I personally have started this morning ritual while also adding the bible scripture “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it” -Psalm 118:24 or even a phrase as simple as “Today is a new day, all things are new and anything is possible”. From there I visualize all the best outcomes that I can imagine for the day ahead. I try to take 10-15 to do this simple mediation and I PROMISE if you try it too,  you will notice a HUGE difference!!

I also have to start to start my day off with coffee, good music and morning pages and some times in that order! See the YouTube link below to hear a great morning song to play to get you in the right mood/mindset;  I love India.Aire and this song never fails to  make me feel good about the great day to come!

AS for moning pages… morning pages may very well be for me, the greatest means to clear my head, reset my energy and get in touch with my creative and higher self. I have done a video about morning pages with Taren of the popular YouTube Channel Taren916 so I will def have to put that up. I was lucky to find morning page in the international best seller “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. To put it simply Julia suggests that to get in touch with your creative/spiritual/higher self; each morning right after waking up one should sit down to a notebook and write three pages of free flowing thoughts.

I have personally done this almost everyday for the past year and a half and WHOA has it changed my life! I sit down and just write 3 pages nonstop without interruption. For me, its really dumping all my thoughts as they come without judgement or fear of what will be said or realized. It doesn’t matter which way you go about it just write 3 pages without stopping and you will uncover amazing things. Give it a try and check back for more details in a later post! In the mean time check out the expert and originator Julia Cameron’s blog for her explanation here.

Good luck with experimenting with these morning rituals! Hey does it hurt to give this all a try for one week? Please let me know how is goes!!

What is “Realistic”?

That's me in the overalls and glasses!!

This is Eyen now...Is this realistic?? Well it's real now!

Is this realistic?

Here are some of the tools that we have used to make our dreams come true:

Reading (some suggestions):

• The Secret
• The Alchemist
• The Celestine Prophesy
• The Greatest Salesman in the World
• Religious Books; Bible, Quran, Talmud, Teachings of Buddha, Bhagavad Gita etc
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Power of Positive Thinking

Be Active

• Run
• Yoga
• Sports
• Walking

Write your vision and make it clear:

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS!!!! Write it down so that you are clear about what you want and what you are working for. Make sure you look at this EVERYDAY!! Its important to look at your dreams a goals because your dreams are attainable especially if you write your goals in a way that you can see yourself moving towards them.

Let’s say your dream is to be a world renowned doctor who finds the cure to cancer. If that is the case there are steps that you must take to get in the running for such a feat. Start with a 5 year plan, which would mean that if you didn’t already go to school for a related undergrad degree you would need to get into a great university or, if you did get a related undergrad degree you would need to get into a great top medical school… which would mean that your 5 year goal would be to be in a top medical school with great grades. Which would mean you would need strong yearly goals; so if you are in undergrad one of your yearly goals might be to have a 4.0 GPA… which would mean you would need to set monthly goals like getting A’s on all papers and exams each month, or that you will have perfect attendance for the month of November etc… all of which would lead you to make weekly goals… so perhaps you would set a weekly goal to stay after class to ask questions at least 3 times a week, or spend 20 hours studying a week etc… Which finally lead you to daily goals, that might consist of waking up at 6:30 in the morning to have time to study and go to class, or you might have a goal to simply stay off of Facebook the day of a test. The important this is to have a clear goal and set smaller incremental goals that build up to the larger vision over time. Not only will you be productive but you will feel good about making your dreams real… because that is exactly what you are doing!

Vision Board:

A collection of images made into a collage to help you visualize the things you want in life. Should be done every  6 months so that you can see your dreams and goals… Look at it every day with appreciation and you will see these things come into your life!! Having a detailed vision board that is related to your larger vision, will help you to see and remember why you are working so hard!

Know your fears, face them and take control… JUST DO IT!!!

You should know your fears just as well as your goals. Sometimes our fears are obvious to us but often the fears that are most detrimental to our goals, are the fears that we are unaware of. If you are having a hard time getting something done, starting a task that you know is important to you, or just purely feeling “lazy” and don’t know why… it’s often because of FEAR!! Ask yourself, “What am I afraid of?” and listen/watch for the answer because you will soon get your answer. Then it is up to you to confront your fear and carry out whatever it is that you know you should do but “don’t feel like it”.

