SOME DAYS ARE GOLDEN & OTHER DAYS FEEL LIKE LOVE ISN'T ALIVE!

QUESTION 1: DOES THIS CREATE SUSTAINABLE VITALITY IN MY LIFE?

I often get asked by clients, "How can I rise above this funk, get through the messy middle, & give love when I don't feel like it?" My answer is almost always: UP THE LOVE, or more accurately increase your Self.Love!  I ask myself these questions to help me get back to my center & into alignment when I feel OFF, frustrated, or lost!

3 MOST ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO INCREASE SELF.LOVE AWARENESS!!!

1. Does this create Sustainable Vitality in my life?
2. Is this me showing me Love?
3. Does this move me closer to my Dreams?

I'll tackle the first one today. When you ask yourself about creating Sustainable Vitality, it helps put the extremes of perfectionism & self-criticism in the grave! I used to make extreme choices for the sake of my "health & wellness" TRYING TO GET IT ALL RIGHT, DOING THE BEST THINGS, but hidden below the surface was the NOT ENOUGH monster runnin...

LOVE BIG & DEEPLY, RIGHT NOW!

QUESTION 2: IS THIS ME SHOWING ME LOVE?

 In a previous blog, I touched on the 1^st question about Sustainable Vitality.  Today, I will cover the 2^nd question!  IS THIS ME SHOWING ME LOVE?

 3 MOST ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO INCREASE SELF.LOVE AWARENESS:

1. Does this create Sustainable Vitality in my life?
2. Is this me showing me Love?
3. Does this move me closer to my Dreams?

In a previous blog, I touched on the 1^st question about Sustainable Vitality.  Today, I will cover the 2^nd question!

IS THIS ME SHOWING ME LOVE?

This is a HUGE question!  When asking yourself this question, you are putting YOU FIRST, not everyone else & their thoughts, needs, & concerns. It may be the 1^st time in a long time you have put yourself 1^st, or it could be the 1^st time EVER, & it may feel “selfish”.  I have news for you: IT’S NOT SELFISH to put yourself 1^st & it’s certainly not selfish to consider HOW YOU can show yourself LOVE! If this feels challenging to you, you have like...

RUMI’S WISDOM

 This is one of my favorite quotes! I love it because it holds the magic of my work in a single sentence. Thanks to Rumi, of course!

 “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek to find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it!” – Rumi

 One of our purposes in this life is to be stripped down by challenges & obstacles so they can show us what we are made of.  When we are stripped down & broken, we get to see that we are love, & we were made from light from the beginning of our life.  Our toughness & resiliency comes from this place; we were born from it! Removing the blocks & obstacles to our awareness of Love's presence is our natural inheritance.  In other words, we are born from Love & Light, & we were born to find our goodness, strength, & purpose through all of our experiences, the good, the bad, the ugly! We grow & rise with love by learning from the obstacles that we have built & from the ones presented to us.

 When we become aw...

WHEN SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO YOUR BODY VS YOUR MIND & HEART? WHEN ISN'T MIND OVER MATTER A GOOD IDEA!

Let's face it! We can't all be David Goggins! The man is a machine to behold, & there is plenty to learn from him, but I do have a little issue when it comes to him pushing WAY PAST his injuries, which he commonly does.

 I see it all the time, & I have been guilty of the same thing.  I have made the grave mistake of racing OVER/through an injury, pushing way past it, & it requiring 6+ months to rehab & recover from it/them.  When I injured my IT band in Dallas during the Spartan Ultra in October 2018, I didn't realize the damage I had done & the extent of the injury.  And honestly, at the time, I didn't really care because I was chasing my 3rd Trifecta of the year & JUST HAD to get a few more races in for the year.  So I did what every hardcore, Type A, goal-oriented woman (person) does, & I continued to race for that last Trifecta, ignoring my body's deafening screams for me to stop.  ...

5 LESSONS I LEARNED FROM MY MOM!

Please meet the original Fierce Love Warrior Goddess! This is one of my VERY FAVORITE photos of me & my mom.  It was taken in 2001, a couple of months before she lost her 20-year battle with cancer.

