How To Solve Your Problem
Think of a problem you have. O.k, now imagine that you go to bed tonight, and while you are sleeping soundly, a miracle happens (this is called the “Miracle Question” in solutions-focused therapy) that resolves your problem. When you wake up in the morning, what is the first small sign you’d see that would make [...]
This Changes Everything
What if the following thoughts or beliefs are not always true? I have to work hard to succeed. I should be getting more done. There’s a right way to do this. I need people to like me. When other people like me, it means I am smart, talented, funny, worthy, attractive. My kid is failing; [...]
The Numbers That Will Change Your Life
If you are like most people, you experience about 2 positive emotions to every 1 negative emotion. Not so bad, right? Right. But not so great either. This ratio makes for a life that may be described as, well… ORDINARY. Positive psychology researcher Barbara Fredrickson has discovered a “tipping point” in human emotions – the [...]
Happiness Is…
“…a view of the world. It comes when you align your life to your values, learn to love and forgive yourself and others, and find true joy in the small details of everyday life.” -Cathy L. Greenberg, Ph.D and Barrett S. Avigdor, J.D. in What Happy Working Mothers Know Subscribe here.
Thoughts Are Optional
The more I coach and the more clients I coach, the more I realize that we all have the same thoughts. My clients think they are the only ones who have such thoughts. And sometimes they make this mean that they are hopeless or that something is wrong with them. Which is not true. And [...]
Happiness & Money
Haven’t we all wondered whether or not money buys happiness? In other words, if you have more money, will you be happier? If only it were as easy to answer that question as it is to ask it. Much research has been done on the subject and the answer seems to be that, yes, money [...]
“To Get Something You Never Had…”
Circumstance: Our family business of losing money.
Thought: I will run out of money.
Feeling: Panic, anxiety, doubt, fear
Action: Question my decisions, lash out at family, cry, do nothing
Result: Family members who don’t talk to each other, time & energy wasted
Can You Please Change So That I Can Feel Better?
Consider the title of this post. Do you ever have that thought? Yeah, my clients and I do too. Jen thinks her husband should clean up after himself because he knows a clean house is important to her. Erin needs her kids to stop fighting so she can feel calm. Kate thinks that if her [...]
Be the Best Version of You in 2010
What if you didn’t need anymore time this year? What if balancing family, work, and yourself was less a matter of finding the time or scheduling and more a matter of figuring out what you value most? Let’s play with this idea. Are you bummed that you aren’t participating in a cheese-rolling competition in the [...]
Do You Believe in Magic?
I know some of you, like me, are fielding the difficult questions that come around this time of the year: Is Santa Claus real? How can he fit all of those toys into that sleigh? Can you e-mail him my list? And the latest: Santa has been old for so long, when is he going [...]
What’s Your Story?
“I don’t have enough time.” This is the story of my life. It’s one I have been telling since, oh, I don’t know, 1995. I’ll share it with anyone who asks me how I am doing. The thing is, all these years, my story has been the ABSOLUTE TRUTH in my head. It has been [...]
Clean Thinking
My husband teases me about how excited I get by shopping at The Container Store or de-cluttering our house (especially when the de-cluttering is done by him). I also get excited by cleaning up mental spaces. The thing is, cleaning up your home and cleaning up your mind are so intertwined, you can’t de-clutter one [...]
Where Are You Headed?
As a continuation of the last post (The Clutter in Your Head), I sat down to write a list of tips to clear your mind. For simplicity, I place these tips in the category of mindfulness/acceptance/presence. But then I got to thinking that it may be more helpful to first explore what happens when we [...]
The Clutter in Your Head
I know you think about the clutter in your house, but do you ever consider the clutter created by the thoughts in your head? The first step in clearing your mind is understanding the nature of your thinking. So let’s take a peek inside your head. The human brain has the incredible skill to relate [...]
Life Simplified
Back in college (ok, waaay back), I worked in an autism research lab. Traditionally, children with autism had been taught behaviors (like making eye contact, saying “hello”) one behavior at a time with lots of repetition and reinforcement. The researchers with whom I was working were testing a new intervention that involved teaching two “pivotal” [...]
The Secret to Happiness
Fellow life coach Michele Woodward recently spoke at a corporate luncheon. When asked (on Facebook) to summarize her speech in three sentences, the following is what she wrote. I found her words so helpful, I wanted to pass them along. As you make decisions about your life, this is great advice. As you consider your [...]
Good Enough
This post is longer than usual. So sit back and relax or read a little at a time or print this out and take it to bed. I am going to get a little “coachy” and inspirational on you, but there is good, practical reason for it. Here it goes: My 2-year-old thinks she can [...]
Big Ideas I Part Two
In Steering By Starlight, Martha Beck describes the problem of a man she met in Bali. Apparently, this man had sneaked into the tooth-filing ceremony of a woman he loved. This man felt terrible guilt because a man of his caste was forbidden to attend such an event. So, of course he needed coaching around [...]
Big Ideas | Part One
I have learned so many life changing concepts and tools from training as a life coach, coaching clients, and being coached myself, that I have pages and pages of blog post ideas that I look forward to sharing with you. But if I had to pick of couple of BIG IDEAS out of all that [...]
Letting Go
The other day, I was talking to my coach (yes, life coaches have coaches because we practice what we preach) about feeling overwhelmed with all I want to do in order to make the most of my life. As coaches, we surround ourselves with books, articles, websites and audio downloads on how to think peacefully, [...]
Good Company
How would you feel if you hung out with someone who whispered these comments into your ear all day: You’re not good enough. You’re screwing up your kids. You don’t make enough money. You’ll never have what you want. Who are you to think you can have a fabulous life? You’re not getting enough done. [...]
Are You Living on Panic Street?
Do you live on Panic Street, just north of Desperation Highway in the city of Fear? If so, are you wondering why your life isn’t working, why it’s so difficult to make things happen? In my last post, I mentioned that good things come into your life when you just breathe. In order to explain, [...]
Just Breathe
Smile, breathe and go slowly. ~Thich Nhat Hanh I had a particularly difficult year at work, which I described as the year I went to work and forgot to breathe. It was the only way I could communicate how busy I was – I didn’t remember even breathing. Of course I was breathing, but I [...]
Something’s Missing
A common reason that people seek coaching is that they sense that something is missing from their lives, but they are not sure what it is. That something is often nothing. That’s right. Nothing is missing. I have a feeling that nothing is missing from your life. I know it was missing from mine. And [...]
