I'm back...

I was so happy to be welcomed home by the delightful squeals coming from my little clan of handsome men...
and sad to leave such a breathtaking paradise. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an amazing week.... Thanks to my Momsi and Popsicle for making it all happen.

Wow! I'm still at a loss for words.

I'm off....

 

 I'm absent at the moment.

Enjoying some quiet relaxation and play time in the beautiful islands of Hawaii.

See you soon!

Hello Monday.

 How was your weekend?
Mine was really nice.

It consisted of :

A LOT of painting...

 LOTS of music...

 Some organizing...

Some decision making...

And a fun little date with Mr. Wilson, homemade kettle corn, a movie and a box of heart shaped Junior Mints.

Are you ready to welcome Monday?
Well, she's here.

Hello Monday.

Friday's "little things"

A couple treasures I found that have made me incredibly happy...

1. Watching my green boy run zig zags across the schoolyard in my direction
2. My blue boy's inability to do anything without his hands full of cars

3. Receiving a surprise wrestling pounce from my men

4. Mint green nail polish

5. Lime Cilantro Brown Rice with Pineapple

6. Green boy playing with my curls
7. Mr.Wilson making up words to a song
8. Dried Mangoes
9. Watching the light bulb go on in my students eyes
10. Receiving an early Valentine

Find some of your own treasures and

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Happy February!!

I'm so glad the month of love is here.
I told you that January is always a hard month for me....but this year I wanted to do what I could to change that.

I went on a search for Happiness.
I consciously worked at getting myself out of the annual rut I find myself in come January 5th.

You can read about my search here:
Happiness Part I
Happiness Part II

Happiness Part III

Happiness Part IV

Happiness Part V

Happiness Part VI

Happiness Part VII

I hope you're cultivating some joy for yourself too!

Happiness Part VII

I've saved one of my favorite questions for last:

7. Are YOU striving to build up ALL others you come in contact with?
 
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If you are feeling down, in a slump, or you have not found happiness yet today....
go help someone else feel happiness.

Serve them.

Lift them up.

Help them.

Love them.

and you will find happiness too.
I PROMISE!!!

Happiness Part VI

6. What have you have left undone out of fear or it's level of difficulty?
I can't even count how many times I didn't accomplish something due to fear of the unknown or fear that it would be too hard.
A lifetime friend of mine once said to me....while I was in the midst of one of the scariest and most difficult times in my life:

"You CAN do hard things."


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I believe that.

I not only believe that, but I KNOW that to be true!

It's true for me....and true for YOU!

So, what have YOU left undone?

Make a decision today, right now... to just DO IT.
You are capable of so much more than you think you are!

Accomplishing that forgotten goal will bring you more true happiness.

Happiness Part V

Take a minute to think of all the relationships you have.

Are you a Daughter, Son, Wife, Husband, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Friend, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Teacher, Employee, Employer, Neighbor, or Acquaintance to someone?
Probably so.
Out of all those people who are coming in and out of your life, are there any that make you feel uncomfortable or unhappy....for any reason?


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That's what today's question is all about.
5. Have you brought others into your life that build you up or tear you down?
If your answer is "yes" and the person you are thinking of is someone who is very important to you and who's relationship is worth trying to improve, let them know kindly that you are feeling unhappy or uncomfortable when they display certain attitudes, behaviors, and/or actions around you or toward you. 

If the relationship is important enough to the both of you....a resolution can be found.
If not, it's time to clean house and make room for some positive relationships.

I'm far from a relationship expert, but I do know that it's hard to feel true happiness when there is something or someone weighing you down.

How can we fix that?
Fill your life with people who emit joy and happiness....
People who rub wonderful habits and feelings off on you when you are around them.
Spend time with people who show you and tell you they love and appreciate you.
Spend time with people who treat you better than you think you should be treated.

If you don't have anyone in your life who comes to mind when you read the previous thoughts...find someone.
If you can't find someone....then BE that joyful emitting someone for others.
In doing so, I hope you will find the true happiness in your relationships you are looking for.

Happiness Part IV

I am first and foremost a Momma during this particular season in my life, but during one season in my life I was primarily a performing musician.

As a performing musician you learn first hand how important your thoughts are....whether conscious or subconscious.
You have to learn to control them completely or your subconscious self can take over and erase the hard earned memory of your musical score or destroy a performance by making you believe you aren't capable.

A while back, I was graduating with my Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. I had spent countless hours and years even to audition for the next step in my education...the Masters program.

The day came for me to audition and I walked into the room feeling confident, excited and completely ready. I greeted my panel of judges who had become like family to me by then.
They knew me, my strengths and weaknesses.
They knew my musical voice.
They had already heard most of the performance I had prepared for this particular audition.
They were cheering for me....and I knew they were.



I began my performance and something crazy happened...My mind went completely and utterly blank.
I mean, pitch black.
The keys on my keyboard, that were so familiar to me suddenly looked foreign as if I had never even seen them before in my life.

I couldn't go any further and therefore, I failed my entrance exam.
I was devastated....to say the least.
The chance to fulfill my strongest desire was blown and the worst part was -
I did it to myself by failing to control my inner voice.

My subconscious thoughts of insecurity or any possible chance I would fail lead me to actually fail.

I know this experience applies first hand to our daily lives.

So here are our questions for today:
3. Do your thoughts make you happy?
4. Do you speak (whether aloud or silently) positive thoughts or negative thoughts?

