped open.

“Holy shit… I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming. This can’t be real.” He whispered as her features twisted in confusion.

“What--I’m… Stan, this is real. I mean… If you don’t feel the same way just say that… Don’t make fun of me.” She looked hurt when Stan dropped his books without a second thought. He surged forward and cupped her face as her eyes widened before she looked at him in disbelief.

“No! No, I swear I’m not making fun of you! I just… I can’t believe it! Because I wanted the letter to be from you! It just doesn’t seem real. Like this shit doesn’t happen to someone like me. Maybe Bill or Ben… Or hell even Richie…” He explains when she watched him.

“You… So you like me too?” She asked quietly as he nods immediately.

“More than I ever thought I could like someone. You make me feel ways I’ve never felt before. It scares me, but… but you’re someone who always listens to me. You like to bird-watch with me when none of the others did. You are so amazing… and I can’t believe this is actually happening. I’d ask you to pinch me, but I really don’t want that.” He laughs breathlessly.

“Then maybe you should kiss me. Maybe that will make it real?” She offers as his face flushes before his eyes snapped down to her lips. “You don’t have to. That was really forward and--” She’s cut off when Stan smashed their lips together.

Patty moaned in surprise when she slowly kissed back as her hands grabbed at his forearms. She tilted her head gently and deepened the kiss, feeling like the entire world melted away except for them. She smiles as Stan gently pulls away before their eyes locked.

“Uh… How… How was that?” He asked when she giggles softly.

“Well… I don’t really have anything to base it off of considering that was my first kiss.” She whispered, causing him to freeze.

“You… Really?” He swallowed thickly before he started to laugh.

“Yeah, strict parents, but they like you a lot so Mom told me to go for it. She even helped me write the letter… Oh my god… That’s so lame to say! You didn’t hear that!” She whines, burying her face into his neck as Stan laughed harder.

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” He grins which made her giggle. It sounded like music to his ears.

“So… If I were to ask you to maybe be my boyfriend…?” She trailed off when Stan rests their foreheads together.

“I would say yes.” He comments as her eyes glittered with happiness.

“Um… Do you wanna maybe bird-watch on Friday? Because I’m free Friday after school?” She offers.

“We can do something else.” He assures immediately. “You don’t have to bird-watch if you’d rather do anything else.” He explains.

“Stan, I don’t care if we just walked around this stupid town for five hours. As long as I’m with you… I don’t care what we do.” She smiles before pulling him back into a kiss.

“Get it Stan the Man!” Richie’s voice broke the bubble that had enveloped them as Stan snapped his gaze to the other losers.

“Dammit, Richie!” Bev snapped, jabbing him in the side while Richie outright cackled.

“Happy for you guys!” Eddie laughs before looking at Richie who crossed his arms.

“About fucking time is more like the phrasing I would use.” He shrugs.

“Shove it, Tozier!” Patty laughs.

“Blow me, Blum!” Richie smirks before looking to Stan. “At least now you know! And look, I didn’t say anything! That’s one for the books ladies and gentlemen!” He laughs when Eddie rolled his arms.

“If that isn’t true.” Eddie snorts softly. “We were gonna head to the Quarry. You guys coming?” He asked.

Stan looked to Patty who looked more than excited.

“Hell yeah! Let’s go!” She bent down and retrieved Stan’s books. “You think you can handle me in only my bra and underwear?” She asked as his face flushes before she rushed over and took Bev’s hand.

“Pat--Patty!” Stan exclaims, causing her to laugh as she and Bev rushed off towards the Quarry with Stan and the others hot on their tail.

Yeah, he was more than glad for that stupid, dumb love letter. So glad.

[jade4813]

A Lie, Told Often Enough, Chapter 4

Author Notes: Inspired by @fallinginloveinaflash‘s AU prompt. All credit for the idea goes entirely to her.

Title: A Lie, Told Often Enough

Rating: NC-17

Synopsis: Iris just landed her dream job at a PR firm and her first assignment is reforming the bad boy image of celebrity artist Barry Allen. He’s overly cocky and well-known for being a playboy, but Iris has never met a challenge she couldn’t handle.

Chapters: 4/?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

“All right. You ready for this?” Iris asked as she adjusted his tie.

He grimaced. “To pretend that I’m desperately in love with a near-stranger? As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

She smiled encouragingly at him. “Just do what we talked about, and you’ll be fine.” Pausing, she left her hands on his chest as she said in a soft, earnest voice, “I know this is strange, but I believe in you. And I’ll be right there with you the whole time. Okay?”

Blowing out a deep breath, he smiled down at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he studied the lines of her face. He wanted to memorize this moment – how beautiful she looked in her pale champagne dress. The way the bridge of her nose crinkled a little when she grinned up at him. The warmth of her hands against his chest.

But he couldn’t tell her that. With that reminder, he cleared his throat and stepped back. “Thank you,” he said gravely. “Remind me what the plan is again?”

With a soft cough, Iris turned and grabbed her coat. “Okay. I’m going to head out in just a minute so I can arrive first. I went by and talked to the staff earlier today, and I’ve got everything worked out. I’ve spoken to Patty, and she had something to do first, but she promised to meet you there. Hopefully we can time this right, and you can meet up outside first so that everyone can get pictures of the two of you together. All you have to do is give her a kiss and walk with her to the table, and you should be fine.”

He nodded. “Okay. And what happens if something goes wrong?”

She pursed her lips. “Hopefully nothing will. But if you need my help at any point during dinner, all you have to do is drop your napkin on the floor and excuse yourself to the restroom. I’ve been assured I’ll be seated at a table where I can watch what’s going on. If I see your signal, I’ll excuse myself and head that way. The restrooms are down a long corridor and around the corner, so we’ll be able to touch base without anyone seeing. It’ll be fine. If we hear anyone coming, the door to the kitchens is just off to the side, and they promised we could duck in there if need be.”

“Yeah?”

Iris nodded firmly. “Yeah. I promise. That said, I should probably head out if I’m going to get there before you do. Don’t forget, if you get there first and you don’t see Patty, you can stop and answer a couple questions if you want. Just make it look natural. I’ve been assured by Patty’s PA that she’ll be there on time, so you should only have to kill a couple of minutes. If all else fails and she’s later than that, go ahead and head inside. The press will have plenty of opportunity to catch the two of you at the event itself. All right?”

He nodded, and with one more encouraging smile, Iris sailed out the door and headed to the restaurant.

Barry’s stomach clenched as his driver pulled up in front of the hotel. He didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to pretend to be in love with Patty Spivot. But he also didn’t want to let Iris down, so he didn’t have much of a choice. He had faith in her, that this would help rehabilitate his image. That was all that mattered, wasn’t it?

As he threw open the door, he scanned the crowd, looking for a glimpse of Patty’s blonde hair. He’d read up on the actress after Iris proposed this scheme, and to a good segment of the country, Patty Spivot was America’s Sweetheart. Wholesome and charming, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she had been described more than once as a living Barbie doll. But after falling down twice on the red carpet at award shows and sharing embarrassing personal stories during late night television interviews, she had also developed a reputation for being approachable and down-to-earth. The girl next door. Someone the public could idolize, but also someone they could imagine as their best friend.

