Cats remind us that we need beauty in our lives, and that we need to take time to appreciate that beauty. To me, few things in life are more relaxing than looking at beautiful cat photos, and what better day of the week than Sunday to spend time doing just that.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to a relatively new Facebook page, Come Curl Up With My Cats. Longtime Conscious Cat reader Barbara Crawford created the page to celebrate the four cats in her life. Frank, Tony, Stella and Fusco are all uniquely stunning, and Barbara has a way of capturing their personalities in her photos that, to me, is bordering on magical.Continue Reading

Do you have a vision of where you want to be a year from now? January is a good time to think about your dreams and goals for the year, but there’s a difference between planning and having a vision of where you’d like to be. Planning usually involves concrete steps on how to get to a defined goal. A vision statement answers the question “what would it look like if I achieved all of my goals?”Continue Reading

The “flow” is a much batted about term in self-improvement circles. It is also sometimes referred to as the “zone.” When you’re in the flow, you’re completely absorbed in an activity. Your perception is heightened, you’re feeling a sense of joy, and you’re probably losing all track of time. You feel in tune with who you really are. You’re at peace.

What you experience when you’re in the flow is complete mindfulness.Continue Reading

I’m a firm believer that happiness is a choice.

Everything around us is energy, including our thoughts. We have the power to choose our thoughts – so why not choose thoughts that make us feel good rather than  thoughts that focus on what isn’t working in our lives?Continue Reading

I’ve always used the time between Christmas and New Year’s to reflect back on the year that is about to pass, and to set some intentions for the year to come. The Norwegians actually have a name for this week: “romjula.” “Rom” means ”room” or ”space.” Romjula is the ”space” between jul (Christmas) and nyttår (New Year). To me, there’s something magical about this space between the years. Continue Reading

I believe that we are happiest when we allow ourselves to life a life of passion. I’ve been on a journey of following my bliss for more than two decades now, and I’ve been fortunate that for the past fifteen plus years, I’ve been able to do work I’m passionate about, from working in and eventually managing a veterinary hospital to my current incarnation of writing about and working with cats.Continue Reading

The one thing in life that you can count on is that things change. Some changes are planned, others are unexpected. Over the course of my life, I’ve found that most, if not all changes, have been for the better, even when it sometimes didn’t feel that way while I was going through the inevitable upheaval change brings. But I’m having a hard time looking at one of the most recent changes in my life as something positive. Last month, one of my closest friends moved all the way to the other side of the country. Continue Reading

Our senses are how we connect with the world around us. By seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting, we appreciate life in its fullness as both an individual and a shared experience. Most of us are blessed with five fully functional senses, and it’s difficult to imagine how to get through life without any one of them. But how much time do you spend on a daily basis truly appreciating all of your senses?

I’m pretty sure cats appreciate their ability to smell every moment of every day – because that’s one of the primary ways they experience the world. Continue Reading