Creating Space

I have a very full life. I am a mother, partner, and a daughter. I live with my husband, two teenagers, a dog and two cats. Enough said. I decided I needed some time for myself.

I recently reintroduced myself to yoga which I take at my local community centre. I have been taking it religiously twice a week for two months now. Something very special started to happen besides the calming effect that yoga has for me. I started to feel new space, space between my ribs, and along my muscles, and especially in my mind. I started to think about all aspects of space and how it affects us. As a society I notice the tendency is to be unapproachable, closed off and indifferent. It seems somewhat difficult to engage people in conversations or to connect. In today's world, our teenagers, have cell phones, ear buds, Ipods and they graduate to adults who have blackberries and bluetooths. We text and instant message each other in the same building. We tweet instead of speak. All of these tools we have to communicate instantly are great for the sake of progress, but at what cost? It takes away your ability to connect at a deeper level spiritually and consciously with everyone including yourself. It creates the opposite of space - anti space. It creates, chatter and distractions. It closes you off to the possibility - endless possibilities to connect with people, nature and spirit. We have an army of citizens closed off, unattached and unconnected. Space can give you the opportunity for beautiful things to happen, if you let it. If you are open to creating space wherever you can, just see and observe what happens. Whether you create space to have conversation with a stranger, or create space in your body or mind, just notice what happens when you give your self a chance. Try it out and let me know what you notice.

It's All About Perspective, What Do You See?

I went for a run this weekend, I saw a blind man giving his daughter a piggy back ride. He clearly knew where he was going and they were both in the moment and having a great time together. This made me think, he didn't need eyes to tell him where he was going or that it was a beautiful sunny day outside.

I saw a young child, about 1 year and half old toddling about. I thought, well this young boy sees the world through his innocent eyes and only at his height level which is about 2 feet. Just try and imagine yourself when you were two years old and what you saw and felt. Things like bad news and concern are just not a 2 year old's reality.

Sometimes we are physically forced to only see certain things, that are within your optic view based on our own physical limits. But what I know is we always have an option to choose what we see. Do we want to focus on the imperfections of each situation or look at the beauty instead? How do you interpret the world, what do you choose to see in every moment? It is possible to reframe the way you see things.

Today my friend's daughter, Lauren Cummins is having a fundraiser put on for her and her family. Lauren has lost her vision since she's been 2 and she's had quite a challenging 4 months in and out of ICU. Yet Lauren stays positive and strong and inspires everyone she meets. Lauren chooses to see with her heart. I read Lauren's blog daily, as she inspires me to be grateful and live in the moment.

http://www.laurensvision.com/
http://www.laurensvision.com/30112.html



I write this month's blog and dedicate it to Lauren. Lauren is a trailblazer and she knows what is important in life and celebrates it every minute. We could all learn a lot from Lauren.

So the next time you are out for a walk or at work, take a look around your environment and consciously think about what you are choosing to see. See if it serving you and if its not see if you can create another view or way of looking at it. Remember life is beautiful - if you choose it to be.

I choose life in all of its incredible splendor.

Connecting and Community

It's a very exciting time in my city. It's opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Our city and country has banned together to represent and share in this monumental lifetime event. Its almost impossible not to feel pride to be a Canadian and why should we not? we are so blessed to be Canadian and all that it represents. Last night I had the opportunity to be invited as a guest to one of aboriginal shows featured for the Olympics. The band's name is Black Arm Band from Australia. http://www.blackarmband.com.au/ They played along with the 33 members of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Canadian Jazz section. It was an amazing storytelling emotional evening. The whole night was featured around aboriginals and indigenous communities and their stories. The Australian band was invited by our Four Host Nations people. It was so beautiful to see the four different First Nation's bands all connect together in the spirit of the Olympics and to invite another group to share their story. It was a beautiful web of connecting and sharing as a community.

