One thought on bliss tonight. Just a tiny, itty bitty one.
Just smile.
More tomorrow.
Lovemore,
Jamie
Tonight continues my commitment to more love and less fear this year. For February, I am writing a love letter each day. Tonight is dedicated to …my body.
Dear Body:
Oh. How. You. Ache. Tonight.
Two words: Power Yoga.
And, I must admit, more than my water bottle is screaming “Woman on Fire” tonight!
And, yet, when I push your muscles to the edge, it feels so good, dear Body.
Even in the pain, I feel your strength.
Through the sweat, I understand your power.
It’s funny when you think about it, I have known you for so very, very long. And, yet, just like my oldest friends and dearest confidants, I fear I take you for granted.
And, for that, I apologize.
Because you have always been by my side. In my side, well, really, you are my sides. You know what I mean.
Thank you for being here for me.
Love,
Jamie
P.S. I promise to drink more water tonight! Promise.
Tonight continues my commitment to more love and less fear this year. For February, I am writing a love letter each day. Tonight is dedicated to …hair.
Dear Long Locks:
I had no idea how much I loved you until I lost you.
I took you — my thick, long hair — for granted because you were always part of me. Like Superheroes and their special powers, I thought you would always be around, in full force.
Until I lost you.
Filling a wastebasket full of long locks every night for a week.
Losing you to cancer treatment, was really just a small price to pay in the big-old-grand-scheme of things.
And, like most challenges in life, I grew from it.
But you, my dear hair, never grew back the same way again.
I have tried all sorts of ways to hide your barren patch at the nape of my neck. Cut short. Cropped around my face. Layered at my shoulders. Worn down the middle of my back.
Never made much of a difference.
So, I will forever live with the memory of what you looked like (which is probably good that’s it’s just a memory, since it involved a kinky 1980’s perm with spiked bangs. Do you remember those days?)!
Which brings me back to today.
As I sat in my hairdresser’s chair and she asked me what I wanted to do with you, I just smiled and decided to let inspiration be the guide.
So, we now have bangs.
And long layers.
Happy Valentine’s Day, my dear hair.
I hope you like your new look.
Love,
Jamie
P.S. Don’t worry! If you don’t love it, just consider this another opportunity to grow.
Tonight I again listened to Donna Eden share her wisdom about energy medicine on an international conference call.
She described how energy medicine techniques can help heal everything from disease to stress to even those pesky wrinkles forming in the crease of my eyes.
The cure for wrinkles?
Now that’s good medicine if you ask me!
The reasoning?
Happiness plumps up cells.
Fear makes DNA taut.
As Donna described, fear and disease are bad energy. Fear leads to poor decisions and habits. Bad habits lead to blocked energy, which forms disease. What a vicious cycle.
The good news is we are hardwired for love and joy.
Beyond some simple energy techniques, Donna reminded everyone to:
“Tap into your good” and “Remember how beautiful you are.”
If Einstein said, “Everything is energy” and Gandhi said, “Where there is love there is life” then I say, “Slather thy face with the energy of love.”
Why not?
It could be even better than wrinkle cream.
Oh, happy day, indeed.
Today was Vision Day with Debbie Phillips. A day to plan, dream, focus and create new goals for the year ahead and celebrate the year that has passed.
It was also a day for me to try on something new — a new dress.
As I surveyed my closet this morning, and stared down the clothes I have worn over and over again for the past year, I yearned to wear something new.
And then I saw the new dress.
I haven’t had a new dress in my possession for over a year now. This new dress came to me in the form of a Christmas present (thanks Jill!).
Just slipping into this sunny number made me feel like a new person, taking a step into a new year. In a very subtle way, it made me feel ready for new dreams too.
Because clothes are powerful.
It’s no secret that I love clothes. I love how they make me feel, how they change my attitude and how they define my day.
But, dreams are more powerful.
And I love them even more — for how they make me feel, how they change my attitude and how they define not just my day, but the entire year ahead.
If there is anything I learned from last year, it is the importance of investing in myself, in my future and in my dreams (instead of my wardrobe!).
How are you investing in your dreams?
Here’s to your dreams, goals, plans and purposeful living as we take on this new year.
(And maybe, just maybe, there will be a new dress along the way too!)
What does it take to actually TAKE your first step, to create something, to start anew?
I pondered this question today as I listened to a podcast about change.
The question that stuck out in my mind most, was this: What needs to shift inside yourself, in order to have your dream?
Later tonight, my computer sent me a targeted email (something, it seems, only my computer knows how to do) sending the perfect message at the perfect time.
The message was from iTunes, suggesting I might be interested in an array of Apps from the New Year, New You store. I clicked on the link and found everything I need in an App to fix my body, mind, money and time.
As I looked over all of the Apps it occurred to me that something was missing from the store. While I could buy everything from a yoga instructor to a debt calculator to a gorilla workout and a personal training session with Jillian Michaels, it was missing the most important thing.
The store was missing commitment, passion, and love.
Not that the Apps aren’t powerful and useful. They are.
But without passion, commitment or love, it’s hard to make an App do all the work on its own.
