"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.  So if you are feeling uncomfortable right now, know that the change taking place in your life is a beginning, not an ending"~Neale Donald Walsch

For a decade I tiptoed around the edges of my comfort zone.  I wanted amazing things to happen in my life.  I had big dreams of building my own wellness program and retreat center.  I would take "mini" courageous actions, such as starting my own private practice, or joining a group practice.  I ventured out on a business with a friend where we began creating and providing retreat style continuing education credits for licensed therapists.  I would spend endless hours researching how to write a business plan.  Only to turn around and spend endless hours researching nonprofit applications and grants. 

All of it ended in a return to my comfort zone.  I returned to the 'safety' of climbing the corporate ladder, with the steady paycheck and benefits that allowed me to support my family.  I was the br...

If you are anything like me, you look to signs from the Universe that you are heading in the right direction in life.  This is especially true when I finally made the decision to take the leap of faith to leave the corporate world and begin my own business.  One mistake I made for a very long time while looking for signs from the Universe is the belief that all of the signs would lead to this super amazing feeling like I was floating on a cloud.  I thought that all the opportunities would just start flooding into my life like pretty little gifts wrapped in bows and dusted with sparkles.  Don't get me wrong...I totally have those experiences.  For instance, once I made the decision to resign from my corporate job to focus on building my business, opportunities and signs were everywhere, as were the opportunities to lean into my faith and trust in the process.

Since we are human being having a human experience, we are constantly expanding our awareness and transforming our realities.  T...

Did you know that 50% of women say they give up on their dreams and are unsatisfied with their life according to SK II Global Dreams Index Survey.  When I read this, my heart sank.  I know what it is like to be in that space.  I felt it hard several times throughout my professional career.  I would look around at my amazing life and wonder why I felt so lost and sad.  On the outside, it appeared as if I had it all-the job, the marriage, the kids,  the house, the cars, the friends, the vacations with family.  So why was I feeling so depressed, anxious, and so unfulfilled?  

In November 2019, I had my awakening.  I realized that I gave up on myself...I gave up on my dream.  I was meant to be living a different life.  A life that I pushed aside for over a decade.  A life that my soul was quietly urging me to embrace time and time again.  And no matter how many times I heard this voice, I would quickly, and sometimes not so quickly, shush it away and keep going in the unfulfilling directi...

Have you ever had the experience of being at the top of your game, feeling amazing, and on top of the word, only to have it crashing down on you in either a few hours, days, or weeks?

Self sabotage is a sneaky bugger.  It works on such an unconscious level that often, we are not aware of our decline until we are well on our path of destruction.   As an adult, I can reflect on so many forms of self destruction in my early years.  There were so many tactics I had to push people away so I could reassure myself that I wouldn't get hurt.  I had created so many forms of self destruction that reinforced 'my place in the world' and that I would not become 'too sure' and egotistical of myself.  As we move into adulthood, we are able to reflect on our immature forms of self sabotage, but what about the stealthier forms as we mature?  Before we get into the forms of self sabotage (which will be a training on 5/7/21@11am in The Essentially Zenful Facebook Page), let's look at the reasons we sabo...

In a world that is so goal driven, do you ever wonder why so many goals never fully come to fruition? Can you recall a personal or professional goal, or maybe several, that never made it past the first week or month of it coming to your mind?  

Do you attribute that to your lack of wanting or desiring your goal?  Could it be that you weren't meant to have that dream come true? Could it be that external conditions and situations stopped you from moving forward with your goal?

More often than not, it is because the goal maker does not know the most effective and powerful way to create goals.  Did you even know there was a "most powerful way" in goal setting?!  I didn't before I began my research.  While exploring goal setting to build confidence and create massive transformations, I found:

7 Ways to Create Powerful Goals: 

1. Desire Dump. List all of the things you want over the next 20-30 years.  Nothing is too small or too big.  We often limit ourself when we dare to dream big, imm...

