Yes to this Moment - My 10 day journey...

Hello there my friends! Its been a long time, but its just seems like the days are speeding by as quickly as they come as this year starts to come to a close. I have lots to catch you up on, but I first wanted to share with you an adventure I took with Liz.

Liz Lamoreux is one of my new favorite bloggers.  I started following her this year, and I've put her at the top of my list of bloggers I try to read on a daily/weekly basis. As a matter of fact I found her one day as I read her guest post on the Ali Edwards blog  that I am a big fan of.  There was just something about her post that I found was intelligent, comforting and even soothing, and I found myself trailing her back to her own website. I ended up reading some of her past posts, and after reading a little bit about her story I just felt like I connected with her and spirit somehow.

So a few weeks ago she offered a free online course that she described as an invitation to "open yourself up to the beauty and the realness and the joy that surround you each day"... "even in the midst of the messy reality of the everyday." She wanted to share some of her practices via a 10 day personal journey on how to find "that space to take a deep breath and see the beauty" of each moment.  So I decided to join her on this trip, and I'm so glad I did.

Because a journey like this can be such a personal thing I won't be able to recreate my experience 100% for you, but I wanted to at least share with you a summary of the daily prompts she gave all those who joined heron this trip so as to possibly inspire you to take your own journey to say Yes To This Moment.

Liz also encouraged her readers to participate in a big way by sharing our daily experiences through pictures and images on Instagram and Pinterest and forming a community of those saying 'Yes, This' with a hashtag of #yestothismoment. So those of you who follow me on Instagram got to see my daily shots but now you'll understand what they really meant to me in this process.

 Day 1- Finding Silence
The first day of this journey was all about breathing and silence...taking the time to take 5 deep breathes, truly feeling each breath, relaxing  and finding where you stand within that silence. A powerful practice I am now implementing daily.

Day 2- Finding beauty amongst the chaos.
This day Liz reminded us that although our lives are crazy, that living in the moment is a necessity, and in doing that we could find beauty. Tapping into your gratitude goes side by side with this practice as well.

Day 3- Finding my Center
So day 3 was about combining the breathing of day 1 and learning how to use those 5 breathes to really pay attention to how and where my breathing comes from. Coincidentally I was wearing this shirt and I found my center to be where the heart was on my shirt...I liked that.
Once I found my center, I can now use that knowledge to help me go back there especially in those moments when I feel like life is overwhelming me. I found this to be so powerful and I've been using it daily even just to start my day off.

Day 4- Finding my senses
This day was about taking the time to really pay attention to what each of my senses was telling me. What I touched, what I saw, felt, tasted, smelled...hence it worked out perfectly that I was making banana bread which helped me experience each of those senses deliciously!

Day 5- Getting out there and experiencing what I know.
This day landed on a busy Saturday for me, but I found a half hour to get out there and take a walk with my doggie looking for that perfect moment in nature. However, I couldn't really find it until it hit me that I had actually experienced it already, and its what I already knew...the true companionship of my doggie on my walks.  My Lulu is  actually great to walk with, I know I can count on her to keep me safe, and I know that she loves me for taking her for walks.

Day 6- Enjoying a day of Rest
Sundays are a sabbath day for many and so in that spirit...I truly enjoyed this prompt. It just happened to be one of those lazy Sundays where nothing was planned and I had a house full of boys that were busy playing,  so the morning was all mine to enjoy.  I did so by enjoying a meaningful cup of coffee and catching up on the shows I had taped from the week before...Perfect!

Day 7- Seek out Joy
This day Liz challenged us to find what give us joy. Both those tangible and intangible joys. She had us write a list of those things to remind us as well. I chose to post a picture of two of my tangible joys...my beautiful nieces! I am surrounded by boys at home that bring me unconditional joy, but when I am around these two little girls it is a joy like no other. It was a perfect day for it too as it was coincidentally Sofia's 8th birthday.

