Braving the Hot Mess

"I Can't" Versus "I Won't"

1/15/2019

Wow, we are already halfway through the first month of 2019! Most of us set resolutions, intentions, and goals for the new year. How are you doing on your resolutions? Are you moving in the direction toward them?

I recently read the book Letting Go by David R. Hawkins, in it he talks about "I can't" versus "I won't". In the chapter on apathy and depression he writes, "Another way out of apathy is to look at the payoff we are getting out of the apathetic attitudes. The payoff may be in the face-saving excuses to cover up what is actually fear. Since in reality, we are very capable beings, most 'I can'ts' are really 'I won'ts.'" Gosh darn it all anyway, I hate it/love it when I'm reminded of truths like that!

His words spoke to me because sometimes I hold myself back. I let fear take over and convince myself that "I can't" when the actual reality is that "I won't." Hawkins states, "Behind all of the 'I can'ts' are merely 'I won'ts.' The 'I won'ts' mean 'I am afraid to' or 'I am ashamed to' or 'I have too much pride to try, for fear I might fail.'" He goes on to say that, "Apathy and depression are the prices we pay for having settled for and bought into our smallness."

In this new year, I invite you to examine your "I can'ts" and determine if they are really "I won'ts". Being more conscious through the realization that we are choosing a state of being makes a big difference to our self-concept than to think I am a victim and "I can't."

Let's make the conscious choice to not let fear paralyze us and hold us back, keeping us stuck in our old stories, our old programming, and our smallness. You are not too old, too busy, not qualified, or whatever excuse, whatever story you are choosing to hold onto as to why you are not going after your dreams, your intentions, your goals.

You can always choose again. Every moment of every day you can choose again. Be courageous, YOU are enough, YOU are not a victim, YOU are a powerful and amazing creation of God. Let your beautiful light shine bright. You've got this, you've totally got this.

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Pause, Reflect And Set Intentions

12/22/2018

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Have you taken the time to reflect on last year and set your intentions for this new year? Now that the holidays are over it's a great time to hit the pause button, spend some time in reflection, and set your intentions for 2019.

I think it's healthy to productively reflect. To productively look back for a bit before setting it aside and moving forward. Not getting stuck in the past, just looking at it to savor the positive and learn from the challenges. To reflect on what worked and what didn't and to bring closure. It can be easy to skip this step and jump forward into the next year with the proclamation of forget last year, this year will be better. By doing this it's easy to lose perspective, missing the the good stuff and the growth.

Here are some things that I recommend reflecting on:

1. What am I grateful for that transpired this past year? Big, small and everything in between. What are all of the things that come to mind that you are grateful for? I love to start off all of my prayers, meditations, planning sessions, etc. with a good dose of gratitude. This gives us some nice perspective as we are reflecting on the year.

2. What did I do, create, or experience this year that I'm really proud of? This can be in any area of your life. List out all of the accomplishments and experiences that you are proud of that happened this year. Work through month-by-month or pull out your calendar and take a look at the daily entries to help jog your memory. You may be surprised at how many you come up with.

3. What mistakes did I make and what did they teach me? What lessons did I learn that I can leverage from? What was the meaning in those mistakes and lessons? Maybe it's something that's not concrete, like patience, or compassion, or forgiveness.

4. What am I willing to let go of? What am I currently disciplined to that I desire to let go of? What habits, routines and disciplines are serving me and which ones are not? What old story do I want to rewrite and replace with a new story? An exercise I love that helps me to create the new story is to play the "imagine if" or "what if" game. When playing the "imagine if" and "what if" game there are no limitations, no rules, no restrictions, no logic. You get to freely create using your imagination what you would like the story to look like.

How are you feeling about the new year? I know a lot of us have mixed feelings as we are looking out at our world. We want to change, we desire change. How is that change going to happen for you? Are you willing to be the change that you want in the world? Are you willing to do your part to create the change in your own life, in order for that to ripple out into the world? Consider these items as you are closing out this year and looking toward the next.

Setting Your Intentions
If you don't set out your intentions for the year, then it's like getting in a car with no direction. As Jack Kornfield puts it, "Setting a long-term intention is like setting the compass of our heart. No matter how rough the storms, how difficult the terrain, our direction is clear." I set intentions that are both internal and external. My external intentions I keep a little more fluid and flexible. I surround them with a lot of space, space for the creativity of the Universe, space for my natural tendency to think too small, space for my highest and best good.

