Life can be hard… let me give you some examples as of late:

// My Dad and a few of my family members tested positive with COVID

// This month marks 5 years since my Mom passed away and entered her eternal life

// We’re in a really rainy, gloomy and cold season in WA

Don’t worry– I’m truly okay and don’t need empathy, I promise!

I am sharing some hard truths with you to let you know that THESE MOMENTS HAPPEN. Eventually we learn something from the hard moments and things start to shift because nothing stays constant. I have grown more appreciative for the hard moments that occur in my life. They always tend to jolt me back in gratitude of my normal life.

Those hard moments I shared with you are all disruptions of my norm, and required me to pivot and think of new ideas and possibilities:

// I stayed prayerful, faithful and calm for my family who felt like crap and had to isolate themselves from the rest of the family and America. I connected more on a daily basis with my family to ensure they were okay and they had what they needed to feel as comfortable as possible.

// I thought about my Mom a lot and pondered how she would feel watching my kiddos grow up with sass. I cried as I thought about how much I miss her, and then I sat in gratitude for her fun, loving and strong spirit she carried and left on this earth.

// I really have to be intentional in getting ourselves outside at least once a day, rain or shine. We started tracking our time outside following the 1000 Hours Outside challenge and mother nature is life giving for us all!

It may seem unreasonable to think you can go from OMG THIS IS HARD… to I GOT THIS type of mentality, but reaching a point of action is totally do-able with time and practice. Here are a few steps of a process that might be of help to you the next time your hard moment occurs:

1. Feel – Think of the hard moment you are experiencing as an indicator to check in with yourself and your feelings. Don’t fight the hardship and DO NOT ignore it. Give yourself time to express what the hardship is bringing to you. The trick is not to let yourself feel the hardship beyond the day it occurred.

2. Reflect – Give yourself time and space to journal or verbalize your response to a few key questions: What is the disruption that the hard moment is creating? What’s uncomfortable about it? What’s the gift or opportunity that might be in this hard moment?

3. Desires – Once you release the negative feelings, think about what you really want to feel. How might you embrace the gift and grow from it? Think about the best case scenario for you and stay with those feeling – maybe it’s relief, presence, compassion, empathy… name it and claim it!

4. Permission – What permission do you need to stay in the desired feeling and move forward from the hard moment? It might be permission from yourself or from someone else you know. Stating your permission frees you to move on and not revert back into the hard feelings.

5. Action – Through taking action, you are moving forward… taking your learnings and putting them into practice. For example, with my Mom’s eternal life, the action I eventually took was talking about her with my husband and kiddos, thinking about what we have done in years prior to honor her life on earth. New insights are great, and taking action upon those insights is where your growth lies.

We all get through hard moments, and yet there’s always room for improvement. I challenge you to get through the next hard moment with intention, in service of YOU.

You can do hard things! If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing!

Light + Love,

Bev

Ready to take action and start gaining clarity on who you truly are? Click here to schedule a free 30-minute Clarity Call with me!

---

Hello 2021!

So much happened in 2020 that had me feeling SO many different things. It felt like I was running very short sprints with my emotions which totally makes sense after reflecting on the year. There were so many different events that occurred, lots of big events, lots of little ones… some things brought intense emotions like overwhelm, stress, anxiety, while other events brought excitement, curiosity, joy or calmness.

I took the last few months to reflect on the year and to my surprise I had an overwhelmingly sense of warmth. The big and small events brought me closer to God, bringing all of my thoughts to him and surrendering what was out of my control. I felt more connected to the Holy Spirit which always grounds me. I also spent more and more time outside in nature paddle boarding, fishing and swimming at the lake, hiking new trails. Being outside as a family brought so much curiosity and exploration… exactly how I remember my childhood being outside a lot of the time!

That sense of freedom was KEY for me last year and I refuse to have another year go by without spending time every day outdoors. One thing I choose to focus on in 2021 is to bring back the things that brought me joy as a kid – rollerblading, playing softball, dodgeball, basketball, playing games. I am saying YES to more of these types of things and NO to exhausting my eyes and brain at the computer screen from morning until night. YES to meaningful experiences and NO to buying things that have no purpose. YES to more outreach and volunteering my time with communities who are in need and NO to things that don’t energize me or that I feel obligated to say yes to.

Essentially, what I’m doing is preparing myself to say yes to more things that serve me and no to things that are preventing me from being honest. I’m saying yes to things that are good for my soul and no to things that my ego may be attached to.

Are you ready to claim your YES’s and stand firm with your NO’s? Here are 3 simple steps to help you gain some clarity:

1. REFLECT – Think about the last year and the ebbs and flows in your life. It started with life pre-Covid and ended in the midst of Covid. There will be good moments, neutral moments and perhaps even some bad moments that occurred. How did you build resilience and strength? What worked or didn’t work for you? Carry those things over to the new year as lessons learned that you can course correct along the way as you begin 2021.

2. ENVISION – This is where the magic happens! Take a few hours or days to think about what you desire in the new year. Set your intentions on what to focus on, to complete or to integrate into your day to day life. Allow yourself to DREAM!

3. TAKE ACTION – Taking action each day towards what you envision is one way to step out of fear and into abundance. You don’t need a grand master plan before you step into action, you just need hunger and determination. Also expect to fail – it leads to growth!

If you need more guidance, visit the Coaching Resources page to download the New Year and Reflections worksheet.

Last year was rough for each and every one of us. Extend yourself some grace and build from it. Set your intentions and get ready for all of those possibilities in 2021!

Light + Love,

Bev

Ready to take action and start gaining clarity on who you truly are? Click here to schedule a free 30-minute Clarity Call with me!

---