“Your most powerful tool is your own example”. – John Wooden

Have you ever wanted something that didn’t seem “practical”? I say that in quotes because honestly, how do you define “practical”? It probably depends on who you ask, so the only definition of “practical” that matters is yours…But sometimes being “practical”, can actually sound a little crazy….

I recently visited my family and spent some time catching up with a family friend. This particular friend has a pretty complicated marriage. His wife cheated on him and to make matters worse, she got pregnant by the other man.  I know, right? Cheating is bad enough, but a baby? That’s hard to deal with…But this man loves his wife…

Cue the party music, I graduated! I’m sure you wondering what I could have possibly been in school for, so let me not leave you in suspense any longer….I just completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training. And trust me it was a family affair! There was studying multiple books on yoga history and philosophy, yoga practice, entire weekends at the studio, and practice teaching. My husband and my son’s teacher have truly been troopers helping me with the little one over these last 9 months.

Moms often ask me about a morning or evening routine and I immediately think of meditation.  A meditation practice should be an essential part of either daily routine.  However, many women tell me they don’t know how to meditate.  And honestly when I started, I didn’t either. Meditation used to look like this for me:

I start out sitting on the floor, but I can’t get comfortable. Then I move to the bed, sitting up Indian style, hoping I don’t fall asleep. Turns out I fall asleep, sitting up with my eyes half open.

Have you ever heard that saying, “The journey should feel like the destination.”?  It’s this idea that the steps you take along the way to your goals should feel create the same feelings as achieving the goal itself.  Because it’s a “feeling “we’re chasing, not so much a “goal”.

There’s nothing more overwhelming than having to go back to work with a newborn who is only 3 months. This little person has been attached to you literally for these last few weeks and now you have to leave them with someone else? And likely a total stranger at that. I remember that day vividly. My son was 4 months and I was breastfeeding. Breastfeeding adds a whole different dynamic to leaving your child. Feeding my son alone was the most stressful thing, trying to travel and pump and freeze milk, hoping I had enough. Now that was stressful!

Moms are always talking about how busy they are, “not enough hours in the day”. No time to cook dinner, so let me pick something up on the way home. No time for exercise because I go to work early and get home late. No time for myself because I have to work, go to the grocery store, do homework with the kids, and cook dinner. There are just not enough hours in the day.

Happy New Year!  Are you ready for your best year?  Seriously, if you do the work, you can make room for an amazing 2018.  And speaking of work, let’s wrap up the work we started in our blog series last month. In the first post of the series, we talked about how we say yes too often which leads to overwhelm.  In the second post of the series we assessed what we have said yes to across the main categories of our lives and eliminated those tasks that weren’t part of our most important categories.

Yes honey, it’s my birthday! Cue the party music! This year has flown by and I can’t believe I’m 40 already! Eek! When I was younger I would wish for 40 because I just knew I’d be retired by then. Ha! So much for that. The whole retirement thing may not have worked out, but there are a few things I’ve learned along the way that I want to share with you. And I’m sharing some special news too, but you’ll have to wait until the end… ;)