'There is a divine gift that is within us all, a gift so precious it can change a person's life. This gift is present at all hours of the day and in almost every situation. This gift is something that should be shared on a daily basis with as many people as possible and acknowledged even when the times are dark. Have you witnessed a person who lives in a third world country with no food smile? Have you seen a cancer patient give someone a hug? Do you remember what pulled you out of your last funk? I guarantee it was something that made you realize life ain't that bad! Something that made you appreciate the fact that you are living and that there is good in your life....because there is! That something is called gratitude. And the gift we have to share with the world is the gift of gratitude. When we express our gratitude to others we become inherently aware of the good within in our own lives. We suddenly realize that we are connected to those around us and that we CAN have a positive impact on others live's as well as our own. So have you shared your gift lately?! Have you even tapped into your gift yet? Sharing gratitude with others is as simple as a smile, the two words "thank you" or as elaborate as a physical gift. When we acknowledge the things others do for us we let them know just how special they are. We let them know that their actions are being felt and appreciated. Acknowledging the loving actions of another human being reminds you and them that there is good in the world! How did you feel the last time someone genuinely thanked you for something you did? No matter where you are in your life, what you are going through or how bad things are you still have gratitude within you. Do you know how I know?! Because you're alive! Right now look around and say five things you are grateful for. Do the same thing tomorrow morning when you get up and when you go to bed, then examine how you feel in those moments of acknowledgment. Does your heart feel a little happier? Does some of your stress go away? Now take it a step further. The next nice thing someone does for you, acknowledge it by giving thanks. It's that simple! Gratitude is a feeling and emotion that is within us all. It brings moments of joy. It brings a smile to the heart's of of other people and no matter how hard we to try to fight it, it's always there. You can try to cover it up, try to bury deep within your heart, but it's still there. It's a natural reaction to the good things in life.....because guess what.....there is good in life! When we allow our gratitude to surface, when we acknowledge the happiness in our soul, it radiates from our face and through our actions. When our gratitude for life is released into the world we are sharing and showing love, we are creating a happier self and we are creating a more peaceful world. So share gratitude willfully. Share gratitude daily. Spread good, peace and love into our world. Heres a challenge for you: create a Gratitude Journal You may or may not have heard of this before. Creating a gratitude journal is one of my favorite things. It's very simple, you write down five things a day you're grateful for and you can't ever repeat one. It's a great way to pull you out of a funk, make you appreciate all the great things in your life and add a depth to your life you didn't have before. If you do this or have done it share your comments!! P.S. want more proof?! Check out this blog on the benefits of gratitude
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For the past few weeks I have been obsessed with the word Passion(s)! I mean obsessed! I've been talking to my weight loss group about it, the word came up this past weekend at a fitness conference and I see it everywhere I go...it's been present all over my life and for good reason!
My passions are the center of my life, my guiding lights and my sources of energy. Outside of the obvious loves,my kids and wife, I have been blessed enough to be able to chase my passions on a daily basis-and that is my wish for everyone else as well. Our heart's guide us through life, our soul whispers to us daily. And why? Because our passions open up doors for us we could never even comprehend. Our passions are what lead us to and through the life we are meant to live. If you are not following your passions, you are not truly and truthfully living the life that is intended for you! Passion has been defined as " an intense emotion," "a strong feeling about a person or thing" and my personal favorite "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling." What does this all mean?! That our passions are within us to guide us through life. Our passions are our purpose, our destiny and our true meaning of life. Without passions we would all be the same person and our world would cease to exist. So how do we tap into our passions? It's so simple yet so hard for us to do-WE LISTEN. We listen to ourselves! We all get those instinctual feelings that we should be doing something. Or maybe get a desire you've never had before to do something new! Follow that! That's when you discover your passions and that's when your destiny starts to unfold. Recently someone asked me what my passions are and while I knew immediately that my passions are with people I knew the answer was much deeper than that. Soon the real answer came to me. My passion is empowering, inspiring, educating and motivating people. Some days I do that through teaching fitness classes, some days I do it by coaching volleyball to young girls, other days it's by writing. Some days I don't follow my passions at all, because I'm human and I simply don't have the energy or know how to do it. (wow! I wrote that for everyone to see!) Did I discover these passions when I was 20? Heck no! When I was 20 I was on a drastically different path (that thank God I didn't follow it), but I knew deep down something amazing lied ahead for me even though I didn't know what it was. I knew that if I listened to the spirit that guides me, that guides us all, I had something amazing ahead. Our passions will change, but your purpose is always within you. Our purposes in life are not always present, we may not even truly know our purpose ever and that's okay, but we owe it to ourselves and to the universe to follow our passions. If I/we had never followed the tug to start Evolve U, we would have never found this amazing path we are on. We wouldn't be married, be surrounded my beautiful people or experience the things we get to on a daily basis. If you do nothing else this week, do this for me.....follow that instinct in your heart that is urging you down a path and then keep following it every day of your life! That instinct is your destiny! What was hard yesterday may not seem so hard today.
