In honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I spent today filling up my cup with creative joy.

As Americans, we don’t ever want to forget such a tragic time in our history as 9/11.  For the creative person that often means we create some kind of memorial that can be in the form of a painting, sculpture, quilt, music, photography, crafting, etc. Really, the sky is the limit.

I decided ten years ago that my memorial project would be a crocheted flag afghan.  I know better (then and now) to start projects like this because they take me forever.  I get burned out and have to put it down for long periods of time.  For whatever the reason I thought that this time would be different, like every other bigger type of project that gets me going.

My girlfriends, the afghan was no different even if it was in honor of 9/11. I actually finished the crocheting part probably about a year ago and only had the loose ends to finish off.  The problem was that there were LOTS of loose ends and I kept putting it off.

So today was the day and I would honor the 10th anniversary of 9/11 by finishing my project.  Perfect!  It felt good working on it and it felt great finishing it!  And it is beautiful!  Even my guys are happy that it is done.

If I may interject here, I know many of you are probably saying I just don’t have time to be creative. I know because I say it too.  In all honesty, we don’t have time not to.

Life always has stress factors in it including crises like 9/11.  For that reason it is important that we do activities that de-stress us and playing with our creative bent will indeed help!  When we de-stress even through our creativity, our energy changes, our body chemistry changes, and it puts us in a completely different place allowing us to see life from a different place.

Creativity is a win/win, which is why it is included in our self-nurture 30-day challenge.  It impacts us in body, mind, and spirit.

How can you include creativity in your self-nurture practice?

In honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, what small memorial  project can you create?

God Bless America!

Say, “I am empowered!”.  No, no.  Say it out loud.  “I am empowered!”  You said it, right?  How does it feel?

Does it roll off your tongue easily and with conviction or …

Does it sort of get stuck and you feel kind of small or in some way it just doesn’t feel right to you?

If you are one of the many women who is living your life fully empowered, I applaud you!  What I am about to share could still impact your life.  However, I woke up very early this morning with a message on my heart for so many of the women I know (many followers of The Wonder Woman Challenge) who do NOT feel empowered or could at least live from a more empowered place.  In either case, read on.

“I am empowered!”

If you are not living empowered you are living power-less.  As women we so often give our power away leaving us in a very stuck place in life, which in the end leaves us with not as many options as we would like and often need.

It is very uncomfortable and down right depressing to wake up one day realizing that, as a woman, you have no choices in life or at best very few.

On the surface The Wonder Woman Challenge can look like a fun and fluff program, but in reality it is a program to teach us about who we really are, to love ourselves, becoming more authentic, finding our joy, AND living empowered.

Say it again, “I am empowered!”

Are you really?  Do you want to be?  Have you had enough living without the choices in life that you desire and need?  Have you had enough living power-less?

Have you had enough sitting in the backseat of YOUR life?  Yes?  Then you are ONE decision away from hopping in the front seat of your life to live more empowered.

What do I mean?

I am taking my own personal Wonder Woman Challenge to a whole new never before level, a bootcamp per se and I’m opening it up to you, my readers, to join me.

With God as my pilot and me as the co-pilot, I am stepping up (within my own authenticity) into courage to say, “I have had enough sitting in the backseat of my life living a power-less existence!”

“I AM empowered!”

The Wonder Woman Challenge Bootcamp will dramatically change our lives, yours and mine.  Along with creating more love and joy in our lives, we are going to:

• improve our health – what would that look like for you? Weight loss? A  more fit body?  Less dis-ease?

• improve our finances – what would that look like for you? If you don’t already, what would it be like to have your own money to do with as you please? What if you could impact your food budget?  What if you could have affordable maybe even free transportation?  What if you could save money?  What if you could lessen your family’s financial burden even in a small way?  And for some, what if you could put food on the table for your children?!  (There are lots of single mom’s out there super struggling having to “shop” at food banks.)

I am saying, yes, to truly living an empowered life The Wonder Woman Challenge way from a place of self-love, self-care, self-nurture! And as I am impacting my life, I will be impacting the lives of others and you can too!

The Wonder Woman Challenge Bootcamp – “I am empowered”!

