My Declaration: Trust

The sequencing of topics in The Declaration of You is so brilliant. After spending the summer making a series of declarations, the elephant in the room seems to be: "Now what? How can all this awesomeness actually happen?" Thinking about the next steps beyond the bloglovin' book tour, a scarcity mindset starts freaking out, trying to control the what, the how, the whole of it. An abundant mindset, on the other hand, trusts that it will all happen. Abundance is not passive, though. It's hard, proactive work. But it's calm, knowing and trusting that it will all happen. Enter...

Illustration by the lovely Jessica Swift.

As my final declaration of the series, want to recap each declaration I've made along the way. This time, I want to declare my trust in everything I've worked toward this summer. Ready? (she says to herself) Okay. Go.

Enthusiasm

I trust that recommitting myself to the importance of my core passions in life will bring opportunities that I can't even conceive of yet. I trust that the time and energy I spend reclaiming my creativity is time and energy well spent. I trust that if I focus my creative energy on writing, photography, travel, and building community, I will be a happy happy girl. {read the original Declaration of Enthusiasm}

Uniquity

"Why we all gotta look, gotta act the same? I say if you're born a lion, don't bother trying to act tame" (Ani DiFranco). I trust that when I speak my truth, like attracts like. I will live life as the most authentic version of myself and trust that the people who are meant to walk that path with me, will. I trust that living out loud will lead to a rich, abundant life. {read the original Declaration of Uniquity}

Intention

I trust that I've done the best I could do with the knowledge I had at the time; and wanting to set new intentions now is an act of creation and love. I trust The Universe enough to set the intentions I really truly want to set. I trust The Universe enough to set the intentions that scare me. I trust myself to pour a whole lot of love into those intentions. I trust that as I let go of (my illusion of) control and get out of my own way, The Universe will fill in the gaps. {read the original Declaration of Intention}

Self-care

No one else is going to take care of me. It's called self-care for a reason. I trust myself to know what I need and I trust myself to be able to take of it. I trust that one of the best ways to make myself happy is to make other's happy; however, I also trust that in order to do that I need to be happy myself. I trust that time and energy committed to self-care will allow me to more fully care for those I love, including myself. {read the original Declaration of Self-care}

Success

I trust myself to recreate a definition of success that works for me now and supports the new goals I'm setting for my life. I know that passion matters deeply when it comes to success and so I will assess what I can let go of, only keeping what works for me now. I trust that career moves that might look like a step backward, can actually be a step forward in a new direction. I trust that The Universe holds abundant possibilities and will help me let go of the old paradigms of success that I've outgrown. {read the original Declaration of Success}

Money

I will accept money simply for what it is: A tool. I know that wanting it doesn't make me greedy and getting (a lot of) it doesn't make me a douchebag. I trust that I can declare exactly the kind of life I want and I can appreciate money as the energy to help me do it. I trust that as I raise my frequency and increase my awareness of what's possible, I will also open myself up to the means to accomplish it. I trust that money will flow in and out of my life as needed. {read the original Declaration of Money}

Celebration

I know that the connection between celebration, marking the passage of time, and self-care is important to me. I know that when I get off balance, it's because I'm not pausing and I'm not marking time. I trust that when I give myself permission to reflect and be grateful, to pause, celebrate, shift gears, and re-dedicate my energy in a new direction, I will grow and find new adventures to celebrate. {read the original Declaration of Celebration}

Trust

Dear Self,  

I love you. You got this. Trust that.

xo,
me 

The Fine Print: The Declaration of You will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, giving readers the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, to discover how they and their gifts are unique, and to uncover what they are meant to do! 

Pre-order your copy now. Learn more by clicking here.

RSVP on Facebook!

Editorial Calendar: Revamp

Hi. How have you been?

It's taken me a while to regroup my work and personal life after returning from Iowa. In the flurry I fell off my editorial calendar bandwagon, as it were. However, since I've been back in town I've also developed some exciting new projects.

Sneak peak: I'm working with Craft Lake City to create two different series for their blog. I'm excited about the opportunity, but it does mean that some of my goals for this blog will be slowed down or put on hold. Details coming soon...

Another sneak peak: I'm going to shift the focus of my madeleines to become a series of curated adventures (note the newly-designed site header...woohoo!). I've learned that I do really well when I have a structure, even more structure than the editorial calendar provided. The structure of The Declaration of You bloglovin' book tour, for example, was great for me. I'll re-do my own editorial calendar to reflect this idea of different series of adventures, and roll out the details soon.

