June Blooms

Spending time in my garden ALWAYS lifts my spirits.  Right now it is feeling particularly gorgeous and I wanted to share.  Hope you enjoy!

Fantasia dancers!

Future BLTs.    Promises of happy days in August...

Rainbow petunias and ten-year-old begonias.

I was born in June, so for many years roses have been favorites.

I have lots of pretty colors!

Above and below: Betty Boop Roses

I discovered begonias about a dozen years ago.

They LOVE me!

Begonias are now as much a favorite as my roses!

A bowl of Grandma's favorites.

Have a beautiful day!

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

Practice Makes Progress

I love my life!  It's perfect just the way it is with all its complications and challenges and joys and abundant opportunities.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Last night I experienced a huge letdown.  For a week I had been excited about a trip to Cancun that was in the early planning stages.  Early stages.  It had only been announced June 18.  I thought about it all week.  I was delighted each time it came to mind.  I savored it until it felt already real to me.  Thinking about it made me so happy that I decided to make the financial commitment - a really big decision that I made even more quickly than I had anticipated.  But when I called to book the trip, I found they had sold out!  In a week!  An entire resort for next April!  

I felt like the wind had been kicked out of me.  I never dreamed it would sell so fast.

Now, the six-day trip in question includes a four-day seminar with Esther Hicks on the art of enjoying life more by practicing the art of positive thinking.  Since I started practicing the art of positive thinking two and a half years ago, I do enjoy my life more.  More all the time.  I enjoy life exponentially more now than I did before I heard of Esther.  A source of great joy for me suddenly felt a source of great disappointment.  

But I didn't feel that way for long.  I distracted myself by watching some mindless and mildly entertaining TV.  I consoled myself with the fact that I could call and put myself on the wait list.  Most importantly I reminded myself that everything is working out for my highest good.  If I don't go to Cancun, it's because the Universe knows I'll like something else much more!

Practicing positive thinking doesn't mean I'll get happy and stay happy and live happy forevermore.  All lives have challenges and disappointments and uncomfortable experiences.  I used to let these things knock the wind out of my sails and make me unhappy for days on end.  

The important thing is knowing how to navigate myself back to happy from life's little detours in a fairly short amount of time.  

And that's just what I did.  The more I practice, the better I get at this.  I'm on the wait list for Cancun.  I have no doubt that next April, Jeremy and I will be spending an amazing, uplifting week in Mexico with Esther and Abraham and a whole bunch of happy people enjoying divine weather, enchanted evenings, stunning beaches and magnificent rendezvous.  

Oh!  I better get a passport...

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

P.S. ~ Update on June 30 - I saw Esther Hicks' streaming broadcast this morning and she said the Cancun trip sold out in 4 days!  BUT - they are currently in negotiations to rent out a second and possibly a third resort hotel for the event!  I am going to Cancun!!

Create Joy. Sprinkle Generously.

I have recently spent many hours watching live streaming broadcasts 

of Abraham-Hicks.  (Info here.)  Whether live or recorded, listening 

to the wisdom of Abraham is one of the fastest ways I know to raise my vibration.

Several questions posed to me lately from different people went like this:  Who is Abraham?  Where did you learn that there is no death, that we are all eternal?  How do I allow all the well-being of the Universe to flow to me?  How can I feel joyful when there is so much wrong in this world?

The answers to all of these questions begin here:  abraham-hicks.

I was first introduced to the teachings of Abraham and the work of Esther Hicks by my friend, Annie, who warned me that it was a bit "woo-woo."  Being a long-standing supporter of woo-woo, I dove in head first.  I fell in love with the book Annie gifted me, Ask and It is Given.  I offer this book as a brilliant place to begin anyone's introduction to the idea that we are vibrational beings in a vibrational Universe capable of changing anything in our lives simply by changing the vibration of our habitual thought patterns.  Some will find this a radical notion.  I find it comforting beyond words.

This is a topic for study and Esther has a huge library of resources including recordings of over 25 years of seminars on DVD and audio available.  Here is a list of links to some of my personal faves:  Introduction to Abraham, Getting into the Vortex, The Master Course, Hooked on the Vortex, Guided Meditations.  

Another book to help integrate the spiritual path of appreciation into your life is Feng Shui Your Mind co-authored by Jill Lebeau MFT.  Esther's books are written from the perspective of Source energy - Abraham.  While intensely inspirational, this perspective is slightly difficult to comprehend from our current physical perspective (Though Esther's enormous library explains it patiently and repeatedly to help us remember).  Feng Shui Your Mind provides a clear human perspective on many of the same principles that Abraham teaches (we are eternal vibrational beings who deliberately came here to connect with Spirit, live in joy and uplift ourselves and others).

Practice is an important part of learning to appreciate your entire life (even unplanned things like auto accidents have value and can be appreciated).  Daily affirmations have become one of my favorite tools to practice a vibration of appreciation.  

