Author: Kimberly A Edwards

Emotional Health

Country Tree

Image obtained through creative commons web search and no copyrights were violated.

The Trouble Tree

by Author Unknown

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job.

A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start.

While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence.  On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.

When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles, he hugged his two small children, and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.  “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied.” I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing’s for sure, troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.”  He paused. “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick ’em up, there ain’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

Moral of the story: Troubles are only as big as we let them be. Removing ourselves from the situation(s) and doing other activities to take our minds off of troubles sets them aside for a brief time. Sleeping on it allows our minds to focus on others, and to rest. Revisiting problems after a time makes the problems look different, not so bad, and more palatable to cope with.

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Manage Holiday Stress with Massage Therapy

The holiday season is filled with joy, but for some it can also result in increased stress and anxiety. Massage therapy is one way to feel your best during the holidays.

Massage Therapy for Stress, Anxiety & Depression

  • Lowers oxygen consumption, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol levels1
  • Decreases heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure1
  • Reduces trait anxiety with a course of treatment providing benefits similar to psychotherapy2
  • Reduces depression in those with high blood pressure3

You can contact me here!

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Mindset Clutter

What is mindset clutter?

The dictionary defines mindset as: an attitude, disposition, or mood. Then clutter as: to fill or litter with things in a disorderly manner, as well as: a state or condition of confusion.

mindset image

 

Looking over our lives we’ve all hit confusing times. There’s times when we’re simply at a loss as to what we’re doing.

This post was inspired by someone who wrote about physical clutter in her home and how liberating and lighting it was to declutter. I got to thinking. This is exactly like the way our minds are.

Where do we get our mindsets from? In the image above, in the very center of the image it says: Belief. Where do we get our belief system?

We are influenced by our environment and all the people we associate ourselves with as we go through life.

Have you found yourself infuriated about something and you don’t understand or know why? How did it come to this?

It is because we’ve adopted someone else’s beliefs creating a habit in our behavior that formed where we are right now.

At some point we have to stop, step back a few steps, do a deep soul evaluation. Figure out what our value system is and what we value in life. Once we figure that portion out it becomes clear what we really value and figure out our own belief system.

It’s scary at first because it conjures up doubt and questions who we really are.

This in and of itself is very liberating, because, it throws open, wide, the doors of our mind and allows up to open our minds to throw out the unwanted bits and rearrange other bits to come up with what we can call: “A Beautiful Mind”. Just like redecorating the inside of your home or business. If you’ve ever done a remodel or redecoration this will make sense.

The same way with disorganized stuff sitting around… our mind collects stuff over time and becomes disorganized with ideas, beliefs, etc.

It’s important to reorganize and declutter those things we don’t need and do not add value to our lives anymore. In doing so, it opens up opportunities to move forward in your life to improvements and to be more successful in your endeavors of life.

Do you find yourself confused and at a loss as to what to do next? It’s ok, as long as we do something to figure it out and move on, we’ll be ok. It’s when you do not do anything about it and get stuck. You will literally be mentally stuck, or mentally paralyzed. I’ve been there. It’s a very frustrating place to be.

Contact me for some coaching sessions to help you declutter and free your mind of the non-valuable things in the way.

Autumn Adventure

One of my hobbies is motorcycling. Over the past few Autumns I’ve been collecting images from adventures I and my husband have been on.

As we ride through the mountain curves and tight twists the views are breathtaking. The smell of the fresh mountain air and the wind blowing past me is so freeing and empowering. Being surprised by a wild animal zipping by in front of us adds an element of excited fear. Fear that I almost hit an animal. Fear that I could have went down trying prevent a collision. However, so far, that hasn’t happened. It’s a total adrenaline rush.

I’m a huge fan of night rides. I love seeing the moon and stars. That’s for another video though. Today, I’d like to share with you my experience of the day views of the mountains and the curving twisting roads. One element I love also is water. Many of my images include water.

So, click play and watch this short, quaint, and fun video of my adventures through the lens. Afterward, click through to the the art gallery to see my artwork. You will also find a link to the online market to purchase products with my artwork printed on them.

