Let Mother Nature heal you.
🍃
She is gentle and kind.
And she is full of whimsy.
She can help you find the peace, love and joy within.
They have been there all along.
You’re the one you’ve been waiting for.
☀️
you are a gem. handle with care.
Let Mother Nature heal you.
🍃
She is gentle and kind.
And she is full of whimsy.
She can help you find the peace, love and joy within.
They have been there all along.
You’re the one you’ve been waiting for.
☀️
Many people have been feeling overwhelmed by life – the busy-ness of it all with the onslaught of emails, texts, notifications, ads for junk we don’t need and how we can do better, be better, live better, blah blah blah.
STOP.
We’ve begun to live like on-call emergency personnel with this 24-7 connection through technology – except most people don’t take several days off after being on-call day after day.
STOP.
No wonder so many people have been feeling sick, stressed out, anxious and exhausted.
STOP.
No wonder so many people have been killing themselves through suicide, drugs, alcohol, work, fill-in-the-blank self-abuse and self-harm.
STOP.
We do not have to live like that.
STOP.
We can give ourselves a break.
STOP.
The world will not fall apart if we are not running at breakneck speed in contact 24-7.
STOP.
We each get to choose to be kind to ourselves.
STOP.
We can speak up for what we truly need.
STOP.
Ask yourself, What do I really need?
STOP.
It’s easy to forget in a world of millions of choices so here are some simple reminders.
STOP.
We are just like flowers.
We need safe shelter.
We need peace and quiet.
We need plenty of rest to recharge.
We need warmth and plenty of sunlight.
We need plenty of clean water.
We need healthy nourishment.
We need to connect, have intimate relationships with family and friends, to give love and receive love.
So before jumping on a smartphone, before waiting for someone else to love and take care of you, before worrying about how you can work more to pay for a bunch of stuff you don’t really need that doesn’t really matter to impress people who are not important in your life, STOP.
Turn off the damn phone.
Or set it to “do not disturb” or put it on airplane mode.
Start with a few minutes here and there.
Give your lovely brain A BREAK.
You will survive.
Your friends and family can live without you for a little while.
Take a nap.
Get a perspective check in nature.
Give yourself some peace and quiet.
Take some time for YOU.
You must CHOOSE YOU first.
If you don’t know how to do it for yourself, be open to help until you can do it for yourself.
Think of it as training wheels.
You’ll get there.
REMEMBER: Peace begins with ME.
We need to be kind and loving to ourselves first and take care of our basic needs.
We need to put on the oxygen mask ourselves before we can truly be of service to our families, to our friends, to our work, to whatever.
Be kind to you.
Be gentle.
You are worth it.
You matter.
The world needs you.
You are full of beauty.
You are a steel magnolia.
You are strong AND you don’t need to do it all yourself.
It’s no accident you are here.
You are here for a reason.
Love on you.
Be open to help.
May you be happy.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be at peace.
May you shine.
❤️
Have you noticed there’s a stigma that comes with being an introvert? Personally, I was born an introvert and was socialized to be more extroverted. What I’ve noticed is that our culture has celebrated extroverts and viewed there being something not quite enough about a person who is introverted – up until now.
It seems being introverted implies that one does not require social interaction, and we are happy leading insulated lives with less communication with others. The truth, however, is that introverts – like me – crave human company just like anybody.
We may just need it in smaller doses and in a different way compared to extroverts. As we previously pointed out here on May You Shine, everyone needs a balance of love, peace, and joy each day. Once a person finds fulfillment in work and other pursuits, he/she needs to reach out to others to strike that proper balance.
Extroverts typically go out and meet a big group of friends.
Introverts, meanwhile, often prefer more controlled conditions. We might hang out with one or two friends or communicate with online communities that belong to specific subcultures.
There are subcultures that have grown bigger thanks to social media. ABC News mentions some online subcultures that are currently thriving, including Otherkin and Fanfiction. Check this out and see if you relate.
The Otherkin believe themselves to be “other than human.” Whether vampires, elves, fairies, unicorns, or some other otherworldly beings, they all fall under this subculture. They have actually been around since 1972 and are only coming to prominence now because they have social media tools at their disposal. They take advantage of platforms such as Tumblr to socialize with each other.
