The World of Lili

Canadian thanksgiving was this past weekend and I want to give thanks in full. 

My Love 

  

Two years of love to the most amazing man ever. Shaun Dyball you are the best. I am so thankful to wake up next to you every morning and fall asleep by you each night. The next part of our journey is insanely exciting!! 

I love you so much. 

My parents

  

30 years ago on thanksgiving weekend you traveled to Prince George to pick up your baby…. That was me! Since then you have given me the most amazing life. You have also given me the most love in the world. You make my dreams come true. 

My brother 

  

You are so important to me and you must know that your hard-ass little sister loves you more than anyone. I look out for you, I annoy you, and I call you out on your s*^>. Why, because I am your little sister and I can & should. Thank you for being the best brother a girl could ask for. Not only do I have a big brother but I also have a best friend. I am very thankful for you. 

My friends and extended family

  
I am so blessed to have an amazing family. Lyman & Joan, David & Norma, Stewart & Jenny! I was born to the right tribe! I love you all so much. 

Kim, Jess, Jenn, Rachelle, virlisa and Shannon & Sherill you girls are my rocks! Kevin, Chris, and Jason I am so lucky to have you as my best man friends!!! I have such an amazing core group of best friends! 

Tracy, mark, Tine, & Bella I am so lucky to have you four as my new family. You are all so fun, silly, and loving! I am very thankful for you! Especially you mama for bringing Shaun into my life! Haha 

Ani & Ian, April & Grant, sherry, Juliet, Judy, Darcy & Steve, Julian thank you all for being my parents! 

My Norway fam jam! Tonje, Troels, Silje, Gunn & Ivar, and lulu! I am so thankful for up with people! You all came into my lives and will always be a part of my family and heart! 

My ohana!!! Gail, theo, Nigel, Helen! The best ohana! 

New friends, old friends, and future family members! Thank you all for being awesome & loving people!!! I celebrate life every day because of all of you! 

  
My Future 

  

I am very thankful for everything life has to offer me. To wake up and be able to dream big or little! To be free to make my own choices. To be able to vote. To be able to travel! I am very lucky. 

So here is to the future ?

I am also very thankful to everyone who is reading this. Your support means the world to me. You encourage me to be creative and I will always be grateful for you. 

Love 

L. 

This is my list of adventures/things I would like to do in my 30th year alive.

1. Bungee jump (I’m scared of heights and yet I’ve always wanted to do this)
2. Hike the west coast trail or Jaun de Fuca 
3. Attend a football game (I’m cheating… I already know this is going to happen) 
4. Travel to Oslo and see Tonje & Meet her husband and their puppy baby lulu
5. I would love to go to New York with my dad! 
6. See Britney Spears live in Vegas 
7. Buy a new car! Like not just a car but one made this year!!! I’ve only ever owned cars from the 80’s
8. Take a ballet or hip hop class
9. I would love to get back into film… So maybe some extra work! 
10. New puppy? Even with Shaun’s allergies we may be able to adopt a puppy… Maybe.
11. Buy a bike
12. Read a novel a month (recommendations?)
13. If I go to Europe I want to visit Denmark, Ireland, and Scotland. 
14. Attend 2015 USANA convention in Salt Lake City 
15. Go on a fancy date night once a month 
16. Snowboard! Please send snow this year!!!!! 
17. Go to the nutcracker ballet when it’s in town 
18. Maybe get a betta fish too 
19. Decorate my house for every holiday! 
20. Donate blood (if possible) one-three times. Unless I get another tattoo. 
21. Film or contribute to hit record 
22. Coachella, Sasquatch, or Squamish must happen this year 
23. Do one or two photo shoots with friends. (Any volunteers?) 
24. Start saving big time for the future! Become money awesome 
25. Learn another language
26. Take a flight without being scared! Face my fears 
27. Swim with sharks! 
28. Buy an important piece of art 
29. Buy new luggage!! 
30. Blog more, be kind, eat healthier, and go on more adventures!!! Plus sleep more! 

Ok! I have some big goals and little ones for my 30th year! Let’s do this! 
Xoxo 

I want to start off by saying TODAY (well technically yesterday…. it’s an hour into a new day  now) was one of the best days of 2015… so far.

