More

I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  And spirit is always for expansion.  Take a look at nature and you will see how things are always getting bigger, fuller, expanding.  As spiritual beings, we should always be growing and expanding as well.

It’s ok to want more for yourself and your life.  But I think there is a fine balance between wanting more for ourselves and the endless wants of our ego.  Our ego is never satisfied, is always wanting more but coming from an energy of lack or trying to fill something.  

If you were to become conscious of what your ego was saying, it would sound something like this:

“When I have this or that, THEN I will be happy.”  
“I’m not good enough as I am now, but once I have X, I will be.”
“There’s not enough to go around, I need to get all I can!”

The ego is super sneaky and I find myself falling into its traps often.  Recently, I’ve been catching myself just looking at the future, always looking for more and forgetting about all the amazing things in my life right now.

The trick is being grateful and completely satiated NOW while still desiring more just for the fun of it.  Because being grateful and wanting more are NOT mutually exclusive.

Take a look at your underlying reasons for wanting more.  Is it for you, for the true joy of experiencing all of life has to offer?  Or is it coming from the ego?  Out of fear and lack?!

Can you shift into the present moment and be utterly grateful for everything in your life right now?  
Come from the energy of not needing anything but looking to experience more to help expand you to the next level.

XO

Adrienne

Being Nice

If you were to ask most people about me, I believe one of the first things someone would say is that I’m nice.  I used to pride myself on being nice and likable.  Recently, I’ve become acutely aware that my niceness is actually not so nice.  The reason why I’ve been nice, is because I WANT people to like me.

So instead of being honest or straight forward, I would be nice.  Instead of saying what I really wanted to say, I would agree and be nice.  I often have even stayed in relationships or friendships that I knew weren’t right for me just because I didn’t want to upset the other person.

When I really thought about it - that is so messed up!  I would never want people to hang out with me, or not be honest with me just because they wanted me to like them.  In fact, I would be mad, think they’re fake and not want to associate with them at all!

Being nice is not a good quality - it’s manipulative.  And what it does is leave me feeling depleted and resentful because I’m completely forsaking myself.

This has been an uncomfortable realization for me and something I am changing.  Instead of being liked, I want to be respected - by myself and others.

I encourage you to look at yourself and your intentions.  The next time someone asks you something and you “don’t want to hurt their feelings,” can you be lovingly honest instead?

That’s my goal.
 

XO

Adrienne

New

Each day is a fresh start, a blank slate, a portal of possibilities to create something new.  Unfortunately, our human minds get in the way and when we wake up, our minds assume we are going to have a similar day to the day before.  And what we believe, creates our reality.

What if we woke up expecting the best day of our lives?!  What if we expected a day full of pure magic and miracles??  

When you wake up in the morning, instead of jumping right into your routine and thinking about the day’s tasks or what happened yesterday, pause.  Take a few minutes and breathe in the present moment.  Breathe in the possibilities that are waiting for you on this day.  

How do you want to feel today?  Grateful, excited, energized, happy, fun, exciting, exhilarating, full, plentiful, amazing, spectacular.  Feel those feelings now!!!

Then open your eyes, proceed with the day trying to keep those feelings and look for evidence of magic and miracles.  The more we can train our brain to look for those things, the more we will see!

What do you want to create on this new, glorious day?!  It’s your canvas to create your masterpiece.

XO

Adrienne

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 40 on Thursday!  And I had a wonderful day and weekend celebrating with some of my favorite people in my life doing things that make me happy.

I had so much fun and was feeling so much love and gratitude.  But why do we wait for one day a year to feel and do that?!

What if we celebrated everyday as if it were our birthday?  Doing things we love, surround ourselves with people we love, feel so much love and appreciation.

Why wait for once a year to celebrate ourselves?  We have the opportunity to celebrate ourselves everyday, in every moment.

It doesn’t have to be a big to-do but can you just pause and feel gratitude for another day to be alive, for everything and everyone wonderful in your life, for all the amazing things you’ve accomplished.  To reflect and see how far you've come and get excited for what's ahead instead of just paying attention to the number.

Find time, even if for five minutes a day to do something just for yourself, something you love that makes you happy.