Throughout those years she taught me how to:

1. LOVE BIG & EMBRACE EACH DAY as if it were your last,
2. BE BRAVE & SUPPLE,
3. FACE CHALLENGE with ARMS WIDE OPEN,
4. You can BE ANYTHING you put your mind to & don’t let anyone tell you different,
5. Be the BRIDGE, not the DYNAMITE!

 I owe a debt of gratitude to her for who I am & for being the greatest influence on me as I watched her navigate the murky waters of cancer.  She showed me the beauty of balancing out traditional and alternative methods of healing and my love of Healing continues today, & it’s WHY I coach incredible women to embrace their own Fierce Love and overcome obstacles standing in their way! What better example do I have than a woman that amazed, shocked, & dumbfounded many doctors as she prev...

A STORY ABOUT UNCERTAINTY, MY BROKEN BACK, & SMALL VICTORIES!

 August of 2019, I BROKE MY BACK! YEP, you read that right.  I haven’t told this story because I didn’t know it was part of the story! When I fell off the Twister obstacle in the Spartan Beast race in Aspen last August, I knew I was hurt, but I didn’t realize how bad.  I went to the doctor for an x-ray as soon as I got home.  I was told I had compressed my T8-T11 discs, but nothing was broken. I thought, well, that’s a relief! I carried on with my suggested treatments & severe pain. 

 In February of this year, I considered stem cell treatment for my back because I was still in quite a bit of pain.  But I needed an MRI first.  I went in for my MRI & when I got the results back, I was shocked, upset, & relieved.  Shocked because I found out I HAD BROKEN MY BACK when I fell, upset because 7 months later I was just finding this out & was very concerned that I had done things unknowingly that perhaps made my back worse AND I ha...

I learned from my longtime yoga practice how important mindfulness in the forms of Intention, Dedication & Sacredness can be for physical exercise & how it can ooze over & enrich our entire lives.  When yoga became less of my daily movement & I utilized different training types, I found myself missing these aspects that I loved.  I went back to my roots & brought these aspects of ritual back into my daily training.

 WHY IS MINDFULNESS IN TRAINING IMPORTANT?

1. We honor what our own bodies are saying
2. We reconnect to our individual needs
3. We create greater peace, calm, self.love, confidence & joy!

 This helps us to focus & redirect our attention & energy back to ourselves in a positive way instead of listening to any negative self-talk or what others may be saying we should be doing. Our sense of purpose for training takes on a new dimension when we focus on a specific intention that has roots in sacredness.  Just as yoga is a sacred practice, all movement can be too.  Consider what...

While listening to Seane Corn’s book, ‘Revelation of the Soul’, I was deeply reminded of my roots & how my coaching has been influenced over the years. A rush of gratitude washed over me as I listened to Seane’s delightful Jersey voice share stories about her journey & how she became one of the world’s most incredible yogini’s.  I’m honored & privileged to have been taught & mentored by her!  As she describes love & healing in her book, I hear her say, but not for the first time, “our job in this life is to learn what love is, & in order to know what love is, we must learn what love is not.”

This quote made an impression on me & I took it to heart nearly 20 years ago, & as I look back now, I realize THIS is not only the foundation of my work with clients, but it’s HOW I’ve lived.  Yoga broke me open & I love the challenge, reverence, sweat, & sacredness of the practice on & off the mat. 

 Years later, it was no surprise that I fell in love with obstacle course racing for the same rea...

YEP, you read that right! Here’s how it works.  When you’re naked, getting ready in the morning, pre or post-shower OR in the evening getting ready for bed:

1. Bend toward your toes (or touch your toes) with your hands
2. Place your hands on your body, slowly roll up to standing as you lovingly touch your body as you go up
3. Say out loud or silently: “I LOVE ALL OF ME RIGHT NOW!” (Feel free to raise your arms in exhilaration overhead at the top – like you reached the peak of Mt. Everest!)
4. Repeat 3 X’s & SMILE! (If needed, fake it til you make it)!

WHY am I challenging you with this? Here’s the deal!

I’ve heard at least 100 times that people fear public speaking more than dying.  I believe people dread looking at themselves in the mirror naked MORE than that! Think about the thoughts you have when you look at yourself in your birthday suit.  My guess is your immediate thoughts are about how this or that spot needs to be smaller, bigger, perkier, fuller, plumper, or skinnier. Many peop...