Embracing Through a Summer Perspective

Monday // April 14 // 2014

When you believe that something is temporary, you can accept its differences. You can accept the place, person or situation exactly how they are and how they are showing up in your life. You don’t feel constricted because you know that soon, like most things, this too will change.

When you arrive in a new place, you aren’t trying to make it be exactly like you, because that’s the magic of it, it’s completely different and you accept that and appreciate the differences. It’s the same feeling as when you’re in the middle of summer, you become friends with those that you may have seen as different to you during the rest of the year. This is because you give yourself the permission to accept them for who they are and how they are showing up in your life, because it feels temporary. This is why the summer relationship may feel so blissfully intense; the walls are torn down and you enjoy the person for who they are because you aren’t trying to change them for the future. It’s easier to open up and fully show up for a situation when you know that later down the track you’re off the hook if things don’t work out. This flows out onto other experiences, for example a hostel roommate that you meet while traveling. They are totally different and unique, yet you embrace that about them. You embrace it with a different amount of acceptance than you may have if you showed up to your first day of college and met them, knowing that you would need to be roommates for the rest of the year. Continue Reading…

Following your heart with ease

Monday // March 24 // 2014

There are moments in life when we are faced with a big decision. These decisions feel like they are larger than life, because both choices will steer us into two completely different directions. Sometimes we think we know how one scenario will play out, and other times we feel like either way we go, we are jumping into the unknown. Sometimes one feels risky, while the other feels safe, but often the risky one feels like it is calling us. The risky one is tied to doing something that you would love to do, or tied to following your heart, but might be afraid to do.

When making these big decisions, it’s easy for us to pull out the lists that are filled with pros and cons. It’s easy for us to reach for our phone and call every friend and family member that will listen. Ultimately, It’s easy for us to make it completely harder on ourselves that it needs to be. I love discussing my dreams and plans with close family and friends, but I love doing this after I have already made up my decision. It’s easy to get caught up in our head about the benefits of doing one thing, or how the future will look like with the other. An easier, more enjoyable, approach is to literally just feel what it feels like to think about the two scenarios.

The first thing to ask yourself when fear comes in about a particular choice is: Even if I’m afraid… does it feel expansive? Nurturing? Exciting? Aligned?

Adventure Seeker: Open to Synchronistic Possibilities

Monday // February 10 // 2014

There comes a point on this journey where you no longer question whether you should take a risk or not, or go on a wild adventure. You no longer wait for them to come to you so that you can ponder on their existence or test the waters within yourself. It becomes your way of life. You expect the wildness. You crave that sense of adventure daily. You wake up believing that something incredible, something synchronistic, or something adventurous could be coming at any moment.

This is when you get out of your own way. This is when you are free.

You no longer wait for fearless situations to come in so that you can outweigh the risk, or talk yourself up into a frenzy before going through with it. You no longer wait for things to be fearless about. You create them. You seek out people and situations that are assignments. Each step you take, you ask yourself, “How can I grow? How can I grow closer to myself? How can we co-create wild experiences that are freeing, fun and make us feel alive?” Continue Reading…

“Spirtual” Takes on the Meaning that you Create for it.

Thursday // January 30 // 2014

I thought that when you lead a spiritual life, you needed to be “good” and follow a certain path in order to feel aligned. I love remembering the truth of where Don’t Tell Summer came from. It came from the fuel inside my friends and I that was ignited by this rebellious feeling. We felt like there was another way to live; free.

One day my Dad said to me, “You can lead a spiritual life and still raise Hell.” To me that meant connecting with what feels true for you in every moment, without judgment and questioning whether it’s connected to the right path.

There’s this feeling I get when I’m completely aligned and inspired. It’s wild, beautiful and free. I love hip-hop and surfer-grunge music; I love traveling with my friends into the unknown. There’s something sexy about it because you feel reckless just absorbing it. It feels real because you aren’t trying to make it any more pure than it is. It is in those moments when you feel wild and undeniably free, that inspiration pours out faster than you can write and so all there is left to do is just be; to feel the freedom that you’ve created without changing anything.

The more I allow who I really am to just be, the more I allow myself to be inspired by the things that excite my soul. This means not criticizing myself on the days when I feel more aligned listening to a lyric than an affirmation. It means meditating when I would love to, not because I think that I need to in order to live a spiritual life. That presence of an inner spark doesn’t judge anything as good or bad, it speaks loudly and truthfully. If something makes you feel alive and fuels your soul, it’s true for you. Feel the cues when you hear that song, watch that movie and drive in the car with that friend. What are you doing and who are you with when you feel that overwhelming sense of, I am alive.

Fearless Risk Taking: Embracing Vulnerability

Monday // January 20 // 2014

Nothing is more freeing than jumping into the unknown with your gut as your only road map…

But what happens after you’ve gone for it, after you’ve taken the risk?

Whenever I face a fear, I feel this sense of ownership of life. I run around feeling blissful and free, like love is on my side… but what I’ve found after that reckless feeling of “I did it” comes vulnerability. When you hide behind a fear and allow your inner power to surface it can feel a little odd. It’s almost like you have become so free, but the energy around you is suspended while the things in your life are shifting in order to mirror your fearlessness.

Something comforting to remember is that you’ve gone through this before; Risk taking is a cycle. Think about the first time that you told someone you loved them. You were probably freaking out, then expressed your feelings and felt like you were on cloud nine, then all of a sudden a wave of vulnerability flooded over you, but then you settled back into your body and felt grounded and free.

When you take a risk you’re literally agreeing to vulnerability, and there’s nothing more beautiful than that.