What was hard a year ago may seem easy today. "Problems" you faced as a child seem foolish today. Embrace the struggles in your life.... Do not judge your hardships. Do not take what is hard today as something insignificant or as something you can't overcome. Embrace your struggles, look them in the face and figure out how to overcome them. You have no choice but to keep overcoming your hardships and keep growing mentally and emotionally. Take on every difficult time, be thankful for the strength it's giving you,the lessons it's teaching you and the faith you are blessed with to get through it. Do not judge your hard times or those of another for we do not know their hearts or their minds. Hard times in life open up the door for us to truly appreciate the good times! Difficult times open up doors we never dreamed possible; IF you bloom from those times! If we do not go through hard things, we do not know what greatness feels like! Just like working out makes you physically stronger, hard times makes us mentally and emotionally stronger. Hard times make you spiritually and faithfully stronger....IF YOU allow it! Appreciate the struggle, Learn through the struggle, Grow through the struggle, Look around you as you go through struggles....who is there with you? What can you trust? Who and what can you rely on? What good do you see? What good can you find? What makes you happy? Find glimmers of light when you're going through a hard time and have faith that this too shall pass...because it will!! I have been through those times and I have survived and overcome and SO CAN YOU!! I leave you with one of my favorite poems that has gotten me through some gloomy days. (I had this written on my planner for 2016) Love: a word that could possibly have the most undefined meaning of any word in our language. I googled the definition of love and most were short descriptions often related to the love we feel for a romantic partner. But love is much more than that, as we all know! Love is a word that can change your outlook on life. It can change a relationship, bring a smile to your soul or break your heart into a million pieces. One's own definition of love can destroy or bring peace. Love is the most majestic and meaningful word in our language. We share love with our family, with our friends, with our partners and our children. Each one of these relationships defining love in a completely different way. Love has caused the worst heartbreaks I've ever seen, and at the same time brought the greatest joy to a person's life. Love can heal parts of your soul that you didn't even know were broken or it can rip open parts you didn't even know existed. Love is supposed to be a word that brings nothing but elation and exhilaration to your world, but what happens when it doesn't? How do our hearts heal from being left or abandoned by the very people who were never supposed to turn their backs on you? The answer is simple.....you open your heart and receive and give more love! I know first hand that we can't control who we love, we can't control who loves us and we can't control how long we love someone, but we can allow our hearts to continue the life cycle of loving. We can let our hearts continue to love regardless of our pasts and flourish love into our future. We can willingly and whole heartedly welcome more and different loves into our lives! Never disregard love Never take love for granted Never give up on love Always love to love Always cherish and honor the ones you love Always invite more love into your life Always remember....... Keep giving and receiving love my friends!! Namaste
LIFE.....it's a word that encompasses so much! A word that I don't think can truly be defined. This word changes meanings as we grow, as we age and as we evolve. Sure the word "life" can be defined in a dictionary, it can be described by scientists and doctors, but much like love; life and living is in the eye of the beholder!
