This past Tuesday was my son’s second birthday. They are correct when they say that time flies. I was looking through pictures of him from when he was a baby and it’s hard to imagine how quickly it all came and went. But what a blessing it all has been.

 

We are all here for a reason. We were all chosen by God to have a life. And each one of us has a beautiful, meaningful and important beyond belief purpose for our life. When we are living in our purpose we feel enlivened and whole. The opposite feeling can be present when we are unaware of or are in desperate search for our purpose. No matter where on the path to your purpose you are there will always be an undeniable yearning and pull towards a deeper meaning to our lives. I think all too often we are searching for a label to the “life purpose”. Something concrete to call it. Like my life purpose is to be a teacher, or my life purpose is to be a mother, a father, a writer, an artist, a doctor, actress, what have you. And if when we can’t find the label to attach to the purpose or if something happens to seemingly prevent us from being the “athlete”, “doctor”, “artist”, then we then feel lost. I think our life purpose is bigger than a label can hold. Labels are boxes they are small containers that are frankly too small to contain our immensely massive potential and divine life purpose. I like to instead think of our purpose as a fluid substance much like water that can flow and expand in many different directions throughout our lives. By allowing the essence of our purpose to be fluid we are opening ourselves up to fully receive all the aspects of our purpose as it presents itself to us throughout our lives. One way to begin to become familiar with your purpose is to ask yourself what it is that you’ve always done or always been able to do effortlessly but maybe never really thought of before. It is possible that you might have not acknowledged your purpose in the past because it is so imbedded in who you are. Take me for example, ever since I can remember I’ve always been the counselor to my friends and family. I’ve always had a yearning to help others and to help others find their happiness. So for me in regards to my life purpose I like to think of it in terms of a theme that I hold true in my heart. The initial theme I found for me is that “I am to help others heal, find purpose and joy”. Through that initial theme if you surrender and allow yourself to stay open you can then begin to become aware of additional themes. For me I’ve been able to become aware of additional themes such as: “I am to spread love” and “to help others find deep meaning and happiness in their own lives”. I find that by finding your “theme” you are then able to walk IN your life’s purpose no matter what it is you are doing. And that as long as we are authentically living in our life’s purpose in any given moment, (in line at the grocery store, with friends, family, business acquaintances and so on), we will be creating and opening up to the possibilities and opportunities to more fully day by day walk and live in our life’s purpose. I also believe that the opportunities to experience and grow in our life’s purpose will grow and expand with our life and that every moment is created for us to fully embody and walk in love and purpose.

Today I invite you to find a moment of stillness in your day. Close your eyes and take in a lovingly deep breath. Ask yourself what it is that you can contribute to this day. What can you contribute to the people or space around you. Ask yourself what is it that you’ve always sort of just done effortlessly that uplifts and benefits those around you. The answer to that question is naturally part of your purpose. A part of your theme. It’s a chord to your beautifully unique melody that only you can offer to the world. Then continue to do this practice each day until you begin to become more open and aware to your divine reason for being and your divine gifts that you are to share with the world.

Do you have an idea of what the theme to your purpose is? I’d love this to become a place of sharing.

Sending you so much love from my heart to yours!
Christina

I made these muffins this weekend and the whole family loved them. The combination of toasted almonds and fresh orange zest and juice made for a bright and exciting pop of flavor. A surprising bonus to baking these little guys was the delightful smell of orange that filled the entire house.

I adopted the idea for this recipe from a cook book my mom gave to me: ‘Giada’s Feel Good Food’. Since the original recipe utilized flour and my body doesn’t seem to like flour I chose to change the recipe to accommodate the use of coconut flour instead. I felt like a happy scientist in the kitchen coming up with the proper ratios for everything. And I’m thrilled to say I love the way these muffins turned out!

Oatmeal is my most visited breakfast staple. And while I’ve prepared it all sorts of ways from {honey and almond butter} to {blueberries, maple syrup and cinnamon}, my most favorite way to prepare it is with coconut oil, honey, salt, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. It makes for a clean tasting, simple, uncluttered, elegant start to the day.

