Hi all! I hope your new year has started off with the best intentions, bringing forth everything that brings you joy and love.

To start us off, I’d like to ask for a few minutes of your time by taking a deep breath, holding space for gratitude, and intentions that spark gratitude, grace and introspection.

I’m so grateful for the chance to start anew and cultivate habits that make a difference in my day-to-day life in 2021. Last year, I spent a lot of time online, and this year I want to cultivate habits that.

For the next 12 weeks, I’ll be reading The Artists Way by Julia Cameron and I’d like to invite you to read along with me if that is something that you’re interested in.

This book combines creativity with spirituality and invites us to spend every morning writing three pages of infinite possibilities, what Julia refers to as morning pages. Morning Pages can also be your version of journaling.

A few questions I’ve been asking myself in the morning and making space and time for before I get my day started.

Do you start the morning with gratitude? Do you start your morning with absolute silence, no technology, no distractions, no energy blocks?

Because if you do, you are giving back to your soul and starting the day with your love, your. goals, your purpose and your joy.

We can definitely get caught up in the day-to-day challenges and blocks, but it’s important to start our days off with what we want to bring instead of what we’re seeing others doing.

That being said, I invite you to think of something you want to implement in your week this week that will allow you to focus on your soul, health and happiness. A few ideas include: journaling, meditating, practicing your faith, planning out your day, tracking your habits in your habit tracker, listening to an audiobook/ podcast, going on a nature walk or run, or sitting in silence and reading a physical copy of a book. The only intention here is not to look at your phone, or technological devices for 30 minutes – 1hr.

“According to data from the Pew Research Center, the most common ways Americans use their smartphones are for text messaging (97%), voice or video calls (92%), internet access (89%), email (88%) and social networking (75%).” — statistics from Bustle‘s article, What Happens To Your Brain When You Check Your Phone First Thing In The Morning.

Technology has taken over our lives, and although we can list out pro’s and con’s to the benefits of using technology / social media in our daily lives, I strongly believe it to ourselves to look at our life and give back to ours souls before we give our energy to our jobs, duties, to-do lists, you get the idea.

As you start you work week, the third week of 2021, remember you can start making the time to do all the things you’ve wanted to do: go on more hikes, spend more time in nature, write, read more, take a dancing class, travel, and learn.

“In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.”

Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Have a wonderful weekend! May your soul continue to flourish.