Friday 31 May 2013

Your Needs.

Why is it so difficult for most people to express their needs?  Why do we not want to ask our boss, our coworkers, our spouse, our children, our friends, our family for what WE need?  In a conversation with a friend of mine the other day who works with a lot of very successful people, he said the one common thread is that they all have no problem asking for what they need. So what separates them from the majority and how can we all learn this skill?  In order to try and figure this out, I have asked myself many times why I often have difficulty asking for what I need.  I have come up with a variety of reasons ranging from, “afraid they won’t like me” to “I won’t get it anyway”.  In my mind there are a few things at play here.  First and foremost as I always go back to, you need to feel good enough about yourself to believe that you deserve to have what you need. In my own life I found after years of “living” that I had lost my ability to believe in my dreams.  Remember that childlike innocence that you used to have when you thought you could be anybody, do anything and have anything.  I wanted to get that back!! We need to have that enthusiasm and belief in ourselves to really feel like we deserve to have our needs met. Step two, communicating those needs. This one is challenging for me and for lots of other people I am sure (for many of the reasons I discussed in my Communication post).  I have found what works best for me is when I am able to say what I need without attachment to the response or the outcome.  While this hasn’t always been easy, when I
am able to do it, it has always been successful. If we can get to this place, then the last part is allowing the other person to meet that need in the best way they are capable of.  This requires patience, understanding and compassion for our differences.  If, for whatever reason, the other person is not able to meet that need, then it becomes our choice as to whether we can live with it or not.  Of course all of this is dependent upon us actually knowing what our needs are!!  And that is sometimes the most difficult part. Our degree of happiness and fulfilment in life requires us to not only know what our needs are, but also to ensure that we are meeting them in the best possible way. I think it is well worth it-YOU are worth it,  to spend some time considering what your needs are and then figuring out what you can do to get those needs met!!  It is a journey that will be well worth it, believe me I know!!   Good luck. . . . keep me posted.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Relationships

This was read at a friends wedding last summer and I loved it, it seemed appropriate for me to share today.

Excerpt from: A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg

When you love someone, you don’t love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.
It is an impossibility.
It is even a lie to pretend to.
And yet this is what most of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships.
We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb.
We are afraid it will never return.
We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom, in the sense that dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.
The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping even.
Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now.
Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits – islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

Monday 27 May 2013

Acceptance.


I have often said that one of the biggest causes of suffering of our human condition is the struggle between being your authentic self and being the person you feel society, your family and friends expect you to be.  This past weekend I had the opportunity to share my personal experience around learning this tough lesson.  First of all let me say that the only possible way out of this struggle is to always be your authentic self.  However it has taken this people pleasing, insecure, wanting to be liked girl a lot of work to get there. For me I found the answers in two places. First of all in loving and accepting myself for who I am and what I bring to the table.  One of the hardest things for me to accept about myself was that I am not happy living a superficial life.  I used to admire people who could go to work and just do their job and not get involved in the politics or always have to voice their opinions.  I would look at women who were quite happy doing domestic chores and doting on their husbands and think “why can’t I be like that?” But as I have found out I am not those people, I am me. I am the one, who always has something to say about everything, who will stand up for the underdog when no one else will, who wants to push myself and others to grow,  and who has a new idea every week of where I want to take my passions and dreams. For a long time I felt like I wasn’t being grateful if I always wanted/needed more. Now I know that that is just who I am J.  I have figured out how to channel that energy into productive meaningful activities that “feed my soul” and I still remain grateful every day for all of the wonderful things in my life. The second part for me was in learning to accept others for who they are and allowing them to find their own answers without trying to give them mine. Most of this I learned through my own self development (and maybe a few reminders from my beautiful smart daughter).  I found that when I figured out the answers for myself instead of letting others give them to me, there was a profound difference in my reaction and action to those answers, and the resulting change in my self and my behaviours.  I was also fortunate enough to witness my friends have wonderful “epiphanies” when I just listened, questioned and supported and let them figure it out for themselves, and then saw the resulting difference it made in their lives. The reality is we are all on our own path and it doesn’t matter what is right for someone else or what society says is the norm, all that truly matters is how important it is to us, if it fulfils us and allows us to be our authentic selves.  At the end of the day if we all learn these two principles and put them into action in our lives then all paths will and should lead to the same place . . . LOVE.

