"Shift Happens"

Turns out the most recent book I've been reading works in perfectly with my word for 2013 {enough}.

No amount of self-improvement can make up for a lack of self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance = enough.  

More on this:

Self-acceptance is your number one goal in life.  Why?  Because for as long as you believe that there is something unacceptable about you, you will push away love, you will sabotage success, you will unconsciously conspire against joy, you will struggle, and you will never really find out who you are or what you are really capable of.                                             

With self-acceptance, you fear you will lose something, but really you lose nothing that is real and gain everything that is. For instance, with self-acceptance, you lose your fear of lack and gain wholeness, you lose your guilt and gain innocence, you lose your self-criticism and gain great creativity, and you lose your ego and you regain your Unconditioned Self.                                                                                                                        

(Shift Happens: How to live an Inspired Life...Starting right now! pg 95)

 

So expect a little less self-improvement around here.

And my goal is to replace the self-improvement with giving.  Because the author Robert Holden has some life-altering things to mention about giving of ourselves as well:

You are a gift-bearer, blessed with gifts of God, and you are here on earth to live fully and give fully--not just things, but who you are.  You are the gift. My work has shown me over and over again that when people do not give themselves fully they experience lack, struggle with discontent, emptiness, isolation and illness. Do not sit on your gifts. 

The truth is giving is a treasure in itself.  For instance, when you offer your smile, it is your body that produces more immunity-enhancing "T" cells; when you give love, it is your heart that gets the message; and when you give praise to someone , it is your consciousness that is raised.  What you give to others, you affirm for yourself.  Giving is receiving.  There is not loss. 

                            (Shift Happens: How to live an Inspired Life...Starting right now! pg 84) 

So being lazy on the couch and getting nothing done?  Doesn't make me feel any better, and definitely doesn't benefit anyone else. Although I do need to figure out how watching my favorite t.v. shows is giving {ratings, perhaps? helping people with their careers?} because that I can't give up.

But as much as I can, I want to create scenes like this one of J#3 and me with our (according to him) "roofs" on:

Those are the types of moments that give me enough happiness to last all day.