Your relationship with your parents can be attached to a lot of big feelings of hurt or anger because it’s such a major relationship in your life. They’re your parents – of course it’s going to hurt if you don’t get what you need from them! So if you are struggling with your relationship it can be emotionally overwhelming, to say the least. You might be in a place where you’re end up getting hurt by them so much, you cut them out of your life just to protect yourself. Or maybe you still have a semblance of a relationship but you hide things from them because you know they won’t be able to understand or accept you. Perhaps you try desperately to get their approval and they never give it to you, no matter what successes you have. If any of this sounds familiar, then you are not alone - and this is a blog for you. This is an important puzzle piece to figure out: it’s one of the most powerful foundational relationships in life and can affect your happiness, your life-trajectory and your very understanding of self....
Read MoreA Quick Survey from the Official Blogger & Podcaster of Teaspoon, your friend, Sarah-May!
Read MoreHi peeps, this is an exercise for you to use to improve your personal alignment with your priorities and simultaneously boost self-esteem. And if you prefer to listen, here’s the podcast version! It’s actually a process used to heal in any injury in the body – you strengthen the muscles around the area that has been injured in order to give it the time and support to heal. For example, if you were to hurt yourself in a sport, you might be told by doctors to strengthen the muscles around the injured joint. The same goes for your personality. The more of yourself that you dedicate to diverse passions and strengths, the stronger you become and the more confident you feel. It’s also how you can heal yourself the most quickly. When it comes to a painful loss of a part of your definitions of self, your other passions and roles can grow bigger and help support you in the place of what is gone. So if you are looking to become more stable and confident, this is a self-esteem building exercise for you – and I HIGHLY recommend you do it in a journal. It’s a process that applies to everyone and it has to do with the various skills and passions and practices that identify you to you.
Read MoreHow to stop obsessing about what’s in other people’s heads and also curb your need for validation from them.
Has it ever happened to you – that you do something nice for someone else and they don’t respond and so part of you is worried they didn’t like it, but then you start to get mad, because you are thinking – they should have appreciated that gesture! And how could they?! So uncaring. Wow – they are really a jerk, after all. Or, maybe there’s someone in your workplace who gave you a dirty look – and you can’t figure out why, did they hear something? Do they really just dislike you? And if so, why? You didn’t do anything to them. Maybe you try to be nice and they don’t acknowledge you at all and now you just feel uncomfortable. The tension makes you feel nervous and distracted because you are nice! AND didn’t do anything wrong! If this sounds like you and you do everything in your power to talk yourself out of it, but still can’t seem to soothe the obsessive thoughts of everything from worry to hate to insecurity and self-doubt, then this is a blog for you!
Read MoreOkay, yes, this is a melodramatic title but it’s because this is a big deal and it’s causing millions of people to suffer from a whole slew of different side effects. And maybe you can relate – ask yourself if you’ve had a pervasive feeling of anxiety, worry, or a lack of focus that seems to be the new bar for normal. Or maybe you feel hollow no matter what accomplishments you make or what new health regime you try, or even what you do with your time - nothing seems to quench it. You might consider that this state of numbness and ambivalence is the result of a modern condition that robs many of their happiness, inner peace, and self-awareness, keeping them trapped in confused frustration and inaction. What I am explaining is a false identity of “self” that manifests from the dominance of our thoughts. Thoughts that appear to us as the voice of our soul – that dictate how we are feeling, what we want, what we need, what we’re worried about – what we should be doing with our lives to make the frustration stop. And, not to mention, all at the same time – regardless of whether or not we want them to stop.
Read MoreIf you prefer to listen, here's the Podcast Version of this blog.
This is for anyone who’s looking to improve their results in a certain area of life.
A lot of the time you don’t get the things you want because you are unknowingly acting against yourself. Most of the time it’s because you are operating based on your subconscious. So if you’re not getting the results you want in your life, I invite you to examine yourself and your habits so that you might discover what might be working against you.
