The Impacts of Living

Let's now reflect on some of the insights that you gained from journaling last week. Also, take some time to review what you are currently doing to plan and live your life and reflect on any past journaling/goal setting to refresh your memory on past thoughts and goals. Now, complete the following exercise over the next few days to analyze both the positive and negative effects of achieving your goals and begin understanding the true impact of living!

Day One: List 2-4 Big Picture Life Goals that you have or would like to set for yourself.
1.

2.

3.

4.


Day Two: Review goals from Day 1 and identify the benefits of achieving those goals. Benefits can be both intrinsic and extrinsic and should affect your entire well-being.

Day Three: Reflect on your general life goals from Day 1 and determine if each of your daily actions are supportive or detrimental to those goals. (It may help you to review your planner or other to-do lists).

Day Four:Design high-level action items to support your goals.

Take a journal with me . . . .

Right now, the thought of transforming your life can appear quite daunting, intimidating, and even sometimes discouraging. However, by simply shifting your perspective across the ways you view varying aspects, this journey can begin. Below, we will guide you to Stop Existing and Start Living.

Over the next four days, you will be journaling, setting some big-picture goals, and completing some exercises. Please set aside around 20 minutes a day to reflect on some of your past, present, and future goals. Be very specific about your thoughts and feelings, and just write what you think and feel. If you currently journal, we encourage you to try this different approach over the next few days to capture further insight than what you may be logging.

Use the questions below as a catalyst to help spark your thoughts and feelings around who you really are, your genuine self. It is important during these initial first days to not be afraid to peel back the layers of the proverbial onion and be true and honest with your thoughts and feelings.

Journaling Catalysts:

• What did you daydream about when you were a kid?


• What are your most inner beliefs and values? Are you living them?


• What matters most to you?


• What have been the proudest moments of your life? The happiest?


• What dreams or goals would you be embarrassed for other people to know that you have?


• What activities would the 24 hours of your absolutely perfect day contain?


• If you had just one year to live, how would you spend it?


• What are your biggest challenges today? If you could overcome these – what would change? What would be better?


• What are your best qualities? Your worst?


• Are there things you “think” you are good at, but you know you really are not?


• What are you capable of doing that no one else is?


• How do you want others to perceive you?


• How do you want to be remembered?


• Who are the people who have made the most positive impact/had the biggest influence on your life?


• Who do you most admire in life, and why?


• What achievements do the people you most admire share?

What is a Wholelistic Life?

Everyday you have a desire for something to change . . . .lose 10 pounds, redeorate your home, get a new job, make new friends, find some time in the day for yourself, make more money . . however, not just one thing is going to shift you from existing to living. It is important that you keep a "whole"listic view of your life and keep in mind each aspect of your wellness. The table below provides some insight into what those areas can entail. This is by no means all inclusive so please feel free to add your own personal aspects as well. During this week, ask yourself at the end of the day, what you did to enrich or improve each aspect of your wellness.




Feeling off balance?

Please take a moment to assess your level of fulfillment across each of the six areas above. Please be realistic and honest about your selection and let it truly represent where you are right now in each area.

1 Very poor
2 Unsatisfactory
3 Bad
4 Just below average
5 Average
6 Slightly above average
7 Good
8 Very good
9 Great
10 Excellent

Plot those amounts along the chart and connect the dots. Shade in the outlined area for a quick representation of your life’s current balance.

Introducing Insightful Living

Does the way you’re living your life today align with your values, hope and dreams? Are you living your life with passion? Are you living the life you want to be living? Are you living or existing? Are you running your life or is your life running you?

If you wish your life was different and are tired of running around empty and without purpose then this process will help you to develop the plan to gain ownership of your life.

The purpose of the OYB process is to provide you the guidelines, structure, and suggestions for you to create the life of your dreams and Own Your Bliss. Remember, this is YOUR life, and you are responsible for it - period. This process calls on you to be authentic and reflect on your authentic self and not the perception of yourself provided by others.

The premise of this process and what segregates it from similar items on the market, is that it considers all aspects of your wellness and develops an action plan to change each of those areas. This process will encourage you to question your perspective, identify, create, live and own a new perspective, and challenge this new found direction. It is not static and will continue to evolve throughout your life, so please be patient and accept that the insight and reevaluation will create a more fulfilling and blissful life.

The phases below encapsulate this journey and will transform the blissful way you approach your life.

Through the Identify Phase you will gain insight into your current state across all aspects of your wellness. This phase awakens your thought processes beyond a single point in time, to a “wholelistic” reflection of your life.

In the Create Phase, you will visually and verbally formulate your goals, and will asses the impact of achieving or not achieving your goals. This phase sets the foundation for your daily actions to fully Create Your Bliss.

In the Living Phase, you will engage in routine practices to

support each aspect of your wellness to Live Your Bliss.

Owning Your Bliss is the pinnacle of this journey and is the

phase where you are shifting from existing to truly living.

