• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Seeking Joyful Simplicity

Your best life after 40 - living with purpose and vibrant health. Empowering you with a holistic approach: nourishing foods, herbal remedies, and self-care to reduce overwhelm, manage your weight, and enjoy vibrant health in your 40's, 50's, and beyond.

  • Shop
  • About
  • Simple Food
  • Healing Herbs
  • Health and Wellness
  • Living with Purpose

Living with Purpose

How to Feel Grounded in Life

9:13 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity 1 Comment

10 ways to feel more grounded in life
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
Being grounded means you feel focused, centered, and present, able to make good decisions even in the midst of chaos, you feel a sense of purpose and clarity. When life is difficult, learn how to feel grounded using these 10 strategies.

Being Grounded

Feeling overwhelmed and off-balance, trying to manage when life feels chaotic and out of control can leave us feeling frazzled, anxious, and struggling. Sometimes we react to life circumstances from a place of groundedness, feeling capable and calm, despite the chaos. Other times we feel like a leaf in the wind, being blown about, our emotions at the mercy of the events around us.

“Dig deep & pull the roots of confidence from the ground of your being, standing firm in the raging storm until sunlight blossoms inside you.” 
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

Being grounded in life allows us to feel focused, centered, and present in the moment. And even though we can’t always control the events happening around us, we can choose how we respond.

Being Grounded in Life:

  • You feel focused, centered, and present
  • You have the deep inner feeling of being good enough
  • You feel secure and solid in who you are
  • You know you will be fine no matter what happens
  • You feel a sense of purpose
  • You have a sense of clarity and are able to choose your response to the events happening in your life
  • You are able to feel and express your emotions without them spiraling out of your control
  • You trust yourself
  • Being grounded is about understanding the kind of person you want to be and making decisions that support your best self

So how do we practice the art of groundedness when the challenges of life come hurtling at us?

Use these 10 strategies when you feel stressed, overwhelmed, worried, tense, or uncertain.

  1. Breath focus – coming into your body is the fastest and most effective way to reground yourself. The easiest way to do this is to practice focusing on your breath. Try this method – inhale slowly to the count of four, pause, then exhale slowly to the count of five. Repeat four times and feel your body and thoughts slow.
  2. Experience with all your senses. This is another way to come back to the body. Take a moment to pause and experience the moment with all your senses. Notice the sounds, sights, physical sensations, and scents around you.
  3. Progressive muscle relaxation. This is an excellent way to come into the body as well as notice the areas holding tension. By first noticing, then releasing, you can relax and let go of both the physical and mental tension. CLICK HERE for a downloadable PDF with simple instructions.
  4. Remember 5 positive experiences in the past week. We can instantly change our thought patterns and body tension from worry and tension by focusing on the positive. I have used this technique with my coaching clients and repeatedly seen results. Think back over the past few days and come up with five positive experiences – it could be as small as the friendly cashier at the grocery store to something more significant like a supportive phone call from a friend. The point is to focus on five positive experiences to help break the tension/worry/negativity pattern.
  5. Gratitude. Take a few minutes and write down or say aloud 10 things you are grateful for
  6. Ask Questions. If you are struggling with worry – ask yourself, “What event on the horizon is making me anxious? Why is this making me anxious and what’s the worst that could happen?” And then follow up with, “What’s the best that could happen?”
  7. Shake things up with Movement. Movement is a powerful way to instantly change our physical and mental pattern. It can be something formal like a few yoga poses, taking a walk, or as simple and silly as jumping jacks or dancing to a favorite song.
  8. Unplug. Even if you can’t completely unplug, take a break free from all social media and news. Set a time limit for yourself – a specific time during the day, or better yet, set aside an entire day or several days. Notice how you feel.
  9. Spend time in nature. See if you can walk barefoot in the grass. Use all your senses – listen for the sound of insects, the feel of the breeze on your skin, can you smell the fresh cut grass, what do you see?
  10. Visualization and grounding. Try this technique – Either from a standing or seated position, press your feet firmly into the floor. Visualize the tension and worry draining from your body, pouring into the ground. What color is it? See and feel it moving down your body from head to toe. As the negative energy drains, notice the feeling of lightness that takes over.

Okay, so my challenge for you is this – choose one or two strategies to practice feeling grounded. Practice it daily (set a reminder for yourself!) If you practice now, it will be easier when life throws challenges at you.
What strategies will you use, or do you have your own? Leave a comment and let us know!

Wishing you peace and comfort,
~ Michelle

More on Living With Intention from Seeking Joyful Simplicity

A Better Way to Start Your Day – How to Start Your Day with a Positive Attitude
The Most Important Thing – Having the Courage to Live with Authenticity
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Living with Purpose, Simple Living

Aging Gracefully or Letting Ourselves Go – What Does Aging Gracefully Really Mean?

1:20 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity 2 Comments

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Women Aging Gracefully

I spent my early twenties preoccupied with the shape and size of my body. During my thirties, I was busy with raising children and finding balance between family and career. And despite the inevitable changes that come with 3 pregnancies and aging, by my early forties I had reached a happy acceptance of my body.

