Happy Thanksgiving

For us, here in Calgary, Thanksgiving weekend was greeted with a snow fall. The kids headed outside to make their first snowman of the season. Truthfully, life hasn't been so easy the past week. I swear it has been handing me challenging situations daily. The reason I am telling you this is because I want my blog to be the truth and I want it to be an authentic, digital copy of myself. Social media has a way of creating unrealistic expectations of what life is "supposed" to be. I don't want my blog posts to create social media envy, I do it to allow you glimpses of my life in the hope that it will encourage you to truly live out what YOUR ideal life looks like. My dream is to inspire you to live authentically so you don't feel the need to keep up with the Joneses.

Thanksgiving is one of my, if not my, favorite holiday. A holiday that pushes us to come together and be in the present moment, all while encouraging you to acknowledge what you are thankful for. I believe that being more present, more externally abundant for the things in your life is the foundation for a good life. Being present changes your reality and how you experience your life. The world today has given us an unbelievable opportunity.  Literally, we have so much information at our fingertips with things like cell phones, computers, and the internet. But still, we are all getting trapped in our thoughts about either our past or our futures, that job, that house, that relationship that _______. We get stuck on where we are trying to go and where we want to be, that we are all running through life on autopilot and missing out on what is. I believe stress comes from resisting the present moment. We all need to stay more present on a daily basis because happiness is in the journey. The day you get that house, that relationship, that whatever it may be to you, is only a moment in time. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to have intention on where you want to get, but ask yourself, do you want to throw away years of your life because your mind was so stuck on the end result? Don't get trapped in your thoughts and don't allow the present moment to become a means to an end. Finding joy, gratitude, and happiness right now is where the good life comes from. Don't let your destination take up most of your attention because you will only miss out on the journey, the journey makes up the majority of your life. Life is too damn precious to throw away. 

So today I want to share what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my husband who is literally always there for me. Jason, you truly are my biggest fan, you encourage me to be my best and love me at my worst. I love you!! My kids, Jack, Olive and Forest, you guys bring a love to my life that is eternal, all while challenging me harder than anyone else. You are my endless motivation and inspiration to be the best person I can be because I know that the more intelligent, more skilled, the happier I am, only allows me to add more value to your lives and others. Last but not least I am so grateful for you. You who is reading this. You keep me accountable and allow me to live out my dream of inspiring others to find happiness every single day. It has brought a sense of freedom to my life I can't even explain. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

3 Habits to a Beautiful Life

This past weekend was a goodie! We went to the Calgary Corn Maze and had sooo much fun! The next morning, though, I awoke feeling very ill with something I presumably got from my kids. As I'm sitting here not feeling so hot, barely even able to get off the couch, I figured I'd write a blog post. Truthfully, I'm a miserable mess. My head is pounding, every muscle and joint in my body is aching, and it seems as if I have the patience of a 2-year-old. My poor husband lol. In short I'm ruining everyone's life around me. So you're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this. I honestly have a reason and I hope you will read on. I thought I'd take this opportunity to be real and share a few habits that I've incorporated into my life that has allowed me to build a beautiful life.

Habit one: Anytime I'm feeling in a funk or unhappy I acknowledge the feeling and snap myself out of my miserable state. This way I'm able to identify why everyone around me, including myself, is miserable. For me, at this moment I am feeling physically ill and mentally overwhelmed, that life is still going when I can't.  

Habit two: Realizing you get what you tolerate. Life has a tendency to throw curveballs when you least expect them, this is definitely one of those times. I was finally in the groove. I had a perfect routine going, working out every day and then boom I get hit with old mad sickness. In the past I've been hit with hard times.  I've dealt with sadness, depression, and physical illness. I used to stay in those "down" states for extended periods of time. My life changed the day I realized that misery was a habit and happiness is a choice. I can sit here and feel frustrated and sorry for myself or I can snap out of it and realize, yes, I'm not feeling so hot, but life is goooood. The old saying that if it rains it pours is usually associated with negative thoughts. But if it rains negativity it pours negativity so why can't it go the other way? If it rains positivity it pours positivity. Bring on the rain!! 

Habit three: Train this new way of thinking the way you train a muscle. Trust me this isn't some faked happiness I've be training myself for years. In the past, I used to get knocked down by something and it seemed as if I would live there for months sometimes years, now I can snap myself out of it really quickly. Remember, you get what you tolerate so just don't tolerate the bullshit. If you don't settle for anything but a beautiful life you won't get anything but a beautiful life. This can go negatively too. The more you do anything the more wired you become. If I decide that today is going to be a shitty day, no doubt about it it will be a shitty day. But if I choose to see the beauty in today it will be beautiful. This morning Olive was fighting for my attention and at first, I felt like running to my room and slamming the door in her face. If I had done that she would have felt neglected and hurt. Hence she would have craved more of my attention and boom! my worst nightmare in my face. But instead I stopped myself and realized she just wanted her mommy, she had no clue what I was feeling because I hadn't communicated it to her. As soon as I sat her down and explained that mommy wasn't feeling good and I need her help, her natural human instinct of empathy came out and she wanted to do nothing but help me. I shared how grateful I was for her and all her help. Children don't have the ability to think logically they just react to emotion. Realizing no matter if you agree with their emotions or not, it is justified because it's very real to them. When it came to Jason, truthfully, I feel that all men just need to feel appreciated. I talk more about this on my blog post Finding Fulfillment in a Relationship.

These are just 3 of the many habits I have instilled into my day-to-day that I feel have had a huge impact on my over all life. Life is too darn short to feel like crap. I want to live in a beautiful state all the time, even now when I'm feeling ill. It takes consistency and persistence to build new habits. Make a beautiful life your only option. Because I promise you anyone can have it. I made a promise to myself to live in a beautiful state and that doesn't mean I won't have bad days I just won't stay there. My children are my life and I want nothing but endless happiness for them and the best way to teach something is to live your teachings. Remember life is what you make of it, so make it darn fantastic!