The topic of community has come up more than a handful of times this last month and I knew I had to write about it. I have a friend at work that is in a drumming circle and every time she has class, she comes back re-energized and full of life. She feels connected and part of her drumming community. I have another friend that has committed to a 30 day yoga challenge and she loves it so much that she's going for her 2nd month now - so she's going for 60+ days of yoga. I see the light in her face by participating in her yoga community.

We are all connected in one way or another. By work, friends, family, the variables can go on endlessly, however how we CHOOSE to connect as a community is a by conscious choice. What I have learned is that we all need to connect and feel like we are a part of community, no matter how big or small. Its part of our ancestral ties, we yearn to be connected. I think this is part of going back to basics and getting connected again with our brothers and sisters, however that may look like for you individually. This is what the world needs right now. I ask you to take some time to ponder your connections and community and see how you can expand on your current ones and maybe step out of your comfort zone and grow your community and then tell me about it! I'd love to hear all about it.

I'm personally expanding my community this week. My good friend Cheryl and I will be leading our very first vision board workshop for a group of young women ages 10-16. My 13 year old daughter and 2 of her friends will also be participating. I'm very excited to connect with these young women.

Shiny and New Year - Welcome 2010!

I took the month off of December from blogging. I commit to writing once a month, by starting my blog on the 15th of each month. That will ensure it's complete and ready to send to all of you by the end of each month.

Well...new year, new decade and a rare blue moon. So many exciting pieces to this new year. I wish you all a very successful and joyous New Year. 2010 feels different to me as it does to many. Doesn't it feel different to you as well? There were so many challenges in 2009 as well as many groundbreaking events. I think 2010 was much anticipated and welcomed. During my chill time in December, I started to think - how is this year going to be different for me? both personally and professionally. I thought if I just go along with the ride of energy and think 2010 is somehow going to be magically different just because it's a new year, decade or any other reason, I'll be sadly disappointed at the end of 2010 and wondering where did that year go? 2010 for me is about creating a plan, taking action and enjoying the fruits of my labour. It's all about energy, no matter how we dice and slice it. Its all an exchange of energy. So I'm committed to taking action. As you can see in my starting paragraph I committed to starting my blog on the 15th so that it'll be done by the end of the month. I've taken the time to plan my year with specific intentions. I have monthly contributions with my good friend Cheryl and we will give back either with time or money back to the community. I can see on paper how this year is developing and its already making a huge difference in my life and others. I've also secured a domain for a non profit organization that I will be creating, doaworldofgood.org where people can come together and do good acts and join forces to make this world a better place and bring the energy to a higher consciousness and level. A site to be inspired and contribute globally.

So that's it folks - its all about energy. Mine and yours, how much do we want to put in to our day to day tasks, as well to our bigger projects. How much energy are YOU going to exchange in 2010 and how will that look like at the end of the year in reflection?

Green Christmas

Okay, I know that Halloween is just over and now I'm already thinking of Christmas. But I am very excited about Christmas this year and do you want to know why....of course you do! It's because I'm going green this year and I want you to be excited too. What that means for me is:

No purchasing of presents (only handmade items and only if I really feel compelled to give. There are so many other ways of giving, spending time with loved ones, baking cookies, or donating my time at charities. Since there will be no presents, I won't be bothering with wrap, tape or gift boxes either. I will not be sending Christmas cards, imagine how much waste is created on just cards alone? just imagine the dumps with everyone's cards in them, what a waste. I think I'll stick with Christmas emails instead. So this year really is a time to celebrate. For me its my understanding of a true traditional Christmas, going back to basics of what Christmas means for me. Being grateful for what I have, and thinking of others, and spending time with loved ones. I've already had my conversations with friends and family about having a green Christmas. It was such a delight to see how freeing it was when permission was given to them to not buy, or spend resources on a holiday that many feel so many added pressures. I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I truly am looking forward to Christmas in an entirely different way. I invite you to participate in any way you that you can in having a green Christmas.