But already that “happy acceptance” is changing. The woman staring back at me from the mirror and photos is not someone I recognize. My mind and spirit are still young, but my body is aging. How strange to feel so disconnected from the physical changes and the body I inhabit!

Will it always be this way, my mind feeling one way, while my body takes on a new shape? And now I wonder, what does aging gracefully mean?

Defining Grace

Grace is often defined as: Smoothness and elegance of movement. Dignity. Refinement and style.

So then, if we are to age gracefully, are we to slide into old age with dignity, refinement and style? Perhaps.

But what about those of us who still carry a youthful mind and free spirit, and the words “dignity, refinement, and style” feel stuffy and confining? Hiking muddy trails, acting silly, and getting sweaty in the garden don’t seem particularly “dignified”, but certainly are part of my image of aging gracefully.

The older women I find most inspiring are those who continue to act with joyful vigor and aren’t afraid to define for themselves what aging gracefully means.

If you Google “women aging gracefully”, almost all of what you find is related to physical appearance and fashion. The youthful looking older woman is held up as our role model, as well as the fashionable older woman.

Is our appearance all that defines us as women? Where are the role models for aging women that emphasize the deeper values of personal integrity, strength of character, authenticity, self-awareness, and simple confidence? 

Loving Our Body

Can we learn to love our older bodies despite the effects of aging?

I am striving to embrace my body and honor it for how it has served me. I remind myself of how this body has given me three beautiful children, and carried me well through my 48 years on this earth. It has handled the abuse I have given it and yet continues on.

I want to care for my body – with good food, vigorous exercise, and fresh air. But there is a fine line between caring for our bodies and the battle we so often wage against ourselves.

Does my expanding waist line and wider hips mean I am not trying hard enough, or is it an inevitable result of aging and shifting hormones? Shall I exercise harder, be stricter with my nutrition, and watch my weight?

Should I accept things as they are and learn to “age gracefully“? Or does accepting these changes mean I am simply letting myself go?

Do I cling to the previous version of me, or do I embrace my new self with all the outer and inner changes that come with getting older?

Living with Authenticity

For women, we may struggle between taking care of ourselves – and becoming overly preoccupied and dissatisfied with the changes that come with getting older. Sagging boobs, weight gains and a changing body shape, hair loss (and hair in new places!), wrinkles, loose skin, age spots – there is a billion-dollar market ready to help us fix what’s wrong with us.

Ultimately, I believe to look good, we need to feel good. Feeling good requires us to take care of ourselves. No magic lotions or creams can fix poor habits of nutrition and physical activity. For us to enjoy our aging bodies, we must make self-care a priority.

We have a difficult relationship with ourselves – there is the conflict between want we should be doing, and what we are doing. Too often we become unhappy with the shape of our bodies, we lack motivation, and we fear becoming fat, dull, old women.

Can we accept our changing bodies with unconditional love, despite the negative messages our culture sends? I believe we can.

I believe that no matter what, we can carry ourselves with confidence, and dare I say, grace. We can embrace the changes that come with aging, and make them our own. We can love our bodies, care for ourselves, support each other, enjoy our strengths, and be proud of who we are becoming.

And most importantly – we can choose to live with authenticity.

Let's redefine what aging gracefully means. Does my expanding waist line and wider hips mean I am not trying hard enough, or is it an inevitable result of aging and shifting hormones? Shall I exercise harder, be stricter with my nutrition, and watch my weight?  Should I accept things as they are and learn to “age gracefully“? Or does accepting these changes mean I am simply letting myself go?  Do I cling to the previous version of me, or do I embrace my new self with all the outer and inner changes that come with getting older? How do you define aging gracefully?

I believe we must each define for ourselves what Aging Gracefully means, and there is no one-size-fits-all definition.

My approach to aging gracefully includes:

  • Finding a healthy balance between striving to be my best and accepting the reality of living in an older body
  • Choosing not to focus on my limitations, but instead to appreciate my strengths
  • Instead of striving for weight loss, I am staying fit
  • Instead of dieting, I am focusing on nourishing foods
  • I will not forget the value of good sleep
  • I am finding healthy ways to manage my stress
  • I am embracing my age, not hiding it
  • I am living with authenticity – with courage and joy in the woman I am today

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age. ~ Sophia Loren

My question for you is this – How Do YOU Define Aging Gracefully? How will you take care of your changing body? Will you offer yourself compassion and acceptance?

With much affection,
~Michelle

You might also enjoy this article by Suzanne Braun Levine – Learning to Appreciate the Body You Have

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Health and Wellness, Living with Purpose

The Power of Gratitude (in an unhappy world)

9:29 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity 2 Comments

But how do we practice gratitude, and more importantly, how do we feel gratitude - when our world seems to be falling apart around us? How do we find gratitude when we are in pain, angry, overwhelmed, or just plain feeling miserable?
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

How to Use Gratitude to Be Happier

It can be hard to find peace and contentment in our current culture. The news is filled with violence and discord. Judgement, name-calling, and anger are a common thread in social media. And although social media and the internet are great ways to bring us together, they can also cause us to feel inadequate when we compare ourselves to others who seem so much happier, healthier, wealthier, and wise.

