Mental Health and Wellness Archives - Page 2 of 28

Thanksgiving Quote For Happiness

Thanksgiving is a universal reminder time of thanks. One way that often takes a back seat is to love ourselves.

That way, we have more room to give love and pass on the abundance to family, neighbors, and others on our journey path.

Loving ourselves means forgiving ourselves and others, like God forgave us. We want to feel grateful.

If you’re stuck, maybe ask: what am I hung up on that I don’t have?

Because we have so much more to be grateful for than what we don’t have.

Our brains easily fool us into focusing on the wrong and negative things.

And part of what we don’t have that we think we want right now is going to be what gives us a better future.

Because life is rigged in our favor in our belief and faith.

This isn’t something we’re born with knowing, but over time and experience you grow wiser and the knowing inside you becomes more clear.

Daily thought choices determine our future view of ourselves, our lives, success, and happiness.

Thanksgiving quote:

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” – Deepak Chopra

Even though none of us know the future outcomes no matter what age we are.

But the answers are inside us waiting for the ripe-ready reveal time to birth.

That’s a spiritual way to look at it and how I see it from my reflecting back lens of life experiences. I didn’t see that back in my 30s (so don’t worry if you think you’re a late bloomer).

It’s a gradual shift like time.

And over time, you can realize nothing in your past was wasted. The hard things you went through made it easier for you now or in the future. And the dumb things done (we all have them!) made you smarter now.

It’s in our future where we get new revelations.

And most of our answers to our life’s purposes are already inside us.

We first have to grow up, learn to change our auto-responses, and heal from our past hurts that will help us.

…That’s how this one Life we get to live keeps getting better, and our perspectives change because we allow them to with our open curiosity.

The famous saying is that this (as in life) is not a dress rehearsal.

But for those of us who believe in Heaven, it is.

We’re here for experiences and growth.

And as we gather more experiences, we learn and grow. That’s the purpose of this life as I believe. And we do that by ourselves and with others.

And if you want to make this a new season different than past ones, then dig deeper in the well for your answers.

They’re there! 🎯

You only stay stuck when you box yourself in… I remember years ago where I spent a couple Thanksgivings abroad. It’s always a weird feeling because that special Thursday is only celebrated in America.

Initially I felt I was missing out. But then, it made me realize I could be thankful anywhere I was.

Thanksgiving holiday is not about the food… entirely (as I’m from the foodie world 🥘). But getting away from the holiday food traditions helped me to break out of the “this is how it is.”

And that breaking out allowed for embracing growth in future seasons. And not just for new situations, but also a new hopeful attitude.

I found early-on in my journey that my ego blocked these types of beliefs in my auto-thoughts. And I allowed it to because I didn’t know any better.

The brain would serve up the woes-me thoughts for what I didn’t have and wanted.

Part of the process and journey was learning this unhelpful built-in ego feature as a first step.

I wish it didn’t take me beyond 35 years to learn, but I’m glad it didn’t take another 35 years (or never) 😉

And breaking through, when I could tap into my deeper compassionate and feeling sides, that’s when I got more breakthroughs.

…I was less judgmental about myself and more forgiving that projected out to the world… to judge less and forgive more.

Imagine if that radiating energy caught on in most of us. It would be one big ball of massive fire in the world! ☄️ We could use that energy to help and grow our world filled with challenges.

But starting with ourselves is the first and most important place to begin, and keep daily renewing…

Breaking down self-judgment walls and bringing back self-love keeps us growing.

…It helps you and me see better.

Especially if you didn’t feel the love when you were younger or in your more recent situational past.

…When I felt the self-pity from setbacks in life, I bounced back by finding my gratitude and giving spirit (thanksgiving)

Giving can be sharing, donating time or money, providing, spending time, encouraging words, and sending positive loving vibes to the world. 💕

It can be as simple as recognizing that it’s not all about you or me.

It can be about paying forward gratitude for the blessed things I already have or experiences I had.

Getting sensitized and feeling again knocked me out of gray confusion clouds and into sunnier skies.

We are meant to keep growing forward in life so we don’t put ourselves back in the shoes of our former selves. Been there done that.

In today’s moments, we can acknowledge that we’re in a better place by finding examples from our past.

Comparing our new level today with our past level gets us to our next better level of tomorrow.

Proof of this is easy to find for all of us…

If you go waaayyy back to the past as kids (or young adults we were called) that none of us are anymore… back then, we were more impressionable as our younger selves.

We had to get everything okay’d before proceeding as how culture and life is setup.

As pre-adults, we didn’t have the means to do the things we can do today on our own.

