Tag: Hopes

Noticing Your Warning Signs

Do you ever find yourself pushing through the week, waiting until the weekend, hoping to relax and recover only to find yourself back in bed Sunday evening dreading the week ahead? What about when every decision seems difficult to make and all the tasks you normally could do seem like an uphill battle? Sounds like you may be experiencing at minimum, elevated levels of stress and at maximum, potential burn out. Most of us have heard about burn out and we may even hear from our doctors that we need to limit stress. But how? 

Oftentimes we feel we need a complex answer to solve a complicated problem. However, a simple solution is the most effective. Let’s start with that. Implement one very tiny positive habit into your routine. Drink a glass of water in the morning. Limit screen time. Wake up at the same time every day. Stop watching SO ...

I was talking with my daughter recently and she shared with me that she is teaching my granddaughter about setting and respecting physical space limits.  My daughter didn’t use those specific words, but it is essentially what she was referring to.  It reminded me of the importance of setting clear boundaries with others and the important responsibility of keeping and respecting boundaries of others and of ourselves.  It is good to recognize that we all have limitations and recognizing that and putting healthy boundaries up helps us to thrive.

My granddaughter is learning about a physical boundary, but there are other areas we may want to consider when thinking of boundaries.  Areas that I have learned to value and protect with boundaries include financial, time, energy, and emotional boundaries.  These can change as our circumstances change, but it is good to know what boundary I need or want to be in place for the c ...

Spaghetti and Hurt Feelings

I am a pretty clumsy person. Like a keep-an-eye-on-me-around-closed-sliding-glass-doors, probably-should-never-eat-spaghetti-without-a-full-apron-on kind of person. Suffice it to say, my childhood nickname lauded my propensity to accumulate minor bumps and scrapes through incredible feats of un-coordination. I won’t tell you how old I was when I nearly broke my glasses walking into the corner of a doorway instead of through the doorway - although, to be perfectly clear, it was part of the transparent wall of a racquetball court…and that was the problem: it was perfectly clear.

Anyway, as my luck would have it, I’m also a pretty relationally-clumsy person. At times I completely miss that I have caused emotional discomfort or harm. I put my foot in my mouth routinely enough that I< ...