Apache Blessing

May the sun bring you new energy by day
May the moon softly restore you by night
May the rain wash away your worries
May the breeze blow new strength into your being
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life

May you be blessed this week.

Love

Donna.x

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Your Mission: Fall in Love with You

This week, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to treat yourself as if you loved yourself beyond words. Treat yourself as you would a precious child that you want to spoil rotten! Treat yourself as if you thought you could do anything. Treat yourself as if you could do no wrong in your own eyes. Really fall in love with precious, gorgeous, wonderful you.

I love you…but it’s more important that you love you.

Love

Donna.x

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Your Creative Joy

As you will know if you follow this blog closely (and if you do, I thank you!), on a Wednesday I answer a journal prompt from Jamie Ridler of Jamie Ridler Studios. I also listen to Jamie’s weekly podcast on creative living. Jamie is my favourite resource for awakening creativity, and since I came across her site sometime last year, I have steadily been letting out the reins on my own creativity.

I’ve been blogging for years now, so I’m quite happy with the written word as a creative pursuit, but other avenues have been pretty much closed as “I’m no good at” them. Jamie is helping me to remember that it’s not about getting it right, but about expressing your creativity and having fun with it. Many of us were shut down as kids when we tried something and someone else said it was rubbish. So we stopped doing it, even though we had fun. What a shame. Not only that we stopped having fun, but that we bottled up our creativity.

Many people believe they are not creative at all in any way, which I think is just bullshit. Everyone has a spark of creativity in them. Maybe you can’t paint like Picasso, or make music like Mozart, or write like William Shakespeare – but you can be creative in your own way. And I bet that there is some creativity in you that is crying out to be expressed. Expressing creativity is not about creating a masterpiece, it’s just about allowing your creative energy a chance to come out, to dance, to be joyously allowed.

Allowing your creativity a space to be expressed has several benefits. Firstly it’s FUN – remember that thing you used to do as a kid, just because it was fun? When did ‘because it’s fun’ stop being a good reason to do something in your life? Remind yourself of the joy of living by doing something JUST because it’s fun! Secondly, when you start to allow your creative energy to express, it gets stronger and you become MORE creative. And creativity is useful not just for finger painting or making pottery, but in business and in life – the more creative you are, the more easily you will find solutions for any problems you come across.

Thirdly, letting your creativity out makes you feel better – you feel less ‘stoppered up’ and choked, and you feel more free. Fourth, your creativity is part of YOU. Keeping it bottled up means that you are not fully being yourself. Letting it out allows you to be more of you. I’m not saying you have to have an art exhibition or do a music tour or make craftwork your new job. But maybe you want to think about the creative things you loved to do as a child and start doing them again. Not to ‘create art’ but just to express your creativity, have some fun, become more creative, feel good and be yourself.

I am all about creating a life you love, and creativity is a HUGE part of that. And there are so many creative endeavours that I am sure you can find something that captures your attention. Painting, drawing, knitting, sewing, crocheting, writing, sculpture, collage, photography, graphic design, pottery, jewelry-making, singing, dancing, playing an instrument, writing a song, acting… the list could go on for hours. By the way, do not make this hard for yourself. Don’t decide that you can’t do something because you don’t have the right equipment – be creative and do what you can with what you already have.

Leave me a comment and let me know what creative endeavour you’re going to try this week.

Love

Donna.x

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The Daily Constitutional

In The Independent a few years ago, John Walsh wrote about the pleasures we have lost because we’re usually in so much of a hurry. Here’s part of what he wrote:

“How long is it since you entertained the concept of Going For A Walk? I don’t mean the urgent dash to the shops on Saturday afternoon, or the purposeful not-quite-run on the common in your expensive trainers. I mean the purposeless amble through the backstreets of your fashionable suburb, taking in the sights, peering through windows (but don’t push your luck) and greeting neighbours with a cheery doffing of one’s Homburg. The lack of any actual goal, other than getting out of the house and seeing what the world is up to, is what gives the random constitutional its old-fashioned charm.”

It’s as true today as it was then. When was the last time you had a good mooch around for no purpose at all? I get to mooch on a daily basis because my dog needs walking…so there is a purpose…but I still do it as a nice gentle mooch. This week (when the skies have been clear) I’ve been mooching to the top of the hill across the road and watching the sunset. Now I know I said ‘mooch for no purpose at all’, but as reasons to mooch go, this one is hard to beat!

Go mooching.