The Fanfic subculture has also been around long before the rise of the Internet. The Bronte sisters, for instance, were already writing these stories back in the nineteenth century. Online forums have provided fanfic writers today with an outlet to share stories about their favorite fictional characters. These usually involve characters in plots that indulge the writer’s fantasies – paths that these characters would never take in either the books or the movies. The fun of writing these fanfic stories is building the readership base.
Fandom is a subculture distinct from Fanfic as it is comprised of people who enjoy pop culture topics. The social media platforms Tumblr and Reddit help fans get together online to talk about a certain subject, whether a movie, TV show, book, etc. From the lingo to private jokes these groups exchange, these virtual relationships can be as tight as actual friendships. [Read more…]
Happy Monday!! 🌻 Do Mondays get you down? Would you like your Mondays to feel more like Fridays and take on your to do list with less stress and more ease?
📺 I talked tips for doing just this today on Fox 2 News. Below is video of the interview and more info about what we talked about.
Ask your wisest self for some guidance – Instead of focusing on end goals every day and having your head explode, focus on your breath for a minute, get quiet and ask yourself, “What’s my next best step?”
Chunk it down – Break things down into a 2-3 manageable pieces – this will make it easier to get started.
Easy does it – Once you get on a roll, it’s easy to keep going for a really long time and then fall over from exhaustion, which can lead to eating or drinking too much. Consider setting a timer for 15 minutes or an hour to remind you to take a breather.
Reward yourself in little ways each day – Don’t wait until the weekend for a break. You might think, “OMG, I have SO much to do. I just don’t have time to take any breaks.” Well, here’s the thing, if you don’t take care of you with some breaks, life will come along and give you a break (e.g., you might get a migraine, get sick or hurt yourself; you might get into an argument that derails the day, you might run yourself into the ground and fail to meet an important deadline, you might overeat or overdrink and develop an addiction). Breaks can be simple for just a couple minutes or 5-10 minutes. Here are some examples:
Longer breaks each day and through the week – Don’t wait for a big vacation to be the only time you really treat yourself. At the end of the day and on the weekend, schedule some time to do something fun like go out to dinner or go to a local event like Feast Taste & Toast (this Sunday, May 6, 2-5pm) or another local event – there are lots of great, affordable events happening around town.
Rinse and Repeat – Repeat these steps each day and week. Each time you take a break, you’ll come back to whatever you need to do with more energy and clarity. It will be easier to get things done.
🤸🏼♂️ Tonight, join me for a fun, interactive mini-retreat where you can learn more about this and experience first hand simple, easy things you can do each day to feel happier and more peaceful AND have an easier time checking off whatever you have to do each day. ✅
🌴 There will be a complimentary hula lesson from Pooki Lee!
💝 This is a free event. Love donations welcome!
📆 Join us at 6:30-8:30 TONIGHT at The Connection at Chesterfield Mall!
I hope to see you at this or another retreat!
Stay tuned for more May You Shine Retreats in the works!
We need three simple, essential ingredients for a happy, balanced life. Fortunately, we have all of them within us and we can tap into them right now to live a happy, balanced life in which we can be wildly successful in every aspect of our lives. I talked about this today on Fox 2 News in St. Louis. Here is video of the interview and more details on what I shared and wore on the show.
We don’t have to go out and find them. They are in us now.
Children are some of our greatest teachers. They show us how to live.
For example:
If a child just plays and doesn’t rest, that doesn’t work. If a child runs around loving everyone else and doesn’t accept love, that doesn’t work. If a child gets too much sleep, that doesn’t work.
All this applies to adults too. Each of us needs to have balance – a combination of peace, love and joy every day.
Fortunately, we get signs when we’re out of balance. We feel fried, stressed out, exhausted, get sick.
And that’s ok. It’s just our bodies and minds giving us signs to get back to track.
Our purpose in life is to
Most people know how to give, love and serve others. We may give, love and serve to children, family and friends. We may give, love and serve our work.
And yet to be truly in balance, we need to do this for ourselves first. We need to nourish ourselves and let ourselves feel peace, love and joy each and every day.
The Oxygen Mask. We need to put on the oxygen mask. And then we can truly make a difference in the world.
Something to Look Forward To. We can do this for ourselves in little and big ways. One simple thing is to give ourselves something to look forward to every morning.
This could be a beautiful outfit, a favorite cup of coffee, a morning meditation, a walk or run. It can be anything that feels wonderful to you – something that makes your heart sing. Your heart will show you the way.