Category Archives: write

Affirmations and a Free Gift!

Posted on by

I first learned about saying affirmations many years ago after reading Louise Hay’s books. She is an expert on them, and they were a huge part of her recovery from cancer. 
They can be both powerful and life changing.
If you haven’t said affirmations before, it might feel a bit strange at first. Especially when what you are saying doesn’t feel real yet. 
For example, say your affirmation is, “I live a calm, balanced life.” 

You created this affirmation because this is what you want for yourself – this is how your ideal life looks. 
However, at the present moment, your life may be far from this. That’s okay. We all have to start at the beginning. Say this affirmation to yourself and out loud often throughout your day. Look at yourself in the mirror and say it. Write it onto post-it notes, and hang them all around your house. Even if it feels strange at first, keep saying it – keep believing it – and before you know it, it will sink in, and you will be living a calm, balanced life. 
They really do work, but you have to keep at it and keep believing in it. When you say it to yourself, really feel what that calm balanced life feels like. Really remember why you created this affirmation to begin with. Really imagine yourself living this life each time you say the words. 
Affirmations are amazing tools for visualizing and creating our authentic lives. They are wonderful for our self esteem and our well being. 
Spend some time today writing down your affirmations. This is the fun part of the process – you get to dream and really think about what kind of life you want to create! When you write your own, make sure to write in the first person whenever possible.

To get you started on this journey, we are giving away our Soulful Journals Affirmations Screensaver! 

I created this screensaver for myself years ago, and I still use it today. I am happy to share it now with you! It comes with 12 affirmations – each paired with one of our paintings. 
Simply put “affirmations” in the subject line. We’ll then email it to you with instructions.
Have fun creating your affirmations, putting them up around your house, and saying them! You’ll be amazed at how much your life will change once they start to sink in! 

Gratitude List and Some Kitty Love

Posted on by

There is always so much to be grateful for. Even in the toughest of times, you can always find even the littlest thing to be thankful for. And studies have shown that expressing your gratitude daily helps create a happier mindset, which in turn leads to a healthier, longer life.

You may want to spend some time today and write a list of what you are grateful for. When Dan and I first met, we each kept “Things That Make Me Happy Lists.” We would continue to add to them – and we had tons of entries. From the bigger things (like each other) to the smaller things (like someone letting you go ahead of them in the grocery line). These lists are great to post somewhere in your home where you will see them often. And be sure to update them frequently, too as your interests change. If you are ever having a rough day, you can go back to your happy list, and I guarantee it will immediately cheer you up. 
***
Today I am grateful for my kitties, Biddle and Buncom. 
It is their 2-year birthday, and they have added so much joy to our lives!
(Get ready for some kitty cuteness…)
A once-in-a-lifetime moment…they really aren’t friends.
Cutie Pie Biddle
Sweet kitty Buncom
Here they are on the day they were born.

 Two years ago, we had just lost our sweet cat, Pato, after a 2-year battle with kidney failure. We were absolutely devastated and heartbroken. He was an amazing cat, and our lives revolved around taking care of him. We knew that we needed a change, so we moved to Oregon a few weeks later – ready to make a fresh start. Soon after we were settled into our new home, we knew we were ready to adopt another cat. That’s when Biddle and Buncom appeared. They were feral cats who were born in a snowbank. A kind hearted man found them and quickly warmed them up (Biddle was freezing and almost gone.). He took care of them and the mama cat and really saved their lives. He wanted to find the perfect home for the kittens and so many people applied. When I saw their picture, I knew they were our babies. And so we quickly got in the car and drove hours to go meet them. Thankfully he knew that it was meant to be, and we took them home.

They are both such amazing cats with such different personalities. Biddle is a true Mama’s boy – he follows me everywhere, talks all of the time, and acts almost human-like. Buncom is a wild man – he is a sweetheart on his own terms, quite the baby, and very athletic. The feral genes stuck with him more than Biddle.

 I will be forever grateful that they came into our lives when they did. Dan and I both work from home, and they add countless hours of joy to our lives. And their dog-friend, Xena, has even learned to put up with their crazy antics. 🙂

When we met them, they were just 3 pounds. Now Buncom is 14 pounds and Biddle is 15 pounds – and because their mom was a Ragdoll, we have learned that they will grow until they are 4 years old – big boys!

They love forts, playing with string, chasing each other, being held (Biddle anytime – Buncom when he’s in the mood), talking to us, drinking water from the bathtub, racing through the house, fetching, playing our made up games, and just being around us.
I am constantly in awe of them and how much they have grown. I am grateful each and every day that they are a part of my life.

Happy birthday, boys! 🙂

Who Are You Living For?

Posted on by
This is a really important (and sometimes really hard) question to answer. 
In an ideal world, we are living for ourselves and only doing things that make us feel great and are on our authentic path.

But…it doesn’t always work this way. It’s normal to want to please others. It’s normal to want to be liked. But ask yourself at what expense are you willing to sacrifice your own wants and desires to fit in. 
Think of how you live and the decisions you have made and continue to make. 
Are you making them based on what you think people will want or expect you to do? 
Are you making them because someone else’s voice (a parent, a spouse, a friend) is inside of you directing how you live? 
Are you making them because you don’t want to upset anyone? 
Are you making them because that’s how you’ve always done it?

