Giving it away.

I've been thinking a lot about giving things away this week.  All kinds of things in all kinds of ways.  Let me start with this one:
I'm doing a $40 CSN shops gift card giveaway. To you.  Right here on the blog.  As you know, I just moved.  I'm having a wonderful time filling up our new house with our belongings, but there are still a few holes to fill.  Some bigger than others, and I discovered a great place to help me fill them.  CSN stores has over 200 sites from which to shop.  I love looking through the sites and visualizing how I will fill the holes in my new house that has a kitchen eating area AND a formal dining room - check out the dining room sets!  I've also looked at bedroom sets for my son who's just about ready to get out of his crib, bean bag chairs for the playroom, and have of course spent a lot of time looking over the kitchen items and cookware they have.  Who wouldn't want a free $40 to spend at one of these stores?  Details of the giveaway after these few thoughts.

I've been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and re-re-reading A Mother's Guide To Self Renewal by Renee Trudeau as well as signing up for my third round of a Personal Renewal Group lead by the amazing Sarina LaMarche.  I joined my Community Center, and the kids are super excited to go to playcare while I take classes.  I've been thinking a lot about happiness and self-fulfillment and love.  One thing I've noticed in these books and in my own life as a mother, wife, friend, daughter, artist and yogi, is that a lot of times if you're unhappy, the best thing to do is LET GO.  Give it away.  Give away the resentment, give away the expectation, give away the guilt.  These acts open us up to receive great benefits - relief, kindness, love, forgiveness, happiness, contentment, peace, wonder, opportunity.  I want more of those things.  So I'm practicing letting go.

I'm giving away the fear I feel when I want to write about something but am not sure if everyone who reads my blog will like it, or that it "won't fit in".  I'm giving away the guilt I feel when I don't reach my highest expectation of myself on the first try.  I'm giving away the restricted feeling I have in my chest when I think of things I'd like to do - that I'd really enjoy doing - and think there's not enough time/money/energy to do it.  I'm giving away the short-sightedness I have when I'm in the middle of paying bills or figuring out some other adult problem and it seems like I don't have time to play with my kids for 10 minutes.  I'm giving away the need to eat my way out of feelings I don't like, and face them - even when they're scary.  I'm giving away the feeling of disappointment I have when I look at myself in the mirror and see the 27 pounds I put back on after losing them last year.  I'm giving away the fear of asking for what I want.

SO - Join me, won't you?

GIVE AWAY TO GET THE GIVEAWAY.

Here's how you enter:

Subscribe to/Follow my blog.

Follow me on Twitter or my page on Facebook

MOST IMPORTANTLY:  In the comments of this blog post, Give Away a song that makes you happy.  Give a song that makes you dance or smile or sing along.  I will use your suggestions to add to my iPod and play it when I need some help letting go.  I will also use it at the gym I just joined, because I'm working on giving away this extra weight.  You may enter more than one song, but only one song in a post.

From the comments I will randomly pick a comment (with a nifty and fair random number generator) and the winner will announced on Friday.  You have until Thursday at midnight to enter.  Good luck.  We're all counting on you.

EDIT:  ACK!! I forgot - winner must live in the US or Canada.  Sorry, International Readers!!


Photo here 

And now for something just a little bit different.

Being a parent, I've become aware of how important routine and schedules are for children.  They need a place to come back to.  They need a safe structure so they can explore the world around them with confidence, and know that this and this and this will happen, and we will always be there for them.

But let's be honest.  Routine and schedules can be boring at their best and stifling at their worst for an adult.  I've started to look for little releases throughout my week to break up the routine that my children need to thrive and grow.  I've made some observations about my own daily routines and tried to do them differently every once in a while.  It makes me live that moment just a little more intentionally, and brings a tiny bit of zest to my everyday tasks.  They might sound silly, but they do help me notice what my small patterns are, which helps me to practice noticing what my big patterns are.  A change of any size, at it's best, can broaden our minds, open our hearts, and make room for great things to come in to our lives.

 Here are some little ways I've tried to live my day differently in the tiniest way.  

*Shave my left leg first, instead of my routine right

*Unload the dishwasher "backwards" (silverware last?!)

*Fill the dog's water bowl first, then her food bowl

*Put my lipstick on before my mascara

*Choose my jewelry first and build an outfit around it

*Lay out my clothes the night before so I have two more minutes to stay in bed, breathe and get mentally prepared for my day

*Drive with the radio off

*Eat an omelette for dinner, appetizers for lunch, pasta for breakfast

UPDATE:  Thought of a new one:
*Write a blog post that's not about food :)

So, tell me:  What do you think?  What will you do to make a tiny change?