Stay tuned!

Love,
me

5 Ways to avoid airline fees #traveltuesday

Today's Travel Tuesday post highlights an article written by my friend Joseph Peterson, a freelance writer living in Washington, DC. His article tells fellow wanderlusters how to:

1. Get savvy with a knowledge of different airlines

2. Manipulate the now-tricky world of baggage fees

3. Reserve your ticket without hidden fees

4. Navigate internet deal sites

5. Decide on credit cards and reward programs




Check it out. Leave a comment for me below, or for Joseph on his original article, and let us know how you avoid airline fees.

Love and frequent flier miles,
me

My Declaration: Celebration

Similar to the vibe in my self-care declaration, when it comes to this week's topic, I'm all over it. No angst, no guilt, no metaphysical psychosomatic introspective hand wringing. In fact, I actually think self-care and celebration live hand in hand. They may even be making out at this point.

Illustration by the lovely Jessica Swift.

In my professional world we're constantly saying "close the loop" when we discuss projects, assessment cycles, delegations, and so forth. To close the loop on an assessment project, for example, you don't analyze the data and file it away in a pretty binder on your bookshelf. Closing the loop means you implement data-driven changes to future programming. Closing the loop is an organizational skill that allows you to pause, shift gears, and re-dedicate energy in a new direction.

Close the loop. Pause. Shift gears. Re-dedicate your energy. That is a celebration. {tweet it}

When I think about the topic of celebration, it comes down to this idea of closing the loop. Rituals, milestones, and rewards are important elements in our life. I close loops and celebrate by taking intentional time to honor and mark the completion of things. You can see how this is similar to my declaration of self-care in the sense that even my celebrations are grounded in my love language of time. If you celebrate in your own love language, it will mean more to you. If your language is Receiving Gifts, buy yourself a cute new scarf after you land the gig you wanted. If your language is Physical Touch...well...you can sort that out.

That all sounds complex, but it doesn't have to be a huge act (though it can be). Even something as simple as closing the loop on a long, tough week by leaving work an hour early on Friday to see a funny movie and let myself eat all of the popcorn -- that's a celebration for me. Getting a massage with the stated intention that I'm proud of myself for completing an enormous grant report -- that's a celebration for me. Spending two weeks abroad after saving my pennies -- that's definitely a celebration for me. Hosting a monthly brunch at my house and practicing new recipes (and practicing the act of cooking, let's be honest) on my friends -- that's a celebration for me and people I love.

Recognizing the connection between celebration, marking the passage of time, and self-care is important. {tweet it}

When I get off balance and life starts to be not so rad, it's usually because I'm not pausing and I'm not marking time. I'm usually barreling through a difficult project with no end in sight and no milestones to speak of and 60-hour weeks and I'm canceling time with friends and skipping the gym and blahblah. Celebration breaks our life into fun little chunks. Give yourself permission to reflect and be grateful. Give yourself permission pause, celebrate, shift gears, and re-dedicate your energy in a new direction. Keep going and growing and finding new adventures to celebrate.

Love and cheers to all of that,
me

The Fine Print: The Declaration of You will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, giving readers the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, to discover how they and their gifts are unique, and to uncover what they are meant to do! 

Pre-order your copy now. Learn more by clicking here.

RSVP on Facebook!

Viral Mindfulness #mondaymeditation

As part of the artistic collaboration I'm working on with Alexander, last week we meditated on our own 2013 power word, and tonight we meditated on each other's word. Alexander's power word(s) is Viral Mindfulness. Alexander is a clinical social worker turned life coach and motivational speaker. He also happens to be one of the most creative, artistic, and all around fabulous people I known. He's created a coaching brand and three-fold platform around his concept of viral mindfulness. The following links will take you to YouTube videos of Alexander in action, btw. Spreading Strokes is about practice, practice, practice (more on that later). Spreading Sit is about meditation (more on that, too). Spreading Slogans is about sharing nuggets of wisdom.

As I wrote in a previous post, I'm using painting as a way to retrain my mind out of a scarcity paradigm and come to fully understand abundance. Over the past week I painted on multiple occasions (even on tired busy weeknights) and each time I purposefully covered a previous layer of my canvas in some way and to some degree.

After I painted the first night, I covered the whole canvas in blue paint and left it. When I came back the next night, I added random gold sunburst things and red track marks. For no particular reason. That's the point.

