The Tricky Business of Managing Risk

I was teaching about this concept called “Escalation of Commitment” in my Management class at the community college, and it applies not only to managing your business or your home, but to managing your relationships and your health.

Escalation of Commitment is defined as “an increased commitment to a previous decision despite evidence that it may have been wrong”.  (Robbins and Coulter, Management p. 47)

There are so many ways that I have seen this play out in my personal and professional life. For example, when you have a client that you have helped for a year, and they haven’t paid you yet (because you only get paid when the project is finished or the deal is closed), but if you work a little harder, if you give a little more, if you invest a little more time, maybe you will finally get paid and then that year will have been worth all the effort. But it is so easy for that year to turn into two and then three. And it is so hard to admit that you will never see a return on that investment. So you need to learn to see those clients and those projects more clearly in the beginning, before your commitment has escalated. You need to learn to calculate the risks and rewards of each project. But personally, I love how many times in the business textbooks, after they explain all the models and equations that you can use to create your matrix and do your calculations, that it all comes down to learning to tune in to your intuition!

“Although managers try to quantify a decision when possible by using payoff and regret matrices, uncertainty often forces them to rely more on intuition, creativity, hunches and “gut feel”.” (Robbins and Coulter, Management p. 53)

So, let’s assume that we have already invested a lot of time and energy into a project, or a client, or a relationship. Now we feel that we need to protect that investment. There are a few ways that we do this, the same as with any investments like our property and our retirement accounts. We buy insurance, we manage risk, we learn to look at it from all angles and see the big picture, and just in case those don’t work, we need to diversify. So in both your personal and professional relationships, it is healthy to have a large support network, and different types of relationships that serve different needs. I like to make sure that I have a healthy mix of mentors that I look up to and peers to network and collaborate with, to support and encourage me so that I can teach and mentor others.

But how do you learn to see the big picture and manage risk when it comes to protecting your largest investment? And no, I’m not talking about your property or your retirement account. I’m talking about your health.

• How do you learn to see your health from all angles (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual) and learn to diversify your investments of time and energy?
• How do you learn to quit before you have given too much of yourself and admit that you will never get water out of that stone?
• How do you learn to discern what you are doing just out of habit so that you can make the conscious choice to stop and turn around and look for another path?

The problem is that we have invested a lot of time and energy in our stories. We have generations of family values wrapped up in those stories that we have been told since we were babies. To unravel that takes time and attention. Often when someone comes to me because they are in pain, they want more attention for their pain, but they don’t really want to stop being sick or stop being in pain because they have invested so much of themselves into that story. That pain has been such a part of who they are, that if they removed it, they wouldn’t know who they were anymore. Many times, that pain is the basis of their relationships with friends and family. Being a victim, or being sick, has meant that the people in their life need to take care of them and need to pay attention to them. Changing that story changes their whole world. If they no longer need that help, their rescuer or protector may find themselves out of a job.

So, we continue to protect that investment that we have put into this lifetime, (or generations) of stories. I am often asked “how did you do that?” or “how did you get to this point?” and I want to give them honest answers so that they too can begin to heal and stop being in pain. As a teacher, I love to explain how things work and share my discoveries, but I’ve found that if I just give someone additional information or facts, they may not be able to hear me because they feel it threatening their perception of reality. They start to protect their investments, even if they are not aware that they are doing it. So, even though they know that their choices thus far, or their family’s way of doing things, or their belief systems, are causing them pain and heartache and misery, it is hard to walk away from that Escalation of Commitment to the story. This is why they say that it is hard to “teach an old dog new tricks”. Even when we don’t really feel old, we need to realize that we are carrying stories and beliefs from our ancestors as Red Flags in our DNA that are warning us to fear change.

In my management class when we do the chapters on Innovation and Managing Stress, I show clips from the movie “The Croods” which is about how the cavemen were afraid of leaving what they knew.They had created a society with rules and strictures that kept them safe. Trying new things and being innovative could get you killed. They told stories about how someone left home once, and they died. Someone tried a new food once, and they died. So all of those stories were passed down not only as legend, but in the DNA as warning signs. All these years later, we feel ourselves getting stressed out or fearful over things that probably won’t kill us in our current reality. We are more afraid of speaking in public than we are of crossing the street. We are terrified of sharks, but more people died last year from taking selfies than from shark attacks. And many of us do not live anywhere near the ocean, or where there are giant spiders and snakes, but we still feel the ancient influences as we jump into full battle mode whenever we see movement out of the corner of our eye. So we quickly react to these embedded fears, but then we forget to calculate risk when leaning over some balcony to take a selfie or texting while driving a car.

