I am very happy to award JessLeigh a copy of A New Earth. The Bloggy Giveaway was much fun and I think all my entrants for visiting So Sioux Me.

I hope you'll bookmark this page and come back often. Sign up for the RSS feed or the email subscription in the left sidebar. Sift through the contents, I'm sure you'll find something you like.

If you're dying to get your hands on this book, feel free to order it from this link: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61).

JessLeigh, please contact me at traceesioux at yahoo.com with your mailing address. Congratulations.

I'm giving away another copy of A New Earth via the Bloggy Giveaway.

Mother's Day is coming, and what better gift than to acknowledge she's more than "just your mother?"

Last night Eckhart and Oprah touched on the idea that attaching worry (anxiety, anger) to our goals will defeat them. But if we can learn to stay centered in our core self and unattached to the outcome we will have access to divine power.

I've been struggling with this issue and the mission of So Sioux Me to empower girls.

I want to inspire parents to be able to take empowering action for their daughters and especially to teach our daughters to take action for themselves.

Yet, if what you focus on expands and taking ego-centered, surface action against something only makes what you are against into bigger problems then how do I complete my God-inspired mission?

The woman from the Bodi-Tree in California asked a relevant question in regards to pursuing her mission to create a green environment.

It's a little confusing and I have difficulty articulating the complex spiritual aspects of this so I'll use an example:

- Take the war on drugs and the war against poverty, which have served to expand the drug problem and the poverty problem. The last thing I want to do is make the beauty ideal narrower, increase gender bias or further sexualize girls.

Obviously, through So Sioux Me, I want to encourage positive action and not expand the problems I aim to solve.

Because it is a new skill and a new approach, I've likely taken a wrong step or two - especially during those moments when I've reacted with indignant and shocked outrage - yesterday's Gossip Girl story might serve as an example of indignant outrage that may not be effective. From what I understand, it's the emotional indignation and shocked outrage that will defeat our cause.

Rest assured - I am doing my best to operate from my core sense of self and my core sense of The Divine and of consciousness. I do meditate and pray quite often about my mission to empower girls and parents of girls on So Sioux Me.

Rather than fight anything my divinely-inspired missions are to expand the beauty ideal, provide powerful action steps, validate parents' instincts when confronting media and marketing, expand all possibilities for girls, encourage women and girls to grow a self esteem and positive self image, educate about sexualization is and how to approach desexualization of girls, encourage responsibility and even legislation that require and allow healthy boundaries necessary for childhood.

Leave a comment about So Sioux Me's mission or A New Earth and you're entered to win a copy of A New Earth. It might change your life. I'll draw a NAME (no anonymous entries) on Friday.

Last night's A New Earth Oprah and Eckhart Tolle Webcast was great. I would add a few more tangible suggestions that I've found helpful in overcoming the pain body issues.

Tapping, or Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), is the physical tapping and releasing emotional pain from our bodies through pressure points.

I spent over an hour directly addressing one of my own issues through tapping last week.

What was interesting about the experience was that when I dealt with one feeling surrounding my issue, I found another beneath it. Then another, then another, then another. First there was numbness, then anger, then guilt, then shame, then humiliation, then powerlessness, then shame again, then unworthiness, then fear - you get the picture. The issue turned out to be much more complex than I thought. It was like pressing rewind on my life and seeing how my feelings about one event led to another event and distorted the feelings around that.

Go to Tapping.com to watch many FREE tapping videos that address many emotions. Decide your done with these emotions and then get rid of them.

Ho'oponopono is the concept that you can heal any emotion in three steps: I'm Sorry, I Forgive You, I Love You. Simply thinking about a negative situation or feeling and picturing yourself, and who ever is in the memory with you, and repeating I'm sorry, I forgive you, I love you can release the hold it has on your life.

I'll be on Body Wonders Radio, Inspiration for Transformation tonight discussing law of attraction with Jeff Howard. We'll be talking about methods to release issues holding us back, like the pain body.

