Being Content With What You Have

My husband was telling me a story this morning which was the inspiration for this post!

There is nothing wrong in focusing on the things you want in life. A new job, a new house, a boyfriend/girlfriend/life partner perhaps. But sometimes when we focus so much on wanting and getting those things it can have the opposite effect of attracting those things when they turn into a 'lack' mentality - when your attention somehow goes from wanting to 'attract' a new partner into you life into 'not having' a life partner.

Before I met my husband and wanting to meet a decent man in my life, I met guys who didn't treat or respect me for who I was, I ended up with a long list of "don't wants". What do you think ended up happening? I kept attracting all the things I didn't want! So I decided I would focus on what I wanted and made a list of the things I did want in a life partner. One day I was eventually convinced to go speed dating with a friend. Still didn't attract what I wanted...

So I decided I was over men. I had put out to the universe what I wanted but I was no longer going to go looking to 'find the One' and I went back to the life I knew, Being contented with what I already had. My friends, my family and my career and I was much happier!

Then not long after, my husband came along! He wasn't what I imagined but he ticked every box (except for blue eyes and blonde hair 😉) so I knew I got what I asked for and I never knew I could love someone so much - until my baby came along. Now I've realised how much my Love can be expanded!!

I believe that we can put out to the universe what we want. But, go back to being happy with what we already have and appreciate those things - loving life and living in the moment. Sooner or later, what you want will come along :) And guess what? You are actually THAT much Happier! 

It's just Lao Tzu says "The Whole World Belongs To You"

Happy Dayz! 😊

Making Room for Your Present & Future

Five weeks ago, I became a mother of a beautiful baby boy! This little human being - this amazing creation - has taught me so much about this quote I found.

Before my son, I had set up some daily rituals that would set me up for my day when I awoke - meditation for my mind, a cup of lemon juice + warm water to alkalise my body and I would write in my gratitude journal for my soul. When he came imto our lives, my once morning 'healthy habits' were thrown out the window! :) As a new mum to a newborn baby, your body goes into a bit of a shock - having to wake up several times a night to feed this precious being and becoming so sleep deprived that you never know what day it is! Particularly in the early weeks...they say your life will never be the same - and that advice is not wrong! ;)

At first, I certainly wasn't used to it all and I was craving for (besides sleep!) some meditation time or to have my warm lemon water first in the morning. I was basically trying to hang on to what I know, rather than discover what could be and embrace what is.

I soon had one of those lightbulb moments! My new son was dependant on me and all he wanted was LOVE! I am his life force (for the moment!) for food, care and cuddles. All I needed to concentrate on was to feed, change nappies and most importantly BOND with my baby - learning to be a mother! It sounds so obvious and simple, but when you're used to being independent and doing everything and achieving everything yourself, it takes a little time to adjust and acknowledge that life had to change - my UNCONSCIOUSNESS had to get it. I had to become more present, more conscious of what new things were happening for me. I've now got a greater awareness of his presence and love every moment even more :)

Ever happened to you? Don't you just love it when things just "click"! You know, when you have that lightbulb moment or Ah-Ha moment?

Once you get that you need to sometimes LET GO of your past or just letting go of what you've always known (ie, re-reading the last chapter/s of your life), you can go on to living the next chapter, full of discovery and adventure! EMBRACE the new chapters ahead and continue living presently - it may be scary but usually exciting as well! :)

Day 30: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 30: Today I am grateful for everyone who got involved with the gratitude challenge - in their own way

No matter how or what, if you managed to take a little time each day, just a few minutes a day or wrote in a gratitude journal or contributed to the page with your gratitude - I just wanted to say Thanks for being a part of it!

I hope that you've discovered new things about you, about your life, have created and cultivated more love, peace, positivity and gratitude in your life and hope that you'll continue to carry on a daily gratitude practice in your own way x

Day 18: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 18: Today I'm grateful for my friend's happiness

This afternoon I caught up with a friend who came down to visit and I am so very happy for her how her life has turned around and she's happy where she is in her life right now, who she's attracted into her life and how she's loving her new situation/life, space, love and the people she's surrounded with. 

Sometimes we find happiness in seeing other people BEING HAPPY. 

Who are you happy for today? Sometimes we just need to give out love in order to feel the LOVE ;)

Day 16: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 16: Today I am grateful for my peppermint chocolate frog from Haigh's!

So it happens to be Valentine's Day today and I am grateful for having someone to share this day with. My small little gift is such a simple little thing to receive but it's one of my favourites - who doesn't like chocolate after all?! 