There are interesting laboratory studies about how a fear can be passed down for several generations. They say that we will not understand the rise in obesity, diabetes and psychiatric orders without looking at the influence of our grandparents’ environment. They also explain the science of how you can inherit a Memory. But if you are not interested in the science and you want to just start to feel better, that’s okay too.

• So, what physical, emotional, or mental pain are you experiencing that is keeping you from living to your full potential or finding your joy?
• What are you passionate about but you aren’t doing because there is some fear that is keeping you from taking the leap?
• Is there an old story that is no longer serving your highest good?
• Where are you wasting your time and energy?

If you want help in solving this puzzle, contact me to schedule a private session. My technique is strategic, and targeted to get you answers quickly and painlessly so that you can get on to more rewarding projects.

Read a testimonial here.

Want to know more about What to Expect in Your Private Session?

 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website or provided through our programs and/or services is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from your physician, midwife,  or other health care or mental health professional.

Why all the fuss about Childhood Trauma?

When we are stressed, we have an elaborate biochemical response that allows us to have the energy to Fight Back or Run Away. If we are met with challenges and stressful or painful situations, but we cannot fight back or run away, it is registered in the body as a Trauma. This is why Babies and Children that are not physically and emotionally capable of getting away to safety are more likely to experience trauma from stressful and painful events. The cost of this quick burst of energy is that it shuts down the immune system and the digestion. If the stressful situation is handled quickly, then everything can go back to normal. But unresolved stress can continue to impact the long-term health of these systems.

Infancy and Childhood is a very important time developmentally. Stress and Trauma during pregnancy, birth and infancy changes the way that the child’s brain and biochemistry pathways are set up, and can have implications for their long-term health. This is much different than a single incidence of a traumatic event (like a car accident) in an adult who has developed the resiliency to handle it.

Childhood trauma is more complex than we think. Sometimes there are traumas from the experiences of our grandparents that can still impact the health of our children.

Talking about infant and childhood trauma is not to make us parents feel even more guilt, but to raise awareness of why our kids may be struggling with physical or behavioral/emotional challenges, so that we can help them to start to feel better. Infant and Childhood Trauma is more common than is acknowledged. And most often it is due to things that are outside of our control as parents, and are often just a fact of our culture and our environment. But there are things that we can do to reduce their exposure and minimize the effects. If we pay attention to the cues that our babies are giving us, then we can help them to heal quickly.

Common stressful events for babies can be from totally normal things like:

• The pregnancy is just naturally stressful because we are facing daily physical, emotional and financial/life challenges.
• The Birth can be stressful because of physical positions where the baby feels stuck, the mom is experiencing pain, fatigue or panic, and/or there are medical interventions that may cause changes in the biochemistry, pain, and may lead to separation of the mom and baby.
• The Postpartum period is a huge transition for both mom and baby as well as families and partners and needs a period of adjustment. If the mom is recovering from a difficult birth and/or surgery this can be an even more challenging time.

The best thing that you can do to prepare for each of these challenges is to find a compassionate, available and responsive team of care providers for prenatal, birth and postpartum support.

Some of the physical and behavioral signs to look for in your infant include:

• Glossed over eyes/avoidance of eye contact
• Trouble with feeding
• Easily startled/difficulty being soothed
• Jerky movements/arching of the back

 

Some of the physical and behavioral signs to look for in your children include:

• Attention Disorders/Trouble with transitions/Hypervigilance
• Anger/Self-abuse/Tantrums
• Dissociating/Daydreaming/Checking-out
• Nightmares and other sleep troubles/ disturbances
• Bedwetting/Toilet training challenges
• Asthma/Allergy/Headaches
• Gastrointestinal complaints
• Claustrophobia/Sensory/Touch Issues
• Greater Susceptibility to Colds/Flu

 

If left unhealed, this may lead to long-term health effects in adulthood. Sometimes it seems like there is just random, undiagnosed illness and pain. In my own story, I kept getting nowhere with medications that would numb the pain, but never heal what was causing it. I was so thankful when I finally found techniques that got to the underlying cause and released that stored trauma so that my body could finally heal and then create new patterns of health.