Friday 24 May 2013

Communication.

In the last few days I have been struck by the difficulty many of us have to communicate our thoughts, feelings, intentions and instructions.  Is it our inability to get our point across or is it another’s perception that is at fault here?  I’m going to say both! Hence why we need a great deal of patience, understanding and qualification to properly communicate.  Sometimes with some people it is quite easy and we would love to be around these people all the time.  However, we don’t always work with the same communication style people, we may not be married to them and we may have to deal with them in many other aspects of life. The challenge in communicating with others who don’t share our same “words” is not in the language we chose, I think it’s actually in the listening.  Listening without judgement or assumption. I have a lot of intuitive feelings about people and it is often difficult for me to not allow these assumptions to cloud my listening. I really need to listen objectively and not form my own opinions, I have learned that if I am not sure of the others intention to question and investigate.  This of course becomes much more difficult when it involves someone close to me. The more emotionally involved I am the more difficult it is.  But the truth is, what we don’t realize is if we want to deepen the connections with the people we love the most, we MUST work at understanding each others communication.  Taking things other people say personally comes from our own insecurities and fears and it is easy to project this onto them. Let’s play The Blame Game!  I believe the important piece here is “intention”.  What is our intention in this situation is it really to come to an understanding? Or is it about putting our opinions onto someone else?  Only you have the answer to this question, but I can promise you this, your life will become much more relaxed and peaceful if you can approach every misunderstanding with an open mind, don’t take things personally and always strive for the best possible outcome for both of you!  I’m not going to lie, it is still a work in progress for me, but I am up for the challenge.  Are you?

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Poor Choices.

Have you ever made a poor choice? Chances are you have made at least one or two after all you are human.  The degree of the poor choice can vary considerably and the repercussions of these choices can be short term or last much longer. I am currently going through a crisis in my life based on a poor choice that I made. I am learning first hand the effects on my own life and those around me. It is always a difficult thing to find out that you are not perfect, especially in a world that values perfection above everything else.  For an over achiever like myself it is particularly disconcerting.  “I should be above this, I should know better, Why? Why? Why?”  All of this is moot as the mistake has been made and cannot be undone.  So where do I go from here.  I have always told my children that it’s okay to make mistakes and when you do you need to do three things:

1. Admit it. 2. Make Amends. 3. Move Forward.  Today it is time to take my own advice.

I have owned my poor choice, apologized for it and am making amends the best way I know how, now I need to move forward.  A wise person told me to “travel the road without judgement” and I think this is the key.  We can become so caught up in feeling bad about ourselves and trying to make amends at the expense of our own needs.  This will serve no one least of all ourselves. In order to move forward I will need to not judge myself, accept that I cannot change it and trust that I will learn what I need to learn and be a better person for it.  After all that is the purpose of all of the tough life lessons that are thrown our way. . . . to learn from them. While I have been humbled, I am committed to using this experience to improve myself and thereby the lives of those around me. Today I am sorry, tomorrow I will be grateful.

Monday 20 May 2013

When life becomes difficult, open up to the experience and find joy and peace.

 
Many times a particularly trying time in our life is followed by an experience of joy and peace.  This is where the lessons settle in.  I am well aware of this and always want to have an open heart and mind at this time.  It isn't about analyzing or picking apart every detail of the trauma or drama, it is about allowing it to be.  Knowing it has changed you in some way (as all life experience does) and appreciating that.  After a particularly emotional week this past week, I was again reminded of that this weekend.  What I wasn't prepared for was the way it unfolded.
 
I always tell my friends to "find what feeds your soul" and this weekend the Universe gave me what feeds my soul with little to no effort on my part.  I love when this happens as it reinforces my trust that life does always give us what we need (we just need to be open to it).  It took some work and a few missed attempts(!!), to find what feeds my soul, but eventually I did - creating connections with people and deepening those connections.  The right people showed up this weekend to deepen our connection and say some of the most beautiful things to me, I felt so much love, my soul was totally "filled up" with joy and peace.
 