No attachment. No fear that I messed it up. I'm purposefully painting random shapes and colors so that no one (mostly myself) can look at it and say, "That's clearly not a cat. Cats don't look like that. That's a bad cat." Randomness allows me to simply enjoy the feel of paint on a canvas. That and I can't draw cats. No fear that I'm losing something by painting over it. No fear that I can't possibly create something beautiful again.

The next night I painted a random leaf flower tree thing right on top of my sunbursts. Why not?

Alexander talks about cultivating, strengthening, and practicing new patterns of thought. The idea to Spread Strokes by embarking on a painting adventure is an act of meditation (Spreading Sit) for me. I'm "flirting with fear," as he would say, and I'm blasting right through it with new layers of paint and new habits. Okay, so I realize that paint on a canvas is a low-stakes controlled experiment with all of these concepts, but that's not the point. Start somewhere. Just start.

Whenever I'm done painting a new shape, I turn the canvas in a different direction. It's all about practicing detachment, and shutting down my controlling OCD brain. Let it go. Just turn the canvas and let it be something new. Now it's not a tree that I need to somehow protect and not mess up. It's just a shape.

Layers and layers and layers.

When I came back to the painting tonight, I felt weirdly attached to my little tree thing. Maybe I should just be done, I said. Maybe I should put a bird on it (then move to Portland), I said. Maybe that's pretty enough and I shouldn't mess it up, I said. But then, since I was paint-meditating on Alexander's power words tonight, I heard him telling me to "smile at my fear." I recognized that I was being crazy and letting a scarcity mindset take over. So instead, I let red paint smear all over the corner and I let blue circle stencils cover up my tree. That's Spreading Strokes, folks. It's all about the realization that "new habits and fresh thoughts expand with repeated effort."

Why stop there? Smear some metallic purple. Make some white arrow shapes. Just go.

Rotate. Continue. And done for the night.

As I proofread this post in preparation to publish it, I realize that I sound a bit crazy. A lot bit crazy. But guess what? That's because it IS crazy. All of this attachment and fear and control (illusion of) and scarcity is certifiably crazy. It's contrary to real real reality and that's why it sounds so nutso to us at our core. This realization is just like my revelation about meditation: Our natural state is calm and blissed out. Meditation doesn't bring anything to us, it only helps us clear away layers of gunk from our unbalanced lives. In other words, our natural state is also abundant and creative and in the moment and not attached to random silliness like tree shapes on a canvas. All the hamsters spinning on their bullshit wheels, as I'm known to say, are telling us otherwise, but that's the craziness. We do actually live in an abundant world; it's just taking a bit of viral mindfulness practice to help me see it fully.

Love and layers,
me

Iowa. Salsa. Indigo Girls. #weekinphotos

Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids

I fell totally in love with this piece.

The irony of this piece is that this is the tiniest, least rushed airport ever.

Another awesome workshop with Craft Lake City at West Elm.

See additional photos, and snag the recipe, in this post. 

Cool mountain air. Chicks with guitars. Bare feet in the grass. Perfect summer night.

#goldenhour 

This is summer in Salt Lake City. 

Indigo Girls accompanied by the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Wowzers.

Follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam.

These photos are also on the my madeleines #weekinphotos board. 

Love, 

me

High Museum in The ATL, yo. #throwbackthursday

Once upon a time I did not dig it, but I've grown to love Atlanta. Mostly this transformation was made possible because two of my besties live there, so I can navigate the best parts of it with them. On a trip in 2009 we went to the High Museum. I still remember this piece so vividly and I still love it very much.

Love and grits,
me

My Declaration: Money

It's inevitable that we'd get around to this, right? Throughout the blog lovin' book tour we've been talking about our passions and what makes us unique, we've set intentions and sorted out how to best take care of ourselves, we've even redefined what it means to be successful. And of course, at some point, we do need to finance all of this fabulousness. Yeah, about that...

Illustration by the lovely Jessica Swift.

Two of the books I'm reading right now (both of which I've talked about on this blog: You Are a Badass (Sincero) and The Happiness Project (Rubin)) have chapters dedicated explicitly to money and our relationship with it. I just so happened to reach both of those chapters in the last week or so and have been absorbing the ideas like a sponge. I also received an eNewsletter from Your Courageous Life in which Kate Swoboda made a video discussing her concept of radical abundance. Weird coincidence that all of this information happened to come to me all at once? I doubt it. Hashtag manifesting intentions.