Make it a practice to celebrate yourself daily and celebrate everyday.  Life is short and each day is truly a gift.  Treat it as such.

XO

Adrienne

Hurried

On Sunday mornings, I go to yoga.  It’s one of my favorite ways to end the weekend and start my day.  I look at my yoga practice as a reflection of my life.  How I handle difficult things, how present I can stay and it’s a chance to slow down and watch my mind.

During yesterday’s class, I had a fellow yogi next to me who was rushing through every move.  It was distracting and also kind of making me laugh how abrupt and quickly he was moving from pose to pose before the teacher would even cue us.

As I judged him, it hit me - that’s me!!  I rush through life going from one thing to the next without room to breathe.  I pack my calendar and then have to bolt from one thing to the next.  I look just as ridiculous as this guy in my everyday life!

While I’ve come a long way and learned to create a lot more spaciousness in my life, I still fall into these old habits of hurriedness.  

I know I’m not alone here.  It’s programmed into our society.  How silly we must all look rushing from thing to thing, our minds always one step ahead of where we are physically.

My mission is to create even more spaciousness into my life and to just be where my feet are.  Not thinking about the next step, just soaking in the delicious present moment that will never be here again.

Who’s with me?!

XO

Adrienne

State of Mind

Why do we make things hard on ourselves?  Why do we impose so many rules and restraints on ourselves?  We bind ourself to commitments and obligations that we feel we should or need to do.  But who made up those rules??

We hold ourselves in jobs that are stressful.  More than that we hold ourselves in states that are stressful just because we worry and get anxious about things we cannot control.

What if we didn’t let the market, traffic, our boss, the news get under our skin?  

What if our minds weren’t filled with self-imposed obligations that we “should do" or “have to do?”  What if we didn’t feel guilt or fear if we didn’t do these things?

What if instead we filled our minds with thoughts of gratitude, appreciation and excitement for another beautiful day on this glorious playground Earth??  

What if we were able to keep our mind so disciplined and focused that we just were able to navigate our day in a serene beautiful state?

Imagine what your day would look and feel like if you went about all your routine tasks but did so in a calm, confident, joyful manner?

Do you see how it’s our minds, our own thoughts and feelings that can create either heaven or hell for ourselves?  Nothing on the outside even has to change when we can just control the state of our minds.

That is true mastery.  Mastery of our minds and mastery of our life experience.  Because we are no longer waiting for outside things to change before we can feel good inside.

Stop the chase and pursuit of things you believe will make you happy.  Open your eyes in the morning and realize you have everything you need to be happy right now.  Fill yourself up with gratitude and love and then carry that with you for the rest of the day.

Look for the magic.  Look for the little miracles that are around you all the time.  Life is so much more fun when we drop the stories and suffering we bring to ourselves.  

I wrote this message for all of you, but mostly as a reminder for myself :)

XO

Adrienne

Awareness

Awareness is defined as knowledge or perception of a situation or a fact.  Furthermore, awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns.

It’s said that by the time we are 35, 95% of all of our behavior is a set of subconscious programs.  95%!!!  Which means we are unaware and running on autopilot 95% of the time.

Brushing your teeth and driving are great examples of these types of habits.  But so are the thoughts you think, the way you react to situations or just how you are feeling in any given moment.

I’m becoming more and more aware of some of the subconscious patterns in my life.  Like how I feel overwhelmed with things to do most of the time, how I am constantly operating with thoughts and feelings of there not being enough time or how I incessantly worry about things I have no control over.

It’s interesting to start noticing yourself on this new level.  Once you become aware of these things, they are no longer subconscious.  You’ve shined a light on them and that is the first step to changing these patterns.

Now when I catch myself falling back into those old habits, I can pause, take a few conscious breaths back into the present moment and then make a new choice.

I instead say things to myself like “I have all the time I need,” “What if it all works out perfectly,” or “What is this situation trying to teach me?”

This is a pattern interrupt - instead of just continuing down the same neuropathway in your brain, it interrupts the subconscious behavior and starts to form a new pathway.

Start watching yourself with curiosity and see your habitual thoughts, feelings and behaviors.  The more you can raise your conscious awareness of yourself, the more you can change into the person you want to be.

