Today is my birthday and I'm super excited to continue my yearly self love tradition as a gift to treat myself. We all deserve a little extra love and care on our birthday and who better than you to treat yo'self?! (Cue Parks & Rec Tom & Donna montage).

I'm all about simple self love rituals; whether its buying yourself flowers or treating yourself to the "fancy coffee". Self love and self-care do not have to be about expensive spa days--though it could. It's about taking the time to acknowledge yourself and gift yourself some "me time". ​

This ritual is simple but requires a few items to amp up the ambiance. If you don't have the exact item, try substituting whatever makes sense via your beautiful intuition. This ritual is designed to happen before you shower, but if you're pressed for time you can at least bring that sugar scrub in the shower and feel luxurious afterward. Or treat yourself to a long hot bath after complete with rose petals, your beverage of choice and a good book. 

Those of us who keep track of Mercury's crazy cycle know how much we dread hearing those words, "Mercury's in Retrograde." Mercury is said to rule over communication, travel and technology and in our fast paced world those things going haywire can cause quite a few issues. Have you ever experienced flight cancellations and tech failures during a mercury retrograde? Those things alone can cause some communication issues...

But what if we took Mercury's patterns as a sign for us to look backwards and slow down?

When Mercury goes "retrograde" it appears that Mercury is moving backwards in the sky and lucky for us we just started another round on Sunday, July 7th. 

Truth be told, I'm not a big Valentine's day fan.
However, I'm not one to miss a chance to talk about self-love and self-care! In the last few years I've started to shift the idea of Valentine's day to be a day to check in with myself, making sure I am getting what I need to care for myself so that I can present my best self to those I love. 

Let's jump right into some simple self-love ideas for your Valentine's Day/week or every day life!
(Because you shouldn't need a specific day to love yourself; it should be constant!)

First up, sigils, what the heck are they?!

Think of sigils as a very personal symbol or design that sparks emotion for the creator. A similar example would be the emotions, beliefs, and memories that are invoked by the symbol of the cross. However, in the case of sigils the symbol will probably only mean something to the creator (unless created for a group, like this blog post). The idea is similar to a vision board, where the overall image creates a reaction that surpasses words. 

I think if we walk through how to make a sigil, it will make more sense.... ​

First up, let's create a statement that helps improve our self talk. ​

It's the last one of our "Understanding Moon Cycles" series! If you enjoyed this, let me know and I'll work more moon related content into our mix. 

Happy (almost) Full Moon! I like to think of the full moon as a celebration. It's the finish line for the work you've put in and time to check back in with those goals. It's also a time for gratitude (when isn't it?!). 
Let's dive a little deeper.

Today it's all about the waxing moon or the process of the moon appearing to grow larger. I always like to think wax on, wane off (ha ha!) to keep the cycle straight. With that in mind, of course our connection to the waxing moon is all about GROWING!

In short the waxing moon is drawing in energy and building up to become a whole (think full moon). If we choose to work with these natural cycles, now is the time to put the work in! Continue building up your projects, work on getting that experience and really commit to your daily practices.