WATER

Water, what an amazing nourishing gift it is. We start our lives in a womb filled with water and it keeps on gifting us throughout our time here. It's hydrating to the body, keeps us alive, and has no calories, fat or sugar. What brings up all this gratitude about water is my water aerobics class. Since I am now a woman of a certain age(55), my body has changed and after having one knee replaced water aerobics has become my best friend. To keep healthy and exercise daily, I need to do it in the water. The days of high-impact aerobics classes, running 5Ks, and jumping rope are over. I just love the feel of the water when I first get in. My body feels safe and supported and not having to work so hard plus it's just fun. I am happy to see that there are 20-40(I kid you not) other people ready for class. People that are younger than me, too much older than me all there to exercise together. I was first shocked to see so many people but now I enjoy that we all move together towards better health and well being. Here are just some of the benefits of water aerobics:

1. Weight Loss - the average thirty minute pool workout burns 300 calories

2. Cardiovascular Endurance - pool workouts are a great way to build up your heart

3. Low Impact on joints and Stress Reliever

4. Joint Friendly - when your body is in the water 50% of your body's weight is carried by the water, at chest height it's 25-35% and at neck only 10% of pressure is being forced on the body

5 Fun Individual or Group Sport

6. Improves Physiological Well Being

I ask you to think about this and how water is so nourishing to your body, your physical fitness, and well-being. It's sacred self-care if you just do walking laps on your own or join a class. Try it or come with me for a fun friendly exercise experience now that we are of a certain age. Who's joining me in the pool? www,KathyCStahl.com

Outdoor Sacred Self-Care: Walking

On the East coast as the weather continues to get warmer and warmer we are spending more time outdoors. Here are a few tips for adding in Outdoor Sacred Self-Care by Walking.

-         Walking creates a safe sacred space to open up and feel freer

-         Walking helps you connect to Mother Earth and divine messages from spirit

-         Walking helps to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle

-         Walking improves your mood

-         Walking strengthens your bones and muscles

-         Walking improves your balance and coordination

-         Walking everyone can do with low impact to your body

-         Walking can be done alone or with a friend

-         Walking is a powerful way to increase deeper thinking, creativity, problem solving, and gain insights into life situations

This is just a small sampling of the benefits to walking outdoors. Time to break out of the old, and take a completely new approach and get totally invested in the changes you want to make. Those first steps are taking a walk with me…grab your shoes and let’s go outside!

Spring Cleaning Ahead

     It is amazing that the environment is able to change so easily. With each season, it takes on a new look and identity. If the environment is able to change so easily, why can't we? For many of us the onset of spring is a reminder to start our annual spring overhauls of decluttering, organizing, picking up something new to try, or cleaning out the old.  While spring cleaning has the obvious benefits of an organized closet, a sparkling counter top, and possibly more open space , more importantly, it has been associated with improved mood, decreased stress, and heightened creativity. Here are 10 tips to help you Spring Clean YOURself:

1. Travel to a new place you have never been before. Do a spiritual retreat such as a weekend stay at Kripalu, Omega or over in Europe and immerse yourself in a different culture and language.

2. Join a gym to start a new health regimen or a home routine that you can stick to, biking, jogging or hiking.

3. Try finding new healthy farm to table or vegetarian restaurants in your community.

4. Change one thing in your eating. Such as eating one meal without added salt or one meal without cheese and bread then notice how your feeling.

5. Try something new to explore such as pottery, oil painting, knitting, kayaking, hiking, or cooking classes. You already know something that you were always wanting to try choose that. The how's and why will disappear once you decide.

6. Try to talk to 5 new people this month and see if it leads to something new such as a friendship, business power partner, a connection to something else, or it just helped you not isolate as much.

7. Reconnect with Mother Earth, spring clean your yard, or an area park, go for a walk in the park, or hike a local mountain, join a walking or hiking club to meet new people and connect with mother nature.

8. Declutter the house/apt clean out spices, clean out that crazy plastic bin drawer or the junk drawers then notice the space that opens up. Start throwing shit away your never going to use it.

9. Spruce your home space up. Buy new spring pillows and throws, add or subtract pieces of furniture to change the feel of your home. Hang art, or spiritual sayings that resonate with you, or a new paint colors on the walls.

10. Start enjoying life by scheduling in more fun. Step away from the computer, cell phone, ipad etc...Give yourself a day off and sit in the sunshine and be filled with gratitude of our time together here on Mother Earth.

ENOUGH

I am pondering "Enough". Am I enough, did I do enough, did I learn enough or when is enough enough?

