Seperation of Mind and Body

Always up for a challenge, when asked if I want to climb Pikes Peak, what is my response? Hell yes! Is there really a need to ask. Never one for vacations, of laying and drinking iby the beach, I’d much rather be sweating it out on a 12 plus mile hike up a 14,000 foot elevation. So I find myself staring up the Barr Trail, backpack strapped on, my parents flanking me on both sides, barefoot shoes and an itch for adventure all present at 8:30 am. Initially we face a heavy load of traffic running down the mountainside for the first few miles. But I’m not one to complain, especially when a majority are bare-chested tattooed guys! As we push further we find ourselves apart of a smaller group of summit climbers. After a while, though, I decide to put my headphones on, which my father doesn’t want to hear. He holds his hands out in a motion for me to go ahead. A solo trek up a mountain by myself? Yes please! I love my parents, but I felt like a lamb, that Dad preaches about, mindlessly following their schedule and

Another Lake to Table Experience

What better way to start a morning than with a little fishing. This morning started nice and early with the breakfast of champions: eggs and bacon cooked in grass-fed butter with fish oil already prepared (by me of course). Then it’s on the road with Dad and Cliff in tow to try our luck at trout fishing. We spend the early morning scooting along the bank of the big lake. Cast, reel, cast, reel, but to no avail. Realizing we’re not going to have any luck because trout like to hang out in the middle of the lake  and this lake will not reflect upon our fishing skills, so we wander over to the smaller lake  (finding and being joined by the Amanda and Todd) to see what we can muster up. It doesn’t take long before Dad ses the hook and he is in a battle royal with a frisky trout. After he flashes his muscles, the fish is soon his and in a bucket for lunch. We hit the hot spot. I get a bite, but unfortunately listened to the other Bozo and I set the hook too hard, so that we see the largest fish of the day fly through the air and off my hook to safety. Naturally, Dad have to take over and catch yet another trout, right before my nephews pop up. We switch to the other side to try our

Choosing Happiness in Colorado

Motivation Monday and life lessons with Brittany. I’ve taken to working on gratitude and appreciation. Although it may not always show externally, internally I feel as if I’m brimming to the top. An accumulation of things have led to this. Most notably The Power of Intention reiterated over and over again that one of the ways to align with intention to live in gratitude. Vacations are a real test for this,  when I find myself in that constant presence of my family trying not to get annoyed, it is actually gratitude that reels me back in. As I sit here reading Focus on the Good Stuff, I realize that so often we focus

EVOO Tastings in Denver

While on our Friday night out adventure we passed an EVOO market, taking a mental note, I vowed to come back. As today was our downtown day, I found myself in the area and managed to sneak off by myself. It is no secret that I love a market and that it only takes the thought of healthy foods to send me into a state of bliss. I found myself one on one with a beautiful woman and kegs of oils and balsamic waiting on me to try. I was in heaven! With a quick lesson on dispensing, I was off and running for my palate to discover all the wonderful tastes. There were oils from all over the world: Australia, Greece, Spain, the US and of course Italy, each with its own distinct taste based on what the local region had to offer. I was able to walk around and sample while asking the ‘right’ questions. They were all first pressed extra virgin olive oils and the woman was well aware of antioxidant and polyphenol importance to the oils. After much tasting I was hooked on a chipotle Italian EVOO with a major kick in the after taste. Next on to the balsamic. There were an assortment of flavors

The Importance of Vacations

Here in this country we don’t seem to take the time for the all-important vacation. Only 57% of Americans take advantage of vacation time (in France 90% take their allotted 30 days!). It’s the same thing: we’re too busy or money is tight or when I retire I’ll travel and do all of that. Why not live your life now? This is my year of yes and I’m not letting anything stop me from experiencing anything that I want to do. But your lifestyle enables you to do that- is what I here. Life is what you make it, if you don’t like something change it, if you want something go after it don’t just talk about. You don’t have to travel with your family (solo trips are fun too) or spend a lot of money (I am queen of having fun on a limited budget or free even. It doesn’t even have to be a whole weeks’ vacation, it can be a weekend or even just a day. I decided I wanted to take off and give zorbing a try, so what did I do? Got a group together (so we could split the cost of gas), jumped in a van the next day that I had off went zorbing- had an amazing adventure- and came back the same night (still on time to go out with my friends). Like I

