Occasionally, the outer sphere of my eyes appear blue. The deeper part of my iris changes from light to a deep green hue. Since there isn’t a hint of grey to them they aren’t really considered hazel, and I like to think that sometimes makes them more of a light emerald-green.
I spent my day yesterday doing things I love. I started with a nutritious breakfast, I sipped on liver supporting tea, challenged my body to an hour yoga practice, cooked and meal prepped, did a little detoxing from social media, and set my 2015 plans. I planted this baby jade succulent as a start to the new year, new growth, for prosperity and relationships.
Jade is one if my favorite stones, the intense green reminds me of my eyes as a window into the deepest parts of me. Something I can say I love about myself.
Most of the time, I am fairly easy to judge. I don’t hold back with facial expressions and generally vocalize my feelings. But I have yearnings that many would not know and just as my eyes, these desires are unique to me.
But I don’t think it’d be too far out there for me to say that many of you feel similarly. There are things we want so badly they almost make us desperate. Often desperation leads us to an entirely different path and sometimes not even to what we wanted in the first place. In desperation there is no definition to thoughts. I’m not saying that out of desperation cannot come resolution, but in the moments where desperation consumes us we are not able to articulate what it is we’re actually looking for. We’re basically just resolving to look for anything.
I struggle, personally with this. My mind shuffles in a figure-eight only slightly less symmetrical and unorganized, intertwined with other interjections resulting in a tangled mess. In yoga just before you’re about to end with meditation, and the instructor tells you to “quiet your mind”? Yep, that doesn’t happen for me. In fact it’s usually the exact opposite. I become anxious in hoping to slow down my thoughts that it pretty much defeats the initial purpose since I am constantly repeating “hush”, “shh” or “shutup” to myself. Really nice, right?
I now realize it’s not really quietness I am seeking, its clear thoughts, clarity. I’ve been searching for this feeling for a long time. In fact, I think it’s one of my deepest desires. But I didn’t know that until a few months ago. Not until I was able to look at how I want to feel in life directly correlates to what I want to accomplish, experience, and be as a human being.
To seek out what you want in life, there has to be intention.
I was given this journal inscribed “believe in yourself” just after I graduated college by a woman whose grace and strength I admire. The pages are filled with scribbled thoughts, stories and memories. But this journal also holds an entirely different meaning to me.
I actually didn’t start writing in it until the end of 2013. For a while I had let go of writing entirely. I was uninspired and lacked drive for something I loved. When I opened the first page I decided that it was about time I look at all that I had accomplished during the past year.
As I began to write about all the achievements, all the small meaningful experiences, the moments of happiness, I realized I had done an awful lot that I wanted to. I wasn’t sure what to attribute this to other than an extreme determination on my part.
It felt so good to write it all down on paper. I’m a visual person and seeing all that I had done in a year accumulate on paper was gratifying. So then, I wrote what I wanted to see accomplished in 2014. I wrote in the journal throughout the year, but I never once looked back at that page.
So when I opened it up yesterday to read it with a fresh perspective I noticed that most of what I had written had nothing to do with goals I had set the previous year, but rather things I had truly wanted. And even better, what I had written in hopes to do, I did.
It was neat to see, by writing a clear intention for example – save XXXXX amount of money I then validated in my mind it was something I wanted. But reflecting on that I now I know what I truly desired was the sense of security that comes with having that money saved.
And I didn’t constantly remind myself by looking at that page or berate myself with expectations of saving, I did it because having that security was more important to me than buying a new pair of shoes (an admitted weakness of mine).
So this year, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to outline my intentions, as I had done before but I wanted to focus on the feelings that directly correlate with those goals. This is how I came to know and love Desire Map Journal and the Desire Map Day Planner.
I’ve followed Danielle Laporte for over a year now and am constantly deriving inspiration from her #truthbombs and the way she uses words draw up the inner desires and get people to be in tune with what they’re heart is saying. Everything she puts out there resonates with me.
“You are worthy of your desires.”
“Get clear on why you’re chasing what you’re chasing.”
“Shift the focus from ‘being loving’, to: ‘being love itself’.”
“Declare your intentions.”
“Truth & freedom are first cousins.”
These are all just a few examples of her #truthbombs that she sends out in her newsletters and posts on social media. They always seem to arrive at the perfect and unexpected times for me. If you like these, you may also like her #truthbomb card deck.
The Desire Map Journal is unlike any writing tool I’ve ever seen. There are tons of pages for space to fill with your thoughts, and sentiments. The special part of this journal is the way it uses words and quotes to stimulate your writing. I gave this as a gift for Christmas to my Mom and good friend, and each of them said how much they loved this journal simply because they aren’t writers, but felt like they could actually stimulate writing from the text on each page!
One quote I especially love,
“What do you know for sure? With every cell of your being, what are you so certain of that you would holler it from the edge of a canyon, or whisper it into the ear of a just born New Year’s baby?”
I just LOVE THAT! It gets you thinking, writing and not just “stuff” but deep, meaningful, true words that matter to YOU. Who cares if it matters to anyone else!
When was the last time you thought about how you want to feel?
So yesterday I outlined the way I want to feel using my Desire Map Day Planner. This planner focuses on how you want to feel, everyday and relates them to your major desired feelings and goals for the year. It generates ideas in ways to help your lifestyle, relationships, how you can serve, and generally how to be most productive to get what you want! I can tell already this is going to serve me well because I love outlining and planning my day, but being able to reflect on my life, what I am grateful for and how I can feel amazing all in one place is even better.
I wrote these feelings:
Beautiful and alive, deeply loved, joy, well, inspired by fears
and this is how those feelings translate into my intentional 2015:
- Live with less “stuff” and more meaning
- Create a business I am proud of
- Help others see themselves as the light and love of their souls
- Travel and write for and from my soul
- Extend my personal physical and emotional healing
This isn’t exclusively ALL I want to do in 2015 either but they are clear action points of intention I had for generating the feelings I want to cultivate for myself.
This can be anything and I believe you can have what you want if you set clear intentions to get there. For me, it helped to stop focusing on whatever end result there was going to be, like lose ten pounds in three months. And instead now on how attaining that goal will make me feel, joy, well, beautiful, alive, loved, etc.
So if your goal is to get stronger for example, some of your desires might be to feel beautiful, to feel strong, to feel empowered, to feel alive, or even to feel well.
When you understand it’s a feeling you’re chasing it makes the result so much more accessible and achievable because now you know exactly what you’re searching for.
Wishing you all love and a happy New Year!
xo,
Kari
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For your information, there are affiliate links included in my post. I’ve included them so you can access the resources I have talked about, but also so the seller knows that I referred you to them. You also may noticed there are image links to these same affiliates on my sidebar. This is so you can easily access them, and see what they look like. I don’t offer or represent anything I don’t already own and love, so please know that everything I recommend is for a genuine reason and belief in the product. These links also help in serving to support me and this blog! Thank you!