Why?! You ask…. lots of reasons! LOTS! A couple of things happened that were life changing, a couple things happened that were special, and overall, I felt loved. So I have many reasons that it was one of the best days of 2015.

I will paint you a small picture.

I woke up between 8:14-8:45am (my alarm wakes me up gently over a time period that it thinks would be suiting to how much sleep I had) then I checked my social media, e-mails, text messages. I went to an appointment at my local beauty salon, as I like to do on Mondays. I helped one of my best friends wedding plans (small small detail). I talked to my life long best friend. I sent my boyfriend a loving emoji. I checked out a local Starbucks that had been renovated and saw an old co-worker of my ex-boyfriend who always makes my day. I sent my Aunt Norma a big happy birthday post on her Facebook wall and I snap chatted my man best friend because it is also his birthday.

Yup and that was all before 1:00pm.

So you can see where my day started. Well this evening I went over to my girlfriend’s house for a night of inspiration, girl talk, and catch up. Originally we decided last week via text that we would meet soon (at that time no dates were given) to help me plan my future.

I don’t know if she would call herself a life coach but she is defiantly one of my life coaches. She has so much knowledge, experience, and she truly loves life. So tonight we met.

The night was beyond amazing. As you can tell… I’m actually writing a BLOG. Miracle. Yes, this blog has a point more than being just overly happy. I’ll get to that in a second.

We did our normal girl talk. Talked about boys, friends, sex, life, and my future. We laughed and drank a glass of wine. Oh boy it was fun! While I was leaving she walked me to my car. Then I told her how important she was in my life and that she was one of the few people who truly inspire me. Again… I’m writing a full blog with no drafts. Trust me I’ve had a lot of half written ones in the last year that I feel/felt that I did not want to post or felt short of being something I wanted to share with you.

Then it dawned on me.

Have you ever heard of the saying “You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with- choose carefully.” I have on several occasions. Pinterest, Social Media, and at conventions… especially business conventions. It always made me think yeah… I want to surround myself with people who live the life I want.

Then I look at my friends and think I spend my life with amazing people but they don’t live the lifestyles I dream of (Don’t get mad but in a way it’s true). I actually spend my days with on average a group of 10 people who I love dearly and yes they DO inspire me. SO freaking much. I am who I am because of our lives together. We do a lot of the things that I want in my future but they are not living the lives I want, crave, desire, dream. Of course not, they are different people. They have different lives, dreams, careers, ideas, feelings, emotions. They may see me and say I love Lili, I love that she is spontaneous but I’m not. Lili is the best but I am not as social as she is, dancing at a night club is not for me. Lili is awesome (hehe) but I do not dream of going on a stage in front of hundreds of people to inspire. You see what I’m saying? My core group of friends who I call my family and I are very different people but yet I spend my days (almost every day) with all 10 of them.

So when I hear you need to spend time with the people who inspire to be but yet I spend time with the people I love…. I get a little confused.

Of course I become like my best friends. Yet we are all on our own paths with different career choices, dreams, and life styles.

So I want to break that sentence down in my words for you. I hope it helps you the way I see it. Unless of course you want to ditch you best friends and find new friends to hang out with regularly.

Find 5-10 people who live the lifestyle you crave and spend time with them… on a regular. 

1. Define who those people are. 

For me I find inspiration with dreamers who also doers. Like the beautiful women who I spent the evening with. She came into my life a couple of years ago through another beautiful (yes I surround myself with beautiful women) sister of mine and we became friends instantly. I would consider her one of my best friends now. She is an entrepreneur who is extremely hard working and runs a very successful home based business. On top of that she is very in touch with people and who they are. Like I said before I do not know if I would call her a life coach but she is one of my life coaches. She understands freedom. She is finically independent. Plus she thinks like I do. She has a dream and she goes for it. Some people are not motivated by dreams. They live their lives based on their reality. For me like I said I am a dreamer who is also a doer. So is my lady friend.

Now I would put her in a small group of my friends who are inspired, visionaries, who are entrepreneurs that want a lifestyle that is creative and free. So to me she lives the life I crave. She would be in this specially category.

