AnneDennish

“Always Trust Your Gut”

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Just a little piece of advice for you all: trust your gut, trust your intuition and trust yourself. There seems to be so much dark energy floating around in the world lately that you have to be careful of who and what you’re surrounding yourself with, especially where the internet and social media are concerned.

If something feels wrong or feels “off,” know that it is.

If you know someone in your life or see a picture of someone and your intuition screams that there’s something dark or negative about them, know that there is.

Protect the beautiful being that you are and surround yourself with love and light. Stay away from the dark and negative energy that surrounds certain people, whether it’s in your life or through the internet.

Stay positive, stay grounded, and stay focused on your intuition and gut feelings…trust them. And please, when you get the feeling that something “isn’t right,” and you don’t understand why, trust that your gut knows why, even if you don’t know the reason yet.

I wish you all love,light, and protection from the negative and dark people that try to hurt you and the ones you love.

Be safe, be mindful, and “pay attention.”

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Stop Looking Down”

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How many precious and important moments do you have to miss because you’re looking down at your phone to see the latest social media posts or text messages? Seriously, the world is becoming obsessed with life on the internet rather than the life in front of their eyes.

Everywhere you go you see people looking down at their phone no matter where they are: crossing the road, out on a date or family dinner, sitting on the couch and worst yet, while they’re driving.

I don’t want to miss out on one moment of the life I see in front of me, of the people I love around me, or the touch of my loved ones. I don’t want them to ever feel less important than what’s on my phone. I want them to know that they’re more important than any social media post or text message.

While our phones are a connection we have grown to need for communication with others, it should never become more important the people in your life. Everything in moderation, yet there are those who live their life on their phone, another point of sadness for me.

Stop “looking down” and open your eyes and  “look up, look around, and look at what’s in front of you.” You’ll be amazed at what you’ve been missing.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Write Your Life”

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“Life is always changing, it’s time to turn the page; so the story continues and it’s mine to create. It’s all an adventure, my life is a song; I know where I’ve been, not where I’m going but I’m dancing along.”  ~Anne Dennish~

My life has been a series of ups and downs, adventures and restlessness, good times and bad, yet through it all I’ve accepted that it was meant to be that way. All those moments happened to teach me a lesson. They happened because I wasn’t living my life as I should and there’s times that the Universe steps in and whacks us with a two by four to “wake us up.” It stops us dead in our tracks to feel the pain and understand why it hurts. After all, we feel what we allow.

And when pain and heartache happen it’s because we allowed the behaviors that led up to that moment happen. We allowed someone to cross our boundaries and treat us in a way we shouldn’t be treated.

We lost sight of ourselves and in the process of caring for everyone else we forgot to care for ourself. We forgot to love ourself first, to respect ourself, to take care of ourself, and when other’s see that we’ve forgotten that, they cross our boundaries.

We have to draw a line in the sand that shouldn’t be crossed, yet maybe we should be drawing a line in the cement.

Broken hearts and pain don’t happen overnight. Sure, we feel blindsided when it happens yet when it does you begin to look at the behaviors that led up to it and suddenly you’re not so surprised or shocked that someone hurt you. You let them disrespect you long before they hurt you; you let them love you less than you loved yourself because their ego was larger than their heart; and you began to blame yourself and made excuses for them.

Losing sight of yourself and seeing only them strengthens their ego and robs you of your self-esteem.

But there’s hope in the heartache and purpose in the pain.

The hope is that the broken heart will mend stronger and the purpose in the pain is to teach you a lesson about yourself. It’s to bring the focus back onto “you.”

Life is always changing and the change is up to you. Your life is your story and you are the author. You create what you want.

Write your story well and if you need to make some edits along the way be sure they’re for your Highest Good.

It’s your story…

It’s your life…

Make it spectacular!

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Knee Deep In Writing”

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I’ve been knee deep in finishing up my next book, “My Collective Soul, Things I Know Without Knowing Why.” It’s been long days and nights of writing for 14 hours followed by a day of recuperating from it all. It’s been nights of “take out” for dinner and spending time with Rob and the kids during one of my hourly five minute breaks.

And I love every minute of it.

