Have you ever felt lost or stuck??  Boy I sure have.   Never bored just plain ole stuck.  Things started to get interesting when I met  a life coach named Jennifer Grace, she teaches a class called the Creative Insight Journey. During the class we really got to know ourselves better.  We were coming out of the  recession of 2008.   Times were tough and it  hit a lot people hard. Life felt very shaky and uncertain. This class gave me clarity and excitement towards creating more of what I wanted in my life.   I became a little less afraid and ready for an adventure.   Damn it I deserved a trip like never before. When Jennifer told me she and a business partner had a luxury travel company that offered great destinations and yoga I jumped at the chance.   Next stop  a trip….to  Bali.

I felt the only way I could completely get away from the world was to travel half way around it.   I needed space from all of the responsibility.  I deliberately needed to clear my head. I needed to figure out who I was and where I was going.  To shake it up.   Maybe I would do Eat, Pray, Love in reverse and start in Bali.   I love happy endings why  not start with that??? So I signed up for  the trip that was to be designed around 11/11/11.  The mystics on the planet called it a time for new beginnings.   HMMMM.

I arrived ahead of the group by a couple of days to Ubud.  It was luscious and green and peaceful. Landscape like I have never seen.  Everyone spoke English and the people went out of there way to be kind.  I had a nice hotel room just to myself.  When I left I wondered what people thought, me traveling to this exotic location by myself.  I read, got massages and went for walk just breathing in  everything around me.  The decompression had started.  I have been told I have two speeds, go and stop.   I was hoping I could learn to relax.

The group connected on the third day.  Women from all over the world.   Monaco, Sydney, New York, Miami, London.  This was a diverse group of single women all ages and life experiences.  There were women who had suffered heart break like me, women who wondered if they would ever have children. Ages 30 to 60ish and we were a group of 10.   Happy women and bitter women. We have all been both.  As we communed for a week,we got to know each other, get on each others nerves and learn about ourselves.  The trip was unlike any experience I have ever had.   We went to the Presidential Palace and bathed in the sacred baths, we hiked and made offerings of gratitude.  We did yoga with our beautiful instructor.  We were pampered and blessed by the experience.   What I realized is I traveled half way around the world to understand how truly blessed I am. I started understanding  all of my dreams  had come to fruition.  I felt renewed because I was not watching the news 24/7.  I was allowing myself the opportunity to relax and unplug from the grind.   What I learned in Bali is the practice of gratitude.  The energy there was different.   I figured out by about day five was there was no hostility.  No one raised their voice, got impatient or rude.  The practice of gratitude everyday  gave everyone a awareness.   You simply can not have a negative thought when you are living a life of gratitude. I saw the children put flowers around the statues.  I witnessed grown men do the same.  It changed my philosophy and opened my eyes to a new way of seeing the world.   When we practice gratitude everyday, we change and improve the quality of our life.  Isn’t that what we all want a life of quality??.  Quality people, quality experiences.  I started to notice when others had blessed lives but refused to acknowledge it.  Negativity and feelings of lack are choices. It is a habit.  I began a journal there that focused on gratitude, it filled up so quickly I had to start another.  When you focus everyday on all that is going good in your life the energy shifts.  It is addictive.  You feel light and happy.   I would start with five things everyday that I was grateful for.  Other days I literally filled pages.  I highly suggest you try for it a week, especially if you are stuck in a rut.

Here is something else I learned, women everywhere want the same thing.  To be loved, to be appreciated and to be allowed to rest.  The homecoming I received confirmed all my blessings.   I felt rejuvenated.  It has been four and a half years since then.  Whenever I get in a rut I get out a piece of paper and write down 5 things I am grateful for…It is a great place to start when you want to change your day.

Who is better than you??? NOBODY