It was my birthday yesterday. I turned 43. If you had asked me a year ago if I am where I thought I would be at 43 I would have said “Hell Yes!” Two healthy kids, a steady job, a cozy home, no serious debt and money being saved monthly into the RRSP! My trajectory on the outside was looking pretty good – and then I listened to my internal voice and went and took a massive pin and burst that bubble with a shocking “POP!”
My kids are still healthy, the home still stands, my “job” is a work in progress (minus the steady paycheck) and I figure I have a while before I need those RRSP’s. I do however, feel ten years younger with an additional 14 hours of sleep a week – so I figure that’s got to count for something. My goal in this 43rdyear of my life is to create a positive energy within myself to enjoy this creative process rather than be destructive in my thinking when things don’t quite go as planned. It’s likely a lot easier said than done but that’s my goal – and now that I’ve said it out loud and written it down – it’s more real.
While the kids are at sleep-away camp (I will save this topic for my next update) we usually head into Montreal for a night or two to celebrate my birthday. It gets us out of the suburbs and our usual spots to enjoy the food, culture, shopping and vibe of the old city. We stayed at one of my favourite hotels, the Nelligan and enjoyed some time on their famous rooftop.
We spent most of Thursday walking the cobblestone streets making our way from one art gallery to the next. Seeing as I am married to an artist, it’s a nice change to see him be inspired by other artists. Like so many professions, you fall into a pattern or lose your creativity and following last years project of painting the top 100 NHL players of all time – Tony was burnt out. Seeing him study the artists brush strokes and mediums was quite interesting and I longed to be able to put some of the pieces in our home (which would never happen- for two reasons – all the art work in our home is Tony’s and second – we could never afford the art we saw)! Art is a wonderful world of self expression with enormous underlying tones about everything from politics to love, family to loneliness, vibrancy to darkness – and my goodness people are creative. I was in awe.
It was also a nice change for Tony who knew that “clothes shopping” was no longer a factor. If you were to ask me the thing I miss most about the morning show (aside from the amazing people & guests that I met every day) I would say my clothing allowance. I miss it like crazy. I had a love /hate relationship with shopping. I felt the pressure to be up-to-date, creative and on trend. I’m not sure if you noticed but, I would make it at least 6 months before repeating a piece. I thrived on the challenge but would also stare blankly at my closet every night stating “I have nothing to wear”. In any case, I did make one purchase…this adorable jean dress – which ended up being a bonus birthday gift!
Tony and I also spent some time just people watching which is my favourite thing to do, while sipping on a beverage on an outdoor patio. I attempted to brainstorm new projects and scheduling responsibilities, I tried to come up with new ideas, but in the end I think I just needed to let go of the pressure I am putting on myself to hit it out of the ballpark right away with work. Hence, I came up with my new outlook of positive thinking only 😊
Speaking of work – there have been some really good discounts offered by Oil Changers through our brand ambassador program and as always I look forward to passing them on. I had some fun with the segment below, and as Julia and I spend more time together and I actually understand all aspects of what Oil Changers does – like flushing out a car!
As always here is the latest “Living Your Life with Lianne Laing” podcast released with Holistic Nutritionist and Lead Educator with Natural Food Pantry Natasha Villeneuve.
Coming up on Thursday will be my conversation with former Canadian and World Cup Freestyle skiing champion Elisa Kurylowitz. Her story is quite fascinating – from her quick rise on the freestyle circuit, to traveling the world representing Canada, and to failing to qualify her Olympic Year. Her life spun into an incredibly dark hole after missing the Olympic Games, from which it took her a few years to dig out. Her story is about wins and losses, losing oneself (especially to food and booze) and having the courage to crawl her way back into a new life with a new outlook. I really enjoyed our chat and her honesty.
It’s another busy week, as I await new details about the Awaken A better You Cruise and a new App I will be partnering with called Playbook. I look forward to sharing those details with you next week 😊
Have a great week everyone,
Lianne xo
