 My coworkers sure do know the way to my spoiled little heart... Thanks, Justin :)
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 "It's not from the known, but the unknown, that creativity and inventiveness are born. Turn away from the predictable, cliché, and reliable. Brave the void where the darkness is greatest. Trust the quiet, find the stillness, feel the calm. Then steadily think, speak, and move as if you were led. Behave as if your vision were clear. Anticipate the emotional rush that will come with your triumph. And as if by magic, as you raise your pen to write, you'll find the words have already been summoned, flooded in light that was there all along, in a world that has just as anxiously anticipated your arrival." -Notes from The Universe
 Big thanks to Gina for the quote inspiration :) What commitment avoidance is keeping you from making big and beautiful (or maybe even subtle and sweet) moves in your life? Whatever it is that makes your pulse race, go for it. Love and light, Trish "I've never been so alone,
and I've never been so alive." In Gratitude, Trish My coworker greeted me on this 70 degree, glorious day by saying "Trish! I like your hippie outfit..you look so free!" How cute is that?  My hippie outfit on an afternoon walk with the meatball :) Soakin up some sun with the little lady....   I wonder if she'll ever realize she's not quite a "lap dog"?  Hopefully (and probably) not :) 1. Read the following quote in my book The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life on the bus:
"...Think about the past or anticipate the future, and you are no longer present but immersed in the flow of time. And time, we find out, is the great mystery. Just thinking about it makes our head spin...The present is intangible. That intangible moment is all that we really have, all we really are. The past is already lost. The future, however promising, is still a fairy tale. Only the present is--and we cannot grasp it." Big reminder to be here, now. 2. Came into work and made a delicious juice for myself and some coworkers using beets, green apples, pears, cucumber and a bit of ginger. I recently downloaded Kris Carr's new ebook "Crazy Sexy Juices and Succulent Smoothies" and am having a full on love fest with fruits and veggies right now. I'm really pumped that my coworkers are getting into juicing and smoothie making, too...it makes it a lot more fun! We've set up a weekly fruit and vegetable delivery service for the office via Planet Organics. This is a big time saver for me (Trader Joe's runs are great, but they are a huge time suck) and it will be cool to try out the variety of produce they surprise us with each week. 3. Had our first private yoga lesson lead by the awesome Lindsey downstairs in our office. I am SO proud of the people who gave it a shot and can't wait to make this a bi-weekly event! What a perfect start to the work day. It felt awesome to have such one-on-one attention in stretching, breathing, strengthening. 4. Rocked my new lululemon No Limit Tank during yoga. It was the perfect combination of supportive and breathable. It will be the perfect piece to bring with me to Costa Rica in May :) 5. I'm headed to Zumba tonight for the first time in a few weeks--pretty stoked to shake ma booty and sweat a bunch! 2 workouts in one day. Sheesh, who am I? What an awesome, sunny, full-of-life day. In Gratitude, Trish  Any seasoned life coach, therapist or spiritual teacher will likely tell you, in a matter of speaking, that the key to finding (and keeping) the most satisfying, joyful and fulfilling relationships, partnerships or friendships in our lifetimes lies within one simple instruction: Be Yourself. I love these photos from a distant trip to Napa. I had no idea they were being taken. Because of this, they are just me...as me. They are me in my favorite flowy skirt from a small shop in Sonoma, getting my feet dirty on a damp path; they are me laughing so hard I can barely catch my breath. They are very candid, and very real. How often do we approve of, let alone genuinely like, candid photos of ourselves? For me, it's a rare occurrence. "Let me see that picture...ugh! Delete it. I hate it. Destroy the evidence of this holy moment, I look a hot mess!!" It is not difficult to ponder what in the world the driving forces behind such deep criticism of ourselves in a silly photograph are. And it's not hard to land on a particularly popular culprit of this modern generation.  There is currently a growing phenomenon of life-envy occurring that stems, mostly, from the prevalence of sharing on social media platforms. We are privy to more information, at a moments notice, than ever before. Like, post, tag, comment, check-in. Status, status, status. I am equally as guilty of it as the next person. In fact, right after this blog is published, it will be posted to my Facebook page. I'm certainly grateful for this platform allowing me to share my site with my community, and beyond.
