Category Archives: personal growth

Mirror Work

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When you look into the mirror what do you see? 

Sometimes we are in such a hurry to start our day that we only look into the mirror to make sure our hair is brushed, our makeup looks okay, or we don’t have anything in our teeth. 
And sometimes we get so busy that we can’t even remember the last time we looked at ourselves in the mirror period. 
One of my favorite exercises in self love comes from Louise Hay’s book: The Power is Within You.
In it, she recommends looking into a mirror every single day and saying, 
“I love you.” 
It’s an amazingly powerful exercise.
When you first begin, you may feel silly and self conscious; but if you keep at it your world will start to shift. 
At first you may notice your inner critic pointing out your flaws (both physical and emotional), but if you keep at it and continue to pour unconditional love into the image you see, that inner critic will begin to subside and quiet down. 
This is where the magic begins. 
This is an exercise that I have dabbled with but never really stuck with. 
I’m  going to commit to doing it regularly again, and I am asking each of you to join me in this journey of self awareness and self love. 
All of happiness starts with you and your ability to love yourself. 
And mirror work is a great way to begin your own journey.


So every single time we pass by a mirror, take a moment to look into it. 
Really look into your own eyes and say (out loud if possible), 
“I love you, (your name).”
If any thoughts of criticism come up, replace them with thoughts of unconditional love for yourself.

Commit to it for just 30 days, and let’s check back and see how we feel.
I have a feeling that we’re all going to be loving ourselves more 
and will be more connected to our souls.
And that’s such a great thing!
We are definitely worth it! 

Getting Healthy and Feeling Great

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In a recent post, I talked about the fact that Dan and I were about to get a Vitamix. 
Well… I’m so happy to let you know that we bought it yesterday and have already used it several times!
Eating healthier has been on my to-do list for a long time. 
One misconception many of us have about eating a cruelty-free diet is thinking that it must be healthy. It’s just not true though (which I learned firsthand). 
Many years ago, Dan and I were eating all of the processed soy-based meat substitutes for basically every meal. And what happened is that the soy actually caused our thyroids to stop producing enough hormones and we became hypothyroid because of it. Scary stuff for sure. We have now been soy-free for 2.5 years and are feeling much better. (It took several months before we started feeling normal again.)
Vegetarians and vegans can be just as unhealthy as meat eaters.
If your diet consists mainly of processed foods, tons of sugar, and chemicals and dyes, chances are you aren’t going to feel that great in the long run. 
I am not a big salad or raw food person, but I know how many nutrients are packed in raw, green food. This is where the Vitamix comes in. By hiding these healthy ingredients in a smoothie, I’m much more likely to eat it!
I’m going to keep a daily log of what I make in the Vitamix here. 
Please feel free to comment there and also leave your favorite recipes (if you are also a juice and smoothie lover). 
Making healthy changes can be fun and exciting! 
They are much more likely to stick if you are having fun and enjoying yourself. And this will lead to long-term health and a lifetime of feeling great!
What are some fun things you can do to feel healthier? 
Could you add something nutritious to your diet?
What about exercise? 
Is there a fun activity that you would like to do (such as tennis or dancing) that wouldn’t feel like exercise but would still get you moving? 
Think about it today and see if you can start with small changes at first.
Remember that the small changes will add up to big changes, and you’ll be feeling healthier before you know it! 
Here’s to our health! 🙂
P.S. – Be sure to answer this week’s poll in the top right section! It’s all about relaxing and recharging!

Saturday Selection – Hay House Radio

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I am so excited about this week’s selection: 

