How thank you can change your life

Seeing the gratitude in everything can change your world around.

And giving thanks where it's due can change someones else's life around too.

However small a deed, a thank you, a gift or a smile, small tokens of love, acceptance and gratitude can mean the world.

And the best time to offer up these small helpings of thanks are now.

Not tomorrow when something more important takes it place, not when you next get time to pick up the phone, the courage, the words.
Not even when it's a socially acceptable time to pop round.

The power of the word thank you can heal broken hearts, boost co-workers appreciation and make you feel light and gracious.

It can help someone let go on their journey of life, knowing that they were loved, heard and honoured.

The gift of thank you mends bridges previously torn down by the floodgates of taking for granted. Thank you opens your heart and whispers love notes from your energy field to another.

Thank you takes the plaster off and kisses the wound.

Rebuilding neural connections, completely rewiring our brains thought patterns takes time, but putting gratitude into our daily life will recondition and tone our neural networks. Establishing new beliefs takes time, about thirty days it's believed ...

When crises looms and chaos reigns, when your world turns inside out and wrings you dry, that's the time to look for the small mercies, the little parcels of light, that when unwrapped, burst forth into pinpricks of hope and merge into a blanket of warmth and comfort.

I give thanks to my children for coming into my life when I kiss them into their dreams, I give thanks to the challenges that greet me during the day, for the messages of moving forward in my life. I give thanks to the difficulties in my past, let them go and learn from the lessons. I give thanks to a cashier packing my bags, a stranger smiling at me in the street, my beloved for working. I give thanks to the loggers who took down all the trees in a scared space, for clearing the path of danger and the new beginnings that will come forward. I give thanks to the sun drying us out, giving us life. I give thanks to the bellbird gifting me with it's song, for the children's laughter, love and courage. I give thanks to my mum, my family, my life.

I give thanks to me.

And I feel happy finding the little things. They stitch themselves together and blow away the clouds of grey. The dark days that overbear our hearts, weigh down our souls, don't need much to evaporate into skies of gold.

• When waking, before you throw the covers off your sleeping chamber, give thanks for your day and what it will bring. I love to thank the light, the warmth of my duvet, the love of my children who wake me with messages of adoration and starvation. I thank the firewood for keeping me warm and the activities in the day that will create opportunities for growth.

• Giving thanks over our food for the cook, the growers, the worms transforming the soil, the bees for pollinating the flowers, the shopkeeper, the transporter or even just great things that happened in your day can lift the worse days in memory up a notch, letting the light at the end of the tunnel shine through, transforming and healing your darkest thoughts.

• Thank you notes attached to well used areas of your workplace or home are great reminders. I have a sticker on my computer that asks me at every moment of distraction, what am I grateful for? The kitchen sink gives thanks for the water that flows freely from the taps and the alkaliser jug gives thanks for the health racing through my body. The night lamp by my bed gives thanks for the well deserved rest in dream land and the thank you note on the dashboard of my car gives thanks for the safe journey.

• Little cards kept in a drawer next to a box of stamps and a pen are perfect for when a quick note of hand written appreciation can be sent. There and then. Not tomorrow when you have time. Think it, write it, send it.

• A journal listing everything that you're grateful for at the end of a day is a gift of beauty in darker days.

• My children gift me the most precious stones, wild flowers and feathers in love and gratitude. I love to collect small items of wonder, sea shells, driftwood, rosebuds, unused nests and keep them on display until a time when they can be passed on as a token of gratitude.

• Smiling at a stranger, offering up a thank you to someone who troubles you, gifting a book with a bookmark of thank yous are other small ways to make someone else's day.

• When my beloved and I received our NZ residency, we personally delivered the biggest bunch of peonies to our immigration officer. The astonished smile that radiated from her was more than we could have ever asked for.

• Silent gratitude, being detached from the benefits of gratitude, is a path to inner liberation. Cleaning a friends home, delivering them a pre-prepared meal or dropping off an anonymous gift without the praise or recognition of the blessing can lift your joy higher.

• Hand held moments in the form of hugs, time to talk with little post it notes of acknowledgment allow moments of intimacy overflowing with gratitude to form bonds, raise your vibration and start seeing the best outa life.

• And when tucking yourself into your night dreams, giving thanks to everything that came your way will cast a hazy glow of light over your sleep, gifting you with a rest-full rejuvenation, sweet dreams and a key to unlock the door for a great tomorrow.

Giving thanks, blessing others will bring exactly what you want to experience into your life, saving your days for joy and harmony. By affirming gratitude in our lives and being thank-full for everything we let in, the more we will receive.

It's your choice to work or play.

I don't wanna work, I'm a girl who just wants to have fun!

So, I've gonna changed my workdays into play days.

I choose to have my children at home full-time and I choose to be the home maker. I now choose to turn my passions into profit...and to enable me to do that, I need to know that I don't have to go to work when the children fall in a heap at the end of their day of fun, that when they are out and about with friends, I need to know that I don't have to go to work and miss out on play.

I need to know that I don't have to turn my day off … to work.

What I've chosen to do is to love my life, be with my children full time, to live my passions and dreams and to help others do the same. I've noticed that seeing my only day to myself as work has stopped my creative fire. Put a halt to the juice of life that otherwise seeps through my skin from my soul centre, radiating out from my cells and setting fire to someone else's passions.

Thinking about work makes me think that I have to do it, that it's toil and trouble, that it'll be hard and that it'll be an uphill slog. 

It's not that I see it this way all of the time, but the term work does have these connotations for me.

Turn it around then and let's play!

If we've chosen to do something that takes up the majority of the week, year, life, it should be something that we at the very least look forward to. 

None of these Monday mornings that loom half way through the weekend. 

