Tag: joy

I gotta say, it was a good day!

emyminzel

Do you ever have an unexpected change of plans that turn out to produce a really great day? I like to think every day I get, is a blessing, but some of them are better than others. Recently I was planning on spending a Saturday taking clients and working around the house. It was going to be a very regular day with nothing particularly exhilarating about it. That soon changed.

The Friday night before; I got a text from a friend telling me their plans had changed and wanted to know if I could accompany them to a pancake breakfast event on Saturday morning. We had discussed this before, but my friend had plans, so I decided to work. On a whim, I texted my client to see if they could come in at a slightly earlier time, and they said: “Yes, that works great for me!” Yay! It worked out and we made plans to attend the event.

Saturday morning, I woke up early, looking forward to my new plans. I had a Reiki session scheduled and energy work is always a great way to start the day! You simply cannot offer energy healing without feeling healed yourself. It raised my vibes and my spirit which helped set my mood for the day. My friend picked me up and we got to the DFL breakfast event in time to see another candidate friend speaking. I also had the chance to catch up with friends I had not seen in months. I love that!

The food was good, the company was great and, for the first time in a long time, I got in front of a crowd and spoke without shaking in my shoes. I spoke from my heart with confidence about my experience running as a Candidate and if I would run for State Representative again. In all honesty, I disclosed that I was not sure if I wanted too. So, the answer was a firm. “I don’t know. But if I do, I will take what I learned and not hold back one bit. I would do my best to leave it all out on the field.”

Simple as sounds, I felt like I had my full confidence back and it was nice to just be me. Growing faith in myself and my voice was a byproduct of running in an election that was scary and completely out of my comfort zone. Looking back, it was a wonderful life lesson and growing opportunity that was good for me. I am enjoying the feeling of truly believing in myself.

After the brunch, I got home to find my husband had cleaned the house! What a wonderful surprise! We were expecting our good friends Stacy and Marty for a visit that evening, so I was thankful for his help. This left me time to rest a little bit, eat lunch, and do my Nabhi Kriya Kundalini Yoga set before they got here.

When Stacy arrived, I had forgotten that she and Marty had decided to donate their old car to me that afternoon! She pulled up in my ‘new to me’ car and gave me the keys. How exciting! We had been running as a one car family, after I crashed my truck this past winter. I am super thankful for the generosity of my friends. I just needed to put some new tires on it and do some other maintenance. And now I have my freedom back and a way to get my kayak to the water this summer!

The evening continued with yummy dinner and lively conversations with our dear friends. Simply happy days like these do not come around as often as we’d like. Lately it seems that there is always something... so I wanted to write about this experience, to remember and cherish the day. Or maybe I feel moved to remind you to notice the small blessings in our every day regular lives? I feel blessed and thankful for this day of unexpected joyful experiences.

I wish for you to have lots of these ordinary yet extraordinarily great days full of blessings and joy too.

Sending love and luck your way,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

https://emyminzel.com

@EmyMinzel

www.AdventurewithEmyandStacy.com

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/BWCAdventureSisters

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

https://stacycrep.com

 

Finding a balance ~

emyminzel

Finding a few small steps towards finding balance ~

Do you ever have a hard time keeping balance in your life? I think most people do at various times. I know some days I do much better than other days but giving and receiving are part of how the world works. It’s an energetic exchange that applies to the natural world and what you give out should be coming back to you. Very similar to how we go to work; then we get a paycheck. Most of us would not go to work every day if we were not getting something of value in return, right?

I’ll give you an example; Stacy and I have decided to dedicate ourselves to a 40-day Nabhi Kriya Kundalini Yoga practice as part of our self-healing journey. It is a spiritual and physical challenge to make our well-being a priority and it also needs to be done every single day, for 40 days. Some days we breeze through easy peasy. Other days we put it off until the last minute. Last Friday I squeaked it in just before midnight!

As part of this Yoga routine, they give you about a 4-minute rest period call Savasana/Corse pose. I have noticed, that when I am super busy with life things, I get a bit antsy when laying there. Thinking. “okay. Is this part over yet? I have things to do.” The routine gives you this time to rest and reflect as it is part of the spiritual teaching and holds a significant purpose; that is why they put it in the practice.

Nabhi Kriya is almost like an aerobic exercise and feels like a workout. I truly enjoy how it makes me feel and the energy it gives me. But I seem to have this urge to deny myself the ‘resting’ part of the practice, when I have really earned it! I literally feel my brain wanting to reject receiving what it is my body/mind/spirit needs, after this physical practice and for what?!

