 Hi Beautiful People! Get up, Dress up, and Show Up! I love this saying. It is as direct as it gets. This is my life motto. In order to live life to our fullest potential, we have to do exactly this. Let’s face it! Life can be hard!!!! However, how we go about handling life is really what matters. Have you ever experienced roadblocks? Tragedy? Had the feeling that the universe is against you because nothing is going right? If so, I can absolutely relate. Life can be a mess and facing that mess can be much harder. I can choose to handle it by screaming, kicking, being mad, but who would benefit from that? So instead, I decide to clean it up. I make changes or act better based on the circumstance. Now of course this is just a metaphor, but I find that it can be easier to deal with situations in this manner in order to get a better overall understanding. Life is simple. It comes down to how we deal with it. I try to find the best in everything. See it in a more positive light. In reality, the universe does not want to see us fail, rather, it wants us to live our life’s purpose and grow. Have there been unfair situations that have happened to me in life that make me want to turn against the world? Absolutely! Do I want to scream so loud I could be heard miles away? Do I want to succumb to aggressive behavior as a way to deflect my own pain? Do I? I do not. Well, sometimes I will scream in a pillow, but I find that more therapeutic. As long as I reign it in shortly after the outburst. The negative feelings do nothing but bring about more negativity in my life. So, I choose to be positive. See for every new day, is a new beginning or a day to continue living, but with a more fulfilling outlook then what I had yesterday. A new day is to learn something new, and be better than the person I was yesterday. That brings about the first step, Get up. Get up….. seems easy right? Well not always. It can be hard to find the energy to get up and face the day, especially if you are feeling defeated. I personally struggle with a disease that makes it hard to get out of bed every day. The amount of pain I have to work through and the mental work I have to do can feel overwhelming. I so often feel like throwing in the towel. The pain is so excruciating and unbearable. My legs are weak and I am lifting up what feels like a ton of bricks. How about when you know you have more work to do and just don’t want to face it. This step, Get Up, involves a lot of mental work. You have to tell yourself why you need to get up. Remind yourself of your goals. Whether the goals are long term or daily, they were set to be achieved. I personally love calendars and planners and find them to be beneficial in holding yourself accountable. Even if it is as simple as waking up early in the morning to drink your coffee and writing down your manifestations for the day. Writing down what needs to be done, and when, is a sure fire way to make the progress you want. You made the first step happen. The second step is about being ready to tackle it. Dress up. It does not mean to literally dress up, as though you need to be fancy, but get dressed for the day. What is it that you need to tackle, and how do you need to be dressed? Did you give yourself the goal to wake up every morning to lift? If so, this requires attire that has full range, comfortability, and function. Are you a stay at home mom, but have a list full of things to get done? Dress for that. Do not stay in your clothes that would inhibit you to just stay in bed or lounge around all day. The goal is to tackle your day. So dress appropriately and as comfortably as you want to do exactly that. I love to dress up for myself. This means doing my hair, putting on my mascara and lip liner, and finding an outfit I feel confident in. I like to compare the ‘dress up’ to the superhero stance. When you stand like a superhero, you feel powerful. You feel more confident. When I dress up, it makes me feel more self-assured, and exuberant. It gives me the energy I need to conquer my day when I dress up. Think about what you feel great in that will give you that extra little push to tackle your day. Dress up! After you have completed those first two steps and are almost done. Now this part is where action comes into play. Show up! To show up means that you are ready to do the work. No more excuses, no more procrastination, work! I have to say that fear has been a complete hindrance for me in my life. There was one goal in particular, that I had a hard time showing up for, because of fear. The fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of putting myself out there; these fears for the longest time hindered me from starting this blog. I love writing and connecting with people. So with the encouragement from the people in my life, I stopped allowing myself to make excuses for not showing up. These three steps may seem simple, but you are consciously putting in the effort to make sure you do each one of them, every single day. This is big, and you should feel proud of yourself. Small steps today, will lead to bigger steps tomorrow, which leads to achieving your overall goal. Your goals are your own. Unique to you. Only you can decide to accomplish them. I am hoping that with this mantra, Get Up, Dress Up, and Show Up, you attack everyday with the mission to be one step closer to where you want to be. You will start to see the changes over time and hopefully it will empower you to continue to strive towards your goals and life’s purpose. With Love, Donieal Louise XOXO
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 Balance in life is so important. From start to finish, sunup to sundown, there is a constant flow of events that seem to fold into each other in almost every moment of the day. These events can create havoc in an already busy life if we let it! As a teacher, currently teaching remotely, with 3 children of my own at home, this havoc does not sidestep me. In fact, most days I realize that if it weren’t for automatic response, I would probably forget to breathe. The problem here, then, is that by the end of the day I am feeling not only overwhelmed but I am also wondering “where did the time go?” It seems that in the middle of grading, planning, changing diapers, making lunch, cleaning the house, checking in with colleagues, helping my kids with homework, cooking dinner, did I say changing diapers..?...oh, and a myriad of other daily stuff, like you know, feeding the dog, or feeding myself, there is little time to think about ‘time.’ Right?! In this moment, as of now, I realize that even in a state of being awake, I am far from feeling ‘awakened.’ Actually, I have developed a robotic function to myself that only seems to go away when I am able to sit and realize ‘wow! I haven’t thought about breathing today! Thank you lungs, and heart, and you know...body!’ This is me, most days. What can I do to change this robot function-on/off switch? Aside from reading self-help books, talking to friends, and sharing other’s suggestions about my woes out on social media, I found three things that they all have in common. Simple really, but perhaps not as simple when they are put into action. Regardless, I placed them at the top of my to-do list. Quite frankly, once I had established a system, they have changed my life... well, at least the last 4 days since I decided to put them into action! Let’s go with action step number 1. The first thing I do when I wake up, the very first thing, is to breathe with intention. I choose 3 things I am going to do well during the day and I commit to them. Today I committed to writing this blog, checking in on my finance spreadsheet, and hugging each of my children at least 3 times randomly throughout the day. So far, I have completed two and half of those commitments. The next step requires a bit more planning. Prior to beginning this process of balance, I sat down and I reflected on my day with the purpose of identifying the 3 most busiest parts and placing in a 5 or 10 minute breakaway activity. Today I went for a walk with the kids, I sat down and ate lunch with them and we talked about our day, and at 8:00 tonight I am going to push in a 5 minute meditation. By giving myself deliberate breaks, I bring myself back to my center. I even allow myself time to focus on my breathing! With regards to this step, it may be more actionable if you set a timer or calendar that can go off to remind you that it is time to take a break. I found this was most helpful as I began to plan my breaks in. The third step of this plan is to be sure to follow through with steps one and two. It seems redundant, but when we get down to the nitty gritty, balance is about breaking away from the daily routine and constant havoc. It is about making time for the important things, one of which is our family and ourselves. If you are anything like me, it is so easy to put yourself last when you have so many other things to do. But we have to be intentional, deliberate, and, in some cases, plan out our day so that we can find that balance. Balance in life is necessary. When I look at my babies faces, I am reminded of how the little moments are so valuable and irreplaceable. We want to hear about some ways that you balance out your day. Do you have any recommendations?  I write them on sticky notes and post them on my mirror, the dashboard of my car, and my closet door. I jot them down in my note catcher in meetings at work, announce them out loud even as I cast away emotions of frustration, and I let them dance in my mind as I work to fog out my own negative thoughts.
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