If you have any questions regarding a photo session you can click contact me with your questions.

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Self-Judgment

self judgement imageWe are our worse enemy. How many times have you heard that? I believe it. I’ve been hard on myself.

We have these self-limiting beliefs that’s like protocol on a job. We have learned this mindset through a variety of people, communities, society, and other things. Depending on those you’ve accepted into your circle, they can be nourishing or life draining.

I came across Hack Life blog some time ago. They have some profound posts there. Their post got me thinking about how I am living. In doing so, I think of you, the reader. I want to pass on information that will help you.

Self-Judgement. What is it? The dictionary defines it as: “the act or fact of judging oneself.”  There’s things we tell ourselves like:

  • I’m not good enough
  • I’m fat
  • I’m ugly
  • I’ll never make it in life

In the link I provided above there’s 9 lies that we tend to think about ourselves. The short list above is an example of some of the thoughts.

This type of thinking is devastating and destructive. This type of thinking allows fear to grow. Fear is a perceived threat to us. Fear of all sorts of life situations can manifest when we have self-limiting beliefs. Fear causes a mental paralysis where we get stuck in life.

My question is: What if we stopped self-judging and laid aside the self-limiting beliefs? What would happen?

My answer: Nothing life threatening happens. I had this experience. I lived with self-limiting beliefs for a very long time. I was my hardest critic.

When we lay aside the negative feedback loop and replace is with positive nourishing feedback it opens up a world of freedom.

Stop listening to the world around you. Do some soul searching. If you need to, clean house. Let go of the life-suckers. Find nourishing supportive people to be around. Learn something new.

What are some self-judgments you can add to the list? Leave me a comment and let’s chat.

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What is Self-Care?

Butterfly ImageWe often hear health-care providers, be it spas, pcp office, yoga instructors, etc, say that we need to administer self-care. That means different things to different people.

I came across another wellness practitioner in my reading. I was inspired to write this post.

I will attempt to be concise in this explanation.

When thinking of self-care we must think of our very basic needs:

  • Physical health – That includes making sure that :
    • We eat food that is healthy
    • We do some form of exercise to stay fit (this also helps our emotional needs)
    • We get enough sleep
    • Our medical needs are met
  • Emotional health – Which includes (if needed):
    • Counseling/Therapy when we reach an uncontrolled state of mind
    • Journaling our experience to get it out of our head and write our story
    • Some form of relaxation to help ward off unwanted stress
      • Relaxation means different things to different people. It could be one or all of these:
        1. Meditation
        2. Breathing exercises
        3. Visit the spa and get spa treatments of whatever kind
        4. Reading a book that’s not action packed
        5. Taking a nap
        6. Having supportive people around you that add value to your life
        7. If you think of any please leave a comment below with your feedback.
  • Finding time for leisure is a big help as well. After all, as the saying goes “all work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull person” as well as overworked and stressed out. Leisure means different things to different people also. The main thing is to take some time for leisure.

A quote by University of KY Student Affairs:

“Make your self-care a priority, not something that happens (or doesn’t happen!) by accident.”

The Beach

My trip to the beach with some friends this past weekend. A collage of the scenery.
20140920-TheBeach
We were invited on a group motorcycle ride Saturday. Our first stop was to go kayaking. I’ve never been kayaking. I was under the impression it was going to be a tour place like guided fishing tours where you meet at a fishing dock and hop aboard. No real details were shared with me other than kayaking and motorcycling.

We arrived in the city where a group of riders were going kayaking. Physically, I’m not able to kayak. So, I was a site seer for the afternoon. Once we parked our motorcycles we set out to check out this kayaking thing. I discovered it was on this beach. I was totally unprepared for the beach, except to people/bird watch and make pictures. One lady let me sit on one of her towels. I pulled out my camera and shot some images.

When our group went out in the kayaks my husband and I walked along the beach and I made some more pictures. I couldn’t walk much and ended up in a Mexican restaurant eating a late lunch. After that, it was to our motel for the night. We met up with the our group that night for food.

