How Gratitude Can Change Your Life

How Gratitude Can Change Your Life

It’s easy to look at life and see what you don’t have. Not enough money, need a better car, job, life, etc. For some reason in the American culture, it is not as easy to be grateful as it is to complain about what is going wrong or what happened to us recently. Creating a daily practice of gratitude can change your life.

In an office, I used to work in, at the beginning of our bi-weekly staff meetings, I would have each attendee name one thing they were grateful for personally or professionally. Each person would take a piece of paper, write what they were grateful for and then say the gratitude aloud. We would then put the pieces of paper with the gratitudes written on them in a bucket. Doing this exercise changed the whole tone of the meeting in a positive way. You could see people relax, become happier, and show appreciation for people and things that they might have taken for granted had we not practiced this exercise.  At the end of the year, we would then revisit all the things we were grateful for over the year. It was such a positive and heart-warming experience.

Being grateful is not easy for everyone. I recall asking one colleague what they were grateful for and it was hard for them to come up with one single thing. I wondered what must be going on in this person’s life that they can’t find one thing positive in their life. If you too feel your life is in a similar situation, hopefully after you read this blog, you will find at least one thing to be grateful for.

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?

I enjoy spending time with family and friends, but I also like my T-time. (Tamara Time). I didn’t realize until a few years ago that not only do I like alone time, but I require it to be happy. Back when buying books from bookstores was common, I would walk into the bookstore and look around until a book “jumped out” to me. One day a book called Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) stood out to me. I took it off the shelf (it may have fallen off the shelf) and I began to read it.

After reading just a few pages, I knew this book was right for me and that it

Everyone Struggles with Something

Everyone Struggles with Something

When you walk down the street you may see someone and think, wow they have it good! Or when you are scrolling through Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram and everyone looks like their life is perfect, you might think you are missing out on something. On the outside it may look that way, but everyone struggles with something throughout their life. Unless you are good friends or a relative with this person, you may not know they are struggling and you may be quick to judge them or envy their life.

If you were to break up your life into categories most people can relate to, these areas might be: social (family & friends), financial, career, spiritual, leisure/ hobbies, and health.

Of the people I have met over the years, most usually do well in a couple of areas.  For some it’s financial and career, for others it’s social/family and spirituality. Still, from my experience there are always one or two areas in a person’s life that they struggle with for one reason or another.

I am no exception to this rule. In many aspects of my life, I have been very blessed. I have traveled to several countries, have done well financially,  am educated, am in good health, and  have built a solid set of job skills. But one area of my life that I have struggled with is social/family.  I am forty, single (never married), and have no children; two things that I desire deeply.  You might say, you just pick a person and get married, but for me it’s not that easy. I have dated men and have come close to getting married, but I never felt the person I was dating could be someone I could live with for the rest of my life.

Traveling Solo

Traveling Solo

I love to travel and experience new things, as you may have read in my other blog entries. Whether it is a short road trip over a three-day weekend or a two-week trip out of the country, I get energized by going to new places and experiencing new things. What you may or may not know is that many of my trips are solo trips, and there are great bonuses to traveling solo.

I’ve traveled in small groups, large groups, with one other person, and solo. Since I moved to California from Indiana, I have become very comfortable traveling solo. The belief that has allowed me to do so is knowing that I may never get to see or experience these places if I waited for others to have the time, money, energy, and desire to go to the same places I would like to visit. I hear too often how others never get to go on their dream vacation for one reason or another, usually having to do with another person who can’t go with them.

I Need a New Job!

I Need a New Job!

In this day and age, it is likely you will need to find a new job due to being unhappy or bored with your current job, being laid off, fired, facing retirement, or moving to another city state. Depending on how long you were with your previous employer and the reason you are no longer there, there can be many emotions you will experience with this transition. Over the past 8+ years I know several people who have been unexpectedly laid off from their job with little to no notice. In the US culture, our jobs can become our identity and when you lose your job, you may feel as though you have lost yourself. Now at first, this may feel terrible and you might be in shock, but I will tell you that in many cases, once the emotions subside, this may be the best thing that happen to you. I’ll tell you why.

1)     You have free time

When is the last time you took one, two, or three weeks in a row off from your job? You can use you new freedom to explore and have some fun. The trick is to treat you first week or two as time off and not let yourself get too overwhelmed with your emotions. 

Act your age. Never!

Act your age. Never!

Have you ever met someone and you can’t believe their age either they are much younger than you thought or much older? I am not talking simply about the way someone looks but by their energy, the way they talk about themselves, the activities they are involved with or what they are doing with their life.

When I think of myself, in my head I feel like a 25 years old. I love to ride my bike, like I did when I was a kid, go to Dave & Busters and play games, and visit Six Flags to ride the roller coaster, front seat of course! My body will remind me that I’m not 25 when I overdo it with sports, too much exercise, or don’t get enough rest.  But I don’t let my age affect the things I try, the adventures I take, or what fun I have. I still stay very active.  Over that past six months, I have hiked weekly with a local meetup group with intense hikers who are 5, 10, 20+ years older than me. With this group, I am hiking 6, 8, and 14 mile advance hikes, the longest and most difficult hikes I have ever accomplished in my life. It always surprises me that younger people are not involved with this group because we go to some amazing places.

How did a Girl from Indiana end up in San Diego?

How did a Girl from Indiana end up in San Diego?

I grew up the youngest of four in a small Midwest town in Indiana. I love my hometown, the friends who still live there, the beach (yes, there are beaches in the Midwest) and I get recharged every time I go back for a visit but I am not your typical Midwesterner. At a pretty young age, I wanted to live outside the country, learn different languages and cultures, and meet people from around the world.

My first adventure outside of the USA was during my high school senior spring break to Mexico with my Spanish class and teacher Senor Hakim. I loved speaking the language, learning the culture, and meeting the locals.  Then when I started my undergraduate degree in college, I visited the International House on campus, who lead study abroad trips, and I felt like I found my second home on campus. Each year of college, I found reasons to leave the country to study Spanish in Mexico, conduct a field study in Coast Rica, live abroad in Australia for a semester, and finally teach English to Romanian children in the Peace Corps after I graduation.

Schedule your free 15-minute telephone strategy session today!  Text or call 619.880.7010

Cart (0)