If you asked me today what life means to me, I would say being true to your heart and soul. I would say following your wildest dreams and loving every second with those who mean the most to you. Life to me means knowing every minute and every second is a gift and that we are not given life, but rather life is given to us. Life is something that is complex, yet so simple. Life is love, Life is here and now, Life is intertwined with others, Life is the act of living, Life is beautiful, Life is hard, Life is in this moment, Life is energy, Life is helping others live, Life is this planet, Life is breathing, Life doesn't make sense, Life makes perfect sense, LIFE IS YOU....LIFE IS ME! Tell me what life means to you...comment with what life means to you! Failure...it's a word I hear a lot in the fitness industry, in my small town and a word I read frequently in media, but quite frankly I don't believe in the word failure!
I googled failure which led me to fail and its definition is "to end without success" or "to not do." Those definitions right there prove that none of us have failed...because we are still living, we are still here! To fail in business, in losing weight, in anything you have to totally give up living and clearly none of us have done that! You are breathing, moving and living so you have not failed!! Too often we try to put a mark on what failure is: we didn't lose 30 pounds, we didn't make a million dollars this year, our marriage ended in divorce, we didn't get the job we wanted, our child didn't live up to our expectations etc. etc. but none of those things equal failure. Those things simply mean your life is rerouting itself. Those bumps in the road mean your life has something to teach you. Failure is just like beauty and just like the word success-the meanings are in the eye of the beholder! So if you allow yourself to think you've failed then you have, but me.....I know you haven't failed, I know you/we are simply on our journeys, we are living our destinies! “You’re going to fall down, but the world doesn’t care how many times you fall down, as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up.” –Andrew Sorkin Life will always have obstacles, life will always provide us with hardships, with choices, with moments of sorrow, BUT it will also always give us the opportunity to love, to experience joy, to learn, to grow and to change. So if you keep taking chances and keep making great choices then you aren't failing, you're simply learning. Continue to grow, continue to learn, continue to love and most of all continue to LIVE! If you are living you cannot be failing! I leave you with this quote: Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what make life meaningful. I actually wrote these thoughts down about six months ago, and for some reason today I opened up my notes and they reappeared to me-perhaps I need to read my own words today!
We are all fighting.....fighting for life....fighting for love....fighting just to be alive. Standing in the middle of a kickboxing class at my studio this week, I looked behind me and doing the exact same moves, wearing the same (evolve U) headband was a strong beautiful woman fighting the same, yet incredibly different battles as I am. That woman I refer to happens to be not only a client but a friend, on a different but similar path. You see we think we are all fighting different wars, we think that our stories and our lives are so different...because they are...but at the same time they are not. We are all fighting for the right to live according to what makes us happy, we are all fighting for our version of happiness and life and all of our journeys "coincidentally" intertwine. Each person on this planet is connected to massive amounts of other people (whether we like it or not). Our world is intertwined! The very words you and I speak were once our thoughts. These thoughts spoken to others not only affect the person hearing it, but the next five to ten people they come into contact with. We can change the course of ten people's lives today simply by being kind, respectful and caring. Remember that each person while on their own journey is affected by yours simply by coming into contact with you. Remember that you have power!! You have the power to change someone's mood You have the power to change someone's journey You have the power to change someone's life! Acknowledge the power of YOU!! Know that your journey is my journey, that my path is intertwined with your path, so tread lightly but be strong. Let your intuition and intelligence guide you. In the words of my grandmother "Be strong but be kind." WORDS. Words are gifts and words are energy robbers. Words are magnificent and words are gut wrenching. Words are meaningful and beautiful or they are heartbreaking and horrible.
