F**K IT MILES, GIVE ME SOME PRIVACY

First of all: WOO-HOO! I did it! I'm not the greatest person of starting AND finishing things, so I'm really happy I have stuck with this challenge and it's the last day! Today's activity is to reflect. This Love Your Life 30 Days Project has been very good for me in many ways. 1. It has helped me to set a rhythm of accomplishing things little by little. From now on out it will be much easier to write my own set of challenges and projects, one step at a time, and simply go through them. 2. The project has made it easier to see things more clearly. Finding priorities, goals, things to be grateful for, you really need to think about them. Once you do, it will become easier to follow your own path. 3. It helped me to find my own things that work for me. Some methods I feel much more comfortable with than others. The key was to try them all out and develop from there on. I don't think the point is to keep on using every practice in the future, but simply find tho...

"What is it that the future wiser version of you would tell who you are today? What would the future you tell you today about the journey?" During this Love Your Life for 30 Days challenge I've done quite a few of these "looking into a crystal ball" practices, and despite somehow getting through them each time, I find them always very challenging in the beginning. So here goes... Looking back, 2017 seems like a turning point for you. You felt you were stuck in the mud throughout the year 2016, not really getting anywhere with your dreams and ideas, but you were simply laying the groundwork for the future. You should always trust that you are doing the best you can at that moment. I'm glad somewhere on the road you let go of comparing your own beginning to someone else's ending, and learned to tackle your own things in your own speed. What you didn't realize then is how fast your children do grow. Luckily you did catch up soon enough and learne...

My activity today is to go five years into the future and give high-lights report where I've been since this 30 day project. And I did just that. Not just publicly, because it's simply too personal. Let's just say I created nice next five years for myself and my family that include a lot of growth, learning and getting stuff done I always really wanted to get done. Basically I was writing a list of dreams in the form of a letter and in past tense as if they already had happened. Statistically people who write down their goals have a much higher chance to realize them, so you can only gain with this practice. I watched a clip last week about having goals. It was an interview by Marie Forleo on YouTube and she was talking with psychiatrist and author Ned Hallowell. To quote him: "I suggest, every day have not more than three short term goals. Then medium term every week to two weeks have three more goals, and then longish term, six months to a year, have three mo...

Why I rock? I need to have absolute appreciation of who I already am. Great, again one of those lists I'm not fully comfortable writing, which only means I need to do this sort of self appreciation until I feel comfortable with this. I rock because... ...I am keeping up with this challenge. ...I try to keep a positive note despite life getting in the way. ...I always put my phone/computer/book away when my child comes to talk to me. ...I made up a really fun game today with my youngest. ...I helped my middle kid reach his goal today. ...I took the time to hang out with my oldest one today and concentrate on the things she found important. ...I am challenging my husband to grow. (Although he might not always agree.) ...I have understood fundamental things this week. ...I wrote this list with a Scottish accent in my head. ...I can't roll. Water Challenge It seems to be difficult to reach the three liters as I was planning to do last week. Two liters it is.

"The activity for today is to put your manifestation skills to work immediately - micro manifestations. The idea here is to deliberately manifest a few little, fine and easy, breezy things into your life day by day, developing that muscle of confidence that says "yes, this stuff works" , says Mike Dooley. I have to make a list of a few things that in a course of a few days will play out. Today's little, fine, easy, breezy manifestation is to receive a compliment from a complete stranger within the next few days. I'm curious to see how this plays out. Will I be subconsciously looking for it more, which will send a signal to someone to say something? Or will I interpret the smallest things as a compliment? Doesn't matter, this is what I now sent out to the Universe to see what I receive back. Water Challenge Does a bottle of beer count as water? Then I'm at two liters... otherwise I still have a bottle of water to chug down.

