Love this

Jeremy Fields wrote:
I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate those women in the world who truly understand their value and worth. Even further, those that understand that value to be a reflection of their knowledge of self in spirit and character. Those who hold their purpose to their core. Those who have risen above a male dominated society, removed excuses and determined themselves beyond superficial... beauty and sex appeal.

Masks, costumes, seduction and drama are the feeble tools of those who lack character. They are temporary, cheap, shallow and only attract similar patrons. Strong character, purpose, and value create irresistible magnetism and attract those of similar kind who would appreciate and further nurture them.

Ladies, your worth is infinitely greater than your superficial beauty and sex appeal. Don't sell yourself short by spending all of your time and energy appealing to those who would never appreciate you beyond them. Invest yourself in perfecting your character, it will never fail you. True beauty is humble and exists beyond what the eyes can see. Be whole and irresistible in the quality of your character, don't just look the part. God is within you and heaven is throughout you. Know this and appreciate yourself beyond the mirror.

will.i.am on OWN

I just finished watching Visionaries on OWN featuring will.i.am. I felt truly inspired, inspired enough to write this post.

This man, will.i.am is such a passionate and creative man. He's authentic and driven. At times I've wanted to give up on my dreams, especially because I'm not a young woman anymore.  I've thought many times that it's never going to happen, but will.i.am never gave up and look what he's done. He travels the world sharing his passion with millions of people.

Never give up on yourself, because you are worth it! You are special and unique. Always remember this, even in your darkest days. Don't forget to shine, the world needs you. : )

Check out will.i.am on OWN.

Have a fabulous day!

Darkstar Woman.

Just One Thing: Developing A Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time

You never know what your going to find on the web. I was looking through my emails when I came upon a link to this book. One of my family members has another book by this author and she highly recommends it. So I scrolled through the introduction and the first chapter and it looks really good.

I'm always interested in making a happier life for myself, and this book looks like it provides a lot of useful tools to help create a great life. This is where science meets self-help.

Click here to read more.

 The book's description: 

You’ve heard the expression, “It’s the little things that count.” Research has shown that little daily practices can change the way your brain works, too. This book offers simple brain-training practices you can do every day to protect against stress, lift your mood, and find greater emotional resilience. Just One Thing is a treasure chest of over fifty practices created specifically to deepen your sense of well-being and unconditional happiness.

                     Just one practice each day can help you:

                                                                -Be good to yourself  

                                                                -Enjoy life as it is

Have a FABULOUS day or evening, wherever you are.

Darkstar Woman.

Who am I without my stuff?!

I wanted to expand a little on yesterday's blog where I wrote about the need to acquire 'stuff.' Obviously we need to have things so that we can live comfortably, but when does this 'stuff' become a problem??

I've been thinking a lot lately about who I am, and how I would feel about myself without all of these external items. Like my home, car, clothes, furniture, etc. I think, well I actually know, I would be lost! I value having 'stuff', I believe it says something about me. I believe it tells people about my success, my competency, and to some; my worthiness.

But here's the thing, I'm not so sure if I want to buy into this belief system anymore. I think it takes a lot of time and effort to acquire so many material items just so that you can live up to a perceived perception of success.

We all want to feel that we're valued, but at what cost? I'm not saying it's not nice to have material items, but when the external becomes more important than the internal then that's where the problem lies.

Well on to my next project, that of building up my inner strength, so that I know who I am and what I really want out of life. I hope some of you will put down your wallets, and build up your internal self-worth with me. Good-luck!

Here's a few funny cartoons on self-worth....enjoy. ;  ) 

                                                                                  
 

In my search for pictures to add to this post, I came upon this woman's site http://divahh.com/tag/owning-stuff/ this is her ramblings on 'stuff.' Different then mine, yet quite interesting and inspiring.