Day 8- Being open to connections
This day Liz challenged us to see just how open we were to connecting with others. I'd like to think that I am someone who is always open to connecting with others including those from my past.  But as a mom I wanted to concentrate on my connection with my boys that day. I LOVE them and will always be willing to maintain that connection with them. And with a sweet face like Mikey's how can I resist. ;)

Day 9- My Yes List
Today was all about going back through the last 8 days to see what I had been finding in my moments of silence and awareness. What had I been saying 'Yes' to recently. We were to then write a list of what we wanted to say Yes to that particular day and these were 2 of them off my list...'Yes', to the much needed rain we got that beautiful day and 'Yes' to finally getting a chance to wear that super cozy sweatshirt again!

It truly is the simple things isn't it!

Day 10- Yes, Here
The final day of this personal journey was here, and Liz had a beautiful way to end it by challenging us to find 10-15 minutes of quiet time just for ourselves, and I took time in making sure it was as perfect a setting for me as possible. She challenged us to meditate (which I've never really done before) with a candle in front of us to concentrate on. She had us put our hands to our hearts and find all the possibilities of  what our hearts could hold - 'Yes, here' in my heart. What a powerful 15 minutes this was for me. I was able to do my breathing and quietly reflect on the past 10 days and see what a gift each of those practices were for me and point out those possibilities to practice from now on.

The 10 days were over and I was sad to see it come to an end, but at the same time I was so happy to have followed through with and completed this journey to the best of my ability. This was something that I had never tried before or that I honestly had never been open on doing for myself.  I am so glad I did and I will so do it again.  Liz was such an inspiration through this all for me, and I found it easy to trust her direction and knowledge in this area.

Again, just know that there was definitely much more to this journey than I can share in one post (for many reasons), but I just hope that I have inspired you to take your own journey of saying 'Yes to this moment' or to find a personal journey of your own that you'd like to explore for yourself.  At the very least I highly recommend you check out lizlamoreux.com in the hopes you can find something there you can also connect to.

Thank you Liz Lamoreux for sharing yourself with me and for allowing me to take this journey with you. I hope to do it again soon.

And from my little corner to yours...Hope you all have an amazing week!

XO

Growth- OLW Motivation

Remember how I mentioned to you that my year's word of "Growth" keeps randomly popping up at me? Well once again, last week I was perusing my Facebook wall, and I came across a post from a friend's husband who is a PhD in Theology and Psychology (I hope I got that right), and it hit me like a ton of bricks!

 And it read...

Omg! This is the key!

This is exactly what my journey is this year!

This is what I have to figure out in so many ways!

And I know I may not figure it out at all at once, but I feel like this will play over and over in my mind as I take situations in hand. It will help me take a moment to either hold on or to learn to let go, and in turn grow as a person a little bit more each time.

Thank you Dr. Ross Porter for putting this out there as if you knew I'd needed to read it and for letting me use it. :)

May you find random inspiration in your One Little Word and may it help you grow as well.

From my corner to yours... Happy Monday!

Sandy's Little Corner...going Español!

Buenos dias everybody! Something new is happening to my blog...its going Español!!

But wait, Sandy's Little Corner (in English) is staying right where it is. I am just adding a different language to my blog that I have been trying to get to since last year. I've had my spanish blog opened for over 6 months, but just hadn't been able to get it off the floor. My concentration last year was just to get my writing consistency up for this blog first and foremost. There was no point in having 2 blogs and not finding a way to write in either. So now that I feel more comfortable with that I can try to fit this dimension in to my blogging plan.

The reason for doing my blog in Spanish is that I realized that I've been sharing my family stories, personal journey's and creative posts with all of you who can obviously understand English. BUT I have soo many family and friends near by and internationally who's first and only language is Spanish that I feel like I've been selfishly keeping them from sharing in the same moments.