We got up Sunday morning and ate breakfast with our group. I was worn out from Saturday. I didn’t make many more pictures on Sunday. After we ate breakfast everyone was talking about what they were doing the rest of the day. We, my husband and I, decided to head back home (90 minutes away). My husband mapped out a route to take back. I snapped some shots at a small lake on one of our rest stop breaks. The images didn’t turn out. We stopped for ice cream on our next break.

Then, I got cocky and bold. We got back on the road to finish the 2nd half of our trip. We got stuck behind some road hog cagers (that’s what we call automobiles on four wheels). My husband is a serious risk taker. In riding, I’m not. He passed a car going 30 miles an hour on the curvy mountain roads. I didn’t, at first. Finally, I told myself I needed to just bite the bullet and make a run for it when I had the next clear space to go. I did! Moments later, I was eating dirt! I took a curve too wide and hit loose gravel and low-sided. Just as I started sliding I smelled and tasted the dirt. The dirt was quite soft to be honest. I said to myself out loud, “Oh crap, here I go!” At the moment I was completely stopped I jumped up and made sure to turn my bike off. Tons of people driving by slowed and asked if I was ok. “Yep, I’m fine. My husband was ahead, he’ll be back.” The car I passed saw me slide down and stopped immediately to check on me. A lady hopped out of the car and started checking with me and asking me if I wanted any water. I thought to myself, “How is water going to help me and my bike?” I told her I was OK. She asked if there was anything they could do. I asked if they could stay until my husband came back. She acknowledged they would stay.

A sheriff’s vehicle pulled up and created a bit of a block to help prevent further damage from passers by. He questioned if I was ok or needed an ambulance. I was standing up and moving around. I told him, “No, I only scraped my leg, but no blood.” My skin didn’t even break.

Not even five minutes passed. My husband came down around the next curve. My motorcycle isn’t very heavy. So, he was able to upright it and move it off the soft dirt. My clutch shifter got bent. He bent it back. My left front turn signal came out of its plug-in socket, in tact. My husband took the motorcycle for a quick test ride to make sure everything was working. It was. The officer made sure we were ok before he left just in case we needed a trailer or something to haul the motorcycle back in. We didn’t. We finished the ride back home and parked my motorcycle in the garage. It’s dirty. I had dirt in my pockets and down parts of my clothes. Yes, it’s OK to laugh. I did!

I learned a valuable lesson.

Don’t be impatient and cocky. You’ll pay for it eventually.

Growth Mindset

According to mindset works:

When students and educators have a growth mindset, they understand that intelligence can be developed. Students focus on improvement instead of worrying about how smart they are. They work hard to learn more and get smarter. Based on years of research by Stanford University’s Dr. Dweck, Lisa Blackwell Ph.D., and their colleagues, we know that students who learn this mindset show greater motivation in school, better grades, and higher test scores.

Here’s two videos that explain and describe growth mindset as they know it:

An online educator: Khan Academy and what they offer to educate and help people grow.

This video is one of Ted Talks with Angela Lee Duckworth, Psychologist.

Nobody is born to be experts immediately. We learn and grow.

A quote from Shabbir Dahod of tracelink:

While intelligence is required, Angela demonstrated that the determining factors for success were perseverance, hard work and a drive to improve.” – Shabbir Dahod, tracelink

Where does that drive to improve come from?

When we were babies learning to do the basic things like cooing, rolling over, crawling, talking, walking we were encouraged by our family and friends. When one is encouraged they are inspired and motivated to improve and do more. As a child grows they lean in one direction or the other in what interests them. With encouragement they develop those interests. Even if someone isn’t strong in one area, they can learn and grow.

It all comes down to positive mental attitude. Negative doesn’t breed positive. So, we need to have a positive mindset along with the drive to improve. It helps to surround oneself with positive people who support you.

I am a Mindset Life Coach. I facilitate people to learn to change their perception of life so they can have a positive outlook and improve themselves.

When you find yourself stuck in life and need a nudge to move forward a coach [there’s many different types of coaching] is helpful to shed some light on life.

Contact me today for some coaching sessions to help you move forward in life.