So Rubin is a hardcore pragmatist. She breaks down all the stats and research around money and happiness. She also shares the concept of spending out, which is directly related to abundance. Finding a blog post she wrote about spending out triggered my "I'm wearing pink lace panties" post earlier this year. It's an interesting evolution of the concept to also see it represented in her money chapter. The purpose of spending out is not to drain your checking account, which is sort of what it sounds like initially, but it's actually to avoid hoarding / holding on to stuff with a mindset of fear and scarcity. The goal is to keep the energy of money fluid and flowing in your life. Trust that you'll have what you need (and more) and you'll be able to provide it for yourself consistently. There's no need to be afraid and hold on to anything. Spend out. There's more where that came from.

Though she doesn't use the term "spending out" in her book, Sincero does open her money chapter with a story of buying a new car, one that was a bit aspirational for her income at the time. She says that the purchase "was about no longer being the kind of person who takes what she can get, and finally becoming the kind of person who creates exactly what she wants." Her point is not to max yourself out in debt because deep down you believe you're meant to be the kind of person who drives a vintage Aston Martin on a babysitter's salary. Her point was about changing your frequency so that you can attract to you a new version of your life. The car was her magnet, and it was also her motivation to hit the pavement and round up more cash. In her words:

"When you up-level your idea of what's possible, and decide to really go for it, you open yourself up to the means to accomplish it as well." {tweet it}

You open yourself up to the means to accomplish it. Sort of scary, huh? It takes me a second to settle into that and trust it. I know it's true, spiritually and emotionally, but it's in direct conflict with the overbearing cultural paradigm that you should be working hard within The System so that it can reward you with incremental promotions and an eventual gold watch. Sincero's dialogue around money is all about "expanding your beliefs about what is available to you in all areas of your life." Money is energy, just like everything else. It's not evil. It's not good. It's a tool. If you want more of it to accomplish the dreams you've laid out for yourself, then you need your energy to operate at a frequency that will attract the types of opportunities and moolah you need in order to get it done.

She writes that when you're "operating at a high frequency, with no resistance to it, and take the right action, you can manifest the money you desire." It's a total paradigm shift and it's tough for me. To once again use terms I explained in my declaration of success post, this concept of manifesting money is a very nurturing parent track of love total abundance mindset. And a bit hippie woo woo, let's be honest about that. The paradigm with which it conflicts is the strict father track of fear scarcity mindset. Switching gears from one to the other is not an easy thing to do. To get us there, Sincero lays out five rules of wealth consciousness:

RULE ONE: Come from a place of abundance, not lack {tweet it}

See above. And more or less every blog post I've put out this year. This is the absolute foundation of all of this.

RULE TWO: Get clear on where you're at {tweet it}

She suggests a free-write journal exercise to unpack all of the burdens and baggage and cultural crap we pile on to money. She believes that if you don't have the money you want, "you definitely have some crazy." We have to sort it out and name it before we can get over it.

RULE THREE: Get clear on where you desire to be {tweet it}

Be brutally honest about what kind of life you really want and what kind of experiences will make you really happy. The Universe responds to details. She wastes no time calling us out: "Pretending you don't want more than you already have because you can't afford it, or feel guilty and pretentious for wanting it, that's called being a weenie."

RULE FOUR: Raise your frequency {tweet it}

Energetically align yourself with the life you want. Act as if. Saying you want to be a photographer and only touching your camera once every six months is low-frequency. Saying you want to be a photographer and making photographs every single day, good or bad, to share or not to share, is high-frequency. Saying you want to somehow get paid to make photographs every day is the highest of frequencies.

RULE FIVE: Stay in shape {tweet it}

She suggests reading wealth consciousness books, articles, journals, whatever you need to do to understand money and keep the energy around money fresh and flowing.

With all of this in mind, as far as my own declaration goes, I have some work to do around the idea of money. I need to let go of all the baggage I've imposed on money and accept it for what it is: A tool. Wanting it doesn't make me greedy and getting (a lot of) it doesn't make me a douchebag. My new mantra is all about owning exactly what kind of life I want to live, appreciating money as the energy to help me do it, and trusting that it will flow in and out of my life as needed.

Love and benjamins,
me

The Fine Print: The Declaration of You will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, giving readers the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, to discover how they and their gifts are unique, and to uncover what they are meant to do! 

Purchase your copy now. Learn more by clicking here.

RSVP on Facebook!

