Discover Your Bliss

Free Holiday Gift From Oprah - There's Still Time

On Wednesday's Oprah Show, many freebies were given away to the audience and a few were also given to the viewers. 

Just in case you missed the show - I wanted to pass along the freebies to spread the joy and economic savings (they're FREE!). 

There's still time today to download the free holiday CD.  It's a mix of songs from various artists that were willing to give a song for free.  You can also download and print the cover and label. 

Enjoy!

How does getting something for free feel?  What's the difference between paying $100 for a gift verses making a gift?  How does it feel to receive a homemade gift?

I'd love to hear you comments and discoveries. 

Thanksgiving Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a day centered in gratitude!  What bliss!

I am grateful for anyone that reads my blog - what a wonderful way to connect.
I am grateful to be surrounded by a loving family, friends and those I don't know as well (yet I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better). 
I am grateful for the opportunity to be connected to nature, animals and the great outdoors.
I am grateful for my grandma - a spunky 88-year-old that can remember details, events and names with ease (she's my living Wikipedia).
I am grateful to have the opportunity to travel and be home with my family.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to help my mom with the house, food and Thanksgiving preparations.
I am grateful for my parents' sense of humor and their willingness to laugh until they cry at my sense of humor.
I am grateful for post-it notes, my Sigg bottle and reusable shopping bags.
I am grateful for my mom's willingness to take her shopping bags to the store to love on the environment.
I am grateful for big, wide-open skies and sunshine in the fall. 
I am grateful for my opportunity to share my gratitudes. 

What's one of your gratitudes today?  How can you make Thanksgiving's day of gratitude last the whole year long?

I'd love to hear your comments, discoveries and gratitudes. 

Thanksgiving Gratitude Prepwork

So the big "gratitude day" - better known as Thanksgiving is almost upon us. 

This year I challenge you to do a bit of gratitude "prep work" so you can wake up in the gratitude mode - breathing in gratitude and breathing out anything that does not support you.

Here's a few ideas for your gratitude prep work:

• write one gratitude for each year of your age - you can either write the total amount of gratitudes (if you're 56, then write 56 gratitudes) or you can write one gratitude for each specific year of your life (gratitude number 13 would be a gratitude about your at age 13)
• write five gratitudes for each person in your family
• write five gratitudes for each person that will be with you on Thanksgiving
• write five gratitudes for each person that you won't be with on Thanksgiving
• write five gratitudes for each person in your life that is no longer living 
• choose 10 people that you don't like and write five gratitudes for each person
• write a gratitude for each person you meet or see today that you do not know
• write five gratitudes for each animal in your life

That's just a few ideas to get you started.  The point is to get you started so you can walk through the day in gratitude. 

How does preparing your gratitudes in advance feel?  What does preparing for a day of gratitude look and feel like? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Tuesday Quote to Ponder

Fearlessness is the mother of reinvention.  Arianna Huffington

Thanksgiving Mindful Eating Plan

With just a few more days until Thanksgiving, I thought I would invite you to create a Thanksgiving mindful eating plan. 

In the past month, I've been keeping track of how much water I drink each day, what I eat and my daily exercise.

I've had a few big "a-ha" moments.  The biggest being how little I really need to eat. 

Once I started writing down what I ate and became mindful of what I put in my body (I wasn't eating junk, just too much healthy food), I realized how much better I felt with less food.

Now just to be clear - I am in no way starving myself - just paying attention to how much food is right for my body. 

In the days preceding Thanksgiving, I invite you to create a mindful eating plan that will support you in mind, body and spirit.

Here's a few questions to ask yourself that might get the ball rolling:

• What's the benefit of eating more than I need?
• Do I eat more on holidays?  If so, then explore the factors that might influence you to do so - family stress, fear of not eating enough, pleasing another by eating, hiding your feelings, etc.
• Do I have a tendency to eat more unhealthy food at the holidays?  Or do I just eat more (and the more is always healthy food)?  
• What's behind the temptation or reason why you gravitate toward eating unhealthy food?
• What influences your food decisions?  A particular person being present?  Variety of foods?  Fear of hurting someone's feelings if you don't eat his/her dish?  Stuffing your emotions?  Fear that you'll be hungry later?  Want to take advantage for food being there and prepared for you? 

No matter what you discover, I invite you to sit with your food awareness and create a plan to support yourself to eat in a manner that supports your body.