"Set an intention for today." I think a lot of people, myself included, tell themselves they are already doing this on daily basis, but it's actually one thing to believe you're doing this naturally and another thing to actually sit down, think about your intentions, pick one and keep it in your mind throughout the day. Luckily I checked out the task for today already last night, so in the morning I set an intention of health. I've been ill for a month with flu that turned into bronchitis. I've had to cancel and postpone almost everything else just to grant myself enough time and peace to get better. In the morning I was still feeling so unsure of how I feel that I called the doctor's office and made an appointment to have someone listen to my lungs tomorrow morning. Still, if I take a deep breath, I sound like a person who struggles breathing, so there is still plenty of room for me to get better. However, today I also had to get back on the normal tr...

Today I'm supposed to write a letter to future self from a fan or someone else. In the letter I'm to explain why they admire me or admire the things I've done. Of course that means having to talk about why I think I'm awesome and just the thought of writing a public letter like this makes me cringe. But rest assured, I did write that letter and I emailed it to myself so it will be easy for me to search in the future when any of those things happen. However, writing this letter was probably the hardest Love Your Life 30 Days challenge so far. Seeing how much I struggle to write good things about myself to myself without anyone seeing made me realize I have a lot of growing to do. Well, that's life. Water Challenge I started early. I drank too many cups of coffee in the meanwhile. Still haven't finished the 2 liters of water. Why is it getting harder, I wish I knew. This is also becoming a real challenge, I guess.

Today's task is showing gratitude. I admit, it's not always easy to be grateful. When you have been sick for a month and the antibiotics aren't working and you end up going back to the doctor only to be prescribed a stronger set of antibiotics and an inhalator, because your exhaling sounds like Darth Vader gurgling with mouth water... In my case it's bronchitis with a sound of asthma. Yeah, it's not easy. But the great thing is that I have the chance of seeing a doctor whenever I need to see one. I'm grateful my kids' lungs were sounding normal despite their cough. I'm grateful the doctor prescribes me medicine when she sees it's important, sends me to the pharmacy where they will hand me the medicine and don't charge me. I'm grateful my doctor shows me a webpage where I have to go see an instruction video of how to use the inhalator and I'm grateful my pharmacist tells me if it's not enough, I can always go back and they'll hel...

Today's task is to write a list of about 20 things I love doing without giving it too much thought, so here goes: 1. I love introducing things to my kids that they find interesting. 2. I love cooking, baking, looking for new recipes. 3. I love reading a good book. 4. I love writing - writing anything really. 5. I love talking about anything with my husband. My favorite subjects include science and the nature of reality. 6. I love getting comfy in artificial warmth: Blankets, sauna, thick socks, hot coffee, heater. Hot weather, not so much. 7. I love outdoorsy stuff in crispy, preferably sunny and dry outdoor weather. 8. I love feeling energetic and healthy. 9. I love talking to people and hearing their stories. 10. I love watching movies. 11. I love learning. I am constantly looking for new information. If I wonder about something, I'll make sure to figure it out no matter the subject. 12. I love cycling. 13. I love traveling. 14. I love having things organized. ...

Today's task was to have a conversation with someone who gets me and talk about our dreams having been fulfilled. I asked my husband to do the practice with me and of course half a minute into the conversation he was already wrecking it by talking about incredibly unrealistic stuff. ("Hey, remember the time I went to Mars?") Then he teased me with "How's your new Tesla Model Y?" He knows I want the S, so I served him by telling him I auctioned for a dinner with a celebrity and won a dinner for him with Pamela Anderson in London. But after a little steering and examples he finally gave in with the practice and helped me through it beautifully. We talked about the milestones our kids reached that in this present moment we're still working on with them. We talked about our future daily lives and reminisced about how far we've gone from where he started. The truth is that if we look at our lives from where we started together to this point alone, we...

Today's task is to "meet your future peers". I'm to write down the names of (approximately 20) people I think have achieved what I want to achieve. They don't have to be people that have done exactly what I want to be doing, but who I'd meet at a cocktail party. There are many people I admire for many different reasons. For example I admire a Finnish computer programmer Linda Liukas, although I don't see myself doing what she does. I just think she does very cool things and seems so in her path that I wish in a future cocktail party I'd get to see her among the guests and pick her brain. I admire the hell out of Elon Musk, the mad genius, although I don't see myself trying to achieve the things he does, as much as I am interested in the things he does. However, his work ethic and train of thought really hit home with me. So here it my list: 1. Linda Liukas 2. Elon Musk 3. J. K. Rowling 4. Seth MacFarlane 5. Lauryn Hill 6. Laura Lindstedt...