I first learned about this wonderfully inspirational site a few years ago through Cheryl Richardson (one of my favorite authors). She has a weekly radio show there called Coach on Call where she gives great advice to people who call in.
Over the years, Dan and I have spent more hours than we can count making our products, and while we love listening to music, sometimes it’s nice to feed our souls and have a daily dose of inspiration while we are gluing and binding our journals. This website is absolutely perfect for that! 
Hay House, Inc. 125x125
It is an offshoot of Hay House publishing, which is home to some of the best personal growth books and tools in the world. They are both founded by Louise Hay, who is a true ray of light in our world. 
Louise Hay is an amazing woman, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for all of the wonderfully positive and inspirational work she is doing. She has given all of these talented authors and speakers a platform to share their wisdom, and I am forever grateful to her (and to them). 
In addition to Cheryl Richardson, here are just a few of my favorite authors that have radio shows here:
There are so many more – each with their own wisdom and a shared desire to help others.
With thousands of hours of archived shows by Hay House’s bestselling authors, you can immerse your soul with positive nuggets that will stay with you forever. 
To listen, you can either tune in for your favorite show and and listen to it live each week, or you can join their Wisdom Community and listen to the archives. 
If you join this community, you will also qualify for big discounts off of Hay House products and events! 
Just last night we listened to a show we hadn’t heard before called Attracting Abundance by Peggy McColl. 
We listened to two of her archived shows – one featuring Bob Proctor (amazing!) and the second featuring Gay Hendricks (a favorite of mine!).
I always learn so much by listening to Hay House Radio, but it’s so much more than just learning. It’s also about feeling a sense of community and tuning in to hear likeminded, wonderful teachers sharing their gifts to help us along our journey.
I know you will love it just as much as I do. 

Defining Self Care

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This week’s poll asks how often we make time for self care.
Thank you so much to everyone who responded! 
It’s so great to see that most of you are taking some time each day to put yourself back on the priority list.
I really think that self care is the key component to a happy life, and so I thought it would be fun to see what everyone’s definition of self care was. We are all so unique and we all live varied lives. And this means that our definitions will all be different.
If you are a new mom, self care might mean taking a nap while your baby sleeps.
If you are a busy mom with older children, self care might mean practicing deep breathing while waiting in the car pool lane. 
If you are a business owner, self care might mean delegating tasks so that you can ease your own workload. 
How do you define self care in your own life?
  • Does it mean taking time for yourself, which could include relaxing and rejuvenating?
  • Does it mean listening to your inner voice and setting boundaries with others when needed?
  • Does it mean taking care of your body by eating nutritional foods, resting when you are tired, and remembering to take deep, full breaths? 
  • Does it mean taking a hard look at your schedule and realizing that you simply must eliminate certain tasks because you are in fact only one person and it’s just not humanly possible to get it all done?
  • Does it mean waking up an hour earlier so you are guaranteed to have a peaceful morning?
  • Does it mean saying no when you don’t want to do something but would normally have said yes because are a people pleaser?
  • Does it mean taking time to go within and really getting to know yourself?
  • Does it mean scheduling appointments that you have been putting off, running errands that are on your mind, and checking things off your “to do” list so you can have a more peaceful, quiet life?
  • Does it mean taking a day off each week where you only do what you want to do?

As you can see, there are so many ways that we can define self care and what it means for each of us. 
Here are some of the ways I define self care in my own life:
I set aside every morning for myself. 
I schedule this time into my calendar, and it isn’t negotiable.
I write. I go within. I drift through my morning in a calm way and a slow pace. 
It’s my time to do with as I wish.
I take one day off of work per week. 
Until recently, this wasn’t a given in my life. Working from home tends to blur the boundaries between what is work and what isn’t work. And while I’m still setting the boundaries to make them more clear, I do take one day off to read, hang out, and just be Jodi – not the owner of This Is It! Creations.
I eat food that nourishes me.
Fresh, healthy food that makes me feel energized and alive.
I focus on what I love and say goodbye to the rest. 
There is always time
So often I hear people say that they just don’t have time for self care. That they are simply too busy and how could they possibly add something else to their schedule?
I guarantee that by making time that’s just for you, you will have more energy and will be more clear about what kind of life you want to live. I know that you don’t want to live a life where you don’t matter at all. 
Start small and see how it feels. When you go to the bathroom, take an extra couple of minutes to think of what you are grateful for, to take full breaths in and out, to say your affirmations. When you are at the grocery store, get yourself one healthy treat that will make you feel good to eat. 
Show up for your own life, and I promise the schedule will work itself out.
I would love to know what self care means to you. 
Take some time to think about it, and then comment below. 
I guarantee that your comments will help others who are just starting on the path of self care and may not know where to begin. 
We can all share in each other’s journeys and help each other to each live the life we were meant to live. 
I can’t wait to read your comments!
P.S. – Three of our journals are currently the Daily Deal on the DailyOM! We’re super excited to offer them to you at more than 50% off today and tomorrow! 🙂