For more information or to join our mailing list, please go to our website at

http://www.ownyourbliss.com/

Blissful Chicks Revealed !

Who are we? Why did we create Own Your Bliss? What is this all about? Here is the beginning of the answers....

A Message from Monica:

In the blink of an eye life is always changing. Everyone says you have to be prepared . . . life happens. My life did a 180 before I could even realize what had happened. Within what seemed like minutes I went from being a single, successful female living in the Northeast, to a married working mother living in the suburbs in the South. By all societal definitions, I had it all . . . a wonderful career, a loving husband, a beautiful, healthy baby boy, and a new home in a master planned community. However, all of this left me wondering is there something more? All of that wondering started to drive me, and in turn my family crazy. So I woke up one morning and decided it was time to take action.

Everyone would love a chance to press the do-over button and start something again. My do-over would be my career. Success doesn’t always equal fulfillment, and that is what led me to Own Your Bliss. In a silo thinking world, quitting my job and finding something else would be the obvious solution. However, this goes deeper than that. I started to realize that this lack of fulfillment was quickly spreading everywhere: physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually I felt like I was at my worst! Things weren’t going to magically fix themselves, but I needed a plan. Big things needed to happen, and then it hit me, “I don’t have the guts to do what I need to because I don’t have a plan, and I don’t have a plan because I don’t have the guts to confront reality.

This guide will give you the opportunity to do just that, take control of your life’s plan and then you can truly live and Own Your Bliss!

A Message from Samira:

Own Your Bliss works. When I started this process I was an in-house corporate tax attorney at a multi-national oil company. I had an overactive social life, a strained relationship with my family, and an extra 10 pounds following me everywhere. I thought I was very happy and was living the life of my dreams. I wasn’t. And, it wasn’t until I examined my life through the OYB framework that I was able to see the truth.

The truth was that I wasn’t happy, and my life wasn’t going the way I wanted it to. And, OYB uncovered this in a very neutral, non-threatening way, AND provided me the critical next steps necessary to effectuate change. That’s what I was always scared of – if I start to go deep and don’t like what I see – what am I going to do about it? OYB had the answer right there – right when I uncovered the truth.

I created this process to help others like me – those whose lives look so happy and great on the outside – but they know something is missing on the inside. Nothing else I’ve ever encountered helped me in the way OYB did, and that’s why we keep tweaking, improving, testing, re-designing, and developing the OYB process. It becomes a way of life – a way that encourages and guides you to true happiness in a natural way.

Now, I am a successful entrepreneur, living a balanced healthy lifestyle, am in a loving relationship with my family and am truly happy and Owning My Bliss.

Hello Fellow Bliss Seekers! I can't believe it's almost midnight on a school night and we are still awake. So, let's just recap - bottle of wine, check. Inappropriate man talk, check. Political discussion/Shock and awe over current selections of leaders for the alledged greatest country in the world - check. Now, did I mention that all of this occured after Samira ventured into the twilight zone known as . . dun dun dun . . . the burbs. She filled up the car, packed a meal, grabbed her passport and some small luggage to come and visit me in my new home. An hour and a half and several missed turns later she arrived. My son awaiting her arrival soon grew very tired as what turned from an early dinner arrival became a nightcap. But then again, this is what happens to those inner loopers that get outside of their zone. (I know because I was once one of them, before the burb bodysnatchers inducted me into the cult).

OK, so now our Blissful Bits for the day:
1. Always be accountable to someone other than yourself. It is too easy to talk yourself down from taking that leap of faith, and tandem skydiving always seemed safer!
2. On the road of life, notice the speedbumps. They can slow you down, but sometimes the pause is necessary to speed you along in the right direction.
3. True Bliss is realizing what's important despite the ups and downs and keeping that constant.


Good night everyone, we wish you great sleep and blissful dreams!
Mon and Samira

Hello dear friends -

It's been quite a while since we've written. At first, we were getting used to blogging. Then, our friend hurricane Ike rolled into town and put a damper (no pun intended) on our business plan. So, after what seems like weeks of yard clearing, fence fixing, no electricity, no cable, we're finally up and running again. There's nothing like a natural disaster to re-focus what's important and count your blessings. One minute, we're worried about business plans, financing and bank accounts. The next minute, we're worried about the roof being ripped off and a tree falling onto our house.

But, the pause that Ike provided only solidified our desire to really make this happen. It became more clear than ever how much comfort and joy we received from engaging in the OYB Process, and developing our business plan and strategy. In a time of turmoil, chaos, and uncertainty, we craved the regular and creative space of our weekly meetings. So, we've decided to update our blog when we meet, with our latest and greatest thoughts.

Hi guys it's Samira and Monica and we have begun our blog to capture our own your bliss journey. It's Friday afternoon (8/8/08) and we're well in the trenches of our monthly strategy session. We can't wait to tell you all about Own Your Bliss so come back shortly for all the juicy details!

Blissful days,
Monica and Samira