What is your relationship with fear? Do you ever find yourself afraid of success or failure? Of being judged or ridiculed? Of being rejected? I know I do! Do such fears ever stop you from moving forward? From being happy? From expressing/dreaming? From sharing love? From forgiving? From revealing your actual self to the world? Sometimes, we don’t even realize how fear is causing havoc in our lives, until we begin to explore our thoughts and feelings. And sometimes, even when we know we are afraid,
Read more →How well are you taking care of yourself? On a scale of 0-10, where do you rate yourself? If your score indicates room for growing your self care plan, are you interested in stepping up to the plate? If so, I’ve got a Challenge for you! I recently came across a long list of self care ideas at a free workshop, “Caring for the Caregiver” provided by The Regional Child Protection Center at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. The purpose of this workshop was to impact
Read more →Do your daily habits help or hinder you to be the kind of person you want to be? Habits, the small actions that we do on a regular basis, can support and reinforce what is important to us. But they can also get in our way and keep us stuck. It’s important to recognize which daily habits are HELPING us, because then we can be intentional about keeping them, expanding them or perhaps even adding other similar habits. It’s also important to recognize which daily habits are HINDERING us,
Read more →When you’re having a difficult time, fail, make a mistake or notice something you don’t like about yourself, how do you typically respond? With compassion toward yourself? Or with harsh judgement and self-criticism? Many of us find it difficult to offer ourselves the same understanding and kindness we would to a friend who is going through a hard time or feels inadequate. Instead we find ourselves stuck in constant debilitating self-judgement. As some of you already know, I signed up for swimming
Read more →“What do you need to relinquish in order to receive what you cannot yet imagine?” ~Walter Brueggemann~
Read more →What’s Your Story? My friend, Bill, protected me from a Mama goose attack this afternoon. At least that’s the story that Bill, Carrie (another friend) and I settled on by the time we finished our 40 mile bike ride. We were on the final 10 mile stretch when we came upon the goose and her babies standing quietly alongside the trail. Carrie had just passed them as Bill, drafting close behind me, and I were fast approaching. That’s when the
Read more →Although life coaching is all about “growing forward”, our pasts can sometimes get in the way of the very progress we say we want to make. We get stuck, we hit roadblocks, we sabotage ourselves, we have difficulty in relationships. Sometimes it’s important to pause, reflect and learn from our past. We can then apply this self-awareness into our current reality and be in a better position to move forward. Take “difficulty in relationships” for example. This just happens
Read more →When was the last time you blessed someone? Or someone blessed you? It is important, I think, to rediscover our power to bless each other. To bless someone is to affirm them, to say good things about them. To say “yes” to who they are and wish them well. We can bless someone with our words, our writing, our touch , and our acts of kindness however small. We can bless the people we know-our family members, friends and co-workers, or even total strangers. Blessing someone can
Read more →“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” Henry David Thoreau What perspective are you wearing today? It can be helpful to ask ourselves this question because we’re often unaware of our perspective until we check-in with ourselves. It’s good to be aware because sometimes our current perspective is a powerful filter that can limit the possibilities we see. It can help to try on other more empowering perspectives. PERSPECTIVE: the way we see things; the way we
Read more →Do you ever have trouble communicating? Discover that what you say and what people actually hear are not the same thing? I certainly do! Making ourselves understood isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are numerous things we can do to sharpen our communication skills and improve how we are heard. Last week, while spending time with my seven young grandchildren, I witnessed my five-year-old granddaughter having trouble getting her point across to one of her cousins. Her little voice got louder and louder as she attempted to be heard
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