Choose your own pace: Tips for navigating a culture of busy.

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Choose your own pace: Tips for navigating a culture of busy.

Often when I share with others that I help people to slow down and become more intentional in their day-to-day life, I hear a response that sounds something like this:

“I would love to slow down, but I can’t. There is really no time or space in my life for me to take the time I need.”

I get it. Life is busy. Raising kids, running a household, maintaining one’s health, being a good friend, excelling at work—they all take time, focus and energy and it can feel like we don’t have any control over the demands placed on us. But the truth is, regardless of how busy our life is, each of us has the power to make an intentional and deliberate choice about how we approach it.

We all have the power to choose.

So, if you are currently finding your life busy, overwhelming or exhausting, there is one important question you might want to ask yourself:

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Why less is more: Thoughts on living a reduced life.

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Why less is more: Thoughts on living a reduced life.

In late August I headed back home, along with my three siblings, to surprise my father for his 80th birthday. It was a surprise that lacked all the regular fan fair. Spouses and grandchildren were left behind (in the various provinces and states they call home). There were no balloons, no presents and not even a cake. The gift was our presence with each other; time spent together, live and in the flesh. For three days, we simply went about living together. We chatted over coffee, went for walks, ate good food and visited some of the local attractions in our home town (fish derby, winery, local park). It was just the six of us for the first time in more than 25 years, and this fact alone was enough to captivate all of us.

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Harnessing mindfulness: A lesson in slowing down

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Harnessing mindfulness: A lesson in slowing down

Last week, I headed into the heart of British Columbia, on a rock climbing trip.

At the outset, the trip was designed around the desire to take advantage of the warmer and drier climate of B.C.’s interior as a kick-start to the climbing season. Now make no mistake, I am not really a climber. At least, in the past seven years (or so), my love for riding my mountain bike has far eclipsed my desire to climb on rock. But in a previous time, climbing was something I loved to do. I was drawn to the presence that it required. For me, the perceived (and sometimes very real) risk of falling allowed me to access a quality of focus I struggled to connect with in the rest of my life. 

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Feeling stuck? 5 steps for getting out of a rut.

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Feeling stuck? 5 steps for getting out of a rut.

Do you ever feel like you are in a rut? Stuck in a pattern that feels old and out of date? The truth is that most of us, at some point in our lifetime, have felt like we are caught in a way of being that has felt limiting or even stifling to us. It can feel like we are in a holding pattern of sorts, a cycle of behaviour or experiences that don’t match the life we imagine for ourselves. We can feel misaligned or detached as aspects of our careers, our relationships, our lifestyle or simply our patterns and behaviours feel out of sync with what truly matters in our lives.   

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The power of retreat: Allowing your soul to catch up.

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The power of retreat: Allowing your soul to catch up.

I stumbled upon this quote as I was flipping through Wayne Muller’s book, Sabbath, in December and the words really struck me. The idea of just staying in one place for a few days, with the sole purpose of allowing my soul to catch up sounded so alluring to me. It had been a crazy but interesting fall, and despite the infusion of mindfulness and slowness in my day-to-day, there was still an influx of frenetic energy going into the various projects and plans for my business. When I read this quote, it sunk inside me like a stone as I realized (once again!) that I was living too far in the future and I needed to stop and let my soul catch up.  

So, at the beginning of the new year, I decided to book a rustic cabin in the mountains (no electricity, water or heat!) for a retreat of sorts; an opportunity for me to get away from the distractions of my day-to-day life and really slow down and get clear about what was really important to me. 

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