Hey loves….  In my quest to get Curious to as many people as possible I am open to trying all things and all of them are outside of my comfort zone. “MAKE REELS!” That is a big one. Really?! 2,751 takes later… I have a 35 second clip of me inviting you to class…and who knows if it will work, but I hadn’t tried it before, and what I was doing wasn’t working. If you have an idea, send it my way. I will try it… all of this leads to this week’s musing about where I am in life, where are you, and how is that comfort zone treating you?! …. 

 Are you loving your life?… Are you overwhelmed?… Exhausted?… Over-scheduled?… Under appreciated?… Experiencing anxiousness, sadness, loneliness?… Are you bored?… Does your life feel like Groundhog Day?… Do you have something you dream about?…  Do you feel like you have so many balls in the air right now and so many obligations vying for your attention that you are just half-assing your way through?…  Are you at the stage of life when the chaos has gone away, and you are just looking at your partner wondering how you are possibly going to navigate this next part with just the two of you and no buffer?… Do you ever feel like you traded your ROLES for your identity (remember when you weren’t introduced as your relationship…”This is.. cute kid # 2’s Mom”, “Have you met…Partner’s name/relationship status?”)?… Are you alone and thinking, what I wouldn’t do to be introduced like that again?… Are you just starting out and struggling to pick a path?… Are you wondering if it is “too late” or “too soon”?… Do you have a gratitude practice and struggle because “you have so much to be grateful for, and yet you want more” and feel guilty for it?…  Are you LIVING or are you EXISTING?  

 If you read that list and said…NO. None of those! I am so deeply happy for you. Keep going! 

 If any of those things resonated with you…. Hi, you’re not alone. The very first thing I want to know is none of that is a reflection of your worth or value. I love you… even if we have never met and you are thinking “you don’t even know me”, I do not have to, to know that you are light and love wrapped in skin and because you ARE, you are worthy of love. Take a breath. This does not mean that you do not have any work to do, or that those feelings will just go away, or that you may not need to seek help or guidance or make a change or that any of this is “easy”, but when we get curious about where we are IN THIS MOMENT… when we do an inventory and ask the challenging questions of ourselves. When we stop filling our lives so full of everything for everybody so that we do not have to think about ourselves it is fucking scary. When we own our answers to the questions above it brings up a WHOLE lot of feelings that we have tried (with varying degrees of success/failure) to numb, avoid, or mask. It can be scary and overwhelming or sometimes just empty.  So, I am inviting you to take another deep breath and inhale love/light and exhale guilt/shame over any of the above… and I understand that it may take more than one breath… start with one breath. ALL change starts with one action and make this your start. 

 Now what?! Step 2 is to give yourself permission. Permission to feel your feelings. Permission to want. Permission to dream. Permission to relax. Permission to fuck up. Permission to succeed. Permission to say no to things that you no longer want to accept. Permission to be happy. Permission to be inconvenient. Permission to do what is best for YOU. Permission to get out of your comfort zone. Permission to ask for help. Permission to not be fine. Permission to start. Permission to be done. Permission to be imperfect. Permission to be too_______ (much/little/big/small/free/quiet/loud/open).  Permission to NOT give a fuck. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR PERMISSION FOR? It was asking this question that led me to creating Curious Movements. When I gave myself permission to put this out there, to move forward with my dream to create the class, write each week, to create a space where you can connect to your joy and fall in love with yourself, that is when I started to put the work in and allowing it to happen. Mel Robbins says, “No one is coming, so you have to just start!”. Dr. Brene Brown talks about writing her own permission slips in “Braving the Wilderness”. There are SO many resources out there for you to explore more on this is and I hope you give yourself permission to do that.  

 Permission is a start. Actually, love is the start, then permission gets you going. I will continue to offer ways in which you can support the journey you are on using things like gratitude, rituals, habits, permission and JOY. As we continue together I will from time to time remind you to take a pause and look in and around to see where you are, how far you have come in your life, where you want to be, what is serving you and what isn’t and how your comfort zone is treating you?! The next breath will always be love, immediately followed by permission…. and then the magic happens! Hint: YOU are the magic. Permission to have an amazing week! XO Lulu