As you know from this post, I’ve had a little more free time on my hands lately. Especially since my new blogging job at Beliefnet has been temporarily stalled because of all the increase in traffic that’s been landing there lately (good news for my future, bad news for me now).

On the bright side, I’ve had ample time to work on my dreams: a book I hope to publish one day, a copywriting job, and my latest project (recovering a vintage typewriter I bought and shared on Facebook over the weekend).

Sunshine with a Chance of Crazy

Well in the midst of all my applying, I’ve gotten a surprising number of callbacks and interests. There were at least a handful that made my stomach tingle (you know the feeling you get when you really like someone? That kind).

But here I am, feeling that same doubt. Because I’ve gone and done something super crazy! Crazier than leaving a job for no job in tow. I’ve said, “No” to all of them. Why? Because they’d require a sacrifice I can’t foresee making right now-giving up the freedom and flexibility that comes with freelancing and telecommuting. Am I crazy or what?

I have to admit that turning down jobs, especially writing jobs that I would love, seems not only illogical, but quite frankly a little bit of stupid. But I can’t give up now. I think following your dreams take faith. The kind of faith that makes you walk forward without any certainty that something or someone will catch you if you fall.

If it sounds too crazy for you, think of it this way. If you were single and wanted to find your soul mate, would you get together with each person you met that was available just because they were available? Or would you risk turning a few down because you had faith that you would eventually meet the right person or at least a few date worthy candidates?

What Would You Give Up for Your Dreams?

I heard someone say once that you can have everything you want in life, but not all at one time. What’s required of you to fulfill that dream is to give up something else in return. For some, it’s family over career. For others, it’s a willingness to wait a lifetime in order to finish that book or travel to Europe. But whether it’s time, financial security or stability, it’s worth asking yourself this:

What am I willing to give up for the purpose of pursuing my dreams?

When I’m stuck in a rut, when I’m feeling like my chips are down, the one thing that lifts me up better than an ice-cream cone on a sweltering hot day is soaking up the light from other inspiring businesses.

This past week I heard of two that really got me going and I wanted to share their stories with you here.

Teen Beats Sharks

I first heard about Maggie Bradshaw on Shark Tank. (One of my favorite mindless reality TV shows.) Even if you haven’t seen it before, the title really says it all. People looking for investors to fund their latest invention give a brief presentation to a financially wealthy panel (the sharks) and get ready for them to swarm. It’s a fun show to watch. But this time I was more afraid for Maggie and her younger 12-year old sister.

Not only did Maggie do better than most participants in the show, but all 5 of the sharks wanted to invest in her company. She was assertive, determined and more knowledgeable about business and profit margins that I was at that age. She held her ground, negotiated, didn’t show an once of fear and ended up getting 3 sharks to invest in her million dollar company. Maggie’s just 16. And her company? Necklaces made out of used bottle caps. Genius! You can find out more about m3 girl designs here.

A Truly Inspiring Bee

I haven’t met Bumble owner Mary Heffernan except seeing her in passing as I left her charming restaurant/play cafe, but she still inspires me. As soon as I walked into the cottage that housed her dreams, I was smitten. What I most admire about Heffernan is her out of the box thinking. She created a business out of what she felt was a need-a place where adults could enjoy eating out again with their kids. The cottage is beautifully and glamorously decorated so much so that I didn’t even realize it was a place parents bring their kids until I looked through the aquarium and saw children looking back at us from the next room. What a brilliant idea! Not only that but the items on her menu are organic and locally sourced. And I’m a big lover of details so I couldn’t help but adore the tiles in the bathroom shaped like what else? Honeycombs.

These are just a few business and I’m sure you have your own list of people and companies that make you want to be and do better in your own life. Who are they and what is about them that inspire you?

I’m signing off with one more bit of inspiration. George Lucas recently sat down to talk with Oprah on OWN and I had to jot down what he said about passion. Here it is:

“You sit down to do something at 7 o’clock in the morning and you get hungry and you realize it’s 7 o’clock at night. That’s your passion. That’s what you love. Find something like that, that you can make your career…The idea of making money. The idea of being famous. The idea of becoming powerful in essence is meaningless. It’s only that you’re happy and you’re only going to be happy doing what you love.”

I’ve been dabbling here and there with painting my own mini calendars. But I’ve been craving something more. So I devoted a whole night to enjoying the pure sensation of painting.

Although it’s no van Gogh or da Vinci, it’s still my own. And plus, I know you guys won’t judge (too harshly) right? Anyway, engaging in something creative feels healing to my soul. Here’s something I whipped up in a water color painting fury.

