Sick!

Why does it take an illness for us to wake up to how we are treating our bodies?  And how come some people listen to their bodies and others don’t? I am at the tail end of the flu and I AM listening!  I don’t want to feel this way again.  So, once this is gone, my goal is to continue with the oil pulling every day.  This helps get toxins out.  I will do a detox bath once a week and a foot detox once a month.  I already eat pretty healthy, but, obviously that wasn’t good enough, so, I will eat even more veggies & unprocessed foods, I will make sure I am getting enough water and enough sleep.  Without our health, nothing else matters….because it can’t.  When you have let your body get so run down you can’t do anything, you can’t help others, you can’t function.  To me it’s just not worth it.  My flu lasted over a week, my 8 year olds lasted 1 1/2 days!  Obviously I am more toxic.  I’m on a mission to detox, build up my immune system as strong as it can be, & enjoy this amazing body I have been given.  I hope you decide to do the same!

Are you living fully?

Are you living fully?  I mean, are you completely present every second of every day?  No, it’s impossible.  But, are you fully living the majority of the time?  By this, I mean, when you are working on something, are you giving it your all, completely present, enjoying it?  What about when you are in conversation with someone?  Are you completely present, listening, reacting, enjoying it?  This is something that is very hard to do, I have to “check in” with myself throughout the day.  I’d like you to start doing this too.  All through the day, stop and ask yourself, am I giving this my 100%  full attention?  Am I doing my very best?  Am I completely present?  It’s amazing what happens, when you ask that and then make small changes to giving more of yourself…MAGIC happens.  You will start to enjoy things more, remember things more, experience more.  Try it. One thing you will realize is how little you are giving of yourself, how little you are enjoying things, and how little you are really living.  BE PRESENT, GIVE YOUR ALL, LOVE, SMILE, LAUGH, AND ENJOY THIS REMARKABLE LIFE WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

FEAR

When it comes to pursuing your dreams, often we face FEAR and lots of it!  How do we know if the FEAR is there as a warning or as a road map?  In my experience, you will know when FEAR is a warning if the results of an action could be harmful to your life or someone else’s life.  I have heard said that FEAR should be treated as a road map to show you where you need to go.  For instance, if you are FEARful of making your first film or writing your first script or even your second one for that matter…ask yourself why?  That FEAR is often a guide telling you that you SHOULD do it…now, I know we don’t think of FEAR that way, but start testing it out and see what happens.  I am facing some FEAR right now in one of my careers and I am going to use it as a road map..what’s the worst that could happen?  If the worst doesn’t include harm to anyone, then go for it!  FEAR is often EGO and you must not let EGO control you.  Embrace the FEAR and push forward my friends!

Getting Things Done

 

I’ve always been pretty organized and able to check off my to-do list pretty much every day, however, I started to see if I could be even more productive and the answer was YES!  So, how did I do it?  Well, I’ve starting using a timer.  So, I have my to-do list broken up into Acting, Shriekfest, and Other.  So, I set a timer for 1 hour and for 1 hour ONLY I focus on Acting stuff that needs to be done that day and if I get through it all, I start the next days list, then I move on to Shriekfest work for 1 hour and so on.  What this method has done for me is HUGE.  It has stopped the sitting and reading through emails or Facebook.  I still do those things, but that’s only AFTER all the rest is complete.  My workouts/walks used to go to sometimes over an hour, so, I got smart about those too and I have them down to 40 minutes now.  My schedule is not so loosy goosy as it used to be. We all get the same amount of time in a week, it just depends how we are using it.  Timing things is a great way to FOCUS ourselves.  Try it out and let me know what you thought!

Focus!

Have you ever found yourself at the end of the day saying where did the time go?  Have you spent a little too much time on social media or surfing the net?  I think we all have…before you know it you are sucked in and an hour has gone by!  What I starting doing to prevent this is to write down my top important things I want to work on each day:  ex:  acting, Shriekfest, organizing and then I work for 60 minutes on each, no interruptions of ANY kind!  I even set a timer and when it goes off I stop and move onto the next topic.  It has been working great!  Once I’ve gone through all of the main subjects, then I allow myself 10 minutes to peruse social media! Then, I start all over again with topic number 1.   It works like a charm, I’m getting so much more done and then getting creative with things too.  I love it.  Give it a try and see if it’s a new habit you want to add this coming new year!

Look for the Gold!