XO

Adrienne

Embrace the Suck

I started taking dance classes last year as just something fun and different than my normal exercise routines.  I mostly go to a beginner dance fitness class where we learn a basic routine that’s pretty easy to follow even for the coordinately challenged like me.

I’ve really enjoy it and it has pushed me out of my comfort zone.  Last week I wanted to try another class that I also thought was going to be a beginner/basic type class.  But that was NOT the case.  The teacher and the few students in the class were well-trained, VERY good jazz dancers.  I was so completely out of my element, I kept looking at the door wondering if I can somehow make a nonchalant escape.

The teacher kept yelling out moves that I had no idea what they were like pas de bourré, which was the only one I even recognized because of a Friends episode when Joey tried out for a broadway musical 😂

I stuck it out and by the end of class I actually was able to keep up with the routine and even hit some of the harder moves!  Instead of letting the embarrassment get the best of me, I chose to laugh at myself, relax and have fun.  

It made me realize that we can do anything we want to do if we’re willing to be bad at it.  Most of the time our ego gets in the way and we don’t want to be bad so it prevents us from trying and experiencing new things.

Stop taking yourself so seriously.  Try something new you always wanted to do and embrace sucking, you’ll have more fun and you’ll see you’re capable of so much more!

XO

Adrienne

Upper Limits

You may have seen the story I posted last week about the mountain house I manifested (if not you can read it here).

While I am so happy and grateful to have this wonderful home, it has been causing me A LOT of stress - occupying a lot of my mental energy thinking about money, repairs that need to be done, the housing market etc etc.  

I have to keep catching myself and calling my mind back to the present moment.  While these may be valid concerns, there’s little that I can do about most of the things I am worrying about.  

Worrying is a way we “upper limit” ourselves.  We have an internal thermostat that is always looking to bring us back to the temperature we set our lives to.  So when we accomplish something that’s outside the norm and turns up the heat, our minds immediately look to cool it off.

Worrying, criticizing, getting sick or injured are all ways our subconscious mind kicks in to sabotage the situation and bring us right back down to where our thermostat is set.  Or one area of your life starts to take off and then another area of your life falls apart.

It’s how our subconscious mind tries to keep us “safe” but all it really does is prevent us from having or enjoying all of the good we want in life.

This has been happening to me big time.  I have SO many wonderful things going on in my life right now, the heat is getting so high I can see how my internal thermostat is pulling out all the stops to bring the temperature back down.

Awareness is always the fist step.  Just being aware of this, I am able to see the stress and worry for what it is - upper limit behavior.  And just try to bask in the gratitude and goodness of my life and new home as much as possible.

Take a few minutes to pause, focus on what is going well in your life and spend a few minutes feeling great about it.  The more we can spend soaking in the good moments, the higher the thermostat temp will set to and the less we will self-sabatoge.

XO

Adrienne

Fresh Start

Ahh a new year, a clean slate, a fresh start.  That’s what we all think the start of the year is for.

In reality, we all are getting that opportunity every day. You’re suddenly more aware of it at the start of the year.  But you can shift that awareness at any time.  Every moment is a clean slate, a fresh start.  Another chance to be grateful and enjoy life.  

Day by day, if you create a beautiful day, you will create a beautiful month, then a beautiful year and soon a beautiful life.  So look at your days.  Each day one by one. It is a brick in the castle of your life.  What are you building?  If you’re not present in the day, if you’re stuck in things you’re not enjoying then what kind of life are you creating?  

If you spend 5 of the 7 days a week doing something you don’t like or resent or get agitated by, then soon your whole castle will be mostly those dark bricks.  You won’t like it, you don’t want to live in it and it won’t be strong or solid.  It will crumble.  It will be easy to blow over and your whole world to fall down.  But if you build it one beautiful day after another only sprinkled with a couple “bad” days here or there, then your castle will be a magnificent creation and it will be really difficult to come falling down on you. 

Start building what you want.  Start building the beautiful castle of your life. Start building exactly what you want brick by brick, day by day.  Remember every day is a new creation to make something wonderful.  

