Mind and Soul

  • Interviews, Mind and Soul, Positive Thinking

    How I Use Technology To Stay Inspired

    best-podcasts

    Remaining inspired while feeding my spirit is very important to me. I’m a strong believer that the way you go to bed at night sets up your morning and how you start your morning determines the direction of your day. I try to relax at night and I like to listen to a podcast as I unwind and prepare for bed. Depending on my mood or how my day went I would listen to either  Joel Osteen , The Daily Boost or Trish Blackwell (All free on itunes).

    [Tweet “I listen to podcasts at night to fill my mind with positivity before I sleep”]

    In the morning, I use my Gratitude app. on my iPad to take note of all the things that I am grateful for and then I pray. For the past year, I’ve been doing bible study plans on Youversion Bible app. that I downloaded from iTunes. My favorite plan so far is the Joyce Meyer Promises for Everyday life that I am currently doing. This app. is free and what I appreciate most about it is that it will sync with all of my devices automatically so I can stay on track. Also, I try to read the The Daily Motivator every morning but I don’t always have the time so I slip it in during the day while I’m out and about.

    My goal is to keep my life positive and drama free and since I am naturally a pessimist I like to read uplifting sites such as Positively Positive and one of my new favorites, Tiffy Talks which is written by Tiffany Wilson one of the awesome bloggers I connected with at the Blogging While Brown Conference.

    [Tweet “My goal is to keep my life positive and drama free and since I am naturally a pessimist”]

    Besides reading uplifting material, I sometimes listen to music that makes me feel better from my iTunes library or using the Pandora app. I like conscious reggae and neo soul music for those moments when my soul needs a little nurturing.

    Mobile technology and social networking are integral parts of  bloggers lives. Many of us balance many different roles and are always on the move so we must get inspiration on the go. While I was at the Blogging While Brown Conference, along with a few other bloggers I participated in the AT&T Inspired Mobility Campaign. I shared how I use technology to find inspiration on the go with Eva of Socamom.

    [Tweet “Bloggers share how they use technology to stay inspired on the go @att #inspiredmobility”]

    Check out the videos from the campaign!

    Isn’t it wonderful to learn how others are using technology to stay inspired?

    I hope this post gives *you* plenty inspiration and ideas to remain inspired on the go.

    How do you stay inspired on the go?

     

  • Kids Fashion, Mind and Soul, Motherhood

    My Daughter’s Teachings

    Girls Summer Fashion

    I sincerely believe that my daughter selected me to be her mom so she could teach me about life and open me up to a different perspective.

    [Tweet “She chose me to be her mother so she could teach me the life lessons necessary for my journey”]

    The Princess Fairy is a social butterfly and very charismatic. No matter where she goes, she makes friends easily. She’s a master at small chat and she never thinks twice about approaching another kid to introduce herself, something I am not always comfortable with. When she was a baby, she would go up to other kids at the playground which forced me to make small chat with their parents. #awkward

    Lessons from my daughter

    Now, whenever we go out she’s usually the first one dancing and she always pulls me out on the floor with her. While I have both introvert and extrovert qualities, I tend to be more reserved around people that I don’t know. Not her, she’s entirely too comfortable doing her thing and enjoying life to be bothered. I admire that!

    Importance of living in the moment

    Lately, she’s taken her teaching to a whole new level. It’s like I have a little Dr. Phil on my hands. She started asking “Mommy, are you happy or sad?” Most of the time I am “fine” just in the process of doing something. So my response would be “Well, I am happy but I am busy cleaning/making/getting…” This is usually met with a quizzical look.

    [Tweet “Mommy, are you happy or sad?”]

    FEATHER HEADBAND

    This week, we went for a walk and I guess my face seemed pretty serious so she asked “Mommy, are you happy or sad?” and I was about to reply “Happy but concerned that you’re going to fall if you keep running.” Before I could answer, I had an ah-ha moment. While I believe that I am happy, I am not truly embracing happiness because I am still failing to truly live in the moment. This isn’t exactly a new life lesson, I’ve even written about living in the moment in my birthday reflection blog post. But my baby girl put it into perspective and made it practical.

    Kids outfit of the day

    To be truly in the moment all the time, I need to enjoy the process or the journey or whatever you want to call it because that’s the best part of our lives. Once we arrive at our desired destinations and we’ve met our goals we’re usually too focused on achieving the next goal to really enjoy what we’ve accomplished in that moment.

    [Tweet “To be truly in the moment all the time, you need to enjoy the process or journey or whatever you call it.”]

     

    Princess Fairy Birds Outfit Details :

    Bird Print Dress: H&M (Similar)

    Feather Headband: Macy’s (Similar)

    Sandals: Zara (Similar)

     

     Do your children have different personalities from you?

    What lessons have you learned from them?

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  • Mind and Soul, Positive Thinking

    An Unfinished Drawing

    Artwork 2

    I started to writing this post and deleted a few times because of fear. Yes, fear that terrible feeling that constantly gets in my way of doing just about everything that I really want to do. I am slowly fighting through just overcoming my fears one at a time. So where should I start with this one?

    I love to draw.

    I drew this!

    Yes, I love drawing and when I was a child I imagined myself as an adult doing nothing but  drawing all day. If you’re reading this and you knew me before I was 17 years old, you’ll probably remember me constantly drawing and filling up my notebooks and drawing books.That’s what I did all day and night and I even won some awards and an international competition. However, once I graduated from high school at 16, I stopped.

    Unfinished art work

    Why? Because I felt confused, scared and overwhelmed about the life I was now in charge of “creating” for myself. As a creative person, I was concerned to the point of my detriment that if I followed my heart I would end up broke, hungry and “unsuccessful.” Besides, I self-sabotaged a few times when I had opportunities to make a career drawing, like when I applied to Fashion Institute of Technology but didn’t include my portfolio because I was scared that my skills wouldn’t measure up to other applicants.

    But you know what I’ve experienced in the last few years? Like Steven Pressfield, author of The Art of War explained on OWN’s Super Soul Sunday “the pain of not doing it became greater than doing it.” The pain got more intense during my pregnancy with my son, a time when I experienced some self-growth. Something inside told me that it was time to start back drawing but when my pencil hit the paper, I wasn’t proud of my work. I felt like after all those years, it wasn’t like a bicycle I couldn’t just start off where I left off. I found myself slightly embarrassed and extremely subconscious of my work.

    Drawing

    The embarrassment led to me hoarding my work and not sharing even with those closest to me. But lately, I realized that makes it harder for me, I still feel as if I am not creating because I am not sharing.

    Drawng

    So, I’ve decided that the best way to overcome this fear is to share. Everyone may not like my work and that’s okay because we all have different tastes and preferences. I want to share where my work is today and where my work will be one year and five years from today. Beyond that, I want to use this blog to share something even more personal that I’ve never shared before even as a child, my characters stories. You see every character that I have drawn since I was three years old has a story.  I just think it’s unfair to only share the visual image without the background.

    Since I am divulging so much on this topic I wanted to add another tidbit. Last January, I started to write a comic series called “Rattled” for this blog, I worked on it diligently for a few months but eventually I backed out because of you know – good old fear. I wanted to publicly share this because I want to make myself accountable to I finish the projects that I start and to stop holding on to everything that I create in fear of others not liking it.

    I guess just writing this post was cathartic because I feel much lighter and a bit closer to who the true authentic Adanna is supposed to be.

    I want you to join me on my journey to get past this fear, create and share. I know you’re probably a perfectionist and you can’t let the world into your “behind the scenes” but I promise this is a judgement free zone. Let’s do it together and support each other!

    Share a fear you want to overcome and how you plan to do it.