I love the writing for hours and hours, the pushing myself late into the night even though I’m exhausted, and I love the pressure of having a deadline.

I love getting up in the wee hours of the morning, putting on my headset and sitting down at the laptop with my coffee to begin the process all over again.

This kind of exhaustion is exciting because I’m doing what I love and what I know I’m meant to do: write!

I know that life has been a bit different in our house. The normal tasks of laundry and cleaning are on the back burner at the moment; the time of relaxing and watching television with Rob are limited; and my kids have become used to saying good-bye in the morning to me while I’m sitting with my headset on and writing and they’re used to coming home and seeing me the same way.marketing ventuers 4

And they’re all okay with this. They love and support me through this time right now and I hope they know how much that means to me. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without their understanding and support.

I couldn’t do any of this without the support of my closest friends and Rob’s family, who have become my family. They keep me going when I’m exhausted and are there to answer the phone if I need to talk to them. Those phone calls help to get me back in balance and are the encouragement I need at the moment I need it.

The new book is just about ready to go to my publisher, Morissa Schwartz, owner of GenZ Publishing. She believed in me and was willing to take me on as one of her authors, marketing ventures 2and for that I’m grateful.

And in the middle of all this writing are meetings and phone calls from my marketing team, Marketing Ventures. Jill, Jennifer and Lora are amazing and are making dreams come true for me. They’ve gifted me with opportunities I never thought possible and they’re still working at gifting me with more! I’m grateful to them for all their hard work at promoting me. It’s growing into more than a business agreement between us; it’s growing into a friendship. It’s a beautiful thing.

And that’s what my life has been like lately. It’s filled with everything I love, and while mentally exhausted, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My dreams are coming true day by day and I’m glad that I never gave up on them. There were times things weren’t working the way I wanted, yet I knew everything would work out when it was meant to.

Sometimes our best dreams don’t go the way we want; they turn into “better” dreams that we never could have imagined.

You can’t give up.

You have to remember that “everything happens as it should, when it should, and how it should.”

I’m living proof that it does.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

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Just a “typical” marketing business meeting with Jill and Jennifer!

“A Tragedy in Manchester, England”

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The internet is filled with a mix of emotions over last nights’ tragedy in England, from anger and hatred to sadness. The world can feel so safe until something rocks our world and fills us with fear.

It seems that when tragedy strikes there are those that will say to “hug your children more, say I love you to those you love and be grateful for each day you are gifted,” yet I say we should be that way everyday. It shouldn’t take a tragedy to open our eyes to the life we are blessed to have and to be grateful for our loved ones.

So today let us all join together in compassion and kindess, love and understanding for the world. Let’s pray for England, for an end to violence in the world, and more importantly, let us pray for each other.

Wishing you love and light

and peace…

~Anne Dennish~

prayers for England

Photo by Anne Dennish – copyright 2017

“Still Your Mind”

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There are days when I feel as though I can’t think…and it’s on days like that I have to remind myself to “still my mind and listen;” listen to my heart, listen to my soul, listen to my intuition.

And the answers will always come, and so will a feeling of “peace.”

It’s okay to slow down a bit, to take some time for yourself and find your center.

It’s a good thing!

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

still your mindPhoto by Anne Dennish – copyright 2017

“The Gypsy”

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sunflower fields

I  believe that we all have an inner gypsy, and I’m missing mine these days. You know what I’m talking about, that “roll down the windows in the car, hair blowing in the wind, radio blaring, bare feet,  that free kind of feeling.” It’s your inner gypsy and mine has been silent for too long.

My inner gypsy is the girl who dances barefoot in the grass under the full moon, spinninggypsy in circles and releasing all that stuff that no longer serves her; it’s the girl who dances in public, no matter where she is; it’s the girl who flies by the seat of her pants some days, not knowing where she’s going to land; it’s the girl that takes a leap of faith and leaves a life behind to find a better one; it’s the girl who remembers how it feels to be happy and has the nerve to find her happiness again. It’s the girl who was brave enough to find herself again after she had been lost for so long.

