Love, Life and Everything

      After finishing one month of a very intense gratitude challenge, I can definitively tell you that gratitude is so much more than the definition above because the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual response it elicits is undefinable.  It really is.  I generally considered myself a pretty chill person, but I knew that I carried a lot of inward stress.  Most people never realized that about me, saying I was pretty laid-back and easygoing.  But, the way I carried myself and the amount of tension in my muscles was a strong indicator of how much stress I was carrying.       I have a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, which of course, is systemic, and not just in the ovaries.  As a result of this condition, my body naturally creates more cortisol than other women without this syndrome.  I've had this all my life, and I've learned to carry my stress well.  But that doesn't mean it's easy.  I also h...

  Wow!  That's about all I can say.  Just wow.  This really has changed my life.  All those things I mentioned before are still true.  I'm still experiencing more confidence, less reactivity, less stress.  But, I'm also experiencing faster healing times, better sleep, more vivid dreams, and my husband says when I nap, I'm not completely scrunched up.  Things seem to flow better in my life.  Even on the difficult days, things just seem a lot easier.  I'm less frustrated, less quick to temper, and just overall happier. Seriously, you all need to try this, and bring it into your lives daily.  You won't regret it, I promise. You certainly don't have to make it as hard as I have, even just one daily gratitude - for anything, will give you results you'll start to notice if you do it consistently. 

  This has been absolutely amazing and very hard at the same time.  In addition to the benefits I listed last week, I'm also much more relaxed and at ease with myself and the world.  I'm also seeing more "magic" in the world - in nature, and in my immediate surroundings. But, this week was hard for me, especially the last few days.  I wasn't feeling well with some sort of low grade cold that's going around my school, and it was making me feel blah and down in the dumps.  The good news is, that I wasn't as grumpy, moody, and on edge as I normally am when I'm a tiny bit sick.  But, I also learned some sad news about someone I know, and that tried very hard to pull me down.  It almost felt as if the universe was testing me, to see if I would give up.  I didn't, and I won't.  And although I'm still feeling a bit down, it somehow doesn't seem so bad, because I know it will get better.  I am still encouraging people to try this challenge, mod...

  This inspirational quote is not wrong.  But here are some other things I've noticed so far in just one week of doing this challenge.  My recovery rate from stress is a lot faster, which surprised me.  I've been laughing a lot more.  I'm experiencing less reactivity to difficult conversations.  Instead, I'm learning to really listen to what the other person is saying, instead of negatively reacting to it and having an unwarranted emotional response. This has helped things a lot.  And, I'm noticing a boost in confidence.  I'm less likely to avoid doing something important because my confidence is higher and I'm not as worried about a negative response from doing whatever thing it was I would've tried to avoid in the past.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you view it, with the confidence, a bit of arrogance tried to creep in there.  I'm realizing this is because it was something I had suppressed and didn't integrate i...

Gratitude has the power to change the world.   This is something we've probably all heard, but have blown off as "foofoo."  But there's tons of evidence on the power of gratitude and other "positive" emotions on how it changes our DNA and also how DNA affects the physical matter of our world.  This youtube video by Gregg Braden showcases some of the scientific research done on this subject.  This research was conducted in a lab by scientists trying to better understand how human DNA and photons interact.  And another was done to find the effect of emotions on human DNA.  The results were surprising, but to summarize, our DNA "relaxes" and begins to heal and replicate when exposed to "positive emotions." (Stressed or supercoiled DNA does not heal or replicate well, causing DNA malfunctions and genetic health issues) Human DNA also causes photons to arrange themselves in the shape of our double helix when exposed to it in a vacuum.  The vid...

      So, I've started setting my intentions for the new year on the winter solstice, since traditionally, in so many cultures across the world, the winter solstice was the new year. I'm no longer calling them New Year's resolutions, but rather intentions because we've totally misconstrued the word resolution and made it into the absolute thing that must happen. The word actually comes from the Latin word "resolvere" which means to loosen or release. So, if my resolution is to let go of the negativity of the past year, then, essentially, I would be using the word correctly. But, intentions are a little different. They are a way to set things into motion. They are an energetic manifestation of your thoughts. The law of physics tells us that an object in motion must stay in motion unless an outside force stops it. This is the same with energy, and eventually, energy gains momentum. This is why the power of thoughts is so strong and why we are told to w...

    October is also dyslexia awareness month, and this is also something I can talk a LOT about.  Not only am I a certified dyslexia teacher, I'm also mildly dyslexic.  Though I didn't find this out until I was already out of college and had my first classroom job as an educational assistant.  It's estimated that dyslexia makes up 10-20% of the entire world population.  It's not a sudden occurrence, it's always been here, and it's not a disability per say, it's only considered that because we are living in a text heavy world.  We never knew about it before because reading and writing is a newer invention in our human existence.  The brain that causes dyslexia variance has always been there, but initially, reading and writing was only reserved for the elite, and not the general public, so we had no way of knowing it was there until suddenly, a whole bunch of kids couldn't learn to read.  It's a normal and very real variance of the brain. ...