Either Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying!

I don't really make New Year's resolutions anymore, but I love the idea of a new year as a new beginning. 365 days stretch out before me, mysterious with the sweet promise of unlimited potential and endless possibilities. The beginning of 2010 seems especially portentous, the start of a whole new decade. Anything can happen, our wildest dreams could come true! As always, I'm hoping this new year will the be the best one ever, but just hoping won't make it so. This time, instead of waiting to see what this year will bring, I've decided to get busy living, and being the best me possible. ME, version 2.010!

I'm going to practice what life coach Cheryl Richardson calls "extreme self care" in every area of my life, starting with the physical. "The body is a temple", an amazing vessel designed to carry my soul until I've finished what I came here to do. I'm going to treat it with kindness and respect, listen to it and let it tell me what it needs. I'll let it rest when it's tired, and feed it what it needs to be healthy and run efficiently, not just what my emotional inner child wants at the moment. Instead of forcing myself to "exercise" (ugh!), I'm going to find ways to go out and play! To run, jump, skate, swim, ski and dance....have more F-U-N!

I'm going to feed my soul too, less mind-numbing TV, more music, books, and hanging with people who inspire me, make me think, make me laugh. More laughing, for sure! I'm going to spend time with my girlfriends, because we women need this, it's good for our souls. I'm setting aside time every day to be grateful, to appreciate the many blessings in my life; my health, a warm, safe home, amazing friends and family of the heart, a good job I enjoy in the industry of my dreams, working with people I like. I'm also making self-expression a priority, finding time to create, and giving myself the gift of not being overly critical of what I've created. I'm going to take time for reflection and connection to Spirit, so I can stay awake to the wonder and beauty of this world, and to hear my own wise inner voice.

I'm going to laugh more and complain less. To look at difficulties as gifts of opportunities for learning. I'm going to keep my heart open, even if others close theirs. I'm going to make leaps of faith and trust that the universe will catch me, to believe that whatever is happening in my life is for my soul's ultimate growth and that I am safe, loved and cared for. I'm going to surrender everything that's beyond my control, and make room for magic to happen.

This year I've decided not to just sit and wait, hoping for the best. I'm going to go out and BE it. I intend to pack as much love and joy into each minute of this new year as possible. I'm choosing to be happy, daring to dream big, looking at the glass as half-full, and my life as half-started. This year I'm going out and having a big, fat love affair....with life.

Here's to a great 2010, may you also be the best you yet!

Sending you light and love.

The Gift

I come from a long line of women who have what the Irish call "the gift". The ability to just "know" things. I remember staying with my grandparents in the country one summer when I was young, and watching my Irish grandmother baking bread and putting on a huge pot of stew one afternoon. When I asked why she was making so much food for just the three of us she said "Oh, I just have a feeling we'll be needing it by tonight." Sure enough, shortly before dusk a man knocked on the door. His car had broken down and he, his wife and five kids were stranded! My grandmother had listened to her intuition, trusted it, and that family was so grateful.

I believe we all have intuitive powers, (don't they say we only use a small percentage of our brain?) some people just have a heightened awareness. Women are usually better at paying attention (or are just more in touch with their feelings- hello?!) thus the legendary "women's intuition". When I was younger, this ability to "just know" things scared me a little because I didn't understand it, and it made me feel different at a time when I just wanted to fit in. So I ignored my own inner voice and went to psychics on occasion, to see what they would tell me about the future. Almost every psychic I saw said the same thing "you don't need me, you can do this for yourself", so I decided to start accepting and nurturing my own abilities.

As I did, I noticed that my so-called "rational" mind often over-ruled my intuitive voice. I was at work one day, in a meeting, and someone knocked on the door. My intuition immediately told me "That's John!" (a co-worker I was secretly dating at time). My rational mind snapped back "You can't know that! Besides, he's in school right now, AND he's not a manager so he doesn't belong in this meeting." Three reasons in five seconds why I would be wrong. Of course when the door opened, there he stood, having been called in for a meeting down the hall (that I knew nothing about) and had knocked on the wrong door. That's when I decided to really start trusting my intuitive voice, and it's never failed me.

I could give many more examples, but the point I guess I'm trying to make is that maybe we should listen to, and trust ourselves more. I think our intuition is our heart/higher self/wise, eternal soul trying to communicate what it knows based on it's vast experience, but our ego/rational mind tries to shut it down. I believe intuition can lead you, guide you to make decisions, to walk your path, to do the right thing for yourself, and ultimately for everyone whose life you touch. I think we should nurture this voice, encourage it to speak, by carving out some quiet time in our busy lives so we're able to hear it. I've been trying to do this more and more, and it's been amazing for me, bringing me a greater sense of peace and well-being. I wish you the same.

Sending love and light to all.

So you think you want to blog....?

I've been contemplating this for a while, so I've finally taken the plunge! Why? I already journal, but that's more for my personal, emotional health and well-being. I'm creating this because I have thoughts that I want to share, about love, life, Spirit, and ageing gracefully in the land of the eternally young and beautiful. Stay tuned......