Sometimes it's the simple things in life which are often the most beautiful ;)

Day 14: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 14: Today I grateful for where we have chosen to life at present

I absolutely love where we live - in Bondi. We're close to the beach, close to nice dining areas, close to a lot of things - did I mention the beach??!?

There's something so magical and calming about going for a morning stroll along the beach and breathing in the ocean air - and even better, watching the sun rise.  Ahhhhh.... and I love that we're so close - within walking distance!  We're so lucky and I'm so grateful we have the ocean so accessible to us.... BLISS :)

How are you grateful for your surroundings?  Maybe you live in a city, but you LOVE the city?  What do you love about it that you can be grateful for? Being grateful for it, has it changed your perspective in any way?

Day 9: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 9: today I am grateful our schedules finally falling into place so that we were able to have a family dinner

It's always nice to spend time with the family and have a laugh, but with anything, nothing is perfect, there's the good times and the times you might 'fight' with your siblings when you were younger ;) but it's always good to remember the good times and to have fun together. To gather with the people you've known your whole life who love you unconditionally and support you in their own way, the way they know how. 

Love your family and love your friends. Your friends are your family you choose for yourself after all :)

Day 5: "30 Day Gratitude Challenge"

Day 5: Today I'm grateful for having the opportunity to work with and collaborate with such a great creative team

I think it's important to do what makes you happy because in return you end up loving what you're doing - you enjoy going to work each day, or you love turning up to that yoga class or going for that swim or waking up early just to see the sunrise. 

Do you love what you do? Does it make you happy?

If you're not in the most ideal situation, what could you be doing right now, in this moment to change your situation - either short term or for the future?

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!

Head or Heart?

I took this photo at Bondi's Sculptures By the Sea which happens in November every year and runs over two weeks.  What I love about it, is how our brains are confused because it's a STOP sign, yet our clever little brains can make out the word START with the few letters that appear...  so is it a start or stop sign?

Sometimes our heads say one thing, yet our hearts say another - and then confusion or frustration might set in.  Ever happen to you?

My head tells me to write something super positive, yet my heart says, just tell the TRUTH and the rest will flow.  So that's what I'm going to do!

Like everyone, I'm not perfect.  That's the simple truth. I'm human after all!

Last week seemed rather challenging.  Anything that could go wrong, did. If I could be late for something like work or an appointment, I was. If I could give my husband the shits, I gave it to him. If I could feel emotions - which I did, I cried.  I think I cried at least once a day last week!

I would say I'm a glass-half-full rather than a glass-half-empty kinda gal. More so, I do my best to keep my glass topped up and that's when I know I'm really congruent as everything flows easily and effortlessly! Life feels GREAT! But like most people, I don't always have uplifting days - that's just life.

Upon reflection of last weeks antics, however, I realised that it's because I created my daily habits and rituals (even if it meant I would run late for an appointment!) - that allowed me to come out alright in the end.  Sometimes we just need to trust the process. What I know for sure, when I'm faced with a lot of challenges all at once, it can only mean that a change is a coming!!!

Here's what I do to keep me going:

* Daily meditation - it seemed the latest Oprah & Deepak meditation came at the right time!  I was certainly going through some personal challenges and the challenges that the meditation practice brought - Desire & Destiny - definitely CHALLENGED me!  It also allowed me to get some clarity, for example, one of the days I was able to label "frustration" and that's what was going on for me at the time.  Each day is different, as is each moment.

*Gratitude Journal - there is nothing more that helps me to get me out of a rut of downward spiralling of unhealthy thoughts than to write in my gratitude journal.  It allows me to keep being a loving human being.  It allows me to be focused on the good things in life so that I can attract and be given more of that greatness from the universe.

* Contributing to my blog and Facebook page and allow myself to be inspire by other people's pages and blogs of a similar 'happy' theme

* Present moments - Have you ever noticed your thoughts? When you're shitty at someone, do you keep thinking negative thoughts and complain and whinge about that person or do you stop yourself and start to be grateful for the lessons they might be giving you instead?  It's important to STOP everyone once in a while throughout the day and just be fully present.  Take a DEEP BREATH!  

Amazing what a simple little act like taking a deep breath can do for you and to clear the head!  Whenever I became present, I learnt lessons in those 'difficult' moments.  Lessons of personal responsibility, more letting go (of control) that I needed to do and to just allow whatever it is to JUST BE.

Ahhhh... peace :)

Celebrate!