What's one thing that you can do to connect to mindful eating this Thanksgiving?  A smaller plate?  Eating dessert first?  Halving your portions?  Putting your fork down between bites?  Taking a deep breath before you start eating?  How might mindful eating change how you feel mentally, spiritually and emotionally? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.   

Surrender, Letting Go - Diamonds in the Rough

In the past month, I've encountered several situations with a fork in the road. 

Two people in my networking group suggested I offer my services at a holiday party.

The party draws an attendance between 50-100 people, so the exposure for my business would be a wonderful opportunity to read up to 18 people one-on-one - plus be connected with people I've never met before. 

The party is scheduled for December 3rd which means I'll have to miss my meditation group - which I love dearly.  Instead of focusing on what I was going to miss, I focused on the positive.  I surrendered to letting go of meeting with my meditation group for December and stayed in the present moment. 

The yearly swim party had to be one of my 2007 highlights.  The party was two hours of bliss. 

Sadly, I found out that the host scheduled it for November 29th and I could not attend.  Needless to say, I was bummed. 

I told the party host how much I enjoyed the party last year and regretted to say that I would not be able to attend due to my travel plans.  Bummer man. 

As I was walking to the showers, I started thinking about whether or not I wanted to hold onto being bummed.  I decided that I didn't and surrendered to letting go of the party. 

In the spirit of the party, I decided that I would make a mini photo album of last year's party and send it with one of my friends as a hostess gift - that way I could participate without being there. 

At the end of my November meditation group meeting, I told the host how much I enjoyed the group and that I would miss the December meeting.  I told her about my party opportunity and she celebrated the moment with me. 

My mediation group leader asked me if I could make the second Wednesday in December.  I could, so she asked another member and another member.  That night she sent out an email announcing that our group would meet the second Wednesday of December instead - so I get to go to my group!  What bliss!

The next week when I walked into swimming, Nancy asked me if I knew about the party change.  The party has been moved to December 6th - so now I can attend!  Double bliss!

I know that making the choice to surrender and let go of holding onto what wasn't working made all the difference in my world.  I never imagined it could turn out so wonderfully.  I let go of my expectations and that felt fantastic.

Where can you let go and surrender?  How would letting go and surrendering any feelings or thoughts that do not support you shift your outlook?  What role does the present moment play in all of this?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.  

Save Money This Holiday - Discuss a Gift-Free Zone

My mom has a pen pal in England named Betty.  Each year they exchange gifts.  Betty also sends a gift for my dad, grandma & me.  In turn, my mom sends Betty's grandchildren gifts. 

The kids are getting older and harder to buy for and my mom knows that gift buying is getting harder for Betty (as well as money getting tight for her family), so this year my mom pitched a gift-free zone.  She asked Betty if it would be okay to only get a gift for each other and not the rest of the family.  Betty agreed.

There's another really cool part to this story - what Betty gives to my mom for each gift-giving occasion.

Betty is much older than my mom and has started taking inventory in her life of what she has and where she wants it to eventually go (no she's not sick, she's just being realistic). 

Betty has a set of blue and white dishes that mean a lot to her and she wants someone to have them that will appreciate them.  Betty asked her family if they'd like to have them (she has one son that's divorced) and no one does, so she's sending one or two piece to my mom for each birthday and Christmas and any other gift-giving occasion. 

The cool thing is...my mom loves blue and white dishes and has a mish mash of odds and ends of blue and white dishes of her own - so these fit right in - and they have more meaning because they're coming from Betty. 

In order to honor this gift from Betty (according to my mom, Betty appreciates and enjoys giving her dishes in this way), my mom will continue to exchange between the two of them.  This way, she knows that Betty is not spending money on a present (only on shipping) and the stress of what to get and how much to spend goes away. 

Two key ingredients to save money this holiday season:

• discuss a gift-free zone
• consider giving something you already own/have (Always let the person you're giving know that this is coming from you - I thought you would enjoy and use these bowls of mine since you have a pink kitchen.)

The key is to discuss the gift-free zone before anyone has a chance of buying presents for each other - so don't wait until the day before the holiday to call up your sister or aunt. 

It is also important to show equal concern for both sides - In the spirit of saving both of our families money this year - not - You look like you're going through some hard times so you don't have to get us anything this year.  See the difference?  The first one shows concern for both sides and doesn't put the "blame on one side" and the other might feel condescending or embarrass the other person. 