And if we did do them then, we’d probably have gotten lost and would be ungrateful as we didn’t fully understand what we had in front of us.

We were still developing our adult minds.

Today as found former-lost baby sheep, we have wiser perspectives to draw from. 🐑

Congratulating our growth is one small step and happy way we can be thankful for this season in life even if it doesn’t look anything like we hoped for!

The focal point sign that we can dwell on is “you’re here”… and it’s years later and you no longer have the same problems you had back there.

So you could come up with a list of what you’ve arrived at today.

Imagine if you had the same challenges and choices you had as a young adult, you’d be so frustrated because you’re no longer with that same mindset. But you’re not there, so that’s one thing you can be thankful for.

And those little thanks help you to embrace where you imperfectly are.

We’re still and always will be dynamic works-in-progress.

Thankfully so because that means we’re alive! 🤸🏻

And collecting up all those fond past memories that you can re-live in present moment happiness helps to keep us rejuvenated.

Then in the tough times (the ones that so blind-shockingly happened), those help grow us into better people.

We become more deeply grateful for what we have… maybe not immediately, but we end up developing stronger character in survival and in the process to get to the other side. 🌈

Even wasted time we feel now was well spent because we learned the lesson to never go there again. And now we don’t have to painfully back track and re-learn the same lesson.

And all of us are walking examples of lessons learned.

We can keep going, getting inspired daily, and FEELing-thinking our way to our thanksgiving.

Holidays like Thanksgiving are welcomed reminders that give us reason to be thankful.

…And to say “thank you” more often.

Focus on “you.”

See yourself through others.

And practice old-fashioned manners and simple Thanksgiving sayings like please that never gets old and goes a long way.

Mindfulness From Healthy Relationships (Love Is Blind Lessons )

Mindfulness brings in happiness because in the present head space, you have the chance to let it go and bring in light.

As a visual, walking down this art deco outlined carpet can be the amount of time needed for loving mindfulness.

You have the now space to make the better choice.

You can count 1-Mississippi as a mind gap or mind the gap that is popular from the London tube words.

It’s as simple and complicated as that.

In the mindfulness space, you get to choose your positive or negative thoughts and responses despite your initial thoughts.

Thoughts are better negotiated if you want your best outcomes.

Plus, practicing being mindful is an opportunity to grow.

And as an easy test, you’re in the now if you understand these words.

Whether you’re here or not 😁, good mindfulness lessons (especially for love relationships) can be learned from an entertaining reality relationship show like Love Is Blind. 📺 👩‍❤️‍👨

Have you seen the worldly Netflix series? 🌎

The premise of the show is that you can fall in love on a blind date (potential partner unseen) behind the pod walls.

The goal: to find your person and get married at the end.

But the healthy spiritual growth way to look at it is that you come out a better person no matter what happens. Because not all relationships are meant to turn into marriage as a sign of success.

…You can come out with new friends of both sexes, learn more about yourself, and grow up in the process. 🎉

The latest season was in the DC metro backdrop where I spent most of my years… and is always in the news especially these days.

…And not for mindfulness reasons.

In the LIB love reality show microcosm, you see the raw moments that aren’t edited.

Where blindspots are made transparent…

And it’s easier to learn from others watching on the sidelines.

When tested in our own relationship situations… that’s where the rubber meets the road. 🏎️ 🛣️

But more knowledge leads to better self-awareness, and these are some gleaning points that can help you…

In Love Is Blind DC, the couples embark on the engagement journey that ranges from loving couple selfie-video filming to fiery heated disagreements. 🔥

...Ugh, that’s how the show can be renamed “Ego Is Blind.”

And in those difficult moments, we see what’s going on behind-the-scenes…

A beautiful budding relationship unravels and goes reality life awry.

Not the couples’ faults… learning about ego devise is something that takes time to learn (if caught on and learned).

Egos (not eagles 🦅) invisibly soar and hover over us and are more magnified in relationships. 🔎

💡 And that’s the main issue in every relationship issue.

…Did you catch that?

The masks are unveiled, gloves come off, and differences are an ego mind playground to create more divide.

Since the LIB participants are 20 and early 30-something young adults, they don’t have the same experiences they’ll have in 10 or more added years as mature adults. That’s just a fact of life.

You trade in youth for wisdom if you’re on the growth track. 📈

And in the episodes we can see that they don’t know what they don’t know that lessons-learned experiences could provide. We’re all in that boat for one area or another.

In relationships, couple happiness comes from letting go of the petty stuff. And that’s where mindfulness can be the handy solution.

Being tired or moody any day can derail from that mission, so staying alert and wise to know yourself enough can help your conversations and situations you get roped in.

