The world is full of beauty.
Although life may not be what you want right now, things are constantly changing.
Appreciate and experience your experience, feel what it makes you feel and move on.
Let the past be the past.
Allow yourself to fully focus on creating the future you want.
Let your heart fill with love and watch the world change around you.
Here’s to a wonderful week-end!
Much Love,
Crystal
We spent three weeks in Italy last summer with my sister, Johanna. How’s that for an escape?
During our trip, we visited Lago Di Garda with my friend, artist and musician, Elizabeth Lee. We had so much fun watching her perform with her Italian band, Cozmic Mojo. Our day on the beach was wonderful, no sand here, just small smooth pebbles.
Elizabeth, the sun goddess, was enjoying her time while we had had all we could take. She caught us escaping the sun and heat in the shade.
We had to have another picture with the beautiful Lake Garda in the background.
For more information about the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
Some big changes are on the horizon for us. Perhaps for you as well. Maybe things in your life still look like they have looked for a quite a while, but do you feel the change in the air? Notice the change in the air is actually your recent desire for something better.
Whether or not you’re able to see and touch your coming manifestation makes no difference. When you feel it coming is when you start getting excited. Don’t worry so much about what’s around you at the moment. Your job, car, money or relationship situation is only temporary, certainly the way you feel about it is. Big change is on the horizon, all you have to do is relax and be on the lookout, ready to receive it.
How does this work? How do you relax and receive something you can’t see, taste, touch or smell? Well, you’ll start with doing some things to move yourself toward what you want.
My partner, Dionne and I have started a Seven Day Challenge. The premise is this, do the small things you can do to make yourself and your surroundings feel even better before what you want actually shows up. Prepare yourself and your space to receive whatever it is you’re looking for.
Ok, you ask, so change is coming and I’m definitely ready for it, but what can I do to physically move myself toward something unknown and abstract?
To help yourself focus forward on what is coming and let go of the old (you’re ready to see gone,) begin consciously doing things to make your life better and commit to do it for seven days.
Below is a list of four easy things to begin moving you toward a much more satisfying life. Do one or more things on the list every day for seven days. Do at least one per day, but if you do more you will definitely notice a bigger difference. The point of this is to take small, easy steps, so do what feels best and easiest to you. If it’s easy, you’ll do it.
You may already do these things periodically but doing them often with mindfulness changes everything.
Move – What feels good to you? What do you enjoy? Find an activity and a friend to share it with. It’s more fun with a friend and when you don’t have the motivation they will. Don’t look at what other people do and achieve. Do what feels easiest and best to you in the moment. Dance to music in your living room, chase your dog around your yard, whatever you want, just move and breathe.
Meditate – Spend 5-30 minutes daily sitting quietly. Sit in a comfortable place with your feet flat on the floor, hands comfortably in your lap, take a few deep breathes and then allow yourself to really relax. Let your thoughts roll by (without following them) and just notice how they make you feel. Are you reminding yourself of obligations or deadlines? Are you worrying about an upcoming event? Our brain is like a computer, it’s an excellent tool, but don’t let it run your life. It’s subject to previous programs that are no longer the latest, greatest, updated information. Garbage in, garbage out. Once you begin to recognize the general direction your mind takes, you can re-direct it, but before that happens it’s all too easy to be terrorized and bullied by a busy and negatively focused mind.
Purge – We all have junk we don’t need. Drawers of crap or whole areas of your house that are filled with things someone else needs and could use. If you don’t use it, want it or if it doesn’t make your heart sing, get rid of it. Every object in your home holds energy. Clearing your space not only feels better physically, it is also making the space vibrationally for things you truly want. Donate clothes and shoes to local shelters or non-profits that help folks. Have a garage sale, pay someone to come haul off your old stuff or sell it on eBay. All of the extra stuff cluttering your space could be used and greatly appreciated by someone else. You’ll feel lighter and lighter as you let go and allow others to appreciate and utilize what is currently cluttering up your space.