"How others I love and who love me will benefit from my dreams?" That is the task for today. How will my kids benefit? By having a mom who is not asking them to reach for the stars, but showing them how to do it. How will my husband benefit? By having a kick-ass wife of course! Or he will benefit by having a happier wife and hopefully a partner that is even more equal to him than before. How will my (extended) family benefit? What's mine is theirs. How will my friends benefit? Some a lot, hopefully. I have some of them calculated into my dreams. I'm actually hoping by realizing my dreams I can support them to realize theirs. One of the main reasons to work on these things is to show you can do stuff even when you're a 30-something mom. If I inspire someone, I'd already feel successful. Water Challenge I haven't been overdoing the amount of water, so I've been keeping to two liters a day. I take that's why it was sunny and dry toda...

Today's challenge is to write about a normal day in the future. I leave the details to myself as I don't feel comfortable sharing it all with everyone. I have thought about my future day all day and many things have surprised me: The moment you let yourself dream without boundaries, you truly discover the things in your life you do appreciate and want to keep in the future. My kids are growing up and soon even my youngest one is starting school. I have waited for a long time to have a bit more time in my hands, but the moment that is getting closer, I'm realizing how unique the time has been that I have been able to spent with my kids. Gaining back a piece of yourself means giving up a whole lot of time with your kids. Yet that also is a part of life; growing up, letting go. 1. As much as I feel picking up my kids for lunch from school every day is exhausting, I do like having lunch with them. It's just the back and forth logistics during nap time that has been toug...

One of the biggest things that ever manifested itself I wrote in my diary when I first got to know my husband. I glued his picture on a page and wrote right next to it "this is the man I will marry one day". I had never met him in my life, face to face that is, at that point and it would still take another five years before seeing him for the first time. From the moment I glued that photo and wrote those words, it took nine years until our wedding day. Today's task is to write a list of dreams that have already come true with a few hidden gems in it. A hidden gem is a dream that is yet to fulfill, but those are buried in the list, as if they are a natural part of it all. - Marrying the man I said I would. - Becoming a mother. - Moving to Italy. - Moving to the Netherlands. - Becoming a house owner. - Becoming a published writer. - Visiting Scotland. - Becoming a Tesla Model S owner. - Getting the kitchen I always dreamed of. - Becoming a bakfietsmoeder. - Me...

This morning I took the kids to school and cycled five kilometers to our family doctor for my appointment, as now my month long cough turned into a weird noises emanating from my lungs. My bike was frozen, the gears weren't working. At the waiting room after sitting patiently for good 20 minutes and seeing everyone going in and out, except me, I asked the person behind the counter about my appointment. "Yes, I have it here, but it's tomorrow", she explained and continued saying she couldn't squeeze me in that day. So, tomorrow I'm doing it all over again. Kids, bike, frozen, 5km with weird lung noises. It's almost like it's becoming a ritual... which is also the task for today. "Rituals have proven to instill peace, confidence, posturing, giving you stability in your life, particular done in the morning. Visualization every morning. Meditation", Mike Dooley explains in today's video . I have never been a very ritualistic person, but e...

Activity today is to send thoughts of love. This short video below is quite inspirational.   I remember reading somewhere that the angriest people need love the most, and I don't think anyone could argue with that. However, hearing it the first time was quite the stopper. It's very difficult (at first) to send love to someone who is causing havoc to themselves or to others, but just like Mike Dooley says in the video, if you just keep doing it long enough, it will become your default setting. This transformation is not easy though. To be loving all the time , I can't pull that off, but at least I'm trying. Constantly the there are more days when I love everything. It's a huge improvement from being a person who thought that was impossible once. Water Challenge I was thinking of adding another liter just to see if it makes any further difference. Maybe tomorrow.