So often we focus on what is wrong in our lives, we forget to notice all that is right.

“If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you, that will be enough.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

How do we do we practice gratitude, and more importantly, how do we feel gratitude - when our world seems to be falling apart around us? How do we find gratitude when we are in pain, angry, overwhelmed, or just plain feeling miserable?

Focusing on the good in our lives, even the small things, causes a powerful mental shift. But did you know that thoughts of gratitude also affects us in a chemical way? Thinking of the many blessings in our life can alter our brain chemistry by causing a surge in the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters, and the more we practice gratitude, the stronger and longer-lasting the positive effects.

But how do we practice gratitude, and more importantly, how do we feel gratitude – when our world seems to be falling apart around us? How do we find gratitude when we are in pain, angry, overwhelmed, or just plain feeling miserable?

Excerpt from Oprah Winfrey’s The Wisdom of Sundays, Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations:

“I know it’s not easy to be grateful all the time, but I’ve learned that it’s when you feel the least thankful that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you: perspective.

It was Maya Angelou who taught me what she believed to be the true purpose of giving thanks. After I called her years ago, upset and in tears over what I thought someone had done to me, she stopped me mid-sob and said, ‘Stop your crying right now, and say thank you.’

I was confused and asked, ‘Why?’

‘Because,’ she said in that deep, wise, Maya Angelou voice, ‘you know God put a rainbow in every cloud. The rainbow is coming. Say thank you even though you can’t see the rainbow. It’s already there.”

How to Practice Gratitude

  • Start small. Find ONE THING you are grateful for, and then find another.
  • Start practicing gratitude by setting aside a devoted time each day to write five new things (or more) that you are grateful for.
  • Dedicate a few minutes each day to write down five new things you are grateful for – these can be small things like the sound of birds singing outside the window, or a delicious meal you enjoyed.
  • Make gratitude a practice when you are struggling with anxiety or overwhelm – when you wake in the night and your mind  won’t stop and you feel your anxiety rising – STOP and remember your gratitude.
  • Practice gratitude before you slide out of bed each morning.

How to Feel Gratitude

Our culture is hyper-focused on the negative – unfortunately, bad news is what grabs our attention and it’s what sells.

If we aren’t careful, after awhile our brains become trained to look for the negative (it’s a survival instinct.) But practicing gratitude, we start to see more of the good all around us.

Practicing gratitude affects us both physically and emotionally, and only takes a few moments. 

Don’t rush it; gratitude works best if we feel the emotion of gratefulness for the blessings in our life, big and small. 

I encourage you to work with the practice of gratitude. 

So, set your intention, make time, and start feeling the power of daily gratitude.

With affection
~ Michelle

P.S. ~ I’d love to know, have you tried practicing gratitude? How did you feel?

Designing a Life You Love

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Health and Wellness, Living with Purpose

You Can’t Change Others, So Change Yourself – Setting Personal Boundaries

9:55 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity Leave a Comment

Setting personal boundaries
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Setting Personal Boundaries

“You change for two reasons: Either you learn enough that you want to, or you’ve been hurt enough that you have to.” ~Unknown

This is a guest post by friend and fellow blogger DM – you can enjoy more of his musings at:  hearttoheart3.wordpress.com and ialsoliveonafarm.wordpress.com

*******************************************

Dad

Six in the morning, the phone rang.

I stumbled out of bed.

Dad was on the other end of the line.

He asked if I was still planning to pour the concrete floor that morning?

(We were scheduled to pour cement, but I needed to check the weather forecast first/ Nothing worse than getting a downpour when you’re in the middle of dumping concrete)
I told him I still needed to check the weather forecast…

“Junior, don’t you listen to the radio?”  He quipped sarcastically. (I need to interject here, I am his firstborn.  Grew up shy, super compliant.   Never really gave my parents all that much trouble growing up.  Dad is 6 ft 2.   Ran a construction company…  I always felt intimidated by him.)

Well, this morning, for some reason, probably because I’d just woken up..who knows..but his tone of voice ticked  me off, and before I could put my  good boy compliant persona on , I barked back, “You know, I don’t like it when you talk to me like that.”

Dead silence on the other end of the phone.

Can’t remember much more of our conversation after that, just that it was short.

It was a turning point in our relationship.

I was 45 years old.  I’d finally found my voice in my relationship with my dad.

I mentioned the conversation to my mom a few days later and do you know what she said??? ”I’ve been waiting for you to do that.”

Say WHAT????

She wasn’t mad.  In fact she affirmed how I’d handled it.

It was a boundary issue.

She instinctively knew it would not have been her place to get between her husband and son.

There is a quote currently on our kitchen cabinets goes like this: “Be careful what you tolerate.  You are teaching people how to treat you.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Michelle, asked me if I’d like to write something on the issue of boundaries, and I said I would love to.  Everything I know about boundaries currently can be traced to two sources.  First, the book “Boundaries”, by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.  And secondly, the bible.  You don’t have to be a Christian to tap into the wisdom that can be gleaned from that 2000 year-old book.  Wisdom is simply applied knowledge.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As we were raising our kids, my number one goal as their parent was to work myself out of a job.
Period.