In other words, she was the perfect person to play his romantic interest in this little scheme. If only he could muster up an ounce on enthusiasm about the prospect.

Pasting a smile on his face, he stepped out of the car and onto the red carpet. Years of practice helped him hide his wince when dozens of flashbulbs went off in his face, and he let the sea of questions from paparazzi and journalists wash over him. Acting casual, he scanned the crowd one more time, but there was still no sign of Patty. Remembering Iris’s advice in case of just such an eventuality, he smiled at one of the reporters nearby and paused to answer a few questions.

Already inside the front doors, Iris glowered down at her phone and sent yet another text. “ETA?” She’d been trying to get a hold of Patty’s PA for the past half hour, but her texts had received no response. It was enough to cause a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she didn’t know how to fix the problem until she knew what it was.

With an irritated huff, Iris glanced around the foyer again, as though there was a chance one of the most recognizable faces in the country at the moment might materialize there on the spot. The knots in her stomach loosened slightly when she felt her phone buzz in her hand, and she glanced at the screen. Word at last?

Iris felt all the oxygen leave her body when she read the text on the screen. She had finally gotten word about Patty Spivot’s whereabouts, but it was the last thing she expected. The text wasn’t from her PA; it was from Linda.

“911! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ASAP!” Below the text was a link to an article that had just been posted. Her stomach sinking, Iris clicked on the link.

A second later, a picture loaded on her screen – Patty Spivot dressed in a bikini, cavorting on some beach in the Bahamas with her co-star in her current project. Her married co-star. More than one photo showed them in an intimate embrace. Butterflies ricocheting in her stomach, Iris glanced at the timestamp on the story. It was from less than fifteen minutes ago, and according to the article, the pictures had been taken earlier that day. She had apparently chosen another path to tarnish up her image a little.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she muttered, her hands trembling as she hurried to text Barry. She was going to have to fix this, to figure out how to regroup and salvage her current assignment. But first thing first, she had to stop Barry from making an announcement that evening that would only make the situation worse.

“Barry, it’s me. Whatever happens, DO NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT PATTY. I will explain later. Come meet me inside.” She hit send, and then raced to the doorway. She knew Barry was already on-site, so she might already be too late. Even if she wasn’t, with the chaos of the red carpet, she knew the odds were slim that he would even notice he had a message until he made it inside.

Bursting through the front doors, Iris only took a second to locate Barry in the crowd. He was talking to reporters, just as she’d suggested, but this was one time that she wished he had ignored her instructions. She thought about jumping up and down and waving to get his attention, but that would only draw more attention to herself. So, instead, she pasted a smile on her face and walked casually towards him, hoping she could discreetly pull him aside to explain.

As she approached, she heard the question she’d been dreading the most. “So, Barry, everyone’s been speculating for weeks about this mystery girl you’ve fallen for. Any chance you’ll give us her name?”

Iris picked up the pace, and she saw the moment his gaze drifted towards her and he noticed her there. His reaction to the question appeared so genuine, Iris would have believed it herself if she didn’t know better. A slight brush staining his cheeks, he ducked his head sheepishly. “Well, I guess I can’t keep it a secret forever. I’m dating –” Her eyes wide, Iris shook her head in a small, quick gesture, silently pleading with him not to finish what he was about to say. Smoothly, without even the slightest hesitation to indicate he had been about to say anything else, he finished, “Iris. Iris West.”

Her sigh of relief caught in her throat when she heard her name, and her wide-eyed look of panic changed to horrified shock when he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Hello, Princess. I was just looking for you,” he said in a warm voice that caused the butterflies in her stomach to go into hyperdrive – this time, for an entirely different reason. Bending down to brush a kiss against her cheek, he murmured in a voice just loud enough to be overheard, “Miss me?”

The next half hour passed in a whirlwind. The moment Barry announced her as his girlfriend and bent to kiss her cheek, dozens of flashbulbs went off in her face. Though she was normally calm and capable in stressful situations, she didn’t know what to do this time. She was used to being behind the scenes. Away from the camera’s eye. She needed to pull Barry aside and strategize what they should do next, but his announcement had ensured that she wouldn’t get a moment alone with him.

It had also ensured she wouldn’t get a moment’s peace, to get her thoughts in order and decide what to do next. Barry’s announcement may have solved one problem – temporarily – but it had caused at least a dozen more. Not least of which was what she was going to tell her boss when the entertainment sites ran with this little story in the morning.

We’ll explain it was a joke, she thought desperately as she sank down into her chair at dinner. The papers are always speculating about who Barry’s next girlfriend will be. He was just playing with them, since his girlfriend couldn’t make it tonight. Everyone will believe it. Right?

But even as she formulated the idea, she knew it wouldn’t work. If only he would behave with her as he had with Patty at the party. Instead, all through dinner, Barry sold the part entirely too well. He was kind and attentive. He teased conversation out of her when blind panic would have kept her mute. He laughed at her jokes, complimented her dress, and in every other sense, he was the picture of the perfect date.

When she finally got the chance to lean in and explain in an undertone what had happened to Patty, he took advantage of her closeness to sell the lie even more, brushing a lock of hair off her bare shoulder with one gentle fingertip. Barry stared at her lips when she talked, appearing every bit like he had nothing on his mind except kissing her.

At this point if they tried to tell the world that it had all been a practical joke, nobody would believe it. Worse, they’d likely believe that she and Barry were having an affair – emotional if not physical – and his attempt to clean up his image with some other actress would backfire. He’d come off even more of a villain than he ever had before, and Iris would be along for the ride.

It was only after desert – a heated pot of chocolate and bowl of fresh strawberries – was served that Iris felt they had lost enough attention to have the conversation they desperately needed to have. “This is a bad idea,” Iris murmured, staring at Barry’s hands as he slowly stirred the bowl of melting chocolate so that it wouldn’t burn.

“If you have any better ideas, I’d love to hear them,” he remarked mildly, reaching for a strawberry. He didn’t seem particularly perturbed by the hitch in their plans. In fact, she would have thought he was pleased by recent developments, except that there was no reason for him to be so. 

“You’ve been teasing my secret relationship for weeks, and even you said we couldn’t keep that up forever. Everyone was expecting to see me out with my date tonight. I could tell you didn’t want me to mention Patty, but we didn’t have a backup plan in place. If I said my girlfriend couldn’t make it tonight, there would be speculation of trouble in my supposed relationship, undoing all your good work so far.” He dipped the strawberry in the melted chocolate, rolling it around as it cooled. “We were out of options, so I improvised.”

With a half-smile, he held the strawberry out for her. “Here. Eat this.”

She didn’t move. “But there must be something else we can do. The whole point was that you were supposed to be dating someone wholesome. Famous. Able to clean up your image. Someone like Patty.”

He was unruffled by the reminder. “Well, Patty isn’t here. According to you, she’s on a beach with her married co-star instead, doing what she decided was best for her image. You may not be famous, but wholesome? Have you seen you? You’re so wholesome, I’m pretty sure birds help you dress in the morning. Now come on, Princess. The cameras are waiting, and our friends are going to think something’s wrong if you don’t take this bite soon.”

