We all struggle. Sometimes you don’t realize your struggles until you watch others through your eyes.
Lily, my 3-year-old, has been struggling to learn how to pedal her tricycle for over a year. Last year when we introduced her to it, she would put her feet on the pedals and throw a fit because she wasn’t able to push them. Eventually, we created a method to push her on the tricycle.
Soon she became content to push herself with her feet, ignoring the use of the pedals altogether. However, she quickly realized that this method was slower than her brother, Jack.
Then, as the weather broke this spring, we dug out the tricycle again. And this year, she is off!!!! Pedaling, moving fast, keeping up with Jack, laughing, smiling.
This story brings me to the point. When we struggle, we have a choice. Perseverance or not. At the kickboxing studio, we define perseverance as reaching the point of past failure and deciding to continue. Lily failed at pedaling multiple times. She continued.
By making the decision to continue, you build your character, which helps define how you see and value yourself. Continuing also gives you hope. Hope fuels a more optimistic mood, grace, and happiness. Hope lets you believe that your dreams and desires are possible. Hope ultimately allows for the possibility to be the person you want to be, and in turn, the person you want to be to the people you love.
Therefore, next time you are trying to achieve a big goal and find yourself struggling, choose to persevere. It may take time. It may take effort. It may take asking for help. It may take patience. But making the decision to continue will make all the difference in your ultimate strength, happiness, and hope.
For those of you who are getting ready to do the 28 Day Summer Slim Down at the studio, congrats on taking the first step and signing up. Expect challenges (for it is a challenge). Expect struggle. And we will help you to persevere. Completing even a small challenge will build your character and give you more hope that you can and will achieve your goals long term. And as always, we have your back!
I believe it is human nature to look for simple and easy. But, unfortunately, simple and easy rarely go hand in hand. For example, at the studio, we have a meal plan “so simple a kindergarten student could do it.” This is true, it is easy. But transforming your eating habits is a lot more difficult than following an easy meal plan. The idea is simple, yes… easy, not so much.
Personally, Lily is still in a crib. It is simple to quickly convert the crib to a toddler bed. However, training her to stay in bed and not get out in the middle of the night is not easy. Yes, again the principle is simple… yet, execution is not so easy.
You can even look at the simplicity of following the 10 Commandments. The idea of them is simple. Living according to the commandments… can be at times very difficult.
One of the big reasons why I believe simple and easy don’t often go hand in hand is because humans are creatures of habit, and building new habits is difficult. Often time we don’t know where to begin to make those changes. Therefore we look for the newest trend or fad. In the fitness world, this typically takes the form of the newest diet trend– KETO, South Beach, Whole 30, Adkins, Carb Cycling, etc. Each one of them promises to give someone a simple solution to their weight problem.
The thing is, people already know the basics of losing weight. The formula is simple. Eat healthy food and move your body. Obviously, however, the solution is not easy. That is why there is a billion-dollar industry filled with hundreds of “experts” claiming to offer the easy solution. Too many experts tend to cloud the “easy” part. We all have our opinions, knowledge, tools, and tricks to help get the end results. It leaves many people confused and jumping from one plan to the other. Ultimately, then what is simple becomes much more difficult and, for some, impossible.
So here is my proposal. In order to get the result (no matter the outlet), do these simple things. 1.) Make a commitment and understand that upholding your end of a commitment won’t always be easy. But the commitment will be worth it. Many people want to only make a commitment for a short period of time and expect a big result. We are talking about your life. Short-term commitments get short-term results. Quit fighting for the short-term and commit to long-lasting results. 2.) Understand the simplicity of consistency. Results are not magic and don’t happen overnight, but compound consistency each day, and amazing things happen. 3.) Hire a coach that has your best interests in mind and will work with you where you currently are in order to get you out of your current comfort zone. This coach will keep you accountable for making the new changes and consistent even when you want to quit and jump onto the next fad. 4.) Quit being addicted to comfort and allergic to sacrifice. That is right, change takes some sacrifice and trying things you have never done before. There will be times of surprise and moments of failure. But most importantly, you will learn and have new knowledge to help you make things easier in the future.
You want simple and easy… all humans do. But the two rarely go hand in hand. Therefore, take a deep breath and don’t be afraid of doing a little work and putting in a little sacrifice in order to make the change. It will be worth it in the end.
