Jean’s Word of the Week: Journey

Life's Journey Is All About Finding Our Own Voice, While Forgiving Ourselves and Others

Jean Edelman: Great to be with you. Today I wanted to talk about life's purpose. Over the past month, I have probably read about six books that the same theme keeps coming up. And so because of this journey that we are on together, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you. And it is a journey and we're not meant to get it right all the time. As long as we're moving in the right direction, it's all good.

Here are short 12 of tips I’d like to share:

1 The first tip that I wanted to share that's a theme in all of my reading is taking back our power. Stop letting others decide for us. We intuitively know what we need and what we want. And I think life's journey is about learning to find our voice and to communicate that in a productive way, very important to forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. I think we are so hard on ourselves.

2 is to let go of our mistakes. We all make a mistake but then we relive it a million times. As I've shared before, it's time to let that go, learn from it, improve and move on and don't hold on to it. And then as far as forgiving others, that is so healthy because it takes too much energy to hold on to that. So let it go.

3 is to be more self-aware. When we're authentic, when we are our true selves, we shine. And others love to be around us.

4 is to learn to say no and to mean it. I think a lot of times obligations come up and we feel like we have to say yes. But if it doesn't resonate, if it's not something that's important to us, we should say no. And we also need to say yes when we mean it, when we want to engage in something, when something is really going to bring us some joy.

5 is to let go of relationships that don't support us. Life is about change. We are not the same person we were in our 20s and 30s. And as we change, the people in our lives will change. And so it is healthy and it's okay to let some of those relationships go.

6 is to walk away from negativity and abusive situations. We need to love ourselves enough to know when enough is enough and to choose a different path.

7 is to experience joy when we put our feet on the ground every morning. Let's set the intention that we are going to look for joy and find joy and have joy in our life every day and have the courage to make those changes.

8, I think this is a big one. Allow others the freedom to be themselves. We're not the boss. We're only the boss of us. It takes too much energy to try to change others into what we think they should be. It's so healthy to stop judging and projecting ourselves onto others. That takes too much energy. Just stay in our own bubble. We know ourselves. We intuitively know ourselves. Just be who we are and how we need to be.

9 is to develop and express kindness and compassion and put ourselves in others' shoes. Having that perspective is just - naturally our hearts will open up to everyone.

10 is “wabi sabi”. Wabi sabi is a Japanese philosophy. It basically means nothing is meant to be perfect, complete or forever.

11 is it's okay to be selfish and have self-care. We come first. We've got to take care of ourselves.

12 is we're a work in progress. We're doing the best we can do. Just lighten up. Put a smile on her face. Let it float by. It's all eventually going to work out.

And so my word of the week is JOURNEY.

The J is for Joy

Joy. And the fact that we get to start over each minute, each hour, each day we get a new outlook on life.

O is to be Open-minded

Willingness to try new things. It's when we get bogged down and so locked in that the world doesn't seem kind, wonderful and exciting. But when we're open-minded and open-hearted, anything is possible.

The U is for Unafraid

No fear. Hey, we're in the driver's seat. Never apologize. This is our life. This is how we want it to be.

The R is for Real

The true and authentic. That is when we are aligned and we flow. And life is easier.

The N is for Natural

Tuning into our instincts, tuning into our intuition - they'll never lead us down the wrong path.

The E is for Ease

If it's difficult, if we find difficulty in what it is we're trying to do, stop. Find an easier way, because then that's the path we're supposed to take.

And Y is for Yes

Look for the opportunities. Look for the change. Look for the best aspect of ourselves.

Have a great week, everyone.