Seeing Potential in Every Situation

The fire alarm gong off in your hotel room at 1 am may not seem like a good thing, but like all things in life (as I’ve come to realize) it’s about choice. We choose how we view the world and its people. We choose how we react to a situation. We could have a good time or a bad time, bad on the choices we make. Misery and unhappiness (just like stress) are created by us. My family, although a bunch of smart-asses, tend to take the light-hearted approach. Things like 1 am fire alarms tend to just happen in my life, providing me with a list of never ending stories and experiences. We’re not even a day into vacation and we have things to take away already. Firstly, I’d like to note that the fire alarm had been going off for at least 1/2 hours, but not until my father hears it and goes into the get-the-hell-outta-here mode, do any of us drag ourselves out of bed. After several trips back in and out of the room to make sure we have the so-called ‘essentials’, do we make it outdoors (the last one’s I might add). Dad and Todd (the serious ones aka party-poopers) take the boys to the truck to sleep. Of course this leaves Mom, Amanda, Cliff and I, the so-called silly ones to have a great time bonding and abiding to rule #6 (the only rule of the trip) ‘Don’t take yourself so damn seriously!’ In order to do this, first we have to be nosy and converse with our pj-clad neighbors about potential theories. The whole experience reminded me of my freshman year of college, where our alarm went off all of the time, so I elect drugs or burnt popcorn as the reasoning’s behind the alarm. Manda being the nosiest of all traipses to the front to discover the source and comes back with news of fire trucks and everyone taking pics. Well of course! We have to catalog this experience, better yet video tape it because Amanda just so happens to have hers. Ever-so-clever as we are, we decide to play the role of investigative journalist, stretching our creative muscles. We take off in our daper Valentines/love inspired fleece shorts towards all the action. Do you think we could do an interview with a fire fighter? Better not to push our luck, so we head back, taking surveillance of the crowd on our way back, loving the mom leading with her beer and dragging her tot behind- this is what we consider priority thinking. When we get back we decide to do our own ‘disaster’ style video, full-on country/hickish as we could get. No one should probably ever see that video! Eventually people head back in (we’re not actually advised to go back, but figure we’re far enough  away that we can take our own initiative), and crash back to sleep. This could have been a situation where we got frustrated and pissed off about being disturbed on our vacation and having our beauty sleep interrupted, but instead we decided to have fun and make it a good memorable time.

Discovering Intention

Motivation Monday: I’ve been working on intention lately. I randomly go through stages of what I want to practice with my inspirational skills (I’ve done nonjudgement, living in the now, seeing good in the seemingly, etc), but now I am solely focused on intention and the energy that I portray. I have slowly been working my way through Dr. Dyer’s book The Power of Intention, and has just sparked a fire in me to be even better. Always a smart ass (although never malicious, merely light-hearted witty comments), I’ve come to realize that I need to harness this and facilitate it towards loving and kind thoughts. Part of the keys to intention are to:

• Be kind
• Love

Uninhibited: Being in the Now

Blogger Brittany: my one weekly post, for Motivation Monday, is inspired by things that I took away from the Power of Now. This video (sorry for quality) goes along with this theme. This new-found enlightenment and freedom of fear has provided an over abundance of electric energy. What better way to expel energy than to dance. Recently I’ve found myself constantly want to dance: at work, in the car with everyone watching and able to identify me in my pink-striped car, at the Rex games, at Holiday World in line with Tab creating our own music(letting loose