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Taking Care of Yourself This Holiday Season
While the holiday season can be quite joyous, it can also bring up a lot of stress and overwhelm – and for some, it can stir up feelings of pain or loneliness. According to the American Institute of Stress, more than 110 million Americans take medication for stress-related causes each week. And when the holidays come along, people already predisposed to stress can find themselves feeling blue and more anxious than usual. Even those who don’t ordinarily feel stressed under the pressure of events or deadlines, still find that the holiday season can play havoc on day-to-day routines. So what can we do? “Plan for stress,” say the experts – just like you plan ahead for any calamity you want to avoid. The more prepared…
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How Does Autumn Inspire Rich Colors of Change for You?
In just a few days, a new season begins – and with it, comes an extraordinary amount of change. I love the rich, vibrant colors of autumn. It’s my favorite season of the year – and oh, so inspiring! How does this colorful season inspire the “rich color” within you? How does it spark your creative process? Imagine taking an autumn walk and being surrounded by the richness of change. You see the leaves changing colors, perhaps dropping to the ground. You notice that squirrels are running around, looking for nuts to store for the winter. You notice the flower beds are getting a little more bare. You can sense that everything is changing – in preparation for a new cycle. In nature, there is…
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How Does Autumn Inspire Rich Colors of Change?
I love the rich, vibrant colors of autumn. It’s my favorite season of the year – and oh, so inspiring! How does this season inspire the “rich color” within you? How does it spark your creative process? Imagine taking an autumn walk and being surrounded by the richness of change. You see the leaves changing colors, perhaps dropping to the ground. You notice that squirrels are running around, looking for nuts to store for the winter. You notice the flower beds are getting a little more bare. You can sense that everything is changing – in preparation for a new cycle. In nature, there is nothing that is not continually renewing itself – and that constant renewal is out of the ground of what no longer…
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Do You Feel Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere?
A few years ago, there was an American television commercial that showed a sports utility vehicle driving through a remote mountain scene. And the voice-over said, “You can find yourself in the middle of nowhere – or in the middle of nowhere you can find yourself.” This phrase seems to capture the sentiment of so many people in my life right now – clients, colleagues, friends, even me. Some are dealing with major life transitions that feel painfully uncomfortable – while others are preparing for new beginnings and fresh starts that involve a sense of unknowingness about the future. If we take a closer look at the first part of the phrase, “You can find yourself in the middle of nowhere” – we may feel…
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What Reality Are You Choosing?
As we move toward the darkest day of the year, I’m mindful of how much our outer landscape mirrors our inner one. What we think and how we’re feeling on the inside can affect what we see on the outside. If our inner light is burning bright, it allows us to see beauty and possibility in the most dire of circumstances. And if our inner light is dim – or completely burned out, we’ll only see what feels dark and challenging around us. How bright is your inner light? Is it lighting up a path of vision and possibility? Or are you feeling uninspired – with a lack of vision and clarity for what might be coming next in your life? Wouldn’t it be nice…