We are all striving for abundance-whether it be a fulfilling relationship, a fulfilling career, financial abundance, a fulfilling Spiritual life, or an abundance of time for self care.  We want all dimensions of our life to be full and thriving.  We spend countless hours dreaming of our Ideal Life, and then it usually ends there.  Do you ever wonder why we stop at visualizing or daydreaming about our Ideal Life?  Why many of us get stuck in this dreaming stage.  When we clearly know there is a gap between where we are and where we want to be.  When we come to from our daydreaming and 'snap out of it', we immediately chastise ourself for being so "silly and foolish" thinking we can have all of the things we desire in our life.  We move into an acceptance that "this is as good as it is going to get", even though we know deep down there is more to life.  Studies show we spend almost 50% of waking hours daydreaming, and at least 2 of those hours  are spent thinking about how life could be ...

If I had to pick a song for my life, it would be Crazy Train by Black Sabbath.  It was the song my husband and I walked into our wedding reception with.  It's the song my boys rock out to when they are feeling a bit spunky.  This song describes how I felt for much of my life.  This song is also how I implemented humor into the darkness that I felt for so long.   

I had spent most of my life wondering if I was going crazy and truly broken beyond repair at my core.  My childhood was chaotic.  I created even more chaos in my teenage and young adult years.  I created chaos in the earlier years of my marriage.  Chaos was all I knew.  It is where I felt comfortable.  It's why I 'fell into' my profession at addiction treatment centers-which are always filled with chaos with the patients who are detoxing and learning to live a different life, and the staff who all tend to thrive in chaos themselves.  

Soon, I began to feel exhausted of the emotional turmoil I was living in.  I was tired of b...

"There's not enough hours in the day."  "There's not enough time in the day."  "I just don't have the time."    

We all know the time scarcity mindset.  Just admit it.  You have said at least one of these lines, if not all of them, at least once in your life.  And if we are being completely honest, probably multiple time per day. We say it.  We hear it.  We feel it.  The dreaded time crunch.  Trying to fit it all in-family time, a thriving career, an amazing intimate relationship, time to ourself for self care, time with friends, time with family, time to focus on our intellectual growth, and time to focus on our spiritual growth.  

I know that feeling all too well-where I feel like I am scattering pieces of myself all over the place so all dimensions of my life are thriving. At times, I found myself exhausted, frustrated, hopeless and resentful.  I knew that what I was doing was not working for me.  It was not getting me the desired outcome of joy and expansion in my life.  So I dec...

Somewhere along the line, we were taught that selflessness is the ultimate show of love...especially as women.   You see it all of the time.  As women, we were taught to prioritize our family over our own wants and needs.  We prioritize ourself last in almost any situation.  We sacrifice our calling to climb the corporate ladder because we want a family.  Or we sacrifice our family in order to have a thriving career.  We make sure every member of our family is taken care of with both their needs and wants, especially our children.  How often do we want to join a yoga membership, wellness program, coaching program, or retreat, then hold back because we "can't afford it".  Yet we make sure all of our kids are signed up in all the extracurricular activities they want, and have nice cloths and toys regardless of the expense because we will find a way to make it work.   

I want to take a moment here to identify the difference between selflessness and being of service to others.  I believe ...

We have all been there.  We see our friends and coworkers advancing in their careers while we are feeling stagnant.  We immediately begin comparing ourselves to others and try to figure out what we are doing wrong.  We might begin  blaming external factors.  

My scapegoat was my husband.  Often unspoken, and sometimes spoken, I would blame him for not making enough money for me to quit my corporate job to start my own business.  And that was just the tip of the blaming.  I would find any external barrier to blame rather than facing the truth....which was the fact that my own limited beliefs were holding me back.  If you are ready to take a real honest look at what's been holding you back, then keep reading.  

In my Next Level Life Purpose Coaching Program I work with Professional Women who are high achieving, driven women who feel unfulfilled, stuck, and frustrated.  We work on creating clarity on what is holding them back so we can release the obstacles and transform their professio...