Emotional / Physical Wellness

We rush and rush.  Our lists are long.  We are either procrastinating or we aren't breathing.

Christmas season is approaching.  Advent is coming.

Do we really want to be stalled on the couch watching commercials of the next meal deal?  Do we really want to be racing through the malls with a list as long as our intestines?

As December is approaching let us take stalk in our pace.

Bring it back, or take a step up.  Either way we need to go, it's our time to be paced with the advent of Christmas.

Where do you need to slow down?  Where do you need to take initiative? 

Spiritual / Social Wellness 

We see it everywhere.

This hashtag 'Authentic' thing.

But are we doing it?

Really?  Are we really being that #authentic living type of thing?

What does it mean? 

Authentic.  adj.  1. of undisputed origin; genuine. 2. (in existentialist philosophy) relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive and responsive mode of human life.

When we sit down with our friends and family are we truly being our whole self in front of them?  Are we willing to ask and listen to their whole self in front of us? 

It goes both ways.

We can talk and talk about us but if we are not willing to ask and 'listen' to the authentic across from us then we are just a mouthpiece and we loose our meaning.  

We create depth and unity when there is more then just our own air in the room.  

How are you acting out your authenticy?  Are you taking the time to respond to others 'authentic'?   

Emotional Wellness

We live in a world of 'Yes'.  

"You can have it all."  

Is this truth?

Everything comes with perspective.

What happens in a world of 'yes', when we say 'no'? No to the pressure, no to the perfection, no to the impatience and no to the expectations?

There is resistance in 'No', in this world of 'Yes'.

What if 'No' was good for us?

What if a 'No' was the word that was going to keep us from the next meltdown, car accident, overtired day, extra weight on the scale?

Is there value in saying 'no'?

Discipline and boundaries dare you to try it.

Saying 'no'  doesn't have to be the cringing word that slinks away after a guilt trip.  

Saying 'no' could be an empowering tool to keep us truthful.  Honest.  Real.

What have you said 'yes' to that you should have said a truthful 'no' to?  Have you been lying to others and yourself by saying 'yes'?  

Physical Wellness

Just when you thought it couldn't get anymore green with avacodos in our supermarkets ...Kale made it's grand entrance.

I am so glad it did.  

With its cancer fighting contents, anti inflammatory and detoxification goodness this green leaf has the power to punch a healthy streak into your diet.

I wasn't a Kale fan at first.

Bitter.  Blech.

And then during postpartum we found Kale Smoothies.

A beautiful way to blend it up and get all that green goodness. 

So join us in Kale-ing it out.  (We find protein powder, cold bananas and ice cubes are essentials for our favourite K-Smoothie bliss)

What green have you been ignoring?  Have you tried a Kale smoothie recipe before? How can you put Kale into your diet?

Emotional/Spiritual Wellness

During Thanksgiving weekend (for us Canadians) we can know we are thankful but may not feel thankful.

Knowing is important.

Feeling is also important.

Some may say feelings are unnecessary but in fact, feeling is a very important aspect to being human.  

Identify what we are feeling.

I felt. 

Nothing.

I could see the blessings.

But could not feel the blessings.

So we counted.

We counted to a hundred of our 'Thankful Things' and found the feelings in the counting.

We smiled as we thought of what blessings we have encountered and have in our lives.  We were made fresh in our joy and our thankfulness.

What are you feeling lately?  How can you identify your feelings in a healthy way?  Pick a number and count it out.

Emotional Wellness

Becoming a mama only put "multi-tasking" on overdrive. 

Was this necessary? 

Yes.

Is this maintainable forever?  

No.

It is time to take a step back and "mono-task".

One thing at one time.

It means I will be even more slow at responding to emails, more unavailable to social media and more hard to pin down.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury.  We are all guilty of saying 'yes' to much and 'no' to little.  We are all guilty of scrolling through our latest 'feeds' while sitting next to a loved one when they were watching us...waiting for the next moment we would (maybe) tune in.

I am tuning in.

We need to tune in.

This multi-tasking life is taking over our lives.  

The TV flashes with the news blaring when family is visiting, the phones dinging with 'notifications' in the middle of a conversation, the minds running over lists and lists of to dos while a child twisting and turning, learning how to move and we are too busy 'catching up' with the world to be present in our own.

Mono-Task.  The ability to do one thing, at one time.

Try it.

When have you caught yourself checking out of your present life to check into places you are not actually 'in'?  How can you tackle your day to day being present in one thing at one time?

Intellectual Wellness

Sometimes the well is dry.  There is a drought and we are thirsty.  

Thirsty for a new move.  Thirsty for more than just a new episode of jeopardy to keep us lively.  A new episode of anything is the least of what we should be living for.

And yet.  Our land is dry.  We are the dry land.  Listless, bored and tired of seeing pictures of someone elses' life that we think we want.

We THINK we want.  Really...we want our life.

A life we have been given for a purpose.  A life full of what we were made for.