Love

Donna.x

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Nothing Holding You Back

What is holding you back from having a joyous life? What is holding you back from falling in love with life? What is holding you back from doing what you want to do? You may have answered ‘money’, ‘time’, ‘not knowing how or what to do’, maybe it is a person or people, the government, that you are not confident enough, that you have not got the knowledge or the skill or the motivation or the right shoes (!). What is it that holds you back in your life? Identify it all…

Now imagine that there is NOTHING holding you back. There is nothing in your way. You have all the resources, time, intelligence, creativity, support, ideas, motivation, energy that you need to enjoy your life, to fall in love with your life, to do whatever you want to do. Just imagine it for a moment. What would that be like? How would that change things for you? What could you do if there was nothing holding you back? What first step would you take? Why not take that first step right now?

Move towards enjoying your life, falling in love with your life, doing what you want to do…even though there are things holding you back, move forward anyway. Many of the things holding you back will just fall away under the glow of your inspiration and determination…and those that don’t will become more of an inconvenience than a brake on your dreams. Move forward anyway. Do it now, as if there is nothing holding you back. Leave a comment and tell me what you’d do if nothing were holding you back…and then go do it!

Love

Donna.xxxx

PS Put a comment below to tell me what it is that’s holding you back and in a future blog, I’ll address that particular thing more specifically. Trust me, you won’t be alone in whatever it is you feel is holding you back!

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Enjoying the Win

Last week, I was at a client’s offices and in the meeting room they had a picture titled “Face each problem with a will to win” with a picture of athletes in agony (marathon runners by the look of them). I admire the sentiment. Determination, tenacity and will gets you far.

BUT.

It’s the agony bit that bothers me! Yes, ok, winning is all good, getting to your goal is a magnificent thing…but in business and in life these days it is all too often at the expense of your physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health…and I can’t see that as good no matter which way up I look at it! I mean, what’s the point of getting to your goal if at the end of it you are mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually depleted? It’s different if the thing you want to do pushes you to your limits (marathons, mountain climbs etc), but in your normal life? In your business day? I don’t think so.

This poster seemed to be from the ‘nose to the grindstone’ school of workplace motivation. And having been self-employed for the last 7 years, I can tell you what a crock of sh** that particular ‘motivation’ is! It is ineffective, demotivating and ultimately, pointless. So I had a think to come up with something that I think is a bit more inspiring. How about “Face each problem with curiosity, a sense of humour, a joyful smile and a determination to have a laugh while finding a solution”? With a picture of smiling, happy people?

Obviously this will never catch on in the workplace while we insist on being sober, serious, sensible and having our noses to the grindstone for 40 hours a week…but I live in hope that one by one we will wake up and realise life is for enjoying (even when at ‘work’!) What would the inspirational poster on your wall say?

Love

Donna.x

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Covering Your Ass

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Enough of that crap . . The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him.

The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

MORAL FROM TODAY’S LESSON:

When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

Lol.

Donna.x

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Learning More From Failure

Do you learn more from failing than you do from succeeding?

It is accepted wisdom that we learn a lot more from making a mess of things than we do from effortlessly flying through. But why?

Is it because there are more lessons when we fail? Or is it because we don’t examine the cause of our success as much as we analyse the cause of our failure?

I believe it is the latter – there are just as many lessons to learn from happiness, ease, joy and success. But we don’t tend to pay any attention when things are going well. As soon as things go bad, we get out the magnifying glass and take it apart!

What’s going well in your life right now? Why is it going well? What are you doing to contribute to this ‘well’ness? What are the factors that make up a happy, successful life for you? Are you doing them?

Make the decision today to learn just as much from what you are doing right as what you are getting wrong.

Love

Donna.x

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What Did You Do Right Today?

If I asked you at the end of the day what you did wrong, or what you ‘should’ have done that you didn’t do, how many answers would you have for me? (just a rough guess, you don’t need to count exactly!)

My guess is that you could think of 10-20 things quite easily.

Now, what if I were to ask you what you did RIGHT today? What are you pleased with? What are you proud of? Can you get 10-20 again?

Again, my guess is that you would find this more difficult! Why is it so easy to criticise ourselves but so hard to praise ourselves? Which is more motivating? Constant criticism or constant praise? Which do you do to yourself?

Just for today, notice what you got RIGHT. Then, you could maybe do it again tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day.

I wonder how much happier you’d be if you did this every day?

Love

Donna.x

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Follow Your Heart

If you could be doing anything in the world right now, what would you love to do?

What makes your heart sing?

What do the stirrings of your heart whisper for you to do with your life?

Could you start to follow your heart right now?

You don’t have to do something huge and scary to follow your heart, you can just do something small, every day that follows the stirrings of your heart.

Before you know it, you have a happy life, a joyful life, the life your heart desired.

Start today.

Right now.

Love

Donna.x

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