On the day this episode releases I will go for a run to celebrate 2,500 days of running every single day. Building a habit that lasts for 2,500 days doesn't just happen on autopilot. It takes a lot of hard work, intentionality, and planning. In this episode, I breakdown a process you can go through that will help you in identifying and creating a habit that has the ability to change your life. My run streak has made a huge impact on my own life and it has inspired others to improve their own lives. It is incredible what we can accomplish when we focus, act with intentionality, and encourage one another along the way.

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything by BJ Fogg - the process explained in this episode comes from this book

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More ideas to help you move from languishing to flourishing at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

In this episode, we talk about the science behind our moods and why it is beneficial to have a better mood more often. We also learn practical strategies to help us improve our mood. The goal is not to try to experience happiness all the time, no matter our circumstances. Rather, the approach we want to take is to not let small, everyday annoyances derail our mood and ruin our day. Having a more positive mood can improve our health, our life satisfaction, and our success. Increased positive affect is an important part of flourishing in life.

Links and Resources from this Episode:

The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology - this article talks more about the Broaden and Build Theory

22 Ways to Lighten Your Mood - more ideas to help you reset a bad mood

What is Positive and Negative Affect in Psychology?

Support the free content available on this show by making a donation here.

More ideas to help you move from languishing to flourishing at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

A long, dark, and cold winter has left many of us feeling like we're in a funk. On the heels of a two year struggle through the pandemic, we're feeling exhausted, stuck, and unmotivated. This 8 step process can help you reset your mental, spiritual, and physical health, refresh your work life, home life, and relationships, and create a fresh outlook for your values and goals. After completing these steps you will feel less overwhelm and more clarity about how to move forward in this next season of life.

We can't think or feel our way out of an unmotivated and apathetic place, we have to take action. The steps in this process are purposely ordered to help us build momentum, motivation, and inspiration. We will start small with the simple step of spending time in nature. Our final step will involve reassessing our values and goals to envision a new path forward. The simple act of getting started on the first small step will help us develop a sense of progress and accomplishment to keep us going through the remainder of the process.

Episode 30: You Were Made for Greatness, Not Comfort

Episode 29: The Pursuit of Peak Flow Instead of Junk Flow

Episode 28: Learning How to Move from Languishing to Flourishing

This episode for the BEMA discipleship podcast talks more about the eternal 7th day and God's invitation for us to join in the enjoyment of creation.

Quarterly Goal Planning Workbook

More ideas to help you move from languishing to flourishing at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

Pope Benedict XVI is quoted as saying, "The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness."

The pandemic has increased our options for comfort these days. And many of us are doing all we can to seek comfort and avoid pain and discomfort. The circumstances in our current lives are ever-changing, overwhelming, and hard. It is so tempting to just move into survival mode, doing the bare minimum we can and then spending any free time we can find passively escaping all the hard. But a life in survival mode, filled with comforts and passively checking out of our reality leaves us feeling empty and unfulfilled.

Rest is good and vital for a meaningful, productive life. But it's also important to go out and contribute to the world in a meaningful way. This episode will help you develop new rhythms and patterns of rest, productivity, and fun. You'll learn how to reflect and discover if you need more rest or if what you really need is more meaningful action toward your goals and dreams.

Episode 29: The Pursuit of Peak Flow Instead of Junk Flow

How to tell the difference between laziness and resting

More ideas to help you move from languishing to flourishing at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

Flow is an experience of total absorption in the task at hand, where you completely lose track of time and space. Researchers, like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, have discovered that flow is the best predictor of well-being. The more often you are in a flow state, the more enjoyable your life experience will be.

But all flow is not created equally. Sometimes our experience of flow doesn't lead to more meaning and satisfaction. Sometimes when we come out of a flow state we still feel stuck and empty. This type of flow is known as junk flow. Junk flow happens when the superficial experience of initial flow becomes an addiction instead of a source of growth.

Adam Grant has developed a theory of peak flow. In this theory, he explains the three things required to experience healthy, peak flow instead of junk flow. The three things we need for peak flow are mastery, mindfulness, and mattering. This episode talks about these three things and provides examples to help us discover how to identify junk flow versus peak flow. We'll learn how to adjust our activities to bring in more mastery, mindfulness, and mattering so that we can experience peak flow more often.

Episode 28 - Learning how to move from languishing to flourishing

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Adam Grant's TED Talk: How to Stop Languishing and Start Finding Flow

More ideas to help you move from languishing to flourishing at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

In early 2021, Adam Grant published an article in the New York Times that said, "There's a name for the blah you're feeling: It's called languishing." The article quickly went viral. Adam spoke to an experience that we had all been experiencing. Over the past couple of years, we have moved from grief and sadness to an overwhelming sense of languishing due to the pandemic and ongoing challenges of life. We just feel meh. Empty, stuck, stagnate, joyless. It's not mental illness, but we're definitely not experiencing mental well-being either. We're stuck between sickness and true health.

