Tag: Christianity

Cleaning · Faith · Family · Home · Living with Intention · Motivation · Self Realization · Uncategorized

When You’re Tired, Rest.

Aurora2 Comments

“Let yourself rest.”

If you’re like me, you’re not very good at being sick. While I’d love to tell you that I’m someone who has a perfectly balanced life, filled with feelings of full accomplishment and getting plenty of sleep, the reality is, most times I find myself to be the person burning the candle at both ends. Every once in a while, this all catches up to me, and my body won’t allow me to keep going in the manor in which I’ve been pushing. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

So here I was, plugging, plugging and plugging away at work life, home life and all-the-life-in-between, and I just needed to stop and rest. Ever get so sick that your body will literally not allow for you to keep going? That was this girl right here. Even as my sickness rapidly knocked me down, I tried fighting it and refused to believe I was getting sick.

Why do we do that?

Seriously… why the heck do we do that?

I’ll tell you why I do—— society (friends, our job, strangers around us, social norms), all show us that we should be go-go-go, and if we stop and take a break, we’re lazy, or we’ll be passed by the person who refuses to stop.

I have literally thought when sick or needing a rest, “Ugh but I could be doing __________ or ________. I wanted to get ________ done. I need to get _________ to _________before _______. All things that could wait until you’re feeling better… but we tell ourselves we should be getting done now! And when I’m in go-go-go mode, I know I’m not living my healthiest life. I’m not drinking enough water, exercising, putting healthy foods in my body— that’s all out the window, because I have something better and more important I need to take care of. (I just rolled my eyes at myself as I typed that).

What is more important that your physical and mental health?

Nothinngggggggggggggggggggggg.

I got to the point 2 weeks ago when I was sick (I think I had a strand of the flu… fever, chills, cough, wheezing, etc.), where I legit made a deal with God. Yes, I was so ill I was talking aloud to the Big G, and I said, “God, if you could help take this illness away from me, I promise to never take advantage of my health again.” I know, super dramatic, but truthfully, it’s how I felt. When you’re taking a bunch of meds, using an inhaler to breathe and keeping your husband and dog up all night, you start to think, ooookkkkkkk how can I help this to never happen again???  Of course, you can’t help the germs floating around us, but there is plenty of things I could change in my life to help lesson my chances of getting sick like this. (Ever hear of vitamins Aurora??)

The biggest lesson of all here though, is that: It Is OKAY To Rest. It’s 100% OKAY. It’s okay to unplug, take time from work, lay on the couch (and binge watch Queer Eye on Netflix) and relaxxxxxxxxxx. If your body or your mind need it, you need to listen.

Have you had an experience similar to mine? What did you say to yourself when you finally stopped and allowed yourself to rest? Did you talk to the Big G like me?

Thanks for reading friends, and wherever you are, go grab a vitamin C or two.

 

To putting our health first,

-Aurora

 

 

 

Faith · Family · Friendship · Home · Housekeeping · Living with Intention · Self Realization · Uncategorized

Our Heat Pump Broke… And I’m Happy It Did!

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Life Quote: Remember, most of the stress in your life comes from the way you respond, not the way life is. Adjust your attitude, and all that stress will disappear.

I sound crazy right? Our heat pump in our home, BROKE, and I am happy that it did. And if you asked me how I felt about our heat going out (in the middle of winter, mind you) 2 weeks ago, I was not feeling the way I do now.

As a matter of fact, I was worried, stressing out over cost and feeling a strain in our home that normally isn’t there. Yes, I know…

“Welcome to being a homeowner…”

Honestly, if one more person said that to me that first week of dealing with this, I may have burst. The stress and anxiety that came with this situation wasn’t because we didn’t understand things like this happen as homeowners, it was deeper than that. It was the tension felt over our current financial situation, the worried/panic filled initial response and honestly, bad communication.

So why in the HELL am I happy this happened?

41 Motivational And Inspirational Quotes You're Going To Love

I am a huge believer in seeing the silver lining to all situations. No… not in the second they happen… we’re all entitled to having a moment of freaking out, but after the fact, I like to take a look back and reflect on situations like this. What if anything could I have done differently, what did I learn, what am I proud of, etc.