As the year comes to a close spend some time in reflection. Grab yourself a cup of hot tea or cocoa, sit by the fireplace, wrap up in a warm cozy blanket and reflect on the year as it is closing. Savor the year. You've been on this earth one more year in time, what did it mean to you?

Let your intentions be your compass, your guide that helps give you direction even in turbulent or challenging conditions.

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6 Ways To Get Along With Your Family During The Holidays

12/17/2018

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I was planning to write this week's post on suggestions for handling the stress and anxiety that can come from family gatherings during the holidays and then this blog post dropped into my email inbox from Gabby Bernstein. It's rich with tips for getting along during the holidays, so I decided to share it with you. Hope this helps your holiday to be full of grace, peace and joy.

Spending time with family can be wonderful and uplifting. It can also a big source of holiday stress, even for the most functional families! Being around family can dredge up resentments and send you back into old patterns.

I want to help you skip the drama (or handle it with grace if it comes up), so I updated this blog post with tips that I know will help a lot!

Why The Holidays Can Bring On Family Drama

During the holidays, there are lots of reasons why family drama can flare up.

For one, everyone walks in the door with their own issues and hangups. They may be feeling insecure about work or defensive about a relationship, or having a tough time in general. Plus, even the happiest family has old dynamics from childhood that can take over quickly.

Another factor is that everyone may feel pressured to get along. This pressure can actually put you on edge because you feel like you’re being inauthentic. It’s hard to have fun when your guard is up.

And finally, each person has their own expectations of how they want things to go. You might want a festive party while your sister wants a quiet dinner and your cousin wants to get into deep, personal conversations.

Some ways we get caught in family drama during the holidays

It’s easy to think that the drama is everyone else’s fault, but let’s take a moment to gently witness our own behavior. Ask yourself if any of these things apply to you when you’re with your family during the holidays…

Do you get into petty fights (regardless of who started them)?
Do you judge your relatives’ political views, the way they raise their kids, the food they eat, etc.?
Do you often feel like everyone is on your case and slip into a victim mentality?
Do you feel like you have to win debates, subtly one-up your siblings or get in the last word?

If you answered yes to any of these, you’re not alone! In fact, most of us do at least one of these things. And when we’re really honest about it, we can admit that this behavior doesn’t serve us.

Sometimes a Clash Seems Inevitable

Let’s get real: Many of us have family members who say or do things that enrage or devastate us. And even if it’s not that extreme, during the holidays you might be forced to sit around a dinner table with people you wouldn’t normally hang out with. You might have conflicting views and different ways of communicating.

In this post I’m giving you some tools you can use to avoid that moment when you lose your cool, forget all your spiritual principles and get yanked way out of alignment. And if that does happen, then these tips will help you come back fast.

6 Ways To Get Along With Your Family During The Holidays

These six tips will help you avoid drama, clear judgment and focus on the good stuff so you can have a beautiful time celebrating!

1. Silently bless everyone
Before you sit down at the dinner table (or even before you walk in the door), say a little prayer for everybody. Pray for them to all enjoy their meal. Send them prayers to have a beautiful new year, and give them your love and your light.

The action of offering up that prayer and giving them a little bit of love puts you into a different energetic vibration. It elevates your energy by redirecting your focus. Instead of focusing on judgment, you focus on what you desire and what you wish for others.

2. Shield yourself from negative energy
If you know you’ll be interacting with someone (or multiple people) who leave you feeling drained or depressed, then you can create an energetic boundary to keep their energy from affecting you too much.

Create these boundaries with love rather than judgment. Remember, we’re all doing the best we can. People who don’t have any energy awareness are not malicious; they’re just struggling to get by. So rather than blame them, simply become mindful of how you can support yourself. There are a couple of techniques I like to use:

Activate your shield of golden light
Before interacting with one of these people, you can envision a shield of golden light surrounding you and protecting you. Set an intention to activate your energetic shield before the encounter and trust that your energy field is being protected.

Pray to restore your energy
If the negativity hits you after spending time with someone, then you can recite this prayer: “I ask that any negative energy I picked up be removed, recycled and transmuted. I ask that any positive energy I may have lost be retrieved now.”

3. Practice EFT before the holiday get-together
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as tapping, is a powerful tool that we practice in step 2 of Judgment Detox.

