THE BRAVELY BALANCED BLOG
For the overachiever and the overworked!
How exhausted are you? I know the feeling!
Does being exhausted serve you? What if I told you that you could have it all without subjecting yourself to hustle culture?
Sounds divine, doesn’t it? Follow along and feel the ease!
Category
- Analysis Paralysis
- Anger and Depression
- Anxiety Stress & Fear
- Balance
- Burning the candle
- Burnout
- Change
- Dealing with Urgency
- Doubt
- Drive
- Emotional awareness
- Empowerment and Living
- Epigenetics
- Expectation
- Faith
- Healing
- Hope
- Introversion
- Leadership
- Personal Boundaries
- Personal Strengths
- Resilience
- Self-reliance
- Shame
- Trauma
- Victim Mentality
- Vulnerability
- Worry
- avoiding conflict
- balance
- being alone
- conflict resolution
- connection
- decluttering
- duty and guilt
- emotional eating
- empathy
- energy
- feeling stuck
- happiness
- imposter syndrome
- intentions
- justice
- mindfulness
- overeating
- perfection
- perfectionism
- procrastination
- regret
- resolotions
Reclaiming Power, One Choice At A Time
I’m a therapist and coach. In all the work I do with clients, my deepest desire is to support them in re-discovering their power.
In my work, so often I see and hear people identify as victims – abused, cheated, manipulated, taken advantage of. I’ve felt that in my life, worked through it, and want more than anything to see those I work with overcome it too. …
Why A Quiet Mind Changes Everything
I meditate in some form daily. I find it sets my day in a good direction: even if the rest of the day is really difficult, I know it began well, and tomorrow will too.
Most of us know this at least intellectually. And yet, …
When Differences Don’t Divide Us
I was at a gathering with friends a few weeks ago. One member talked about his work situation – how it was dangerous work with many disagreeing politically with one another. He ended by saying: The main thing is, we have each other’s backs and at the end of the day – for that reason – we all get to go home.
That group of workers have all made a conscious decision to be there for each other in a way that matters. …
Faith Isn’t Belief — It’s Movement
I’ve been struggling with something that I’m finding hard to step into; there’s a kind of inner resistance that creeps up whenever I worry about it – whether I’ll measure up.
The advice I receive is to have faith. I was raised Baptist. Faith meant something very specific that was all about accepting religious doctrine with no proof. That never appealed to me, …
The Story That Helped Me Say Yes to Change
This week, I was going to write about something quite different. Then I heard from a friend who is struggling with whether to take a chance and move on. You probably know what that feels like – …
Movement As A Form Of Courage
I read a blog a while ago that made a great point on what grabs our attention. If I’m looking for something I’ll naturally notice anything that changes (moves). On the other hand, if I don’t want to be noticed, I’ll stay still.
This is true …
Will It Improve The Silence?
“When do I speak up? I usually keep quiet because I tell myself that I need to process something first. But am I fooling myself?”
I get this question a lot. I’ve asked myself this question many times. …
When Doing More Leads To Less
Last week, I wrote about solving problems. This week, I want to talk about a particular kind of problem that comes up in my life quite a bit – paradox.
A paradox is something that seems contrary to opinion – in this case, my opinion. Here’s an example from my own life as a student many years ago: …
Changing My Attitude Changed Everything
All of us encounter times when we are torn between two actions.
Here’s a fairly common one for me:
I had a real problem: …
Rooting for the Strugglers: A Guide to Believing in Your Own Success
I read a blog by Seth Godin recently that contrasted what we believe about ourselves and good or bad outcomes. Some believe they’re smart and savvy because they got lucky. Others believe they’re lacking in some major way because they haven’t yet succeeded in what they’re trying to do.
This blog is about that second group, …
The Quiet Message of an Overloaded Space
I read the quote below online recently, and resonated with it. When I’m busy, I’ll occasionally stop and take a good look around my office. If there’s any place other than my chair to sit, that means things are pretty good. It means that I’m addressing what I need to address, bit by bit. Piles of stuff are slowly disappearing from all the surfaces.
Those piles of stuff represent …
When You Doubt Yourself More Than Others
I was with a friend today who complained about her tendency to give others the benefit of the doubt over herself. What happens with her over and over is when she does that, she almost always regrets it, realizing too late that she would have been better off to go with what she, herself, had thought.
Even though she knows this,…
The Gift of Giving Others the Benefit of the Doubt
I listened to a podcast today that was a fruitful dialogue between 2 people of radically different views. I felt that both of these people were earnest in their desire to build bridges. However, …
Why Energy Matters More Than Effort
Today, I feel energy-less. Today, I’m dealing with a chronic illness that has sapped me of my energy. I am envying anyone I see who has any at all.
About 10 or 15 years ago, I had a debilitating illness that would bring me down with very little warning. In those days, I really believed I could “push through” any situation…
Living Happiness Instead of Searching for It
As a counsellor, I often hear comments or complaints about not feeling satisfied, or happy. That’s a big reason people see counsellors. I remember complaining about the same thing when I was younger, …
From Autopilot to Awareness: The Power of Noticing
When I find myself watching another food video, when I end up reading a novel till 2am, when I eat so much at Thanksgiving I hurt … it isn’t that any of these are bad things to do (except for the overeating at Thanksgiving, but safe to say few of us haven’t been there), it’s that I find myself doing them automatically, unaware of it until I’ve been doing them for some time. …
How Risk-Taking Changed When I Stopped Overcommitting
What I want to talk about today is risky for me. It’s about going too far, something I am intimately familiar with.
What I mean by this is: the usual way I tend to overcommit is to …
When Duty Becomes A Distraction
A friend of mine has been riddled with guilt over several things – he doesn’t want to do them but feels duty-bound to do so. It’s so distracting that he’s finding he isn’t getting his job done or anything else.
I’ve done many things …
Why Some Decisions Feel So Hard (Even When They Shouldn’t)
It used to be, for me, really difficult to decide who not to invite to something I was hosting. I’d want to include everyone, even if it wasn’t very feasible. That went for Christmas gifting, and anything that meant the possibility of leaving someone I knew out.
I’d feel guilty, …
Expect the Unexpected: A Gentler Way To Build Resilience
I was speaking with a friend a while ago about how disrupting it is to him when something unplanned happens. Many of us don’t handle change well, especially change we hadn’t seen coming. …