I don’t know about you, but I find there are some days when it’s really hard to get motivated. On those days I usually have low energy and don’t get much done.

Lately, though, it happens less and less, and that’s because I now know that when I’m not feeling motivated, it’s always due to something I’m thinking. I let go, breathe, and go within. Then I get to work to change my thoughts.

But how do you get motivated when you have such uninspiring thoughts?

How many times have you been excited to start a new project and then suddenly lose momentum and enthusiasm to continue?

At that point, it’s likely that your brain has started to recycle old stories and beliefs, like, “I don’t know how”, “I can’t do this”, “This is too hard”, etc.

You may tell yourself, “I’m stuck”.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that it’s not true. You just think it’s true because you’ve always made it true in the past.

How many times have you quit doing something because you weren’t sure you’d succeed? It’s happened to me more often than I’d like to admit. There have been many days in my life when I haven’t wanted to get out of bed because I was so afraid of failure.

Fear of failure can suck the life out of us and it always prevents us from living an extraordinary life - 100% of the time.

We all know what it feels like to fail. It’s not fun and we don’t like experiencing it.

But here’s what you need to know, understand and believe: If you don’t allow yourself to fail, you will never reach your full potential or start living your dreams.

How often do you feel stressed to the point of overwhelm? Overwhelm is that place beyond stress that really impacts our nervous system and how we respond in the world.

It’s important to understand that stress and overwhelm are feelings that result from your thoughts, not your circumstances. For example, you aren’t overwhelmed by work or your daily to-do list, you’re overwhelmed by the thoughts you are having about your work or daily to-do list. Your circumstances, thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all intertwined. Circumstances will result in thoughts that create feelings and cause you to behave in a certain way.

Do you ever lie awake at night and wonder why you’re here? And wonder what it is that you really want?

Along with morning yoga and meditation, I write in my journal every morning for about 20-30 minutes before I start my day. I’ve been doing this daily for some time now and it’s one of the most valuable self-care practices in my day.

Sometimes, though, I feel stuck and don’t know what to start writing about. On those days, I pull a card from one of my inspiration decks and that always helps to get me started. One morning several weeks ago, I pulled a card that said:

What do you REALLY want?

What is self-care?

Self-care is doing all the things you need to do to look after your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.

We engage in self-care when we live intentionally through choosing healthy foods, maintaining good sleep habits, moving our body through exercise, looking after our physical health through medical and dental checkups, brushing our teeth regularly, etc. Self-care also includes connecting with others when we need to, engaging in hobbies that make us happy, and regularly checking in with what we need.

We’ve all been in situations that are chaotic, challenging and very stressful. It can feel particularly chaotic during times of change, such as the last two years that we’ve all collectively been through during the pandemic. There are also many personal changes that cause a lot of stress - births, deaths, marriages, divorces, retirements, illnesses, work - the list goes on.

In times of extreme stress, our bodies produce a hormone called adrenaline. That’s what causes our heart to beat faster, our breath to become shallower and can lead to those anxious feelings most of us are familiar with…

For many of us, the past couple of years have been really stressful and it’s often been difficult to focus. We’ve had to adjust to changes in our routines and disruptions in our work and personal lives. It’s been really challenging to stay present in our surroundings and much easier to spend hours scrolling on social media instead of staying personally connected to family and friends.

You may have found it particularly difficult to engage in regular mindfulness practices during the pandemic. Although there may be a desire to ignore what’s going on around us, mindfulness (the ability to stay in the present moment and focus your thoughts and attention on what is happening in the here and now) is exactly what we need…

When I looked up the definition of habit, this is what I found. A habit is: “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up”. That sounds wonderful if it’s a habit that moves you towards your best life, but not so great if it’s not good for you.

The key to successfully incorporating good habits into your daily life is to do them, every single day. Once you’ve done something for 3-4 days, it will get easier and easier to continue. Keep at it for 2 weeks to a month, and you’ve created a solid foundation for the habit.

Do you ever have problems getting to sleep at night? I’ll bet that you have. Whether you experience it often or only occasionally, lack of sleep can be annoying and debilitating, affecting all aspects of life and especially your mindset.

I couldn’t get to sleep the other night due to some severe pain from a migraine headache. As you can imagine, I laid there feeling myself becoming more stressed and anxious, not only because I was in pain, but because I knew I had to get up in a few short hours for work and I needed to sleep…