Happy Journey

I am obsessed with Cinderella stories. I don’t think the theme of the story matters so much, I just like the idea that someone can overcome an obstacle and come out living a better life whether it’s a weight loss journey, coming out of poverty, finding love – it never gets old for me. In a way, we all have our own Cinderella stories because each of us is overcoming something. Some of you may think that your friend that looks like they have it altogether is not overcoming anything, but truth be told, we all have something. Some of us just deal with our obstacles differently.

This gets met to the title of this posting – Happy Journey. Happy Journey, Happy Journey, Happy Journey…. I absolutely love this! However, I cannot take credit for the title. For that, I will thank Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition (like I said before, I can’t get enough of these transformations!!). On a recent episode, the woman on her weight loss journey, after experiencing a year of transformation, proclaimed, “Now I am Journey Happy, not Destination Happy.” My heart jumped! I completely understood what she was saying.

We have this habit of thinking that we will be happy when we get what we want or when we reach our goals, but what about all the space in between? Why must we settle to be happy at the end of it all: when we finally hit our ideal weight, when we finally meet the person of our dreams, when we land our dream job, when we have our first babies, buy our first house – why must we wait to be happy then? If I recall, Cinderella had many friends and sang as she cleaned and took care of her mean step sisters. I think Cinderella was a Happy Journey kind of lady.

With this, I leave you the choice, what kind of happy are you? Are you Happy Journey or are you waiting to become Destination Happy? I choose, even though it can be hard, to be a Happy Journey kind of lady (just like Cinderella). Please share with us about your kind of happy.

I also have exciting news for my bee followers – I am starting a dating support group. Check it out on www.meetup.com – The South Florida Dating Support Group (** Note you must be 21 years of age or older to join!) Cannot wait to see you there!

Until next time...

Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,

Birkenstocks and Chocolate Cake

There are objects in this world that represent far more than we could imagine. They trigger moments that evoke emotions and cause us to be mindful of our most treasured memories. Whether it is memories of our younger years when we did not care that it was getting too dark because lightning bugs were still outside to be caught or those days when we were happiest being absolutely carefree at any age. I relish in those memories and relive them all the time. You may think I am blessed, but I think it is simple for all of us to bring about such happy and positive feelings. The triggers are just different for each of us. Whether it is visiting a country where people wear your favorite childhood shoes or waking up on your birthday and deciding to have some chocolate cake for breakfast, it’s not the actual objects that evoke the emotions, it’s what they stand for.

My most recent encounter with this was buying a new pair of Birkenstocks which reminded me of my summers at camp. Summers at camp remind me of a carefree time where you could be 100% yourself because eventually everyone would figure you out. You learn that who you are, is exactly who you should strive to be. You learn that you are wonderful and exciting just the way you are. You make beautiful friendships that last a life time and you learn that there is more to life than the actual Birkenstocks you “had to have” for your summers at camp.

The chocolate cake symbolizes a day every year I get to celebrate me, my birthday. Not in a narcissistic way, but in a reflective way. I celebrate how far I have come and dream of all that is to come. I genuinely feel lucky to be able to celebrate every single year for all of our days are numbered. It is a day where even I would agree that it is acceptable to have a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast (with coffee instead of milk) and just indulge in everything that is us. Whether its chocolate cake or a day at the beach or finally getting to the spinning class you have been trying to get to. Whether you celebrate with friends and family or celebrate alone. It is all a celebration of all that is us. It is one day of the year where we put our judgments of ourselves aside and just be.

So what are your Birkenstocks and Chocolate Cake? Does anything you see or do represent a memory or evoke feelings that just make you feel good and let you just be? I know we all have them. They are the keys to our memories and often represent the memories that are still in the making. Ultimately, it is not about the Birkenstocks or the chocolate cake. It is about the small stuff that really brings out the big stuff. Isn’t that what life is all about?

I would love to hear what your Birkenstocks and Chocolate Cake are - please share.
Until next time…

Find the love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

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With Love,

The Power of No

I will admit it I am self help book junkie. I love reading about ways to empower myself and learn who I am through other people’s stories and ideas. I sometimes have to laugh at myself because I am reading so many different perspectives yet wonder when my sense of me will shine through. In what situations will I use the tools I read about, when will they work for me and when are they just interesting to read? I have concluded that it’s always important to challenge what I read and also make other people’s suggestions on how to live life work for me. This holds true whether I am reading Deepak Chopra or listening to advice from family or friends.

The key is to really make it your own. Most recently, my soul searching has been on high gear. My wings are fluttering and my antennas signaling. Miss Bee is literally on the loose. It feels so good and also feels so uncomfortable at the same time. This openness for joie de vivre has in a way blurred the lines for me of when to say yes and when to say no. The free spirited me wants to say yes to everything! Yet, I have recently discovered that there are times when saying no feels right too. In fact, saying no can be as empowering as saying yes. Knowing that you made the decision to follow your heart and say no with a whole heart is gratifying. Saying no to someone or something can be saying yes to you.

These situations happen for us all the time. For example saying no to a job that just doesn’t suit you or saying no to an outing with friends because that is your only time to hit the gym or saying no to continue dating someone because you just don’t feel it any more. I am sure you can think of many more situations where saying no just feels really good, but you get the idea. No can be a positive force in your life.

As we get older and our priorities keep changing saying no to someone or something can be empowering. I am not saying to never say yes, but I am saying to say no when you know you need to. We each have our signals of when something is not right. I always use my heart or the feelings in my gut to steer my wings. So what will you do when you are in a situation that doesn’t feel right? Will you have the courage to say no?

Share your thoughts. Shed some light to the world of no.

