When you are working with a Breathwork facilitator, they guide you through visuals, and breathing into areas you didn’t even know your breath could go. This peaceful and mediative state is highly spiritual. If you are open, it is not uncommon to receive ideas or words to your mind that are specifically meant for you.

I was mildly perplexed when I heard in my mind,

“Be willing to let go of anything you love.”

Self-love. Self-care. Self-acceptance. Self-actualization. These phrases can feel unsettling for many of us from Mormonism or traditional Christianity… Good people don’t focus on their self. I was triggered because I felt like the right way to be was to focus on others, have no boundaries, be as needless as possible, caretake, give at nearly all costs, always be available for others, and sacrifice when asked by the Church. How dare these people be so selfish.

There is a fine line between gratitude and toxic positivity. Learning and digging deep into this difference is an extremely important step on your spiritual and/or personal journey, whether in the Church or not. This is because when we practice toxic positivity, we are actually not allowing ourselves to feel the negative emotions by DISTRACTING with the positive. We are in denial of or dismiss about how we are affected by a difficult situation.

I was reflecting about what I've learned and unlearned… and the road I've traveled since March 2020 when my life that was tilting, turned completely upside-down. I’m sure there is more, but here is what I’ve learned and unlearned so far…

When a loved one is going through separation or divorce, it can be a challenge to know how to best support them. I’ve come up with a short list of “do this not that” ideas that I hope might give some direction and clarity.  Even though my specialty is faith crisis, it has been my experience that a faith crisis can also rock a marriage, for one reason or another. That is why I feel like these articles on divorce and separation might be helpful to this audience.

Let’s just clear the air here - divorce stinks. It’s terrible. It’s not the “easy way out." It’s devastating and those going through it deserve to be treated with compassion and care, not as social lepers or failures.

What is self-betrayal? Self-betrayal or self-abandonment is essentially when you do something for someone else at some expense to yourself to avoid something uncomfortable. This can range from not wanting to feel the discomfort of disappointing someone, all the way to fear of manipulative or abusive responses

It’s Valentines Day. I was musing over what LOVE really means to me and I came up with a poem. I put it up on Instagram @the.impassioned.life. It came from contemplating all the different types of love and what they have in common. I realized at the very heart is a deep, soul permeating feeling of gratitude.  When I feel it, it’s like a little explosion within my chest. Time becomes irrelevant. There is no thought for yesterday or tomorrow. It is deeply rooted in the NOW. It’s almost like an ability to see just how amazing a person is, through their flaws and their idiocrasies, is this timeless soul before you just for a moment.

I am a born performer. As a child, as soon as I could stand, I would dance. As soon as I could talk, I sang... I loved to perform in the living room on the fireplace hearth because well… It was a stage of course! Despite my love for dance, as a child I never took any lessons. My mother didn’t see it as something worth investing in. As a youth, I joined musical theater. That was a great outlet where I excelled and absolutely loved. But then as my life changed, dancing and singing fell away. The music and expression of my soul went dormant.

I love to run. I’m actually one of “those” runners who uses TWO apps to track their run. You know, just because. Well, I knew because of winter weather I had been inconsistent with my running. I noticed I was struggling to keep pace with my usual minutes per mile.

Middle school is a hard time. I swear kids these days don’t have those “OMG burn the pictures” from those years like I know I have. But over all I loved middle school. I attended a small private Catholic school in Plattsburgh, New York. With small classes, we all knew each other pretty well, and despite the horrible hair, acne, and Jenkos (on days we didn’t have to wear dress code compliant clothes) that were wide enough to fully consume my Airwalk sneakers, it’s a time I look back on with fondness.