Contemplate for a minute the last few weeks. Have they been full of energy drainers or energy producers?

How do you feel at the end of the day? Do you fall into bed exhausted, dreading the next day? Is your mind racing? Do you wake up in the morning just as exhausted as you did the night before? Does your brain kick into overdrive as you think about your To-Do list?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you have more energy drainers in your day than energy producers.

I am a firm believer that how we go about our day is our choice. If you are feeling totally drained and overwhelmed on a fairly consistent basis, this is a clue that you need to reassess what is going on in your day.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How do I start my day?
• What do I think about when I jump out of bed in the morning?
• What nutritional choices do I regularly make throughout the day?
• How about exercise - Is it plentiful or non-existent?
• Am I always rushing through everything?
• Is there a task I want to accomplish but continue to put off?
• Do I always need to feel in control and be right?
• Does every task I do need to be accomplished perfectly?
• Do I complain and gossip more than I laugh?
• Do I spend more time watching reality TV than I do creating my own desired reality?
• Am I constantly thinking about what is missing from my life?
• Do I spend most of my time ruminating about the past or worrying about the future?
• Have I been spending more time scolding my kids than praising them?
• Does my career energize or drain me?

Give some really serious consideration to these questions and even go a step further and journal your answers, thoughts and feelings about them. What many women believe is that they are a victim of their circumstances and have little control over their lives - the absolute opposite is true.

Yes, there are situations beyond our control however it is our choice as to how we will let those situations dictate our lives. It is our choice as to whether we make decisions that will enhance our health and well-being. Anything is possible taken step by step.

Give some thought to these words…“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”

If you are not satisfied with your present lifestyle, are you ready to do things differently? You get to choose.

Balance, Wellness

If there is one word that I hear more than any other in today’s society, it is “STRESS”.

I have presented information on this topic in my job as a nurse as well in my coaching with women. Women are sometimes consumed with multiple stressors all happening at the same time. In coaching, I am often supporting women in decreasing their stressors and increasing their stress resistance so they are better equipped to handle the daily stressors in their life.

One of the greatest stress management tools you can possess, however, is the ability to put everything into perspective. How you perceive your life has a profound effect on how you deal with stress and your level of happiness.

For an event to be a stressor, we first need to perceive it as such. What if we were to take note of the little daily demands that we find stressful and experiment with changing our perception of these demands?

Look at your commute to work in heavy traffic as an opportunity to listen to your favorite music or motivational CD. How about using your supper preparation as a time to spend with the kids. Get them involved in some way. Stress is in the eye of the beholder. What may be one person’s stressor could be another’s saviour.

This week also experiment with the role your thoughts have in how calm or chaotic your day is. Notice how negative thoughts can spiral into a stressful day and when the majority of your thoughts are positive, your daily routine tends to run much smoother.

We are often doing the same daily tasks but some days they seem more overwhelming than others. Why - because of how we perceive them. Certain days preparing supper can be an enjoyable task while other times it is one more job added to my TO DO list. It totally depends on my thinking.

One simple way to reduce the stress and create more balance in your life - change your thinking. Recognize when negativity takes over your day and stop it ASAP. When we start thinking our life is overwhelming, it will become just that.

Start living in the moment and remind yourself how precious life is. Practice becoming more flexible as life always involves a series of changes. Embrace then instead of resisting them. We only go around this way once!!!

Quote by Gillian MacBeth-Louthan:

“Whenever a negative thought comes, delete it and replace it with a good thought or good
intention. This will take some practice and concentrated effort, but it can be done.
Instead of continuously manifesting what you do not want in your life, change your focus. Practice adjusting the lens of your perception.

It is Universal law that all of life will respond to our thoughts.
So hold on tight to what your heart desires.”

Balance, Wellness