Life Is For Celebrating!!

Recently I heard the new Robin Thicke song and I will admit I was shocked!! Yes, me a normally calm person almost leapt out of her skin!! The man seems soooooo sweet and respectful and here he is objectifying women!! But there are two sides to every coin as they say - so I decided to look up his new-found life attitude. I found an interview where he said that he spent his whole life respecting women and taking everything that life has given him WAY too seriously!! One day he realized he has some much to be grateful for - a loving wife, amazing kid, health, not to mention tons of dough (although the money doesn't matter as much as the other things right??). Anyway his new song reflects the fact that he doesn't take life so seriously anymore!! He is more carefree and detached :) How can you be mad at a guy who has an awesome attitude like that?? I certainly can't!! And to prove it, I am going to post the video for his new song below. Also I gonna take life even less seriously than I did before, and celebrate it even more!! This may not be possible since I already do both of those things A LOT (I mean a lot, a lot) but I will try!! Wish me luck!!

What If Money Didn't Matter?

Life has a way of bringing us the perfect sweet little moments at just the right time!! The other day I was just thinking about how much I love teaching and how I honestly don't care about the salary, the time off, the benefits, etc and then I found this video: Mr. Watts spends most the video daring us to ask the million dollar question that is directly related to unlimited happiness - What if money DIDN'T matter?? It's such a simple question, yet most people don't want to answer it!! In order to answer such a question one needs to do some (potentially scary) self-introspection!! I say ask it anyway!! Who knows you may find some eternal happiness along the way!! Xoxo

Authentic Self

Sometimes it seems that our world is so full of negativity and the only way I can remain positive is by meditating and thinking of myself as a pure, powerful, peaceful soul having a human experience.

I also love to follow the "Positive Outlooks" page on Facebook because sometimes in my meditations I will receive some insight or wisdom and then I will see a quote on that page that is congruent with what I was already thinking!!

The other day I saw the following post about being the importance of never doubting your positive, virtuous self!! I realized that this is so true!!!! I definitely need to doubt less, and share (my gifts) more while also remaining very humble!!

Thank you Positive Outlooks!!

Happiness is a State of Mind

Over the past few months I have made more and more of an effort to meditate every morning after I wake up and every night before I go to sleep. Sometimes each meditation lasts an hour - but other times just a few minutes!! On the days when I don't meditate I feel a HUGE difference in how my day unfolds!! If I skip meditation, I tend to feel more stress, anxiety, worry, fear, sadness, and basically all of the negative emotions!! The power of the mind is TRULY phenomenal and I hope to foster more and more positive feelings.

The other day I found this quote:

"Happiness is a state of mind. The world only has influence on your state of mind if you let it."
-Unknown

I think this statement is SO SO SO true!! Each morning I start my meditations by focusing on my virtues. Every day I pick a virtue to live by - and lately that virtue has been peace!! When I make an effort to stay peaceful within my mind I find that I am also happier regardless of what happens to me in the outside world. The other day I had a really good meditation and felt so happy and peaceful ALL day!! The students I taught that day were also very peaceful - and I find this happens a lot because consciousness is contagious!!

At the end of the day I ran into an old acquaintance. It was her first time supply teaching in a high school, and she told me how yelling at the kids didn't work and in fact caused them to rebel against her.

Now this may sound weird - but I have to say it - my sun sign was in Cancer at the time of my birth - so I experience the world by feeling everyone's emotions all the time 24/7. I do my best to shut this unfortunate ability off, but that strategy usually fails miserably.

If I wasn't so happy and peaceful in my mind that day - I would've taken on my friend's emotions and felt a lot of sorrow for how horribly her day went. Instead I chose to remember that happiness is a state of mind and I can sympathize with her, but not to the extent that I feel so bad for her that I spend my entire evening worrying about her. That would be silly and would rob me of the glorious feeling of happiness :) I realize that last statement might sound cold, but I think it makes NO SENSE to take on someone else's sorrow. If I did take on sorrow, I wouldn't accomplish anything and would end up feeling drained!! It's best to send the person good wishes while standing in a beautiful place I call "Happy Land!!"

Watch your thoughts, words, actions...for they become your destiny!!

An Interesting Tradition

A few years ago I decided to backpack through Europe in an attempt to "find" myself. During this 3 month vacation I got to meet tons of cool people, eat (or watch other people eat) enthralling food, see some of the most exquisite sights of the modern world, and figure out that everything I was looking for (love, peace, happiness, and so on) was already within me!! I didn't really need the vacay at all, but I don't regret exploring the liberal side of Amsterdam or buying any of the Venetian glass figurines!!