EFT is a psychological acupressure technique that supports your emotional and physical health. It combines the cognitive benefits of therapy with the physical benefits of acupuncture to restore your energy and heal your emotions. You just use your fingertips to tap on certain energy meridian points on your body while talking out loud about the issue at hand.

If you’re new to EFT or prefer to have a teacher, cool news: I made a guided video for tapping on judgment! It’s part of my free 3-part Judgment Detox Mini Course.

You can follow my guided tapping video to release judgment before a family get-together or after it — or both. Click here for instant access to my free mini course!

4. If you do get into drama, forgive yourself fast
It happens. Sometimes we get sucked into drama and do the thing we don’t want to do. We yell, we say something judgmental or we let someone else’s words wreck our good time. When this happens, the answer is to show yourself a lot of compassion and forgiveness.

Check out this lecture clip where I talk about how we can experience our screw-ups differently by forgiving ourselves right away.

Every moment offers us an opportunity to experience what A Course in Miracles calls the Holy Instant. The Holy Instant is the moment when you surrender your fear to the care of the Universe and accept the perspective of love.

If you’re having a hard time letting go or getting to that place of forgiveness, then check out this post. In it I give you three steps to go from anger to forgiveness when things boil over.

5. Focus on what you like (and love) about each person
This action takes the prayer practice from tip #1 even further. You can do this in the room, in the moment. Think about what you like about each person, even if it’s something small, like how your uncle always cracks a joke that makes you laugh or your sister-in-law DM’s you good recipes on Instagram.
Allow yourself to dwell in feelings of love for those family members you’re very close to. Think of all the things you appreciate about them and really feel that love and support.

There may be someone you have a really difficult relationship with and you can’t think of anything positive in the moment. That’s okay. In that case, think of a lesson you’ve learned because of that relationship and cultivate appreciation for that.

Seeing someone for the first time

This technique of focusing on what you like about everyone is a way of practicing Step 4 of Judgment Detox, which is to see someone for the first time. The experience of seeing someone for the first time is one of deep relief. You free the person from the stories you’ve placed upon them and you free yourself from the bondage of attack. You’ll feel relieved because you’ll be returning to your truth, which is love.

If even for an instant you let down your guard and choose to see through the lens of love rather than fear, you will be one step closer to freedom!

6. Keep your side of the street clean by getting honest about your own judgment
We can avoid a lot of family drama by taking responsibility for our judgment and doing the spiritual and personal work to heal it. The way out of judgment is to witness your judgment without more judgment.

Getting clear about all the ways you judge will help you see your part and understand the root of each judgment so that you can heal what you discover. It might sound scary at first. But let me reassure you that this is a very empowering and freeing process.

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The Comparison Trap

12/11/2018

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Do you ever get caught in the trap of comparing yourself to others? Comparing your body to others, your job to others, your story to others, what you have to others, your skills and talents to those of others, your kids or grandchildren to others, where you are in life to others, your generosity to others, your happiness to others, and on and on and on.

Especially at this time of the year we can fall into the comparison trap. Whether it's who is getting what for Christmas, or what other's holiday plans look like, what their family dynamic looks like, what someone else's Christmas decorations look like. Or maybe it's reflecting on the year as it's coming to an end and comparing the path that your life has taken in comparison to others. Or maybe it's looking toward the upcoming year and comparing what might lie ahead for you to others.

However you slice it comparison can steal your contentment, your happiness, your joy. Drawing a comparison between ourself, and our life, to that of others is a reflection of our dissatisfaction with ourself.

When comparing our life to someone else's we are drawing a comparison to what our perception is of that other person and their life, which may or may not reflect reality. Comparing is judging, making a determination of what appears to be better than the other. Comparing ourselves with someone else is an inaccurate and irrelevant measuring stick.

Anyway you cut it, comparison doesn't feel good. You either feel like you're on the short end which makes you feel negative about your situation, or you feel like you're on the uptick. Whenever we have to play the comparison game in order to make ourselves feel good, in order to fill a hole within us, by proving that we are somehow bigger and better we end up not filling that hole. It's a never-ending dark hole of dissatisfaction.

At its core judging, or righteousness, comes from a feeling of lack or not being enough. What I lack in myself, I seek to puff up through my judgment. It’s impossible for us to sustain happiness in our lives if we jump into the comparison game.

