Happy New Year - With No Expectations

I used to write in my diary: "New Year - New Expectations."

How did that work out? Not always in my favor.

If you go somewhere without expectations and a calculated road-map of how it all will pan out, you will for certain meet the unexpected.  It can turn out to be boring or it can possibly be mind-blowing.  Either way, you are open for what life has to give you.  Not what you already decided how it should turn out to be like.

Life can then take unexpected turns.  Be ready.  Go with it.  Do not resist what life is giving you, even if you were not expecting it or prepared for it.  Embrace it and make the best of it.

To move through life without expectations is not the same as not aiming for your goals or working hard to achieve something important.  The importance is to have the intention of not expecting the outcome this or that way.  You will be surprised of what is waiting around the corner if you stop expecting things or people to be a certain way.  One of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received from a very close friend is a ring with an inscription.  It says: "The journey is the reward."  It is my best reminder to take in each moment at a time, without deciding how I want the outcome to be.  I am in it for the ride.

The New Year is not a new page, a new chapter - it is a whole new book, and the best is that it is unwritten.

Start writing your story in your heart.  The story that only you know, that only you own.

Some great new stories can be written, some not so good, and some never-ending.

Let your own story guide you to an unexpected life.

I promise you, without expectations and embracing life as it comes, you will live life to the fullest in 2017!

With love in My heart to Your heart for an unexpected year 2017!

International Peace Day - Every Day

fullsizerender  

Yesterday was International Peace Day 💙 That should be EVERY day ... Peace starts with love ❤️ It starts with you and I ... Do we love ourselves? We need to give peace to our own hearts first. Then we have a gift ... and with every gift you give it away ...

Or in this case, you pass your inner peaceful love forward and keep the love and peace still beating to the rhythm of your own heartbeat❣️ Your inner love and peace will circle around and touch others. Keep loving yourself, keep loving each other ...

LOVE is the only way towards PEACE ❤️☮️❤️☮️

Being Enough

imageLately I have been reading a lot about that we need to realize that we are enough as we are.  I am sure you have as well.  The topic is a popular one.  For me it started as a self-discovering journey while I took Brené Brown's class based on her book "The Gift of Imperfection - Let Go of Who You Think You are Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are."

It is difficult to  tell you in words what a change-shifter the class was, as reading her book.  As a matter of fact, I have read all her books.  They all have different messages, but the core of each book is that we need to dare to embrace ourselves for who we are.  Plus equally important, we need to accept and embrace others for who they are.  As long as they are not harmful -  physically, verbally or emotional abusive.  We might not agree of someone's choices in life but it is not our place to judge.  They are walking their own path for their own reasons, and so is each and everyone of us.

Recently I realized that I am surrounded by some people who judge others constantly, which made me choose not to engage in conversations with those people at this time.  All it did was emotionally drain and hurt me.

I wish to be surrounded by open-minded, and even more importantly open-hearted people.  I am lucky enough to have those kind of people in my life, and for that I am eternally grateful.  I have a choice whom I socialize and engage with.  So do you.

This all came to light through the class I took and it opened my eyes for my own judgements.  Mostly I constantly judge and criticize myself in my own head, more than I consciously judge others.  If I am not good enough through my own eyes, how could I be in someone else's?

I will not invent the wheel here again.  I am just pondering what being enough really means.  As usual it will mean a different thing for different people.  When I think of the statement that "I am enough", I have a hard time to relate.

I often feel that I should be a better mother, a better partner, a better friend, more physically active, smarter, and most of all I feel that I should give more love to other people in general.  So I am NOT enough in my own mind.  Is this negative self-talk helping me in any way?  Absolutely not.

My new ritual before going to bed is to go through the day and focus on if I did anything well that day.  Any action with a kind heart is what my mind is searching for.  Not a flaw in my face that I can see in the mirror just before bed, but I am taking a good look inside myself.  Maybe most nights I can only come up with one thing, and that is ENOUGH.

I am enough as long as my intentions are to bring out the best in me towards others.

The flip side of the coin is about setting healthy boundaries with people in your life.  When someone oversteps your boundary and you are able to say to that person: "it is enough", you are letting them know it is time to respect you and your boundaries.  When you can set healthy boundaries in your life, then one epiphany comes naturally; I AM ENOUGH!

I do not need to loose more weight, be in shape or do more for others.  I am enough in just the way I am and do things.  I needed to through in "do things" here, as actions speaks louder than words.

I do not need to fill my schedule with more superficial things.  I need to fill my time with people and activities that will nurture my soul.

If I can say "NO" and "THAT IS ENOUGH" to people and circumstances that only brings emotional stress to me, then I have come a long way.

Then I can say that I AM ENOUGH, as I have said yes to myself by saying no to others.

So far I am a work in progress.

What about you?