Take time out

Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.

– Douglas Pagels, These Are the Gifts I’d Like to Give to You – 

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t written a blog post for just over a week now, and that’s because I decided to take a little rest and a little time out from my blog.

I’m not entirely sure why I did this, but for some reason over the last week or so, I haven’t felt inspired to write. Not that I’ve had writers block or anything, but I just haven’t felt like putting fingers to keyboard. And also, not for lack of content or ideas for my posts either.

I almost definitely could have written a tonne of posts about all kinds of things.

However, this post’s message is about the importance of rest. The importance of taking time out, even from the things that you love the most. Because when you come back to them, you’re recharged and ready to go.

I think it’s so easy to fill our lives with habits and rituals, feeling the need to do the same thing every day, because that’s what we’ve always done before.

I started my blog back in the middle of March and I am very proud to say that through a dedicated writing practicing of blogging pretty much every day I have 107 posts under my happy little belt. However, there is also a lot to be said for writing and sharing something when you are inspired.

It’s very important for me to only share a post when I know it will be inspirational, uplifting, positive and that it will help people in some way shape or form. And this is why I have decided to have a little rest. To take some time out from my blog. Have a little holiday from it so to speak.

Hopefully, it will mean that I’ll come back to my blog, renewed, refreshed, with new ideas and thoughts to share with you, my beautiful readers.

So, my thought for you today is this, what do you need to take time out from in your life? Maybe you’ve been overdoing it in a particular area and it’s time to have a little rest. Maybe it’s something that you love, and you’ve had a little too much, and you need to take a step back, so that when you return to it, you appreciate it even more than you did before. Either way, it’s fine to take time out and take a rest from time to time.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

A rest from my blog

Image from – http://faithfromtheedges.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/time-out/

Write 750 words a day (Part 2)

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

– Louis L’Amour – 

I wrote a blog post yesterday on the importance of writing every day, and I’m still feeling the urge to write about it today, so I thought I would write a part 2 to that blog post.

So, I have just completed my 750 words for the day at 750words.com and I feel great. I’m also excited to write this blog post, and probably another 2000-4000 words for the book that I am writing at the moment too. And I aim to have all of that done by lunch time, so that I can go out and have an enjoyable afternoon bush walk with Darren.

Especially, because we went on a hike yesterday called the Resolute Loop (about an hour from Sydney) and saw a Wallaby, a snake, a Kookaburra, some turkeys and a Lyre bird.

Today the plan is to do the Spit to Manly walk. One of the best half day walks to do in and around Sydney.

And, before I go on a complete tangent, I just wanted to tell you about a few other cool features that I have found on 750words.com to incentivise you to write every day. Badges.

Streak badges

You can get streak badges for writing for a certain number of days in a row. For example, I have just won the turkey for writing my 750 words for 3 days straight.

Behaviour badges

You can get behaviour badges for how you write. For example, you can get a Cheetah badge for writing for 10 days in a row and finishing your words in less than 20 minutes. Or you can get a Hamster badge for writing for 10 days in a row with no distractions.

Being the game geek that I was growing up, and for my slightly competitive streak, I’m excited to earn some of these badges. And the brilliant thing is, it will only help me get better and better at writing. Win win win!

So, once again, I cannot recommend 750words.com highly enough to anyone wanting to improve their writing style, stop procrastinating when it comes to writing, get back into the habit of writing or start to build their confidence in writing for a blog or a book.

Start using 750 Words, you won’t regret it!

Have a wonderful day.

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light.

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

750words.com

Write 750 words a day (Part 1)

“Creativity requires faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control.” 

– Julia Cameron –

I have just come across this super awesome website called 750words.com and I wanted to share it with y’all.

It is a very simple idea. You write 750 words, that are private, unfiltered and spontaneous, daily. It is for anyone who is wanting to get into the habit of writing, but feel a little rusty. Anyone who is wanting to write a book, but lacks the discipline. And for anyone that perhaps is interested in starting a blog, but wants to have a bit of a practice before committing their words to the World Wide Web.

The concept comes from Julia Cameron’s popular book The Artist’s Way and is referred to at “Morning Pages.”

From Julia’s website: “Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.”

I use it to get everything out of my head in the morning and down on to the keyboard. I also use it for setting intentions for the day. And I trust that whatever comes up during the process, is perfect and will help me have clarity on what I wish to achieve or how I would like things to go.

It also gives you some fab stats once you have written your 750 words. It tells you how long it took you to write them, how many words per minute you threw out.

It scans for the words that you used and tells you what frame of mind you were in when you wrote it and what the general content of the post was about.

And it tells you whether you were focussed on the past, future or present, what sense you were referring to when writing (sight, hearing or touch) and how much you refer to I, Us, You and Them.

Super awesome. And a very good way of setting intentions in the present moment.

So, my thought for the day is, write 750 words a day. I’ve only been doing it for a couple of days and I’m loving it.

Inspiration for this post

750words.com