30-Day Health Challenge - July

IIt's officially July and that means it's time for a new 30-day health challenge. As I previously mentioned I'm going to continue with my green smoothie habit from June and build on it with this new health challenge. 

Now due to the fact that July has 31 days and the first of the month is a holiday in my country: Canada Day, I've decided to start this challenge today on the second day of July. So what is this new challenge I speak of; well it's a nutrition and diet related one again and this time it's going to be actually quiet challenging. 

For the month of July I'm going to stick to a clean eating program. What does this clean eating program look like you may ask. Well here is it all lined up for you and for me in black and white below. 

July 30-Day Clean Eating Challenge: 

- Alcohol Free

- Sugar Free

- Gluten Free

- Dairy Free

- Processed-Food Free

So yeah that's a lot of 'frees', so what can I eat:

- Meat: lean & minimal red meat*

- All fruits & vegetables*

- Grains: quinoa, brown & wild rice, buckwheat, other non-gluten grains. 

- Beans & lentils

- Nuts & Seeds

*hormone & antobotic free, etc meat and organic and local fruits and veggies as much as possible 

This means I'm going to start making most of meals for myself as well as many of the convenience health foods that I know and love. This includes making homemade almond milk, hummus, salad dressings and sauces to name a few. I look forward to expanding my kitchen repertoire. 

So yeah this is going to be a tough one and I'm totally prepared to go through a withdrawal/detox in the first few days at least. I've tried various diets like gluten-free, dairy-free or sugar free on their own before with varied success. This is the first time I will take on such a drastic diet change with all these changes all at once. 

I know I'm going to be ok though because I'm much better prepared this time especially after completing the June challenge. Another tough choice is that I'm going to start drinking tea again more so than coffee and I won't be able to have my daily piece of dark chocolate. I love coffee and chocolate so I think those will be the hardest parts for me. 

I can already feel the headaches and moodiness starting to hit as I start my first day of eating clean with a green smoothie with black tea for breakfast and a legume & sprout salad with green tea for lunch. However I can also start to feel the benefits of this healthy way of eating. 

I just have to remind myself that this is my health that I'm working towards, which is super important to me and I'm in this for the long haul. The short term pain will soon pass and I'm putting into place the framework for my overall health and wellbeing. 

In doing this challenge I'll also be continuing with my same exercise routine of lifting weights 3 times per week. I'm also going to ramp up my exercise with running and swimming 3-4 times per week on top of the weights. 

The reason I'm doing such drastic changes for July is because I'm working towards a physical exam that will really test my mental and physical fitness. More on that later...

What are some tricks that have helped you get through some truly gruelling life changes? It may be hard now but I know it'll only get easier and I'll be overall better off for doing it. Check back in a week to see if I'm still feeling the same enthusiasm towards this challenge. Until then here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

Green Smoothie Challenge - Week 3 Complete

Wow I can't believe I've already made it through 3 full weeks of this health challenge. I'm in the home stretch and things feel like they'll run smoothly from here on out, yippee!

It's that time of week again where it's time to share with you what I've learned so far at this point in the challenge, so here it is.

The third week has been by far the easiest one:

The first week was easy; and of course it was easy, I always find that the beginning of a new habit is the easiest because I have all this excitement and enthusiasm. Then as it gets hard and life and I get in the way, usually around the week 2 point, it then gets hard. I think the true test of whether I can really make the change and stick with it is if I can get through that second week hump. Once I complete that second week and I prove to myself that I am able to overcome any of the issues that came up then the third week feels like such a breeze. And that is exactly what has happened!

I feel like I've finally ironed out all the kinks in this health challenge:

Any issues I've had with planning, shopping and recipes I believe I've finally figured out at this point. I didn't have anymore gross smoothies this week and I think I've cracked the code on the best combinations for delicious green smoothies. When it comes to planning and shopping I've realized that it's easiest to buy frozen fruit and greens in bulk but only what I plan on using for the week. I had enough wasted and spoiled fresh fruit and veg that I didn't want that happened anymore so I decided to buy frozen fruit mixes and freeze bananas once they were ripe.

I realized I don't have to make all my green smoothies myself:

Another realization that was very helpful for me this week was that I don't always have to make the smoothies myself. When times are busy and it's impossible to make myself then there are a lot of great options for delicious and nutritious green smoothies. This is a great way to do it when traveling, for an example. I still haven't haven't figured out how to prepare the smoothies ahead of time without having them separate and get gross. It would be preferable for the early mornings to have them all ready-made; maybe something I'll have to try out during week 4?

