The Beautiful Gifts of Life

By Jenna Regino

This book contains 75 gifts, or life lessons, Jenna has learned. Each gift comes with an experience to read about and an interactive opportunity. It is Jenna's hope that by interacting with this book, you will be able to find these gifts throughout your own life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798765238547

Book preview

#1 You Can Get Back Up

I fell down. The patch of ice I encountered on my walk took my feet out from under me and left me in a pile of mud. As I sat there in the cold mud, I first laughed at myself and the situation that just happened, and then I got back up and continued on the last 3 miles of my hike, a little dirty but still wildly capable. The thought never occurred to me while I was sitting there to stay in the pile of mud.

Talking about it now makes me question why that would ever be a thought in my mind, and applying it to my life I realize how many times I’ve let myself sit in the mud for too long. I’m here by myself hiking and there was nobody to hold my hand and get me up. I made the decision to stand up out of the mud and continue my walk.

Just a week ago, I was crying in my car. It was one of those messy cries you just have to surrender to, and I was angry with myself for letting it happen. If we get angry at ourselves every time we experience a big emotion or a situation we didn’t plan for, how are we ever going to learn to enjoy life? It doesn’t always have to be so serious and sometimes you just need to sit and laugh about it even if you’re completely alone in a pile of mud on a trail in the woods. While in my car, I let myself get so deep in the mud. I didn’t want to get out. And as I sat in the mud today, I realized sometimes you just don’t have a choice. When things get hard or messy you find a strength within you to pull yourself out of it, no matter what the circumstances may be. You are in total control of your ability to get out of the mud.

I also learned that it’s okay to laugh at yourself sometimes and finish your walk even being covered in mud because there’s nothing else that you can do about it. To sit there and cry about something that you have no control over takes away from the beauty of nature and the enjoyment of the hike itself.

So, as I continue my walk, I’m telling myself that life doesn’t always go as planned, and sometimes you don’t get through the day without a little dirt on your shoes, but no matter what you still get through the day, the hike, or the moment, and that is a beautiful accomplishment.

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It is normal to cave to these emotions as they arise, and it is normal to feel sad when something happens that you weren’t expecting. To feel the emotion and to identify with the emotion are two different things. I could have let myself be sad that my $100 leggings and brand-new sneakers were now smeared with wet mud. It would have been quite easy to do just that. Yes, as any other human would, I stopped and with the biggest eyeroll said to myself, Really? But then I looked around. It was silent and I only had the world around me. I found appreciation for nature’s beauty at that moment. I laughed it off and got back up. I did not take ownership of the emotion and allow it to linger for the entirety of the day, I felt it and continued on.

I think a lot of times we get stuck in the mud and feel that emotions will never leave when they do arise. Through this experience, I learned the art of letting go of emotions, laughing it off and continuing on. You are the only one responsible for picking yourself up when you find yourself in the mud.

You can do it, you can continue on, and you will.

I invite you to write about a time you were stuck in the mud. Did you choose to pull yourself out, or did you allow yourself to remain on the ground? If you realize you stayed in the mud for too long, how can you approach this situation differently if you should face it again?

#2 The Small Moments Of Joy

Get the cold foam and the extra pump of syrup. You know it will make you happier than a plain black coffee. The extra calories are not going to end your life. After all, this cup and what is inside brings you joy, right?

If this small cup of coffee that will take you 20 minutes to drink can make you smile, think about how much happiness can be felt in 24 hours.

Allow yourself to bask in the simplest moments of joy and I promise more good will find its way to you.

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It was 8:01. I was supposed to be at work at 8:00, but instead I was in the Starbucks drive-thru. This is a typical me move if you will. I was contemplating what to get and kept going back and forth between a plain cold brew or a cold brew with two pumps of white mocha and vanilla cream cold foam (delicious by the way). I knew I wanted the more deluxe drink, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right choice.

