For the first time in months I was able to keep up with my husband while doing farm work yesterday. The energy everyone told me would come has finally arrived and I'm SO happy... after feeling like a walking hangover for the last few months, this break is much appreciated.We took advantage of a weekend without plans or running around and decided to finish the greenhouse. It's not huge (it's 10 feet x 30 feet) but it's big enough for us to keep ourselves in tomatoes, cucumbers and basil for the summer and greens in the winter.
Read MoreWeather Woes /
This year it feels like summer is reluctant to come. Some days the sun comes out and I happily start packing away my worn out sweaters, only to retrieve them from their boxes the following day. Every morning begins gray and dull like Winter in Pennsylvania but minus the central heating. Every night I hope for sun because man, I am ready for it.
Read MoreSuerte /
The pregnancy wasn't a surprise but I think that even when you're trying it takes awhile for the reality of the situation to sink in. Like, we're actually going to be responsible for another human being in 5 short months. Someone I can't just put out on the porch when they are misbehaving. It's completely surreal and I imagine it will be until he or she is actually here with us. We keep talking about how lucky our kid will be too; having two passports and so many different possibilities as a bilingual (I hope) Chilean-American growing up in the beachy countryside.Most of all I'm just trying to enjoy this time in my life, even when that entails falling asleep at 9:00 and accomplishing only one of the 15 things on my to-do list for the day.
Read MoreA Week Off /
As I sit here stuffed to the brim with barbecued goodness, I am truly excited to finally have a minute to write a quick post. Chile is in the throes of its 'Fiestas Patrias' (remember last year?) so we are all gearing up for an entire week off (!) to eat assorted meat products and drink red wine until we can no longer move. It's all very festive. And man, are we in need of a break! We both took full class loads this semester so we could complete some way overdue house projects and the schedules have us running ourselves a little ragged.
Read MoreAn act of self love; learning to set healthy boundaries /
selflove
I'm so excited to share this thoughtful post on such an important subject, written by my good friend Natalie of Second Nature Co.! Enjoy!
As Jennifer Kass [
] says, 'the root of all struggle is fear'. When we don't set healthy boundaries, we end up feeling exhausted and consumed with anxiety and fear. Conflict enters our world and we forget to take care of ourselves.
Relationships also become unhealthy when we act from a place of fear, rather than love. Learning to set healthy boundaries offers a great opportunity for us to strengthen our capacity to love ourselves and to release our fear. Because after all, the way we treat ourselves is the strongest indicator of how successful we're going to be at making changes in our lives and how happy and healthy we will be.
Signs that you need to set some boundaries.
1) You have difficulty saying 'no' to others.
2) You do things out of guilt or obligation, trying to please others at the expense of your own happiness.
3) You don't express your thoughts and feelings when something or someone upsets you.
4) You often put yourself last and others first.
How to act from a place of love.
Underneath the surface, resides limiting beliefs that prevent us from being who we truly are and living a happy, bountiful life. If we aren't able to look within and recognize their existence (and their roots in fear), they continue to control things, leaving us feeling powerless.
From a spiritual perspective, fear just isn't real.
Love is the only thing that is real
. When we begin to detangle our fearful perceptions and connect with our absolute, true self, we can allow it to guide us to better choices. How does that happen? We don't need to try to change or fix ourselves. Right now, in this instance, we are whole and perfect. Sometimes we just need to get out of our own way and and align with who we really are.
1) Identify your fears. Are you afraid of not being good enough? Do you havea fear of rejection? Or do you have a fear of being alone or abandoned?
2) Choose love. Once we've created an awareness around our fears, we can realize that the fear isn't real, it's something we've learned through social conditioning. As we witness our fears, we must actively replace them with loving perceptions. This isn't a quick fix; it's something that we must continue to practice.
3) Take action. When we choose love over fear, we are committing an act of self-love for our mind and body. As Kass states so eloquently, '
when we show up for ourselves, we provide an opportunity for those around us to show up as well
'.
Thank you to my soul sister, Bree, for allowing me to write a few words on this topic that so many of us struggle with. Feel free to visit my site for more information,
, or to email me with questions,
. 'Only love is real'.
Branching Out /
When I eventually calmed down I wondered what was going on. Was the healthy but strict routine I followed at home masking an underlying not-so-healthy control issue? Balance has never come easy for me; honestly I'm usually more of an extremist, obsessive kind of gal. So while the healthy living I was doing at home was obviously a good thing, the addictive, controlling nature of my approach was very clearly not. I certainly started out on the road to health with good intentions. Where had I gone wrong?
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