There are 3 main reasons I am grateful our heat pump broke and the lessons I learned because of it:

  • Faith, Family and Friends.
    • Time and time again, our family and friends show up when we need them most. I will never take for granted the amazing people in our lives who offered electric heaters, words of encouragement, connections to HVAC businesses and amazing advice about a topic we knew little about. Tough times show you who shows up FOR you. It’s a refreshing reminder of how much people care about you. Due to all of this assistance, #2 happened!
  • Remembering it’s okay to ask questions.
    • I put out on FB that we needed some help, and my friend’s mom reached out to me immediately. Turns out her husband has owned Indoor Comfort Specialists Inc. here in the Lehigh Valley for over 30 years. He came over the next morning and looked at our unit, offered advice on whether or not to fix or replace all together, then asked a few questions about our warranty and why the parts weren’t covered. This conversation lead me to call the manufacturer back, not accept the first answer I received, asked more questions, and ultimately, the company found an error in our warranty and was able to get the parts fixed. FOR FREEEEEE. GUYS!… this is probably the biggest lesson of all-  if something doesn’t feel right, or if you have questions, ASK THEM. The road to getting our parts for free had a lot of twists and turns, but if I never asked the questions, and accepted the original “your warranty is expired,” we wouldn’t have saved the thousands of dollars that we have!
      • Lehigh Valley peeps– if we had to replace everything, we would have gone to Indoor Comfort Specialists because they’re AMAZING! Great customer service, locally built successful business and the nicest, most genuine owner/employees on the planet. Definitely give them your business.
  • Better Communication in our relationship.
    • Yikes did this one put my husband and I to the tesssssssssssssst! As a couple that rarely gets into arguments, this situation definitely had us both stressed out and communicating like shit poorly to one another. I learned through this experience the importance of understanding that we all react differently to stress and communicate in our own way when under stress. I needed to jump right in and go into problem solving mode, wanted to talk it through, etc. while my husband needed time to process, think of different solutions and kept more to himself. Our different responses to what was going on made us feel tension, some frustration and ultimately, alone. Looking at it from this end, I realize that not having many arguments (while wonderful), lead to us not knowing how different our responses would be, and what that meant. In the days following all of this, my husband and I had a nice long talk about what went down and how we communicated to each other and why. This not only makes me love my husband even more (I love life convos with him, and that he likes them, too), but I know it’s a healthy conversation that will help in the future when the next stressor arises.

Thankful for being blessed with good friends

So, I am happy our heat pump broke. I’m happy because it reminded me of so many positive relationships in my life, gave me a lot of life lessons I know will help in the future and ultimately, strengthened my relationship.

To the universe– I think I have gained what I need from this lesson, if you could chill with the home ownership issues for a bit, I’d appreciate it 😊

To always learning and growing… ♥

-Aurora

Community Giving · Counseling · Dreams · Entrepreneur · Faith · Family · Friendship · Goal Digger · Goals · Motivation · Paying It Forward · Self Realization · Tribes · Uncategorized

Happy News in the Media

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Every once in awhile, I come across some really amazing and heartwarming stories on the internet. Below are a bunch I’ve posted on The Weekly Sparkle Facebook Page that have touched a lot of my followers. If you need a pick me up today, here is your dose of Positivity and human to human kindness going on around us ✨✨

Truck Drivers Save a Suicidal Man’s Life

Two Men From Different Walks of Life Enjoy an Impromptu Basketball Game

Lehigh Valley Couple Creates Give Back Tournament to Help Local Non-Profits Each Year- 2018 Benefactor Announced

Women Can Hear For The First Time And Gets Proposed To

Man Gets a Surprise Thank You From Children He Saved During the Holocaust

Will Smith Talks About Who You Surround Yourself With- Who is Fanning Your Flames?

Please send more videos my way in the comments if I should add them to a future post!!

✨✨- Aurora

Community Giving · Counseling · Dreams · Entrepreneur · Faith · Friendship · Goal Digger · Goals · Housekeeping · Motivation · Networking · New Year · Paying It Forward · Self Realization · Tribes · Uncategorized

Why you can Begin, Again

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I’ve thought about these 2 words, almost obsessively, for the last month and a half. Begin Again. Aurora, you can BEGIN.AGAIN. 

It’s funny, a new year starts and all of a sudden you’re given this feeling that everything can start fresh. 11:59 changing to 12:00 on January 1st sparks something that gives you the feeling that you can do anything this upcoming year. For all of the social media posts that I see stating things like “New Year, New Me,” Or “This Year is My Year,” I also see the ones telling us that we don’t need a new year to start something new. That we don’t need a new year to wipe the slate clean, start over, get a new job, leave that lousy relationship, lose the weight, begin the hobby etc. I always fell in the category of the first group of people, because the new year, to me, felt like an auto-delete of anything you’ve been unhappy with, and provides the (whether you like it or not) birth of something new.  It’s a fresh start.