I have also found people like this who I may not know personally but are successful in the career I have chosen.

If you were an actor this may be Gary Oldman or Rachel McAdams or Alan Rickman for you. Not necessarily people you know but who have made it big in the acting world. Yes those are some of the actors I looked up to when I was acting.

All of these people I do not see on a regular so how do I change that?

Find creative ways to keep your inspirations in your life on a daily. 

Make the time for each other. Get a coffee or a bottle of wine monthly. Text more. Easy enough… you think.

Some times I go months without speaking to my girl friend. I mean she is a hard working entrepreneur who has a different life style than mine (at the moment).

Here are some ideas to change that.

1) Follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. You never know how one small post can change your day.

2) Hold each other accountable. Set meetings. Generally entrepreneurs or business owners run their lives on meetings. Make it a meeting. Make it serious. You may be having a glass of wine and talking about boys but you also get to the inspiration when you make it important.

3) YOU NEVER MET THE PERSON. For me I’ve met my three most inspired people in my career path but others I still have not… So make sure to follow their blogs or mailing lists. Find a way to follow their business. Once you have them on your daily radar do the things they teach. Every day. Take their tips and use them. You may not know them personally but that does not mean you cannot follow in their footsteps. They have made it because of these ideas, tips, rituals. USE THEM. It’s like free advice to become OPRAH.

4) Add them to your vision boards. I LOVE VISION BOARDS. You probably know this about me if you follow me… My good friend used to say “Change your mind, Change your world.” I’ve literally written that up on my calendar. I would keep it always in eye shot of my daily life. Even if I couldn’t see him regularly his mantra was always there.

Get one to two mentors.

My last advice is have a mentor. Some one who isn’t your boss but has been completely made it in a career that you want. Like is the top of the top. Ask them for permission to become your mentor and follow them, learn from them, soak it all up. Educate yourself as much as you can before they retire. Great leaders will always be willing to mentor. Do not be afraid to ask.

I have the greatest mentor in the WORLD of my business. She made it back in the day with no internet, no material, and not a lot of leaders to follow. I can tell you now how grateful I am for her. One of my biggest blessings and I will tell you now that I am not using her enough! DO NOT TAKE THEM FOR GRANTED. They may retire.

 

I finally figured out how to change my mind on this saying and it will now change my world. I hope it helps you too. Don’t ditch your awesome friends because they are on different paths. They will inspire you and they will help you become the human you are so don’t change that. Just find a way to spin it so it helps you….

 

With LOVE (lots of it)

 

A very tired and happy lili

xo

 

 

 

*Picture taken while reading and journaling on vacation at Savary Island- Never stop growing*

 

Each day I try to learn a little more about myself. I believe in self-development and the importance it brings to our lives. Once we understand and believe in ourselves we can do anything. I hear it time and time again from amazing leaders in all different fields that when we believe in who we are then we can change our worlds.

My personal steps for figuring out who I am:

• Write daily in my journal: Each day I write about what’s happening in my world, my intentions for that day, what I am grateful for, what I believe in, what my dreams are, and my work from different sources of self-developing activities
• Meditation: I’ve started small on this one Just 1 minute every morning to focus on my breath
• Reading: I try to read as much as I can. My goal is to read 10 minutes a day and yes, mainly self-help/development books
• Leadership: I look to other people who I aspire to be like online, in my business, and around my community for insights on their development and recommendations
• Videos/Youtube/Ted talks: My biggest new favorite activity is listening to ted talks and youtube videos when I have time. One video can pump me up or inspire me to think a new way or see the people I look up to share their stories and it allows me to learn in another way
• Training: No matter what field you work in take in all the training you can! My priority from now on will be attending all classes, seminars, and conventions that come my way.

