Skills

Twelve step programs use a great acronym that reminds one to check in when one feels like turning to the addictive behavior. It’s called H.A.L.T. "Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tired right now?” It makes you stop in the middle of letting your emotions run high and think about how you are feeling and reacting to a situation.

• H: Hungry. Check in to be sure your body’s nutritional needs are met. I know this is critical for me. If I am not fed on a regular basis, I regularly become “Hangry.” I a…

Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from adversity. It’s the ability to stand up after a hard fall and wipe the blood off your chin.

Dictionary.com defines it as springing back; rebounding; returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched; recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant.

I imagine resiliency to be like a rubber band. It can stretch and stretch and when you let it go, it returns back into its original form. …

"Pura Vida” (pronounced poo-rah vee-dah) is the phrase that greeted me on the ‘Welcome to Costa Rica' sign at the airport in Liberia, Costa Rica. I arrived there for a week-long retreat at Blue Spirit in Nosara. 

Before I left home, several people who had visited Costa Rica wished me “Pura Vida”. It means “simple life” or “pure life” and is known as a way of life in Costa Rica. Instead of saying “hello” or “good morning”, one says “Pura Vida”.  

I’ve found that Costa Rica has been named one of…

I’ve been working with a physical trainer on and off for several months. Charity helps me focus on the proper form and provides me with a structured exercise plan that I can challenge myself with by increasing weight or repetitions. She was the one that really shook up my routine by introducing me to Tabata training or High-Intensity Interval Training, HIIT.

HIIT training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and S…

“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’’.   - Alfred Brendel 

A friend of mine recently reminded me of the importance of active listening. Often in the business of daily activities, I neglect to proactively listen to those who I am in conversation with. I can drift off into thinking of the brilliant response or retort I will deliver or thinking of what I need to do next or where I need to go to next when we're done conversing.

I realized I need to focus …

"There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." - Jack Welch

A really interesting article came across my desk this morning from The Chopra Center. It was written by Emily Holland who is a health coach and freelance writer who focuses on psychology and optimal living.

The article 8 Routine Habits That May Be Stressing You Out focused on those daily habits that heighten stress levels that are less obvious than the ones we know are not good for us such as over consuming caffeine, eating large quantities of processed foods and over scheduling ourselves for …

“Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you’re driving at another.”
 - George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) “Pygmalion” (1913)

I spent many years of my career climbing the proverbial ladder in Corporate America. I did what I think is typical of so many women who want to succeed in their careers and be promoted into leadership positions. I looked at who was above me, modeled them, was mentored by them, and got promoted by th…