Thoughtful Thursday

For as long as I can remember, I would say that I never get bored. I ALWAYS have something to do.  There is always something to be cleaned. There is always something to be organized. There is always something to be read, watched or listened to. There is always something to scroll through. I almost wore "I never get bored" as a badge of honor. Like it was an amazing skill or talent that I was proficient at. Recently, I began to question this belief. What if this ability wasn't serving me? What was I preventing myself from experiencing? What if feeling bored was something I wanted? How would my life be different if I allowed myself to be bored? What opportunities would I be available to me? Opportunities of stillness. Opportunities of service. Opportunities of gratitude. Opportunities for communion with God. Opportunities for reflection and connection. Opportunities for creation. How would your life be different if you allowed some boredom into your life? Give it a try!

Hello, my friends! I just finished Brené Brown's new book,  Atlas of the Heart. So good. I wanted to share one of the powerful nuggets I took from it. She says, "when we name an emotion or experience, it doesn't give that emotion or experience more power, it gives US more power." I love this. Are you feeling overpowered by your emotions? Do they feel like they are just happening to you? I invite you to choose one to process. Take a deep breath in and out. Accept that you are feeling this emotion and just be present with it. Acknowledge what you are feeling by naming it. I invite you to find it in your body. Where is it? What does it feel like? It is a tightness in your neck or chest? Is it a heaviness in your stomach?   Is it moving fast or slow? Is it cold or hot? Sharp or soft? If you could give it a color what would it be? Just relax into it and observe yourself experiencing this emotion.  Don't resist, react or avoid this emotion. Be open and move toward it....

Hello my friends!  This week I did something that I have wanted to do for a long time but I was afraid to. I was worried what other people would think. I wondered if I could really do it because I didn't know how. I was afraid I would look stupid. But you know what? I decided to do it anyway! I recorded my first podcast episode! Do I know what I am doing? No! Is it totally out of my comfort zone? Yes!!! Am I really nervous? Yes!!! Am I doing it anyway? Yes!!! I decided I didn't like the reason I hadn't done it yet. I decided to do it even though I am scared. Each Tuesday a new episode will drop. This is another way that I want to share more of my thoughts and the things I have learned that might help you find more joy in your life. I will even occasionally have some guests join me. It's going to be fun! In my first episode, I talk more about why I started a podcast and why I became I life coach. Is there something you have always wanted to do but you have been afraid to...

Our brain is amazing!   Our perception of what will happen in the future is shaped by our past beliefs. Our brain uses this ability to simplify our life. It saves energy. We don't have to continually figure how to do something we have done before like walking, driving a car, or brushing our teeth. However, this same ability of using past beliefs to shape our expectations actually limits us. Think about some of the frustrations you have in your life. Your body. Your weight loss. Your relationships with yourself, others, food, or money. You believe all these things are the cause of your problem. However, it is the expectation of how you think things should be that is creating the frustration for you. I should weigh less. I should be healthier. I should be better with money. I should get more sleep. I shouldn't get so irritated. I should be able to do more.   I should be more organized. I should have a cleaner house. You could probably list hundreds of shoulds that dict...

As humans we all crave connection. We want to be loved and accepted. We want to belong. For many of us, we believe that we have to be perfect or without flaw in order for that to happen. We try to push away our imperfections and we pretend. Pretend that we have it all together. However, if we can own our stories of imperfection, we open ourselves up to greater connection with others. We can show ourselves and others grace in being imperfect humans. Brené Brown says in her book,   The Gifts of Imperfection , "May we find the courage to let go of who we think we’re supposed to be so that we can fully embrace our authentic selves—the imperfect, the creative, the vulnerable, the powerful, the broken, and the beautiful. “May we show ourselves and others the compassion that comes from knowing that we are all made of strength and struggle." (Brené Brown) Strength and struggle. Broken and beautiful. Being human is messy. We aren't all bad or all good. We are both. Resisting this ...

For many years, I focused on the story of my past.  The choices I made and how I had fallen short.  Feelings of failure and inadequacy affected the actions I took in the future.  I believed that if I was harder on myself then I would be and do better.  I was wrong.  I could never beat myself up enough to find more happiness or success.  Look at the story you are telling yourself about your past up to this point in your life.  How are you allowing it to define you? Are you allowing the things you did or didn’t do in the past define you? What would your life look like if you could starting defining yourself from the future? When we recycle our past thinking we create more of our past.  One of my mentors, Brooke Castillo, teaches “if you want to create something new, if you want to implement a new idea, you have to think a thought you have never thought before." In order to grow and evolve I needed to turn my focus to the future.  The future is ...

  "When we numb the dark, we numb the light." I love this quote from Brené Brown. Experiencing highly intense emotions can be very uncomfortable.  We can feel vulnerable. Most of us try to move away from those uncomfortable emotions so we don't have to feel vulnerable or uncomfortable. We don't allow ourselves to feel or process these feelings. We go right to numbing them by buffering them with anything that will give us relief as quickly as possible. In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené shares some things that we turn to "take the edge off" from feeling negative emotion. Things like "alcohol, drugs, food, sex, relationships, money, work, caretaking, shopping, planning, perfectionism, constant change, and the Internet." However, when we turn to our buffers we limit our ability experience the positive or comfortable emotions. Emotions like peace, love and joy. Brené also teaches that there is "no such thing as selective emotional numbi...