Here are some creative ways to enjoy Christmas without the waste:

1-Get a living tree and make sure you recycle in the chipper after you're done or buy a potted tree and replant in the garden after wards
2-Don't use plastic/paper plates
3-Use recycled wrapping paper if you must or be creative and make your wrapping paper out of newspaper or recycled paper
4-Give experiences, not gifts
5-Use efficient LED tree lights
6-Reuse your old carrier bags when shopping or use a cloth bag or a bag for life.


What Christmas Means for the Planet

If we don’t watch our consumption over the holidays, it can mean real consequences for the environment. Recycling is the best way to show your environmentally friendly Christmas spirit.

1. Without recycling, up to one billion Christmas cards and as much as 83 square kilometers of wrapping paper could end up in landfills

2. Excessive consumption will kill the planet. It is estimated that the pollution from the manufacturing, transportation, use and disposal of Christmas gifts is greater than that caused by automobiles each year

3. Christmas lights left on for ten hours a day over only twelve days will produce enough carbon dioxide to inflate 12 balloons

All these damaging effects can be avoided if everyone pays attention to consumption over the holidays.

Your Heart Knows What is Beautiful

As I gaze at my beautiful 13 year old daughter Sofie, her skin is smooth, her eyes are so bright and hair so shiny. I reflect on my own journey of aging and ponder the concept of beauty. Beauty is such a personal matter of opinion. In different parts of the world, there are such contrasts of what beauty should look like. In Africa, women wear long metal plates that basically stretch and elongate their necks so they have a giraffe like features. In Maurita, they find larger women ideal and no self respecting Mauritian man would marry any woman that was skinny in comparison with our North American ideal where you can never be too thin or rich. In Asian culture, flawless, pale white skin is the ideal. In Brazil, it's the ever longing search for a perfect nose, plastic surgery is rampant everywhere in South America, especially Brazil. Women as young as 16 are getting plastic surgery procedures.

In fact in most of these cities, they start the "ideal" of beauty at a very young age, sometimes as early as 5 or 6 years old. These beauty ideals are forced upon their daughters, so that they will have the most opportunity as they get older to be beautiful and be attractive to men and possibly marry. It's what was done to them and what will continue to happen to their granddaughter and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the mothers, its what they know and they are trying to give their daughters the best chance they can, really no different than what I am doing as a mother. Especially in some countries where marrying a man is really your only survival mechanism.

I personally think knowledge is beautiful and what I understand from my own journey is that beauty is not just from the eye of the beholder but what we are taught, told and what we pass on to our daughters, and others we come in contact with. I'd like to set an intention for all of us, to start telling ourselves and others what we feel is beautiful. I won't even begin to tell you what or how that should feel like, that is completely up to you. Make up your own ideals of beauty. Instead of looking with your eyes and accepting what is told to us to be beautiful by the media or by society. Feel what is beautiful, feel it deep within your heart, I think if we all start feeling beauty instead of trying to create it, we will all be in a much better place in the future.

What are you practicing for?

Last few weeks I've been thinking of the word "Practice". In the dictionary it refers to it both as a noun and a verb. As a noun it is described as habitual or customary performance or repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency: Practice makes perfect. Makes sense right?

As a verb the word practice means to perform or do habitually or usually: to practice a strict regimen or to follow or observe habitually or customarily: to practice one's religion.

Whether you use the word practice as a noun or a verb, to me it is the same thing. I find it very interesting that as human beings we are constantly practicing whether we are conscious of it or not. We may practice not smoking, or practice going to the gym, or practice financial freedom. What dawned on me is the word practice in itself is so sacred and important and what I did not realize is that EVERYTHING we do is a practice. How we treat each other, what we put in our mouths, how we think and feel. I think if we all took the approach that each activity that we do or not do is a practice and take it on as an important ritual. This way of thinking will change everything we do. Why is it just our yoga or meditation is a practice? I want to take the same sacred attitude and discipline towards my relationships with my family as I do with my exercise practice.

So I leave with this month's departing words and thoughts - What are you practicing for?