On fire with desire! Getting clear on how you want to feel

On fire with desire! Getting clear on how you want to feel Earlier this week as Valentine's day approached I had a discussion with a small group of women about our collective definition of love.  We circled around a lot of commonly heard things including the mutual exchange of caring, affection and growth, but I found the conversation really getting interesting when we opened up our ideas about love beyond the confines of just 2 people. Things got expansive and we started talking about how love is a conscious choice to feel a certain way. Things like freedom, openness, giving, fearlessness, growth, courage, gratefulness [...]

Emotional eating and the crawl towards freedom

Emotional eating and the crawl towards freedom I can't tell you how many times I get accosted at social gatherings by people who consider me "the healthy one". Like some kind of mythical creature propelled solely by green smoothies or kale salads, it appears to be fair game to sidle up to me and simply launch into explanations for how it is simply impossible to eat a healthy lifestyle. People will start conversations like: "You're really into health huh? I wouldn't be able to do it. I just know myself.  I have to be able to enjoy my food and it's such a big part of the [...]

Spreading some sparkle with the sunshine awards

Spreading some sparkle with the sunshine awards One of the amazing parts of blogging is all the lovely people that you meet. I have been particularly inspired and motivated to go deeper and further down the road towards radiant health by the community of healthy bloggers that are working so hard each day to provide life changing information! It is always amazing to get feedback and that's why I am so thankful to receive a nomination for the Sunshine Award. Thanks to Paula from the rawfooddiaries who is doing such a great job of spreading the word about what it's like to encounter [...]

Harness the power of everyday mini-steps, mistakes and failure

Harness the power of everyday mini-steps, mistakes and failure If you're joining in on January's 2 green smoothies a day habit or taking on some other challenge or goal this January, keep in mind that you are very likely going to fail many times along the way. Not just once, and not just temporarily. A lot! Often! Stupidly! But as Edmund Burke said "nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." I think the trick in all of this is just avoid one thing: failing habitually. Just don't make failure a habit [...]

The no longer parallel reality of RIGHT NOW

The no longer parallel reality of RIGHT NOW Something clicked in me yesterday about what I'm doing here on earth. I read the chapter, "This is It", in Hugh Mcleod's, Evil Plans book. He told me to fight like hell to get to that place where love and work combine and are unified, that I'd have to do it every friggin' day! And that I had to understand that "this was it" right now. I'm not waiting for some future time  - I'm not filling time to just pay bills until what I really want comes along. This is it! [...]

Chasing inspiration

Chasing inspiration What if I could capture every single moment of fleeting inspiration I had? Capture and package them up in a secret bundle of "zing" that would become my sacred talisman to carry with me through the dry patches of life? I sure need that today. I feel so far away from finding my true passions as I sip my tea this morning. I think it may have something to do with over-utilizing my self-control lately and starting too many changes processes at once. In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath made me realize I have a limited supply of [...]

Creating yourself vs. being yourself

Creating yourself vs. being yourself I have always been an inventor of my personality. I think my love of words highlighted to me their ability to conjure up whatever personality I could imagine. It was quite freeing actually, but also an exercise in losing myself. If I could be anything, do anything, have anything, who the heck was I actually? Choice comes with a dark side: a lack of focus and resolution. Don't get me wrong, in a kind of backwards logic, I do see how with every great weakness, comes great strength. I see the value I have when [...]

How wide a frame can you put around your future?

How wide a frame can you put around your future? I love this quote from Cathie Black, former president of Hearst Magazines, who wrote a letter to her younger self in the book by Ellyn Spragins: What I know now about success: Letters from extraordinary women to their younger selves. Cathie wrote to herself at a time in her life when she was the Manager of Advertising Sales for Gloria Steinem, and was attempting to sell to advertisers who could not see the "huge untapped market of women with income, authority, and decision-making power," who were the intended audience of [...]

What does it mean to thrive?

What does it mean to thrive? I have been getting acquainted lately with what some of our philosophical forefathers had to say about living a joyous life. Aristotle's words about living a three pronged life based on what is true, good, and beautiful, really touches me. Aristotle on the three pronged life: Find what is true, good, and beautiful Aristotle gives us an imperative to live as beautifully and humanly as possible. If happiness is the aim in life - the "end" - then how am I pursuing this? I absolutely 100% agree with this idea, and yet [...]

Waiting for permission to shine

Waiting for permission to shine I sing. I've always liked to sing but previously  kept it a bit on the down-low. Humming a bar here and there. Belting one out in the shower, if noboby was home. But as far as hobbies go, I turned my attention to other musical pursuits - piano, guitar. Things that felt a bit less personal. Safer. Less chance of accidentally exposing myself in front of a group. Recently in the past few years I've taken up singing again. I thought it was silly to not be something I really enjoy, so I enlisted in [...]