I feel so much better each day that I have a green smoothie (or juice):

I know I've talked about this before but it must be reiterated how much better I feel while doing the green smoothie thing vs. not. I can now definitely understand what all the fuss is about when it comes to the green smoothie/juice craze. I'm thinking this may have to become a normal part of my healthy routine even as the 30-day challenge comes to an end. I guess we'll see how I feel at the end of week 4.

For now here is another delicious Green Smoothie recipe that has quickly become my favourite:

1 cup baby spinach or kale
1 tsp each of flaxseeds and ground chia seeds
1 tbsp of veggie-based protein powder (I use a brown rice one)
1/2 cup orange juice (not from concentrate) cut with 1/2 cup water
1/2 banana (frozen or fresh)
1/2 cup frozen tropical fruit mix (I prefer a pineapple, mango, peach & strawberry mix)

Blend the greens with the seeds, powders and liquids until well smooth. Add banana and fruit, blend again until desired consistency is achieved. Now it's time to...you guessed it: drink and be healthy!

Enjoy and here's to your uncommonly wealthy life always! :)

Green Smoothie Challenge - Week 1 Complete

I've completed the first week (7 days) of my June Green Smoothie Challenge. Now I'd like to impart some pieces of wisdom that I've learned from this first week of green smoothieness. 

I'm actually able to stick to something:

I've tried to do health, fitness or general life development goals in the past that I haven't completed or barely cared about, but this time it was different. I'm not sure what has made this time so different but it definitely feels different and that's awesome because it means I'm finally following through on a personal health challenge. 

It has been much easier than expected:

I had this notion going into this challenge that it would be so hard and that it would take so much work and disrupt my life in countless ways. The reality of the matter is actually so different than that; it has folded into my life naturally and lead to little disruption. Once again my expectations about a situation were incorrect and this time in a beneficial way. 

It's all about planning and sharing:

I realized early on in the challenge that I needed to plan ahead, not only when it comes to my grocery store trips but also my work and life schedule. For an example I went out of town this weekend to visit my sister and attend a wine and cheese festival and I made sure to give my sister the head ups about my challenge. In doing so it lead to a pleasant surprise: she was fully supportive and well stocked with kale, frozen fruit and almond milk. Awesome!

I haven't been perfect and that's ok:

I definitely had a day where I tried a new smoothie recipe and it didn't turn quite right. I tried really hard to choke it down but I probably only ate a quarter of the smoothie. I could've taken a negative look at this or made it an excuse to give up, but instead I composted the smoothie and scratched that recipe off my list and set out to find better recipes. 

Forgiveness of self is so important:

When making any significant life changes, no matter how big or small, forgiveness is a very important part of the process. Self-forgiveness is one of the most important parts of self-love and acceptance. I haven't set out on this health journey in order to berate myself, no I'm doing so as an act of self-love. 

This is a journey of self-discovery just as much as self-improvement and I'm having so much fun getting to know myself and my preferences better. Even though I've made some great and some not so great smoothies, I'm learning and doing and that's what life's all about, after all. 

I did discover one really great recipe that will now be added to my green smoothie repertoire and that I wish to share with you:

Berry Spinach Deliciousness:

Serves: 1

Time: 10-15 mins

1 cup baby spinach

1 cup almond milk 

1 tbsp flaxseed 

1 tsp chia seed (ground)

1 tbsp brown rice protein powder 

1 & 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries 

1/2 banana

Process the spinach, milk & additives. Once smooth add berries and banana and blend until palatable. Enjoy!

Have you ever done or are you doing a health challenge? If so let me know how it went and what you learned about yourself along the way.

Thanks for reading and as always here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

The Natural Beauty Life - Pure Anada Review

Inspired by a friend who sent me a message the other night to ask what natural facial cleanser & toner I use; I've decided to share my secrets with the world!

Pure Anada: http://www.pureanada.ca/

A Canadian company out of Manitoba that I first discovered last year while on a trip to visit my sister who was living in Winnipeg at the time. After picking up my first product of theirs; a moisturizer, I was hooked. I did some research and found where I could buy more of their products and I tried some samples. 

I buy my Pure Anada products via the Pure Boutique: http://www.thepureboutique.com/ that sells all sorts of natural, organic, vegan and cruelty-free beauty products. It's a great site because it has a lot of different products that I like using and they ship so fast; I usually receive my products within a few days of ordering. It's also a great site because you can get cheap samples of almost all the products they carry so you can try before you buy. That's what I did with many of the Pure Anada products that I now love. 

My favorite Pure Anada products:

Fruit Enzyme Exfoliating Cleanser:

I love this cleanser because it's a gentle exfoliant that works to clean up my skin without being too harsh. It doesn't lather like a typical cleanser containing SLS does, but it still works great. It's made with basic natural ingredients and biodegradable beads.