Let's dig into the earth around us and open our eyes to what can inspire us to dance again.  There is a reason why we are surrounded by these things, those people and live in that place.  Dig into it.  Maybe you'll be inspired to let your roots grow deep where you stand.  And maybe you'll be inspired to pick up your leaves and walk.  Either way....dig deep.

Go past the bottom of the well and into the damp rich soil around you.  It was put there for you.

Be inspired and let it spring you forth out of the chair and into living a life that was made for you.

What atmosphere can you sink into that will inspire you?  Where are you dry?  What excites you?  What habit have you let into your life that distracts you from being inspired with living?

Emotional / Relational Wellness

When life goes awry what do we reach for?

I was thrown into the thick of things the last few months.

Sometimes we need space.  Sometimes we need help.  And all of the time, we need a good dose of positivity.  

Surrounding ourselves with that and those who feed into a positive life is essential to maintaining balance during a turbulent time. 

On our own, we are enough negativity.   We hold all the worry, negative thought process, guilt and shame.  It's time for us to open our eyes and seek out that and those around us who will feed into us positively.  

Empathy and a listening ear are priceless, but our need to rehash and retell the negative to hear it is a selfish act.

We are caught in a vortex that speaks death over our lives and it feels good.  A catharses for our 'pride'.   "Look at me, see me, notice little me." 

We are called to be more.

We are called to : Speak real.  Speak truth.  Speak out of the pit.  

May we be that for those around us, and have the discernment to know when we should be reaching for the light in the dark.

Positivity doesn't mean ignoring the brokenness, it means hearing the broken and feeding into the life.

Where can we act in positive ways this week?  Who has spoken life into our lives?   

Speak out of the dark and into the light. 

Spiritual Wellness

Stale.  Bored.  Listless.  Apathetic.  

Day in.  Day out.

Is this what life should be?

When life becomes stale, we have compromised with our spirits.

We have said 

"This is just the way it is."

Life can pass us a mind numbing drug.  Be it a job to make ends meet, a relationship that keeps us from being alone, a new item to sit on our shelf.  Another episode of a TV show to entertain our emptiness.

I am saying no.

No to the emptiness and the apathy that we settle for. 

Say no to any action that takes us away from living a passion filled life.

What habits, routines, lifestyle choices keep you away from your passions?  What lies have you let yourself believe about life?

Stand up, wake up and shake it off.  

Live! 

Social/Relational Wellness

There begins a knot somewhere in our throat, or a deep indignation that wells up from the pit of us.  

What has happened?  Why are we failing these people? Why are these people failing us?

Expectation is a social/relational wellness pitfall.  It makes us think we know everything.  It makes us think we are in control of our surroundings and our relational interactions.

When we find ourselves feeling suppressed in our relational interactions it could very well be that we have not released ourselves or others from our expectations.

The expectations we have for ourselves.

The expectations we have for others.

They suffocate. 

Who do you need to release?  What can you release yourself from?  

Enjoy the freedom releasing gives.  

Spiritual Wellness

Our souls need time.

They need space.

They need focus.

We can't juggle the endless balls forever.  At some point a ball will be in mid-flight and will be dropped.  It's not at fault of the performer, but a mere human thing.  We weren't made to be jugglers for more than a short period of time.

We need to sleep.

To eat.

To drive.

To...exist.

Simply put, we need be able to focus on one thing at one time.

Are there things we do in our day to day that enforce a juggling that stresses us out more than calms us?  Is there a juggling vortex that we find ourself falling into?

Let's begin to focus solidly on what we do.

One thing, at one time.

Emotional Wellness

The thing that blew us out of the water was not the wee baby we brought into the world this May, but the everything else.

The tiny wee one we love so much just made life brighter ... yet somehow life got clouded.  Clouded by all the work, decisions, expectations and misunderstandings.

We started watching the days we thought would be family bliss become days of rushing from this to that.

No time.

No breathing room.

Barely able to meet up for groceries.

And in all that rush, all that work there is a band that can only stretch so far before it snaps.

Where is that snap?

Is it in the necessary moments of groceries, gas and budgeting?  Or the extra moments of birthdays, parties and visits?

Either way we need to breath.  We need to let life flow through us so we can continue walking, moving and dancing.  

Identifying our limitations are key to being able to breath free, breath proper and breath with purpose.

What are your limitations?  What is stopping you from breathing?

Financial/Physical Wellness

Tracking.  We are always tracking.  Our social media accounts track our posts, our work tracks our performance and our cars track their milage.

Tracking is a way we keep tabs on what we need to know. 

And what is it that we so easily loose track of?

Spending.  The dollars in our pockets.

Diet.  The food on our plates.

Keeping track of our finances is a great way to begin to respect the money that has blessed and is filtering through us.  We need to and should be good stewards of the funds we find ourselves with.  So often it can be easy to let it slip through our fingers without a second thought.

So many pro tips on staying healthy attest to a food log and or calorie counter giving insight to a diet.  We go through out our days fuelling our bodies but rarely taking the moment to truly consider everything and the 'weight' of what it is we are putting inside it.

What happens when we take the time to record our spending?  What happens when we write down everything we are eating?

