Find your sparkle

Finding your sparkle is no accident - schedule in regular activities that push your boundaries and remind you how to live!

I just read Taryn Brumfitt’s book Embrace last week. It’s all about the amazing Body Image Movement she started a few years back, and about learning to love your own body – as well as how she learned to love hers. It really is a cracking read full of warmth and wisdom – I highly recommend you grab yourself a copy.

But one thing stood out to me above everything else Taryn talks about in her book, and that is the idea that you should find your sparkle. ‘Sparkle’ can mean many things to many people, but in this instance she is talking about the fact that as mothers, we often get a bit, ah, boring. We’re all about safety and sensibleness and being in charge of all the things that need to be done.

But then Taryn noticed that, when she broke out of that ‘ordinary’ life and did something that thrilled her – staying out dancing with girlfriends until 3am or leaping off a high jetty at the beach – she felt that sparkle reappear inside her. That feeling that makes you feel alive and excited and invincible. Remember that? How long has it been since you felt it?

Taryn also found that reclaiming that sparkle was enough to make her not mind being First Safety Officer and Master of School Lunches the rest of the time, so she resolved to schedule in ‘sparkle’ activities once a month. And as I was reading this, I thought, “YES!” This is me. This is what I need too.

We talk about taking time out every day here at Champagne Cartel (hell, we’re even running a Knotlace giveaway right now if you do – you should totally enter that), but this is another level. This isn’t taking 10 minutes to have a cup of tea under a tree, or meditating before work. This is scheduling in something that makes your soul feel alive!

 

Our simple guide to help you find your sparkle

 

Need some inspiration? Taryn’s first scheduled sparkle activity was a stand-up paddle boarding session with a girlfriend. The excursion happened to accidentally be in dangerously contaminated water, which surely added to the ‘danger’ aspect but I don’t think anyone would recommend this!

I have scheduled in my first sparkle activity: a day at Monster Slide when it comes to Brisbane. We’re talking turning a suburban hilly street into one gigantic water slide! Usually I would hand that activity over to my husband but I’ve decided to throw myself into it. Fun!

Other ideas I have for future sparkle events include:

  • Climb Mt Warning with my husband (again – we did it for his birthday before we had kids, and we’d love to do it again)
  • Try paddle board yoga (but maybe I should try regular paddle boarding first??)
  • Have a deluxe facial
  • Try rock climbing
  • Go on a meditation retreat
  • Take a cooking class in a cuisine I’m not confident in (so, pretty much anything!)

Whatever resonates with you – whatever thrills you and maybe even scares you a little bit – that’s what you should be scheduling in. Push your boundaries, thrill yourself, and make yourself come alive!

Tell us in the comments, what activities would you like to schedule into your ‘sparkle calendar’? And what is stopping you? Big fat extra points if you do them and share with us on Instagram @champagnecartel #champagnemoments

 

If you want to buy Embrace or support Taryn’s Body Image Movement, check out the Body Image Movement website. It’s full of great stuff about loving your body and embracing you in all your brilliantness.

Written By

Carolyn is the editorial director of Champagne Cartel and a freelance writer. In her spare time she is a long-distance runner, peanut butter enthusiast, and single mum to three incredible humans.

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