So I decided to finish off a project I started a long time ago.
Each time I watch it I get a warm feeling inside. Me and my darling have had so many great times together and I know there will be thousands more where that came from.

So here’s to gratitude and happiness and just a little bit of narcissism!!

Does my head look big in this?!?

A few days ago I decided I wanted to take my skiing to a new level, and to do that I needed to have the skills to ski off piste.
So I booked in a lesson and off I went.

It’s a different world off the main runs. Quieter and more beautiful. And a lot harder to control!
I have a lot of practice to be able to enjoy the experience, but I have learned techniques which will mean that I will get there. And I will ensure there is photographic evidence of the fun and the technique at some point in the future!

With increased skill and speed on piste, and lack of skill and the likelihood of finding rocks and other sharp objects off-piste I decided that it was time to look after this head of mine. So I have bought a helmet. I was trying to find a helmet that looked good, but then I just realised that every helmet looks like you have a MASSIVE head and this isn’t a beauty pageant.

So here’s to new experiences.
A warm and hopefully safe-from-breakages head.
And new skills to master both on and off the marked trails.

From www.polyvore.com

I would love to look good and feel good ALL the time!
I would love to walk down the street and feel myself swishing my hips every so slightly because I knew I looked good, but even more than that, that I FELT fantastic.
I would love to have a skip in my step each and every day.

Of course that isn’t going to happen.

How can you experience the highs if you don’t have the crap days too?
How can you know what great feels like if you don’t have the opposite every once in a while?

Also, I know that this isn’t about what I wear (although sometimes I get fixated on that).

It does need to be about what I think and do.

Somehow it seems easy to focus on the outer stuff. The stuff that other people (and yourself) can see so easily.
Yes, it would be fabulous to have an amazing wardrobe and to walk around feeling fabulous. But isn’t a great wardrobe just a bit of a sticking plaster if you aren’t actually happy on the inside? Would you really sashay and feel great if ALL you had was a great wardrobe?

So yes, I would love to have great things to wear. I wouldn’t mind finding a few more items I can add to my wardrobe that I feel FANTASTIC in when I put on. But that isn’t the focus. That isn’t going to solve anything.

What will actually be more life changing is when I have a bad day, that I don’t wallow in it.
That I pick myself up and continue on.
Celebrate when it is great and you do well, and let it go when it isn’t so good.
Today was a day to let it go…..

The thing with dualities is that they are part of the same whole.
One isn’t the “right” way and the other wrong.
There isn’t a better option to be.

These words are man-made distinctions of the same thing.
They’re man-made constructs which make us feel the need to choose when no choice is required.

Just live. One moment may be yin and the next yang.

Focus on the whole, don’t judge the parts.

Mind – Body

Head – Heart

Routine – Spontaneity

City dweller – Nature lover

Corporate Robyn – Hippie Robyn

Capitalist Robyn – Socialist Robyn

Big woman – Inner child

Nesting – Travelling

Planning for the future – Living in the moment

Commitment – Freedom

Traditions – New Experiences

What crap are you carrying around with you?

What are you telling yourself that follows you around you like filth on a daily basis?
What dirt are you not getting rid of and may actually be holding you back?
What untruths do you continue to believe are true?
What same old crap do you have on repeat in your head?

Isn’t it time you had a bath and cleansed yourself of all this stuff?
Isn’t it about time to allow the full, clean and BEAUTIFUL you to come forward?

They are beautiful. They are real. They are wise. And they still hold so much truth in them.



“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” 

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

I have been watching new skiers on the slopes. They are doing really well and then something happens that freaks them a little bit (perhaps they are going a bit fast, or the hill gets a bit steeper, or someone comes flying past and puts them off) and they fall over.
They lost their confidence, they lost their positive “I can do this” attitude.

You can actually SEE the moment in them when they think “I can’t do this”.
It is amazing that it is so easy to spot in others. 

I have also started to notice this in myself too.
If I think “this is too steep” or “it’s too icy” or “I am crap at parallel turns” then I am crap! But if I think “I can do this”, “Wow, aren’t I doing well’ or “Look at me being all good!” then I can zip down the mountain with no problems at all. Or if I do get in a problem I am in the right space of mind to recover very quickly.

It seems so simple, yet it’s amazing how hard we as humans find this.

Then I read this article this morning and I couldn’t agree more.
As well as being aware not to use the words try, can’t and hope, I am trying to banish the word should from my vocabulary. Thinking I “should” be doing something just leads to feelings of guilt for no real reason.

So here’s to more positive thinking and self talk.
Do you want to join me on this journey?

I didn’t see the youthful person I thought I should see.
Perhaps it was the limp hair that I don’t do anything with because as soon as I leave the house it gets put under a hat.
Or perhaps its the piles of cheese and meat that I have been eating daily catching up on me (and my face!)
Or perhaps I wasn’t wearing the most flattering of clothes, but I didn’t actually bring any of those with me – just comfortable and warm were the criteria that made clothes into my bag for this adventure.

Whatever it is, I’m not a fan!

Now I don’t want to be 21 again. But could I be 35 and look 21? I would be ok with that!

Perhaps one of my new experiences in 2012 will be to learn how to age gracefully, and love myself and the person that looks back at me in the mirror no matter what I find!