INSPIRED – Plum Joyful

The woman’s march LA : A peaceful demonstration of hope

PlumJoyful — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 05:41:37 +0000

This weekend people all over the world came together to exercise their first amendment rights in the name of freedom, inclusion and solidarity. Here in Los Angeles mother nature brought her A game and set the tone. It was sunny, bright, calm, and beautiful. 750,000 people showed up, and not ONE arrest. The mood was one of love and hope and it was an incredible thing to witness. With the current political climate of fear and exclusion, the marches around the country remind us what a wonderful world we live in, and that there are more of us on the side of right than the media would have us believe. We are all connected and that is the simple unabashed truth. We stand for ourselves when we stand for others. It may be a challenging four years ahead, but if people continue to show up the way they did this weekend, it may well be one of the most transformative and therapeutic periods in history. So many people are coming together right now and standing for each other that it is unprecedented. Women, minorities, LGBT community, and those in the name of religious freedom. The force that is gathering is […]

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Inspirational Ted Talks everyone should watch

PlumJoyful — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 07:35:32 +0000

This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Keeping my wits about me has been a challenge to say the least. My apologies for neglecting this awesome space and community, but I am back and I am rebooting, recalibrating, and reinvigorating myself. Too often we let the day to day issues of our lives overwhelm us and it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Like when your AC breaks in the middle of the worst heat wave of the entire summer, your toddler is sleeping in a pool of her own sweat, and the repairman informs you that the entire system has to be replaced for eleven THOUSAND dollars. Ya heard? THOUSAND. Well ten and change, but at that point it may as well be eleven. Hell it may as well be a million, all we know is it is TOO much. But in the scheme of things it’s really ok. The fact that we have AC to begin with is a luxury and when we become accustom to having these things we begin to take them for granted. So this weekend I am coming back to center, remembering what matters, and getting my head on straight. […]

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Q&A: Dr. Shefali Tsabary on The Awakened Family

PlumJoyful — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 07:00:52 +0000

A few weeks back I had the great honor of meeting one of my parenting heroes Dr. Shefali Tsabary. I went to a beautiful book signing where a group of mothers were invited to hear Dr. Shefali speak and encouraged to ask questions. I was a little beside myself with excitement because I am such a fan of her work. Her book The Conscious Parent was one of the few parenting books I read before having my daughter, and it resonated with me in a way that nothing else has. The afternoon turned out to be nothing short of transformative, and I wanted to find a way to share that with all of you. For those of you who don’t already know, Dr. Shefali Tsabary is a New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned clinical psychologist with a doctorate from Columbia, and a sought after speaker. She has written three life changing books, THE CONSCIOUS PARENT, OUT OF CONTROL, and her latest book THE AWAKENED FAMILY. She is Queen O’s favorite parenting expert, can be seen on Oprah’s Lifeclass as well as Super Soul Sunday (this sunday Aug. 7th!) and her TEDx talk is a must see. Her ideas are truly […]

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A Nature Prescription: TED TALK by Dr. Nooshin Razani

PlumJoyful — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 22:34:05 +0000

If you’ve been following my blog then you know how I feel about nature. It is my church, my solace, my place of grounding. I would be lost without it. I need it for my equilibrium and I need it for my happiness. So I am so honored to share with you this amazing TED TALK by my dear childhood friend Nooshin Razani. Nooshin is a brilliant pediatrician in the bay area who works with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland on finding ways nature can relieve stress in low-income communities. She not only talks the (TED)talk but she walks the walk. Seeing her own children reconnect with nature and thrive led her to study the effect nature can have on the health and wellbeing of our children and also ourselves. She actually conducted and completed the first ever randomized and controlled trails for “park prescriptions” evaluating the quantifiable effects nature has on our health and stress levels. She is single-handedly changing our world for the better one “park prescription” at a time. I am beyond honored to share this with all of you. Please SHARE this (Facebook, tweet etc…) with everyone you know, especially if they have children. This message needs […]

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How to stay motivated: 10 tips to boost your willpower

PlumJoyful — Fri, 27 May 2016 08:08:08 +0000

We all start out with the best of intentions when it comes to our goals. We are full of excitement and ready to take on the challenges necessary to achieve those goals. But somewhere along the way our enthusiasm begins to wane. Excitement is replaced by frustration or even worse, apathy, and we find ourselves giving up before we get where we want to be. This is what it is to be human. We have free will and can choose what we want to put our energy towards, but it is up to us to keep ourselves moving in the right direction. For some it is easier than others. I imagine there is some gene responsible for willpower that they will discover someday. I can tell you right now, I don’t have it. Staying motivated is not my strong suit. For me willpower is a muscle and I have to work at it. The more work I do the stronger it gets. If I neglect it for too long? It’s a flabby, floppy, mushy mess. I have to use strategies to keep me focused and moving towards my goals. If you read my last post on sugar addiction then you know […]