Her eyes flickered to his and then to the strawberry. She held no illusions about what would happen if she ate it. It would be the final nail in her coffin. The paparazzi would take a photo of him feeding her and run with it. Every entertainment news outlet would have it on their front page before she’d even finished her bite. By this time tomorrow, the entire world would know her as Barry Allen’s mystery girlfriend. And until she finished rehabilitating his image, she would have to play the part.

Licking her lips, she took a deep breath and met his eyes. “If we’re going to do this, you have to do what I say. Everything I say. This is going to complicate matters, but you hired me to clean up your image, so that’s what I’m going to do. I can only do it if you listen to me.”

“Of course. Everything you say.” He moved the strawberry even closer to her mouth, his eyebrows raised in silent challenge.

Her eyes locked on his, Iris leaned forward as though about to eat the strawberry. Then, at the last moment, she grabbed it from his hand and sat back, a blush staining her cheeks as she lifted it to her mouth and took a bite. “Like you said,” she pointed out, ducking her head with a small embarrassed smile for the benefit of their audience. “I’m wholesome. Remember?”

Before she realized what he was doing, Barry grabbed her hand and pulled her palm to his lips for a kiss before licking a smear of chocolate off the fleshy part of her thumb. His eyes were silent challenge and wicked promise when they met hers. She felt his smile against her palm as he murmured, “Yeah. But don’t forget…I’m not.”

[gethealthy18-blog]

Overcome Anxiety, Get a Job You Love, Healthy Grieving & more - Coaching with Cheryl Richardson

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-for-beginners/overcome-anxiety-get-a-job-you-love-healthy-grieving-more-coaching-with-cheryl-richardson/

Overcome Anxiety, Get a Job You Love, Healthy Grieving & more - Coaching with Cheryl Richardson

Hi everybody, this is Cheryl Richardson and it's that time of week again for our Facebook Live coaching session I'll wait a couple of minutes for you, for all of you to sign on

And for those of you that don't know who I am, I am an author of six books, soon to be seven at the end of the year My first two books were called Take Time for Your Life and Life Makeovers and they were the basis for the Lifestyle Makeover series on The Oprah Winfrey Show I spent about a year doing that show, helping people to improve the quality of their lives in a variety of ways and then went on to write other books related to the inner work we need to do in order to build our self-esteem and confidence And then so I sort of moved from the outer world in Take Time for Your Life and Life Makeovers, managing your busy outer life into growing up emotionally, and then eventually publishing The Unmistakable Touch of Grace, which is about spiritual well-being, honoring our spiritual well-being So I'm a coach, I've been coaching for many years, about 20 years now and I love working with people, helping them to live a life that's sort of more aligned with their soul

And I'm here to help you do a little bit of that today So I'll be taking questions in just a few minutes and any resources that I give out today I'll be sure to post in this post afterwards And I just want to say a couple thingsFiirst of all if you want to know when these Facebook Lives are going to happen, you just want to look up at the sign-up button There's a blue sign-up button

If you click on that button it will connect you to my weekly newsletter and in there I include a blog for the week's special announcements and I always talk about these live sessions when it's going to happen during the week and any other events that I'm doing So you want to sign up for the newsletter if you haven't and also when you sign up if you're not a member, you'll also get access to a really great interview I did with Bruce Lipton, the author of biology of beliefs among many books It's a fascinating conversation about the science of self-care, and I really love that man and he's incredibly bright and there's lots of really good information about the mind-body connection and why it makes good sense health-wise for us to take good care of ourselves So that would be a good idea for you to listen to that interview with Bruce Lipton Also if you hear rumbling, we're in the middle of thunderstorms here and my cat Mr

Poupon has chosen to run around like a crazy cat playing with one of his, playing with one of his toys He keeps coming in here flipping it up in the air, so if you see a toy fly by that's Poupon So oh, there goes the thunder Hey Christy, welcome I'm glad you're here

It would be a good opportunity for you to learn about Facebook Live and Robin, my sweetheart, I'm glad you're here, too, and Heather, Abby Doreen, Anne, Donna, Keisha, Frederick Vivienne Hello to everybody: Alejandro Alejandra and Mary Ann Welcome everybody So this is a chance for you to ask questions, anything that might be on your mind

The more specific the better Hey Karen, welcome I'm glad you're here too, another great way to learn about Facebook Live Oh Susanna, you're terrified of thunderstorms Well I have to tell you I used to be really terrified of them, too, and some members of my family are

Partly because when I was a young gir,l I think I was 10 or 11, my mother was struck by lightning and she lived to talk about it And I remember that day well It was really scary so it took me a long time Tapping actually works really, really well for fear of thunderstorms although I haven't, well I was going to say I haven't had a fear of thunderstorms in many years If Michael were here he'd say, Ahh, not so much because if we have storms here we live up in a hill and sometimes they land right on top of us

And it's you know lightning–bang, lightning–bang and it's really scary and I do get a little nervous Ao anyway hey Karen from Australia and Susan from St Pete and Anne from Cape Cod Love Cape Cod, waiting for the water to get warm enough to bodysurf Okay so you can post your questions and I'll scroll through and read them and do my best to give you a little bit of coaching and maybe some resources and support

And while you're, while we're getting questions on here I see some of you are starting to post Hey Sama from Paris, Patti and Mark welcome Yeah feel free to, feel free to share the video too if there's someone you know that you think might be interested Go ahead and click Share and let them know about our live coaching session And of course that's the other thing I want to tell all of you

The live coaching sessions will now be, are now uploaded to my YouTube channel, which is CherylRichardsonTV Every week they are uploaded and we also have been, my great assistant Donna, Donna Abate is is editing the closed captioning so there's also closed captioning so you can read what I'm saying for those of you that need that kind of assistance We're just editing them to make sure they're accurate and Donna is doing a great job with that as well So yeah thank you Theresa for sharing I do want to say I saw two movies that I really liked that I wanted to just mention

One was Wonder Woman and I'm sure a lot of you may have seen it already or heard about it I mean I wasn't as blown away as a lot of people were I thought some of it was a little kind of hokey but I loved who she was and what she stood for And for those of you who are into the Enneagram like I am, she was a type 2 And Chris Pine, I forget, he plays, oh gosh, he plays that, the other, the other hero and I can't remember his name, but he was a type, I think six

I think he was like a six Anyway it was a really good movie and I loved the message you know that love wins or that love heals That's really what I want to say and I love the whole empowered women message I thought it was really fascinating There's a part in the beginning of the movie where Chris Pine is describing, explaining to her about his watch and how he keeps time with his watch

And he says to her, Oh, because where she comes from there is no time which is really quite interesting And he says to her, Oh this tells me when to eat, when to go to sleep, when to wake up, when to go to work, you know all of those sorts of things And she looks at him like he's strange and she says, Really? That little thing tells you when to eat and when to go to sleep? You listen to that little thing? And I thought you know there's a real kind of global metaphor in that Yes Christy, you're just like Wonder Woman You have to see the movie