Remember to sprinkle some neutrality and sensitivity on your request so you don't alienate the person you're asking.  Get creative and see the gift-free zone as an act of freedom. 

Where would you like to request a no gift zone?  How does coming from a place of "your needs equal my needs" color your request?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Flight Attendants Are People Too

The holidays are around the corner and I want to remind everyone that flight attendants are people, too.  The same goes for gate, retail and any other kind of person that works in a service-oriented industry. 

As I flew home yesterday, I encountered the first of several "attacks" and would like to do my part to put an end to anyone taking out their own fears on another person. 

I promise you this isn't a post about griping. 

A woman and her son stood in the back of the airplane looking around hoping to find seats together.  Since there were none (seats together), the lady began to chew out the flight attendant for letting this happen.  Since Southwest doesn't have assigned seating, the flight attendant couldn't tell people to move - all she could do was ask if anyone was willing to move. 

The woman's son was 12 and he didn't look like he would suffer if he sat one person away from his mom. 

I think the passengers would have been more willing to move if they had been asked nicely by the woman (the flight attendant did ask nicely).  The woman kept demanding that everyone move. 

The trouble was the only two seats left were middle seats.  To compromise I said I would move as long as I could have an aisle seat. 

Out of pressure from the mom, a man huffed and puffed and finally moved to the middle so I could move to the aisle of his row and the mom and her son could have two seats together. 

Even after the woman got what she wanted, she continued to chew out the fight attendants because she said she had "called ahead and requested two seats together" (which doesn't happen on Southwest Airlines).  The woman and her son ended up sleeping the entire flight so it didn't matter that they were sitting together. 

Before take off, one of the flight attendants said to a man beside me, "I don't mean to be a pain, sir, but FAA regulations requires that you put your laptop under the seat in front of you during takeoff. " 

The man replied, "Well you are a pain, but I'll do it." 

I couldn't believe he said that - I could feel the fear coming out of his mouth. 

When it was okay to move about the cabin, I got up and headed to the restroom.  As I stood in line, I chatted with the flight attendants.  After I got out of the restroom, I continued to chat.  We had so much fun talking. 

Not that talking can make up for what others have done - yet I felt like the 20 minutes we connected was uplifting for all involved - including myself. 

As a result of my travel, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that flight attendants are people too - and to be mindful that we are all human. 

I invite you to keep the spirit of humanity in mind when you connect with another person and hopefully your kind interactions will be contagious. 

How does your kindness show up when you're outside of your home?  What does it look like to wrap every interaction with love and kindness?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.

Ever Think About the Outside of the Bathtub?

When I was in college, I had a house cleaning business.  I loved to clean houses (no, there's nothing wrong with me) and I still enjoy cleaning my own. 

One consistent area that most people overlook is the outside of the bathtub.  The same goes for the toilet, yet there's a better chance that someone will clean the outside of the toilet before the outside of the bathtub gets cleaned.

The outside of the bathtub can get really dirty and in many cases be an area for dust collection. 

Why might a person forget to clean the outside of his/her bathtub?  Pure function.  Technically, you only use the inside of the tub, so that's where the attention goes (and believe me I am so glad when someone takes the time to clean his/her tub). 

It's interesting really, there's so much attention that goes into the part that we think is important, yet the outside of the bathtub serves an important purpose, too. 

If we didn't have the outside of the tub, then the water might spill out or we'd have these exposed inner bathtub guts that might cause harm to children (and clumsy adults).  The outside of the tub is our protector, yet many times it lives its entire life without any thanks.

Now I'm not here to make you feel bad about your bathtub or make you think it has feelings - however - I see the outside of the bathtub as a metaphor for our "inside"  care. 

Many times, the outside of the person is where all the focus goes (appearance), while the inside often gets forgotten. 

I invite you to explore the outside of your bathtub (and if you don't have a bathtub, then just imagine).
How does it reflect a piece of you?  What can you learn from your bathtub?  How might the realization of cleaning your bathtub support you in your life?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Read to Laugh?

One of my friends sent me an e-card that had some cartoon characters that are new to me. 

Click here and be transported to Hoops & Yoyo.  On their home page you can play with various ways they fall and funday. 

Yes, it might be a bit odd, yet it lifted my spirits. 

Enjoy!

How do you raise your own energy?  What does it do for you to have some instant "energy raisers" in your back pocket?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.  :)