In my ongoing quest to do our life better and enhance our wellbeing, I started paying closer attention year-in and year-out to how to we do this Season… What has developed over the years is my End-of-Year & New-Year Planning (E.N.P.) Process (condensed from its original version which can be found here). I’m so excited for its sparkling newest Step and its rich parts. Today we are covering: The Inspirational Part (1of3).
We’ve covered Steps for clearing, celebrating and contemplating and now we are on to candescenting, to adding Sparkle…
I am adding this new step to add more Sparkle into our life… This is what this step is all about. We tend to focus on work, grinding, and what’s wrong in the world. We usually don’t acknowledge the good things or focus on how to better do leisure, fun, recharging, taking care of ourselves, and enjoying the finest things in life.
Our Human Experience needs to be more well-rounded…
⚡️Most people don’t dream of their future. ⚡️Most people don’t set goals to achieve their dreams. ⚡️Most people don’t develop a plan to achieve their goals. ⚡️Most people don’t design their flow (routines) to work their plans. ⚡️Most people definitely don’t add Sparkle to their flow…
These people are at risk of their life being dull and a grind… You might recognize yourself in all the above, or some. Don’t worry I’ve got the antidote in adding Sparkle into our life…
The first part in the Sparkle Step is Inspiration…
The Inspirational Part
When our life is monotonous, when we tend to grind, when we don’t recharge ourselves, we dull ourselves. We are like a house that hasn’t been dusted in a while and the surfaces no longer sparkle. We lose our sparkle…
It is our job to figure out how to do our life well, so we have our best human experience, a Brilliant Human Experience™…
It is up to us to draw inspiration and flow from inspiration as much as possible. This is a wonderful estate of Being to aspire to on an ongoing basis…
Watch the video for 4 Tactics to help you find and fuel your Inspiration…
Set time aside to play with this process, it’s so worth your investment. Work through the steps in order, though 1 and 2 can be swapped depending on your situation.
For Step 4 – Here are the tactics for The Inspirational Part:
Personal Brand – Decide how you’ll continue to evolve in the coming year. Who is your Authentic Self, what are they all about? How will you become more You? What parts do you need embrace or develop? How do you need to stretch? What can you put in place to practice Being more of who you are? Choose an Identity Phrase™ or word to capture your personal brand and what you are aiming to become…
For example: Conscientious, adventurous, learner, connector, risk-taker, nature lover, wellness obsessed, turn everything to gold, and such.
Intention or Focus Term™ – Set an Intention for the upcoming year of how you’ll want to feel, what you want to experience, or who you want to be more. Choose a Focus Term™ to capture the essence of the intention to serve as your mantra, lens, filter or focus throughout the year…
For example: Ease, intentional, proactive, receptive, spaciousness, excellence, abundant, generous, confident, playful, self-care, courage, and such.
Theme – Explore what you want your overall focus to be for the year. What kind of things do you want to experience, accomplish, achieve? What life area will you be focusing on primarily and what aspects of that life area do you want to target? Name your Theme to add another layer of focus and filtering for the year.
For example: Health, fitness, romance, parenting, adventure, legacy, reading, self-care, self-love, spirituality, and so on.
Vision Board – And now you get to make it pretty! Capture the work you’ve done for Step 3 and in this Part of Step 4 into picture form. For this, Pinterest is your friend. You can create your board anyway you like.
For example: Print the images and glue them into a posterboard, tack them to a corkboard; or go with an electronic version by creating a background for your desktop or your phone in Canva.
The key here is to capture who you are becoming and where you want to go. Make sure you give yourself the gift of time and attention to really honor your Self and take care of Future You.
This Step is so fun. Make sure you do the leg work of steps 1-3 to really set yourself up for success for the rest of the year and for the upcoming year. Then dive in and have fun with this Step!
Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…
With Much Love & Light!