By the time they were 17, and 18, I knew I better be mostly finished with what I wanted to impart into their lives. After that, my role would switch from authority figure to that of a peer.  If you’re not careful as a parent, it’s easy to fall into the trap of continuing to look at and talk with your kids like they are still little youngsters in need of your direction.  I would not have been able to articulate that at the time of my watershed conversation with my dad, but that was part of what was going on.  He was still talking down to me like I was a little kid, when in fact I was a 45 year-old man almost done raising my own family.

I will occasionally touch bases with our kids to make sure we are not over-stepping our bounds into their lives, even now.  All 4 of them have started their own families. In some cases, I see and hear things that make me realize either their in-laws, or their spouses themselves still don’t grasp this whole boundary issue topic…but they’re learning. 

A final thought.
If you currently find yourself in a relationship with someone in your immediate family who has put a boundary in their life where they want some space from you, that is not an automatically a bad thing.  Being a parent requires lots and lots of humility.

The ability to say to your children things like:
 “I am sorry.“
 “I was wrong.”
 “Will you forgive me?”

You may need to eat a little crow.
It’s not so bad.  I’ve done it multiple times. J

And by the way, my relationship with my dad has never been better.  He just turned 86.  He recently broke his leg and has needed some extra TLC .  As I was helping him get dressed for bed last week, I realized just how thankful I am to have found my voice in that relationship.  I may still be “Junior” but he has never ever, used that sarcastic tone with me again. and that has been 15 years already.
Setting personal boundaries
Dad and I on the farm where I grew up, holding a couple of his roosters
Would love to hear your thoughts, answer questions, etc. DM

DM and his wife “MM” live on an acreage in the Midwest.  In addition to writing, DM spends his time as a builder, and teacher.  In his free time he likes to work in their apple orchard, build harvest tables out of reclaimed wood, read, and take an occasional nap.  His favorite coffee  continues to be Starbucks French Roast (whole bean/ not ground).  If you’re interested, you can read more on his personal blog at hearttoheart3.wordpress.com  and his farm blog:  ialsoliveonafarm.wordpress.com

Boundaries are about Our Relationship with Ourselves, and the Values We Hold

We cannot change others, we can only change ourselves. As DM shared, his father’s behavior toward him did not change until DM changed. Often when we set personal boundaries, after the initial period of resistance, the other person will realize their old ways no longer work, and they may adapt their behaviors according the boundaries you have set (not always.)

If you are struggling with holding healthy personal boundaries, here are a few ideas for you to think about.

  • Know your values. Instead of creating your boundaries around a difficult relationship in your life, you must make your boundaries about you. For example, if you value honesty, integrity, and respect, then you cannot allow yourself to tolerate behavior that goes against these values. Walking away from a relationship that revolves around deceit and belittling.
  • Respect yourself first. Fear, guilt, and low self-esteem make it difficult to set and hold healthy boundaries. We must first treat ourselves with respect. Be careful what you tolerate.  You are teaching people how to treat you.
  • Give yourself permission. Sometimes we have to put ourselves first, and that is perfectly okay. When we’re in a better place, we can be a better spouse, parent, co-worker or friend.
  • Seek support. If you’re having a hard time with boundaries, share your challenges –  seek help through a support group, your church, counseling, coaching or good friends.
  • Practice. Setting boundaries gets easier the more often we practice.

With affection,
~ Michelle

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Living with Purpose

30 Personal Development Books for Women That Offer Practical, No-Nonsense Advice

7:47 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity 2 Comments

Can we really change our lives just by reading a book? I believe so. Good books are like good conversations - you can gain insights into your own life by listening to the experiences of another. If you are a believer in life-long learning and personal development, you may enjoy this list of 30 personal development books for women
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

In the words of Dr. Seuss,

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go. 

No-Nonsense Personal Development Books for Women

Can we really change our lives just by reading a book? I believe so. Good books are like good conversations – you can gain insights into your own life by listening to the experiences of another. If you are a believer in life-long learning and personal development, you will enjoy this list of 30 personal development books for women that offer practical, no-nonsense advice.

From confidence and self-esteem, the mindset of money, health, relationships, and spirituality, there’s something for every woman on a journey of growth, self-discovery, and life-long learning.

Spirituality

 

The Alchemist ANNIVERSARY EDITION Edition by Paulo Coelho published by HarperCollins (2006), Pauolo Coelho.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho continues to change the lives of its readers forever. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.

 

Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it,

Confidence and Self-Esteem

 

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, Brene Brown

In her ten guideposts, Brown engages our minds, hearts, and spirits as she explores how we can cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, “No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough,” and to go to bed at night thinking, “Yes, I am sometimes afraid, but I am also brave. And, yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am worthy of love and belonging.”

 

The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance—What Women Should Know, Katty Kay

Following the success of Lean In and Why Women Should Rule the World, the authors of the bestselling Womenomics provide an informative and practical guide to understanding the importance of confidence—and learning how to achieve it—for women of all ages and at all stages of their career.