Today has been absolutely my favorite Love your life 30 days task so far. It was exactly the pick-me-up that I needed. For the last few days I've felt I've been in a slump. Absolutely knowing the realities, yet unable to climb out of the ditch and get back on the track again. After this challenge I climbed out and I have a better aim than ever before. Today's task was to take a 2017 calendar and write down my ideal plans. I just downloaded a blank calendar for this year and started filling up with the things I wish were actually happening. I will not post my calendar here, because it feels too personal, but I must say I have gained understanding about myself through this task. I can, however, give some examples on what happens in my imaginary 2017: I will gain Dutch citizenship (which I didn't know I actually wanted, until today). I will also be busy starting two businesses, writing a bunch of contracts, meeting with tons of awesome people. I will travel more, both w...

Random act of kindness is my challenge for today. To be more specific, my task is to write a list of acts of kindness I will be performing. Within this year I will: - Bake something for someone just for fun. - Pick up litter. - Encourage people whenever I naturally feel they need to hear something positive. Don't hold back (like you'd normally do). - Give money to a street musician for once. - Don't hesitate to give up unused possession when you feel someone would benefit from it. - Make a present for someone just because. - Offer to babysit friends' children consistently. Remind yourself parents of toddlers especially need a break more than they dare to admit. - Make breakfast in bed for a family member just because. - Send a package to a friend abroad as a surprise. - Leave a kind note between a library book. - Leave positive feedback on websites I enjoy. - Treat myself to a good book when I see one. There are 12 acts, one for each month...

I haven't really said out loud in my blog what I'm up to. But today I'm supposed to plan a celebration to when I'm done with what I set out to do. I have given myself a deadline of November 2018. That is when I'll book this: A trip to Taiwan for my family. It means if (when) I achieve my goal, I am allowed to do this to celebrate. I've chosen Taiwan for a few reasons: Firstly it's a country where a wonderful friend of mine comes from. Secondly, I have never been to Asia and this seems like a great place to start. Thirdly, I actually have some family in Taiwan who emigrated there already 40 years ago or so. Although I must say, today of all days, I'm losing sight of the goal a little and have trouble focusing and getting back on track. The amount of work I do seems sticky and insufficient, despite acknowledging any step forward is enough for that moment. Water Challenge I was bad at this challenge today. I had about 1,5 liters of water....

"Activity is to begin to start surrounding yourself with empowering resources: Books, DVDs, CDs, e-mails, Notes from the Universe, going to programs, workshops, hanging out with like-minded thinkers etc." It all started by ordering a note from the Universe. Those are written by Mike Dooley, the same guy who is behind this very Love Your Life 30 Days Challenge. I subscribed for fun, but soon enough I noticed I was waiting for a new note every Monday to Friday and it usually arrived between 9:30 and 10:00 in the morning. It's always a compact message and reading it takes only a quick moment, so it soon became an email that I'd check out as soon as it arrived and continued my day with a new thought or a reminder of something essential. Today's note for example looked like this: Because of this, I then noticed something else today, too, that I normally might've overlooked. I saw a quote somewhere that said something like "Your greatest fear offers your...

I was born and raised in Finland and needless to say, I have experienced cold, snowy winters. Ten years ago I moved to the Netherlands and since then I have experienced cold, rainy winters that sometimes turn into warm, rainy winters. Today I happened to be picking up my kids from school just when icy drizzle was scheduled. Yes, I should've dressed everyone in rain proof clothing, but usually we manage that one kilometer in a drizzle no problem. I evaluated the rain wasn't going to bother us too much, but I completely forgot to calculate in the effect of the ice cold rain. My kids have proper rain attire. Too bad I had left it all at home. When we were leaving school, a boat was passing and our bridge was closed. Not to freeze while waiting, I decided it was better to keep on moving, and cycle through another bridge, even though it added half a kilometer. Soon enough the rain had passed both my jacket and the thick sweater underneath and I felt the cold water against ...

