Emotional suppression is the root of pretty much all illness, dis-ease, chronic issues and injuries.

It stands to reason then, that one would wish to learn how to not suppress emotions, right?

I’ve got 2 related stories to tell you and then I’ll share how to receive emotions rather than push them away.

Ready? OK! (that totally reminded me of the very brief stint I had as a cheerleader in grade 7)

I received an email from someone last week who informed me that she would be unsubscribing from my messages due to the misinformation I spread in that particular email. 

My mind went through a whole reel of reasons why I shouldn’t take her message personally. This is the cheerleader part of my mind. Let’s call her Star.

“It says more about her than it does about you,” Star tried to convince me. 

“It’s good for people to unsubscribe when they no longer want to hear from you.”

“You don’t need to feel hurt. She...

Last week, we got into the spirit of Outrageous Gratitude and looked for the gifts of this Year of Years. If you missed part 1 of the 12 gifts, click here (if you want to read it, that is; if you’re ok with just part 2, then by all means don’t click. And congrats on your lack of FOMO!).

Talula made some guest appearances in Part 1, with her less evolved thoughts and contributions. She’s still in the corner, waiting to see if she’ll be needed for part 2. We’ll see.

So. The Gifts.

As I mentioned previously, there are a variety of metaphors that have emerged in our pandemical world that are disguised invitations to show up a little differently.

Here are a couple more for your consideration.

Gift #7

The Greeters. I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but now, whenever you go into a shop or business around here, there’s someone there, standing guard. Sometimes they wear a white lab coat and carry a clipboard (as if...

Where I live, we’ve gone into lockdown again, similar to the restrictions we faced at the beginning of the Great Pause.

There’s a part of me that would like to rail against the imposed sanctions, that would like to get indignant and righteous. Let’s call that part Talula. Fortunately, I’ve learned to tame Talula and not let her be in the driver's seat. (She thinks she’s a gifted driver, but she’s not.)

The wiser part of me knows that the better choice is to receive what’s true right now and know that it’s for the highest good of my soul’s evolution.

(“But waaaah”, says Talula, “our Christmas celebrations at the Banff Springs Hotel can no longer happen and I’ve been looking forward to that for MONTHS. WAAAH!”)

I could choose to be angry about the change in plans, or I could choose to go with the flow and trust that something even better is on the way. 

(“Better than Christmas in a castle in...

When my kids were little, we had a children’s book that seemed fairly simple and straight-forward, but about a decade later, it still has me thinking.

It was called Let’s Do Nothing and the storyline was about 2 little boys who were determined to find a way to do nothing. No matter what they did, though, (looked at clouds, lied still, just breathed) they found it impossible to do absolutely nothing.

Of course, they were right. No matter how little you think you might be doing, you’re always doing something.

Now, let’s look at the flip side of the coin.

We’re often admonished for doing too much. We’re human beings, we’re told. We need to do less and be more. 

Admittedly, sometimes being productive can become a little *ahem… addictive. It feels great to get stuff done and cross things off that list. (I may have been known to add items to my list that I’ve already done, just so I can feel the great satisfaction of crossing...

Have you ever had something happen where you knew you wanted to let it go, but try as you might, your pesky mind kept bringing it up?

You may have reached deep down into your personal development toolkit and used some strategies, but to no avail. The energy of that something just seemed to linger and bring you down. 

“What’s going on with that?” you might ask yourself. “Shouldn’t I be able to move through this kind of situation by now? Hasn’t all the work I’ve invested in myself made a difference? How annoying!!!”

So why does this kind of thing happen? What’s actually going on?

I’ve got some ideas. Two of them to be precise.

I was driving in the car to the farmers market the other day, listening to my daughter’s playlist with her, and a really powerful song came on, called “It’s a Beautiful Life” by Billy Raffoul. She had introduced me to the song a couple weeks before. Tearjerker! Take a...

Funny story (followed by some philosophical musings).

