Playing with chocolate chip cookies!
“My now-fiancée John makes excellent chocolate chip cookies. He has perfected how long it takes to cook them, taking them out before they get too brown, noting that “they continue to cook after you take them out”. The result? Deliciously warm, soft, chewy, melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies that you can’t help but wonder how many more batches are coming…”
Pain
“But the pain, with its bruises and its scars is also a reminder of where we have been. A testament to the path we traveled and how far we have come along in our journey called life. It is a transcript of all we have experienced—the highs, the lows, the joys and the sadness. We cry when we love, we cry when we grieve, we cry when we are overcome with emotion..or exhaustion. The tears fall when we think there is nothing left…”
The Pitfalls of Perfectionism
“These beliefs and values began as a means of survival, a way to ensure that subsequent generations wouldn’t suffer or struggle externally—meaning a way to ensure that we were secure from a financial standpoint. But those belief systems are misplaced in our current culture. They no longer hold value and instead, contribute towards a need to please, a need to perform, and a need to succeed…”
Conscious choices
“When I would hear advice about setting aside time for myself everyday, I thought it was a joke. Those were lofty ideals that weren’t possible for people in the trenches. They would say to “find your passion” and I scoffed at that. My passions when I was younger seemed so irrelevant and outdated. What was I passionate about? “
“The Grateful Dread”
“The things we stress ourselves with every day—what someone said, what to wear, being “perfect” parents,—essentially having this glitch-free life, seemed so irrelevant to what our soul is capable of doing and what we are capable of being…”
“Triumph Through Adversity”
“The struggles in life are real. And they are hard. They are painful. They push us to our max and sometimes feel like they stretch us beyond our limits. It would be so much easier to just give up…”
“Mom Guilt”
“I didn’t know why I was feeling so guilty over something as simple as eating lunch…”
The Power of “No”
“At every step along the way, there have been many more people ready to say “No” to me than there ever were to say “Yes”. The “No” came in many forms. In the form of my first boyfriend doubting my future aspirations…”
“Reach out and touch someone”
“A little over 4 years ago, I was going through a very difficult time in my life…”
“Hi there. It’s me, Julie. Am I qualified yet?”
This post is dedicated to ALL of you who wonder whether you are qualified enough, capable enough, smart enough, talented enough or good enough. In other words, all of you who wonder whether you are enough. Because one thing I have seen is that you are qualified. You are capable. You are smart. You are deserving.
“Successful” or “Worthy”?
“We equate success with worth. And when our successes are applied towards promotion or a raise, we believe we are worthy…”
Beauty
The beauty of life surrounds us. In the pile of scribbles on our desk and in the setting sun. When we stop looking with our hearts and our souls, we stop seeing the beauty in all that is. We stop seeing the life that permeates our very being. We stop feeling the energy that we give off and the energy that is present in everything around us.
I can do it all. True or False?
“How much do we do because we can? And how much do we miss out on because we do as much as we can? …In our attempt to be “worlds greatest mom” or “employee of the year” or in our attempt to prove how dedicated we are to our job, our family, our career, etc we keep saying yes and we keep doing. “
End-of-year chaos
It’s the end of the school year. Any of you with children will know exactly what I am talking about.
Permission
I realize that being given permission to just be is a powerful thing. Giving my clients permission to be themselves as they are means that I also need to give myself permission to just be as I am. All too often, the internal dialogue is focusing on what I need to do, what I need to accomplish, whether I’m doing enough for __ (insert topic or person here), and then rehashing whether I could have done better or done more.
I can’t change the past. Spending my current moment thinking about the past is taking me away from being present…which impacts how I reflect on whatever I did in the past. That feeling of being distracted from enjoying my meal because I’m checking email at the same time. Being distracted from time with my children because I’m thinking about what else is on my to-do list.
Present-moment awareness and permission to be are the two things I am trying to be more mindful of.