The end of 2017 found me spinning my wheels in a personal rut. I’d gotten “Too Busy” for my daily yoga practice. “Too Busy” to practice self care. I felt terrible, exhausted all the time. I had intermittent worries about how my labs were coming back from check ups — I’d worry about how if I didn’t change my course, I could end up being on a medication cocktail that I wanted to avoid — that wouldn’t be necessary if I just took better care of me.

Following a traumatic experience 5 years ago, I had packed on the pounds in what I know now was an attempt to become invisible — and it was threatening my health. I was going through the motions. I was existing, but I wasn’t fully living — I was l capital “L” living in spurts.

As a single mom with a crazy travel schedule for work — work that requires a fair amount of emotional labor — I knew I needed to make changes. I wanted to make changes. I’d wanted to for a few years… I’d think about it, jot down some notes, then promptly misplace it. I’d think about it again, jot down some notes, then… misplace it again. Rinse, repeat… Then I grew frustrated with myself. Sound familiar? I had a running list of dreams I wanted to turn into realities — changes that I could make in my daily routine to push me forward, out of the rut. I’d look at it and think, “I can’t. I don’t have the energy.”

Something shifted in me at the end of the year, though. I thought about how I wanted to be alive for many more years and be on this planet with my favorite human, my son. I wanted to have back the energy I once had in droves. I wanted to practice regular self-care, which is so important in my field — and in life. I wanted to not be too exhausted to spend time with my friends when I was home, and not on the road for work. I needed, desperately, a life/work balance that had slowly slipped away over the years. I wanted to do these things for me.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Often, thoughts of change and accomplishment would bring a strange sense of fear. I’d feel guilty for wanting more. I’d feel guilty for taking care of me by practicing self-care. So, obviously, I’d stop thinking about it… Until it tapped me on the shoulder again. And again. And again. I began to slowly realize that the only one who could change me, was me. It was in that last week of 2017 that I moved from wanting to deciding. I’d like to say that I woke up one morning and change had magically arrived and everything was different.

It was far less glamorous.

It was very simply me, deciding, making the conscious decision to change one thing. In the usual fashion of one-upping myself, I decided to change two. I decided that I would show up on my yoga mat every day, no matter how much time I “didn’t have.” I decided that I would reclaim my body and take care of it, change my way of eating. The voice was back, “HA! You’ve been saying this for YEARS!” But this time was different. I had decided. I’d shifted from wanting to deciding. I had a plan. I knew that I might trip up, and I told myself that was okay. You take a deep breath, and start again. And I did. Since January 2nd, I have not missed one day of yoga, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. I began practicing a ketogenic lifestyle, and am back to my goal weight. There are 45 less pounds of me. My labs are back to normal range. I have energy again. I am living. Living. With a capital “L.” It was through this process, I realized that if I can achieve this, I can achieve even more. I began practicing self-care again, regularly. I revisited my impossible long-term list, and there was Best You Life Coaching, waiting. It didn’t have a name yet. You see, it was one of those dreams that I couldn’t possibly accomplish. And yet, here we are! You’re reading this on my website. My life’s work, my years of schooling, my dedication to helping, has come to fruition in a tangible and accessible way.

…All because I took two steps in the direction that I wanted to be heading. It sounds so simple, right? Change one thing. But that’s the thing about the thing. If you are able to successfully make one small change, or two, it builds inertia, and enables you to have the confidence to do the next thing. Every single tiny step you take towards your goal, dream, and intention sets you on a course of realizing a reality. Is this the end-all, be-all answer? No. But it’s the start. There are many moving and shifting puzzle pieces that combine to create the whole that is YOU.

So now I need to ask you, just as Mary Oliver’s words have often popped in my head and asked me over the years, “Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

If you know what you want, but haven’t decided… Or if you’ve decided and you aren’t sure how… I’ll be here waiting to be your biggest fan, provide you with the tools you need to keep moving forward, break through road blocks, calm your inner critic and stand by you as you create the change that you want for you.

You are enough.
You are worthy.
You deserve it.

Let me know.