I used to be a gypsy a long time ago. These days my “inner gypsy” has been tamed by life and responsibility, but someone came along that reminded me of what I had forgotten.  Sometimes all it takes is one person to come along and make you remember…

“She was embedded in a life for over a decade, yet a few months ago she suffered a loss in her life, and what she did after that shocked and surprised many of us…she left the life she was living. She packed her bags and moved far away, landing in a place surrounded by family and friends, and she never looked back. She woke up one day and realized that all she had in her life wasn’t nearly as much as what she wanted in her life.

She wanted something different; she wanted something new. She longed for excitement and yearned for a sense of peace. She wanted her freedom and the right to make her own choices. She wanted a different life and wanted to be the one in control of it.

And so she did…she left her old life behind and began a new one. She’s finding her joy and her happiness again, step by step, day by day. She embraces the sunshine of a cold winter day, walking and watching all that is around her. She drifts from place to place, landing among those she loves most. Every day brings something new to her and every day she seems to be happier. She found adventure again, and embraces each day and the endless possibilities it has to offer.  She’s a free-spirit in a realistic world and it suits her. She doesn’t settle for less, but searches for more. She doesn’t smile because she has to, but smiles because she wants to. Her happiness comes from within her, not from around her, and while her heart may still be a bit broken over the loss she suffered, she’s putting the pieces back together as only a gypsy can do: in her own way, in her own time.”

I’m blessed to know and love this gypsy; she made me remember a lot of things I had forgotten. She forced me to see beyond my own self and look inside for that “inner gypsy” I once knew. She allows me the privilege of sharing her “inner gypsy” with me and I’m grateful for that, because what I had forgotten she enabled me to remember.

Find your “inner gypsy” and embrace her for all that she taught you and all that she will…

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

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“What Now?”

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“Journey is over, the battle is won.A new chapter starting, a new day begun,

So what do I do now? Where do I start?

Do I take the road known or the one less travelled

Follow my heart.

 

Life is always changing,it’s time to turn the page,

Now the story continues

And it’s mine to create

So what do I do now? Where do I go?

Do I let my mind lead me backwards in time or move ahead slow?

 

What now with new beginnings

What now with the old life behind

What now that I’m starting over

With no clue, no reason, no rhyme.

 

Time to change my thinking

It’s time to lose the fear

The Universe is watching

That’s what brought me here

It’s all an adventure, my life is a song,

I know where I’ve been, not where I’m going

But I’m dancing along.”

I remember the day I wrote the story, which became these lyrics, in my book called “Waking Up.” It was my very last day of treatment for breast cancer, and as I said my good-bye’s to the nurses and staff, I felt a multitude of emotions.

I got in my car and started the long drive home. I felt happy, excited, relieved and a bit scared. All I kept thinking is “now what?” Now what do I do with my life? I had been on a breast cancer journey for over a year and a half, and suddenly it was over. The Cancer Institute had bid me farewell and sent me on my way. What now?

I thought “I know what the last year and a half with cancer was like, but what would it be like without it? Where do I begin to start over without it?”

And so I wrote the entry “What Now” in my breast cancer journal and a year later wrote these song lyrics.

But you know, this song isn’t just for my breast cancer journey; it’s a song for anyone starting over with a new beginning. It’s for anyone who is starting a new life. It’s for someone who has to learn to say “good-bye” to their past in order for the doors to the future to open.

It’s a song for you and a song for me…doors-to-past

It’s scary when something ends and is over, yet you need to find the excitement in the possibility of something even better coming into your life. I can promise you it always does when it’s meant to. Have faith in the Universe and have faith in yourself!

Embrace your day, embrace your new beginning, embrace this life that you are in control of.

The choice is yours…

And I know you’ve got this!

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

Lyrics by Anne Dennish – Music and Vocals by Sutton Thomas Music copyright 2016

“Funktion 11 – The Band”

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funk

Life at the Jersey Shore is exciting, especially during the summer season, yet there’s one thing to keep things alive during the rest of the year and that’s finding a good band to spend an evening out listening to. There’s many bands around the Shore area, yet two years ago my love introduced me to a band like no other I’ve ever seen before: Funktion 11.