I am always struck by the number of people I talk to who have no idea what feeds their soul.  Everyone is busy just trying to deal with the day to day "stuff".  A good place to start is to ask yourself some of these questions:  What am I doing when I feel the happiest? When do I feel the most like myself? What is the one thing that I really love and admire about myself? What is the one thing that if someone told me I could no longer do it, I would shrivel up and die inside?  When you find the answers (and yes they are inside of you, you just need some quiet reflective time to find them) you will be well on your way to finding the ideal menu for your soul. Only when we are totally "filled up" ourselves can we be the love and light that we need to take out into the world to change it for the better; one person at a time always paying it forward!!  - With Love, T


Friday 17 May 2013

"It does not interest me what planet is squaring your moon". . .

 
"It does not interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream your heart's longing."

 "It does not interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive."

 "It does not interest me what planet is squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear and further pain."

 "I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, fade it or fix it."

 "I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with the wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human."

 "It does not interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul."

 "I want to know if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.*

 "I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from God's presence."

 "I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the moon, "Yes!"

 "It does not interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children."

 "It does not interest me who you are, how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back."

 "It does not interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away."

 "I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the quiet moments."
 
Thanks Vincie for sharing this with me 2 years ago. . . . it has remained on my bedside table ever since!! xo


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Grief

Grieving isn’t an easy or enjoyable process for any of us, but it is necessary.  I have been tested by this again recently.  Grief comes in many degrees, the death of a loved one close to you, or a long lost friend.  It can also be experienced by the end of a marriage, a friendship or a career.  Whenever something ends it brings up the feelings of grief deep within us. This is not a comfortable thing, but if we suppress it and don’t deal with it, it will only keep us in this sadness longer.  That is why it is so necessary to grieve in the best way we possibly can.  For me it is first of all to allow it to hurt and to feel the pain.  If you are physically injured or sick you have no choice but to deal with the pain, but emotional pain can be pushed aside by our thoughts, our actions and or drugs of choice. Forget all this and just feel it, let it hurt, cry, feel miserable.  The second step for me is to talk about it, talk to someone close to you (or a professional) and explain how it feels what you’re struggling with, if you have any regrets, talk about the person or event and what it meant to you, etc.  All of this helps to clear out those thoughts and put them into words and words have far less power over us than our thoughts do. The third thing I do is journal, I write down how I feel about the situation, the things I remember about the person or event, the things I loved about them, all of this helps to create a positive feeling inside of me. Now comes the hard part (at least for me), letting it go.  Know that everything happens for a reason, know that we can’t control life and that ultimately this is the course of our life and we must accept it as it is.  As I write this I think, well that’s not so difficult, and in theory it isn’t.  But when you are in the depths of despair it definitely is not easy and you feel like the darkness in your heart will never go away.  Be assured you can find your way back to the light, you already have it in your heart it is always there, it is LOVE. If you are able to properly grieve (in whatever way works best for you) you will come out of it with an even greater feeling of love in your heart, this is where you will find peace. 

Sunday 12 May 2013

There is no good bye.

Wow I love it when life teaches me a lesson with a personal experience.  This weekend I had one of those lessons taught to me in a big way.  As my friends can attest to I am always encouraging them when they have an issue or a problem with a friend, co-worker, boss, partner or lover to tell them how they feel.  Sometimes its okay to try and work things out in your own mind, but when you start to obsess, lose sleep and build up resentment it is time to say something.  Then you need to say it in a way that is only how you FEEL about it and not turn it into a personal attack on the other person.  You also cannot be attached to the response or outcome (which may not be what you hope for or want), but I can guarantee you that if you say it with the best intention with no expectation you will feel better!  I am usually pretty good at this, but sometimes it is hardest with the people closest to us as I found out. It started when I decided in my mind that I needed to cut someone out of my life. Yes I had been obsessing, losing sleep and building up resentment because I had not shared how I really felt with this person, I had expectations from them and I was attached to the outcome!!  Imagine that!! LOL Needless to say I experienced a significant amount of pain around this situation. Fortunately I have some very wise people in my life and a very good friend reminded me of a core principle of many eastern philosophies – “non attachment”. “Can you not just enjoy the relationship/friendship with this person for what it is Tracy?  Without being attached to the outcome?”  Thank you my friend! Yes, yes I can do that (although it took 24 hours to come to that realization!!).
I always say everyone comes into your life for a reason.  Sometimes for you to learn something from them and other times for them to learn something from you.  Often we choose to cut these people out of our lives before both of us have learned what we need to learn.  Its okay to grow apart and follow different paths, but why do we need to say goodbye?  Can we not always keep the door open? It reinforces to me how important it is to tell the people in your life how you really feel about them so that you are always doing your part to keep that closeness, if they chose based on their own circumstances to not return the effort at this time, it doesn’t mean they won’t at some point in the future. In talking to a friend today about a relationship issue, I said to her “always ask yourself does this serve me right now? If it does then embrace it and run with it, if it doesn’t then walk away.”  It doesn’t mean you are making a forever decision,  none of us know what the future holds.  It just means that if you make each decision based on what you need at the time that serves your highest self it can never be wrong.  It will also ensure that you have the right people in your life at the right time. Today I have decided, at least for me anyway. . . . .there is no goodbye.




