Reflection

I was recently talking with an old friend of mine from high-school. We were reminiscing about the dreams we had and where we ended up in life. It got me thinking although I'm no where near my dream of being a corporate lawyer, single woman living with a bunch of cats. I think this place where I'm at in my life journey is so much better. I would not trade my family for anything. Thinking back now I can't see myself alone without my children or my husband. Even the notion of being tied up in court all day defending corporations is really not appealing. I would much rather do what I do now by working with small business entrepreneurs at helping them to succeed within their business. Where I can take my office with me anywhere I am.
I think it's important to take a minute to truly appreciate the things you have as well as your accomplishments. Even though i have managed three degrees, no credentials in the world can replace or even compare to my two children.
I would like to ask you all to take a moment of reflection and think of all the things you are most proud of in your life right now. If you find yourself not happy with what you see, maybe it's time to start working on a new dream.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A note on helping others

Helping those who are in need in my opinion is everyone’s responsibility. There are little things that we can do on a daily basis in order to help someone else. Little things like holding a door open, or carrying your neighbours groceries.
Donating your time to a special cause is another way to help those who are less fortunate. A few hours a week is all you need to truly make a difference in someone’s life. Recently I have met a couple wonderful ladies who have been diagnosed with MS (muscular dystrophy). One lady named Stacy is the owner and designer of Gothic Gourd Girl (http://gothicgourds.com/). She is raising money and awareness for CCSVI treatments. Another woman I have had the privilege of meeting is Tessa. Tessa is a single woman who is alone on journey to raising money in getting the help she needs.
CCSVI (Chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency) treatment is term that was developed by an Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni. (Wikipedia) Through the use of angioplasty, patience suffering with MS has seen improvements to their overall health. The problem is the procedure is not offered here in Canada. I am working with these two ladies to help raise the funding they need to get treatment in the U.S as well as working to raise awareness to bring the treatment here.
I am currently trying to put together a few campaigns. One of which is selling some Avon products off my website www.cecavonstore.com and some hand crafted jewelry in order to donate the funds to them. I am also going to post the links to their websites so any interested people who are willing to help could donate directly.
I will posting some information as it comes in about their journeys as well as on MS and available treatments.
To learn more about CCSVI in Canada please visit; http://ccsvi.ca/

http://www.gofundme.com/Tessa-CCSVI-re-treatment
http://www.gofundme.com/HelpGothicGourdGirlStacy

Positive thinking, the Power of Choice

I have recently been attending many business related webinars that have been geared to “changing your personal way of thinking”. This has been a fascinating topic for me. Not because it’s a topic I am not familiar with, but rather how much people do not realize how important this is. The way you see yourself and internalize yourself is important not only business but also with your personal life. If you are constantly focusing on your negative points and telling yourself you cannot do something, you will never achieve your future goals. By changing the way you think about yourself will also change the situation that surrounds you. Now of course I’m not going to babble about this with out actually putting this theory to the test.
I have always been a fan of Freud, for more reasons than I can count. However, for the topic of this blog I will tell you the one thing that I always valued about his theories and that is that he tested his ideas on his own children. This is a something that I have put to practice myself since my daughter was born.
How does this apply with changing your internal messages? I took one simple idea, from a recent lecture of putting up a post it note with the sentence “I choose…” rather than the conventional “I see myself…” Now I decided to test this theory not only with my daughter, but myself and husband as well.
First small background on my daughter, she is a naturally negative person. Not sure where she has gotten this from because for the most part my family is very positive, always seeing the “glass as half full,” or at least half. My daughter unfortunately has always just seen the negatives of the world around her, and now she is internalizing this. So for her I put something little on her note. “I choose to do well in school”. For myself I put “I choose to be a writer and share my writing”. For my husband, it’s rather funny and longer term, but it was his choice, “I choose to live in a scenic area”.
Now the point of this exercise is to read this note 20 times a day for 30 days. This apparently is how long it takes to internalize the thought and make it happen. I can only speak of the results for myself and my daughter, because my husband is more of a retirement goal.
For my daughter, who is struggling in school and is just barely getting by, has turned her C average to a B-. No dear readers you have not read this wrong. She has done a vast improvement in the past month that no one can believe.
For myself I have been writing up a storm lately. I have jobs that I didn’t even think I could get let alone accomplish and gotten positive feedback, which is always good for one’s ego.
This is my quest for all of you my dear readers. Take a page from Freud’s book and try this method on yourself and family as well. Start clearing your heads of all those negative thoughts of “I can’t”, “it’s not possible”, “I’m not good enough” and so on. Replace those with “I choose.” Choose to reach your personal and work related goals, no mater how big or how small they are.

Biography block

Recently I have been working on a project for a sister in the United Kingdom. I have been asked to write a personal/professional biography. I thought this would be an easy task, considering that I have picked up many projects ranging in details. I have written content articles for business, website articles, published in online sites, even did some marketing campaigns. Yet I find myself lost for words.
I would like to believe that I am not the only one in the world that can’t write a personal or professional biography. I think it to be rather silly that I can’t think of any thing that I would like to put together about myself. I have gotten as far as “mixing educational and business background to create…” I have even tried to tackle this as just another article and the person I am writing about is not myself but rather another fellow writer who coincidentally has the same credentials I do. This I have to admit is not working very well.
Now I try to voice my opinion here on my own work space. Maybe this place will help to jog my mind and unlock my words. Clearing my thoughts giving me room to come up with a thought provoking biography.

