Accepting Who YOU Truly Are

I have often found it to be true my True Happiness comes from and is a reflection of my Inner Happiness. 

When we try to look outside ourselves for Happiness, have you ever found it to be short-lived? Perhaps it's a material thing, like a shiny new object, a something-or-other, retail therapy sound familiar? How about 'When I find the perfect life partner, then I'll be happy?' 

What you might find, is the moment you do a little self-work on yourself, your confidence increases, your well-being and generally just expressing some self-love will instantly attract more of that. You are telling the universe, I'm HAPPY! And the universe will provide more happiness no matter what form it comes in :)

Are you TRUELY accepting who you really are? 

Day 25: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 25: Today I am grateful for all the little things my husband did for me today

Ok, so I'm getting further along in my pregnancy, which does lead me to have to restrain from doing EVERY thing I might have liked, needed to or wanted to - there was a small moment, where i felt a little helpless today...  But, I know I just had to let it go, accept where I am in my life and ask for help.

My amazing husband, well I just appreciate all the little things he has done for me today - like, coming home in between games (he plays "football") to help me with the fridge debacle (which turned out to just be the light bulb, but these days moving a big fridge is not really ideal at this moment of my life!).

Wanna know what other amazing things I appreciated him for? He did a little housework - and I know you think that he should be helping me with it anyway, but given the fact he's been working a lot of long hours at work, coming home to work more on the laptop, being dragged to parenting classes at the hospital, mustering up the energy to play his usual amounts of football etc etc. and he's done all this housework for me (because I asked for help) with his whole heart when he probably needed a rest, more than anything.

I simply, am HAPPY for having him in my life, that we met and all that mushy stuff ;)

A BIG THANK YOU for being you goes out to my lovely husband! :) xxx

- and I know he appreciates me for carrying this little munchkin I'm growing inside me! ;)

Personal Responsibility

I absolutely LOVE this!

Oprah is definitely one of my many inspirations :)  and she couldn't have said it better.  

How often might you be putting the blame on someone else?  (saying it's not your fault?). Perhaps you're not being responsible for your own feelings?  Do you complain or make excuses for something unpleasant happening?  or have excuses why something hasn't  happened yet?  Perhaps you play the victim... ALOT!? "bad things always happen to me....".  If ANY of these things sound familiar - then you're definitely not taking any personal responsibility!

I'm not perfect.  I will admit to the fact that I too am not always BEING PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for my actions, reactions and outcomes - but when I don't, where do you think does that leave me? Downright unhappy! I feel out of control and powerless.

Just the other day, my husband pointed out to me how I wasn't being personally responsible for my response (I was blaming someone here...) - I just loved that he did that, because it made me step up in that moment, reassess what I had just said and gave me another opportunity to change - for the better :)  Take action and make the decision to BE personally responsible.

It sure does take practice - but a little bit of mindfulness will help along the way ;) Go on! Take some responsibility! Be personally responsible for YOUR actions, what you do in your life, your intentions, the way you react in a situation, respond in a conversation, the outcomes and what you attract.  

By practising being responsible for ourselves, we also have to remember, we are not responsible for others. How someone reacts or acts, is their decision, if someone gets upset by something you said (so long as you said it with good intentions), you are not responsible for their feelings.  They CHOOSE to feel that way. If you try to be responsible for someone else, you actually allowing them not to be personally responsible for themselves!  Think about that.... you allow them to play the victim again and again and you begin to burden yourselves with other people's problems - and where would that leave you?

When you learn to take some personal responsibility, you'll soon realise you have so many more choices - after all YOU are responsible for your own HAPPINESS!  

We become more accepting and we begin to forgive ourselves and others, thus creating more love around us. We learn to let go of things we can't control and everything becomes EEEEASY!!! :)

Would love to hear your personal stories on how you're taking some personal responsibility, so please feel free to comment below!

Embrace It!

Earlier this year we were in Bali doing a 7 day surf & yoga retreat with Salt Retreats - Amazing experience by the way if you ever decide to try it! The retreat was small but the people we met were amazing - fun and just really down to earth.  One of the things I remember is one of the girls saying was "Embrace It" and I've since carried it with me.

When we allow and accept what is, we definitely feel a little more relief, release and happier.  When we try to fight against something - a situation, person etc - we tend to end up feeling more stressed, frustrated, unaccepting, controlling - the list goes on! 

A chat with my mentor, Mia Munro, not too long ago, made me realise that for a long time my journey has been about 'letting go' - yes, one might say, I too wanted to be in control of my own life (like all aspects!) - now I'm not saying don't be responsible for your own life, because you are, but if you add a little bit of 'letting go' in there with some of the 'control'...well... the feeling is just completely different.

For me, with my current circumstances, I've had my husband tell me many times "embrace it" (the pregnancy) and I'm certainly doing a lot of allowing and accepting.  Just on the weekend, I've totally just had to allow and accept that my body is changing, there is no rule when or how much it will change in whatever time frame, so I've just got to embrace it.  I'm talking about the fact that I had to go out and buy maternity pants!  Just getting into my forth month, you're only really just starting to show!  You read lots of stuff about wearing loose or stretchy clothes.  Yup that totally worked for me from the second month and I stored away my skinny jeans and lived in my leggings, but a shop with my mum found me making the switch - and oh my goodness, they felt so good! It's such a different feeling. 

Now I could be all depressed about it that I'm getting bigger, losing my petite shape and having to wear maternity wear so early on OR I could and have totally embraced it. I've shown me a little self-love and respect - more about that another time!  It makes me love being pregnant!   In fact, it's made it more fun as I get to look at a new wardrobe!  

so let's just sit with that thought for today....

What are you trying to 'control' that's not working for you?  What would happen if you allow things to be as they are, or to accept that person for who they are?  

We can't control everything - think about it - you can't tell the sun when to wake up, right?  As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do!