Happy New Year!!

Another year has come and gone. It’s always such an exciting time of welcoming in the new and saying goodbye to the past. We set New Year resolutions of making our lives better in the New Year. We decide to exercise more, lose weight, find a new job, find love, etc., etc., etc.

For a few days, or a few weeks, we are ecstatic about our new found reality, until ‘reality’ sets in. Our perceived reality is the beginning of the end. You have a ‘bad’ day or ‘fall off the wagon’ or any other term of perceived failure and you lose your focus. It was a New Year resolution, not a one day resolution, so you’ve failed. Why keep trying?

You keep trying, because you are completely worth living life fulfilled whatever that means to you. Each moment you have the opportunity to shift into creating your dreams and desires rather than worrying about failing and fear. Each moment you choose how to move forward whether with laughter or tears. Each moment you can choose to forgive or to be mad. Each moment you can choose to be a victim or empower yourself. Each moment you can choose to complain or to live in gratitude. Each moment you can choose to be lost or to be found.

Quotes of the week:
“Stand still. The trees ahead and the bush beside you are not lost.”
~Albert Einstein

“In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.”
~Anne Sophie Swetchine

“How much of human life is lost in waiting.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The worst bankruptcy in the world is the person who has lost his enthusiasm.”
H.W. Arnold

“The very man who has argued you down, will sometimes by found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said.”
~C.S. Lewis

“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”
~Amy Tan

“Much more happiness is to be found in the world than gloomy eyes discover.”
~Friedrich Nietzsche

For the next week I invite you to:

Lose fear, self doubt, worry, anger, and any negative feeling that holds you back from your greatness.

Find your truth on the amazing person you are.

Find your passion, dream big, give big, and love big.

Mostly, my wish for you is to realize that each day provides you the opportunity to lose limiting beliefs and finding opportunity for you to shine bright.

Until next time, I wish you all a Happy New Day!

As I sit writing the weekly message with the cold and snow just outside a thick pane of glass, I thought about how much I love Nature. Nature has a natural order and doesn’t let mind get in the way. There is a time for growth (spring), a time to thrive (summer), a time to slow down (fall), and a time to rest (winter). Without each season, the rest wouldn’t be so rich and wonderful. Nature doesn’t worry about what is going to happen next week, next month, next year - it thrives in the season it’s in. Without human involvement, nature is balanced and whole. Nature feels and doesn’t think. Nature simply is.

My favorite season is summer as I love sun, I love being on the water, and I love the vibe of summer. My old self used to dread winter coming - bulky coats, cold weather, slippery roads and sidewalks. Now I enjoy what each day brings. So I have to put on heavier clothing and perhaps walk a little more carefully or drive slower, or even stay in when the weather tells me it’s better to relax at home rather than face the elements, but that too is just fine. I remind myself to live in today rather than what my life will be in six months when the sun is shining and I’m on the water.

Quotes of the day:

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”
~ George Santayaana
 

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
 ~ Anne Bradstreet
 

“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
 ~ Japanese Proverb
 

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they are happy.”
~ Anton Chekhov

Soulful Links:

Seasons of Love

~Rent Cast

Seasons in the Sun

~Terry Jacks

Seasons Change

~Expose

For the next week I invite you to live in the moment by:

Looking up towards the sky when we do have the sunny days and just smile and be thankful

Sticking your tongue out and catching a snowflake remembering how much you loved snow as a child and just laughing.

Bundling up to make a snowman or a snow angel

Warming your body with a hot chocolate.

Mostly, I invite you to live in the moment and truly enJOY what today brings. If today is bringing you a contrasting experience to what you want in your life, just smile to yourself knowing that it too is just a moment in time and all is well.

Until next week, enjoy each day’s season.

Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

Is your glass half full? Or is your glass half empty? When people ask me that, my answer is a resounding, my glass is full and often overflows with love, happiness, and the simple excitement of the journey of life.
 
Would you like to grab a drink? I would love to share my full glass with you.
 
My glass is full of appreciation for all of my experiences as even the contrasting ones make me more grateful for the amazing ones.
 