Making fruit salsa with Craft Lake City + West Elm

For this month's Craft Lake City workshop at West Elm, Liz from Butcher's Bunches taught us how to make no-cook fruit salsa. They use only local produce, no sugar, and donate a portion of their proceeds to charity. Pure awesome. This was my first time canning(ish) anything. I felt like such a frontier woman.

Fresh Fruit Salsa recipe, courtesy of Butcher's Bunches:

Dice:
10-12 peaches (substitutions and/or additions: raspberries, nectarines, corn)
5 bell peppers (1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 2 green)
1 red onion
1 garlic clove
1/4 habanero pepper, cut into tiny pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, cut into tiny pieces

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
1 cup Slide Ridge Honey Wine Apple Vinegar (local SLC product, can substitute apple cider vinegar)
1 cup water

Dice, dice, dice and mix well. Let all ingredients soak together for about 20 minutes. Pour into canning jars and either refrigerate immediately (consume within 6 months) or boil for 15 minutes (consume within 3 years). Pairs well with salty corn tortilla chips, mild white fish, and chicken.

Follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam!

Pin, pin, and re-pin. These photos are already on my foodie board. Share away!

Love, 

me

Travel the world + hold down a 9-to-5 gig #traveltuesday

1. If you're not familiar with The Travel Hack blog, you should be. There. You're welcome.

2. The Travel Hack site is run by a young woman living in the UK. She works a 9-to-5 job (granted it's for a travel company), did not wake up one morning with a trust fund, and posts down-to-earth tips. If you're as wanderlusty as me, you consume any and every travel site you can click your mouse on, but let's be honest, many are pretentious and unrealistic and just plan gross. This is not.

3. One of my favorite posts on the site is called How to travel the world with a 9-5 job. Many of the tips I realized I already take advantage of, like extending work trips into mini-vacays, for example. There are other tips that I think are really useful. Such as:

Always travel over weekends or bank holidays. 

Stay local and stick to short flights. I definitely think this works better if you're living in Europe, or some other squishy cluster of countries; though I'm sure North Dakota would make a lovely weekender.

Try to find a way that traveling can benefit your work. 

Learn to sleep on planes...and take advantage of red-eye flights to maximize your time away.

Bon voyage!

Love and happy trails,
me

Channeling mandala energy #mondaymeditation

In last Monday's meditation I reflected on my first-ever painting experience: "I got all precious with each layer and felt attached to each little brush stroke." This specific experience was really a microcosm of my larger focus for this year -- abundance. I'm using painting not only as a way to reignite my creative chutzpah, but also as a way to retrain my mind out of a scarcity paradigm.

I wrote last week: "I'm going to allow my mind to let go of each layer, trusting that another equally beautiful layer is coming right on top of it." As I painted tonight, a sort of movement meditation, I worked my way through all sorts of nuanced thoughts that are part and parcel of my commitment to abundance. I thought about trust, letting go of my sense of control, and allowing energy to flow more freely in and around and through my life.

mise en place

When I was done for the day, I completely painted over the entire canvas with a fresh layer of paint. The red flowers and leaves are gone. The yellow shapes inspired by my kalamkari curtains are gone. Gone. All of it. It was important to me to treat this first layer like a mandala; not in a representational sense, because I wasn't mimicking mandala patterns, but in the sense that when it was complete, it was gone. It was beautiful. It was a creative experience. The colors were lovely. It flowed in and now, it flowed out.

Before I did anything, I set my intention for the piece. then painted right over it.

Trusting that another equally beautiful layer is coming right on top of it, I'll see where tomorrow takes me.

xo,
me

Painting. Instawalk. Iowa. #weekinphotos

My camera had a busy week, y'all. Last Sunday I went to a painting class in Park City. Tuesday night I met up with Instagram friends for a photo walk in Sugarhouse, one of Salt Lake City's most charming neighborhoods. Then I left for Iowa with my family for my grandma's memorial. Here are a few of the vistas my iPhone captured in the past week:

Dinner at a local favorite before our painting class. See more painting photos in this previous post.

See the full instawalk Flickr set, or at least the photos I was able to post before leaving for Iowa. I'll keep cleaning out my iPhone and posting more Sugarhouse pics as the days roll on.

Marion at age 19 in 1937.

Jessen family farm in Iowa (though it was sold years ago)

My family's land that sustained a generation of immigrant dairy farmers. 