This is not the natural way of the world. To give and to receive in perfect balance is the way it is supposed to work. I am not doing myself any favors by thinking I don’t have the time or deserve the rest my body needs after this workout. I make myself lay and finish the Savasana, clearly, I realize I must train my brain to allow myself to relax.

This is probably why lots of people think they are not ‘good’ at meditating. It’s our overactive minds keeping us from peace. It is our job to control our thoughts and actions. If we train ourselves to exercise every day for 40 days, we sure should be able to meditate or stay in a state of relaxation for 5 minutes a day!

Doing this practice has led to a huge self-realization that I have not been allowing myself to receive the rest/relaxation/good feelings, that I know in my heart, I have ‘earned’ after doing the work! Do you know how this hidden habit I formed, can block my progress in everyday life?! Holy moly kids! This is a breakthrough discovery!

The realization that I do not easily allow myself to receive, has led me to act on that imbalance in all areas of my life. There is a mantra I like to use that serves as a reminder for my brain. “I take in life in perfect balance.” It is a verbal queue to let me allow myself to give and receive what it is I need.

It may even be a bit of human nature to martyr. That is because it is easier to give than receive for some people. When we see people who live like this, it’s easy to see it is not a healthy way to live. You also must work on filling your own cup.

We are not made to give and give until there is nothing left. It’s not the way the universe is supposed to work! There are plenty of us who have this habit and we don’t even see it. Now that my eyes have been opened, I will give you an example of how I made steps to correct it.

Just this weekend we had plans to have Stacy and Marty come over to play cards and have dinner. Stacy and I usually just make appetizers and don’t make a fuss about food for the evenings we gather to do this, just keep things simple. However, this weekend I wanted to make dinner for them because it was Marty’s birthday and I wanted to do something kind for my friends.

When I told Stacy what I was planning she said. “You don’t have to do that!”

I said. “I know! But cooking is how I show love, so please let me!” She obliged and I was thankful for her allowing me to share love with my dear friends.

It turned out that Marty came down with the stomach bug and they could not come for cards and dinner. “Bummer!” but totally understandable. I was thankful they didn’t come and share it! Yet, I had made plans to make cheesecake since it was a special birthday occasion. I found myself thinking, “Well, I don’t need to make this cheesecake, do I?”

Then I thought on it some more… I was denying myself and my husband the desert just because we weren’t having company? This is a silly way to think! We deserve dessert too, don’t you think? (Heck ya!)

So, I made the cheesecake and the dinner we had intended. Guess what?! They were both delicious! There was no need to deny myself after the work of shopping, cooking, cleaning and preparing throughout the day. Which is exactly what I normally would have done, if I had not recognized my own behavior because of this Nahbi Kriya practice!

It is funny how the Universe puts lessons inside of lessons for me. I have enjoyed learning my lessons through Joy and sharing them with others in hopes of helping them too! Here are some other ways I will work on allowing myself to give and receive, in balance, as it should be.

  1. When I purchase new clothes or shoes; I will promise myself to donate or discard the same number of items from my wardrobe that I no longer like or wear.
  2. When I am thanked or praised by another I will say ‘thank you’ instead of dismissing the compliment. I will allow myself to receive kindness instead of brushing it off. I will freely give praise and kindness to others as well.
  3. When I have an abundance of something, I will share it with others. I will allow others to share their abundance with me! This usually happens regularly with friends that garden and is a joyous experience for all involved!
  4. In a bigger picture kind of way, I am going to make a big effort to donate blood once a month. If I want a good life, wouldn’t it be a cool way to pay it forward by donating blood that gives life?! I like to think so.
  5. After a work week, I will do better at scheduling time to play and relax on the weekends; doing things that bring me joy. I tend to want to use the weekend time to ‘get things done’ instead of recuperating for the next week to come. I will schedule time and make plans to live, laugh and love! Plus, there is a reason we call Sunday, the day of rest!

There are lots of ways to practice giving and receiving and some of us are better at one than the other. Yet it is still very important to find balance, for all of us, for a healthy mind, body, spirit life!

What are the habits and intentions you use to bring balance into your life? I’d love to hear your suggestions. They may help more people than you know!

Wishing you the magical soulful healing you need right now to be the best you can be.

With love,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

https://emyminzel.com

@EmyMinzel

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/BWCAdventureSisters

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

https://stacycrep.com

 

Oh Joy! Oh joy! Oh joy!

emyminzel

 

When Stacy and I decided to go on our Retreat, we both had our own intentions for the weekend. Mine was to hold the feelings of happiness and the vibrations of joy in my body and mind for extended periods of time. The point of the exercise was to get comfortable with higher vibrations. I had been use to living in a political climate that seemed to be a bit lower in frequency and happiness was becoming a fleeting weird feeling, as of lately and I was not okay with that!