Affirmations. Mantra. I am blessed with a wonderful family and great friends. Little things don't worry me. I have a rhythm that allows me to sleep enough. My mind is brilliant. My soul is peaceful and it radiates good vibes around me. I have the qualities to be very successful. My body knows how to heal itself and it is doing so right now. My body knows how to heal itself and it is doing so right now. My body knows how to heal itself and it is doing so right now. My body knows how to heal itself and it is doing so right now. My body knows how to heal itself and it is doing so right now. Just trying to get rid of my flu. I'm holding the right cards in my hand and my gut tells me how to play them right. Water Challenge It's ten o'clock in the evening and I have still about seven deciliters of water in front of me. How did this happen? I don't know. My lips are chapped, probably mostly thanks to the weather, but possibly also thanks to me not k...

"Identify beliefs that will serve you. Our beliefs inspire us, or shot us down." I believe every day should be started with best intentions. I believe people's true nature is to support each other. I believe we're able to do anything we set our minds to. I believe good things happen all the time, even when we don't recognize them at first as good. I believe everything has a meaning. I believe we should celebrate ourselves as much as we celebrate our most loved ones. I believe love is the answer. I believe the Universe works through me. I believe happiness is a state of mind. I believe you get what you ask. I believe in myself. Water Challenge In the morning it was drizzling. I have been somewhat ill since December, can't even remember when it really began. The cough, the runny nose, the fatigue. Despite my general feeling, I had promised to pick the kids up at school for lunch at noon, and before that I would have to visit the l...

It's time to come up with a new narrative. Today's activity on the Love Your Life 30 Days Challenge is to identify and change a story you've been telling way too long. Because this is so personal, on this public post I'm taking an easy way out and go with a somewhat silly dream from childhood. I was around ten years when the first Finnish rappers started making music in my native language. I was instantly in love. I took a notepad and I wrote my own lyrics. My brother and his friends said they'd film my music video and so we did, but they did it so they could show it to their friends and have a good laugh. My parents thought rap was silly (without knowing about this incident with my brother and his friends though - I was too embarrassed to tell). Not enough encouragement under my wings I simply stopped my hobby and never looked back. I have blamed people and circumstances growing up for not supporting enough, because who knows what I could've become ...

Last week I shared this picture on Facebook that I found on Dan Brown's page. As far as I can think with my logic, this sentence above is the beginning of the truth. Thoughts literally transform the physical world, all the time, everywhere. Anything that exists now, whether it's the chair you're sitting on or the marriage you are in, have been at one point nothing more than just a mere thought. Today's challenge is to pay attention to the words I say and the things I think of, because ultimately those are the initial building blocks of the Universe I create for myself. The distance between thoughts and words uttered aloud is minuscule. The distance between words said out loud and actions that follow isn't much greater, either. To improve one self in life it's important to keep on editing and adjusting, starting with your thoughts and words. When you do that, your actions will follow. Water Challenge After last night I suddenly am feeling a tad better....

"Take action on your dreams" is the challenge for today. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically Mike Dooley says on his video challenge for today these wise words: "Universe is not going to do the work for you, you need to do the work for you. It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do something. Any step will seem insignificant when you're starting, but it's better than doing nothing." This is so absolutely true. We often don't take those baby steps, because we cannot see the big picture, but as long as you keep climbing, you'll overcome even the biggest mountain. So, I have taken some baby steps today that seem "not important enough", but the reality is that your whole achievement is built on those small steps that you just keep on taking. I'd be ready to guess most people won't see their dream come true until the last moment and then it feels like things just happened naturally. Baby steps are essential when...

"Visualize. You are imagining these dreams have already come true. You are not to visualize your dreams coming true, but instead visualize a day in your life as if they already had come true", is the challenge for today. Visualizing is something I've always done here and there. If I am looking for something, I often visualize seeing it and whether this actually helps me to acquire that something is irrelevant, but I feel it helps, so why not. To visualize outside my head I decided to use my mad Paint skillz for this: Rollin' down the street, low-key imho, sippin' on H2O Water Challenge: Day 5 I realized today that I start drinking up the water rather late. Today I had my first glass of water at 14 o'clock. Before that I had only had two cups of coffee to drink. I think I need to pay more attention to distributing the water intake throughout the day, although it was no struggle to finish the required amount. I simply think drinking water from early on...