Take stock at the end of your days. Ask yourself, did I love today?  Did you love what you did?  How did you spend your precious minutes and hours?  If not, why not?  What could you do tomorrow to start expanding more of what you love?  Start small, start with 10 minutes of something you love each day.  Then build from there and soon your whole day will be beautiful and magnificent, then your week, then months, then your life.  That’s how you create the life you want.

XO

Adrienne

Love

Confession:  I’m a little kid at heart.  I love kids movies, rides and still have a stuffed animal that I’ve slept with since I was three.  

When I want to feel good, I’ll put a kids movie on. Recently it was the new Dr. Seuss animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  It’s really fun to watch movies (esp kid movies) with a different perception and look for the deeper meaning and messages.  

There’s a lot of great lessons about life in movies!  I really thought about this and how the messages in many movies are so important but often overlooked and it doesn’t quite sink in.  The Grinch is definitely one of those.

When it comes to the holidays, it’s become a time where people are increasingly stressed.  Stressed about the amount of things to do and going on, wrapping up the year at work (and for many people making a hard push to reach their year end goals), stress around family time, and the increasing number of presents you have to buy each year.

The holidays have been not just commercialized but have morphed into a source of added stress in our lives.

But what is the holiday really about?  Love.  It’s another chance to love and celebrate the amazing lives that we live.  Love our families no matter how messy the relationships are with everyone.  Love ourselves by not over-indulging in all the holiday treats.  Loving others and giving back because you realize how fortunate you really are.  It’s all about sharing and spreading love.  

Take some pauses during the holidays this year - breathe it in, get present, love the moment, love the celebration of another year around the sun, love the time spent with family, love it all, even the drama!

Love is the one thing that no one can take away from you.  

And remember, you will NEVER have a holiday season exactly like this one.  

Have a wonderful holiday!!!

XO

Adrienne

Find the Lessons

Sundays are my day for getting myself ready for the week.  I love nothing more than entering Monday with a clean home, clean sheets and knowing I’m organized and ready to tackle the week.

Yesterday was an unusual Sunday because I was going to a concert last night.  So I put myself on a strict schedule of getting everything done by 4:00.

When I made my stop at Whole Foods, I breezed in there and filled my cart up in less than 15 minutes.

Then I got into line to check out and I was the second person.  I was feeling good and happy that I was going to be in and out of there and stay on schedule.  

But the woman in front of me had a ton of stuff and the cashier was talking to her non-stop and verrrry slowly scanning and bagging.  I was watching the people in the line next to me finish one after another and I was cursing myself for picking the wrong line.

Finally she started with my stuff and the cashier was bubbly, SO happy and genuinely curious about me - what I was doing that weekend, my holiday plans and even started singing a song when I told her I was going to a concert.

She was having a BLAST while I was standing there in a tizzy that she was taking so long.  I stopped myself.  Why is this making me so mad?  This gal is having a blast at her job.  Who am I to ruin that for her and think my time is more important than her enjoying what she’s doing?!  Plus me being annoyed wasn't affecting her at all, it was only creating suffering for me.

I laughed at myself and the ways I can get so worked up over nothing.

Remember life is always happening FOR us.  And when we can pause in those moments of frustration and ask ourselves - what’s the lesson here?  We can see things from a totally different perspective.

I believe that cashier was reminding me to stop, slow down and have fun no matter what I’m doing.  I instantly became grateful for the lesson and my frustration melted away.  I took my time having fun with the rest of my Sunday tasks and got everything done while also having fun doing it.

That my friend is how we can create a whole new reality for ourselves.  One of gratitude, peace and joy instead of angst, resistance and always needing the outside to go our way to feel good.

Change your perceptions and your life will change - I promise.

XO
Adrienne

Why Not Me?

I hear people arguing for their limitations regularly.

"I couldn't do that."
"Now isn't the right time for me to try/do that."
"I'm too _____ for that." (Fill in old, out of shape, busy etc.)
"I can't afford that."

Including myself. I find myself looking at other people thinking they're able to do something that I'm not.

Why do we argue for our limitations and think things are not possible for us?! We are limitless beings with infinite potential. Why do we sell ourselves short?

My new motto is "Why not me?" If someone else can do it, why not me? I'm changing the script in my mind to I CAN if I want to.

Limitations are MIND made. They are old stories we tell ourselves. And we create our lives from these stories so let's change them to be more empowering.

