Jun 10 2016
I want to be kind, I really do. Kindness matters, I know this, I coach this, I speak about the power of kindness, and yet -- yes, and yet.
In my primary relationship (you know, that relationship with my husband), being kind seems to be in a wrestling match with being right. Being right just feels so good. It is a lustful emotion, an instinctual one, a need that can be sort of addiction.
May 12 2016
Here is a thought. Until we can see ourselves in the mentally ill we will not stand up and fight for better care, increased awareness, and greater funding. As long as we stand to one side and not recognize that we are all vulnerable, that mental illness can happen to any one of us, we will not find the will or the resources to help those in our community suffering with mental illness.
Feb 29 2016
I was looking to get in better shape and enjoy a new athletic challenge when I joined a triathlon group two years ago. Little did I know I was going to become a part of a supportive community that I now look forward to meeting with on a regular basis.
Jan 27 2016
I get excited about Bell Let's Talk day. It's a day when we give ourselves permission to have open conversations about mental illness. Kudos to Clara Hughes and the team who championed this initiative from the start, and in a few short years pried the conversation about mental health wide open.
It took vision and courage to create this national campaign at a time where very few high-profile Canadians were talking about mental illness. It still takes courage to talk about mental illness.
Dec 24 2015
I wonder if the tide is turning about Christmas. This year, it seems that more is being written about putting the meaning back in Christmas. This is pretty dicey territory, because Christmas does in fact have different meaning for different people.
To many, Christmas marks the birth of Christ in a manger, with the three wise men and the sheep and the goats and the cow -- oh ya, and Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. Most of us know the story, but is that what most of us are actually celebrating at Christmas?
Dec 16 2015
When my son asked my advice on what courses to enrol in during his first year of University I didn’t even have to think. “Take some courses you think will be interesting, if you are lucky there will be a course that will blow the top of your head off, something that will leave you astounded and amazed at the way people think, or angry at the injustices of the world, or inspired by people’s courage. This is how I felt about philosophy and women’s studies during my first two years of university; I would leave class almost shaking with excitement at what I had just been exposed to.
Nov 14 2015
“Imagination is a magical power.” I said this in front of twenty five thousand young people as part of We Day this year. We Day is a global movement encouraging activism, engagement and volunteerism in young people. Every young person in the Saddle Dome in Calgary, the Rogers Centre in Toronto, had earned their way to the event by volunteering locally and globally.
Apr 14 2015
Last week I was invited to speak at an event focused on Women in Business.
Feb 26 2015
Transitions are a big theme in my life right now. My son is going off to University, I finished a book a year ago and am pondering next steps in my life, and every client I am coaching seems to be going through some sort of significant life change. Transitions are comprised of endings, beginnings and the space in between. I was struck by something I read last week, “in order for something to begin, something else needs to end.” Seems pretty obvious and yet it caught me off guard. A beginning is also an ending, hmmm...
Oct 01 2013
It was when I was late for a meeting with a sponsor, running around the house cursing, senseless with anxiety and frustration at once again not being able to find my car keys, that I had this epiphany: we don’t make things different by keeping them the same. If you want different results in your life you have to do things differently. I had an inkling that this was true for far more than my habit of flinging my car keys to the nearest table top when I first arrived home.
