This week gave me a very real reminder that rest isn’t just about sleep. I flew home from my trip to Florida just as the spring time change hit. Somehow, in a moment of ambitious optimism, I still thought a 7:00 a.m. Monday Pilates class was a great idea. By Monday afternoon, I felt fine . . . ish. By Tuesday, I felt like my brain was moving through molasses. By Wednesday, I realized something surprising: it was taking me most of the week to recover . Not because anything dr

Before anything else today, pause with me for a moment and ask yourself quietly: What is my best today? Not yesterday’s best. Not someone else’s best. Not the imaginary, pressure-filled version of your best. Just . . . today’s. This question sits at the heart of the fourth agreement: Always Do Your Best.  And the more I think about this agreement, the more I realize it’s not a performance standard—it’s a relationship with yourself. It's a quiet checkin to assess your capacity

Today we’re continuing our series on the Four Agreements , stepping into the third agreement: Don’t Make Assumptions.  And if there were ever an agreement designed to clear mental clutter and return you to possibility, it’s this one. This one hits us right at our core fears and insecurities. In life drafting, assumptions are like writing plot twists without evidence. We decide what someone meant, why they didn’t respond, what others think of us, or how something will turn out

The second agreement from The Four Agreements  by Don Miguel Ruiz  is simple, but powerful: Don’t take anything personally. Here’s how I think about it in real life terms. What other people say or do is almost never really about you—it’s about them : their mood, their past, their fears, their beliefs, their story. When we take things personally, we hand the pen to someone else. Suddenly they’re writing our confidence, our worth, our direction. As we keep layering the agreemen

I recently picked up The Four Agreements  by Don Miguel Ruiz (inscribed inside by my mom, Christmas 2000!) I have read it several times but wanted to reflect on it over the next 4 weeks. The first agreement: Be impeccable with your word. In the book, Ruiz explains that our word is our power. It’s how we create meaning, how we "cast spells" on others. But I want to take it a step further and talk about our words to ourselves. At first glance, this agreement sounds like it’s ab

I bought a watercolor book at the beginning of December. Actually, I bought two of them with the intention of gifting them for Christmas. I wasn’t sure yet just who would receive them. I loved them. There was just something about the almost paint-by-numbers quality of them while still holding room for personal touches of creativity. I ended up giving one to my niece Olivia on Christmas morning, but I kept one for myself. I actually gave Liv my favorite one—the one with woodla

First of all, I apologize for not sending this email yesterday morning. It was a perfect storm (pun intended) of the impending weather interruption and traveling to OBX for the retreat that had me completely confused on the days of the week. It was a complete oversite. Now that I am home from the beach retreat and settled in at home, I want to take the time to write to you all about the benefit of "retreat." Why We Retreat We retreat because clarity doesn’t happen in the mids

AI generated image There’s a reason so many people wait until January 1st to make goals, resolutions, and intentions. There's just something about shedding the old year and ushering in the new one that makes us feel like "this time it will be different." We want to embrace the "new year, new you" concept. This is not a post about how just setting a goal, a resolution, or an intention without the structures underneath (values, supporting habits and systems) are doomed to fail.

I've recently heard an interpretation of mindset by Dr. Alia Crum, mindset expert. I think sometimes "mindset" gets a bad rap. Like its the assumption that we are being told to "just think positive" and everything will be alright. This isn't helpful. Dr. Crum teaches that mindsets are not who we are, they’re simply settings of the mind . Like the settings on your phone or laptop. Helpful… until they’re not. Most of us are walking around operating from settings we never consc