Many people including myself at times come from this place of "I'm not enough". For example: I will exhaust myself just so my kids are happy. I have clients but they don't rebook or my girlfriends don't call me because I state my mind. These stories or beliefs of what we should or shouldn't do or be create the question "am I doing enough for them"? By these examples we see that it is about us and our stories that we believe about ourselves. When in reality 9 times out of 10 it is not us, it is them and their processes. If we can fill our own wells up with being enough, then we can operate from this place of fullness or "enoughness". If we operate from "I am enough" then the fear, doubt, lack, suffering, jealously and envy is gone. When we can lean into these corners of despair that might arise, the places of hollowness within us, there is growth and gold there. We instead will have this knowing deep deep within ourselves(our well) we are enough for sure. I am not broken. I am whole. I am perfectly perfect the way I am. I am loving myself in these places to wholeness instead of FROM lack or self abuse. I'm not pushing or seeking for stuff to happen. I'm just being present and in the now for each experience that happens for me. With filled buckets from our wells success can truly happen here on a much deeper level, people will seek you out, relationships will become richer, more opportunities will present themselves, and life is looking good again and that's ENOUGH!

WANTING LOVE? YES PLEASE

Don't we all want to be loved? Whether from one person or many, we are all seeking that truest form of life, LOVE. We want to be in love, with love, show love, and give love. However, for many of us its is the ever elusive thing we can't seem to grasp in life. Many of my clients come in and they all want the same thing, LOVE. They want to be with that one special someone, or to have a companion to come home to, someone to share meals with, go to the movies with, just someone. Many of us settle for less than we deserve because of this romantic idea of what love is and looks like and it's not happening so we push and end up with someone who doesn't really love us the way we need to be loved or they take advantage of us. We settle for less than we deserve. It's painful and hurtful, plus hard and soft all at the same time.

How do we get ourselves our hearts desire of love that we are seeking? Let's look at love differently than what society believes it should be. Maybe love is taking the time to love ourselves first. Meaning doing the hard work of finding our worthiness, stop running away from the feelings that make us feel bad about ourselves, or stopping feeling we aren't good enough, stopping the self-talk and doubt that "I suck, no one wants me", "I'm not worthy or lovable enough" etc. Our greatest love story is the story of loving ourselves first then love can show up for us in the way we are wanting. It involves doing deep spiritual work. Finding what resonates deeply in us and our connection to God, Spirit or whatever it is you believe in. It's seeking a coach/therapist to heal past hurts. You have to process past hurts, failures, and disappointments from others, and there is no spiritual bypass for this. Its feet to the fire inner work/stop running away type of work. In addition, it's exploring life by trying new things such as yoga, travel, art, running, writing or whatever brings you the greatest pleasure. It lights you up on the inside and you feel like your're one and this is a truth/knowing that this is right for me. Once you can tap into that golden pleasure of beliefs and answers then we have taken ourselves out of suffering. Suffering keeps us in lack. You will never have or find love in suffering, and from a place of lack.

You are beating yourself up over and over. We all know how to do suffering really well. You all get an "A" in suffering. For life to change this has to end and it ends by you taking the steps to love yourself first...self-care. Self-care is not being SELFISH! It's integral to us as humans evolving and growing and creating the life we all want with love. I have worked with many clients over the years and almost daily this lack of love comes up. We have to stop not loving ourselves. We are our greatest love, our biggest cheerleader, our greatest companion. Once we can acknowledge ourselves then life and love can happen. I am saying this from my own experience, it's not easy and it takes time, and at times it's a hair's breath or movement and other times it's giant leaps all of sudden. But if you don't take a step or one breath nothing can change or happen. In my own experience I now see it's been so worth this long journey and struggle of doing the much deeper work on myself to bring me the life I have now. I have never felt more like myself than now. I now recognize when I put myself in "suffering" and when I put myself in "pleasure". Take a step, take a breath, book an appointment with me, take a class of something your interested in, try yoga, art lessons, do a run, but begin your journey of self-care somewhere. Loving self-first isn't selfish but brings the right love you are wanting for yourself and your life. You are always SEEN, SUPPORTED, ACKNOWLEDGE and LOVED.

www,KathyCStahl.com, 267-231-8522

Are You Tired, Hungry and SAD?...Relax Your Just Hibernating

Webster’s Dictionary defines hibernation as “to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state, to be or become inactive or dormant more hours of the day, and to become inactive or dormant due to feeling SAD.”

So why do we resist this natural rhythm of the seasons and life? What if we indulged our inclination to slow down in winter instead? We often behave as if seasonal changes are irrelevant to a modern lifestyle. After all, in many ways, civilization is all about overcoming nature, but our bodies tell a different story. In the olden days in winter we’d hunker down around a fire, repairing tools and telling tales that wove our culture. We would have supplies banked up and our bodies close and sleep longer.

Now we act as if it’s always summer, demanding consistently high productivity at work and at home. But our bodies require cycles of activity and rest—daily, annually. When days are long, our metabolisms and energy levels amp up.  In winter, we produce hormones that make us sleepy, giving us time to restore body, mind and soul.

And there’s nothing wrong with that cycle—except that we work against it, forcing ourselves to operate at summer levels even in winter. No wonder so many people feel depressed(SAD) at this time of year!

Most of us have heard of SAD Seasonal Affective Disorder. It happens the most for people during the winter months when days are shorter and nights are longer. SAD is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same time every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody, irritable, tired and stressed.

