Archive for love
Will You Give 29 Gifts?
I just had to tell you about this – a Facebook friend of mine recently started a challenge whereby she decided to give a gift every day, to any person, for 29 days in a row.
I became increasingly intrigued by her Facebook updates each day, and so I looked a little further into why she was undertaking this challenge.
She had supplied links to her inspiration – to a website called 29-Day Giving Challenge – so I clicked on through and had a look.
There’s SUCH an amazing story behind how all of this started. Watch this video for an inspirational overview:
Cami, the lady who began it all, has also written a book – 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life – that explains even more (there’s a Kindle version available, for instant download).
Putting our focus on how much we have to offer, on how much we can contribute to the joy and wellbeing of others, is SO powerful. It really does make you feel good to do something surprising or lovely for someone, doesn’t it? Win-win, I say!
I was so inspired by my Facebook friend’s creativity, and her obvious delight with the challenge, that I’ve decided to undertake my very own 29 Gifts challenge! From Wednesday 1 May I will be giving a gift every day, and I’ll be posting my progress on Facebook.
How about you? Do you feel drawn to join me? Gosh, imagine the ripple effect if we all did this, and our friends and family saw us and became inspired and THEY did it, too…
PS These gifts don’t have to cost money (although they can) – they can also just be acts of love! If you decide to take up this challenge, let me know in the comments below!
The Happy Movie
I recently heard about this movie – have you?
Imagine it. An entire movie about happiness. Love it! Watch the clip and soak in the happy vibes…
It looks fab, but it isn’t currently available in my area for viewing online. Have you seen it? If so, let me know what you think, won’t you?
Looking Good, Feeling Good
You’ve probably heard me say this before, but when you feel good, the ‘good stuff’ of life is attracted to you.
And while feeling good is an inside job (with the thoughts you think and with the nutrition you put into your body temple), looking good on the outside helps boosts those inner feel-good vibes.
If you’re ready to look good, and feel good, and therefore ramp up your attracting power, you’ll love the Little Black Dress makeover event, which starts tomorrow.
You’ll be guided through three teleclasses with my friend Shakaya Leone, of Earth Empress, who will reveal her seven-day, high-raw ‘Beauty Diet’, as well as a host of tips on how to look stunning for a special occasion.
She has generously shared one of the recipes that will feature in the makeover event – Marshmallow Mango Parfait (that’s it in the pic below). Is your mouth watering yet?! Shakaya really knows how to make sensuous, sumptuous food that tastes amazing and is beautiful for your body and soul.
There’s a crazy-low introductory investment in this event, but expect to pay more to join, once the event has started. It begins tomorrow, so click on over and sign up, if this Little Black Dress Makeover event resonates with you.
If you have a special occasion coming up, or you just want to look and feel your very best every day, then you will LOVE this program!
PS I’m a special guest on the second call, and will be helping you to organise your fridge and kitchen – and I’ve provided a wardrobe-decluttering workbook as a bonus when you join the program!
PPS The lady in the black dress in the picture above is Shakaya herself. Yes, this lady walks her talk…
Breakthroughs for Everyone!
I don’t often watch TV on a weekend afternoon, but I recently heard that Tony Robbins (the high-energy, big-heart, personal development guru who pretty much started the life-coaching industry) had a show on Sunday afternoons called ‘Breakthrough’.
So, of course, I had to watch.
And it is sensational. I LOVE it.
Have you seen it? Ordinary people who may have been suffering from an extraordinary, negative event in their lives are taken under Tony’s wing and given opportunities to have major, major breakthroughs. There’s quite a bit of tough love, but sometimes you need a little tough love in order to realise how strong you really are.
I think that everyone who watches this show can take away a fresh perspective that they can then bring into their own lives. I highly recommend treating yourself to an inspirational hour of TV by watching this show – just search online for your local TV guide and see when it’s on in your area.
Thank you, Tony, for bringing such amazing stories and inspiration to mainstream TV. (I believe Oprah’s OWN station is now running it? Go, Oprah!) Thank you for showing that WE are the responsible for the results in our lives, and that life can be phenomenal.
Made with Love
It’s only two days until the ‘day of lurve’, and if you’d like to give some really pretty Valentine’s cards this year, head here to download some free printable Valentines.
Aren’t they sweet? I already have a cute card for my hubster, but my girls will love these…
A Love Letter to Yourself
My loves, that special day is just around the corner.
You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout.
St Valentine’s Day! Woohooooo!
Many of us could do with loving OURSELVES more deeply, and treating ourselves with the utmost care. Do you treat yourself like a queen, or like a goddess?
One way of loving ourselves is by focusing on supreme self-care, lavishing attention on enhancing our natural beauty. (What a way to raise your vibration!)
My friend and colleague, Shakaya Leone of Earth Empress, will be hosting a beautiful call this Valentine’s Day, revealing raw beauty secrets to make you glow.
Another amazing colleague of mine, Karen Knowler of The Raw Food Coach, will be co-hosting the call, so you can bet that you’ll receive many, many pearls of inspirational wisdom.