My glass is full of gratitude for everything in my life. I am grateful for my family, friends and colleagues. I am grateful that I have a wonderful home and an amazing dog. I am grateful that I see the world connection. I’m grateful for the cold as it reminds me of the summers I cherish. I am grateful for the frustrations I sometimes allow in as they quickly remind me to tend to my full glass and not let it deplete.
 
My glass is full of love. I truly love my life. I smile and laugh as much as possible on my journey. I love my contrasting experiences - not for bringing me sadness, frustrations, or disappointment, but for reminding me that it is my choice how I interpret, handle, and move through any situation. I may not be able to control what goes on around me, but I am in control on what energy I want to give to it.
 
My glass is full of possibilities. Life is so full of them and when I release myself from having to figure it all out, wonderful possibilities simply flow in. And sometimes it takes that perceived contrasting experience to be the next step into something amazing, so contrast is full of possibilities too.
 
Quotes of the day:

“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve”

~Wilfred Peterson

“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent tools.”

~Michael Leboeuf

“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.”

~Charles R. Swindoll

“When the heart is full the tongue will speak.”

~Scottish Proverb

“A man of courage is also full of faith.”

~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Soulful Links:

You Fill Me Up

~US Marines

For the next week, I invite you to share my glass and fill your own by:
 
Celebrating all of your successes regardless of the size as they are all important
 
Dreaming big, loving big, and giving big
 
Searching for the silver lining in the gray cloud or the positive side of any contrasting experience and focusing your attention there
 
Loving the journey you are on as you get to choose how full your glass is at any given moment. So appreciate that choice and choose what betters your life.
 
Attending and intending to your glass. When its three quarters full, place your attention there and when its only a quarter full, keep your focus on what you do have rather than what is missing.
 
Mostly, my wish for you is a life of fullness in health, relationships, abundance, and amazing love and joy.
 
Until next week, I raise my glass to celebrate your health, happiness, and abundance - CHEERS!
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

Do you ever wake up and wonder where time went? Whether you are 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, we all have had moments of wishing we could relive the ‘good old days.’ Early adulthood cherishes the memories of being a kid when decisions were easy or made for you. During midlife you might want to relive your college years when you were care free. In your senior years you may be wishing to look and feel like you did when you were younger.

Whether you are 20, 100, or any age in between, you can always be young at heart simply by living your highest self, laughing, loving, and finding the beauty in each experience.

Quotes of the week:

“There is a fountain of youth; it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age”

~Sophia Loren

“You are never too old to become younger”

~ May West

“Youth has no age”

~Pablo Picasso

“Age is an issue of mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”

 ~Mark Twain

“I’ll tell ya how to stay young: hang around with older people”

~Bob Hope

Soulful links
Cast Singing Coldplay

Cast singing I Will Survive   

Young at Heart by:

Frank Sinatra

Dean Martin

Jimmy Durante

For the next week, I invite you to be young at heart by:

Appreciating the here and now as every new day brings on new adventures with a better understanding of who you are with yesterday’s experiences.

Rising to the occasion; start each day with open arms embracing what today will bring and looking forward to it.

Loving you, loving others, and loving life.

Playing more! There is always time in the day to be silly, laugh out loud, smile a lot, catch a snowflake on your tongue, stomp in a puddle, and simply having fun.

Connecting with others; surround yourself with people who lift you up. Serve others in need of being lifted up. And share you time with seniors to listen and learn from their experiences and to help remind them of their youthful hearts.

Mostly, my wish for you this week is to forgo wishing you could be someone from the past and simply realize you are an amazing person today. You get to choose whether you want to wake up feeling aches and pains or if you want to wake with excitement of enjoying another youthful day. Whether you are 20 or 100, I cherish you for all you bring to the world.

Until next week, keep a light hearted beat.

Hugs,

Carol

Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

With the cold of winter setting in, what are you focusing on? Are you focusing on shorter days and dreariness? Or are you focusing on the beauty this season brings forth. Although warmer weather is my favorite time of year, there is beauty in each season. Winter provides us a time to rest and regroup - to enjoy the stillness of the season. There is a beauty in watching things fade away and looking forward to their return in the spring. Winter provides us snow.