I love this quote by Steve Bow:

"God's gift to us is more talent and ability than we will ever use in a lifetime. Our gift to God is to develop as much of that talent and ability as we can in this lifetime."

You have so many gifts inside of you waiting to come out. Don't let your life pass with music still in you - work on developing your talent and ability daily. You might surprise yourself how talented you really are.

XO

Adrienne

Imagine

Over the weekend, I had the super cool and fun experience of entering the multiverse on an awesome Virtual Reality Tom Gun ride.

I was completely engrossed in the world of fighter pilots soaring through mountains and shooting down enemies for five minutes and completely forgot about what was going on around me.

It reminded me about how we have a miraculous tool right at our fingertips to completely transport us anywhere we want to go - our imagination.

Napoleon Hill has said "Imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has ever known."

Why is that?

Close your eyes. Imagine yourself on a beach, sun shining on your face, feet in the cool sand, waves rhythmically coming to shore, the scent of salt water. Can you see it? Stay there for a few minutes, then come back and see how you feel.

Better, right? It took just a few minutes of imagining something tranquil and beautiful for you to instantly feel better in this moment.

That's one of the many reasons why our imagination is so powerful.

If you're feeling blah, negative, frustrated and you instantly want to feel better - try going into your imagination. Imagine somewhere you'd rather be, imagine someone you love right before you, imagine the situation as you'd like it to be.

The more you can practice this, the more vivid your imagination will get, the better you will be at using it as a tool to elevate your state. And the more you will see how what you imagine becomes your reality.

Because remember, everything is created twice - once in the mind and then in physical reality. Your phone, computer, house, office building etc - all started as an idea in someone's imagination before it moved into form.

What do you want to create? Imagine it and visit it often until it becomes your reality.

XO

Adrienne

One Year Milestone

You may have seen if you follow me on social media that last week I celebrated one year since I stopped drinking.

I'm really proud of this and it blows my mind it's been a year already. When I started this journey, it was scary and unknown. A life without alcohol would be a HUGE change. I had never gone more than a week or so without it.

The thought of giving it up indefinitely seemed overwhelming. But I knew it all started wtih a decision.

All I had to do was decide not to drink and recommit to that decision everyday. I've used this same formula for several things in my life now - just make a decision, move in the direction of everyday and miracles start to happen.

Over the weekend, I had a moment of overwhelming gratitude and I burst into tears. I looked at my life and truly saw how I am creating my experience and things are happening that were pipe dreams that I never really thought were possible for me.

I've been letting go of things that no longer serve me, walking into the unknown and committing to my future everyday - the more I do that, the more good starts flowing to me.

I have this quote on a post it on my computer for a daily reminder and I'm really understanding the power of it - "Your journey to grow, succeed and flourish in life, starts with a commitment to yourself."

It's easy not keep commitments you make to yourself. But what you don't realize is that it subconsciously sends a signal to your mind that you don't value yourself, you can't trust yourself and your confidence slowly withers.

What do you want to commit to? Reply to this email and let me know - when you announce it to someone else you're much more likely to keep it.

I believe in you!

XO

Adrienne

Open Mindedness

My sister, her husband and their three kids braved the cross country journey and came out to see me last week.

I love those three kids so much (9, 7 and 4) and even though they test my patience, I always learn something from them.

It's so interesting to me how open their minds are. Innocent, impressionable and open to any and all possibilities. Not to mention their imaginations are incredible - untainted by things that we call "unrealistic."

When do we lose that?!

Napoleon Hill says “Open-mindedness is essential. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief.”

Being open minded allows you to think it possibilities, adopt more empowering beliefs and inevitably achieve more because 

XO

Adrienne

Physical & Mental Fitness

It wasn't that long ago when it wasn't just a given that we had to exercise everyday. Over the last several years, people all over the world have become more aware of the importance of living an active lifestyle.

You can see it in the rapid growth in the size and popularity of the fitness industry. There are new gyms, classes, trainers and home equipment popping up daily.

It's my opinion that's what happening in the world of mental wellness.
People are waking up to the fact that we have to take care of our minds just as much as we take care of our bodies.

