The Happier You: Empowering Your Journey to a Joyful and Fulfilling Life

This Episode was inspired by a 2011 TED talk with Ric Elias, 3 Things I learned While My Plane Crashed.  He was one of the passengers who was on the flight that crash-landed in the Hudson River in 2009.  In his Ted Talk he shares what he learned from that experience. 
We talk about how his TED talk impacted us and how it made us start a conversation about how we are choosing to live our lives.  We figured why wait for a huge event to learn the lessons he shared.  Let's talk about it and do something about it now.  "Don't Postpone Your Life" means figure out what is important to you and live it now.  And in the wise words of Ric, "I collect bad wine."

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Who do you surround yourself with?  Do you let other people's negativity and negative energy affect you?
This episode we talk about how hard it is to find your happier if you are constantly surrounded by negativity and criticism.  What can you do about it?  You have options, you always have options you just have to figure out what best suits you.
We also talk about what kind of energy you are giving out.  Have you looked at yourself lately and figured out if maybe you are someone else's criticizer?  None of us want to be that for our loved ones, so let's do the work we need to do to get ourselves to a better mental space.
Remember, the happier we are the more we have to share!
 And sorry, no funny bloopers this week so HGE shared a YouTube video that will make you smile. Its totally worth a watch!  This is what happens when you reply to spam email. James Veitch

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Do you let the little things in life get you down?  Do you find yourself favouring negative instead of positive? This week we are unleashing the power of gratitude.  You don't always have to focus on the big things...noticing the small things in your life that you are grateful for can bring you more happiness.  And, side benefit, it gets you to stop focusing on the things you don't have or don't want in your life and appreciate the things that you do have.  
Life is too short to not to appreciate all the amazing blessings we have in our lives.  Now more than ever it is important to figure out a gratitude practice and focus on the good.  Sometimes you just need to take those frustrating moments and re-frame them.

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Are you like me and still trying to figure out you?  Do you sometimes get so busy being the person you are expected to be that you forget who you really are?  Do you have designated masks for each role you play in your life, and sometimes forget the real person underneath?  Have you been wearing these masks for so long that you are not even sure you remember the real you?

This week's episode was inspired by something Ronsley Vaz said at Podfest 2020, “In a society that profits from you not liking yourself, being you is a rebellious act.”  I think I want to be a little rebellious. I think we all need to be a little more rebellious.  Find the real you and own it.
This episode is about being the real you.  I talk about discovering the poem, Please Hear What I am Not Saying when I was in a speech competition in middle school.  Even back then I realized I had different masks for different roles.  I think its about time I dug through all the masks and found the real me.
In the Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown says “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.”   She also says, "You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs."  Let's do this.  Let's be authentic and brave and be real.

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Sometimes the road to the happier you is not easy and fun-filled.  Even after you have done some personal growth work you get tested on some of your decisions.  Setting boundaries is tough because sometimes those boundaries require you to turn down things that you would have previously said yes to.  This week  I share my struggle with saying no, honouring my boundaries, admitting I'm high maintenance and getting through some of the tough stuff on my journey towards the happier me.  Good thing this is a journey, and the joy is in the journey.

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Are you constantly noticing what you aren't good at?  Only focusing on your weaknesses instead of acknowledging and celebrating your strengths?  When was the last time you noticed when you did something right?  Too many people undervalue what they are, and overvalue what they are not! 

The journey to happiness starts with liking yourself.  And a great start towards that is acknowledging and celebrating your strengths.  Last year I did a personality test with 16personalities.com and seeing my strengths on paper was empowering.  It broke it down by work, parenting, marriage, and friendship.  Seeing my strengths pointed out in all those relationships felt good.  

In today’s world we are so busy comparing ourselves to others, we only notice our faults or weaknesses instead of honoring our strengths.  Life is so much more fun when you start from your strengths and work from there.  Working in your strengths gives you confidence and makes life way more fun and less of a struggle.  If you continue to try to live up to what others think you should do and say and be, it will always feel wrong.  

Honour the amazing person you are by acknowledging your strengths and sharing those with the world.  Stop living in denial of the amazing person you were put on this earth to be.  Share your talents with the world and see how much happiness comes your way. 

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Do you remember the anticipation leading to summer holidays as a kid?  Or what about Christmas?  Your Birthday party?  The Anticipation for it lasted way longer than the actual event.  The event came and went and you felt like you hardly blinked.  When COVID 19 happened, all anticipation for upcoming events was taken away.  Suddenly the world was on hold.  We realized that having nothing to look forward to was not a fun feeling, so we decided we needed to add some “anticipation” back into our lives.

