Jennifer's Blog
Posted on Month day, year
As you know, this work has been particularly empowering to me over the past several years and I believe strongly that it can over needed support to those of us who are…people pleasers, over achievers, caretakers, and those of us that are much kinder to others than we are to ourselves.
Posted on Month day, year
How are you feeling at the start of this new year? Where are you with setting intentions, goals, habits for this fresh start?
It is almost cliché to speak about how most of us fail at following through with our New Year’s resolutions! However, it is inevitable that many or most of us who set resolutions (or goals, intentions) will end up floundering at some point early on and don’t fully follow through.
Posted on Month day, year
You know something is important when you keep encountering it in every book you read!
Over the past month, I’ve been surprised (and not) at how in almost every book I’ve read, the topic of self-compassion arises as an important skill to possess.
Posted on Month day, year
All week I’ve been thinking what I would do if I had received her diagnosis.
Would I choose to follow what is important to me? Would I be courageous enough to keep living even as I am dying?
This is at the heart of valued living.
Posted on Month day, year
Resistance only increases suffering. It can bring relief in the short-term but never for the long-haul because life will keep bringing things to our doorstep that we didn’t ask for.
Plus, in all my resistance to what I receive, I miss out on any surprise or joy in the act of receiving.
Posted on October 10, 2019
The past few weeks I’ve felt ungrounded, scattered, off.
I’ve been resisting all my regular habits. I’ve got a case of the “don’t wanna’s”.
I don’t want to meditate, or exercise, or eat healthy, or even give myself self-compassion...
Posted on January 1, 2021
“I’m 95 years old. Happy and content sitting on my front porch in my favorite rocking chair staring out into a sea of evergreen trees. The sun is just peeking up over the mountains and the birds are beginning their morning chorus. A dog happily sits by my feet and a dear cat is purring on my lap. I slowly rock and think about my life. What has brought me joy? What has brought me peace? What am I so grateful I put time and attention toward? What regrets linger?”
Posted on Month day, year
Has anyone told you lately that you are doing a good job? Have you told yourself that?
In my coaching, I emphasize giving ourselves credit for all the good work that we do each day.
This is an important thing to do when we are trying to live healthy lives full of compassion and motivation.
However, it is one of the hardest things for many high-achieving women to do.
Posted on Month day, year
Striving is often unnecessary and can slow my success I didn’t know how to let it be easy for most of my life.
I’m an achiever and have embraced the idea of working hard for my success. I have all sorts of imbibed beliefs about hard work and value.
Posted on Month day, year
The in-shape health guru who has boundless energy to do all the things in her life without slowing down. Someone so in touch with her feelings that she never gets angry at her partner (family, friends, kids, etc) again.
The energy of these fantasies of perfection can drive us forward initially, but what I’ve found is that they always leave me sitting in the dust of my wildest dreams, disappointed and wondering what is wrong with me.
Posted on Month day, year
We all know this. That much of what we pursue and do in life might not be what we “ultimately” want to pursue and do.
However, we are great story tellers and share stories like “The time isn’t right,” “I have to do this because…,” “I have limited options,” “What if I make the wrong choices and end up even further away?”
Posted on Month day, year
How many of us know how to allow our feelings? Allow ourselves to have them, experience them, let them exist in our bodies without manipulation?
I know I didn’t for many years and I still work on it today.
As a sensitive, deeply feeling child born to parents who weren’t particularly skilled at being emotionally open, I learned a lot of ways to judge, push away, resist what I was feeling.
Posted on Month day, year
This was incredibly enlightening and humbling.
For the first 12 hours, I felt pretty lost and was painfully aware of how often I turn to my phone to distract me from any negative feelings. Emotions that ranged from the low level feeling of boredom to strong feelings of anxiety or worry.
In the last half, I experienced more feelings of freedom and noticed a change in how grounded I felt. There was slightly more space in between my awareness of my feelings and the choice to dip into them with a mindful breath.
Posted on Month day, year
Over the years I’ve started a collection all the good things that come with practicing self-compassion. Some of these are personal changes and other are well researched benefits that I can also attest to experiencing in my own life and witnessing in the lives of my clients.