It was clear to me that I had some work to do! I needed to take responsibility for the energy I was bringing to my mind/body/spirit, the world and in my writing. This concerned me so greatly that I made the intention to make it a daily practice of holding myself accountable for the quality of my vibrations. I was determined to get comfortable with being joyful and content. Just like any other skill, if I want to be good at it, I knew I must practice.

The first morning we woke up on the boat, the sun was rising slowly, and the birds were singing as the water was rocking us gently. We observed nature’s beauty in our surroundings. I gave thanks to the Higher Power for the blessing to have a time out of the Minnesota winter and this helped to encourage my peace of mind. It was proving to be easy to be joyful just sitting on a boat, watching the morning come alive with my coffee as Stacy and I sat in silence. I smiled at the day before me, feeling up to the challenge of staying happy all day.

We were doing our best to be silent, to encourage ourselves to go within and seek the guidance we were looking for. It did help to encourage me to stand in my own truth. I found it was very liberating to not have to negotiate my feelings or compromise my state of mind; just for the sake of conversation. Then again, I also came to realize I process my feelings and come to a deeper understanding of my deep thoughts, when I can communicate and look for a different point of view. Sometimes we don’t see, what is plain as day to your loved ones.

As I sat there for hours, just watching nature and jotting down my thoughts in my notebook, I found I was increasingly joyful. I sat there smiling to myself, just for the joy of if it and because I could. If I could choose to be joyful just because, then I should be able to choose joy at any moment. Right?! Of course, you and I both know that isn’t always true. Our emotions can be very powerful, but the thing is, we can choose those too. We can choose to acknowledge the thoughts they bring us and then decide if they are true or just our subconscious bringing up old fears or worries.

When I give myself time to dig deeper into my reactions, I begin to understand. Stacy would help me see that my anger, was most times, just my initial reaction to being displeased. I don’t want to get worked up over things I cannot control, like politics. I am truly a lover and not a fighter. Because of this I must find a way to make a difference in the world that allows me to be love; not war. I also find myself wondering if “I am able to be this person if I pursue a political path?”

I know it was always up to me to bring light and joy to the room with me, when I walk in. I get to choose to be happy and share joy. Yet I worried about what others might think and put pressure on myself, that wasn’t necessary, when I was a candidate. This is a thing lots of people do, I suppose, when facing unfamiliar experiences. We tend make things worse, than they truly are, just because we fear the worst instead of expecting the best.

This was the whole point of my ‘holding happiness’ exercise! I want to retrain my brain to expect the best. To look for the joy in my life, every day. I am going to remind myself that it “is” safe to be happy. I am worthy of being happy and I have every reason to be happy. So I would like to start enjoying it! I have been blessed to see my life, in a different light, after a joyous and crazy experience that kept me away from what truly matters to me. I can finally see the blessings in my extraordinary yet ordinary life and feel the joy it truly brings.

Life gives you lessons all the time if you are able to see them. I can see that I have a choice now and I choose joy. Every day I am doing my best to be joy, to be love and to be the best me. I don’t have to make it harder than it is. All I must do is make a choice to be grateful and joy will follow. I don’t have to be on a boat and in Florida to be joyous! I realize, all I must do, is consciously let joy in!

To do this, I have started a new practice. Every morning before I get up, I give thanks and I wait until I find the vibration of joy. I stay there until I feel it and then I hold it and send it out into the world before I can get out of bed. Affirmations that help me get into this vibration are “I am love. I am joy. I am light.” I also think of who I love and even use cuddling my dogs, to help me feel those good vibes!

I am not a morning person, but this practice has helped me embrace the start of the day a bit better. It is basically a short, purposely powerful meditation; that helps start my day with love and joy. Assisting me to be the best me I can be as soon as my feet hit the floor. It has been working wonders. I hope you try it!

I am so thankful for the blessing of our short Adventure Sister Retreat. Stacy and I always have such powerfully healing experiences when we get to spend extra time together. Thanks to our visits and going within, I can see where I needed the help. We are truly soul sisters helping each other grow. I am blessed to have such a dear friend that loves me just as I am.

I am a perfectly imperfect practitioner of joy!

Oh, joy!

Wishing you an abundance of blessings and joy!

Love to you all Adventurers!

With love,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

https://emyminzel.com

@EmyMinzel

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/BWCAdventureSisters

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

https://stacycrep.com

  • Photo taken in Cassadaga, Florida

Are you scared to be happy?

emyminzel

No, it’s not a trick question. I am honestly wondering if I am the only one with this fear or not? I was standing in the kitchen this afternoon. I just had a couple of clients. I blew off the snow in the driveway and now I am jamming out in the kitchen to Bruno Mars and cooking dinner. I have had a most lovely regular Tuesday that I have had in a while.

