the brief guide to life

I read, that the following quote of only 5 words make up the shortest guide to life...

"Smile, breathe & go slowly"

Thích Nhất Hạnh

(buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet & peace activist)

If you need something a little more comprehensive, try the brief guide to life...

less TV, more reading

less shopping, more outdoors

less clutter, more space

less rush, more slowness

less consuming, more creating

less junk, more real food

less busywork, more impact

less driving, more walking

less noise, more solitude

less focus on the future, more on the present

less work, more play

less worry, more smiles

breathe

Easy peasy lemon squeezy???

What have YOU been up to?

Hello friends!

It's been quite some time since I did a good ole fashioned blog post!  Busy times.  It's funny how life sneaks up on you, the passing of time is impossible to keep track of!

I've been busy diving head-on into my Treasurer role for The Shanti Uganda Society.  I am blown away with how inspirational all the Board members & volunteers are.  And I have NEVER been more amazed and inspired by the women we are working with in Uganda (fingers crossed for a trip over in January 2012).

September is mere days away, (what the heck?!) I JUST started on the back-to-school shopping for the boys.  I love fall.  It is easily my most favourite season.  Wind, leaves, cozy sweaters...I am SUPER PUMPED that my lovely friend Tracy has started up her Yoga studio again...Unison Yoga...classes back in session Sept 13. HALLELUJAH!!!!!

TLC is finished with summer brides (phew), work is busy & home life is crazy...now let me leave you with this neat little quote I came across...something to think about;

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

~ Eric Hoffer ~

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

An Argument for Self-Love

Another WONDERFUL re-post from Already Pretty.

 Enjoy! I sure did!

So many women default to self-loathing. Or, at the very least, self-neutrality. Pride is a sin, after all, and it’s more socially acceptable to trash-talk your own body than it is to praise it. Our society has conflated humility with self-deprecation, which makes open acknowledgment of your own beauty, power, and worth absolutely taboo.

But there are so many reasons to cultivate self-love, so many reasons to let go of loathing. I talk a lot about how to love yourself here, but today let’s talk about why.

Hating yourself and loathing your body sucks up energy. LOTS of energy. If you can diminish or eradicate those circular thought patterns, you’ll liberate that energy for other tasks, goals, and ruminations. I promise you’ll be amazed at how invigorated you feel once you’ve cast off that incessant fretting.

Happiness is important, but serenity is vital. And it can feel impossible to achieve when you’re busily judging yourself. Because even when the more immediate worries clear out, self-loathing is still there, whirring busily in the background and keeping you agitated. Make it stop, and serenity is within reach. Learn to love yourself, and happiness follows close behind.

Acceptance of your own beauty opens you up to a more diverse beauty ideal. Once you acknowledge that yes, indeed, you are a gorgeous, luminous creature, other equally gorgeous and luminous creatures appear all around you. Seeing beauty in others begins with recognizing it within yourself.

Self-loathing often goes hand-in-hand with self-deprecation, which puts other people at a distance. It’s not your job to make everyone in the world comfortable with you, of course. But the more comfortable you are with yourself, the easier you are to talk to, relate to, love.

When you’re trapped by your own self-hatred, it can make simple tasks seem impossible. It can fool you into believing that you’re not capable or strong, or that you couldn’t possibly put forth the effort required to meet your goals. Yes, hating your body affects your confidence in other areas of life and diminishes your overall self-worth. Letting go of that negativity allows you to reclaim the power to act and achieve. When you love yourself, you value yourself, and you act accordingly.

People love you. They do, and they always will. But in the end, you must be your own champion. The only person who can truly teach the world about your marvelous, sensual, graceful, unique, lovely, and undeniably beautiful self is YOU. When you believe you’re beautiful, the world believes right along with you.

Loving yourself is hard. It’s work. It’s never-ending and there are a thousand forces working against your success. But believe me when I say it is worth the effort. You are worth the effort. Put that effort forth and you will be dazzled by the world of opportunity that unfolds before you.

Happy New Year!

{ GOAL SETTING! }

Who says you have to wait for January 1st?

I have been thinking alot lately about goals...
and then stumbled across Valerie @ The Goal Diva

You know, "THEY" say;

goals should be updated, refreshed & reviewed often.

Written out on post-it's from nightshifts,
Starbucks napkins,
SOF sales slips...

Here are my few, well thought out, short term goals...

Practice yoga regularly

DAILY fitness regimen, be it walking, or the gym

{  shed a few? firm up }

Finish the master suite re-do

Here are a few of my long term goals...

Become a DONA International Certified Doula by 2011

Become a 500 hr Registered Yoga Alliance teacher by 2012

Become a Registered Holistic Nutritionist by 2012

Visit The Shanti Uganda Birthing House in Uganda by 2013

I'm holding me to these!

