Hi, Pretty.

If there is one thing I have come to learn it is this:

No pressure. No diamond.

No pressure. No diamond.

No pressure….. No….. Diamond.

I’m standing in my orthotic flip flops at my work station, making amends with how my body is less tolerant of the things I could handle without a single whiney moment some ten years ago. I’ve got a mason jar full of room temperature water with a lime squeezed in it by my side to keep my brain hydrated, and there’s a broken little green lid to a ceramic bowl I bought a few weeks back sitting on my desk…. that fell to its death while I was messaging a friend and my phone crashed to the floor, mid-video-message, taking it with it as victim. The ceiling fan whirls above my head as my hot-red-orange nail-polished fingernails dance wildly across the keyboard. All of these things are nourishing me…. the colors, the movements, the sounds, the flavors, the cycles of it all.

I love it all. I love LIFE. I love the broken, bent, crooked, aging, glorious, compassionate, new-born, giggle ‘til you nearly pee your pants honesty of it all. I love it all.

If you hang out here with me from time to time, you know I am not afraid of pressure, and often create situations in my life so that I can feel said pressure and use it to move me forward. You also know that I like to say, “ash or diamond? You choose.” Given that carbon, when exposed to pressure either becomes ash or turns to diamond depending upon the “environment” in which it is steeped….. this is to remind you that whatever you are facing in your life — you’ve got choices. You can create environmental factors that will undoubtedly impact the outcome. And I get it — perhaps you don’t get (or didn’t get ) to choose what happens, but you most darn certainly get to choose how you respond to what happens. That choice part is ALL you.

I am going to lay out a few suggestions for you as you consider this question…. when heat and pressure have found you…. what’s it gonna be? Ash? or Diamond?

• The more challenges life gives me, the more I lean in. No running. No escaping. No dumbing down nor numbing out. Nope. You lean into that bad boy called pressure, and let it push and press and fashion your sweet self right on into your brilliance.
• Practice makes resilient. This means that if #1 sounds absolutely unenjoyable, then it is only because you haven’t had enough practice. When you lean into the little pressures, the ones that don’t break you or exhaust you, but just leave you feeling a little winded, then you build up stamina. And with stamina grows resilience. And with resilience grows your ability to handle tougher and tougher situations.
• The worse you feel, the more committed you are to your practices. So… this means that when you might otherwise say, “I don’t have time to walk or take a bath or eat right… life is too crazy”, that THIS is EXACTLY the time when you absolutely MUST amp up your commitment to your practices: keep it super simple. Do you have time for THREE minutes of meditation…. THREE MINUTES. Do it every day, without fail. You’re GOING to eat, so make it a smoothie EVERY MORNING. Load up the freezer and fridge with fruits and veggies, buy some huge Costco sized bags of walnuts, organic vegan protein, collagen and then every single day — let that be your super-food super-start. No exceptions.
• And that’s the next one: No exceptions. You absolutely must make the commitment…. and STICK to the commitment. Do you know — it is MUCH harder to be 99% committed than 100% committed to something? Because when you are 99% committed that little waskly wabbit of a 1% of getting out of the commitment has IMMENSE distraction power and will inevitably take time and energy from your plan to get on and stay on track…. Go ALL IN – in this life… to take care of you, to build a well that overflows with clarity, abundance, stamina, and presence… Go IN 100%. No exceptions.

I am going to leave it all right there, Pretty. Shine shine shine. Keep leaning in to life and all its wild twists and turns, keep practicing anything that cultivates self-awareness, wisdom, resilience, and prosperity (of energy, love, truth, clarity and impact) and then when life knocks you in the back of the knees — stand right on up, no questions, no back-talk, no exceptions and move yourself forward. THIS is how you rise.

This is how you rise soooo high and true and bright, so that someday you will look back at those knee-knocking-moments and wrinkle up your nose and say, “that little life wobble? Ahhhh that was NOTHIN’!”

I love you. Keep going.

XOm,

Britt