Bear sat absolutely still, only daring to slant his eyes to the crook of his tail to see the beautiful dragonfly resting there.
This was a first for Bear! And he was SUPER excited, but SO very, very still. And quiiii-et, shhhh.
Wondering if he should hold his breath, Bear watched as the dragonfly gently raised and lowered its nearly invisible, translucent wings, as if the dragonfly was ready to dart at a moment’s notice, but for now was liking its perch.
There was a gentle, cool, Fall breeze with the sun shining bright and only a smattering of fluffy, puffy white clouds in the sky. Kat, Bear, and Wogs were taking in the delights of the day knowing soon it would be cold and much of nature would grow quiet under the upcoming blanket of winter.
Kat(whispering in giddy excitement): Ohmigosh Bear, look at you! You’ve got a dragonfly on you!
Wogs(gasping with a big smile and whispering): How cool are you, Bear?! What a fun thing to happen to you!
Bear(mrowing with uncontainable excitement, but only on the inside, he was exclaiming, “There’s a dragonfly on me! There’s a dragonfly on me!” … and thinking, This “being present in the moment in nature” thing is cool … hashtag, MakeThisALifeGoal!): <3
It really is the small things!
Hello Beautiful Blossom!
How are you today? Is there something you need? Something that will help you feel whole, well, and loved? Can you give yourself this thing?
I am thinking of you with love in my heart and hugs coming to you from my open and welcoming arms!
What little thing can you do for yourself today?
Can you take a moment to breathe intentionally?
Can you stop for a moment to soak up the nature around you?
Is there someone you can connect with to just say HI and let them know they are thought of, and for you to be thought of?
Maybe, you just need a good book, warm blanket, cozy couch, cuppa something warm and tasty and a moment to yourself.
Today, I wish you the small things. The little things that go a long way in bringing you joy, peace, calm. love, laughter, and wellness!
Today, my love for you travels to you from the happy wake of a dragonfly’s wings!
A hot summer sun blazed high in the sky, brightening the day and keeping spirits high. On the Bog, Kat, Bear, and Wogs were out for an exploration trek and enjoying the incoming fall breeze keeping them cool as they hiked on. Bear was excited for the wagon ride through the “wild”!
Our adventuring trio found Belle resting on an inviting hammock. She chirped her happiness when they stopped to say, “HI.” and admire the hint of fall color showing on the two, tall red maples hosting the hammock.
Flop, Fluff, and Squeech all played nearby and were enjoying the gentle turn of weather.
Kat(looking up at the clouds, then back to the hammock and thinking it might be nice to rest a while and watch the clouds float by): I think we should try out that hammock when Squeech is done!
Wogs(nodded, smiling at the thought): Definitely! We can explore for a bit more to give Bear a big ride, then come back.
Bear(loving this plan and looking forward to some wagon nap time after adventuring flicker-swished his tail in happiness): Mrow!
Hello Beautiful Sweet Souls!
Our world is becoming ever more challenging. I’m guessing you feel it, too. The anger, angst, frustration, and even fear. It’s been building, bubbling, and boiling.
When times get hard like this, it can get harder to cope and navigate. I know I’m finding it harder. Our usual self-care can fall short. We can feel ourselves melting under the weight of stress of negativity.
Dearest, loveliest, bright blossom, dig your roots deep. Don’t give up, and know you are loved and not alone, and you are needed! Shine your petals wide and bright into the sunlight and take in the warmth and positive energy! Let the goodness wash over you and help preserve you!
This is a time for a deeper dive into what works for us! Connect and share with your like-minded love muffins. Breathe deeply, slowly, measured and paced. Get movement into your body. Nourish and hydrate. Hug yourself. Unplug and disconnect. Rest and rejuvenate. Head outside and be present to just watch the clouds float by.
And when you need a release beyond your efforts to quiet and calm the howling winds outside … go for a run, knead some bread (maybe punch it a little, or maybe even a lot! … lol), faceplant into a pillow deep in the recesses of your closet and scream … but find a positive release that will help you get the stress out, let go, and heal.
I know it’s harder for many of us. Me, too. But harder isn’t impossible. It’s just harder, and we’re worth our effort!
Focus on what works for you! Focus on what empowers you! Focus on what makes you feel happiness in your heart and heals your soul, mind, and body!