Feel free to poke & prod and make sure I'm not slacking!

And I will keep you posted too!

A Re-Post from "The Goal Diva"

What Does “Eat, Pray, Love” Have to do With Goal Setting?
by Valerie Taloni on 17. Aug, 2010 in How to Achieve Goals


ShareGoal Achievement: Choose Your Thoughts as Carefully as You Choose Your Clothes Each Day

Over the weekend, I went to see Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts. The movie was terrific and contains a considerable number of life lessons. In fact, I plan to add it to my Netflix list so I can watch it again when it comes out on DVD.

When Liz, the main character, spends time at an ashram in India, she becomes friends with Richard who is spending time at the ashram to sort out his life and forgive himself. Richard was forever sharing little bits of wisdom with Liz. At one point he said “Choose your thoughts as carefully as you choose your clothes each day.”

It’s a great piece of advice, though I’d suggest we need to choose our thoughts even more carefully than we choose our clothes. One small secret to goal setting and goal achievement is to watch your thoughts: what you think determines the actions you take, and the actions you take determine the results you get.

If you’re not getting the results you want and need, if you’re not making progress on your goals, check your thoughts. Do you have an inner voice that’s sabotaging you? Do negative thoughts keep showing up? The first step in eliminating those negative thoughts is to become aware of them. Often, just recognizing the negative voices in your head is enough to change them. If you have a negative thought that constantly surfaces and just won’t seem to go away, it will take more work to turn it around, but it can be done.

Here’s the bottom line, to achieve your goals, keep a check on your thoughts. Positive thoughts will go a long way toward goal achievement.

**thank you to Valerie for this amazing bit of wisdom...

check her out at The Goal Diva**

Bits of wordy goodness

"I live my life in my own way.

You can't go around being what everyone wants you to be,

living your life through other people's rules,

and still expect to be happy and have inner peace."

~Dr. Wayne Dyer~

Brooding to PUMPED

Woke up from night shift....same old post night shift feeling.

BLAH!

and Poor Ms. Cupcake had lost her Mojo...

The heatwave is over **clapping**

So we decided to put on our sneaks and head out to

gorgeous Mill Lake!

One lovely jaunt around...

a nice breeze and I don't know about Ms.C

 but

I

 feel

 amazing!

Tonight's healthy meal was super wicked awesome wraps.

~

whole wheat wrap

homemade lemon pepper hummus

chicken with red peppers & onions

wild rice with portabello mushrooms

lettuce 

~

If you're blah, or mojo-less,

try all of the above!

Let me know if it works for you!

Next up...a rain dance!

Doing a little happy dance this morning.

Apparently this sweltering heat is coming to an end!

My happy dance continued as I read a few blogs.

Truly little bits of inspiration.

Not look at me, look at me,

No negativity (coughcough),

No trying to prove anything to anyone kind of posts.

Real, raw, inspiration.

So to those inspiring gals & man, I raise my cup of coffee,

{sugar-free...and I'm ok with that}

to you!

Today is going to be a GOOD day.

Inhale:calm, Exhale:peace.

I hate to write a negative sounding post but…

…I DESPISE selfish people.

I don't think that I have any room for you in my life.

A wise man that Mr. Rogers...

"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life,

so you need to make choices.

And hopefully, 

 your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are."

~ Fred Rogers ~

A lesson

Let me tell you a little story about a nurse, who had a patient, we will call that patient "Faith".

Faith was a repeat visit to the hospital, in every few weeks for various ailments, age related, acute occurrences and the like.  Faith, she was a SPITFIRE of an old woman...just a few years from 100, and completely independent.  Truth be told, while she was completely adored her for her feisty ways, she did have the tendency to get on your last nerve & under your skin...when her call bell rang...she timed you...

Faith had such great stories.  From her childhood in Europe, to her first days in Canada, all her triumphs, trials & tribulations.  Children, grandchildren, heartache & happiness.  She had a pile of newspapers at her bed, written in a language that the nurse did not understand. 

This time was different, this time Faith just wasn't as feisty, the colour of her remarkably youthful skin was not as pink & rosy.  The call bell...noticeably quieter.  The nurse had mentioned to her colleagues, that something just didn't seem right. 

Faith rang several times early on during this particular shift..."Could you please sit for 5 minutes with me"  Finally, the nurse made some time, sensing the urgency in her voice barely audible through the oxygen mask.  Faith asked the nurse, "do you believe in God? do you believe in Jesus?"...taken aback, the nurse silently nodded her head in support, not really knowing what to say.  Faith begged the nurse to sit and hold her hands while she prayed. 