News flash: If it brings joy into your life, it is the right choice. When you allow for little moments like this to exist in your life, you attract more good. So, get the cold foam and the extra pump of syrup and enjoy every last drop. Thank yourself for doing something to make you smile and pay attention to all the other small moments of joy that will happen for you throughout the day. After all, where your focus goes energy flows.

I invite you to write about something you can do for yourself today that will bring your joy. It can be big or small; there are no rules here and you hold the pen.

#3 Allow A New Day To Be A New Day

Blow out the candle and with the flame let go of the parts of today that weren’t all that pretty.

Tomorrow starts a new day and by allowing yourself to bring the negative from today into tomorrow, you are robbing yourself of the opportunity to experience the joy of a fresh start. If we don’t set down the heaviness of life at the end of each day, the weight will be too much to hold by the end of the week, month, or year. Each day comes with a sunrise and a sunset, take full advantage of that simple fact.

Honor those messy moments you want to forget about and pretend never happened. Those moments are a part of life. You have to learn from them in order to grow. You have to acknowledge them all in order to let them go.

If something happened that stole your peace today, acknowledge it and then blow out your candle.

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A bad day does not equate to a bad life, unless of course you allow it to. Each day brings a new gift, a new chance, and a clean slate. Only the things you allow to exist will exist.

Every day will not be perfect. Some will come with stress, tears, and chaos. These days may feel everlasting in the moment, but the sun will always set at the end of each one. By acknowledging what the day brought and allowing the things that do not serve you to set with the sun, you can fully welcome the possibilities that come with the next sunrise. The possibility of having a better day, being 1% less stressed, 1% happier and the possibility of feeling 1% lighter.

Choosing to let these moments go does not mean you are burying and forgetting them. Each experience exists for a purpose. You have to acknowledge them in their entirety in order to fully let them go. You may not be able to find appreciation for all these moments, but that is not required. Reflect, learn, let go, and wake up to a beautiful new sunrise.

I invite you to write about something it is time to let go of. Something that you are no longer choosing to carry with you into tomorrow.

#4 You Deserve Good

I don’t know when or why I stopped believing I was worthy of good things happening to me. I told myself that lie for so long. I believed it and aligned with it.

There’s always a chance for redemption in life because as soon as I started believing I deserve those good things, they came to me in abundance.

What you think you become, and what you focus on you find.

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No matter what the circumstances are, what you believe ends up making its way into your life before your eyes. This is just as true for a negative mindset as it is for a positive one. If you consistently speak negatively towards yourself and affirm negative thoughts, you will condition your mind to believe those exact thoughts and attract them into your life.

If it is this easy to condition your mind to believe something negative, it has to be just as simple as believing in the good. I had to stop telling myself I did not deserve good things. I was placing a mental and physical blockade in front of the good that was trying to come into my life. I was putting all my energy into keeping up this blockade because of the words I was speaking to myself and the thoughts I encouraged myself to believe.

Once I learned to accept, welcome, and appreciate the good, I realized what a relief it was to let down the blockade. I no longer had to fight the war with myself to keep it up because I changed the words I spoke to myself and began to believe I was deserving of good. The change starts with the person staring back at you in the mirror. You are deserving, you are worthy of good.

I invite you to write about what makes you deserving of good in life. We all are, but we don’t always feel it. Write about something you can look back on and remind yourself of when you are struggling to believe.

#5 Get Honest With Your Vision Board

I was 18 at the time and had just started to figure out what I wanted in my life. As a visual person, the most effective way for me to remind myself of these goals and aspirations was through the use of a vision board. My vision board hung on my wall for years, untouched, but I still peeked at it occasionally.

Upon moving and experiencing many life changes, an important human in my life opened my eyes to see that all the pictures and representations on my vision board no longer served me.

As she said, It is the equivalent of bringing old energies you need to let go of into your new space.

So, I got to making an updated board. Putting this new board together made me realize how much I was trying to be someone I was not on my old one. I tried to become this person that was so far from my truth. Maybe at one point I thought it was my truth, but I was telling myself a story I wasn’t living. That is hard to