One day, one step, one breath at a time … together with love and goodness as our guiding value … let’s watch the clouds float by and feel peace and calm and love in our hearts!
Thank you for sharing this time and being here with me in love and big hugs! Squeezing you tight!
Okay. So, the other day I was having a conversation with a fellow biz chick, and she asked me, “What exactly are P. O. S. itudes?”
Instantly stunned … I thought: P. O. S. itudes? … as in Piece Of Shiz itdues?
OH.MY.GOD.
I’m still cracking up. But also freaking out.
So, well then … lemme clear this up!
POSitudes are they way every blossom who wants to live a happy, healthy life should be thinking, acting, and channeling!
POSitudes = POSitive + attitudes!
I’ve been spelling POSitudes with a capital POS, because once upon a time I spent considerable time being a health scientist, and in chemistry, for short, we use POS for positive and NEG for negative. So POSitude was just an obvious go to for me. However … to get swapped into “piece of shiz” by non-chemistry folk … uh … ???
Looks like we’re due for an capital letter emphasis change. So from here on out … it will just be Positude … a happy combination of positive and attitude!
Every blossom already has some Positudes built into her life, just from living, learning, and listening … but I take it a step further.
I reflect on my life, the ideas, thoughts, words, images … anything that helps me cope, heal, feel better, smile, laugh, … All The Good Things … and then I tap into my doodlebug juiciness and art things up with AWESOMELY positive, loving images + words + reminders to help, not just me, but any blossom who sees them.
My goal is to brighten my day and yours, and to guide our ways … for when we get a bit too busy to remember the little things that make a big difference!
Like remembering to take a healing breath. Like remembering to spend time doing something you love. Remembering to do the little self-care things that make a big ginormous difference.
Guiding questions to keep me on the right path
Loving thoughts to hold me tight
Positive reaffirmations to bolster me up
Purposeful actions to take me forward
Gentle, supportive reminders to keep me focused on the really good stuff in life
Big Hugs to love me so big and make me smile
Here’s some examples of my doodlebugging, juicy, loving Posituding happiness for you! I’ve put together a short compilation of a few of my Positudes (I actually have hundreds!). So, please …
Come breathe with me in this minute video book of Positudes! Give yourself a minute to just breathe and be, and enjoy this moment in Positude.
Welcome back from your minute of loving self-care and breathing!
As I was saying, Positudes are meant to help you! To love you and pick you up. Life can be crazy, hectic, overwhelming, busy, splattered with negativity, etc … and Positudes are reminders, thoughts, and ways of being and living to help you cope and counteract all of that … they help you guide your actions toward more positive and healthier living. They help you feel better and make you smile. When practiced regularly, they grow goodness and wellness into your being and living, and just all around make your life a happier place to be!
I use my Positudes daily. I have them on my phone in ebook form. I have them in video form for reflection in my yoga room. I have them on my computer. I have them sprinkled throughout my space to keep me smiling and living goodness!
One of my favorite times to reflect and meditate on my Positudes is when I’m wrapping up my daily yoga practice with my paced-breathing-legs-up-the-wall time. I breathe and watch my reflection video and reflect, meditate, and envision … it’s absolutely delightful and makes me feel so good!
If you are interested in more of my Positudes (thank you for loving them!), I am finding ways to offer them to you. You can experience them in a number of ways:
My shop (currently ebooks, and eventually reflections videos and individual digi-prints)
The best way to let them help you is however they call to you, but what I find helpful is to read the words … and really let them sink in … enjoy the accompanying art … but feel the meaning of the Positude. Then I think about how this Positude can guide me in this moment, and even this day. I become mindful of how the Positude makes me feel.
Well, Beautiful Blossom! Thank you for being here with me! I hope this shared time has brightened your day! I hope you feel my love and big hugs! I hope you enjoy this moment we are in, and the rest of your day! I hope I’ve helped you smile big!
Until about a year ago, I’d never uttered these words before. I could’ve never imagined how powerful they could be. Then they became life changers … words of empowerment, growth, and positive, healthy, happy change!
Instead of feeling like it wouldn’t be worth it to only walk for 10 minutes, I started telling myself walking for 10 minutes was better than not walking at all.