Here are some Self-Care suggestions if you’re tired, SAD and hungry?

1. Eat smarter NOT more – we tend to eat to change our mode or relieve anxiety. Eat whole seasonal foods and stop snacking on candy and carbohydrates they only make your blood sugar plummet but leave you feeling more depressed. Make sure to eat seasonally, don’t be eating watermelon in January you should be eating citrus fruits.

2. Don’t overschedule your activities – make plans but also pencil in a lot more down time to recover from all the extra energy you will extend in the winter. Rest if you’re tired that’s the key.

3. Plan what you want to do on your summer vacation, or travel to warmer climates while it’s winter in your state.

4. Turn the music up and listen to fun, light music that makes you feel good.

5. Exercise – even though it’s really, really cold a good brisk walk is always refreshing and gets the heart, legs and body pumping. It’s one of the best reducers of symptoms of SAD.

6. Start a New Hobby – have you always thought you’d like to knit, take up art, do curling, and learn to ice skate? Pick something and give it a try maybe something will stick.

7. Stay connected don’t isolate – we all at one time or another tend to isolate ourselves. Reach out and call your friends, or set up lunch dates or a movie date to be with others and feel connected. There’s nothing like being with others instead of overthinking and being stuck in your head.

I love this example of how someone adjusted to the seasons for herself.

 “I once met an artist who had mastered this. Perusing her work, I asked how she stayed creative as a painter, writer, weaver and sculptor. Her answer:

She changes media each season. In summer she’s out on her deck chiseling a sculpture. In fall, she is reflective and poetic. In winter, she works with warm fiber at her loom. And as spring beckons her outdoors, she sets up her easel in the meadow. Should our lives be any less a work of seasonal art?” 

STAY WARM MY FRIENDS

Let Your Freak Fly

Let Your Freak Fly

I recently attended a 3 Day Leverage Event with Christine Gallagher in Princeton, NJ. As a solo entrepreneur that is always working on my business and trying to make my life easie,r I attended. It was 3 days of informative business information to help me grow my business. On day one she said “Let Your Freak Fly”.  Boom!!! for some reason I felt WOW that’s it stop trying to hide or think your bothering people. Step more into being my authentic self in my business. As a solo entrepreneur it can be lonely at times. You can be isolated and not part of a community as you do in a traditional job. Solo entrepreneurness is not for the faint of heart. It’s a job like any traditional job without the safety net of income and clients always showing up. You have to go get them and have them want your product or service. It’s creating a routine at home to build your success, being part of community and doing what your good at or think you’re good at. Look we all feel as if we are different and don’t fit in, but in reality we really don’t want to fit in or be like everyone else. That’s the same in business and being the real authentic you.

Let me finish with this quote “Can You Identify the Victorys Regardless of the Score?” – Rudy. This is great in business because business is just like a football game. You have four quarters to pull out a victory and create the success you’re looking for in business and life.

 Lookout world Kathy’s letting her FREAK FLY!

Transition

When summer moves into fall we are transitioning seasonally. In addition to noticing the weather getting cooler and leaves falling, what do we notice within ourselves? Transition is defined as movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept to another. All of our next steps in our journey are reliant on this phase of growth and illumination.

Trust me from my own experience it's not easy or fun at times. Transition can be dark, swampy and frustrating all at the same time. Let me assure you that wondrous things are in store for you on the other side of this time of transition. I can't say I don't need a lot of support and pep talks (plus some wine on the side) when I'm doing this deeper soul work, but I do have an awareness that this too shall pass. I need to trust my journey and go into my cocoon during this transformational process. 

Whether it's to change your health, have better relationships, end relationships that no longer work or serve you to changing jobs, moving to other states or countries to just having peace and calming more in your daily life. Look at the one thing right now that triggers you or makes your emotions just ramp up. Dive deeply into it as this is where transition happens. This is your pot of gold to get you where your hearts desires are. It's where you want change to happen so you don't keep feeling all this emotion all the time. Know that I am right there with you my friends. Let's support each other with kindness and love while we all do our transitioning into our new being right along with the rest of the planet.

A Second Wind

What a year it’s been! Back in January I decided to start to incorporate more self-care for and put myself on my list of things to do. As we fall into fall this week I feel as if I am getting a second wind.

In July I decided I had had enough and went on a food cleanse for 3 weeks. Let’s just say I was not enthused in the least to do this. However I knew it had to be done. Remember this was about putting me first on my list of things to do. It ended up being the very best thing to do. It wasn’t as hard as my mind had me believe. 15 pounds lighter enabled me to have movement and space in my body, mind and spirit. It was something totally different and new and it just felt good.  Now it’s September and fall will begin this week. I feel as if I am getting a second wind, a second act, or another chance. I have let my leaves fall and I continue to lose weight, feel better, have more energy, and space within my body.

I am grateful for all of it, and proud of myself for getting to this place. What have you done this year to free up space in your body, mind and spirit? Feel the winds, let go of your leaves that no longer serve you as Dr. Seuss says “Oh The Places YOU Will Go”.