It is said that no two snowflakes are exactly alike. That simple statement just amazes me as I can get caught up in that understanding when it’s snowing. I look out the window and wish I could take a look at each one and truly see their difference. They are magnificent examples of how nature works in collaboration and right timing. Nature provides the perfect elements for them to thrive on - the right temperature, the right moisture, etc. They are all beautiful in their own unique way. Some are small, some are big and fluffy, some are wet, some are powdery, and some appear to be falling from the sky as if they were shot from a cannon, while others take their time and wistfully fall to the ground.

They are all different. Yet, even with their differences, they come to the earth’s surface in collaboration with all the other snowflakes as if they’ve made an agreement of ‘yes we’re different, but as a team, we are more powerful, more beautiful, and more creative’. They create a blanket together to cover the earth as she rests until the next season. They live side by side in harmony not fearing the differences of the flake next to them, but seeming to understand that while enjoying their own uniqueness, they know of the overall connection of snow. We too have a connection in humanity yet each of us have own our uniqueness as individuals. How inspiring would it be if we could all just flake out a bit more like snow and simply allow each other the grace and space to just be. Love each other for their unique gift they provide the earth and love ourselves for our unique gift as well?

So I invite you to be a bit flaky and act like snow. 

Quotes of the day:
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” ~ Judy Garland

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”. ~Dr. Seuss

“You want to be ALLOWERS. And you will know you have achieved that when you are willing to allow another, even when the other does not allow you. When you are able to allow, even when the other is not allowing you — you will have absolute freedom.” ~ Abraham Hicks

Soulful Links:

Snow

~Red Hot Chili Peppers       

Amid the Falling Snow

~ Enya         

Snow Globe

~ Emmett Tinley      

Let It Snow

~ Celtic Women

For the next week I invite you to:
Allow yourself to celebrate your unique gift you share with the world. When you catch yourself seeing someone else of having more or better than you, step back, breathe, and celebrate YOU and know you can shift your consciousness at any moment you choose to shift.

Allow others to be their unique gift. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to spend time with all of humanity, but allow them to live their truth as you live yours.

Dream of huge, beautiful, fluffy snowflakes and realize that same brilliance exists in you.

Mostly, I invite you to be that snowflake that is gorgeous, brilliant, graceful and absolutely 100% authentic and unique to itself - yet has a wonderful time falling from the sky with millions of other snowflakes and lying together in a beautiful blissful blanket.
 
Until next week, see the snow angel in you.
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun

Each week I never know when my affirmative message will come. Sometimes two or three come at once. Other time’s its Tuesday night or even Wednesday morning. This message came to me as I drove to visit my mom and family for Thanksgiving last night. The television show ‘Will and Grace’ popped into my head and I smiled as I thought of some of my favorite episodes as I loved that show. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized the significance of the title of the show, will and grace.

If we chose to live our lives as will and grace, how amazing would they be? 
 
So this week I’m inviting you to be will and grace. I’m asking you to live your life with purpose, passion, and determination - will.

I am asking you to live your life with ease, beauty, gentleness, and love - grace.

Quotes of the Day:

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

~Christopher Reeves.

“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.”

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.”

~Jackie Windspear

“By “guts” I mean, grace under pressure”

~Ernest Hemingway

“Gracefulness has been defined to be the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul”

~William Hazlitt

“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins them.”

~ Francis Bacon, Sr.

I will survive  

~ Gloria Gaynor                               

My Heart Will Go On

~Celine Dion

I Will Remember You

~ Sarah McLachlan

Amazing Grace        

~Leann Rimes

Grace and Gratitude 

~Olivia Newton John

For the next week, I invite you to see your highest self through will and grace by:
 
Allowing your dreams and desires to soar and releasing fear of not living up to your highest self. 
 
Appreciating every experience you have with determination that the contrasting experiences are moments of time and be graceful through them.
 
