Pretty Things: Head Scarves

When my hair is not right, I don't care if everything else is working in my favor that day, I just don't feel as confident if my hair looks crazy. Call it what you want, but it's true for me. (What's your achilles heel? Makeup? Clothes? Nails? Everybody has one. Don't they??)

Anyway, I've been thinking about some creative alternatives to buns and ponytails. I just had my third baby, I'm a working mother, and I need quick solutions that fit my lifestyle. Because of this, I'm looking at head scarves with a new appreciation. Using scarves, I can have fun with colors and prints, I can protect my hair, and I can dress them up or down.

"The headscarf is intimate, personal, an accessory you have a relationship with, in the way a woman doesn't even have with a pair of shoes. It's very feminine, textural, carries your fragrance, allows you to wear colours and patterns that you might not dream of wearing in your clothes." - Bali Barret, art director of Hermès' silks

Here are some fun styles that I want to try:

source

Right now, I have an old twist out that I've slept on for two days and my hair desperately needs to be detangled and redone. If I had to go somewhere right now, and only had 20 minutes to get ready, I don't know what I'd do with my hair. I grabbed an old scarf to experiment and here's what I came up with:

I'm excited to start ramping up my scarf collection and experimenting! Sometimes we are scared to try new things simply because it's already been done, it's been done better (this is what we tell ourselves) and we want to stick to safe and familiar. Sometimes we don't want to draw attention to ourselves by trying something new. Just because you are not the originator doesn't mean that you can't bring your own unique charm and essence to a thing. That's how regular old things become pretty things!

"...Self-confidence is a special elixer that Spirit has prepared to help each of us face and surmount the challenges of life. It's an aromatic blending of invigorating essences: attitude, experience, knowledge, wisdom, optimism, and faith." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

By the way, does anybody know of any good YouTube channels on tying head scarves????

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Peace, Love and Pretty Things - One Year and Counting!

Sneakily, time has flown by and it's been a year since we started Peace, Love and Pretty Things. As you know, we talk at length about self-love and inner beauty on this blog. As we've expressed before, we are so happy that anyone takes the time to read our little blog and even more elated at how many of you share that our ramblings are helpful and appreciated.

Naturally, when you invest time in working on your inner beauty, your outward appearance begins to blossom as well. The true work of spiritual growth encompasses your whole lifestyle, and what grows within will surely begin to shine without.

Going forward, Peace, Love and Pretty Things will continue to be the source of inspiration and encouragement that you know and love with an added dash of outward polish to capture our love of all things pretty.

Thank you for reading, lovelies! Stay tuned!

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This summer on the east coast has been brutal—smoldering, smothering and humid. We have had the type of weather that makes you want to do nothing more than laze while making your best effort at keeping cool. I had fallen into quite the routine over the past few weeks of doing not much more than creating a mold of myself in the microfiber of my favorite spot on the couch, and watching repeats of Avatar: The Last Airbender. My evening meals consisted of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt for stretches of days at a time. I was barely writing, posting or do anything that could potentially be labeled as “productive” once I’d left my 9-5. It wasn’t pretty. Finally, this past week, I decided that play time was over and I needed to get serious again.

I do not find fault with myself or suffer from any guilt at giving in to a little bit of um…let’s call it “unstructured” time. I generally do so much that it was nice not to feel the need to do anything at all. However, my spirit will not let me find permanence in such leisure as I feel most at peace when I am focused, conscious and productive. So to regain my focus, I set a few goals for myself for this week as a roadmap. Here are two:

1. Exercise 2 times per day, every day, Monday through Friday: Feeling my body, stretching my muscles and connecting with my breath helps me to feel energized and increases my ability to think sharply. Working out twice per day—in tandem with re-establishing a healthy diet-- is the least I can do to aid in lifting this heavy, lethargic feeling I’ve had from not eating the best foods for my body.

2. Write at least 200 words per day, every day, Monday through Friday: writing is one of the ways I earn money, and in order to not only earn, but to (more importantly) improve, practice is imperative. In the past I’ve waited for inspiration to “strike”, but am beginning to understand that if the writing begins, the rest will follow.

Tackling these action items for one whole week is just a starting point; setting goals for smaller increments of time is a way to help my mind process--the intent is to steadily establish and maintain positive habits. So far this week, I’ve attained my goals, and I feel great; sore—but light and energized. For next week, I’ll set new ones. I consider this the official end of my brief summer slump.

How have you been dealing with the heat? Has your level of focus increased, decreased or been completely unaffected?

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It’s funny how God/the universe always knows exactly what you need…I was a bit melancholy last night, and was discussing with a friend the pitfalls of envy and depression that are so easy to fall into when you’ve set goals, or are working towards certain desires and don’t feel like you’re seeing results as quickly as you thought you might. We lamented on how you can look at other people around you and love them or be genuinely happy for their good fortune, but find yourself thinking later… "Why not me? When is my turn?" While we understand that this type of thinking is counter-productive, it is not necessarily counter-intuitive. We’re humans, and thus, we can’t control what we feel, but we can control how we respond to it and not let it allow us to turn away from our goals and plunge us into sadness. It’s at these moments when we have to be most thankful for what we have already and just be patient and wait on life to do the remaining things after we’ve done our part.