We all were born unique, different from everybody else in our own splendidly authentic variation. The only masterful creation we have to work with is ourself. It's more productive and useful for us to focus on being the best version of ourself that we can be. I love the saying that the only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

I also remind myself regularly of the fourth agreement from the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, it states, "Always do your best. Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good."

I invite you to get out of the comparison mode. Instead work on being the best version of yourself that you can be. Instead remember how grateful you are for where you are in the present moment. Instead exercise self-compassion with who you are and where you are in your life. Enjoy the journey with the knowledge that it is your journey and your story, not anyone else's.

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Do You Struggle With Judging Yourself And Others?

12/4/2018

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Do you struggle with judging yourself and others? I've been working on judgment for a while now and I'm still amazed at how quickly my brain shifts into judgment. What I've come to realize is that it's one thing to have a judgmental thought, but the shift is to no longer believe them.

I recently read the book Judgment Detox by Gabrielle Bernstein. In the book, Gabby defines judgment as separation from love. She states, "The moment that we see ourselves as separate from anyone else, we detour into a false belief system that is out of alignment with our true nature, which is love." Gabby suggests that we all have the same problem, that we have separated from love and that the solution is to return to love.

Being judgmental comes from a place of ego. Our ego operates from a place of fear. It thinks it's helping us to survive and protecting us. The ego loves to judge, to cast blame and find fault.

Judgment causes us to get stuck in a cycle, an addictive habit-forming pattern. It temporarily makes us feel better about ourselves, but ultimately makes feel bad. Judgment lowers our vibration and our energy and it makes us feel alone. Gossip is a great example, it can give us a temporary high until we crash with a judgment hangover.

According to Gabby, "The way out of judgment begins when you witness the judgment without more judgment. When we look at our judgment with love, we can begin the healing process. We have to see clearly the ways in which we separate from love, and we have to get honest about the dark corners of our mind." We all have those dark corners of our mind don't we?

For me the beginning of my way out of judgment began with recognizing and understanding fear and through the practices of empathy and self-compassion. Bringing awareness to and being mindful of my judgments, not just blindly going about life without concern for them. Then moving into the practice of empathy with the understanding that everyone has their own lens through which they see the world based on their life experiences, it is their truth. When I become aware that I am judging myself, I exercise self-compassion.

Mindfulness, awareness, empathy and self-compassion are key tools that I've been using to release judgmental thoughts. It's also been helpful for me to relinquish the need to judge, the need to cast something as either right or wrong. Just relieving myself of the "responsibility" of judging and needing to blame or put someone or something in a column of either being right or being wrong.

We often misinterpret reality, we misinterpret another person, misinterpret a situation. We misinterpret things because we see them through the conditioning of our own mind. You see it through your beliefs, your experiences, your childhood, etc. The ego loves to make someone wrong, to judge them. The ego creates a narrative that strengthens the more your tell it. Fictitious narratives spinning around in our head as reality.

I am a work in progress. Everyday setting the intention to break the addictive cycle of judgment against myself and others. Life is happier and more peaceful when we can let go of the "responsibility" of judging.

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Giving Tuesday

11/27/2018

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You have probably been bombarded by shopping ads and sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but today is all about helping others. Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to helping charities help people in need and that is something way more exciting to me!

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has been tagged as the global day of giving. Bringing people together around the values of service and giving back and to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness. Giving Tuesday unites people and countries around the world by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another.

Today people and countries are coming together to celebrate kindness and generosity. Practicing gratitude for what we have in our lives, as well as what we can do to help and be of service to others. I love the concept of a global day of giving for many reasons, two of which are proven to be key pillars of happiness...gratitude and generosity...service and kindness.

The Dalai Lama in his book, The Book of Joy, says, "As one of the seven billion human beings, I believe everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world. We need, ultimately, to have a greater concern for others' well-being." He goes on to say, "Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others' well-being is the source of happiness. We have to take care of ourselves without selfishly taking care of ourselves. If we don't take care of ourselves, we cannot survive. We need to do that. We should have wise selfishness, rather than foolish selfishness. Foolish selfishness means you just think only of yourself, don't care about others, bully others, exploit others. In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life. So that is what I call wise selfishness."

