My bag is full…

Many times when people get together with one another, or one goes to something that they are doing for themselves, they often say “my cup is full.” What if after a weekend, you look around and there is no cup to be found, but you look down at the carry on bag between your legs and realize that every little piece that was added to that bag over the past days, makes your head and heart full. Can we say that our “bag is full?”

Let’s start with asking yourself, “when did I do anything to fill my cup, or in this instance, my bag?” Did I meet up with a friend for coffee and had a meaningful chat? Or maybe you met at a bar and tried that craft beer, either way!  When was the last time you did something that when the hours, days, weeks were over, you sat back and thought, “wow, I think that changed me?”

When going through these questions, if you said, “not sure” or “I haven’t,” then I recommend you do something soon. I am not asking you to hop the next flight to France and sit on the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower for days while you collect yourself, or call up every girlfriend you can to book the next trip. (Now these are 2 examples of things you sure could do!) What you need to do is take your next time when you and your family do any activity together, or the next time you grab that friend for you coffee, something that gets you OUT of your normal pace of life and throw it for a curve from your schedule. This may make you a little comfortable if you do the same thing every day, or it may be a push for you to get out or it may be the 2^nd time you did it today. Either way, do something out of your norm.

As I look in my bag, there are remnants of the past 4 days of the vacation/training I am now flying home from. The hubs and I got our seats in the boarding area as I pulled my notebook out that I got at the conference I just attended for a national jewelry company I work for. They spoke to my heart when I received this pink, thin lined notebook that I am now spilling all of my to-do’s, thoughts, dreams, and oh-shit’s in to. I looked and saw the candy that was given at a recognition party. A 100-grand candy bar, because we are all grand. What a small, but meaningful phrase. “You are grand.”

Next in my bag is my jewelry bag that I filled of the samples I earned from sharing my business the past 3 months, plus all of the beauties that I have put together to remind me of my story. The very computer that I am writing this on and thankful for, as I am, old school and love typing on a good laptop. (one day I’ll be cool with my own tablet!). My electronics bag, that has the portable charger I needed too many times because the selfie game was real with many beautiful souls. The selfies and pictures with ladies that I have known for no more than 4 years, many only 1 and maybe see once a year, to the ones I just met. And for the ones just met and realized that we have everything in common and were meant to cross paths to realize that where we are, is right where we are supposed to be. The colorful pens, the new sunglasses to tell us our future is bright and the luggage tag to tell me that my adventure is just beginning.

All of these pieces have a piece in my heart, but it is what you can’t see that falls in my heart deeper, and that is being surrounded by amazing ladies and my husband who don’t care if I have something in my teeth or I can’t figure out what my next career is. They were there to build themselves up, just like myself, so that when they went their way, they could be better for everyone around them. When we fill up our cups, or bags, we are not only doing it for ourselves, but for others. Think of how that can spread. We are all now a little better versions of our already awesome selves.

If you made it this far, I now challenge you to find even just 10 minutes over the next few days to do something as simple as sitting in your home and looking out the window with amazing loud tunes on, thinking about what you are grateful for. Grab that favorite cup from your cupboard that you don’t want to use as it is ‘special,’ pour a drink and sit. Grab that book you have been wanting to read and sit. Keep that music on and have yourself a dance party. Call that friend and meet up. Find something out of your normal norm and do it.  Then take a few minutes to yourself and just think of everything those around you said, or thoughts you had, think about your feelings, think about your memories. They don’t have to be grand, they just have to be there. Not there, then dig deeper, they are.

Do you have a sense of happy going on?  If you said yes, your cup, is now filling. Continue this. Build on this. Do it daily.

Thank you to all of the amazing people who I was blessed to see, meet, hug, selfie, enjoy dinner/drinks, dance, walk, and train with, over the past four days in Denver. You were a part of this amazing chapter that I so needed right now in my own life.

~ j.