Purity Treatment Toner:

This toner is part of a line formulated specifically for acne-prone skin types and it's been great in helping me deal with my most recent breakout. It contains witch hazel, chamomile and willow bark and it smells like a margarita! Along with the toner I also use the Calm Hydrator from the Purity line and these two in combination are great for when I have breakouts.

Scentless Hydra Lotion: 

This product has a special place in my heart because it was my first Pure Anada purchase and I still use this as my daily moisturizer. It's light enough to go on under makeup and sunscreen and its scentless which is great.

Revive Serum:

This is an anti-aging moisturizer that I primarily use at night. 

Awake Eye Gel:

This product is great for those bags under the eyes and I use it in the morning and at night.

This is just the skincare products that I use from Pure Anada and they have many more all natural and cruelty-free products that are great, especially makeup: more on that later. 

What are some of your favourite all-natural, organic, vegan and/or cruelty-free beauty products?

Thanks for reading and as always here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

****Disclaimer: I am NOT receiving any kind of compensation from Pure Anada for writing this post. I will always inform you if such an arrangement is made.****

What I'm Thinking About Today - Health

I started a healthy eating challenge that I talked about earlier this week on the blog. In doing so my primary goal is to lose weight and feel healthy. The problem is that I sometimes make myself feel bad about the fact that I'm not seeing faster weight loss.

This is not cool and I have to remind myself that I've embarked on a lifelong journey of eating healthy and taking care of myself and it's not just about the vanity of losing weight. I try not to get seduced by the media and social messages of skinny is better. I just want to be my best self everyday and if that includes some fat on my body, so be it.

So here are some reminders that help me, and will hopefully help you as well, when I'm feeling discouraged in my health journey:

Fat doesn't automatically equal bad:

I'm on a journey to be healthier and it's an unfair assumption to think that anyone who has fat on their body is somehow out of shape or lazy. I know a lot of fit, athletic and in great shape people who have fat on their bodies. There is nothing wrong with fat; it's a natural part of all bodies.

It's about more than the image in the mirror:

I'm building a strong and healthy body and that's a good thing no matter what it looks like. I'm eating food that will lead to better digestion, skin and a boosted immune system and these are all great things.  My body is beautiful and wonderful just the way it is, even with fat, just like all bodies. Who I am is not my body.

Take stock of how far I've come so far:

There are measurable changes like the fact that I've lost 10 lbs and a full dress size as well as the non-quantifiable changes like how great I feel now compared to when I started. I've gotten stronger, I'm in better shape and my digestion has normalized; all things that help in many different areas of my life. Another huge benefit is that I'm happier than ever before and it feels good to have a goal to work towards.

Self-love and acceptance is much more powerful than criticism:

I've never had success in making life changes by being highly critical of myself and berating myself with negative self-talk. On the contrary, when I finally accepted my life and body just as it was and decided to love myself for the imperfect person that I am, is when I finally changed. I started making healthy life changes as an act of self-love because I now know that I deserve it, no matter what my current circumstances.

Reminder to be thankful:

As human beings we have a natural tendency to focus on the negative and this can lead to some negative views on ourselves and our lives. I must remind myself that I already have so much to be thankful for. I'm thankful that I have the ability and access to a gym and food on the regular basis. These may seem like basics but they are huge privileges that a large proportion of the world does not have. I'm thankful everyday that I'm alive, healthy and free. What else could one ask for?

I'm enjoying the journey of eating well, working out, loving my life, doing what I love and spreading my message. I can't wait to see what life has in store for me in the future but life is real only happening right now and that is the part that I'm enjoying right now in this very moment. Life is grand. What is one small thing you can be thankful for right now?

Remember you are uncommonly beautiful no matter what the scale or media or society says. Spread the love and share your unique and truly wonderful self with the world.

As always here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! <3 :)

Green Smoothie Health Challenge

Monday June 1, 2015 marks the first day of my 30 day Green Smoothie Challenge. 

Inspired by the Simple Green Smoothies gals: http://simplegreensmoothies.com and their 30 day green smoothie challenge that they hold a couple times a year I've decided to do my own. They have a challenge coming up in July but I didn't want to wait that long so I'm going to start my own for June. 

Here's the challenge: 1 green smoothie a day for 30 days. This smoothie will be a meal replacement for any meal of the day, I personally love to have them for breakfast, or as a snack. I'll be scouring the web for recipes of green smoothies that don't taste like grass and I'll share them with you as you follow along on this journey. 