You might find these questions to be silly, but have you truly listened to your inner voice and the things it says?
"I'm not skinny, thin, or fit enough"
"I wish I was as pretty as she is"
"I can't do that"
"That's too hard"
"I'm not smart enough to figure that out"
"I can't __________ like her."
(you fill in the blank)

Statements such as these are all lies.
Lies that keep us from succeeding.
Lies that keep us from being truly happy.

You can't allow these thoughts -or any like them -to exist and that's a hard task to achieve, but with practice we can all get closer to taking full control of our inner voice.

You are capable of succeeding whatever you put your mind to...
and that includes happiness.
When you hear negative thoughts begin, replace them with positive ones.
Come up with a positive mantra or saying that you can repeat out loud to yourself when these thoughts arise.
Write yourself positive notes reminding yourself of your strengths and talents.
YOU are the master of your own fate. 
Don't ever forget that!

And if you want to know the end of my story...
After LOTS of time studying the ins and outs of my inner voice and practice in controlling it, the panel of judges for my Masters entrance exam attended my final solo concert for my Bachelor's degree and counted that as my exam.

In the end I passed and became the Masters student I dreamed about!!!

Happiness Part III

Today's question today is the hardest for me.

2.  Is your overall daily attitude one that promotes happiness?
Let's be honest here...
Nobody is happy all the time even if some of us seem like we are on the outside.

I've decided that we all have our own basic level of happiness...like a happiness baseline. And some of us have a higher happiness baseline than others. No matter what happens to us...good or bad...in time, we all return to our baselines.

So the real question is - can we raise our happiness baseline?
I believe we can.

It's all about choice.

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It's so easy to let the things that go wrong in our lives affect our attitude and daily outlook on life, but we can choose to let go. We can choose to move on and we can choose to remain unaffected. It's hard...I will admit that I need a lot of practice here!

Here are some things I will be doing to practice:
- Take action...when feeling down, only YOU can make it better so make it better!
- Live in the moment and enjoy every one
-Avoid people that make you feel negative or unhappy
- Devote more time to family and friends
- Appreciate the people around you...and TELL them
- Count your blessings...each and every one
(that's what my "little things" search is all about)
I want to challenge you to practice these today....right now and let's see how it changes our day.

Happiness Part II

Are you waiting for true happiness to find you?
Sometimes I find myself in that pattern of thinking.
In those moments, I have to snap myself out of it and cultivate happiness.
Society teaches us that happiness comes from being rich and beautiful, living an easy and stress-free life, being famous, receiving praise from others, having the perfect body and working our dream job. But I know that while these things might bring temporary happiness, they won't bring lasting happiness.

Today I'm going to start going through the questions I posed HERE and some of the ways we can cultivate lasting happiness for ourselves.

1. Does your current lifestyle make you truly happy?

Are you including activities or choices in your daily life that bring feelings of stress, pain or guilt?
If so, get rid of them.

Yes, some levels of stress and pain are a part of life's ups and downs, but you can rid your life of the unnecessary amounts.

Next, make a list of the activities you really love to do.
I mean those things that make you feel ALIVE...
the things that make you feel most like YOU.

Go ahead and do it right now.
I can wait a second.

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 Then, brainstorm ways you can include these activities in your daily life. I know life is crazy busy, but there is DEFINITELY time to do what you feel you were born to do....plus, it will make you terribly happy!
You can't say "NO" that!

That might mean you have to go to bed earlier and set your alarm an hour earlier, or take a shorter lunch break. You can set one day aside a week to leave the dishes in the sink and the dirt on the floor to do what makes you feel alive.

You will thank your happy little self later... I'm sure your family will too.

And if you have children, that might mean you will have to brainstorm ways you can include your children in your favorite activities. This will help you feel you haven't lost any part of yourself in your role as a parent.

This is my first step in cultivating true and lasting happiness...I'll see you tomorrow for more.

Happiness Part I

Have YOU made any New Years resolutions? 

I've come to find that I'm not really into making New Years resolutions. 

I don't think anyone is wrong for making them, New Years resolutions are positive little beauties...
they just aren't for me.
Why? Well, here's why...

To me, resolutions are just goals with a fancy name...goals that seem to dissipate within the first few months of the year. They are goals I have or should be accomplishing throughout the whole year.

I don't always achieve the steps with perfection that lead to accomplishing those goals everyday, but I try.

Making healthy changes, bettering ourselves is ALWAYS something we should strive to do....everyday of the year. And the best part is, if I have a bad day - the slate is wiped clean the next morning and I can start again.

While we all have a long list of varied goals we want to pursue, I have found that there is usually an underlying theme to all those pursuits: 

To find more joy, more happiness and therefore...a better life.

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There are a million things we can do to find more DAILY happiness, but I'm going to share a few with you this week that have been on my mind.

I think the first step to finding true happiness involves taking a good look at ourselves and the lives we are living right now.

Asking specific questions, like some of the examples I have below, will help us all asses some of the factors that might be contributing to our overall happiness or unhappiness:
(grab a piece of paper and write down your initial thoughts to each of these questions)

1. Does your current lifestyle make you TRULY happy?

2. Is your overall daily attitude one that promotes happiness?
3. Do your thoughts make you happy?
4. Do you speak (whether aloud or silently) positive thoughts or negative thoughts?

5. Have you brought others into your life that build you up or tear you down?
6. What have you have left undone out of fear or it's level of difficulty?
7. Are YOU striving to build up ALL others you come in contact with?

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I know that if we face some of the answers to these questions head on we can find some REAL solutions to making our lives the BEST they can be.

Tomorrow I am going to start sharing some of the specific things I will be doing DAILY to invite more happiness and enjoy the journey to creating a better life and a better me.

I hope you join me.