The fight of it all:

Over the last couple of months and mainly in this past week I’ve learned that some of the most important people do not believe in my vision. I know and believe that this is part of my story to overcome the doubt I have in myself. It happens to all of us that somewhere in our journey’s others will stop believing in our futures, visions, and dreams. It is a struggle. Yes some of my actions in the last year have changed the minds of extremely close people in my life but I will not change my journey or belief in myself from this year. Personally I’ve been going through the hardest year yet and I’ve made a complete change around about how I’m going to start the life I dream of. I’ve made great sacrifices and I’ve had fun doing it.  I always had a plan, I always understood the importance of each decision I made but the only thing I did not do enough of was believe in myself and I relied on the idea that my friends and family will have my back no matter what and I did not share my vision enough with those who mattered.

One thing I have learnt is that self belief and confidence is the key to how our stories play out. You hear it from all great leaders that in their lives there was always someone important or hundreds of people who didn’t believe in their visions but they stuck to it. They said yes I’m going to make this happen, I will be what I’ve always wanted to be, or I believe in me. They stuck to their beliefs from the beginning no matter who told them to stop and try something conventional or don’t push yourself because you will never get to your dreams. One of my best friends had to prove her boyfriend that she could run a marathon after he said why don’t you just do a 10k you’ll never finish an entire marathon. Not only did she finish it in an amazing time, she went dancing right after with her team!

Never give up on your vision. Be passionate. Stand behind your beliefs and yourself! Also, do it at your own pace. If you need a break from life to do so that’s ok. Little steps make great change.

One of my favorite Tony Robbins quotes is “No matter how many mistake you make or how slow your progress. You’re still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.”

Just don’t make my mistake by not communicating my vision to those in my life. I scared myself away from being proud of who I want to be and I stopped sharing my baby steps  to those around me. They stopped believing because they never believed I was changing. I can tell you something about me since I was a baby I’ve always been conscious of my choices and always ready for change, adventure, and growth.

So let me finish off with…

My Belief (written last night):

• I am a motivational speaker
• My team Love International is strong and growing
• I have abundance and I am wealthy
• I am a wonderful loving wife
• World travel is my hobby
• People come to me to find happiness in Health and Wealth
• I am always happy
• I believe in miracles

Now some of these are true to this day but some of these haven’t happened but they will. The key is to know your vision.

All my love in happiness and health <3

 

XO

 

Diamond Lil

 

My recommendations:

•  www.liveyourlegend.net or Ted Talk: How to find and do work you love. Live your legend with Scott Dinsmore
• May Cause Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein
• Marie tv on youtube by Marie Forleo
• Anything and everything Tony Robbins!

I’ll let you know a secret… I’m in love with money and learning how to value it’s value. Lately I’ve been taking the time to be extra conscious with my views on how I treat money. I’m not talking about the dirty details; budgets, my spending habits, paying off the debt. I’m talking about making it simple and loving; giving thanks when I receive or give money, checking into my bank daily and reading every statement & bill, and changing the way I talk about money while being truthful and positive. 

I’ve been focused on this lately as I’ve been reading “Money, A love story” by Kate Northrup and I’ve taken her teachings and placed them into my daily life. This past Wednesday I spent an hour listening to her webinar “Financial Renewal: 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When It Comes To Their Money.” 

If you missed it please take the time and check it out at http://www.katenorthrup.com/financial-renewal-webinar. 

Before I go any further I want to send a big THANK YOU to Kate Northrup. Having a women in my life as inspirational and caring as you means the world to me. Your love and support through your teachings is amazing. I cannot wait to meet you in person and thank you with a huge hug! 

Now, why am I fired up about this subject. 

A couple of reasons…

First, the money goddess has been challenging me. How do I know? The last three sources of income have come to me about 50% under budget each. Ouch. So what am I to do? 

1. BE extremely thankful I have amazing income coming to me
2. Pay each bill and rent on time (first open all those bills up :0) 
3. Start valuing my worth in myself

After seeing the reduced income I realized that I’m holding back on how much value I give myself. I don’t speak up when needed (one of my sources had given me a chance to speak up and I was too scared to) and I undermine my own views on how much I should make. 

Honestly, I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly confidant, kick-ass, young women. So how do I find value in myself? I’ll start simple and easy. 

