Hello my friend! How have you been?
If you’re like most humans, you have your ups and downs. I certainly do.
It took me a long time to accept and even expect that life isn’t going to be peachy all the time. I’m so grateful to be on this planet surrounded by the marvels of nature and kind-hearted people and endless possibilities.
AND I acknowledge that life is challenging. Beautiful and challenging.
As I make peace with this, the more presence I have to stand up to challenges and shape the world I want to live in.
However there are a lot of people trying to convince us that we can feel over-the-top happy every day. Maybe it’s possible. Maybe they just want our money. 😉
This infuriates me. A big challenge for us as humans is we’re regularly exploited through marketing campaigns so someone can make a quick buck. Maybe the product they’re selling adds value to our lives. Maybe their marketing is just really clever and we end up spending money we don’t need to spend. We end up working jobs we don’t like so we can buy these things to give us temporary pleasure.
Have you ever found yourself in this cycle? Sadly, it’s a big part of our consumer culture. We’re all impacted.
But I don’t want to feel doomed and disgusted all day. Like I said, I’m grateful to be alive and there IS so much good in the world. So what can I do to expand the good and stand up to what I feel powerless against?
It comes down to the small choices we make every single day. This is our super power.
When you feel hopeless, when you want to make an impact and you don’t know how, when you want to change yourself or the world but feel overwhelmed, start as small as you possibly can.
Here’s my simple recipe for hope and empowerment.
- Look at the small choices you make every single day.
How do you spend your time? How do you care for yourself and others? How do you spend money? Ask yourself: “Are my daily actions contributing to the problem or moving me closer to the solution I want to see?”
I recognized that I was spending more money with big corporations than I would like. I’m conditioned to instant gratification and it’s too easy to buy something as soon as I want it with the click of a button.
- Identify a better choice you can make that moves you closer to where you want to be and DO IT. Do it again and again. Keep making this better choice until you have a new habit.
Now I’m choosing to shop more at local businesses where possible and select those that share my values of community and sustainability. If I’m tempted to buy something, I write it down and wait so I can decide if it will really add value to my life. I’m also becoming more involved in Buy Nothing groups where locals gift unwanted items to each other. It’s a great form of recycling – and FREE!
- Share your experience with others.
Engage in conversation. Learn from each other. Inspire each other. Challenge each other to do better. This is how we strengthen our community and impact.
My partner and I have been having lots of conversations about where we spend our money and how we select the foods we eat. He wanted to learn more about permaculture, and suddenly here we are wondering how our daily choices can influence our community. Now we’re giving speeches about it in our Toastmasters club. It’s great being around people who challenge and inspire us.
After I put these 3 simple steps into action and continue to do them day after day, I feel so much more hopeful and empowered. I continue to have conversations with friends about these topics and know that together we are shaping the world we want to live in.
Does this resonate with you? Is there an area where you feel disempowered and want to create more positive momentum? Please comment and share with me. Let’s put #3 of the recipe into action and connect to inspire each other!
To the power of choice!!
Here I am at one of my favorite local businesses – Blush Tea! Never any fancy marketing needed to get me to buy tea 🙂 I am holding the printed draft of my new book which is all about making decisions that honor our unique and beautiful bodies 🙂 Stay tuned for details! I am expecting to have it available later this year!
Jessica Juliano: Self-Worth Advocate + Author 