Uncategorized

What if?!

Emy Minzel

What if’s can be exciting, concerning, scary or life changing. Imagining the future, can be extremely exciting or intimidating depending on how my emotions are at that moment. I have been thinking about where I am putting my effort and energy. I am putting in a great deal of time, energy and creativity into moving forward to the future I hope to create. That feels exciting!

I would love to have a chance to facilitate change in my community as the Representative for my district. I love my community and the people who’ve created it. I love how everyone I meet truly cares about each other and bettering our rural way of life.

The books Stacy and I are writing have been a big part of our lives for the past several years. We have invested a large chunk time pursing the dream of helping others. It took time to define the purpose of the message we wanted to convey. We did it by supporting each other and fostering strong relationships not only with each other but in all our relationships.

We want the adventurous philosophy to be defined as nurturing self-love. By learning to love ourselves as we are, leveling up, and encouraging others to be authentic while accepting everyone for who they are too. We promote the ideas of learning to love others because of our differences, not in of spite them.

We are all different for a reason, celebrating uniqueness helps others believe in themselves. When you believe in yourself, you believe you can do things others may not be able too. When people are encouraged and supported, they try small things to better life, this benefits everyone around you.

These small acts of bravery, kindness, and love multiplied by everyone in the world could and would make the world a better place for all of us. I know that even just a little effort helps the world be a better place.

Yet when my imagination gets going, I think what if?! What if I do all this work, invest all this time, money and energy into pursuing my dreams and… I end up being exactly where I started this time next year? What if we don’t end up where we thought we would? Will I be able to handle disappointment if I fail?

Yes. I will.

What I know is at this point in my life, is that it is scarier for me not to try to succeed doing what I love, then to worry about failing. I have this opportunity to reach for the stars while being brave enough to be authentically me. Choosing to level up by doing more than I thought I could.

I know I must accept the outcome as it is, not how I thought it would look. The thing about life is you don’t know how it will look when you get where you are going. Then when you are finally ‘there’ most of the time you are already reaching for something else.

Is this the point in my story where I talk myself out of the negative what if’s? Is this when I give myself the advice I would give to a friend and say,

“This! This is where you are supposed to enjoy the moment. Enjoy today as it is! Choose to really take in the excitement and emotions of how it feels today. What if this is part of the journey too? What if you make it okay to be terrified, frustrated and excited all at the same time? What if you started to take those awkward baby steps in faith. Knowing you are being divinely guided in the direction of your dreams. What if that’s all you have to do?”

The uncertainness of my future concerns me. Most days I talk myself into believing I will reach these goals. I tell myself I am emotionally strong, hardworking, kind and big-hearted woman that can do anything I put my mind to.

On the days when I don’t see any progress, reward or feel unsupported, those days feel very different. That’s when the negative what if’s sneak in. Today I won’t allow my active imagination to scramble the energy of my big, beautiful dreams of a healthy happy life, community and world.  The Universe is listening to my vibration, I know it’s best to keep my thoughts positive.

What if I do succeed? What if I do win the election? What if we do get a publishing contract? What if I get to be a writer for real?! What if I get the chance to be the change I wish to see in the world? What if my dreams come true?

What will I do with my life then? Would I be starting two new very different careers that could truly having a direct impact on the world around me. Holy Moly…. What if?!

What if I get to live the life of my dreams? Doing exactly what I like to do, by just being authentically me?! That would be exactly what an adventurous soul like me would do. So why not believe that version instead? I think I will.

And so, it is.

Wishing you an abundance of love and blessings,

Emy Minzel ~

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel

Uncategorized

We have already won

Emy Minzel

Tomorrow my friend and I will find out if we win a publishing contest. We have been so busy with other parts of our lives that we haven’t had time to worry or concern ourselves too deeply in the outcome. Although we both sincerely really want to win this contest, we are detached from fixating on the win.

Success does not rest on winning a contest. I believe success lies within the people we help, the readers who enjoy our work and get joy from our message. When we started our joint literary adventure, we were very clear with each other that we truly wanted to help others find joy in their lives.  We have both been through our share of tough times and we wanted to share with others how we chose to cope, heal, and rise above to make it through to today.

The community we build on acceptance of being authentically you, doing our best to level up in our lives by being better and doing better, while seeking joy in our lives every day, even the crap days, is exactly what we wanted to create.

We wanted to create a non-judgmental community of authentic, great, and magical in their own way kind of people, that are willing to accept and cherish others for their differences. To create and celebrate everyone’s uniqueness. We celebrate eccentric and unconventional people who do what they can to truly stay authentic to themselves while being the best person they can be.

When deciding to write these books of lessons, we kept in mind that most people at the core of their beings are good. Knowing that even those with the best of intentions make mistakes in their lives, including ourselves. We believe that in general, most people are doing the best that they can in the time and space they are given when on the journey of life.

