Thoughtful Tuesdays : Open Your Heart Again

As I read today's excerpt I kept nodding my head in agreement and felt a refreshing sense of renewal take over as I absorbed the message. It was a gentle reminder of such an important lesson in life. In a world with so much negativity it can be so easy to allow our hearts to harden, thinking that we are protecting ourselves.  In actual fact we are depriving ourselves from living life to the fullest and preventing ourselves from experiencing love to it's fullest. My wish for you reading this is to practice what Bloch is teaching here, challenge your past, give yourself permission to be vulnerable, and watch as your world changes for the better.

The following is an exact excerpt from the book Listening To Your Inner Voice by Douglas Bloch. I in no way possess any ownership of the following. I am simply sharing the thoughts, expressions and words of an author who has inspired me.

Open Your Heart Again

One of the most moving examples of the opening of a hardened heart is the story of Scrooge in Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  At an early age, Scrooge concluded that the world was a hard and cruel place. Making the accumulation of money his primary goal, he closed himself off from his fellow human beings. Although he attained worldly riches, he was spiritually desolate. 


The on Christmas Eve, he was graced with the opportunity to make a new choice - to open his heart to life. His physical wealth began to have a purpose. After his conversion, he paid for the operation that healed tiny Tim and contributed to numerous charities throughout London. 


I tell this story because there is a Scrooge in every one of us. In some area of life, you and I have hardened our hearts. Perhaps it is a former lover whom we have not forgiven; or we are angry at a political group that opposes our point of view; or an early wound has left a trail of hurt and cynicism. 


Whatever the person or circumstance, the solution is the same - open your heart again. If the old pain comes to surface, relax and breathe into the hurt. As your heart softens and expands, a deep compassion will fill your being. Like Scrooge, you are being reborn to a new life. You are being redeemed by the healing power of love. 

Affirmations

1. I open myself to the power of love.
2. I allow the hard places in my heart to soften.
3. I release all past hurts and resentments.
4. I am willing to risk again.
5. The more vulnerable I become, the more love I can experience.
6. Your Own _________________.

Love is in the Air

14 days until Valentine's folks! Now I could very easily get on a rant about how Valentine's Day is a highly commercialized holiday with extreme pressure and marketing aimed at spending money to prove our love, and how the socioeconomic status of a couple tends to be compromised for the sake of unnecessary materialistic purchases. I could also rant about the importance of self love and independence and how this holiday that displays unrealistic standards for expressing love for others and the need to be paired up is ridiculous.

But I won't.

Instead, I'm going to embrace this holiday filled with love. I am going to love and be loved. I am also going to share some pretty awesome Valentine themed DIY projects with you to help spread the love this February 14th. For those of you playing the solo role, no worries, I have some ideas for you too!

Start your Valentine's with a 'heart-y' breakfast. hehe. Learn how to make heart shaped hard boiled eggs over on annathered. It looks super easy to do, and very thrifty. You could even make heart shaped toast with strawberry jam, or heart shaped pancakes!

Love is in the air with these colourful decorative hearts. Kids can help out to, as long as they have adult supervision with the iron, or have a grown up do the ironing for them, depending on their age. Over at skiptomylou  you can find out how to make these crayon shaving hearts. 

Ok so this is where you can make sure a certain card company or two won't pocket your money this Valentine's Day. Learn how to make your own pop up card at RobertSabuda , just scroll down towards the bottom for this pattern.

How precious is this Valentine's Day tree? You could create hearts out of construction paper, or any paper around the house really, with little love notes on the back. Take a stroll through the park to find a tree branch, you could paint it, or just leave it natural. I really love this idea from skiptomylou .

Get ready to set the atmosphere at the dinner table tonight. This pretty and easy to make. Find some scrap lace (check out local thrift stores) or paper doilies and using a mixture of 1/3 water 2/3 white school glue, 'paint' the lace/doily onto the glass votive. Allow enough time for this to dry and set (perhaps you could do this the night before).