Do you ever find yourself in a breakfast rut? A few weeks ago I found myself in just that a seriouse breakfast rut. I was basically having oatmeal everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some oatmeal but I needed to do something to shake up my mornings and make them more exciting. So in efforts to pull myself from my boring breakfast routine I’ve committed myself to making new imaginative and exciting creations for the most important meal of the day. I’ve come up with and discovered some breakfast goodies that are easy to make, healthy and most importantly delicious. So I’ve decided to post and share recipes to my breakfast experiments every Monday for the next several Mondays. I hope you can find some of these recipes useful in spicing up your mornings too. Here’s the first breakfast dish: It’s grain free Blueberry Honey Vanilla Pancakes made with coconut flour.

These past few weeks have been very challenging to say the least. My 20 month old son who is still nursing had been nursing to go to sleep at night and as a result was and still is still waking multiple times a night. My husband and I agreed to continue to co-sleep as it made sleeping easier on everyone but then over the course of the past 4-6 months our little guy had been waking at around 9am to both nurse and also to come to bed with us. This early waking made it impossible for my husband and I to have time to reconnect at night or to plane any date nights. Not to mention that none of us where getting the sleep we so needed. So we decided that it was time for our son to begin the process of learning how to fall asleep because that is skill he has yet to learn. And so we decided it was time to night wean in efforts to teach him other ways to fall asleep. We agreed on a gentle method of teaching Colin to sleep even though to be honest it doesn’t feel gentle because even though Brett or I will hold and rock him he still cries in our arms because what he wants to do is nurse. Things are starting to slowly get better but in sort of like a 2 steps forward 1 step back kind of way. Last night for example I got 3.5 hours of sleep. So in the meantime we are all very tired and worn. Currently Colin wakes a few times before 3am during which times either Brett or I will go into his room and soothe him back to sleep. Then if he wakes past 3am we bring him to bed with us but now I hold off on nursing until the sun comes up. Since no nursing at night is new for Colin there have been days where he has refused to go back to sleep and has been up for the day at around 3am. So as we teach our little Colin new ways to fall asleep he is experiencing a lack of sleep in the process which breaks my heart in two.

Brett was out of town last night and so today I was feeling very tired and defeated from quite a difficult night. So during Colin’s nap today I decided to get some release and clarity I needed to journal. I sometimes forget how comforting putting pin to paper can be. That when you clear your mind and let your heart take hold of the pen the most perfect and beautifully clear messages can come through. The below is word for word what I journaled to myself today.


Journal Entry 12.11.2013
This issue with Colin’s sleep is very wearing and difficult. 
In addition to his current sleep issues he has also become a very picky eater when he use to eat so well. Also during his tantrums he has started to hit himself rather hard out of anger and frustration. I am trying my best to handle everything with grace and compassion for all involved but I too am tired and wore down. I feel that during this time there have been few to no times when I have nurtured myself and I know finding time to do that is vital. Still I need to start to be creative with how I find ways to nurture myself. I feel that during this time I have abandoned my use of a positive self dialogue so one way I can begin to get back to nurturing myself is through adopting a positive internal dialogue and to have positive thoughts about myself, others and have trust in the situation. Other ways I can nurture myself is instead of watching TV in the evening, I could take a lavender bath, do yoga for 5-10 minutes, meditate for 5-10 minutes and journal. 


I also need to be in the moment more. By being in the moment, really in it I can then be fully present and see things with clarity. Both the lessons that are before me as well as the blessings. Lessons are blessings. I need to remember that and be thankful for that. Be graceful and grateful, pause, breathe and allow divine love, beauty and stillness to come in and take up all the space where I might be feelings tired or anxious. There is love and light for me and my life. Abundance is available and waiting to flow in if I can just stop fighting and start allowing. Everything we go through in life is a blessed gift. This experience will teach Brett and I so so much about parenting, life and ourselves and will help carry us forward. This will also be a wonderful and abundantly helpful experience to share with others. 


Blessings surround and are within and are constant and are always. 
Stay steady. 
Breathe in the sweet air. 
Bring it down deep.
Let it cleanse away all worry and doubt.
Marinate in the peace of knowing all is perfectly whole and well.