Rah Rah Rah!

Ever been of the opinion that enthusiastic people are quite irritating? You know, the sort who are always up and peppy – the jumpiest jumping bean of them all! I have made a startling and quite entertaining discovery over the past few years – it’s not so irritating when it is you that is the enthusiastic one! Hap Hap Hazah!

How’s your enthusiasm rating right now? Today? In general? I must admit that mine has fallen slightly flat over the last few weeks – I’m blaming female hormones – and I’ve been struggling to find the enthusiasm to get my admin done. I’d much rather be doing something else…only I haven’t had much enthusiasm for something else either. Sigh. And today, once TUT had reminded me of the fanfare that accompanies my every move, I could feel my enthusiasm returning.

Then I read something about doing what you do with enthusiasm and EUREKA! I am enthusiasm personified. Now apart from the fact that it is a GREAT word, what’s so good about enthusiasm? Well, several things – being enthusiastic feels great, you get more out of an experience you enthusiastically participate in, people notice enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is infectious.

Just in case you are wondering, the dictionary definition of enthusiasm is “ardent and lively interest or eagerness” – the definition alone is pepping me up even more. Get the pom-poms out! Ok, so maybe you are slightly less excitable than me about this, how do you summon this ardent and lively interest on a Wednesday afternoon? Well, firstly, think about what makes you enthusiastic – what is different when you are enthusiastic?

Do you clap excitedly, jump up and down, dance about the office (or is this all just me?!)? Are you a little more sedate in your enthusiasm? Do you look forward to things and enjoy being part of what you’re doing? Are you keen to get started and focused on what you’re doing? Do you smile and laugh more? Do you just feel a sense of ‘rightness’? Think of the enthusiasm of children and dogs – can you learn from them?

I’m not suggesting that you run around your office jumping up on people and licking their face (although if you did I would howl with laughter!). That might be a jump too far in enthusiasm for you. So what would bring it up just a notch? I encourage you this week to go about your business with as much enthusiasm as you can muster, and just see what fun it is to see the world through enthusiastic eyes.

Love

Donna.x

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Do Something Amazing

Well, I am feeling quite sad and disappointed today. I found out that while I am under the care of my neurologist, I can’t give blood. If you don’t donate blood, you might believe that is a good thing – but if you do donate, you will understand why I’m upset. I have to admit, before I started donating, I didn’t understand why anyone would want to. Needles? Uck. Blood? Ick. Biscuits as a ‘reward’? You’re kidding me! But once I’d been just a few times I got it. You are spending half an hour of your time (the taking blood bit takes less than 10 minutes) to potentially save a life. I started donating because a colleague’s son had a motorbike accident where he lost a leg…and he needed lots of blood to keep him alive. So she talked me into going.

I’ve now given 17 times. I intended to give 100 times (I only needed another 20 years or so to do it! Lol). But I have been cut short in my prime. Although, you know me – I haven’t given up. My diagnosis may change, the rules may change, I may move to a place with less strict rules! And if I can, I’ll give again. For now, I am reduced to badgering other people to give! So why should you give blood? Because the life you save could be your child’s, your spouse, your best friend, your parent, your sibling. Donating your blood could save a life. That’s it. That’s the reason. And it’s so easy. So please, if you can give, do it. In the UK, go to www.blood.co.uk to find your local donation session. In the US, I believe it’s the Red Cross. And if you’re like me and you can’t give, please spread this message and ask your friends and family to give. The life THEY save could be yours.

- Do Something Amazing -

Ok, giving blood might not be for you (although I hope you will try it before deciding it’s not for you!), but there is another point to be made here – giving feels amazing! Everyone I know who gives or has given blood regularly wouldn’t think of missing a session unless they had to. Everyone I know who has ever volunteered got as much out of it as the people they were helping. If not more. Jack Canfield tells the story of a client who called him in despair, not able to see a way forward. Jack asked him if there was anything he could think of that he could do for someone else, and stayed on the line while his client went off and did his good deed. When he came back, the dark cloud was lifted.

Sometimes life gets on top of us so much that we forget how to give – our time, our money, our love, our friendship, our expertise. We are too busy moving from day to day, getting what we can from others and from life itself. And we forget to serve, to make the world a better place just by being in it. The irony of this is that when you are able to help someone else, you are helped too. When you give with a generous and open heart, it comes back to you. And it just plain feels good to give! The biscuit you are rewarded with in the UK for giving blood is not your reward for doing so – it’s actually just to get your blood sugar level back up – your reward is that you’ve done something amazing.

Now there is a huge difference between doing something amazing, and being a martyr! Note that I said “when you give with a generous and open heart it comes back to you”. Not when you give from a place of ‘having to’, feeling like you ’should’ or out of obligation. Giving with a generous and open heart (or vein!) is wonderful. Giving to gain is not. Being taken from is not. Giving because you want to do something good (and therefore feel good) and giving from a place of service is one of my favourite things! Yes, I know that pretty much everything I enjoy is my favourite thing. Lol.

