One word: Honour

I stewed over my guiding word for 2014. At first I thought it would be intention. But out of nowhere, and then appearing seemingly everywhere, came the word honour.

And then I realised to honour {my heart, my body, my emotions, my creativity, my soul} was my intention.

I want a year that's filled with more slow, more savouring and more leading from my heart. More finding the rhythm of nurture that works best for me, making that my days, and moving with intention from there. Which really is more of this year, minus the moments where I came a little unstuck...  

But honour tells me it was in those moments I learnt my greatest lessons, and walked away a stronger version of me.

Honour is where I want to lead from {a sense of honouring what's right at any given time for me}, follow from {honouring my heart's direction} and from where I will connect with all the parts of a happy and whole me {honouring my body, heart and mind with my choices, activities and time}.

My word is most definitely inspired by my reading of the book, The Way of the Happy Woman. Every word of Sara's resonates with me.

But it also stems from a lesson I know well. Honour {and witness} are a big part of the yoga I practise. Perhaps even the part of yoga I am called to the most right now. In my weekly classes, our teacher reminds us to honour our bodies, and honour where we're at and what we can do on this given day - remembering that our limits {needs, flexibility/balance, emotions, desires} change from day to day.

And so as I move through a sequence and after, I honour and witness my body, thoughts and emotions. And with that comes acceptance, sometimes insight, always presence. But first comes honour.

So this honouring - keeping it as my guide in all I set out to do and achieve - it feels most right for me now. And it feels as though I chose it as much as it chose me.

xx

~ Sharing my one word with Maxabella Loves here xx

Have you chosen one word to guide your 2014? x

Do nothing extra

When I was pregnant with my baby girl my prenatal yoga teacher would often remind us to do nothing extra.

The interpretation of extra will be different for each of us. But in my heart to do nothing extra is to...
Do just what is necessary {needs to be done today}, and leave things for tomorrow.
Take time each day to rest.
Stop {even for a couple minutes} to just be.
To let go of shoulds and shouldn'ts {and surrender}.
To listen to my body's messages.

And to me this message to do nothing extra is also a little lesson in trust.
Trusting that there will {in the end} be time for all I want to do, achieve and see.
Trusting that time is on my side.
Believing in perfect timing, and the time that tomorrow will offer.

Especially during pregnancy, this was a reminder to be gentle with myself, to not take on extra and to surrender my want to control how life was panning out {as we endeavoured to sell our house and search for another, I finished a course and worked three days from home}. It was a reminder I needed and appreciated very much at that time.

But those three words {do nothing extra} have stayed with me, and every so often I remember them and know it's time to pull back. Slow down even further. Time to reconnect, ground and just be.

This week that reminder came. Actually I think it's been hovering close to home for weeks now. And so I turned inward, journalling a little more, meditating and reading a little extra.

I spent a good while looking around at all I wanted to do, at all I saw needed to be done and making lists... and then I stopped right there. And lay on the ground with my girls.

This week I spent a few days doing just the necessary, and nothing much extra.

And in doing less, I found there was time for more {of what matters most}.

xx

{This week I'm most grateful for all the little messages that inspire my days, for time spent just being, and for the beautiful conversations I've had with the many amazing women in my life. Elisa xx}

~ Linking with the gratitude community at 52 Weeks of Grateful x


What are you most grateful for right now? Any messages/reminders currently inspiring your days? x

Words & Moments {in gratitude}

So much gratitude in my days of late. Recorded in my mind and thoughts as I think a lot about balance and how quickly moments pass and my girls grow. Mostly I'm trying to take each day as it comes, to move slower when things feel rushed. And I'm carefully planning a busy working month ahead to include spaces where we will do nothing extra.

As well as writing my gratitude this week, I'm reminding myself to speak it too. 

Gratitude for:

Stopping - This week has been fast with less pockets of slow than I had hoped for. But each day I've stopped for a minute {sometimes a little more} to just be. Even if it's only to be mesmerised by the sky.
 
Sunset - This week rugged-up my girls and I walked to the park and sat to watch the sun go down, turning to look behind us at the already-up moon.

Creativity - a cardboard box became a baby dolls' bed and my girls couldn't have been happier with their co-sleeping little family. "Sweet dreams babies" miss three whispered as little miss 20 months rubbed their foreheads and kissed them gently.

Photography - I keep noticing little details, and this week I took my camera out to capture them. I'm loving the creativity and stillness it brings. It's beginning to feel a little like meditation.

Photos - On Mother's Day, my dad took photos of me and my gorgeous girls. I keep looking back at them, and can't help but smile.

Yoga - Friday's class reminded me to pause and to witness where I am right now, and to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

Work - I'm very grateful for the work I have right now. And I'm trusting that with a little nudging balance will sort itself out.

Moments - So many little moments have felt big to my heart this week. I'm giving thanks for all of them.  Especially spending one-on-one time with both my girls. That undivided attention nourishes all of us.

xx

~ Linking with Maxabella's 52 Weeks of Grateful at Kidspot and Deb's {Home Life Simplified} Listmania - a gratitude list this week {my favourite kind}. Elisa x


What's made you feel grateful this week?