There's a real metaphor or just I don't know it was like an existential moment for me because I thought, we really do live by this linear thing called time and we are so much more than that We are spiritual beings, we are love incarnate and souls who come here to the planet and we need time I mean yeah that's sort of what he was saying We need time in order to, in order to be able to function in this world But we're so much more than that and it's so easy to forget

And so anyway I love that movie and I would encourage you to check it out The other movie I saw came as a recommendation from Chris Northrop She mentioned it I think it was on her Facebook page with Sally Field called, My Name is Alice I don't know if you've seen that It was out a year ago, it got a lot of buzz and then sort of went away

It's a really wonderful movie Sally Field is an amazing actress and she absolutely should have gotten a nomination or an award I don't know if she was nominated but she should have gotten an award But it's this really kind of, she's irreverent and she lives with her mother And the movie starts with, starts with the death of her mother who was a hoarder as well as Sally Field plays a hoarder, Alice

And it's what happens as she tackles that Yeah My Name is Alice, thank you, Lee It's what happens when she, how she comes to life and finds aliveness again in her life and then tackles the hoarding problem So anyway, it was a great movie and you know you can get it, I think I saw her either on Netflix or Amazon and I watched it on TV So check it out

I think you might like it All right, time for questions shall we? Let me take a little sip of water and then we'll get started All right Let me put on my glasses and scroll through here and see what we've got I'm going to scroll back a little bit to get to the people who came in early and posted questions

So let's see, thanks Jeryl Anne, I appreciate that Okay let's see if I can Hi Cheryl, so Mariane says, thank you for taking the time to do these Facebook Lives You're very welcome Here's my question: I've very recently started my coaching and organizing business in French

I've been asked to do a video interview by a colleague and friend of mine for her Facebook community in English Yeah increases this level of stress I can imagine If I had to do it in Spanish it would be scary Since I haven't been doing this for long I don't feel as comfortable with the content as I would like to

How do you suggest I prepare for this? Well Mariane, honestly my first thought is maybe you tell her that you're so appreciative of the invitation and that you would really love to consider doing that but that you're not, you can't do it just yet See I'm a big believer Whenever we start out with public speaking, teaching, anything where you're in front of people, Facebook Live, it's a very vulnerable act to put yourself out I mean I'm talking to a little phone I mean I see all of you and I feel connected to you all because I've been doing this a long time

I've been on radio, I've done television If not it's a very vulnerable thing and I'm not sure I would want to put myself out there without practicing a little bit first somewhere else, number one But more importantly you want to be comfortable about the material that you have so sometimes this is why I always say don't quit your day job, right? Because if you don't need the money when you're building your business then you're able to be very strategic and smart about the choices you make So for example Mariane, in your case you can say: You know what? I'm not quite ready yet I want to get really, really confident with my material

I want to really know what I'm doing and then maybe I'll do some Facebook Lives myself I'll practice a little bit but I'm not quite ready yet You don't necessarily have to say that to her Let me just see, did she say, yes she's a friend of your so you probably could just say to her: You know what? I want to get a little more confident with the material or I really want to get it down I'm working on it and when I'm ready I'll take you up on it

So that's what I would recommend because it is stressful number one It's stressful when you're just starting out You know in the Speak,Write and Promote program that I teach with Reid Tracy, who's the publisher of Hay House, we always tell people: Do a bunch of internet radio shows where three people are listening so that you can suck at it without a big audience And then you get more comfortable You get practice

So Mariane, you could even practice delivering your material in English to some friends who speak English in your flat or your apartment or your home so that you get more comfortable with it Don't set yourself up to be anxious You want to be able to be really present for your audience And it's too easy to feel, I would be anxious, I mean I'm not fluent in Spanish by any means, I'm just currently studying it But if I were really good at it but it wasn't my first language, I probably, I would be, I would absolutely be gathering Spanish-speaking friends around and delivering the material to them in my home before I ever did something on Facebook Live

So I hope that's helpful and good luck to you I bet you're going to be just fantastic Just take your time, take your time Diana says, Hi Chery,l I'm in despair I have several illnesses and recently started losing my hair

I may lose it all or I may not I feel completely inconsolable Any advice? Diana, I'm so sorry and yes you need support I would, I don't know what your illnesses are, obviously I do know what it's like to lose hair

Many years ago in my early 40s when I suffered from adrenal burnou I started losing hair And I started losing a lot of hair You couldn't tell I have a lot of hair but I could tell, you know after the shower when you start counting that hair that's coming out It's pretty scary and so I can really empathize with how scary that is

If it were me, I would absolutely be seeing either a naturopath or a functional medicine doc, somebody who looks at the whole body not just specific illnesses Depending on what you have you may need certain doctors who are experienced in your particular kind of illness But if it's anything systemic, like Epstein-barr, chronic fatigue, if it's, excuse me, if it's you know fibromyalgia, any kind of autoimmune disease for example, you want somebody who treats the whole body and you want to also, I mean Diana, I think it would be a good idea for you to, if you go to my YouTube channel at Cheryl Richardson TV Just go to YouTube, YouTubecom and type in, search for Cheryl Richardson TV

do some tapping on the anxiety and the emotional pain about it so that you can calm the body's nervous system down Tapping calms the amygdala down It calms, it supports the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system It will help you to feel less anxious which is going to help your health all the way around So go to The Tapping Solution

com I'll make a note about that: Tapping Solution Website Find out, you know look for some resources there I will also post the YouTube, there is a specific tapping, excuse me I've got a little tickle There's a specific tapping sequence I do on YouTube

It says: Tap Away Your Anxiety and I would check that out, Diana Go and just do that every day in the morning and at night and it will help you It'll help calm the body down But do yourself a favor and look for a functional medicine doctor or a naturopath that's going to be really helpful And you know what else I'm going to do, diana, is I'm going to put you in my prayer book, my little prayer book right here

A lot of you know this by now but, Diana and her sweet body, how's that? Okay, be careful because miracles can happen when your name goes in this book I'm planning on it All right sweetheart, I wish you all the best All right Teresa, you're in Maui and I'm really jealous but I'm happy for you and I hope you really enjoyed, I think you were going to the Writers Workshop but I hope you enjoyed yourself Okay let's see

Poupon is great, Gina Gosh Tickle in the throat, people Sorry Okay Karen says: Hey Cheryl, hello from Australia

Hello I'm wanting to know how to get started in my spirit-inspired soul business However I don't feel comfortable in self-promotion Any ideas on how to overcome this Well I don't quite know what your business is but what I would say is this, Karen, and I would say this to anybody who's providing some kind of service whether it's coaching, intuitive work, therapy anything like that

If you're getting started I would make a list of 10 people you feel like you could really make a difference with Invite them to partake in your business for freeSo remember Karen, you can't quit your day job right? You've got to have a consistent source of income coming in so that you don't need the money That's not how you want us to grow a business is desperate for money, not a good idea People smell desperation a mile away

Ten people that would really like to experience your spirit-inspired soul business I don't know what kind of business it is but you can feel free to post your website right here and then I would really focus on giving them the best of you, whatever service you provide Provide it for 10 people for free Let them know up front that the only thing you ask is that they take it seriously If they have to keep working with you they show up and they take it seriously