1. Start by taking the time to be grateful. I’ve fallen off my daily gratitude path and I need to restart my daily out look of life and let the world know that my life and the world around me is AWESOME! 
2. Telling myself 3 things about myself that I value daily… along with why I’m grateful for life! GIVE LOVE INSIDE AND OUT! 
3. Saying thank you to every compliment I’m given. 

Second reason on why I’m fired up about this subject… The fact that so many people in my life view money in a negative way. I just got off the phone with my momma and it dawned on me that so many of my friends and family are going through what I am. This money subject is extremely hard for almost everyone in my life… even the wealthy! We all speak negatively about how we view money. Why is this? We spend so much time being positive and loving about everything else in our lives so why don’t we give love to our incomes/bills & debt/money in general? LET’S DO IT! 

It’s time we all become positive with all aspects of this usually touchy subject. Who knows… maybe our debt will be paid off faster, maybe our income becomes larger and we become happier when we set value to ourselves, and maybe we will just enjoy life a little more because we are not as stressed. 

My group of friends talk about living happy and creating our lives how we want. We should remember that this includes everything; money, life, love, relationships, friendships, personal development, school, work, fitness… everything! Take the time today and start loving your everything! 

That’s why I share my story today. YES I’m in debt, YES I am having financial income issues, and Yes I love to spend a lot of money on the daily. I’m not going to hide behind these truths anymore. I want my story to be shared with you so you know that you’re not alone! 

Again, Please please please check out “Money A Love Story” by Kate Northrup. Most of my story today comes from her passion behind this subject!

Be grateful for life… why? BECAUSE YOU ROCK! Trust me I know  

Written with love while listening to Beyonce in my office while drinking lemon water with my windows open! Yup 😉

XOXO

 

Your friend, 

Lili 

<3 WISHING YOU LOTS OF LOVE ON YOUR PERSONAL JOURNEY <3

 

 

 

Do you spend a moment each day counting your blessings? Can you stop right now and say 10 things you are thankful for? Do you appreciate the beauty of life?

I truly believe to be a happy person I must take a minute or two each day to look around and say out loud or write on paper what makes my life beautiful.

There are many different ways to do this:

1) Meditation- Personally I have not started to meditate but I know while you sit quietly this is a good time to say your blessings quietly to yourself. What an amazing start to a day! You’re at peace with life and yourself.

2) Prayer- My beliefs are my own but I know this is a great time to say your blessings out-loud with your family before dinner or right before you go to sleep. No matter what your religion I know this is an important time of your day.

3) Written- This is my main way to reflect on my life. I’ve made a habit to keep one agenda journal. Each day I take a couple of minutes and look back at my day from before and I write down each activity, person, event, thing, place that made me love life. Example: Today I would write down hockey (Loving the Sochi Olympics), my roommate, date night with my men :), Lego movie (super cute movie by the way), my business thriving, my mentor, Family, London fogs, greeting strangers with smiles.

Another way I used to do this was with a gratitude box. I found a beautiful box from Pier 1 and a card set and each day I would write on these cards with the date just the same way I would in my agenda. I have all my cards in that box and now I can always look back and see all my blessings.

4) With the family- Include your family and teach them how to live with a grateful heart. Now for me my family means my boyfriend & friends. For you it may be your husband and children, mom & dad, or you may be like me and keep friends close to you and treat them like family.

Spend some time with them each day or week and tell each other why you feel grateful for each other & your lives. You could write it down, say it out loud, send each other e-mails, draw pictures (Those with kids may love that), keep a family journal.

Living life with a grateful heart will lighten your day, stress will be easily controlled, and you will start seeing the all the little things in life that make it so amazing.

Much love,

L.

See the little things in life & share it with others

• How many times have you seen those ridiculous cat postings on facebook? Copy the link and e-mail them to others. (Some of my friends/family do not have facebook and I love sharing links to them)
• Take pictures
• Found a new artist/musician/movie let your friends know. Entertainment always makes people feel good. Especially music.
• Hike! Nothing feels better than accomplishing something and see the beauty of nature.

At the end of 2013 I fell into depression. Even though it was not apparent it was there. Days went by that I hated life. I was sad even when I was happy. I couldn’t fully see joy in anything (except for my love). I felt fear of life, fear of death, fear of almost everything.