Common outcomes of unresolved stress and trauma include: Autoimmune Diseases, Chronic Pain, Gastrointestinal complaints, Joint Pain, Increased blood pressure and cholesterol, fat around the waist, and Addictions/numbing/escaping.

The good news is that if you are reading this, then you now know that you can heal from the effects of trauma, and that if you pay attention, you can help your kids now so that they don’t have to continue to struggle. It is so much easier to heal when the trauma is more recent.

If you are noticing some of the physical or behavioral signs in your child, contact me and we can work together to discover the root cause of the stress so that the trauma can be released and the body can heal.

 

I offer an Unpacking from the Journey class for Moms to process and release any trauma from the pregnancy, birth or postpartum period (no matter how long it has been since your pregnancy/birth), and I offer Postpartum Healing Home Visits for moms looking for support and healing in the weeks/months after the birth. I am also available for private healing sessions over the phone.

 

References: Scared Sick, Robin Karr-Morse http://www.amazon.com/Scared-Sick-Childhood-Trauma-Disease/dp/0465013546

https://motheringcoach.wordpress.com/my-articles/how-to-cope-with-infant-trauma/

 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website or provided through our programs and/or services is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from your physician, midwife,  or other health care or mental health professional.

Pain is not a Punishment.

When you learn to tune in and really listen to the messages that your body is giving you, it can be your most valuable tool.

If you are like me, you may be thinking that your body is not your friend. Maybe you’ve been sick or in pain for a long time. I understand. I used to tell everyone that “My body hates me”. I went to doctor after doctor and nobody could tell me what was causing my symptoms. So that was the only explanation.  But then I learned to understand what my body was telling me. I learned to listen when it was whispering to me, so that it did not need to scream in pain.

But I don’t want you to have to learn the hard way like I did. I want to save you time and energy and money. Your pain is not a punishment. It is a message. And I can help you to translate its meaning.

Contact me to ask how I can best support you.

Read about this Client’s Empowering Transformation

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website or provided through our programs and/or services is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from your physician, midwife, or other health care or mental health professional.

Strategic, Inspired Healing for Worried Moms

As a mom to four energetic young kids, I know that mothering is beyond a full time job, and even when we try our best, we often feel like it is not enough. Especially if we are worrying about our baby’s health. In this time when everyone is so quickly and easily connected, we often don’t feel deeply connected and supported in the moment.  When there is so much information at our fingertips, we find ourselves sorting through too many facts and never enough answers.

When you are first home with a new baby you need to relearn how to do every little thing, like how to pick things up with your feet because your hands are full, and you have to pack like you are going on a week-long trip when you go to sit down to nurse because you might never be able to get out of that chair again.

And all too soon they get older, and the daily challenges seem to get physically easier, but more emotionally complicated. But one thing that never changes is when your kid has some weird symptom, you start to worry. I know when I was a new mom I had so many questions, but I didn’t want to bother anybody if it was nothing. But how do you know if it is nothing? So you worry. And then if you read anything on the internet you are sure to find so many possible things that it could be that you’ll lose even more sleep!

This is why I love being able to support other moms with Strategic, Inspired Healing. This is what I call the technique that I use that combines my background and experience in the health sciences with the applied kinesiology and quantum energy healing techniques that I have learned while studying with an internationally known master healer. It is a way to get to the root cause of what may be causing your symptoms (or your kid’s symptoms) and work on changing that so that your health can start to improve.

Now don’t get discouraged, but usually, there is a combination of physical and emotional factors from your environment, family patterns, and biology. I can help you to sort through the noise and find what needs to shift today. We can identify easy and affordable things to try in your home to make your family healthier. And we can also identify community resources, techniques and providers that can also support you with your family’s health needs. Gaining some clarity and eliminating the worry will help you to feel more at ease while you tackle the fun everyday challenges of motherhood.

So, if you have been worrying about something that is going on with your kid’s health or behavior, contact me for a free 15 minute phone call to see if this technique is a good fit for you.

 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website or provided through our programs and/or services is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from your physician, midwife,  or other health care or mental health professional.

Empowering Transformations: What to Expect in your Private Session

You can schedule a private session to learn more about how to tune in to what your body is trying to tell you.  You don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home. Sessions can be scheduled over the phone.

What to Expect in your private empowering transformation session.