That is why I am so upset to have been stopped from giving blood. I don’t get to save lives that often! And now the one way I did (maybe) is (hopefully temporarily) closed. But of course there are other ways I can serve – giving away content on my website, facebook, twitter is one way I can serve. Helping people who need help is another. Badgering friends, family and everyone I’m connected to on Facebook to give blood is another! And perhaps encouraging you to look around and see what you can give with an open and generous heart is another?

- Something to Play With -

What can you give? Who can you help today? It could be a charity, a friend, a neighbour, a total stranger who needs blood (sorry, I’m relentless!), you could give time, money, expertise, friendship, mentoring, laughter. Remember to give with an open heart and notice how much fun it is to give (don’t be attached to a ‘thank you’ though – get the good feeling from doing the good deed, not being acknowledged for it. Acknowledgement is nice but it’s not the point). Please let me know what you do, especially if you decide to give blood – it will make me feel lots better! Leave me a comment here or pop over to the facebook page and leave a comment there.

Love

Donna.x

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Conscious Joyfulness

Well, the office revamp is still going on – today we put together a new wardrobe, which was going to finish off the revamp, give me some storage in there, and turn my office into a little dance studio too cos the doors are mirrored (I’m not a prima ballerina, I just always wanted a dance studio!). Anyway, the mirrored doors are the reason the office revamp is still in progress – 2 of them are broken. Sigh. Still, one was fine and Ikea were lovely and immediately agreed to replace them. So, next week I should have my new office completed! I hope. Meanwhile, I was talking to a client today and we were talking about Joy and being Joyful, which reminded me of this article: enJOY!

- Conscious Joyfulness -

The dictionary definition of joy is ‘a deep feeling or condition of happiness or contentment’. Sounds wonderful – I’ll have some of that! So, how often do you feel joyous? All day every day? Once a day? Once a week? Every now and again? I have a vague suspicion (I could be wrong) that it isn’t that often.

After all, we’re not programmed for joy are we? We’re programmed to be stressed, exhausted, busy and tense. So, we walk round scowling rather than smiling, we worry rather than getting excited, we are more serious than frivolous. Hmm. Which state would be more fun? Which state would be easier? Which state do we work on?

Interesting eh?! We’d enjoy life so much more if we worked on the state of joy, but most of us instead work on the state of stress! You may be frowning at me right now – why would you work on being stressed?! Make no mistake about it…every time you spend time on worry, anger, criticism, negative thoughts and actions you are working on your stress.

Perhaps not consciously, because if you were conscious of ‘working on your stress’, you would stop it. Here’s what we do: something upsets us or stresses us out. Then we worry at it like a dog with a bone. Then we talk about it with our friends, and every time we repeat the story (depending on the level of stress/worry/pain, anywhere between 5 times and 200 times) we relive the pain/stress/worry and charge it with a tremendous amount of energy and exercising our stress muscles so they get big and strong.

When I started thinking about this article, I realised that I too do not feel joyous 24/7, and I started looking for specific examples of things that brought me joy in the last week. A smiley moon, sunshine and starlight, catching up with friends, hearing about achievements and good stuff happening for people, connecting to a higher power, music, dancing, laughter, a good book, a new idea, a hot bubbly bath and a magazine, random acts of kindness, love, spending time with my family…the list goes on and on.

And do you know what I found very curious? I had barely noticed these fabulous things – I was far too busy worrying about something else altogether! Now, I’m going to spend more time working on joy, rather than stress. What about you?

- Something to Play With -

Spend 3-5 minutes brainstorming the things that make you joyful. Then decide to live a joyous life and consciously bring more joy into your life. For example, plan one joyous activity a day for the next week, and see what a difference it makes to your outlook. Want to share your thoughts on this article? Leave me a comment below.

Love

Donna.x

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The Standard of Success Is Joy

“The standard of success in life isn’t the things. It isn’t the money or the stuff. It is absolutely the amount of joy that you feel.” – Abraham

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Happy Monday!

Love

Donna.x

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What’s Your Life About?

If you had to say what the ‘theme’ for your life was, what would it be? For too many of us, it is ‘misery’, ‘working hard’, ‘getting through the day’ – and largely because we don’t pay attention to what we WANT our life to be about and take steps to make that happen. So if you were to choose what your life was about, what would you choose? Love? Fun? Joy? Enjoyment? Energy?

My life is about falling in love with life – enjoying my life no matter what the circumstances, walking through life with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Do I always have this? No. I am often pulled off course by “comparisonitis”, “impatience”, “should-bee’s” and wanting things to be ‘different’. But more and more I come back to what life is really about – enjoying it.

So what’s your life about? And what are you going to make it about? Leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Love

Donna.x

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The Truth of You

“I can’t tell you what your next action will be, but mine involved a full stop. I had to stop living unconsciously, as if I had all the time in the world. The love and good and the wild and the peace and creation that are you will reveal themselves, but it is harder when they have to catch up to you in roadrunner mode. So one day I did stop. I began consciously to break the rules I learned in childhood: I wasted more time, as a radical act. I stared off into space more, into the middle distance, like a cat. This is when I have my best ideas, my deepest insights.

