The Happy Childhood Predicament

I’m willing to bet my entire shoe collection that your childhood wasn’t perfect. Your parents weren’t perfect. “I’ll NEVER do that with MY kids,” you probably told yourself over and over again even if your mother was June Cleaver. Or maybe you had a very difficult, awful even unspeakable childhood.

However, if you look back on your childhood and describe it as generally “happy,” then consider yourself first super lucky and second WARNED about what I call:

The Happy Childhood Predicament.

Here’s how it works. Read more

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How to Get Exactly What You Want

There seems to be a lot of talk these days about how society is full of selfishness, greed and ingratitude. While you certainly can find examples of this without much effort, I would like to suggest that it is not the norm. Read more

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Is Your Pain Clean or Dirty?

Clean pain is a part of life. It is necessary. It helps us grow and heal. Allowing it is important. Resisting it hurts worse than the pain itself.

  • It’s the deep sadness you feel after losing a loved one.
  • It’s the hurt you feel after being betrayed.
  • It’s the fear you feel upon losing a job.
  • It’s the disappointment you feel when your plans don’t work out.

Clean pain almost feels good because it is so cleansing. I recommend you name the emotions and then connect them to thoughts and allow them to wash over you. Depending on how extreme the event is that triggered it, you may need to allow them for a long time but they will wash over you like a wave over and over…getting smaller each time until you’re healed.

For example: Read more

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5 Ways to Survive Your Kids’ Homework

There’s something really magical about back to school time, and something really painful too. The new clothes, sharp pencils, cool weather and return to a productive routine are all things I loved as a child and I still love as a parent.

Now that I am a mom I also get the benefit of a much-needed break from my school-aged children. They are a lot like Axe Body Spray. A little bit goes a long way and too much causes severe headaches.

And then there’s the homework! Read more

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My Favorite Mantra to Help You Survive Being a Mom of Young Kids

What in the world is a mantra?

According to Google who I’m pretty sure knows everything I might ever want to know, a mantra is a sacred utterance, or a syllable, word, phonemes, or group of words believed by some to have psychological and spiritual power. 

 I like to keep a handful of helpful mantras in my back pocket. Not literally. What if I’m wearing a skirt? I mean I have them memorized and I call on them when necessary. When hard times head my way I use them to keep a clear head rather than go to fear and avoidance. Read more

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What other people think is none of your business

Most of us have some need for approval that ranges from caring somewhat about what others think to needing an approval patch to help curb the addiction.

But what other people think is none of your business.

It’s also not about you. It’s about them.

If it were about you, everyone who met you would have the exact same opinion of you.

Imagine you are giving a speech to a room of 100 people. If other people’s opinions of you were about you, all of them would share the same opinion since they’d all be experiencing you in the same way at the same time.

But there would be many different opinions about you.

Because their opinions are about them. Not you.

Your opinion of you is the one that really matters. Focus on making you like you and you’ll gain courage, confidence, empowerment and compassion.

Focus on making others like you and you can drive yourself absolutely insane.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Love your guts!

Jody

 

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Massive Action – You’ve Got This

I just listened to a podcast about taking massive action by the fabulous Brooke Castillo. AMAZING! I committed to a blog post every day for the next 30 days. I won’t e-mail you every day because your inbox space is valuable and I don’t want to fill it all up, but you can check back here for quick inspiration each day if you’re so inclined.

I want to talk to you about the thought I don’t know. We say it and think it all the time.

This thought feels so innocent and true. It’s not. Read more

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The Experiment that Blew My Mind

My family and I spent the past week on Lake Coeur d’Alene and it must be said that this place is heaven on earth.

We traveled there by airplane where I found the opportunity to conduct a POWERFUL experiment. I’m not one who likes test tubes and beakers and cutting up frogs, but I LOVE to experiment with human behavior. Even my own. Especially my own.  I try to do this regularly but some circumstances lend themselves to it easier than others and the airplane ride created the perfect opportunity. Read more

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One of the BEST Feelings – Rock Your Goals

At the beginning of the summer I let my kids choose a goal. I helped them brainstorm possibilities like reading an entire book, learning how to make their favorite dinner or being able to run a full mile . They picked learning to blow a bubble gum bubble. Ok I’ll take it. When we set this goal neither of them could even come close to bubble blowing and while I do have a Master’s Degree in Training, I must have skipped class the day we covered how to teach this skill. I am happy to report though, that school begins in only TWO weeks and these kids can blow bubbles like nobody’s business. 

I love seeing them feel accomplished. They learned to do something that they weren’t positive they could do. They worked hard and didn’t give up and now they get to feel proud of themselves. They get to feel confident not only in their bubble gum tricks, but in their ability to learn a new skill and to accomplish a goal. That is an amazing feeling! I think it’s one of the BEST feelings you can give yourself! I LOVE that feeling and I love this reminder that I want to continue to feel that throughout my life. As kids we are figuring so many things out that these opportunities come up frequently but as adults I believe we should be creating them a lot more than we do. Read more

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Love for my Housekeeper

Minds need cleaning at least as often as houses.

Do you have a housekeeper? Mine is coming tomorrow and I won’t lie. I feel like a child on Christmas Eve.

Her name is Claudia. She only comes once a month because any more than that I can’t rationalize spending the money on. But the day she does come is always one of my most favorite days of the month. A friend of mine who recommended Claudia to me described it like a tornado of clean that starts at one corner of your house and sweeps to the other and it’s fantastic! I couldn’t agree more.

In between Claudia’s visits my husband, kids and I do our best to maintain our living environment and we do OK…but it’s SO much better when Claudia and her 3 friends show up and do their thing. They don’t even comment out loud about how disgusting we are and I like to think that they might have even seen worse than our sticky place. If not I’m glad they don’t tell me! These women are amazing.

I feel the same way about my coach. I can and do try to clean out my own mind daily and I’m getting better at it all the time. But on occasion I love to hire my coach to just do it for me! She’s so much faster and it’s so much easier for her (since she’s not IN my head like I am) and if I could rationalize it financially I would pay her to do it EVERY DAY! Thank goodness for house cleaners and coaches. Two of my favorite people. Ever.

Cheers to clean houses and clean minds.

I love your guts!

Jody

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