I know but I know that this message resonates with a certain group of women who are hand picked for this kind of bootcamp.  Let’s find out if you are part of that group.  I sure hope so!  Email me at:

wonderwoman@shileennixon.com (subject line: TWWC Bootcamp)

Letting love flow,

Shileen

Creativity is awesome.  It sweetens and spices up our lives.  For me, creativity is a must and in all honesty it gives me a huge charge and feeds my spirit.  If you have have been following along with the 30 day self-nurture challenge you know that creativity is one of the 7 suggested categories to include in your practice.

I thought that I would share with you today the graduation party that we gave my youngest son last weekend.  Although I kept it simple, I did add little touches of creativity that blessed my socks off.

Note the little tea candle lanterns.  They were so simple to make and inexpensive too.  Creating the lanterns filled my cup and now every time I use them fills my cup as well.  Little things like these tea candle lanterns create so much joy for me!

What simple thing can you create in your world that will fill you up with joy?

In Part 1 of this series, Know Your Truth: Think, Speak, Live , we discussed how living out our truth takes courage, it is a process, and that we need to be careful to not get stuck in the process. In today’s article we are discussing how to step up in courage to get the think/know and speak part of knowing your truth moving.  Trust me!  Putting these things into practice will get your heart pumping with excitement (even if it is a bit scary)!

“It takes courage to speak our truth. Speaking our truth allows what is deep inside of us to come out – our hopes, dreams, desires, beliefs, who we are. Many of us let life’s not so fun circumstances run amuck, which swallows up our truth eventually leaving us lost and depressed. Oh my, how I know that all too well. There comes a point in time, though, when enough is enough.” ~ Speak Your Truth & Soar!

It does take courage to speak our truth!

Sometimes it even takes courage, a ton of courage, to admit our truth in thought much less speak it. And sometimes it takes a ton of courage to think our truth, to speak our truth, AND then to LIVE our truth.

Think, speak, live!

Whatever your circumstances you CAN rise above it! It starts with your thoughts. What are you thinking? Are you stuck in the negative spiraling journey into defeat and failure? If so, it’s time to do something about it.

It’s time to have an honest moment with yourself. Get quiet, no distractions … no TV, no music, phone, people, etc. Go for a walk, go to your favorite spot in the house, or wherever you need to go to hear the honesty in your spirit about you. All you have to do is to listen without judgement. Let it bubble up and just hold it in a safe place in your heart.

From your thoughts allow your speech to affirm what you are holding in your heart. Declare your truth … yes! … out loud! C’mon say it right now! Even better, go to the mirror, look yourself square in the eye and declare your truth, out loud! Say it again, but this time say it like you really mean it with conviction! How does that feel? Don’t judge what you feel just acknowledge it and move on saying it again and again. At this point you may want to journal whatever comes up.

Continue to hold your truth in that safe place in your heart, continue saying it out loud to yourself, and continue journalling about it. At some point when you are ready begin sharing your truth with safe people. Be selective especially early on with whom you speak your truth to because this is a delicate time. As you grow more confident you can shout it from the roof tops.  Actually, for that matter, you may be ready from the git go to shout it from the roof tops. If that is you? Then go girlfriend!!

Are you excited, scared, depressed, still feeling numbed out?  Do you feel something bubbling up inside that makes you feel like you know but you know?  I love hearing from you so please do share whether in the comment section or shooting me an email!!

We think/know our truth, we speak our truth, and now it’s time to put it all into action. Many people get stuck here when it comes to living out our truth, our authenticity.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Knowing Your Truth: Think, Speak, Live as we dive into the nuts and bolts of living out our truth.

Photo credits:  Intuitive Development

Time to fess up!  Yep, I need to confess to you again.

I have been very quiet for the last two months.  I have tried to break the silence a couple of times with no avail.

I have been STUCK!  Ugh!  I do NOT like to be stuck!  No one does and I am sure that that includes you.

When we are in a season of change it requires a lot of energy, discernment, wisdom, and COURAGE.  We want to make the right decisions for our lives and in doing so it more than likely requires us to move out of our comfort zones, out of our safe little boxes.  And there lies the rub where the wrestling begins.

I have been in a place of wrestling.  I still am really but just this very moment in my time of journaling I wrote these words:

I need to be able to rise above the the congested pathways of my brain, move above it and operate on a higher plain so that I can get moving.

And then minutes later came:

OMG!  I have got to lighten up!  Over thinking and over analyzing stops the flow of everything!  It stops creativity, energy – movement of any kind (think stagnation!).  It puts you in fear not knowing what to do first!  Sucks the passion right out of you.  Holy crap!  That is where I have been.  Where is my fun, my joy, my passion?!

Is that not amazing?!  In one moment I am overcome from the weight of my “brain congestion” and in the next moment my answer tumbles out in excitement in a way that has completely shifted my energy.  The pathways have just opened up.

And, I have to bring your attention to one more thing because in writing this article for you, the above paragraph just gave me a gigantic clue in another area I have been stuck in.

“… I am overcome from the weight of my ‘brain congestion’…”

Wow!  Everything about us in interconnected.  I have not been able to reach my health and fitness goals for months now.  Why?  Because I have been overcome from the weight of my brain congestion!!

Girlfriends, it is time for this girl to lighten up, have fun, and re-connect with my passions so that I experience the joy of life-flow once again.

Sooo … who can relate??

___________

Photo found here =>Kelly McCausey.

Breakthrough.  The next level.  Busting through the ceiling. Metamorphosis.

February was an interesting month looking back.  I had to look at my posts and reflect on my past week to begin to put some clarity to it.

February was definitely dedicated to creating.  We started with a fun way to creatively express love to ourselves through Love Notes With A Twist, which by the way I will have a follow up post to that soon.  We started a 90 Day Weight Loss & Fitness Challenge to begin to create health and wellness.  And we created artistically making our love containers and Valentines for our loved ones.  I even threw in soap making.

Plus, February was my birthday month!

All sounds fun and exciting, doesn’t it?  Then why did the last week of the month end up being a very difficult, emotionally raw week for me?

As I look over the month, I admit to you that my personal Love Notes With A Twist has not gone well, but I am determined to pull it out of the tank.  I thoroughly enjoyed the artistic creativity with the Valentines and the soap making which both gave me a huge charge.  And, the 90 Day Challenge is giving me a sense of hope & excitement to get my health & fitness level back up to where it belongs. However, and here is part of the rub,  that requires change on many levels.

With change, in this case personal growth, comes struggle.  We have to really want something in order to endure what’s hard to breakthrough the self-imposed wall, ceiling, padding, etc. to get to that next level.

In order for the beautiful butterfly to emerge from it’s cocoon, it must first become uncomfortable and then break its way out.  The butterfly must do all the work itself because any help will cause it to die, so I have been told.

We want personal growth but just when we are about to experience the breakthrough that we have been waiting for for so long is when the tension is at its greatest point.  We have a choice.  We can back off and lessen the tension to put us back into our comfort zone, or we can stay the course, push through the tension, and bust out of our cocoon allowing the beautiful butterfly to takes its rightful place in this world.

Sometimes we can find ourselves in that place of metamorphic tension and not totally understand where it is taking us.  I find myself in that place now.  The cocoon has become very uncomfortable but where will I be when I bust out of this shell?

As a result I have been asking myself, what IS MY rightful place in this world?  What is MY truth?  What is MY truthful pathway?

And I ask you … What is YOURS?

Whatever our breakthrough truth is for each of us, it is ours to own, embrace, and thrive in with amazing joy and peace!  Let’s not sink back into our comfort zones, but instead step up to the plate to endure this metamorphic tension so that we can joyfully grace our world with the beauty that is intended for us.

The world is waiting for each of us to take our own rightful place, and when we do there will be a hush of amazement!  Can you hear it?  Can you feel it?  Go for it!

The Luminous Green Butterfly image is from Fantastic at picable.com

Friday, February 18th is my birthday! This is not something I typically announce but this year I am.  It is a special milestone that I am excited about AND I am giving myself the most awesome gift ever!

Guess what it is!  Give up?

A healthier fit body!

And how am I going to achieve that?

Yes! Through a 90 Day Challenge that I am doing with Dr. Cheryl Townsley!

I love fitness challenges!  I did one 2 1/2 years ago and lost 30 pounds.  I went from a size 10 to a size 4.  You can see my before and after pictures in the post called “Weight Loss: Weigh More Than A Diet”.  The link is at the end of this article.

