Celebrate yourself <3

Hello gorgeous,

I am reaching the end of the first quarter, and number 80 of my MMMs, and it felt like a good time to celebrate. Plus, it’s spring, although we don’t get to realize it yet, so new and renewed energies are bubbling, all the more reasons to party!

Where last week was all about gratitude, this week is about pride, being proud of who you are. While some of us can really go overboard on that ;-), most of us don’t do it enough! And it’s those that I want to encourage today to sit still and do a small exercise. I would like you to take small pieces of colored paper, to write one phrase on each, and then put them together in a jar or in a box. Each phrase should start with “I am…” or at least “I + action verb”!

• Your character traits: we all have a good mixture of deemed good and bad traits; let’s focus on the ones we personally like here! Here’s a few I like in myself:
  • I am creative
  • I am resilient
  • I am kind

• Your accomplishments: don’t diminish what you did, don’t think for a second it was all-normal or easy, let yourself measure again the bigness of what you have accomplished so far. Let me give you a few examples:
  • I am a writer: I am currently writing my 80^th MMMs and am intending to continue for as long as I can
  • I successfully delivered and raised (still busy!) 2 beautiful human beings into this world
  • I speak 3 languages (I can hear myself say: oh it’s nothing, some speak 9 languages…but I tell this little voice to shut up so that I can enjoy being proud of myself)

• Your dreams not yet come true: we still have time, we never know how much time, but we still want to do a lot (do you have that bucket list within close reach?), don’t we? I certainly do! Here’s a few I am intending to achieve before leaving:
  • I am going paragliding this year
  • I work constantly on becoming a better version of myself
  • I intend to build or buy or renovate another house

I hope my examples will help you write yours and get you into a feel great mood, let me know! Declaring them to someone else also helps, so I am here to listen to yours! 🙂

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

Much love, Madeleine

How to (really) feel grateful

Hello gorgeous,

I was reminded recently of the importance of feeling positive, in order to create more positive in our lives. When everything is going fine, it is easy to feel positive and grateful for what you have, and then everything flows. But when that is not the case, it can get (in my experience and I don’t think I am alone here) really difficult to focus on the good things and to really feel it inside. I probably told you already that I had a journal in which I was writing 3 things everyday I was grateful for. But I don’t think that’s enough. I think what is really necessary here is to feel that grateful feeling deep inside your heart. Even if it’s for one second, it is already good. But obviously, the more it lasts, the better!

What I would like to do is to give you some prompts, to help you become conscious of all the good in your life, so that, instead of restarting a list everyday, you can simply add to it, and the bigger the list, the easier it is to feel the gratitude (well at least that’s what I am hoping for!)

• Your family: if you still have your parents, can you feel how blessed you are that they are still there and that you can still talk to them, love and be loved by them, you can be there for them as they were there to raise you… If they are gone, can you think of all the things they passed on to you (love, education, values etc…) and how blessed you are for having known them? If you have kids, think about all the love you can give and receive, how you get to give them your best.
• Your relationships: even if some have stopped, for those, think about all that it brought you during the time of the relationship, all the support you have given to each other, all the laughs you shared, all the good moments you had together, the moments you really were there for each other… And for the current relationships, what do you love about this person, what do you bring to him/her and what does he/she bring you?
• Yourself: that is probably the most difficult… Even though there is so much to appreciate about ourselves, we tend to be very demanding with ourselves and to take everything about ourselves for granted… Don’t we take our body for granted for instance, and the fact that it is supposed to function well (if we treat it well), think about being able to eat, sleep, drink, see, hear, talk, feel, smell, move, walk, run… And how about our brain? How about our skills, abilities? How about our character traits, our qualities?
• Your work: what makes it a good day for you, is it feeling useful in your work, supporting others, interactions with others…? Do you go to work with pleasure in the morning, knowing you will enjoy (if not al, at least good parts of) your day?
• Your current house: did you get to choose it? Is it yours (or partially yours and partially the bank’s)? Do you like it? Does it fit your needs? Is it beautiful? Is it at the right place for you? Do you like the decoration? What do you like most about this house? Can you remember happy moments you had in this house?

I hope my prompts will help you make that list and get into the gratitude feeling, let me know! 🙂

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

Much love, Madeleine

What to do if stars don’t align?