Instead of feeling like it wouldn’t be enough to take a coupla minutes to stop and just be and breathe, I started giving myself a coupla minutes to stop and just be and breathe … and my body thanks me every time for the calm and peace I invite into my being.
Instead of telling ourselves it’s only worth it if we do “it” BIG or spend “real time” doing it … we should be telling ourselves the truth:
Walking/dancing
Yoga
Paced breathing
Eating more nutrient-dense nutritious foods
Cutting out sugar (major inflamer and health challenger)
Cutting out gluten (major inflamer and health challenger)
Giving myself de-stressing time through creativity/doodle-arting
Focusing on POSitude and affirmations
“Gratituding”
Spending time being mindful
Taking better care of my oral healthcare
Taking better care of my body
Getting more movement into my body (improving my strength and wellness)
Giving myself more self-love, self-respect, and self-care … prioritizing me and my wellness
Spending happy time with people I love and who love me
Smiling, laughing, playing
Sitting in the sun
Listening to sights and sounds of our bog (the amazing nature around us)
Growing my wellness knowledge to be able to take better care of myself and my loved ones
This list goes on and on …
I didn’t make all of these changes overnight. But by allowing myself to grow in little bits … giving myself permission to accept progress over perfection … taking it one lil step at a time … I have made a world of positive, healthy, happy difference in my life!
I feel brighter, PINKer, filled with so much love and gratitude! I see the goodness in me and what I can do.
It took time. Lil bits. Wanting change and allowing change, then growing it with gentle ease.
Not forcing myself into any one thing. Not overwhelming myself with too much, too fast … not creating inevitable failure.
By waking up each day and listening to my body, heart, mind, and soul … hearing what I need … and giving myself what I need … I’ve grown miraculously!
Take today for instance. I don’t feel well. It’s one of my hormonally challenging days. My arms, legs, & knees are weak. My body is fatigued. I feel heavy. I feel challenged. Even sitting up in my chair at my desk is more effort than usual.
Today, I need a little extra self-love and self-care. Today, I need to slow down and take it easy. I need to nourish with nutrient-dense foods. I need to get gentle movement into my body to “keep the juices flowing and uncrumple it” from feeling like gravity is winning. I need to nourish myself. Nurture my wellness. I need to give my body what it needs. Surround myself with love and positivity.
So instead of beating myself up for moving slowly and not being able to tackle my list, I’m here visiting with you, sharing goodness from my heart, and creating a blog post I’ve been meaning to write for you.
Instead of expecting myself to dig into an hour of yoga (which I love to do), I’ll get on the mat to nurture my body … I’ll listen to what it’s telling me it can do today … and that’s what I’ll do. I’ll go gentle. I’ll heal and be well. And I’ll be happy with how much ever that is, and whatever it looks like. I’ll be happy knowing I cared for my body and for myself with helpful, healing movement.
I’ll hydrate. I’ll sit by the window and enjoy the sights and sounds of the bog, even though the sun is hiding behind a thick blanket of clouds a sprinkling rain today – the birds are still chirping, the bunnies are still munching, and the plant life gets greener with every drop of hydrating rain that falls.
Today is not a day I move mountains uphill. But that is ok. Today, like every day, I know that every lil bit I do for myself is better than not doing anything at all. I’ll do what I can, how I can, when I can … and that is a beautiful thing!
I will be enriched by even the smallest of my efforts! I will feel better!
Even now, thinking of you, I am smiling! I am feeling brighter! Even with just happy thoughts of you and a smile …
Empower yourself with the simple, healing, loving, self-caring, happiness-creating, growing-you truth:
Imbue this truth with helpful, supportive wisdoms and guidance:
“Progress, not perfection.” Jill Stante
Focus on what you can do right now to help yourself, mind, body, soul, light, love, energy, and being to cope and heal!
Well, sweet, beautiful blossom, I hope this juiciness is just what you and your heart needed to hear to day! I hope you feel my love and big hugs surrounding you with so much goodness, you feel yourself brightening being here with me. And I thank you so much for sharing this time with me. I give gratitude for this opportunity to help you find and grow – to be happy and well!
Life happens. And sometimes it happens to not be nice about it. We can feel stress, frustration, anger, … a whole range of negative emotions … none of which are actually helpful. Most are usually hurtful, in fact.
