Trend Thursday

I’ve been drooling over these fashion gems. Nothing wrong with a little eye candy.

Calla lilies are my favorite  – next to sunflowers. I would love to rock this!

Yves Saint Laurent  source

This would be great for PTA meetings.

Lanvin  source

I could smuggle some great movie snacks in this baby!

Louis Vuitton  source

Delicious color and actually within budget.

The Limited  source

Sexy and practical. Sign me up!

Michael Kors  source

What fashion trends are you living right now?

Wondrous Wednesday: This is your life!

Don’t you love this poster?

I know – it totally rocked my world today!

A lady of inspiration, in my joy circle, forwarded it to me via email.

Being that it’s Wondrous Wednesday and all, here are the today’s delights in my current day and life:

1. I’ve been talking more openly about my dream of working full-time as a certified life coach and the people around me say they feel a burst of positive energy every time they are around me.
2. I’m creating a new website for my life coaching practice. It’s challenging and fun.
3. I coached a client today on dreaming big – which meant walking away from her current job. She cried tears of joy at the realization.
4. At the recreation center today, I spoke with a 75 year old man who said his daily passion was to be fit. That’s one of my passions too.
5. My best friend, since 1990, and I are creating a workshop and telecourse. We’ve missed getting messy together.

What speaks to you the most from this poster? Are you living a passion filled life and making your dreams come true? If so, share your tools.

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Joyous Thursday

Yesterday I was listening to Anita Jaisanghani  during the Virtual Joy Telesummit.

She was amazing, inspiring and authentic.

What stuck with me most was when she said {me paraphrasing}:

Every day is a gift. If you wake up and you are breathing – then you have the gift of the day and you should be joyful about this.

Anything else that may be perceived as a negative challenge or obstacle will slip away when you recognize daily gifts and joy.

Simple and powerful!

Here are some joyous things I have going on today {so far}:

• I woke up early due to birds chirping loudly.

• A sweet snuggle and imaginative chat with my four-year-old.

• My twelve-year-old made a to-go breakfast for me (toasted bagel and orange juice).

• Listening to the Virtual Joy Telesummit on my drive into work.

• Sipping a tasty Florentine while listening to my coach-the-coach call.

• Writing a “how are you, I’m thinking about you, I love you” note to my aunt – and mailing it.

• Talking to a good friend, via texting, about the importance of a good cry.

• Reading and reflecting on What To Do When “I Do” Becomes “I Did”.

• Chatting with my big cousin (I still call her that – and she’s only 4 years older) about crazy family dynamics and then gut-laughing about it.

• Reading the sneak peak chapter of Where Will You Go From Here?

• Sitting quietly at my desk and looking out my window.

What joy are you experiencing on a daily basis?

Images 1, 2, 3, 4

Stopping to smell the roses

When I arrived at work today, the roses in the courtyard looked lovely and smelled delicious.

I took the long path to get to my office so I could stay outside longer.

Being that I had a case of the Mondays, I made a mental note to honker down, tackle some major tasks, and then to go back outside to smell the roses.

My mood and energy had an instant shift as I inhaled in the intoxicating scent of the various sweet roses.

I was practically bounce walking (not quite a skip) back to my desk after a 15 minute interaction with these fragrant blossoms.

I was in such a good space of serene bliss and joy that I whittled my inbox down to 26 messages.

How about that!

The rest of the days sped by. I had good music playing and the right oomph surrounding me.

The case of the Mondays didn’t last for long.

How do you avoid the Monday blues?

How do positively engage various senses during your work day?

Happy Loving Day!

Happy Loving Day, everyone!

Yes, this is a real holiday, and I think it’s a special one.

If you are not familiar with the story of Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, be sure to take a look.

This Supreme Court case seems like a long time ago in the United States’ history, but it is not.

It’s so easy to think we’ve come a long way as a nation, and in many ways, we have. However, there is still a long way for all of us to go – especially when it comes to how we treat those who appear to be “just like” us and those who seem to be an “other”.

A major takeaway in the Lovings being able to marry and live their lives is captured in this quote:

The freedom to love is something most of us take for granted.

As I thought about this and reflected on my own life, I renewed by committed to use my various levels of privilege to help better the lives of those around me.

Specifically, what am I doing today to be loving and positively use my privilege, to better the lives of others?

• Sharing this Positive Impact calendar with friends
• Sending an email message to a co-worker/friend and inviting her to join the Safe Zone Alliance with me (at work) – and to help make our work environment even more inclusive
• Talking to my children about how brave, during a uncertain time, their paternal grandparents were to marry as an interracial couple
• Reading The Friendship Doll written by Kirby Larson – with my daughter – to later discuss at our mother/daughter book group

• 
• Participating in the Virtual Joy Summit (good refueling to do this important work)

• Sharing this post with all of you

What have you already been doing to have a positive impact on those around you? What do you plan to do?

images 1, 2, 3

In case you need a reminder…

A big thanks and hug to L. R. Hunter for this magic and inspiration! Pass it on.

source

Optimism is calling my name

Recently I posted this as my Facebook status:

Perfectionism vs Optimism. Which one do you choose?

Personally, I have gotten to the point in my life where I recognize all the flaws in striving for perfectionism – with the biggest one being…you’ll never get there. Striving for perfectionism is setting yourself up to:

• always be disappointed
• deny yourself of self-love
• closes you off to opportunities
• makes you blind to the beauty within imperfection
• drives you insane
• depletes your soul

My husband and I were talking about how we’ve made these plans for our life – as individuals – as parents  – as a multigenerational family -  and as a couple. We laughed about how we made plans that look like a straight line – a straight line that would lead to a prefect, successful and fulfilling life.

What we’ve realized after 14 years together (13 of those married) is the curvy route is the way to go. We’ve had some easy, wacky, challenging, bumpy, goofy, happy…and the list could go on…times on this curvy route – and guess what? It’s totally fine!

The fortunate thing is that our curvy routes are moving side by side and sometimes they are all twisted and jumbled…this is totally fine too. We just keep reminding ourselves and each other about the power of optimism and how we are still moving forward with all the bendy areas in our routes.

We do have moments when things are perfectly aligned or perfectly chaotic – and we roll with it because we are open, hopeful, and truly optimistic that we are on the right path – the curvy path.

How are you optimizing your life?

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