Shakaya Leone & Karen Knowler
And the best part? This call is a real gift – it’s free!
You’ll discover how to:
- Have hair that looks ‘expensive’
- Whiten your teeth safely and naturally
- Enhance your speaking voice
- Have the softest SKIN ever in MINUTES
- Get an instant FACELIFT (Cleopatra used this – it works like magic!)
- Clear up sudden breakouts and minimise really red ones in the meantime
- Uplift and Elevate your MOOD instantly
So, how about it? Why not give yourself a gift this Valentine’s Day, receiving supermodel secrets that will enhance your own, unique beauty?
Head here to register for this phenomenal call. Honestly, you’ll LOVE yourself for it.
All You Need Is Love
While it’s true that February is the month that hosts that most super-soppy of days – Valentine’s Day – that day (or indeed, the entire month) itself certainly doesn’t have to be a celebration only of ‘romantic’ love. You can celebrate love in all its forms – love for yourself, love for other people, love for animals, love for the planet, love for the work you are doing in the world, love for life itself.
(This is especially good news for those who are devoutly single!)
I truly believe that, above all other things, we are here to BE love.
We’re also here to grow, discover and create, but love is at the absolute heart of it all.
To prove my case – when a person knows they are about to die, and they have time to make a phone call, wouldn’t most people call family or friends to tell them that they love them? They wouldn’t waste time calling people with messages of hate, would they? When you get down to it, we yearn for love – it’s the true essence of our being.
And guess what? Love has an ultra-high vibration, so putting yourself in a loving vibration helps not only dissipate vibrations of a lower nature (such as worry, anger and jealousy), but naturally attracts more ‘things’ of a higher nature. You know, the good stuff – more love, more great experiences, more feelings of connection.
Wayne Dyer, in his beautiful book The Power of Intention, says:
We entered the physical world of boundaries and beginnings through the universal force field of pure love. This face of intention that is an expression of love wishes only for us to flourish and grow, and become all that we’re capable of becoming.
Doesn’t it make you feel good, just reading that? Knowing that the universe (of which we are all a part) loves you, and wants the best for you? In the world of law of attraction teaching, we talk about the importance of ‘feeling good’, and of the importance of feeling good as often as possible. Well, allowing and creating love will definitely get you into that feeling space!
This month, I invite you to look for opportunities to love, love, love. To foster self-love, start practicing ‘instant forgiveness’. For loving others, practice compassion and ‘walking a mile in another man’s moccasins’. Love animals by spending time with them, and love the planet and your work by lavishing them with care. Love life itself by expressing appreciation for all that you have (fill your heart with gratitude whenever you notice something amazing!).
See? Valentine’s Day doesn’t just have to be for starry-eyed romantics – and don’t you just love that?
PS The two little girls in the picture above are MY two little girls, when they were about five years of age!
© Joanne Newell, 2013
Would you like to use this article in your ezine or on your blog or website? You certainly may, as long as you include the following at the end of the article:
Joanne Newell, of Rich Radiant Real coaching, publishes the Your Abundant Life free monthly ezine, designed to inspire you to create the life of your dreams. For even more inspiration, head to www.richradiantreal.com to grab your complimentary guide called 7 Ways to Recharge Your Vibration & Attract the Riches of Life.
Mirror Work for Children
When I attended the I Can Do It! Melbourne Hay House event last year, I was reminded about the power of mirror work, by the inventor of this powerful process, the inimitable Louise Hay.
The process involves looking at yourself in a mirror, looking deep into your eyes, and telling yourself that you really, really love yourself.
It helps you to begin loving yourself and is wonderful for building feelings of self-worth. (For more detail about the process, I suggest investing in the wonderful You Can Trust Your Life DVD set, where Louise demonstrates how to ‘do’ mirror work. It’s a recording of an event held by Louise and by Cheryl Richardson in London and it’s entertaining and engaging, while being intensely profound.)
I thought that it would be great for my girls to start mirror work at a young age, so that they grow up knowing that loving yourself is the foundation of happiness.
So, for their recent 10th birthdays, I gave them each a ‘Best Friend Mirror’.
I kept an eye out for pretty compact mirrors (I eventually found these pink rose mirrors at Lark online, but they don’t seem to sell them now) and made my own insert for them, explaining what they are and how to use them. I really wanted them to know that they can rely on themselves to be their own best friend, by truly accepting and loving themselves.
The insert says: ‘Best Friend Mirror – If you choose, you can use this mirror so that you can become your own best friend. Simply look deep into your eyes and say, ‘I love you, [insert child's name here]. I really, really love you.’
The girls think they’re great, and they keep them on their bedside tables.
I thought I’d let you know about this cute gift idea – if you have a young person in your midst, a gift like this might be something that could help them create a foundation of strong self-worth (a gift that would ‘keep on giving’ over the course of their lives!).
Perhaps this could be the perfect Valentine’s gift for someone you care about? Perhaps even for… yourself?
What Will You Give YOURSELF This Christmas?
- Movie vouchers for cinema-loving Aunt Rachel. Check.
- Scrabble tea-towel and new limited edition Scrabble game for Peter’s Mum. Check.