It’s 5:30 am, and you hear that buzzing of your alarm. What do you do? If you hit the snooze and roll back over, you just lost the first battle of the day. You let resistance kick your bootay. Ouch.
Resistance is interesting. Defined by Matthew Kelly in Resisting Happiness, “resistance” is “that sluggish feeling of not wanting to do something that you know is good for you. It’s the inclination to do something that you unabashedly know is not good for you, and it is everything in between. It’s the desire and tendency to delay something you know you should be doing right now.”
I know i get that feeling all the time. It often leads me to procrastination, and for me procrastination leads to unwanted stress or ultimately feeling of failure. Whether it is little things like doing the dishes or more serious long term habits like taking care of my health, resistance often gets in my way. But guess what, the dishes are always going to be there and I know that I am rarely ever going to really want to do them, even though the kitchen will look better once they are all put away. And unfortunately, we also know that putting your health on the back burner for too long can lead to major health issues down the road.
For some reason, however, we still try to resist doing what we know should be done, many times until it is too late. But, I have a simple trick to help fight resistance immediately. People who know me know that I am extremely competitive. I hate losing more than I like winning. To know that each time I hit snooze or don’t do something, I am letting my resistance win instead of the “best-version-of-myself” and “who I want to be.” This feeling eats at my soul.
The person I want to be hears resistance knocking then knocks back saying, “not this time.” Then I get up and get moving. I get the dishes done. I put together and schedule my workouts and healthy snacks for the week. I make a plan to put my best foot forward. And then I take action.
For many things in life, taking that first step, beginning a new habit, making a change, is that hardest part. It is said that a space shuttle uses 96% of its fuel in take off. And for people, sometimes it has to take 96% of our effort to get started. Why? Because resistance keeps calling. It’s the battle with resistance which is holding you back from your dreams, your desires, your ability to lose weight, your ability to quit a bad habit, your strength to start something new.
That tug of war game between you and resistance will always happen. And resistance will always put up a hard fight. Resistance, unfortunately, isn’t going anywhere. Each morning and for multiple times throughout the day, you have to make decisions. And with each decision, resistance will creep in. I like to tell the resistance that I am more credible and loyal to who “I want to be” than to who “Resistance” wants me to stay. By telling myself that I have self-credibility, I am loyal to my dreams each morning and for multiple times throughout the day, I get moving. I get moving first thing in the morning, before anyone else in the house is awake. I get moving on the simple chores like those pesky dishes. I get moving on my workouts. I get moving and play with the kids. I get moving and try to move the needle of the business. The best feeling, however, is that with each decision to support the best version of me, the more confidence I build. Confidence is a great resistance warrior. And with time and practice, the pesky voice of resistance becomes a little quieter and easier to fight. I know it’s voice, I know it’s next move, and I am strong enough and motivated enough to shut it down.
I believe it is never too early for a fresh start. Monday’s are powerful days for me because they represent a new week, a new chance to grow. The first of the month is again an empowering day for me because it too is a fresh start. Same with my birthday, which also happens to be New Year’s Day. It is a fresh start, a clean slate to a brand new year. We have 365 days to turn our lives around into what we dream them to be.
I love when new potential members come into the studio for the first time. Most of them are looking for a fresh start, a chance to begin anew. When I break down some walls and get them really talking about their dreams and goals, I sense a passion about what they want and help them believe that they can do it. When they leave, their soul is on fire. There is a renewed energy to them. I also feel more alive, listening, watching, anticipating the growth this person is about to make my my team and I’s help.
Then through the course of the next few weeks, my job is to keep that energy alive. To be honest it is not the easy job. Each person needs different fuel to continue on their new fitness journey, without that fuel, many times old habits re-emerge tempting them to go back to the life they are trying to leave behind.
I have often found that it is easiest to renew my energy or someone else’s by renewing hope and by asking questions. It is through questions that we can learn what is working, what is not working, and then better understand how to improve it. Questions are powerful, amazing tools to help create your dreams into a reality. (Seriously, simple ask yourself a question like “what in my life is working right now?” And I am sure your will find answers. From there as “Why is it working?” And again more answers will be found. Then ask, “How did I get that to work?” more answers. Finally ask, “how can I apply what is working and how I got it to work to something that isn’t working in my life right now?” Again, more answers will be found.)
The best part of a question is that if you don’t know the answers you can always learn and discover them. Sometimes this discovery is by examining your past behaviors and patterns and creating change. Sometimes this discovery is through reading and researching new more exciting ways to do something. And, yet, sometimes this discovery is through asking for help, though a majority of us have an extremely hard time doing so.
