The past month has been very interesting for me in many ways. The big event is that I turned 30 on June 8 - and I feel something inside me has shifted.

Not only was this birthday memorable thanks to the good wishes and gifts from friends, family, and even from some of the readers of The Benefits Of Positive Thinking, but also I feel as if I've reached a new perspective on life which is going to grow over the next few years.

For now, all I can say is that I find myself very calm and centered, with an enlarged vision on who I am, what I want to achieve, and how I can contribute to this world in a great way. I'm loving my life more than ever.

Besides, I travelled to Seville to visit my family, and as I publish this issue of "Dare To Play It Big" I am at my parents' place, living the more than 40 degrees Celsius and the scorching sun of the summer in the South of Spain. You can see me in the picture playing with the dog of one of the neighbours - the dog is just over a year's old.

I am looking forward to this new decade of my life, and to enjoying and sharing life with people, from a stance of awareness and centeredness. You know, I love life! :-)

The Recycle Week in the UK is running from 22 to 28 June, with the motto "Let's waste less". On the official web site you can enter your pledge of how you're going to contribute to create less waste by recycling more - it's quite fun!

Now I'm very aware that most of you don't actually live in the UK - but my thoughts when I came across this news was "Well, why could we all not make a point of recycling more this week, wherever we are in the world?"

I'm doing it. I mean, I already recycle a lot, making sure that anything at home or at the office which is recyclable goes to the designated orange bag or boxes. Yet, I'm in with the recycle week anyway! My pledge: I will read the labels of the products I buy and ensure that the containers can be recycled.

Find out more about the Recycle Week by visiting the official web site at recyclenow.com.

If you have ever felt fed up with your own life as you know it and have decided to make a drastic change, you know it's not as easy as it looks in your head. "Right, enough, from tomorrow I start a new diet/stop smoking/exercise daily/___" (fill in the gap).

Before you realize, you have drifted back into an old behaviour; you've had a couple of pieces of cake, about seven cigarettes, are sitting on the couch watching TV, or ___ (fill in the gap).

So giving up is just the easiest thing to do, given the obvious lack of results. Don't give up, though - I'm jumping up and down in excitement at sharing the kaizen technique with you - a real good tool to make progress in self-improvement and positive thinking.

I'll give you some needed background to explain what the kaizen technique is. Part of our brain is responsible for the mechanism of fear; another part of our brain is responsible for the creative process. When we deal with anything new, the mechanism of fear is triggered. Now, the new thing may be something so small that we automatically bypass our fear without even realizing.

However, when the new thing is large or important enough for our brain to notice, the mechanism of fear is triggered and the creative process is inhibited. Thus we may want to exercise daily, but the fear about the change in routine is so overwhelming for our brain to handle that the creative process shuts down and we just don't get to exercise.

The kaizen way consists of getting to do something towards achieving a goal in a way that the mechanism of fear is not even triggered, and the creative process is engaged. In a practical way, the kaizen technique means that we take one tiny step, perhaps the smallest step possible, towards achieving a goal.

I'll give you a couple of examples. If you wanted to exercise, rather than boldly going from zero exercise to thirty minutes of yoga daily, using the kaizen technique you could just stretch your legs during one minute while you're watching TV.

If you had a messy desk which needs sorting, applying the kaizen technique you could just put one paperclip away.

You may think that these steps are so tiny that they are simply ridiculous - and that's the point, that your brain thinks that the steps are so small that no fear is triggered.

What happens though, when you use the kaizen way to do anything, is that you achieve impressive results overtime. As you choose to take the tiniest step possible every day, in two weeks time you have actually cleared out part of your desk or are actually exercising without effort.

My invitation to you is that you apply the kaizen way to whatever you like, but specially to your own self-development and self-improvement. Here are some suggestions to use the kaizen way to create your own good life:

-You could say one affirmation out loud before you go to sleep.
-You could choose to express gratitude for one thing when you leave your house.
-You could choose one positive thought about one person when you are about to have lunch.
-You could picture one good thing happening in one area of your life when you look into the mirror.

The kaizen technique has meant a revolution in my own life; I wish that it brings you as many interesting possibilities and advancements as it has brought me!

A little while ago I took Danny Freedman's "Inspiration Now! The 30 Day Challenge" and found it a relaxed yet effective way to live in inspiration daily.

The 30 Day Challenge consists of a daily email sent to you over a period of 30 days, which includes a 'challenge' designed to bring you inspiration. The challenges never take too long or involve too much effort, but rather they prompt you to take a little action or do a little thinking which might take just a few minutes of your time. Besides, the emails include links to more resources relevant to the topic of the daily challenge.

Some of the challenges will have you smiling, laughing, sharing, and feeling grateful and peaceful. The 30 Day Challenge is perfect if you want to gather ideas to bring inspiration into your life - ideas that will stay with you forever.

Find out more about "The 30 Day Challenge" by following this link.

I believe that being grateful for something is one of the most powerful tools to feel better immediately. Here are the two thanking bits of the month:

Thankful for... my husband. I am very grateful for how he made my 30th birthday unforgettable by surprising me with gifts over a period of nearly a week, by arranging an unexpected dinner at a very cool vegetarian restaurant, and by showering me with attention and love. That all made me feel very special and treated in style!

Thankful for... finding money! Just a couple of days before my birthday, as I was walking to the underground station to go to work, I heard my 'intuition voice' telling me to take a different path. So I did, and just a few hundred metres later I found £15 lying on the street, and nobody around who could have lost them. That made for my own birthday gift to myself - a fine box of delicious chocolates. Thank you!

What are you thankful for? Send me an email trough the Contact Me form and let me know!

Care to send me your thoughts about this issue's topics? Email me and let me know!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please pass it along to your friends, family and colleagues, or send them to the Dare To Play It Big sign up page. I thank you in advance.

Stay well,

Cristina