This gave us strength to be brave enough and support each other while spilling our guts, our dreams, our fears and our feelings out on to the pages of our books. We try to keep our blogs positive because we know that the world is bursting with stories of the opposite. While being authentic and honest that life isn’t always joyful but how I choose to handle myself during those times it is what matters most.

We are fully aware and intentional of the energy we send out into the world with our words. This makes me try to be accountable and hold myself to the standard of joy, love, and kindness. I my best to be a light in the dark.

I see the good in the world because I am looking for it. If I can’t find it, I can create joy myself. I don’t need music to dance, when I feel the beat of my own rhythm inside. I can choose to radiate with joy because that is what I need to feel in my own life.

We understand that winning a contest would indeed be exciting and joyous for us both. We also believe that life will support us on the path to our highest and greatest good. No matter where it leads or how it looks.

If we win, we will be ecstatic and overwhelmed with thankfulness! If we do not, we will not be discouraged. We will keep on, keeping on. That is part of the adventure too. Together we have learned to trust life to bring us exactly where we need to be.

This experience has been a giant blessing gift wrapped in well-earned wisdom, and we get to use on all paths of our journey.

This is the magical stuff of life. Starting out in the deep forest of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. “Two hippie chicks just looking for enlightenment one portage at a time.” has led us to situations in our lives we would have never even imagined.

I believe we will succeed; it may not look like what we think, but I know that no matter what… it’s going to be fabulous, because we will make is so!

Thank you for reading my words while I reach for the stars. I hope that you will learn from our wins, our losses and enjoy our unique views on the world around us. I cannot wait to share the next steps of my adventures with you.

Sending you love, luck and most of all JOY!

Wishing you an abundance of love and blessings,

Emy Minzel ~

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel

 

Uncategorized

Gus n’ me

Emy Minzel

When I say “I am an animal lover.” I mean I love all animals. Even the rodent kind, the crawly kind or big and scary kind. I believe all life is sentient, even and especially the trees, water and plants. I wasn’t always like this, but I am now and there is no turning back.

Often a champion for animal rights and the humane treatment of all animals. My favorite kind of animals are dogs. I love them like crazy, and most of the time I like them more than people.

Dogs are soulful companions that know instinctively if you are mad, sad, happy or just need a cuddle. They live in the moment, and they love without judgment or expectations. It only takes about 30 seconds for me to fall in love with most every furry four-legged friend I meet. It’s easy make friends with a dog, don’t you think?!

I have been blessed enough to have companionship of my bulldog Gus for over 12 years. I tell everyone who has the pleasure of meeting him, that he is my best friend. I even tell my husband that Gus and I are 100%, without a doubt, in love. Gus is kind of a meat head, not super friendly to all dogs, and before he grew old, he had a tendency to run away and chase cars, which scared the crap out of us at the same time.

My husband sees how upset I would get after these events and say that Gus is like a bad boyfriend that I keep coming back to! We laugh about this because I just cannot help but love my Gus for all that he is, we have a bond, and soul connection.

He’s a lover, fighter, cuddle bug, sensitive badass, we call him the ‘fun police’ for his intolerance of shenanigans. He is full of character all wrapped up in an adorable mean muggin’ furry faced package.

Yes, Gus and me, we are in love. I will take his side and have his back until his last breath. He is my best friend. I am his. I cannot compare human love to dog mom kind of love. It is special in its own way. Dog moms know exactly what I am talking about.

Puppy love is very much like the love I feel for my own child, just a little different because he doesn’t get sassy ya know?! However, now that I say that…. I feel it’s not true. He does sass back, will give me his face of judgement and joy. Because there is so much love between us, I can tell the difference in his moods, his thoughts and feelings. He is very much a sentient soul. I sincerely consider him my friend.

I recently saw on Facebook that an acquaintance of mine lost her dog just last night. This sweet woman is very much into the dog rescue world and is a rescue rock star for my favorite local rescue organization. Her best friend got out of the house and they could not find her for a whole day and when they did it was too late. Her fur friend was gone, passed over the rainbow bridge to wait for her there.

My heart breaks for her, I know how in love she was with her best fur friend and I know she is grieving the loss tremendously. Not everyone is a dog person, but the ones that are know how significant the love you share with your dog can be. I have lost very special dogs in my life, and I know it doesn’t matter how they go, it matters that they are gone. Your friend is just gone, taking a large chunk of your heart with them.

I will do it again. I will choose to fall in love with more furry friends throughout the rest of my lifetime. After every heartbreak I know the pain of loss is healed by giving more love. It takes time to heal from loss, not just the human loss but any being that touches your soul and seems to always take that part of your heart with them when they pass.

Loss of loved ones makes me know for sure that our soul, our energy, our love, is fluid and moving. I know because I feel like parts of my heart is up in heaven waiting for the rest of me when I get there.

Today I will count my blessings, give extra love to all my family and friends, especially my furry friends.

Wishing you an abundance of love and blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ I am love.

