What Makes Me Happy Now: Plants, my dad, opportunities & lazy Sundays!

I woke up in my new place with the sun light streaming into my room and onto my face.  What a lovely way to start the day!  I rolled right over and grabbed my pen and gratitude journal to jot down a list of 10 things right off the top of my head that I'm ever so grateful for.

1.  Hibiscus plant in my backyard.  Lammer lived in Hawaii way back when, so he loves keeping a
hibiscus plant in our backyard.  The thing is gorgeous and produces these amazing bursts of color in the corner of our yard.  He'll pick one for me every few days and either leave one on the table, next to my bedside, or walk right up to me and stick it in my hair!  

2.  My office plant.  Speaking of plants...I absolutely adore the office plant (that my wellness coordinator, Jamilia got me!) that sits right next to me while I work.  It's so refreshing and super simple to maintain.  

3.  Danny, my Dad.  Today is father's day and my brother just happened to be visiting, so we Facetimed with our Dude for a bit.  Facetime is awesome for moments like this!  We were all able to hang out with our Dad for a bit because of little computers we held in our hands.  My father totally rocks!


4.  Opportunities.  I've got a fantastic job and one of the best parts about it is that I'm subject to some really great opportunities.  Last week I hired the amazing, Andrea Beaman, to come speak at Amscan.  She was an absolute inspiration to the employees, and has always been to me!  Check out more on her at www.AndreaBeaman.com 


5. Sunday = Funday.  Sundays are the laziest day of the week for me, and also the one day where I can hang all day long with my honey.  We make a huge breakfast at home and then come up with a plan for what we'd like to do for our day.  We'll hop on our bikes, go for a (stand up) paddle, head to the beach, or stay in to watch movies.  Whatever it is, it's awesome to unwind, reconnect with nature, and be with one another.  Yesterday we rode our bikes into town and played ultimate frisbee on the lawn of Riverside Park for hours.  =)

Back in March of 2012 I decided to do these posts because it's really easy to be suckered into negative thoughts when we're surrounded by stressful media, unhappy people and whining Facebook status updates. Swami Vishnudevananda says that for every negative thought you have, replace it with 2-3 positive ones. I love this concept and practice it regularly. I usually find the most effective way of climbing out of a negative attitude is to think about something that I'm grateful for. Feelings of gratitude really lift you up. In honor of this concept, I'm starting a post with this same theme and will blog it regularly. I'll list a few things that make me happy, lift me up and keep me smiling! Let's face it, world peace is something that will never happen. However, I can create my own little world of peace and happiness in my mind through my thoughts! Please give it a try as well and share how it affects you.