Live Your Best Life!

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines overwhelm as “to cover over completely, submerge”, “to overcome by superior force or numbers”, or “to overpower in thought or feeling”. When we, as humans, experience overwhelm it is usually the third definition of “to overpower in a thought or feeling”. Overwhelm is a feeling you experience when you believe you have too much on your plate and/or when you think life has thrown something at you that is more than you can handle. 

Overwhelm can hit you all at once if something significant happens in your life, or it can build slowly until one day you feel like you don’t know how you can handle everything that you have to do. Overwhelm can result in ruminating thoughts about the circumstance(s) causing the overwhelm, challenging feelings of stress, anxiety, or fear, and/or physical symptoms in the body such as an upset stomach, tightness of the chest, fatigue, or headaches. When these feelings and/or physical symptoms are present, it is common to ...

What you believe about yourself, what is possible for you, and about the world around you impacts the life you create for yourself. Have you ever had periods of time where nothing is working in your favor and then other periods of time where it feels like many good things are coming your way all at once? This is a common experience for many people. So, the question is, why does this happen?

In my opinion, your belief system plays a big role in this. If it feels like things are not going your way, your mind will give you more evidence of this. It will also remind you of times in the past when things have not gone your way. If you are spending a lot of time focusing on negative things happening, you are signaling to your brain that negative things happening are important to you and it will then go to work for you and find more negative things. When this happens, you will not feel energized, excited, or hopeful, and therefore the actions you take can reinforce your beliefs that good t...

If you are like most people, you are interested in a lot of different things, but that does not necessarily mean you are committed to them. Maybe you want to consider a new career, starting a business, starting a new hobby, finding romance, improving your finances, organizing our home, or taking your health and fitness to the next level. When you are interested in something, you spend time thinking about it. This may generate feelings of excitement, curiosity, and maybe even a little fear or overwhelm.

Dreaming is one of my favorite things to do. For me, it creates feelings of excitement and energizes me. I can dream all day long, however, dreaming alone won’t get me anywhere. This is where commitment comes in. While being interested in something or dreaming about something requires thinking, commitment requires action. If you are truly committed to something, you will continue to pursue it, even when it gets hard, boring, frustrating, or inconvenient. If you are committed you are ...

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐦. We all have an inner dialogue which can look like an inner coach, or an inner critic. What you think about yourself impacts how you feel, how you behave, and the results you get in life. The goal is to have self-talk that encourages you to want to improve, while also accepting the person you are without harsh criticism.

The way you talk to yourself can cause painful emotions, which makes it harder to show up and behave in the way you want to. If you sit with these painful or negative emotions for an extended period of time, it can negatively impact the results you get in your life. It can also negatively impact your relationships because you may either withdraw, if you don’t feel worthy of a relationship, or it could cause you to push someone away because they don’t want to hear you talk negatively about yourself ongoing. ...

As the seasons are changing for many of us in the world, it got me to thinking about how so many of us pay attention to, and try to regulate our external temperature, while completely neglecting our "internal" temperature. Most of us like to keep our external temperature about the same all year long, give or take a few degrees. To do this, we turn our heat or air conditioning up or down to stay in our comfortable range, regardless of the season. But what about our internal temperature?             

You likely know what your external temperature comfort zone is, but do you know what your internal temperature comfort zone is? This is the place in your life where you are most comfortable. It is the place that is most familiar and where you are likely "reset" to if you start to move away from it. It consists of behaviors, thinking patterns, and habits and it is driven by both your conscious and unconscious thoughts about what you are capable of, what you believe about yourself, and where...

We all have a lens through which we view the world. This lens is created over time, starting at a young age, and is the result of our life experiences, what we have been told about ourselves, others, the world, and what we think about ourselves. This lens impacts the way we see things and can be very subjective. This is the reason why two people could be in the same situation and think and feel very differently about it.

It is important for you to know that this lens exists, but also for you to check in on your lens and assess whether it is working for you, or against you. This lens is heavily tied to your belief system and your mindset. For example, if you were going on a job interview and your belief system was that you were not good at interviewing and you were not one hundred percent qualified for the job, you would likely show up to the interview differently than someone who was very confident in both their interview and professional skills. In addition, if you believed you we...

Do you keep the commitments you make to yourself? So often we tell ourselves we want to do something and then we spend all our time doing things for other people, while forgetting to keep the commitments that we make to ourselves. Why is it that we are willing to follow through with what we say we will do for other people, but not for ourselves?

Whether it’s work related, family related, friend related, or even a commitment to show up somewhere and volunteer, you are likely motivated to follow through because someone else is depending on you. Maybe you don’t want to let someone down, or maybe you are motivated to get something done because you don’t want negative repercussions that could result if you did not follow through with your commitment. Maybe you have been doing this so long, that it has become a habit and that anytime you make a commitment to someone else, the only option for you is to follow through with it.

The act of following through with things is both about habi...

When faced with uncertainty, does your brain play through all the “what ifs” of the situation, act like a fortune teller, and predict that the worst-case scenario will happen? If so, you are not alone. We are all wired for negativity bias. This means that without being intentional, our brains want to focus on what is actually happening that is negative, as well as what could potentially happen that is negative. This is why your brain will have you consider the worst-case scenario, even when there is little to no evidence that this outcome will occur.

Your brain thinks that if it has you consider and anticipate the worst that could happen in a particular situation that it is protecting you. It thinks that by having you focus on all the negative outcomes, you can protect yourself from having them happen, and / or avoid being disappointed if they do happen. Unless there is significant evidence that something really bad could happen, this is not a good use of your mental energy because...

Do you check in on your emotional wellness? You go to your doctor to get checkups and you bring your car in to get tuned up and if something is wrong with either, you likely make a plan and get the support you need to fix.  Most of us are pretty good about these things, however, when was the last time you checked in on your emotional health? If it was recently, congratulations and keep doing this. If it has not been for a long time, let this serve as a reminder that your emotional health is critical to your overall well being. The quality of your life is impacted by your emotional health, so having good emotional health results in a better life overall. 

Emotional wellness is about what we think and feel. When you have good emotional wellness, you are able to control and express emotions appropriately. When you have good emotional health, you experience more positive relationships and social interactions. When you have good emotional health, you have coping strategies that allow yo...

If you are reading this, you are likely someone with goals who wants to improve their life in some way. One thing I’ve noticed with goals is that many people spend a lot of time thinking about them, dreaming about them, and mapping them out…and then never achieve them. Believe me, I have been there many times my friend. Why is this a common experience for so many of us?

It is because dreaming and doing are two very different experiences. Thinking about your goals and what you want in your future is exciting, energizing, and can bring about a lot of hope surrounding what is possible. These are all feelings you want to experience, and therefore thinking about your goals is reinforced by the positive feelings you experience when you do this. On the other hand, doing what it takes to achieve your goals, especially if they will stretch you or challenge you, can be uncomfortable and create feelings of uncertainty. While pushing yourself to achieve your goals, you may question yourself, e...