Letting go of guilt & shame

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Guilt and shame: I wrote about this topic quite some time ago and I’d like to revisit it again with the hope that the following will inspire you.

Recently, I had an interesting experience, a self-realisation really, where something from the past was literally thrown into my face (and the ‘funny’ thing is: I did this to myself), and it left me feeling embarrassed, upset, and to be honest, quite guilty. Someone else wouldn’t probably even given to this particular thing a second thought, but for me, it wasn’t something I wouldn’t brush aside very easily at that moment.

You see, in the last few months, I’ve been having innumerable personal realisations. I’ve been aligning more and more to the truth of who I really am, but with that, so many things I’d thought I’d let go of or I’d already forgotten about, started, yet again, coming up to the surface (and with them, sometimes feelings of guilt and shame). I often find that the more work we do on ourselves, the more we think we’re finally on the ‘right path’, suddenly something happens, and there we are again, dealing with something that we thought we’ve already ‘healed’ or let go of.

Well, this is the game of life. Even though we are presented with all of these interesting lessons, some not so pleasant to deal with, I believe we should be gentle with ourselves and with our unique journeys. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but the great news is that we are gaining all these powerful experiences which help us grow and evolve.

Most of us have made some choices in life we may not be proud of. Sometimes we say something or do something, and then we feel disappointed with ourselves. This happens even more often when we are hurt, feeling lost in life or are upset about something. We act and then we regret. We can’t take it back. We may say to ourselves: ‘Goodness, I’m such a fool! Why did I gossip? Why did I do that? Why did I judge? That was so mean! Why did I…….?’ you fill in the blank. But at the same time, we also have a choice how we view our actions. We can either blame ourselves forever, or we can learn from them and move on.

I believe acknowledging the choices we’ve made, owning them and working towards embracing them is a powerful way to begin. After all, we are always learning, our whole life, so I’d like to invite you to relax into this knowledge and stop being so hard on yourself.

So now, let’s go back to the story mentioned at the beginning…

Later on that day, I opened up about the guilt I felt to my boyfriend. He reminded me of something very important and it was profound. He said: ‘You’ve made a mistake, but deep down, you know who you truly are and that’s all that matters.’ And he was absolutely right.

So, after worrying for some time, I decided to look at that whole past situation from a different angle, and this brought calm to my mind and peace to my soul. I felt more at ease and began to let go of the unpleasant emotions I was feeling.

After all, our mistakes or whatever we may feel guilty or embarrassed about, are only lessons. And we are allowed to make mistakes. We are allowed to change our minds about something or someone. We are allowed to let go of the old, even though it may feel painful for us and others. We are allowed to get fed up with the way I’ve been, start again, and strive to become the person we truly want to be. We need to be first true to ourselves, so we can bring that version of ourselves to the world too. And if we fail to do that, if we slip, we can try again and again.

Simply Grateful…

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Words cannot always fully describe how grateful I am for all the amazing people in my life. But I’m going to try to find the right ones and express my gratitude for all these wonderful human beings in this post:

Some of you I know personally, some only through the internet, but I’d like you to know I appreciate you immensely.

I appreciate your presence. I appreciate your kindness. I appreciate your loving gestures. I appreciate your help. I am grateful for your love. I am grateful for being there for me when I needed you most. I am grateful for your friendships. I am grateful for your loving words. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your support (especially in the last few months, which have been incredibly hard). Thank you for your graciousness. Thank you for being you!

You know who you are and I just want to express my heartfelt thanks for being in my life. I’m very, very grateful for you.

With love,

Jana x 

Empowering Affirmations for Self-Esteem & Confidence

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Today, I’d like to share with you a short recording. It’s an affirmations video I put together along with some background inspirational music.

If you have been following my work for a while, you may know that I absolutely love using positive, empowering affirmations. And it’s for one simple reason: They make people feel good. They are a very useful tool to activate the law of attraction and create what we’d like to see in our lives.

I first learned about positive affirmations over a decade ago from a wonderful transformational teacher, Louise Hay, when I read her book, You Can Heal Your Life, which I highly recommend to everyone. Since then, I began incorporating positive affirmations into my own life, and I started noticing many positive changes and also manifesting great things.

The video I’m sharing with you today is focused on increasing self-esteem and confidence. It’s not long, just over 4 minutes. You can listen to it in the background while you are getting ready for work, washing dishes etc. It’s been created to make you feel good. I hope you’ll find it beneficial and will enjoy it 🙂

You can access the recording at the link below.

With love and best wishes, 

Jana x 

Having confidence in yourself & in your creative work

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A few days ago I came across a powerful quote. It’s by Christina Grimmie: “Confidence is not ‘they will like me’. Confidence is ‘I’ll be fine if they don’t’.” It certainly is true that not everyone will like us, no matter what we do or how much time and energy we put into wanting to be liked. And this also applies to our work/our creativity. Not everyone will like it. But this should not discourage us to stop being true to ourselves when it comes to our work and beyond. A bad comment or somebody’s different opinion about something is not the end of the world, and honestly, it has nothing to do with you. Some people will love you and your work, some people will not.