Being gentle with yourself as you allow your greatness to shine through as the hiccups along the way are just that - hiccups.
 
Honoring others will and grace even if their way of expressing themselves is completely different than your own.
 
Serving others who may have lost their grace and allowing them to realize their inner will and grace.
 
Mostly, I invite you to dream big, love big, and give big willfully and gracefully.
 
Until next week, have an amazing Thanksgiving filled with will and grace - oh and add heaping serving of humor to the menu,  just like the sitcom.
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

 What do you want in your life at this very moment? Not when you have more money. Not when you’ve lost 10 pounds. Not in six months or five years. What do you want today. 
 
Do you want true love yet focus on the lack of love in your life? Do you want true love yet talk about how many bad dates you’ve had - or no dates at all?  Do you want true love yet affirm that all the good ones are taken or gay? Do you want true love yet discuss what was wrong with your ex in your previous relationship?
 
Do you want security yet focus your attention to the unemployment rate in the US? Do you want security yet worry about crime? Do you want security yet you keep telling yourself how vulnerable you are feeling?
 
Do you want good health yet discuss your aches and pains? Do you want good health yet talk about being tired and ‘it’s that time of year again when I get sick’?
 
Empower yourself with the knowledge of being a deserving person of goodness, love, health, and abundance. Empower yourself to see all the love that surrounds you. Empower yourself see that the employment rate is 94% rather than focus on the 6% unemployment rate. Empower yourself to take control of your health by realizing your own belief system has amazing healing powers. Empower yourself to believe in YOU.
 
Quotes of the day:

“I don’t want to earn my living; I want to live.”

~ Oscar Wilde
 

“When we think of failure; failure will be ours. If we remain undecided; nothing will ever change. All we need to do is want to achieve something great and then simply to do it. Never think of failure for what we think, will come about.”
 ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 

“To dream anything that you want to dream; that’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do; that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed.” 
 ~ Bernard Edmonds 

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”
 ~ Susan Polis Schutz

Soulful Links:

All I Want is You

~U2

I Want To Break Free

~Queen

I Want You

~Savage Garden

I Want You To Want Me

~Cheap Trick

For the next week I invite you to empower yourself to receive what you want in:
 
Love by knowing you are an amazing person ready to share your heart with someone equally deserving of you.
 
Security by knowing you have the inner tools and strength to create your own security regardless of what the outside world is telling you from a fear base. Focus on you and me rather than you or me.
 
Health by knowing that your body has amazing healing abilities and affirm you are a fine tuned machine that embraces life.
 
Mostly, my wish for you is to look through rose colored glasses and focus your attention on hope and possibilities. See all the possibilities that life has to offer you. Focus your attention on goodness, love, health, and prosperity. I promise if you do, you will see a lot more of it showing up in your life. And just think if we all shifted our focus on hope and possibilities, what we could achieve for all the world citizens.
 
Until next week, I see all that you want; now it’s your turn to see it, dream it, and live it.
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

Each week my messages are on living life fulfilled, seeing the positive that life has to offer, and stepping into your greatness. I ask you to see contrasts as challenges rather than negative experiences. The message is often the same, live your life fulfilled, each week the words simply paint a different picture on creating that vision. 
 
This week, I am asking you to take a challenge with me. Are you ready to accept your challenge for the next  week? It’s just 168 hours I am asking of you.
 
I challenge you to choose only good thoughts this week. Each moment, each hour, each morning, noon, or night, I ask you to say an enthusiastic YES to the thoughts that make you feel good and cancel cancel (or any term that works for you) to fear based thoughts.
 
I ask that you challenge yourself to turn off the news, even if you ‘think’ you have to be kept informed about the market, the war, etc., as the world will still rotate without you being plugged into the fear based news.
 
I ask that you consider the impact on the world of you focusing on the positive, your family focusing on the positive, your friends focusing on the positive, your community focusing on the positive, your city focusing on the positive, your state, your country, and so on. Imagine the effect positive focus could have on the globe.
 
I ask that you challenge yourself not to blame others for whatever you feel isn’t going right in your life - and that includes not blaming yourself.
 