Insight, awareness and empowerment.

Tracking what we so easily can loose control of empowers us to make decisions based off of knowledge instead of ignorance.

What do you need to start tracking?  Is there something in your life that is out of control?  

Emotional Wellness

It's so easy to get stuck.

Stuck in the place we are at, the thinking we carry and the lens we see through.

It's very ... limited.  To be a one-way-road thinker.

We do this.

'This is just the way I am'.

'This is just how I see things.'

We don't realize how jarring this is.  At least I didn't until that college professor of mine years back would catch me on it.  She would look at me frustrated.

"Amy, you have to get past explaining why you are doing these things, and start to own them."

But wasn't I owning them by explaining why?  

She would say in our communication classes:  "If you are finding yourself getting critical, you need to get curious."

And I would blah blah past it.  Thinking 'of course' but not really dwelling on what it meant.

But we grow.  We find we are capable of self reflection and overcoming personal barriers with the Grace we've been given.

It's time to get over being 'stuck'.  Stuck in our emotions, our ways of thinking, our personalities, our 'this-is-just-how-I-do-it' life.  We were made for more than our stumbling blocks.

What are your stumbling blocks?  What is so much 'you' that you end up explaining it away?  What can you work through daily to pull out the roots of these limitations?

Spiritual Wellness

I stare up at my new home.  The ocean across the street and the breeze lifts the sails of a boat across the way.  The seagulls cry and remind me that this was the home of my family.  My roots are here and I was made for 'here'.

I see the doors of the homes that line this street, some old and some new.  I laugh.

Everything in life that is meant to be is so 'unhinged'. 

I remember standing on a dock only months ago praying and asking for that abundance.  Not for the bigness, but for the smallness that my heart wanted to share.

Let me share the ocean and let me share the ocean air with my daughter and others.  "Is that too much to ask?"  I had prayed.

We walk in a world that likes to tell us no.  It's as simple as that.  

What we think is a world of 'we can be anything' is actually a world of nos.  

It's not a pessimistic take, it's just the way this universe turns.  

But it's upside down, so those no's are yes's and the yes's we receive may actually be no's. 

How topsy turvy.  How can we trust in anything bigger than us to guide us to the right place?

Have you come against a door that seems shut tight and won't budge?

We all have windows and doors.  What are they saying?

Are we trying to wedge them open when in fact they want to stay closed to protect us?  Are we passing open windows and doors without even knowing it?

This street that I am moving to...it's a street I spent my whole life on.  Yet I thought it wasn't for me.  And here we are walking to the ocean with our daughter in tow just as I used to run the street as a girl.  

Sometimes it's the doors we don't see that are unhinged and ready for us to walk through the door frames. 

Look for your unhinged doors.  They are all over the place.  

Social Wellness 

It was this image on a TV show that we saw.  An image of a family gathered around a table and the dynamics that occurred when they did.  Everyone so different yet there was a unity that survived around that table.

They had gathered.

Many of us long for this type of ease.  But is it ease?  How do we balance the high demands of real life with the desire to stay connected and respectful of each other?

Getting an extended family gathered routinely creates an opportunity for unity and understanding.

What keeps us from gathered?

Expectations, technology, schedule conflicts .... a myriad of life.  

How can we connect in an 'organic' way with our close and extended family?  Can it be a routine added or a sporadic moment?  A moment to unplug from our screens and share in an activity?  Or simply a weekly walk?

Whatever works for your family dynamic, gathering takes initiative and is a journey into wellness with each other.

Get creative.

What works for your family? 

Emotional & Spiritual Wellness

Sometimes it feels like we are in the quiet. The no nothing movement of life.  Everyone is rushing by us.  Swimming upstream and gaining momentum, and we, are stuck in a pool where everything is still and unmoving.  

But is it?

That is where the growing begins.  Tadpoles and baby fish are born here.  They start their lives in the quiet of the water.

And somehow, in some miraculous move of life, they are shoved back out into the rushing torrent of a stream.

This is what a friend relayed to me and this is how life can be.

Pools are the unmoving of soon to be miracles.

We love the rush and thriving of a busy thrumming exciting life.

It will come.

It will go.

There will always be pools.

And rapids. 

Emotional Wellness

It's a practice that is harder than it seems.

I sit with a best friend and every now and then we lift our phones to our faces and check on the neediness of the outside world.

We've talked about this before.  Neither of us are trying to be rude or even think much of when the other lifts a screen to a face, but, there is a difference.

We have worked harder to be more present and that is probably why there are rarely any instagram pictures of us doing life side by side in our different but bestie ways.  We don't pick up our phones the way we used to,.

And I practice when I am with my daughter to slide that airplane mode on my phone so that when I record how long she has fed, or take pictures of her I am not getting bombarded with messages at the same time.  

Trying to be present.

Being present means we embrace the airplane mode, we slow down and we look another in the eyes.

It's a work in progress.

How are you at being present?  Does your smart phone become a filler when you have nothing else to add.  Are you using a screen as a crutch?  How much more would you enjoy or not enjoy life by being more present in your dailys?