Category Archives: Uncategorized

Choose to See Peace Instead

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Mindfulness, Motivation, Self Care, Success, Uncategorized by

Choose to See Peace Instead

Choose Peace Nashville Life Coach

          There are bound to be countless things that happen around you everyday that you have no control over. You can’t control how other people think or what they say, you can’t control the traffic jam that happened on the interstate, and you can’t control the fact that Chick-Fil-A ran out of Waffle fries lol! However, you most certainly have full control over how you respond to various situations. You can choose to react with negative energy or positive energy. You can choose to think ugly thoughts about people and circumstances around you that annoy your or you can choose to see Peace instead.

          The phrase that I use quite often when I am feeling my energy shift into a negative trajectory because of circumstances outside of my control is simple but Powerful:

I CHOOSE TO SEE PEACE INSTEAD

          I say this over and over to myself, quietly or out-loud, until I start to feel my energy tip the scales back into the positive direction. Your words and actions reflect your inner feelings and thoughts so if you convince yourself to see peace instead, that is exactly what will happen and you remain in control!!

          Try this the next time you become frazzled by something that happens out of your control and remember that the ball is in your court when it comes to deciding your response to it!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Young Leader Award Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Fantasize!

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Fantasize!

fantacy

          When I was a kid, I fantasized all the time about what I would be when I grew up, I fantasized that my baby dolls were members of my family and we would go on amazing adventures together, and about going on trips to Paris, London and imaginary places such as Portebello Road as in one of my favorite movies, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks!!!

          **Note: I always fantasized about being a doctor when I “grew up” and treated my stuffed animals….and my younger brother and sister (LOL)…..like my patients! This is one of the many dreams I fantasized about as a child that came true!!! 🙂

          When we talk about manifesting things in our lives, it’s important that we get in the right mindset and on the right energy vibration through positive thinking to attract those things we want into our lives. A really important component of manifesting your dreams and desires is imagining them and feeling them happening at the PRESENT time…as if they were so, right now! A great way to do this is to FANTASIZE about those dreams and desires and imagine them happening in your present reality!

          I recently got engaged to my totally awesome fiance, Lionel! For so long I have prayed for my husband every day (since I was 20 years old), but it wasn’t until I got very, very clear about about the true desires of my heart and started imagining myself being married, that my fiance showed up into my life and soon after asked me to be his wife!!! ***Note: Our love story gives me butterflies every time I think about it and I will share that soon in another post 🙂

          Note that I said that I imagined myself BEING MARRIED, not dating, not “playing house”, not having a friend to hang out with, not a man to be an emotional space and time filler, but having a HUSBAND and being MARRIED. In my mind, I imagined, fantasized and dreamed of myself as the perfect wife to my husband before I even knew who he was. You see – my audacious faith attracted him into my life. My positive vibes of LOVE on a consistent basis attracted him into my life. My daily affirmation of “My Dreams and Desires are met today” attracted him into my life! Not only did my fiance show up, but he showed up as every desire of my heart that I specifically wrote down in letter to God prior to the beginning of our relationship!

          Always dreamed of taking a trip to Paris?? Purchase a poster of the Eiffel Tower and place it on your fridge or wall in your home. Imagine that you are there standing right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Imagine the sounds of people speaking French in the background, the smell of fresh croissants floating down the street from the corner cafe. Get the picture?? Fantasize. Fantasize. Fantasize about it until your vision becomes reality! (Can you tell that this is one of the trips I’m working on manifesting one day soon? lol)

Fantasize as much as you need to in order to conjure up the feeling of having what you want right now!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Let’s Start Thinking Positively!

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Let’s Start Thinking Positively!

Words have power

          On my first post for 2015, I mentioned that a huge part of being a leader in career and community is first learning how to be a leader over our own lives and affairs – taking charge of our thoughts, feelings, actions and the words we speak. It involves creating a positive playground for our thoughts. It’s important to train our minds to #ThinkPositive thoughts because our thoughts become or words and our actions. Our actions become our habits. Our habits become our destiny!