And for a fun sepia version:

It’s inspired by Sedona sunsets and the colors from my hometown of Oahu.

Have you been whipping up something crafty yourself lately?

I’ve been on a crazy crafting binge since 2012 and have stocked up 3 weeks of creative posts to share with you. But I’d love to know what you’ve been working on. If you’ve got it, flaunt it in the comments below.

{pinterest}

I was going to skip this post. Mostly because I already wrote one here and here, and I’m trying my darnedest to reduce my workload and learn to savor more. Plus, Valentine’s Day is such a commercial holiday. All that pressure to get the most thoughtful gift or the most expensive one is exhausting and unnecessary. Not to mention what it does to people who are single.

{This just in. Imagine this as a news ticker running horizontally below this post. I did a Twitter scan and realize I’m not the only one who’s not thrilled about V-day. The people I’m following either hate it, avoid it or spending time doing more fun things (running, etc.)}

It’s not that I don’t enjoy presents or celebrating special occasions, but I just don’t appreciate the pressure that comes with it. I think it affected me more being single than it means something to me being married. It’s just a reminder that society thinks you’re not complete enough if you don’t have a romantic partner to share chocolates and wine with.

It’s like Deepak Chopra said:

“If love is universal, no one can be left out.”

So today while you’re going about your day, take time to remake the holiday.

Yes I feel lucky and fortunate and blessed that I have someone I love to share my life with. But I also believe that special someone could be a life-long friend, family member, pet or even yourself.

For today, my husband and I are going to have a vegetarian lunch at a Buddhist church and probably spend the night having dinner and watching TV (like what we normally do). And somewhere in-between I’m going to indulge in something nice with the person I’ve neglected too often-myself. I hope you’ll join me in doing the same.

Happy Valentine’s!

I used to admire friends who could end a relationship when everything was still hunky dory because they knew it wasn’t the right one for them. It was a strong indication of their ability to follow their instincts and trust their own intuition.

I have always been a doubter trying to practice a little more faith. But recently all that leaning I was doing on the side of stability and security made me feel stuck. It also made me feel like a coward.

How could I possibly keep blogging here about courage, if I was living life with my tail between my legs?

So after 6 months of hemming and hawing and feeling stuck, I decided to do something CrAzY!

I decided to follow my dreams, listen to my intuition and abandon that little voice inside my head that said, “Who do you think you are?!” And I did it anyway.

After two years of loving my job at Psych Central (I was even recently mentioned in this article about my work for the company), I decided it was time to say goodbye. And I did it the careless way, the way people say you should never do it. I quit without a backup (with just a few gigs-a.k.a. my column with The Writer magazine and my biweekly blogs for Psych Central).

I decided I wanted to return to writing and not just editing. I wanted to stop being afraid and take a big risk. And so I did.

Making the Right Decision is Scary

Although I think I made the right decision, the process was still scary. I had no excuses, no upcoming jobs and a lot of self-doubt. I realized then that I DEFINITELY made the right decision. Why?

I was catching up on old Oprah’s Lifeclass reruns when I heard Iyanla Vanzant talk about self-growth. She said humorously and truthfully:

“If you’re not living your life at such a certain level, you have some fear, you’re living too small. If you don’t have some trembling then you’re living too small…If pee is not running down your leg, you are living too small because that means you’re in control and you’re too comfortable and you can handle it. When you are comfortable, you are not growing.”

Then guess what happened?

I saw a job ad for a writer/editor position. But not just any position. It was for a company that I had been dreaming about writing for since I began full-time freelancing, about 5 years ago. I subscribed to all of their email newsletters and tweet their posts. I have been waiting for an opening for a very long time. And there it was. I was afraid and applied anyway.

I received a call two days later. I found out that the position was in-house and since moving to Virginia wasn’t on our agenda, I was pretty disappointed. But decided to ask if maybe there were other opportunities available in which I could write telecommute instead.

Can you guess what happened next?

Yep. They had an opening for a blogger position on their health website. And they had been looking for awhile. I couldn’t believe my luck. Or faith? Or intuition?

So I have my own column there and you’ll be able to read about emotional health and wellness 4 days a week on my new blog Happy Haven! I’ll still be posting here, my writing site and my column for The Writer too. Hope to connect with you on one of the them soon!

