Don’t Let Your Year-End Review Get Heavy

I think it’s because reflection is so valuable that we often fail to do it. In our desperate need for fresh insights, new motivation, and a sense of accomplishment, the reflection process looms larger than life. And if asking questions about our recent past begins to feel heavy, we delay doing it until we can…

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Go Get Your Silence

A Moment of Silence I had a second of silence this week. Lately my ears ring constantly, but for an instant, the roar of tinnitus blinked.  It’s only happened twice in the last 358 days. But it wasn’t guaranteed to happen at all.  The doctors don’t know why I’m suddenly super sensitive to sound, or…

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Use Your Body To Clear Your Mind

A Body-First Approach to Responding to Stress   This week I’ve been thinking about the mind/body connections of stress, anxiety, and negative emotions. When emotional triggers pop up in life, one of the most effective things we can do is to give ourselves space by interrupting our physical stress response. It’s nice when we can interrupt…

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Stress Rescue Routine: E.A.S.E.

Stress Rescue Routine: E.A.S.E. Stress doesn’t have to kill us. But sometimes we need a rescue from the chaos that has swallowed us. Learning how to respond well to stress allows us to stay energized enough to care for others, rather than being burnt out and irritable. It also allows us to work smarter and…

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Dealing with Disruption & Uncertainty

What can we do when life goes crazy around us? Changes, chaos, uncertainty, and seasons of waiting can cause massive disruption to our equilibrium. Even positive events, and exciting activities (like a wedding, job change, or vacation) are still disruptors in our ordinary lives.  And then there’s the bad stuff. I’m sorry. I could use…

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Conquering Avoidance to Become Present

We may be able to avoid something for a while…but we can’t avoid the consequences of putting it off. Sometimes we underestimate how much energy we’re burning by avoiding stuff. The choice to “not think about it” takes energy, and we risk fallout when we leave things on the avoidance pile. This summer, since our…

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The Life Saving Power of TINY Steps

Off the Beaten Path I’ve been spending a lot of time in 4 Wheel Drive. Dirt roads have been the good roads in a lot of the places I’ve visited lately. Often, the roads through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona have been built of rocks, gravel, ravines, and broken slabs of clay. “Why do you do this?” …

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Don’t Just Get Through (Photo Journal)

I’ve driven across Kansas a few times now. If you’ve ever been through Kansas, you know that there are a lot of open fields, miles of pastures and a horizon that seems to stretch forever. For most of us, the sheer novelty of the windmills and old barns and farming implements is enough to keep…

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Desk Vacation Challenge

  Today my heart is at the beach but my body is at my desk. So when my Fitbit reminded me to move – I got up from my desk, closed my eyes and took a mini mental vacation to my favorite beach. As I took a few slow deep breaths, I could feel the…

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Heart Health and Positive Connection

As you are probably aware, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. What you may not have heard is that a lack of positive connection has the same detrimental health effects as smoking and excessive alcohol use! What if there were something you could do in just a few minutes per day that would help you dramatically improve both your cardiovascular health AND your ability to generate positive connections with others?

There are exciting research studies that show how meditation—specifically loving-kindness meditation—has a direct and measurable impact on our brains and our hearts. (Read More)

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