Hi friends!

A new month, a new quarter, and tomorrow is my Birthday 🎂 !

My coach gave me a great advice last year. She suggested I would design my own birthday to enjoy it the most.

I have had a history of being disappointed in how things went down on my birthday versus how I imagined they would. Just like I used to feel as a kid, I love the day to be about me, but as an adult I shied away from this feeling trying to act "my age". Having a summer birthday, however, meant getting invited to weddings on the same day and being fine with it, or sharing it with family members who have July birthdays too. 

That all changed last year. I asked some dear friends out for morning coffee and lunch. I got my favorite cake (cheesecake) and explicitly asked my husband to throw a small party for us later that week for both of our birthdays, which are 11 days apart. Also, the photo shoot I did last year that you see in my Instagram feed and in the pic below? That was partly for my content and partly a birthday gift from me to me.

This year I feel calmer about my birthday, I feel I’d like to be in a reflective mode around it. A massage at a spa sounds very appealing to me and maybe doing the quarterly review somewhere nice and ending with a date night.

Now to the fun part, I am eager to share a special gift with you on my birthday. It is this free exclusive recording of the session I did with Hikma Employees (Thank you Hikma!)* about goal setting and healthy habits like waking up early and digital minimalism. 

I have a "Yes gifts" policy 😁 Soooo, your gift to me is sharing my work, like Instagram page and/or podcast, with 5 people who trust you and follow your advice today. They will thank you for it!

Thank you for being here and in advance for the sharing love.

Over to you, do you or other close people to you design your birthday? Simply hit reply, I’d love to hear from you!

*(Video is shared now on Youtube while in previous email it was a huge downloadable file, thanks Sima for the tip 😉)

Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ⚡ a newsletter listing 5 inspiring things I thought were worth starting your week with: 

1. My go-to website for free high-resolution photos for my slides and content is: Unsplash, check their business+work photos
2. A summer read I highly recommend is Do Less by Kate Northrup, I read it in the summer of 2019 and plan to read it again this summer
3. Rain on me is a song I love and inspired the title of this blog post about RAIN, a beautiful mindfulness technique that you need to try today.
4. When you doubt yourself: 5 Signs You’re Doing Better Than You Think in Life
5. Your pep talk quote for the week:

"Today, and this very moment, deserves and demands your commitment to become sublimely creative, pristinely productive, decadently decent and of service to many. Please stop postponing your mastery. No longer resist your primal power. Refrain from allowing the shadow forces of fear, rejection, doubt and disappointment to dim the light of your most luminous self. This is your time. And now is your day: to make your leap, in your original way, into the rare-air of the finest leaders who have ever lived. And to enter the universe of the true masters, eminent virtuosos and authentic heroes who have been responsible for all progress of civilization."

― Robin sharma, The 5 AM Club

(resurfaced through Readwise)

See you next Sunday, First name / my dear friend

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