Why is asking for help so difficult? I believe it is because throughout our lives we were taught to achieve independence: to become independent thinkers, to rely on solely ourselves. What happens is that this way of thinking eventually becomes our identity. We ultimately associate our very essence as self-serving. We don’t need help. Therefore, asking for help becomes hard, uncomfortable. We fear others will see us as weak, dumb, incapable.
Truth be told, as a coach, I am always willing to help people. Unfortunately, I am also not a mind reader. I cannot force my help on someone who is still looking at themselves as totally independent in their fresh beginning. I am on their team. It becomes a give and take relationship. With that, the super independent people have to be a little vulnerable, and willing to trust me and the process to communicate ways to make the changes last. Alas, change is very hard to do independently.
Most people also know that change is hard without guidance. That is another reason why they walk through the door. They are looking for motivation, inspiration, accountability to keep them on the path they want to go down and not on the current path they are on. Many of these people have started a million times (think about how many at home workouts or new diets you began and quit within 2 weeks). Eventually their independent, old self always won. It creates a feeling of self-defeat and that the self-sabotaging believe that you can’t do it.
The people who ultimately do make the lasting change learn one priceless habit, the habit of asking for help. That habit is one where you break down the identity wall, and continue to get coaching, guidance, accountability, and strength to create your dreams into reality and make your goals a working part of your life. Asking for help is one way to feed your soul, and to really get a fresh start.
At the studio, one way we market ourselves to the community is by running 4 or 6 week fitness challenges. Fitness challenges (as well as most fun challenges like writing, reading, etc) are exciting and fun. I love seeing all the new people come into the studio ready to take on the challenge, determined to lose some weight, tone up, build stamina and ultimately gain confidence. In the 28-42 days, people develop new habits, and learn many tips and tools to help them continue on their healthy lifestyle.
Recently we also completed a 21 day Instructor Challenge at the studio to record our results as we worked out, ate off the meal plan and added supplements to our routines.
Being in the challenge frame of mind, I have been paying attention to who ultimately wins the challenges and sees the most growth and success and who doesn’t. What I noticed is that it is quite easy to identify short term winners and long term winners. I call these two groups the “Escape Artists” and the “Those who Surrender.”
The Escape Artists: There are people who are counting down to the end of their challenge date so they can be done and proud they completed it. I call these people are looking for the moment of escape. A date when it is over. A date when they are free to do whatever they want to do again. Most of the time a date when they can pick up their old lifestyles and bad habits again.
Those who Surrender: The second type of people are those who surrender their old lifestyle in order to build a new one. They ask questions. They are coachable. They want to learn. They understand that at the end of the challenge they want to emerge like a butterfly, capable of maintaining or continuing their journey with the right community and friends cheering for them. They know that to sustain a healthy lifestyle that many people are looking for, the changes developed during a challenge are long term, not over because the date of the challenge has ended. Typically these people learn the most about themselves, their habits, and their choices over the course of the challenge, and develop the confidence to make healthier choices and habits for the rest of their lives.
Maybe you are not necessarily looking to take up a fitness challenge, but maybe it is something else that is challenging you? How are you approaching it? Are you an escape artist counting down the seconds until it is over or one who surrenders your ego, status, current habits to evolve into something better and use the challenge to help define the person you are becoming?
By surrendering, you will be more open to the situation. You will make decisions more clearly. You will learn to adapt and grow. You will find creative solutions to short-term problems. And most importantly, you will take the steps in the right direction to ultimately win the challenge. The choice is yours on how you approach different challenges in life, but as an end result, I always look ways that a challenge will improve my life forever, not just for those short few weeks.
As I continue to really develop the ideas of Soul Care, I think about how you can take care of the essence of who you are… your soul. Taking care of the outer self is easy. The soul is much much much harder. This week I have spent hours talking to members at the studio who have completed the first week of a 28 day fitness challenge, and I realized something. Talking to members and coaching is something that brings me incredible amounts of joy. I love to hear how people are finding success. I love to help people problem solve or give tips to help push past barriers and learn how to make their goals obtainable. As I am doing something that I am really passionate about, I feel refreshed. My soul feels complete. It is being taken care of. As I coach, I have come up with 3 interesting ways to make your soul feel fulfilled.