 

Confident You: An Introvert’s Guide to Success in Life and Business, S.J. Scott and Rebecca Livermore

Introversion can be a good thing. Without introverts, society would be full of outgoing and social people but a lot fewer artists, analysts, scientists, doctors, writers, engineers, and designers. On the other hand, the world often celebrates and rewards extroverts, often leaving introverts out in the cold.

Instead of trying to make you an extrovert, the goal of “Confident You” is to help you capitalize on all the positive aspects of being an introvert, while helping you overcome the less positive aspects of introversion.

Happiness

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman

Oliver Burkeman introduces us to an unusual group of people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. Whether experimental psychologists, terrorism experts, Buddhists, hardheaded business consultants, Greek philosophers, or modern-day gurus, they argue that in our personal lives, and in society at large, it’s our constant effort to be happy that is making us miserable. And that there is an alternative path to happiness and success that involves embracing failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty―the very things we spend our lives trying to avoid. Thought-provoking, counterintuitive, and ultimately uplifting, The Antidote is the intelligent person’s guide to understanding the much-misunderstood idea of happiness.

 

Finely Tuned: How To Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person or Empath, Barrie Davenport

As a sensitive person, you may believe you’re weak and less resilient than others. This belief may have been reinforced all of your life, but nothing could be further from the truth. Highly sensitive people and empaths are gifted with unique skills making them more creative, intuitive, conscientious, and empathic.

 

The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World (Art of Happiness Book), Howard Cutler, MD and The Dalai Lama

Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. Together with Dr. Howard Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life’s obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace. Based on 2,500 years of Buddhist meditations mixed with a healthy dose of common sense, The Art of Happiness is a book that crosses the boundaries of traditions to help readers with difficulties common to all human beings.

Life Passion and Purpose

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61), Eckhart Tolle

Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

 

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg

Sandberg is chief operating officer of Facebook and coauthor of Option B with Adam Grant. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TED talk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers.Written with humor and wisdom, Lean In is a revelatory, inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth that will empower women around the world to achieve their full potential.

 

The Success Principles – 10th Anniversary Edition: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield

The Success Principles will teach you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and realize all your ambitions.

 

A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings, Coleman Barks

The Sufi mystic Rumi offers insights into the divine within us and around us. Delightful.

Mindfulness and Habits

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabatt-Zinn

Dr. Kabat-Zinn has taught this two-thousand-year-old Buddhist method of relaxation to thousands of patients. Through mindfulness, one makes every moment count. By “capturing” the present and living fully within each moment, one can reduce anxiety, achieve inner peace, and enrich the quality of life.

 

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Eckhart Tolle

A word of mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.

 

Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results (Volume 1), Stephen Guise

You can succeed without the guilt, intimidation, and repeated failure associated with such strategies as “getting motivated,” New Year’s Resolutions, or even “just doing it.” In fact, you need to stop using those strategies if they aren’t giving you great results. They don’t work because they all require you to fight against your subconscious brain (a fight not easily won). It’s only when you start playing by your brain’s rules and taking your human limitations seriously–as mini habits show you how to do–that you can achieve lasting change.

 

The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM), Hal Elrod

What if you could wake up tomorrow and any—or EVERY—area of your life was beginning to transform? What would you change? The Miracle Morning is already transforming the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world by showing them how to wake up each day with more ENERGY, MOTIVATION, and FOCUS to take your life to the next level. It’s been right here in front of us all along, but this book has finally brought it to life.

 

Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brene Brown

Walking into our stories of hurt can feel dangerous. But the process of regaining our footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. Our stories of struggle can be big ones, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship, or smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness. It’s the process, Brown writes, that teaches us the most about who we are.

 

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg

At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

Simple Living

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondo.

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

 

Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World, Linda B. Pierce

This ground breaking work goes beyond the books that tell you how to simplify your life. This book reveals what has happened in the lives of real people who have done it. Based on the author’s three-year study of over 200 people from 40 states and eight countries, Choosing Simplicity is a delightful and rich blend of real-life profiles and guidelines on simplicity. Interwoven throughout the stories are the author’s insights and lessons to guide those who want to explore simplicity and to sustain those who have already embarked on this journey.

 

The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own, Joshua Becker

Most of us know we own too much stuff. We feel the weight and burden of our clutter, and we tire of cleaning and managing and organizing.

While excess consumption leads to bigger houses, faster cars, fancier technology, and cluttered homes, it never brings happiness. Rather, it results in a desire for more. It redirects our greatest passions to things that can never fulfill. And it distracts us from the very life we wish we were living.

In The More of Less, Joshua Becker helps you…

• Recognize the life-giving benefits of owning less
• Realize how all the stuff you own is keeping you from pursuing your dreams
• Craft a personal, practical approach to decluttering your home and life
• Experience the joys of generosity
• Learn why the best part of minimalism isn’t a clean house, it’s a full life

The beauty of minimalism isn’t in what it takes away. It’s in what it gives.

Finances


Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century Vicki Robin

In an age of great economic uncertainty when everyone is concerned about money and how they spend what they have, this updated edition of the bestselling Your Money or Your Life is an essential read. Millennial Money‘s Grant explains: “The premise of it is that you exchange your time for money. And when you start thinking about how many hours of your life it took to save up the money to buy something, you really start thinking twice about your purchases.”

In Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin shows readers how to gain control of their money and finally begin to make a life, rather than just make a living.

 

Sacred Success: A Course in Financial Miracles, Barbara Stanny

Barbara Stanny, the leading expert on women and money, has helped women take control of their finances for two decades—and she knows there is much more to success than how much you earn. In her work with powerful, successful women over the last 20 years, bestselling author and financial educator Stanny has found that most women’s problems with money have little to do with money itself, but rather with their fear of, or ambivalence toward, power. Instead of pushing women to pursue financial success in the traditional fashion, Sacred Success seeks to redefine power from a feminine perspective.

More than a financial guide, Sacred Success is a primer on power for women—a tutorial for taking charge of your life by taking charge of your finances, and not only growing your money but creating a deeper, richer, and more meaningful life. Best described as “A Course in Miraclesmeets the Wall Street Journal,” Sacred Success gives you a proven process that uniquely blends the practical, psychological, and spiritual work of wealth.

 

All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi

You work hard and try to save money, so why is there never enough to cover all the bills, to put some away in your child’s college fund, to pay off your credit card debt—or to relax and have some fun, for once? In the New York Times bestseller All Your Worth, mother/daughter team Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi—authors of the acclaimed The Two-Income Trap—tell you the truth about money. The authors lay out a groundbreaking approach to getting control of your money so you can finally start building the life you’ve always wanted. The result of more than twenty years of intensive research, All Your Worth offers you a step-by-step plan that will let you master your finances—for the rest of your life.

The secret? It’s simple, really: get your money in balance. Warren and Tyagi show you how to balance your money into three essential parts: the Must-Haves (the bills you have to pay every month), the Wants (some fun money for right now), and your Savings (to build a better tomorrow). No complicated budgets, no keeping track of every penny. Warren and Tyagi will show you a whole new way of looking at money—and yourself—that will help you get your finances on track so you can enjoy peace of mind for the rest of your life.

 

Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms, Amanda Steinberg

Worth It outlines the essential financial information women need—and everything the institutions and advisors don’t spell out. Steinberg gets to the bottom of why women are stressed and anxious when it comes to their finances and teaches them to stay away from strict budgeting and other harsh austerity practices. Instead, she makes money relatable, while sharing strategies she uses herself to build confidence and ease in her own financial life. Through her first-hand experiences and the stories from other women who’ve woken up, Steinberg’s powerful and encouraging advice can help women of any age and income view money as a source of freedom and independence—and create bright financial futures.

 

Health

The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution: A Proven 4-Week Program to Rescue Your Metabolism, Hormones, Mind & Mood, Aviva Romm, M.D.

Weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, hormonal imbalances, and autoimmune conditions—for years, health practitioners have commonly viewed each as individual health problems resulting from a patient’s genetic bad luck, poor lifestyle choices, or lack of willpower. Patients, too, have turned to different doctors to alleviate their specific symptoms: an endocrinologist for a thyroid problem; a gynecologist for hormonal issues; an internist for weight, diabetes, and high blood pressure; a rheumatologist for joint problems, and even to therapists or psychologists.

While these ailments may seem unrelated, Dr. Aviva Romm contends that they are intrinsically connected by what she calls Survival Overdrive Syndrome, a condition that occurs when the body becomes overloaded.

The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution explains SOS, how it impacts our bodies and can lead to illness, and most importantly, offers a drug-free cure developed through Dr. Romm’s research and clinical work with tens of thousands of patients. In as little as two weeks, you can lose excess weight, discover increased energy, improve sleep, and feel better. With The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution, you can rescue your metabolism, hormones, mind and mood—and achieve long-lasting health.

 


You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay

Excerpt from You Can Heal Your Life:

Life Is Really Very Simple. What We Give Out, We Get Back

What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. I believe that everyone, myself included, is responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst. Every thought we think is creating our future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. 

 

Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back, Izabella Wentz, PharmD

Diagnosed with Hashimoto’s at twenty-seven, pharmacist Dr. Izabella Wentz knows first-hand the effects of the disease, as well as the value—and limitations—of medication. The key to improved health, she argues, involves lifestyle interventions. In Hashimoto’s Protocol, she outlines a proven treatment that has helped thousands heal and many others feel better—in as fast as ninety days.

Grounded in the latest science, Hashimoto’s Protocol is the first book to offer a proven protocol by an acknowledged expert in the field to treat this condition and help sufferers reclaim their lives.

 

Relationships


Women Who Love Too Much: When You Keep Wishing and Hoping He’ll Change, Robin Norwood

Inspiring, practical program for women who believe that being in love means being in pain. Presents a clear, comprehensive, 10-point recovery plan for women who are addicted to the wrong men for the wrong reasons.

 

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, Gary Chapman

Dr. Gary Chapman’s approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today.

The 5 Love Languages is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work.

 

What are your favorites? Leave a comment and let me know what I missed!

