Polish my Crown

how to nurture your soul

by Andi on May 18, 2012 in Inspiration

“How do we nurture our souls?

By revering our own life. By reaching for the best within ourselves.

By taking chances and stretching our boundaries. By leaping into the unknown.

By going places we’ve never been.

By having faith and staring down our fears.

By embracing our uniqueness.

By doing things for the fun of it.

By slowing down, so the important things can catch up.

By breathing in wide-open spaces and walking in nature’s wildness.

By appreciating each day, moment by moment.

By learning to live it all, not only the joys and triumphs but the pain and struggle.

By being there for others, and allowing others in turn, to be there for us.

By making a difference.

By doing things with meaning. By giving the things we do meaning.

Because when we are living a life we love, our souls are singing and dancing.

Are souls are filled with light.

And we find happiness.”

via Internal Acceptance Movement

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Thursday Thankful List

by Andi on May 17, 2012 in Andi's Life, Thursday Thankful List

I’m thankful for lots and lots of things today, but extremely thankful that I’m in my wonderful college town today through Sunday. I’ll be spending the next couple of days soaking up the Ohio sunshine with best friends, visiting our favorite college spots and laughing non-stop. I’ve been anticipating this trip for so long and so so so happy I’m finally here! Happy {positive} Thursday loves! xo

p.s. I’m taking a quick vacation from blogging while I’m visiting friends/family in Ohio. I have posts scheduled like usual every day, including a few from some fantastic guest bloggers! Thanks for understanding and have a great couple of days.

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Investing in Love {Part 1}

by Andi on May 16, 2012 in Guest Posts

Good morning beautiful friends! I have a bit of a Wednesday surprise for you as we take a mini-break from typical Words for Wednesday posts. The next three weeks, the lovely Eliza will be guest posting in a series all about investing in love and what exactly that means. I’m super excited; her advice is spot-on and she shares different ways/aspects of investing in love in each post. Enjoy her first post and don’t forget to follow Eliza on Twitter!

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“Where you invest your love is where you invest your life.” The lyrics from a lovely Mumford and Sons song rings true when you start to reflect on your day, your week, your life.

When Andi suggested that I write something for her blog, I knew I wanted to talk about investing my love in my life. A recent cross-country move, Chicago to Denver, helped me prioritize what I love right now. The decision to move came from a realization that if I didn’t invest in myself, my surroundings, today and tomorrow, than I wasn’t going to live the life I wanted to live – a life full of love. To start this three part series, I want to talk about your most important investment.

Invest in yourself – what do you love? What makes you love yourself? Invest in those things, guilt-free, and know that you are investing in your life.

Nail polish: I feel darn good with a fresh coat of polish, so I’ve invested in one manicure per week (home-done on my budget, love none-the-less)
Good sports bra: I feel sexy when I do any sort of physical activity, and it isn’t because I’m good at it – it’s because I love how it makes me feel! Proper equipment makes me feel even better, and a good sports bra is at the core.
Exercise: I want to love this more because I love myself, and I’ll admit, I’m investing in this slowly, but the returns in the long run will pay off.
Getting lost in a book: the ultimate escape of any kind, literary prowess of said book is not required, this is about investing in what you love.
Spirituality: I don’t care if you find it looking at pins on Pinterest, spirituality is like a good body scrub for the soul.
Laughing: the best cure for all that ails and an natural expression full of love. Laughing is like an MBA in life-investment.
Education: you will get further with it and new perspectives have the ability to let you love in a new light – yourself and the world around you. In case you were wondering, this doesn’t have to be academic study. Education in yoga, the arts, foreign language, wine, anything that you have an inkling of love!
Travel: Even to the town next to you, traveling helps me love myself because it creates a memory, often with someone I love.

In the next part of this series, we’re going to talk discuss investing in your surroundings. Check out this video in the meantime about life-editing. It’ll set the stage for my thoughts on investing in surroundings.

- Eliza

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May Resolutions

by Andi on May 15, 2012 in Monthly Resolutions

1. UNPLUG: This month {and every month really} I am trying more and more to unplug. As much as I love technology and always being “connected” to what’s going on, it’s so refreshing to completely ignore my phone and computer for a day. As I explained in this post, it’s very important to me that I don’t allow my computer, phone and other devices dictate my life.

2. CELEBRATE OFTEN! Who says that celebrations are reserved for birthdays and holidays? In May, I’m treating every day and every experience as a celebration. I think spending some time in Ohio visiting college friends in Athens + my family {THIS WEEK!!!} will make it extra easy to celebrate on a daily basis.

3. FLOSS. Annoying {but necessary} things like flossing don’t become habits until done every single day. There’s no way around it; I just need to force myself to floss more often!

4. GIVE MORE COMPLIMENTS & HUGS. It’s sad to me when I meet or talk to people who haven’t ever been told how wonderful and beautiful they are or how much better life is with them around. I’m vowing to consciously compliment people more regularly and tell them just how special they are to me. Along the same lines, there’s something so special about big hugs and I’m giving more this month! Period.

5. SPEND MORE TIME WITH THOSE THAT I LOVE. I absolutely LOVE meeting new people, but I don’t want to neglect the people that mean the most to me in the meantime. This month, I want to spend more time with the people I love the most. I couldn’t be happier to spend time with my parents, grandparents and little sisters {one below!} later this month.

6. EMBRACE CHALLENGES: Really bad things happen and we go through rough patches in life sometimes. Rather than view challenges and ups and downs as a roadblock, I am going to embrace the not-so-good times. Embracing challenges, rather than be defeated by them, gives you the encouragement and motivation to move forward to a better and happier life.

7. SAY YES MORE: When I first moved to San Francisco, one of the best pieces of advice I received was to say yes to every opportunity. Pretty great, right? How exciting and cool would life be if we experienced more by saying YES? In the past year or so, I’ve slowed down and noticed myself “passing” on situations and indirectly saying NO to experiences. That has got to go! This month and moving forward, I’m saying yes more and more!

8. LIVE LIFE ON PURPOSE: This may sound cliche, but I don’t want to look back on life and realize I just let things pass by. I want to be an active participant in my own life! It’s important to do things purposefully and for a specific reason. This month, I want to live life {both the little & big things} intentionally!

9. BE JOYFUL. It’s a pretty simple solution = Happiness + Joy > Negativity and Grumpiness. I want to be full of out-of-control and unexplainable joy this month; I want to be as cheerful as possible!