Friday 10 May 2013

Poetry? Maybe.

I love words and and as you can probably guess have always been a journaler. One thing I love to do when I am enjoying some quality alone Tracy time (like lying on a beach under a palm tree!!), is just write the first things down that come into my mind.  This collection of "poems" has proved very interesting when I read back and I always get great insight into myself and what is going on for me at the time. Give it a try you never know what budding poet might be inside you. Here is one I wrote  Sept 9, 2008. Poetry or not? I will let you decide :-)

Let me cry
cry for what is lost
Fear is paralyzing
Joy is a need
Life is difficult
Laughter is necessary
Heart full of love to give
Right here, Right Now
Send out your spirit
Receive what you need to Receive
I am worthy
Happiness is a mental state
Contentment is a delusion
Everything Changes
Evolution of Spirit is good
My dreams begin
The pain is deep
Feel it, Let it Be
Speak your truth

Wednesday 8 May 2013

I Love Me.

As I was looking at my last post it reminded me of a story about "I love myself" that I wanted to share with you. 

When my daughter was four years old and I was putting her to bed one night, she was reciting who she all loved.  I love Mommy, I love Daddy, I love Granny, I love my brother. . . and I love myself. Wow was I ever struck by that statement. I was caught a little off guard, but my instinctive response (although it felt a little clumsy) to her was "that's really good sweetie because you need to spend a lot of time with yourself so its really important that you love yourself"(I didn't fully understand the impact of this statement until later when I realized just how true this is and how difficult). She looked at me and said "do you love yourself Momma?" again I was struck at how difficult it was for me to say yes.  This stirred my interest in the human condition and I wondered, when in life we moved from loving ourselves to having so much difficulty even hearing it let alone saying it ourselves.  I started to ask people close to me if they could say it, and found most adults had extreme difficulty saying it (with any meaning), even my teenage nieces and nephews struggled.  When my daughter was in Grade One her teacher called me aside one day to tell me that she had said it in school.  I couldn't believe how the simple statement "I love myself" struck a cord with so many people, including myself. While I have always said I learn so much from my children, this was a big one!  I really feel like we are doing something wrong in society, in our parenting and educating when the vast majority of us have so much difficulty with this. I consider it my personal responsibility in this lifetime to ensure that I am always able to say "I love myself", for the betterment of my life and the lives of all around me.  Only when we truly love ourselves are we able to shine that light of love out into the world! Give it a try . . . look in the mirror today and see if you can say to your reflection "I love you". 

Celebrate your everyday accomplishments. Give yourself permission to feel great about YOU!