And now think about how you want to live. The answers are always within us if we just take the time to listen.
As the answers come to you, write them down. And as you write them down, make sure that it is your authentic voice coming up with the answers. This is an exercise that you can keep coming back to with every part of your life – every decision, every action you make, every second of how you live your day.

Make sure you are living YOUR life – whatever that means for YOU. 
There may be friction…
Sometimes when you start coming into your own power – your own authentic self – the self you know you were meant to be – friction occurs with those around you. When someone we love changes, it can sometimes be seen as threatening. It can bring up emotions, fears, and questions about our own life. This is why so many people resist it and why so many of us live lives that we know aren’t our best lives – comfortable, “I’m not rocking the boat” lives. And through this process of finding your own voice, you may have to let go of the voices you have carried within you – and this may mean letting go just in your mind or letting go of that person in reality as well.
Sometimes the perceived friction is only in our heads…
We all know how active our imaginations can be. When we are consciously deciding to live our best lives, we can start imagining how rocking the boat will lead to anger, disconnect, and complete withdrawal from those we love. We just know they won’t support us or understand this new person we are becoming. We get ourselves all worked up just thinking about showing them our authentic self. We are so afraid we won’t be accepted. And sometimes we aren’t. But more often than not, our loved ones completely support us and are completely okay with our changes. And we wonder why we were so worked up about it in the first place.  

Showing ourselves and the world who we really are can be a scary, vulnerable place. But it can also be an empowering place. You get to be you – fully you.

If we stay conscious and continue to examine each moment of how we live, we will learn more and more about ourselves and get closer to living our authentic life.

Now that’s worth living for!

Being Able to Roll With the Changes

Posted on by
Change is inevitable. 

If you are a planner and like to be in control, this can be an unsettling fact. But if you can learn to roll with and embrace change, it can truly be seen as a welcome and much needed adjustment to your life when it appears.

We are going through some pretty major changes with our business, and I have to keep reminding myself that change is a good thing – knowing that without it we wouldn’t grow, learn lessons, or expand our horizons.

Our changes involve moving more toward our passion of writing and helping others – and away from anything that doesn’t fit into that vision.

This means that I am in the process of saying goodbye to a lot of products that have been with us for years. They have become old friends – and I have been very grateful to each of them.

Saying goodbye to them, though, means that I will clear up space in my studio (and my mind) for what I am truly passionate about – which is very exciting!

So if you, too, are going through a transition in your life – it might be a good idea to take a step back and write about your thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams regarding where you see your life going. Take some time to explore any feelings of uncertainty and unsettledness. It is completely normal to feel this way. It may also be helpful to write how your life will look after you have gone through this transition and are living your new life. This will be a great motivator for you to push through and not turn back because it feels uncomfortable.

Change is good for us – it helps us become our best selves.

And that is a great thing.

Saying Goodbye So You Can Say Hello

Posted on by
Sometimes in life we have to make tough choices if we want to grow and live the life we know we are meant to live. We may have to give up a part of ourselves that we have grown comfortable with, even if we know that it isn’t the self we want to bring on our journey. 
I was watching Peter Walsh’s decluttering show the other day on the OWN Network, and I love his approach to physical clutter. He first has you create a vision for your room. Then you only bring in the things that reflect that vision. Everything else has to go. I was thinking that this system could also be applied to mental and emotional clutter. 
Let’s try this exercise together:
Think of the person you strive to be: your best self. 

Now create a vision for this new self.

How do you look (e.g., peaceful, radiant, rested)
What do you think about (e.g., the present moment, happy and positive things)?
What kind of friends do you surround yourself with (e.g., supportive, nurturing)?
How do you spend your days (e.g., reflecting, laughing)
What else can you visualize about this new self?
Take some time with this and get as specific as you can. 
Write it all down, and then hang it up where you will see it frequently.
Once you are clear on your vision, you can start the process of decluttering all of the emotions, thoughts, activities, friends, etc. that no longer fit into your current vision. 
This can be a painful process, and change can be hard.
If you keep your vision at the forefront, though, and remind yourself that in order to grow into the person you know you can be, you will need to let go of the person you have become. (At least parts of you.)
It’s your rebirth – and it’s a beautiful thing!
Goodbye to you.
And hello to you.

Coming Full Circle

Posted on by
Do you ever think about what were you like as a child? 


What did you like to do for fun?
Did you like playing indoors or outdoors?
Did you have a lot of friends or just a few close friends?
What did you spend your time thinking about?
What did you want to be when you were all grown up?

Sometimes the responsibilities of being an adult can lead us away from our path – we take the safe, secure road, which isn’t always our true calling.

If you ever sense that something is missing in your life or if you ever think that maybe things didn’t turn out how you imagined they would, take a moment and think about how you were as a child – before all of the responsibility and adult-like roles came into play.

When I was young, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. I used to write poems and cards and give them to all of my loved ones. I loved making people feel good. Even after college, my long-term goal was to write books that helped people.

And I know that everything in my life led me to this moment. I am living my dream, and you can, too!

Just take some time to get clear about what your dream is. When you were young, how did you envision your life would be as an adult? Are there any aspects of it that keep coming back? Is there any part of it that has more of a charge for you? Do you feel a calling toward something that you keep pushing aside?

If we take the time to go within, we will find that the answers are always in us. 

Have fun with this – it’s a great exercise, and I know you will learn a lot!