As I stand, stirring dinner on the stove top, singing to the dogs and dancing a bit. I realized just how genuinely happy I was feeling! Isn’t that wonderful?

Except, just as quickly as I recognized this feeling of joy, I was like “Oh this is scary. I better not get to happy, I might jinx myself.” Then as I began to recognize this joy sabotaging behavior, I had just put myself through, I stopped. Thinking to myself some more. “What the heck am I doing?! No. I choose to take this joy back, right this minute.” So, I did. I allowed myself to be really gosh darn happy as I cooked and danced.

Then I thought to myself. “Am I the only person who does this? How many of us sabotage our own joy out of fear of being let down? What IF bad news comes later? That’s life. For this exact moment in time, it is okay to enjoy your life!” I am thankful that I noticed this behavior as I could have easily slipped into wondering thoughts of ‘what ifs’ instead of appreciating the moment of joy I had been blessed with.

It’s not like I don’t have any problems, but at this moment, I don’t have anything ‘bad enough’ to derail my well-deserved peace. It was almost as if this feeling of joy was uncomfortable! I never have thought of myself as an unhappy person. I like to stay positive. Yet I have not been allowing myself to truly feel free of worry or concern for some reason or other!

It’s as if I had been so stressed out that I just accepted this thinking as my way of life and “this is just how I feel now.” When my moment of happiness came out, my inner worry wart was quick to smashed it like a mosquito that had just disturbed my summer hammock nap.

I want to know, does this happen to you too?

Now that I have seen this peculiar behavior, I fully intend to change it for the better. This is what they mean by living in the now. Now just happens to be a perfectly lovely ordinary day in which all is okay in my world. I am so thankful for this blessing and the relief that I feel when I allow this joy to flood into my soul.

This big ol’ full moon must have allowed me to release the block/barrier I didn’t see that I had. I can see now that it was preventing me from truly allowing joy into my life. I am thankful for the opportunity to see so clearly and now this should allow me to grow in a positive way. As an energy worker I know that if you are scared to allow joy in, why would it show up for you?

I must not allow myself to associate happiness and joy with and uncomfortable feeling of panic! (Insert high five to my face… Duh.) But like they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I am hoping to allow my happiness to flow so large that it becomes contagious to everyone I encounter.

Let’s try an experiment together, shall we? Just how long can you and I hold on to the feeling of joy and happiness? How many hours will we allow ourselves the indulgence? Do me a favor and do not be scared that your joy may shine in some one’s eyes. If they are your friends and love you; they will be happy for your happiness.  Also, they may just be scared to be happy too?!

I love it when life sends me lessons through joy!

Please post and share your smile with the Adventure Sisters in the comments down below! We would love to see our comment section full of joy today!

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings with no strings attached!

Love to you all Adventurer’s!

With love,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

https://emyminzel.com

@EmyMinzel

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/BWCAdventureSisters

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

https://stacycrep.com

 

Joys of Sisterhood!

emyminzel

Adventure Sister Stacy and I went camping with our husbands last weekend at Tettegouche State Park in Silver Bay Minnesota. It was a spectacular park with lots of hiking and stunning waterfalls of the Baptism River that led out into Lake Superior. We were only there for a very short weekend, but it seemed to be the get away that I needed to reset. You know, like an iPhone… power down for a bit and restart so I work on all cylinders instead of just some.

I needed to get out and reconnect with nature. I put my feet in the water, my mind back into the present, and gave my spirit some time to play. My husband and I got to the cozy campsite a few hours earlier than Stacy and Marty. We had time to set up the tent and hit the trail for a hike and to see the water falls. Jason was a little intimidated by the swinging bridge, but he made it over to the other side. I was very proud of him for pushing past his fear of heights, so we could be rewarded with waterfalls.

The next day we all hiked together, the park was scenic and vast, the steps were handier than BWCA portage trails but brutal in their own way. Luckily the water views and opportunities to swim made up for the stair master level 17 drill we embarked on. I think we all had over 10,000 steps in before early afternoon. I wasn’t expecting all the flights of stairs, but I believe they were totally worth the effort!

After our group hike we had decided to go back to camp and eat lunch. There was a great beach at the mouth of the Baptism river that led directly into Lake Superior. I wanted badly to swim and float on this 83-degree day and Stacy was up for some fun too. Marty drove Stacy and I to the beach while my husband who is not much of a swimmer decided he would be just fine enjoying some quiet time while we all went for a dip. We got to the beach that was made of rocks not sand, yet you would sink in them like it was quicksand in the right spot.

