For the month of September, I am the featured PenScrapper and had the honor of designing a digital kit. I love art journals and could not think of anything more appropriate than a digital art journal kit. Head over to the site, download and enter the contest for the month. My challenge is to create a page about yourself that inspires and encourages you to be your most authentic self.

You must weed your mind as you would weed your garden.  ~Astrid Alauda

The mind has often been compared to a garden and our thoughts compared to seeds. If you don’t mind me asking, what kinds of seeds are you planting in your garden? What you think of yourself will eventually come out of your mouth, go into your ears and sink into your heart. You will start believing what you think. Knowing this, why do we not fill our minds with good things, good thoughts and speak those over our lives?

If you knew you only had 30 days to live, you would not tolerate the people around you saying bad things to you. You would surround yourself with positive influences that made you feel good. You would cherish everyday and moment because you knew they were numbered. You would plant seeds of encouragement, hope and love in those you love the most. You would let your light shine because you understand what is really important.

I read a message earlier today that said if you are sad, go out and do something for someone else who is sad. If you are lonely, help another lonely person not feel so alone. If you have been done wrong, go and find someone to do something good for. What I read into this message is the less you focus on your trials, the smaller they become. Instead, when you go and do something good for someone else, you reap the benefits two-fold. You were able to do something for another and you planted a seed in the process.

Can you do this for yourself today? Can you plant seeds of encouragement, hope and love in yourself today? Can you commit to not allowing one negative word about yourself come out of your mouth? I know you can, but are you willing?

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.

~Mary Anne Radmacher

One area I have set an intention is scheduling a regular bed time. At night, my mind races instead of settling down for rest. I seem to get my most creative ideas right before I go to sleep and I have stayed up trying to record these ideas. As a result, I am not getting the rest I need to get me through the next day. In fact, I have consumed more coffee in the past year because I am not resting. It has become a vicious cycle of replacing healthy foods with carbs and sugar, minimal exercise and caffeine, all in an effort to gain a little boost to get my morning going. I can tell you, none of these changes has made me feel better.

Over the course of this challenge, I am going to bed at a reasonable time that allows me a minimum of seven hours of rest a night. I am cutting out the caffeine and curbing my carbs and sugar and winding down earlier in the evening in an attempt to quiet my mind. I figure these are things I CAN do to cultivate intentional rest.

Tell me what you do to cultivate intentional rest.

For the next 30 days, I am living my life with intention. I am going to live the heck out of that dash. Join me if you like. Today,write about how you want your life to be different at the end of the 30 days. I am looking forward to this.

I believe I am in a holding pattern. No, I know I am.

There is no other explanation for the trials I am enduring at this point in my life. I admit, it has not been the easiest space to occupy. It has been downright painful and hurtful. I have been disappointed in someone I trusted with every area of my life. Having your trust violated, stomped on and destroyed leaves you beyond numb, beyond angry and beyond hurt…it just leaves you…abandoned. There is no worse feeling than to know that someone who proclaimed to care for you would simply abandon you on every level possible. But, I can tell you this. This ending is actually a new beginning for me.

My current holding pattern calls me to be still and be silent. It calls me to trust that there is a purpose, a plan and a process for what I am going through, and I find comfort in that. I am not feeling anxious about my future, as I know He has a good plan for my life. He is about to do a new thing and how can I not be excited about that? I believe attitude makes all the difference in how you endure trials. You can either complain and blame others for your problems or you can learn the lesson in the situation.

I am called to rest, now, not do. This morning, I felt this energy vibrating inside of me…it has me restless. I feel like I need to be doing something. Then I read this scripture: “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him…” Psalm 37:7 NIV. Well, that just about says it all. So, I will be still and I will on Him. I know my faith and patience are being tested. I have every intention of passing the test and moving beyond this current place.

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. ~Robert Frost

I read this quote earlier this week and the simplicity of it struck me. Regardless of what is going on in your life, it goes on. Good or bad, it goes on. Knowing this is so, why do we torture ourselves by lingering on what has happened in the past? I attended a women’s conference and one of the speakers explained how our memories are pictures we create in our head.  As humans, we also add emotion to those memories and end up reliving them as if they were happening in the present. If the memory is a bad one, this reliving is nothing more than self-inflicted torture.

Today, choose to stop torturing yourself with bad thoughts and memories. You are not here by mistake, but to live out your life with purpose and joy. May this be a day full of joy and peace for you.

This morning, though, I decided to approach the day differently. I decided to expect great things to happen to me. I expected favor. I was on alert about any and everything that could be a sign that “something” was getting ready to happen. It is amazing how  your day improves when you shift your attitude to the positive side. This is definitely a good thing.

I am dog tired and can not muster up a decent post right now if I tried. I read a great quote today and had to share:

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.
~ Emmanuel Teney

“Be yourself, don’t take anyone’s shit, and never let them take you alive.”

Gerard Way