And that they do whatever homework you give them if there's homework I don't know And if it works for them in some way, if they feel supported by it, if they, if they get results that they'd be willing to share it with other people And there may even be some people here, right here, who could, who would benefit So if you want to just post what you do, your website And if you're interested in working with 10 people for free, post your contact information and anybody watching: If you read Karen's post and you're interested, get in touch with her

Because the reason they say that Karen, is this: People who are uncomfortable with self-promotion are more focused on promoting than they are on being of service When you connect with what you're really good at and how you can be of service to people, how their lives change, how you help them and you actually document it I would be keeping a journal of vignettes success stories, case studies where you're really making a difference in people's lives, what people say to you Keep the email so that you know, you can read and remember This has been happening to me lately, we have a lot of pollen here, sorry

I want you to keep reading and remembering what it is you do that really is of service to people so that you focus more on the gifts that you have to offer and less on Ooo, I'm self-promoting I mean it used to make me crazy for example whenever I did a TV show and if I did a TV show and they were talking about my work and they were talking about one of my books for example, Karen When I first started out I never wanted to say you know this is my book, buy my book and I mean and I never do I never go, Hey this is my book, buy my book But I never, I always felt self-conscious

Then one day I realized after I had done a TV interview and I think it might have been, I don't know it wasn't like any of the big ones like Good Morning America or the Today Show because they often showed the book But I had done some interview, it as a fairly sizable interview and they didn't show the book and they didn't mention the title They said, We don't do that but what happened was I got so many emails afterwards from people asking me about the book wanting to know what the book's title was And I realized Karen that I did people a disservice when I would share helpful information and not tell them how they could learn more or how they could benefit more from my services So that's what I mean about being more focused on how you can be of service to others than your own self-consciousness about self-promotion

When in doubt ask yourself: Who needs my services? Who might be in pain? Who might be suffering and how can i alleviate that suffering? Ultimitely that's what every good business does It alleviates suffering for its customers and its clients and you need to be more focused on that So I'll be curious to see what you do I'll read, I'll read, I'll read about it afterwards Let's see Heidi your question got cut off sweetheart

I have an active online blog on holistic parenting That's good And do you have any resources? I don't know for what Try posting again Katrina says I'd love to hear more about maintaining motivation when building a new business? That's why coaching is so powerful

I know when I was building my business I always had a coach I still have a coach that I turn to I think whenever we don't want to do hard things alone, and building a business can be hard and scary and challenging, and so it's really great to have a champion So I think coaching is great If you can't afford a coach then finding a partner, some other business owner, a friend who has a big project that they're up to that they feel nervous about but they know they want to achieve it

It could be a friend that wants to lose weight and just wants motivation and accountability to go to a gym or to eat better Partnering up with somebody, I did that in the beginning stages of my business way before I ever coached, way before I ever wrote a book I had three other people I was in a mastermind group with You know I read books by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich and Norman Vincent Peale's work and Zig Ziglar, you know a lot of the old success writers and they all talked about having mastermind groups And so I had one: three other people in different fields

We met every single month We talked about our businesses, we talked about what we were afraid of, we brainstormed for each other, we strategized we committed to homework And every single month we would show up talking about the homework we committed and we would touch base with each other during the month if we needed a boost or we needed support or we needed brainstorming You know, I love it I think it was my sister Kerri who's a really great coach said to me, she called it one time: "Sandwich Support" where you talk to somebody before you're making a scary call and after you make the call so that regardless of what happens you're going to feel, you're going to have somebody to process with and you're going to feel better afterwards

So those are some of the things I would recommend, Katrina, to stay motivated Don't try to do it on your own, not a good idea It's not as fun You want to make it fun Okay

Thanks Mark for sharing this When I was a kid I was afraid of thunderstorms Yeah, I love you too Thank you And Sarah loves storms

We should call her, right Mark Okay let's see what else do we have here Wendy says: Cheryl, could you could you address job loss and how to start over? Thanks for years of great advice You're welcome, Wendy This often comes up as a matter of fact

Let me just make a note because I'm going to give you a resource It often comes up as a matter of fact I was just talking to a colleague of mine and a friend of mine, Jessica Sweet, and I'm going to put her resource on here I've mentioned her before She's a career coach and she specializes in helping midlife career changes, find work that they love and build the confidence and the stamina to go through the job search process

And I really appreciate what she's doing because it can, it's just so easy to feel like, Ugh, nobody wants me or you know to succumb to negative beliefs So I would say to you the same thing I say about building a business You don't want to go through a job loss alone It's very important that you get good guidance about if your resume is appropriate, how to interview well, how to network well You want to get that kind of support from other people so that you're not out there screwing up and then thinking it's you know, you're defective somehow when in fact you just need to, you need to hone your skills, they need to get stronger

I think it's very important to have good friends who can be present for the emotional ups and downs without giving you advice, without trying to fix it, without you know we all need places to just vent right? Or to just process our emotional experience without being interrupted by, But, oh you should do this I laugh because if Michael were here he'd say, Yeah Cheryl, listen to your own advice I'm always trying to, you know I love people and I want to help but I am learning, especially in the last few weeks with some work that I've been doing: the power of presence And we need people who can just be present while we talk about our fear and our anxiety and our loneliness and our trepidation about something like the job search process So you want the emotional support, Wendy

And on those days where you're just not feeling strong enough emotionally, you don't want to do any job search work that's engaging with people You don't want to be networking or you don't want to hopefully have an interview If you do, you want to get some emotional support beforehand Better to spend time researching online, researching companies taking skill assessments or personality assessments, things like that It's okay

Don't push yourself when you don't feel emotionally well enough to do anything out there engaging with people when you just don't feel confident enough You don't have to do that There's plenty of other things you can do So I'll post Jessica Sweet's info in here afterward She's got a great blog

You can follow her on Twitter You know you can go to her website and you'll get all kinds of information Sorry, one half of the sky is black and the other half is completely sunny Okay let's see Okay yeah

Heidi, here we go Oh good I'm glad you back Do you have any resources for help starting an online business, a coach perhaps? I have an active blog on holistic parenting and I'm building a following but need advice about selling my courses You know there's a lot of really great resources online, Heidi Jeff Walker is somebody

I know he's got a course I mean, God, all you have to do is Google And by the way, there are a lot of great free resources online where you can just look at how people are marketing their online courses And I will say this, Heidi If you don't have an existing strong following it takes time to build a business for, I'm sorry it takes time to sell online courses online without a following unless you want to invest in things like Facebook ad buying, which plenty people do

But you still have to know, you've got to really know your customer You've got to then know the buzzwords, the keywords, the language So I would start and I've done this I've actually done research where I've watched some free videos from people who are talking about online courses And what's great about it is you sort of get exposed to some of the stuff

Some of it I look at and think, I'm never going to do that That's never going to be me And other stuff I take up some great ideas that I use with my, for my social media community And yes a coach can help and I would think of a coach in terms of helping you to do the things you know you need to do to build your following I mean ideally that's what you want, you want to build, your email list is always number one priority over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram because an email list, building an email list gives you direct access to your customers and you don't have to rely on anybody else