Organize – Once you’ve gotten rid of what you don’t want, use or need, you can organize what’s left. Being able to easily access things you want, use and need on a regular basis is an absolute joy and the space you reclaim will feel open and fresh. You don’t have to do the whole thing at one time, start small. When you start small and complete the task you give yourself a boost. Notice what little things you could tweak around your house to make it more user friendly.
Side Note: It was amazing to me how long we kept the tea(daily use item) on a higher shelf in the cabinet than some things I rarely use. I would stretch and reach to get a box and three boxes would come tumbling out on my head. Now I laugh each time I easily reach my tea. Any similar situations in your life?
Key Point – Completing small tasks gives you the impetus to do more. Baby steps are the way to go here. When you try to do the whole thing at once it can be demoralizing when you lose steam mid-way through the project. So pick an area, your junk drawer or the cabinet under your bathroom sink and get started. If you already exercise regularly, do it with greater awareness, focus on each muscle group and see it working better, getting stronger. If you already practice meditation great! Add these activities to your life. If you don’t think you know how to meditate or think you’re doing it wrong, think again. Just sitting quietly for 5 minutes is beneficial. Breathing and pulling yourself out of your busy mind will be a welcome respite that turns into a relaxing habit.
The more you do these things the better other areas of your life will get. Your breathing improves, your balance gets better, the pain in your hip/neck/shoulders eases and you feel stronger and stronger, your health is improving. You’ll notice you want to eat healthier and your old go-to junk food will become distasteful to you. You’ll laugh more and you’ll notice your skin looks better, your eyes brighter. Others will notice this too. The pants that were previously a bit uncomfortable now seem to have plenty of room. The promotion you’ve been deserving at work begins to fall into place and you find the perfect contractor to work on your house. The money to pay for the projects shows up on time so you’re able to enjoy the process rather than worry about how you’re going to pay for it.
We are on day five of our challenge and already things are changing.
Our movement has been yoga and tennis. (We got rackets for Christmas and laugh constantly when we play, we’re not great, but that doesn’t matter.) It is fun and we are feeling so excited about life in general. We are sleeping better and our bodies feel amazing. I feel stronger than I ever have and more peaceful daily. We’ve purged and organized four different areas of our home and yard and are ready for more. It was amazing how many things were out of date and easily thrown away/recycled. Reclaiming our space is truly a joy. Isn’t it fabulous how starting small and doing little things causes such great change?
What will we do at the end of day seven? Keep it going!
Get started today on your own Seven Day Challenge and let me know how things are going.
I am looking for someone to support and chronicle their successes through a series of blog posts. If you’d like it to be you contact me below through this handy dandy contact form. Let me know what you want out of your life and we’ll start moving you that direction.
How can I help you get closer to what you want?
Dear Crystal,
I dunno, girl, I like to think that I am a practical kind of guy, and a lot of your essays on your website seem like so much new age happyspeak. How does this work for a business? By contrast, the ideas in ‘Built to Last’, my business bible, are fairly concrete.
Not that I am not open to new ideas. I have read a lot of philosophy, I used to be a Rosicrucian, and I am a zen. Not a zen follower or advocate, not a Buddhist, not a zen master, although I know the answers to all the zen questions that seem so silly to the man on the street (Why is a mouse when it spins? If a tree falls in the forest, etc.) and only zen masters understand my answers. I don’t waste my time anymore offering my answers to the uninitiated, because they don’t understand.
But, like Ghengis Khan, I do seek out new weapons for my arsenal of business all the time.
Can you make your ideas a little less nebulous. Or maybe I am just dense.
Regards,
John Doe
Dear John Doe,
I understand.
I don’t get the impression you are dense, just uninformed.
Addressing your “new age happy-speak” comment, it’s actually physics.
If it works and makes you happier and brings you more health, money, joy, peace and ease? What would you call it? It’s easy for people who don’t understand to make such assumptions.
