Wherever you are on your journey
even if it is day 1
or just starting to take your first step
whatever your journey entails
you are not too late
you are not too far behind
you are not inferior
you are deserving
you are amazing
you are love
you are a force
you can do anything
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Let there be spaces in your togetherness.
Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.
I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
Work is love made visible.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.
Khalil Gibran
Lock me in a kitchen for a year and some interesting choices are bound to be made….
Introducing the DLUX TATER BOWL!
GIRL. Lemme just tell you. This bowl was 2 servings but I licked the damn thing clean. SUPÈRYUMZ
Vegan. Whole30. Paleo. Grain Free. Gluten Free. Dairy Free. Organic. #allthethings
9 times out of 10 I’m eating a #YAM but once in a while girlfriend needs a white ass potato, mmkay?
Bake the baby in the #instapot. If you don’t have this GET IT NOW. My #1 minimalist friendly kitchen tool.
TBH, #1 is tied between IP, Immersion Blender, + Juicer, but you get what I’m laying down, right? I’m a #minimalist; I only have 3 tools; they are all #1.
While the #tater is baking, sauté: onion, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, broccoli. Put big ole tater in a bowl a top with #nutritionalyeast, olive oil, salt + peppa. Then load on the sautéed veggies and top with #sauerkraut, #olives, & #avocado. Add Olive Oil Drizzle.
Yes. I said olives. OLIVES ON EVERYTHING.
Don’t challenge me. It’s dope. #saltfatacidheat
All of this from #PlanetEarth. How amazing is that?
Next, pretend you will save half for lunch tomorrow + devour every delicious morsel.
YW. 💕, DLUX
Personally I have been extremely successful at being single on Valentine’s Day. 😉 Which is perfectly fine because I definitely don’t believe you need a partner to celebrate LOVE. Love is my religion and I’ll celebrate its many forms any day of the week! If you are flying solo this year, here are a few ways you can celebrate love and not feel left out of this holiday.
Self Love and Self Care are obvs at the top of this list. This is something so many of us struggle with on a regular basis, so if that’s you, give yourself permission to be all about yourself today. While baths and candles are a great way to relax and take care of yourself, they aren’t the only things you can do (but do it if you can!). I know it can be hard to find time for self when career, family, or community commitments are constantly calling our attention. Try a 5 or 10 minute guided meditation affirming your prowess. 🧘♂️ I often like to do meditations like this as an active / moving meditation because I am notoriously bad at sitting still, so going for a walk and having this in my earbuds while I observe the amazing world around me can be very affirming. You deserve this. ❤️
5-Minute Self Love Meditation
Empowerment Affirmations Rampage
Love some animals! Take a few minutes and just sit on the floor with your pet(s). They will love receiving affection by you and playing with you. The important thing here is to be fully present in this moment and try to remove distractions like a TV running in the background or scrolling your phone. Have a very present exchange with your pets and bask in that unconditional love. Don’t have a pet? Visit a dog park and spend some time with your neighbor’s pets. This has become a favorite weekend activity for my dog and I, and Venus loves saying hi to everyone there, whether they have their own pets or not!
Give. One of the quickest ways that I get myself out of a slump is by giving back to the community. Lately I have taken to making gift bags with a few items like lip balm, a scarf, dry shampoo, and tampons, and giving them out to homeless women I see. You can also make donations or volunteer your time to a local organization that moves you. Here are a few online resources to help you find dozens of organizations that could use your help:
Alive!
ACCP
The Good Trade
Set up a Zoom brunch or a Happy Hour with your besties from every time zone. This year I am bringing together a bunch of my gal pals for some virtual reverie and I’m excited not only to spend time with them, but to have the opportunity to introduce some of my friends from different cities who otherwise might never have had a chance to meet. There’s always a bright side if you look in that direction. ✨
You ARE love. We ARE love. Feel your own purity through the medium of love, and take time to genuinely love yourself and spread love to everyone you see today, and every day. Celebrate glorious love, and ride that vibe into the sunset. Also, eat chocolate, everyone needs some chocolate. 🍫
People often ask me how I stay so positive in tough times. How could I begin to abbreviate what I’ve transformed? It goes deep yo.