• First, we talk about what you are experiencing (physically, mentally, and emotionally) and how you feel that it is keeping you from reaching your goals.
• I create safe space for healing and I help you to ground more fully and to feel more balanced.
• We can then focus on where you are feeling blocked so that you can break out of old patterns and beliefs.
• Then I use a combination of applied kinesiology and strategic quantum energy healing techniques to identify the root cause of the issue that you want to heal today, and release those blocks and replace them with positive patterns for improved health.

During your session, I also teach you techniques that you can use for yourself and your family to continue to enjoy improved health in between sessions. These techniques are tailored to you, but can include:

• Exploring and Transforming Symptoms to discover what they can tell you about your real needs and how to meet them.
• Stress Management Strategies, activities that ease tension and relax the mind. Reducing stress also improves your overall health by improving the functioning of your digestion and your immune system.
• Containment tools which provide a way for you to create boundaries and feel emotionally safe.
• Self-nurturing, and self-care activities to help you to maintain your sense of self-value
• Emotional Safety Techniques and Grounding Techniques to help you feel more fully present and avoid being re-triggered by memories from the past.

Read this testimonial of the Empowering Transformation that my client had after just one session!

I went to college to study health, but found that most of what we learned were details about different kinds of diseases. We studied the ways to promote health and prevent disease and we were taught to identify ways to intervene at earlier stages, before they had symptoms or the disease had progressed. The earlier you could intervene, the better.

I got into the habit of looking at disease patterns and looking for the root cause. The problem is that there is often a complicated story that includes their environment, their underlying health, their family patterns, and social and behavioral components. Sometimes it can be a long and frustrating process to find out what is causing your symptoms.

In my personal story, I became discouraged after undergoing years of medical tests and exploratory surgeries that still did not explain my symptoms. So I continued to study the determinants of health and found more holistic models that finally explained how emotional wounds can manifest as symptoms in certain energy centers of the physical body, so that I could truly heal and not just take another pill to numb the pain so that I could function. Read more about my story here.

I attended business and health workshops that show you how to identify your patterns or your self-limiting beliefs that are keeping you from reaching your goals, but they do not know how to release them energetically. There are books and training programs that help to raise your awareness of what you are attracting, but they do not show you how to change the way that you think and feel.

I had learned about my patterns and my self-limiting beliefs, but before I had my first energy healing I had not realized that I could really let go of the stories that were no longer serving me and that it was possible to stop being in pain. During my first healing session I was blown away by how much I was able to heal from physical conditions that I had suffered from for years without a cure.

For the past few years I have been studying a variety of techniques and apprenticing with a Master Healer so that I can help you start to benefit from this kind of transformation in your own life.

 

About Michelle 

 

Contact me today to schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation to learn more.

 

 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website or provided through our programs and/or services is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from your physician, midwife,  or other health care or mental health professional.

At the Intersection of Science and Spirituality

I am often asked how I get so much done every day. And although I do like multi-tasking and good project-management, the trick is to do it all with joy and not get burned out in the process. I balance a lot of things, but I still have plenty of time to sing with my kids, smell the roses and even to read books and watch movies!

I have studied the Science of Health and Happiness for over twenty years and I have recently completed a two year mastery program in strategic quantum healing, but I often say that my best marketing is just to look at my kids. My kids are generally happy and healthy, so I must have figured something out.

I incorporate the works of spiritual teachings from a variety of sources (both ancient and modern) in with cutting-edge science and share with you how I have learned to incorporate this into the demands of a full and busy life with work and family and I want to share the secret to how I did all of this with you in my new program: Inspired Healing at Home.

I had to learn the hard way that the key is not in reading another book or finding another doctor, but in learning to see health in an entirely different way and then actually implementing the changes into my everyday life. There were a lot of barriers in my own way of thinking about the world that were keeping me from really trying these techniques.

So for me, the process took the courage to heal and to change on more levels than I ever expected. But I just couldn’t be the kind of mom that I wanted to be when I was in pain every day, so I needed to make some big changes in my life.

I am also living proof that you can heal from chronic diseases, auto-immune diseases, and all of those pains that you thought you would just have to live with. For twenty years I was in pain every day, and now I am not. I no longer suffer from chronic back, hip and knee pain, asthma/allergy, Digestive disorders, Migraines, and depression. This dramatic change to my life is what has given me the energy to get so many things done. And the money that I save on doctor’s appointments and medications can all go right into that vacation fund or can be used to buy even better food or improve my home.

I was only able to do that level of healing for myself by working with an amazing group of women that offered me support, encouragement, and accountability. So I have developed my new program to cover the important things that I want to share with you, but in a format that will hold you and support you while you grow into these changes.

