Self

Live Your Best Lesbian Life: It's All About Gratitude

Live Your Best Lesbian Life: Love & Gratitude

YourTango: We're laughing, because we need to adpot that practice!
Mary Malia: 
Right! And you know what? You start sleeping better. And it's almost like by creating a habit and pattern of doing that, it becomes easier to be grateful for other things in your life. For little, silly things, like "I love writing with my gel pen. It's my favorite pen, and I love it so much!" If I were to go back to that golden nugget of advice, it's, again, to focus on the little things ... but to make sure they're things you can be grateful for. Stop focusing on the negative stuff. What's wrong is always going to be there, and so is what's right! It's a Tony Robbins statement that I just love. 

YourTango: What have you learned from the summit?
Mary Malia: 
What I learned is that I bit off more than I can chew! I got so excited about all of the women I was meeting and talking to, but it reminded me to keep things focused. At the same time, what I've learned is found through meeting all of these women who have created so much in their careers, like Cindy Edwards who is expanding her program from England to France, and Spain. She said "If you love your job, you'll never go to work." She's creating this amazing event, and here's what's really wonderful: She's trusting herself to create what works in her community. There are so many women just creating amazing things, [like conferences and programs]. They see an opportunity and are just doing it, and it encourages me in what I'm doing in Gay Girl Dating Coach.

It's a long haul to produce what I want, but it's starting to have an impact. Every time I meet other women — and especially through this summit — I remember that you have to be committed, that you have to not quit. You have to get up every day and say, "How am I going to make it work today?" I've met so many women who hold that in common. They're out there doing what they believe is really needed, and if every one of us focused on that perspective, we'd live in a really different world. I feel like I'm not alone in what I'm doing.