They help in my situations.

A simple “can we talk about this another time?” is sometimes all that’s needed.

…And if the other person can calm their momentary crushed ego and say, “sounds good” and stick to that, then there’s no issue.

And that way, you make the issue smaller to ego as you stay objective and get further away from emotions.

Let your pot simmer down inside you first.

Because situations will arise. Everyone is different. Another fact of life. So embrace the differences, even if it’s your close partner.

…Just remember they grew up different than you even if they grew up down the street. They are them and only YOU are you. 🪞

You’re the only one you can change and are fully accountable for.

Show up mature as you can be. And if both are mature, then saying yes! at the altar has a better chance (despite what it seems like or is said weeks before that… which btw, the ego mind will chomp at).

Every moment has potential for ideas to collide even with the person you think you know best or as well as yourself.

One day, what seemed perfect is no longer.

Expect that to happen.

When that happens…

Talk it out.

Have fun again.

Tyler and Ashley do this well taking sky diving and sharing moments. 🪂

Garrett and Taylor do this well laughing, playful, and enjoying each other’s company.

Those loving honeymoon period ways get them through their tough times.

Those are the couples that make it through LIB married at the Reunion.

That’s the relationship experience they signed up (and hoped for)… a life partnership that’s enhanced with two.

When they ran into a disagreeing situation, they let upset emotions out which is communication. They also moved on in their own mindfulness moments.

Maybe smartly asking themselves in the break: “why was I really so upset?”

…Usually it’s from an experience or idea from the past that was traumatic and is now pulled into the gray matter.

The secret is knowing that most of it is curable in self-discovery that improves relationships, and not about changing someone else.

And in tough relationship times, we can learn 3 lessons:

Lesson #1: Wisdom teaches us to move peacefully in the moment.

The most mismatched couple in LIB DC was Nick and Hannah. They had a parent-child relationship that was obvious wouldn’t end well.

Usually there’s a honeymoon period but for this couple, it was obvious from the start who would wear the pants.

Words deeply matter. Saying aloud things like: I’m not the same person I was who had fun before…” is nothing short of putting a dog’s tail between its legs. But that’s common ego power trying to dominate in language.

Nick could have addressed that comment, walked away, and let Hannah think about her words. But since he kept taking it to the end of their relationship, it just got worse.

And so it turned into passive-aggressive behavior.

A lesson in mindfulness: at the late group mini-reunion, she could’ve sat down with Nick and her best friend in the pod at the table rather than let her jealous emotions creep up later and address privately.

Wisdom say you never get a second chance with the moment.

Mindfulness thinking: you may never have another chance with this person again so embrace the moment (as in “in the moment”).

That situation could have been avoided if she acted on her deeper feelings at the moment in a peaceful way.

That’s how mindfulness practice could have helped.

Practicing mindfulness on a yoga mat or away from social situations (alone) when things are good, can allow breathe-in space to be brought into awareness in impromptu situations. 🧘🏻‍♀️🧘

Lesson #2: Be the giving person. Two giving people are better than one.

Never go into a relationship seeking gain for your life, and expect it to end well. The other person wants to be loved and that’s the agenda.

The couple that became a hot mess was Tim and Alex. Their perceptions of each other were completely off. Another ego power trick.

They had miscommunication and unrealistic expectations.

There are no mind readers as Alex pointed out and especially with unspoken expectations.

There’s not one right way with two people involved, but there’s usually a point in the right direction.

In the moment, a person can directly tell the other partner their needs. Both will feel better about it no matter what it is.

…It’s how it is said that’s most important.

When you say “I feel…” it’s totally different than ego judgment words like “you always…” Those 2-words are the difference between love and ego. 🥰❤️‍🔥

Practicing using more loving words helps direct the mind to those ways. Let the other person be themselves and not come up with a list of “all I want you to do is…” Leave that legacy to their mother that can get away with that agenda impact.

Lesson #3: Respect should never be a word tossed around in love relationship communication.

When the other mentioned they felt disrespected, that was a bad sign. The “respect” word doesn’t belong in relationships.

Respect is a word you use in an office place that’s an arm’s distance business-to-business arrangement.

Respect is usually earned from deed or time. Co-workers know when they are respected because work boundary lines aren’t crossed. It’s nothing personal.

In love relationships, it’s all personal.

In a loving relationship, you don’t want to earn love or your place to the other. That’s inferiority vs superiority (ego power).

Your loving partner wants a soft place to fall, not a daily enemy they face. Those common feelings happen when out-of-alignment or out of happy mindfulness.

