Good afternoon ♡

Welcome to a new Wednesday :-). As another new day is here, let it motivate us to be our best selves. We often settle for less, dimming our light as to not offend anyone else’s pride. But what good does that do us or them? Not only does being comfortable as ourselves promote our own self confidence, but it also encourages others to do the same. One sure way to increase your self confidence is to be you, unapologetically. Others may not like it, some may even say things about you that are not true or will speak only of your mistakes instead of your successes. Remember, how others react to you & treat you is more of a reflection of themselves & not always because of something you have done (or not done). Take the time to Love you today & increase the vibes of Inner Peace in that confidence. Not only will you feel a revived sense of self, it will rub off on others too 😉 Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡☆

“…There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us…and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same….”-Marianne Williamson

Good morning ♡

I took this photo while taking a walk by the water last week; I love how nature can give such inspiration. Enjoy your day lovelies & always remember to Love yourselves & be yourselves.  Peace & Love ♡☆

Good morning ♡

Blessed Monday! Today’s Motivation Monday post is to inspire you to Free yourself! Free yourself from any negative energies & thoughts by rewinding the mental tape that plays the memories of past (or even present) situations that are holding you back from living in your truest potential. How? Live in your light! Remember that each of us have a light within that shines brightly. It’s harder to shine when negative energies are holding you hostage inside. Release them! Live in the now by focusing on what is going good. It may only be one thing that we recognize but may take for granted, like waking up each morning, but how amazing is that? How wonderful is it that we can rise in the morning to see a new day & do better than the day before?

Give thanks for everything & allow positive vibrations to flow. It’s okay & normal to feel sad or upset about things. The important thing to remember is to not dwell there. Strive towards letting go of the hurt, pain, anxieties, & whatever else it is that may be causing you grief. A little at a time rewinds that mental tape so that new positive vibrations can be made, being gentle & loving to yourself along the way. Today is the day to Free yourself! Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡☆

“See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” -Ralph Marston

Good afternoon ♡

Monday has arrived & the weekly grind begins again. What are you grateful for this beautiful day? Think of at least one thing you are grateful for & give thanks for it. It could be anything and the more you apply gratitude in your daily life, the more things you find to be grateful for. On Sunday, I held my very first full workshop for The Peaceful Project for the Caribbean Women’s Society (thanks again Camille!). The theme of the workshop was Greet the Day, shining light on the importance of starting each day in a positive way. After discussing the importance of starting the day off with gratitude & a positive thought, the activity I led was the creation of the Positive Box (I’ve posted a description of this before but a refresher is always good 🙂 ). We each decorated and filled a small box with words and pictures that inspire us to feel Peace, positivity, & empowerment, & each morning with our eyes closed, we choose from the box to inspire us the day. It was great! It moved me to see everyone working to make their box unique & personalized. Some put words in the outside as a way to inspire them even before opening the box to choose a word to inspire them for the day. Some used pictures and inspiring phrases to label their box. We then went around the tables for each person to pick a feature or word from their box & explain what it means to them. The responses and outcomes were incredible! Each woman had an amazing story to share as to why they loved the box, what the words and pictures meant for them, & how they would doing this at home with their families. The Peaceful Project was greatly received & I am so thankful that my vision is coming through, for the empowerment & upliftment of others for the sake of regaining & maintaining Inner Peace. I am grateful for Camille Kerr for believing in my vision& has provided me a space to share freely with others in person about The Peaceful Project, helping me on my journey to making this Project more tangible & accessible. I am grateful for the w women I met & participated in the activity, & most of all I am grateful for the Positive energy & love that filled that room yesterday, as sisterhood bonds were formed & further developed. I have even been asked to do more workshops with other organizations (more to come). To top off my day, I grinned from ear to ear as my daughter’s eyes lit up when she asked me about how the workshop went & I told her it was a success. I am so thankful for my considerate & loving child, who reminds me each day the importance of compassion & shows me unconditional love.

I hope you all had good weekends too, & whatever it is that happened, that you are able to find something positive to be grateful for. In order for us to have more good things come into our lives, we must first be grateful for the good that is already present. Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“For this I am so grateful! And so it is!” – Iyanla Vanzant

Good afternoon ♡

What a sunrise this morning 🙂 The sun is shining today so brightly & still there is a nice breeze to greet us. Give thanks for the simple yet beautiful things. In the blink of an eye they may either dispappear or change & you may not recongize it the same anymore. So enjoy the present moment, as Monday meets us again, & live for today, believing that tomorrow will be another new day to find something to be joyous about, no matter how things may seem.