Traveling from country to country made me realize how different and cultured each country was. For example, although beautiful Amsterdam was avant-garde they were also very environmentally-conscious!! Since most of their country is below sea level and protected by dikes they have made an effort to reduce the number of greenhouse gases by turning the bicycle into something very trendy. The people of Amsterdam bike everywhere and there are cool little bike stands everywhere too!! Dubrovnik, on the other hand, was a stunning Medieval city on the Adriatic sea that was protected by huge walls. The city oozed of culture and I made sure not to step in the cracks along the sides of the shiny cobble-stone streets in order to avoid a life of singledom (a Croatian superstition, but is being single forever really a bad thing? lol). After I arrived at my hotel and asked where the recycling bin was, the friendly hotel owner told me "we aren't cultured and don't have one!!" This made me laugh, because not having a recycling service certainly doesn't make them devoid of culture!!

Fast-forward to December 2011 and I was again given an opportunity to explore tradition!!

This Christmas my Yogi invited me (and 60 of his closest friends) to celebrate a different type of Christmas and I didn't only jump at the chance - I leaped!!

Some of the traditions were the same - caroling, decorating Christmas trees, writing letters to Santa - but some were different too!!

One of the coolest traditions we celebrated that night involved each person writing a positive wish for the people of the world on a coloured-paper ornament. We then placed these ornaments on the tree and sent love to the world!!

I wrote down the first thing that came to mind and then envisioned the earth circled in light!! I literally felt love being given to the whole WIDE world!!

My wish for each person in the world is as follows:

You are PURE, POWERFUL, PEACEFUL, COURAGEOUS, LOVING, ACCEPTING, POSITIVE, CARING, GENEROUS, FORGIVING, PATIENT, WARM-HEARTED, CREATIVE, COMPASSIONATE, HONEST, HUMANITARIAN, SELFLESS, BRAVE, BENEVOLENT, FAITHFUL, and so on.....
and you don't have to travel to Europe to figure that out lol.

The thing is we aren't always AWARE that we have all of these traits within us, and since we aren't aware we don't always act in virtuous ways and even go as far to justify our bad behaviour by saying things like "it's human nature to be greedy, selfish, etc." This is just the way that our ego poisons our mind, but it's very easy to squish the ego and realize your true power!! All you have to do is think of yourself as PURE, POWERFUL, PEACEFUL, COURAGEOUS, LOVING, ACCEPTING, POSITIVE, CARING, GENEROUS, FORGIVING, PATIENT, WARM-HEARTED, CREATIVE, COMPASSIONATE, HONEST, HUMANITARIAN, SELFLESS, BRAVE, BENEVOLENT, FAITHFUL, etc. and NOT listen to anything negative your ego says. He or she will always use language like "can't, don't, won't, etc".

When I look at the world I see many dualities - peace and war, happiness and sadness, greed and generosity, hunger and satisfaction, and so on. This year I hope to send good wishes to the people of the world every day during my meditations and not just on Christmas day!!

Spend Less, Give More Love

Hello Beautiful People!!

I was supply teaching at a high school the other day and saw this kicking video:

[AC] Promo 2011 from Advent Conspiracy on Vimeo.

I LOVE that high school kids are promoting this cause and even incorporating it into their holiday assembly!!

The main point of the video blew me away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Basically Americans spend $450 billion dollars on Christmas each year, but it would cost $20 billion dollarinos per year to solve the world water shortage!! Also we all know money can't buy happiness, memories, or meaning!!

So what if everyone gave less gifts and more love?? What if instead of buying gifts, you gave your time to relatives and friends or just gave less monetary gifts. Perhaps the money you would save could then be donated to a charity that will build water wells for people who need them!!

I know, I know - easier said than done, but imagine how amazing it would be if we all gave more love and also donated a bit of money to a worthwhile charity!! The world wouldn't look like it does now (i.e., world hunger, war, violence, child soldiers, corrupt governments, etc).

In my family a few years ago we decided to STOP giving presents at Christmas. To be honest I don't miss the craziness of the malls, the hours I would've spent finding gifts, the time spent wrapping, and so on. Instead I donate money and spend time with the family instead.

Anyways Happy Holidays Everyone!! Have a safe and happy holiday and GIVE LOVE EVERYDAY not just during the holiday season!! xoxo