Masters Health Journey

  You always have a choice in how you perceive things, whether that feels like reality or not. Sometimes it all depends on the lenses you’re looking through, where you’re standing or where you’re looking. Take for example this photo…I am standing still on my porch, if I look straight ahead I see two different landscapes. Glancing out my right eye it looks like doom and gloom with the stormy clouds lingering. Glancing out my left eye it’s hope and happiness with blue skies rolling in. I love watching the wonders of a thunderstorm, they can roll in so quickly and cause all kinds of noise and chaos.   I sat, watched and listened as the thunder rolled, the rain fell, the clouds darkened and then as fast as it started the blue skies began to creep back in. I thought to myself this is just like my life! Sometimes we have to sit in the chaos and our big feelings and it can feel overwhelming and as if it’ll never get better. But maybe just maybe, if you look to your left you’ll see be...

Being codependent in a relationship with a    romantic partner, family member, friend, or anything in between is often hard to recognize. Breaking the cycle of codependency can be difficult and slipping back into those tendencies is sometimes a lifelong struggle for many of us. Depending on how you were raised or the types of relationships you’ve been in,     being codependent may be something you are struggling with and don’t even know it.  From my experience Codependency is often associated with being in a relationship with an alcoholic or addict...at least that’s the context I learned it in for the first time when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I remember learning about this from going to the family session of a rehab program a family member was in and from a couple of Al-Anon meetings. It turns out you can find yourself in codependent type relationships even with someone who isn’t suffering from an addiction. So what exactly does it mean to be codependent? H...

Boundaries can seem like a complicated thing to achieve and it can feel very overwhelming if you are not used to living a life with boundaries. Perhaps you are a people pleaser and always trying to make everyone else happy. Or maybe you have been in a co-dependent relationship, whether with a family member(s), romantically or with friends (heck maybe all the above). In many of these situations having a lack of boundaries and letting others constantly disregard or cross your boundaries sets you up for feelings of increased anxiety and stress. We teach people how to treat us by what we allow in our lives. This concept can be very difficult to accept. Depending on how you were raised, you may not be accustomed to being personally accountable for your feelings and circumstances. It is often easier to blame others for their actions and how they “make” us feel or what they “make” us do. While other people’s actions can have impacts on us personally, their actions can NOT make y...

Set yourself up for success by starting small.  This doesn't mean your goal has to be a small one, what it means is you have to break your goal down into smaller more manageable pieces. For  example, when I started working out again on my most recent journey I started with 7 minute workouts. On previous attempts, I would start out with 30 minutes from the get-go and that usually only lasted for a week or two, maybe a month at best. Baking with my best friend and her kiddos!  Develop a plan of how you are going to deal with that overwhelmed feeling  (you know the one, where it feels like the walls are closing in and you don't know which way to turn). The truth is, your anxiety is always going to find a way to creep in and since you don't know when it'll happen you need to prepare for it before you are in the midst of it. Figure out what works for you, is it meditation, a walk around the block, counting to 10, journaling, listening to music,  spend time w...

Determine the  why  behind your goal.  Think about ALL the reasons why you are working towards your goal and then write them down! Writing them down is key because you are going to need this reminder sometimes daily. When I decided I wanted to be healthier, which included working out on a regular basis, I wrote down everything I could think about why I was doing this. I wrote down things like having more energy, ability to concentrate and focus better, less anxiety and depression, feel more confident, walk up stairs without being out of breath, joints won't ache constantly and diabetes prevention (runs in the family and I was headed down that path too). Of course I wanted to lose weight but I didn't write that down as my why or my goal because I needed to really dig down deep and figure out what was truly important to me. Sit with your goal for a bit and really think why you are wanting to achieve this goal. Keep it in a notebook with you or a list on your phone and ...