I've been participating in Jeff Howard's 5 week course Attraction Mastery Teleseminar Series and I've been learning so much. It's been so insightful, I've been listening to the recordings over and over.

So far I've learned about happiness from Marci Shimoff, author of Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Soul for Women, David Childerly, a leading tapping expert.

Next week, Joe Vitale, author of Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More teaching the ho'oponopono method will be on a live call with Jeff Howard on Wednesday night. He's inviting people to listen to this interview free, just click here to register.

Click here to get your own player.



Listen to my radio podcast on Lisa.fm discussing A New Earth on talk radio. I'm on Chapter 4, the Roles of the Ego.

by Tracee Sioux

Oh the roles we play. . . Is this news to anyone? I've always known that I play roles and even been aware of them when I'm doing it. Some of my most common roles:

When I was a teenager and young adult I played "cute flirty blond girl with a little attitude." It worked for me. Got me attention from the opposite sex. Allowed me to blend in the newsroom. Allowed me to get away with what I wanted to do. I recall having gained quite a bit of weight and being next to the next generation of "cute flirty blond girl with a little attitude" and seeing quite clearly that this role was not going to work for me anymore. Oddly, I was okay with seeing her go.

Other roles I play are Mean Mommy and Fun Mommy. I vacillate between these two depending on the result I want from my children. I put on Mean Mommy so that I can punish poor behavior even though I really don't want to. I put her on like a costume because inside I'm usually laughing my head off and thinking, Who hasn't done that? Fun Mommy comes more naturally to me, it's closer to who I inherently am. But, I still see that I'm motivated by a future "My mom was the coolest mom" scenario.

There is also the many roles of wife. I've been a pissed-off wife, a put-upon and fed-up wife. I've been a loving wife, a sacrificial wife, an affectionate wife. A wife like my mother. A wife like my friend. A wife like the Christian stereotype says I should be. I'm trying to learn to be a happy wife. A conscious wife.

I play a different role in church than I do other places. I feel it's safer to go with the flow and the cultural norm. Maybe I come off as fake?

Black sheep who left the fold. I obviously play this role. It's more circumstantial than anything. They love me, I love them, but they are deeply invested in a very specific religious ideology that comes with a whole culture and collective conscience that I have opted out of. Sometimes I feel it's more a role they put me in than one I play.

I frequently play the role of feminist. I write a lot about feminism, so obviously I'm identifying with the group ego of "women who aren't treated equally." I think it's a role I will continue to play. But, with consciousness, hopefully I'll be able to do it more effectively.

Writer is a role I deeply identify with. And I realize this is only what I "do." But it feels so integral to who I AM that when I have experimented with "doing" other things I become unhappy and disconnected from myself. I think I will also strive to do it consciously and reap the benefits of increased awareness and passion.

What roles do you see in yourself?

Are you aware of them when you're playing them?

Again, tune into Lisa.fm today at 1 pm central to hear more about roles and consciousness.

Don't miss me on the radio tomorrow at Lisa.fm. We'll be discussing A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

That's March 25th at 5 p.m. Central. If you miss it, I'll post a podcast for you.

(Come back in a few hours - it's 5 not 1. Oops Sorry.)

****1001Petals is the winner of a copy of A New Earth for subscribing to So Sioux Me during the 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party.

*** Don't miss my debut discussion of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) on Lisa.fm Book Club, online radio at 3 PM Pacific next week on March 25.

by Tracee Sioux

In church this Sunday I became more animated than usual. My belief system is not always consistent with typical Christian surface beliefs. I live in the deep South and people in these parts aren't known for their open minds, so out of self-preservation I generally make surface comments and keep my real feelings to myself.

But the glamorization of suffering came up. We must suffer like Jesus.

Suffering is highly over-rated and glamorized,I said. I frankly, think there is very little value in the suffering itself. I'm intimately familiar with fear and suffering and I have no high regard for it as a moral or religiously good concept. The overcoming of suffering, the joy, the transcendence - this is life.

I have always found the scriptures both difficult to understand and offensive. By offensive I mean, I get upset, frustrated and angry when I read them. Perhaps I'm not alone in this reaction.