Besides, respect means different things to each person mostly based on upbringing. As a couple, if you grew up on opposites sides of the grass, then respect definitions are wildly different based on their grass past life experiences that can’t be defined in one 7-letter word.

But bringing in more self-awareness, mindfulness, self-discovery helps to turns things around and bring more peace to lives and relationships.

Remember changing your words said can change your relationship.

Do unto others as they would like to be treated, keep growing, and doing your best. Good luck! 💘

Circadian Rhythm Is Affecting Your Happiness

Circadian rhythm is our internal body clock that’s a part of nature and Ayurveda (the study of life). It affects how birds migrate and the happiness of our house plants. 🪴 These things affect us.

And circadian rhythm indirectly affects our mind-body and how tired or happy we are. 😊

Circadian rhythm quietly affects our sleep, feelings of energy or zapped energy and our cognitive ability or disability.

It’s an underrated important factor in our happy daily lives.

In this article, you can learn all about circadian rhythm from changes in our daily environment and easy tweaks you can make, so you can impact your happiness.

Circadian rhythms are deep and affect our spiritual lives deep within us.

It has a ripple effect from the outside…

So we want to make healthy tweaks to our lifestyles to keep the circadian rhythm balance humming along nicely.

One powerful way we can control our circadian rhythm is with the light and dark influences in our lives.

That’s as natural as the first verse and creation chapter of the Bible..

In modern terms, if you work night shifts and sleep in the day, your circadian rhythm changes.

Work shift shifts create mood swings. Try saying that 10 times fast.

We need natural visible blue light in the day that’s naturally strong from sun light.

…And yes daylight is the same blue light we’re warned about that comes from computers, but 100,000 times stronger. 🌞

💡And that’s the first easiest impact we can make.

My first understanding about circadian rhythm was not from light vs dark lessons, but in an Ayurveda class discussion about sounds.

From the experience we each received a unique, natural primordial sound that was happening at our time of our birth. It starts with “Om.”

As a miracle, those sounds are as natural and spiritual as birth.

These are part of the first earth sounds we heard in our echo chamber sound booth coming out of the womb. We could probably feel the sound energy happening then because we’re spiritual beings tied to an energy bigger than ourselves.

So I learned that circadian rhythm was part of light and sounds… and as part of our sight and hearing, it closely affect our minds.

Our minds are wired to our affected wakefulness, alertness, memory, mood, and slow (or quick) cognitive function that end up impacting our daily happiness and mindfulness with relationships.

And if our happy mood is down for a season, then we can feel dark or void inside.

As a visual, all you have to do is shut your usual window blinds for a week and that throws your circadian rhythm off.

And sliding down that slippery slope, you’d feel off. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sensitive person or not… all that matters is you’re human.

…Like when we change our clocks for daylight savings and we’re off of our rhythm for a day or two.

And this rhythm is tied to our sleep and how tired we feel.

When you sleep closer to 9 hours and still feel tired, you can rationalize the tiredness with working more hours, clock time changes, stress, season changes, or even getting too much sleep.

But more sleep isn’t the answer.

When you’re cranky and it feels like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and maybe carry around the bad moods, they creep into lower quality or less productive work. It takes more energy to get the same bare minimum things done.

And that can lead to our loving sides affected and our relationships taking a back seat.

This can become crippling if you shut out love and let in the negative and fearful spiritual tendencies that become the surrounding air breathed.

This can happen as easily as when you’re too preoccupied busy to notice your surroundings, or you let your ego take over your thoughts and play thought tapes over and over again.

It’s subtle to you as you pay less attention.

E.g.o. (edging God out) clouds over and those behaviors hurt productivity and happiness.

Letting in more light wind (spirit) is going to sway you in the right direction out. Instead of south, you head north in the opposite direction.

You can naturally find your way out when you know from experiences which way is up (as your natural wisdom helps you).

Knowing can come from tapping into your quiet space and spiritual self that often comes from gut instincts (not logic).

Sometimes answers pop right in… and sometimes you have to mull on the peaceful thoughts longer.

Because light and dark is a spiritual battle not based on reason…

Some of the battles can be avoided.

How? Patching a simple early fix like more blue light in the waking hours already mentioned, so you have more energy ⚡️ in the day that circadian rhythm regulates… and this helps you get to bed at normal times.

Blue light is a good answer, but it often gets a bad rap because of warnings to shut off digital devices late at night… which is good to do.

But in the same light, it’s not emphasized enough how much natural blue light you need in the day.

Tip: Be just be sure to wear UV-protected sunglasses and sunscreen in sunlight.

Because UV and blue light aren’t the same for your health, but often gets confused in today’s world. UV is harmful.