We live in a vibrational universe. Period, end of story. Science has been proving and telling us more and more about it for around 100 years. The old Newtonian physics model of the world does not contain it all. I’ll save the science explanation for a session if you’re interested.
The bottom line is, things happen vibrationally first and physically second; not knowing or understanding this doesn’t make it not so. Everything ever created was first an idea in someone’s head before they gave it their focus, time and energy to create it. (We’re creating constantly… jobs that run smoothly OR ones where you lose your ass)
We (humanity/society) have lived this way for a long time… under the impression someone else was in control of our world. That is not the case. The observer affects his own reality.
My ideas and techniques are concrete as well. Each session is different. Everyone is different.
It depends on how strongly you are entrenched in the old way of living in the world:
If you recognize truth(and bullshit) in your heart when you hear it then you’ll have no trouble understanding everything I have to teach you.
I will give you insights and teach you practical tools to put you in control of your own life and business. You’ll learn about the nature our your animal body and higher spiritual mind in a way that releases you from your monkey mind.
I will explain the role your emotions play in your life and teach you how to move through difficult situations with ease and grace (so things like this won’t happen again.)
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Most of the people I work with are already aware of these concepts and are interested in my perspective, energy and support. So, I thank you for offering me the opportunity to really think about someone who knows nothing about this and try to find a way to not only explain but help you understand it.
I find so much of the need for an explanation goes rather quickly once people experience what I’m talking about, then they know for themselves.
So again, in plain English…
I’m also an empath and do energy healing, so maybe that will be shocking to you as well. But they are gifts that serve me well and make me excellent at what I do.
What I offer you works for your business because it works for your life. Everything works better when you learn and practice these principles. You hire/attract the right people and create an environment that is harmonious, efficient and productive.
I’m not here to pull teeth or shove anything down anyone’s throat. There is no pressure from me. You ask me how I could help your business and here it is.
Hope this helps.
Take care, John Doe.
Sincerely,
Crystal
PS… Life is nebulous, until you squint your eyes and put your attention on something (wanted or unwanted), then you begin giving energy to it and lending to its creation. I help people create what they WANT rather than their current creations of some things they don’t want.
Reeds in pattern
A few years ago while visiting our parents at Possum Kingdom Lake(here in Texas) we saw this fabulous site and I just had to capture it.
I love the natural patterns made by the waves and the reeds.
We’re all interconnected and fit beautifully together, don’t you think?
Here’s a wider view.
For more information about the Weekly Photo Challenge, click here.
Seriously. Drop everything right now and go fly a kite. Unless there’s no wind, then don’t, that would be very frustrating. What I’m suggesting is to find simple pleasures that are fun, exhilarating and make you laugh until you cry.
I had never flown a kite until this past week-end. How can I be from some place as windy as Texas and not have ever flown a kite? Who knows. There are a lot of questions like this I ask myself. To which I quickly answer… “Who cares! No time like the present!”
We knew it was going to be windy as hell on the beach so we dropped two dollars on a kite at the grocery store as we headed out of town. There were Barbi kites and ones with Monster trucks on them, but the one with the big bloodshot eyes on it conveyed the week-end at the beach feel we were going for.
When Dionne and I took the kite out for our first run, I was a bit apprehensive. I really wanted that kite to fly, but the only other time I had tried(as a child) was a bit of a downer. It didn’t work out. Who knows what the problem was then. Blazing hot sun, stickers and not enough wind, I’d imagine. This time was different.
We were in Port Aransas, Texas and the wind was blowing around 400 mph. (Ok, maybe it was 40mph, we couldn’t tell.) With the first toss of the kite into the air, it took flight. Those big blood shot eyes staring down at us, a sign of what was to come. We laughed and laughed. I was a natural.
When it would start to drop, I’d take some slack out of the string and watch it rise. If that didn’t work I’d take off running and up it would go. We took turns, handing the kite back and forth, running and laughing at the birds that came around to see what we were doing.