PS –Check out past Holiday posts to help you Thrive this Holiday Season and start the New Year right!
Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.
Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?
Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com
Thanksgiving is about really appreciating everything in our lives… A grateful heart is like a magic pill… There are so many ways to embrace a Gratitude Practice and being Thankful. When we appreciate our life in its full glory, the challenges and all- as they are for us, then we are abundant…
From an abundant place we can genuinely be generous to enrich the life of others, and in turn our own. Today, let’s focus on Expanding Generosity (Thanksgiving Series Pt3).
No matter how we cut it, there is always someone who has less than us or has it worse than us… And helping alleviate their suffering or making their lives better in some way not only does it help them, but it also helps us…
Being generous is a lovely character strength that add to who we are… It helps us have a fuller human experience. It enriches our lives. And it helps us make the world a better place in the process…
Generosity is a Win-Win affair.
Cultivating being generous is super fun and super rewarding.
Learn 3 unique ways of Expanding Generosity…
Watch the video to learn three unique ways of Expanding Generosity and rock the Season of Giving…
APPLICATION: When we expand how we show our generosity is permeates the fabric of our life. Our generous nature shines through touching other’s hearts and in turn making us feel good.
I – Identify the area where you haven’t been as generous as you’d like: With yourself, with your loved ones, with others at large…
II – Make a commitment to become more generous in that area
III – Embrace Expanding Generosity with GUSTO:
Yourself – It’s easy for us to run ourselves into the ground and forget our basic needs if we are not careful… Recalibrate your calendar (Time Map) so you create a gentler approach to your days… Build in: Buffer Time, Transition Time, Me Time. And use these times as designated… Don’t allow them to get sucked up by other demands…
✔️Make sure you milk Me Time! Add what nurturing activity you’ll do for yourself during that time…
Your Loved Ones – Some tend to be nicer to strangers… How about we are more generous with those we love? Be very intentional about the language you use and use kind and gentler words as much as possible. Make a list of nicer words you’ll use, nurturing gestures you’ll sprinkle into your days, and different ways and times you’ll give more affection…
✔️Make sure you get creative with your words, gestures, and affections- delight your loveys!
Others at Large – When we think of giving, we usually thing of contributions and donations. Which, of course, are absolutely fine and if that’s what you do please continue to do so.
But being generous with others goes beyond specific “giving”, it has to do with showing up with a generous heart the rest of the time as much as possible. How about giving more generous tips, more compliments, and being present with your eye contact and attention?
✔️Make sure you take this on to a degree that the receiving person takes note of the generosity!
Notice how good it feels to be generous and kind to yourself and others…
Generosity is not just about giving money or donations to charities or special causes. Generosity starts with having an open and kind hear with ourselves and those around us…
Expand Generosity with gusto!
Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…
With Much Love & Light!
PS –Check out past Holidays posts to help you Start Your Season Right!
Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.
Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?
Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com
Did you know that the better you feel, the easier and more joyful your life becomes? Whether you look at this in terms of having high vibrations and attracting other high vibration experiences in your life.
Or, if you look at this as when you feel well, you have more energy, you have more patience, you have more bandwidth and such to apply to your life. Or just as, feeling well is all that matters. The important point is that we want to feel well, happy. The better we feel, the better. Here is to feeling better by Embracing Gratitude (Thanksgiving Series Pt2).
There are a multitude of ways to make ourselves feel better, but what better way this Season than with: Grace, Gratitude, and Generosity…
Not only are these amazing character strengths to embrace and rejoice with during the Holidays Season, but they are great character strengths to develop and embrace all year around. These are great characteristics to cultivate through our personal development work for increased wellbeing…
Today in Part2, we’ll focus on Embracing Gratitude. 🙏
Embracing Gratitude is a wonderful antidote for dispelling fear, anxiety, anger and the like. Our brain can’t be in a triggered state and in a gratitude state at the same time…
This is one of the reasons we start all our sessions with Appreciations. Where the partners get to share what they appreciate about the other and what the other has done or how they’ve been since the prior session.
Focusing on the yummy stuff also invites more yummy stuff. It reinforces that what the other is doing or how they are showing up is appreciated, which serves as a reward and incentive…
It sets a different tone to the session. There is a shift to a pro relationship mindset…
It curves the negativity bias and helps reprogram it…
And, other goodies…
All these benefits are just within the context of a therapy session, and within its first few minutes. Imagine what an impact appreciation and gratitude can have in your life as an ongoing practice…
For now, let’s Embrace Gratitude for the next few weeks by expanding your Gratitude Practice, and reap 3 coveted benefits in the process….
Watch the video to learn how to expand your Gratitude Practice and about the benefits you get as a result…
APPLICATION: The feeling of Gratitude is one of those super feelings that is easy to generate and has a wonderful impact on our wellbeing, our life, and the world at large… Embracing Gratitude with a Gratitude Practice built into our lifestyle is key to really integrate this potent elixir into our life.
Select one or more tactics below to really play with in the coming weeks:
Appreciation Habit – We tend to have negativity bias in how we view everything, especially our partner and our relationship… This is the worst thing to allow to flourish in your relationship if you are interested in creating a Radiant and Successful Relationship…
✨ Create a time in your daily routine where you get to spend a few minutes with your partner sharing appreciations about each other and acknowledging their investment in making your relationship, home and life more awesome.
Thankfulness Lens – First thing upon waking put on a Thankfulness Lens:
✨ Set the intention to notice the beauty in your life and world, see the positive and opportunities in situations, recognize the good intention behind your partner’s actions
✨ Be thankful for all these treasures
Honoring Differences – We live in a world where homogeneousness is valued, or rather where differences are not really tolerated… How about deciding not to contribute to polarizing views, believes, perspectives, actions and general approach to life?
✨ Notice where you are intolerant, prejudice, inflexible, judgmental and the like and decide now to widen your views and approach.
✨ Choose 3 behaviors you can integrate into your life to loosen the usual limiting grip and Transmute this wasted energy. This applies to political views, friendships, in-laws, children, and most importantly your partner… For example, stop begrudging your partner their wish for more separateness… Build-in more personal time into your lifestyle.
Embracing Gratitude is a wonderful sentiment to add to our Holidays Season and merriment. Additionally, being Grateful is a potent character strength that when harnessed within a Gratitude Practice it becomes a powerful tool for creating an amazing relationship and gorgeous life…
This one is a keeper!
Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…
With Much Love & Light!
PS –Check out past Holidays posts to help you Start Your Season Right!
Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.
Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?
Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com
Whoa, it’s that time of year again! As we start November, we are entering the Holidays Season and with them the inevitability of being stretched thin, overwhelmed, and stressed out. Unless of course, we are intentional and proactive about having a Zen Holidays and year-end… To help us cultivate our Zen this month, I’ll be doing a 3-part series covering Grace, Gratitude, and Generosity. Let’s start with: Giving Grace (Thanksgiving Series Pt1).
First off, why Grace, Gratitude and Generosity? Because I wanted to write on the theme of Thanksgiving and those three characteristics capture the essence of this holiday so nicely. Plus, they are a pretty set of Gs. 🤓 LOL
All kidding aside, these characteristics came to me for myself as I’m getting ready for my Holidays Season. I’ve been setting intentions and being proactive about my holidays for years now, and every year I’m inspired to add more simplicity, beauty, and Zen. My goal is to really be present and enjoy the simple pleasures bestowed by the magic of the season. ✨
🌟 Being easy about things 🌟 Letting go of perfectionism, annoyances, control and the like 🌟 Creating space for authenticity
We can give grace in all areas of our life – from how we treat ourselves, to how we operate in our business, to how we relate to our partner…
Learn how to apply this to your relationship!