1.) Finding small wins, even through tough challenges, builds success. We rarely set our soul up for success. However, life is full of adversity, challenges, and failure. In the midst of struggle, we need to find something that is a positive. Our soul’s crave success and positive reinforcement. However, when we lose sight of the good, our soul feels lost, scared, unfulfilled, bitter, depressed. In order to take care of your soul, you must train your brain to find the good, no matter how small it is. Over time, one small good morsel will duplicate. Think about this as a staircase. With each small positive win, you take another step up higher and higher… and before you know it, you are building momentum toward your success. And as you success, your soul builds confidence.
2.) Perfectionism will kill your soul. If you want to be burn out and slowly kill your soul, feed your need to always be perfect. Many of us are asked to always perform at a certain level at work and at home, and perfectionism becomes a weird disease. Eventually, trying to keep the world perfect will drain your soul. Perfectionism is driven by our need for acceptance and validation. It is also driven by fear. When you live in fear, the soul becomes drained, tired, burned out, and neglected. You never feel good enough, smart enough, strong enough. Ditch perfectionism and give you soul some well needed love.
3.) Get off your Hamster Wheel Repeating the same actions day in and day out leads to boredom, which will extinguish the light out of your soul. One of Tony Robbins lessons discusses the 6 Human Needs (structure, variety, community, individuality, growth, and contribution). Structure and routine is good for the soul, but when you are really caring for it, we also need variety. When was the last time you tried something new? Something that made you a little excited or even a little nervous? So much of our time is spent doing the same thing day in and day out. It is hard to get excited. Every so often jump off the hamster wheel. Test some of your limits. Live… and see how your soul responds.
Like I said, I am just starting to develop these ideas. But, perhaps they can give some guidance to how to feel more fulfilled. Soul Care… it’s the care that will lead down the brick road to happiness.
I was born on New Year’s Day. The day everyone vows to make sustaining life changes. For my birthday, my sister-in-law bought me a book entitled “A Mother’s Love.” It is a devotional book that also has pages for written reflection. That evening, I opened to first page and began reading. The first few pages discussed Moses’ mother, and how she was brave when she put her 3 month old Hebrew baby boy into the Nile River to save him from certain death by the Egyptians. The following pages asked me to reflect on how I was brave as a mother.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to answer that question. Compared to Moses’ mother, my life and moments of bravery are minute, tiny. How could my bravery compare to hers?
The next morning I opened up to the January 2nd Daily Guidepost entry. The one page reading told of a Golden Retriever named Gracie. During an extremely foggy morning, Gracie faced the fog barking. She bravely defended and protected her property and owners from the unknown within the fog.
Wait, there is that word again… Brave.
Not more than a few hours later, after breakfast, my two year old daughter wanted to watch a princess movie. Clicking on Disney+, and searching princess movies, there in the first slot of the search was that word again in big, bold Celtic style letters- B-R-A-V-E. Yes, the Disney Princess movie entitled Brave about a bow and arrow shooting, messy red-headed Celtic Princess.
I saw it and nearly choked on a sip of coffee I had just taken.
Okay, God, Universe, Spirit… three times in 24 hours I have seen this word, brave. You have my attention… What are you asking of me?
When I told a good friend of my three “brave” sightings, I was informed that to be brave is not an emotion, but a reaction. When faced with fear or unknown, we can choose how we react. We can panic and run, or we can choose to be brave and courageous.
Last week I finished a book entitled “The Four Winds.” The protagonist was a wife and mother who lived in the Dust Bowl of Texas during the Great Depression. Throughout the book, she was looking for her bravery, which she often found lacking. But when faced with life or death situations for her families survival, she chose to be brave, and as the book ended she was seen as a true warrior.
To try to define how I am brave of a mother is still hard for me. However, I have been thinking about it nearly non-stop since the first day of 2021. I also believe perhaps this year I am going to be asked to be brave in some way. I know that as the year progresses and challenges arise, I will have enough clarity to choose to be brave, to learn, to grow, to change, adapt and fight for my family, friends, and things I believe in. 2021… it is the year I will choose to be BRAVE.
Last week I introduced this idea of Soul Care. I said it was hard to define. And that claim continues…I am just letting these ideas develop organically. I am not sure where they are going. But as I think, new thoughts emerge and I am just letting them flow. Maybe my recording my stream of conscious, a strong theme will emerge.
