Goapele- Closer The original music video 2001/no effects

Creating the Life You Always Wanted to Live

Being who we are as women we often spent a lot of time nurturing, caring for and attending to the needs, wants and concerns of our family, friends and others leaving little time to care for ourselves. As we go through our day to day routine this doesn't seem like much of a big deal but there always comes that day when we think, "When was the last time I took a bubble bath, read a good book, or got a pedicure?" How often do women wake up on their 30th, 40th, or 50th birthday to realize that every dream and aspiration they had in their 20s was replaced with the dreams of their children, husbands, siblings or friends? how ofter do we hear, "Wow, you are so great. I don't know how you hold it all together and still have time to be there for all your friends."

There is nothing wrong wit loving and attending to our family and friends but we MUST make time to love our self and nurture our dreams. Care about and tend to our needs and wants. Do what it takes reach our fullest potential.

A few steps we can take toward creating the life we always wanted to live are:

1. Knowing its okay to say no - we often have a desire to please which leads us to say yes to things we really want to say no to. Not wanting to let anyone down hurt any one's feelings. Being able to say no to some of the invites and demands in you like will give you time to develop the dreams you have for you life.

2. Give yourself enough time to get "it" don't - If there are tasks that you must complete be sure to give yourself ample time to complete it. Giving yourself to many things to do in a short period of time will just result in you feeling like you have failed if they can't be completed on time

3. Listen to your inner voice - that voice that is telling you that you can do it. That you are not too old to go back to school. The voice that is telling you that you and important and vital part of the family and member of society and you have something important to offer. This is the voice that is speaking for you and you should take heed!

4. Take care of your health - as Original Women there are so many health issues that we face (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke) and we have the power to cut the risk. Healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, limiting our stress levels and regular checkups will help us live longer, healthier lives!

5. Focus - Focus on who it is you know you were meant to be. Focus on your dreams. A fun activity to help with this is making a Focus Board. A Focus Board is a visualization tool used to aid in the achievement of our goals and help you reach your fullest potential.

Materials needed:

Crayons, markers, old magazines and newspapers, scissors, construction paper and glue

You use the newspapers and magazines to cut out pictures and words that represent goals you wold like to achieve in you life. Glue these to your construction paper and hang in a place where you can see it and focus on it on a daily basis. This is a great daily reminder of all of the wonderful things you would like to manifest in your life!

We hold the key that opens the door of opportunity that lay before us. Use those keys to open those doors and see what life has in store for you!

Peace

Queen Kalila Earth

How to Make Time to Have Me Time

Its 5:00 and you’re on the highway making your way home from work when you remember you need to stop at the store for bread and something else but you can’t remember what else you needed to pick up. You get a call from your daughter and she says she needs to be picked up from soccer practice. You call your husband to see if he can get her so you can have time to run in the store and get to the daycare to pick up the baby before 6:00. He reminds you he has a business meeting after work. How could you have forgotten! Now what do you do because you really wanted to have a little Me Time tonight! A simple bubble bath and glass of wine after dinner but with everything going on you will be lucky to get in a three minute shower.

The biggest interference with those “stolen” moments of Me Time is simply not being organized. Now a day our families are so busy. If we had a convenient and easy way to track all of our schedules, shopping list, and to do list we can plan accordingly and make more time for Me Time.

If this sounds familiar I have found the PERFECT website for you. www.cozi.com. Cozi is a FREE online family organizer to manage the family calendar, track shopping and to do lists, share a family journal & more! Since I have started using Cozi my life has been so much easier!

Let me tell you how this works. When you sign up for Cozi it will ask you to enter your family’s information. You enter name, email address, and cell numbers for each family member. Cozi then starts a colored coded calendar system that will help you keep track of every thing going on in your family’s busy life. Each family member is assigned a colored dot that will be used to represent an appointment on the calendar and a color if it is an appointment that affects the whole family. You can then sync any online calendars with your Cozi calendar. For example, I clicked on the button that allows you to link to your child’s school calendar to your Cozi calendar. Next I typed in the city and state in which we live, Cozi provided a list of schools in the city, I clicked on the appropriate school, clicked on the child’s name associated with that school and like magic the school calendar appeared on my Cozi calendar (color coordinated with that child’s dot and all)! This will help to keep everything that everyone is doing organized… You can then have Cozi text reminders of different calendar appointments to the appropriate family members phone or it will send them and email. Your will also get an email with the calendar of the week each Sunday!

Cozi will also remember your shopping and to do list for you. The shopping list can be texted to your phone and with both you can call a 1-800 number and Cozi will read the list to you. You can also send a text and have Cozi send you a text of your part of the family calendar.

If you are an OutLook users Cozi will easily sync with your Out Look calendar with your Cozi Calendar.

There is also a fun and easy way to keep all family memories and share updates with family and friends. You can make daily entries in a family journal, add pictures and chose to share a particular journal entry, a monthly newsletter, or a link to your very own family website.

Cozi is so easy to use. Just a few clicks of your keyboard and a few minutes of your day you are on your way to being more organized and having more time for you!

Peace,

Queen Kalila Earth