~ Michelle

Pin it for later ~

Can we really change our lives just by reading a book? I believe so. Good books are like good conversations - you can gain insights into your own life by listening to the experiences of another. If you are a believer in life-long learning and personal development, you may enjoy this list of 30 personal development books for women that offer practical, no-nonsense advice. From confidence and self-esteem, the mindset of money, health, relationships, and spirituality, there's something for every woman on a journey of growth, self-discovery, and life-long learning.

 

 

 

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Living with Purpose, Simple Living

The Introvert’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays

7:58 am by Seeking Joyful Simplicity Leave a Comment

The busy holiday season is on the way, are you ready? The annual holiday rush can be a joyful time, but it can also be exhausting, especially if you are already feeling worn out and drained. And if you are an introvert, the holiday season can easily leave you feeling over-stimulated and well, frazzled. This year I encourage you to create your introvert holiday survival plan.
Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
“Quiet people have the loudest minds.” Stephen Hawking
“Don’t underestimate me because I’m quiet. I know more than I say, think more than I speak and observe more than you know.” ~ Michaela Chung

The busy holiday season is on the way, are you ready? The annual holiday rush can be a joyful time, but it can also be exhausting, especially if you are already feeling worn out and drained. And if you are an introvert, the holiday season can easily leave you feeling over-stimulated and well, frazzled. This year I encourage you to create your introvert holiday survival plan.

Introverts are often misunderstood – seeming aloof, stuck up, disconnected, or just plain selfish, we often make sacrifices to appease the extroverted masses. Our inclinations to protect our alone time and to avoid situations we  find overstimulating can leave us feeling torn between what we feel we “should” be doing, and what is best for our physical, emotional, and intellectual health.

Being an introvert during the holidays can lead to exhaustion and resentment.

The busy holiday season is on the way, are you ready? The annual holiday rush can be a joyful time, but it can also be exhausting, especially if you are already feeling worn out and drained. And if you are an introvert, the holiday season can easily leave you feeling over-stimulated and well, frazzled. This year I encourage you to create your introvert holiday survival plan.

Introvert Holiday Survival Plan

So what’s an introvert to do? I challenge you to create your own Introvert Holiday Survival Plan. Here are a few ideas:

  • First – realize there is nothing wrong with being an introvert. Just because other people are energized by the holidays and family gatherings and you tend to dread them, doesn’t make you a bad person.
  • Pace yourself – just because the extroverts enjoy spending every minute with family and friends, doesn’t mean you have to. Choose your activities wisely – don’t be afraid to say “no” or have an early exit plan to avoid overwhelm.
  • Try to create more down time in your regular routine – let some non-essentials go so you can focus on recharging and having the alone time you need.
  • Make an effort to get enough sleep. We are less likely to feel overwhelmed and irritable if we are well rested. Herbs are a great way to get better sleep, and you can enjoy a simple herbal tea as part of your bedtime routine. These are my favorite  5 Herbs for Better Sleep
  • Include time for your favorite activities – reading, writing, quiet walks in nature, or tucked into the couch for a Netflix binge.
  • Practice simple deep breathing to re-center yourself. Bringing awareness to your breath can lessen the stress response and lower cortisol levels.
  • Enjoy some herbal teas to help you unwind your mind and body – 4 Herbal Remedies for Stress

The busy holiday season is on the way, are you ready? The annual holiday rush can be a joyful time, but it can also be exhausting, especially if you are already feeling worn out and drained. And if you are an introvert, the holiday season can easily leave you feeling over-stimulated and well, frazzled. This year I encourage you to create your introvert holiday survival plan.

Remember that by taking care of yourself, you are better able to care for others. For introverts, this may mean limiting our time at a family event, or skipping it. Instead we may choose to see individual family members separately.

For me, family time at my in-laws, although pleasant, is quickly overstimulating and exhausting. After only a short time, I start craving an escape. It’s not because I don’t enjoy the company of my in-laws, they are an easy-going and fun bunch, but being in large groups simply wears me out.

Skipping these events, or leaving early can easily be misunderstood by the family – they may think I don’t care to spend time with them.

I would rather make plans for smaller get-togethers with family, and in this way, we typically enjoy deeper and more substantial conversations. In our own way, we are strengthening our family bonds.

Being aware of our needs as an introvert, and having a plan to balance those needs with meeting the expectations of family and friends can help us navigate our way through the holiday season with less stress.

What’s your introvert survival plan for the holidays?

Leave a comment and let us know!

~ Michelle

 

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin

Filed Under: Health and Wellness, Living with Purpose

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Hello and welcome! Seeking Joyful Simplicity is about creating space in your life for the things that matter most - abundant health, joy, and contentment. With a holistic approach focused on self-reflection, simple foods, and herbal support, I offer a practical approach to living with purpose and vibrant health. Want to learn more? Start here…

Featured Posts

How to stay motivated on a budget? Sometimes it feels hopeless. But there is hope. Things can get better. Learn 6 ways for staying motivated on a budget.

How to Stay Motivated on a Budget – 6 Ways to Stay on Track

As moms, we are expected to do it all and do it well. Our days can pass in a blur as we struggle to manage our home, attend to the never-ending needs of our children, and find the time to recharge ourselves. Over time this becomes discouraging, and it wears us down. But there is a way to create a more peaceful and productive home, and that is through discovering a family rhythm.

