The holidays are fun, but man can they be stressful! 

On top of your already busy life, the holidays can create chaos with your schedule!  There is shopping to do, parties to attend, gifts to wrap, and bills to pay. 

Honoring traditions and spending time with family and friends, for some, is a beautiful thing, but for others, it can trigger painful memories of the past leading to anger, sadness, or anxiety.  The holidays can also be difficult for those who have lost a loved one and are grieving, or for those who are reminded of loved ones who passed long ago, but who are still dearly missed. 

And what about all of the yummy, tempting food!  When we’re stressed, it’s easy to turn to food for comfort!  It can be difficult to maintain balance and control where over-indulgence can lead to adding a few pounds of weight and a ton of guilt! 

Here are three quick ways that you can make your holiday season happier and healthier:

My love affair with Mindfulness is in full bloom, and when a client recently shared this Ted Talk given by Shauna Shapiro, I couldn’t wait to share it with you!

Key takeaways from this talk include:

The RAIN of Self-Compassion is a simple but profound mindfulness practice can be used as a stand-alone mindful meditation, or as a tool to cope with painful thoughts, feelings, or body sensations. 

RAIN is one of the essential mindfulness tools that

I am a lover of self-compassion.  Seriously, I could talk your ear off for hours.  When I first discovered self-compassion in graduate school, I wondered, where has this been all of my life?  It seems to me that we are most familiar with is self-criticism, self-judgement, and low self-esteem.

I have discovered, however, in my work and in my life, that

The 3-minute breathing space meditation is a quick and portable mini-meditation designed to help you connect with the present moment.

 2017 has arrived!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that you are as excited and anticipatory about the upcoming year as I am.  Although I have a lot of plans, ideas, and dreams in store for the year, I am equally excited to open up, accept, and see what serendipitously “flows” my way.  (Stay tuned for more about living in flow, as is a theme I will be focusing on this year.)

Is your heart heavy and your spirit burdened because there is something that you are holding on and you need to let go?  Perhaps it is a person, a relationship, a dream, a mistake, a habit, a vice. 

Often times we choose to cling and suffer because we believe that by holding on, we will eventually get what we want - our deepest, most ardent desire.  Or, by holding on, we believe that we can avoid what we don’t want - loss, heartache, loneliness, fear.  We resist letting go because we have tried and not succeeded in the past, and the cloak of shame, regret, and failure deceive us into believing that we are not strong enough or capable now. Sometimes we stubbornly refuse to let go because we are convinced that the time is not right.  We mistakenly believe that when our circumstances change or it feels right, the process of letting go will be easier and without pain.

Has the time come?  Are you ready to let go?  If so, be gentle with yourself.  Recognize that letting go is a painful process, and take comfort in knowing that with patience and compassion for yourself, you will heal.

Try experimenting with the following ideas...

There is an old saying, “there are only two things guaranteed in life, they are death and taxes!”  I would add a third guarantee—change.  Change is an inevitable, inescapable phenomenon.  In fact, even as you are reading this now, something about you is changing—what you are thinking, what you are feeling in response to what you are reading or perceiving this very moment!

Sometimes the changes that