So, if you are done with being in pain, being exhausted, being unfulfilled, being unappreciated, and you are just done with feeling stuck, contact me to talk about how to get started on your healing journey.

 

Why you can’t buy a Healthy Home

There are at least 445 quotes about “Doing the Right Thing”. I just checked. But the real problem is the number of times a day that I have to make huge decisions. It makes me long for a simpler time. But then I remember that in many of those “simpler” times, people were starving or working themselves to death or scared all the time, and I try to be thankful for living in a warm house, in a safe community, with dinner on the table and a hot shower. But seriously, every day I am not sure if I am actually doing any of those things the “right way”. When you become a mom, this responsibility takes on a whole new meaning. Now you are making decisions for other people, and you never know which one of those decisions will come up again later in their therapy.

I feel like there must be something to this desire though. It must be human nature to want to do things the “right way”. I loved being a good student in school. I would follow the rules and study the material and get the right answers. I love playing board games and figuring out the strategy so that you can win. But somehow, in real adult-life, there does not seem to be an agreed upon set of rules or a strategy. We try to make the best choices that we can, in the moment, given the knowledge and resources that we have available. But then we are sure to have someone tell us that we did it wrong after all.

 

There are plenty of solutions being marketed to us that promise that if we buy their product, use their system, or take their pill, then we will be happy or healthy or successful. We’d love to believe it and sometimes we try one of the products or systems or pills just to check if maybe this is the one. But, somehow we know that tomorrow we will see another advertisement for the next, even better thing. And we know that none of them will actually do it for us.

In our deepest knowing, we realize that health and happiness are not things that you can buy. You cannot buy a better body or buy a healthy home. Those are just reflections of your current state of health. There is not a one-size-fits all solution. There is not one perfect house that you can buy that will be a healthy home. Even if you bought a house that was made out of all natural materials in a beautiful setting by local artisans it would not be healthy until it was a home that was lived in and filled with love and was cared for and maintained. A home is where you feel comfortable, and safe, and free to be yourself. And what that looks like will be different for each family.

I just looked up another checklist of things to do for a healthy home. But just looking at the list was stressing me out (and I have studied this stuff for years!). I remember going to a seminar once about pests in the home. They had lots of info about what to do to eliminate them safely and without adding toxins, but why you need to do it because they can carry disease and destroy your property. But what I remember most if that they also had slides talking about the psychological effects on the homeowners who are having a pest problem in their home. I have been to countless seminars since then, on all sorts of healthy home topics, but I wish that they all included the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects of each issue.

This is why I offer customized solutions for the families that I help. I don’t have one answer that fits every family or every home. I work with them to find something that is achievable in their reality, and that works for their lifestyle and their budget. I help them to identify action steps that they can try right now that will start to make a difference in their lives. I help them to prioritize which things to do first and where they can save their time and energy. Sometimes it is just nice to have someone to discuss these things while we are trying to make those million choices a day. I know that when I have to make a big decision, I appreciate having mentors and professionals to call for advice. Even if they don’t have one right answer for me, they usually help me to narrow the list.

If you are looking for some help with choosing healthier options for your home, call me for a customized, holistic consultation that takes into account the physical, emotional, psychological, and financial needs of your family. 

 

Pretty Little Traumas

This winter has been so strange. I have lived in the Northeast my entire life, and I am not really sure what to do with a winter without snow. I have had years when we didn’t have a White Christmas, but this was the first year that I wore sandals and the kids played barefoot outside. My son finally had a backyard birthday party in December. But somehow it just doesn’t feel right. It makes me feel very unsettled. I’m not really sure how people live where they can’t plan their lives around the seasons.

It is February and we just got some snow, finally. It was just a few inches, but I was finally able to shovel the driveway. As I moved the small amount of snow around with a shovel, (because it’s not quite enough to bother with the snowblower, and not enough for a snow day), it reminded me of my work with healing trauma.

When you have a huge storm, you have to stop everything and deal with it. You aren’t expected to do anything else.  You aren’t expected to keep going with your routine. Friends and family and your community all chip in to help. You are given the time to clean up and repair and maybe hibernate while you focus on the tasks at hand.

When there is a small amount of snow, you need to just find an extra hour here and there to take care of it, but you are still expected to be places on time and continue with your day. It is fine if it is once in a while, you can store up your energy and you are not too far behind on your other tasks. But if this happened every day you would soon fall behind and run out of energy. It reminds me of when people live in constant stress.