Whether your goal is related to love, work or health, begin by taking an inventory of your behavior. Literally, just begin to take notes and observe your habits, related to this goal. Create a “behavior log” in your phone and write down everything you do that is tied to achieving this goal. The point is to try and objectively see if there’s something you are allowing to happen in your life that’s not aligned with what you want. You might surprise yourself because most of the time this behavior is totally unconscious. We have no idea how we are blocking ourselves – and sometimes it’s actually self-sabotage. It comes from a strange unconscious fear of the thing we think we want...
Read MoreControl is an illusion in that you never really have control over what happens in life. We can prep, plan and anticipate things that could potentially happen, and then the best we can do is steer things in a favorable direction. Basically, set the stage for the ideal scenario. However! Contrary to how that stage might appear, it’s not foolproof as we do not control fate. The outcome is still completely unwritten and remains completely out of our control. For many of us, this unknown is completely torturous and the unpredicted outcome is soul-crushing.
Read MoreThis is a follow-up to "Emotionally Raw" because, if you just went through a major traumatic life change like a breakup or a betrayal, in a more pervasive sense you are in a stage of reintegrating your knowledge of life, yourself, and also healing from trauma, while growing into fortified new and improved version of your self. So if you are reeling from a recent discovery or the life you planned fell apart- this is for you. It’s a framework I would like to present to you in the hopes that it gives you a point to focus on as you move through this time. Because – yes, this time is painful, but it’s also a time of growth. You’re growing right now whether you know it or not. So this is my way of saying, “Hey! Look over here! Grow in this direction!”
Read MoreThis is for anyone who has had something take the wind out of them lately and maybe you’re hurting pretty bad. The super deep gut pain that makes you want to curl up in a ball in your bed. It's for the moments you have to enter into the world and step back into your routine, in places that make you feel even more broken and exposed. At a time like this, you are likely feeling more than the pain of your trauma - you're feeling the pain of pure vulnerability. After a blow, your heart is as fragile as a china figurine of a fawn: just about anything from anyone could take you down. When you are in the initial stage of healing and in a lot of pain, it can be difficult to retain a tether to stability when in particularly unsupportive environments. That is the result of being exposed and also in pain management and it’s disorienting to say the least, because you feel so incapable of normalcy. It can be hard to keep a straight face to the world, and really, really hard to keep your eyes from welling up. The pain, when it’s extreme, comes in waves. It’s hard to manage when you’re in the most supportive environment – doubly so, when you’re trying to hide it and take care of everyday tasks amongst others who don’t know or support you. Whatever the wound and wherever you have to go, this is for you, to hopefully ground you in those moments. To help you manage “normal.” Because right now, you just have to traverse the time.
Read MoreHi friends, this is for Stefanie – thanks girl! I hope this helps. And if you prefer to listen, here’s the podcast version of this post.
It’s for anyone who perhaps considers themselves to be a positive person but still has a hard time maintaining a positive mindset. OR maybe you are working on becoming more positive and you’re just not quite there yet. This is a great topic because we all need some form of maintenance – whether you were born with a smile or you have to work on it quite a bit. The gist of it is your mindset and focus take deliberate maintenance. Just like washing your hair or giving your muscles exercise, conditioning your mindset takes daily attention. That doesn’t mean it has to be tedious – in fact, quite the opposite. Once you start training in something like positivity, you feel positive about that practice. It’s just like running – when you start feeling full of energy, you look forward to it. So if you’re in that stage of hesitance or laziness, but you know you need a good positivity maintenance routine – this is a post for you!
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Hi friends, this is awesome interview I did with Justin Lyon of Yo Gabba Gabba, Fieldtrip and Unique Camp. It’s targeted at creative people who really want to make a living at doing what they love. And I think something many strive for but it’s really hard to achieve it in reality, so instead they fall into the grooves of an industry or what others before them have told them to do.
Today I wanted to talk about being a creative and an entrepreneur so you can find your own perfect life ratio so you can build the life that allows you to be all of you. In other words, merging your life’s loves - and also family, not just work, and career.
Read MoreThis is an interview with Zooey Deschanel, just about the coolest bestie you could ever imagine. We discuss favorite moments from growing up, games we liked to play, plus Zooey fields a few bestie hypotheticals. If you prefer to listen, you can find the podcast version of our chat here. Hope you enjoy!