This new year was different for me though- I didn’t make many changes I was hoping to, to jump start 2018. I began the year sick, had a sudden loss of someone close to my family and found that after all of this died down, I wanted to rest. Rather than propel myself into my “New Year New Me” attitude, I wanted to take a breather.

And the above, really got me thinking.

What are the things I want to change this year? Why do I want to change them and what’s the motivation to do so? Why did I have to start January 1st, and why can’t I start anytime? While the excitement of a new year has always been something to motivate me, the reasons WHY I want to make these changes should be enough to motivate me to get going. To begin, again.

So starting with the publishing of this post, I’m giving myself permission to BEGIN again. It’s not 1/1/18, nor did the clock turning to midnight last night mean anything spectacular… it just meant it’s my day to be ready to press play. What am I pressing play on?

  1. Lent begins tomorrow. That means, for Catholics, preparing for the death and resurrection of Jesus. AKA I’m gonna continue attending church weekly and being more mindful of prayer and the big G!
  2. I need to get my work out on!  I know when I’m stressed or feeling low, that a good work out can boost my energy and help me feel more productive throughout the day. This means, 3+ more gym visits a week and minding my diet. I also think this will include runs with my pup… because she loves that!
  3. Reading my mountain of books at home before buying more. I’ve been averaging 1 every 2 weeks, so, so far so good.
  4. Reestablishing connections with the family and friends in my life that I haven’t spoken with as much as I’d like to. Sometimes you have to be the one to initiate, and it’s better to help build than to wait. My brother is doing this one too, so having that reminder helps too!
  5. Get more sleep. There is no explanation needed here.
  6. Lastly, I’m going to put my positivity and inspirational attitude to the test. I’ve always been proud of the way I carry myself and engage others with my warmth and excitedness for life. Some things in my life have gotten me to feeling a little unlike myself, so I’m going to work harder to put my best attributes forward.

Is there anything you need to Begin Again?

I encourage you and pray that you do it… because you owe it to yourself to!

To beginning again, cheers.

-Aurora

Counseling · Entrepreneur · Faith · Friendship · Goal Digger · Goals · Motivation · Networking · Paying It Forward · Self Realization · Tribes · Uncategorized

Of All The Things That Happened, What Didn’t?

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C7C2C468-050D-4046-B613-FDA41CB94E98Sometimes you need to thank God for what didn’t happen. Thank Him for the things He’s stopped that you knew nothing about.

How deep is this? Trust me, I know. But it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, especially as we head into the time of year thinking about things we are thankful for, spending time with loved ones, exchanging gifts etc. We all have the scenarios in our lives that we wish played out differently. Maybe it’s a lost relationship, a negative situation or argument or even that one job you wanted to get that never worked out. God’s plan is so much bigger than ours that we can’t begin to fathom it’s greatness and complexity.

And let’s talk about gratitude- It’s so much easier to be thankful for something when you wanted it and now appreciate having it. How about the things we never had to endure or go through because God stopped them from happening? There are very few times in our life where we can see something almost happened and didn’t (and we become grateful), but what about the things we can’t see? I’ll tell you what- these thoughts alone are enough to make me grateful.

To know that God has had my back my whole life and continues to do so, regardless of my continued praise and appreciation that I may forget to show sometimes. How amazing it is to have the ultimate spiritual, mental, emotional and physical bodyguard, even if you forget to say thanks every once in awhile.

Thank you for all the things that didn’t happen.

-Aurora

Friendship · Goals · Motivation · Self Realization · Uncategorized

Viewing Battles as Blessings

Aurora1 Comment

“If you saw the size of the blessing coming, you would understand the magnitude of the battle you are fighting”

Have you ever gone through a rough patch? My guess is that your answer is probably “yes,” since if you’re reading this you’re most likely human and that comes with the territory. Life is not always easy– which I know I am not the first to tell you this, but sometimes the going truly gets tough… and your response to these moments are pretty important. Take it from me- about 3 months ago I was at a point that felt pretty low: I was miserable in my job, I was being forced to move out of my rental and my loving, amazing Grandmother passed away.

The “Everything Happens in Threes” saying completely applied to my life, and I thought that if a 4th thing occurred, I would break.

As a positive-minded person, of course I knew things would get better; As a person full of faith, I knew God had bigger, better plans for me and was with me; As a person with an amazing husband, family and friends, I knew there were people that would not let me fall and that would have my back along the way. This doesn’t make the rough time any more bearable, nor does it make the pain/sadness/worry/insecurity pass any faster- because you don’t know at the time how good life can be in the future. You’re stuck in the “now.” But hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20. Would it have made any of the feelings I had at the time better if I could see the future? Maybe not, but maybe if I knew life would be amazing now, back then, the anxiety over the unforeseen future would be gone. Which for me personally, was the biggest part.

