34 Things I’ve Learned At 34

And just like that I’m celebrating another trip around the sun. With gratitude and curiosity for what my mid thirties! ahead will look like. This year started with some celebrations paired with a lot of difficulty physically and mentally. Weddings and lots of life celebrations, long-haul COVID and a medical leave, finally getting back to recording meditations (you can listen here) and starting to train to be a Pilates teacher. After such a challenging and transformative year, I’m feeling incredibly optimistic and excited about 34 and entering my mid thirties. So without further adieu and before I jump fully into my next trip around the sun, here is what I’ve learned in this past year:

34 Things I’ve Learned at 34

1. Often we overestimate what’s going on around us and underestimate the power we have within us.

2. Imagining your future in vivid detail rewires your brain toward creating that reality. Do this every day in meditation, journaling or sharing with a loved one and watch as your world transforms.

3. Speak to yourself as if you’re someone you deeply love. A family member, a best friend, a pet. Notice what it feels like to give yourself the same compassion and loving kindness you so freely give to others.

4. Get quiet. Be calm. If it feels uncomfortable you may be more comfortable with chaos than stability. If this is the case, lean into moments of calm even more and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s the only way to heal.

5. If you feel mentally off- move. If you feel physically off- rest.

6. When the world feels overwhelming - shift your focus down to the smallest denominator. Your breath. A flower blooming. The feel of a cozy blanket. It’ll bring you back to center.

7. Maybe self discipline is actually problematic. It forces productivity and output in the face of even the most difficult circumstances. Instead, maybe we should focus on devotion. Devoting ourselves comes from a heart-centered place that respects both our passions and our boundaries.

8. Focus not on creating goals but on embodying the life you want. Your actions will fall from that and suddenly what you’ve wanted will come to fruition.

9. When you release something, sometimes the first feeling isn’t relief, it’s anxiety. Because you’ve created a home with discomfort. So now you need to make that free space home. Fill the empty space with joy, with play, with creativity. But first let the breeze fly through it, feel the anxiety, and be truly alive.

10. To build community, you must first be the community you wish to build. People will reflect your actions.

11. Be where your feet are.

12. Layer by layer, releasing the wild and free within you is how you find the map back to yourself.

13. Love even when it’s messy. Even when it’s imperfect and trying and absurd. Love because that is what we’re meant to do and it forms the foundation of everything we are.

14. Boundaries are sexy.

15. When everything feels urgent and all you want to do is accelerate, slow down. It makes all the difference.

16. What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.

17. Love is a choice you make every single day.

18. Enjoy life while it’s happening not the idea of where you’ll get to eventually. Sometimes, change is so slow and natural it’s difficult to realize you’re already living in the reality of what you once dreamed about.

19. Productivity is often a word used to keep us stuck on a hamster wheel of efficiency that never was meant for a human to thrive in. Prioritize peace over productivity. Prioritize purpose over productivity. Prioritize passion over productivity. Productivity is how you run away from yourself. Creativity is how you come home to yourself.

20. Your calendar is the most honest autobiography that you will ever write.

21. The turtle that finishes the race beats the hare that starts 100 races but never finishes.

22. Stop waiting for some arrival. Life is meant to be lived now. You’ve arrived. Start acting like it!

23. Flow- don’t force.

24. Let your choices reflect your hopes not your fears.

25. Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

26. Use belief over willpower. Saying you will run tomorrow is very different than ‘I am a runner’. When you believe you are what you wish to do, you embody it to such a level that who you are becomes what you do effortlessly.

27. Self discipline can often become self-abandonment. Devotion is the antidote. Devotion to the people and things that make you feel truly alive.

28. Life unfolds in proportion to your courage.

29. It’s better to admit you walked through the wrong door than to spend your whole life in the wrong room.

30. Being soft, sensitive and creative is so powerful if you let yourself dip into the vulnerability that will ultimately reveal the power of these traits.

31. Exhaustion can make us feel like we’re attacked by ideas we thought we conquered long ago. When this happens, rest and retreat. Soon, you’ll be able to conquer them again.

32. Energy is wasted on worry. Energy should be used to believe, create, grow, heal, and glow.

33. Lay flowers at the feet on the women you once were. They deserve to be celebrated too.

34. Life responds to the frequency you put out. Make sure you’re a match for the highest frequency you can possibly imagine and watch as your dreams unfold.