Darkstar Woman

John's Journal

I was just browsing through some of the other blogs here on blogger.com and I ran across a blog called, John's Journal. John is an American who spent just over a year living in Europe.While I was looking through his blog I came upon a posting called, 'Reverse Culture Shock' this post is about his return to the States and his observations about the differences between the U.S and  Europe.

He made a list of points about the differences and the last point is what made me want to write this post. He talked about how he was overwhelmed with all the stuff in his closet after arriving home. This made me think about my lifestyle as a North American.

I do think I tend to buy things I don't need or overspend instead of save. I find at times I end up going to the store because I'm bored and it can add some interest to my day.

I'm definitely not a big spender at all, but just the little things can make me feel better. In the past I've asked myself why I buy so much? And a lot of times I think, 'what else is there to do?' What I mean by this is that I think society and of course myself is geared to shopping or spending money or some sort.

Maybe this is just a lame excuse of mine, but I find that there's not a lot of exciting or interesting things to do out in the wild, wild world that doesn't cost money. It actually makes me sad to see rural spaces turn into urban ones. My challenge, and I'm going to send this challenge out to all of you who tend to "have too much stuff in their closets",  is to put forth a concerted effort to find fun and fascinating things to do that doesn't include spending money.

Maybe it will be a new adventure we're on together, maybe we'll all end up with a little (hopefully a lot) of money in our pockets.

Thanks John from the U.S for writing this post, I believe you definitely have a point.

John's blog can be found here . And here's a link to an article about overspending.

Cheers, have a great day!

Darkstar Woman

EGG ON MY FACE!

So I signed up for AdSense a few days ago; they display ads on your blog and you get a small fee. I thought why not, I'm a entrepreneurial woman?! But now I see that the ad they've put on my blog about learning to accept the aging process, is for a product by Suzanne Somers that  tightens and tones your skin!!

I guess they take the key words from your blog and put an ad up that seems the most relevant. But now I look like an ASS! So I apologize for the ad, and HOPEFULLY I can get them to replace it with an appropriate one. Maybe they'll figure out that they should read the blog before they put their adds up on a bloggers site.

But again, I guess this proves my point. Another example of a product that promotes youth. Where are the products that celebrates aging?! Now I'd buy that!

From a very embarrassed and slightly miffed Darkstar Woman.

Oh yes I forgot, one other thing to explain. A little while back I blogged about how the average person sees approximately 5000 ads a day, give or take a thousand. I complained about the fact that ads are being pushed on us and how they're getting into our psyches if we like it or not. So AGAIN I must apologize for now promoting ads. Ahhhh, I'm such a bad person! Anyway I'm sorry, divert your eyes if you must from the Ads and just look at my bad ass blogging. : ) I thought I would try to earn a little extra cash and AdSense was an option.  Phew! I'm now done apologizing, now I can relax! Have a great day/night where ever you dwell.

Yikes I'm Aging!!

So I was washing my face this evening and was thinking about the creams and moisturizers that I use to help keep my skin clean and healthy. And I was also thinking about the products that I use on occasion that claim to help me keep my skin looking younger.

Then I thought, 'What's wrong with aging?!' Yes, I am aging! I'm not young anymore, although I'm not really, really old yet either. But why do I really care to look younger when I'm not?! So here's my answer, I want to look young because I'm told that I SHOULD want to look young, but the reality is that I'm not.

And somehow I've learned somewhere that it's not really okay to grow older then the age of 29. Why is it not really that okay to age? Does aging, growing old, and wrinkling mean that I'm getting less attractive? Apparently it does to me. Here I am, an aging woman, believing that younger is better and older is to be covered up with creams.

 Poor me, things can only go downhill from here! : (  I'm only going to get older. All those products that claim that they'll make me look younger, are just going to keep adding up because I'll need more and more of them to hold back the years!

Here I am with this problem. I'm stuck aging, but I don't want to feel bad about it. I guess I'll have to think differently about my own aging process. So here's my solution to my problem; with aging comes wrinkles, greying, etc. but so too does WISDOM! From now on I'm going to say to myself as many times as it takes, 'Aging is beautiful!!!'

