My gratitude list for 2017

Hello gorgeous,

At this time of year, it is a tradition to look back and feel grateful for all that the year has brought, as well as look forward and think about (and visualize, and make a vision board) what are our objectives for 2018.

I would like to share today what I am grateful for in 2017 (in no particular order!):

• Having had to make some (tough) choices wrt work
• More work-life balance as a result
• New job opportunities
• New relationships forming and developing
• New lovely clients
• A happy and healthy family
• A big party for my 50^th birthday and our 10^th wedding anniversary
• Kids doing well at school and growing into beautiful and kind humans
• A lot of learning, on intuition, money, drumming and kinesiology
• The same beautiful house in the same beautiful and sunny region
• A lot of crocheting (am particularly proud of my big cactus) and DIY-ing
• Having earned more money this year than last year
• Managing a bit of sport this year (yoga and cross-fit)
• Tackling my health issues…and getting rid of my carcinoma after 2 surgeries
• …
• And probably forgetting (again) a lot of things on this list J

If you managed to start (and continue with) the gratitude jar last year, this time of year would be a perfect moment to review it!

And if not, maybe you could start now J: use a big jar, decorate it so that you feel great just by looking at it, and use small pieces of colored paper to write the things you are grateful for, and make it a habit to do that (remember, it takes as much as 66 days to get a new habit installed, so keep going!). You could do it in the evenings before going to bed (like if you were to write them all in your gratitude journal instead), or do it together as a family on Sunday evenings to look back at the week…

I want to end this post by wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a blissful, joyful, healthy and wealthy 2018.

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

Much love, Madeleine

Being ok with where we are

Hello gorgeous,

I first want to apologize for having let you down and not writing for so long. I have been struggling with time for a while and adapting my schedule a few times…And I think it’s finally time I make peace with myself… I got this email in my inbox this week and I decided to keep it, as it was very timely…

“We encourage you to make peace with yourself and where you are in this lifetime. Your level of evolvement has nothing to do with the physical aspects of your life, your level of achievement, your relationships, your money or your health. Your evolvement is in your ability to shift from the lower frequencies you may find yourself in from day to day, to the higher realms you are coming to know.”

I have the feeling that I am always fighting and pushing through. I justify it to myself by saying that I want more (whatever it is that I want more of!), but the truth is that I am never (ok, I am, but very seldom) really taking the time to rest and look at my progress. And my gut tells me I am far from being the only one like that… Can you relate?

So what now? How do I make peace with myself, and how can you too?

1. Accepting where we are doesn’t mean that we can’t want more, or that it’s as good as it’s ever gonna get. No, it’s more about stopping the negative self talk that we entertain with ourselves, stopping the blame (the “why aren’t you yet further than this?” type blame). That’s accepting ourselves fully, even though we might not always like what we see. Stop what you are doing and take a minute or two to feel it inside. If you can, use this opportunity to meditate on it for a few minutes.
2. It’s recognizing how far we came. Recognizing the long road, the obstacles, the lessons we learned, the friends we made, the ones we had to part with, as they did not “match” the person we became, the learning and the growth we went through, our progress. That’s where having a journal (even if you are not writing everyday in it) helps, because we can look back easily and remember how it was, how we were before, and it makes the difference much clearer. But we can still do it without journal J. We can still look at our life, a year ago, and look at the difference in how we fill our agenda, in who we see regularly, in our activities, even in our bank account ;-).
3. Time to be grateful (isn’t it always time to be grateful?). This time, write it down even if you don’t have a journal. Write it on a note in your phone, on a piece of paper, somewhere, but get it out! I’ll start then…

I am grateful for everybody who’s supporting me on my journey. I am grateful for my friends and my husband challenging my views (and agenda). I am grateful for all the learning opportunities that abound. I am grateful for the job opportunities, the ones I said yes to and the ones I said no to. I am grateful for my ambition to want more. I am grateful for never giving up on my dreams.

Your turn now!

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

Much love, Madeleine