I thought of this tonight as we began the first call of many for the new You Can Do Anything Coaching Group. This is a group of women who are making a commitment to themselves for an entire year. This is a group of women who have passion to make changes, to take on adventures, to live at a new level and to discover more about themselves.
This is a group of women who are investing in themselves for an entire year.
When I think about what it takes to start something new or to create something, I remember that it’s more than just buying something from a store.
It’s a true commitment to self.
And, it’s having faith in the process.
In the words of Martin Luther King:
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
May love be in your heart and faith be at your side.
xo~Jamie
You can have what you want.
What a beautiful message. It gives me hope and comforts my soul.
And it came to me through my computer.
I listened to a guided meditation from Deepak Chopra tonight and it was a gentle reminder about the power of intention.
So, what do you want?
My intention this year is to focus on the power of love and apply it to my head, heart, body and soul. I have no idea how it will change my life, but I’m up for the challenge.
Isn’t it funny how intention leads to sight?
As if it brings exactly what you need to see into focus. I now see “LOVE” everywhere I look. In emails, walking down the street, in my food, on my bookshelf, even in my clothes and shoes.
Yesterday I saw it on my water bottle.
I totally forgot I owned this water bottle, until I needed one to carry fluids around with me to help soothe this sore throat. When I pulled it out of the cupboard I had to do a double-take.
Right there in my hands, sitting on the side of the water bottle was emblazoned the word LOVE.
As if I was supposed to see it.
As if I needed LOVE to be written out in plain English.
Tonight, after listening to Deepak’s guided meditation I am not surprised this water bottle found me again. My body needed some love to get over this cold and it was a good reminder of my intention.
As 2012 takes it’s baby steps forward I hope you hold in your heart what you desire and what you dream of — and I hope you get what you want.
If you want a little inspiration, you can listen to the meditation here.
Day 3 of Antibiotics.
I feel like I’ve been in a little rumble with the Three Stooges. As if Moe, Curly and Larry poked me in the eyes, ears, and throat all at once.
I don’t remember the last time I was this sick.
I haven’t left my bed since Friday. Other than the occasional saunter outside the bedroom door, to the bathroom and back, I’ve been in bed.
Like a pause button has been pushed on my life.
I tried watching some football with Justin, but the mere sight of people running around was exhausting.
It makes me remember something I figured out long ago: when you hurt you hurt. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been through worse. It actually doesn’t matter if you’ve been through less.
When you’re in it, you’re in it.
And that’s when it hurts the most.
I’m trying to find the love in this situation, and all I can come up with is this: when this cold is over I will be so thankful for my good health.
It’s not just a gentle reminder.
It’s more like a kick in the pants.
Here we are, closing in on 365 days and the end of this year. And, what a year it has been.
So much has changed in my world, in this year, that I am dedicating a full day to each of my promises: head, heart, body and soul.
Because if I have learned anything this year, it is this: the magic is in reflection.
Part 3: body
What does it mean to take care of the body?
As my new friend Belleruth Naparstek reminds me in one of her amazing guided meditations, our body is our “oldest friend” and “steadiest companion.”
And I like that.
Because I never thought of my body in a confidant sort of way. At least not until this promise.
To the contrary, I spent too many years scrutinizing the shape of my hips, the size of my toes, the stubby-ness of my thumbs, the arc of my belly. After my cancer treatments I wished for my long thick locks to return, just like after I turned thirty I wished for my dimply cheeks to return to their twenty-something smoothness.
But this is a journey isn’t it, with the body in the lead.
Through the ups and downs of life’s heavy weights and other losses it seems my body has been with me all along. Right there alongside me, every step of the way.
And it wasn’t until this promise came along that I started to give my body its due. Seems almost silly to me now that I failed to invest in it.
It has indeed been a year of self-care.
Some of my adventures in self-care brought my body through totally new experiences, like bodywork, chakra massage, an Avyvedic cleanse and meditation.
Others have just reminded me how great it feels to give nourishment to the skin I’m in, like hot rock massages and pedicures.
More than anything I have relied on my night-time bath.
A nocturnal ritual that lifts my spirits and comforts my body no matter what the rest of the world may be contemplating. We may be at war, or in economic crisis or fiercely debating the next election — but it just doesn’t matter when I am in my bathwater.
One of the best pieces of advice I heard over this year-long promise to take care of my body was quite simply ironic — do nothing.
That’s right. DO. NOTHING.
It comes from traditional Chinese medicine and I have come to hear those words echo through my mind when cerebral buttons begin to be pushed and that other voice in my head starts telling my body to do more, be more, try more.
It’s almost too easy isn’t it?
Do nothing.
Of course, it doesn’t mean eat bonbons and down six packs while watching television with Ben and Jerry.
It means, literally stop and do nothing but let your body breathe.
Sure, the massage and yoga and Pilates and hiking have all been invigorating, adventurous and new. But, all these exercises ended up bringing me back to a place of peace that opened up a space where I could do something extraordinary with my body — breathe.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: it’s ironic after all the searching, and the classes and the adventures that I am right back in the place where my body first started.
Taking one deep breath.
And then another.
It is 9:36 pm on the west coast, still merry, still bright.
I have two words that sum up my holiday treasures: new underwear!
Happy holidays to you and yours.
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The Promise 365 