Discover Your Bliss

Simplify Your Life Tip: Save Money, Increase Joy

Buy less food. 

Americans throw away 10-25% of the food purchased at grocery stores.  Now figure out what 10-25% of your grocery bills is each month and that's how much money you might be throwing away each month. 

Start to pay attention (or even keep a food journal for your kitchen) to which foods get thrown away.  Is it part of a gallon of milk? Is it that lettuce you hoped to eat but never got around to it? 

Either decrease the amount of food you purchase each month or change the container size/quantity that you purchase. 

Yes, the gallon of milk might only cost $1 more than the half-gallon, yet that $1 can add up over time to $52 a year of spoiled milk that you never use. 

How can you simplify your grocery shopping so you can save money and as a result, simplify your life?  What can you do to support yourself in this awareness or support yourself in buying less and saving more?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Take a Moment to Breathe

No matter how busy you get, please take a moment to breathe.  1...2...3...breathe in good energy and breathe out the negative and what doesn't serve you. 

Breathing is bliss.

Stephen Colbert Wins NASA Space Station Contest

Three cheers for Stephen Colbert of the "The Colbert Report," on Comedy Central for winning the NASA contest to name a room at the space station. 

Click here to read the Associated Press article. 

NASA made a mistake.  I know, shocking, huh?  NASA allowed write-ins for it's name the room at the space station contest - so Colbert urged his viewers to write in "Colbert."  And his viewers did just that.

"Colbert" beat out NASA's suggestion of "Serenity" by more than 40,000 votes.  "Colbert" won with 230,539 votes.

In classic NASA fashion, the space organization played its "reserve the right to choose an appropriate name" card and said they will "strongly consider" the top vote-getter. 

Personally, I think NASA should go with "Colbert" as the new room name.  After all, Stephen Colbert's quest resulted in positive PR for NASA.  And NASA can use all the positive PR they can get.

What bliss!

How does believing in what might be seen as impossible support your growth?  What's one of your biggest challenges and how can you take the first step in overcoming it? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.    

Travel Where Your Dollar Goes the Furthest

As airfare and hotel prices continue to drop, the importance of selecting a destination can be key in finding affordable travel. 

To peruse where your dollar will buy the most, open aoprals.state.gov and click on the Foreign Per Diem Rates link. 

Here you can browse by location the average cost of lodging, meals and incidentals in more than 1,000 locations around the world.  It's a good way to estimate how much it might cost to visit a particular country.

I looked through a few countries that I've visited and found the rates to be a bit on the high side, yet I know that when I travel - I always find the bargain.  Remember, this is the average rate - not the cheapest or most expensive.

Where might you travel this year?  What's your dream trip and what trip can you make into a dream trip?  How does travel support you?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Fabulous Fearless Female: Amelia Earhart

"Fears are paper tigers.  You can do anything you decide to do.  You can act and change to control your life, and the procedure, the process is its own reward."  Amelia Earhart

3 Travel Packing Tips

I've been experimenting with my travel packing for some time now.  My goal - create a system for my travel packing that cuts my time and increases my productivity. 

After years of travel packing, I'm finding more tricks and time-savers that I'd love to share - anything that will support another person in speedy and effective travel packing.

3 Travel Packing Tips:

• create a packing list as you go or save several different travel packing lists on your computer for easy access - I have 2 different versions - one for visiting my parents (which doesn't include a lot of toiletries, etc. that I have at home) and a non-home packing list; you can bullet point each item (or if you want to get fancy change the bullet point to a box so you can check it off as you go) and create blank lines with a heading:  "Outfit #1" and under that have "top," "bottom," "shoes," etc. with lines next to each one so you can write in which top and what jewelry, etc. 
• set out your bag/suitcase and throw in items as you think of them the week leading up to you leaving - this tip may save you from forgetting something
• set up your "day of" outfit, food, etc. no later than the night before - and make sure you decide everything - from socks, underwear, jewelry, etc.  

And a bonus tip - look at the clothes/items you are taking and figure out what you can do without or wear again - the less stuff you take, the better.

