I am so excited about this week’s selection:  Hay House Radio!
I first learned about this wonderfully inspirational site a few years ago through Cheryl Richardson (one of my favorite authors). She has a weekly radio show there called Coach on Call where she gives great advice to people who call in. Over the years, Dan and I have spent more hours than we can count making our products, and while we love listening to music, sometimes it’s nice to feed our souls and have a daily dose of inspiration while we are gluing and binding our journals. This website is absolutely perfect for that!  It is an offshoot of Hay House publishing, which is home to some of the best personal growth books and tools in the world. They are both founded by Louise Hay, who is a true ray of light in our world.  Louise Hay is an amazing woman, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for all of the wonderfully positive and inspirational work she is doing. She has given all of these talented authors and speakers a platform to share their wisdom, and I am forever grateful to her (and to them).  In addition to Cheryl Richardson, here are just a few of my favorite authors that have radio shows here: Wayne Dyer Sonia Choquette Joan Z. Borysenko There are so many more – each with their own wisdom and a shared desire to help others. With thousands of hours of archived shows by Hay House’s bestselling authors, you can immerse your soul with positive nuggets that will stay with you forever.  To listen, you can either tune in for your favorite show and and listen to it live each week, or you can join their Wisdom Community and listen to the archives.  If you join this community, you will also qualify for big discounts off of Hay House products and events!  Just last night we listened to a show we hadn’t heard before called Attracting Abundance by Peggy McColl.  We listened to two of her archived shows – one featuring Bob Proctor (amazing!) and the second featuring Gay Hendricks (a favorite of mine!). I always learn so much by listening to Hay House Radio, but it’s so much more than just learning. It’s also about feeling a sense of community and tuning in to hear likeminded, wonderful teachers sharing their gifts to help us along our journey. I know you will love it just as much as I do. 

I was listening to a wonderful seminar yesterday with Jack Canfield. He is the author behind the wonderful Chicken Soup for the Soul books, was featured on The Secret, and has written several books on positive thinking and achieving success. He is such an amazing person with a kind spirit, and I love that he is happy to share his knowledge and wisdom with others.  This particular seminar was a motivational talk for authors who would like to achieve success with their own books, which came at a perfect time because Dan and I are each in the process of writing our own books and look forward to applying his wealth of information to our own lives.  =&0=& =&1=& When he wrote the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, he always referred to it as a bestselling book – right from the start. He visualized it sitting at the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. He imagined full displays in bookstores. He imagined selling millions of books in the first year.  And he kept that dream alive even when almost 150 publishers turned him down. He kept it alive when it was finally printed and sales were dismal in the first few months. He kept it alive when the publisher was having doubts about it and said he would be lucky to sell 20,000 total copies.  He believed in himself, and he continued to dream big.  He kept raising the bar for himself and dreaming even bigger than before.  Even bigger than he thought was possible.  They now have nearly 200 books in the series and have passed all of his dreams along the way. He has had to come up with even bigger dreams, which is a great thing!  He talked about how if you are dreaming and visualizing anyway – what’s the difference between a safe dream and a “shoot for the moon” dream? The universe and the energy to attract your dream don’t know the difference – your feeling behind this dream is what will bring it into fruition. Your emotion and desire and belief in knowing that you deserve this dream will make it real.  =&2=& =&3=& And then take action.  Once you set a clear dream and truly believe it and see yourself living it,  you can take action to make it a reality. 
I always have felt that if you meet the universe half way, amazing things can happen.  You set your intention, which sets everything in motion…  and the results can be magical if you truly believe.  So let’s all dream bigger than ever before, and get ready for amazing results! 

Imagine for a moment that Earth is a schoolroom and that we are all pupils in it.  And imagine that before you were born, your soul mapped out what your journey on Earth would look like. You mapped out what you would like to learn during your time here. You chose what your purpose here would be. I believe that we each have a unique purpose. We all have the ability to inspire others with our unique gifts and individual experiences. Some are amazing teachers who were born to inspire and lead through their actions. Some are gifted artists who can change lives simply by sharing their creations with others. Some are loving and compassionate souls who inspire through their open hearts. Have you ever thought about what your life purpose is?
What do you feel that you were born to do?  What talent do you have that is uniquely yours?  What flows easily and feels great and natural when you do it?  How can you share your experiences and gifts with others and help inspire them to realize their life purpose as well? 

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Sometimes it’s great to have plans. It’s comforting to know where you are going and how you will get there. And then sometimes it’s great to scrap all of those plans and do something completely different – completely spontaneous. Dan and I did this the other day, and it was wonderful! We had planned to be working the entire day, and when the day completely opened up for us we took action. Just a few months ago if this same situation had happened, we would’ve just shifted our work tasks around and started working on them instead. But this time was different.  We are now living our lives in a more open way – we are letting the possibilities flow in – and we are rolling with it all instead of staying rigid. We are more alive and more free. We saw this opening in our schedule as an opportunity to play hooky and go have some fun together – and I’m so glad we did!  So the next time your plans shift and you find an opening in your schedule, instead of filling the time with another task or chore, try staying open to letting in new experiences and do something spontaneous and fun instead!
You’ll definitely be happy that you did!

Yesterday I wrote about setting aside time to celebrate and reward yourself after completing a goal. It’s so important to pat yourself on the back before moving onto the next task.  =&0=& =&1=& =&2=& Melissa from the wonderful Bubby and Bean brought this up, and it inspired me to write today’s post about doing just that!  How often do you find yourself working on a project and either just racing to get through it so you can check it off the list or find yourself spacing out and not really able to stay in the moment and enjoy the act of actually doing it?  And this goes for any type of project – creating, cleaning, working, errands, cooking, etc.  The next time you are working on a project, try to stay mindful and present while you are doing it. Instead of thinking about the outcome or the next project or what’s for dinner or how much laundry you have to do – just stay with it and really be aware of that moment. 
Enjoy yourself and find joy in creating or working or just doing.

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We all set goals for ourselves and work really hard to complete them.  We do all of the necessary steps – we plan, we take action, and we complete them.  And it feels great!  And what do we usually do next?  We move onto the next goal or the next project.  And do all of the necessary steps – we plan, we take action, and we complete it.  And this continues throughout each day – throughout our lives.  And then something eventually happens where we start to feel resentful of what seems like a neverending pile of goals, and tasks, and “to dos.” However, if we simply took time after completing each task to congratulate ourselves, celebrate our accomplishments, and reward ourselves – we would be much more likely to start each new task with renewed excitement.  And the best part is that you get to choose how to celebrate!   You can simply acknowledge a job well done. You can finally take that well-deserved break that you have been pushing back. You can put your feet up and read a good book. You can go out for a celebration dinner with your family and friends. You can take the rest of the day off. You can take that vacation that you definitely deserve. As a motivator for completing your goal, you can even decide on the celebration ahead of time. This will definitely keep you on task and moving forward with your plans.  =&1=& Simply following through and completing a goal is enough of a reward. And acknowledging this accomplishment is oftentimes all we need.  But there is also nothing wrong with celebrating in bigger ways. So the next time you set a goal for yourself, try setting a reward or a way to celebrate after reaching your goal as well.  And then make sure you follow through and actually complete your goal and your celebration. You are definitely worth it, and you definitely deserve it! P.S. – We are the featured member this week on the Etsy Blog Team! You can read our interview here! Thank you so much! 🙂