And you don't have to worry about faulty algorithms, not faulty algorithms but just algorithms on Facebook I've noticed my numbers go down over the last six or eight months These numbers, the Facebook Live numbers are big The post numbers that I used to get aren't the same as they were six months ago because the algorithms change I don't want to rely on Facebook to reach the people who are really true followers and have been reading me for years and who want to continue to read me and are interested in my programs

So I always focus on building an email list You want to make sure on your website that you have a pop-up I now put one on I resisted for a long time but I have a pop-up that invites people to join my online community and I offer a free gift You want to do that, a free sample of my work so that they can be, and that will be changing over time

I also think Heidi, there's nothing wrong with really We have this, I have this saying I got this a long time ago from an author in Dallas, Texas He was a fitness guy who became "a star in his own backyard" This is way back, I'm talking 20 years ago where he really focused on dominating the Dallas, which is a big city, the Dallas community And when he published his first book he sold something like 50,000 books just in his community alone

That's a lot of books Not a lot of authors sell that many books That's rare So I would encourage you to think about becoming a star in your own backyard as well and really looking at how you can bring your work out into the world So a coach is going to help you to stay in action, create an action plan, hold you accountable in a loving way, strategize with you and I think it could be really helpful, I definitely do

So I'll post, you can check out my sister Kerri and I will post her website I'll also post the International Coach Federation website, they have a coach referral service there I'll post that as well when we're done and hopefully you can find somebody to support you All right And I think it's really great that you're doing work on holistic parenting

Also Heidi, check out Kate Northrup She's doing a lot of work around, for mothers And that's the other thing that's really good is if you can connect with people who are already catering to your existing audience sometimes you can partner up Maybe you could be on her blog, and she's got some great resources and it's also good to see what she's doing, you know just notice what she's doing as she builds her community as well So all right, let's see

What else do we have here? Diane says: How do you deal with the loss of your cat? I just lost my cat He was 19 This always breaks my heart And I really miss him and I've not cried yet Yeah Diane

I was going to say it's one of my great fears but losing my dad was a great fear and that happened in November I want you to know it will get better, but it just is really hard in the beginning, animals especially It's like it's like close family members people we live with they're woven into the fabric of our lives you know my little cat is always around somewhere and so in 19 years I mean I'm so glad you had your cat for that long and let me know Diane I'm putting you in my prayer book and also post your cat's name I would love to just know your task name and you know I could say things to you sweetheart like the energy of your cat is with you he or she is a little angel but that doesn't help in the beginning it's just hard and letting yourself cry sometimes What I've done in the past, now I have no problem crying I'm just a crybaby and I'm proud of it because crying is good, it's healing, it just releases the sorrow, it releases the sadness, it's cleansing

Sometimes what I used to do when I couldn't cry and I knew I really needed to I would find a movie, a sad movie We've talked about this on Facebook Live before I'm trying to think Bridges of Madison County was one movie that made me bawl my eyes out Terms of Endearment

Don't watch any animal movies, don't do that Oh God, here we go again, people Remember last Facebook Live there was a rainbow? There's a giant rainbow right, all right let's see if we can see it Diane I'm going to get right back to you Well Diane, you know what? My God, let's just decide this is a sign, sweetheart

You see it? And look, there's a double rainbow coming Can you all see that? If you can see it give me a thumbs up or heart Yeah, look at that, Diane This happened last time when I was doing Facebook Live There are two, there's two rainbows coming in

This happened the last time Yeah do you all see it? Yeah, there you go Yeah, two weeks in a row, people Last week same time we had a rainbow when I was talking to James and look at that

And can you see the second one forming? Yeah, oh my goodness gracious Wow Diane, sweetheart, I just want you to take that as a sign that your sweet cat is saying, Hey I'm here in a double rainbow I mean if that double rainbow gets stronger I'll flip the phone back around again so you can see it Finding some sad movies, people

Some of you out there, let's have you post some of the sad movies that helped you cry Just getting started is really good and allowing yourself I found with grieving that the more I cry the more I move, the quicker I move through the grief And yes And also, oh your cat is Sweet Pea

Is that your cat? I have to look and see Diane, if that's you I find that tapping also is enormously helpful for the grief that feels overwhelming And you know what, people Again this rainbow is like last week's It's the most vibrant

Here, let me see if I can show you again, the most vibrant rainbow Well it doesn't come through as much on the phone, but it's the most, it's like the biggest, most vibrant rainbow I've ever seen Unbelievable! Anyway, tapping can be enormously helpful and so I would, yeah it's a great view isn't it? I'm so blessed I love where I live I would go to the Tap Away Your Anxiety video, Diane

I think that that can be really helpful too and I'll make sure that I post that Yeah, Happy Pride Month, somebody said There you go, there you go Okay, all right Yes, I love Chris Pine, too

He's a cutie Let's see okay just looking through Yeah Alice, you should definitely watch My Name is Alice Judi wants to know how can we find out what our purpose here is? I get asked that all the time

Your purpose here is to grow and evolve As a spiritual being that's your number one purpose Your purpose is to take everything that happens in life, the losses we have, the fears that we experience, the joy, the incredible desire that gets quenched, all of that Your purpose is to use all of that to grow and evolve, to understand yourself more deeply, to listen to the voice of your soul, to be of service To be the embodiment of love, first and foremost, that's our purpose

And I can't stress that enough Yes, it's part of why we're here to use our gifts and talents without a doubt But it's not the whole reason I personally believe the reason we're here is to take on this work that has you all gathered here with me today How do i improve my life? How do I do what I love? How do I make my relationships healthier and stronger and closer and more connected? How do I build a stronger relationship with myself? How do I learn to risk loving when I know that I'm going to lose things like my sweet cat, my spouse or my child? How are we going to use what happens to us in life to live more authentically? That's the main purpose we're here, Judi

So whether that means you go out and you buy yourself a self-help book and you read it and you do what it says and you start improving your life or you take a workshop or you listen to these Facebook Lives and you implement some of what I'm sharing either with you or with other people It could mean you go to therapy, it could mean you hire a coach, all of the things we do to check under the hood, right? Understand ourselves better, to be better people in the world is the most powerful contribution Raising our level of consciousness is the greatest contribution we make to humanity and the greatest contribution we make in our own lives as well So there's my little rant on that My God, I just thought somebody said Doris

Please don't tell me the movie was My Name is Doris instead of Alice Did I get that wrong? Oh big, big flash of lightning I just saw Scares me Okay let's see what else we've got Thank you, Lee, about Speak, Write and Promote

Great information Okay let's see Ari says: My question is I'm struggling with giving priority to my passions and I'm trying to stop doing lots of favors for other people I voiced my concerns to a dear friend who funnily enough is one of those on the list who asks me for favors It's things that she's not keen to do or is scared to do I told her that helping out even for the easiest things is draining me

She didn't take it very well and took it personally How do I learn to say no without hurting people? Well you can't be responsible for whether or not people's feelings are hurt but you can be responsible for how you communicate The first way that we're responsible for, the first way we care for our relationships is by protecting our time and energy So for example, if a friend calls and you really don't have the the time or the space or the energy to support that friend, you do that friend a disservice if you answer the phone Better to let it go to voicemail and then call back when you're able