Obviously, it is in many people’s best interest for you not to find yourself, but it only matters that it is in yours—and your back’s—and the whole world’s, to proceed.

There’s always something ending and something beginning. Yet in the very center is the truth of your spiritual identity: is you.Fabulous, hilarious, darling, screwed-up you. Beloved of God and of your truest deepest self, the self that is revealed when tears wash off the makeup and grime. The self that is revealed when dealing with your anger blows through all the calcification in your soul’s pipes. The self that is reflected in the love of your very best friends’ eyes. The self that is revealed in divine feminine energy, your own, Bette Midler’s, Hillary Clinton’s, Tina Fey’s, Michelle Obama’s, Mary Oliver’s. I mean, you can see that they are divine, right? Well, you are, too. I absolutely promise. I hope you have gotten sufficiently tired of hitting the snooze button; I know that what you need or need to activate in yourself will appear; I pray that your awakening comes with ease and grace, and stamina when the going gets hard. To love yourself as you are is a miracle, and to seek yourself is to have found yourself, for now. And now is all we have, and love is who we are.”
- Anne Lamott

Take this and read it again and again and again until you have absorbed it all. I have read it every day for 2 weeks and every time I feel my spirit lift. May it do the same for you.

Love

Donna.x

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Let Joy Be Unconfined

I was just sent this quote in an e-mail from Lisa of Beach Dance:

On with the dance, let joy be unconfined! – Mark Twain

Not a bad motto to live by, say I!

May joy be unconfined in your life tonight!

Love

Donna.x

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Feeling Alive

“Children FEEL life. They smell it, roll in it, run with it, see it all around them. Feel the world through the eyes of a child.” – Anonymous. I remember thinking that there was nothing better in life than a Mr Whippy ice cream and a go on the trampoline. Actually, to be honest, not much has changed – I was a wise child! What do you remember as a child thinking ‘this is the BEST thing ever’? And what now brings back that feeling of being alive?

I did a quick ’straw poll’ on some of my friends, and these are the things that make them feel alive: “Sunshine, puppy dogs, laughing and being at the seaside.” “Planning things like a holiday or a trip to see family, meeting up with people I haven’t seen for ages.” “Loud music, a sunny day, the sea, laughing, flirting.” “Being with my kids – they really know how to squeeze every drop of fun out of one moment.” (I LOVE this!)

“Dancing, laughing, being with nature, crying, walking in the rain and wind, being somewhere different, teaching, acting and loving.” “Sunshine, peace & quiet, contentment, feeling thin, having places to go, freedom, change of routine” “An open road and the stereo turned up” “Challenging myself, travelling, singing at the top of my voice, standing on a hilltop and shouting, playing sports” (plus a few things which would probably trigger your e-mail filters!)

I noticed that none of them said “working”, “watching tv”, “being stressed”. How curious…not. I also noticed that none of them are expensive, difficult, or particularly time consuming – and yet they’re the very things that get relegated to the bottom of the priority pile. Life just gets in the way of feeling alive. Unless of course, you decide to make it more of a priority. Unless you decide that you’re going to live a bit before you die.

And why wouldn’t you? There is nothing better than feeling alive – and all too often, the only time we think about feeling alive is when Death brushes us. Don’t wait for the shock of losing someone close to you or the wake up call of a health scare. Start paying attention to feeling alive right now. Today. This minute. Here. Picture it for a moment: Picture yourself, feeling alive, smiling joyously, really living. You can probably remember a time not too long ago when you did feel alive. Did it feel good enough to do it again?

What makes you feel life? Make a list. What can you do this week that connects you with that feeling of being truly alive? Keep that list handy, and do the things from it that make YOU feel alive. And leave me a comment here – what makes you feel alive?

Love

Donna.x

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Magic Moments

I am currently sat in the sunshine, with my laptop on my lap, music playing and delighted to be alive and outside! In this moment, I am so loving working for myself. It’s a magic moment. And so far it’s lasted half the morning. Ok, I didn’t say this to brag, but to make a very serious point. Many of us let these magic moments slide by, barely noticing that it’s a wonderful thing to be alive. And this is such a waste.

An unpleasant moment on the other hand, we tend to stop to appreciate. Hmm, perhaps not appreciate, but certainly we stop to notice, and then most likely we will relive it a hundred more times by telling all and sundry about the rubbish thing that happened to us. Magic moments meanwhile, pass by unnoticed, uncelebrated, unappreciated. The irony is of course, that it’s the magic moments we live for – it’s the joy we crave.

So today, whenever something good happens, stop a moment to savor it. Perhaps you don’t have the chance to sit outside and work in the sunshine, but you will have some pleasant things happen today. And the more that you appreciate these magic moments, the more magic moments you will notice, and the more magic moments will happen. I promise you.

Let me know what magic moments you are having today.

Love

Donna.x

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Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

Happy St Patrick’s Day to ye!

Love

Donna.x

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