In our every day lives, we can find so many things to be negative about.  The weather, our hair, our health, the way someone acts, the way we act, what we eat, how we slept, etc.  The list can go on forever!  I want you to spend the next hour looking for the gold. Find the good in everything and everyone.  Just for an hour and see how you feel.  It’s really hard to do, our minds start drifting back to negative things.  Keep trying though.  Look for the Gold.  What is happening right now that is good, or even great?  I know you can find all kinds of things when you start paying attention.  Think of this, if I told you to look around you right now and look for the color blue, you’d see it everywhere…but, now, let’s say I ask you what things did you see that were red?  You can’t name any because you were looking for blue….the same thing happens when you look for the good…. you don’t see the bad.  Have a great day and LOOK FOR THE GOLD!

TRAGEDY

 

I found out this week that a dear friend was murdered.  You know we see things like this every day on the news and we think how horrible, but, you never really know how horrible until it hits close to home.  At first I was stunned, wishing it were just  a horrible dream, but then the tears come and they don’t stop.  Every time you picture that person or think anything about them, the pain wells up. Knowing you will never have another conversation with them is so heart wrenching, knowing you will never see her beautiful face again is more pain than you ever want to go through.  After several days of those feelings, it turned to anger…who was this guy, why did he think it was ok to take her life, didn’t he think about her family and friends that would be devastated?  How could he be so selfish?  If he wanted to end his life, why take hers too?

This whole event has made me question life….what is the point?  If we have to go through this kind of pain, what is the point?  My husband reminded me of all of the good things in life and yes, I agree, there are WAY more good things than bad.  I started thinking about all of the mundane things in our lives, in her life, that we/she have/had to do on a daily basis, all those things she did to move her career forward and take care of her health….all to mean absolutely nothing in the end.  I know this all seems harsh, but the range of emotions I am going through is like nothing I’ve experienced before.  Sure, we know people die and it’s painful, but her life was taken from her, from us. It’s all so unfair.  The pain is unbearable.  I think what I hate the most about death is that life goes on, it just goes on, like you were never here and to me that really sucks.  I feel she deserves more than that.  Now, I know she will always be remembered, it just seems too final for me to deal with right now.  You will always be loved and missed my dear friend, you were a light in the crowd that can’t be replaced.

So, I produce a film festival and I am a successful actress, ..both take up a lot of my time and both require a high level of professionalism. I am the type of person that tends to demand a lot of myself, which leads to me putting more pressure on myself. Right now I am doing press for a movie I have in theaters “When the Bough Breaks”, attending auditions, and prepping for my film festival Shriekfest and the stress of it all is getting to me. I find myself burnt out and making mistakes….so, what should I do? I can’t stop, but, I can SLOW down, I can take a mini break, I can breathe and IGNORE those 200 plus emails waiting for me. The world won’t stop if I can’t do it now. This is tough for me, because I like to do it now and be professional, so I am trying to retrain myself….to SLOW down. I know if I slow down I will enjoy this whole process a lot more and I won’t get as stressed or feel overwhelmed. Oh, did I mention I am a Mom too, to an 8 year old. So, my work day consists of the time when she is in school & then when she gets home a whole different kind of work day starts. :) I’m not complaining….but, it is another reason to SLOW down. Anyone out there relate?

Are you Grateful?

I know this is a word that is thrown around a lot lately, but are you?  I know it is very easy to get fed up with things, get in ruts, get annoyed with situations, but in the end are you grateful for all that is in your life?  I know there are many artists out there that are not satisfied with where there career is or where it’s heading….but, can you still be grateful for where you are right now?  I think so.  Try it.  I love to go for a walk in the morning and one of the first things I do is go through everything I am grateful for…it’s a great way to start the day on the right page…do this again in bed before you fall asleep.  Life is so much better when you are grateful.  I remember when I was younger I would hate when it would rain…such a hassle I would think…however, turn a situation like that around and think of all the great things that come from rain.  Now, try this with something you think is a hassle:  your job, cleaning, doing dishes, making calls, etc   Find the good in the annoying….and that good will multiply!

Loving Life!

What does this mean to you?  Do you feel like  you love your life?  Sometimes, all the time, never?  So, how do you make sure you love your life when things are going wrong?  Well, that is a good question.  I know you’ve heard this before, but the first place you need to start is to be thankful for all of the good things in your life…right down to the tiniest flower you may see as you walk by…if you take a walk and notice everything and be thankful for it and then start giving thanks for everything in your life..start with your body….how strong it is, how it’s gotten you through so many things…bad eating, drinking, lack of sleep, etc and it’s still so loyal to you…what about the clothes on your back, your car, your home/apartment, your family, the food you eat, water you drink, being able to bathe, friends, sleep, tv shows, the sunset, etc….when you really start thinking about it, you can come up with so many things that will make you feel grateful and love your life.  Once you start doing this, the good becomes a snowball and we all know that snowballs just keep growing.  Let that love of life grow and see how you feel, see how the energy of everything around you grows.  Try it for a week and let me know how it goes!  Be grateful and don’t forget to share that gratefulness!