Or notice the tendency People who have a tendency to always be doing favors for others or taking care of others have a tendency to habitually just jump to it and automatically do that without stopping and saying, Wait a minute Do I have the energy for it right now? Do I have the desire? Do I have the space? Do I have the time? If not, I'm going to wait until I do So the first line of protection is just our own internal dialogue and assessment about whether or not, and catching ourselves before we just launch right in and want to support people Secondly how we communicate makes all the difference in the world

So Ari, it could be that you say to your friend, I mean if I were coaching you in how to communicate, have this conversation with a friend, I would say You know I really love you and our relationship is important to me and I've noticed lately that I'm putting a lot of energy out supporting people and doing favors for people And I realize I'm really doing them a disservice as well as myself because I end up feeling resentful and I don't want that to happen with you or anybody else So here's the deal I've decided that I'm going to really be pulling back on my level of contribution

I'm going to actually take a break for a while, while I restore my own self-care and I want you to know I'm telling several of my friends this I want you to know so you don't take it personally It's not about you, it's about me needing to take care of myself Now if you deliver it that way then you have no, you can't we can't control how other people react

If somebody gets really angry or frustrated or pissed off at us, that's their stuff You know what? All you need to do is just continue to say, Gee listen I'm really sorry, this isn't about you This is about me taking care of myself and protecting our friendship I want to make sure that I don't do something that's going to cause me to feel resentful So I would have that conversation with other people

Let them know ahead of time I need to take a break from giving so that I can restore my energy and give to myself and when I'm ready I'll let you know And I promise you that I'll agree to support you only when I really can so that our relationship is protected That's smart and strategic and skillful Now sometimes with friends who really do like to, who are constantly asking for something, you may need to say to them: Listen, I know you'll probably forget we had this conversation so I'll be sure to remind you when it happens again

Just give yourself the opportunity to be able to say that so that when it does happen again, because it will, you can just say: Oh, remember that conversation about the vacation I was taking from giving? I just wanted to remind you I'm not going to be able to do that but I love you It's not about you, it's about taking care of me and really honoring our relationship and just leaving it at that, Ari I hope that's helpful Okay, thank you

Wow Natalie, that's pretty impressive She says: Took a lot of your advice from a previous discussion about my partner's gambling addiction I remember the conversation I've joined a local group for my self-healing and have left the relationship It's too toxic for me to continue

Bravo, girl, Bravo Good for you And while I'm sure it's not easy, you're choosing your life and inadvertently you may actually, you may actually be helping to move him closer to getting the help that he needs But I'm just so happy to hear that you took care of yourself and that you're getting support and that you're involved with a group I think that's really smart, too

Okay let's see Yeah Sara knows what it's like to lose hair Yeah Diana, you're very welcome, sweetheart Oh my goodness Justine says I lost my fiance to suicide last week and I'm falling apart Pease pray for me

Justine, I'm so so sorry and I hope you're getting some counseling You really need to get some counseling Start with your doctor Go to your doctor if you haven't already Let your doctor know what's going on

Let your doctor know that you feel like you're falling apart You may need to get some medication initially to just support you through this I will absolutely pray for you I'm putting you in my prayer book This is a therapy issue, it's not a coaching issue but it is it is an issue that comes up in coaching

And I always, always direct people to good therapy and to doctors and to, if you have a church community, a place that you're involved with, going to that community and letting them know that you just need support I think it's really important And then, yes, let's all just take a moment everybody and just beam Justine love Let's put some hearts across the screen and just let her know I can't do the hearts but I'm holding you in my heart, Justine

Let's just all just close your eyes for a minute and just imagine sending this beautiful white light of love to Justine Let her feel our presence and our prayers Look at all those hearts And our love and our support and our comfort I would also, Justine, use the tapping video

That's going to help you, it's definitely going to help you And look at all the hearts People are so sweet You are all such a great community of loving people and they're all sending you lots of love right now Please Justine, don't go through this alone

You really need to get support, it's really important Let's see Okay, all right so looking at other questions Hey Peggy and Kathy and Lee

Just thinking again So regarding my two Huntington's messages Can you direct me to the correct person such as Chris Northrup? Please can you let me know? You've seen me, I came from Scotland to meet you at Louise's 50th Okay Sandra so I'm trying to find your questions Here we go: I need a little clarity

My amazing stepdaughter has a 50/50 chance of having Huntington's disease I don't know what that is Louise's Blue Book has an affirmation but I cannot understand why Louise included this But Huntington's is hereditary Fortunately we just found out her big brother is clear

My lovely stepdaughter Can you advise what Louise meant by this affirmation I can't I'm so sorry, Sandra I don't know

I'm not familiar with the disease and I'm not familiar with the affirmation If she included it I would suspect it's because she had some experience with it But that's only going to be a piece of the puzzle, right You're going to also need some good support, obviously good medical support Okay so Valeria, Valeria, Hola, says hi from Mexico

I love your blog and I'm studying literary creation I want to be a writer and editor of my own magazine of spiritual matters By now they are only dreams and I'm afraid they'll never come true So how do you think I can start with that so I can make them true? What did you do to make yours of being a good writer? Thank you and kisses Kisses to you, too

Besos to you, yo hablo Espanol un poco Valeria, here's what I would say I would start writing in a journal every day an affirmation And you can make up your own affirmation but it could be something like: I have, I have work, let me think about this for a minute Wait a minute

One of the first things any of us needs to do when we want to create something in our life, when we want to fulfill a dream is we need to set an intention Besos tambien We want to set an intention and we want to put that intention in writing So here's the thing: To think an intention is one thing, to speak it gives it more power Valeria, we have the rainbow, it's back again just for you

Here I'm going to show you It just showed up again It's so amazing to me that this happens Everybody see that? It's been gone and it literally just came up so take that as a sign, darling This is a good thing, it's blessing you, right

So we start with the intention in our mind When we speak it we give an intention more power when we write it down we give it even more power and when we take action toward making it happen we give it even more power So those are the steps and it starts with intention It starts with you really You don't have to believe it

You know Louise Hay, I was just saying this to Michael last night We were talking about something Louise used to say to me: You know, Cheryl, people will start to do affirmations and then they'll say, oh affirmations don't work And she said it's usually because they stopped doing them And in the beginning when we're affirming intentions we're usually doing it at a point where we don't necessarily believe it's going to happen That's the whole point

You're installing new beliefs into that beautiful brain of yours, that beautiful mind and that beautiful heart and eventually you'll start to believe it Valeria, that's is exactly what I did I started keeping a journal when I was 12 I wrote all the time I was too young to realize that I wasn't a writer or an author

I called myself a writer because I wrote all the time And I actually think if you write all the time you get to call yourself a writer So you probably already are You want to set an affirmation: I enjoy a successful career as a writer and editor That could just be simple and I would start by writing it 15 times in a journal every day