Last week, I boldly declared that I was going to imagine a big sign in the sky that said “Trust Me”. Remember the nice picture I made with the airplane sign?

Not a day later, our car got broken into. Things got stolen.

“Still trust me?” asked the Universe.

Can we say crossroads?

The answer to that question seemed super important.

Was I going to yell into the sky, “Why God? Whyyyyy?” (à la Joey from Friends).

Or was I going to let the incident roll off me like water off an aardvark’s back? (It just seemed less cliché than a duck.)

Interestingly, I got my answer from my body. When we first discovered that someone had been in our car, parked right outside our place in daylight (and then dusklight), I had no physical reaction. Not a twinge. Not a tightening. Nothing.

It just didn’t seem like that big a deal. Sure my husband’s designer sunglasses were gone...

I’m reading this fantastic book I found in a Little Library, called the Story of Sushi (by Trevor Corson, in case you want to read it too). It’s super interesting! Within the context of students attending a sushi-making school in California, there are all sorts of bits of history about fermentation, rice, seaweed, soy sauce, and even how the plastic green leaf in your box of takeout sushi came to be there. (I barely even noticed that little guy before reading this book!)

Anyway, there’s a passage I wanted to share with you.

“Part of the difficulty in encouraging Americans to appreciate the sushi experience was getting them to relinquish control. In America, you were considered a sophisticated eater if you insisted on having things a certain way. To really experience sushi, you had to let the chef decide what was best for you. It was hard for Americans to do. That was why the most uncompromising Japanese sushi chef in L.A. - a man named Kazunori Nozawa, more...

Well, my daughter’s filming wrapped up last week, so now our lovely family is reunited and we’re adjusting to yet another new normal. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever spent any time on a set, but here’s something I’ve learned. There is A LOT of time spent waiting. Often in the dark. And in silence. That means there’s been A LOT of time to think.

Since I love using my time effectively, I got to thinking about why this year has been exceptional. If you tuned in last week, you’ll remember (maybe) that despite its challenges, 2020 has been one of the best years of my life. 

I wanted to pinpoint 3 precise reasons that have contributed to my remarkable year and share them with you. Why?

Because maybe 2020 hasn’t been awesome for you and you’d like to finish on a higher note.

Or, maybe it’s been an exceptional year for you, too, and you’d like to make it even better.

I didn’t set out to focus on the...

Do you remember your first thoughts when you heard things were going into lockdown?

I was on set with my daughter, Zoe, who’s filming Season 2 of the Netflix Series, Black Summer. The director gathered around all the cast and crew (and me, since I don’t fit into either of those categories) and said that we would be going on a 2 week break. From there we would see what was going to happen.

I remember feeling disappointed because Zoe was having so much fun living her dream, but I also thought it was going to be an amazing opportunity for people to do some introspection and deep self-care. My mind literally thought, “This is wonderful! People will now be able to meditate and journal and do all sorts of other things that will really change their lives!”

Less than a minute later, I heard someone say, “This is awesome! I’m going to get a Playstation on the way home and play for 2 weeks straight!”

“Ok,” I thought, “I guess not...

The other day, I was laying in bed thinking about all of the wild and weird things I’ve done in the name of personal development. Perhaps you’d like to sneak a peek at a few of them? Just make sure you take off your Supreme Court Justice cap (because you may be tempted to judge some of them!)

These adventures happened at various courses I attended all over North America; on beaches in Mexico, lavender fields in California, mountains in British Columbia, hotel ballrooms all over the place, at the foot of a Rocky Mountain glacier, oh... and even in a yurt in an old growth rainforest.

Ok, are you ready? Here’s an abbreviated list of ways I’ve abandoned my comfort zone. 

I have: 

-walked on fire

-swallowed fire

-hiked up a mountain with bricks in my backpack

-stood on my chair in a room of 400+ people, yelling, “Pick Me!” when everyone else just politely raised their hands

-skinny dipped in the ocean in the dark (terrifying)

...