Everything is practice

 

Sometimes I am blinded by the light.

My light.

Sometimes I go to a dark and scary neighbourhood.

In my head.

It’s bleak in there.

I do my best not to visit very often, but sometimes?

The pull is magnetic.

It’s a slippery slope once I’m there, but over the years I’ve discovered a few ways to pull myself out of the dark and off the slope.

 

How to Resist the Pull

1.  Unplug

I step away. From my laptop and phones. I turn off all the ringers, bells and whistles. Simple? Yes. Easy to do? Not so much.

But here’s the thing – it works every time.

“Every step you take is a step away from where you used to be.” – Brian Chargualaf

Continue reading

How to Grow Yourself Up in 5 (not-so-easy) Lessons

 

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – e.e. cummings

Almost 11 years ago I found myself sitting on a plane en route to Amsterdam, wondering “How did I get here?”  It was a surreal moment, and it all began with a question (by now, surely you know that I’m all about asking questions!).

I was at a weekend workshop (an amazing program called Wisdom Unlimited), confronted by life and my inability to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up! I was doing an exercise, beating around the bush, not quite answering when the person I was working with blurted out in frustration, “Sandi, what the hell do you want? Just say it!”

In that moment I responded without thinking, “I want to be a photographer and travel, and get paid for that.”

I said it quickly, mumbling under my breath, but I said the words out loud for the very first time. A new dream, spoken into existence.

Fast forward six months, and there I was on the plane heading to the Netherlands to apprentice with a professional photographer in his studio.

Continue reading

Knowing the Power of Your Strengths

 

When something intrigues me I just have to know more.

This really is not that surprising when you find out that my top strength is curiousity.

Authentic Happiness is an amazing site (be prepared; you could lose hours there) and the home of the positive psychology movement.  It offers up a wealth of information and free assessments such as the Signature Strengths test. Whether you call them values, strengths or virtues, this test is eye-opening.

“The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living.” – Martin Seligman, from Authentic Happiness

Continue reading