“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt There’s a quiet moment before the spotlight hits when everything in your body wants to run. Your hands tremble. Your voice tightens. Your breath shortens, even though the room is still. You love what you do—you’ve trained,…
“Make it a great day that ends with a smile in your heart.” Growing up, I always heard my father speak variations of these words. They’ve always sort of been ingrained in my head, but now more than ever are forever planted. He lived by them. He breathed them. And in doing so, he instilled them in me so…
“Rituals are the formulas by which harmony is restored.” ~Terry Tempest Williams Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. One day, it’s a relationship you thought would last. Another, it’s a career path that suddenly dissolves. A health scare. A financial setback. Aging parents. A terrifying diagnosis. A global pandemic. If you’re lucky, you haven’t experienced all these—yet. But…
“To love someone deeply is to learn the art of holding on and letting go—sometimes at the very same time.” ~Unknown Nothing has softened me—or challenged me—like caring for my ninety-six-year-old mother as she slowly withdraws from the world. I thought I was strong, but this is a different kind of strength—one rooted in surrender, not control. She once…
“Success isn’t about what you do; it’s about who you are. Just existing—waking up, breathing, being present—is enough.” ~Unknown On my third trip to the emergency room, I lay in a hospital bed, ten weeks pregnant and nine kilograms lighter. I had just vomited for the forty-seventh time that day. My body felt empty, but the nausea never stopped….
The first time I got my heart broken—really, painfully broken—I remember feeling too ashamed to ask for support. I didn’t talk about it with anyone because, at the time, there weren’t many people I trusted with such a raw and tender part of myself. I cried a lot, so people around me knew something had happened, but looking back,…
“Joy comes to us in moments—ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.” ~Brené Brown I started going to my local gym a few months ago to prepare for a strenuous hike. The gym is a tiny place, located on a quiet street in the middle of a small town….
“When you are in uncertainty, when you feel at risk, when you feel exposed, don’t tap out. Stay brave, stay uncomfortable, stay in the cringy moment, lean into the hard conversation, and keep leading.” ~Brené Brown When you think of someone who’s struggling financially, you might picture someone who’s barely making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck, just getting…
“If you are willing to look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will, over time, cease to react at all.” ~Yogi Bhajan Several years ago, I hiked into the remote forestlands of Bukidnon, a mountainous province in the southern…
“Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.” ~Theodore Roosevelt We are used to people talking about Dry January or Sober October but rarely a Sober Summer. That doesn’t seem to be a thing—but what if it was? What if it could be your reality this year? I knew I wanted my relationship with alcohol to be different at many…
