I come across a lot of confusion about optimism. We've been taught that optimism means looking on the bright side. Finding the silver lining. Believing that everything happens for a reason. Insisting that "it'll all work out." But that's not the kind of optimism I believe in. Some things are simply awful. We all experience seasons of grief, disappointment, heartbreak, illness, uncertainty, and loss. There are moments that knock the wind out of us. Moments we would never choos

There is something about summer that awakens a different part of us. The smell of sunscreen. Fireflies blinking in the dusk. Ice cream dripping down your hand. Staying outside a little longer because the sun hasn't set yet. Music with the windows down. Fresh peaches from the farmer's market. Reading on the porch while the laundry waits. As children, summer often represented freedom. Play. Possibility. A break from routine. As adults, many of us lose that. We become experts at

Hello friends, Have you noticed that June feels different? The days are longer. The weather is warmer. Vacations start appearing on the calendar. Kids are home from school. Routines become a little less routine. Even if your schedule hasn't changed much, there's often a shift in energy this time of year. And yet many of us are still carrying expectations from January. We want to stay productive. We want to make progress on our goals. We want to keep moving forward. At the sam

Happy almost June. Remember way back in January (that somehow simultaneously feels like yesterday and ten years ago!) when we set our 2026 goals? On Monday, we'll turn the page to a new month and, somehow, find ourselves nearly halfway through 2026. Back in January, many of us sat down together and created goals, intentions, and plans for the year ahead. We thought about what we wanted to build, change, pursue, and become. We mapped out our next draft. So here we are at almos

I have to start with an apology. Last week, I missed you. Life was life-ing, as it does, and I've been living inside a stretch of constant unfamiliarity. That takes something out of you. When everything around you is new, your brain doesn't get to coast. It runs diagnostics all day long. There is no normal setting right now for me, so I am creating little spaces of time that feel comfortable. If you've been feeling it too—the foggy thinking, the shorter fuse, the blank page t

I was at an amazing networking meeting a couple weeks ago, The speaker (a career coach) shared a concept that really resonated with me and I wanted to share it with you. It was called the Johari Window. Imagine it on a grid like this: The OPEN WINDOW Things known by both you and others. This is your visible self. The things you openly share or consistently show. Maybe you know you’re organized. People know you’re organized. You know you’re funny. Other people know you’re funn

Imagine you're faced with a decision, or you're putting yourself out there in a new situation, or you're worried about your performance, or you're in a relationship, or you have a new ache/pain/illness - you get the idea. Does your mind immediately jump to the "what ifs"? What if I make the wrong choice? What if they hate it? What if they take it the wrong way? What if I fall flat on my face? What if something is seriously wrong with me? It's so easy to get stuck in the worst

Not all guilt is created equally. With my close family and friends, I’m a fixer. A peacemaker. I want everyone and everything to be OK at all times. For a long time, I’ve felt like it was my responsibility to make others happy—and when they weren’t, I felt it in my body. A kind of visceral uneasiness, like something is off and it must be my fault. So, I’d look for how to fix it. How to smooth it over. How to put the smile back on their face . . . even if it meant changing mys

Spring arrives a bit chaotically here in Virginia. Those first few days of warm weather have us romanced into the beauty of it. We are outside again after the cold kept us captive. We take long walks, we start planting flowers and cleaning out the winter debris, we frolic! our noses and shoulders get the first sunburn of the season. It feels like we’ve made it. Like the growing season has officially begun. Then bam! A cold front blows in and takes us by surprise. We are all o