October Coffee Date
Starting something new-ish over here on the blog because, quite frankly, I feel I have a tendency to be too serious sometimes. I confess I've not been feeling super inspired lately and everything has just felt more like a struggle than it has in the past. I'm a thinker, and I really haven't had time to do a whole lot of thinking lately. And I attribute that to not allowing myself time to think, time to process, time to just be still. So grab a cup of coffee, or in my case a cup of hot chocolate, and let's get to know each other :)Aw, this ever-present issue of mine...slowing down and being still. Do you ever find yourself continuing to come back to the same thing time and time again, that same thing that you're trying to change about yourself but just when you think you've got it under control, it surfaces again? Yep, me too.It's a regular struggle to not fill my life with so much all the time and to just let myself be present. This is something I encourage my clients to do, but even though I try to be a good example of living out what I'm preaching, it's tough when your nature is to be busy rather than be still, no?Ok, so that was a long intro. But yeah, why I'm starting up these monthly coffee dates is because I am currently craving a space to process and share with an open heart. I was sitting at our regular coffee shop the other day feeling pretty burnt out and craving to be filled. So I hopped on some of my favorite blogs and started reading. *Side note, does anyone else feel like blog reading has been replaced by Instagram? I love me some Instagram, but there's something about the space on a page of a blog that is just so enticing. I hope you enjoy reading blogs and that's why you're here.So yeah, I hope to bring some more fun and personal stuff to this space and I'm challenging myself to not be so serious all the time. Would you hold me to that? This is one of those things that I know is going to help me be more the person I want to be, but it's going to take some discipline and commitment.
LEARNING MORE ABOUT MY VALUES...
Katherine Herbison and I just recorded a podcast episode all about this topic of values and I've been thinking a lot about it since. Our values are those things in our life that we hold as important to us. Now with that, there are values depicted by the things that are important to us and then there are values depicted by the way we're actually living our life. Hopefully, these two are the same. But oftentimes there's a discrepancy between what we value and the values our life is actually portraying. Want to hear this episode on the Embracing Balance Podcast? It's a goodie...you can check it out HERE.With that, I'm always trying to reevaluate my values vs. how I'm actually living my life. And I've recognized that stillness and peace is a value of mine that I'm not very good at following through with. But rather than beat myself up because this is something I'm always needing to work on, I'm taking some steps to bring this value back into my life right now. One of those steps is taking time on a Saturday evening by myself in my bed to write this post and let thoughts just flow. Another step is reaching out to some people in my life who I want to get to know better. My tendency when I'm speeding through life is that I neglect relationships with other people.So that's me...can you think of any areas in your life where there's a disconnect between your values and how your life looks right now?
WHAT'S UP WITH BABY YATES...
Lotsa stuff going on with baby these days. In case you missed it, Paul and I found out we're having a BOY!! We're so excited! My mom and grandma came up last week and threw us the most amazing gender reveal party. We found out the gender by cutting into a cake that had blue frosting inside. As I cut the cake, I started to see blue come out on the knife and I realized in that moment that I was expecting him to be a boy. Paul, on the other hand, was totally in shock because he thought it was going to be a girl. We're both so excited and it was fun to already see soon-to-be grandma and great-grandma spoiling the baby with the cutest little clothes :)Baby is kicking like mad these days. I was just a second ago feeling a ton of movement and looked down at my belly and could actually SEE the movement! What a bizarre thing, feeling a baby. I'm loving it!Paul and I are meeting with a potential doula next week, so that's exciting! And I tried out my first prenatal yoga class! I've had a bit of tailbone pain so hoping some stretching will help with that. Anyone have any experience with tailbone pain in pregnancy and how to help a sista out??
BIG NEWS!
I mentioned it a second ago, but my friend Katherine and I are launching a podcast this week...tomorrow actually!! It's called the Embracing Balance Podcast and it's all about breaking free from perfection and finding what balanced living really means. Both Katherine and I have had it on our hearts to start a podcast separately for a while now. So naturally when I met Katherine last year and we pretty instantly became besties, we had that conversation..."so, wanna start a podcast together?" And here we are!It'll launch October 8th, so tomorrow, and we're launching with 3 episodes so you can binge-listen to the first three the first week and then after that it'll be an episode each week airing on Tuesdays. I hope you'll listen :) and then write a 5-star review if ya really love it (which I think you will!).
WHAT I'M CURRENTLY READING...
I'm kinda in-between books right now. I just finished Melinda Gate's book, "The Moment of Lift" which was amazing and very eye-opening. I highly recommend. And then about to start "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" with my book club which I've heard is really good. I'll let you know! So in between, I've been re-reading through the book "Intuitive Eating" as a refresh. If you haven't read this one it's a must!
THE ONE THING I CAN'T DO WITHOUT RIGHT NOW...
5 words...Beekeeper's Naturals Propolis Throat Spray. Not sponsored...just love it! I've had a lingering cough and with being pregnant I can't really take anything for it and also I don't want to have to take an antibiotic, so this stuff has been a life-saver! I started using it and then two days later my cough dramatically improved! Propolis is an ingredient that honey bees make to protect the hive. It's the "immune-booster" or immune-support for honey bees and works the same for humans! I was doing 4 sprays twice a day and now just as a preventative I'm backing down to four sprays once a day through flu season. Have you ever tried propolis? What do you do to stay well in the winter months? Hope you had a great weekend!