Hello gorgeous,

Some weeks, you feel like you are in the Zone (or in the Flow) and everything is flowing. But at other times, you feel like things are not working as you would like and you find yourself moaning about what’s going wrong… Well, that was my week this week… Only minor things, like bruising a toe, smashing the screen of my iPhone one more time, getting a migraine again, not getting the car papers we are waiting for (for more than a month…). Nothing earth shattering, but annoying nonetheless! Do you recognize that too?

So, I have been wondering what to do – instead of complaining – when you feel that way, so here are my ideas, good and bad!

• Throw a tantrum: although this seems like a bad idea, getting this annoyed feeling out of your system is actually a good start to me. A good shout, a good cry, a boxing ball, that can help (at least a bit ;-))
• Count your blessings: this is a serious idea and it is always a good one. That’s what I did this week to keep my mood up (after the screaming when my phone fell down). Looking at the bright side, focusing on our blessings will always uplift our feelings and put us back on track!
• Focus on what you want: it is very easy to continue focusing on what went wrong, but doing this will only bring more of it I am afraid… So let’s re-focus on what it is that we want in a positive way and let’s see it done (in my case, a properly functioning iPhone, headspace, a properly functioning body…)
• Focus on the now: many times, when we feel down, it is enough to focus on the now. You don’t need to meditate (although you are more than welcome to do that), but simply to ground yourself and consider where you are at this minute and what you are busy with today. Shift your focus to now. More often than not, now is good, we are alive, life is ok, we have what we need now etc.
• Evaluate whether something is good or bad: the difficulty is always to know in the moment, it always generally makes sense afterwards… And some things are just neither good nor bad. I mean, apart from hurting for 10 minutes when I hit it, what’s wrong with a (possibly) broken toe? And my phone is still working even though it looks a bit sad like that ;-). Remember that sometimes, a “bad” event can be a blessing is disguise…
• Do something new and/or creative: being creative works all the time with me, I become present to what I do, it takes my mind off things and I get happy that way. Even if being creative is not your thing, you can still try something new, open your mind to new horizons, research a new topic or watch an interesting talk. Maybe then you will also get new ideas, and potentially solutions to what was troubling you.

So what do you do when things go wrong? Please share your tips and ideas!

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

Much love, Madeleine

Inspire and be inspired

Hello gorgeous,

When was the last time you were inspired by someone who crossed your path? Does it happen often? I believe we are conditioned to notice more the behaviors we don’t like, but less often the ones we find inspiring… Aren’t we always focusing on what we can improve instead of what is already good? (And isn’t corporate life and its yearly reviews a perfect example of pointing the finger at what went not so well?)

Well, this morning I brought my husband and mother-in-law to the airport, and the airline employee at the desk was such a joy, he was welcoming, warm, with a sense of humor, and all that at 7.45 on a Sunday morning… I felt compelled to compliment him (because I find it so rare!).

So that got me thinking about being an inspiration for others and being inspired like I was. How often am I an inspiration to my kids or my husband? How often am I an inspiration to my friends? When do they inspire me?

I have therefore been looking for a few keys to be an inspiring person, and that’s what I want to leave you with today:

• Speak your truth: no matter what it is you do, authenticity will always pay off. Even if you feel vulnerable sharing, share it anyway. Be true to yourself. People will relate to you, they will know where you stand and they will trust you.
• Lift people up: a compliment will work wonders and bring back a smile on a frowned face. Hugging a child or a friend will show them how much you care, and that’s priceless. Show them the glass half full when they see it half empty. Help them notice how far they’ve come. Help someone in need. Help an old lady to cross the street. Compliment a child who just did a drawing. Tell them how proud you are.
• Be enthusiastic: being a fun and open-minded person is attractive and contagious. Make people laugh, make people smile. Show them that you are happy to be around them. Be the one who makes suggestions and is always open to try new things. Talk with passion about the topics you care about.
• Shoot for the moon: be ambitious. Ambitious people believe they can reach the stars and they will do whatever it takes. Be such a person. Work on improving your life constantly, and you will pull others up on your way.
• Believe in people, challenge them: even (and specially) when they themselves don’t! If they know you believe they can do it, they will do it more easily because they will want to prove you right.

Can you remember who was the last person who inspired you and why? I would love to know about them, please share if you can!

Finally, I would like to thank all of you for your kind messages, I love reading them every time, so please continue!!!

 

Take good care of yourself and enjoy life!

 

Much love,

Madeleine