Wow! Today I realized that I was feeling abnormally stressed out. when I asked myself why, it was a familiar answer. Too much on my plate.

When we put to much on our plates, it keeps us running at a pace (100 miles per hour) that doesn’t feel normal or good to our bodies. The anxiety that is created isn’t healthy for us. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I’m doing it, until I’m sick to my stomach, or I have a head-ache, or I’m feeling particularly tired. If you are one of those who always has to much to do, here are some pointers on how to manage your day keeping a lighter plate.

• Start your day looking at what you have to accomplish, if it is to much, remove some of it and schedule it another day. 
• During the day, before adding anything new to your plate, check your current schedule and see if it is do-able. 
• If you become anxious or nervous through out the day because of the fear of not getting things done… Stop, and breathe and just know that  it’s okay if you have to push certain thing off until tomorrow.
• Check your schedule frequently to see if you are on target.
• Make a master list of everything you need to accomplish, to get it out of your head and on to paper.
• Take up Meditation or Yoga to help you start your day.

It has always been something I have had to work on everyday, and pay attention too. And that is okay as long as I do it. Let me know how it goes for you.     

How do we keep our hearts open, after we have been hurt?

This is where knowing who you are and having self confidence comes in handy.  We seem to shut down after someone treats us badly or shuns us in someway.  If we are shut down, it is impossible to have an open heart. If our hearts are shut down, we can not feel love or give love. 

In our journey through life it’s important to know that when people do things to us, it’s not always about us.  For a fact…It’s usually never about us.  This is where self-esteem and self confidence is so critical.  Even if your boyfriend breaks up with you, if you immediately think it’s because of something you did or didn’t do, it becomes about you! 

Of course it’s going to hurt if your boyfriend breaks up with you, but it doesn’t have to be about you.  Don’t shut down and think you have to change something about yourself, instead look at it like an opportunity to grow and open your heart more.  I think just knowing that it isn’t always about us, allows us to keep our hearts open.  even when it has to do with him. This is a tough one, I know. 

Give it a try, next time someone does something that hurt you, say to yourself  ”This isn’t about me”, and send them love, to help them figure things out, and see how differently you feel. 

A broken heart at first doesn’t mean that a heart has to shut down. Think about all of the times someone has done something to shut your heart down and tell me how that felt, and maybe how you could have shifted that by not making it about you.


Also, remember to have supportive, and positive relationships in your life, so that you are not constantly working on keeping your heart open with people that aren’t safe to have an open heart with.  

Negative Body Image isn’t just running rapid with teenage girls it’s weighing heavy on all young woman. Everywhere you turn the media is talking about women’s bodies and how they are suppose to look. 

I can’t remember ever liking my body.

My poor body, the judgment it must feel.  “You’re not skinny enough, you’re not tone enough, not tall enough, not shapely enough, you’re stomach is poochy”.  Hearing these words every time I walk by a mirror, trying on cloths, looking at the models in magazines, it’s enough to make my body want to run and hide. Run and hide away from me, because I am the one with all of the judgments. It appears as if the judgments are coming from the outside, but I am the one letting them in and confirming them.

Picture a young child with someone she really loves, and now picture this person saying these harsh words  “You’re not skinny enough, you’re not tone enough, not tall enough, not shapely enough”. OUCH!  These thoughts and words hurt.  Imagine how this child would feel. The feelings she might feel could be unimportance, worthlessness, loneliness, shame, and embarrassment. Can you imagine having a child and making her feel this way? Of course not, so why is okay to make yourself feel this way. We need to treat ourselves like our own little girl. Handle her with care.  

Loving my body is something I work on everyday. I do this by first realizing that my body is a gift, a beautiful gift to get me around for my stay on this earth.  I have to have an understanding that it needs to be healthy and strong for this stay, not be prettier then other girls to do this job. I also need to realize that judging my body does not make my body prettier or make me feel better about myself, it only damages my self-esteem.

So, what is it that we need to do to love our bodies and not judge them?  Here are a few tips to help you create or maintain a healthy body image:

• Appreciate your body for carrying you through this journey on earth, praise your body for what it can do- walk, run, sing, laugh, play sports. I could go on and on.
• Know that real beauty comes from the inside. What makes you shine comes from who you are, not what you look like.
• Embrace those parts of your body that you don’t like, tell them everyday you love them. Like you would if you had a daughter with something she disliked about herself. You would try to strengthen the parts she disliked.
• Focus on what you love about yourself, not what you don’t like.
• Don’t bad talk yourself; keep your thoughts about yourself positive.
• Take care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise do nice things for yourself, read a book, relax, take a bath, pamper yourself.
• Be around people that treat you well, and like you for who you are.
• Don’t feel like you have to follow the fads, dress the way you want to make you feel good about your body.
• Don’t buy into the media telling you your body has to look a certain way to be attractive.
• Every time someone, or something (TV) says something negative about your body or someone else’s, just have a mantra  “I love myself just the way I am, and I am perfect” 
• Stop judging other people, and the way they look. Low self-esteem shows up as judgments.

I am so excited that we now have celebrities like Tyra Banks and Jennifer Love-Hewett that are standing in their power saying “I like my body”.  Let me know how you feel about your body and how you feel about the emphasis on bodies in general. Hugs to our bodies, Debra