As the year winds down and the new year begins, what a wonderful time to reflect on the progress of our lives. It’s easy to look in our bank accounts to measure success, but is that the most accurate gauge? I doubt it.
Take a few moments to review your relationships, the attempts at your dreams, the mistakes that caused great pain and hopefully learning, the steps towards banishing your fears or perhaps a new-found joy that comes only with maturity and understanding. Sure, there’s plenty of resolutions to make, lots of things we claim we need to change in the New Year. These often turn into a self-bashing session of why we aren’t good enough. Yes, it’s good to have goals, but equally if not more importantly, its great to congratulate yourself on the things you have achieved, no matter how small. Some days I marvel that I’m still here and have new opportunities every moment. I’m in awe that I get to DO THIS – to live.
I’ve had a wonderfully challenging year. Creating a new show and brand for my company is far less than easy, but I’m glad I started. And because I started, there’s a full season of new TV Shows that just wrapped! I look forward to a new year with a new season and also look back to see a year full of success. The obvious highlights were interviewing great personalities like Deepak Chopra, The Naked Cowboy, Don Jamieson and 30 other fabulous people, but the highlights most people see are the results of much labor coming to fruition with a group of talented people that we can now view on the screen. Releasing creativity feels like a tremendous success to me.
I wish you the best year-end celebration, and a New Year full of surprises and realized dreams. Come visit us with our new show at www.whosondeck.tv! Happy 2012!!!
Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’
It’s a Wrap!
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011Getting a grip on happy living by changing attitudes, thoughts and status updates.
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010Part of my work in mindful media is to offer a new perspective about this thing we call life. I read people’s status update on Facebook and much of it makes me cringe…people droning on and on about how they hate Mondays, can’t wait for humpday, the joy that it’s one day before Friday, then TGIF and if we’re lucky, negative status reprieve for maybe 18 hours until the witching hours on Sunday evening…Is this really all there is to life, with a few victorious football games in the mix? I’m amazed at the number of people that, according to their status, are just plain miserable on a day-to-day basis. Either that, or they have no ability to communicate positive thoughts, emotions or experiences. We’ve all had water-cooler chat, bitchvests and vent-time over a beer. But good grief have we lost the joy of simply living?
I posted a status update one day, which is one of my favorite sayings: “If the grass is always greener on the other side, water your grass.” Only one person “liked” it, of course, the other hundreds were sitting on their brown plots moaning about Monday.
Being unhappy or speaking about unhappiness does nothing to make one happy – in fact, it breeds the same misery and invites others to muddle in the mix. This lifestyle is one that doesn’t propogate joy, peace and love, or health. It’s been shown that what we think and talk about defines our life experiences. Mental afflictions, depression and poor attitudes create stress in the brain and body, as well as germinates poor relationships, bad sex lives, weight gain, loss of sleep, less friends and an overall less enjoyable experience. One thing that is for certain, our attitude is a choice. You are the only one in control of that.
Seriously, life is too short. Surely you’ve had some awakening to the fact that life is terribly short and could end any second. You are going to die. Why would you want to spend a moment, or years, doing something that you dread? I wouldn’t, can’t and won’t. There are some things I don’t like to do but need to. I work to find some positive about it. There are other things that I know would definitely make me unhappy, so I avoid with full gusto. All the rest, I have to say, I’ve chosen and enjoy. If you think I have a charmed life, you are right. I could also come up with 100 ways that it sucks, but why would I do that? What purpose does that serve? It certainly doesn’t make me happy.
Can you make some changes in either your situation or your perspective so that you have a good feeling about Monday? So that hump-day doesn’t define your level of freedom? How about a positive status update that finds gratitude in the very essence of simple living… I can’t wait to read it!
Accepting what is
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
There’s a fine line between acceptance and passivity. I’ve often resisted acceptance and at times have found myself trying to create something that shouldn’t be. There is an art to accepting ‘what is’ in life, and learning how to be aware of acceptance without falling victim to the swallows of passivity is the key to enjoying it’s beauty. It’s important to accept our life as it is, and also have a heart to know what we want to experience. All we have is now, so what are we doing with our “nows”? Accepting life fully will generally lead to greater happiness and peace. This is not to be mistaken for laziness, passivity or a “who cares” attitude.
There are people that push in life and push too hard. Always focused on something other than what is right in front of them. The danger of that way of life lies in the fact that many live a life without a clear presence, without gratitude and with no awareness of the smallest, acute happenings of life unfolding right now. The stress of this “push” causes mental and physical maladies, not to mention spiritual disconnections.
On the other side of the ‘fine line’ are those that could care less about life or goals or self-actualization and call their state of uninvolvement a “detachment” – a surrender to the universe or a trust that a higher power has everything worked out and if that is true, there’s nothing to do anyway but “let life happen.” There are fads and philosophies that use this as a base mantra. This is dangerous, as well, to the human organism for similar reasons as above. A lack of interest, proactivity or gumption will cause the spirit to become faint, the heart to close from lack of vitality and the body to recoil from anything that requires great endurance.
I believe acceptance is like a beautiful dance. An activity that’s enjoyable, one instigated by you and yet open enough to allow the rhythm of life to create a destiny yet unknown. The acceptance of ‘what is’ is work, needing a mind dedicated to the now, a spirit moving in faith and a body in motion. It is from this active space of surrender and motion that we find the beauty of our lives, and in that, we discover and celebrate “what is.”
Poop on My New Book
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Leah's first Book!
After a 2000-mile holiday road trip, I returned home with hope of starting the new year with a refreshed perspective. I just needed a few minutes to “unwind.” I brought 1 suitcase and a bag of gifts up the stairs and within seconds my Nicaraguan neighbor said, “Leah, we have some water problems in the basement, you may want to check on your stuff.” Well, my stuff includes the typical storage stuff…furniture, off-season clothes, tools, etc. But as any self-published author can attest, most of the “stuff” in my basement is boxes of books. Immediately I went to the basement and saw inches of water, and white shredded paper. It looked like tissue. Jim came down, looked around. Then there was a flush and a gurgle. Before our very eyes, our neighbor’s toilet emptied into the basement. This was not pretty. A stranger’s turd lying next to your golf clubs is an unthinkable anomaly. I felt like I was living in a 3rd world country. But then again, would I have golf clubs there?
Anyway, most of the boxes of books were stacked on top of one another, but indeed, many of the bottom boxes were in the line of fire. With road weary legs and back, we began plodding through the poop to save the books. We had to move all of the boxes, one by one, unload & wipe the books (no pun intended) re-pack and re-locate. Most were saved (yes, it’s safe to order one!) some were soiled and then trashed, along with my boots and socks.
After a few hours and all was safe, I laughed. It was too late to cry. I wondered why my books got pooped on? I found some humor in thinking that maybe it was the world’s way of inviting me to treat my books (and work) with the greatest respect and raise it to higher ground – physically and figuratively. With the books now on safe territory, they’ll never be pooped on again.
My fortune for: May all that you respect in your life be kept in high regard and on high ground. When you follow this advice, your precious gifts will not get pooped on!
Leah Guy is a Producer, TV Host, Writer and passionista for inspired, lifestyle content. In 2006 she created A Girl Named Guy Productions and hasn’t slept since. 
A Girl Named Guy Productions is a multi-media company that serves a variety of audiences. Who's On Deck is a new celebrity TV Show produced by the company and Modern Sage is a site geared toward women's wellness. Creator & CEO, Leah Guy, launched the company in 2006 with a goal to meet the demand for positive, inspired content for the mainstream audience. AGNG produces videos, 
