April 2022 - Working with Difficult Emotions

April 2022 - Working with Difficult Emotions

We are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world.

Every day we experience unexpected challenges and bumps in the road, and the resulting difficult emotions they can churn up. When you feel emotions like disappointment, frustration or sadness, try to neither feed the emotion nor push the emotion away. I think of it as letting the emotion sit on a bench next to you. You’re not engaging it in conversation, you’re not giving it your sandwich, you’re just courteously allowing it to occupy the same bench. By letting go of your resistance and giving the emotion space to exist, you take away its power over you.

March 2022 - Renewal

March 2022 - Renewal

The beginning of spring has a quality of freshness that can be quite comforting.

Unlike winter's interior-focused comforts of hearth and home, spring offers us a gradual turning toward the potential of what lies ahead. New growth begins to come forth, filled with promise.

My invitation to you this month is to find inspiration in the renewal of spring and let yourself bloom. Perhaps some (metaphoric) seeds were planted within you long ago and only now are ready to emerge. In the smallest of ways, can you prepare and water the soil for this seedling?

What beauty will spring forth from within you?

February 2022 - Self-Love

February 2022 - Self-Love

In a month filled with lacy pink hearts, cupids, and love-inspired confections, what would it feel like to fall in love with ourselves?

Stick with me here - what I'm proposing is to unconditionally love ourselves, as we are, right now. Unconditionally meaning not waiting until you develop a exercise habit, or finish that project, or rid yourself of all imperfection.

As you reflect on this possibility, my invitation to you is to be gentle with any resistance that might come up. Be loving toward that, as well.

And perhaps allow yourself to soften, even slightly, towards the idea of offering yourself the same acceptance, warmth, and affection that you offer to the loved-ones in your life.

January 2022 - New Year, New No

December 2021 - Slowing Down

December 2021 - Slowing Down

This time of year we may find ourselves feeling more naturally inclined to slow down. Fewer hours of daylight & colder temperatures invite us to seek the comforts of hearth & home. Paradoxically, the winter holidays can make us feel that we can't slow down because there is too much to do.

These recent years have taught us what is most important in life -- that it is the simple things that are most fulfilling.

In the spirit of embracing simplicity, my invitation to you this month is to slow down, savor the pleasures of the season, & allow yourself moments of solitude & stillness. Take advantage of any opportunity to truly rest, so when the holidays are behind us, you feel rejuvenated and ready for the new year ahead.

November 2021 - Gratitude [Three Good Things]

November 2021 - Gratitude [Three Good Things]

In the past, I resisted cultivating a gratitude practice because it felt forced and contrived. I have since come full circle and am now a true believer in its value because of the science. In his book, The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor references several studies finding that people doing a daily gratitude practice like naming "three good things" improved their happiness and decreased feelings of depression.*

He equates this practice to training your mind to look for positives (consciously and not) instead of scanning for problems or issues, as our minds are evolutionarily conditioned to do as a survival strategy. My invitation to you is to give this daily practice a try, either in writing or with loved ones, and see if it makes a difference in your life, too.

October 2021 - Self-Embodiment

October 2021 - Self-Embodiment

I'm feeling very drawn to the idea of SOFTENING right now.

In the context of this month's theme, Self-Embodiment, this is about being willing to mentally and physically soften as a way to tune in to how to best serve our bodies' true needs.

Mentally this can look like being less rigid with food choices or fitness goals. I'm exploring ways to nourish myself and move that feel more intuitive than dogmatic.

Physical softening can take the form of noticing areas of constriction in our bodies and then making the choice to stretch and consciously relax muscles.

My invitation to you is to explore this as well, perhaps beginning right now by softening your belly so you can take a few deeper, more nourishing breaths.

September 2021 - Self-Advocacy

---

September 2021 - Self-Advocacy

Self-advocacy is hard.

If self-advocacy weren't hard, we wouldn't need encouragement, permission, and reminders to exercise it. It can be difficult because it often requires you to step outside your comfort zone. You may need to accept that you can't do it all, and certainly not without help. You may need to put other people in a position they would rather not be in by saying no or setting healthy boundaries. In the moment, it is so much easier to just do more and say yes and accommodate everyone else.

But we all know where that path leads -- to a point where your mental and physical health are compromised. So even though it's hard, my invitation to you is to take the first (and then the next) step towards advocating for your needs.

August 2021 - Self-Compassion

July 2021 - Stillness

July 2021 - Stillness

Have you ever experienced a yearning for rest or stillness but resisted it because of all the things on your to-do list? What about giving yourself the opportunity to be still but then feeling guilty about it? I am often amazed that sometimes when I choose to rest and do nothing it feels surprisingly uncomfortable.

As we begin to resume our "normal," post-pandemic lives, many of us are finding ourselves sliding back into the habit of constantly doing. But one comfort from this past year was taking a break from the doing and instead slowing down and being. This month's invitation is to reclaim some of this restorative STILLNESS, in spite of a return to busy-ness as usual.