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Podcasts to inspire and uplift: Spring cleaning for the mind

PlumJoyful — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:47:42 +0000

As you all know we at Plum Joyful have been focusing on Spring cleaning this month. We have completed the seven day green smoothie challenge, and have continued to add more fruits and vegetables to our diet. We began the process of cleaning out our homes, starting with uncluttering our closets. Now it is time to turn our attention to what just might be the most important area of all. The one in most need of cleaning, but also the most overlooked. The mind. Here are six incredible podcasts to inspire you and support you on your spring cleaning journey. Podcasts to uplift and inspire GOOD LIFE PROJECT– Good Life Project podcast was started by Jonathan Fields, an award-winning author with the goal of helping it’s listeners live a life of joy, connection and meaning. He interviews incredible leaders and teachers who all have profound wisdom and inspiration to share. People like Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love) and Brene Brown (if you haven’t seen her TED TALK on the power of vulnerability, it is a must see. MAGIC LESSONS– Speaking of Elizabeth Gilbert, she has a podcast that is an extension of the ideas in her latest book Big […]

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Happy Earth Day! Simple ways to save our earth

PlumJoyful — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 08:54:08 +0000

I love Earth Day. I think everyday should be Earth Day, but for now I will settle for just the one day every year. I even got engaged on Earth Day. It wasn’t planned, it just worked out that way, but it’s made Earth Day even more special for me. Nature is my church. It is where I go to find peace and balance. Where I go to find inspiration. Where I go to find myself when I’m feeling lost. It has healed me, soothed me, nurtured me and saved me more times than I can count. I would be lost without it. And yet, like most of us, I take it for granted. I take for granted the fact that it will always be there for me. We think we can take what we need from the Earth and it will keep giving and giving endlessly. I wish it were that simple but we know that it’s not. Something has to shift before it’s too late. This planet is AWESOME. We are lucky beyond belief to live here. Maybe one day they will make Mars or some other planet habitable, but I have no interest. I know what we […]

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Helping our children keep an open heart in a scary world

PlumJoyful — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 08:23:34 +0000

I have a 15 month old daughter and this is not the world I wanted her to inherit. I don’t know how to explain something as awful as what happened in Brussels. Not that I have to right now, she’s only a baby, but one day I will and I dread that day. A few days ago on a trip to buy her some shoes, she walked right up to a little two year old girl whom she never met and wrapped her arms around her in a big hug. Just last night I watched her naked little body march proudly up to the mirror to admire her belly. She pointed out her belly, eyes and nose, then promptly said I love you and gave her reflection a kiss. Her heart is open. Wide open. It’s the most spectacular thing to see in the world. The fact that I recognize how wonderful it is must point to the fact that once upon a time I was like that to. We all were. We come into this world from some unseen place as a force of love, open, willing, alive, and somewhere along the way we begin to build walls around […]

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Meditation: Easy ways to incorporate it into your life

PlumJoyful — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 09:02:13 +0000

Meditation is one of the best things we can do for our health and wellbeing, it’s easy and it’s free! And it will improve you life on EVERY level. So why don’t we do it on the regular? It’s a bit like exercise in that way. I know it will make me feel SO much better once I do it, but getting myself to actually do it seems to be the challenge. It’s so curious to me that the things that we know will have exponentially positive effects on our life, like meditation, exercise, and eating well, are sometimes the most challenging things to do on a regular basis. Why? I think part of the challenge are all the “ideas” we have of what meditation is. That you have to sage your space or burn some cleansing incense, chant a mantra given to you by some guru who is so enlightened their body no longer requires sleep or food for that matter, and sit for a minimum of twenty minutes in perfect stillness with a blank mind. Oy. That kind of pressure is enough to make anyone not want to do it. If you are a perfectionist like me, chances are […]

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Plum Picks: List o’ links

PlumJoyful — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 08:46:39 +0000

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14719621/?claim=479rwmrrrkf”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> Plum Picks are all the things that we at Plum Joyful are currently loving. Wether it be a list of things that we are obsessed with, a city guide to the places we think everyone should know about, or a list of links we want to share. For our very first Plum Picks Post, we are going with a List O’Links from around the web to keep you uplifted, inspired, entertained and informed. Enjoy! 1. Dark chocolate makes you SMARTER! I should be freakin Stephen Hawking by now. 2. I Love the MariKondo method of organizing and simplifying your life, but this article made me laugh. It’s entirely true. For those of you who have read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and have children, you will probably laugh too. Don’t get me wrong I still advocate for her method, but it took me three weeks to do one closet in my house! 3. I am OBSESSED with THESE fair trade turkish towels, and must have them. If I have towels this fabulous, I will need a swimming pool to go with them as well thank you very much. 4. The inspirational wisdom of Dr. Seuss . 5. I want […]

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