Here in the midwest, this year’s summer weather has been exceptional. I can’t remember a year when the weather was this nice starting at the beginning of June. Actually, I believe it began sometime in May. Usually, June is a cool month with one or two warmer days, but this year it was a fantastic month; followed by a great July and August.

It seems like there is an abundance of people, including me, feeling stress, strain and struggle in 2020. In fact, most people I’ve talk to have felt anxious and uncertain at times about the state of the world with COVID19, and recent violence. A world where many haven’t experienced anything like it before. Because of this, most don’t know how to navigate in the moment or moving forward.

Boundaries are the limits you set with yourself around what you will or will not tolerate. Simply said, what’s OK and what’s not. You have the right to your feelings. If you haven’t set boundaries in the past it could be for fear of conflict, being a people pleaser, making sure everyone else is OK, or even doing things out of obligation. However, setting healthy boundaries is taking back the power in your life. Instead of abandoning your needs, depleting yourself and holding back, it’s OK to put you first with self-love, while prioritizing your well-being and what’s best for you.

Last week, I found myself singing in the shower; a song that popped into my head that I probably hadn’t heard or sung in a long while. Out of nowhere I was belting out This little light of mine. As I was singing, I wondered why that particular song came forward. After reflecting, I determined it must have been either my higher self reminding me of my purpose or I was meant to share the message through my writings that someone was meant to hear.

When you think of the phrase, I am enough, what does that bring up for you? Does it make you feel inspired, uplifted and joyful, or does it bring up feelings of doubt, fear and unworthiness? If the phrase makes you feel happy and worthy you are 100% right, however, if it makes you sad and unworthy, then there’s work to be done.

State by state, the country’s been slowly opening back up from Covid19, but along the way there have been a lot of disappointment, people have experienced. For me personally, a few events, several get togethers, four airplane trips, one weekend getaway, lots of anticipated adventures, and many other calendar dates have all been cancelled through the end of the year. Although, I understand the reasoning behind the cancellations, it’s not always easy to swallow.

I’ve been thinking about the question “Now what?” As the home isolation orders are slowly transitioning into being, “I’m free……I’m free at last”…..now what? Like most, I have no idea how I’ll begin to navigate the new normal. In my mind, I want to leap feet first back into my life. The life I’ve known since…….well, since forever.

Our sisterhood of women are what makes our community special. Together, we’ve shared our dreams, wishes, goals as well as struggles and challenges. We’ve learned, they wanted to discover, heal and connect with their own hearts as well as each other’s; a tribe ready to support, love and hold space for one another.

At the end of 2019, I was part of a published compilation book with a total of 52 authors, titled Kindness Crusader. The idea of the book was one chapter for each week of the year. Depending on where the author’s story landed in the book translated into the week they were responsible for reaching out and connecting with the community within the collective group. My story landed on week 15.

This past Sunday, International Women’s Day was celebrated and I was proud to be part of the movement that recognized women’s rights around the world.

Inner wisdom, also known as intuition is something we all possess. It knows our truth, authentic self and heart. We had no trouble following our inner wisdom as children; it was natural, easy and felt good, but as adults we think too logically and somehow manage to creep out of our heart space and into our head. Letting the head take over will wreak havoc on our mind, body and spirit.

There’s a little known secret in the land of motherhood or spouse hood, or family hood, etc., that women think it’s selfish to do for themselves before others. Where did that come from anyway?

Over the last few weeks I’ve seen noticeable changes in my yoga practice. So much that I almost gasped out loud at a pose earlier in the week. It was a pose I’ve done for many months and even though I’ve managed thought it, my form and grace could have been much better. Then this week, just like magic; I was doing the pose with ease. Queue the confetti…it was a little victory for my soul.

Recently, I was asked to speak about mindfulness for a local rotary club. I was both honored and excited to be able to share ideas with them. In preparing my presentation I wanted to make it interesting and valuable of their time. As the members entered the room and began to settle in I noticed the number of men that filed in. I was pleasantly surprised at the volume. For some reason I thought the majority would be women but that wasn’t the case. The men attendees were as much as the women, if not a little more.

I’ve been keeping a dream journal since spring of last year. I don’t always jot them down for a couple of reasons: 1) I wait too long and don’t remember or 2) so many crazy things happen I don’t know where to begin. The latter has happened quite frequently and I find myself shaking my head in complete wonder. Wondering, what could the most random, off the wall, doesn’t make a bit of sense, events possibly mean?

This year it came about two months early. Seriously?! At first I kept ignoring the word since there were still a few months left in the year and I loved my word for 2019…..joy. I used it to guide my actions; always looking for ways joy could make by days brighter. Even if things weren’t going as planned I always tried to look for the silver lining; ultimately things automatically improved just from a little shift in my thinking.

Happy, shiny, infinite possibilities of another new year and new decade. It’s hard to believe another twelve months have flown by. For the last several years, I’ve gotten quiet, listened to my heart, picked my word of the new year and set intentions and goals for the next 12 months. Not necessarily a new year’s resolution, but a plan for what I want to create and manifest in my life.

It's launch day.....WOO to the HOO! It's the official launch day of the compilation book titled Kindness Crusader andI'm one of the contributing authors. This project has been in the making for almost a year and I'm feeling giddy inside. I've had aspirations of writing a book for a while but always felt overwhelmed by the process. Being part of this compilation book has been a wonderful learning experience for future projects.