Live Your Best Life!

What you believe about yourself, others, and the world impacts how you feel and the results you get in your life so it is important to have a belief system that works for you, not against you. A belief is an acceptance that something is true or that something exists. It is trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something. It is how you make sense of the world but your beliefs are not the “T” truth that you might think they are.

We all have beliefs. Some of our beliefs we are aware of and some run quietly in the background of our minds, or in our unconscious minds. The problem with the unconscious beliefs we hold that run quietly in the back of our minds is that despite their being quiet, they do influence how we feel, the actions we take, and the results we get in our lives. 

Before going further, let’s explore where your beliefs come from. Your beliefs are the result of some of the following: 

• Messages you have received from others...

Journaling can be a highly beneficial practice to support mental, emotional, and even physical well-being. In the hustle and bustle of your daily life, finding time to reflect and become more self-aware can be challenging. One thing to keep in mind is that there is not a “right” or “wrong” way to journal. Journaling is a personal and individualized process and can look very different from person to person, or even from day to day for one person. When you write things down on paper (or digitally if you prefer, but I always encourage trying pen and paper), you get information out of your head, which can give you a different perspective. 

When your thoughts, ideas, questions, goals, feelings, etc. are on a piece of paper in front of you, you can “zoom out” and think about them differently. 

Some ways journaling can benefit you are:

Allowing for emotional expression. Journaling offers a safe space to express and release...

It is likely that you have heard talk about the positive impact a morning routine can have on your life. I have many clients who talk about hearing about morning routines but who don’t really understand why they can be so important, or what their morning routine should include. The good news is that there is no “right way” or “wrong way” to do a morning routine and morning routines do not need to take a long time or be complicated.  

I think one of the biggest benefits of a morning routine is that it is an opportunity to intentionally start your day off in a way that feels good.

It allows you time to focus on yourself, and allows you to set the tone for your day. Like so many people, I have fallen victim to waking up in the morning and immediately picking up my phone and consuming text messages, emails, and social media. For me, and for many of my clients, the problem in doing this is that I was losing control of my day before it even...

Do you have days where you are feeling energized and on fire, and then have other days where you can’t seem to muster up the energy to get anything done? Or maybe you have days where you are feeling really good about your life in general and other days where all you can see and think about are negative things. This is not an uncommon human experience and it is also not something that is completely outside of your control. 

Your energy and whether you are feeling positive or negative overall is tied to your thoughts and your mindset. Often we think these things are tied to situations happening around us, or to what other people are doing to us, however, this is never the case. Things happening around you can spark thoughts, but it is always your thoughts that create your feelings. This is important to note because this means that if you change what you are thinking, you can change how you are feeling. When you are intentional about this, you can create habits around...

Do you wish you had more joy in your life? Do you keep waiting for outside circumstances or events to bring you more joy and happiness? Do you ever find yourself saying, “I will be happy when…”? Have you ever heard someone say that a person makes them so happy, or that they were so happy that they got a promotion, or that they are so happy they are finally starting a family? 

While it is true that people, external circumstances, and events can trigger us to feel joy, it is ultimately what we think about people, circumstances, and events happening in our lives that create the feelings we experience.

In each of the situations mentioned above, it is what someone is thinking about another person, a promotion, or starting a family that creates the feeling of joy. For example, starting a family is an event or circumstance that happens in someone’s life. One person could feel immense joy because this is something they have been wanting for as long as...

Your mindset and your beliefs about yourself are powerful. They can elevate your confidence, your actions, and the results you get in your life, or they can crush your confidence, limit your actions, and limit the results you get in your life. Have you heard of the “fleas in a jar” story? It is a great example of how what you believe changes how you act, and therefore the results you get in your life. 

Years ago, a scientist conducted an experiment where he placed fleas in a glass jar. Once in the jar, the fleas immediately started jumping and jumped so high that they were able to jump out of the jar and escape. Next, the individual conducting the experiment put a glass lid on the jar so that the fleas could not escape. The fleas continued to jump but now they were hitting the glass lid, jumping again, and hitting the glass over and over without being able to escape as they had before.

What happened next is fascinating. The scientist removed the glass lid...

Do you find it hard to stay motivated? If so, you are not alone, because it is not possible to stay highly motivated at all times. Of course there are people who seem to have a higher level of motivation ongoing, however, it does not mean they actually do. It is likely more about their mindset and their ability to push through and to keep going despite challenges or discomfort. 

As someone who is trained in motivational interviewing and who teaches strategies that help dial up and sustain motivation, I know too well how motivation can come and go. What typically happens is that we get excited about doing something new, we are energized and ready to take action because something is important to us, and then things get hard, uncomfortable, boring, frustrating, or challenging. When this happens to you, your brain will try to tell you all the reasons why you should stop working towards the thing you are trying to achieve and as a result, your motivation drops. 

Part of...

Do you find that you spend a lot of time thinking about all the worst-case scenarios that could happen? Worst-case scenario thinking, or “catastrophizing”, is a thought distortion that negatively impacts many individuals and can involve only considering the worst possible outcomes, blowing things out of proportion, or dismissing any positive outcomes including the best-case scenario. When you spend a lot of time thinking about worst-case scenarios, you also experience the emotions that accompany your thoughts about only negative outcomes occurring. Common emotions associated with worst-case scenario thinking include anxiety, worry, stress, fear, distress, hopelessness, sadness, and anger. 

There is a difference between planning for challenges that are likely to occur, and thinking about things that are very unlikely to happen. When you are using the logical part of your brain and considering if there are any actions you can take to reduce the chance of something...

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...

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...