With enough blue light, then you can get the normal sleeping patterns that can reset the lower spectrum or first few hours of deep sleep (Delta sleep) when the body mostly resets and repairs.

That’s why you hear of people who only need 4-5 hours of sleep… and it’s enough.

Often they have a strong purpose (or busy season) and what they will do in life, like getting up for the New York Marathon race, voting, or taking in a new travel adventure.

Then sleeping at the bare minimum for the daily body repair is enough because excitement carries over or their Pitta drive drives them.

But if the minimum sleep isn’t achieved, then no amount of coffee, 80’s music, or a jolting pine eucalyptus candle is going to revive.

Sleep is irreplaceable.

In summary, these are a few healthy reminders:

-Get back to your light-dark/day-night schedule and normal sleep times.

What unnaturally took you off your circadian rhythm can be restored with natural healthy moves, such as:

-Listen to nature sounds like birds chirping by the river, or the pitter patter of rain. Those were part of nature when you were born and can revive you. Today, you can use technology to get those effects and drown out manmade construction and technology sounds.

-Add sleep-inducing foods with melatonin and B6 to help your sleep like eggs, bananas, nuts, yogurt, and avocado.

Those sound like breakfast food 💭 and if you’re having a hard time sleeping, like warm milk, these types of foods are helpful.

-Create a 3-day rule for yourself in self-discipline. If you don’t get better in 3 days or after the weekend has ended, then commit to fixing it in other ways like changing your routine that isn’t working for you now and in your quiet spiritual space.

-Breathe in words of inspiration like that from the Bible to get back to nature and your loving roots.

The Book of Psalms is one love letter full of natural wisdom and blessings of peace, love, and hope.

The timeless words are in weddings and funerals because those are the biggest pouring out-of-love events.

And those loving feelings and words can help turn your off-balance circadian rhythm feelings into happy good.

Turn on the light and naturally get a ‘lil happy today. You’ll be glad you did! 😎

The Great British Baking Show Happy Days

The Great British Baking Show season means baking time, so that’s what this light-hearted foodie is sharing about today to lean into the happy! 😋

…And as a show fan, I get giddy like a school girl. I’ve even got my hair put up in a high up side ponytail like a teen to match my feelings. 🤸🏻

Oh, but don’t worry… this will probably be my only giddy post on the show if you’re not a fan (yet). I’ll be back on the healthy earth channel 🌱 next week… so stay tuned. 📺

…And tuning this week into The GBBS also known as the Great British Bake Off show 🇬🇧 is the alarm for me (and us home bakers) that it’s time to fall B-E-ake!

But before we bake, can you guess what this is?

It’s NOT butter. And it’s not fondant even though it makes a good food illusion 💭… but neither are good to eat on its own so that rules those out.

…Well, hang on to your hat (for that finished thought), and keep reading as it will make more sense when I spill the butt-ah…

Btw… in the States, we like our good sense, scents, and cents, as we’re multi-faceted and have many preferences to show.

We’re similar to our neighbors across the pond where we have adopted some nifty baking ways. Isn’t that right, Rahul? 😊… and we love that! 🇺🇸

I also love that we get to idea mingle with our UK friends that unite the kingdoms through our grams (Instagram and convertable baking gram measurements). 🇬🇧

…and isn’t it about worldly T-I-M-E!?

Cheers! 🎉 (as in thank you in Brit-English and cheers 🥂).

Oh, and did I mention we’re getting mini-Brit speaking lessons from the show’s entertainment side? 🐿️

One lesson note-to-self: I’ll now know to bring more pants than trousers and trackies to the U.K. next time. 😉

But all-in-all, we have a lot and even more in common… both countries speaking some English-variety. We’re also closest in time zones when you consider the other Old World countries.

…And GBBO o‘clock 🕰️ helps us bridge the ocean divide. 🥧

But I will add… it’s a little weird seeing the show baked creations before the episode airs on Netflix.

…Ah, but a few seasons in… like most watchers from the States, I’ve gotten used to the spilled (butt-ah 🧈) beans. 🫘

Plus I grew up in the simpler dialup era so no complaints (not my style).

Which btw, I think I saw one of those ☎️ this week and a green sewing machine that brought me back to my youth where we had one of those in the house.

…Plus I learned a new mini checkerboard technique a.k.a Battenbergs that I heard about from the show. 🏁

And that’s what I was baking up this week in my no-pressure tent? 🎪 Well.. sorta, but not exactly!

…I get excited about sugar talk that goes straight to my head 💭… I forget for a brief moment that I’m a low-sugar baker in the comforts of my kitchen.