“More subtly, one might develop psychosomatic symptoms or stress-related symptoms because of unresolved emotional issues. These are not new discoveries; researchers have studied the mind/body interrelationship for several decades because of the importance of this link.”

“Often, physical pain functions to warn a person that there is still emotional work to be done, and it can also be a sign of unresolved trauma in the nervous system. Even if one has grieved and processed the emotional impact of a trauma, the nervous system might still unwittingly be in survival mode.”

Read More

They may not even realize that they are suffering from trauma because they have become accustomed to it, like when it snows a little each day for a long season and you are used to it. And many people are afraid of change because they are not even sure what life would be like, or who they would be without their pain. I’m not sure who I would be if I lived in a place with no winter. Caroline Myss covers this phenomenon in Why We Don’t Heal, explaining all of the energetic patterns and why it can feel safer to stick with what we know.

I remember one year when we got slammed with one storm after another and we were so exhausted, but then we just had to keep going, just keep shoveling. Sometimes our lives are just like that. Tragedies seem to come in threes. But while all that is happening, the routine goes on. Whether there is a storm, or a birth, or a death, or a huge event in your family, you just grab the shovel, keep at it, and then go make sandwiches.

 

So right now the world is beautifully covered with a glittery blanket and I am loving it.

But I am sure that after a while we will be ready for spring to return again.

And surviving winter just makes it even sweeter when the sun shines, the snow melts, and the flowers bloom again.

If you are ready to explore what change may look like for you if you healed your old wounds or traumas, or if you are interested in learning more about the effects of your past experiences on your physical health and wellness, contact me to schedule a free 15 minute consultation and we’ll talk about how I can best support you.

 

Tuning in to the Muscle of your Soul with Therapeutic Yoga

I’ve been doing yoga since college, and I’ve tried various techniques, mostly because of what classes were available and fit into my schedule. When the babies were small I took an evening class because I needed to get out of the house and see adults and I desperately needed some quiet relaxation. After my surgery I took a gentle yoga class and I was the only one there that wasn’t a senior citizen, but they could all move more easily than I could and I gently taught my muscles to move again.

Recently I’ve been using exercise videos, which are great because they allow me to stretch and greet the day without leaving my house, which works since I then have to get everyone up and out the door. But when they say on the video that I am invited to go deep within myself and let go of the distractions of the day, I kind of chuckle to myself because I know that it doesn’t always work out like that with a house full of kids.

 

A few weeks ago, I was invited by a woman that I met at the integrative practitioners networking group to drop in for a class at her studio. I didn’t even realize that it was a “therapeutic” yoga practice, but I do love amazing moments of synchronicity, so I will take it as a sign that I was in the right place at the right time. As soon as we started, the teacher said that we were going to do a whole series for the psoas. My ears perked up immediately because there has been a lot of talk about the psoas in the doula community. Read more about the psoas and pregnancy HERE.

“The psoas is an important, yet often unknown, muscle that plays a vital role in physical health and mental wellbeing.”

“The psoas is the only muscle in your body that connects your spine to your legs. That means if the psoas is tight, then it will have a direct effect on your hips, shoulders, spine, neck, legs and even down to your feet.”

“On the emotional level, the psoas is intimately tied into your sense of safety and well-being. When we are stressed, or experience any form of physical or emotional trauma from childhood or recently, your psoas will hold those emotions and feelings. Our body carries these experiences whether we are aware of it or not and if ignored for too long, they will show up as aches, pains, injuries or illness.” Read More HERE.

 

I have been supporting moms who have experienced birth trauma, and having also gone through this journey myself and knowing that there is always deeper healing that can be done, I was happy to have this time to give some love and attention to my own psoas muscles.

And we also had the opportunity to talk about more workshops that we can do to support new moms who are recovering physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the birth process and while adjusting to mothering a newborn. I have my Unpacking from the Journey class at the FLC for mom’s to heal their birth stories and I have a 6 month program for women who want to learn how to incorporate healing practices into their life, but I love the idea of a class in a yoga studio where we can also incorporate movement and even more body awareness into our practice.

I’ve talked before about how there is no App that you can buy that will make you healthy. You need to tune in to your own body and listen to what it has to say (and some of us have to learn the hard way to start to listen when it is whispering to us gently that is needs attention, not screaming in pain). You also need to find ways to quiet your mind so that you can have the opportunity to learn to tap into your inner knowing.