It would seem, that when you have been doing the work (praying, meditating, writing, goal setting, etc.) that life wants you to succeed! It begins to work with you, pushing you, and giving you gentle reminders so you won’t give up. I subscribe to a few daily motivational emails that help me to set the intention for the type of day I want to have as soon as I get up in the morning. They were so on target today with these messages:

“It's coming. You're gonna get it. You're gonna love it. And then you're gonna forget there was ever a time when you didn't have it. Like clockwork. Learning to be happy while you wait, Kim, is worth learning. And to help learn this, just keep yourself busy.”

“..When you're tempted to get down, when things aren't going your way, just say to yourself, "This may be hard. It may be taking a long time, but I know God is a faithful God. I'm going to keep believing because my reward is coming."

Okay Life…I’m listening, and I am open to learning.

What do you do to help you stay peaceful and patient?

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Breakfast for your Mind

The following content was originally written and posted by Lisa Nicole Bell on her blog, www.lisanicolebell.com. She was gracious enough to allow us to share her inspiring words here on PLPT. If you haven't heard of Lisa Nicole Bell or visited her site, trust me, you will want to check it out and follow her.

Breakfast for your Mind Question: What did you feed your most intelligent organ today?

You may be puzzled and wonder if I’m referring to some special fruit extract found in the Amazon or a special brain food. Those things are great for the physical and chemical elements of your brain, but I’m actually referring to the stimuli your brain received this morning.

Consider this: How things begin is often how they end. You may have had this physical experience: You skip breakfast and by 1 pm, you’re starving. You binge on the first edible thing you can find (not usually something healthy) and your appetite and energy levels are all out of whack the rest of the day.

I’m sure you’ve heard experts say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day – well that’s true for your body and your mind. When you start your day, what do you think about? What do you read? What do you listen to? What do you see? What do you feel? These are all a part of your brain breakfast – it’s the first mental of the day and the most important.

When you start the day feeding your mind with negative things, your energy levels, vibrations, thoughts, and actions will follow. Your subconscious mind is most impressionable at 2 times of the day: just before you fall asleep at night and upon waking in the morning. This is the prime time to feed it the most rich, nutritious mind food you can find.

So, I’m giving you the ultimate mind breakfast recipe:
-1 part prayer/meditation-1 part journaling/reflection
-2 parts goal setting/envisioning an awesome day
-1 part visualization
-1 part reading/listening to uplifting content (books, songs, audio books, etc)

Place ingredients in mind and blend. Serves 1.

Now that you’ve got the ultimate recipe, you can start your day with clarity, purpose, and momentum. Even the most accomplished people have to set the intention to make every day count. Today is the day you can start consistently feeding your mind the breakfast of champions!

Inspired Journaling Prompt: Create an ideal mind breakfast for yourself. Make a list of some resources, websites, and other inspiring content that you can use as part of your mind breakfast.

Inspired Action: Give the new recipe a test run tomorrow! I dare you to try a hearty mind breakfast and enjoy the results as you go sailing into a great day. Share your results with me at lisa (at)lisanicolebell.com.

Lisa Nicole Bell is a multimedia personality who empowers ordinary people all over the world to live extraordinary lives. Her multimedia conglomerate, Inspired Life Media Group, uses entertainment, personal development, and new media to create lifestyle solutions for the masses. Learn more about Lisa and her quest for world domination at www.lisanicolebell.com.

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Beautiful Shadow

photo credit: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/shadow-paloma-spaeth.html

Let me start by saying... it's not easy to pick yourself apart and take responsibility for your own peace of mind. There are so many easier things to blame. Frequently in my life, I've allowed jealousy to distract me from what's really missing within myself. I can't tell you how difficult and liberating it is for me to admit this. This is part of my shadow, and as I explore it, it becomes less scary and more beautiful to me.

Jealousy has manifested itself as insecurity in my relationships with friends, family and lovers. No matter how much I am loved and supported by loved ones, I still hear that small voice that doubts and tries to chip away at my joy.

As relationships have evolved, grown and dissipated in my life, I've found myself questioning why. Instead of letting life flow on naturally, I resist and I look for meaning in the changes to somehow indicate that I'm lacking something. "Why did this person stop talking to me? Why did we grow apart? Why is he reaching out to her and not me? Why does he have female friends? Does she like her new friend more than me? Why wasn't I invited to this?" In other words - I project my own self-doubt into my relationships and distort the normal growth and change of my relationships.

Relationships are living, breathing entities. They don't stay the same. They are complicated. They are not mutually exclusive events. I can love you and love her too. I can walk away from you and it doesn't negate the significance of the time we spent together. I can be the factor that brought two people together and that's it. I can play my role for as long or short a time as life allows, and peacefully and gracefully move on and let go. The more I am willing to accept the necessity of letting go, the more free I become. And I don't know about you, but freedom is my mission.

And this is the beauty of exploring your shadows. If you keep the door shut, you will never give your eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness and see what's really there. What seems foreboding and ugly to the untrained eye can actually be a beautiful discovery.

What has been bothering you that you are ashamed of or feel guilty about? Don't let it hold you back. Confront it and love yourself for acknowledging every part of who you are.

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