The Nurturing Project - Look How Far We've Come!

So here is my plant a little more than a month from the beginning of this project.  Just look at my little plant go! 

I have been faithfully watering and feeding this little plant and now it is becoming very top heavy with alot of new leaves.  Can you see how the weight is now shifting? In the first photo what stood out were the long, dead stems devoid of many green, healthy leaves. The plant quickly began to recover and started growing more and more leaves.The long, dead stems are becoming less significant in light of the new growth, the nurturing, that is creating healthy and strong leaves. So it can be with our lives. Sure we have a past and some are far more challenging than others. 

If our past has been, or our present is, less than ideal our focus may just be on the bare stems since there isn't very much new growth going on at the top. If that is the case we need to change our focus, to look at nurturing ourselves - good soil (surround ourselves with good, positive people), food (self-improvement workshops, personal development activities, challenging ourselves for growth), sun and air (have some fun, learn to live not simply exist! Breathe!)

We can overcome when we nurture ourselves, challenge ourselves to become strong, full beings reaching our fullest potential. Then, the challenging past, perhaps the less than ideal life can become much smaller and less significant in contrast to the new growth, the new knowledge, the new us.

Sure, the past is a part of who we are but it doesn't necessarily have to be a part of who we become if we decide to leave it behind, to overcome it.

So how do we go about nurturing ourselves? I'm glad you asked! Find something that you love to do and DO IT! Find your passion, and take time for it.  Even if you can't do it full time due to work, family, whatever.  Take care of your body. Eat right and exercise to keep healthy and strong.  Feed your soul.  Find faith, spirituality, whatever brings your inner being peace and happiness.  Challenge yourself to step outside the box, out of your comfort zone.  Surely at some point in your life you have had nervous excitement.  Didn't you feel alive and energized?  Wouldn't it be great to continue to have that feeling on purpose?  Educate yourself.  Take classes or free online courses to feed your mind and gain new knowledge about the world around you.

All in all, take time for you.  It's not about neglecting what needs to be done, simply putting importance on what is good, nurturing, for you.  The healthier we are, the happier we are the better we are able to nurture and encourage those around us.

You deserve it!

Until next time,

Val

What I Have Learned From My Plant, The Nurturing Project Continued

This is a new photo of my plant taken the end of March.  I hope you can see that there are many more leaves that are stronger and healthier.

What I see with the damaged, neglected stem is how our lives can be if we have been neglected, mistreated, damaged. We cannot change what was, we can only change what is. I may have to cut the top of the plant off and re-root it so it will grow healthy and strong from the bottom up.

Sometimes in our lives we have to make the hard decision to make a cut from the past, or present, that keeps us from being strong and healthy from the inside out.  That can sometimes mean coming t a place of forgiveness with the people or circumstances that have affected our lives. Only then will we be free to live and thrive. We must nurture ourselves, love ourselves, and have a proper environment and good food to keep us moving forward.

That is all for now. I will give this plant a little more time but I am pretty sure I will have to make the cut and replant it so it will be completely healthy from the bottom up. I will continue the Nurturing Project in future posts. I will include it in my book one day.  Thanks for reading!

Our Dreams and Goals - Where would we be without them?

Dreams
Ask yourself this question, "What would I do if I had unlimited, time, money and resources?"  Go ahead and think about that for a moment, even jot a few things down.  I'll wait while you do that........

Well, what did you come up with?  Would you sail around the world?  Trek through the desert on a camel?  Write a book?  Stay at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto? (These last two are some of mine) Think of the simplest things and the wildest things you could imagine.  Dare to dream!

When you write your dreams down they are more tangible.  You get them out of your head and on to paper.  Keep a notebook handy so you can write down new dreams as you think of them or scratch off the ones you realize.  Imagine that, having a dream fulfilled.  Have you had that experience?  Didn't it feel great!?  What if you had a list of dreams and, while moving through your days you were able to find opportunities to make some of those dreams come true?  I've had that experience.  My husband and I did this exercise of writing down our dreams list.  On my list was to see a NASCAR race.  So, Stan knew that this was on my list and when the opportunity arose for him to buy tickets to a race, he was able to do that.  He wanted to help me realize one of my dreams!  Well, on his list was to visit Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to visit the grounds where the Civil War took place.  Also, he wanted to visit the Smithsonian Museums in Washington.

Well, while mapping out the geographical route to my dream, Bristol, Tennessee, he realized that if we headed East instead of straight South, we could realize his dreams and visit Gettysburg AND Washington both on the same trip. 