Starting with my day 1 smoothie which is based on the Beginner's Luck smoothie from the simple green smoothies website. I halved their recipe for an individual serving and I added some extra nutrition and protein. 

I used my magic bullet and this how I made it: 1 cup greens; I used mixed kale plus 1 cup almond milk, which was pulsed until smooth. Then I added 1/2 cup frozen mango, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple and half a banana with 1 tsp each of flax seeds, ground chia seeds and brown rice based protein powder. I pulsed it all together and then we have deliciousness. 

This challenge is not just about the smoothies, it's a general challenge to myself to start eating clean. My diet will still be mainly fruit and veggie based with lean protein, seeds, nuts, lentils and pulses rich. I'm swearing off sugar except for a piece of quality dark chocolate once a day. I'm also going to minimize my dairy, caffeine and alcohol consumption. 

During this challenge I'll also continue my workout regime of weight lifting 3 days a week and cardio 3 days a week. I'm also going to concentrate on increasing my activity level in general by doing lots of active things with my free time. 

Follow along in my challenge here on the blog and on social media: Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

Let me know about your own health & fitness goals, struggles and any challenges who've undertaken. As always here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

Emotional Seasons

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my emotions and feelings and specifically emotional seasons. I believe that just as the Earth goes through natural cycles that are marked by periods of hibernation, renewal, growth and change; we too as humans experience similar seasonal changes related to our emotions. 

I know that I, for one, have experienced periods of joy, sorrow, frustration, positivity, anger, happiness and more. These changes may or may not be linked to external factors such as the weather but more than likely it relates to internal struggles or epiphanies. 

Let me give you an example from my own life in terms of the emotional season that I'm currently wading through. 

Recently I've been experiencing what can only be described as an angry season. I've felt like I've had a very short fuse in regards to issues that really amount to very trivial things in the grand scheme of things. I recognize that I'm being irrational and needlessly irritated but even with this realization I still find myself quick to anger. What exactly is going on with me and what can I do about it?

These are the questions that have been rattling around in my brain throughout this current emotional season. I'm already starting in a good place in the fact that I'm self-aware enough to recognize what's going on. Ok, great, I know what's happening but why and what can I do about it?

As a side note I want to make it clear that I believe it's important to feel your feelings when they happen without trying to suppress them and without being too self-indulgent. It's a fine line I know and one that I'm still working to define but I think it changes all the time. 

Now I'm at point where the same issues that are making me angry are coming up time and time again and I've reached the point of self-indulgence. It's time to either accept or act. As that old saying goes: something along the lines of give me strength to accept the things I cannot change and change the things I cannot accept...? Or maybe that's my version.

Action time: I start with some personal explorations of the deep recesses of my brain, then I think back to what has been happening in my life lately and then I dig deeper to reveal the real reasons for my anger and frustration and then I tackle them.

So after much contemplation about my life circumstances and my feelings surrounding them I've realized that it all boils down to expectations. More precisely unmeet expectations. I've always enjoyed dreaming and planning for the future and as much fun as this can sometimes be, it also has a dark side; the anger, frustration and resentment that can arise from reality being incongruent with my imaginings.

I moved away from my hometown about a year and a half ago and in doing so I left behind many friends and most of my family. As much as moving away and being forced to take care of myself has been a good thing for me and finally forced me to be an adult, It has also been very hard. When I moved to the 'big city' I had a lot of expectations about what my life would look like and I realize now how childish those expectations were. 

I've always enjoyed imagining that my adult life would look like a friends or sex in the city episode but that's all it is; fun and fanciful imaginings. However, I think that deep down a part of me did expect my life to look all fun and shiny like the TV shows of my youth, and it does not. It may seem silly but I think it's important to hold onto the childish and youthful side of ourselves as adults and sometimes children are mini philosophers and sometimes they're quite silly. 

I guess this is one of those times where I have to remind my inner child that TV and movies aren't real and that reality is not the same but that doesn't mean it's worse. The thing about TV shows and especially movies is that they gloss over the everyday and sometimes boring things that make up life and in doing so make it seem like life should constantly dramatic. Honestly though, life can be so much better than these portrayals if we take the time to stop, look and appreciate. 

So how do I plan on getting over my angry season? I'm already starting to feel better having explored it and now written and shared about it. I'm going to lose the expectations and enjoy my current life. I'm going to make the best of my current situation and be pleasantly surprised by whatever life brings me. Honestly at this point in my life I'm enjoying the downtime, quiet and dramalessness that a boring adult life brings. 