I had never really felt this kind of sadness before. It was so foreign to me and I just couldn’t see how to get out of it. Each day felt horrible to me. Well maybe not all day every day but each day I could feel darkness.

I had to make this stop. There was no way I could live this way. Not me. I’m a happy person who loves life! Especially since I just started a new relationship with my best friend. I did not want my depression to affect us.

So how did I become happy again?

-Acceptance-

I had to accept that I was depressed. I had to tell myself this was not normal. I had to say stop hating yourself and life because of the circumstances you are in. I had to look at my life and understand why I was falling apart. There were many factors to this; work, body issues, feeling like I had no where to call home, too much travel, lack of sense of self. I knew so much was happening all at once that I felt trapped in the negativity of it all instead of the blessings. My body felt completely ill. I felt alone and as soon as I understood this I knew my next step.

-Talk about it with important people-

I decided that if this continued into the new year I would seek counselling and in the meantime I had to tell my family. I sat down with both of my parents and told them I am feeling depressed. I asked them to not focus on anything I found negative. No comments about my body, my work, or my eating habits. Nothing. I let them know that if they said anything to me I would focus on it in the most negative way so to be careful what they talked about. I talked to two of my best friends about my situation which I found helpful since they both are so important to my day to day life. I, however, did not tell my boyfriend. I kind of regret this because I could of used his support but since our relationship was the only part of my life that seemed positive I did not want to ruin that by bringing negativity into it. After telling others where I was in life I begun my recovery.

-Starting small-

No way could I change everything all at once but I could change two things. The first and easiest way I could bring a little joy into my life was changing my appearance. Almost the day after I talked to my parents I got my dad to help me cut my hair. Now, we are no hair dressers but combined together my dad and I cut and colored my hair. This one small and simple event changed the way I saw myself. I could look in the mirror and see a glimpse of beauty. Something I had lost since gaining too much weight over the last year. Even with the slightly crooked hair cut and uneven hair color I could see a smile on my face that was different from my day to day smile.

My second step was to buy myself a 2013/14 agenda to write down everything I felt grateful for. This is one of the most important steps I took. Again, it was simple and small but it changed my mind set to seeing the joys and happiness of life.

I went to chapters on the way home from my parents up island and looked for an agenda that spoke to me. I needed something that would visually make my mind see love vs just something plain and boring. I found the perfect agenda from Orange Circle Studios. The cover has a picture of a typewriter with the paper saying “write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” How amazing is that.

Since December 29, 2013 I’ve been writing all the things, people, places, feelings, adventures I’ve had from the day before so now I can look back see why I live such an amazing life. I’ve made it a habit to do this every day (except for this past week while traveling :S ).

Examples of what I’ve written; Feeling pretty, feeling happy, finding light, future planning, my love, my mom, being me, dallas road, laughter, London Fogs, my dad. Almost every post has something about my boyfriend, my best friends, my feelings, and something that happened the day before.

I knew this would be something that got my positive juices flowing again. It worked! I physically had to write out everything I’ve been blessed with. Now my mind and body feels & lives these daily blessings.

-MY PASSION, MY CAREER-

Over the last 10 years of my life I’ve been working for other people. I’ve been focusing on their dreams and not mine. I do not regret any of this but I wish I saw sooner and earlier in life that I had to start living my dreams. I’ve always known what I want to do. I can feel it in my bones. I want to be an entrepreneur working around the world bringing happiness and health to everyone I meet while helping them reach their goals.

Since my down fall of 2013 I’ve now realized that my dreams have to happen. To be able to love life and live it fully I need to work hard to make my own dreams come true. So since the beginning of January 2014 I’ve been focused on starting my life in the health and wellness business all over again but this time with passion and focus.

Now I feel different about how I look at my business. I know I need to start with small and achievable goals, work hard, celebrate them and move onto the next small and achievable goal. Instead of thinking too big and not getting anywhere.

It is still a bumpy road with many people close to me who have doubts and do not understand why I want to do what I’m set out to do and because of my last couple of months I feel these doubts and fears any time people say anything negative about my choices. So my one goal is to stop listening to other people. This is my life and not theirs.