How important is preparation for you?  What does "being prepared" do for you mentally, physically and emotionally?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Simplify Your Life Tip: Save Money, Increase Joy

One of my favorite foods is leftovers. 

Why leftovers?   It means that I have something good to eat and all I have to do is re-heat (or eat it cold).

What's the tip?  When you make a meal - make double and put the extra into individual containers so you already have a serving size ready to go and you don't have to mess with cooking. 

This tip will save you money, time and depending on what you eat - keep you healthier. 

How does "thinking ahead" when you're in the now support you?  What does it feek like to have pre-made meals to grab when you're in a rush?  How does his support you?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.

Frankenstein Foot: A New Level of Compassion

I've been home for almost 13 days helping my mom after her foot surgery.  I've learned so much from this experience that it's shown me a new level of compassion.

Top 5 compassion insights:

• going the extra mile might only be an inch - doing "big stuff" for my mom has been helpful, yet I've found all of the little things I've done while I've been home have been more helpful than any one big thing
• insisting on going the extra mile is a must - while practicing walking into a grocery store, my mom told me that I didn't have to drop her off at the door - I refused and drove up to the door and let her out - turns out it was the best thing I could have done because she wore out in no time and needed that extra "rest time"
• creating games and milestones for recovery is important -just because you're an adult doesn't mean that encouragement is no longer important
• bragging on my mom's healing progress and accomplishments creates more space for healing - and it shows her that someone notices how much she's progressing
• a dose of realistic cheer leading supports decision-making - by talking out my mom's progress and reality on returning to work, she understands that adding and extra week to her recovery time not only supports her transition back to the workplace but also supports her employer by having a fully recovered employee

Where can you see a new level of compassion?  How does a deeper level of compassion support you?  How does it support others?

I'd love to hear your comments and insights.

Save Money on Southwest Airlines

I know I've talked about this before - yet I want to mention it again because it's such a money-saving practice - save money with Southwest Airlines.

One of the coolest features that Southwest offers is the "if the ticket goes on sale after you've purchased it, just log and we'll credit you the difference" feature. 

I usually log in and purchase the days and times I need to travel, then check back periodically to see if the rate has dropped, then log in and re-purchase the ticket at the lower price and the difference goes into my Southwest Airlines account to put toward future travel.

On an OKC to DEN flight I recently purchased, I applied my $44 credit from a previous purchase and only had to pay $50 for my ticket to Denver in June.  Pretty cool, huh? 

You can also install the "Ding" feature to your computer for added hidden deals on certain destinations (according to which airports you select). 

Southwest is also having a sale right now so many regular deals are at rock bottom prices.  Sweet.

How does finding a deal support you?  What would it look like if you could save money on all of your purchases?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.

The Stitch Fairy

Many moons ago, my pediatrician introduced my family to the stitch fairy. 

I'd sliced open my head and was back in my doctor's office getting the stitches removed.  As the doctor removed the stitches, he told me to put the stitches under my pillow and the stitch fairy will come and give me one dollar for each stitch (thankfully for my mom, I only had 7 stitches). 

Fast forward to a couple of days ago - we were all in the bathroom watching my mom remove the bandages from her foot and three of her stitches came out (the stitches are the dissolvable kind). 

As my mom took her shower, I had a fun idea.  What if the stitch fairy paid her a visit.

I sprang into action hand sewing the word "stitch" on a piece of paper and writing the rest.  Something about how the stitch elves heard that she'd lost three stitches and how she should have saved them in exchange for stitch money.

I drew a picture of the stitch fairy and placed the note and three dollars on my mom's pillow.  I'm so glad I came home to help her for two weeks while she recovers. 

When she announced she was going to bed, I quietly followed her to hear her reaction.  She laughed and thought it was so cool that the stitch fairy remembered her. 

The next night, I watched as she removed her bandage - yet no new stitches came out.  She was bummed. 

Maybe tonight or the next night - then the stitch fairy can fly down and give her a dollar for each stitch.

It's so much fun and downright blissful to return a favor my mom did for me when I was little.

What's something that has come full circle for you?  How does it feel to be on the giving end?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.