What inspired me to write today’s post was sitting on the GO train, on my way to work, & looking out the window at the beautful sun, shining through the wispy clouds in a bright blue sky. Underath was open land, green & lush. I found myself silently wishing I could really capture this moment, but as the train continued to move the scene was quickly swallowed up by big buildings and industrial materials. It got me thinking about yhe importance of just enjoying what is & not getting distracted by anything else. There may be clouds innthe way of your sunshine, setbacks on your path to success, turbulence on your journey for Peace, but the sun still shines behind all of that. Today, I encourage you to never give up, to akways stick it out for the storms to pass. One day the clouds will move, as the winds of change move around us, & you see the brightness again. Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“The clouds may be in the way, but the sun still shines no matter what.”- LadyDee

Good morning ♡

This Feel Free Friday post is a reminder to Feel Free to take care of you! We get so caught up in the day to day that we forget that we also need to replenish ourselves. I always tell my daughter when she’s trying her hardest to stay up late after bed time, trying to tell me any & everything while I’m tucking her in just so she can stay up a little longer. Menawhile, my eyes are heavy & my voice is cracking. So I say to her, “Baby, do you want cranky Mommy or calm & pleasant Mommy? If I have no time for Mommy, then I’m going to be cranky Mommy & I know you don’t want that.” She always says she wants calm Mommy, &then follows uonwith “But just one more thing.” Lol. These kiddies. After she is finally down for the night, I make a point to make a hot cup of tea, read a few pages of a book, meditate, & pray before settling in for a good show. There are some nights where I’m so tired I just simply turn out the lights & sleep.

Its crucial to have that alone time. It builds you back up after giving so much of yourself to others & tasks all day. Take some time this weekend to do something self-caring for you & don’t feel selfish about it. It will bring you that Peace you need to keep on keeping on, pursuing the goals you have for your life while loving yourself. Below are some tips on what you can do for your Me time.

1. Delve into a good book.
If you’re anything like me, you have a night stand full of different novels, magazines, notebooks, & workbooks. Sometimes a good fiction read is just the thing you might need to take you away from the pressures of life & send you into the world called Imagination. There’s nothing like a good fiction novel to push your cares to the side for a few minutes or hours.

2. Take a hot soak/nice warm shower.
If you have a tub, fill it with some sceneted epsom salts & bubble bath, light a few candles & take a dip. Feel your cares melt away into the water & embrace the moment of stillness & Peace that such an experience can bring. If you don’t have a tub but have a shower, take a nice steamy one. Apply some scented body wash to a nice loofah & scrub away any stressors, breathing in the fresh scents of your favorite soaps & suds, exhaling any tension. If even for only a few minutes, you will feel so refreshed aferwards.

3. Meditate.
I know, I know. I say this all the time but it is so true. Meditation brings you so much inner Peace. Try sitting or laying quietly where you won’t be disturbed, & just be still. Allow your mind & thoughts to flow freely, releasing the negative ones & embracing the positive ones. Focussing on your breath, you will soon find that your mind will become less clouded with thought and your Spirit will be more open to receiving the internal messages required for you to feel at Peace & to grow daily.

4. Plan some time to be alone.
One year in my twenties, I took myself to Niagara Falls & stayed overnight in a nice hotel, watching movies, reading, eating, & of course writing. It was the best thing I had done for myself all year. I gained so much clarityabout my life, & fed my Spirit in ways I didn’t always get to do. Now in my 30s, being a full time working mother doesn’t allow me much time to get away on my own & so planning alone time for myself or with my girlfriends is crucial to my self care & inner peace. I encourage you to plan in advance to make some alone or girls’ (or boys’) time out for the night or a get-a-away. Taking time to reconnect with who you as an individual & in relation to other people in your close social life helps to replenish you as well.

There are more things you can do of course; the first three are ones that I try to do daily so as to stay in a more Peaceful mind & Spiritual state. When I can get 1-3 in on the same day, I feel so calm & enlightened. I see parts of myself within that I haven’t had the time to see in a while & it feels really good. Do good for you & watch as it fills you up & flows into other areas of your lifen enriching you in ways you maybe forgot about or didn’t even realize it could. Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”
 – Buddha

Good afternoon ♡

Sometimes we just need a reminder of what we have so we can really appreciate our lives & be grateful. Be blessed today my loves & practice gratitude in everything you do, in every expeirence you have, & with those around you. Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.” – Frances Rodman

Good morning ♡

As the weekend has rolled around again, give thanks that we have made it through to see another one. My encouragement for you all today on how to keep your Peace is to laugh at the funny things without hesitation, do something kind for someone else, & always remember to give Love, to you & to others (those you know & even those you don’t).

