You get to choose...

Hello my dear readers,

hope you are well and enjoying the final weeks of 2012 :)

Here in NYC it got really cold and now that Christmas time is almost here, the city turned into a sparkling and glittery star - trees are covered in mini-light bulbs and Christmas decoration is placed all over the city! Tomorrow is THE day - the big Christmas tree will be lighted up - don't worry, if you can't be there, I will feed you with some nice pics :)

I'm sure it will be suuuper crowded tomorrow... so, I'm prepared for showing up with some good temper and patience. It is all about keeping your inner calmness in busy and stressful situations - my patience will be put to the test ;)

I have developed a pretty strong brain muscle to not let crowded places or cranky people get into my happy mood *happy-thoughts and smile* - But what do you do when something really stressful or bad happens? 

Unfortunately, we do not have influence on the things that happen around us - be it in your job, relationships, family, ...! Of course, we can act on the best of our ability to be a good human being, but certain things we cannot control - and often times 'just' thinking good thoughts won't help to improve your situation - and I'm talking about your own state of mind. 

Certainly, thinking positively does not prevent you from feeling pain (being left by your boyfriend or girlfriend, getting laid off, beating yourself up because you ate the whole box of cookies, *fill-in-the-blank*), but it is on YOU to choose what you will make out of this situation... will you go into the deep suffering state - sure every feeling and emotion needs attention and being with the pain for a while is more than okay, BUT what are you going to do next? Hide out and wait for better times OR take action!? 

Taking action means that you are stepping into your power to be the co-creator of your life. This can simply be that you say 'ok, this thing happened to me, NOW... What did I learn from it? Or how will I take the chance to grow and move on?'

The cool thing is you get to choose to be happy or miserable...

Take every breakdown as an opportunity to grow! Take every breakdown as an opportunity to rewire and recalibrate your energy! See every breakdown as the start of something new, and new is exciting because it means change!

This way you can be sure that you will have access to your full potential to fulfill your dreams and be HAPPY again :-)

Every breakdown is followed by a breakthrough! Trust in that!

Love,

xoxo

Feeling overwhelmed by your own plans?

The answer is simple: Appreciate the baby steps! 

Thank you my dear readers, this was the post for today - just kidding, but it is as simple as that...

Most of us have a plan for our life - we all thrive to achieve really great things, whether we are aware of it or not! One important thing to mention here is that the perception of great is different to each individual - some project their plan on career, others on family or personal development. Some of us have good patience to get to their desired state and others (like me) can't wait to get it all at once.

I'll admit to something here, my big ideas have changed over the years and have radically changed since I moved to NYC. The 'transformation' began on the day of arrival, when I took my first intenSati class - life has never been the same for me... Those who have been following this blog (You guys are awesome!) have witnessed my shift, which does not mean that I have become more patient with craving to get what I want ;) 

I have been developing big ideas of how I would imagine my career to be like as a coach and trainer *yay* and I created this plan aka how-can-I-get-there-as-quickly-as-possible! Unknowingly I have overloaded my mind with all those plans that I started to compare my efforts to the efforts of others and that I felt I had to do everything I could to get there as quickly as possible and to become greater. I researched the various classes and courses I could start, like right NOW and finish them preferably tomorrow. 

Even though I have been thriving and following my dream, I felt more disconnected to it than ever!!!

Only this week during a coaching call I was introduced to a great concept that has become my new mantra: 

• You are holding your vision >
• The feeling that is created within you is JOY, PASSION and HAPPINESS >
• Passion makes you take the first step, which leads to success >
• Then you have your vision in mind again >
• The feeling of joy and passion lead you to take the next step to get closer to the vision... >

It is like the most 'vicious' as in radically awesome cycle ever!!! 

The baby steps will always get you closer to achieving your goal and as soon as you start appreciating the baby steps, the whole journey becomes a joyous adventure for you. Moreover, by maintaining an overview of how you actually got from your beginning to your big YAY, you will have more moments of pride for yourself, which will fuel your creativity to make your YAY even more amazing!

For me personally this information helped me a lot to connect to my desire again and to see the next steps clearly (one of them definitely is to write this blog and to share my learnings with you :))

If you have similar experiences or if this was helpful for you... OR if you have tried the 'most awesome vicious-as-in-radically-awesome cycle'... I would love to read about all of it in the comments below :)

One motivating thing to remember is: FOLLOWING YOUR DREAM(S) SHOULD BE FUN AND JOYFUL! (not exclusively but a great deal of times!)

