With the holidays fast approaching why not start thinking about a gift that you would like to give yourself this holiday season? I bet you are already thinking or have already gotten gifts for other people in your life. I bet you are super kind to others and are always thinking of them and how to make their lives happier, better, and more enJOYable. But what about you? What about a gift for you?
And the gift I am talking about for you needs no wrapping paper, is environmentally friendly, and when you receive and use the gift you give yourself, it helps you and the entire world! Now how is that for an awesome gift? 🙂
What is the Gift? It’s the gift of whatever you need to give yourself to release any emotional pain that you have. Maybe it’s the gift of compassion or the gift of forgiveness or the gift of don’t be too hard on yourself. Whatever it is, it is important that you give yourself the gift and that you receive it with open and loving arms. And by giving to yourself, you have more to give. As the saying goes “fill up your own cup first”. 🙂
I hope you take up my suggestion and that you carry your gift in your heart every day moving forward in your life. Life is meant to be JOYous and sometimes we are the very ones who block our channel for JOY by beating ourselves up or by not forgiving ourselves or whatever else we do that continues the cycle of personal pain.
May your heart be light, your holiday JOYous, and always remember some of the best gifts don’t come under the tree. 🙂
“The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forgive is the happiest”. – UNKNOWN
“The first to forget is the happiest”… WOW!
I saw this picture quote on Facebook this morning and it rocked my world. It made me reflect on these statements.
Am I good at apologizing? Am I good at forgiving? How about forgetting?
I won’t share with you all of my thoughts around this, but I will tell you that this post has inspired me to look at all of these in my own life.
I think my favorite is indeed the last one. Over the years, I have gotten better at forgetting. I am at a place that I really don’t care about yesterday. I care about right now and what I am creating in my life now and what I will enJOY tomorrow.
I often say… if something hurt me in the past already, why oh why would I ever let it hurt me again today, in the Now? No way! I’m not giving up the beauty of today because it’s being robbed from me by yesterday or yesteryear. I have control over how I let yesterday or thoughts of yesterday affect me today.
Full speed ahead. In JOY and LOVE. And I will work more on those first two points too! I want freedom and I want JOY in my life. What about YOU?
To me JOY, which is said to be a vibration higher than even LOVE ❤ , is LOVE ❤ expressing itself. That is how I see JOY. It is also why I strive for more JOY in my life every day!
When I think of young children singing, dancing, giggling, and being silly, I think of JOY.
Exuberant children having fun at the beach… being silly.
When I think of a proud parent, I think of JOY expressing itself.
When I think of a couple newly in LOVE, ❤ I think of JOY.
Man holding woman in his arms as she smiles an her hair is tossed from him twirling her around. So in LOVE. JOY
When I think of a couple anticipating the birth of their child, a new life, I think of JOY.
Portrait of lovely future parents during sunset – JOY!
When I think of a hot cup of tea, I think of JOY.
Hot cup of tea in a vintage tea cup. JOY
When I think of FREEDOM, I think of JOY.
JOY is amazing. JOY has the power to open our hearts and expand our LOVE. ❤ And I LOVE ❤ that because we are LOVE. ❤ We were born in and from LOVE ❤ and we will return to LOVE. ❤
JOY also enhances our immune system, stimulates our creativity and has a positive impact on everyone around us and the world. JOY is an emotion that can transform fear also. JOY can free one from their own pain and suffering. JOY can help FREE oneself from limiting beliefs and ideals. When you strive for JOY you can never go wrong.
Find JOY in the simple things. Seek JOY and it will find you.
I have written many helpful posts about JOY and you can access them here:
This morning I walked into the kitchen and saw my Turkey platter in the dish rack and the sun shining behind it. How beautiful. I reflected upon the lovely Thanksgiving dinner we had here yesterday. It is my favorite meal and occasion to prepare for.
My Big Turkey Platter
Every holiday that we have turkey, I bring out this platter. I love using our special dishes and such to make the occasion even more festive and enJOYable. My sister-in-law loved this platter so much, I also found one for her 🙂 I love thrift shopping as many of you know. So much JOY!
We make so many happy memories at these get togethers and it is just so good to spend time together and to appreciate each other and to honor who we are and where we came from… that is family. Not everyone makes every holiday but that is okay, we celebrate and enJOY with whoever is able to attend. And sometimes most of us are there. I am so grateful to still have all my siblings here on earth.
As with most families we get some traditions happening. Big Audrey (because there is a little Audrey) or Baba as we call her, always carves the turkey. She is in her 80’s and still gets up there and does this. We all love it. Baba always brings me a useful gift even though I tell her she need not bring anything. One year it was an amazing turkey cutting board with spikes to hold the turkey and a little run way for the juices. Awesome. We now use it on every turkey occasion. Bubba and I both like to thrift shop hee hee. We have many happy discussions around this and often bump into each other our favorite stores. It makes me smile every time. 🙂 🙂 🙂
The cutting board from Baba.. think how many memories have been made through its use. Beautiful!
This year Baba brought an apron to wear and to leave for me when finished. Perfect! One can never have enough aprons, especially with many hands helping in the kitchen. 🙂
The apron Audrey brought me. One of many throughout the years.
With the cooler temperature at this time of year, it makes it even cozier and warming. We even had snow on the ground yesterday. 🙂
Our meal was wonderful of course. We had many laughs, smiles and JOYS. We listened to Uncle John tell his many jokes and I could tell that each one of us appreciated them more than ever. We all know that life is a cycle and what we have now, we will not always, so everything is more enhanced and appreciated.
