What’s magical and mythical about 37 you ask? I’m not certain since I’ve just embarked upon my journey into my 37th year, but as I experience all of its magnificence I will be certain to share. In the meantime, I thought I would share 37 nuggets of wisdom I’ve learned throughout my lifetime which make my life richer, happier, and more enjoyable. As we all learn different things through our own life experiences, I would love to hear what other lessons you have learned and would add to this list!
- Be kind. It’s free and stuff.
- Always give your all. It’s free too.
- You don’t know what you don’t know until you know. These moments of revelation are pure glory!
- Keep learning. I’ve learned more through self education than from any education I purchased.
- Work smarter, not harder.
- Eat the cake. Or don’t, it doesn’t matter. I have tried nearly every diet philosophy to have come and gone: high protein, low carb, high carb, vegetarian, vegan, whole food plant based, sugar only (this was a personal experiment I conducted in college), carb cycling, intermittent fasting, etc, etc. In the end, paying attention to what makes my body feel well is more important than eating something because some diet philosophy says it will make me look a certain way. There are many foods my body doesn’t tolerate which are good for me, and I feel much better when I honor my body. The minute I shifted from a mindset of restrictive dieting to empowering myself with a choice to feed my body for wellness I found a whole new relationship with food. (When you do eat cake, keep it in moderation.)
- Patterns and cycles repeat themselves until we learn what the pattern is trying to teach us about ourselves or our life. The next time you see the same repeated circumstances happening in your life take pause and ask what you’ve been missing.
- The hardest things to leave behind often lead to the most rewarding changes. Just do it.
- Writing goals and intentions down is magic! Do it, be precise, and watch shit get real, real quick.
- The best things in life aren’t things. They are memories, people, places, feelings, and moments filled with smiles and laughter.
- Hugs can cure more discomforts than the mind could ever imagine. Hug often.
- How you begin your day does far more than merely beginning your day. Time set aside in the morning to center yourself and create a positive attitude for the day creates a good mood. A good mood creates a great day. 365 great days create a great year. A great year creates a great life. It’s all as simple as how you begin your day.
- Always listen to your intuition. It’s how the spirits guides us, and it’ll never lead us astray.
- If you think you can’t you can’t. If you think you can you still might experience can’t on the first try. Perseverance is a real difference maker.
- Instead of disliking yourself which causes you to deny a part of you, identify how those traits positively serve you. Then align yourself with using and appreciating those traits in those positive ways. Being able to embrace all of the parts of yourself, good and bad, is key to self love and inner peace.
- Liking yourself is far more important than others liking you. Never sacrifice self approval for the approval of others.
- If you’re going to be able to laugh about a situation down the road then you might as well laugh about it while you’re going through it.
- Gratitude should be one of the easiest things to express. If you don’t have a daily list of endless things to be grateful for your perspective needs shifting. Abundance is all around us.
- Age doesn’t equate to mastery. I have never been one to welcome a process. I want to do it once and be a rockstar. For some reason, the older I get the more I expect to always hit it out of the park on my first try. Embrace the process. Trust me, my expectations are delusional.
- Don’t be so full of what you know that you block any new ideas from permeating your being.
- Self sacrifice breeds resentment and contempt while self development yields respect. Whatever you’re facing do it for your self development and let everyone else around you reap the benefits.
- Jump! Take the leap of faith and your wings will grow on your way down or the safety net will come out before you get to the ground. Whatever the case, you’ll be fine and it will all work out in the end. I told my Dad this past year “my dismounts haven’t all been graceful but I always land on my feet.” You will too.
- Our society focuses a lot on change and mistakes. This leads us to believe we need altering and correction to be good enough. If we instead focus on healing we are able to accept our experiences and be empowered for having gone through them.
- Happy mind, happy life. We become what we think. Our mind is very powerful and creates our experience in this human existence. If there is something you don’t like begin by looking at it differently. (“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” –Dr. Wayne Dyer)
- Self care isn’t selfish.
- Optimum functioning is an equal collaboration of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic bodies. Keeping them working in conjoint balance will deliver the best version of you. I made the mistake of pouring myself into physical aspirations for years while not even being aware I could adjust my energy (or even had an energy body for that matter). My mental and emotional bodies were often in conflict because I would mentally deny my feelings by thinking I shouldn’t feel this way or that way about something. Being in a harmonious state of equilibrium has created a whole new life for me.
- Perspective. Keep it positive. Feel free to reread #24.
- Hardships do not limit you. You can choose to use them as the impetus to create a stronger, more resilient you or you can forever allow it to haunt you. Your choice!
- It’s more than okay to be an outlier. Give yourself permission to go against the grain, doing things authentic to your nature. Your permission is the only permission you need, and the societal norm is boring anyway.
- There’s an entire universe out there, and we only know a morsel of info about it. When life or worry begins to swallow you up sit under the stars, get out in nature, take in the majesty of the mountains. Seeing the small speck of space we inhabit can really reframe how minuscule those woes truly are!
- The opposite of love is fear. For the longest time I thought the opposite of love was hate, but I no longer believe that to be true. Fear is what stops us in our tracks. Think about something you fear (for me it’s bats[….insert childlike screaming here] or being abandoned) and then think about trying to love it. Does it seem impossible as though your love is blocked? Break through your fears to have a purer, loving life!
- Those who make themselves great will be made humble, but those who are humble will be made great. Words to live by, straight from the Bible (Luke 14:11). I’m so adamant about this one I tattooed it.
- Our society is so inundated with chemicals it seems as though there is no other way to live. From toothpaste, deodorant, pest control, cleaning products, shampoo, mouth wash, perfumes, the foods we eat, the air we breath etc etc. We are consistently taking in and absorbing toxins at a rate our bodies cannot process or eliminate effectively. Eliminating the use of chemicals in all of my hygiene and household products lead to a much healthier me, and my endocrine system is happier than ever! (If you’re interested in getting your hands on some healthier products but don’t know where to begin please contact me. I’d love to share what’s been effective for me!)
- Forgive always. It’s a bigger gift to yourself than to the forgiven but beneficial to both.
- Life is full of contradictions: you will be stronger when you are weak, its in losing yourself that you find yourself, and the more you give the more you will receive. (The list goes on and on….)
- Words are incredibly powerful. They can build or destroy so select thoughtfully. All words carry their own vibe. Don’t use low vibing language and expect a high vibe response or outcome.
- We cannot escape the influence of those with whom we share a great deal of time. It is said we are the average of our five closest friends. Have friends who raise your bar.
Thanks for stopping by!
Peace & Love
Janessa