"Our thoughts become things", says Mike Dooley on day four on "Love Your Life" challenge. Today's assignment is to create a vision board. I have never actually made one, other than my Pinterest boards, which I looked up for this occasion. I have a few boards that might be suitable for this occasion, such as my Dreaming board, which is mostly about places I'd feel home at, and some of the pins are materialistic things that I want to own. And my Happy board , which is mostly about moments that bring a sort of a inner peace when looking at them.     When I was scrolling through these, I thought I should probably look at them more often, and I should pick out those that hold more meaning than others. My January resolution will be to scroll through these particular Pinterest boards more often and honestly evaluate each pinned thing to come up with the best possible vision board.  Water Challenge: Day 4  Almost three liters today. Makes it easier wh...

"Love Your Life in 30 Days Project" activity for today is to make a list with some exciting details that are going to thrill me when I have change in that big picture area of my life. The video where I got my assignment is below:   Flow . Making stuff happen. Feedback . Thank yous. Undeniable support. Value. Original ideas. Offers. Rhythm . Work well done. Reflecting . Learning . Knowing my place. Standing my ground. These are my details. This is the year when my youngest is starting primary school. I have been a stay-at-home mom for nine years at this point. I have lost myself somewhere along the way and I have struggled with self-worth a lot. A lot. I have been working on these issues actively for about a year and a half now. This is my year to start looking at things beyond the diapers and wooden blocks. My kids are bigger, more independent - and so am I. It's time to be an adult and find my way forward. Water Challenge: Day 3 Yesterday I was suppose...

My 2nd day challenge from Notes from the Universe was something to do with "my themes". I received a message about it last night, but my connection was not stable enough for me to watch the video, so I only read some bullet points of it. Today, as I'm running one day later than everyone else with this "Love Your Life in 30 Days Project", I cannot find the 2nd day anywhere for me to really understand what I'm supposed to do, so I'm only left at winging it. My themes for my year 2017: gratitude, authenticity & development.  Last year was mentally and physically challenging, but it really made me be more honest to myself. For a long time I've searched for a calling and last year I came to terms with what I wanted to be. As cheesy as it echoed in my head, I felt (and still feel) that I'm a writer. I learned to read at the age of three and I was writing my first stories at four years of age. It simply has always been within me. I just have nev...

Today was my first TUT Challenge and the topic was to "Get clear about your priorities" . I don't think I have had a bad insight to my priorities before, because for the most part I used the 2016 to challenge myself with this sort of personal growth and have therefore thought about my priorities almost daily. Anyhow, my priorities are: 1. Happiness - this counts as much for my own happiness as the happiness of my family. 2. Health - you only need to fall ill to appreciate health. 3. Love - the force is strong with this one. 4. Gratitude - it will enhance all the rest and therefore it probably should be a top priority after all... 5. Family - this is in all of those above, but I felt important to prioritize it separately as well. Of course the list could go on and on, but the more you add, the more you are scattered and will stick less to them. All the rest will follow these top ones after all. Water Challenge: Day 1 I have gulped two liters of water today. I h...

I signed up for a 30 Day Challenge through Notes from the Universe. I'll get my first assignment/activity sometime tomorrow in my email and it's aimed at helping me to get closer to my dreams. Because I don't still know very much what it's about, I'll combine it with this simple challenge called "The thirty day water challenge". I take one cup is around 2,5 deciliters, so each day in January I need to be sure to gradually drink about two full liters of water. Because it's ten in the evening on the first day of January as I'm writing this, I won't do the day one today (also because drinking a lot of water at once can cause water intoxication) .  The 2nd of January will be my Day 1. I suck at drinking enough water, so I'm curious to see how I'll handle it and if I'll notice significant differences. For February I have chosen a writing challenge, because I like writing and I need to be challenged more with it. Although Februar...