As I was waking up this morning I started thinking about what I had going on today. I will be interviewing a podcast guest about emotional triggers and how to heal them. That led me to think about my own experiences with triggers and how the holidays tend to be full of them. This led me to think about how we can prepare ourselves for the holidays (or any time really) when we know we have a high probability of being triggered by someone or something. What popped into my head at that point was a podcast and talk that I did this summer about how we minimize ourselves without realizing it. I talked about my experience as a nurse and how I was using the word "just" in a way that minimized me and my value in the world. What if we started out this holiday season by focusing on our worth first? Build up that confidence in yourself by knowing you are not "just" anything-you are a beautiful person inside and out. You have worth and value and no one can take that away from you. Maybe it can start by eliminating the use of one little word. Here is a link to that episode to get you started: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2402555/episodes/17438990

Hi Courage & Confidence ladies! We have our zoom meeting in two weeks! Have you been using any of the tools we talked about last time? I would love to know. Please also make sure you fill out the evaluation I gave you that night. It will help me know how to make this program even better https://forms.gle/LmqHgf432tQ7TnmV9

If you could wave a magic wand and get anything you wanted, what would it be?

This week I had a situation that caused me to appreciate time with my parents. As my parents are aging, I have been helping them more with things like driving them to appointments etc. I tend to grumble inwardly about this, especially when it interferes with my schedule. It's usually inconvenient for me too because my parents live over an hour away from me so a simple appointment is a half-day event. This week I needed to drive my parents to an appointment and ended up missing a weekly business call. I was disappointed but a very wise person asked me to think about where I was being called to be. So I thought about it later and realized that I had spent extra time with my parents I wouldn't have had otherwise. They wanted to eat, so we stopped at KFC and during the meal my Dad talked about a funny story from his childhood that I hadn't heard before. It was also nice to have him enjoying the car ride and getting a little nap in on the way home. I know the days ahead with my parents are numbered and I try to be grateful for any time I get. Sometimes I just need a little reminder. I realized that missing that call wasn't a big deal but spending time with my parents was. That's where I needed to be that day.

I was working on my social media today and a post came across that I need to share with you. It said this: Growth doesn't always roar. Sometimes it whispers through boundaries held, old habits broken, and moments where you finally choose yourself. This is just another way of saying that taking those seemingly small steps will reap big rewards. Does this resonate with you?