Space and Intention

As you know, I am manifesting... well, my LIFE.  And it starts with this.

What can I say? I will enjoy my last few days of summer break!

I have made a commitment to myself, and to my writing that I will wake up each and every day with intention.  I will wake up each and every day and write.  This not only helps me hone my writing skills, but it helps to set the tone for my day, which is going to positive.  Each and every day.  Even on those days when I don't WANT to get up, I don't WANT to move, I don't feel like I actually CAN move, I will remember my intention.  

For me, being as OCD as I am, part of this is having the right space in which to do this.  After I got a divorce, I painted my bedroom pink.  Yes, pink.  It's me and two boys living in this house, there's not a lot of feminine vibe in here, so I made my room pink.  And I absolutely LOVE it.  It is one of my favorite spaces and happiest places to be, primarily because it is MINE and a reflection of me and my own choices.  So it's only natural that my "writing spot" is in my bedroom.  It's also good to have it here so that when I wake up in the morning with intention I don't have very far to go.

Many of my facebook friends saw a project I worked on a few weeks ago.  Being a single mom, I don't exactly (at all) have the finances to run out and buy a new desk.  Or even an old desk.  So to pinterest I went, where I worked a little magic on an old and very abused card table that I have.  Good enough.

#pinterestwin!  The whole project cost me .97cents

But if you are a FOA (Friend of April), you know that "good" is just never "good enough." So a dear FOA Katie, messages me on facebook and says, "Hey, I have a desk, a perfectly good desk, that I don't use, and you can have, for free." 

And then delivered it to my doorstep.

 <drops mic>

This.  Is.   My.   Space.  

A real desk.  With real legs, that are sturdy and don't wobble.  Real drawers.  Wow.  Just wow. Humbled.  

And so this is how my mornings will begin from this point forward.  There's A LOT going on here. Let me explain.  

My laptop of course, this is where I do this writing.  And where I write the book.  

My "I am fearless, I am focused, I am ready" mug.  Because duh.

A picture of Luke doing yoga long before I ever did yoga because that's seriously just awesome. 

Why yes, there is a sign above my desk that says "hello gorgeous" which is not only for me, but also a Funny Girl shout out.

A picture from the day I was baptized.  Because I need that reminder every. single. day.  The person I left behind and the person I am destined to become.  

But let's talk about all those notebooks and journals!  This kind of writing will take HOURS!  Not really.  Here we go.

Here's my commitment.

Each morning I will.....

Write my prayers.  I am channeling my inner Aibeleen from The Help on this one.  Writing my prayers will help me to stay focused on them.  Plus I have a lot I'm praying for, so this will help me just stay on track.  Instead of "Dear Diary," this is "Dear God,"  it's a good place for us to talk.

Spend 3 minutes manifesting my joy.  When I was blessed enough to be at Miraval a few weeks ago, I took a class with an incredible healer named Tejpal.  The class was "discovering your soul mission," and the premise was, what you are good at doesn't necessarily always align with your joy.  So while I may be an outstanding accountant (I assure you I am not), it may not be my soul mission because it's not bringing me pure joy.  So the exercise is, for 3 minutes per day, no more and no less -- you simply write down what things in your life bring you joy.  This allows you to do a few things, the first of which, is develop a habit of looking for joy (this isn't a far stretch from a gratitude ritual, by the way).  But what this will also do is allow you to see where patterns emerge.  If "dancing" makes your list 30 out of 40 days.... maybe your soul mission has something to do with dance.  Pretty cool, huh?  

Lastly but not leastly, I am once again doing the Sean Achor Happiness Advantage exercise.  Only this time I'm not doing it for 21 days, I'm going to keep doing it.  You can click here to see the TedX talk which I have shared before, it's an awesome way to spend 12 minutes trust me.  But the gist is this - you keep a journal of.... 

3 things you are grateful for

Exercise

Meditate

Send one positive email a day (or text in my case let's be honest) 

Focus on the positive

Here's my hope.  Starting off each day with this much positive juju means I simply won't have bad days.  Ok, maybe less bad.  Ok, maybe give me more tools and space to deal with the bad days. Because as I said in my video blog, you can't have joy, unless you have sadness.  There is joy in everything.  Sometimes there's sadness or badness in everything.  But where does your intention focus your heart?  Mine will be focused on the joy.

Depression and sadness have been knocking at my door.  I'm stopping them both in their tracks.  My life is about doorways.... opening, closing, swinging, shutting.  This one I will shut.  This one I will have my defenses in place.  Those thoughts, those feelings, those old tapes aren't invited in.  There will always be times in my life when they will knock.  I will be ready.  I will be ready to take them on with intention.  

Blessed, humbled, and grateful!