I have to change the way I think. I need to stay I know I’m going to succeed. I know I’m going to make it. Why?! This is my passion and my life. No other person can say that what I am doing is wrong or I’m living life against the rules. I am going to make my own life my own way while teaching others they can too.

I see that it is time to work hard and play harder because this is what makes me happy.

-Loving more-

The last step to my recovery is to love others more. A part of me wants to be loved and told that I am beautiful but until I love people this way I do not think I would accept it if I was told first.

Love is the most important part of my existence. Love makes me smile, makes me laugh, makes me feel truly alive. So in order to get my happiness back I’ve had to love more. I try to tell my boyfriend I love him the minute I feel it. I tell my parents almost every day. I tell my best friends. I try to show it to people who are not in my daily life but who have made an impression on me in some way or another.

I’ll write e-mails to certain people sharing why I am grateful for them. I’ll send the odd text of mushiness. I’ll make photo videos for my friends. I’ll write out a cheesy facebook status about the people in my life.

In sharing my love to others I feel happy.

The past three months I’ve seen the best in life and the worst. This is my first time truly talking about it and I hope it helps others to know that if you are down there are ways to get back up. Even when you cannot see the light it is still there. I did not go to counselling but I always promote it. I know the importance of talking about depression. I am lucky to have the most amazing parents who I trust and who I tell everything too and I had them at this moment in my life I needed them but maybe you do not feeling comfortable talking to family. I always suggest finding someone who you can open up to.

I still have more steps to happiness. I want to live life with more intention. I want my career to become my way of life. I still have room to love more then I can focus on loving me. I have to start exercising. I don’t move my body like I used to so I am on the quest to find a great gym and new forms of cardio. I want to experience new things in life so I can appreciate it more.

I’ve started with the little things to find my happiness and now I can focus on the big things.

Wishing you the best day,

All my love

L.

Other quick small tips

• Make a gratitude board on Pinterest (Post pictures of anything that makes you smile and love life more {check out my Pinterest for ideas http://www.pinterest.com/dancinglilib/})
• Take walks outside (Spend more time in fresh air)
• Coffee dates with friends (being more social)
• Change your room/home around and keep it clean (no clutter)
• Read more (The power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is my book right now)
• Take pictures (Some of my friends hate it when I become the paparazzi but now I have many pictures to look back on to visually see days when I was happy and why)
• Spend time with animals, kids, grandparents, babies (See life through others)
• Spoil yourself (buy a new shirt or stationary.. whatever makes you smile)
• Plan an exciting weekend away (Don’t let life keep you in town… go explore)
• Eat healthy and eat badly! (enjoy a coffee when you have it or yummy broccoli)
• HUG SOMEONE EVERY DAY (I am so lucky to live with two amazing huggers. Hugging feels great)

Since I have not been online and blogging I thought I would do something fun again…

Ready for it?

My top 10s:

Movies

1) Serenity
2) Little Women
3) The Avengers
4) A league of their own
5) Aliens
6) Cabin in the Woods
7) How to train a dragon
8) Harry Potter (the entire set)
9) Tank Girl
10) Fifth Element

Singers/Groups

1) The Beatles
2) Pink
3) Mumford & Sons
4) The Lumineers
5) Mother Mother
6) Salt’n’Pepa
7) Of Monsters and Men
8) Justin Timberlake
9) The Everly Brothers
10) Johnny Cash

TV shows

1) Firefly
2) The Walking Dead
3) Glee
4) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5) Games of Thrones
6) Girls
7) Sex and the City
8) Big Brother
9) Community
10) Keeping up with the Kardashians

Clothing Stores

1) Betsy Johnson
2) H&M
3) Mysi Majority (Victoria)
4) M.E.C
5) Le Chateau
6) Urban Outfitters (Vancouver)
7) LoJo (most shops on lower johnson st in Victoria)
8) Soda (Stavanger, Norway)
9) & 10)… to be discovered

Just a little more about me while I get back into the writing mood!

XO

L.

One of the most important factors to creating the life you want is loving yourself. It takes strength to grow and at some points in life I know this seems impossible.