As I feel the storm of my angry season lifting I'm looking towards the beautiful blue sky for the inevitable rainbow while enjoying and creating my uncommonly wealthy life. Cheers! 😊🌈

My Personal Truths

By looking at many of my posts from the past it seems I've made a lot of swiping declarations about getting certain things done and wanting to be this or do that. Most of the things I'd still out to accomplish I didn't follow through on and recently I realized why. I've realized that a lot of the things I set out to do didn't actually come from me, they came from external pressures such as friends, family and society in general. I was also putting the pressure on myself to achieve these things in order to get external validation which I believed would make me feel better about myself. Obviously this is not true and I've realized some universal truths that I'd now like to share with you.

The first truth being that external validation never leads to real longterm self-satisfaction and happiness. 

I feel like I've heard this so many times but it didn't really register until I experienced freedom from many of the external sources which had been adding pressure to my life for so long. In gaining this freedom I've come to realize that the only way to be happy is to live a self-approved life. The love, validation and approval that I seek needs to come from myself, otherwise I'll always be chasing the unattainable, like a metaphorical cat chasing the laser pointer.

The second truth is that self-approval doesn't happen overnight and it isn't something you do once and you're 'fixed', it's something that takes constant upkeep and re-evaulation. 

This may sound exhuasting but it doesn't have to be, it simply involves doing what you love, making time for yourself and your own needs and following your heart. This is obviously going to be different for every person and it's not something I can tell you. For me it's taken moving away from my childhood home and family as well as many of my longtime friends. At the time this seemed like it would be a really hard move and it was in many ways but it's turned out to be the best deicison of my adult life. In breaking away from many of the toxic situations and people that previously surrounded me I've been able to figure out that I'm a really capable human being who deserves love and I work on given it to myself everyday.

The third truth being that doing x, y or z will never lead to love and validation. 

Doing x, y, and/or z should be things that I love to do and that bring me personal satisfaction and self-approval. I've realized that I don't have to be or do anything in order to be deserving of love.  I'm perfect right now in all my messy and beautiful imperfectness and I deserve love no matter what. For example I've struggled for a long time with being overweight and I thought for a long time that all my problems would vanish and I would finally be happy if I could just lose the weight. I'm finally realizing that the fat doesn't matter, no matter what anyone says about it, I'm beautiful and deserving of love no matter the number on the scale. 

The fourth truth being that I'll never be healthy by bullying myself. 

Living a healthy lifestyle by eating good foods, working out and taking care of myself is important to me because it makes me happy. Prior to this realization I was making myself unhappy by berating and bullying myself into being healthy, which seems kind of counterintuitive now. I was unhappy and I was fighting myself every step of the way because I was being mean to myself. When other people have treated me in a similar mean way in the past I haven't reacted favorably and I haven't felt much like cooperating. So in a similar vein I was treating myself badly and I was reacting badly leading to an unhappiness spiral that didn't lead to a healthy me. So now in order to make positive and healthy changes in my life I do so with positive reinforcement, compassion and love. "Kill them with kindness" as I've heard said before. 

The fifth and final (for now) truth is that I've learned to take control of my life by realizing what is under my control and what isn't. 

I've realized that I have control over my feelings and actions and really that's it. I can take control in other ways throughout my life but these things can change at any time and most of the time the things that happen to us in our lives are out of our control. But what is under my control is how I react to life and what my attitude will be moving forward. I can choose to believe that life in unfair and blame the world for my problems or I can choose to believe that everything that happens in life is for me and move forward with this freeing notion. It truly is a beautiful and freeing feeling to know that I have control over what I choose to do and how I choose to react every single second of every day. 

Life isn't perfect but it's all we've got, this is it, this is life and we have free will and the freedom to choose how we want it to go, what are you going to choose?

Until next time, here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

The Resolution to End All Resolutions

Welcome back to my blog! This week I want to talk about a personal New Years resolution that I made to myself but I haven't shared on this blog...yet. As you may have guessed, that's exactly what I intend to write about in this here blog post. So, buckle your seat belts and get ready for a mundane and possibly coma-inducing ride! Yippee, here we go! :)

