personal growth

Manifest a Better Now Through Reminiscing

Manifesting better days through reminiscing over your most precious photo and video memories is my secret sauce. I’ve noticed all kinds of stories online, about how people are manifesting their dream lives. Some will say buy a book, others sell a coaching program, or any number of investments. WHAT IF you ALREADY HAVE the tools to manifest your ideal life. What if it’s just hidden in your closet, sitting on your shelf or in your pocket? STAY WITH ME, this is really important :) Photos have magical powers that allow us to attach to transforming positive emotions- if we let them. We don’t need to go back and re-write history, but we can focus on the blessings of our past to magnify the beauty of NOW. One thing I know for sure, is that love felt at one point of time does not die; It is expansive and evolving and so are we. The question to ask ourselves is simply this: Are we manifesting [...]

Loud & Proud

Note to the reader: The content in this post is deeply personal. If you are part of my story- YOU didn't hurt me; I love you. How this music teacher finally learned to sing Thank you for being here as I "think out loud" - My  hope is that we can resonate on a subject of growth and healing.  I grew up as the first born of two kids, eager to make the world happy.  I tried to be a good daughter, a good student, a team player, and a good friend because I was afraid of making others angry or disappointed in me.  But one thing I never tried to be good at as a child… was just being ME.  I didn’t know what that meant.  As far as I knew, following the rules meant there were fewer threats. I thought “being good” is the way to make other people happy  Everything I knew revolved around rules; Written and unwritten rules. The 10 [...]

The Worst Thing Ever

When we struggle When things that happen (or don't) in life and we look at our role in the unwanted outcome, stress & overwhelm take over. Assigning blame doesn't help; It just makes the pain increase. We lose sight of the actual facts of any situation when we are drowning in all of the negative emotions that cloud our judgment. It’s as if our FEELINGS become the negative story tellers. Is that really an objective, helpful, constructive voice?  Are you living your worst case scenario in one area of life that casts shadows on all other topics, too? When we're talking about our personal photo collections, this is a perfect example of how the lack of clarity guides us directly out of success mindset and deep into a mental torture chamber.  When we are full of grief, regret and stuck there, often we discover more layers of  “worst case” scenarios unfolding. If you've ready any of my blog before you know I'm no stranger [...]

The REBL(TM) in Me

Ever have a time when you're smiling on the outside, but screaming on the inside? It was like a tropical storm in my head; Wind swirling around, large objects tossed around, smothering any sense of peace and adrenaline was at an all time high. Upset, hurt feelings, raw emotions raked the back of my mind. But they were there to prompt me to practice what I preach. HERE'S HOW IT STARTED Wednesday: A grumpy text message from a friend who wanted to unload on me... I decided to get my family going before reading more. Notifications waiting for me- The tuition check money was withdrawn TWICE rather than once.   I walked away and let the dog out. Headlines of collections for the family who's home had burned down, a sob stuck in my throat as I prepared food for the pets and put the kettle on for tea. Urgent interruptions from family members- not all important The technology that wouldn't cooperate Thursday: The dog [...]

ICYMI: A new lease on life!

Confessions of a Control Freak (COACF-recap) ICYMI - The past few weeks have been full of pain. Just kidding! Quite the opposite.  The “Confessions” or “COACF” series was intended to create honesty, vulnerability and authenticity here in our safe space of photo lovers.  I’m clearing out a lot of emotional and habitual clutter to make room for so many wonderful things to happen. Here’s a recap or remedies we’re relishing: Self-compassion is a shortcut that allows us to welcome positive change Finding trust means letting go of old beliefs that get in the way Trading in perfectionism for joy means letting go of a lot of head clutter And the list of small, measured changes that make the greatest impact over time! Life is precious, memories are priceless and when we share our best memories with those we love, new wonderful stories are created … It’s like the butterfly effect!  Wikipedia says the butterfly effect is when a small subtle change can cause much greater [...]

Confessions of a Control Freak – Letting in Joy

Do you know why babies laugh? I believe it’s because they have no restrictions, filters, or hesitation to keep them from filtering out a joyful response. When I hear baby laughter, I can't help but smile or often laugh along. They snap me out of my trance called “adulthood” and remind me of my natural joyful state. I LOVE THAT.  But over the years, we build layers of skin formed by our experiences, influencers and systems that were designed to make us productive members of society. Things don't always go the way we like, or we don't take criticism lightly and we go to extremes to avoid all faults and opportunities just to be criticized. And the result for me is: perfectionism starts to take over. Have you ever considered that the more room we make for perfectionism, the less space there is for joy? Time to clean THAT closet out; let’s get a little messy for the sake of letting stuff go that [...]

Confessions of a Control Freak; Trust

ARE YOU A RULE BREAKER? Do you remember when we were kids and we would forget our homework, then make up an excuse… whatever it took to cover our tracks, or maybe it was hiding a bad grade from parents? You know… the one that they had to SIGN? Then the feelings of failure were enough to try to cover it up… then there were consequences for that?!? UGH painful lessons in earning trust! Control Freak part 2 here; Let’s talk TRUST.  Apparently I collected trust issues through the years. Anyone else? Maybe that’s why so many folks don’t trust technology. There are so many excuses, things we have to sign without understanding, then updates cause us to not trust something we don’t fully understand.  TRUST is where I’m finding the most opportunity for growth in myself right now; Self-trust, trusting others, trusting technologies, trusting nature … It’s an enormous concept.  One year from now I imagine myself reading this, thankful for how far [...]

Confessions of a Control Freak

This one’s for my fellow life-long learners and uplifters... the ones who know there's always room to grow. It all comes down to how we talk to ourselves. I hope these words find people who also want to live a better way- to prosper, connect, enrich and appreciate the beautiful lives we have. Let’s add more fun and more beauty as we go! What are we telling ourselves? We gather information from our own experiences and by observing others, often mis-interpreting how things unfold. Then our brains file them away as rules to live by- that’s life. Our ego adds details for our own protection… sometimes making the situation far more dangerous to keep us away. Well, that’s how I lived until recently. Decades of gathering mis-information has grown into layers of self-limiting beliefs for me. I’ve been doing some self evaluation, gained new awareness, and now I’m choosing to give myself compassion & forgiveness. I’ve decided to confess & release those layers [...]

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