Now if you really want to take it to heart, do it in the morning and at night 15 times: I enjoy a successful career as a writer and editor, and I'm so happy I'd probably add that to it: I enjoy a successful career as a writer and editor and I am so happy And then do me a favor? Find a picture of a rainbow and paste it in the first page because I want you to remember the rainbow that showed up here Use that as an anchor Every time you see a rainbow decide that it's a sign that I need to affirm

Or I don't care if you see a picture of a rainbow, a real rainbow, somebody talks about a rainbow, whatever You just say: I enjoy a successful career as a writer and an editor and I'm so happy And you want to keep affirming it over and over and over again and then you want to tell people: You know what? I enjoy a successful career as a writer and an editor I'm going to be a successful writer and editor and I'm going to be so happy So you're speaking it, you're writing it right with the affirmations and then you're taking action already

You're studying, you want to be doing a lot of writing The way you get good at writing is you write a lot When I published my first book Take Time for Your Life, the first editor that looked at my book proposal, hold on one second, said something really important to me When she read my book proposal she knew, I had told her that I've been journaling forever I think it was in my book

She said to me, one of the first things she said is your journal writing has paid off This is Marilyn, she's since been my editor, my personal editor ever since She said, Your journal writing has paid off You taught yourself how to write well by keeping a journal And I remember thinking, Oh my God

If I had known that all those years of writing was actually teaching myself a craft and that it was going to pay off that I'd actually get better at it, I would have, I would have been thrilled So I'm telling you, Valeria, that the writing you do now is going to make you a better and better and better writer And there's a great little book I just thought of this You know I'm going to look it up

I want to say it's How to Write So People will listen or something like that I know I have it in my library I don't even know if it's still in print but it's this great little book I want to say it's How Talk So People Will Listen, but I don't think that's it It's How to Write So People Will Listen

I'll look it up It's a little paperback I don't even know if it's still in print But I just remember it was a very influential book to me early on in my career because it talked about the simplest, most accessible easy reading takes a lot of editing as a writer I mean I can't tell you how much editing I do in order to get my books to the point where they're accessible and easy to read

So just keep writing, Valeria, and I'm going to put you in my prayer book, too And I'm putting Valeria as a successful writer and editor, successful writer and editor and so happy So now you're in my book, too, so expect a miracle There we go All right, my dear

Let's see, let's see Lee, thank you very much for all of the notes that you're taking You're so sweet, Kathy I know you do that, too Okay so we've got a few more minutes

So Grace Dela Cruz Kitchens says: Aloha Cheryl Aloha I recently turned 45 and I'm at a crossroads I had my son five years ago And after a miscarriage three years ago I've been undecided about having another baby

After recovering from adrenal exhaustion I'm at a place now where I'm being called to be a mother again I just feel so discouraged by my age and the failed attempts we've had so far Should I keep going or just give up Oh, well Grace, I certainly couldn't tell you what to do Because having a baby, I know what will happen

I'll say, Yeah go have a baby You'll get pregnant, you'll have a baby and then when they're 14, you'll be calling me going: What did you do! Okay, I'm totally kidding But I've got a great resource for you Years ago I worked with a woman who is the mind-body specialist, who was just like a firecracker Her name was Niravi Payne and I'm going to put her in the resource section as well

Niravi Payne, P-a-y-n-e And she wrote a book It's called something like The Whole Person Fertility program and she specifically, she was a therapist, mind-body specialist, and Chris Northrup I think referred me to her or a colleague of Chris's She was an expert at helping people who couldn't get pregnant to get pregnant And I remember I went to see her for something else

I had a health issue that I was trying to get to the emotional root causes of, I wasn't trying to get pregnant But she was known for taking couples who were labeled infertile or who had trouble with miscarriages and she had an unbelievable success rate And I remember she would say, Don't you ever tell me that a woman's too old to have a baby She had so many people with later age pregnancies that were enormously happy and okay She's now passed on, God bless her

She's in spirit form She was feisty, she lived to her 80s and oh she was passionate about helping people And she captured the process that she used in her book And I would really encourage you to check it out So The Whole Person Fertility Program by Niravi Payne

I'll put it in the post here and you'll be able to find it And don't make this decision alone and don't just make it with your partner I would do some therapy I would find a therapist who specializes in helping women who have questions about pregnancy or who have had challenging pregnancies And yeah, thank you

Somebody just said I conceived at 43 Yeah if you're watching me and you've conceived later in life could you let Grace know That would be really great to know I just completely forgot what I was saying Grace, it went right out of my head

Oh, finding a therapist who specializes in that If you go to Psychology Today, to their website, they have the Find a Therapist God I'm going to have so many resources on this one today Find a Therapist section, it's actually really good And look for a therapist who specializes in fertility issues and helping women to make decisions

And maybe you and your your partner can go I think that would be a great idea You know hat else I'm going to do, too I'm actually going to put Ed Shea who's a family therapis I'm going to give you his resource as well

I'm going to give you his phone number because he doesn't have a website anymore Ed's in his 70s and he's an unbelievable therapist Look at this, Grace You've got people telling you about having their babies later in life This is awesome

Let it inspire you Ed is very close to Harville Hendrix and uses Harville Hendrix's dialogue process to help couples work through challenging situations in their lives and to help them think through tough life questions and he might be a great person I'm telling you if you call Ed Shea and you told him you and I spoke on this Facebook Live and that you wanted to just have him facilitate a dialogue with your spouse about pregnancy, he'd say get him on the phone right now He's so committed He loves doing this work and he does it just on a part-time basis

And he's just a sweetheart So anyway, I'll give you his resource as well, Grace, and that should be helpful All right everybody We're coming up on the end Whoa

Did you see that? Big flash Mark, I'm going to put you in my prayer book Type one diabetes It's okay, you're going to be fine A good diet

You have all kinds of control over your health, sweetheart You're not a victim to that Yeah, Ed Shea is S-h-e-a and I'll give you his phone number And let's see Okay, all right

So I know I was just looking to see if I had Okay You know what? We need to end so give me a little bit to put the post up

I've got to wait for Facebook to upload this and then I'll post resources I so appreciate you're all here The rainbow is back again Okay, let's see if I can show you It's raining pretty hard and this one comes all the way down

Wow, there's a double rainbow now, too Can you guys see that? I don't know if you can or not I can see it but you're looking through a screen with a lot of water That's part of the problem But boy today's just filled with rainbows, people

How awesome is that? Remember, sign up for the newsletter Hit the sign-up button if you haven't You can listen to me and Bruce Lipton talk about The Science of Self-care, which is pretty amazing It will take me a little bit of time to get these resources posted but I'll do that And in the meantime I'm so appreciative

Thank you for all the hearts, thank you for being here with me I'm so grateful to have all of you and it's wonderful that we can communicate this way If you look at the post below this I announce the Health Care by the Sea retreat, the next one that's coming up in October it's all about feeling alive and vital and pleasure and just falling in love with the body That's what this one's going to be about

This retreat, I'm really looking forward to it And you can get more information in the post below But in the meantime I'll be here next week so make a note Remember, check the newsletter I'll post it, usually the newsletter comes out on Sunday night

Yeah there we go, people Thank you, thank you, thank you Lots of love to all of you Take good care Bye