The Dalai Lama starts each day by setting his intention for the day. His intention is for the day to be meaningful. For him, meaningful means, if possible, serve and help others. If not possible, then at least not to harm others. He believes that, "Everybody wants a happy life...and our individual happy life depends on a happy humanity. So we have to think about humanity, discover a sense of oneness of all seven billion human beings." The path of joy is connection and the path of sorrow is separation.

Bringing people and countries together to celebrate our oneness, our kindness, our gratitude, our generosity to care for, empower and lift each other up, creating a happy humanity.

Science supports that when we see someone perform an act of kindness or of generosity it warms our heart. This warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you have witnessed human goodness is called moral elevation. Studies have found that the natural high of moral elevation makes people want to behave more altruistically toward others, causing kindness to be contagious. Elevation motivates those who experience it to open up to and assist others. Elevation makes an individual feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity...something I think we could all use a bit more of these days!

Let's finish out this year of 2018 by intentionally practicing giving, being of service, acts of kindness and of generosity. Let's create moral elevation, so we can all feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity and our future together.

What can you do over this next month to create moral elevation? What small act of kindness, service or generosity can you perform? What act of compassion will make someone else's day brighter and lighter? Let's practice wise selfishness instead of foolish selfishness during this holiday season. I invite you to join me in creating ripples of moral elevation.

If you are wondering how you can be of service, I have a wonderful opportunity for you to consider. A group of compassionate individuals at Perennial - Yoga, Wisdom, Community are helping to bring awareness to the issue of homelessness by sponsoring holiday gifts and raising money this holiday season to help support families in need. Gifts provide emergency shelter, supportive case management services, and stable housing. Your donation can make a difference for families with children experiencing homelessness.

If you are interested in making a donation, please follow this link.
donatenow.networkforgood.org/theroadhomedanecounty

To sponsor a family for the holiday, please stop into Perennial - Yoga, Wisdom, Community and take a crane off the Giving Tree.

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World Kindness Day

11/13/2018

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Did you know that today is World Kindness Day? I am a huge proponent of intentional acts of kindness. Kindness is not only a nice thing to do, but it's been proven as instrumental in creating a life of happiness, positivity and wellness.

Kindness not only makes us and the recipient feel good, but it's contagious, it causes moral elevation. That warm and fuzzy uplifting feeling you get when you have witnessed human goodness, kindness, courage and compassion is called moral elevation.

Studies have found that the natural high of moral elevation makes people want to behave more altruistically toward others, causing compassion and kindness to be contagious. Elevation makes people optimistic about humanity. So, ripples of kindness not only cause a ripple in the direction of the person receiving it, but also casts out ripples in the direction of the giver and all of who witness the act.

This ripple effect can extend out to 2 and 3 degrees of separation. Experiments with large numbers of people show that if you are kind and compassionate, your friends, your friends’ friends, and even your friends’ friends’ friends are more likely to become kind and compassionate. A powerful ripple of kindness!

Here's the thing, most people don't want to hurt others. What we really want is to live in a moral world where people treat each other well, and where we can satisfy our need for love, productive work, and a sense of belonging.

We get the sense that we do not live in such a moral world when we see people behave in petty, cruel, or in other unkind or selﬁsh ways. But when we see a stranger perform a simple act of kindness for another stranger, it gives us hope that maybe we do live in a good world. It restores our sense of hope and goodness in humanity.

I love this quote by Scott Adams, "Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." Today and every day I invite you to ripple out intentional acts of kindness into the world.

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My Hope For Today

11/6/2018

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Today is election day here in the United States. Agendas, opinions and ideas have been shared and debated and it's time to vote. For some, it’s a date where there is hope for change, however that is defined by each of us. Here is my definition of and my hope for today.

My hope for today is that we set aside labels and divisiveness. We are not red, we are not blue, we are one.

My hope for today is that everyone will take action from their heart, from a place of love, compassion, kindness and the recognition that we are all one.

My hope for today is that we can set aside the ego’s fear. Fear of scarcity, fear of relinquishing power and control, fear of judgment, fear of failure. That we set aside fear and ego-based mentalities like the ideas of a zero-sum world and of survival of the fittest.

My hope for today is that we can see the world through the lens of abundance instead of the lens of lack, and with that recognize that there’s enough abundance for everyone.

My hope for today is that we exercise reverence for all that is. Reverence for each other, for the earth and for all living creatures.