Since reading A New Earth, however, I find them coming alive for me. I read a passage that I normally would have found very little meaning in and it's speaking to me, easy for me to translate and understand. It's like this book, A New Earth, serves as a sort of translation of The Spirit for me. You know, as in The Spirit or Holy Ghost frequently referred to in The Bible and all other spiritual works.

I believe it's because before I was always hindered by dogma and ideology and the Church's collective ego.

I always knew this attitude of "rightness" was offensive and missed the mark of the true intention of scriptural works. But, the "rightness" would produce so much anger in me that it was best not to delve to deeply.

Dogma and ideology and politics and close-mindedness was in my way. I had no real tool to get passed it.

I've been to churches that tout domestic violence as acceptable. Churches that claim Jesus came to set everyone free - except the half of the population that's female - who should let their husbands make all the decision because he has a penis which is synonymous with authority.

I've sat through sermons shouting about the whorishness of women who seek abortions - damning them to hell without compassion for their lack of access to healthcare. I've sat through homophobic gay-bashing as straight couples refuse to take responsibility for the decline of their own institution caused by being bad at marriage. It's not us, it's the gays endangering the family, they claim.

I've listened to calls to arms against all other faiths - they are wrong because we know we're right - Muslims, Mormons, Nation of Islam, Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists - all claim the truth as their own and tout the need to defend their own ideologies and dogma from the others who are so wrong they might be lead by Satan. It's enough to turn me off to the whole thing.

Thanks to this book I now know it's the collective ego of these religions that are distorting the sacred and truthful message with their own intolerance.

Even more profound is the knowledge that it is my own ego that knows they are wrong in their judgement of others that produces anger in me. That knowledge somehow makes their egoic righteousness easy to forgive and overlook.

Somehow the knowledge of how my ego reacts to their ego releases me from all the dogma and ideology and now reading Scriptures feels enlightening.

Genesis Ch. 1 - Let there be light.

It truly is an awakening.

If you missed any of the online classes you can download them for free at Oprah.com.

Please share how you've awakened since reading the book. I would love to hear your experiences.

While technical difficulties (on my computer) kept me from watching most of the broadcast live last night I did get something out of the 30 minutes I saw.

What parent can't identify with the difficulty of staying present with their kids?

I struggle with this daily. The truth is, playing Legos with Zack or Barbies with Ainsley isn't that fun for me. It's a little boring, so I amuse myself by thinking about something else. I spend time that I'm physically present with them, thinking about what I'm going to write about and what else I need to do.

Of course the fact that I'm distracted is no secret to them. Even the smallest child is aware that you're not really paying attention to them.

One of my goals everyday is to spend at least a few minutes every day to be present with them and hear what they have to say and do the things they like to do.

It's really, really a challenge.

Any other parents relate to this lack of focus?

I'm Tracee Sioux and So Sioux Me is a blog to inspire mothers to empower their daughters.

We focus on deconstructing the media and the culture and how it impacts girls. We discuss new gender research and bounce around ideas about parenting daughters.

My ultimate dream is to get one million people to care about empowering girl issues.

So Sioux Me is also an official A New Earth small community running simultaneous with the Oprah online class so feel free to come by and expound on the book and it's impact on your personal life.

Please browse around the contents, subscribe, bookmark me, and put me in your RSS Feed. I've been waiting for you my whole life.

Thanks to 5 Minutes for Mom to sponsoring this party.

Oh, and I'd love to give something away . . . how bout a copy of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61)by Eckhart Tolle? There is nothing more empowering than discovering your own life's purpose and passing that on to your daughters (and sons).

Sign up for an email subscription to So Sioux Me (left sidebar) during the week of the 5 Minutes for Mom party and you're entered to win.

Okay so there were some technical difficulties with Oprah's online course last night. I gave up around 9:15 and went to bed. This morning, they don't have the podcast up.

But before I did I got something out of it.

A few big things - for me.