I am grateful that my family, like myself, gets more and more appreciative of moments like this. In fact, these moments are sacred to me (tears streaming down my face as I type this). I watch and observe that as we get older it means more and I watch and know that my daughter and the youth will one day cherish these times more than any other. These will be the memories that stand out for them.
At the end of the evening, Don, Bubba and myself chatted about how these ARE the most important things in life. There is nothing better than being together at times like this, sharing food, laughter, and memories, with people who are comfortable to share of themselves… to tease, to laugh and to most of all LOVE.
One of the reasons I blog is so that I can share my feelings but also to record these moments for future enJOYment for my offspring and for whoever happens upon them. I hope they will be inspired and will use my sharing and writing to inspire them to have more JOY in their life and to spread more JOY in the world. It always starts around your own kitchen table first. 🙂
Who doesn’t want more JOY in their life? How about in your work? I struggle with the word ‘work’ and I think I know why…..
It’s because of a secret. The sooner one understands and learns this secret, the sooner JOY unfolds. What is this secret? The secret is that once you discover what you are passionate about and you pursue that, whatever you do around that passion will infuse more JOY into your life and work and you will no longer think of your work as ‘work’. It will now be your passion and your purpose.
“The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, JOY or passion.” ―Terry Orlick
terry orlick
If you are unclear as to what you are passionate about, ask someone who knows you well to share with you the following:
When you are talking about a subject and your eyes literally light up and you become more animated. This may sound too simple to be true, but it is very true. As a Life Coach for many years, I have seen this exact display of passion and purpose in the eyes of many and it always is a direct hit to what a person is passionate about.
I had a wonderful Life Coaching session with a new client today. At the conclusion of our uplifting session we were recapping what we covered and somehow this quote came out of us.
I was sharing with him about how having more joy in one’s life and doing things that make you happy help to let ideas and creativity flow. And then I said something to the effect “The greatest ideas that come to creatives are when they are … and he said “In JOY!”. And then we both said “Yes, that is it!”
So now you have it, our quote 🙂 We hope you EnJOY it!
Our reactions to colors are often deeply rooted and can be significant when we are intuitively connected to how colors makes us ‘feel’.
A certain color has the ability to ease your frazzled nerves, motivate and empower you to take action, and also to bring healing and soothing energy when you need it.
Pink is my favorite color. Well at least it was for most of my life. Now I am enJOYing purple a lot more. Many years ago I tapped into the power of color and how it made me feel. I am quite in sync with using colors in my life to lift my spirits and to shift my frequency and to also heal areas that need healing.
Today is about pink though. They say pink is the color of JOY and universal mother love and I believe this to be true. When you need more JOY in your life or you are trying to transform a negative situation to one that is more loving, try adding pink into your life. I recently went to a friend’s birthday party and they had pink cups, plates, decorations, etc. and my heart lifted and smiled as soon as I arrived and saw them.
Pink is a gentle and JOYous color. Pink is also a transformational color. It can transmute dark and heavy vibrations and feelings,and provide a motherly, soothing, energy to a situation.
I have many ways that I use color in my life and work. Here is one example. As I write this blog post, here are today’s tools ….my pens. Today there are pink and purple pens. Some days there are silver, turquoise or lavender or all of the above. My pens and their colors help me to create. They are a part of the artist in me and I see them as magical enhancements to my life’s work.
I hope you look at colors in a whole new light and that you use them to bring you JOY, to transform, to heal, and to create beauty in your life.
The thing you have to be prepared for is that other people don’t always dream your dream.
linda ronstadt
I ran across this quote from Linda Ronstadt this morning and thought it had a lot of depth to it.
The most important part is to realize that we all have dreams of some sort. Some of us have bigger ones than others, but everybody in life has dreams, hopes and desires. It is what fuels our soul and propels us forward.
Happy are those with big dreams that make them jump out of bed in the morning. 🙂 This is akin to thriving and not just surviving.
It is also important to note that as the quote states “other people don’t always dream your dreams”. This means we are all different but more significant is that it is important for us to take our own dreams seriously, because they are OURS! If you don’t make your dreams a priority, who will?
As a Life Coach, I teach this often. YES, your dreams ARE important. YES you matter! YES it is important to go after what you want in life if you want to leave this earth fulfilled and feeling that it was a JOYous journey. YES. YES. YES to making your dreams come true or at least going for them. The JOY is in the journey but if we never take the first step, the journey never begins.
I hope you seriously take some time today to ponder on what is important to you. What are some of your dreams? And it does not matter how old you are or where you are at in life. You can ALWAYS have dreams and desires. I saw a positive article the other day about a paramedic crew that took a forester who was in palliative care on a 3 hour hike through the bush on a stretcher so he could be there one last time. It is NEVER too late to have wishes and desires.
Some of the best dreams fulfilled are simple ones like eating at a favorite restaurant, visiting with a friend, spending time in nature, taking time to get lost in a book or a movie. These all count but the most important thing is to decide and declare that your dreams need to be on your mind and your agenda.
Dream big or dream small, but do dream……
Maggie Holbik.com is a Certified Life Coach and Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach who loves to start the day inspired to fulfill her dreams and to inspire others to fill theirs. She believes her purpose here on earth is to make a difference and to help to remind people of the JOY available to them and to encourage their heart and eyes to see the beauty in life.