I ask that you challenge yourself to see only the silver lining and not the perceived ‘bigger’ gray cloud that you may be facing.
 
And lastly, I ask you to appreciate that you are able to recognize negative thoughts as they creep in. Awareness is when true change can take place. Some people walk around in a fog of negativity without being able to identify it. You’ve chosen to identify it and say, thanks but no thanks. YAY You!

Quotes of the week:

“It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.” ~Muhammad Ali

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” ~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

“The poet and the politician have this in common: their greatness depends on the courage with which they face the challenges in life.” ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Opposition is a natural part of life. Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

Soulful links:

Don’t Worry, Be Happy       

~Bobby McFerrin

Silver Lining  

~David Gray

Are You Ready for Love      

~Elton John

Are You Ready        

~Creed

For the next week I invite you to wear my rose colored glasses by:

Unplugging yourself from fear based information - turn off the news. Don’t engage in conversations about how bad things are in the world today. Focus on the positive in every situation as it’s there if you look for it.

Plugging into hope. Plugging into your dreams and desires. Plugging into love. Plugging into faith. Congratulate yourself on all that you’ve accomplished in your life. Say YAY me for even the smallest shift into being part of the positive energy that is just waiting for you to allow it in and welcome you to your dreams and desires.
 
Mostly, I challenge you to empower yourself by saying YES to your dreams and desires. You are the only one who can stop them from happening with doubt and fear. Wear your rose colored glasses with pride. Smile when someone calls you a Pollyanna and toss in a thank you.
 
Until next time, let me know how those rose colored glasses are working for you as I think they enhance your beauty!
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

Today is the day to be comfortable in your own skin and say yes I can! Whether you are male or a female, black or white, gay or straight, Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, today is your day to embrace life. Today is the day to be proud of your individualism and be honored to be part of the whole. Today is your day to hope. Today is your day to dream. Today is your day to love full out.

 
Quotes of the Day:

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” ~ Albert Einstein

“In all things it is better to hope than to despair.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Hope is the dream of a soul awake.” ~ French Proverb

“Hope never abandons you; you abandon it.” ~ George Weinberg

“What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life.” ~ Emil Brunner

“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Soulful Links

Only Hope

~ Mandy Moore       

I Hope You Dance

~ Le Ann Womack   

A Window of Hope

~ Aleta Adams

Today I ask you to:
 
Embrace hope. To grab it into your clutches and pull it close to your heart. Breathe in hope. Soak in its radiance. Today is the day to follow your dreams.
 
Embace those who are different from you regardless if their differences are political, religious, gender, or racial differences. Embrace the diversity of our nation rather than fear it. Black/white, male/female, gay/straight, or any other groups that have been fragmented, today we are one. Make today our everday.
 
Embrace Margaret Meade’s quote: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” and see the US citizens as a small group of the world citizens and becoming that change for the betterment of our world.
 
Walk in the shoes of hope over fear.
 
Believe in good over evil.
 
Dream big, give big, and love big.

Love full out.
 
Today I simply ask you to be your highest and best selves.
 
Until next time, Yes YOU can.
 
Hugs,
~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

So it’s the time of year for costumes, candy, and trick or treating. We put on costumes to become a different character for fun. Kids are out knocking on doors to get treats and if they don’t get them, then come the tricking part. I invite you to look at these Halloween traditions in a new light and continue having fun with them, just in a different manner.

Each day as you dress, costume yourself in truth as the successful, intelligent, kind, loving, giving person that you are and be the character of your highest good.

Trick yourself out of any false beliefs you might be carrying around on fear, lack, and judgment.

Treat yourself gently and lovingly in mind, body, and spirit.

Quotes of the Day
Costume Quote 

 “I liked seeing myself in different costumes and doing different actions. It’s a chance to be something you’re not.”

~ Bill Paxton
 
  Trick Quote

“The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.”

 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Treat Quote

“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.”
 ~ Charles Kettering

Soulful Links:

Thriller

~Michael Jackson

Monster Mash

~ Bobby Picket

Monster Mash

~ The Simpsons