Dream A Big Dream

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I was listening to a wonderful seminar yesterday with Jack Canfield. He is the author behind the wonderful Chicken Soup for the Soul books, was featured on The Secret, and has written several books on positive thinking and achieving success. He is such an amazing person with a kind spirit, and I love that he is happy to share his knowledge and wisdom with others. 
This particular seminar was a motivational talk for authors who would like to achieve success with their own books, which came at a perfect time because Dan and I are each in the process of writing our own books and look forward to applying his wealth of information to our own lives. 
While he had tons of great advice for authors, 
the one universal theme that stuck with me the most was to dream big. 
When he wrote the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, he always referred to it as a bestselling book – right from the start. He visualized it sitting at the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. He imagined full displays in bookstores. He imagined selling millions of books in the first year. 
And he kept that dream alive even when almost 150 publishers turned him down. He kept it alive when it was finally printed and sales were dismal in the first few months. He kept it alive when the publisher was having doubts about it and said he would be lucky to sell 20,000 total copies. 
He believed in himself, and he continued to dream big. 
He kept raising the bar for himself and dreaming even bigger than before. 
Even bigger than he thought was possible. 
They now have nearly 200 books in the series and have passed all of his dreams along the way. He has had to come up with even bigger dreams, which is a great thing! 
He talked about how if you are dreaming and visualizing anyway – what’s the difference between a safe dream and a “shoot for the moon” dream? The universe and the energy to attract your dream don’t know the difference – your feeling behind this dream is what will bring it into fruition. Your emotion and desire and belief in knowing that you deserve this dream will make it real. 
So you might as well dream in a big way. 
Raise the bar for your own dreams. 
And then take action. 
Once you set a clear dream and truly believe it and see yourself living it, 
you can take action to make it a reality. 

I always have felt that if you meet the universe half way, amazing things can happen. 
You set your intention, which sets everything in motion… 
and the results can be magical if you truly believe. 
So let’s all dream bigger than ever before, and get ready for amazing results! 

Grateful for Connectedness

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It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude! 

Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. 
Okay – now for today’s post:
At craft shows last year, Dan and I would have our I Am Grateful For… journal out on the table for everyone to fill in as they passed by. It was fun to see what they wrote, and we noticed that no matter what their backgrounds were (age, race, economic status, etc.) they all were grateful for the same things: family, love, friends, health, happiness, etc. 
And I absolutely love this because it shows 
how truly similar and connected we all are. 

We all want to be happy. 
We all want to be loved. 
We all want to be known. 
We all want to learn. 
We all want to give. 
We all want to be appreciated. 
We all want to find peace within ourselves. 
All of these things are universal, and we are all on this journey of life together.
It doesn’t matter what our externals are. 
It doesn’t matter whether our cultures are different, whether our ages are far apart, or whether our life experiences are completely opposite. 
We are all human, and we all experience joy, pain, happiness, and sorrow.
We are all doing our best to live up to our full potential. 
We are all doing our best to love ourselves and others in the best way we know how. 
We are all doing our best to make each day better than the one before. 
And I am so grateful for this connection. 
As you go about your day today, take some time to look around at the people you come across. Really feel your connection to them.
Know that while your external experiences might be very different, your inner experiences are very similar.
We are all unique, and yet we are all the same. 
And realizing this helps to bring us closer together.

And for that I am grateful.
P.S. – Thank you to everyone who has filled out our Self Care survey! There are still a couple of days left to respond, if you haven’t yet. (It’s in the top right corner.) It’s so interesting to see where we all fit in on the spectrum.  

Your Life Purpose

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Imagine for a moment that Earth is a schoolroom and that we are all pupils in it. 
And imagine that before you were born, 
your soul mapped out what your journey on Earth would look like.
You mapped out what you would like to learn during your time here.
You chose what your purpose here would be. 
I believe that we each have a unique purpose.
We all have the ability to inspire others with our unique gifts and individual experiences. 
Some are amazing teachers who were born to inspire and lead through their actions. 
Some are gifted artists who can change lives simply by sharing their creations with others. 
Some are loving and compassionate souls who inspire through their open hearts. 
Have you ever thought about what your life purpose is?

What do you feel that you were born to do? 
What talent do you have that is uniquely yours? 
What flows easily and feels great and natural when you do it? 
How can you share your experiences and gifts with others and help inspire them to realize their life purpose as well? 