Until next time…
Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,

Honestly Honest...

I've been thinking about this blog and what it means to me and my readers. What does it mean to BeE in Love. Over the past few months, I have been thinking about this and what I envisioned almost one year ago for this blog. I wanted this blog to be a place for you to read something that would touch your soul and make you want to live a life that makes you in love with your own life. And depending on what you are seeking in your life, you would inevitably beE in love for at least the few minutes it would take for you to read my blog posts.

Well as you have noticed, I have been missing these past few months. It would be easier for me to say that I had writer's block, but in the spirit of bee in love and this posting, I will share that I have just had a tough few months. I wanted to share what I was feeling on this blog, but I made it my mission to inspire through this blog and through my words, and I wasn't feeling too inspirational. You see - I don't just write this blog, to write and share. I write about what I feel and think. About how I live my life. And who wants to hear about the struggles? Hmmm...maybe you do - maybe I underestimate my own readers. I know there will be more to come when it gets down to it. Nonetheless, the funk is over, here I am, I am back!

My thoughts over the past few months have culminated into this idea - to beE in love means to be honest yourself. To listen to the voice deep down, to knock out all the chatter in your head that says its easier not to be. It takes a lot of integrity and faith and most importantly the belief in yourself to make the voice loud enough to take action. I have to say you'll be surprised by the reactions you get by literally living your life, your honest with yourself life, out loud. You will inspire yourself, even though you are fearful and you will inspire others around you to live a better life. Now isn't that something to smile about.

So I leave you with this my honey bees, what voice are you quieting inside? What are you trying to set yourself free from? Be honest and don't be afraid, you've made it this far.

Until next time..

Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,

p.s. If you want to receive updates of my blog postings to your email - just subscribe. Keep reading, sharing and loving.

Perfection....

What is perfect? We all have and hold ideals for ourselves and what we expect from ourselves, our family, our friends and all the situations that make up our lives. We want certain moments to be perfect like Valentine’s Day, first dates, our wedding day, anniversaries, birthday parties, and many others. We also want for ourselves the perfect bodies, perfect relationships, perfect families and more. Then we wake up from our perfect world dreams and realize that in reality, nothing is perfect. In fact, perfect is in the eyes of the beholder.

We have all heard of the saying, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Well I say that perfection is also in the eyes of the beholder in that perfect is defined by each of us in different ways. The difference between feeling secure or confident in what we deem is perfection and letting other people’s perceptions taint our own views, is that in our worlds, and through our eyes, we are meant to feel perfect just the way we are. In a world where we love ourselves exactly as we are, perfection is not measured by the onlookers of our lives and is determined by only how we see ourselves.

In my last post, I discussed how great it feels to be kinder to ourselves and I challenged you all to be kinder (you have to admit it feels good!) Here, I challenge you to view your life and all of its imperfections from your own perspective and stop letting other people or society taint your judgments of yourself. And I know, we can all be our own worst enemies and feel like we could never live up to our own expectations. This is the hard part. But we can start by accepting who we are now, our imperfections and all, and just love ourselves exactly as we are – free of our own judgments. By setting ourselves free of our own judgments, we may be less inclined to entertain the judgments of others - Now that, my honey bees, is freedom.

Until Next Time.

Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,

Be Kinder.

Don't you find it interesting how it is so easy to tell someone else how to live their life, yet you cannot do the same for yourself (or at least act on it). You know what I mean? When a friend calls to complain about something not going well in their lives and you know exactly what to say and you know it would work. However, when you call on yourself for the exact same circumstances, you don't follow your own advice.

Unfortunately, I know that all too well.

I have always known this to be true, but recently I have become more aware of it because I am determined to be kinder to myself. So I started asking myself - what I would I tell my friend who is complaining about the same things I am complaining about? Like, not working out enough, not eating how I want to be, not keeping certain promises to myself or just not making my priorities a priority. I know that I would tell my friend to start making her/himself a priority, to make the things that they want in their life happen and most importantly that it is his/her life to live and we only have one. All in all, I would tell my friend, to just get their s*** together and be kinder. Accept what is and make the change you want.

Sounds easy, huh? It is far from it, especially when we are all our own worst critics. The truth is when we feel good, when our lives feel fulfilled, when our stars are aligned - we can also be our own best friends, now wouldn't that be nice? In this post, I am making a declaration:

I challenge myself to be kinder to ME, accept what is and make the changes I want.

Can you? Will you? Make your declaration here.

Until Next Time.

Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,

My Ship, My Soul, My Life

We have all heard many times a phrase from the poem Invictus in which the lovely poet, William Ernest Henley ends his masterpiece with the phrase, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” I know that I could think of this phrase and apply it to so many situations in life. But after indulging in many biographical TV shows, I could think of only thing, success and failure.

In listening to people talk about their lives, what I found particularly interesting was the way that the most successful people have all failed at some point in their lives. I know some would argue that success and failure are objective and of course, I AGREE! How do you define success? How do you define failure? What if we never fail, can we ever have success?

All of our journeys are mostly defined by our successes and our failures with unfortunately not too much emphasis on everything in between. And interestingly enough, we never know when success and failure will happen for us. We make decisions of what we think will bring us success in the hopes that we don’t fail. Yet, we cannot predict the judges of those decisions. Then you have to think, should we let who we are and who we become be determined by other people’s judgments? I think not!

After thinking about this (and I know I will continue to think about this), I have come to the realization that it is true and will always be true that we can never be defined by other people’s determinations of what is deemed success and what is deemed a failure.

We decide our own success. We decide our own failures.

We are the masters of our own fates. We are the captains of our souls.

Until next time.
Find the Love. Live the Life. Love the Life you Live.

With Love,