Yesterday while at the hospital with my daughter for her check up, as simple as the appointment was, as a parent you get anxiety about what may or may not be happening. We feel a fear that thigns may be more serious than they are, especially when you have to go to the hospital. But in my anxiety, my daughter was smiling & joking, laughing & finding ways to play. Not much of that is new as she always makes an attempt to smile if something is troubling her. Plus, I made a point to make her laugh, doing funny faces & remindig bher of funny moments, & of course tickle fights (she loves a good tickle fight:-) ). All this brought to mind how to approach the tougher times in life.

A lot of times we miss out on enjoying the small but beautiful moments in life because we are stuck in the frustrations of yesterday and even the present. Then we go on to blame ourselves or others for what we are experiencing. They key is not to blame yourself or others(as much as either of you may in fact be reaponsible for what is taking place), but rather how you move forward in what you feel. Instead of feeding the negative feelings with negative words or actions, what if we took a step back & just observed the bigger picture? What if we looked at Life for the lessons we are being taught & for the good that happens in everything? Today,take a break from looking at the things in life that aren’t going as you planned or hoped, & focus on the flow of your Life, moment to moment, choosing to see the good that is there. If you focus your energies there,the good will show itself to you & your experience will change for the better. It can be tough work but you can do it, one step, one moment, one laugh, one love, at a time. Have a great weekend everyone ♡ Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆ Feel Free to share some good moments of yours in the comments that helped you see things in your Life in a positive light 😊

““Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” – Vivian Greene

Good afternoon ♡

Today’s Wellness Wednesday post is a reminder to simply Live! You woke up this morning with the breath of Life! Let this be hope that things will be good, that whatever you feel stagnant in or scared of or hurt by, forgive yourself for thinking any less of yourself & let it go. Embrace the newness of today & Live! Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.” -anonymous

Good afternoon ♡

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! What a time to celebrate Caribbean culture with Caribana, to see the beautiful costumes, dance to the addictive rhythms, enjoy good food, & have fun times with friends & family. Participating as a masquerader is always something worth remembering, adding to the richness of the experience. As my freinds & I chipped down the road, enjoying the music & crowd, it feels good to be a partnof something exclusive yet inclusive. In reflection, I thought abput how important that is to the humam experience,to belong to something positive that you can relate to. It definitely brings a sensenof peace within yourself as you connect with other people that can share in your enjoyment & positivity. Of course with Caribana we know that there are plentynof mixed views of hownit should be organized & run, but once the trucks get moving & the musc starts playing, nome of that matters anymore. All that matters is that you are having a good time & the majority of those around you are doing the same. What does belonging to your culture, being part of a group of like-minded people do for you? What kind of Peace does it give you? From what I have observed is that it bring a strong sense of community, a sense of love &security, that there are others that you can somehow depend on on one way or another to stand up for you in your time of need & support.

As well as participating in the grand occasion of Caribana this weekend, I was also given the opportunity to present my vision to a communtiy of Caribbean women in which we come togetehr to support each other & work towards building stronger unity in the Caribbean community. Two weekends ago, I presented & faciliated an activity as part of Peace (ful) Project for Caribbean Women’s Society (CWS). The group activity involved us coming together & discussing our similarities & differences in Caribbeam culture as well as being unified in a Peaceful environment. It was a success & started much discussion about what we as Caribbean peoples can do to further establish ourselves in the GTA and Canada-wide, all within a welcoming & warm environment, without judgements or ill feelings. Thank you Camille for your courageous venture & for allowing me to be a part of this amazing journey ♡ After meeting others who sre also making waves in the community qiththeir own ventures,as they started with just a thought & eventually a plan, I definitely feel more confident on my journey with Peace(ful) Project & the future endeavors I’m working towards 🙂

Taking a step back & looking at it all, from a Peace(ful) Project perspective, I could see how important this type of healthy discussion & coming together is as helpingnto maintain a sense of inner peace. In general, gathering with others that give you freedom to be yourself without judgement & to be supported on all levels, gives you a fuller sense of humanity. It is important to connect with others that you can relate to & that encourage you to express yourself & vision in a positive way. I encourage you to seek out groups in your community that you can join that you can contribute to & create a greater sense of community & belonging. It can do wonders for your self esteem & let you know that you aren’t alone as we sometimes feel at times. If there happen to not be any groups you can join, maybe you feel courageous enough to start your own! See what the needs are in your community & do your best to meet them. Gather up some like-minded folks & start a play date group! Or Book club! Even something small can turn into something beautiful & powerful. We are the creatorsnof our own destinies if we allow our creative energies to flow ♡ Love yourself & be yourself. Peace & Love ♡ ☆

“Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. “-Mattie Stepanek