I have always said that the most important relationship in life is the one you have with yourself.  While I know this in my heart, my mind would have me think otherwise!! Just like any long term relationship after awhile we start to take ourselves for granted. We feel like our daily accomplishments are no longer accomplishments but a daily grind of necessities.  We view them as burdens and for some of us we feel that no matter what we do it is never good enough. It’s in this place that we stop valuing ourselves and give up on our dreams.  It’s also the place were we stop really living our lives.  One way I found to get back to valuing myself was to set a goal and accomplish it.  I had talked about organizing a Women In Business group for two years but couldn’t seem to actually do it.  Part of it is was fear of failure, fear of others expectations, and okay just plain FEAR!! Once I stood up to that rascal FEAR, organized it and followed through on it I began to believe in myself again. I also learned to celebrate the small things in my daily life.  Now after I clean my house, I light some candles sit down with a glass of wine and a book or magazine and just enjoy my home and the sense of accomplishment I feel.  It is often the small things that give us the most joy, cooking a good meal, going for a long walk, cleaning out a closet.  Why do these things make us feel good? because we feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose. Its always easy to focus on the negative (that is the human condition) but we need to change the way we think about our daily “necessities” and turn them into “accomplishments” then we will start building up that feeling of “believing we can do anything, be anything and achieve anything” that we all long for!!

I read this this morning in my Simple Abundance Daybook and love it – “We are all given a choice each day.  We can react negatively to the demands made on us or we can choose to live abundantly to transform the negative into the meaningful.  Attitude is all.  If I do not endow my life and my work with meaning, no one will ever be able to do it for me.  If I don’t recognize the value of what I am doing everyday no one else can.” - Sarah Ban Breathnach  http://simpleabundance.com/

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Let some light in today


To one who waits all things reveal themselves, so long as you have the courage not to deny in the darkness what you have seen in the light.

Monday 6 May 2013

"Your true self resides in your heart not in your mind"

The mistake a lot of us make in this life is that we think we ARE our mind and our thoughts.  This is why so many of us struggle with our self esteem and beat our selves up about not being nice enough, successful enough, caring enough, etc. etc.  Part of this is we need to learn to quiet our mind and get back in touch with the goodness and beauty of our heart and soul (where our true self resides).  Yes I said “back” because as small children we did this, until all of the other people and events in our life tried to tell us who we should be, what we should do, and what we should think. The process of returning to my true self was reawakened for me during a yoga teacher training intensive 5 years ago.  When you spend 16 hours a day doing yoga, listening to philosophy and meditating you learn a lot about yourself!  It was during this week that I started to understand some of my patterns.  I had also started practising mindfulness meditation which was also making some things pretty clear about myself.  The one that was a big eye opener for me was the constant planning, when I was meditating and labelling my thoughts, it quickly became apparent that most of them were “planning”.  Planning what I was going to do, planning what I was going to say, and planning what I was going to think!! LOL.  Awareness is always the key to change and I knew that if I was always planning I wasn’t really happy in the present.  I had known this in my heart for awhile but I had let my mind convince me otherwise.  I did make some major changes in my life over the following six months; I separated from my husband, moved my children and myself into an apartment, got a new job and began a life long journey of self discovery.  What I have learned is that if I follow my heart and don’t let the fear and negativity of my mind control my life, I seem to get exactly what I need. The other benefit has been a feeling of love, peace and contentment that I can share with the world!  I have also learned that when I forget this concept, as the human part of me often does, I start to try and control my life.  This never works!!  I become sad, mad, resentful, disappointed, victimized and needy.  Most of the people around me can’t see this (I’m very good at hiding it) but I feel it and I don’t like it!!  Fortunately now it doesn’t take me long to realize exactly what is going on. . . .its that darn mind thinking it knows better than ME!!  I just need to spend a little extra time caring for myself and it will pass quickly. Lots of people say to me that they can’t mediate because they can’t shut off the thinking.  I know it is a challenge and sometimes I absolutely can’t do it either.  But a good place to start is spending some quiet time “watching” your thoughts.  Label them if that works for you and soon you will discover lots of things about yourself.  I started with 15 minutes a day, create a sacred space (or corner) for yourself so that you want to spend time there, make it comfortable.  Use a comfy chair or cushion, light a candle, put on some inspirational music, whatever works for you. You can’t change what you aren’t aware of, so start creating some awareness of who you really are.  Get to know yourself really well, the good, the bad, the ugly because it is all part of the wonderful beautiful you!!

