Toddlers on airplanes & manifesting a simpler, joy-filled life
Last week I whispered desperate words into my daughters ears that I never thought I’d utter before having kids: “Please, oh please just watch TV! Just one show. Look at your brothers watching ipad. Oh please!”
We were on an airplane to Sweden to visit family and my littlest one, Zoe (she is almost 2) was not interested at all in sitting down, playing with a toy, watching a show or being restrained on my lap.
She kept performing her wildest backward whale breaches to date while screaming at the top of her lungs for freedom to roam the airplane (no matter how much turbulence) and greet every passenger with a happy and loud “Hello!”… even the sleeping ones 😅.
While she sure made many passengers smile (& some perhaps semi-deaf), I felt like I had been run over by a truck when we got off the 8ish hour flights.
What I love about this story, however, is this:
Kids know exactly what they want and are not afraid to ask for it.
While Zoe’s stubbornness sometimes drains me as her parent who also has to set limits and hold boundaries, I also often find myself in awe of the pure strength of her will and the clarity and confidence with which she moves through her little life.
Knowing that there will likely be times in her future where she will feel further away from her clarity and confidence, I can find more patience and appreciation for her in this wild toddler phase;)
It’s pretty amazing especially considering that so much of my work as a coach consists of leading women back to their own clarity and confidence so they can cultivate lives they can genuinely thrive in. Plus, my own work consists of that too: staying connected to myself, being clear on what I want to create and then having the confidence to go for it.
What I know with all my heart is this:
When you are clear on what you want and trust yourself, you can build and manifest anything.
I have seen hundreds of clients do this over the years and my husband and I have used the power of manifestations as a core tool in our own life.
Over the last years, our focus has moved towards manifesting more simplicity and a joy-centered life for our family.
In every vision my husband Raz and I have written out together about the life we want to create, it includes long summer nights, light flooded spaces, a slower pace, simplicity, easy joy, shared meals with people we love. Take a peak into the unfolding of this manifestation ☺️.
Having little kids, I’m so aware of how fast time goes by, how we sometimes rush through the days, how we’re preoccupied with getting things done or getting through a hard week…
Sometimes that’s just how life is and that’s fine… there’s satisfaction that comes with feeling productive, having a deadline, being on top of it (I totally get that!) but we also have to be careful that we don’t fall into the busy trap, the “joy comes when everything is done” trap because I promise, it will burn you out eventually.
Personally, I want to create a life that has a generosity of time, lots of little joys, connection, beauty that fills the soul, easy laughter… because that is what fuels my foundation: a joy centered life (not the big things, but the small, daily, easy joys that are accessible in every season anywhere)
I think that it’s from that filled-cup, joy foundation that you can do great things, achieve what you want to achieve, give what you want to give… and do so without burning out!
Life works best when there is space for an ebb and flow of your energy.
In a time when it’s easy to lose yourself in busy-ness or succumb to the pressures of perfection or hustle-culture, make sure you stay connected to your JOY (whatever that means for you).
Spend some time this week and look for small joys, simple things that light you up, tiny moments or something in nature that lifts your spirit.
When you look for joy, it finds you, too.
XO,
Caroline