By nature, I am a cluttered filled person. But I hide it. For the most part, the room looks put together, but open up a drawer or a closet and you are in for a completely different story. Although the counters may be clear in the kitchen, but the junk drawer is jam packed. Sometimes it takes mad skills to even open the drawer. My closets are no better.
Much like my closets, I think for many people, their quest for productivity, confidence, purpose, happiness is also a mess. We all look for the next book, the step by step guide, the next easy way to get what we want in the blink of an eye. In turn, our brains take all this knowledge and create tons of confusion about what brings us happiness. Our mind, body, heart, and soul becomes more cluttered than my closet. Because we don’t like clutter, we hide the fact that we are being pulled in so many different directions, but still searching for what we truly want.
Every year, my husband gets an 8’x12′ dumpster. It sits in our driveway for a week, and we declutter. We start with the garage. Move to the kitchen, bathrooms, closets, bedrooms. By the end of the week, it is full of physical junk. But the house is clean, organized, dusted. Though not every room looks different- the furniture is still the same in the same place, the decor is exactly the same… but the hidden places are lighter, free.
When I think of Soul Care, I think of the hidden places within us that need reorganized, cleaned, dusted. But one piece is missing. Getting rid of a dumpster worth of junk takes a ton of work, but when it comes to soul care, we don’t want to do the work. Instead we look for the superficial self-care to get us through. What if we took the time to declutter our soul? What does that look like? Where would we focus? What kind of mess would we need to clean? Are we willing to do the dirty work to make the soul sparkle or shine? Where do we need to roll up our sleeves are put the effort in? For each of us it is different. There is no step-by-step guide. There are moments when we need to gather, and other times when we need to purge. Maybe a purge is calling you. Get back to the essentials. A rediscovering of your priorities. And then deciding how to act on those priorities, which again for each of us individually is different. But it is my current thought on how to care of your soul.
Mom’s I am sure you can relate… Sleep, becomes a hot commodity, and somehow you learn to function with very little to none.
Five and half years ago, I was expecting my first child, and between not being comfortable and having to pee, I quickly learned to function tired. It made transitioning to life with a newborn easier. And the pattern of no sleep continued during my second pregnancy and baby.
Once both kids were finally sleeping through the night, I had a second problem arise that stole my sleep. STRESS. When stress creeps into my world, I have insomnia. I will wake up at 2 am and be up tossing and turning. My mind will begin racing faster than a NASCAR in Daytona, and I will never get back to sleep. At least once or twice a week, I would find myself wide awake in the middle of the night, sometimes with enough stress that I would do 3 am workouts just to release it and see if that would help. It rarely did.
Now, with stress and lack of sleep other things happen. Your body doesn’t have the proper rest, but still needs energy to keep up with daily life. Insert sugar. To say that I would rely on high sugar foods and carbs to sustain my energy levels would be an understatement. I LIVED on it. I HAD TO HAVE IT. I CRAVED IT. I was ADDICTED to it.
Additionally, stress also increases cortisol levels, a hormone that stores belly fat. Between the stress eating and stress hormones, it felt like my all of my workouts were not working. I was staying the same. The same weight. The same pants size. The SAME tiredness.
Then, just a month ago… something changed. We did a 21 Instructor Challenge. The challenge asked us to workout 4-5 times a week (which I was already doing), clean up our diets and log our food into MyFitnessPal (okay get sugar in check), and take supplements.
For the first time I took a sleep aid supplement, called Sleep Multiplier by Prestige Labs. It is 100% natural and full of minerals and nutrients found in real food (in fact you can find many of the nutrients individually sold in the vitamin aisle of your local grocery store if you feel like buying 7 different products). Additionally most of the nutrients are ones that 85% of people lack in their daily diets, and combined together help to decrease anxiety and promote relaxation. To further the benefits of the Sleep Multiplier, it is full of antioxidants that fight Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It promotes brain function, decreases inflammation, and boosts your immune system.
What I loved about it, is that after 6 hours of sleep I felt like I had gotten 8 hours. I am also dreaming again. When we dream we are in deep REM sleep, which the good sleep that allows your body to recover– ultimately meaning my workouts were not going to waste. The best part is after about 3 days, my sugar cravings were nearly GONE! Internally my body said, “I got high quality sleep last night, I don’t need sugar to keep me going today.”
