Did you know that literally paying attention to your breathing can really help calm you down? Moreover, intentionally trying to make your exhale longer than your inhale tends to be even more calming. Why, you might ask? Well, paying attention to your breathing (and especially making the exhale longer than the inhale) activates the vagus…
Tag: encouragement
Learn this Brain Technique to Try to Believe Truth about Self
“Why can’t I just tell myself a truth/affirmation and then really believe it?” someone might say. Well, there’s actually a neurobiological reason why this is the case for many people. I went to a Havening training last year with Dr. Kate Truitt, a Havening Techniques Certified Trainer and expert on the connection between fear, information…
I am Cherished
Regardless of what has happened to you, how much you have, what you do, or what other people think or say about you*… you are loved, celebrated, and cherished. On the 11th anniversary of my traumatic brain injury today, I want to warmly and assuredly whisper to you that you are celebrated for the person…
I CAN. I am capable
It was the Little Blue Engine’s attitude that got her up over the mountain to deliver all the dolls and toys to the good boys and girls on the other side of the mountain ( haha, can you tell we read Watty Piper’s The Little Engine that Could with our daughter a lot?!) In psychological…
How to calm yourself through breathing (guided exercise)
Did you know that literally paying attention to your breath… is calming to your central nervous system? Well, it is! Another fun fact— making your exhale longer than your inhale is even more calming. Perhaps you’re already in the practice of noticing your breath. Perhaps you never have. Or, perhaps you’re somewhere in between. Whatever…
I am… not alone
Who else has felt– or is feeling– isolated? Or trapped? In this pandemic? In a job/ home/season of life? You are not alone. After the first 4 weeks of parenthood, I shared with others how isolated I had been feeling. Then, come to find out, it seems like many moms resonate with this feeling. If…
The Power of Buying a Farm! Or at least Getting Out and Imagining:)
An eerie layer of smoke has been hugging LA for awhile now. The other weekend was particularly tricky, difficult, and sad, for me at least. On a whim, my husband, baby, and I decided to jump in the car and drive to Ventura County…. to look at farms to buy! For fun. We had watched…
Set Limits
In a society that proclaims that people are (and should be) limitless, it can be really hard to believe the truth sometimes. It’s OKaY (and normal and expected!) …. when you feel or know that you are limited. when you feel or know that you can’t do everything. when you feel or know that you…
Practice being healthfully proud of yourself
I have the tendency to sometimes brush off the hard things I’ve done– and rather instead, to focus on what I haven’t been able to do or what I feel like I’m not able to do. Anyone with me? In her podcast Checking In, Susan David (PhD) posits that sometimes to make a situation more…
my testimony sermon
Take a listen here for some hope and inspiration in the midst of these times: Highlights: I name that I struggle with why God allows suffering– and why He saves some from awful, horrible situations and not others. I warp through my 5 year physical healing (8 year emotional healing) journey of recovery from traumatic…