And I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get unstuck. I'm ready to start living again. I'm ready to show up to my life joyful, hopeful, and expectant. I want to get back to living an active, engaged life of meaning, no matter what the pandemic or the political, or social, or economical world around me has to say about it. 

In this episode, we get clear on what languishing is and discuss what it takes to move beyond it. We learn that many of the things we've turned to in order to cope with the challenges of life in recent years are temporary fixes that often leave us feeling more empty. Instead, we have the option to find the cure to languishing. And the cure for languishing is an active engagement with our actual lives in the real world.

Links and Resources from this Episode:

"2022 = 2020 too" meme

Adam Grant article - "There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called Languishing"

Episode 27: How to Flourish by Creating a Balanced and Fulfilling Life

The original concept of languishing came from this research by Corey Keyes

The idea of "Live the life you are living" and other concepts about living in our present moment came from the "Morning Prayer" in this Daily Prayer book by Padraig O Tuama

More ideas to help you thrive at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

This episode will help you understand what it means to flourish in life. We talk about three aspects that are necessary to help us flourish. These aspects are fulfillment, balance, and presence. We'll learn what it looks like and how it feels to live our lives fully alive, flowing smoothly, and with mindful awareness and appreciation for the present moment.

After going through a global pandemic, many of us are struggling to find our new normal and reengage in a fulfilling and meaningful life. We want to move forward with intention, to build practices and strategies that help us enjoy our lives more, not overwhelm ourselves with busy, frustrating schedules again.

Listen to this episode to reflect on where you may already be flourishing and where you have opportunities for improvement. Then learn ways in which you can bring more fulfillment and balance to your life while also making sure you stay present and enjoy the journey.

Links and Resources from this Episode:

The Flourishing Scale by Ed Diener and colleagues

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2009). New measures of well-being: Flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 39, 247-266.

Episode 20: Using your values to guide your actions

More ideas to help you thrive at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

Good emotional health is the ability to cope with both the highs and the lows in life. It involves being able to accept and manage any and all emotions we face with vulnerability and authenticity. You build strong emotional health by becoming aware of your emotions, learning to self-regulate in the midst of intense emotions, and developing healthy coping strategies to support you in hard times. In this episode, we learn healthy ways to accept and manage both the good and the bad so we can live a better, more meaningful life.

Tucker, L. A., & Earl, A. B. (2010). Emotional health and weight gain: A prospective study of midlife women. American Journal of Health Promotion, 25(1), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.4278/ajhp.090122-QUAN-22

Psalm 130 NLT

Psalm 13 NLT

Psalm 22 NLT

More ideas to help you thrive at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

A healthy approach to exercise is flexible, adaptable, pleasurable, and compatible with your daily life. It supports the healthy functioning of your body and is done from a place of positive motivations and beliefs.

Exercising our bodies is extremely important, not just for our physical health but for our mental health and cognition as well. Many people approach exercise with an unhealthy focus on weight loss, disordered eating, and dysfunctional exercise practices that stem from self-criticism, self-loathing, and frustration over perceived flaws of the body. This attitude toward exercise may lead to some short-term physical results but often leads to worsening mental health and greater physical challenges in the future. A healthier approach to exercise begins from a place of self-love, acceptance, and compassion where a person works to support their body rather than loathe it.

A framework for remembering how to approach exercise in a healthy manner is provided. The framework can be remembered by the acronym EASY.

E - Enjoyable

A - Adaptable to your current life and abilities

S - Supportive of the healthy functioning of your body

Y - Yields true physical, spiritual, and mental well-being

Episode 24: Developing a More Positive Body Image

More details on my run streak (from year one of my streak)

Learn more about my journey as a runner in the video

More ideas to help you thrive at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki

Improving your body image is one of the most important things we can do to support our overall health, wellness, and well-being. When we have a negative body image, our very motivation for pursuing health usually leads us down a dangerous road that often makes us even more unhealthy than when we began. This episode helps us better understand what body image is and provides practical strategies and inspiration that we can use to help us improve our body image. In this episode, you'll learn how a body gratitude journal can help improve your thoughts and feelings about your body and you'll find new ways to create physical health goals that have nothing to do with the size, shape, or appearance of your body.

Episode 23: Rest, Relaxation, Sleep, and Sabbath

Four Dimensions of Health

Gratitude Journals and Other Gratitude Practices

Podcast episode on gratitude

More ideas to help you thrive at www.WorkingMomsBalance.com

Find me on Instagram at @TracyKulwicki