So swept back to reality, a MINI Battenberg marzipan dessert is fitting. Because a mini one has very little sugar.

…And this one is reaallly small! …Good for maybe a big Barbie food table.

But too small to bake a cake in unless you’re Barbie baking for Ken and then it’s never too small. 💖

But for the rest o us, an all easy marzipan sweet bite can be made in minutes. It’s like playing with Play-dough.

…So that’s what I turned my butter illusion into. And making a fancy pattern marzipan is still less time than baking.

But I couldn’t leave my oven cold.

Because butter talk inspires baking.

…So I made a healthy delicious bake, but instead of butter (or butt-ah) I used an ingredient you may or may not have heard of… MCT oil.

It sounds like a pharmacy prescribed oil, but it’s OTC… and healthy! Now we’re back on track. 🌱

The healthy fat food supports weight loss, helping the body make ketones for energy that then gives us more energy.

It’s a form of coconut oil that most or all of us know. 🥥

And so I thought only fitting to make a healthy chocolate donut.🍩

That was made coconut tasty with organic unsweetened coconut chips that also make delicious snacks on their own!

Healthy coconut flour was used to lean into the tastes of chococonut (say that 10 times). The gluten-free flour makes a denser no-rise bake that’s great for pancakes or ONE donut here…

…that’s btw how us baking peeps fit into our fave jeans so we can better thrive in our mind-bodies 😊 where we’re all slightly different tuned that’s good to celebrate in our turning world.

Speaking of jeans👖…my baking genes wouldn’t fit in The Great British Baking Show fiery baking tent. 🎪

The show competitors got that competitive gene.🙌👏🏽

…And it looks like all of them this season were very blessed.

For the rest of us, we’re watching The Great British Baking Show and doing our stress-free baking. And on that note, you can enjoy with a best melted chocolate dessert.

Healthy Chocolate Coconut Donut (Gluten-Free)

This recipe uses chocolate and coconut chips as the sweet, and healthy coconut oil fat that used in moderation is a good sub for a delicious, weight-conscious donut.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
2 tsp coconut oil for donut
1 tsp coffee (optional)
1 egg
milk (start with 1 tbsp)
unsweetened coconut chips (enough to cover top)
baking chocolate chip
coconut oil, a few drops for melting chocolate

Instructions

Gently mix the 4 donut cake ingredients by hand. Use enough milk to get the consistency closest to a cake batter (not too liquid and not too dense). Grease your pan with coconut oil and pour batter into the pan. Bake until top looks baked and a toothpick comes out clean.
Make the chocolate glaze: melt chocolate chips in a few drops of coconut oil using a bain marie (double boiler) setup. You don't need steaming hot water for melting chocolate. I used an inexpensive self-heating water kettle. I added a small ceramic cup and put inside a ceramic bowl. I poured the hot-warm water into the bowl about half way and the chocolate melts in a minute or two.
Zhugh with organic coconut chips that is recommended for a more pure coconut taste plus a crunch with kernel intact (compared to shredded coconut).
With coconut oil, this dessert will stay good at room temperature for 2 days (the day it's baked and the day after). For longer lasting, keep completely covered in the refrigerator so it doesn't dry out.

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.

Creative Blocks No More

Creative blocks happen when there’s not a focus or intention to be creative. And when stressed. It’s as simple and complicated as that.

Because it’s not true that creative blocks exist for everyone at some point.

You don’t have to EVER get a block.

But if you’re like me or many of us, our busy lives get in the way.

…Where you could be aligned to do something else at this time and the Universe is helping you by focus your attention elsewhere.

But you would know the difference because your time and energy is spent in what’s important this season.

And when you’re ready to be creative, it’s there waiting for you!

…because we are creations, and so we were born creative beings.

And our gut, intuition, and creative minds don’t shut off, but we could be creating creative blocks and silencing them with our thought noise and busy world we live in.

Simply put, creativity doesn’t die.

Whatever your hidden talents are (…and you do have them!), as they’re inside you even if you’re not tapping into the sparks. ✨🔥

…And that’s why the creativity stays hidden (or smoldered) 🐦‍🔥

You may not have discovered yours (or fully) …and as I didn’t discover my writing ability until I was well into my corporate career years and then put writing aside for more years.

I never set out to be a writer, EVER. I was NEVER developing the writing skill.

…And when I was a child in my home, I was surrounded by artwork and had some art history awareness.

So I knew I had an artistic gene somewhere.

And when I moved away, I also didn’t use any of it in my day-to-day corporate life so I grew even further away.

