Tag Archives: Luck

Are you feeling LUCKY today?

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Are you feeling LUCKY today?  I’m not talking about luck in the sense of go out and buy yourself a lottery ticket.  I’m talking about 4 fundamental concepts:  Love, Understanding, Compassion, and Kindness for Yourself.  Sure, it’s a quirky play on words but the idea is that we all can remember the word lucky and apply it to our emotions and well-being each day.

Here is how this works.  You, (me), or anyone having a tough day, feeling a little down, or simply just uninspired can think about LUCKY and what it means and how we are practicing it.  After all, I can imagine that if someone asks you if you feel lucky every day you may quickly respond no.  However, I believe that the more we practice LUCK the more we experience it as a natural state versus random and fleeting moments of coincidence.

The beautiful part about LUCK is that each of the actions support the other.  When we are feeling loving towards ourselves, we are more likely to feel compassion and kindness which leads to a deeper understanding.  If we begin thinking about how kind we are to self, then we instinctively draw upon love and compassion.  See, it’s almost fool-proof! I know, I know, it’s always easier said than done.  But that’s why we call it practice!

For today, and everyday, the challenge is simple:  ask yourself if you are feeling LUCKY and if the answer is no…then realize that you hold the key to change your own LUCK. Figure out a way to feel LUCK within yourself.  An easy trick is to think about what you would say to a close friend if you heard them citing the thoughts inside your head.  I mean, we all stick up for our friends when they mess up, make poor choices, or simply just feel blah. So use your best advice and embrace it within your own heart.

LUCK is not about making difficult experiences disappear or hurtful interactions to suddenly feel great or dismissing poor choices that have serious outcomes. It’s about using your best resource within yourself to get through whatever is happening with strength, hope, and love which ultimately allows you to navigate this crazy thing we call life.

Be intentional about how you treat yourself and ultimately your intentions will attract and support LUCK around you.  Just remember, none of us need a four-leaf clover or charm to feel fortunate, experience joy, practice gratitude, or find peace.  We have everything we need within us, we only have to choose to access it.  Have an awesome day and get your LUCK on!

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The practice of well-being: teaching, learning, and growing.

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I love the idea that sometimes we have to teach in order to learn.  It becomes more clear all the time that when I share my experiences with someone or teach them something new; I learn the most and ultimately…grow the most.  I used to think that we had to be some sort of expert before we could teach something.  Through my growth I have realized that there is no hard and fast rule that we must master a practice of life before we share it with others.  Especially when it comes to the idea of well-being.  After all, the ideas and concepts of hope, gratitude, joy, love, and happiness are all a practice.  As long as we acknowledge there is no absolute method that fits everyone the same, we will teach and learn through all of our interactions each day.  Through practice we learn how to be present and treasure moments that lift us and fill our hearts and then figure out how to let go of the ones that may not be as kind or inspiring.

There is something magical about teaching and sharing ideas that you are passionate about and believe so deeply within your heart. It’s not about getting people to identify or become aware of things the exact same as you, the magic is that they consider what they agree with and what makes sense for who they are.  It’s like a light within them that shouts “Wait a minute, I know myself and I believe this or I believe that.”  It is a glimpse of their inner wisdom and exploration of exactly who they are and have always been. It’s about creating a reference point to consider and navigate your own outlook, perceptions, and intuition.

The other magical thing is what happens for my own self during this process. I am reminded of my the things I value most and my priorities when I speak about concepts like happiness, satisfaction, love, and hope.  It is an amazing moment of rejuvenation that fills my spirit and calls me to pause and simply take it all in as I hear my own reminders of what truly matters.  It is also beautifully human and empowering to admit to a group that I am growing in awareness in things like ‘letting go’, ‘self-compassion’, and ‘growing in hope’ without claiming to be an expert or some perfect model of total calm each day.

The reality is that we all practicing at the level that we are conscious.  To increase our consciousness, we grow in awareness.  And to grow in awareness we sometimes have to be vulnerable and simply acknowledge that we are perfectly imperfect.

This is my intention:  keep growing in awareness through love, understanding, compassion, and kindness.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those four things spell out LUCK.  After all, luck is defined as “a force that brings good fortune”.  And what’s more powerful than Love, Understanding, Compassion, and Kindness? Whether you believe in LUCK or not; I am incredibly grateful to be able to experience so many opportunities to teach, learn, and grow every single day.

Being versus becoming

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Goodbye comfort zone and hello brand new territory….yep, that’s me; a complete novice writing a first blog.  I have no idea how much I am supposed or expected to share in a blog, so I will keep it short and to the point for now. I have been thinking about using this venue for some time and tonight I finally sat down and started this process.  Hence the title “being versus becoming”.  See, I am often thinking about what I can become, what I can learn, or what I need to do on some task list that exists either on a piece of paper somewhere or on a fragmented thought that I had earlier in the day.  And recently I have realized that I am so busy creating these lists, figuring out how to improve myself, and thinking about ways to get ahead that I have essentially become stuck in an inner state of chaos and criticism that bogs me down and keeps me from fulfilling my own potential.  So today, I am practicing ‘being’.  My goal is to continue  to practice each day and use this blog as my platform.

“Intentional Luck” stands for living my life of intentional Love, Understanding, Compassion, and Kindness. I want to be so many things, but the most important thing for me is to be true to myself.  And being true includes loving myself, understanding myself and the world I live in,  as well as practicing compassion and kindness for both myself and those around me.    I came up with this idea one day as I was talking with friends and realized that we were all going through challenges and all of us were being pretty hard on ourselves.  I sat down and thought, what is going on with me right now?  Why am I being so critical? Then I started asking myself, what is it that I need right now?  I came up with four things I needed….love, understanding, compassion, and kindness.  As I looked down at those four things, I laughed out loud because they all spelled LUCK.  Lucky was the last thing I was feeling at that moment.  But I had to ask myself whose was responsible for that feeling?  I mean, if I wasn’t feeling lucky, why not?  Now, when I catch my inner critic being a little too loud I try to pause and think which part of my luck is not active?  And how can I change that?  Don’t get me wrong, this is a work in progress.  But it sure is nice to have such an easy way to remember the most important things I need in my life and a quick method to take inventory of what’s lacking that may be creating an inner agitation or feeling of tension.

I know there is much for me to learn about loving and understanding myself as well as practicing self compassion and kindness. Some day when I am much older (and wiser) I will think back and smile with gratitude for all the experiences that have helped me learn how to live intentional luck with minimal effort.  Until then, I will document my ideas through this venue and simply enjoy being here today.