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel

*photo credit Franny Larson

Uncategorized

Flawed perfectionist

Emy Minzel

One week into this 90-day meditation challenge, and I am not failing. Though I am not doing as well as I hoped either. I am doing things to manage my stress in healthier ways then I was a week ago. I’m not meditating like a monk yet…

Do I really think it would be possible to learn to mediate like a monk in a week? Why do I set such unrealistic goals for myself? I mean, Monks dedicate their lives to live in spiritual practice, and I seemed to have thought I could master it in 90 days or less… (insert eye roll here.)

This is not unusual behavior for me, yet when I choose to let the world know what I am up to; like weekly reporting on how I am progressing on the meditation challenge it becomes clear. Things that I didn’t see, are blatant and suddenly coming into my perception.

Hello, my name is Emy and I am a flawed perfectionist. I don’t like being so particular all the time, it makes my life more difficult than it has to be!

Today I had a meeting with a wonderful woman I met on the campaign trail. It was about a thirty-minute drive to meet her, so I took the opportunity to turn the radio off and not meditate of course but relaxed and focus on my breath work. I OM’d down the road for fifteen minutes.

It worked, I felt calm when I got the meeting, and we had lovely conversations. Today is not a stressful day. It was very nice actually, yet as I write to report back about my meditation experience, I feel like I could have done better. Not because I am stressed but because I missed a day or two over Mother’s Day weekend.

I had company and a fun filled weekend that didn’t leave much time to meditate. I did still take a few minutes before I got out of bed in the morning to gather my thoughts and say thanks for the day ahead. This really does help me adjust my attitude for the whole day.

Yet I am having trouble taking the time for myself to ‘check out’ relax, or step outside to clear my mind. Behaviors that were cloudy now become clear. Now that I know I like to clear my thoughts while moving my body or being outdoors I can move forward with making sure I schedule these things in my day.

This realization that I don’t make time for myself, will change how I will be implementing my plan going forward into the second week of the meditation challenge. I am choosing to schedule time and take it. I will make sure I put it at a specific time that will work the best for me on that particular day, so I am more inclined to achieve my goal.

One day it maybe morning the other may be afternoon or evening. There is no right or wrong time or way to take a few minutes to clear my mind, relax my body and check in with my soul. I will release the thought of perfecting meditation or how I think it looks and just do what feels right for me.

I do feel less stressed then when I started, and that’s a good thing. No need to be perfect at all. Just present and aware of what I am doing and how I am doing it.

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel

 

Uncategorized

Enjoy Life!

Emy Minzel

This past weekend has been full of family, friends and love. My mom came to stay for a visit and we had my neighbor over for dinner. The next day we went out with my best friend of 29 years to play bingo on her birthday. Today is Mother’s Day, I woke up to the dishes done and the animals all fed because my daughter took care of it for me.

My mom and I are going to go flower shopping this afternoon, which is a tradition we both enjoy very much. I love it when life sends me a whole weekend full of blessings. It was busting with love and friendship all jam packed with laughs and memory making.

Sometimes it’s okay to leave chores unfinished, it is okay to leave the to do list sit unchecked for one more day. The good stuff of life comes when it is here, and we must seize the opportunity to enjoy it or it will pass without us.

There are many days that seem to all look the same, going to work, coming home, doing the same chores year after year, week after week and day after day. If we don’t grab the special times and enjoy them thoroughly they will pass, leaving us with a life of work and chores! No, thanks.

This is not the kind of life I have any interest in creating for myself or my family. When my mom is visiting I like to enjoy our time. I choose not to worry about the stuff that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of life. Once in a while we need to remind ourselves what is truly important.

P.s. it is not work, and it’s not chores or your to do list. These things are just things. I have learned people are important, connection is important, making my relationships and fostering more love and enjoyment in my life, this is what is important.

Everyone around you will benefit from participating in life to the fullest. I have found when I am “here and now” that it helps my spirit feel connected with those I am spending time with. I have a nurturing soul that cherishes connection and feeling like I am doing my part in creating my life experience for the better.

Taking pleasure in life’s small moments like sharing morning coffee with my mom and daughter, oh man… This is the stuff makes my heart smile.

I know we will look at the pretty flowering plants that my mom and I pick out, we will see them all summer long and as months go by we will remember our day together. I will remember that this weekend she won BINGO two times in a row! I will remember time spent with my longest time friend on her birthday.

I will remember my daughter being her super sweet self. How she took care of the small stuff this weekend, that would bug me if left undone. She knows this about me, I like things just so, and I appreciate her effort to help me very much. I feel loved when she shows she cares in these small but meaningful ways.

I will remember roaring laughter at the kitchen table with my mom, daughter and neighbor. It was as if the house was rumbling with much needed girl time therapy, deepening relationships, making soul connections.

I will remember that this whole weekend, because I chose to be present, invested and here. All in, all weekend.

Where are you today? Are you thinking of your to-do list ? If so, make sure you write, ENJOY LIFE right on top of that list!

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ 

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel