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. 

There are times our confidence gets a bit of a shake up and who can blame you in this fast paced world where information, opinions and facts are all flying at us at once from all sides! While I believe it takes time to build up your self confidence and a healthy dose of putting yourself out there, there are a few little tricks you can employ to feel confident at any moment. ​

When I think of this first one, I'm always reminded of that episode of Grey's Anatomy when the neurosurgeon strikes a pose before a super intense surgery. I'm not saying you have to be brain surgeon for this one to work, but perhaps this idea could gift you some of that confidence in the face of your challenge. ​

Hey gang!
This is a guest post by the lovely Brad of selfcareing.info who reached out to me about posting. Check out these self-care tips that you may or may not already be sneaking into your day!
​- Jenn Rose

It's been a while since we've had one of these and there is SOOO much out there to be shared. 
This time around it's all about mindset and success. Are you ready to dive into some good stuff?!

​Grab a cup of you favorite hot beverage and get down to some good reading!

The Seven Secrets of Success
There are many stories shared in the Hindu traditions that provide helpful knowledge on how to attain enlightenment. While rooting around the internet one day I stumbled upon the Sivana East website, whose blog posts range from yoga ideas to mindfulness and meditation. This week I ran into Shiva's Seven Secrets of Success. ​

Back in November we took some time to check in with that gratitude mindset towards others and of course for yourself! We see a lot of posts on social media about gratitude during the holidays, but what about  connecting with that feeling when it's no longer being published in every social media post/etc. to remind us to do it?

1. Journal it out.
Always my first suggestion. Taking the time to write something out helps us to organize our thoughts and give us time to really feel it. Also, if you write it down you can go back to it later and remember that feeling of gratitude or joy. ​