This band stands out above any I’ve ever seen before, and not just because it’s an 11 piece band, but because there’s something incredibly special about them. They put their heart and soul into their music, which includes songs of Aretha Franklin, Kool and the Gang, funtion-1111Michael Jackson, Prince, The Rolling Stones, and Miles Davis, to name just a few !They have a unique blend of musical genre, from Funk, Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, Soul, and Rock.  They truly put the “funk” in the Funktion 11 band!

I’ve been following them for the last two years, and each time I see them I’m more blown away by their talent and unwavering energy! This band plays song after song without a breath, and you can’t help but get up and dance, especially while watching the bands’ distinct choreography of their own. If you’re looking to keep in shape, Funktion 11 will have you dancing non-stop! Every time I’ve seen them perform the dance floor is packed with people both young and old, men and women. And trust me, I love to dance and know that when Funktion 11 is playing, you better get your spot on the dance floor early! It get’s even better, because this band is interactive with their fans and audience. You’ll find the three lead vocalists getting right down on the dance floor with everyone, dancing, singing and getting everyone involved! They possess a unique quality in that you feel like they’re performing  just for you, and that’s because they’re so up-close and personal with everyone who comes out to see them.

Funktion 11 barely takes a break between sets, and when they do you’ll find them out funktion-111among the crowd, taking the time to talk to their fans. You don’t find that very often in most bands, and aside from their incredible talent and music, that’s one of the things I love about them. I’ve become friends with band leader and percussionist, Ronnie Nalven, over the past few years and have had the opportunity to speak with all the band members. They’re always available for a picture and truly care about their fans, and their dedication shows.

I  sent a message Ronnie a week before they were playing at the River Rock in Brick, NJ, that it was my two year anniversary and wondered if he could announce it to surprise my love. He told me “yes” and to let him know when I got there so I could remind him. Well, with Funktion 11 all you need to do is ask and you will receive. My love and I got there a bit late, yet only minutes after we sat down, Ronnie grabbed the microphone from lead singer, Vanessa Perea, and made our anniversary announcement. I didn’t need to let him know I was there or remind him: he saw us come in and made a beautiful announcement for us. You see, that’s the thing about this band, once you see them perform and meet them, you feel as if you’ve known them forever, and they make you feel as though you are truly part of their Funktion 11 family.

Funktion 11 is made up of the following band members: Samar Newsome: Musical Director, Keyboards, Vocals;Rob Edwards: Associate Musical Director, Trombone, Tony Zeke: Lead Male Vocals;Vanessa Perea: Lead Female Vocals;Misha Fatkiev: Lead Guitar;Kelvin King: Drums; Andy Gutauskas: Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Flute; Richard Polatchek: Trumpet; Alex Parchment: Trumpet; Ronnie Nalven: Percussion, Band Leader.funk2

I’m so grateful for that night two years ago that I first saw Funktion 11, and for the opportunities they’ve allowed me as a fan to get to know them. Their talents, their music, their camaraderie and their true love of the fans is what makes them a one-of-a-kind type of band, and that I know for sure.  I’ve driven through a major snow storm, and through torrential rain to be able to spend an evening watching them play.

Funktion 11 is without a doubt one of the best bands I’ve ever seen perform, and I can promise you that it will only take you one time of listening to them play for you to become a “forever fan.”

Be sure to check out their Facebook page at “Funktion 11” and visit their website at http://www.funktion11.com where you can listen to them and see their calendar of events.

Take the time and treat yourself to an incredible night of music with “Funktion 11!”

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

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My love and I celebrating our two year anniversary with Funktion 11

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“Funktion 11”

“Voice of the Sea”

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The ocean has always been a place of peace and inspiration for me and I’m blessed to live so close to it. It’s a place to still my mind and listen to my thoughts and intuition. It’s a place to get lost in the sounds of the rhythm of the ocean and marvel at the miracle of it. And if your mind is open you’ll hear the voice of the sea!

This is one of the songs I wrote. Just click on the title and you’ll be able to listen. I hope you enjoy it!

Wishing you a beautiful day filled with love, light and all good things,

~Anne Dennish~

 

 

Lyrics by Anne Dennish / Music & Vocals by Sutton Thomas