2021 Hope and New Beginnings!

With a new year for me comes the feeling of hope and new beginnings.  It feels like a fresh start, an opportunity to set new expectations, new goals and a new fresh way of being in the world.  This is a time many spend reflecting on the past year and setting their sights on the new. I would not suggest making any resolutions because most of those are gone before February is here, but setting intentions is great and renewable. 

So many of us talk about renewable energy, what is your renewable energy?  What energizes you, better yet what brings you joy?  I have been focusing on the little things that make me smile,  as there are many big things I cannot control.  Some of the little things which bring me joy are as simple as when my Facebook memories for the day come up and it is me playing outside with my niece. What little things make you smile? Have you been smiling more and more each day?  Sometimes through these difficult times you need to look for reasons to smile, it truly helps. 

Many years ago when I was going through 10 years of infertility treatment I experienced despair and swore I would never find my smile, joy or laughter ever again.   One of the 10 years I focused on holistic stress reduction. It was at the beginning of  Deepak Chopra’s work on mindfulness and fertility, they were running some workshops for couples in my local area so Michael and I signed up. One thing I learned has carried me through many difficult times. In the mindfulness program I was introduced to the work of Loretta LaRoche, who wrote the book Life is Not A Stress Rehearsal: Bring yesterday’s sane wisdom into today’s insane world. My biggest take away in my own words is that if you do not feel like laughing or you do not feel like smiling do it anyway.  Truly a fake smile and fake laugh will lead you to the real thing. Try it, you will find as you fake it, it becomes real and your entire body begins to change and all those good feelings begin to happen.  Many people have lost the innocent ability to smile, laugh and play with abandon, you know, like the toddler who spins and twirls until they make themselves dizzy with smiles and giggles.  Well I did not believe this until I tried it.  Now I try and remember to twirl, you know twirl in circles in my kitchen until I can’t help but smile, laugh and feel the joy. Follow me and try to remember to twirl for fun everyday! Here is a video of me twirling. https://www.facebook.com/healingbaskets/videos/163629788543555

I hope you try it and let me know how it makes you feel. 

Bonus video of Loretta LaRoche on how laughter helps us all https://youtu.be/2PvvyKm6qZ8.