The truth is I’ve been through more “Big T” traumas than you can count on one hand and it’s for this exact reason that I work hard to stay positive. Without getting into too much detail I’ll say this, there were two main catapults that have landed me at this vantage point. The first was an abusive and unstable childhood, to put it lightly. Once I escaped that prison I knew resolutely what I did NOT want to be, so I had alot of incentive to follow my dreams and never give up. Just as I was getting into the groove of being a badass and owning my life, as if I hadn’t been through enough already, my rebirth into positivity was almost taken away from me again when I was assaulted a mere 3 weeks after my little brother’s suicide. As hard as it was, I knew that if I stayed down for too long it would be letting my rapist win. From that day forward I made a decision to “refuse to be a victim”. It didn’t happen overnight, but the commitment was resolute.
Refusing to be a victim has taken years of practice, of breakdowns, of therapy, of giving up, of getting back up again. At the end of the day we all need reminders; this is a choice. Your attitude is a choice. Your perspective is a choice. Yes, absolutely honor the hurt, acknowledge the pain, (denial is not healthy), but you can’t wallow. It’s too hard to climb out of that downward spiral once it gains traction. So I speak a different truth into existence. I use mantras to lift me up. And I’ll be damned, it works. So much so that I just want to shout it to the world : “heyyyyyy – it’s not easy but it works! Don’t give up!”
Print the image of this mantra out and speak a new / improved loving reality for yourself. Speak it in a meditation, in the mirror, on a walk, hiding in the bathroom at work – whatever works for you. Practice makes perfect, and it does get easier. You just gotta believe. 💫
luv, dlux
ps for a sliding scale donation of $3 – $20 I can update the graphic to be your portrait or an image of your choice. To request, use the contact page and reference “THE DAILY HAPPY”. ✨
~ Never Give Up ~
First order of business: You literally are a superhero. You have SO many powers to create your fate. Law of Attraction, Quantum Physics, Alchemy – whatever you want to call it, we have the power! Don’t talk yourself out of it – try it today! ✨❤️✨
Second, If you want a superhero collage with your face, I can do that for ya! Just let me know. Hang it on your mirror, on your fridge, make it part of your vision board – whatever you want to remind yourself and give yourself a little boost. YOU’RE AWESOME. Don’t let anyone make you feel any differently.
~ FIN ~
“You are stronger than you believe. You have greater powers than you know.”
—Antiope to Diana, Wonder Woman Movie
As a goal oriented person, I always love setting New Year Resolutions, or New Year Goals, every year. I know alot of people that are adamantly against this. People say, “why bother if you’re just going to fail.” I see their point (kinda), but I have always followed the ideology of it’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you get back up. Fear of failure isn’t an option, but what’s more, it gives me something to work towards, as well as an opportunity to set an intention.
One of my New Year Goals for 2020 was to raise my credit score to 800. This one was tricky because I knew so much of this achievement would be out of my hands. First of all, there are 3 credit bureaus calling the shots and they don’t even agree with each other. Second, it’s a mystery to me how it even works. There is a lot of bait involved in this credit business. For example, my credit score would slowly tick up as I paid off debts and kept lower balances, but when I had a car emergency and had to take out a car loan, I was stunned to see that my credit score shot up several points after taking on this new large debt. Why? I didn’t feel I should be rewarded for that, but it’s some weird formula to encourage you to keep spending, and most people spend beyond their means when it comes to credit. Third, it took me years to get to 700 alone. I got my first credit card in college, along with the school loans, and promptly threw my score in the gutter for over a decade at just over 300 points. To say I was irresponsible with my credit is an understatement. I came from extreme poverty with a subzero financial IQ before I turned this ship around.
So, as you can see in the image, I did not achieve my goal of 800 points, BUT I did gain 89 points from the year before. In December 2019 before I made this goal I had just hit 700 even. Is this a failure? NOPE. This goal gave me mindfulness. Every month I recorded my updated score. I was encouraged because I was actively paying down debt, learning to live within a budget, and watching the score go up. I’ve been working on my budget for years but it takes a long time to master! Having this goal made me focused and vigilant to get the best results possible by persevering and course correcting as needed. I’d call this a win.
A credit score of 800 or higher is considered perfect and I was able to get so close that now I can definitely have it as an achievable goal for 2021. Even though it will take me a little longer to get there, I’m stoked to have stayed the course and to keep reaching higher.
What financial goals are you setting for yourself in 2021? Remember, it’s never too late to start anew. I re-evaluate my New Year Resolutions every quarter to make sure I’m on track and make updates if anything has shifted. It’s not written in stone, it’s your life novel to write and edit as you deem fit. You can do anything you set your mind to. I believe in you!
If you can believe it, you can achieve it.
~ Napoleon Hill
utopiadreamscape.com 