More people are getting into meditation, self-care is the new buzz word and talk therapy is becoming commonplace.

The high-performers like CEOs, Wall Street's elite and pro athletes understand the importance of it. Heck in the show Billions they even have a mindset coach on staff!

It hasn't quite been picked up by the masses the way physical fitness has but I believe it's getting there.

There are a lot of similarities when it comes to working with our bodies and working with our minds. You must push yourself to get uncomfortable if you want to see results.

If you can get through those tough moments, the rewards of confidence, clarity and excitement on the other side just keep building.

Just like the body, the mind performs better when you strengthen it.

When was the last time you exercised your mind? Your mindset must be worked on daily just like your body.

XO

Adrienne

Masks

Happy Halloween!!! It's long been one of my favorite holidays - I've always loved scary movies, haunted houses and dressing up.

At a party over the weekend, I was seeing how being dressed up changes people's behavior. You get into character, you feel different so you act differently.

It reminded me of the masks we wear everyday. At work we act a certain way, with our friends another and our families yet another.

We meet someone new and we're on our best behavior, then in our intimate relationships we're someone else entirely.

It's interesting how this happens; it's like we have a bunch of masks that we use at different times depending on the role we're playing.

Having these different masks is exhausting. I think that's what drained me the most in my finance career - the mask I wore became more difficult and inauthentic to keep up with.

My goal is to remove all of these masks and get down to my truest, most authentic self. Whether it's in these emails, on social media, with my clients etc, I want to show up as the real Adrienne.

I find the more authentic and vulnerable I am in my life, the better response I receive back. It's liberating - and enlightening as I learn more about myself.

Take off your mask today. Let the world see the real you - you're good enough just as you are.

XO

Adrienne

Sowing & Reaping

I love the fall.  It's such a beautiful time of year, it's much quieter and still than the buzzing sounds of Summer and I'm still always fascinated by the changes in seasons.

As I participated in a bunch of fall activities this weekend, I thought about how it's harvest season.  Farmers had to plant their crops earlier in the year, tend to them all Summer and now is when they see the fruits of their labor.

Sowing and reaping is a natural law of the universe.  It applies to everything in life.  What we sow today we will reap tomorrow.  What we are facing today is a result of what we sowed yesterday.  

If you don't like what is happening in your life currently, you can start to change today by making different decisions.

The problem is in this world of instant gratification and immediacy, we lack the patience of sowing and reaping.  

The good decisions you make today need to be made everyday and tended to in order to reap the benefits you want later.  But when we don't see results, we typically stop making those good decisions.

For example, you know eating dessert isn't good for the energy and vitality you want to create, but you also know eating it won't make you fat tomorrow so you do it.  You don't realize that little decision is eroding the health you're craving in the future.

You procrastinate on something you know is in your best interest, but it's easy not to do it today.

All of these little decisions are so easy not to do because you're not seeing instant results and when we don't, we have trouble believing they're coming.

If you want to create a better future for yourself, you must plant the seeds today, tend to them daily and have patience and faith that it will pay off.

Everyday is your garden - treat it as such.

XO

Adrienne

Write Your Script

Did you know we have an internal, subconscious self-image of ourselves that dictates all of our behavior and results?  This is one of the things I coach on that has been most impactful in my life.  

This internal self-image acts like a thermostat and anytime you try to accomplish something outside of that image, it's just going to bring you right back to where it's set.  Basically you will sabotage yourself to stay congruent to that internal image.

I recently watched the Elvis movie and was so impressed by the acting.  The actor took that script and completely became Elvis.  

When Jim Carrey played Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, Jim never broke character the entire time he worked on the movie.  He expressed that after the movie was done he didn't know where Andy ended and he began.

We can do the same thing.  We can create a character of who we want to be and then step into that role.  

One of the ways this has been so impactful in my life is when I'm faced with decisions - I can then tune into the version of me I want to be and decide from there.

Does the highest version of Adrienne skip the gym just because she's tired?  No.  Does she skip writing a Monday email because she doesn't feel like it?  No!  Does she put herself out there everyday even when she's scared?  Yes!

The law is Be-Do-Have:  You start by BEING that person, DO the things they would do, then you can HAVE those results. 

XO

Adrienne