“There’s this youth culture that is really, really powerful and really, really strong, but what it does is it really discards people once they reach a certain age. I actually think that people are so powerful and interesting – women, especially – when they reach my age. We’ve got so much to say, but popular culture is so reductive that we just talk about whether we’ve got wrinkles, or whether we’ve put on weight or lost weight, or whether we’ve changed our hair style. I just find that so shallow.”–Annie Lennox, who turned 60 on Christmas Day 2014

I have always loved Annie Lennox for her bold and vibrant voice and her very nature as expressed through her artistry, her music, and her very self-expression.

As we approach the coming of a new year consider the following ideas:

1. You have but one life to live and that is your own.

2. If you live according to popular media/culture you are cheating yourself of full self-expression.

3. To break free of our earliest programming “to conform to keep the peace” takes effort and courage and is fueled by self-love and self-compassion.

4. Any day that it strikes you “it is time” to make a change in how you live life and express your “Self” is a great day to start the journey.

May 2015 be the year you say yes to getting to know yourself from the inside/out and celebrate that you are “first and foremost a person” who is always a beautiful being. ~Deborah Drake for HySoS

And here is a gentle way to begin: http://bit.ly/guidedjournal