A few months ago a friend told me that words are gifts and we all have the wonderful ability to change a person's whole path with the words we use. I couldn't agree more! Ever since that moment I have made an effort to be more cognizant of the words I use and how I use them. But I have also been more aware of how other's people's words have affected me. Over the past few years words have broken me and the ones I love. People have used words to bring tears to our eyes and rip our hearts to pieces, but words have also turned those broken hearts into a soul that overflows with love. As people begin to use words and actions to harm us, we begin to grow as human beings. When people harm us with their words we are given two options: to treat those people as they have treated us or to transform our way of thinking and living. When we choose to turn those horrible words into a new motivational direction for our life, new opportunities will arise. I have learned a lot from the words people have spoken to me, about me and about the ones I love. I have learned that: Until words have broken your heart, words can't heal your soul. Until people have used words to harm you, you don't become fully aware of the words you are speaking to others. Until a person has done you wrong, you can't appreciate the goodwill of a kind soul. Until you have been knocked down, you do not know the strength you have within yourself to rise again. Until you have never been given an apology, you can never learn the true meaning of forgiveness. Until people have used words as lies against you, do you discover your own truths. Until you have been given no opportunity but to keep going, do you know the will power within yourself. Until you have no choice but to succeed........do you truly begin to live! I know you are reading these words and thinking that this is all a bit negative, but it’s not! You see, until you have been through some hellish times, you truly do not appreciate the beauty of the people and the world around you. The hard times are what makes the great times truly spectacular, and the not so great people in your life are what make the true friends and family shine even brighter. Do not let those dark times in your life, those harmful words spoken to you or those harsh words spoken against you define how you live your life. Use words your words to improve the lives of others. Use your words as a gift not only to others but to the world. You are a gift to the world! Forgiveness can be at times just as detrimental as the other "f word." For some of us, forgiveness is something that we struggle with, it is something that plagues our lives, but it is also something that can be incredibly freeing! Forgiveness is something we have to work at our whole lives, it is never ending and it is always rewarding!
Forgiveness is not forgetting, it is not something that the faint of heart can achieve and it is not excusing the past. It is simply moving on from the past. Forgiveness is freeing your own soul from negativity and resentment. Forgiveness is presenting your future with opportunity and it is a way to open up a doorway for new blessings. We all experience people that have wronged us, people who have intentionally or unintentionally hurt us, and we all have to move on from that! The longer we hold the resentment in our hearts the longer we are preventing ourselves from experiencing our own lives. Remember: It is not your fault that someone does not understand your journey. It is not your fault when kindness is not in the heart of another person. If is not your responsibility to own the anger that others have. It is none of your business what other people think of your life But most importantly know this... You are strong enough to forgive. You owe it to yourself to forgive. And your life will be that much better the more you forgive! Forgive and allow abudance to enter your life! The word contentment has been following me lately...it seems to arise at the most appropriate, inappropriate and needy times. We even talked to our clients about it last week, and the very words that I uttered to them seemed to backfire on me days later. It's one of those things I can logically understand, but the second emotions get involved and my mind wonders....contentment seems to disappear. I have been blessed with the desire to work, to always do more, to be better and to always want more. But even as I typed those words I really realized how much of a burden that can all be to me, my family and my friends as well. I think most of those attributes come with being type A, and while it's gotten me where I am today I am fully aware the down side of all this, which is why contentment is so hard for me to accomplish on a daily basis. Like all of us ,one moment I am content and counting my blessings and the next I'm at war with myself. But why do we go through this vicious cycle? Why do torture ourselves with such a struggle? Why is contentment so hard to master....can we ever be truly content all the time????? What is contentment? Contentment is all about appreciating and loving where you are in your life, it's about being satisfied; perhaps more importantly its about being thankful for who and what you are. Contentment is striving to be a better person while loving yourself in this moment. I challenge you (and me) to be content this week...to be thankful, at peace and in love with your life! I am so thankful for every single part of me and my life, I am thankful for the hard times in my life, I am thankful for the good and the bad I've been through and I am thankful for the blessings which are being cultivated in my life in this very moment. I am content with my life. |
Author35 year old mother, wife, fitness professional, entrepreneur, triathlete & lover of life! Archives
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