Thank you all! 

XOXO

p.s. The song for this post is Jordin Spark's 'One step at a time'  :)

The HAPPY Diet...

... What? The words HAPPY and DIET together in one headline - yeah, sure... crazy-cr*p again, right!!! No thanks! I'm outta here...

You might want to hear me out on this one here, I promise it is worth staying!

Today's post is inspired by Gabby Bernstein's vlog The Lovetarian Diet, in which she talks about exactly what I translated into the Happy Diet. Now, both include the two beautiful concepts of LOVE and HAPPINESS - coincidently the two emotions everyone is looking for having in their lives. 

Achieving love and happiness is strongly interconnected to the thoughts we think during the day. Thoughts are the food for our mind! We have been educated that healthy foods, rich in vitamins and nutrients feed a healthy and strong body *yay* We also know that greasy and heavy food does not contribute to our physical and mental health *puh*

The same thing is true for the thoughts that we think every day. Every thought we feed our mind with is going to have an impact on its well-being, in effect on our happiness and love.
By allowing negative thoughts to flood our system we let them become our reality, and as I elaborated in a previous post 'We are THE co-creators of our lives' we give so much power and potential away - let alone the beautiful moments of pure happiness and  joy! If we only hold thoughts of anger, self-criticism, judgment, jealousy, fear, _________ (fill in the blank!), how can we possibly expect to experience happiness and love 24/7!?!?!?
We do not expect our digestion system to easily digest crappy foods without longterm consequences - the same applies to when we keep thinking negative thoughts of "I'm not good enough! Others are better than me! I can't do that! Me???" - we feed our minds with heavy take-ins and expect to become more and more happy in our lives... Guess what, this does not work!

Being living proof that this diet works within a short period of time, I would like to share my routine with you :) all you need is commitment, faith and determination!

1. Breakfast: Meditation! Upon awakening I listen to a nice guided meditation that prepares me for the day ahead. Meditating is a great way to center in and ignite your personal greatness to spark into the world! You can consciously choose you thoughts and attitude - choose love instead of fear! Variations of this breakfast can be: morning work-out, journaling, reading in your fav book, waking up saying 'Thank you!', ...
2. Snack: Do something good that serves others! Does not have to be something huge, but a nice gesture to someone you know or don't know. Can be a nice text or email to a loved one, which you know will make the person smile. Or you hold the door for someone, smiling at a stranger or give up your seat on the subway for another person, who might be not as agile.
3. Lunch: Move your body! Get active, work-out, walk instead of taking the bus or elevators, sweat, smile and be proud of your accomplishments :) intenSatiiiii *yay*
4. Snack: Listen to uplifting music! What is the simplest and most efficient thing that will bring you out of a baditude?? MUSIC *yay* create your playlist and listen to songs with positive lyrics and energetic sound! I'm actually listening to my "Happy playlist" right now ;)
5. Dinner: Journal! I used to be a journal-avoider, was considered as waste of time... I couldn't be more wrong! We are used to writing down every important piece of information when we listen to a lecture or our boss telling us what to do next - How do you know that what your emotions and feelings tell you is less important?? Our minds are sort of our bosses... but here it is ok to question our thoughts! One thing is sure, our mind is probably the most adaptable boss we will have - so take advantage of it and choose to hold loving and happy thoughts and write them down! Also if you are not feeling all easy-cheesy-super-happy... JOURNAL, because it will give you the chance to look at your feelings on paper and I've experienced it multiple times that I had to start laughing at my anger/anxiety etc.

One more important thing: make GRATITUDE your WATER!!!

Adults should drink 2-3 liters of clear water per day, this is how important gratitude is in our lives. We can be grateful for sooo many things, e.g. to live in a healthy body, to be able to read this post right now ;) etc. Gratitude is a powerful tool to become conscious about how many things we have we can be pleased to have, but tend to take for granted! Showing appreciation for things and actions of others will attract more happiness, love and blessing into your own life!

Who joins me on this miraculous diet?
I AM a Happytarian!!!

Love, xoxo

p.s. in a state of love and gratitude our bodies are able to digest and take in the actual food in much more gentle way, that vitamins and nutrients can be processed to their highest potential = A happy soul equals a healthy and lean body!

Song for this post: Colbie Caillat - Think good thoughts