I thought about sending traditional Valentine’s Day cards from the store this year. It was a no-brainer. But when I really thought about it, it just didn’t make any sense. I had hundreds of extra envelopes leftover from my wedding invitations and Paper-Source blank bookmarks that I never used. Thinking that it would be cheaper and more personal to create my own, I decided to scrap my original boring idea and work on a homemade bookmark/V-day card instead.

Here are the results:

The middle cards were super easy. For the second time, I reused old mini calendars (because I loved the graphic design on them), and cut mini hearts out of the leftovers. I used double-sided tape to adhere them to the premade bookmarks and then tied leftover wedding ribbon through each. The bookmark on the right was hand-painted and the first bookmark on the left was created with beads, leftover cross-stitch thread, paint and hearts from the mini calendars. They were the perfect recipe for reuse and upcycle Valentine’s day cards.

I just threw in a local chocolate and the bookmark into these perfectly sized wedding invite envelopes and I was done. Hope my family likes them!

Oh and I found leftover labels too. It was a great way to add my stamp and send them off with a short message.

while I sit down and sleep.

{found on pinterest}

Lately, I’ve been having dreams that tell me things like, “Slow down. Savor more.” No joke. But the irony is that I can’t sleep. I take this as a sign that my health’s wonky again so I probably need to take it down a notch.

This also means checking Facebook and Twitter may be excruciating these days because it’s an energy sucker that reminds me of all the things I won’t be doing in the next few days.

Forgive me while I take a slumber and take care of myself.

Have you done that lately?

Have you been running the never-ending treadmill because you’re “dying” to catch up with the rest of the world? Or have you been shutting down early these days in favor of sweet slumber and family QT (quality time)? I hope you’ve been choosing the latter. And you don’t need a blog wake up call to remind you that walking on the wild side isn’t meant to be a permanent thing. Unless you want to wake up with an irreversible disease. Not fun.

But if you do need a wake up call, I’m happy to offer it. Read day 1 of my Get More by Doing Less Challenge to start.

We’re barely gracing the surface of 2012, let’s keep trudging on. But can we do it at a turtle pace? Can we walk quietly for the sake of feeling the dirt beneath our feet instead of running quick to get to the end of the road?

Valentine’s for You

And while I’m at it, I’m vowing to make February the month of self-love. Anyone else with me?

Instead of paper hearts and sweet chocolates, I’m devoting the short month to taking care of myself. (P.S. Part of my self-care was getting crafty so I made both in a DIY Valentine for family members. Will share those soon.)

This means:

• you have permission to make a dent on your couch for a whole day watching bad TV and catching up on never read, but meant to read magazines.
• it’s okay if the laundry isn’t done, the dishes are piled up and the floor needs sweeping.
• saying, “No” is not only an option, but that it may be necessary.
• saying, “Yes” to yourself is mandatory.
• that you will for one hour a week (at least) put yourself first.
• that it’s okay to spoil yourself and forgive those that see it as selfish and don’t see the value of doing so. {they’re just jealous}

For me, this means a haircut I’ve been meaning to get, more time lying doing nothing, meditating and feeling okay with missing the gym every once in awhile. I vow to take care of myself before I get sick. I don’t want to get a double dose of sickies again (I caught the flu and a cold in one month recently).

If you’re in and want to celebrate with me, let me know what you’re going to vow to do this February.

{flickr photo by: creativedc}

If you asked me if I was creative person, I’d hem and haw for a bit. You see as a child, I was very much the creative elf. In the midst of chaos and stress, I found solitude, peace and stability in the process of being crafty (a.k.a. being sneaky). I once, for example, made a ruckus by stringing together old soda cans and tied them to my closet. {Just in case someone tried to sneak in where they were not wanted.}

But I certainly didn’ t think I was creative. More like rebellious. I painted pink butterflies on my mom’s white walls, for example. Or nerdy. I often cross-stitched until I was cross-eyed and my hands hurt. Or sneaky. I once sat under a table and tape recorded a conversation my uncles were having while drinking beer and playing cards.

Still I didn’t think I was creative. Maybe just bored.

The word carried so much meaning. I didn’t want to pretend like I thought I was Van Gogh. And I wasn’t trying to be. I simply enjoyed the process of turning nothing into something.

I still do.

The Fear of Being Creative

But as I grew older, I started to hide behind the word. I put away my crafty tools. Told others I was anything, but creative. And even moaned and groaned whenever I was forced to do anything artsy.

And I stayed away from doing so for awhile. That’s until I started to feel a lull in my life. Writing was my passion, but I felt like it had gone stale. Starting my own blog inspired me to start creating again.