Now that I'm wise...tee hee....I've realized it's better to be happy than being younger, slimmer, or richer. Happiness is the key to living a fulfilled life.

I'm going to start taking my power back baby!

Darkstar Woman

Mermaids do not exist

I got this from a friend....too funny!

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?! "


Click here to find out more about this model.   


Ciao, Darkstar Woman ; )

Staying on Track

There are so many ways that life, if you let it can throw you off track. The trick is to try to stay on track as often as you can while dealing with life and it's whims. Not to say that failing off track isn't okay and sometimes even necessary.

Sometimes falling off track can help us re-evaluate the direction we're heading in. I feel I've fallen off track enough times to know exactly what direction I need to be heading in. lol  I think I'm in a place where I just have to keep reminding myself that I have chosen the path that I'm on, and that I just need to have the confidence to keep going.

I was thinking about perception last night, well actually my perception. My perception of the world; and I was wondering if in a certain way it has limited me? Now that I'm getting older, I feel my perception of the world has to a point solidified. I feel I know myself and my beliefs pretty well, but I'm now wondering if even though I feel pretty good about how I see the world, maybe I should open up more and challenge myself to see the world with a different perspective.

Who knows what will happen, maybe I'll learn something new. Maybe I'll become more tolerant and yes less judgmental. Maybe I'll take more risks, and have new adventures. Maybe I'll be able to push myself out of my comfort zone.

After all that being said, I don't think that I'll stray off my path that much, I still believe I truly know what I want. I feel it in my core. But after I open myself up and after I challenge myself, my path might just be slightly more colorful and hopeful much more adventurous. Well I'll try to get back to you on my new adventures. But as for now all I can say is, have a great day!

Darkstar Woman ; )

Here's a link to "Quotes to Live by". We all need a little inspiration sometimes!

How Many Ads Do You See a Day?

So I was taking to this woman yesterday about self-image and society. She said, 'Did you know, that the average person sees approximately 5000 advertisements a day?' I was shocked and in disbelief. I thought how is that possible, 5000 ads?! That didn't seem right, I knew I had to find out the answer so I did a little research and believe it or not she was right.

This woman went on to explain that a great percentage of those ads are directed towards women and their appearance, and that even if we are not intentionally absorbing these ads like reading magazines, or watching t.v, these ads are everywhere you turn and our minds are unintentionally absorbing them. Ads are everywhere, on bus stops, benches, billboards, on our phones, on the internet, on BLOGGER, and so on and so on! It's definitely overwhelming.

It seems like it's almost a little bit like brainwashing, okay a lot like brainwashing! Scary!! Anyone would have a hard time turning their backs on that amount of messages sent their way.

We are being targeted to buy, buy, buy! We are shown that we should have the newest gadgets, the best clothes, the best homes, the best diets, etc. But do all of these material items really make us happier? The ads will just keep on coming, and we will never have enough.

There is this guy named Timothy Leary, he was activist in the 1960's I believe. He told people to think for themselves and question authority. I never really bought into the questioning authority part. Although that may make me sound naive, what I mean is I thought obeying laws and following rules was important. But as I grow older and now that I have a family of my own, I'm starting to see things differently.

As children we are for the majority of our growing up, told what to do and what to think. But as adults I think it's so important to question everything we are taught as children. It's important to know if what you're parents told you about life makes sense in your adult life. Also what you were told by your teachers, religious figures, the media, your peers, and society, does it work for you now? As for myself I feel like I'm waking up, and now I'm asking myself that important question, does this fit for me?? Does seeing 5000 ads a day work for me?? I think not.

Here's a link to an article about the same issue:

So, THINK FOR YOURSELF AND QUESTION AUTHORITY. AND...Have a great day : )

Darkstar Woman