See the full Flickr set, or at least what I've been able to get through so far. I'm still in Iowa as I post this, so more photos will be added to the set in the coming days.

For real-time photo action, follow my adventures on Instagram.

These photos are also on the my madeleines #weekinphotos board. Pin away!

xo,
me

My Declaration: Success

So far on the blog lovin' book tour, we've covered enthusiasm, uniquity, intention, and self-care. Now we're ready to talk about success. This is a complex notion that can be loaded with cultural assumptions and baggage to spare. Be sure to read what the other creative bloggers are saying about this topic, including the women featured in this chapter: Kelly Rae Roberts and Jennifer Lee. Feel free to share your thoughts below. I'd love to hear how you tackle this topic.

Illustration by the lovely Jessica Swift.

A month ago I read an article about Huffington Post's Third Metric conference for women. The conference was all about: "How we can begin to measure success beyond money and power, according to a third metric: well-being." Boom. That. Right there. I've been in that exact headspace since we kicked off 2013 (before that, really, but I didn't name and organize this energy until the new year).  After reading the article I blogged about the third metric and declared: "I am definitely ready to redefine success in my life." Well, that manifested in The Declaration of You blog series and a chance to sort out what that actually means. Be careful what you wish for, kids.

Since arriving at the point in my life that I want to switch gears and refocus my time and energy, I'm ultra sensitive to the paradigms, cultural dialogues, and even inner dialogues that govern my thinking around success. I will never forget a text I read in grad school, Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant." He's a political scientist who breaks down our society into two paradigms: Strict Father and Nurturing Parent. At its core, Lakoff's model is precisely what Ruiz explains in "The Mastery of Love" when he writes about the Track of Fear and the Track of Love. Another way to phrase all of this is to think about approaching life from a scarcity model versus abundant thinking.

What if you're not familiar with Lakoff's work, or haven't read Ruiz, or simply wonder what hippie dippy babble I'm prattling on about? Take this as the perfect example: I recently pulled out of a national publishing deal at work. It was a big decision and a big step toward my new version of success. The strict father track of fear scarcity mindset (how's that for a mouthful) said: "You have to do this. You don't know when an opportunity like this will come again. You're in academia, you're supposed to publish. You're supposed to have your name out there. You'll lose your credibility. You need to do this for your institution." Can you hear all the hamsters on the wheels just cranking that bullshit out? Can you hear the strict father version of success? Can you hear the fear and the scarcity?

If I get right down to it, this paradigm has governed a lot of my ambition and success in life. Not consciously, necessarily, because I don't feel fear on a daily basis while striving to kick ass at work. That's not what I'm saying. But in a more subtle and subconscious way, this has been the undercurrent. It's taken me to amazing places in my career and my life, and I don't begrudge it, but I've outgrown it. It's like taking the red pill in The Matrix. You can't come back from that.

Enter the Third Metric article, posted a fortuitous three days after my conversation with the publisher. Here's a riff on a few of the remarks that really resonated:

Career moves that might look like a step backward can be a step forward. {tweet it}

Depending on who you ask, my move with the publishing deal at work was a step backward; however, it was actually a step forward into new energy. It freed up time that I'm now dedicating to projects I feel fully passionate about.

Everyone says passion matters, but it really matters. Say no to things that don't nourish that. {tweet it}

Author Susan Cain said at the conference: "I would add another element to that Third Metric, and that's passion, and learning how to say no to things that are not in the service of that passion." I have yet to dive into Danielle LaPorte's Desire Map, but I've been dancing around its edges for a while now. I've mentioned this on the blog, but it's going to be epic once I cross the starting line and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for the upheaval. You want to talk about shifting paradigms, try this: Do not create a list of tasks to accomplish. Create a list of your core desired feelings, and the tasks to get you to those feelings will define themselves. It doesn't get more nurturing, loving, and abundant than that. Some day soon-ish I'll desire map the crap out of my life. Literally. The crap will be gone from my life. Some day.

Stop trying to make it look easy. Let go of the myth of perfection. {tweet it}

Vulnerability. Ugh. I suck at this. I'm aware. Women have to let go of the myth of perfection. I'm working on it. Mika Brzezinski sets all of us perfectionists straight in this quick video.