In our modern world of running around and doing so much, it is important to carve out little bits of time for this throughout our day and learn to fit it in to our routine. I meditate while I do dishes and while I drive my minivan and while I prepare sandwiches. But, it is such a treat to really let myself go deeper and truly dive in and ask my body and my spirit what it needs.

Never too busy for amazing opportunities: How Trying New Things is an important skill

I started another new job this week. It’s just another class at another school, and I’ve been teaching for so long that my resume is now older than my college students. But anyway, it has me thinking about trying new things. Just this week I was asked to take on another leadership position in the Girl Scouts, and during that phone call we talked about how Trying New Things is one of the biggest skills that we teach and model.  I just got home from a really inspiring meeting with some administrators from the school district and we were brainstorming ways to improve STEM education and Entrepreneurship opportunities for our kids that will let them create sustainable outlets for their innovative ideas through programs like my Business of Science program.

But before I went to the meeting I had to get in my paperwork for the Airband competition at the elementary school. And just for fun, I have been busy with a new volunteer committee working on costumes for the Middle School Musical. And I’m getting ready for my women’s circle tomorrow night and planning for Sunday school, and prepping for the college classes that start next week.

 

So the word of the week is BUSY. In my role as a mentor in the college internship program, BUSY is one of our swear words, along with Frustrated and Confused. As part of our company culture we work on eliminating the use of those words. But what I see as the problem is not the words themselves, but how they are used. When someone uses one of those words as their entire story, or as an excuse, that is where it is blocking them from accomplishing a task or moving towards their goals. I am busy, but I thrive on it. I get frustrated, but it drives me to make changes. I get confused, but then I ask questions and find solutions. But if you say “I’m busy” as a form of “no” or as an excuse not to start, not to try something new, or not to help in your community, then that is what needs to change.

In all my decades of studying health I have found that the common theme is that stagnation is what causes disease, whether it is in organisms or organizations. To be healthy, things need to flow. If you use your feelings of frustration or confusion as an excuse not to move on, then you are stuck, things will stagnate, and that just sounds smelly.

I was at a networking event and talked about how my business has been in transition, and when I say transition apparently some people hear “lost”… but I am not. I am happy to be transforming because that means that I am moving. I am not stuck or stagnant.  I am in the flow. I can keep growing and changing, making adjustments and small course corrections because I am focused on my vision and moving forward. (We’ll talk more another time about how the science of vision boards really works! Visualization is one of the most powerful mind exercises you can do. Or you can read this for now.)

The key is to define your own success. With the students that I teach, the interns that I mentor and the clients that I help, the common theme that often keeps them from success is not being able to show up, ask questions, and keep trying. Like they say on my workout video at 6 a.m., “Half the battle is planning, the other half is showing up”.

There were a lot of moments this week when I thought about how some people would get stuck because it is intimidating to go into new places, having to start something new, having to jump through more hoops, and deal with a bunch of weird obstacles… but I just asked questions, kept moving, didn’t take it personally and didn’t let it stop me.

Having that call with the Girl Scout service unit and talking about leadership and remembering all of the things that I learned while earning my Gold Award, made it really clear that these are the most important skills to teach our kids. We continue to need these skills in our own lives, in our own learning, in meeting our own challenges, and that is how we model that for our kids and our students, showing them that the work is never done, but that we are always up for the challenge.

Need more inspiration? Read some more stats about Girl Scout Alumni.

 

So, back to being busy. I have to go finish another hundred things before the bus gets here. And I will probably get frustrated that some other adults use the word busy as an excuse not to volunteer, or to miss the meeting, or to miss out on the opportunity to gather together to celebrate and to try new things. And I’m sometimes confused as to why someone would want to miss out on these amazing opportunities. But, in the meantime, I will keep working on creating more opportunities for people to heal those wounds so that they can just get started.

And if you need some support and inspiration, my beautiful friend started a Facebook community called Do The New based on a challenge that she gave herself to do something new every day. Whether it is a new hairstyle, stopping at a different grocery store, or trying a new recipe for dinner, find those little places where you are stuck, and make little changes until Trying New Things gets easier and easier.

It is not about being someone else, it is about stepping outside your comfort zone and removing those obstacles that are keeping you from being  your full self.

Define your own success.

And then take that first step.

Need help getting started? Ready to remove those blocks?