Grownup Gals and Their BFFs

A Wise Woman...chooses friendships with care.

When was the last time you made room in your brain to consider the girlfriends you've attracted into your life?

I know you're busy, and as a grownup gal with a very full life you may feel like you have enough to think about in a day, but give this a moment or two. Think about each friend you spend time with, and listen to your internal voice. What do you hear? How do you feel?
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        Picture - BFFs Bella and Tara

When we give this some honest thought we might be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise, at what we find. Hopefully the things you hear and feel confirm that you've chosen friendships that are good for you. You deserve that. Sometimes though, we hear and feel something different. We can't quite put our finger on it - we just know that we don't feel good about things, or even ourselves, after we've spent time with them.

The key word here is knowing. We all have this place of knowing - the place where we access our intuition or our "gut instincts" that signal us to do or not to do something. Mine is located where my solar plexus is, and over the years I've learned to trust it and treat it with the greatest of respect. It knows! The trick for me is to listen to it in the first place. 

I know I have chosen friendships well when I feel good about who she is, while enjoying who I am when I'm with her. It doesn't mean we have to agree on everything or even have most things in common. It does mean however that egos are "checked at the door", there are no prejudices or judgments and we both feel comfortable to be who we are, knowing we'll be loved and respected unconditionally. 

It's not a stretch for most of us to imagine that we are affected physically, mentally, emotionally, even spiritually, by the people we spend time with. Doesn't it make sense then, while we're eating right, exercising and getting enough sleep, to add choosing our friends with care and intention to the list?

For a great example of how to do this, take another couple of minutes to watch this clip. You'll be glad you did!

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Watch BFFs Bella the elephant and Tara the dog

Gratitude, Ah-Ha Moments & Dancing

A Wise Woman...wants what she has.

All I have to do is turn on the TV, open a magazine, newspaper, look at a billboard or simply tap into the person's mind standing next to me to find one of the zillion "grass is greener" messages that we're bombarded with every day. You know the ones. They're the "your life will be better and you'll finally be happy when you have/do/buy/obtain/find/create this next great thing". If we're not paying attention and being conscious these messages can, in a nanosecond, alter the lens we look at our lives through - and not always for the better.

It happened to me one Sunday morning. I was the first one up so I tip toed to the kitchen - the best place to be in the house to enjoy the morning sun that pours through the windows. I made some coffee, lit a fire in the fireplace to make it nice and cozy, and settled into my favorite chair to enjoy some rare TV time alone. I love weekend mornings at home. After clicking through the channels I finally landed on a home improvement show.  In the next 60 minutes I not only finished two cups of coffee, I also learned that;

• if we don't have curb appeal we'll be under-living our lives
• small spaces must be made to look big - because apparently small is bad
• all the stuff we did to the house last year is...so last year.

By the time I heard the footsteps of the next family member to awaken, I was already mentally moving from room to room making note of all the things that were now wrong with "this place" that only an hour before I was enjoying and had felt so cozy in. How did that happen?

There was the ah-ha moment - the realization that too often I (and I suspect I'm not alone in this) was subconsciously buying into the advertiser's idea of what was right and what would make me happy. And while I'm a huge advocate for improving our lives, both inside and out, it became crystal clear to me that what really makes me happy is allowing myself to be present enough to simply want and enjoy what we have right now, in this moment. 

What a concept. Of course the retail world (who sponsor these programs) isn't keen on me wanting what I have because their goal is to help me become unsatisfied enough to want what they have.

Perhaps the insight here is to enjoy improving or changing ourselves and our surroundings while at the same time choosing to enjoy and want what "is" now.

A Wise Woman Enterprises was created to support women as they pause more often, connect with each other, and celebrate their lives. To want what we have, to appreciate exactly where we are right here, right now, just as things are - is a wonderful way to celebrate our lives.

Enjoy this You Tube video of The Gratitude Dance which was created by 'The Gratidudes' in of moment of celebration at a coffee shop in Victoria, BC, Canada while writing their book about Manifesting Awesomeness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9z2ELaBVJY