A friend comes to you feeling defeated, ashamed, and really down on themselves. What do you do? It may be safe to bet that, feeling empathy for your friend, you encourage them with everything that makes your friend so loveable, worthy, and valued. And yet, when you yourself are feeling defeated, ashamed, or really down on yourself, do you meet yourself with the same empathy and support you meet your friends with? When thinking of how you screwed up, how you aren’t enough, or how embarrassed and…

Many people have this idea that meditation involves sitting down and doing nothing. But this is a misconception. Meditation is an active process, an exercise for the brain. The aim of the exercise is to become consciously aware of your thoughts and feelings without judging them. Meditation is not about trying to turn off your thoughts and feelings, but instead allowing them to come and go without resistance. Meditation is a skill; similar to any skill, it takes practice to get comfortable with.…

Have you ever heard a TV or radio program informing you of the importance of sleep for health, happiness, and productivity? That would be great if you could get to sleep, right?  Sleeping problems are indicated even with such things as lying in bed for more than 30 minutes without being able to fall asleep; trouble staying asleep: waking up frequently during the night and waking in the early hours of the morning before you need to get up but not being able to fall back asleep. Yet these…

We all know that exercise is good for our mental health, but did you know that exercising in “green spaces” and in fact, just looking at nature has also been proven to benefit mental health and wellness?  It’s true.  A few years ago, the Canadian Mental Health Association published the article, “The Nurture of Nature:  Natural Settings and Their Mental Health Benefit” (2013).  This article offers a review of numerous research studies that point toward a strong connection between our exposure to…

Coping with Suffering Health Concerns

 A diagnosis from a doctor can seem deafening, everything goes numb, your thoughts race a mile a minute, searching for an answer. Why? Why me? Why is this happening? So many endless questions with no direction or answers. It feels as if a simple word has changed your entire life and the path that was once so clear is now filled with barriers that you will have to climb through. What now? 

We must start by creating a road map to take back the power the…

You’ve got your gratitude wall up at work, Facebook covered in motivational quotes, and your positive affirmations rehearsed on the daily. But you’re still miserable. Everyone else seems to be able to fix everything with a positive quote or by counting their blessings, does this mean there is simply something wrong with you if these things don’t make you happy? Of course not!

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, that jerk who cut you off on the highway is going to be under your skin for the…

As we welcome May, we also celebrate “Family Caregiver Month” and the very important role that caregivers play in the lives of those they care for.   In Canada, one in four Canadians (7.8 million people) report caring for a family member who has a disability, a long-term condition or experiences health challenges associated with aging   (Statistics Canada General Social Survey, 2018)

Caregiving can provide many benefits for caregivers such as an increased sense of meaning and purpose in one’s…

We all know that exercise is good for our mental health, but did you know that exercising in “green spaces” and in fact, just looking at nature has also been proven to benefit mental health and wellness?  It’s true.  A few years ago, the Canadian Mental Health Association published the article, “The Nurture of Nature:  Natural Settings and Their Mental Health Benefit” (2013).  This article offers a review of numerous research studies that point toward a strong connection between our exposure to…

Wherever you find people you will find stories. They are not only woven throughout our history, they are our history. Across all of time and every culture we are united in the commonality of storytelling, though the tales told are often so different they are also much the same. Creation stories, family stories, tragic stories of death and destruction, uplifting stories of resurrection and rebirth. Myths, legends and legacies of heroes, villains, and creatures. Fairytales, parables, scriptures,…