Turn it around {ten things}

I love how gratitude can put life into perspective.

Thinking it, saying it, writing it down.

There 's always something, someone or some little part of my day to be grateful for.

In the craziness of the past fortnight, I had to tell myself to step back and slow down.

And to remind myself {of these words} to be in the now and not worry over tomorrow. To reconnect. To be grateful.

I've found loads of ways to turn exhausted and stressed around, starting with gratitude.

And so I challenged myself this week to find ten things I'm grateful for {right now}:

1. That we have each other. And have made time for each other and fun too.

2. Our health. Everybody is healthy and happy here. Healing well {and not a sniffle in sight}.

3. The park. Three visits this week. Squeals of joy from two little girls and great exercise running after them for this mama.

4. Laughter. Making my two little girls laugh. And everyone laughing at the same time {the best sound}.

5. Yoga. I really really needed it this week. {And the inspirational conversation that followed.}

6. Thinking of you. How lovely are those three words. I've spoken them, heard them, written them and received them {in response to this post}. Thank you xx 

7. Opportunities. A few new opportunities have floated my way this week. I'm taking them {with thanks} and creating my own too.

8. Picnics. Little miss three wants every meal to be a picnic! So we're having a lot of them around here.

9. Breakfast. My favourite meal of the day. Love that all four of us have sat down to eat together this past week. Usually that never happens.

10. This weekend. And it's plans for family, friends, food and fun.

xx

{I've done the ten things grateful challenge before - here. It definitely clarifies just how very much in my world there is to be grateful for. ~ Linking with Maxabella for the 52 Weeks of Grateful over here.}


What are you most grateful for? Could you find ten things? 

Where I need to be

I was sick and stressed {and stressed because I was sick} when I first found yoga.

It’s funny how that cycle played out. Stress was one of a few factors making me sick. And the more unwell I became the more I stressed about it, and the worse it grew.

Truth is ... I thought I was healthy {because I "looked" that way}. But a cocktail of rushed, little exercise and wheat-heavy food choices lead to a fast-tracked use-by date inside me. 

Eventually I snapped, and decided there had to be a way out. And a way forward that involved listening to my body {which had manifested this mess in the first place} instead of medicating it.

And that’s when yoga {and many other things – diet, natural therapies, meditation, slowing down...} came into play. 

I didn’t want to go to my first class. I thought yoga was what healthy people did. And I knew I was far from that at that very moment. But my mum dragged me along anyway. And then told the teacher I didn’t want to be there. 

And the teacher smiled, and said, “You’re exactly where you need to be right now.” She knew something I didn’t know. I knew I liked her confidence. 

And so began my journey into yoga, and learning to trust the universe and follow the path my heart chooses. And that path has led me to here {to my blog space I love} and it to motherhood and to studying meditation, and to writing from my heart {and having the confidence to publish it}. 

Today, in my morning yoga class I noticed the gentleness that becomes me when I practise each pose.

I tune into my body.

I feel grateful for my body.

I feel grateful for the very moment I am in.

I forget that I'm sharing the room with another 10 people.

I witness where I am at today, and I accept that.

I honour my body, encouraging it into every sequence but never asking it to stretch further than it can on this day.

I do nothing extra. In my one-point-five hours of yoga, I do just yoga. Nothing extra, nothing else. And that is enough. 

I breathe. Fully. And slowly. And I feel refreshed.


It took me a long time to get to here. Six years, and each time I practise yoga I learn something new.

And what I’ve learnt most is those lessons in yoga have become lessons in life. They’ve changed the way I think and feel. Changed the way I choose to be. And in gentleness, I’ve landed right where I need to be.

xx

~ Grateful for yoga, and the many lessons learnt {and those still to learn} along the way. Linking with Maxabella for Kidspot’s 52 Weeks of Grateful over here. x

What are you most grateful for? And do you love yoga too?

 

Lighter

After a bumpy past few months, I finally feel like I'm finding my feet this week.

I feel lighter, I've got more energy and I'm loving the rhythm of our days.

And it seems {maybe it's my imagination} that my girls are expressing more happiness too.

Our days are intertwined with bursts of laughter and new-sentences from a little miss almost-three.

And that's what I'm feeling most grateful for this week {all that light and happy energy around here}.

But I'm grateful too for...

Yoga {one-point-five hours once a week that brings me back to me}

Two little girls who have recently discovered the joy of playing together {Bonus: I'm no longer required for every game of hide-and-seek!}

That moment that you step outside into the cold icy air and are greeted by sunshine {soaked that up twice this week}

Sitting on the couch. And doing not much at all. With the three people I love more than anything.

Bedtime. Sometimes it's a crazy charade getting little miss almost-three to sleep, but lately it's been all cuddles and "I love you this much Mum" and "It's so nice to see you Mum" and a little precious one-on-one time with my little {big} girl.

Oh, and I'm grateful that four months in {started my 52 weeks a little late}, gratitude is coming to me a whole lot more effortlessly.

Elisa x

What are you grateful for this week?
{Have you checked out Maxabella's 52 Weeks of Grateful over here at Kidspot yet? Linking up and reading all the grateful posts is such a sweet way to end the week x}