…I found my creativity genes occasionally on weekends when I had enough time to get out of anxious energy, could relax, and then get into my creative outlet of making scrapbooks back then. 📔

…Otherwise, my mind was creative blocked from creative energy, being filled with busyness, stress, and staying in the logical left brain routine.

…And maybe that’s you if you don’t think you’re creative! 🎨 Or identify with “I’m not creative.”

In that case, know that creative blocks are moveable.

You’re just steps away from your creativity.

Remember, it’s your choice in life and if you want to, then you can start the steps in that direction.

Creativity is waiting for you when you’re not blocked by your thoughts and creative emotions.

When those are aligned, you gain clarity and are creatively unstoppable!

In those clear streams, there’s not a creative bad day…

Because we’re all born talented. So it’s not about talent.

But when we think we’re having a creative block, it’s happening because we’re stuck on the levels of this earth and our earthly non-productive emotions.

And if we don’t develop a creative practice, then we stay stuck and in creative blocks.

Whether you identify as a content creator, artist, writer, or dancer as some creative examples, if you don’t use the creative spiritual places in you, then creation is missed.

It’s like getting into the nooks and crannies of an English Muffin. 😊

In writer’s block specifically (as in staring at blank pages), this can be trying to write out of the wrong place in our minds that are either distracted, or a spiritual-given clue that we have better things to do.

When we write from the creative areas of our mind, then we’re not writing only from our perspective and experiences, as we’re co-creating our writing.

So then writing flows and words seem effortless as though we’re on fire with our flow. Or riding a cloud in the air. ☁️

We can’t type fast enough.

In flow, it’s not work when we’re clear in thought and open to our creative passages. It’s the opposite of a writer’s block or creative block.

It’s bliss work… and we forget that our amazing drink we poured has turned cold. I switched to coffee cold brew so I don’t have that dilemma. 🧋

But the more we can get that flow feeling from our regular practice, the more we create creative sustainability.

It’s our jam that sticks. And we do it like our morning routines. They become habits.

But if we lean in on the opposite deterring moods, we allow in distracted thoughts staring at a blank page. And we can choose to give up or muster through…

Some of those deja vu thoughts aren’t bad… and they have a purpose for us…

We can have wanderlust thoughts that make us dream again. 💭

And if we get lost or stuck too long, if we’ve practiced writing enough times, sometimes we can wing it and get by even though we know it’s not our finest work.

Only we know what we’re feeling and capable of.

…And we then know there’s room for improvement… and there’s always next time. We challenge ourselves.

Each time is an opportunity to start over and without our interfering ego that can be the creative blocks or writer’s block “elephant in the room” 🐘… when we’re alone in our writing room.

And co-creation happens when the ego is not high and active (like in imposter syndrome).

Co-creation is a higher inspiration tapping into your higher self for answers that are inside you (in heart, gut, and mind alignment).

How you get there is different for each of us…

When you find what inspires your creativity in you each day then you can always find your way back to your spark again. ✨

For me, when I look inward for deeper answers, I actually get a tap sensation back. I used to wonder what that chill up the spine or gentle touch under the skin was.

…Now over a decade in, I’m full of no-mistaken clarity of what that is as the spirit living inside.

It’s not spooky. 👻

…It’s angelic. 🪽

For other people, they sometimes get their inspirational energy as an invisible muse in the room like a critic or a figment of the imagination ghost-like person playing a harp. 💭

Stephen King writes about a muse in his On Writing documentary where his muse keeps him on track. He’s been writing a while..

…Or, if you’re finding your inspiration… it can be a mind whisper, faint visions, or impression from your spirit or mind’s eye.

These are as real as seeing objects in your life.

When you pay attention (lowering external noises) and pausing to record what you interpreted from inside you, that can become your lens and way of looking at life that uniquely helps you in your writing, creativity, and EVERYTHING in your life… since your created life is one massive creative endeavor, one happening after another.

If nothing else, you are the character in your creative story where the ending is unwritten.

Every day happening miracles not created by people (but maybe acted out in people) are normal in this life… we just don’t hear about them as often in our noisy culture’s headlines.

Miracles are special moments in life that aren’t unusual. I had my own season of special miracles of deeper meaning exposing love over ego from a spiritual intervention.

I could’ve looked at it as a creative block as I stopped writing, but that was an opportunity to grow. It was a slow season.

And in busy seasons, if a main intent is to be time managing, systematic, network social, and following our calendar to a T with very little wiggle room fulfilling pressures of what others of us, then we’ve probably missed it…

…I learned this though blowing off a creative work life for decades until I was ready.

When focused on relationship building activities, following other’s instructions, and coloring inside the lines, then you’re shielding away creative possibilities. But could be more focused on growing other areas.

