-Do you believe in ghosts? – she asks me.

-No, – I answer.

-Why not?

-Because I have never seen one.

Then, a few days later, it’s my turn to ask.

-Do you believe in affirmations? – I write.

-No, – comes his reply. – But I know many people do.

What’s true for one of us is not necessarily true for others. I have met plenty of people who believe in ghosts because they have seen them or felt their presence. Or they have relatives and friends who did.

I also know plenty of people that believe in affirmations and visualizations.

I don’t.

But maybe, just maybe…

I’m not gonna tell you a story how something happened and it miraculously changed my life. No. I’m gonna share my train of thoughts with you. Which, of course, doesn’t need to be true to you.

It started with the book… How else?! (I know, right?). I found it in one of the book-sharing boxes.

Both I and my daughter often check them out and we’ve found many interesting reads there. And we have given a few of the books away, for others to find.

My daughter is not very picky when it comes to books – the more pictures, the better.

I am as picky with my books as I’m with my ice cream – I will only consider a book if it’s in English (don’t ask, I can dedicate an entire post to this).

This particular book claimed (from a quick glance at its title) that any one of us can change our lives for the better – all before 8 am! Ok… It seems hard to believe, of course, and, together with my girl, we laughed at the improbability of it. But I did take the book home as I had nothing better to read at that moment. The fact that I, who loves to sleep in (on weekends especially), considered reading a book that talked about getting up earlier than I already had to, seemed utterly ridiculous. My daughter knows (and tells whoever will listen) that her mama loves to sleep.

Maybe there is no surprise then that it took me a few weeks to pick up the book from the shelf where it had landed on the day I took it home. It’s just been sitting there, and I have not been reading anything at all. In all honestly, the title (before 8 am, let me remind you!) was putting me off from reading the first page.

But then I did… And I felt even more sceptical about the whole thing! Why? Because every other sentence was a claim that this book would change my life. I rolled my eyes till they started hurting. ‘If you do this… your life will be transformed. If you do this… you will achieve your full potential. Anybody can do it!’ I was tired from the fake advertising. Where is the proof? How can this guy even make such claims?

However, I persevered. Come page 59 ‘A is for Affirmations’. That’s where the things started to get interesting. I was reading a description of what it is exactly and how to create it, how affirmations work, when I suddenly realised that is something I want to do. I don’t know whether an affirmation does all it claims to do (and it claims a lot), but if it helps me achieve some things that I want to achieve in life, why not try? Why not just do it?

I have wished for many things in my life (you remember, in no particular order: a convenient life, a happy relationship, a lovely home, a warm warm weather and blue blue ocean just steps away from my door…) but I never really did much about it. I talked and talked that I wanted something. Talk was all I did.

Reading about affirmations made me understand that it’s not just another thing to say. An affirmation carries your goal and the commitment to take actual steps to achieving it. And if doing this gets me what I want (not just by saying but by turning my actions to the right direction), I want to try. If adding this small step to my daily life can bring positive changes, I can’t ignore it.

Affirmations is one of the few steps described in the book. They support each other and work as a system. So bear with me till I finish reading it all. ‘Before 8 am’ does not sound so silly anymore, but it still holds me back a little.

And let me tell you something else… For some time now I’ve been dreaming and I wishing to find an activity that would satisfy my desire to do good and would not require sitting in front of the computer for the whole day. I longed to do something that would involve creativity, writing (already one of my great passions) and would give pleasure to me and those around me. Something that would simply create a good feeling and be gentle to the body and soul.

It took me a while, but I’ve figured it out. A facial massage, a slow ritual ticked all the boxes for me. I studied it, I practiced it and now I do it. Sure, it’s just the very beginning, and I was uncertain and kind of afraid to take those first steps. But I did it. And after that things just started unrolling, and I created Beyabu.

That brings me to the subject of taking steps with dry feet – literally.

Why? Because I am not ready to buy myself a pair of rain boots (no matter how pretty!).

No kidding.

It’s the principle! And I’m not ready to let go of that one just yet.

If I do get a pair of rain boots for myself, it means I made my peace (not made my life easier, mind you) with this rainy and windy Northern European fall weather. Mark my words, even getting soaked twice in one week, even having my sneakers drip with water is not strong enough motivation to change things and feel OK with this kind of weather.

Maybe, just maybe, one very very cold and very very rainy fall day I will think to myself: why not just do it? And I will ask myself: am I willing to take this step?