calm

When my daughter Lindsay was a little girl, she was looking through some black and white baby pictures of her dad. She asked, “Daddy, was everything black and white in the old days?” “Yes,” he said. She looked puzzled and asked, “When did the new days start?” He quickly replied, “When your mom was born.” Change is happening all of the time. We often don’t notice the little or unexpected changes until we look back and see how far we’ve come. Some change – like the pandemic – happens so fast we can get thrown-off balance physically, financially, relationally, and… Read More

We cannot change what this pandemic has done, but we can change ourselves by learning to adapt and move forward. Adapting to change helps you to enjoy less stress and more success in your work and in your life. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl In my business as an international speaker, I have given keynotes and training sessions around the globe in Canada, United States, Mexico, Australia, Aruba, and United Kingdom. I love travelling. I love being together with others and… Read More

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

How afraid should people be in the midst of this pandemic? In an interview on W5 last night, renowned Epidemiologist, Dr. Bruce Aylward, from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in Geneva, Switzerland said, “We are watching an outbreak evolve so people should be concerned, they should be informed, they should be doing the right things and managing it; but, panicking is definitely not going to help. You panic when you’re on a sinking boat in the middle of the ocean with no lifeboat and you can’t swim. This isn’t that situation. We know… Read More

So you’ve committed (and recommitted) to sticking to your healthy eating plan. But . . . You feel stressed (bored, overwhelmed, tired), so . . . You eat a donut (a cupcake, a cookie) or two . . . or twelve. You feel relief . . . for a while. The relief wears off and regret sets in. The regret triggers more stress and . . . you reach for those darn comfort foods again! Why did it happen? I mean . . . . . . you knew what you had planned to eat that day. . . . Read More

Ever wonder why, in the past, you didn’t stick to your goal to: lose weight, quit smoking, stop drinking, or whatever else it is you’ve been trying to achieve  . . . Even though you really, really, REALLY wanted to? It wasn’t because you didn’t know what to do. I’ll bet you knew exactly what to do. You probably even had the plan to follow – or – at the very least, you knew how to figure out where to get it! So what was it? 1) What stopped you? AND, more importantly . . . 2) How can… Read More

Physical clutter equals mind clutter. Donate, recycle, or discard those things you no longer need, use, or love. Take a deep breath and exhale very slowly. As you exhale, imagine blowing away all your worries, concerns, and tension. Allow your muscles to relax, and begin to breathe at your regular pace. Now imagine you’re in a calm, relaxing, and peaceful place. That place might be a sandy beach on a warm summer’s day, or the woods on a crisp fall morning. Wherever that relaxing place is, at the end of this paragraph, close your eyes, continue to… Read More

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” If you have children, you likely have first-hand experience with just how impatient they can be when it comes to traveling. Or perhaps you can remember the impatience you felt as a child during a long trip. Now that you’re all grown up, the big question is: Are you still impatient on the journey? Many of us have carried this “destination impatience” forward into adulthood. When we’re in school, we can’t wait to graduate. When we graduate, we can’t wait to work. When we work, we can’t wait to work somewhere else, find… Read More

In his book For One More Day, Mitch Albom writes, “I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. ‘The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,’ he said. ‘You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.’” That’s good advice to remember. It’s easy to value, accept, and care about yourself “on the way up,”… Read More