Excited as ever. Scared to death.

I think we’ve all been here before.

We have a new, life-changing opportunity- say we landed a new job, found out we were pregnant, found the love of our life, bought a new home, got accepted to that highly esteemed university miles away from home.

And it’s interesting. When we’re really watching, we find that our emotions can be completely confusing.

On one hand, we’re really excited: “New life, Here we come!” And on the other hand we’re totally and extremely scared to death.

We introduce worry into our lives asking questions like:

– “What if I fail?”
– “What if I’m not good enough?”
– “What if I don’t measure up, and make a fool of myself?”

It’s this internal battle between excitement and fear that makes us feel so..

Confused.

We start questioning ourselves:

– “Was this the right move?”
– “Why the heck did I do this?”
– “Is this really even what I want?”

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I bring this up because an amazing opportunity has been offered to me.

I went out in search of it, and things unfolded into something that has the potential to be a beautiful thing.

It’s not set in stone quite yet, so I’ll have to keep the details of it a secret for now.

But my emotions…Now those I can share with you! (And those of you who know me personally understand that I have plenty of them to go around!) 🙂

So more about this opportunity and my internal battle around it.

Awesome & Exciting Aspects:

• It would be an amazing change of pace
• Different, (better?) lifestyle
• Adventure, and lots of it
• New friends
• Helping make a difference in people’s lives
• Increase my personal independence and confidence
• Multiple new opportunities
• Learn another culture and language

Scary & Uncomfortable Aspects:

• Long way from home, family, & friends
• New surroundings/ way of life
• Have never done it before, afraid of failure and not being good enough
• Scared it won’t be as awesome as I think it will be
• Afraid of being taken advantage of, since I’m new to it
• Fear of looking stupid and people laughing at me
• Scared my cat (my ultimate soul mate in life) will pass away while in my absence
• Will be away for a while

I understand logically that the experience will be what I make it. I ultimately have the choice to see the positive side to the process. Not dwell on the less-than-great aspects.

I understand that nothing is permanent. I won’t be there forever. I won’t be in any one place forever for that matter. I ultimately have the choice to leave whenever I want. Because I can.

So I guess I’m coming to a possible conclusion that in order to welcome any change into our lives, we must be willing to let go of the stories. Let go of the thoughts that aren’t serving us. Because the truth is that I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything at all.

Maybe I’ll die later today and all my worries would be for nothing. The truth is that I don’t know what things will happen, good or bad. No one does.

So through this process of excitement and doubt, and the torn emotions I’ve been experiencing, I’ve come to realize that life is all about balance. It’s constant struggle to find the balances in our thoughts. Our emotions. Our lives.

Every moment is precious. Let’s start living each moment like we really believe that. When you start thinking thoughts that are full of worry, obsessing over the same old things, getting the same old results -(anxiety, depression, resentment, fear)- Acknowledge them, and allow them to pass.

Let them go.

Allow yourself to be free. Free from the mental clutter. The incessant chatter. Find the balance.

Be the balance.

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Thank you so much for reading! (You made it to the end!)

I love you more than you know.

With all the gratitude a heart can hold,
❤ Brittany

Living Consciously

So I’ve been reading a lot lately on the idea of living consciously. This way of life is a bit foreign to us these days, where it seems as if everyone is just trying to get by and survive each day as it comes.

Many people form habits on a subconscious level (throughout their life-time) and without even realizing it, do certain things automatically, as if they are on auto-pilot at times.

This is the kind of behavior that can cause us to live less conscious lives than we could be living, and that’s what we will focus on today: the idea of conscious living.

So what does it even mean to ‘live consciously’?

Well, here’s where I turn to my good friend Nathaniel Branden for his take on the subject, as he knows plenty more than I in this regard!

These are excerpts taken from different sections of his book The Art of Living Consciously that will give us a general view of what this might look like:

“Living consciously has its roots in respect for reality-a respect for facts and truth…living in a rational world. To live consciously, we need to develop what I call ‘a sense of reality.’ One of the meanings of living consciously is: Pay attention to what works, and do more of it, and try to understand the principles involved. And also: Pay attention to what doesn’t work, and stop doing it.”

Personally, I like the idea of living consciously because it’s a way of life that seeks to keep us in a constant state of awareness. If we seek to live out our days this way, we’re not so easily taken by surprise.

We don’t have that moment when all of a sudden we come to realize we’ve just been ‘going through the motions’ our entire lives, and now it’s too late for a re-do. The time is gone. We cannot get it back.

Living life ‘on purpose’ is conducive to long-term growth and development, and allows you (if you so choose) to grow, and learn, and better yourself in all walks of life.

Many people think that if they were to start living consciously that living life would be too painful, that they wouldn’t be able to deal with their problems or be able to cope with the life they’ve created for themselves.

But I say nonsense.

I say that by living consciously you will actually do yourself a favor. You will benefit yourself more in the long-run, enabling you to see where you are now in order to make the necessary changes it takes to get to where you want to be.

Live consciously, and be free.

Be aware.

Be love.

If you have any questions, ideas, or opinions you’d like to share, feel free to leave me a note on the site! And as usual, comments and feedback are always welcome : )

Lookin’ for love

‘

There’s a trend going on all around us: people with the desire to feel important, to feel beautiful, to feel powerful and in charge. Deep down, (whether we recognize it or not), each of us hold these emotions, subconsciously taking steps to get what we really want.

It’s important to realize that every action we take is caused by a deep-seeded emotion’s desire to be filled. This means that deep down we are in want of something, something that is very important to us. Once our minds figure out what it is, we will go to whatever extreme necessary to get it (many times resulting in difficult behavior.) Difficult behavior is almost always perpetuated from these emotional desires that we may not even realize exist.

Women aren’t argumentative with their husbands for the mere sake of arguing-women argue with their husbands because they want to be right. If they lose the argument, it means they are wrong. And if they are labeled as wrong, they might as well be stupid, no-good, worthless, and rejected. I know what you’re thinking dudes, (and I hate to break it to you), but this doesn’t just happen with women! Men act on emotions too. Men don’t buy expensive sports cars, (that they can’t afford to begin with,) for the mere sake of having never-ending car payments until the day they die. They buy expensive sports cars for the feeling of confidence and youth (along with many other reasons, I’m sure!). If they don’t get the car, they’re no longer in their prime. They can do nothing.

This may sound crazy but it’s true. We all act a certain way to fulfill some unmet emotional desire of ours.

I hope that one day we all become more aware of the emotional desires of the people around us. In the end, people just want to be loved.

Love is everywhere, it is everything.

Love will look different to each person, and not all people speak love in the same way. But we have a mission here people! And that mission is to love. To love with our lips, with our hands, and with our hearts. Let’s challenge ourselves to show our love to the world, because after all: everyone out there is just lookin’ for love.