Hey, hey, beautiful creatures! I’m feeling inspired to continue this thread of helpful tips for getting clarity around what you want for your life in this new year. Today I thought I’d share my top tips for creating a lifestyle that reflects who you are how you like to roll.
Here are my top 5 tips for creating a lifestyle that works for you:
Get clear about what you really want right now. Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of earnestly checking in with yourself and your Soul to [re]discover and [re]connect with what your needs and desires truly are at this moment in time. Take some time to do this. Get somewhere quiet and [relatively] free of distraction, and have a little conversation with your Soul. Ask Soul how She's doing right now. Ask what is lighting Soul up in this moment in time. And - and this is important - wait for an honest answer. Once you have a clear awareness of what you want in relation to your lifestyle, then you can start taking empowered steps toward manifesting those things into reality.
Get organized. Anyone who has ever met me will likely tell you that I am a huge organizational nerd. I love organizing. I feel stressed out when things are disorganized, organized inefficiently, or, heaven forbid, are in a state of complete and utter chaos. This is due, in large part, to the powerful influence of Virgo in my natal chart. However, there is more to it than just astrological destiny. Effective organization allows for more efficient action and progress. This is true in every area of life, including lifestyle. There are many styles of organization, and, really, no one way is going to be perfect for everyone. The key is finding YOUR perfect organizational style and utilizing it to create systems of storage, retrieval, and management of all the things that make your lifestyle what it is and what you want it to be. This includes systems for your home, transportation/travel, relationships, finances, business, fun/leisure activities, and anything else that applies to your lifestyle. Getting organized will allow you to always know what you have available at any given time, what you’re actually using and gaining value from, and what no longer has value for you and needs to be released to create space for something new and better. Decluttering your life, and effectively organizing what you’ve got and what you’re planning to have, is the best way to ensure that your lifestyle will lift you up instead of weigh you down.
Choose quality over quantity. It took me a long time to learn this lesson … and trust me when I say it’s an ironically expensive lesson to learn. We live in a disposable commodity society nowadays. There’s a lot more stuff available to a lot more people at much lower prices. On the surface, it seems wonderful. Can’t afford that hand-crafted adirondack chair for your deck? No problem, there’s a plastic version for a tenth of the price. It’s yours for the taking! Designer dress out of your budget? Just head over to the mall and pick up a knock-off for pennies on the dollar. Not feeling paying hundreds of dollars for a fancy vacuum cleaner? Pick up some disposable floor dusters for just a few bucks! It’s so easy! What most of us miss, however, are the hidden costs associated with this type of lifestyle. Not only are there blatant environmental damages that come from using these kinds of disposable products, and, often, questionable ethics involved in their production; but these things also need replacing … often. They aren’t intended to last for long, and, therefore don’t last for long at all. There’s the cost of replacing these items. There’s also the cost of disposing of them - whether in taxes on trash/recycling collection and management, or the gas spent taking to them to a disposal site. And how many of us bear the burden of storing so much crap that is well beyond its usefulness because we are either too lazy, too busy, or too disorganized to deal with it when we should? We pay for this burden in stress, anxiety, and inefficiency. In the long run, it almost always makes more sense to invest in a few well made items that will bring us joy and function for many years to come. I know it’s not always possible to have all the high quality things we want right when we want them. But it can pay to decide on a few key items to start saving toward. Until you have enough funds for those items, buy fewer things, and buy the best quality you can afford of whatever you do buy.
Live luxuriously. Luxury means different things to different people. For some people, getting five minutes alone, away from the kids and the spouse, to breathe, collect thoughts, and maybe shower is luxurious. For others, it’s 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets on the bed. Only you can decide what feels luxurious for you, but it’s important to start making luxury a priority in your life if you want to live a luxurious life. We get more of what we focus on, so if you want more luxury, focus on living luxuriously. If your first response is “I can’t afford to buy food, how can I afford luxury??” my reply would be to get creative. Treat yourself to a fancy breakfast in bed one morning. Even if you have to get up and make it first. And make it beautiful. Add some fresh flowers (that you picked from the meadow down the street), and use a cloth napkin - even if you make it from a cast-off scrap of fabric you found in the discount bin. Make do with what you have and do it the very best you can until you can afford to treat yourself to a stay in a fancy hotel that will serve you breakfast in bed on silver platters and fine china. Because making luxury a priority tells the Universe that you want more luxury in your life. So the Universe, getting this message, will start sending you opportunities that will lead to more luxury. Do you see where we’re going with this?
Show up for your relationships. Relationships are a fact of life. Unless you are a hermit living in a cave in some remote mountain range, you have relationships. They may not always be deep, close, personal connections, but they can be if that’s what you want. Relationships are connections with other people. Yes, I know you know this. What we often forget is that connections with people take vigilance and continuous effort. We people are constantly changing and evolving. If you want to have deep and meaningful connections with others, you have to be willing to regularly show up for your relationships. Make the commitment to check in with your people on a consistent basis. Put it in your calendar so you won’t forget when life gets busy. Realize that you don’t have to make it a grand gesture every time you interact with someone. If you are making it a point to interact regularly, then a small check in will suffice. This is your opportunity to check in with your people, to see how they're doing, what they're struggling with, what victories they’re celebrating. It’s an opportunity to experience some of their magick and to share a little of yours with them. Ask how they’re doing. Let them know you appreciate them. Recognize them for something they’ve achieved. Letting your people know that you are truly interested in them becomes an act of investment in your relationship. It feels good to them and it feels good to you. (And if it doesn’t feel good to you, then it’s time to decide if this is a connection you still want to foster or if you can lovingly let it go.) When you invest in your relationships, you get more dividends from them. Your people feel more connected with you, and are therefore more interested in how you’re doing, too. It’s a symbiotic thing that benefits all involved. Who will you reach out to today?
There are certainly many other ways to build a blissful lifestyle, but these are my current top 5. I hope you find some value in them. I hope you are creating your most blissful lifestyle every moment of every day … and that you are loving it as you do!
Should you want or need any support in the process, just message me. I’d be more than happy to help you manifest your own blissful lifestyle. xo