Connect to your Calm

I really enjoy making introductions whether that’s connecting two people or introducing folks to new information and concepts. This week I’d like to introduce you to your Vagus nerve did you even know you had one?!?! Activating this nerve is key if you are feeling stressed out or overwhelmed. Enjoy this quick read to learn more.... https://www.thecut.com//i-now-suspect-the-vagus-nerve-is-t See more

I love February. It’s a month when I enjoy more chocolate than usual and also because it is Teacher Convention month in Alberta. This month I am THRILLED to support hundreds and hundreds of educators through my wellness workshops at the following virtual conferences: Calgary City Teachers Convention... Central Alberta Teachers Convention CBE Staff Association Conference Northern Alberta EA Conference I am here to support employee wellness too!! Let's chat if you'd like to learn about my lunch and learns and see how they can support your employee wellness priorities.

Here we are ... already one month into this new year. Regardless of what your goals are for 2021, I thought I would share this good reminder. Sometimes baby steps can feel super frustrating and leave you wondering if you are actually making progress. Believe me I KNOW ... this is coming from a gal who is literally learning how to walk again. As you take your baby steps towards your goals, please remember to:... - Breathe - Be mindful - Be patient - Be intentional - Be kind to yourself You've got this!

I loved this interview with Susan David, Ph.D, an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist. She describes what it really means to be emotionally healthy and reminds us all that there is NO SUCH THING as negative emotions. WARNING: Dax Shepard does use colorful language so if you do not like profanity, then this one is not for you. https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/susan-david

FACT: 100% of us have mental health. When I think back to the times when my mental health was at a low, reaching out to friends and family and talking about it was key to helping me cope through the tough stuff. On Bell Let’s Talk Day (Jan 28th), I am thrilled to be facilitating a workshop at a national online conference that is all about making connections and opening up lines of communication so that people of all ages across our entire country have the opportunity to feel ...seen, heard and understood regarding mental health. Mental health professionals will have the chance to listen to our youth, our youth to listen to a CEO, a CEO to listen to a frontline worker, the frontline worker to listen to a newcomer to Canada. Come be part of the conversation. Click here for more details & to register. https://www.nationalhopemovement.com/

Today I would like to share a gentle and loving reminder. Stress impedes our immue system so, while it's always important, it is even more important now to make connecting to your calm a priority.

In case you needed a reminder ....

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Life and work as we know it has been disrupted. Remember to extend the kindness, patience and support you are offering others to yourself as well!!

This morning marked an exciting first for me. I facilitated a Connect to your Calm workshop via Zoom. The video and all the tools enabled the workshop to be as interactive as it could possibly be. It was FUN and I'm still smiling. Thank you Our Lady of the Evergreens School :)

As you know, I’m a Brene Brown fan. I’ve always been a big believer in vulnerability especially when it comes to being real about how we feel. It’s interesting how stress relieving it is when we let ourselves feel whatever we are feeling ... and if you are anything like me, I am feeling ALL the feels these days. https://www.cbc.ca//our-adrenaline-can-t-outpace-covid-19-

Hello Everyone ... how are you feeling? I hope you are taking really good care of yourself and finding time in your day to breathe deeply. Here's another option to try out and notice how it makes you feel.

If you've wondered what practicing yoga would be like at home, now is the perfect opportunity to give it a try. Check out Yoga with Adriene on YouTube to connect to your calm during this unsettling time. This is a personal favorite (I needed it last night) but there are many to choose from. Take good care everyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbRpHZr_d0

Thank you St. Matthew School for inviting me to present to your Junior High Assembly. For a group of 300 students, I was very impressed with their attentiveness and willingness to get involved. I hope every student took away 1 thing to try the next time they are feeling stressed out! Pics to follow later ... #StMatthewSchoolCCSD #connecttoyourcalm #studentwellness #allfeelingsareok #remembertobreathe #challengeyourthoughts #acupressureforstressrelief #dotb

I LOVE February .... especially because it's Teacher Convention month and I have the opportunity to work with so many amazing people. Thank you CCTCA for inviting me to be part of the Calgary convention. This week includes SWATCA and the Palliser District Convention - sooooooo excited.

Thank you CCSD for inviting me to present at your District PD day on Friday. In both workshops, we had great discussions about the thoughts that fill our heads. It was especially fun to remind everyone that you DO NOT have to listen to everything you think. If it's not helpful, true or kind, why would you want to? Just like you chose what to eat for breakfast today, you get to choose which thoughts you listen to. I encourage you to play with that today ... simply pay attention to what you are thinking and notice.

Happy New Year! I've been working on many new things and feeling lots of different emotions in the process. In a few weeks, I'll be doing a presentation to a Jr. High Assembly. Never presented to a group of hundreds of teens before ... gulp. I'm feeling both excited and nervous all at the same time. Breathe in .... breathe out .... smile ... repeat.

And the answer is 95%! Whoa. Now onto the next question, what % of those repetitive thoughts are "negative"? Post your wild guesses below.

I am always reading research, journals and books on mindfulness and stress management. Today I came across a statistic that surprised me. The average person has between 50k - 70K thoughts per day. What % of those thoughts do you think are repetitive? ... Post your guess below. NO GOOGLING! haha

Thank you CCSD for inviting me to present at your 4th Annual Student Wellness Conference. With hundreds of students in attendance, they had the opportunity to learn about many aspects of wellness and then in the afternoon, create a plan on how to be Champions of Wellness back in their schools. WOW!

Thank you Joyce for inviting me to be part of your Wellness Wednesday!

My first introduction to my adrenal glands was 10 years ago when I first started learning about stress. Do you know what your adrenal glands are?

Had a great conversation last week with someone about "stress". Their position was that "stress" is a part of life, it can help us achieve great things and that the problem is that it has been labelled as a bad thing. What do you think?

What a difference a decade makes! I can't believe I'm coming up on 10 years since I had my health crisis ... knowing there was something very wrong and being terrified that medical professionals couldn't give me an answer. I hit rock bottom but was not ready to give up so I did something I had never considered before and I reached out to a naturopath who introduced me to the culprit - cortisol. Over the last decade I have learned so much: what is stress and how to better co...pe with it, how to truly listen to my body and what it needs and how one's health is connected to much more than the physical. You will see a shift in my posts going forward as I am feeling called (sorry if that sounds corny but it's true) to share everything I have been learning about wellness from a variety of different perspectives. I also would like to hear your thoughts and what knowledge you have on a variety of topics because when it comes to health and managing stress, one size does not fit all. See more

Happy First Day of School Everyone!

Thank you St. Martin de Porres school in Red Deer for inviting me to be part of your morning. The teachers and staff are all primed and ready to go with their stress management strategies so they can take AMAZING care of themselves this school year!! Thank you all for the stories, conversation and laughter.

Can't believe it's been two months since my last post! For me, spending lots of time offline is key to my summer rejuvenation. From a business perspective, I have been told many times that this is not a wise thing to do but it was a risk I was willing to take! I hope you all had the opportunity to spend time doing what "fills you up" and I am looking forward to connecting with you all more regularily starting in September.