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When Life Demands a Reboot

In a totally weird, unexpected (and yet fortuitous?) event, my Instagram and Facebook accounts were hacked/disabled recently. Just like that. No controversial posts or bad behavior, just bots doing their thing. SO I confirm my identity and wait. Nothing (what’s up with that, Meta?). I’ve always truly believed that when one door closes, two more open, so I’ve decided this is a great opportunity for a reboot, literally.

May is Mental Health Awareness month—did you know it started way back in 1949? I didn’t until I checked—and like it or not, it’s one of the hottest topics in America today. Mental health support, and the debate around it, is more mainstream than ever—rightfully so. But what is mental health, exactly? How do you know if you need to give it some attention? Just start to pay attention to how you feel. Simply taking brief moments every day to deliberately relax, focus on the good, imagine better outcomes, etc., goes a long way, and we can all do that, starting now. In truth is, we all are juggling a variety of stressful, demanding circumstances in life. Many of us have more than one professional identity – with remote work, fast paced, creative freedom, we can pursue more dreams, enhance our natural skills, interests and passions. I’m a writer and life coach, and that works great for me today. Tapping into personal life experiences, successes, overcoming unique challenges, to inform my coaching work and various forms of writing continues to be tremendously fulfilling. It’s a natural evolution of my ever-evolving career path. After all, is anyone who they were 10 or 20 years ago?

Our quickly changing society and technology often inspires people to create more than one career. Being a creative writer, in a variety of outlets, and a certified life coach, to express and share life skills and healthy, empowering tools for de-stressing and rejuvenating, suit my talents and personality. For so many, life is more stressful now than ever before. Good mental health is about allowing yourself to live the best possible life you can, today, while being satisfied and at peace with where you are. Tomorrow is never promised to any of us, so making today as great as possible must be a top priority. So this month, do your own reboot, ask for support to help if you need it, imagine better outcomes, and take inspired actions. And have some fun doing it, isn’t that why we’re here in the first place?

P.S. – OK, I created a new Instagram, send good vibes for a long, healthy life. Follow me HERE, If you’re curious about coaching and want to try a complimentary 20 minute exploratory session, go HERE.

Nurturing Your Mental Health Is Normal

Mental health is real. It’s as real as that sore knee or high cholesterol or pesky headache. It’s literally running your life, all the time, in endless ways. How you habitually think, what you focus on, what you believe is true, about life and yourself. This is all fluid, and changeable, if you pay attention. Mental health is not something you can prop up with pretty Instagram photos, or glam parties and social status. Not for long, anyway.

Now ask yourself one question: How is your mental health these days? What are your most dominant thoughts, the ones on loop? Make them conscious, by writing them down. Try come up with your Top 10 most frequent thoughts. Then look directly at them. These dominant thoughts are creative, of course. They literally come to life, somehow. How many of them lament that you’re not enough, don’t have enough, or lack something that ‘happy’ people have?

Some high profile documentaries out recently – including Selena Gomez’s “My Mind & Me” and Jonah Hill’s Stutz — shine a bright light on the fact that celebrity status, massive success and fame don’t automatically fuel and nurture one’s mental health. Having it all doesn’t remotely guarantee happiness and inner peace. The tragedy of Naomi Judd and more recently, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, brings this reality to vivid light.

So if you’re constantly struggling, hiding, coping or suffering with your own mind, conflicts, overthinking, judgments, and fears, you’re just being human, but you also have many options. Be the boss of soothing your own mind. You don’t have to suffer in silence, or shame, not anymore. Support and help is everywhere, relief is in sight. Ask for help. Reach out to a great therapist, or life coach, or anyone in the healing arts who appeals to you. Trust your intuition. Don’t wait. We all have limitless resources alive within us, and getting support can help you tap into that freedom alive within you. Don’t seek approval, seek support that resonates within you. Your loved ones, family, friends and everyone you know will benefit, too.

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For a short time, I’m offering a complimentary, 30-minute coaching session, which is designed to result in real clarity and insight into how you can start to create more happiness, even after one session, and cultivate habits and healthier beliefs that naturally result in more peace, power, abundance and feeling good.

It’s easy: Just go HERE to fill out a brief inventory (it saves time), and HERE to contact me, to arrange the session. And read some testimonials HERE, because many clients have experienced life-changing results.

NOTE: If you’re already a wildly happy camper, firing on all cylinders, and crushing it, I say congrats to you, and please forward this to someone you know and love who’s not quite there yet.

Mental Health: Being Happier Now IS a Worthy Life Goal

Would you like to be happier than you are right now? What a question, right? Mental health is a hot topic now, and for good reason.

For information on how you can experience a one-time complimentary coaching session, scroll down.

At one time, I perceived coaching to be mostly about focusing on creating more material success, more money, climbing the ladder, etc. Not necessarily true. Going on the coaching journey isn’t about creating a perfect life. More than ever, I believe it’s about creating more real happiness and fulfillment–right now. With life so fleeting, and so unpredictable, isn’t being happier now what it’s really all about?

Experiencing the turmoil, unpredictable events and chaos in the last few years has had a profound affect on so many of us. And many have realized that what’s most elusive these days is not about stuff:

Feeling more peace, joy, and personal happiness—which is different for each of us—is what seems most elusive.

If you’re willing to give up some of that time spent doom-scrolling on social media, or obsessing over what’s wrong or missing in your life, then read on.

For a short time, I’m offering a complimentary, 30-minute coaching session, which is designed to result in real clarity and insight into how you can start to create more happiness, even after one session, and cultivate habits and healthier beliefs that naturally result in more peace, power, abundance and feeling good.

It’s easy: Just go HERE to fill out a brief inventory (it saves time), and HERE to contact me, to arrange the session. And read some testimonials HERE, because many clients have experienced life-changing results.