When the moon hits your eye like a heart shaped pizza pie...that's amore! Personally when it comes to cooking, I don't think there is any other meal more fun to make than a pizza! And one 'decorated' with hearts is even better. If you are a vegetarian, or you are like me and just don't like meat on your pizza, you could make heart shaped tomatoes to replace the pepperoni. (Of course you can use your imagination and turn any topping into a heart, or form heart shapes with peppers, mushrooms etc)

Who doesn't love ice cream sandwiches? These heart shaped, chocolate and strawberry treats are too tempting to resist! Mint Design Blog  has the 'scoop' on how to make this cute love dessert (A heart shaped pizza followed by this love filled dessert? Sounds like a great feast for Valentine's Day!)

Create your own love fortunes by making homemade fortune cookies! Alphamom has a recipe if you want to use your baking skills! All of the ingredients may be in your cupboards already which is very wallet friendly. If you don't have access to a printer, cut up some paper and write your own fortunes!

Not so keen on baking? Why not get crafty and make a toy fortune cookie?

Martha Stewart has a step by step tutorial on how to create felt fortune cookies. I like how she fills them with chocolate kisses so you can still indulge your sweet tooth!

I'm a HUGE fan of making tents so when I saw this, I knew I had to make it. Even when Valentine's is long gone, I may have to keep this little nest idea for rainy days and a good book. I found this love tent over at Design Sponge.

Head on down to the beach and find some small, flat rocks. (If you don't live near a beach, just try to find some small rocks, or pebbles). You only need a handful. Then pop over to Craftbits and learn how to make wish stones. You could bring these into your love tent and make wishes with your significant other. Or you could make a love nest for yourself and make some wishes just for you!


Ok, so you don't have kids, or a significant other to share this with.  Maybe you're pretty upset because of this and now you don't even want to do these things for you. Well..fret not my loved ones! Tomorrow, I'll be posting a Valentine's Survival Guide, and trust me, it's going to be fun!

While Visions of Paintings Danced in My Head

It was a cold and dreary day here in the small, quaint town of Amherst. The kind of days where even if you sat on top of the fire there was no warming up your bones. I even threw myself in a tanning bed in hopes that would do something. No dice. I did however learn that I can drive in the rain. So that's a plus I guess? Take that daily challenge. haha. Actually my daily challenge was FAR more intense than that however rumor has it that a girl needs to  keep some level of mystery so I'm going to stick with that theory. 

I spent some of my day using familiar tools in a not so familiar way. I had my "palette knife" and my "plaster" and my "canvas" only instead of creating art, I filled holes and cracks in the walls of some rooms that need some TLC, before a fresh coat of paint can be splashed (ok not splashed, more so painted with precision). Pretty soon there will be office space available above the gym for some luckily local business to flourish in. I decided to volunteer some spare time and help breathe life back into the rooms. Imagine if all that wall space could be turned into paintings and not just one colour..ohh my!

I think the movement of plaster on the wall awakened my inner need to paint. Since moving here a month and 17 days ago (but I don't see anyone counting haha), I have been unable to put anything on canvas. Despite the help from Beth in transforming a section of her basement into a Spidey Cave,  the big shopping spree to stock up on canvas, paints, and brushes. Nothing was bringing my visions of paintings through my hand, and the brush and onto the canvas. Now for me, that's beyond the valley of frustrating. Why is it that even after creating a space just for me and my paints to play in the magic isn't happening? I even took the time to smudge the space. Still nothing. I'm not a fan of forcing paintings out of myself. I know that when they come naturally, I feel more rewarded in the therapeutic process it offers me. But for the love of Aquaman please let me paint something soon, even if it's a stick man!! Something has been blocking my creativity and I have a funny feeling it's the one thing I rely on to paint with. My emotions. I had some personal challenges to overcome today. I validated the feelings in my heart and gave my heart a voice to express itself. In turn, it thanked me by giving me new ideas of paintings, and even a strong itch to start.

I guess that's another lesson learned today. By taking time to listen to my heart and express the emotions I have bottled up over the past few weeks, I was able to release the toxic energy that was building up and hopefully made room for creative energy. I'd head down to the cave now to paint, but honestly, this nest of blankies I've wormed my way into is far too cozy and warm to leave for a basement right now. Hopefully a good nights sleep will be the icing on the cake and tomorrow I'll be covered from head to toe in paints! Maybe some will even make it on canvas!