          When we think positive thoughts and really practice FEELING positivity, our life reflects it! The opposite is true for those people who always think negative, speak negatively, complain non-stop and look at most situations in a negative way. Word to the wise —-> You can not expect to live a prosperous, positive life if you are always thinking negatively!

We become what we consistently think about and feel about! Trust me on this…..It’s The Law of Attraction.

          If you pour out positivity into the universe, more positivity will return to you – multiplied! If you constantly pour out negativity into the universe, more negativity will return to you – multiplied!

          I’m attracted to positivity! It makes me light up….it feels good! Before I even step foot out of bed every morning, I meditate and tell myself how great of a day I plan to have and I declare it to be so! This practice of meditation was not always the case for me. About a year ago, I really started to notice the energy shift I would experience from being bombarded by the negativity on the television news and negativity on social media (Some people on Facebook and Twitter make me have to go to my prayer closet after seeing their posts of criticism and negativity every day lol!!! I’ve removed a lot of folks from my Facebook news feed or deleted them from Facebook and Twitter all together because of this.)

          You may be wondering, “Isn’t everyone attracted to positivity?”. No, not exactly. There is a psychology concept called “Negativity Bias” which states that we processes negative data more quickly than positive data. We have a natural tendency to lean toward the negative than the positive. Emotionally, we go to greater lengths to avoid a bad mood than experience a good one. Negative events are contagious. There is countless amounts of research done on this phenomenon and books thicker than the largest textbook you read in school on this subject so I’m obviously not going to dive too deep into it here. I state it here to drive home the point that even though negative thoughts don’t feel good, it’s really easy to drift into that mind space.

          However, we can train our minds to seek positivity over the negativity, positivity over the fear, positivity over the anxiety, positivity over the judgement.

          For the untrained mind, it actually takes a lot of energy to think positively. However, I want to encourage you to start training your mind TODAY to see the positive more than the negative. When you think, feel and speak positively more than you do negatively, you have tipped the scales in your favor to allow more positivity to flow into your life!

          Since I’ve deleted a lot of the ‘negativity carriers’ off of my social media accounts, I love to go to Facebook and Twitter first thing in the morning and flood my soul with positive quotes and affirmations from people who like to share positivity as much as I do!

          I invite you to come here everyday for a dose of positivity in the form of some quotes and concepts that I use to encourage myself daily!

Enjoy!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Rejoice Always

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Rejoice Always!

Rejoice

         A practice that I’ve been working on lately is to wrap all circumstances with blessings, appreciation and love –  even if they initially appear “bad” or “undesirable”. It’s part of me being Mindful and taking the time every evening to analyze my day. Even when a particular situation may not have gone the way I initially wanted it to, that situation or relationship was presented to me for a reason…. for me to learn something from it. Every situation, every relationship, every call for a decision presents itself in my life to push me further along my soul’s journey.

           When you develop the practice of calling all situations Blessed even if some of them may not feel that way in the physical, you take away any negative energy it creates within you.

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader (NELA) Award Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Take Risks

Posted in Failure, Inspiration, Leadership, Manifesting, Motivation, Success, Uncategorized by

Take Risks!

Take Risks

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

          I was speaking to a group of students recently and was asked a question about some of the characteristics that entrepreneurs have that make them successful. One of the first things that came to my mind was that entrepreneurs like myself are not afraid to take risks even when we know failure is a potential outcome. By its very nature entrepreneurship is very risky. The majority of small business fail in the first year or two of operation. You can’t really play it safe when you’re an entrepreneur because you must constantly evaluate what your customers/clients need, what you can deliver and how to find your way of doing that in a unique way in your industry.

            Some of the risks I have taken as an entrepreneur have turned about better than others, but I would never know the success of any of those risks had I never taken them in the first place!

            I frequently read business and entrepreneurial stories and one of the best parts about any success story is learning about the risks individuals take at the very beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. Those risks are usually the ones that become total game changers for them!

           Simply stated, the main reason people are afraid to take risks is because they become consumed with the monkey-chatter in their heads telling them that they may fail. Sure, you may fail, but you may also succeed. What is guaranteed, however, is that you will never know unless you try.