1)Different places have their own frequency and vibe. I've had an increasing urge to MOVE out of East Texas for over a year now. This place - the local culture, the vibe of the evangelical religious right - just feels oppressive to me. I feel an undeniable pull toward an ocean and a city - I always feel more connected to my self, the planet, and God when I am near a beach. I feel creatively and emotionally fulfilled surrounded by the metropolitan conveniences. My ideal culture would also be more open-minded. I've lived in other oppressive cultures before and I just don't feel I can live up to my full potential and fully express myself in places that are narrow-minded and oppressive. I feel like I'm creatively oppressed here, like I'm holding myself back with the mental and emotional energy field here. I think my husband feels the same way, but he's more resistant to change than I am. I've been praying and meditating that we'd get the perfect job offer in a large coastal city with open-mindedness and forward thinking in the culture.

Eckhart Tolle described his NEED to move when writing the book A New Earth and his other book The Power of Now. He described it as the energy field in a city or place. He articulated what I'm feeling in a way that made my feelings of wanting to move more legitimate and valid.

Having lived in lots of different places I can tell you for sure that New York City has a different vibe than East Texas, Brooklyn has a different vibe than Manhattan, Morro Bay, California has a totally different frequency than Tooele, Utah and Salt Lake City has a different vibe and frequency than Lithuania. That there is a different energy field in different locations on the planet is undeniable.

None of these places are bad or wrong. They are just different on a fundamental level and they effect people's thinking and emotional-live's differently. I yearn to be in a place that feels more friendly and accepting of who I am.

To tell you the truth I'm tired of being such a gypsy - but, the thought of making this place my permanent residence makes my soul revolt. I'm praying for the perfect opportunity to gracefully move to the perfect permanent residence for our family.

2) The second major insight I got was that all creative endeavor is born of stillness.

This is huge. It's not necessarily news to me now, but it brings me back to a time after Zack was born when I realized my mind was taking on a life of it's own and it just never shut up! Shut up! I would yell to my own mind. I can't sleep, I can't focus, I can't make decisions! I can't have any peace!

I started taking yoga to combat what Tolle calls incessant thinking- the constant and repetitive background noise of our minds.

It has taken me about two years to accomplish more a discipline in my mind. I'm meditating every day and taking yoga and feeling more centered and feeling more peace and stillness in my mind. It truly is making me feel more creative. Prior to this experience I'm not sure I ever really saw the value in stillness. I think all that thinking was sort of like - self-stimulation - mental masturbation is the best way I can describe it. Activity that's not really producing a truly gratifying result for cheap entertainment.

The third thing is that I noticed was my emotional response to the Christian question. Can I believe in consciousness and in Jesus too? Since reading A New Earth I have had my eyes opened to the true meaning in the Bible. I truly feel awakened when I read it now. Previously inconceivable passages now have meaning.

If you don't think there is any way to experience God than through your rigid plan - fine, stay invested in your rightness. But, for me - I know that I do not get closer to God by invalidating or minimizing anyone's spiritual experience. That applies to Mormons, Evangelicals, Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Yogis, any one else on the planet.

Did anyone else have any personal insights while watching Oprah's online course about A New Earth? Please share - I would love to hear about your personal insights.

Who is putting the kids to bed 15 minutes earlier tonight to make time to attend Oprah's online class?
Me, of course. I hope you'l join me.

Are you too going to make time to discuss the Flowering of Human Consciousness as Eckhart Tolle describes in chapter 1?

If so, please join me here at So Sioux Me where I'll be discussing the online course simultaneously over the next 10 weeks.

Awaken tonight at 8 pm Central time at Oprah.com and So Sioux Me.

Because the prize has gone unclaimed and I really want someone to have A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) by Eckhart Tolle I've drawn a new winner: CindyBailey62. Please email me at tracesioux @ yahoo.com with your mailing address Cindy so I can get this in the mail today. Congratulations!

Also Please remember my invitation to participate in the So Sioux Me community that will discuss the book simultaneously with Oprah's online course. Harpo has promised to give us special study material and resources and if the community grows they will give away a few signed copies of the book here. Exciting.