Watch the video to learn how to give more grace in your relationship and how it helps create a major shift!
APPLICATION: Identify an area in your relationship where you experience a lot of frustration and pain. Then apply the 3-part lens to deconstruct your experience and embrace Giving Grace instead…
🌟Being easy about things – What do you wish in that area? What are your expectations? How do you communicate them? How do you go about making things happen or getting what you want?
🌟Letting go of perfectionism, annoyances, control – How do you look at what happens in that area? Where are you aiming for perfection? What do you let annoy you? How do you impose your way?
🌟Creating space for authenticity – How do you hold back, squash, your true essence? How do you silence yourself? How do you make yourself small? How do you so the same to your partner?
Now look at your answers and adjust the unrealistic expectations, rigidity, poor boundaries and mindset.
Revise your answers as to how you really want to be and show up…
When we embrace Giving Grace in the experience of our relationship and in our interactions with our partner, we soon notice that the relationship flows more smoothly, that there is less resistance from our partner, and that we feel more on the same page and connected.
Make Giving Grace a Holiday Intention™ this year!
Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…
Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.
Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?
Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com
Couples are always looking for different ways to enjoy each other’s company and have fun together. It’s not easy to keep things fresh and interesting unless the partners are intentional about it. The easiest way to stay on top of this is to make keeping things fresh a part of your lifestyle… Nurturing your couple is a key component to create your successful relationship.
I know this is easier said than done, especially when partners are so busy keeping up with the regular demands of everyday life. They barely have time to cover the basics, they don’t even get to self-care, never mind thinking about integrating fun into their lifestyle. LOL
But this doesn’t have to be so challenging. There are a fewthings to keep in mind to make sure the couple doesn’t fall to the wayside.
We are talking:
🥰 Mindset around nurturing the couple 🤓 Commitment and intentionality that includes a system for making it happen 🤔 Generating ideas for keeping things fresh and interesting
When we prioritize the couple, the whole relationship becomes a lot stronger… The family and home take on a better flavor, life becomes smoother… Your relationship becomes more radiant and super successful…
Watch the video to learn about the 3 concepts to help you more easily nurture your couple and keep things fresh and interesting!
APPLICATION: Identify where you need to focus to improve prioritizing and nurturing your couple:
Mindset around nurturing the couple – Review how you prioritize your partner, the couple and the relationship, and address any weirdness around priorities, focus, fairness, deservingness, balance, tit for tat, giving/receiving, etc and upgrade the importance of giving your partner TLC
Commitment and intentionality that includes a system for making it happen – Make a commitment to be all in, to woo your partner, to take real good care of them, and add Connection and Delight Partner Habits into your daily routine
Generating ideas for keeping things fresh and interesting – Use the seasons, holidays, interests, hobbies, preferences, desires, dreams, bucket lists, and the like to come up with activities and experiences to do together and/or gift to your partner
Give yourself some time to sit with the item that needs attention until you fully grasp where you stand and what you’d like to do about it. Then share your insight and intention with your partner. Make it a positive and fun discussion, focused on how you’ll step it up a notch!
Placing your couple in its rightful place of top priority and tending it makes a huge difference to how the partners feel and the strength of the partnership. Keeping your relationship top of mind and intentionally nurturing it ongoingly helps keep things fresh… There is nothing worse than an ignored relationship and stale couple…
Make sure this is not you, pour your love into your interactions and towards your partner. Starting right now. Go for it!
Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…
With Much Love & Light!
Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.
Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?
Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com
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Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT has been in the mental health profession in varying capacities for the past 20+ years. She is the Founder and Director of metrorelationship.com a psychotherapy and coaching practice specializing in working with busy professional and entrepreneurial couples who are struggling getting on the same page and feeling connected. The work helps couples create a radiant and successful relationship and meaningful life by becoming a strong partnership and increasing their connection, intimacy, and fun. Emma is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Relationship Strategy™.