S: Today’s podcast is about Besties so I’m interviewing my best friend today – she’s singer/songwriter/actress beautiful, wonderful amazing human being– Zooey Deschanel. Hi Zooey.
Z: Hi Sarah!
Read MoreIt’s that period of time when you’re not sure what to do – but nothing’s changing and you’re trying your hardest, and something better happen soon or else you just might give up. Whether you’re on a new health kick and not seeing dramatic results, or attempting to pursue a new career – often the most difficult to surmount is the master of disguise – the plateau. Oh, the old plateau will make life look pretty much the same for long enough that you start to get antsy. That you start to feel you might have already failed – or that change of course is needed – “I haven’t seen progress for quite a while - something must not be working – it must be me, why did I even think to try in the first place? This must not be right-“ or my favorite, “Silly me, I never had a chance of success in the first place…” It is this window of time – the plateau – I would argue, that is the most difficult challenge you will ever face. It’s not the last leg of the race that tricks you into stopping. It’s the time when literally the only piece of advice you need is “Keep going.” It’s this advice that’s the hardest to follow – especially when it comes to pursuits that are new – that require you go out on a limb and jump.
If this is you, I am writing this to give you a much-needed push in the same direction. You must have a large gulp of Gatorade and listen to the sound of my voice – keep running. I know it’s not fun anymore, you don’t feel successful, but there was a very good reason you started this run – and now’s the time you’ve got to trust that and just keep running. Trust your own original instincts and power through. You’re on a plateau and the plateau ends – your path will eventually round a turn, and once it does, you will be able to see the finish line in the distance.
Read MoreHi friends, as we move through the end of the year, it can feel a bit overwhelming to say the least. Factors like the winter season, family, food and finances can bring our emotional stew to a high boil – so it can be challenging to stay balanced and calm. When it comes to a holiday brand of emotional overload, anxiety, depression and other dormant vices can rear their ugly heads – so now’s the time to take measured steps in favor of proper chemical balance. If you find you have a lack of willpower to do what you know is best for you when it matters the most – now, or in life in general, this is written for you. I will go into the reasons why as well as a few tools to help you make progress in the right direction. It’s divided into three parts:
1. The science behind willpower and where it comes from.
2. General causes behind low-willpower.
3. Tools to improve your willpower and create change, today.
Read MoreThere are many different individuals who have overcome incredibly challenging conditions to become great beyond their wildest dreams – and what they all have in common is having a window. A vantage point into something higher and greater than where you are, so you can see where it is you can jump next. Having that window can be the difference between growing and not.
Read MoreDoes your brain start chattering and seemingly never stop? Do you feel distracted and unable to focus? Like your brain won’t seem to shut up and it’s getting a bit noisy up there. This is for anyone who suffers from chronic over-thinking. I will cover the what, the why, and most importantly, the solution.
Read MoreIf you are looking to make new and better friendships that you can invest in for a lifetime, this is a blog for you. I will go over what I believe are the three essential ingredients to a great friend in the hopes that it will better enable you to spot them. I also cover nine general rules for being a great friend to yourself and others – as well as some ways to locate potential friends.
Read MoreIf you’re scared to go home this holiday because you’re worried that you’re going to have painful, triggering-situations with your family, this is a collection of tools for moving through the holiday with balance and grace. So whether or not you decide to skip it this year or move through the experience for the good of the future-you, it always helps to prepare yourself beforehand and have a couple tools ready in your emotional belt. I will cover a few general categories of painful family dynamics – so depending on your level of pain, choose the one that helps give you the healthiest amount of mental distance and support.
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This is for anyone who has been burned bad in a romantic relationship and now you are are struggling with the idea of revenge: you hate them, you’re hurt by them, you want them to show they care, but they are not showing any signs whatsoever. Maybe you were in a committed relationship with someone and discovered they had been cheating and lying to you all along. Maybe you even confronted this person and they acted aloof and then immediately moved on as though you meant nothing: your feelings and tears are almost invisible and their “love” has somehow evaporated. If this sounds like you, even remotely, then this is a blog for you. It’s so you can let go of the obsessive thoughts about this person and accept the truth of your situation so that this never happens to you again.
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