Affirmations can be truths that already resonate with you:

Or truths that you want to integrate into your knowing: 

Or simple words to guide us back to our own intentions:

I love the affirmations!  If you want to incorporate affirmations into your practice,
it is fun and easy to create your own.  My affirmations can be enjoyed on Facebook (follow the link to "like" my art-full affirmations) or you can buy my purse-sized, take-with-you-anywhere book of affirmations on my website.

Walking the path of appreciation has increased the joy in my life a hundredfold!  My worries and anxieties have diminished to nearly non-existant.  Things still pop up
to worry about, I simply choose to practice NOT worrying because I know it is all working out for my highest good.  I love coming to understand the truths of the Universe, and I love sharing this uplifting information!

This is my path ~ the "path of appreciation" I have come to love calling it.  

All this path requires is an open mind and a desire to live the life you have always dreamed.

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

Happiness is Folding Warm Laundry

Just a quickie to brighten your afternoon...

I was folding laundry this morning - a repetitive daily task for every massage therapist - and thinking about a hundred other things when I realized that I was squandering my "now."

So I stopped to appreciate my present.  I appreciated the warmth of the laundry in the cool room.  I watched my newest fish, Artemis swim in his tank.  He is pale yellow and round as the moon.

I smiled at the silly puppy sleeping upside down on his heated blanket.  I caught site of my T-shirt in the mirror.  It told me "Life is Good."  I burst out laughing with the pure joy of the moment!  If that makes me crazy, then sign me up for the funny farm.

Do not take one single beautiful moment for granted!  Appreciate the moments of your life!  Appreciate the exciting moments and the mundane moments.  Appreciate the quiet moments and the chaos.  Find a reason to appreciate each moment.

Enjoy!

~ Cyndi

Practicing Happiness Daily <-- Click the new PHD link to go like my new FB fanpage for this blog, my books and my art!

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

Express Yourself!

I am so excited!

Some of my favorite photographs have found a new home on a website that is an artist's dream!  Fine Art America is a platform where patrons around the globe can view and purchase YOUR art!  The artist has no overhead.  No printing fees.  No hauling all your originals to art shows all over the country.

FAA made this super simple.  Upload your art.  Tell them how much you want to earn for each piece.  They add their production costs and set the prices.  You arrange your galleries and they present your pieces in a beautiful format that displays your art at its professional best.

The artwork can then be printed in a variety of formats when patrons worldwide place their orders!  I personally have decided to sell enough Yosemite prints and beautiful greeting cards to pay for a trip to my favorite National Park annually.

Here is the link to galleries that contain all of my images:  Cyndi's Art

Rainbow above Mist Trail ~ Yosemite

Here are some links to pages where you may find some of my art listed with the works of other artists:

California Greeting Cards
Landscape Photos
Yosemite Framed Prints
Waterfalls Photos

What a fabulous way for artists to gain a broader audience for their work and get PAID for some of it too!  I uploaded my photos.  They also accept other media, images of paintings and drawings that they will reproduce.  Artists have the option of listing sales prices for originals if they care to sell them.  Print On Demand (POD) is what they call this marvel of the modern computer age and I am head over heels in love with it!

CreateSpace is a similar POD service for authors and filmakers!  I first heard about CreateSpace from my friend, Michael Fox, who published his book with them.  He enjoyed the experience and highly recommends the site. I ultimately did not use them for my book because they did not have a size format suited to my photographs, but I looked into it and CreateSpace is a simple site to use.

I am delighted to say that Michael's book sells very well!  Your CreateSpace account includes an ISBN number for your book and a sales page connected with Amazon.  You can purchase Michael's final product on Amazon.

I also know three people making use of  CDBaby.  CD Baby offers a sales platform to independent recording artists including print on demand CDs.  Isn't this incredible?  Local artists can now get international exposure and CD sales!

Frank Anger is a friend from college.  He has three rock albums on CDBaby.  I was a fan of his the first time I heard It Begins.  It's an awesome project that I have listened to hundreds of times.  His second album, The Second Road To, features a song I co-wrote with him!  Give a listen to Never End.

My friend Teacher Kay is a preschool teacher who recently created an awesome CD of positive affirmations for kids.  This project came out last month and she has already been downloaded internationally!  Go Kay!

Annie Marie is a talented musician and song writer whose friendship I treasure.  Her Tee Fee Swamp Boogie has two CD's on CD Baby.  Her new band, Fiddlin' Around is in the studio now and plans to have new music on CDBaby soon!

I would love to hear from others who are enjoying POD for artists.  Send me an email with links if you'd like to be added to this blog post.

Your artistic soul is calling.  Get out there and express yourself!

But first, go click on my art links and tell me how AWESOME I am!

~ Cyndi

Practicing Happiness Daily <-- Click the new PHD link to go like my new FB fanpage for this blog, my books and my art!

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.