           A little note about failure: Failure isn’t always a bad thing. Remove the negative energy you give to the concept of failure. Instead of looking at it as a bad thing, realize that failures are nothing more than learning opportunities and a chance to begin again with a new perspective!!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Money Is Spiritual

Posted in Gratitude, Inspiration, Leadership, Manifesting, Mindfulness, Motivation, Self Care, Success, Uncategorized by

Money Is Spiritual

Money

           This post is actually a continuation of sorts of my last post regarding wrapping my bills in positivity to take away the negative connotation I was associating with them (Click here to see that post).

Here is a little excerpt from that post that leads into this one:

          Money is Spiritual. I know…you may have never thought of it that way! When I talk about money being spiritual with people for the first time I often get “You know, I never thought of it that way!” comments or the opposite, blank stares (lol) until I explain what I think about it further!

            You block the flow of money when you approach it from a place of lack and scarcity. You increase the flow of money when you appreciate the money you already have (even if it’s not as much as you want or think you need) and become a good steward over it. You want to know why??? Check this out:

Because Little Becomes Much in God’s Hands!!!!

          I know God to be a God of Increase…….and when I say increase I don’t just mean increase by addition, I mean increase by MULTIPLICATION!

           When I took the limits off of God when it comes to my finances, my finances completely turned around! What I mean by this is that I abandoned the idea that bills are bad – that idea was coming from a place of scarcity, lack and fear. I am an heir to God’s inheritance and changed my mindset to reflect that truth!

          I can guarantee you that the majority of the wealthiest people in the world truly believe that they are and can be as wealthy they want to be and that there is no shortage of money available to them – it’s all in your mindset!

Change your mindset to change you life and start TODAY!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Invoices For Blessings Already Received

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Invoices For Blessings Already Received!

Invoice

          They say it usually takes a small business at least 5 years before it can start to really see consistent growth and sustainable profit. I’m an entrepreneur and have been for the past 4+ yrs – I own my medical practice here in Nashville, TN. I faced many financial challenges in the first couple of years of my practice including a large majority of that time, not being able to pay myself a salary. Ask any entrepreneur you know and I’m almost certain that will tell you something very similar about their experience lol!

          I have some great mentors, including my parents who are both entrepreneurs, and knew because of their advice to expect some financial strain in the beginning. However, at one point I started to get really aggravated by my bills….yes, aggravated! Every time I looked around there were unexpected bills popping up – state taxes, federal taxes, Professional Privilege Tax (yes – that really is a tax here in the state of Tennessee that taxes me for being a Doctor!).

The more the bills came in, the more I complained and complained…….and complained!

I always prayed that God would make a way for each and every bill to be paid and He always showed up and the bills would be paid. However, every time one would come, I would start fussing again lol!

          One day in the course of the daily reading that I do on Twitter and Facebook, I started coming across article after article about money management that somehow encouraged me to start looking at money differently! Instead of complaining every time a bill came in the mail, I started being thankful that I’m doing something I want to do or have something I want to have that results in a bill coming in the mail for it as compensation!

           I have a cable bill because I get to enjoy unlimited cable every month. I have business taxes to pay because I am blessed to own a business that creates income for myself and my future. I had (Thank God for the blessing of it being totally paid off!) a car payment to make because I am blessed to drive a nice, comfortable, reliable car!

            You see, when I re-named my bills  “Invoices for Blessings already received” things started changing in my life! My income started increasing and I had more money available to pay the bills – taking away the negativity I was associating with them in the first place!

            Money is Spiritual. I know…you may have never thought of it that way! When I talk about money being spiritual with people for the first time I often get “You know, I never thought of it that way!” comments or the opposite, blank stares (lol) until I explain it further!

            You block the flow of money when you approach it from a place of lack and scarcity. You increase the flow of money when you appreciate the money you already have (even if it’s not as much as you want or think you need) and become a good steward over it. You want to know why??? Check this out:

Because Little Becomes Much in God’s Hands!!!!

Starting today I want you to literally write on the top of every bill that you get and feel negatively about this phrase:

“This Bill is an Invoice for a BLESSING Already Received!”

Moreover, it’s not enough to just say it….you must really feel grateful for the blessing already received!

This practice has totally changed the way I deal with and handle money and I hope it does for you too!