For 20 minutes that nurse held Faith's warm, dry, papery hands as Faith poured her heart out to God.  Thanking him for every single aspect of her life, begging him to take care of her children if the coming weeks procedure did not go well & thanking him for this nurse who was "so kind and always treated me as though I were her Grandma"

After the lengthy conversation to God, the nurse surprised even herself with her very profound answers to some of Faith's troublesome questions. Faith's worried eyes eventually settled, her breathing eventually settled and Faith said she felt much better & not so lonely and would maybe try to get some sleep.  The nurse helped Faith into bed, tucked her in tightly, and when Faith asked the nurse if she could kiss her on the cheek for being so kind and making time to listen to her, the nurse obliged.

With Faith tucked in, the nurse left the room and to her colleagues said, it's like she knows it's her time...

Less than an hour later, Faith was gone.  The nurse was left with chills and little goosebumps over the events that had transpired.  She was also left wondering just how much faith, Faith had...to be that much at peace.  The nurse was in awe that she could have that kind of calming effect and assist someone in their final moments to the point that they knew they could let go.  The nurse just could not get over the fact that Faith had so much faith and found that to be so truly inspiring & comforting.

The End

The nurse is still sorting out her lesson learned here...what lesson did you glean from this story?

RIP "Faith"

To Whom It May Concern...

Dear Yoga,

It has come to my attention that you & I have not crossed paths in at least two weeks.  I realize that you may find this somewhat disturbing and unacceptable.

Please know that I do plan to rectify the situation immediately. While my downward facing dog is surely to be abysmal, you can be rest assured that my eagle pose is, as always, nothing short of impressive.

I do hope to not have to write such a letter again, I appreciate your patience in this matter.

Namaste,

A nice start to Monday....

It's Award Day in Blogland!

My very very dear & sweet friend Ms. C

over at Cupcakes & Ruby Slippers

awarded me this!

I pass this on to some blogs I love...

some of my most favorite blogs are the same as hers...

some are not...

all are sweet, as is she.

Ta-daaaaaa to;

Koby's Cache

 Bluebird Notes

Simply Yogini

Roses & Rutabagas

Brokeshopaholic's Possibilities

I really could give it to you all!

Please share with those in Blogland you love!

In other news, 

 The Amazing Adventures of Rocketgirl

received a blog award today too!

She, Rocketgirl, is also me!

We received the "Versatile Blogger Award"

What a nice way to start my Monday!

Much love to Becky aka Ms.C

I leave you with this quote from Eden Ahbez

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn

is just to love and be loved in return."

Um....ok.

So I was navigating from blog to blog to website to website and ended up on a Deepak Chopra page. I took a quiz...and ended up with this evaluation;

"You are currently carrying an emotional burden of misunderstanding about who you are and what you deserve, you are in doubt or even denial of your inherent lovability.

You are probably struggling with issues that continue to hurt your relationships with yourself and others.

Life is too short and too miraculous an opportunity for love for you to keep carrying this load.

I encourage you to take steps to liberate yourself from your past misunderstandings and disappointments . . . to set yourself emotionally free."

Uhhhhhh...I'm not really sure what to say...

I don't even think I know any Jones'

Do not overrate what you have received,

nor envy others.

He who envies others,

does not obtain peace of mind.

~Buddha~

I came upon this quote, and it really struck a chord with me. 

My hubby & I have really been "struggling" with us, as a family,  and us as a society as of late, in regards to material objects, and how it relates to personal happiness & personal well-being etc.  I have to interrupt my own story here with hubby's version of the quote...

You can't live your life in someone else's pocket.

Ok, not really the same but I think I know what he was getting at...

I'm not proud to admit it, but I definitely overrate what I have received. Daily. I'm fairly sure that we all do.  And I am also fairly certain that at some point or another, we all envy others.  It's human nature and part of our society & every day life in this day and age.  Gotta have more than the Jones'.  Must have that new car, that new jacket, the newest tech toy, the hippest gym membership, the spa days, the best this, that and the other...you KNOW what I am talking about. 

Now, like I said, this is our society.  I think it's a somewhat healthy part of human nature to want things.  It fosters drive & creativity, teaches discipline and manners.  But when the want is never satisfactory and the things are never enough...what next?  I bet you want that peace of mind.  Heck, it's down right tiring trying to keep up with the Jones' ! I know that I want that peace of mind.  Not just for myself, but my family too!

It's a time honoured phrase you hear out of your mother's mouth, your friend's mouth, your spouse's mouth...be happy with what you have.  And that is easier said than done.  I say it to the boys all the time...and can't even take my own advice! That may well be a lifestyle shift.  A shift of focus. 

So this is my new personal challenge,  no more overrating, no more other people's pockets, no more Jones'

Ok, ok, we all know I can't just say that and do it.  Can you? 

I'm not saying I won't buy that new jacket, or want to go to the spa...I'm just saying...baby steps....peace of mind.

C'mon...you can do it!