Live a Life You Love

In addition to dealing with a “new normal” way of life, many of us are facing another new normal – a “new normal summer body.” The term coined for weight gained during the pandemic is: The Quarantine 15. A popular post on social media reads: “Due to coronavirus, my summer body will be delayed to 2021. Thank you for understanding.” Making light of difficult situations can have its place in helping to reduce stress. But . . . Let’s face it, weight gain can be hard on our self-esteem, health, and overall wellbeing. What can you do… Read More

Can we talk about the science of prayer for a sec? In her book, Who Switched off My Brain? Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions, Dr. Caroline Leaf writes: “A growing body of scientific research confirms that prayer and actively developing your spiritual life increases frontal lobe activity, thickness, intelligence, and overall health.” (Page 115) Think about that for a minute: Prayer and actively developing your spiritual life increases frontal lobe activity, thickness, intelligence, and overall health! Prayer is a critical human spiritual activity. Millions of people in all cultures, races, and religions pray. Sometimes the answers I get… Read More

Are you ready for a good laugh? Here’s the FULL blooper reel from the recording of my online course. It’s pretty funny! I experienced so many emotions during those hours, days, and weekends of recording. I felt excited, frustrated, playful, confused, relieved, happy . . . you’ll see! Imagine if you could watch a recording of yourself during the past ten weeks! How many different emotions would you observe? Thankfully, this pandemic won’t last forever. As Robert Schuller said: “Tough times never last, but tough people do!” Here are three strategies to build resilience… Read More

Just when you were getting used to counting crickets . . . Businesses are gradually reopening and stay-at-home directives are being eased. This reopening can come with certain challenges and stresses. Rest assured, I’ll continue to send strategies to help you reduce worry and stress as we navigate through these next phases together. Until then . . . Let’s go back to what I said about “counting crickets.” Does anyone ever get used to that? I’m talking about boredom. Boredom. Can. Be. Painful. Can you relate? That’s precisely why . . . I went on a quest to find a… Read More

One morning, I opened my emails and saw a message containing this subject line: “You’ve probably heard this lots of times but your book really has saved my life! Thank you!” Obviously, I was very curious. I opened that email first and here’s what I read: “Hello Denise, I recently discovered your book while trying to get my life back on track. I have just been through an extremely rough patch and I was worried about everything that was happening. I wouldn’t leave my bedroom, let alone the house, to… Read More

In these challenging times it can be hard to manage our feelings and find the happiness in the every day. Jennifer Valentyne interviewed me on Global News this morning to find the positive in difficult situations. How can we be happy during this time of uncertainty? In talking about “finding happiness”, we need to expose the myth of happiness. The Happiness Myth: The myth is that we’re supposed to be happy all of the time; and, when we’re feeling unhappy it means something is wrong. The problem with this widely held belief is that it creates more… Read More

If you’ve read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, you’ll know it to be a book about survival. Frankl miraculously survived the network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps. While there are numerous ideas in this book for changing a person’s life, the message that stands out for me today is that of hope. Frankl describes how prisoners died less from lack of food or medicine, than from a lack of hope and a lack of something to live for. He describes a particularly bad day in the camp. He knew encouragement was needed now more than ever. As the… Read More

David’s closing words ignited more peace and hope than I could have imagined! There were just about five minutes left in my online interview with Mortgage Agent, David Imler. I was live streaming the show and David’s image froze. Since we had already covered the strategies I’d promised viewers by this point, I decided it would be a good time to end the episode. Little did I know the best was yet to come . . . This episode focused on helping people to reduce their financial stress during the pandemic. To close the show,… Read More

I was inspired to post this picture of me with my big 80’s hairstyle (look for it at the bottom of this post) after seeing Jennifer Valentyne’s 80’s hair picture on Instagram. (You rocked it Jenn!) Big hair blowing in the wind aside, did you notice the caption of the article? “13-year-old pulled friend from frozen Lake Simcoe” Yup, that was me! I fell through the ice when I was 13 years old. I had been playing on the ice of Lake Simcoe with two friends. I became bored and wandered off by myself. In an attempt to cure… Read More

We’re in a storm the likes of which most of us have never seen before. Storms are very normal in life. Storms happen in relationships, they happen in finances, and they happen with health. Yet, the storm we are facing right now – this pandemic – could be called the “perfect storm” in that it’s impacting all areas of life in every part of the world. In my online conversation last night, Doug Schneider said: “While storms are very normal, what happens when we’re not used to going through them is we can begin to catastrophize. Read More