Writer's inspirational notes

I have just finished reading “Eat Love Pray”, by Elizabeth Gilbert. She has by far become my favourite author and “ideal”. I heard something recently that has stuck with me throughout this entire book. A cleaver statement: “that you always find what you’ve been looking for right when you need it”. The day I found this book, I had many things going on. I was writing articles for a few clients and suffering of lack of inspiration. My business and marketing strategies were becoming overwhelming. Yet there was this copy of a book I normally would have over looked, waiting for me. To quote a character from one of my favourite TV shows Raj on “The Big Bang Theory”, “Eat Pray Love, changed my life.” This it truly has. I will not go into the details of how a simple memoire of an author can do this. However, as a writer I respect her and her style of writing. I have recently listened to a speech she gave found on her website www.elizabethgilbert.com, which has truly inspired me in my own work. I think as artists we need to feel that we are not alone with certain types of feelings and struggles. We need to be reminded by those who have gone through the process and the motions and have emerged stronger. It encourages us to keep doing what we are passionate about.
This is why I have chosen to share this with you all tonight my dear readers. I find this woman fascinating and inspirational. We as the creative ones of the world should take a moment and listen to her incredible journey.

Writers personal notes

I have been diligently working on many projects recently for other people. Between writing content articles, marketing plans, advertizing solutions and trying to work on my book, I have not taken much time for myself. To write freely on topics that mater to me the most, this is the reason for my most recent “personal journey” postings. However, tonight I want to share something different with you my dear readers.
A few months ago I published an article about “what type of writer are you versus reader”. The just of the article was to explain how I love to read fiction novels yet I can not write in this genre to save my life. I like to write non-fiction, yet will normally not pick up those types of books. I’m not a romance reader or a “chicken noodle soup for the soul” type of reader either. I like murder mystery, science fiction and magical. My normal routine when I go to any store that has a small book section is to quickly scan the titles. Today I noticed one entire rack dedicated to some vampire collection. I don’t mind the occasional vampire read, but it seems that this is becoming an overly saturated market. Then something caught my eye. “Eat Pray Love”, by Elizabeth Gilbert, featuring a very beautiful Julia Roberts on the cover, instant flash back to movie preview. I stood for a moment debating, all the while thinking, “I don’t read books made to movies”. Simply because it ruins the movie for me, apparently my imagination and vision of how the characters and scene flow are very different than that of the movie director. I always end up feeling so cheated after watching a movie in which I read the book first. Hence why I have not read any Harry Potter books yet, desperately waiting for the final chapters of the movie to be published before going ahead with the novels.
Still standing in front of the book, Julia Roberts picture staring back at me almost calling me. I pick up the book, flip the pages, feel the cover and decide it’s mine. Taking it home anxiously, I begin reading the first few pages then realize that this is a book about the author’s journey. Amazed by the notion, I read the back, the cover, the prologue to make sure I am not making any mistakes. Nope no error here, this is her journey. I’m hooked, this is my deepest secret, my most favourite books are those written by authors who dare to share their personal experiences. The few brave souls who take the plunge by putting their reputation on the line to create a novel which is not considered an “auto-biography”, but rather a personal revelation.
I have to say I have just begun reading this book and have not put it down till now to share it with you. I have been carrying it with me the entire day reading it at every given moment. I have not loved a book this much since my teen years when I first discovered the writings of John Saul and Dean Koontz. Tonight at dinner I started to read, suddenly I felt something watching me looked up to see both my children staring at me. Reminded me of the same stare my mother used to give me before ripping the book out of my hands and saying “not during dinner.”
I have no idea what the movie is like, to be honest I may not watch it now. I do however, highly recommend this book. It’s written well it’s written in much the way I write. But the author’s style and the combination of words she uses makes you feel like she is talking directly to you. Like a letter from a dear friend who has been on an amazing journey and is writing to you about it. Truly fascinating is her tale of her travels to Italy, India and Indonesia.
I will be definitely searching for other books written by Elizabeth Gilbert, she writes both in non-fiction and fiction genre.
“Eat Pray Love” is the title, if you have not read it yet, I strongly recommend you do.

My favorite Shaklee products

To continue on my Shaklee journey, I would like to take a minute to introduce my favourite Shaklee products. But first I have a secret, I like them all.
I will start with my very first experience. I’ll be honest when my first order came in I was very exited, but still a bit sceptic about the products. Like most people I was brainwashed into thinking that “clean” means strong smelling, chemical based products.
My first test was the Basic H2, the all purpose cleaner. I decided the floors should be my test subject. I followed the instructions on how much soap to water ratio. I am normally not this particular about such details, but I really wanted to examine this cleaner. I was absolutely amazed at how clean my floors came out. My son had spilled some grape juice on the floor that wouldn’t come out no matter what I tried on it. Two passes of the mop with the Basic H2 and the stain was gone. I kid you not my dear readers, the stain is non existent. The other thing that really surprised about this soap is the smell. It smells like nothing I have ever smelled before. It’s fresh and clean. Also, normally once I am done washing the floors with other cleaners I get a bad headache and I get very dizzy. That didn’t happen with this product.
Once the floors were all nice and shiny I thought what next? Bathroom lets see how well this product can clean up in there. I decided to do the bathtub first. Little bit of soap to a bit of water, I took a regular cloth and washed it down, didn’t even have to scrub. Toilet same thing, two drops got the job done. Now what I really truly enjoyed in here, is normally I would use a glass cleaner to do the taps. Not with the Basic H2. Quick wipe down and rinse and the taps were sparkling. It’s a truly amazing product. I highly recommend if you try nothing else to at least put this one to the test. I guarantee you will never go back to your old cleaners again!

Tune next time to hear more about these amazing Shaklee products.

To find out more on how to order Shaklee products, please visit http://newday.myshaklee.com