1- Keep your thoughts positively aligned.

Certain thoughts can bring sadness. If we allow our minds to dwell on them, we will consequently feel the sadness. The solution to this is realizing that negative thoughts have come into our minds. When we see this happening we can redirect our thoughts to a more positive perspective.

2- There are different ways to see the exact same event.

To illustrate this fact, let’s take a real life example. Some people think that birthday parties are a waste of time and feel very annoyed if they have to plan one. They can either throw the party while grumbling and complaining or they can change the way they look at birthday parties and be joyful while planning them. A positive way of looking at birthday parties is that they are great for the personâ€s self esteem and provide a wonderful opportunity to bring family and friends together for a fun time.
The same event can be seen through a positive light or a negative one. The power is in our hands to choose the perspective that we want to have in any situation in life. We can do the same task with happiness or with gloom. Itâ€s completely up to us.

3- Be aware of your internal dialogue.

Everyone has an internal dialogue going on in their minds. Some people are more aware of it than others. The more aware you are of what goes on in your mind, the more power you have over those thoughts. It may be that you are feeling positive and all of a sudden anxiety and stress start to take over your soul. Some kind of negative thought took hold and it can happen in just one moment. The second you see this happening you need to tell yourself that any negative thought is not true. Simply decide that you wonâ€t accept them and start to repeat good, uplifting and positive thoughts to yourself until you feel your soul be free of sadness or anxiety.

4- Incorporate certain habits for a more relaxing life.

Tension and stress donâ€t leave a lot of room for us to experience joy. The more you can do each day to relieve tension and stress the more happiness you will feel. Take certain steps to be have more peace and calm in your daily life. Listen to calm instrumental music, talk to a fun friend on the phone, take breaks in between tasks, take long hot baths, practice a sport at least 3 times a week. Reward yourself when you finish a difficult project. Life is not just about work work work. Give yourself permission to simply rest and be entertained. Your soul needs it.

If you do these things you will be creating a lifestyle that is joyful. By the way, the image in this post is my watercolor painting that’s called “Tree of Joy”.

Eren Mckay is a stay at home mom to 3 boys. She has a website with creative baby shower ideas. You can find different themes such as the ladybug baby shower , rubber duck baby shower and resources like monkey baby shower invitations on her site.

Plan ahead of time.

In order to have a really smooth shower, the best thing that you can do is plan ahead. The more time you have to get the details in order, the less stress you will have to deal with. Personally I like to plan way ahead of time because it makes it much more fun to not have the time constraints when buying all of the details for the party.

Plan for more.

One of the biggest things that I have found is that itâ€s always good to plan for more guests than you actually invited. Having more food and more favors left over is better than not having enough. You want everyone to leave the party feeling happy and taken care of. You can always give away what was left over (if that happens).

Make lists.

Making lists will help you understand where you are in the planning process and what still needs to get done and bought. The main lists that you need to make are: guest list, foods, beverages, favors, decorations, disposable plates, cups and utensils, and a schedule for the events at the party.

The other way to organize your tasks is to create action based lists. This kind of list is based on a time frame in which the tasks will need to get done. There are things that can only be done on the day of the party or a day before. Having that list of things that you will do the day before and the day of the party will relieve the stress of having to remember it all, giving you room to enjoy the special day.

Have fun games.

Games are a wonderful way to break the ice between the guests. They always bring a lot of fun to the event and make everyone feel like they participated. Plan at least 3 or 4 games to play so that the momentum of the party keeps going. Here are the instructions and printables to the name that candy bar baby shower game. That game is one of the funniest games to play at a baby shower.

Make it theme based.

Ask the mommy to be what theme she would really like. There are many different themes that you can choose from but having the mom pick the theme will be sure to make it an unforgettable experience for her.  If she doesnâ€t know which theme to choose, here are some baby shower themes ideas for you to suggest to her.  

You might even want to use favorite characters from movies or cartoons. Here are some princess and the frog baby shower decorations and a big list of ideas if you want to have a frog themed shower.

After your theme is chosen then planning the rest of the party is much simpler. Invitations, decorations, favors and even the food can follow the theme.

Itâ€s a lot of fun to be able to mix and match and use our creativity when planning a baby shower. By doing these things everyone will be sure to have a blast!