While most are contemplating last minute gift shopping and pre-prepping the family Christmas dinner while getting loose on eggnog or pouring peppermint scnapps in their coffee, I am quietly and humbly staring 40 in the face, and preparing to embrace. Yep, While you open presents and make excuses for your drunk aunt and break up fights between the kids over who got the better gifts, I'll be turning the big four O. I swear I feel younger than I did when I was 30...due mostly in part to my 8 years vegan, 6 of them raw and my awakening awareness to health that has included regular exercise, getting out and connecting with nature, hypnosis/meditation/prayer, periodic fasting, listening to the inner guidance, learning to forgive myself and others and getting enough sleep and fresh water....while at the age of 30 I was a smoker, drinker, recreational drug user, omnivore overeater, very sedentary, pessimist, in an unhealthy relationship, I could keep going, but it's pointless. I was not aware of what being healthy meant and I could never have conceived of how much health means to your quality of life and connection to spirit. Yep, I am getting younger.
These days I don't think in terms of making resolutions because every day I strive to become better in whatever way that I can. So what I like to do instead is count my accomplishments of the year. I am harder on myself than anyone I know. I guess I am a bit of an over achiever which means I never really feel accomplished and a "creative work-aholic" by which I mean, If I don't have several projects going, I don't know who I am. I think of my creativity as my career on Earth and I'm all in...I have to put myself fully into everything I do, whether it's a free form collage like I like to make in my spare time, or a song or a video project...but the kind of projects I do usually have a lot of down time so I tend to have several going at once so that I always have something to work on. I have quite a year to review. I think that if we all took the time to look back and applaud our accomplishments of the year, rather than look at where we are considering ourselves failing and setting up a list on which we are likely to fall short, we would all be more successful in the long run. Look at each day as an opportunity to give back to life and you can't go wrong.
This year:
*I finished a movie I have been working on for 5 years and released it online for free (you can watch it here):
http://youtu.be/TyAGL_yL1YU
*I created an educational cook book that includes vegan and raw vegan recipes and explains my theories on food and why most people are not experiencing optimum health. You can order it here:
http://www.racrystalpalace.com/
*I got BOTH of my children through another year, alive and well and more spoiled than they can comprehend
*I survived the loss of my soulmate and learned an immeasurable amount about love, life and mortality...more than can ever be put into words but which has enriched my life immensely
*I completed a long waterfast that I had been wanting to do for years and learned so much about my body I will never look at things the same again
*I made a connection that is going to change the course of my life forever...which has also taught me an incredible amount about faith and patience
*I manifested like a mofo, whatever I needed to do my creative projects and create general contentment
*I worked with an amazing producer, and even though we weren't able to complete my music project, I finally heard what my music can sound like when a serious talent is in charge and it renewed my faith in my music...I will make that record
*I set my intention to improve my poker game and I won a lot of tournaments this year, including cash outs and being the first to qualify for our yearly fur rondy tournament, anchorage's biggest tournament of the year
*I was on a reality tv show which is a lifelong dream fulfilled and fueled the fire...I'm 100% on what I want to do when I grow up :)
*I put together an album of my old unreleased songs after my boyfriend encouraged me to share with him everything I have ever written and I had to go back through old things I thought had no value but actually are a nice record of where I have come from...you can order that album here:
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZEBGOQ
*I made a lot of inspirational videos that I'm proud of and I received a lot of positive feed back
*I outlined and began writing my next script
*I stepped up my photography game by getting the camera of my dreams thanks to being inspired by my sweety who was an amazing photographer and started a photography page, you can view it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/109146783@N04/
*I also had countless little personal victories that are difficult to categorize as they are mostly mental in nature...I continue to grow into who I am and embracing my own evolution
*lots of little artistic projects that were "just for me"
*I made it to 40 and get to keep going...I can only imagine how much I'll accomplish in the coming year...
Wishing you all the best in your endeavors in the coming year and embracing all of who you are and are becoming.