It was my mum's birthday on the weekend - Happy Birthday Mum!!

It reminded me about how much I love celebrating my birthday and birthdays in general - I mean, why wouldn't you want to celebrate the birth of your being? Your coming into this world? It's a special day to celebrate YOU!

So it made me think of celebration in general...

How often do you celebrate?  And I don't mean just a birthday or promotion. Do you ever stop to think, I'm going to take a moment and celebrate what I've achieved in my life over the years. Have you acknowledged and celebrated what you've ever done over the year?  or even in the past few months?

I've found for me, that when I stop to reflect, acknowledge and 'celebrate' what I've accomplished so far - there's a little wave of happiness, of contentment, of love and of my life that I've chosen to live it the way I want to live it.  Sometimes we get so busy of achieving, achieving, achieving, looking to gain the next step and then the next.  Then we might get frustrated about why we're not getting to our next goal, when sometimes, we need to just stop and celebrate a little for what we've already done.

It can be really simple.  Today, I'm going to celebrate this blog - my little space of 'personal space and inspiration'.  I had been thinking of wanting to do it for so long, then I finally did and then I shared it! WOW!!! What an impact it made for me.  And even today - I'm going to celebrate that I finally got around to setting up my facebook fanpage for my blog - it's finally done! I'm happy I've done it, I'm able to cross it off the "To-Do list" and be happy it's one less thing that my mind has to consider.

And since I'm pregnant, I unfortunately can't pop open the bottle of champagne - but that's my point.  Celebration doesn't mean you have to go out and party.  It's just a little something for you, to create a little more happiness in your life.

What are you going to celebrate in your life today?

You Are Your Thoughts - Think HAPPY Thoughts!

When we're ill or when situations aren't going as we had expected, it's best to stay positive by thinking about all the things that could go right. 

I have learnt that our unconscious mind is fascinating and that our thoughts can sometimes bring about just that - that the universe responds to our thoughts and gives us what we 'unconsciously' think about. 

There's a saying "You are what you think about all day long". 

It's so important in certain situations to, yes, acknowledge your feelings, perhaps of fear, but more importantly to let go of that and think differently. 

Reflect on the good in your life, be grateful that you are surrounded by loving people who care about you, trust the amazing doctors out there who are an expert in their field to look after you. 

Trust yourself, be intuitive to your body. Rest up because you intuitively know it needs it, don't resist. BE trusting to the experts who might examine you. Accept this moment and allow whatever happens to happen. Whatever you resist will persist. 

Just remember, think happy positive thoughts and trust you will pull through :)

Find Your Inner Energy

This is such a great quote!!

Recently I've been feeling a bit flat and a bit less motivated than usual. Now I know, that when I'm that little bit more irritable (ok, I accept, there are the pregnancy hormones at play here but let's not use them as an excuse!) - then I know I've not been giving enough to myself. 

It's really important to look after No.1 - yes, that's right - YOU! and I don't mean this in a selfish way. Wayne W. Dyer says it well - by giving to yourself first, showing yourself some self-love, self-respect, self-compassion, then you're more able to give to others. You are definitely a better person and did I mention happier too?!? :)

Once we've fulfilled our needs of nourishing ourselves, then we're much better at coping with everything else that comes our way.  I know I'm a much more giving, understanding, energetic, patient and LOVING human BEING which allows me to do what I love to do and give back and be there for others. Whether that be to have the energy to uplift my husband after he's had a tiring hard day at work or be it that I can be a good listener to a friend who needs to offload her problems for a different perspective.

What you choose to give to yourself will be different for everyone. My suggestion would be to find something small that you can do regularly or daily that gives you more energy.  

It could be creating a habit for daily meditation, treating yourself to wholesome food and making sure you're eating well for the week - fuelling your body with nutritious food like green smoothies, or walking regularly after work to clear your head and to breathe in fresh air.  It could be a commitment to increasing your yoga sessions to more than once a week or start that gratitude journal you've been meaning to and commit to writing in it everyday. Some might treat themselves to a massage, a mani & pedi or a weekend away.

What ever it is, you do it because it's for you.  No one else.  Just for you!

Call these "self-loving" moments :)

If you're feeling uncomfortable about giving to yourself, perhaps try this exercise:

1. Look at yourself in the mirror
2. Now say "I LOVE YOU" to yourself - feel what comes up for you, does it feel good? uncomfortable?
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2
4. Repeat step 3 - keep repeating it until you're comfortable with saying it to yourself
5. Try it again the next day

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!