Because creativity is coming up with something original from inside you that’s unique because no one else can come up with the exact same creation in your way. It may look or sound the same but it’s not the same as the originator is different.

…In other words, the idea may already be in the world (we have a big world!) but if you genuinely came up with the idea, then that’s what’s for you as your spirit is wired to the energy of the rest of the world.

And if you discover (in life’s miracles) that at the same time you discover the same thing with someone else, maybe you should get together and work on other ideas. 💡

When I was younger, we didn’t have the internet so we didn’t know what was going on in the opposite side of the world.

Creativity came from color pencils on paper and other resources we had around the house or that we could gather.

We were limited by our community resources and that helped build our creativity. 🎨

We could take a sheet of paper and trace over another paper source. And then we’d have a duplicate copy of work that we did by hand.

Those were days before we discovered the copying machine. 😊

So often we’re looking for an original idea to come out when we’re inspired by something else already out there. Because so many things are out there!

But that’s how inventions were and are made.

They don’t start from scratch.

We are all starting with ideas already out there that we’ve seen before and are part of our memory.

…And that’s why technology is always evolving.

Like technology that drives the bus for so many life areas (that I saw first hand spending almost 10 years of my working life in tech when I wasn’t around food planning settings)… and there, I witnessed idea stalls like 9-11 when the nation halted.

And you saw halts in the 2020 pandemic.

Some areas froze in ideas and sometimes regressed.

And other people, places, and things grew in ideas and creativity.

In those testing seasons, we had time to work on new solutions to get out of the freeze.

And that provided our pivots that often gave more hope, joy, purpose, and clarity.

In purpose life, we’re called to be creative and not just do what has been done.

In creativity, we’re not following a template already created.

We’re calling upon ourselves to get ourselves inspired and come up with something different from our gifts and imagination.

And if you feel stuck, maybe this will help you too…

Unblocking Your Learned UnCreativity

Unblocking creativity is something I had to work on in the beginning of my creative journey and what others like me would too if they spent most or their time in structure.

…Like where I had to re-learn what corporate work life and school taught me in back-to-back lessons in 30 years… the lesson was simply, do as told.

So now I’ve had enough, and I can break free and do as I’m told. As in what’s inside me (and what’s inside you).

When I unleashed myself from those environments that were downloading instructions, at first I didn’t know what to do minute-by-minute with my newfound time.

When that becomes your life, it’s different than a summer break or sabbatical where the point in those cases is to relax and rejuvenate and then go back.

In my new creative-purpose work, I didn’t have a schedule template to follow… and no one does. If anyone offers that to you… run, because robots will never run the world. They create creative blocks.

…So from an instructed life to a creative life, I had to make opposite direction mindset shifts.

Sometimes I would pause and wonder if I should write daily… or was it just a waste of time?

…Because it wouldn’t be graded and nobody would follow up like in the structured world I came from.

And that’s part of the beginning when you’re switching to being your own creative teacher and boss.

But with those risky growth changes, comes rewards.

And if that sounds like you or you’re starting over with these same creative break-out-on-your-own desires, be encouraged!

Give it time. Unlike structure, don’t give yourself arbitrary goal deadlines as it will take longer than you expect.

Give deadlines to your inspired projects and show up.

Be consistent in your practice. so you don’t allow creative blocks to creep in.

If you feel anxious or worried because of the new season’s financial uncertainty, then get a part-time job that you can clock-in and clock-out of without any emotional attachment (as in stress, anxiety or boss struggles).

…You know what I mean! 😊

And if have a growth mindset that you lean into, then it won’t take you nearly as long to flip the script around and embrace your creative life.

Leaning into doing your passion (love) vs. fear will help you through. Do it afraid and do it when nothing looks like it’s happening.

Because you’ll continue to get ideas you’ll have to decide what to do with… and that’s a good problem to have!

You’ll take one baby step action that provides clarity for the next pivot that is needed for your growth and success… and the journey is exciting and not boring, predictable work that promotes creative blocks.

You’ll be learning new things while developing personal growth that didn’t happen in a corporate setting, teaching yourself daily, and learning about yourself as you tap of inside you for answers… growing your spiritual higher self. How cool is that!?

Lean into YOU GET TO DO THIS and you’re paid or provided for in other ways, and that a pretty darn good freeing feeling!… 🤸🏻

Your passion outweighs the uncertainty. And if you’re all in it, then you have no chance but to succeed because this Universe is wired for your success when you don’t give up!

And when you don’t… That’s the clear sign you’re on the right path for you.

And the fears disappear with your faithful spiritual growth and your trusting belief.

So – what are you waiting for?