THE GOOD THING IS THOUGH…

…when you finally reach the light at the end of the dark tunnel, only then can you understand why the battle was worth it.

Every decision, every road block, any negativity or sadness you faced- it lead you here. Now that I’ve reached the end of my tunnel, I can tell you that the blessings have been worth the battle, even though it was hard to see when the light at the end of the tunnel was only a speck. So if you’re going through the battle now, I can tell you IT GETS BETTER, and although it’s easier to read than believe, everything you are looking for is through the tunnel. To reach the blessings you need to go through the battle.

I recently began my dream job (Seriously… I’m so grateful!), am moving into my new home with my husband (that we LOVE!!) and I have extreme peace with my Grandmothers passing and know that she is with me always and that I’m a better person for knowing her.

If the battle is huge, the blessings are BIGGER!!!! If you’re in the dark, keep going!! If you’ve reached the end of your tunnel, good!

To the battles that help us appreciate the blessings,

Aurora

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The Meaning Of Lent and Giving Up Things you LIKE!

Aurora2 Comments

Lent is here!!!! I can’t believe this time of year is here already! Do any of you give up anything? Any Christians out there who aren’t sure if you’d like to give anything up? Or what to give up? 

Growing up Catholic, I have given up something each year in preparation for Easter that meant a lot to me or was something I really enjoyed. My reason for doing this, as I believe, is that the smallest thing I am able to do, to prepare for Easter, is sacrifice something I really like. In my faith, we give up something for 40 days- something we love, something we desire, our go-to food, thing we do too much of (and maybe shouldn’t), etc! While we believe that God made the ultimate sacrifice by giving us his son, on the smallest scale possible, this is our time to prepare ourselves for his rising at Easter.

I do it for the exact reason above… to prepare myself, but I also think about it as a time to make myself better. Typically in Lent, people give up things that they enjoy too much of, or things they don’t like about themselves. For example, a good friend of mine usually gives up cursing. He knows his family doesn’t like it, and thinks he can scale it back, and so takes the 40 days to try and eliminate it completely. While he often goes back to it after Lent, his level of cursing has notably decreased each year. 

I’m a stickler for Lent. I put my mind to what I want to do and I stick with it. One year, I gave up coffee. For those of you who don’t know me personally, I drink coffee every morning. To make it worse, my office was about 20 yards from a Starbucks… where many times it was even brought to my desk if I hadn’t surfaced in hours due to workload! Even the people in my every day life knew how critical it was for me to have it daily {multiple times at that}!!! This was one of the hardest Lent’s I had ever gone through, because I felt like I was giving up a routine, energy from coffee, something I liked etc. But what does coffee stand for when looking at a scale of the greatest sacrifice in my religions history? Obviously, nothing. It was a difficult 40 days, but I felt like I really accomplished something. I felt good about myself, and even stronger in my faith. For one of the first times, I understood Lent.

So what am I giving up this year and why? This year, I decided to give up two things I enjoy and to add something into my routine to make me feel good and get back on track to where I would like to be! So, for Lent 2014, I am giving up soda and beer and adding 4 nights a week of 8+ hours of sleep! Over the last few years, soda has been something I can regularly get at work {best with ice cubes of course!}, and it makes me feel better and more relaxed after a stressful day– that’s right… I actually looked forward to getting a soda each day! In addition to this, after long days at work, or a busy work week, my boyfriend, friends and I often would kick back and have a few beers. Of all alcoholic beverages, beer has become my favorite!…{never thought I’d say that!!}, but this is the reason I want to give these two things up this year. I want to challenge myself to let go of things I really like, and appreciate the sacrifices made for me and my life. 

The 8+ hours of sleep for 4 nights a week, comes in for my desire to add a positive while taking away things I want to eliminate during Lent. I’ve done this on my own for years, and have always felt good about adding the one thing I wanted to change currently in my life. I need more sleep, so what better time to implement this then when I am being strict with out vices in my life?

Being open to Lent and giving something up is on an individual basis that truly only makes sense {or doesn’t} to each and every one of us. I do this because I choose to, and hope to offer strength and support to those of us giving up something we want to challenge ourselves with this Lent!

So GOOD LUCK to my fellow Lent-leapers out there, and please let me know what you’re giving up! I’d love to know! Lent starts today March 5th and ends Thursday April 17th!

Cheers :]

xo Aurora Beani