I know.  You are thinking to yourself that I must have gained it all back, right?  Wrong!  When you watch Dr. Cheryl’s video below about the challenge and her personal transformation,  notice what she says that happened to her body when she turned a particular age.  (That will also give you a clue about what age I am turning on Friday   )  In the last 6 months I have noticed a big change in my muscle mass, almost strange-like along with a few added pounds, less than ten but with my small frame I really notice it.

For my special birthday, I am giving myself the gift of health, not out of hatred and punishment, but out of love and care for myself through a 90 Day Challenge.  I am embracing who I am, the age that I am turning, and giving myself what I need to be strong and vibrant.  By doing so I can then give from a healthy joy-filled, love-filled cup to my loved ones and to YOU!

I encourage you to join me so that you can give yourself a healthier you as well.  Embrace yourself right where you are and join myself and Dr. Cheryl on this exciting transformational journey by taking the 90 Day Challenge. Let’s create a fun and supportive community of love and joy while we reach our weight loss and fitness goals together.

Are you in?  Let me know what you think in the comment section below.

P.S. … Have you figured out how old I am yet?  The clue is in the video!

For more information click here => 90 Day Challenge

Nothing like capturing treasured Christmas moments on camera.  I have put together a scrapbook of some of mine to share with you, which you can see below.  As I have been pondering all of these pictures, I realize that all the different Christmas moments captured give me so much joy filling my cup to overflow.

How thankful I am for each moment I had with family, each moment I had to spend time alone, each moment I had making gifts, each moment I spent with favorite family pets, etc.  Each of the different moments filled my cup of joy up in different ways.

What were some of your treasured Christmas moments that filled your cup up with joy to overflow?  I would really enjoy reading about them … please do share in the comment section.

Moving quickly towards the New Year!

~ Shileen

A free scrapbook by Smilebox

For the next few minutes as you watch this clip from Charlie Brown Christmas, be still. Let everything go for the moment, and allow this simple message to penetrate your spirit. Allow the simple message of Christmas to bring you Christmas joy and peace filling your soul with hope.

What does the message evoke inside of you? What does it cause you to want to do? How might you relate to the different characters, even to what we refer to as the “Charlie Brown Christmas tree”? I love it when Linus says, “… all it really needs is a little love”. The gang proceeds to give the ugly little tree some love and suddenly the tree shines. What might we learn from this?

Again, be still in the moment and be blessed by this little 5 minute clip. Don’t judge what might come up .. just let the thoughts come and go and in the moment let all be right in your world.

You can make your own little Charlie Brown Christmas tree as a reminder that there is always hope and with a little love, anything can shine.  Let us remember that even about ourselves … offering ourselves love in a way that will allow us to shine!  Click here for instructions => Instructibles

As beautiful as the Christmas season is, it can be stressful.  No matter how organized you are, no matter how many lists you are checking off twice, Christmas stress can still creep up on you and bite you in the behind.

For that reason I highly recommend that you create a sacred space to de-stress.  If you have created a sacred space to heal as Georgie Holbrook and I shared about in a teleconference call, then creating a sacred space to de-stress should not be foreign to you.

It is very simple.  Choose a place in your home that brings you peace and joy.  It can be an entire room or it can be a corner nook.  You don’t want to create more work for yourself so if your home is a bit overwhelming right now, please choose a little nook that you can clean up quickly.  Be sure to add candles and whatever else that will bring you peace and tranquility.  You will also want it to have holiday cheer so add some simple decorations.

I am sharing with you one of my favorite spots in my home.  My guest room is what I call the happy room.  It is bright and cheery and always feels calming and safe.  I added a simple little lit Christmas tree, a poinsettia, and window candles, which all gives the room a beautiful peaceful glow.

Yesterday I was feeling the holiday stress so I grabbed my holiday novel (“The Christmas Letters”) and a cup of coffee and spent an hour reading in my happy room. =)  Oh my gosh!  It felt heavenly!  It is such a simple thing but I kid you not, the beautiful atmosphere and the time out for reading filled my cup with so much Christmas joy and peace.

And as a result I have had a much better day today feeling under control once again.

Don’t let your checklist of things to do steal your Christmas joy. Yes, you do have time to de-stress.  You don’t have time NOT to de-stress!  Why?  The more rested and well balanced you are the more you get done.  It is that simple.

Do yourself and your family a favor and stop right now for 15 minutes to create a sacred space to de-stress special for the holidays.  You and your family will be so thankful that you did!