And I know this can be disappointing. You are the only one who knows how much time and effort you’ve put into working on yourself and also how much time and effort you’ve put into your work. Only you know how much love and energy you’ve put into something you really care about, and somebody just comes long and simply criticises it, leaves an unnecessary comment or says it’s not good enough. The truth is: This isn’t about you. It’s merely somebody else’s perception of you/your work. And that’s fine.

We all have a different perception of the world we live in, the people we meet, the things we like and dislike. What’s important is to stay true to ourselves and to keep doing what fulfils us, what makes us happy. So, instead of worrying what others think about you, seeking approval, etc., I’d like to encourage you today to start building such a confidence within yourself, that the outside perception of you or your work will bother you less and less. Let’s start learning how to believe in ourselves and our work, that we won’t need any approval. We will simply know that our work is good enough, and if somebody doesn’t like it, oh well, it’s just their opinion that doesn’t need to stay on our minds for too long.

So, let’s begin today to start building this wonderful confidence in ourselves, like the above quote says, and start learning to be okay with whatever people think.

To assist you in this process, I’ve created a meditation I call: You Have Always Been Enough. I believe to be confident starts with self-love and knowing that you are enough. I hope this meditation will be helpful to you. You can listen to it at the link below.

With love and best wishes, 

Jana x 

Courageously Vulnerable is out today!

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Dear all, 

Today is the day, when my brand new book, Courageously Vulnerable – a path to loving and accepting your ‘imperfect’ self, is officially out and I can’t wait for you to read it.

On this special day, Id’ like to share with you a short video, where I’m reading the Introduction of the book. You can check out the video at the link below.

If you’ve pre-ordered the book, you should get it through the post shortly. I hope you’ll enjoy it and it will serve you in a great way 🙂

If you haven’t pre-ordered the book and you would like to, it is available worldwide, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Kobo, Booktopia and wherever books are sold.

Happy reading, my friend!

With love and best wishes,

Jana x

My gift to you!

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Dear all,

It’s just a couple days before my brand new book, ‘Courageously Vulnerable – a path to loving and accepting your ‘imperfect’ self’, officially comes out on 22nd August 2021. As an early celebration, I’d like to share with you, my new meditation, ‘You Have Always Been Enough’, which is also included in the book.

I absolutely loved writing and recording this meditation for you. I hope it will serve you in a great way and help you realise how special, worthy and good enough you truly are. I also created a gentle background music for this meditation which sets a peaceful atmosphere and helps you relax when you listen to it.

So, sit back, relax and let my voice be your guide.

I hope you enjoy it!

With best wishes,

Jana x

‘Courageously Vulnerable’ is coming out soon

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Dear all,

I hope you are keeping well.

In just a few days, my brand new book, Courageously Vulnerable – a path to loving and accepting your ‘imperfect’ self, will be out, and I cannot wait for you to read it.

We are not having a traditional book launch party, as we did when my first book, Mystic Butterfly, came out. However, I will be sharing with you a non-traditional book launch video, which will be sent to your inbox on the launch day, if you are a Mystic Butterfly subscriber. The video will also be published on my YouTube channel. In this video I will read you the book Introduction and also give you some more information about the book. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

‘Courageously Vulnerable’ is officially coming out 22nd August 2021 and it’s available for a pre-order now on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Kobo and everywhere books are sold.

The book is available in Hardback, Paperback and E-book formats.

I’m so excited that the book is coming your way in just a few days time and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

With love and best wishes, 

Jana x 

Morning Affirmations (1 minute)

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Dear all,

Today, I’d like to share with you a 1-minute Morning Affirmations video.

I find these particular affirmations very powerful, so I’ve decided to put them together, with the background sound of the Atlantic Ocean’s waves, I recorded while in Rio de Janeiro a couple of years ago.

You can listen to these affirmations while you are getting ready for work in the morning, brushing your teeth or having breakfast. The video is only 1-minute long, so even if you are very busy, I believe you can easily implement it into your life, if you like.

Ready to give it a try? Check out the video at the link below.

I hope they will help you to set the tone for the day ahead on a positive note 🙂

Enjoy ?
Jana x

I’ve got some exciting news I’d like to share with you

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Dear all,

I’m so excited to share with you some wonderful news today.

My brand new book, ‘Courageously Vulnerable’, is finally coming out and I cannot wait for you to read it.

I put my heart and soul to it and I hope you will enjoy it.

My hope and my intention for every single reader is:

  • To bring you hope, in the moments of hopelessness
  • To shine light upon your life, if you are going through darkness
  • To bring inspiration/motivation into your life, if you’ve lost it
  • To start seeing your story from a different perspective, if you are going through challenges or struggling

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to these three wonderful women: My dear sister, Maria Lezova, an amazing artist, who created gorgeous cover artwork for the book. My wonderful editor, Ellie Stevenson, for doing a great job editing the manuscript. My graphic designer, lovely Jane Dixon Smith, for an amazing cover and interior design. I always love collaborating with all of you.

‘Courageously Vulnerable’ is coming out 22nd August 2021 and it’s available for a pre-order now on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, Kobo and everywhere books are sold. The book is available in Hardback, Paperback and E-book formats.

I hope it will inspire you.

With love, 
Jana x