Body image...

It seems like everywhere I look I see beautiful women stressing and obsessing about their body image. Women everywhere are skimping on calories, crazily exercising, and pretty much starving themselves just to lose that extra pound for some big event.

My husband told me the other night that I can't really speak to this issue and that people will not want to listen me because I'm on the "petite side." But there are things about my body that I don't like either. I think every women in some way or another deals with body image issues.

I don't see why we can't all be happy with the way we are as long as we are healthy. Our world crams it down our throats that we all have to be the perfect size 2 with perfectly toned arms and abs. It would be so boring if all women looked the same.

So what if you have a little extra tummy now that you've had a baby. So what if the back of your arms is a little flabby. So what if you have love handles.

Are you taking care of yourself and eating a balanced diet? Are you exercising for the health benefits that it provides you?

"God created our bodies to house our souls and spirits, not to be on the cover of a magazine!" ~ My yoga teacher

This is so very true. We were created by a God with an amazing imagination. Be happy with how God created your body and take care of it!!

Change is coming...

Change brings excitement and fear of the unexpected. It's time for me to let go of my fear and embrace the excitement. I feel a lot of change coming my way! YAY!! "The key to change is to let go of fear." ~ Rosanne Cash

Circumstances

Do you let your circumstances define you or do you define them?

The circumstances of life have been on my mind lately. Life is great for some people...it sucks for others. Life seems to go so smoothly sometimes...at other times it seems like a never-ending roller coaster. Some people are stuck in the middle of really crappy circumstances...others are living through amazing ones. Some people look at their own circumstances, and even if they're crappy, they do what they can to make things work...others wallow in self-pity, having the "why me?" mentality. In a nut shell, the later allow their circumstances to define, dictate and drive their life.

By looking at those around me, I've learned that happiness and joy are both choices. I have seen people experiencing devastating things in their life, but to look at them you'd never know. They are not allowing their circumstances to define them. On the other side of the coin, I have seen people experiencing devastating things in their life, and to look at them you would most DEFINITELY know! They ARE allowing their circumstances to define them.

I was talking to my sister yesterday about this. She said that she had been thinking about how sometimes it seems to take a really long time to see how God's hand is working in a situtation and then how other times he seems to work almost immediately. She summed this up by saying, "Maybe it's because I've learned what God has wanted me to learn quicker in some cases."

Maybe we need to look at our circumstances as God trying to show us that we can find joy and happiness no matter what. That "being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections." Can we look beyond the imperfections of life and see the good that surrounds us everyday? Can we "Trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Him and allow Him to make our paths straight?"

Maybe we are allowing our circumstances to define us...maybe we are not CHOOSING happiness and joy...maybe we are not looking beyond the imperfections of crappy circumstances....maybe we are not trusting in the Lord...

...yet again...maybe we are!!

Goodbye 2010...Hello 2011...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

This quote from Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities" sums up how I felt about the year 2010. In a way 2010 kicked my butt...but in a way it was full of fun and new adventures that only leave me more excited for what 2011 holds.

So I am gladly saying goodbye to 2010 and saying hello to an exciting 2011.

2010...

...goodbye cancer

...goodbye to an accident that almost took my brother-in-law's life

...goodbye difficulties in family members lives

...goodbye to health issues that led to a surgery for me

...goodbye allowing other people to create drama in my life

...goodbye to being scared to dream and move on

2011...

...hello to feeling good and healthy again

...hello to being married for 10 years to my best friend and soul mate

...hello to a European anniversary vacation

...hello to moving out of Folsom/Sacramento

...hello to knew possibilities for Layton and myself

...hello to starting fresh in a new place

...hello to dreaming

I leave you with a quote from my favorite author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, that I am going to claim over 2011...

"Always do what you are afraid to do."

Here's to not being afraid in 2011 to DREAM!!