If we had not written down our dreams lists, neither of us would have known what the others dreams were and we would never have likely had those dreams come true. It really was an incredible experience.  We shared our dreams and had opportunity to make them happen.  What an empowering experience.  Now, not all dreams will work out that way.  One of my other dreams is to rent a mansion in California for a week or even a month.  Will that ever happen?  Not necessarily so, but it is a wonderful dream and you never know if that kind of opportunity might come along!

Goals

Now what about our goals?  We can meld our dreams into actual goals. 

The formula for setting goals is as follows:

S - specific
M - measurable
A - attainable
R - realistic
T - timely or tangible

Make your goal setting very specific - decide on the goal, for example, find a new job.  That is a pretty general goal.  Get more specific - I will find a new job by June 1.  Then set specific targets - I will visit all of the businesses in my desired work location and distribute resumes and cover letters to them all within two weeks.  After one week of giving out the resumes I will follow up with a phone call to the businesses to see if there are any questions or missing information that I could provide.  Then you can gauge how well you have accomplished your goal.  You have a timeframe, you have specific tasks and you can measure your progress along the way. 

Go ahead, give it a try.  Pick something that you want to accomplish and use this method to work through accomplishing this goal and many others.

Our dreams and goals are a large part of who we are and add to the quality and value of our lives. We own our dreams and we shouldn't allow others to take them away from us - which I have done and I know many others have as well.  Come back to you and your dreams.  They don't cost anything and they don't take up space.

Dare to dream!

Until next time,

Val

Seize The Moment

I had a most wonderful experience in the Chapters Store in Ancaster last evening.  I was looking for resources for preparing and promoting a keynote presentation.  I was working with the sales lady trying to find suitable material.  In doing so, I had the opportunity to tell her why I was looking for such material and I shared with her a bit of my journey to where I am today.  She was very interested and was inspired by what I am doing and the journey I have taken to get there.  She took down my information for this blog and my Facebook.  Unfortunately I didn't get her name.  (I sure hope you stop by to read it!)

Then, when I caught up with Stan again I was relaying my most wonderful experience to him.  There was a lady within earshot and she heard me saying how the young lady was inspired by my story.  So she boldly asked me to explain to her what I was talking about. Her daughter joined us shortly after our meeting.  I then took the opportunity to share with them what I am doing and why.  At the end we shared contact information and she would like to keep in touch and learn more.  I see this as networking - perhaps she will become a contact to run a workshop in the Hamilton area - who knows?

The sense of wholeness I now feel and the inspiration I am gaining from this experience and the ladies in my workshop is simply incredible.  It's definitely a win/win situation.  As I have told them, I am increasing my self esteem and self confidence as I go along and I am very hopeful that they are gaining the same.

The way I see it, my journey has just begun and I have so many aspirations, hopes and dreams that I will purposefully move toward.  For example, I am in the process of creating the outline for my book.  It will be a challenging but extremely rewarding undertaking I am sure.  I've been researching the publishing of a book which is quite interesting in and of itself.  I know that I am a very long way from that but knowledge is power and it is wonderful to be learning something that I really hadn't given thought to before.

Another aspect of finding oneself or validating oneself is personal branding.  I have had a Graphic Designer from Thinkink Graphic Design http://www.thinkinkgraphicdesign.ca/ come to design a personal brand for my "business" card.  As I don't actually have a business it is simply my personal brand, my contact information.  I am extremely excited to release it when we have the final product ready.  Thank you to Candace Armstrong - you are a creative genius!

So, as you can see, I am seizing every moment, every opportunity to inspire and encourage others.  I'm utilizing every opportunity to network and find opportunities to do what I am loving to do in this moment.  Thank you to everyone who is taking this journey with me and I am so privileged to be a part of your journey too.  If I can inspire you, encourage you or network with you in any way, please leave a comment and I will surely do what I can.

Until next time!

Val

The Longest Journey Begins With The First Step

What is your first step? Where will your journey take you?  Do you have a plan?  A dream?  So many questions in this crazy thing called life.

I'm not entirely sure where my journey will take me but I have plans and dreams that I intend to work on making happen.  Today I took what I believe is the first step in a new direction.  I once again stepped out of my comfort zone and into a new element.  I created and presented my first workshop on self esteem.  In so doing I feel like my experiences to this point in time finally have purpose.

It ain't always easy and in many ways I've taken the long, trying road.  Bad decisions, guilt, and insecurity were once the determining factors in how I lived my life.  It wasn't until I decided that changes needed to be made, that I had to take control of my life and really create a plan that things started to come together.  With that I had to learn that I counted, that what I wanted really mattered and that is ok.  I AM WORTHY!  There was a time when I didn't feel that and wouldn't have believed it.  Now, my self esteem is much better aligned with my self confidence - there is a difference you know!  I'll elaborate on that, and many other topics in future posts so come on back!

Until next time,
Val