02 Jun
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Cultivating Hope as a New Societal Norm

Sociology is a fascinating topic. As humans, defining and labeling the behaviors of the generations helps shine a light on how societal norms change and shape the fabric of our families, communities, the country, and the world. The biggest social shifts of the past few decades have occurred in the realm of technology. The news is filled with how the world wide web, cell phones, and social media have changed the way society thinks and responds to life’s challenges. These new challenges lead to a mindset of despair, yet hope is the opposite of despair. History proves that change is a constant force requiring resilience and adaptation. 

Hope is the key to nurturing resilience and adaptation both personally and in our communities. Hope is a strong and confident expectation. Hope is dynamic and never passive. Hope changes how we see ourselves and the world around us. Hope changes what we value and how we instill those values through the generations. Hope affects what we do with our lives, the gifts, talents, and treasures we store up. Hope in action guides you in the direction of something greater. Hope is contagious and provides light in a dark world.

Cultivating hope starts with self-exploration, understanding personal values, and how they affect positive decision-making skills. Community builds hope when connecting to others who share similar values to provide a safe space to explore solutions together. A healthy community provides a safe support network for emotional healing and processing. Trust is often used as a definition of hope. Trust in a support network provides a feeling of safety and helps overcome the fear of the unknown. Trust is built through unconditional love. Nothing on this side of heaven is perfect, but we can strive to love boldly and trust the Creator who already overcame the chaos of this crazy world. Investing personal energy into cultivating hope changes perspective and drives light into a desperate world.

03 May
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Healing the Body, Mind, and Spirit: A Journey of Self-discovery

Healing our body, mind, and spirit is the essence of life coaching. It is a process of restoration requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Healing is also a personal journey of discovery, exploring ways to tune into your personal needs to find the answers specific to your personal struggles. A holistic healing approach takes healing to a new level of self-care. It involves taking a perspective of personal responsibility for your own well-being. It is processing the past, assessing the present, and choosing daily actions to impact your future.

Processing the past can be a difficult journey for many. The struggles of life, circumstances outside our control, and choices made often lead to deep wounds impacting the body, mind, and spirit. The journey to healing involves processing those experiences in a safe space to clarify the impact in the present. The mind holds onto emotions and manifests emotional trauma in a physical way. Discovery in the Spiritual realm provides the connection to that which is greater than ourselves. Many times, the Spiritual realm is overlooked. Belief systems are often engrained in childhood and change with maturity. Hope for the future and forgiveness for the past are important concepts providing structure to the healing journey.

Assessing the present involves discovering your personal why. Why is change necessary? Assessment involves taking time to explore all areas of self. Getting in touch with the body, mind, and spirit is a commitment to what you need now and trusting your inner voice to provide the answers. It requires time set aside to quiet the mind, listen to the heart, and trust your spirit as you discover what needs to change. Allowing yourself to let go of things that no longer serve you and choosing new paths based on current circumstances.

Honing self-assessment skills guides the healing journey as you learn to trust yourself to make day-to-day choices for personal accountability. Learning to find control in personal decision-making eases the burden of the unknown future. Trusting others takes a great deal of time and investment, trusting yourself unlocks the freedom to explore, make mistakes, and grow into the best version of you. You are worth the investment!

May Mental Health Awareness Month. If you or a loved one needs resources, please feel free to reach out! Back to Life Physical Therapy and Coaching Services is here to help. In addition, you can follow this link to government resources. https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/tools-resources/index.htm

05 Apr
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Emotional Wellness: Lessons from Mr. Rogers

Emotional Wellness is a term used to describe one’s ability to understand and process emotions to cope with the challenges of life. It is an ability to produce positive emotions, thoughts, and feelings when presented with stressful situations. This is the essence of what Fred Rogers taught children through Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. His educational programming taught them to feel negative emotions and express them in productive ways through exercise, creativity, and acknowledging their feelings as valid. All aspects of stress management and life coaching. Much can be learned from how Fred Rodgers lived and loved others well.

Mr. Rogers had a goal, to change a broken world with words. He used his platform and celebrity to achieve this goal to the best of his ability. He was a Christian, but he did not shout it out from the set of his children’s show. Instead, he lived it out by teaching inclusion and loving others through words of affirmation. He encouraged self-acceptance while looking for the best in others. He was willing to ask tough questions and still connect, allowing those he worked with to express their feelings without judgment. He looked at situations through child-like eyes. He showed kindness in recognizing others’ sacrifices and humility by putting others’ needs above his own.

Life is difficult and filled with challenging situations. Life is messy, stressful, and full of disappointments. We are not perfect humans; we are all flawed individuals. We are more similar than we are different. We learn, grow, and become more emotionally balanced by appreciating others’ perspectives and allowing them to affect us. The coping strategies exemplified by Fred Rogers not only allow us to deal with trauma but also shows us how to love others through it. How can you let go of anger, frustration, and disappointment today? How can you shift your perspective to childlike excitement seeing a world filled with awe and wonder? Imagine the joy of releasing life’s burdens and living with a perspective of gratitude!

Coaching follows many of the principles taught by Mr. Rogers. It provides a safe space to explore emotions, discover areas for growth, build relationships, and create action steps toward healthier habits. He often encouraged children to be themselves and embrace their unique qualities. He encouraged listening from the perspective of acceptance and building relationships by finding common ground. All essential principles of emotional wellness and all reasons to appreciate the lessons taught by Mr. Rogers.

Follow my social media posts this month for more insights on emotional wellness related to exercise, nutrition, sleep strategies, and stress management. 

03 Mar
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Personal Wellness: The Practice of Self-Love

Personal Wellness: The Practice of Self-Love

The essence of personal wellness involves six areas of focus that led to overall health. Health is the absence of disease or illness. Wellness is a mindset involving physical, intellectual, emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual well-being. It is the practice of self-love! Investing time in self-love starts by exploring which areas of wellness require more attention and growth.

My foundation for love goes back to childhood and my upbringing in my faith. Generational guidance to accepting the love of my Creator, which defines my self-worth. Giving and receiving love is one of the biggest challenges we face as humans. It is why scripture tells us that the most important commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Loving self IS the challenge as we navigate a broken world filled with scars and disappointments. No matter where your spiritual foundation lies, this is a universal truth, rooted in our early development. We learn how to give and receive love and build our walls and conditions on who is worthy and why. We cannot love others well if we do not spend time healing our own wounds.

What does it look like to love yourself well? I go back to a saying my oldest son would throw out every time I would ask “Son, what are you doing?” His response was, “My best!” By focusing on doing your best in the moment, you shift the daily negative self-talk to positive personal feedback. Mindful behaviors and daily reflection lead to building a foundation of self-love. Every day is a clean slate to practice doing your best. Perfection is not the goal, instead, it is growing and learning while appreciating those moments.

The final piece for personal wellness goes back to finding the areas of personal growth requiring attention to detail. Look at the list again, physical, intellectual, emotional, environmental, social, and spiritual well-being. Which area requires your attention today? Listening to what your body, mind, and spirit tell you on any given day answers this question. You are worthy of the effort and the payoff can be life changing.

This month’s social media topic revolves around personal health and wellness goals. You can follow my posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for helpful tips related to exercise, nutrition, sleep strategies, and stress management.

06 Feb
admin Lifestyle Changes No Comments

Beyond Resolutions: Set yourself up for successful lifestyle changes in 2023

Do you know how many people achieve the New Year’s Resolutions they set for themselves? Only 8%, which is a shockingly low percentage! So how do we set ourselves up for success moving into a new year?

If you follow my posts on Facebook and Instagram, you saw one of my favorite verses from scripture, Lamentations 3:22-23. It reminds us that His mercies are new every morning, which reminds me that every day is a new day, filled with new possibilities. My word of the year is contentment, which came from this verse, along with the personal growth I have achieved over the past year. I did not do this alone! I was able to grow through my own life coach and do the deep personal work it takes to process emotions and move forward to make each day count.

As you start setting your goals for the new year, consider looking back to reflect on the past 6 months. What were your accomplishments and what are you most proud of? Celebrating accomplishments helps set the foundation for continued forward progress. Consider the emotions that come to mind when you think about what you have achieved and allow that to motivate you as you cast your vision specific to your hopes and desires.

Did your reflection bring on some negative emotions? I know mine did!! Guilt and regret are real feelings that need to be examined to process, learn, and grow. This leads to diving deeper into the areas you need to forgive yourself to let go and move forward. Deep work takes time and comes with guidance. These posts are meant to provide food for thought, it is up to you to decide what to do with your thoughts, hopes, and desires. It is okay to ask for help, that is what life coaching is all about.

Revisit that word of the year as you set your goals for 2023. The word is meant to be a central theme that helps guide you toward your goals and keep you motivated and on track. Then, take some time to write down your goals using your work as a guide. Healthy habits start small and continue to grow when you take the time and do the work for YOU!

Behavior science tells us that a new habit takes 3 months to form and another 3 months to integrate into a full lifestyle change. This means avoiding overwhelm and setting small achievable goals is critical to success.

Most goals fall to the wayside because the goal is too broad or not broken down into smaller steps to achieve the goal. Consider the couch to 5K approach to starting a running program. We don’t jump off the couch and start by running a mile down the road. The approach is broken into small steps with walk/jog intervals, progressing to jogging and adding distance strategically. Approaching goal setting must have a similar approach. It does not matter if the goal is related to exercise, diet, sleep, stress, or just learning to enjoy moments as they come. The key is breaking down the goal to feed motivation which starts a reward loop.

Reward loops are the fuel that feeds forward progress. When the outcome of a small step is recognized and the benefits acknowledged, this positive reinforcement sets up the desire to keep working. Remember, change is never easy. It takes grit and determination to stay focused and move forward for 3-6 months to establish the new habit as a lifestyle change. But, when you know why the change is important and pay attention to the outcomes of small changes, it feeds the ability to continue to work toward that goal. 

Please feel free to reach out with any questions on how to move forward to achieve those goals! Change is possible, but change is rarely easy!

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