There was a sandbar (made of rocks) that reached like a finger of the earth just for the purpose of creating a pool before the river met the vastness of the Great Lake. All three of us wasted no time getting into the water. It was warmer than we thought it would be if we kept the current from sweeping us into the big water the temperature stayed perfect for this Minnesota girl. We know this because Stacy and I had let the current take us until it got so strong that I got a little scared and beelined for the shore and I would be able to put my feet back down.

We swam back and teased Marty about showing up to the beach with two women. All of us floated together having a great time while watched a young boy try to build up the courage to jump from a rock ledge that many others before had just done. In the end he did not jump, his fear got the best of him even though his older sister had jumped three times before. This makes me wonder about how many times I did not do something I really wanted to do because of my fear?

We swam for an hour or so then walked over to the other side of the rocky peninsula, so we could put our feet into Lake Superior. Even though the two waters were connected just yards away the large lake was much colder and seemed to have a fierceness about it. I walked in on the Lake Superior side and the rocks almost swallowed my legs up to my knees. The water was much cooler, and the energy of it was much different. It was a very cool experience to see how quickly Mother Nature can change her power.

I was in my happy place. I am a water baby. Always have been, always will be. Stacy also loves the water and as we turned to leave Stacy and I snapped a picture of us to document the moment. We didn’t check to make sure it was a good picture. We just took it quickly and kept on our path back to the campsite up more flights of stairs. When we got back to camp, I posted it to our BWCAdentureSisters Facebook page to let our readers know we were out adventuring together. It had been months since Stacy and I got together, and adventuring is one of our favorite things to do. We were both energized and very ‘here and now’ the moment the picture was taken. I believe it captured the peak of our happiness during that excursion.

I also believe that beauty comes from being happy. You don’t have to be traditionally beautiful to be perceived as pretty when joy radiates from your whole being and that is what the camera captured. Stacy and I are regular women, we have flaws, grey hairs, extra pounds, cellulite and everything else that comes with being forty-something and at that moment we did not give a darn at all, we were happy. Plain and simple.

Yesterday a Facebook fan had commented on our photo. She said, “You two are beautiful!”

It made my heart sing, not because I wanted to be perceived as pretty but because I knew that this woman could see our joy. It is not easy to find joy in our everyday lives sometimes. That’s why it is imperative to make time to do the things you love. I live in Minnesota, there are approximately 3 months of the year in which you can go swimming for any amount of time. Too soon it’s too cold, too late and dog days take over the lakes with algae blooms and other undesirable effects that keep us out of the water.

We made time to do what we love, and we were rewarded mind, body and spirit including a picture to prove it.

Thank you to our Facebook friend Pam for the nice compliment. I was having a pretty trying Wednesday after a great weekend escape, your compliment made my day. It made me feel like there is still good people who are kind, caring and most of all women who do not have to compete, women who lift others up, encourage other women for being authentic, without a beauty competition. It is okay for women to be kind and supportive of each other, we should encourage each other’s strengths, help each other on our paths, because we are intrinsically connected.

I think of the connection that Stacy and I have, and I am thankful for a different kind of sisterhood I share with other women I adore, the kind you choose. Neither of us have been blessed with a blood related sister but we seem to have found each other again in this lifetime. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t agree on everything and we have our moments of agreeing to disagree but that does not mean that for one second, I think she won’t have my back or I hers.

We seem to have embraced each other warts and all. She knows I am far from perfect and I know she is as human as person can get. I also still believe she is magical in her own way and I love that she pulls magic and courage out of me that I didn’t know I had. Sisterhood can be empowering if you let it! This picture personifies our joy on this day. Joy in just being us! No make-up, photo shop, or special effects can produce a photo that encompass happiness, it all comes from the inside.

Our goal as the Adventure Sisters is to pull this joy out of other women. To encourage others to be authentic as you can be while doing your best to find joys in your own lives. We do this by sharing how we do it ourselves. Feel free to share your own picture that shows you radiating joy doing what you love! It could be loving your babies, grandbabies, or fur babies. Hiking, swimming, or anything that makes your heart sing. We would love to see it!

Thank you for reading our blogs, thank you for the continued encouragement and support of our joint but separate journeys of the Adventure Sisters! We appreciate you.

Wishing you an abundance of joyful blessings,

Emy Minzel ~ Adventure Sister

https://emyminzel.com

@emyminzel

Follow the Adventure Sisters on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/BWCAdventureSisters

Stacy Crep ~ Adventure Sister

https://stacycrep.com