The appreciation for anticipation was a discovery for us a few years ago.  I think we either ended up on a trip that we were too busy to plan and get excited about.  Or, we decided to surprise our son with something, and we realized by doing that we took away all the conversations and excitement leading up to the event.  Whatever it was, we decided that we didn’t want to do that anymore.  We wanted to enjoy the build up.  The planning, preparation, research and ANTICIPATION for our upcoming adventure is a big part of the actual adventure.

Anticipation extends the event.  It makes it longer than a one week spring break, or the 4 day Thanks giving long weekend.  Anticipation is enjoying the build up and the waiting.  If the event isn’t as awesome as you had dreamt up in your mind…well, you did still get to enjoy the preparation.  So it wasn’t a total bust.  Consequently we have found that the build up prepared us to find all the good things we could do and see and experience before hand so we didn’t miss anything!

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Are you like me and have negative thoughts about yourself?  That inner critic can be really mean and hit you right when you are most vulnerable.  Getting past this starts with how you talk to yourself.  How you think and talk about yourself and what you allow into your life affects your happiness.

Where do you start?  You start by shutting down that inner voice  with the negative talk that tells you you are stupid, a loser and that you aren’t good enough so don’t even bother trying.  Have you even noticed how awful you are to yourself sometimes?  It’s a terrible habit that needs to stop immediately.

I was the worst for beating the critics to the punch.  I was constantly saying “I’m such a loser.  I’m so stupid.  And I don’t think there was a dumb blond joke that I couldn’t beat you to.  Years ago I learned how detrimental this is.  You know they say that positive mantras help you?  Well imagine what negative ones do.  Luckily, it is a habit that you can break, and shut down.  I learned this lesson years ago, and I don’t speak like that to myself anymore.  I also don’t allow friends and family to speak like that about themselves around me.  EVER!  That is mean and unacceptable.  Just because it is you saying it DOES NOT make it okay.  

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

Does it bring you joy?  Have you ever asked yourself this question?  If you have heard of Marie Kondo you know that is her main question.  Marie Kondo is famous for her book 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing'.  This week I talk about my experience with the “KonMari” method and what it has done for me.  
Why do you allow things in your life if they don’t bring you joy? Instead of ignoring all the stuff around you, noticing whether something brings you joy or takes away from your joy will help you create a happier you!  The more things you have around you that bring you joy, the more little happy moments you get in your day.  When something doesn’t bring you joy then you need to figure out how to reconfigure it and make it work for you…or figure out how to let it go.  Re-purpose it or donate it and let it bring someone else Joy! 
Through this exercise you become more aware of what’s around you and you become proactive in creating  a positive environment for yourself.  If something is in your life but it doesn’t bring you joy or serve you, then why are you letting it stay?  I found that noticing what brings me joy every day makes me grateful for all I have.  The more proactive you are in creating your happy life, the more empowered you feel. 

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook

When you try to learn something new, or conquer something that intimidates you, do you get frustrated and overwhelmed?  This often leads to us giving up.  I have learned that as I take on a new challenge I actually follow a certain emotional pattern.
I wanted to share this idea with you because I think on this happiness journey, it is important to recognize that there are struggles and ups and downs. When you identify something that you want to overcome or learn, it isn’t usually easy and you can very quickly find yourself in overwhelm. In this conversation with Doris Belland, I realized that I definitely go through overwhelm, but on the other side of it I become more confident, and then eventually feel powerful for having overcome an obstacle or challenge I had. Here is a link to a picture of the emotional cycle Doris and I discuss. 

Doris and I started talking about this emotional cycle of learning, and then we just kept going from there. We so often let mindset issues get in our way as we try to conquer fears or learn something new. Doris’s passion is helping women transform their lives by helping them take charge of their money and build their confidence. She is an educator, coach and mentor. As I chat with her in this episode you will hear her passion for teaching and empowering women come through.

Wish you journaled more, but struggle to make the time or never know what to write?

Join me on Oct 8th at 8 pm Eastern, for a free guided Journal Club experience.

Come as you are. I’ll provide the prompts and the space to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and spend an hour with an incredible community of women who are learning to live more intentionally.

✓ No journaling experience required

✓ No pressure to share

✓ Just bring yourself and a notebook