The alarm drums loudly and I awaken immediately to feel a sense of dread bubbling up in my spirit. With my first awareness of breath, I let out a heavy sigh and roll over for another 10 minutes. The cycle is the same each and every week as if I'm living the line from one of my favorite movies (Kate & Leopold), "I don't want it to be Sunday...Sunday is the day before the day I work, so it gets poisoned. Sunday's have a sort of heaviness to them. For me, they signal an end to losing track of time and living the weekend on a whim. As much as I love my job, it's difficult to not let Monday creep into Sunday. Maybe you feel the same. It's no fun to let tomorrow rob us of all that's waiting for us to experience today. A few years ago I decided I didn't want to keep feeling this way. I Continue Reading
Motivate Yourself with Intentional Rewards
I'm well into a super busy and hopefully productive month. It's filled with appointments, projects and new goals so I'm already looking ahead to plan how I'm going to keep my motivation levels up. I'm also a huge list person, so my agenda is the first place I go to check of the boxes that make me feel good, but that alone isn't enough. The best way I know to make sure I accomplish all the things I have planned is with a reward system. It may sound silly, but I'm okay with that because it works. Maybe you remember a time growing up when you were rewarded by others for your accomplishments, your follow through and even your failed attempts because you gave your best effort. You probably experienced a confidence boost. It felt good to be rewarded, and it served as motivation to keep Continue Reading
Cultivating a Practice of Celebrating You
Don't you love celebrations? I'm always looking for an excuse to celebrate something. It just feels good! I'm a huge believer in making personal celebrations a priority. And yet, I also know it can feel a bit indulgent, uncomfortable, and even silly. The celebrations are easy when it comes to larger accomplishments like a new job, a promotion, a birthday, or an anniversary. All these are welcome and necessary...but not nearly enough to cultivate healthy self-love. For me, a personal celebration practice has grown into a necessity. Honestly, I grew tired of waiting to be celebrated. I grew bored with one day out of the year to celebrate my own life. When I experience my confidence growing, my compassion deepening and my energy toward my goals increasing I was hooked. The more I Continue Reading