Have I done it as to not include them on purpose...No, of course not! But now that I feel that I've learned so much over my few years of blogging in my main language, I'd like to honor what was originally my first language -Spanish.

So there is no better time than like the new year to roll this out.

Introducing

La esquinita de Sandra...

Its same title just translated and I'll be honest I'm not quite sure what my exact plans are for it yet other than hopefully sharing some kind of translated version of as many English posts as possible. It may turn out that I end up doing something different all together, but we'll see.  Only time will tell and more importantly just how much time I'm going to have to do all of this including the other projects I'm diving into head first this year, but I'm "daring greatly" on this one myself.

In the spirit of my word, "Growth" and taking action to it, this as an opportunity to work on my growth in the areas of skills, both in language and writing. I have a minor degree in Spanish but  haven't really done or written anything much since my college days so this will be a chance keep that alive and hopefully perfect it in the process.
  
So that's it! I just wanted to let you guys know so if you're interested in reading my blog in Spanish or know somebody who might want to please head over to my esquinita (spanish for little corner).

Thanks so much and have a great Monday!

From my little corner to yours,

My One Little Word (OLW)...2013

Its 2013 and its time for a fresh start for everybody so I included a freshened up look for my blog with a few changes and additions. They're meant to help you get around easier. Hope you like it!

Also as you know, its that time again for me to pick my one little word for the new year. Its become something very important to me, and something that I actually started thinking about earlier than usual in last few months.

Its become such a big deal for me that I wanted to really understand and make the most out of picking my word this year.  So I am taking a class with my SIL given by the well known designer/blogger,  Ali Edwards called
ONE Little Word and I'm super excited.

 

Its a class in which she takes you through a 12 month journey of creative exercises relating to your word. She explains "A single word can be a powerful thing...One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities." 

In the years since I've started picking a word for the year, this has held true for me. It has given me a guide, a sense of direction to put into practice throughout my life each year, and in the end I have either done something new or different and in the process have learned something new about myself. So in essence it has helped me grow.

And so in this spirit...A certain theme has been surfacing for me in the last few months. Its been coming up in different ways through situations, conversations with friends, in ways as simple as a random Facebook post. Its been speaking to me, and I've been listening.  I've really had to analyze what I'm feeling, what I feel this word thinks I need in my life and where I'm headed based on what's happened this past year. The word that keeps popping up in my mind is

Amongst other things it means:

a (1) : a stage in the process of growing 

b : the process of growing

c : progressive development : evolution

Like I mentioned, I feel like I've been doing a lot of growing and changing already in the last 5-6 years. I've made personal changes, physical changes, and growing stronger in many ways too.


HOWEVER...

There is apparently a need for the furthering of my "progressive evolution." There have been situations I've noticed that make me go crazy, I'm not the most patient person anymore (hey, I'm getting older and my fuse is much shorter), and yes, there are moments where I can be very much a prideful little girl. Sorry, I've never been perfect, but then again who is.


I think in part, growth for me will also mean letting go of a lot "old stuff"- feelings, resentments, fears, etc., that are getting in the way of being a version of my true self.

That statement right there makes it difficult for me already. Part of me is naturally fighting this and it makes me feel vulnerable but I guess that goes with the territory. I don't exactly know how I'm going to grow or in what areas, and honestly I'm afraid of the can of worms I may be opening up for myself.  I guess we'll see but my goal is to find joy, peace and more happiness in many areas of my life, and at the end of this journey with Ali's class, I hope to be a step closer to doing just that.

Other areas I want to find Growth in:

• Faith
• Knowledge
• Income (always!!!)
• Creative and Professional Skills 
• Opportunities

And anything else that I can find growth in. Although, I have to say...the only thing I will not allow myself to have growth in is...my weight! I am still on the road to find a consitent decline in this area, lol!

I hope that you too will find the inspiration to find your OLW for 2013. If you're so inclined, join us in checking out Ali's class too!

From my corner to yours...Have a wonderful start to 2013!