Good to Great!

For the past 2 years I have been doing something new to me. It's not a huge thing, but it's been life changing because it's made me notice things more. It tunes me in to what it is I really want to focus on in my life, that year, that month and it puts my mind and heart in the right place in preparation for whatever I am drawing into my life. It's a simple thing and it's just one thing...it's creating a theme for my year.

It seems simple. But it's powerful! Last year my theme was adventure. Since being married, I noticed that I am not as adventurous as I was because it was less of a focus. Not only did I go to Havasupai for the first time in 8 years with my husband, (which by the way was the best trip with my husband in our marriage!) but I somehow I got my "scared of heights" husband to suggest, organize, and schedule SKYDIVING! I never thought that he would ever go sky diving let alone suggest it. Looking back at it, I am amazed by the power of suggestion. And I'm amazed at what an adventurous year we had. :)

So this year, as I thought about the theme I wanted for this year and how powerful it can be in my life, the thought kept coming to my mind that "life is good but it can be better and you need to be better."

I have been fighting adding more to my plate the past couple years, and fighting being better. Mainly because I didn't know how I could possibly do more. So I sat with it for awhile, and decided that I was ready to figure out how. Then the theme "Good to Great!" came to mind. I know it's a book (that I have not read) but it perfectly described what I wanted for this year. And so it began.

In spontaneous ways that I wasn't expecting, the universe brought a couple books my way that I actually read. And those books were Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes and even more impactful was The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. And then my sister encouraged me to do the 21 Day Fix. I've done it before but I just felt it was too hard to keep up with. But this year I was focusing on being great! So.... I started the miracle morning and I started the 21 day fix and it's been awesome! Also, 1 week into both of these programs, I got an email from a business associate that I respect, Justin Morgan (which the way we met was very serendipitous an couple years ago), invited my husband and I to go to a course Master the Power Within that was happening next weekend. Work was crazy busy and I just decided it was something I was going to make room for! And I did. And I am here. And this is such a great remembering and learning of the foundation of my life.

There has been so much that I have learned, but right now the thing that I am going to talk about is the things that I am willing to give up to work to be a LION in my life, to begin to live up to being my higher self at all times. The things that I am giving up and am becoming are: 1. I am going to start  accepting feedback from Brandon specifically. (Which is hard for me!!!) 2. I am now an on-time person. 3. I check in. I do not live in the distracted present. That means with with cell phone and TV.

This is the beginning of my Good to Great life! And I am grateful for Master the Power Within because it has opened my mind to giving these things up and start living my best life!

Life is Great!

What a difference a year and then some makes

I don't know why after all this time I am compelled to write. I don't know or care if anyone reads this blog and I almost prefer it that way.

I read a blog called The Simple Dollar. I have for years. Today, a quote on it struck me and I wanted to remember it somewhere. It's about -isms.

“The moment someone attaches you to a philosophy or a movement, they then assign all the baggage and the rest of the philosophy to you. Then when you want to have a conversation, they will assert that they already know everything important there is to know about you, because of that association. That’s not the way to have a conversation. I’m sorry, it’s not. …I am not an -ism, I think for myself.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

I identify with this. Since I became an active member of the LDS church, I think people thought I would stop being me. Or find that I had no thoughts of my own. I am still me. I do believe the gospel to be true. And I'm still me.

I wonder how many people feel that way about different things they have identified themselves with. And if they have noticed people treating them differently...

I am unique in my thoughts and beliefs as the next person, regardless if we identify ourselves in the same group or religion or political party or not.

It's interesting to take a step back and look at that.

Good night. :)

nothing.

i am done.

graduated from college.
graduated from my 200 hr yoga teacher training.
turned in final group project - investment research challenge.

tonight is one of the first nights in awhile that i have had absolutely nothing that i had to do.

it is great. :)
i did nothing tonight, except catch up on stuff that i have been neglecting for a long time like . . . .

taking down my christmas decorations
blogging
watching tv shows
hanging out at my house all alone

what a great night of nothing.

things to look forward to tomorrow morning: picking up bountiful baskets and hot yoga. :)

1.11.11

the coolest birthday date ever. had a great 27th birthday. happy day to me! :)

awesome chasm

favorite hike that i have done in a while. a new route for an old hike. loved it!

sisters

photo from a spontaneous saturday with my sister. love it. love her.

everyone moved away

. . . and i hardly got any pictures. brad and kendall and family and aaron and sabrina and family both moved up to seattle, wa. i am pretty bummed about it. but mostly i will miss the kids. :) notice that's who I got the most pictures of.

sabrina and kendall at grandma elaine's a few days before they left.

