Hey, how are you?

Truly, how are you doing? If the answer is just alright -- that's okay! We're all navigating these times together and each day is a new opportunity for a variety of emotions to come up. Some days, its felt like I've experienced ALL of the emotions, all within the same day. I've gone from frustrated, to melancholy, to anxious, to angry and everything in-between. There are days I've thrown up my hands and said "enough is enough" whether it's in response to work or my own self-induced overwhelm, but then within the next breath I hear myself saying "wow, I'm so grateful".

I promise we're not crazy. We're dealing with something we've never experienced before. Some of us have lost our jobs -- in careers that we've had forever, others of us are learning how to navigate being a working parent, stay-at-home parent and teacher all at the same time. And others of us are learning what it feels like to not be going 180 miles per hour from one thing to another. Whatever you are experiencing, whatever you are feeling, it's valid. There is nothing wrong with you. The process of going through all the emotions is just that - a process. Along the way, I've discovered a few things that have been helping me and I'm sharing them with you, in the hopes they will help you too.

SLOW DOWN
I've seen many of us go into full-speed mode, we're running around like crazy trying to be our most productive selves, all while trying to tackle new projects like cleaning, organizing or starting a new creative endeavor(more on that next). The truth is though, we don't need to speed up. We need to SLOW DOWN. This is an opportunity unlike any other. We have the chance to sit with our thoughts, sit with our feelings and do things(relaxing things!) we wouldn't normally build into our busy schedules. A few things I've been personally doing in this area are leaning into reading, playing board games and cooking up a storm with my husband. These are things I truly enjoy doing but typically feel too busy or overwhelmed with everyday life to get to.

CREATE WITH INTENTION
Many of the people within my network are amazing, action-oriented and big goal setting people, which means that this group of go-getters are always dreaming up and taking action on their next big thing! This is great, but it can also lead to creating just for the sake of creating or feeling like they "have-to" be churning out something new. I'll be honest, I've felt that call myself - to create, create, create! But that can end up leading to more burnout and more stress, on top of the stress that's already set-in during this time. My solution? Create with intention. This goes hand-in-hand with slowing down. Give yourself time to truly think through what you're putting into the world. Are you doing it because you really want to and because it brings you joy? Or are you doing it because you feel like you have to? Ask yourself those questions and really think through your answers before you come up with a new program, a new offer or something "else" to add to your plate.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW

As someone with a growth mindset, I'm always on the hunt to learn something new but especially during this time, I've LOVED getting to dig into learning a few skills that I've been meaning to get to but never made time for previously. A few things I'm working on learning:

How-to wear cream blush when I wear powdered makeup(is this even possible?! Hopefully some YouTube tutorials fill me in).
The ins & outs of Positive Psychology -- for a long time now I've been super obsessed with the science of positive psychology and now I have the chance to get into these areas even more. I'm reading books, taking a few Coursera courses and getting a certificate from Case Western Reserve University that helps me dive into this area more.

What about you? What do you want to learn? Is it something you can learn from YouTube or IG TV or is there a topic you want to explore on a more granular level through an online course or virtual workshop?

Two training opportunities that I'm personally offering include my 1) Self-Mastery Online Course that takes you through the fundamentals of Time Management, Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Building and Personal Branding and 2)A Perfect Your Personal Brand FREE Online Workshop in Partnership with Engage! Cleveland. You can find more details on each of those below.

I hope this list encourages you and reminds you that there are no wrong feelings right now. All we can do is take little steps each day to be in the moment and make all these small moments meaningful.

Sign up for the course here: https://what-you-do-matters.teachable.com/p/what-you-do-matters-x-self-mastery/