We are all so unique, and we were all born with such amazing gifts. 

If you aren’t quite sure what your purpose is, take some time to go within either through meditating or journaling. Think about what you love to do – what you are good at – what makes you feel the most alive. 

This is definitely a big question to think about, and it opens up so many possibilities. 

The answers are always within us, and our soul always knows what our life purpose is.
And once we tap into our own inner wisdom and sense of knowing, our lives will flow beyond our wildest dreams. 
Enjoy the journey! 

Living Spontaneously

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Sometimes it’s great to have plans.
It’s comforting to know where you are going and how you will get there.
And then sometimes it’s great to scrap all of those plans and do something completely different – completely spontaneous.
Dan and I did this the other day, and it was wonderful! We had planned to be working the entire day, and when the day completely opened up for us we took action.
Just a few months ago if this same situation had happened, we would’ve just shifted our work tasks around and started working on them instead.
But this time was different. 
We are now living our lives in a more open way – we are letting the possibilities flow in – and we are rolling with it all instead of staying rigid. We are more alive and more free.
We saw this opening in our schedule as an opportunity to play hooky and go have some fun together – and I’m so glad we did! 
So the next time your plans shift and you find an opening in your schedule, instead of filling the time with another task or chore, try staying open to letting in new experiences and do something spontaneous and fun instead!

You’ll definitely be happy that you did!

Enjoying the Process

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Yesterday I wrote about setting aside time to celebrate and reward yourself after completing a goal. It’s so important to pat yourself on the back before moving onto the next task. 
It’s also equally important to enjoy the process and learn to stay present 
while you are working on the task at hand. 

Melissa from the wonderful Bubby and Bean brought this up, and it inspired me to write today’s post about doing just that! 
How often do you find yourself working on a project and either just racing to get through it so you can check it off the list or find yourself spacing out and not really able to stay in the moment and enjoy the act of actually doing it? 
And this goes for any type of project – creating, cleaning, working, errands, cooking, etc. 
The next time you are working on a project, try to stay mindful and present while you are doing it. Instead of thinking about the outcome or the next project or what’s for dinner or how much laundry you have to do – just stay with it and really be aware of that moment. 

Enjoy yourself and find joy in creating or working or just doing.

Let’s all try this today!
Let’s choose a project and make sure that we enjoy ourselves and stay completely present while we are working on it.
Let’s not even think about finishing it or the outcome or the next step.
Let’s just stay in the moment and enjoy it for what it is.

Life happens in the present moment. 
And the more we can actually be present and enjoy this journey, the happier we will be.

Ahhhh….

🙂

Taking Time to Celebrate

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We all set goals for ourselves and work really hard to complete them. 
We do all of the necessary steps – we plan, we take action, and we complete them. 
And it feels great! 
And what do we usually do next? 
We move onto the next goal or the next project. 
And do all of the necessary steps – we plan, we take action, and we complete it. 
And this continues throughout each day – throughout our lives. 
And then something eventually happens where we start to feel resentful of what seems like a neverending pile of goals, and tasks, and “to dos.”
However, if we simply took time after completing each task to congratulate ourselves, celebrate our accomplishments, and reward ourselves – we would be much more likely to start each new task with renewed excitement. 
And the best part is that you get to choose how to celebrate!  
You can simply acknowledge a job well done.
You can finally take that well-deserved break that you have been pushing back.
You can put your feet up and read a good book.
You can go out for a celebration dinner with your family and friends.
You can take the rest of the day off.
You can take that vacation that you definitely deserve.
As a motivator for completing your goal, you can even decide on the celebration ahead of time. This will definitely keep you on task and moving forward with your plans. 
Taking the time to congratulate ourselves for a job well done is so important.
Simply following through and completing a goal is enough of a reward. And acknowledging this accomplishment is oftentimes all we need. 
But there is also nothing wrong with celebrating in bigger ways.
So the next time you set a goal for yourself, try setting a reward or a way to celebrate after reaching your goal as well. 
And then make sure you follow through and actually complete your goal and your celebration. You are definitely worth it, and you definitely deserve it!
P.S. – We are the featured member this week on the Etsy Blog Team! You can read our interview here! Thank you so much! 🙂