Positive Lifestyle:

• Positive Friends
• Positive Conversations
• Positive Thoughts
• Personal Affirmations: Ex “I accept my greatness”

Apply the tools above and ask yourself (WRITE DOWN) this question…

What Are You Willing To Give Up To Get The Things You REALLY Want In Life?

These are just a few tips to start pursuing your dreams! It can be tough road but if you keep seeking your true self and the higher power that you believe in and there is NOTHING that you cannot achieve!!!!!

Before going on my trip to China I was running out of my two signature scents; Gucci Floraand Stella Sheer… with a dash of a new one that I wasn’t feeling spoke to the esscence of Millana Snow (Angel By Theirry Mugler). But upon my return home, I realized that China had changed me forever, not to mention I had a birthday while I was gone… so I knew it meant that I was in a new phase of my life, which meant that it is time for a new scent.

      I believe that not only does a scent tell of your personality… for exapmle; is she/he: fun/trashy/sexy/confident but it also tells where you are in life… is she/he: young and adventurous/finding themselves/secure with who they are etc. But not oly does your scent tell of who you wish others to know who you are but pheromones that mix with the scent that you choose also attract people into your life… in an instinctual and animalistic way that is far beyond any conscious decisions.

So although my Gucci Flora scent tells of a woman who is confident, girly yet a budding strong woman… Im seeking a fall scent that is more sultry, that is for a woman who is young and fresh but well traveled, but most happy with the simple things in life. Im on the hunt for that new scent…

When looking I knew that there was nothing at Sephora (my typical go to stop for the newest mainstream scents) that I hadnt already smelled or that everyone else wasn’t already wearing… so I realized that I had to step my perfume game up and head to the VERY well curated Bergdorf Goodman. Here are a few scents that look like I might be going in the right direction but it allllll depends on what happens when they make contact with my skin! Will get back to you soon to let you know what I find!

Noted as erotic with notes of spicy jasmine! oh my!

Noted as sophisticated and strong with notes of wood and leather

Noted as woody with exotic spices and floralsErotic spicy jasmine? oh my!Noted as sophisticated and stong with notes of leather and wood

Wish I could have gotten the previous conversation on film where she said “NY girls have a clean mind” LOL at this point I really wanted to see what else she would say so I was able to get this much before I had to tell her to stop. :0

• Tip: if coming from the city (manhattan) and flying during the day from Newark… DO NOT take a yellow cab. With cab fares $75+ and heavy traffic taking the train to Newark is your best bet for cost and time. However if you don’t like taking the train I recommend that you hire a private car and schedule to leave 3 hours before your flight if flying internationally.
• Plugs- not all planes have them. When going on a long flight make sure you go online and look under amenities and then “connectivity” to see what seats include power. For example on the 777 that I am on currently, there are only plugs in the first and last 20 seats… With a 16 hr flight I recommend you try to move your seat accordingly.
• Outside of the states ALOT of the websites that you might visit regularly are not avaiable. For example although Google and Facebook ARE AVAILABLE; Pandora.com and Chase.com are not! So make sure you iTunes are full and download the Chase mobile app if you bank with them in the states.
• No matter how big the city… if I were you DONT drink tap water! It might be “ok” to drink but it will ALWAYS be very different from the water that you are used to which will take time to get used to no matter where in the world you go!

But for now here are some of the preliminary research that I am doing for myself that I feel is important for any trip to a new land!

Reading the basic guide books is a good start although they usually feel like a textbook but good for briefing…

What Im reading as we speak:

Fodor’s See It China

Fodor’s Beijing  3rd edition

Fodor’s Hong Kong 22nd edition

Fodor’s Beijing’s 25 Best 5th edition

Lonely Planet Hong Kong and Macau City Guide

Some things I learned that are useful for my trip:

Beijng is pretty temperate in September…. But Hong Kong and Macau are HOT with average daily temps in the 90′s. I also learned that in Beijing it ususally pretty dry in September but Hong Kong has about 10 inches of rain on average.

Tipping isn’t customary in China

Water is not drinkable anywhere in China, although Hong Kong has higher quality it is not recommended

In the guide books above I browse through and read as needed… you can get great insider tips,  learn history,  and find out basic info on places to see. I recommend only buying one of these guides and get the rest from the library! Thats just the first round of studying more tips to come.

Next thing on the list that I have to research …

Social Customs

Where can I train for the half marathon that Im training for?!!?

What is the current exchange rate

Updates soon!

Know the weather: