Teeth and wisdom. Is there any connection? If you asked me this question few years ago I would have laughed. It was very clear to me there is no connection at all. there are teeth and there’s wisdom. Two different things.

Teeth

Our teeth start to grow when we’re babies. It’s usually painful and we cry, but we don’t remember this pain when we grow up and see other babies teething. At school, the primary teeth fall out and permanent teeth come instead. Usually the tooth fairy used to come at night, so we were very excited to pull our teeth out.

But, things in life change very quickly…

Recently, two of my wisdom teeth decided it’s their show time. They put up the whole show, with red and swollen face, swollen gums, they hurt my jaws, I couldn’t chew properly. No fun at all. The last time it happened – was very long time ago and I thought I would get away with it. Unfortunately  I was wrong. I knew I would eventually need to extract them, but until now they were harmless.

It all started in one day… I don’t really understand it, but maybe because my 35th birthday is getting closer? or maybe, only maybe I’ve become smarter this year?
Well, I can say that I am smarter than what I was before in many ways.

Wisdom

God was very generous and gave me the gift of learning. I am a quick learner, I learn my lessons from whoever comes near me, friends’ experience, stories, my own past experience, even from my kids. I actually learn every single day. Because I learn so much, I try to teach whoever wants to learn – whatever I have learned.

In the last couple of years I’ve learned what it feels like to be happy, to feel like a real family, to live the life exactly like I wanted to live it, to experience new places and to teach my kids skills I learned myself. Now that I  have the life proof that I am much smarter, the wisdom teeth can be extracted. Although it  just a reminder from life, I can now say that I am older and smarter.

Everybody needs a quiet time. So do I.

Desperately.

And if I won’t get it… I’ll take it 🙂

On weekdays we are too busy with checking our emails, catching up on Facebook, updating Twitter, taking photos for Instagram, or just watching Master Chef or The Voice on TV. It became too much.

That’s why we decided to take a quiet time for one whole day.

It happens every week, one full day with no distraction from technology. The day is Saturday.

On this special day no one is allowed to use any electricity or electric machines like computer / phone / TV. The outcome of it is that the spotlight is on us, our family, and our kids. We site around the table to eat and after that we just talk, play, read and enjoy each other’s company. It is so nice to listen to the kids talking about their week, what they learned and what special art and craft they made at school. It’s literally quality time.

This Saturday, winter came to visit Melbourne. It was raining, so we stayed at home, playing, making a jigsaw puzzle, reading a book and laughing, cuddling, playing around with piggyback’s walk, watching snails on the window.
It was a great day, fun day, just us, with no distraction at all.

It was very special.

Now let’s think what will be happening to the same day when you use technology:

Dad will be working on the computer for the rest of the day, the kids will fight over another computer, or the TV, everybody will scream or cry, nobody will be talking, or doing meaningful things. Only ignoring each other.  So the outcome would have been another ‘busy’ day, instead of quality time / family time.

So every Saturday I am so happy we chose right!

That’s the way the kids feel they really matter.

It might even teach them a lesson for life!

Family comes first.

Normally we are very busy on a daily basis; we don’t have time to think through our happiness. We are too floating on the sea of life. Going to work, back from work, picking up the kids, preparing dinner, helping with homework, cleaning, taking care of laundry, making lunch boxes for the next day, ironing and many more.

Usually we don’t have time to stop and think. it’s a bit sad. Is that what we really want? where is the fun in life? do we really want our kids to learn these habits from us and do the same when they get older?

I don’t think so. That’s why we need to learn (and teach our kids) to live the happiness even in those crazy times. Enjoy the joy of life.

Last week we had a photo-shoot. It was fun, we had to smile until our faces hurt. When I saw the photos, it hit me like lightning – my kids are growing too fast now, and these moments we share will only live in our memories, but not enough for everybody to see or know about them. We need to share this happiness with the whole world. Each one of us should find their own happiness moments in their busy life.

We need:

1.  To add laughter to our spirit and use it. Being silly works for me and for my kids. Instead of being angry at them, I’m being silly.
2.  Smile/hug more. Our kids are getting bigger everyday. We don’t see it but it happens. In a hug or a smile we say much more than words can say. Soon they won’t be willing to get these great gestures because they are get bigger/older.
3. Say you love. Sometimes we are too busy to say I love you. So I found funny ways to do it: one day, my daughter forgot her lunch box. It can happen. But I had few spare minutes so I decided to bring her lunch box from home. I sneaked into the classes’ corridor and put it in her bag with a note: “You forgot your lunch on the table… I brought it to you rather than letting you learn a lesson only because I love you.”You can find occasions to say you love; this way your kids will learn to give more love to the world as well.
4.  Tickling helps – to raise every spirit. Even after a crazy day at work.
5.  Identify peaceful moments and cherish them – each family will find their own special moments to cherish with or without a camera. Good memories will stay forever.
6. Talk more. flatter. Give positive energy – your family needs that. after a while, you will notice they are being more positive and flattering as well.
7. Try to hold yourself – When you feel like you are going to lose it, swap the scream or anger with a song or a laugh – my kids understand that I am very angry like that without even saying, but the message is delivered much more efficiently.
8. Enjoy the moment itself – like sitting and watching a movie together. Just enjoy each other’s company. Enjoy the moment.
9. Go for a picnic or a day trip – quality time makes a good outing as a family. Stories are told and songs are sang. Together.
10. Enjoy indoor activity. Even cleaning can be fun with a bit of music and dancing.

That’s how we want to raise our kids – with happiness and good memories, not with stress / fear / anger.

Happiness is within us. Enjoy every minute of it.

As part of being in a new country you get to learn lots of things, about:

• Yourself – things you never thought you’ll learn about yourself
• Community – your new community and yourself as part of a community
• Family – the loving family you’ve left behind
• Relationships – has to do with all of the above and more

You also get to learn a lot about culture and finally, most important, about  the weather.

Let’s start from the end. From my point of view the most noticeable change – the weather. Melbourne weather is very unique. And very diverse.

It’s changing every day AND every hour, which means you need to be prepared for it. In the mornings it can be freezing cold (even in summer); at noon it can change to very hot and sunny weather; on the late afternoon it can be raining (even in summer) and at night, a  thunderstorm might appear out of the blue.

Crazy, I know. Did I mention it’s diverse?!

That’s why I love it. It’s unique, different. Exactly like culture!

It’s so much unlike the Mediterranean weather, where you get 3 months of unbearable humidity with nonstop sun and heat.

Here in Melbourne you get everything all at once. In the same day!

I love diversity, it makes you feel there is room for everybody, or even for every kind of weather; you can see people wearing thongs with raincoat and shorts, holding an umbrella. At the beginning it looks weird, but once you realize you always need to be prepared – that’s what you will be doing. Always wear short sleeves, long jumper in your hand bag, and always carry raincoat and umbrella in your car. That’s a MUST.

I can compare the weather to the culture in Melbourne: lots of different immigrants, cultures, foods and smells. You can find Asians, Hindi, Greeks, Italians, Russians, Lebanese Israelis and many more. I have never saw so much cultural diversity in one country as I saw in Melbourne.

When you travel to Europe, most of the people look the same and sound the same – Europeans. But here you can find so many cultures mixed up and it’s so beautiful to see there is room for everybody and there is respect for every culture.
Each culture has a community –  usually they live around each other, and the shops and restaurants will be more cultural at these areas. It means they are united by their culture, history and community (sometimes by religion as well). From their community you can learn about their relationships and the connections to their family and the individual. These things teach you a lot about the way they are living. Connection with family is different here, because some people have no family in Australia, but some do. If you don’t have family – you will find few families that you can relate to, usually from the same cultural background, and make them your family.

You get to learn a lot about yourself by facing  new obstacles in your new life; but by leveraging your supportive surroundings (family / connections / relationships / community) you can overcome any obstacle – because by their support you are empowering yourself and your family. That what moves you forward and encourages you to overcome any obstacle. Sometimes a simple question like “how are you?” can really mean a lot. A hug or a kiss will make a total difference.

In a very diverse country you’ll have very diverse friends – that’s the beauty of cultural mixture of Aussies, Canadians, Americans, South-Africans, Israelis, Russians and more. And while sitting around the table together, you’ll talk about the most common theme: Melbourne weather.

I think that summarizes it all.

As a child you go to primary school, you are OK with it, but everybody says it is fun. Then you go to high school and you hate it, it’s harder for you, but everybody says it’s still fun and you are confused. By the time you start university you realize it’s much harder than school but you are willing to handle it. Then you add a twist to it, a job, and you feel life is a bit hard now. You miss high school…

You are getting older and smarter, you get married and have kids and then you realize this is the beginning of real life school.

At this school you’ll get to learn SO much in a very short time. As a parent, you’ll learn about new feelings you never felt before. Thinks like:

• What real love is? you thought you love your partner… but there’s something stronger now, it’s being a parent. A tiny creature that came out of you and makes you feel so different.
• What being loved means – endless cuddles and wet kisses all over.
• Attention – who needs it and why, or how to give it. You’ll learn through screaming and crying.
• Support – when to give it and how to help instead of doing it yourself. Sometimes it’s easier to do everything yourself _but_ you want to teach your little treasure a lesson.
• Being happy (mixed with exhaustion) – sleepless nights and days that your eyes just can’t stay open, and then you get an amazing smile or a cuddle and you just melt down with happiness.

Deep in your heart you are so sorry nobody told you life could change like that. It’s not that it matters, but you’d better be knowing and mentally prepared.

Later in life you’ll have more lessons like:

• How to get your kids attention,  competing with the computer or the TV.
• What does it mean to invest time to push your kids education – lots of homework, reading etc.
• Invest your money in hobbies and after school activities.
• Teach your kids what family actually means to you.

In fact you are learning new things every day, sometimes it’s about yourself too but sometimes it’s about your kids, your family or even facts you never knew before.

Life is a learning game.

On each step you take, you’ll learn something.

You also get some very high level circus skills later on, like:

1. Juggling between household, work, after school activities and more.
2. Magic tricks like “mysteriously” hiding the laundry or wish to hide yourself.
3. Acrobatics can be helpful – jumping around the living room trying to catch spiders.
4. Singing and dancing while preparing dinner (if you are very talented you’ll be able to throw some omelet in the air and catch it –  I am working on that 🙂 )

Well, as long as you are happy to learn new tricks and things about yourself, your family and your kids – you’ll be able to keep up and be ready for it in real life!

For those who aren’t in that stage yet, I hope this information will give you idea for your upcoming life. And for those who passed this stage – hope you can relate to this.

Anyway, be optimistic and keep smiling , all the rest will come later.

Until I got married, I was always underweight. Yes,  don’t laugh… there is such a thing. My weight was 45 kg. For ages. And I was eating like there’s no tomorrow.

Loved to eat packets of chocolate any time.

Once I got married, I was happy to put up a bit of weight, just to be average weight. We were eating out very often, but everything changed when I got pregnant.

I put up 15 kg , as a pregnant woman “I was allowed”, you know… “I need to eat for two people” (don’t believe that). It didn’t bother me to put on these 15 kg. I was too busy with my baby.

Time goes by and after 2.5 years, I was pregnant again, more weight joined to that (another 15 kg). All together was 30 kg more. Yup. Hard to understand what’s happening to your brain and body in sleepless nights. But that was a fact. I had 30 kg more. OMG.

A year after I had my second baby, I realized my mindset was that of a I was thinking like fat.

I was so tired – this baby couldn’t even get a 20 minutes sleep. So I was eating instead of sleeping… all of my days were around food – what to eat next? what to make for dinner? sugar and chocolate were my BEST friends. All of a sudden I was the one who was boiling hot all the time instead of being the one who always feels cold. I felt heavy.

But I never felt bad with myself, because I never looked in the mirror (having a new baby that barely sleeps – not during the days and not during the nights – what do you expect?)

Until I looked at old photos and looked in the mirror to compare my old me to my new me.I was shocked.

I’ve been sent to dietitian because of sugar levels in my blood test. She gave me a new menu: cottage cheese and vegetables all day It wasn’t enough for me, so I decided to go for the low carb. You might have heard about Atkins. (More details about this one are found on my eBook.)

I was fighting overweight for the first time in my life.

I did it only because my life was in danger. The doctor told me I will be diabetic for the rest of my life unless… I will lose weight. I started to live on salads and no bread, and I lost all the weight. 30 kg. Without doing any sports (not really recommend to do it this way – but that’s what I actually did).

I decided that from now on I will live a healthier life.

• Less bread
• More fruits
• More vegetables
• Smoothies
• Less coffee
• No dairy milk (almond milk or soy milk only)
• And some sports with it.

From that point, my life has changed. Because I decided to be healthier. No matter how fat you are, it’s all in your head. You can decide to change it. #OnlyYOUCanChange

I teach my kids the advantages of a healthy life by eating healthier , making their favorite smoothie together everyday and being active.

It’s not that I am skinny or fat, but I feel good with myself. And the most important thing: it became a habit. Salad is a MUST dish.  “No salad – No dessert” 😉

It’s not that I became a saint, sometimes I fall, but as long as I keep the habit we are still on!

Can I tell you a secret? I know that sometimes we are desperate for some chocolate – I know I am. Don’t be desperate until you get your piece of heaven. Eat one piece of dark chocolate with your afternoon coffee every day and your mind will be peaceful knowing you are going to get your treat soon. It also prevents some heart problems, and more.

And the most important thing is I am happier!!!

If you are still struggling with your weight, let me help. Download the My Eating Habits  file, which will help you monitor your eating habits.

• Print it
• Put it up on your fridge
• Write down everything you eat and drink.

After a few weeks you’ll be able to track your habits – the food you eat more, or the drinks that might be a problem.

Only by monitoring everything that comes into your mouth, you’ll be able to be mindfulness about your habits, and you’ll be able to change things that you need to or want to change.

You can do it, I know you can!

Please share your thoughts and comment.

For all my life I was living around my family. But we decided to go to the end of the world, far away ,and living on our own, only because we had to go for our own adventure, as part of that is that you physically leave everybody behind and start carry them in your heart all the time and use what’s up and Skype for communicating in every opportunity.

I know it might sound bad, but it’s not.  Most of the time you manage to live with it very well, we got used sending photos nearly every day or even every hour, for special food we make or eat and special occasions.

But sometimes you miss them a lot.

Some holidays are a “Family” holidays, the whole family sits around the table and enjoys each other’s company. For the last 2.5 years we don’t have it. We even invented a joke about we need “family for lease” just for the holiday.

Don’t get me wrong, we are not having these holidays by ourselves in the darkness – we are having our “new family” to join us. Most of them are friends that doesn’t have their family around as well,  and they are happy to share the family feeling all together.

But we still sometimes miss our family in those big and long holidays.

Today I received a parcel from my family. I almost hugged the post guy , he was shocked. These are the things that makes you happy when you live so far from your family, because whatever is in the box its a reminder from your family who wanted to make you feel loved and happy with an unwritten message “we miss you”. Sometimes it comes with our favorite cookies, or new pajamas, games, books. It doesn’t really matter what’s in there, what matters is who is the sender ,what was his purpose and what’s the outcome of it.

The answer is: the longing family who sends her love and the outcome is Happiness.

Love you and miss you very much!!!

Liron

Everybody just  loves to feel belong. Some people needs to have a family to feel belong, others needs friends. Each one of us has its own belonging feeling that will connect you to others in the same situation,  that’s part of belonging.

I feel belong when I feel Girl power. I can’t explain why, but that’s what makes me feel good with myself. As a woman, a business owner , author and a  mum we need always to take care of others, and look perfect, the house needs to look clean and neat, food needs to be in the fridge, the kids need to be perfect and all that is under my responsibility. but who takes care of us? – Usually our girlfriends, they will always tell the truth, help if we are stuck and reach out when we need,  so whenever I have spare time, even for half an hour I will sit for a coffee with one of my girlfriends to get and give some GIRL POWER. It’s so important to empower each other in order be able to carry on with our lives even if the house is a mess and nobody took care of the washing. we all need to look for ourselves-because nobody will do it for us.

We do need more strong women out there, we will make it only if we will empower and support each other. We try really hard to make everybody happy, but what about us? So if we are supporting our girlfriends We actually supporting ourselves.

If women ran the world we wouldn’t have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days. Robin Williams

GO GIRLS!

Have a look at these amazing women and get some inspiration click here

Let’s define Anxiety: distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. When we are children we mainly absorb from everywhere – our family/friends and our school. After we are getting older we externalize more of what was sitting in our subconscious. So we act the way we have been taught or saw in our past.  We are reflecting our surroundings.

As  part from being an adult and an immigrant, I bring with me all sorts of issues, some of them with myself but some of the regarding my surroundings , more like external. I came from a middle east country that fight for its life, for its economy ,for its security and basically you need to fight for everything. You regularly live in stress, and you are not aware of your anxiety that gets into your brain and veins, without even notice.

Since I was raised in This tiny country that suffered from all sorts of problems I became an adult with the highest anxiety level of all. But once you notice that it comes with you wherever you live and go.Australia is so much different that what you were used to … So you decide to do your efforts and let go a bit, you get to learn how to live with your anxiety in peace (if you could say that..) Or try to control it within yourself.

I’ll tell you a funny story about my first week in Melbourne , it was around Australia day.I went to the library. Huge and amazing library. While browsing the books I heard a noisy sound of an F-16 on top of the library’s roof, it felt like I need to search for shelter… My anxiety level was raising in a second, my heart beat rates were so high, my mouth was dry, I couldn’t breathe, I just wanted to run, scream or both. But then I decided to try and control myself, so I looked around, and every body were so calm, I was asking myself silly questions in my head – Hey Look around, where are you right now!? You are not in danger, everybody’s calm, don’t stress, remember! you are in Melbourne, in the Library! Hello!!!

You are not in the same country you were living in , no need to be stressed about it, it’s just an airplane practicing for the Australia day event. I came home with a stupid smile on my face because I felt so silly about the way I was behaving. Also I was mindfulness of my problems that without any warning they escaped outside. Once you realized that you can control your anxiety by being aware you’ll half way through. But then life will push you to your next challenge.

When I was a little girl I was living in apartment usually (not a townhouse, or a villa) –  I am a city gal 🙂 As a child I had to walk to school, walk to Secondary school – everything was a step away from home.

In Melbourne is my first time living in a townhouse , and it means that sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and hear the animals from outside like the possums on the tree, owls, or even people in the street.

My sleep is very light, it can take me ages to get to my deepest sleep. One night at 3AM I heard people talk outside my windows, saw lights from outside pointing to the inside, they were burglars. At that point I started to feel my heart beat rate rise , I was sweating, I was even shaking, but I was paralyzed. I decided to talk to myself and try to calm down in order to think what to do. I tried to control my heart beats first , through breathing and through motivating myself to think clear. It took me about 2 minutes to do so, but once I was calm – It was much easier to know what I need to do .  I reached out to my phone, and opened it to call the police. Then I heard a police chopper and the lights and the shadows were gone.I was thrilled.

But I was exhausted too,  Although I managed my anxiety it was obvious to me that it’s something that I can control.

Our brain is such a wonderful machine.Each one of us need to know that in order to know his own abilities.  If we will be able to know HOW we can control our brain, we will be able to treat ourselves by thoughts and motivation instead of other options like (pills and other treatments)

Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.

Jack Nicklaus

 

Now let’s practice:

Try to list your anxieties and how you want to act when you feel it is coming. Read this list every night, and at some point your subconscious will be able to act accordingly.

Try to do it yourself, it’s all about practice.

Challenges are part of our journey in life.

If something is challenging you and pushing you the edge, it means that it’s helping you to be who you want to be.

“What doesn’t kill you – makes you stronger”

Basically,  you should be happy and welcome your challenges. Don’t laugh …I know it sounds funny or too easy to say because it’s all about attitude. If you will welcome your challenges in open arms and your mind-set will be ready for battle, you’ll see that each battle you win you become much smarter and you’ll knows better what you are doing and what you should do.Each obstacle we are passing we are learning something from it. That’s why Challenges have the responsibility for our personal growth – without them we won’t be able to try to follow our dreams.  When you are facing a challenge, in order to pass the test you need to do few things:

1. Focus – focus on your goal, get your mind-set on the target, give yourself a deadline to get to your goal.
2. Motivation – find a sentence, a quote or even a song that has the power to motivate yourself towards your goal, that when you say it or sing it you will feel like a super hero, empowered.
3. Positive energy – be positive, even if you are not getting any support from your surrounding. If you will be positive you will change other people’s attitude too, which will make your life a bit easier.
4. Action – do whatever it takes to get things done. Work hard in order to design yourself and pass those challenges, Because these challenges will get you closer to fulfilling your dreams.

Fears

Fears are part of our biggest challenge in life.  You shouldn’t be afraid from these challenges. Face your fears.

Most people won’t live their life the way they really want it – Do you know why? Because they are living constantly their fears. I say,  Be aware of your fears and try to control them, try to be mindfulness of them and act regardless. Knowing they are exist and taking a risk to face your fears will help you in your journey to your happiness. Wants to know how?

I will tell you my motto for life:  Making a big life change is scary. (But so is other things in life) Do you know what is even scarier? Regrets. And regrets are not something you want to live with for the rest of your life.

So you better be strong and try to confront your fears. I have the best example for you: I am afraid of heights, do you think that I am not travelling overseas because of my fears? No way! I am using my super powers to control it, by myself. (I really don’t want to transfer this fear to my kids)  I know my fears and I try to control them every time I am going on an airplane.

“If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.” – Robert H. Schuller

As part of our journey in life  we have to control our fears and face those challenges, bravely. That’s part of who we are. Don’t let go of your dreams only because your are too afraid or it’s too hard.

Let’s exercise:

Every day make a list of your challenges for the day and erase them if you succeeded.

Click here to make your own challenge list:  Challenges for the day.