My hope for today is for peace and harmony that comes from a place of love, care and connection.

My hope for today is for people to feel seen, heard and respected. No matter your status in life, race, gender, beliefs, opinions that you feel seen, heard and respected.

My hope for today is that we can each be a non-judgmental witness to our own judgments and that we work toward healing the wounds that caused the judgment. That we replace our fear-based judgmental thoughts with love.

My hope for today is for healing, joy, health and happiness.

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Reverence

10/30/2018

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Do you live your life with reverence? With a feeling of profound awe, deep respect and love for all that is? Do you believe that we are ALL children of God, of one source, that we are in essence one? Pause and really think about it. Do you REALLY believe it without hesitation, without any "buts", without any excuses stemmed in fear?

Author Gary Zukav states in his book The Seat of the Soul, "We look upon each other as prey to satisfy our emotional and physical needs. We say, 'It's a dog-eat-dog world,' and that to survive in it we must take advantage of others before they take advantage of us. We look upon Life as a contest that produces winners and losers, and we feel no restraints upon us when the needs of other people or other groups threaten us."

He goes on to say, "Our behavior and values are so much shaped by perceptions that lack reverence that we do not know what it is like to be reverent. When we curse a competitor or strive to disempower another person, we absent ourselves from reverence. When we work to take instead of to give, we labor without reverence. When we strive for safety at the expense of another person's safety, we deprive ourselves of the protection of reverence. When we judge one person as superior and another as inferior we depart from reverence. When we judge ourselves, we do the same thing. Business, politics, education, sex, raising families, and personal interactions without reverence all produce the same result: human beings using other human beings."

I could keep typing quotes from this chapter in his book because it is so important to me especially right now. In my opinion our world needs more reverence. Yes, we most definitely need more love, less hate and less divisiveness and that starts with reverence. As a society we have bought into the model of fear hook line and sinker. We operate from a place of fear and scarcity, that it's a dog-eat-dog world to justify our appalling behavior toward each other and toward the earth.

No matter which side of the fence you look at it seems as though reverence is missing. People are labeled, dehumanized, and viciously attacked both verbally and physically all in the name of "a solution". It lacks reverence. It hurts my heart deeply and it probably hurts yours too.

If we are reverent, we would not harm life. The reverent person is a spiritual person who sees Divinity in all forms of life and honors it. Imagine what life would be like if we held it with reverence.

re- word-forming element meaning "back to the original place; again, anew, once more," also with a sense of "undoing,"

ver- meaning truth, true and genuine.

ence- meaning action or process.

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The Edge Of The Comfort Zone

10/22/2018

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Ever get the feeling like you're moving on auto-pilot, just running, running, running on the hamster wheel of life? Wake up, go to work, come home, handle chores, kid’s activities, repeat. Same tasks, same people, same everything.

Habits and routines can be good, they serve a purpose. They can make life more efficient and predictable. The more routine our life is the less brain power we need to expend. However, if we become too set in our patterns then the potential for learning something new and growing declines. We run the risk of becoming stagnate and lose our sense of curiosity and adventure.

As Shilagh Mirgain, PhD, a University of Wisconsin Health psychologist says, ”Our best life begins on the edge of our comfort zone, to ignite our potential, we must stretch ourselves outside of our daily patterns.” Not letting fear or routine get us set in our ways.

Mirgain suggests starting small by mixing up the daily routine. Maybe drive a different route to work, or try a new type of food or a new restaurant. Saying yes to something you would normally say no to. Introduce yourself to a stranger and strike up a conversation, take up a new hobby, new sport activity or take a class.

While something fairly simple and small like trying a new food may not seem life changing, it’s about learning to step outside of your habits and self-prescribed limits. Continuing to learn, explore, be curious and adventuresome.

Stretching yourself to try something new might produce surprising results. You may end up creating a new favorite activity or uncovering a new skill set that you were previously unaware existed.

Switch up the same old same old auto-pilot pattern and give your spirit a chance to soar by trying something new. What better time than now to give it a try and change things up?

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<<Previous

"I Can't" Versus "I Won't"

Pause, Reflect And Set Intentions

6 Ways To Get Along With Your Family During The Holidays

The Comparison Trap

Do You Struggle With Judging Yourself And Others?

Giving Tuesday

World Kindness Day

My Hope For Today

Reverence

The Edge Of The Comfort Zone

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