None of this judgement towards ourselves that all we can do is work to be able to play. We all know that we should live to work not work to live, but how many of us put that into action?

Well, starting from today I am.

And I'm changing my workday to play day.

My day.

The day I get to be me. Not mum or wife or sister or daughter. Not councillor or friend or domestic goddess either.

Just me.

And who am I?

I'm a runner. I'm spirit. I'm a health junkie, a nature lover, a peace seeker. I'm a foodie, a writer, a researcher and a woman.

A woman who likes to have fun!

So, I put my plan into action today.

Having got my three children up and ready for a visit to the caves that navigate their way underneath the Crystal mountain dominating our valley, I handed over the reins to my beloved who'd just come in from work. Once they departed, I sat down for five minutes to breathe through the chaos.

Instead of my usual domestic chores taking charge of my body, mind and soul, even before my work day starts, I dug out my old running shoes. Before my head understood what I was doing, I legged it outa the door and ran down the hill in search of some adrenalin.

Once I reached the beach, I climbed the ghost of old macrocarpa, a beauty-full grandfather of a tree, the spirit moved on a long time ago. Stroking the limbs of the giant bleached bones of skeleton, I wandered my eyes lazily over the yellow sands dipping quietly beneath the ocean. Allowing my mind to flow on the messages of the wind, the trees bowing gently in answer, I felt myself soar, to become one with the landscape I've called home.

And when I came to, I legged it and popped by to see a neighbour who I wanted to pass on a message of love.

Hiking back up the hill to home, chatting with piwakawaka the fantail who hopped and flapped around me, I felt fully charged. Finishing off a ritual of togetherness, I showered, nourished myself with a green smoothie and set to tinkle with the ivories of my faith-full companion, a day of playing with words mapped out in front of me.

And the funny thing is, my exercise, meditation, social needs and self care took a full hour, although the time immersed in these personal endeavours ran away and gave me an extra morning. Instead of perpetually loosing time on household chores and work, I gained a morning and a full battery pack to power me through the rest of the day.

knowing there's always a way

For my 43^rd birthday, I’ve gifted myself with two offices!

Two places to play with words, to be still, to turn my passions into profit.

My heart is so full and my present is bounding with enthusiastic projections! Trying to sit still in the moment and reflect on this momentous stepping stone, I can’t believe I didn’t make it happen before.

I got caught up for a while with my present situation being too hard. Not able to rent office space in a town too far away, not able to leave the kids and not willing to work through the night anymore. Being saddled with limited internet data, a husband who works away in another's home and unwilling to send the kids to school.

I could feel the grinding wheels of creation wind down and a kinda despondency settling over my once thinking outa the box head.

And then I was gifted my answer.

I decided a while back I would find an extra housing limb; a caravan, house bus, yurt, something I could work in that wouldn't be far from home...a place I could snatch moments of solitude, moments of me, a palace to create the wonders of the universe in.

And then having dreamt it, I forgot about it.

I wrapped that dream up, and let it go.

And it came back... fully wrapped in wonder and sparkly bits. Friends heard the whispers of my plea and gifted me a birthday present of epic proportion. A way to make my next years passion projections come true. (Thank you Emma and Rob x)

And so this is how I come into my 43rd year with two office spaces! 

One office is away from home. The Creation Space.

I have no phone, no fax and no internet. There’s no music, no dishes and no must have conversations.

No distracting procrastination tools.

No way of checking in with emails. No ‘researching’ for blog material. No photo editing suite. No skype, no facebook, no google.

no time wasting!

My workspace is filled with creative energy.

The present.

Dreams.

Peace.

A wood burner, electricity and a kettle.

And I’m graced by a grapefruit tree, macadamias, feijoa, dandelion and plantain. I think I may bring my freebie blender here too.

My commute, a track through the bush from home to the valley below.

The distance to travel to the office isn’t far enough so I’m gonna take the long route to work via the beach and grab a run while I’m at it. 

That way, when I open up my laptop I’ll be buzzing with negative ions, the 'must to do' list blown away and replaced with the TO-DAY list of present, proactive choices.

The creek thunders past my creation space, a 1979 Bedford housebus, this post-storm morning. 

Bird song filters through, warming the wooden walls with rays of sun, through rose strewn windows and the sea rests in debris after its 24hour rage with the wind.

I’ve popped to the pottery next door and gifted myself with a hand-thrown amalgama fired, salt glazed mug and bowl and filled jars with tea, trail mix and overflowed the bowl with kiwi fruit and persimmons.

A box of inspirational books, affirmations and my present goal list sits next to me, marking out a new present. 

My journal, a sketch pad and crayons sit in a box ready to come out and play.

This is where I'll spend 15 hours a week, working full time on my projects.

My second office is back where I started this morning, up the hill at home. The Connection Space.

It's gonna be in the belly of the spaceship in the family room. 

I’m nicking the girls craft space and gifting them with the energy room that I bagged first.

This is where my phone and internet will be when it arrives at the beginning of next month. This is where I can research, email, play and connect with the outside world.

This is the mothership.

Where I can be surrounded by the love of the family bubble, a gentle reminder to what comes first in my life.

Keeping my balance real.

And there it is. My success template.

REMEMBERING THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY

(IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO PURSUE MY DREAMS)

CREATE THE DREAM, LIVE IT IN YOUR MIND, THEN WRAP IT UP AND WISH IT WELL AS IT FLYS OFF

CATCH IT WHEN IT RETURNS WITH WIDE ARMS AND A FULL HEART

A quiet place devoid of distraction for creation
A hub of positive activity for connection.

Ensuring that I use my commuting time as ‘free’ exercise time and gifting myself with a space for only me, there’s little left to procrastinate with!