It seems that everything I am reading, even business books these days,  is referring to being present, meaning not thinking about the future or the past. It is something I talk about in My Feet Aren’t Ugly, how important it is to be right here. If we are in the past maybe regretting what has happened, it makes us sad, and if we are in the future wishing for something we don’t have, it makes us unhappy. The only way to true happiness is living your life right here. 


Being present when our life is smooth or when it is a roller coaster, allows us to pay attention to our feelings about the situation, and not react to it. It isn’t easy to practice it. It seems like it would be, just be here!

My Labrador Retriever Jack is such a great example of living in the now, he is so full of life, even when he is suffering.  ”Pain/Smain”, he says “someone has a ball”. He is always ready to love, at the drop of a hat, he doesn’t care if he has has  a bad day of pain, he is always available for kisses. 

We seem to let everything get in our way of happiness. If it’s not work, it’s the pain we are feeling, if it’s not that, it’s what someone said to us at work or school, it may even be something a silly as our hair not being right that ruins our day.  

Not Jack, he is 10 years old, getting a bit fat, with big bumps all over his body and he has pain, and he is the happiest being I know.  Jack teaches me everyday to love my life and to participate in it to the fulllest in very minute. 


Practice this with small things, like eating breakfast in the morning. Taste the food, don’t just shovel it in to move on to do something else.  Enjoy it, eat it slow, picture it nourishing your body. I do this sometimes when I am doing poop patrol (picking up poops in the front yard), I enjoy the time to relax and be in the front yard and hear and see the birds. To be with the flowers, instead of rushing through because it’s a nasty job, so that I can do something else. There is always something else to do, if we are always thinking about the next things to do, we miss out on what we are doing.. 

Three days ago I woke up from a restless nights sleep with a crick in my neck. For those of you who have not had one, lucky you. The pain is so bad, that it forces you to keep your head straight, so that the pain doesn’t shoot through your neck, around your head, down through your body, and out through your feet. 

While experiencing this pain, a friend came over a gave me an exercise for the pain. Instead of avoiding the pain and trying to run away from it, go into it. By this I mean, if you are having pain, shut your eyes and breathe into the pain until it goes away. I would keep turning my head until I felt the pain, then I would breathe until it would dissapate. I then would turn it some more and breath into it again. I did this with the pain for about 45 minutes. I was shocked. First of all I realized that I will do anything to avoid pain…

Why, because it’s painful! My mind would start to say things like “if you keep turning your head, you won’t be able to move it back, and it will be sooooo painful when you do” or “your going to hurt yourself, stop doing it” or “if you keep doing that your head is going to fall of”.  It was saying anything to get me to not feel the pain. Now, I’m not suggesting that if you have a sprained leg to keep moving it to feel the pain, that wouldn’t be a good idea for a strain. But what if you just shut your eyes and breathe into it. Just be with the pain, see what it really feels like, and your feelings around it, instead of trying to avoid it by maybe watching TV, calling a friend, doing anything to get away from it. 

What I realized is the pain is just a sensation, just like cold, hot or tingling, etc.. For me, I had fear around the pain, and by going into it, it allowed me to be with it, realizing that I had nothing to be afraid of, and realize that my mind was the only reason I was avoiding it. Because my mind was saying “This is Scary…STOP feeling this”. When I allowed myself to feel it, it didn’t seem so scary, although some emotions did come up around it, and when they did I just looked at the emotions and didn’t judge them. 

So the next time you are in pain try to breathe into it and see what you are feeling around it. I am going to keep doing it every time I feel the sensation of pain. My body is feeling pain for a reason, it wants me to pay attention to it, instead of leave it. I would love to know what you experience with this exercise, keep me posted.

  At the beginning of every new year, I try to do this in January. I look at what I have accomplished and what my intentions for the new year are going to be.  It’s really great to sit with a pad of paper and write down all the things you have accomplished because sometimes we feel like we haven’t done much in the year, and this process lets us know of our successes.  

I am always so surprised at everything I have done, and it makes me feel good about myself, rather than down on myself for not getting certain things done.  Then after you have given yourself a BIG pat on the back for your many accomplishments, wait a day or two, to set your intentions for the new year. Enjoy those days, do something special for yourself for doing such a good job. You are going to be amazed. Writing down everything makes it real, and helps you recall things you have forgotten.

Now, after a few days, sit again and write down the things you would like to accomplish in this next year. It can be anything: be a better friend, eat better, finish a certain project, find a new friend, find a boyfriend, read 3 new books on self development. The list can go on and on.  I try to keep this list somewhere close so I can refer to it often.  Good luck and let me know how this works for you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Wow, another year has gone by, and it was an interesting year at that.  What I have noticed is that with most all of my friends, is that is was a big year for them as well as me. So, as we get older do they just have more meaning because we are paying attention more or in fact are they really bigger?  For me it is both, they are bigger and I am certainly more sensitive to my life.  I love the fact that my everyday life affects me; it lets me know that I am alive. The highs and the lows let me know that I am feeling. A lot of big things are going on in life. The nurturing of my relatively new relationship of a little over a year that has been wonderful, teaching me so much about myself. The blossoming of my current friendships and the development of many new friendships. My book, My Feet Aren’t Ugly has been full of fun and excitement, the great girls I have had the opportunity to work with, and all of the other projects that I am involved in. With life moving forward as it does, I want to be here to participate, it makes more sense when I am there to experience it. My thoughts for you this year are to see how present you can be in your life, and how it unfolds differently. Feel those highs and lows and embrace them. Enjoy your relationships like they may be gone tomorrow; take care of yourself like you are caring for a child. Live life to it’s fullest and show up.