Resolution number one for me was to be more assertive. What I mean by that is the fact that I have a tendency to let people push me around a little too much because I want to seem 'nice' and I want to make sure everyone is happy. This comes from a deep-seated fear that I will one day turn into my mother. I have always thought that being overly 'nice', easy-going and worrying about other peoples happiness is a way to fight turning into the crazy bitch that I know I have inside of me. I've been raised by society to be 'nice', because I'm female and no one will love me and/or marry me unless I'm a nice girl (ugh). So this has been drilled into my head since a young age by family members and pop culture alike as well as the fact that being 'selfish' is the worst thing in the world. What I'm realizing as I get older is that trying to make everyone else happy is an exhausting and futile endeavour that leads to my own unhappiness and ironically turns me into a crazy bitch. What I've noticed from examining previous friendships and relationships is a pattern that goes something like this: I put on a show at the beginning so that people will like me; I'm easy-going and let people get away with whatever they want (hence setting up our relationship to one another early on), then as we start to get closer I feel more comfortable being myself and then all of a sudden my needs aren't being met and it starts to get to me and I get angry/upset and in some instances I have a temper tantrum (the crazy bitch emerges) and enough of these instances happen to lead to the eventual alienation of my friend/boyfriend. This is a pattern I want to stop right now. So my solution is to start accepting and loving myself for the crazy bitch that I am. I'm going to become friends with the bitch inside me and become more assertive in all my relationships about my needs and wants and whether they are being met (or not) through constructive communication.

As an example, I used to live with my parents and my mother is a bit of a control freak and she tries her best to control what I do with my time and my life. This was easier for her when I lived there but now that I no longer live with her I'm noticing that I have a few other 'mother-hen' types in my life who also like to control my time. In the past I would become highly resentful of this fact and just stew and possibly vent to other people but with this resolution I'm determined to talk things out and put my foot down concerning my life and my time. I don't want to just replace my mother with another controlling person (which I've done in the past). No, I want my life and my time to be my own. I've been wondering lately what is it about me that attracts these type of people to me; the people who feel like I'm the type of person who is easily controlled and needs other people to lead me around by the nose? I'm an easy-going person about certain things but other things I'm very rigid. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm a social person and I love being around other people and I enjoy spending time with the people I care about. In this vein I end up putting myself and my life as secondary to other people because I want those people as part of my life and too often I have put my life on hold for the sake of socializing. Socializing has always been a top priority for me over many other important endeavours to the point where school, work and even important relationships have suffered in the past. I have a fear that if I put myself and my own endeavors as top priorities over socializing that I'll have no friends. It may seem childish but it's part of a greater fear of being alone and/or that I'm not good enough and/or unlovable that I believe everyone struggles with their whole life.

Now that I've unpacked the past and the possible reasons, what is the solution? The solution as I've devised is to make myself and my happiness a priority. As counterintuitive as this sounds, being more 'selfish' and more assertive and taking care of myself first will lead to a greater ability to share myself with others and take care them when needed. This will make me a better partner, friend, sister, aunt and daughter. Instead of hurting myself to make everyone else happy I'll take care of myself and the people who really care about me will be happy that I'm happy. This is a poignant topic for me right now because I've come up against a few important people in my life who it seems like are trying to fight me for control of my life, yes you heard that right: MY life. I think this stems from an inability on their own part to value themselves, their time and take control of their own lives that ultimately makes them unhappy. I believe these people feel powerless and out of control in their own lives and therefore react negatively to other people gaining control of their lives and that leads to attempts to sabotage the person who is getting their shit together and taking care of themselves. I need to start working a bit harder to guard myself from these kinds of negative influences in my life and if that means I need to start minimizing my time spent with them then unfortunately that is what I will have to do. I hope I can be an inspiration for these people to get control of their own lives and start making their own happiness a priority the way I intend to do. I really do wish this for these people, even though some may seem too far gone, I will still hold out hope until the very end.

In examining all my New Years resolutions for 2014 I realize that none of them are achievable without this very important first resolution. In looking at my past 'failures/mistakes' concerning resolutions and trying to take care of myself and make a better life it can all be boiled down to my inability to be assertive and make myself a priority. I think an important part of self-love and self-betterment is to make ME the number one priority in my life because I am enough and I am worthy of love and the best way to show the world this fact is to truly believe it and live it everyday. It won't always be easy but I've discovered a few fun techniques to help me in this endeavor; such as journaling and instagraming. In specific: I've started a 365 grateful campaign on instagram in which I post something I'm grateful for everyday on instagram in order to start loving the life I have and a way to increase my happiness now. I'm also going to start a journal in which I write 3 things I value in myself or 3 ways I've added value to the world everyday. I hope to inspire some of you reading this blog to maybe do the same or something similar. In what ways are you being more assertive in your life and taking back your power and living your life your way? As always, here's to YOUR uncommonly wealthy, healthy and happy life! :)

The Start of My Life

Last week I had a bit of an epiphany moment and it came courtesy of the universe and finally listening to myself. I feel like I'm finally listening to my inner wise old woman, my inner child and the signals from the universe. I've spent the majority of my adult life fighting; fighting myself, my friends, my parents, my family and society. And where has it got me? Good question that I have answered in a previous blog post but to sum it up: I'm out of shape, overweight, unhappy, almost 30, in debt, living with my parents and working a going-nowhere part-time job. I feel lost and this week was a highlight of those feelings as I felt like I was hitting rock bottom emotionally. I've put on a really good external face that I'm happy with my life and I'm ok with just scraping by, but I'm not. I'm tired of putting my life on hold while I "get my shit together", ie: working just to work in order to pay off my debt and then I'll start living and being happy. Screw that! I'm sick of it, I'm sick of playing small and trying to ignore the nagging from my soul!

