Live Your Best Life

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” -Henry David Thoreau

Life could slip right through your fingers in an instant. It’s wild to think of it. But the point is that once you gain perspective on your life and your value, it’s hard to stick around in places that don’t serve you. The paycheck is no longer more valuable than your well-being, your peace, or your ability to sleep at night.

I think this is a great time to remind you that you are valuable and worthy of a beautiful life that’s filled with all the things you love. From basic needs to creative desires. Use those values to guide you. Life is now.

What have you been up to?

Pure Awareness

“Life needs to be experienced fully, not only in its sweetest, easiest moments. This is what mindfulness is all about—being here and now, with pure awareness of our experiences.” – Jennifer Burger

Ms. Burger is preaching! When I’m working in jobs I don’t love or in environments that don’t sustain me, I feel like my brain takes a back seat until it’s all over. It doesn’t matter if it’s 3 minutes or 3 years. All I know is it’s clear to me now that I want jobs, friends, and environments where I can be fully present!

When we are in places that allow us to be fully present, I’d call that alignment. Alignment is worth the commitment. Do we really need proof? Do we need to see the other side? Is it worth sacrificing your soul?  I don’t think so.

What do you think?

Human Freedom

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor E. Frankl

There’s a part of me that is overwhelmed by this, and there’s a part of me that so deeply feels the liberation in this statement. Choosing your way when you’re a weird kid who loves weird things is only easy because you’ve been a misfit your whole life. I’ve definitely found power in my uniqueness.

What do you think about choosing your attitude? How about your own way?

Curious and Creative Thinkers

“The best ideas rarely arise in one isolated mind, but rather develop in networks of curious and creative thinkers.” -Esther Perel

I like how Esther says this. Curious and creative thinkers are fun to be around. I love hearing people’s new ideas. I love being able to incorporate those ideas, even if not right away. I like to be collaborative and really spend time working together, building things. It’s not easy, but when you get that, it’s an irreplaceable feeling. The productivity feels so much more meaningful.

Be the Bridge

“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
― Richard Rohr

Found this guy, Richard Rohr, love what he has to share. He has a lot of talks on YouTube. I wouldn’t call myself a fan just yet. It’s all very new to me. What I like is that this man has created a bridge so that I can connect with my grandmother. She loved the Franciscans and was very supportive of the Franciscan Monks. I’m glad he’s here sharing new ways to see.

What are you watching?

New Eyes

“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes.” -Richie Norton

Wow, today required a lot of intentional peace. Thankfully, peace found me where I was. And tomorrow will bring me new joys and new moments of peace. This is why resets are literally my favorite.

How was your day?

Today, I tried a new coffee and it was terrible. lol

Solitude Sunday -A Place Where You Can Be Human

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” — Pablo Picasso

Perfect quote for my Sunday Solitude. I dragged myself out of bed and allowed my Sunday chores to come along as slowly as I wanted them to. I stared at the sky. I listened to my daughter tell stories to my husband. I was not pushing through today. I listened to my body and completed my day at my own pace. This took me a long time to learn. The world always calls me to be someplace at some time. Sundays will not be that for me. It is on these days where I can finally connect with my body and answer to all its notifications. Aches, pains, cravings, and what they are all really telling me. I can listen to my true thoughts and pull myself from the unnecessary ones. I can nourish myself with the things my mind, body, and soul are deeply calling for. Sundays are when I allow myself to be this complex human I was created to be.

One reason I started this blog was to create a space where we can peel away all the world’s expectations and just be. Be emotional, dark, light, enlightened, lost, profound, dumbfounded, in awe, bored, all of it. This makes me realize that Jayne.Press isn’t just a place where we can express ourselves but it’s also a place where we can find solitude and feel safe away from the harshness of this world.

Jayne.Press, a place where you can be human.

How are you feeling today?

A Bit of a Romantic

“The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.” -Anais Nin

It’s so much better to romanticize your life. Finding ways to make miserable things have a bit of sparkle is what works. There’s a song from the original Mary Poppins titled A Spoonful of Sugar that taught me young how to do just this. I must add that I’m so deeply grateful for every day that I have with my family, all the support, and all the love that flows through us. Finding ways to discover bubbles of joy in every moment is one way that I feel adds to this flow.

What are some things your are grateful for?

Latest Cellphone Game

I like to share what I’m playing on my cell phone to decompress. I still play My Oasis. I really do enjoy that game, but I needed to switch it up a little bit, so lately I’ve been playing Find It Out. It’s just like Where’s Waldo but digital. I do the same thing with this game by putting a YouTube video on while playing. I feel silly sharing this, but we all need our toolkit that gives us moments to refresh.

What are you playing on your cellphone lately?

Evil is Unspectacular

“Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.” -W. H. Auden

What a line. I have never heard of this author but yea I appreciate these words right now. W.H. Auden

“English poet, playwright, critic, and librettist Wystan Hugh Auden exerted a major influence on the poetry of the 20th century. Auden grew up in Birmingham, England and was known for his extraordinary intellect and wit.” -Poetry Foundation

The Age of Anxiety is the work that got Auden a Pulitzer Prize.

You can read more about him here.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-h-auden