dominic. i took a million pictures of this kid and he wouldn't look at the camera. he is so cute though.

landon and kailyn, the night we helped them pack the moving truck. not sure why landon is in his power ranger outfit, but i love it. i miss these little bugs.

red rock and beatles love

visited leah in vegas with cody in september. it was a much needed weekend of hiking at red rocks {just outside of vegas}, going to bikram yoga for the first time {super hard and super HOT, but uh-mazing}, shopping and seeing my first cirque de soleil show: beatles love.

scary descent.

entrance to beatles love. such an amazing show!

loved my mini-vaca with cody and lea lea. :)

zion with the girls

hiked hidden canyon with mom and sara back in july. :) I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures. this was such a fun day. we hiked hidden canyon {sara was sorta scared of the parts with chains}, went swimming in a fun swimming hole and then had lunch at oscar's in springdale. perfect day with the girls.

road to raw

about a month ago, on my way up to one of my yoga intensive weekends, as I was eating cooking dough and driving up i-15, my sister called me. she wanted me to do this raw food cleanse with her. . . huge pause on my end of the phone. now, when i think of raw food, i think of a certain thanksgiving where my aunt made almost all raw food and everyone there was like, "what? this is NOT thanksgiving food." The pies were weird, the crackers were bendy. basically, not a good first impression. BUT i decided to do it anyway . . .

. . . fast forward a month later. i’ve lost about 10 lbs, just by changing my diet. i still exercise, but don’t feel that guilty if i don’t every day. when i do work out, it’s usually around half hour, unless i’m doing yoga. i feel so healthy. i eat a lot of fruits and veggies. i did the raw thing for about 3 weeks, which included a juice feast (like a fast, but you drink a lot of juice that you must juice yourself.) i didn’t love the juice feast, but did it for 4 days. now, i would say that I eat about 60% raw and the rest pretty close to vegetarian. i don’t want to say that i am vegetarian because i feel ike that labels and restricts me.

the interesting point i want to emphasize is how my view of food changed drastically. i used to have STRONG sugar cravings and usually NEEDED some type of sugar after each meal. now i really don’t. i do occasionally, but I tend to fill that craving with something more healthy then a handful of chocolate chips. i know i had a least a mild case of candida, most people in America have it and don’t even know it. it was causing me to be addicted to sugar. another thing that i thought was an interesting side effect was the way i felt about meat. i used to love meat and planned my meals around it. now after being more aware of what i am putting into my body, and seeing clips from “food inc,” i am more meat averse, unless it is the good grass fed, true free range stuff.

resources that have helped me along this journey are:

-www.roadtoraw.com: the website that hosted the raw food clease and had amazing videos and support.

-www.therawalicious.com: an amazing blog with so many how to videos and great ideas for total health. i want to be this girl's friend!

-www.greensmoothiegirl.com: loved her site and have used it for yummy, healthy recipes. i have a green smoothie almost every morning now.

-“the kind diet” by Alicia Silverstone: a lot of great recipes

-www.bountifulbaskets.org: amazing food co-op that allows me to get lots of fruits and veggies for great prices. pictured above.

-my sister amy: it was so good to have someone to call anytime i was craving something or wanted to talk about how we both were progressing, or other totally gross things that only sisters share, or when i stepped on the scale and it was lower than i thought it would be and when i fit into my thin jeans.

i didn’t mean to make this post so long, but i haven’t really written about this transformation at all. i have learned so much about my body, the food i eat and so many other amazing nutritional things. a month ago, if i read this, i would have probably thrown up all over this post and told whoever wrote it that there was no way i was going to even try to get healthy this way. so don’t judge too quickly. go to one of those websites, and if you are feeling adventurous, sign up for the roadtoraw.com cleanse. it will change your life. i promise.

also, am considering doing more health related posts that have to do with my discoveries . . . so stay tuned. :)

have an amazing day!

how to be alone

i know it's been a while. i would imagine posts will be few and far between for a little while at least, but when i do post, it will be about something i really like or that is important to me.

this video fits under both categories:



i liked it.


in other news:

i started my hatha yoga teacher training. :) my 3rd intensive weekend is this weekend. am loving it.

and school starts next week for me. my last semester. and i will have my bachelor's degree in business/finance. excited to get it over with. :) i had to save the classes i don't care about for last.

cable mountain

hiked cable mountain a few sundays ago with cody and leah. we had never done this hike in zion. the views are breathtaking. and somehow we picked a day where the temperatures were in the sixties! that combined with going to oscar's for the murder burger after . . . made it a perfect day. :)

looking down on angel's landing.

they used to lower timber down the canyon with cables . . . hence the name.