I've ignored my true self and my true calling for way too long because I've bought into all the naysayers and the negativity from the people who supposedly care about me and love me and just 'want the best for me'. Well their idea of what's best for me is not my idea of what's best for me and I KNOW it's not what's best for me! I used to fight in the right way, when I was younger I used to fight for myself to prove the naysayers wrong. When someone told me I couldn't do something or that something couldn't be done, it was like it became a challenge for me, a personal internal challenge to prove those people and society wrong. I always wanted to be the person who did the things that no one thought was possible or were too afraid to try themselves. Somewhere along the line I lost that fight, I lost that drive, I lost my true grit and I'm ready to bring it back!

While I laid in my bed one day last week, in the throws of a crying episode, I realized that my entire world view needs to change. I realized that I'm trying to approach my life the same way every time and every time I've found myself back at the beginning and no where closer to where I want to be but I keep trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results, that is the definition of insanity is it not...?!

So here I am at the cusp of the rest of my life and instead of playing small, instead of buying into everyone else's opinions, instead of just giving in & giving up I'm going to do it differently, I'm going to go against the grain and against all the traditional advice and follow my heart! So far the traditional advice has not worked because I'm not a traditional person and I'm never going to just fit into and accept the status quo. It's time I truly embraced my true self, my deepest held dreams and desires and went after what I wanted with the fight and drive I know I possess and prove all the naysayers wrong! I can no longer wait until the "timing is right" because it'll never be the right time, I must create the right time and create the life of my dreams because I refuse to go to my grave regretting all the things I didn't do. Even if I fail, at least I can say I tried, I actually gave it all the effort and power it deserves and I know I possess before admitting defeat. I seem to like to take a self-defeatist attitude toward myself, my dreams and my desires a lot of the time. I've been a supreme saboteur of my own life for way too long, but no longer, no longer will I allow my internal gremlins/demons destroy me!

I've been talking in general so far and now I want to break down the specifics of what my life will entail moving forward into the future:

- I will no longer apologize for being myself or for expressing my true self or my dreams and desires;

- I will take responsibility for my own happiness and not let external people, circumstances and events dictate my internal state;

- I will embrace my shadow self and my various emotions, look at them and deal with them and express them without apology;

- Accept that I may have to lose a large part of my current life in this pursuit but also realize I will gain so much more in this new life;

- Take care of myself and my body everyday through self-love & acceptance and by only putting the best stuff into my body, being active and spiritual;

- Continue to strive for all the tenants that are important to my uncommonly wealthy life

- Work hard everyday and in every way and stop letting myself off the hook;

- Stop giving away my power by blaming other people, situations and society for my life; take back my power by living purposefully everyday;

- Find something to be grateful for everyday and enjoy the life I'm living right now;

- No longer allow FEAR to run my life and keep me small;
- Enjoy the journey! :)

This is going to be the start of something new and amazing for me and I know it won't be easy and it won't be smooth sailing the entire time but I can't let small hiccups be my excuse to give up or give in. I'm prepared to keep working hard in the face of what may seem like insurmountable odds because this is what I've always wanted and can no longer ignore. I also realize that it'll be amazing and exhilarating as well and that I'll be happy and more fulfilled. Life and the universe will open up in response to my acceptance of this invitation. World: here I come and as always here's to your uncommonly wealthy life! :)

Welcome to My Blog!

I have been struggling for weeks to find the perfect topic for my very first blog post. I had so many ideas floating around in my head but I was never really happy with any of them. Just now as I was lying in bed unable to sleep and contemplating my existence it came to me, in the same way that any good idea does, like a bolt of lighting that jolts you out of bed and into action. So here I am with my very first blog post about... but wait I need to give you a little background before I explain the premise of this post and the blog itself.

In the past few months of my life there have been a lot of weird things that have happened to me. It's funny how at the time one can look at their life and feel stagnated but in looking back with hindsight bias one can see the forest for the trees....too many analogies possibly in that one...? Anyways, what I am trying to say is that all these weird occurrences have added up and eventually led to this one glorious moment and the beginning of this blog!