Dr Carmen April Speaker          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter. She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

And The Greatest of These is Love

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Manifesting, Mindfulness, Motivation, Success, Theme For 2015, Uncategorized by

…..And The Greatest of These is Love

Dr Carmen April Love

Three things will last forever – Faith, Hope, and Love; and the Greatest of these is Love” –

1 Corinthians 13:13

          My first blog post for 2015 discussed an activity that I’ve been doing the past couple of years which is to declare a particular word/theme for the year. Once I select the word/theme I meditate on it everyday throughout the year. I create a colorful poster with the word written in the center of it and have it hanging on my bathroom mirror, refrigerator and in my office.

          At the end of 2014 I prayed over what my “Theme for 2015” would be and two words were revealed to me. Everywhere I looked, in things I read, conversations I had with people, things I saw on TV, and what continued to come up in my spirit during my prayer and meditation time, were these two words consistently! Because I was obviously on a positive frequency with these two words, I couldn’t just choose 1 word…..I had to go with both!

I didn’t reveal the words then, but I’m revealing the first one today and the other in a couple of months!!

LOVE

 Dr Carmen April Love

           To say that the word LOVE continuously came up in my spirit during the time is a huge understatement lol! I even found this sweater during a “random” shopping trip to the mall (I put the word “random” in quotations because I don’t believe in coincidences……..everything happens for reason!)

           We tend to focus so much on Romantic Love that we tend to forget about the many other dimensions of Love. God is Love, is the Creator of love, created us in love, to experience love and to share love.

           Since I have begun to look at more of my daily interactions, “goings-on” and activities through a new lens of love, I am more acutely aware of the many miracles that occur in my life on a daily basis 🙂

Dr Carmen April Love

           I plan to feature a couple more posts on love here throughout the year as new revelations are coming to me everyday through mediation, prayer, and being Mindful of the many miracles that form the basis of my thriving existence here on earth.

          We are called to Love!

I’ll end this post with an old Australian Proverb:

“We are just visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to LOVE…..and then we return home”.

—————————————-

      Dr Carmen April Speaker     Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader Award (NELA) Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Live Your Dreams

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Live Your Dreams

Live your dreams

          Life is too short to waste it living someone else’s dream or even worse, having amazing dreams of your own that you’re too afraid to go after. Holding on to dreams and being afraid to pursue them is like someone wrapping a $10 Million gift for you, placing it under the Christmas Tree and you deciding to leave it there, unopened, forever!

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Who would do that?”

Well, people do it all the time!

          Just imagine: The giver of the gift would not be happy in that situation because the special gift that they picked out just for you is going unopened and unused & the receiver of the gift will never experience the joy of finding and having the precious gift! Analogy –>> God/Creator of the Universe is the gift-giver and you are the recipient.

          There is a special gift that the world needs and only YOU have it! Don’t deprive the Universe of the special gifts it needs…those that reside within you and only you! Discover them, chase after them, share them, love them, use them to help other people and give Thanks to The Creator for them 🙂

          Dr. Carmen AprilDr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader (NELA) Award Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.

Faith Is Like WiFi

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Faith Is Like WiFi

Wifi

Wi-Fi is Invisible, but it’s real and it works!

Gravity is invisible, but it’s real and it works!

The air we breath is invisible, but it’s real and it works!

Faith is invisible, but it’s real and it works!

Faith is like Wi-Fi: It’s invisible, but has the power to connect you to exactly what you need!

When we are plugged into the source of our existence and count on that source to guide our lives, we are guaranteed that we will receive exactly what we need, when we need it, to carry out our purposes here on earth!!

Remember this and carry it into every aspect of your life – personal, social, and professional! Your Faith is POWERFUL and will keep you connected to The Source!

Dr. Carmen April          Dr. Carmen April is an entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2014 Nashville Emerging Leader (NELA) Award Winner, a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter.  She’s a Podiatrist and Owner of The Foot And Ankle Healthcare Center in the Nashville, TN area. She’s also the creator/owner of “Design Your Story Coaching & Consulting” and is available for speaking engagements on Small Business Entrepreneurship.