Day 1 - "30 day Gratitude Challenge"

Today is Day 1 of my 30 day Gratitude Challenge! Very excited!!

Day 1: today I am grateful for all those who are and have been supporting my

Blog and Facebook inspiration page since it's existence last September 2013. 

Thanks to all the friends and family who are reading my blog posts, liking my inspiration pictures and sharing it with your friends, family, network or community. 

The other day I put a post up that reached so many people, people I didn't even know! That really made my day!! Super happy! :) So I would also like to Thank all the random beautiful people I don't even know who I get to share with and inspire each day and continue to like my posts :)

Thanks to my mentors along my life's journey (you know who you are!) who have guided me to find my passions and start this very blog! 

Finding Inner Balance

For ages I've been trying to obtain a "balanced lifestyle" - I'd done some personal work with my mentor, Mia Munro, who asked me to define what BALANCE meant for me.

What does Balance mean for you?

For me, it was about having the right amount of juggle - between work and lifestyle, friends vs. family vs. me time vs. us time (relaxing time with hubby). Finding the right balance of "busy-ness" to "relaxation" time.  All sounds grand, right? But when you sit down to work out how much time in the day vs. the week vs. the year, how are you ever to really know and work out how balanced you are or can be?

So then I discovered that Balance for me, was a FEELING.  So long as I felt like my life was balanced, then it was - the feeling of complete calm, centredness, wholeness.  I knew I was 'out-of-balance' when life was feeling a little too kaotic - where there was too much busy-ness and not enough me time or time out.

One day, I was attending a yoga classes at Dharma Shala (Bondi) and the lightbulb went off! I love Anna's classes - she has an emphasis on mindfulness and the breath during our yoga practice. She described BALANCE as a moment. I had one of those AH-HA moments!!!

Balance can be achieved at any time, and is only ever found in a moment. 

We can find balance whenever we want. We can create balance at any time. It's only ever in a moment. Knowing that, for me, means I can make a choice. I can CHOOSE to be balanced in that present moment - any moment, really! :)

And haven't you ever felt that when your life feels balanced - life just seems all that much easier and happier?  :)

Happy Dayz!!

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!