- Cute organic-cotton onesie for new baby Anastasia. Check.
Excellent! Time to dust off our hands and celebrate yet another successful Christmas of choosing thoughtful, meaningful and high-quality gifts for our loved ones.
Hold on. Wait right there. Isn’t there someone you’ve forgotten?
What about you? What are you giving YOURSELF?
If the thought of doing this seems faintly ridiculous, let’s just sit down and have a heart-to-heart chat.
I mean it! Sit yourself down, right now. Put your feet up, even. Take a deep breath, relax and let me enlighten you.
If you celebrate the Christmas season (even if just seeing it as a season for love and giving) then it’s quite possible that you’ve been spending a lot of time lately considering the needs or wants of others.
Bending yourself to fit. Outdoing your own expectations of what you can ‘deliver’ in terms of experiences for others.
If that’s you – how’s that workin’ for ya? (In the immortal words of Dr Phil.)
You may well feel satisfied and full of the goodness of the season, but I bet there’s also a part of you that wishes you’d lavish the same amount of love and care on yourself.
That you could get to Christmas Day without feeling exhausted, run-down and depleted.
You DO deserve to take care of yourself this festive season (in fact, all year round). Not just so that you can serve others better, but so that you feel good! This could be just making sure that YOU make it onto your Christmas shopping list by purchasing something special you’ve had your eye on, or it could be something a little different.
Read on, my friend!
Self-care should be a very high priority for you this month. In case you’re too frazzled to think of a few ways of doing this for yourself, here are my ideas:
- Be OK with sometimes taking the ‘low road’ and giving some time-consuming holiday traditions a miss this year. Replace them with traditions that are easy to implement or that you can ask others to do.
- Actually USE that bath of yours! Fill it with warm water, pour in a fragrant oil, and melt into it. Even if just ONE evening this month, OK?
- Try nine nights of going to bed at 9pm (I call this my ‘nine for nine’). Believe me, you’ll feel as though you’ve been reborn. And it’ll give you the stamina to bounce through the occasional late-night festive event.
- Keep a notepad beside your bed so that you can jot down any ‘to dos’ that crop up while you’re drifting off to sleep.
- Eat really, really well and keep chugging back water. This will help counter the effects of any deep indulging that you choose to do. I mean, wouldn’t you love to feel fabulous, come Christmas Day?
So, there are a few self-care tips that are guaranteed to ease you through the Christmas season with grace and joie de vivre.
But what if you could give yourself some other very special gifts this year? What about the gift of time to contemplate the year that was, and to get excited about 2013? What about the gift of booking yourself into a ‘Create Your Dream Life’ VIP Day with me, to be experienced in January? (Talk about setting yourself up for success!) What about the gift of a phenomenal, unique, supportive decluttering-for-prosperity program that helps you clear your home’s energy and herald in a fresh New Year?
Whatever you do, please give yourself a gift this Christmas. Be it a special wee treat for yourself, be it self-care, be it the gift of time for dreaming or planning, be it a decluttered home… just do it!
Do You Feel Lucky?
Wow, sometimes things happen in serendipitous ways. I’m not quite sure how, but today I came across a rather remarkable website.
I wanted to share it with you, because it speaks to our very humanity, and to the fact that (I believe) we are all here to love and help each other.
So here’s the (true) story: a young man was given a very large inheritance, yet, after initially going a little crazy with it and purchasing a seat on the space shuttle, he had a good hard think about how the money could be spent in ways that could help others.
He got a refund on his ticket, and set about creating the We are lucky project – he decided to give away £1000 to an individual every day, randomly, with the only proviso being that the recipient does something positive with the money.
He says:
I didn’t just want to share the money; I wanted to share the responsibility that came with it. I would take a few photos, ask a few questions and build a gallery of Lucky people and stories.
And so he did! To see how the lucky recipients decided to use their money (and the impact this project has had on them personally), head over to the We are lucky website.
To access each story, simply click on a photo, and then click on the small ‘Click here to read the story’ text – it took me a while to work out how to access the stories, so I thought I’d give you the heads-up! Some people have given the money to friends and family, others have used it to buy clothing for orphanages, and still others have donated to hospices. Imagine the ripple effect.
I love the quote by one of the recipients, Warren:
Even though people can spend the money on anything they want, the vast majority give it away to someone or an organisation that needs it more. Kinda shows that people are intrinsically good.
LOVE that. Love this project.
It’s my belief that we truly are all ‘lucky’ and can all spare some time or money for kindness. We don’t need a huge inheritance to create random or even planned acts of kindness.
PS Thank you so much to the lucky benefactor who put so much thought and humanity into his decision to create such an amazing project…
Joanne's coaching was exactly what I needed to help me focus my precious time and money on finding work and making money! What I like most about Joanne’s coaching is that it's gentle, supportive and empathetic, rather than pushy and 'ra-ra-ra'”
...if there’s something that you’ve been putting off doing, because it’s so big and overwhelming, then by coaching with Joanne you'll definitely find a way to do it, to finally reach your goal.”
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