It can be so easy to give into the negative emotions. So incredibly satisfying. When we’ve had a really bad day. Our boss was crap. A human we had to interact with was an aaaabbb-so-lute jerk. A relationship we’re in is in trouble. Sometimes there’s nothing better than a GINORMOUS VENT. Or even a hard cry.
Processing emotions is vital and important to our well-being: emotional, mental, physical, … all of it.
I’m no saint. Even with all my positive determination, I have things happen to me that take me down. Some harder than others. I have to process what has happened; how it makes me feel; and what it takes for me to cope, get through it, grow, and move on.
I’ve learned, being an active processor (with a toolkit of positive strategies) helps me to work my way through difficult times, crap moments, and mean people.It also helps me avoid the negative downward spiral and negative self-talk that I can be an expert at heaping on myself. It also helps me simply live a happier, healthier, more resilient life.
And one of my favorite toolkit strategies is practicing GRATITUDE!!! I practice it daily. Plus, it’s in my Healing Toolkit of Goodness for when I take a hit in life, big or small.
Practicing Gratitude
Practicing gratitude has been shown to actually alter your brain chemistry (for the better) & improve your mood and life!
“According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude (the quality of being thankful and readiness to show appreciation) literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.”
Thrive Global
“In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. People feel and express gratitude in multiple ways.”
Harvard Health
With practice, you can make gratitude a habit and experience positive, long-term effects on your happiness, healthiness, and your life!
So. What are you waiting for??? Let’s get you Gratituding like an expert!!!
Practicing Gratitude is really easy. All you have to do is think of something you are grateful for today; focus on it for a lil’ bit; maybe smile while you’re thinking about it; and if you want to take it up a notch, take a deep breath in and then let it out slowly while you are doing your positive gratitude thinking!
And
that’s it. Like. Not hard.
So easy.
Here’s me … one of my gratitudes … I’ve actually turned it into a daily gratitude intention, and I keep it in my Healing Toolkit of Goodness. And I have little reminder print-pages that I keep handy on my desk, and on the fridge. And actually, I often try to go for at least 3 gratitudes a day. I know. Whoa – being adventurous. LOL. I’m big like that.
All I’m saying is, there are a lot of ways you can work to change your life for the better, efforts you can make (things like eating better, getting more exercise, sleeping longer, etc.), but practicing gratitude is one of the easiest and least time consuming ways you can do it.
I
mean, seriously, how long does it take to think a happy gratitude thought and smile
and breathe while doing it? In the big
scheme of a whole day … about a breath.
And for 3 gratitudes and a few moments really focusing on them. Coupla minutes?
So
really, likely the only thing holding you back from increasing happiness and healthiness
in your life, is maybe the know-how (which I’ve just shared with you) and the willpower
to do it daily.
Come on, print out my lil’ reminder print-pages. Set them on your desk. Put ‘em in your kitchen. … Wherever you’ll do them. And then … Do Them Daily! Voila!!! Gratitude is the gift you can choose to give yourself! I hope you will!!!
Create and Grow Your Self-Care!
Want to dig even deeper into your Self-Care? Snag your copy of my “Mary Kate’s Be-Kind-to-You Interactive Self-Care Love Letter to You!”
When you find yourself feeling low, negative, unhappy –
doubting yourself – maybe your confidence has taken a bit of a tumble &
your self-worth is low …
Grab my Be-Kind-to-You Interactive Self-Care Love Letter to You!
You can start feeling better and start smiling again!
Filled with empathetic & supportive Love and Big Hugs!
Delightfully cheerful & colorful art will lift & brighten your smile!
14 loving, big hugging, and supporting pages include proven feel better strategies:
Reaffirmations & Positive Self-Talk
Gratitude Acknowledgements
Smiling POSitudes
Additional supporting ideas to help you find your calm and happiness again through self-care and self-love
Bonus Love-You Supports and Resources section
Find more gratitude, POSitude, and Self-Care from me at Etsy!
Bring brightness and goodness into your day, and into your life!
Get inspired every day with a deck of my new POSitude cards! Available in my Etsy shop. Check them out and learn more, now!
Until next week …
Today, I am grateful for you! And all the love and kindness that comes into your life!!! May your day bring you heartwarming goodness and be filled with positive energy!!! Love and Big Hugs,
POSitudes = POSitive + attitudes!