My SOUL CARE during this challenge wasn’t pounds or inches lost (Yes they were an added bonus). My SOUL CARE was sleep rediscovered. It was waking up from a 5 1/2 years of grogginess. It was being able to make better choices because I was focusing on proper rest and putting the right nutrients into my body that allowed me to get rid of built up stress. It was being able to relax and reduce my cortisol levels. It was clear headed focus. It was waking up with energy. It was sleep.
I have talked to a lot of people who are weary of supplements. That is why I did my research on how the ingredients worked. I love that it was not full of junk or fillers, but real things that are found in food. I am amazed that with real nutrients (and not the added calories from eating those foods), I didn’t have to rely on hormones like Melatonin to get me to sleep. Because once you start taking Melatonin your brain forgets how to produce it naturally. Therefore, many people become dependent on it for a very very long time. This product does not have that effect. People say science is amazing, food science and nutrition is amazing, and by simply putting the right nutrients into your body, you can have a whole new take on SOUL CARE and rest. I literally feel like a whole new person- relaxed and rested 🙂
This is not a pitch to get you to try this supplement. I am not here to sell it on this blog. This is just what I have been blown away by the power of real rest and my SOUL CARE process.
I am here, however, to have you ask yourself is your sleep holding you back like it was me? It your sleep making your SOUL WEARY? Are you not your best because you are not rested? Then maybe to think about why… and how maybe improving on something like your sleep could make you feel better, stronger, more alive throughout the day, as well as give you the mental clarity and focus to be the mom, wife, neighbor, friend that you want to be.
As always, any additional tips and tricks to improve sleep quality are always welcomed 🙂
There, I finally said it out loud. The term “self care” makes me cringe. And everyone is saying it… “Focus on self-care.” “What are you doing to take care of yourself?” “Are you practicing self-care.” “Do something for yourself, you deserve self-care.” OMG… all this self care talk makes me want to scream. Every time I hear it, my ears have that finger nails on a chalk board sensation.
And I can hear your response… “Why?” “Wait Shelley, but Self-Care is so important to our well being.” “But self-care is a necessity.”
Hear me out… When I consider my “self,” I typically see my “being” composed of mind, heart, body, and soul. And I think too many times people feed only certain aspects of self. I think it is easy to feed our body (get a workout, get your nails done). I think it is easy to take care of your mind (read a book). I think it is easy to feed your heart (grab coffee with a friend, spend time with your spouse). And to some extent, I think these things are important, but they don’t get to the root of your happiness.
But what about your soul? The very essence of who you are…
Unlike the body, mind, or heart… your soul is the last part of you to scream “FEED ME,” and by the time it does, it may be too late.
So here is my thought. Perhaps instead of focusing on self-care… what is we focused on SOUL-CARE.
In my professional life, I preach about taking care of your health to prevent diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and more… What if we preached taking care of our soul in order to help us better take care of our heart, body, and mind.
The issue is, people don’t discuss SOUL-CARE! What is it? How do you do it?
With soul-care there is a deeper meaning than self care. There is a different purpose, a different why, a different focus. And to be told, I think soul care is bigger than self.
It is still hard for me to define this idea. It is still being formulated. But I think, perhaps, since it is bigger than self, it could even be giving up of self. It is finding the light and essence of who you are, and when you find it, nourish it, and allow it to grow, you find a different kind of happiness, peace, and self-love.
What I have found is that when I feed my soul it also makes my mind, body, and heart rejuvenated. I have a deeper desire to eat foods that I enjoy and give me energy. I want to move my body more powerfully to relieve stress and build strength. I am not going through the motions.
Where do I find SOUL-CARE?
Soul-care is laughter. Soul-care is gratitude. Soul-care is finding the light. Soul-care is training yourself to be positive. Soul-care may be crying. Soul-care can be spontaneous. Soul-care can be a habit. Soul-care is being present in the moment. Soul-care is done through the senses- seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. Soul-care can be trying something new. Soul-care speaks to our desires and dreams. Soul-care gives us clarity and focus. Soul-care makes big problems seem small. Soul-care is love, and ultimately love greater than self.
I honestly am not sure where these ideas are going. All I know is it makes the self-absorbed buzz idea of self-care have a better, more powerful purpose and meaning. It connects with me. It fuels me to want to be more. And with a healthy soul, I can be the better mom, wife, leader, coach than I could by simply taking care of my body, mind, or heart.
In 2021, I am going to be brave enough to find my SOUL-CARE, and I will share things that I am finding that help me feel connected to and feed my soul in ways that help make my heart, mind, and body that much stronger. Stay tuned for more.