Lots of us get stuck in one-two jobs that are unsatisfying and we believe we are going to make it in that business but they have no needs to promote you.

I know a bunch of us that get into relationships that we say this is the one. Then years down the road we realize this person has no wants to marry me or vise visa.

How about those semesters of school that we commit to then suddenly conclude that we want to change majors.

I’ve been in all of these situations. I started school to become a kindergarten teacher and switched my major to psychology. Eventually I left college because I learn better hands on and not from a textbook. I focused my attention on the retail and restaurant industry. All I will say is I have amazing gratitude to those who make this their life long jobs and do it with strong hearts. I’ve loved most of the jobs I was employed with but mainly because of the staff and customers. If you want to know my true feelings we should go for a coffee. After 8 years of those two industries I decided that was it.

On the relationship factor I’ve been blessed with the love from two amazing men. My first love was my high school sweetheart. Just thinking back on him makes me smile. We had some amazing times and some sad ones. In the end we are both living amazing lives our own way. My second one was huge. I thought he would be the one I’d spend the rest of my life with. For the both of us I am happy to say this was not the outcome. As amazing as our love was we are both extremely different people and saw our lives lived in very different ways.

Coming up on three years of being a single women I know the choices and experiences I have had made me into the strong, confident women I am today.

There were times I had to ask myself big questions:

• Why am I spending time developing somebody else’s dream?
• Why am I working hard and not getting appreciated or better promoted?
• Why am I just making minimum wage? With no signs of movement within this company.
• How do I deal with these endless fights and no growth?
• How did I get myself into a place where I am just ok?
• Why am I always dreaming of a big happy life and not doing anything to make it happen?
• Why am I staying with a person just to have their company?
• How is it that I am ok with this relationship but if my best friend was in the same situation I would be telling her/him to get out of there?
• How can I be with a person who says they love me but has no clue of the potential I have and doesn’t want to find out.

These questions I bet most of us have asked ourselves at some point in our lives. Almost all of those I have.

So how do we get past this? How do we know there is a better side?

Silly people, you’re asking the queen of seeing the glass half full with a jug right next to it ready to fill it up.

First you just need to stop living a life that isn’t yours. (If this has to do with a job please make sure you don’t just leave the job without having your dream job or financials backing you up)

Start loving yourself unconditionally and first. Do not try to make someone else happy. We are dealing with your happiness.

If you need start little. Change your routine. Do one thing you’ve been wanting to for awhile but thought you couldn’t. Like training to run a marathon. Show yourself you can do anything you put your mind to.

Be nice to yourself. Stop putting yourself down. You are an amazing person.

Learn to appreciate the world.

Have you ever thought about it? We get to live. How cool is that?! At this very moment I have the chance to fall onto the ground and play with a rottweiler who loves me unconditionally. I have the chance to walk down to the ocean and just sit. Or I could run into my living room and dance crazy to Bruno Mar’s newest cd!

LIFE IS GREAT! Look around right now. What do you see? What makes you happy right now?

*As I am writing this ‘shoop’ by salt n pepa just came on. We all know how I feel about this. Yes I’m siting here rapping. Stop judging.*

Back to the subject.

Find what works for you to help you make your dream life come true.

• Vision boards
• A new updated resume
• New clothes. Get rid of clothes that make you feel just ok
• Change your apartment/house around
• Put backgrounds on your phone or computer that show your dream life (right now my background and lock screen is the Coachella 2013 line up)
• Find a gym or fitness class that you feel comfortable in. Exercise is key.
• Hang out with that inspiring friend you have. I know you have one.
• Read read read! The self help section of the bookstore is not a scary place (sometimes highly amusing)
• Just sit down and write your list of dreams, goals, wants.
• Make a bucket list and start checking it off.

Start loving yourself. Do the things that make you happy. You deserve it. Good things always happen to those who try.

Trust yourself.

Ask your support system for help. Even if it’s just one friend and you need their support while you leave an unhappy relationship. They’ll be there for you.

Love yourself like you mean it. Live your life your way. Enjoy the fact that we all have endless opportunities to discover, grow, and learn. Your life is one big adventure go out and start living your story.