I began painting like a crazy fiend. I made necklaces and picture frames and other simple crafts here. It was liberating! Even though nobody was buying it, praising it or even seeing it, I felt sheer pleasure just from being in the moment of creating.

Why Creating Can Cause Happiness

I didn’t know there was a legitimate reason why I derived so much happiness from creating until I read Martha Beck’s latest article, “Now, Don’t Get Excited…” in O magazine. In it, Beck says:

“…while reading up on the latest research in positive psychology, I discovered a two-word instruction that reliably ushered me onto the plains of peace when I couldn’t force my brain to just ‘be still.’ Here it is: Make something. You see, creative work causes us to secrete dopamine, a hormone that can make us feel absorbed and fulfilled without feeling manic…Research indicates that we’re most creative when we’re happy and relaxed, and conversely, that we can steer our brains into this state by undertaking a creative task.”

Beck says engaging in a creativity activity, not only increases self-efficacy, not to mention a feeling of accomplishment, but wards off depression. Wahoo for that!

It’s just another excuse reason why I vow to keep creating throughout 2012. It makes life fun. It reminds me to not take myself too seriously. It teaches me to accept my mistakes and shows me that sometimes mistakes end up being beautiful, necessary and meaningful.

What compels you to create?

When I was scoping out Anthropologie over the holidays, I caught site of some amazing baubles. Some I wanted for my own. If only I had a unlimited budget, I’d grab them all.

But sadly, I could only ogle them. And go home with a few ideas to make them mine, but cheaper.

Here’s my inspiration: 

Gorg right? It’s called Sudsy Glass Strand and sadly they no longer have it at Anthropologie. And they don’t have the price either. But I do remember it was expensive. Too expensive for me anyway. But I also saw this as an exciting challenge. And decided to make it my own.

How I DID IT:

Basically, I took my skills from a one day class in jewelry making that I learned over a decade ago. Then, I grabbed these clear jewels from Michael’s. (I couldn’t find ones exactly like those at Anthropologie. But these were a lot cheaper.) And then I threaded them through fishing line. (My dad’s fishing line and his rusty pliers come in handy for jewelry making.) I used my crimp tube, spring ring, and close ring to finish. It took about 10 minutes or less to do it. And I ended up with this:

While it’s heavier than most of my necklaces, it gives what my husband calls a “fancy” look to it. And that makes me pretty happy.

Got anything that makes you feel fancy, but secretly is pretty cheap? Share please.

]]> http://theinspiringbee.com/2012/02/creative-friday-crown-jewels-for-cheap/feed/ 3 http://theinspiringbee.com/2012/02/creative-friday-crown-jewels-for-cheap/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheInspiringBee/~3/SurKlv-SLsQ/ http://theinspiringbee.com/2012/02/pursuing-your-dream-career-in-a-rotten-economy/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:27 +0000 Brandi http://theinspiringbee.com/?p=3674

{via pinterest; originally weheartit.com.}

I’m getting ready to reveal some big news here. But in the meantime, I wanted to share something short, but hopefully meaningful.

I started this blog a few years ago because I had a profound belief that if every person did what they were born to do, the world would be a happier place. Children would grow up with happier parents. Parents wouldn’t feel resentful and jaded. People might even be kinder to one another because they wouldn’t be living in a repressed state.

When we are free to be who we are, it is like coming home. My hope in writing here was to help free others to live their own dreams, whatever that may be.

While the blog has changed a lot and grown, I still feel strongly about my purpose. When I hear friends and family complain about the bad economy or hear reporters talk about the worsening job market, I try to stay hopeful. I want to rise above the anxiety and fear with hope and blind faith. The only other choice is to believe the worst, immerse ourselves in negativity and consequently sabotage any efforts we have to rise above it.

But I doubted others felt this way. And of all people, I hardly thought financial guru Suze Orman would agree with my thinking. But she went and surprised me.

On her show The Money Class on OWN, she said the following to a mother and military vet who found herself unemployed:

“Why do you want to be a waitress when your dream job is to be a photographer? You should pursue your dreams…a job is not a career, a career is a passion.”

Amen Ms. Orman! It thrills me to no end that she feels this way. Even in a bad economy, you can own a dream and there is no shame in pursuing one. It is not selfish. It is not asking too much. It is something we all deserve-if a dream is as big as Walt Disney’s and if it’s as small as wanting to learn how to be a photographer. Maybe you’re working full-time and still want to be an author or an entrepreneur or a painter. Don’t give up on your dreams! Keep to it. The only sure way you won’t get there is if you give up and never pursue it.