NOTE: If you’re already a wildly happy camper, firing on all cylinders, and crushing it, I say congrats to you, and please forward this to someone you know and love who’s not quite there yet.

Little Delights Matter

What are your little delights in life? This may sound impractical, but identifying and cultivating them can have a profound impact on your life. Given the immense challenges of the last year or so, with routines and normalcy obliterated, I’ve come to realize the importance of paying attention to what I call in my coaching sessions ‘little delights.’ The things that, no matter what’s going on out there, can bring you back to a sense of personal joy and happiness.

A seemingly simple, meaningless little delight had the power to shift my energy, my outlook on life.

I had a personal revelation about this recently. One of my favorite personal ‘little delights’ is starting the day, slowly, with a big iced coffee in a cool-looking tumbler, usually propped up on pillows in my bed, with some music playing. Over the years, I’ve found this is just my thing: My creativity flows freely, for whatever writing projects — a new script or freelance writing project, personal aha’s or new ideas for my coaching practice. This is when I most easily get ‘out of the box’ and I have access to an overall feeling of abundance and well-being. Having been away from NYC for extended periods during Covid, I found that when I returned recently, I didn’t have my usual fancy tumbler. So I drank my iced coffee out of a plastic sippy cup, out of laziness, thinking it was not a big deal. Much more important stuff going on, right? Every morning for a few weeks. I felt less joyful and optimistic. Sure, that could just be my Twitter feed talking, but I realize now it was not just the toxic news out there. I had taken away one of my little delights, and it ended up reverberated throughout the rest of my day. My energy/mojo felt off. I’d look at the sappy cup with disdain but heard myself think, oh, what does it matter? It’s just coffee.

But that’s not true, not at all. Little delights matter. So I put ‘new coffee tumbler’ on my To Do list —which for me means it will actually get done — and got a brand new, delightful cup. Almost immediately, I felt more energetic and optimistic. A seemingly simple, meaningless little delight had the power to shift my energy, my outlook on life. Crazy, but for me, true.

So take a moment today and ask yourself what little delights have you lost touch with (because of Covid or any other reason)? Make a list of your top 5 things that just make you happy, regardless of what’s going on. Then, simply make sure you’re including those in your daily routine. Sprinkle them into your routine. Maybe you’ll be happier for a few minutes, or hours, or longer? isn’t that what it’s all about?

For more: Download my free eBook, or get in touch with me here. Be safe and well, and in the now.

The Art of Letting Go

As a long-time resident of New York City — 24 years and counting — I’m all too aware of the horror raining down on this amazing city, and around our country, and the world. The grief and fear are beyond words, and the uncertainty almost unbearable.

silhouette people on beach at sunset
Photo by Dana Tentis on Pexels.com

But as a writer and a life coach, I inevitably found myself compartmentalizing that pain long enough to ‘self-coach’ myself, and began wracking my brain in search of any miracles in this mess. With the world basically shut down for God knows how long, what’s the opportunity here? Is there one?

Some coaches and self-help authors have been taking flack (perhaps rightfully so) lately for chirping out what many see as untimely cheerleading — hey, now is a great time to improve yourself, learn a language, earn an online degree, or start a business! — because for many (myself included) that’s the last thing we want to hear right now. We just are trying to stay sane, and manage our fear, rage and junk food intake in a world gone mad, right?

That said, I actually arrived at some clarity to my own question, about somehow finding a miracle in this mess. I came up with this:

What if this is the perfect time to just Let Go. Let go of your old crap! Let it go, once and for all.

So I did a review of some of the thoughts/beliefs/habits that don’t feel good, and I noticed they’re many of the most common “erroneous zones” — as Wayne Dyer famously called them — that create so much unnecessary suffering for us humans.

Do you feel any of these on a regular basis (or are there any others would you add to this list)?

— Guilt
— Resentment
— Shame
— Regrets
— Approval Seeking
— Blame
— Comparisons
— Grudges

Any of these ring a bell? What would happen if you used this life-altering pandemic as your excuse to finally acknowledge them, and because of life’s new uncertainties, just let them all go?

For example, imagine your life without guilt. Guilt for that mistake you made last year. Guilt for not being more successful, or some missed opportunity you keep agonizing about. Imagine if you just said, I’m letting it all go, life is too short! Imagine that for a moment.

Now try it with another topic you’ve identified in your life. Maybe you discover you’re holding on to resentment, or blame, and it’s draining your energy. How would life feel if you let them go? Keep going through your list, and asking these kinds of questions, it can actually get to be really fun and liberating.

Now ask yourself: Who would I be right now, if I ‘let go’ of even one of the items on my list? Would I be happier, healthier, more loving, filled with relief? Or will I just stay same as I am now?

I think it’s safe to say, life will be forever changed by this pandemic. Staying the same isn’t really an option, so embracing and crafting your own inner changes seems like a pretty good idea, too.

So how do you ‘let go’ of guilt, or resentment, or whatever it is you’ve identified? Acknowledge it, own it, and then practice a mantra in your own words that declares you’re letting it go now.  One example: “I have no more time or energy for _____ in my life, I’m letting this go, for my highest good.” Use your own words, but make sure it’s said in the present tense, with an “I am” context. Give thanks. It’s your decision, and you’ve made it. If you feel lighter and better, you know you’re on the right track.

Need more motivation to give this a try? Leading energy healers, mind body researchers and wellness experts have released volumes of material reflecting the immense benefits of letting go of long-held negative emotions. Check out the work of Anita Moorjani, Louise Hay and Aleta St. James, to name a few. Do some research and find out for yourself, and discover what resonates most with you.

So go ahead, make your own ‘let go’ list. Who knows where it might lead. But as we shelter in place, why not practice the art of letting go, just for the fun of it?