By the time we made it back into the house we were absolutely spent. Wind whipped and breathless, we giggled for the next few hours. Laughing about our attempts to actually navigate the darn thing.
Saturday we tied our little grocery store kite to our beach chairs and let it fly. We saw all kinds of fancy kites with long tails and beautiful designs but our little kite with the blood shot eyes fit us perfectly. You could actually see the resemblance toward the end of the day.
We came home on Sunday to my Mom who was babysitting our wiener dog, Oliver. “Mom! I flew a kite! I flew a kite! Did you know I could fly a kite?!” The childlike wonder and joy could not be contained.
If it’s breathtaking and exhilarating, that’s when you know you’ve got it. Do that thing that makes you feel like that over and over again.
We started playing tennis back in January and it has been an endless fount of entertainment and exercise, but there are windy days that make it less enjoyable. We now have an equally enjoyable and laugh inducing activity for those days.
So, get out there and fly a kite. Play tennis. Watch children play. Laugh. Do something that tickles you. Intend right now to find your childlike wonder and see what fun things start showing up to make you laugh even more.
No matter what is going on in your world right now, laughing will make it better. Give it a shot. If you have a hard time laughing because of the situation you might be in, relax. Things can change in an instant.
The only thing that REALLY has to change for you to feel better right NOW, is your perspective. There is one that serves you. What you want is out there. You can have it and it is easier than you think. Lightening up about life and everything in it helps.
Watch a funny TV show or read a funny book. Spend time with people that make you laugh. If you don’t have any friends like that, no worries. Simply imagine how much fun it will be when they show up. It’s just that you didn’t know to be looking for them.
Sending you much love, laughter, peace, ease, flow and enough wind to keep your kite up! Fly high!
Much Love to you,
Crystal
Life doesn’t have to be filled with drudgery. There is a way for you to get exactly what you want without you having to do that thing you hate to get it.
Of course, you have to do your part. But your part can be whatever you want it to be. We didn’t come into this world to struggle and be miserable. God wants us to be happy, healthy and abundant. We are supposed to enjoy this beautiful earth and everything in it.
This is your life.
Live it the way you want to.
This seems to be a major theme with folks these days and I’m so happy to hear it. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone did what they wanted to do and allowed everyone else to do the same.
At our Be Soothed and Uplifted Meetup on Monday night, every single person at the table described their situation as “in transition.” People are ready and willing to make the changes they want in their lives.
Many folks I’ve been talking to lately are tired of doing things the old way. (The way someone else wants it done.) People are ready to let it in. Ready to figure out this new way of living… for themselves.
That doesn’t mean you don’t care about other people. It means you care enough about them to be your best and happiest self. When we are truly happy, we spread that joy to others. You can’t help it.
When you are happy and fulfilled, you over-flow that powerful energy to all you encounter. You are now an agent for positive change without saying a word or lifting a finger.
Joy, peace, happiness and compassion are like a salve for a wounded world. We’ve lived too long in conflict within ourselves and outwardly in our environment and relationships.
Take a deep breath right now and realize that what you want is ok. You have every right to your own true hearts’ desires, whatever they may be.
And even more good news… you don’t have to figure it all out.
Think of all the unexpected blessings you have experienced in your life. Think of the seeming tragedies(in the moment) that blossomed into something wonderful you previously couldn’t have imagined.
Learn how to say YES and relax into the mystery. Trying to figure everything out ourselves is a long and difficult process. Relax into your current reality and say YES, I can have what I want and no, I don’t have to know exactly how it’s going to work out right now.
God (the Universe/Source) knows how to make it happen and is conspiring to create it for you. There is no such thing as missed opportunities. If this didn’t work out, something else will. There will be a next opportunity and a next opportunity. That’s the way it works.
Live is a never-ending series of adventures. Learn to go with the flow!
It’s simple, you just need support while you get started. I’m here to help.
Seeing you accepting and saying YES to the mystery. It comes with all sorts of perks!
Much Love to you,
Crystal
Crystal Nuding 