It seems like all the bizarre occurrences of my life this past year have led to this one bizarre day a few weeks ago that I remember very well. So I will start with explaining that I was feeling like I had been stuck in a rut and going around in circles for a long time when it comes to my life and career path. I have been stagnated by my very own decision paralysis. I think a lot of people can relate to this state; it is a state of being in which you find yourself unable to move forward because of the inability to make a concrete decision and act on it. I have so many ideas, interests and possible avenues that I could focus my attention towards that it is hard for me to decide which one to choose. I am paralyzed by a fear that I will make the wrong choice AGAIN and then I will be stuck or in the same place as now or in an even worse situation. I also fear that if I choose one thing than by default I will have to give up the other things. This is tough for me because I know I need to make a decision in order to move forward and I really want to move forward with my life and start doing what I love.

The point being that this was never more evident than the day I went to a healthy living expo with my best friend. At said Expo, I meet a woman who was a holistic healer, working at a healing practice that specialized in various techniques, one that I had never heard about before was colour therapy. I was skeptical but curious about the idea and my friend was the courageous one that asked for an explanation. The woman explained that is was the use of a variety of coloured jars and asking someone what colours appealed to them the most and then an explanation of how this is related to their personality and life. So my friend ventures forward and points out some coloured jars she finds attractive and the woman starts in on a perfect explanation of my best friend's personality and her best traits, it was eerie. I then decided to try it as well, seeing how she was highly accurate with my friend. So I stepped forward and pointed to a bottle which was a mix of orange and purple. She then explained that the fact that I choose that particular bottle means that I am a healer, someone who has a lot of wisdom to share and is able to help people in the healing arts, however I have a lot of fear that surrounds these gifts and my wisdom. BAM! Wow, that was a life changing moment for me. Both my friend and I were blown away by the accuracy of this stranger's description of us based solely on the colours that appealed to us. It was a big wow moment for me and made me think...

For example, I have for most of my short life always been attracted to health care related jobs and I have known from an early age that I wanted to help people, no matter what I ended up choosing as a career and life path, it had to be something that contributed to overall society in a positive way. I started at an early age as a Lifeguard and I taught swimming lessons to children, I volunteered my time and qualifications as often as possible to first aid related causes. I went into university with the intention of going to Medical school and when that didn't pan out I tried out nursing but I didn't finish my degree and then I found myself employed as a 911 operator for ambulance services. It may seem that my choices have been related to my life and work experiences and expertise but I have also found myself drawn to these professions, but somehow feeling not fulfilled in them. I thought about going the complementary and alternative medicine route but that was something that also required a lot of time and money and little support from family, friends and society as a whole. So now I find myself working for the municipal government doing a job that leaves me unfulfilled.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I am afraid. I keep myself paralyzed and stuck because I am afraid of making a decision, I'm afraid of making the wrong one. So I don't make any decision and I stagnant. I have ideas but I don't start anything because I'm afraid I wont finish it, or I'm afraid I'll fail or even that I'm afraid I'll succeed. Most of all, I'm afraid of being vulnerable, of just totally being my true damaged, scared, horrific and beautiful self with another human being. So here I am at the corner of the rest of my life stuck scared and the rest of my life beautifully open and I find this blog. This lowly little blog can be that first step for me, it can be that place where I can safely try being vulnerable with the training wheels on. I want to share my life with the world, my trials and tribulations and the lessons I learn along the way so that others can learn and grow as well and maybe even get a little bit of entertainment out of it.

So on that fateful day this woman who I have never meet before and doesn't know me from Adam, has summed-up my entire life and existence in a couple sentences and with one dual-coloured bottle of liquid. My best friend and I both walked away from the experience feeling profoundly moved. What shot through me while I laid in bed this evening was that thought and those words from this woman; that I have a lot of wisdom to share and that I am afraid. I want to help people, I know that for a fact and I have always wanted to do that with my life, but I have struggled for a long time to figure out the right way for me to do that. I was hit tonight by the thought that this blog, this one right here, the one you are reading right now, can be that vehicle for me to help people. I know I am not the only person going through the things I am going through and I know I am learning and growing everyday and I really do want to share that journey with the world. If I can help one person's life be a little easier by learning from my mistakes instead of making their own then it will be worth it.

So welcome to my blog, Uncommon Wealth, the name of which comes from some distant memory from my youth. I think you can interrupt the title in whatever way seems fit for yourself but I know what it means to me. For me and in this context it refers to the richness that comes from a wonderful life, the wealth of happiness and prosperity that will never be found in monetary form. So here is to your uncommonly wealthy life! Cheers! :)