Assess what you can let go of. Keep only what works for you. {tweet it}

Often times success isn't about what you actively strive for and achieve, but it's about arriving in an abundant space where you can let go of what no longer works for you. It's similar to the revelation I stumbled upon in terms of meditation practice: Just get out of the way. I'm working to let go of the strict father track of fear scarcity paradigm. I'm trying to live in a paradigm of abundance. Even though it's hard to unlearn a lifetime of mythology, letting go and letting new paradigms in is essential to creating a definition of success. The new definition will be far more fulfilling and it will be authored by me, for me.

“In the track of fear we have so many conditions, expectations, and obligations that we create a lot of rules just to protect ourselves against emotional pain, when the truth is that there shouldn't be any rules." Ruiz is right. Cheers to breaking the rules and redefining success.

We can do this.

Love,
me

The Fine Print: The Declaration of You will be published by North Light Craft Books this summer, giving readers the permission they’ve craved to step passionately into their lives, to discover how they and their gifts are unique, and to uncover what they are meant to do! 

Pre-order your copy now. Learn more by clicking here.

RSVP on Facebook!

Grandma's memorial #throwbackthursday

I'm in Iowa right now for my Grandma Marion's memorial service. It seems only appropriate that this Throwback Thursday post share my memories of her and share the beautiful obituary written by my aunt Nyle.

Marion was smart and sassy. My memory of her telling me about the courtship with my grandpa Otto says it all:

When Otto proposed marriage... "I told him that I still wanted to teach. I liked to teach. He had two choices: Take it or leave it." Otto waited five years, courting her in the meantime, and helping her open the schoolhouse on early winter mornings to start the fire before the children came. Only when she decided she was done teaching did they get married in 1942. {read the full post here}

Jessen family farm in Iowa

Love you, grandma.
me

I found my joy | Rivet & Sway

Receiving a tweet that tells you the grand prize is yours is a pretty awesome experience. What prize is that, you say? Well...

Rivet & Sway - a Seattle-based company on a mission to make glasses fun - recently launched The Joy of Specs campaign. Yes, you caught the cheeky play on words. It's an empowering campaign aimed at redefining beauty. In their own words: "The Joy of Specs is about loving the beauty, the fun, and the sexiness of being bespectacled." Cheers to that. A recent Facebook post encouraged women to "dress from the frames down" and create entire looks around the central gorgeousness of your face and specs. I love it. Glasses are wicked hot and Rivet & Sway, who designs exclusively for women by the way, is the hottest game in the market.

As part of the Joy of Specs campaign, they launched a Pinterest contest calling on women to #FindYourJoy. Whether it was your summer reading list, a backyard garden, or interior design inspiration, if it brings you joy they wanted you to pin it and spread the love.

I created a board about Denmark and the family history research I've been doing. Not only does it bring me joy to research the stories of my great great whomevers, it also brings me joy to think about traveling to and living in Denmark one day. Rivet & Sway decided they liked my joy so much that I won two free pairs of specs, y'all! They offer 2-day FedEx and you can try on three pairs in your home for free. How convenient is that? I'm sort of loving the Punchline, obsessing about the Spitfire, and Hungry Heart is pretty rad...but stay tuned! I'll post pics soon.

Also, I'm quite certain my sassy new glasses will look totally savvy in Copenhagen.

Love and sway,
me

Sweet street food in Budapest #traveltuesday

There's no better way to connect with the heart of a culture than through food. It's our universal language, tangible and immediate. Street/market food is particularly insightful.

Christmas Market, Vorosmarty Square, Budapest

I recently spent time in eastern Europe and was pleasantly surprised by the authenticity of the Christmas markets. To be honest, I sort of anticipated a proverbial tourist trap (and there certainly was a bit of that). I found the trick is to hit public markets right at dinner time and you're surrounded by locals {tweet this travel tip}. As they leave work and head home, they meet friends for a mug of mulled wine and enjoy dinner at large communal tables with neighbors and total strangers. If you time it right, you're easily lost in a completely local experience. I visited countless markets in five different countries. It was fascinating to watch the food, crafts, and languages change along the way. What never changed was the festive, communal feeling at the market. My favorite sweet treat also followed me from country to country.

I fell head over heels in love with trdelník. Sweet dough is wrapped around a long wooden/metal pole and rotated over an open flame, buttered along the way. When it's crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, it's torn off the pole in segments and rolled in cinnamon, sugar, and crushed almonds. Pure heaven. Oh my. I still crave it.

May your food always be an adventure,
me


This travel higlight is also featured on AFAR.com. Feel free to add it to your own wanderlist.

These photos are pinned to my wanderlust board. Re-pin and spread the love of adventure!