I actually felt a bit queasy the morning of the party. I just had to look at the costume I was wearing on Saturday night and my stomach did a little somersault.  Having spent 38 years as a Jehovah´s Witness and never having celebrated Halloween, putting on a costume was out of my comfort zone. However, wearing the costume I had chosen was completely out of my wildest comfort zone.  At the same time, I was so looking forward to actually wearing this outfit, I think some of the butterflies were sheer excitement! 

I was invited to a Mardi Gras party last Saturday night at a fabulous mansion in Puerto Vallarta and consequently an outstanding costume was in order. My good friend and neighbor Marisol, the most amazing social director I could have asked for, helped me out tremendously. Being the neophyte party-goer and Marisol the Olympic gold medalist in this arena, she took me under her wing and got me an outfit that won the sexiest costume at the party! Not only did I get way out of my comfort zone, my attitude was either “go big or stay home”. I went BIG!  It was quite the night.  (You´ll find out how to ”see” what I wore at the end of this newsletter.)   

One of the things that I love about living outside of North America is the active social life I enjoy. I actually have FUN. What a novel concept. It is much easier to work, work, and work some more when it´s rainy, gray and cold outside. Staying at the computer for a few hours longer is easy when everybody else is doing that also.  Just this month, I attended an amazing Valentine´s Day party at the beach, spent a Friday with a group of friends eating and playing at the beach, went out for dinner to watch Flamenco dancers, attended a fabulous fund raiser for the orphanage in Puerto Vallarta, and attended the Mardi Gras party of the year.  

I´ve been invited out frequently for dinner at someone´s home or over for a game of crib or dominoes. We have potlucks, go out for brunch or dinner or explore a new beach. Sometimes a great gabfest just happens around the pool. People have time to play and spend time with friends. It´s one of the biggest perks of living as an expatriate.  

Are you getting enough fun in your life? I bet you you´re not. One of the things I have practiced in my life for years now are play days. What´s a play day? A play day is a day of at least 24 hours where you have no computer, no phones and no talk about work. You just play! You know…have fun. When I lived in Vancouver and was married, my husband and I called them, “mental health weekends”. We would play tourist in our own city and check into a nice hotel, maybe go to the theatre or visit tourist spots that we had never seen. Sometimes we would stay home, buy a couple of bottles of wine, some food we didn´t normally eat, rent movies and have a fun stay-at-home weekend in bed. Phones unplugged of course.  

When I was on my own, I would plan a shopping day with a friend where I just browsed instead of that purposeful type of shopping I normally engaged in. Sometimes I would just curl up with a good novel and spend the day reading, going for a walk, and finish the day having a leisurely bubble bath by candlelight with a glass of wine in hand. mach zehnder modulator 

You need to have fun. Have you noticed that you get all grumpy and out-of-sorts when you don´t take any time off? It´s not healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually or financially. You will actually feel better in all areas of your life and I bet you would make more money IF you would take some time off. I know. That one may be hard to believe if you are an entrepreneur, but taking a break from your business may be the best gift you can give yourself and your business.  

If you are thinking that it is just too much WORK to plan to have FUN, then you are really in trouble! And if you can´t even think of something that is fun, please take this newsletter on fun very, very seriously! At a deep spiritual level, joy is the most critical component to our life. I would have thought it was love before I understood this better.  You and I both know that we can feel love for someone and still be angry, sad or even depressed. You can be in love and still experience worry, anxiety and fear.  You can´t do that with joy. Joy moves in, boots out those negative emotions and takes charge with an all-encompassing heart-felt feeling that is music to your soul.  Part of that critically important emotion of joy is fun.  

So you may be out of practice. You may need to work at having fun in the beginning.  I know that I did. Fun hadn´t been in my diet for a long, long time, if ever.  It felt weird to have fun. I felt guilty about not working and playing.  I found myself negotiating my fun time with thoughts such as:  ”I can play today but tomorrow I will have to work twice as hard”.  Perhaps you can relate? 

FUN is now one of my top values.  I realize how important it is to my overall health and well-being.  I get how critical it is to the success of my business. When I am laying on my deathbed, it will be the fun times I remember, the memories with friends and loved ones, the laughs, the good stories, the explorations and adventures I remember, not how many social networking sites I joined or how many teleclasses I taught.   So let´s get more fun into your life.   

1. Choose something that is fun for you. Don´t worry - nobody needs to know what it is except for you.
2. Pick a time and date to do that fun thing.  Make it sooner rather than later.
3. Repeat the process. мебели сливен

Pretty simple, yes? When my friend Brenda was here in Mexico visiting me for two weeks, we played Yahtzee and crib for hours! We howled as we rolled those dice on the patio table as if a million dollars depended on whether or not we got a full house or a large straight.  We high-fived each other when we got a Yahtzee and shrieked with disgust when we rolled rotten dice.  Anybody listening in would have thought we were on drugs.  On occasion we had a beer or a Margarita in hand, but this was pure unadulterated fun, laughter and joy.  We had a blast. Did it cost us a fortune?  Did we need a whole day? Absolutely not!  A deck of cards or a few dice and 30 minutes can be all you need for a fun break.  

Every day that passes without laughter or fun is a loss. A loss to you personally and a loss to the vibrational healing of this planet. With so much depression happening, suicides skyrocketing, worry, fear and anger being the most predominant emotions, we need to up the joy vibration dramatically.  There is so much negative to offset. Can you do your part? You´ll feel better if you do.  You´ll smile more.  You´ll have more energy.  Your soul will feel inspired again.  

You can start having some fun by visiting my brand new blog at www.janjanzendaily.com and seeing THE outfit that won the sexiest costume at the party on Saturday night.  Watch the 90 second video.  Have a good chuckle on me. Subscribe to the blog as I will be helping people create a life through short daily posts to this blog.  

Go have the most FUN month yet!  

To Your Outrageous Success!

Jan

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