Enjoying a More Peaceful and Productive Home

Treating our colds and flu at home doesn’t require complicated recipes or difficult to obtain and expensive ingredients. We can use simple foods for cold and flu. Combing raw honey with garlic, ginger, and sage makes an effective and great-tasting medicine for the entire family.

These 4 Simple Foods Fight Cold and Flu – Sage, Ginger, Garlic and Honey

Not just for pesto and pasta, let’s talk about how to use fresh basil to make lime basil fizz, basil herb butter, basil vinegar, and more.

7 Things to Do With Basil Beyond Pesto

Composting with worms is a great way to turn kitchen scraps into garden soil. An easy DIY worm bin to get started with vermicomposting.

A Simple DIY Worm Bin – Composting With Worms

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Herbal Academy Courses

Learn Herbal Medicine

The Craft of Herbal Fermentation Course by Herbal Academy

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Contributor at the Homestead Bloggers Network

Archives

Simple Food

How to stop comfort and stress eating

How to Stop Stress Eating Breaking the Pattern

Not just for pesto and pasta, let’s talk about how to use fresh basil to make lime basil fizz, basil herb butter, basil vinegar, and more.

7 Things to Do With Basil Beyond Pesto

Sweet, delicious honey. Herbal infused honey is a delightful way to enjoy the many health benefits of herbs and raw honey, and is a wonderful way to give herbal medicine to our children. Let me show you how to make herbal infused honey and some of my favorite herbal infused honey combinations for both health and flavor.

How to Make Herbal Infused Honey – Flavorful, Medicinal

The humble garlic offers powerful health benefits including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral properties to combat colds and flu, and much more. Fermenting garlic adds healthy probiotics and offers even greater protective benefits. Making fermented garlic is really simple and here are five easy and delicious recipes for using your homemade, probiotic-rich garlic..

Easy Fermented Garlic and 5 Recipes

See More

Simple Herbs

Insect bites, bee stings, sunburn relief. Only four ingredients and using easy-to-find herbs like plantain and dandelion, you can make your own highly effective, all-natural DIY skin salve

DIY Summer Skin Salve – All Natural Relief for Summer Skin

Warm breezes and sunny days, summer is the time for outdoor activities. But along with the summer fun comes summer skin irritations like sunburn, blisters, insect bites, and the dreaded poison ivy. You can buy over-the-counter products to treat all of these, but you will also be getting the added chemicals and preservatives. Why not take a little time to make your own […]

Roses excel at cooling and soothing hot inflamed skin, and a homemade rose and aloe cooling lotion is a wonderful way to treat skin irritations like acne, rashes, eczema, sunburn, and insect bites.

Make Your Own Rose and Aloe Cooling Lotion and Spray

  All-Natural Rose and Aloe Cooling Lotion and Spray Roses are alluring and beautiful, and despite their delicate appearance, they offer some pretty amazing health benefits. Combining the anti-inflammatory and cooling property of rose petals with soothing aloe, we can create a simple, all-natural rose and aloe cooling lotion. This post contains affiliate links. If you […]

Homemade herbal gifts are a delightful way to share our love for everything herbal. Instead of joining the holiday shopping rush, we can take the time to slow down and enjoy the creative process of making simple gifts for those we love. Homemade herbal gifts for friends and family are a great way to spread love and good health. Enjoy this list of 20 inspiring ideas for the holidays.

Homemade Herbal Gifts – 25 Inspiring Ideas for the Holidays

Homemade herbal gifts are a delightful way to share our love for everything herbal. Instead of joining the holiday shopping rush, we can take the time to slow down and enjoy the creative process of making simple gifts for those we love. Homemade herbal gifts for friends and family are a great way to spread love […]

Sweet, delicious honey. Herbal infused honey is a delightful way to enjoy the many health benefits of herbs and raw honey, and is a wonderful way to give herbal medicine to our children. Let me show you how to make herbal infused honey and some of my favorite herbal infused honey combinations for both health and flavor.

How to Make Herbal Infused Honey – Flavorful, Medicinal

  Sweet, delicious honey. Herbal infused honey is a delightful way to enjoy the many health benefits of herbs and raw honey. Let me show you how easy it is to make herbal infused honey and some of my favorite herbal infused honey combinations for both health and flavor.   The content on this site may contain […]

See More

Before Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Footer

Disclaimer and Privacy Policy

The information provided here is not intended to replace professional medical advice and care. It is simply my perspective for you to consider as you make good choices for you and your family’s health. The use of herbs is a time-honored approach to strengthening the body and maintaining health. Herbs, however, can trigger side effects and can interact with other herbs, supplements, or medications. For these reasons, you should take herbs with care. The information provided has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not meant to diagnose any disease, nor is it intended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Seek the support and care of a physician and/or complementary care practitioner you trust, and above all, listen to and trust in yourself. Be well! Seeking Joyful Simplicity is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon offers a small commission on products sold through their affiliate links. Each of your purchases through their links supports us at no additional cost to you. For more information - visit our privacy and disclosure page

Copyright © 2023 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in