My Happiness Project

I want to de-clutter and unearth the true me, I want to be and live my purpose.

As a friend said to me today, the holiday season had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Her words couldn’t have summed it up better. I am always so excited for Christmas, and amazingly just as excited to pack it all up after the last family function is done. Nothing has brought me more joy at Christmas than trying to make it as magical as possible for my kids… the way it was when I was growing up.

I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and this year my heart felt especially open, raw, and vulnerable. This has been a pretty crazy year, crazy in a good way! I have gone through so many unbelievable changes, some I couldn’t even begin to explain, and some I pray to God that I never have to relive. I have some women in my life who are true sisters by all means, an amazing mother and grandmother. As well, I have had some of the most remarkable woman brought into my life and have influenced my life, family, passions, and growth more than they will ever know. They have not held me through this journey, but have stood next to me and cheered from the sidelines. We have each taken our turns to go into hibernation and then somehow emerge at just the right time. We have been friends without expectation, I don’t even know if you could truly call us all friends as much as they are my butterflies…

I have been on a journey that I was not looking to go down. This journey has forever changed my life, and I am blessed that my husband been so accepting and understanding of the changes. My children are the inspiration behind it, and my son’s health the catalyst. Our situation has literally made me rethink EVERYTHING! And our situation in the scheme of it is not grave. It has unleashed in me something which feels like is my song, my story. A burning desire to walk along side so many others and help them down their path, a desire to educate myself on how to TRULY be healthy… mind, body, and spirit. It has drawn me to want to empower my children to truly learn who they are, to speak their story through whatever means necessary. This journey has inspired me to want to create again, to write again, to “unclutter my corner, and to unearth my song”.

I think that in order to truly be the change we have to find out who we really are. I am going on a journey to bring my own health back, mind body and spirit. I need to de-clutter myself, to detoxify my body – physically and emotionally. I need to rid myself of all the negative in my life – people and things. I need to reconnect with my family, my true, by every sense of the word, friends and myself. I need to take the time to listen to the birds sing, truly cherish my children, and the life that my husband and I have created. I need to learn to just listen, and be still.

I am starting a “HAPPINESS PROJECT”. I am not doing any New Years Resolutions as there are too many expectations behind those. I am going to start a “Project” where each month I make a few tweaks and minor adjustments to my life to bring me to where I “want” to be. I want my children to sit back and say, she did whatever she wanted us to do, and she changed whatever she wanted us to change. I want my children to know they are not going through this health battle alone, momma’s leading the way… Actions speak louder than words.

Here is my January Project

Honor Myself – Food, Exercise, and Creativity

· Start an anger jar, guilt jar, and happiness jar

· Stop worrying about how others view me, and if I fit into the box that I have been wearing until now!

· Take a photo every day that expresses what I am feeling

· Do at least 2 hours of school work a day

· Do yoga at least 3 times per week

· Work out at least 3 times per week (this is going to be the hardest one for me!)

· Stop drinking coffee and alcohol

· Eat only foods that nurture me

· Remember to take my vitamins and supplements

· Write in my Journal

· Start slowly creating

o Painting

o Writing

o Glass

I am going to be sporadically posting on my project and how it is going… I may post a picture or two or something from my gratitude jar, or it may just be how many days I have been without coffee (I am on Day 1 today). Thank you so much for letting me share my life, my journey and my story with you. Please send me an email or message and let me know what your journey or project may be.

Here are some amazing and inspiring links that you might want to check out;

Be Present, Be Here

The Happiness Project

CHANGE IS AN AMAZING THING!

“Whats the big hurry? You’re not ever going to get it done, so what are you racing toward? Every single activity that you’re involved in is for one purpose only, and that is to give you a moment of joy. Lighten up. Laugh more. Appreciate more. All is well! “ ~abraham-hicks~

For the next little while this blog is going to turn into a little section of the website for me. It is going to evolve with me, it is going to become EXACTLY what it needs to be. I truly hope some of you find a smile in the writings, a hug when you need one, a kick in the butt when you need some motivation and an opportunity to learn from my learning.

You are going to find this blog very unorganized, very random, very applicable to the site and sometimes not. Some of you may on occasion be offended by my posts or relate to the naked honesty! I am not going to sugar coat, I am not going to sit in pitty of what is or isn’t… I am going on a journey, and I truly hope you come along with me. I don’t know where I am going or what its purpose is… It is what it is.

I am so excited to change up Modish Monkeys… Shake things up. For it has all become so much more than helping other parents, it has become a complete lifestyle for me and my family. Modish Monkeys is my children but also a third child (easier than another c-section, plus I CAN just shut it off when I have had enough of it).

This path we as a family have been on the past three years, has been pretty crazy, amazing, and tumultuous at times. We have changed our lives upside down for the better, but it isn’t going to stop there. It has brought an awareness to me and our family that I can’t even explain…. Just a minute I need to go hug a tree…. Okay I am back. Lol. It has helped me understand the true me! So to all of you, THANK YOU FOR THAT!

Now I am going to pull, and twist and shift the company to become an example to what we can do to correct/ reverse (whatever you want to call it) to bring our children back to health… to bring our families and communities back to health. Because it truly is a LIFESTYLE…. Just a minute, I have to talk to the bird on the deck… lmao. Okay seriously, we need to create the change for our children and their children. WE need to be the change, and walk the walk! In order for our children’s health to be as it should, we need to make changes to ourselves as well… This is not an easy fix, for the machine that is broken is huge!!! But we as moms, dads, families, communities… we can make the changes that combined, make an impact!

We do not inherent the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children!

Indian Proverb

I can’t even tell you the number of people I have heard of lately diagnosed or dealing with terminal cancer, children fighting it, so many dis-eases! Well what if we work together ~ not on the dis-eases~ but on improving our health, quality of life and happiness to PREVENT dis-ease. Together we can do that. It does start with baby steps, and trust me I/ we are a long way from the finish line, but it sure does feel good making the strides towards it.

I am up to my eyeballs in my studies for my Registered Holistic Nutritionist designation, and thoroughly enjoying being pushed to my last limit mentally! The information I am getting is amazing and life changing. I will share bits and pieces along the way.

It truly doesn’t matter if you are Christian, catholic, Muslim, or Budhist, the changes we can make and awareness we can bring to our lives, through the way we view life, the foods we eat, the life decisions we make, the way we raise our children, the way we treat our siblings, the way we love others, the way we respect the air we breath, the water we drink, the meat we eat, the supplements and minerals we take, the medications we take, the way we talk to another, and the way we love ourselves….

Modish Monkeys is about bringing the Modern Child back to the roots of pure health! It is about dealing with the whole picture, not just band-aid solutions. It is about learning to prevent dis-ease, not just fearing and treating dis-ease. It is about being a support for the parents of children dealing with the modern childhood epidemics. It is not about blaming, and trying to figure out what has caused it all. It is about the children, and making the changes necessary for them, it is about these children bringing an awareness to us that things need to change! Together we can be that change. Lets take strides together, side by side, to be the change for these children and bring them back to the roots of pure health.

Here is to an exciting 2011!!!