Yet the more I work with clients, the more aware I become of the downsides to all this sharing, and the degree to which "Be Yourself" actually becomes "Be Your Best Looking and Most Witty, Exciting Self In Case People Are Looking At Your Page". I'm beginning to get more real about the pressure it's putting on us to be ourselves only to the degree in which we feel it will be accepted by others. Including "others" we don't know very well, or ever interact with! Dr. Leslise Carr does a nice job of describing this phenomenon in her piece "Other People's Lives Aren't What You Think". To summarize, many of us are falling into a bad habit of measuring our lives, our core happiness and levels of satisfaction, against what we perceive to be the happiness of other people's lives. We become masochistic creatures who are hooked on assuming we are missing out or must not be in the right space in our lives based on a quick scroll through our multitude of "feeds". We pine for what they have in a grass-is-greener way; their travels, their cute kids, their relationships, their clothes, their houses, their jobs, etc etc. We pine for the lives we see through the peep hole that is the internet. But the truth is, we're not getting (nor can we really ever get) the full picture. I've had a number of folks reach out to me via this blog (I LOVE hearing from you!), mentioning in one way or another how "jealous" or "envious" they are of my life. While this is immensely flattering and certainly encouraging to continue my adventures, my response to this is two fold: 1. Keep in mind that while I try and be as truthful as possible when it comes to blogging, of *course* there are parts of my life that will always remain more private. Of course I have struggles. Of course my path was, is, will be far from smoothly paved. Because I seek to use this platform as a venue for positive energy, it may come across as if I float along, la-dee-da-life-is-easy-breezy. Sorry to pull back the curtain--but this is simply not the case. I do indeed have a beautiful life; I have more to be grateful for than I could ever fully acknowledge in a single post. But it is also far from perfect. I am far from perfect. There is a big difference between hoarding secrets, and respecting our own privacies. I work on this balance every day. 2. Everything you see on this blog is a result of something I have worked for, strived for, fought for. Clawed, and insisted on, at times. It is a result of great effort in my relationships; a result of the love and time and care I have put into them. It is a result of some epic (legendary, monumental, ginormous) mistake making followed by some humble by-the-seat-of-my-pants-tail-between-my-legs-pull-up-by-your-bootstraps regrouping. And it is greatly a result of facing fears, doubts and insecurities...acknowledging them, pushing through them and realizing my desire for adventure runs far more deeply within my soul than the risk of a couple of hiccups along the way. My life is a practice of setting healthy boundaries, leaning in, and letting go. I don't miss out on much these days. To be blunt--I'm learning to not sit around pining for another person's life as I see it on Facebook. I go out and make my own taggable, postable, Tweetable one. I gotta tell ya--it's a heck of a lot more fun. By all means, share your life on social media. In no way do I wish to discourage folks from posting photos or swapping inside jokes or spreading notable news through these outlets. I love how it connects me with friends, family, colleagues whom I may not normally stay in touch with. With the right connections there can be a lot of positive juju floating around on the world wide web! But please, I beg you, try and remember that the surest way to attract your best life is not by wishing you had someone else's as you perceive it. Remember that in-person human connections are immeasurably more real and valuable than digital ones. Always, without a doubt. Remember that hardly anyone's life is exactly as it seems from the outside--people are far more complicated than what a superficial view can show us. (Sidenote: that fact alone is not a bad reason to be a little nicer to folks in general). Your best life will grow around you...your best friends, partners, jobs, adventures...will thrive around you when you start being, accepting...and yep, even "liking"... just you. Just you, As you. You are worth that risk. Always, without a doubt. In Gratitude, Trish  Bacon for my meat lovin ladies.  Just biscuits and eggs for us vegetarians :)   20 mins at 350 degrees later!  Tasted even better than it looks! I ended up adding some Mexican cheese to mine...it was a muy bueno decision. My girl Brooke sent me a hilarious video of Kristen Bell on Ellen a few weeks ago, saying "Oh my gosh, watch this, it is SO you". I'm sure many of you have already seen it (over 9 million views on YouTube, dang!) but if not I highly encourage you to enjoy this little giggle: Too stinkin' cute, right? I share this video now because her description of her emotional state being measurable on a scale from 1-10 is exactly how I am. If she lives within the 3-7 range, all is well. But if she slips below or jumps above this...well...watch out, because it's tears o'clock. Kristen, honey, I so get it. I mean, I cried when I fed a baby tiger 2 years ago because I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement, gratitude and awe. I 100% cry when something is sadder than a 3 and I 100% cry when something makes me happier than a 7. I take such pleasure in sharing another person's joy, too, that I have been known to cry many a happy tear on behalf of my friends and family. That being said... Last night I had the extreme pleasure of attending an "Evening with President Obama" with some really wonderful people. My ticket was surprise gifted to me by a couple who has continued to generously share much love and support with me in a multitude of ways. To say I am grateful for their presence in my life is a huge, huge understatement. Everyone should be so lucky as to have friends like them. To be frank, I really have no desire to get into a political rant on this blog. I have no interest in swaying your views one way or another. I hope that when I speak of my excitement over last night it is received with the same level of respect I give to those who may not feel this sort of event is their cup of tea. I have both Republican and Democrat friends whom I adore. I see both the pros and cons of the Obama administration. Was this an Obama rally? Yes, absolutely. Did I have a ridiculously awesome time attending? Hell yea I did. Regardless of your party affiliation (or lack thereof), I think it is fairly obvious that Obama is one heck of a charming, cool, collected, powerful speaker. Hello. The man is the leader of our nation and I basically breathed the same air as him! Woot! I am so, so very grateful for being given this opportunity; for being able to share in the intense electricity pulsating throughout the room as he spoke. There were good vibes for days up in that building! Phew, I'm still tingling with all the positive energy that was bounced around... ...and yup, I dangerously teetered on the 7-to-8-oh-man-the-tears-wanna-come emotional scale the entire time. My friends kept stealing glances my way to see if I'd reached my tipping point! When Chris Cornell from Soundgarden (he opened the evening with an acoustic set) sang a rendition of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", one gal pal even texted us from across the auditorium to ask "Is Trish crying yet?!". Mama loves her some Whitney, and Mama is me. (Let's just say I had to wipe my eyes to prevent any real leakage). Unfortunately the only camera I own is my honker of a digital SLR (and by "unfortunately" I mean only in this specific instance), which was prohibited from the event. Thus, I apologize for my crappy iPhone photos. Hopefully you still get the gist :) 
Seeing the President of the United States speak in person, let alone in such close proximity and in my favorite city, is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's a story to tell my kids someday; a check mark on the ol' bucket list. In some ways it humbly feels like a tiny participation in a tiny piece of history. My small corner of the world shared time with a world leader.
How rad is that? In Gratitude, Trish  Surprise flowers delivery from my fabulous friend, Sara. "This made my day" is an understatement. Wow, so sweet and thoughtful! Feeling very loved :) |