 

Friday 3 May 2013

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”-Dr Seuss


After I hit publish on the last post I realized I had again pushed myself out of my comfort zone.  It can be a little scary to “put yourself out there” and be vulnerable.  Guess its good that I can practise what I preach! That brings up another topic that is near and dear to my heart.  The need to always be true to yourself and let people see the REAL you. As a die hard people pleaser, this has not always been easy for me.  Often I would find myself not really saying what I was thinking or feeling and always putting everyone else’s needs and wants before mine.  Until one day someone said to me “why are everyone else’s needs more important than yours?”.  I didn’t know how to respond to this question because my answer was not pretty. In reality I didn’t feel worthy. I was able to figure out when I created this belief about myself and subsequently realized how ridiculous it was (as most negative belief’s we create about ourselves are).  I also thought that I would not like it if others in my life felt that they could not speak their true feelings to me.  In that moment I made a conscious decision that from this point on I would always speak my truth!  That’s why I love the Dr Seuss quote above and it is so true. I did find that when I spoke my truth there were certain people in my life that fell out of it and that others who had been merely acquaintances became better friends, and my connection with the important people in my life deepened.  This is the reason why it is so important to always let others see the REAL you.  If you want to draw the right people and things into your life then this should be your first step.  Fall in love with yourself, listen to love songs and imagine the other person to be the REAL you. Treat yourself to something that moves you, celebrate every little success that you have, do whatever makes you feel good about yourself. When you  learn to love yourself, speak your truth and let everyone see you for the beautiful person you are, everything in your life will fall into place.  None of this takes money, time or a material change, but don’t get me wrong it will take work and a commitment to you.  Believe me it does get uncomfortable along the way and it seems easier to just go back to the way we have always lived, but trust me the peace, contentment, freedom and love that it will bring into your life will definitely be worth it.  Make a commitment to yourself today. . . I challenge you!! You are worth it!!

Thursday 2 May 2013

"Life begins where fear ends"

I love this quote as it holds a lot of meaning for me.  I am an ardent believer (and yes I am pushy about it), about pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and confronting your fears. This is where truly "living" your life begins.

What is your comfort zone? And how far are you willing to push yourself out of it?  Recently I asked a friend to attend a yoga workshop with me in California.  I was surprised when it took her so long to get back to me, but her response was even more surprising.  She said “it’s not my thing, and clothing optional is not even allowed in my house”.  I had no idea what she was talking about so I scoured the retreat centres website to find a small item in the FAQ that said some guests may chose to go in the hot tub or sweat lodge naked and they would appreciate it if you would respect this.  I could not believe that this would stop my friend from attending an uplifting women empowering workshop!!  As a yogi and sexually comfortable woman, my view of the naked body is just that – a naked body.  While I respect my friend’s decision not to attend, I couldn’t help but think wouldn’t it be great if she could have pushed herself a little outside her comfort zone. I am always looking for ways to push the limits and while I may not be as adventurous as some (and obviously much more adventurous than others) I want to make sure I am always open to new adventures and experiences.  A few months ago while researching spa treatments at a spa I was going to out of town, I found a Balinese treatment that included a “Venus Vagina Smoke”?? I had never heard of this, a quick Google search turned up very little information other than “a Balinese ritual done for women the night before their wedding”, and that this was the only spa online that offered this treatment. A new experience, yay!! Of course I immediately booked the treatment!!  The whole treatment was fabulous, the Venus Vagina Smoke was a small part of it and kind of anti climactic, but now I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I am one in a small group of women that have had a Venus Vagina Smoke!!  Every time I push myself to try or do something new it empowers me to keep doing it.  For me this is how I make sure I am always living life to the fullest, and while others may not share this same desire I intend to keep doing it and wish you would too!!

  

Pursuing My Passion


I have always been a seeker, wanting to learn as much about life and people as possible.  From the time I was a teenager reading books on Transcendental Meditation and questioning the Catholic teachings of my upbringing to finding deeper meaning in many other philosophies.  Along this journey I was lucky enough to find a mentor that helped me discover my passion and put it into action.  This blog is the result of that work.  My passion is sharing my wisdom with others with the hope that it will inspire and comfort you along your own journey.

I would like it to be a two way street and appreciate all of your comments.  If there is something you would like me to discuss please send me an email or a comment.  I will always speak my truth, in my own words from my heart.  If something resonates with you I hope you will use it, and if doesn’t please come back again and again as it could quite possibly just be a matter of timing.
 
Enjoy. . . .

Tracy