I seem to have a track record of coming back to old projects, thinking up new ideas or simply feeling like I'm making progress in February. Enter, the blogs back together. 

I got super motivated when I realized my Facebook page for this blog is still active. If you're not following me there, please do. I'm gonna post fun stuff there again. 

Also, what socials do you all prefer these days? Are we all hanging out on TikTok? Is Instagram still cool? Is there anyone who isn't angry at Facebook? Anything new I'm not up to date on? Drop your responses in the comments or on my Facebook page. 

Anyway.. I promised I would write a post to outline stuff I would be writing here moving forward. I hope this is helpful.

1. Lifestyle Stuff: Cool things I like and think you may like too. Maybe some minor fashion. Maybe. 

2. Life Stories: Our stories can often be the manuals for others to navigate their own lives. I have a lot of manuals to share and like to keep most of them in humor to keep it lite, but there are also some heavy topics I could touch on. 

3. Spirituality: Like mind, body and spirit stuff. Over the years I've done a lot of soul searching and got certified in some things.

 Yoga, Reiki, Life Coach, and other random little things I can speak on. I also like touching on the psychology of marketing. 

4. Entrepreneur Stuff: I've been an entrepreneur for about 3 years now full time. I suppose you can call this blog a part of my entrepreneur journey because early on it was generating money. 

*Fun fact, I did such a good job with building this blog that I don't even have to blog for years and still get thousands of views a month. I had to figure that all out on my own a decade ago. 

5. Wellness: I have a lot of stories to tell about health and wellness. This includes things like dealing with black mold, being frustrated when doctors don't listen, food sensitivities, yoga, journaling, weight struggles, healing on multiple levels: mind, body and soul, mental health and ADHD and the list goes on. 

6. Book Review: I'm reading a ton so I might share here, but mostly I mat share some of the book I'm currently writing. It's fiction rom-com featuring a woman with ADHD. I'm proud of where it's going and would be honored to get feedback from you. 

There are a lot of things here. I've never wanted to settle on just one subject. I'm sure I could but my ADHD mind would get bored so I would just assume so would yours. 

I'm excited for this space. I'm excited to come back regularly. And I'm glad to unlearn some of the marketing strategies I've learned over the years because I realized that when I focused heavily on marketing and what everyone else said or did I lost my path and my authentic voice. 

I don't want to write for views. I want to write because I can help people while also healing myself with my words. 

Talk soon. 

I wrote a post in November of 2016 about the outfits I wore through all of the wedding festivities leading up to my wedding. It just so happened I had met someone who became a friend who sold Lularoe. You remember the craze of Lularoe when it came out right?

Well if you don't, think buttery soft leggings. Anyway, I just so happened to wear a lot of Lularoe at that time in my life and because I was dabbling in writing more about fashion at the time, I decided to write this post. 

Well, let's just say there is a Reddit thread dedicated to how much people dislike Lularoe and someone posted my blog post in that feed. Someone thought I was a retailer for Lularoe and posted how crazy I was to try to sell my product at my wedding.. which wasn't true by the way. 

The person I did buy my clothes from does still sell Lularoe today and you can find her website here. She is a great person who really knows her stuff about style and sizing. If you're looking for help, check her out. This isn't a place to debate whether you like the company or not, so let's not go there, please. 

The point of this post is to remind people that going viral can be very random. Things you never thought in a million years would somehow end up posted where a lot of eyes see it. It could've been something you did just for fun with no intention of anyone ever seeing it.

I know it's frustrating. I worked in marketing for a decade before I started my own business and it was always so hit or miss on what took off and what didn't. Things that I spent hours or days on went nowhere and things I posted on a whim would get the most views and engagement. It is a simple reminder that being original is the best way to get noticed. 

So to end this post with a giggle, I now rank on Google for Lularoe. That post is still my most viewed of all time and I strongly believe it is why I still get thousands of hits on this blog each month without posting anything at all. I just looked and one of my top posts viewed this month was a blog about visiting Maine back in 2014. Not too shabby for being almost 10 years old. SEO at its finest. That being said, in 2024 this blog is coming back to life. 

I know I have said that before, but it's happening. It will always be a place of adventure and wonder and will intertwine my current life shenanigans and things to educate in places I feel worthy of educating. Currently, I spend a lot of time working on my businesses which focus on marketing, social media, writing, and holistic services. I know it's a hodge podge of things that somehow fit together. If you want to see what that looks like, visit my website at Zen Between the Chaos. 

Hope to see you in the new year! Enjoy the rest of 2023!

 

I often come back to this space when things are on my mind. I always want to continue writing when things feel important. Many years ago, when I was living alone, barely making ends meet, and needing something to keep me busy, I started this blog. 

Last night as I was falling asleep I had a conversation with my husband about my stress and how I couldn't quite pinpoint what was causing it. I lay there for a few minutes and it hit me. Money. 

I grew up being taught that when you make a lot of money that means you are successful. I also grew up with the belief that you do not quit your job unless you have a new one lined up. Money was going to make me happy so I needed to make sure I was always making lots of it. 

I stayed in my first "real" job for almost 10 years. I never made enough money, but in my small town, there really wasn't much else. If I didn't decide to move, I probably would still be working there if I am being honest. 

This move is where my money stress began. Things of course did not go as planned and things became a struggle. I was chasing the money just to survive. I have worked 2 and 3 jobs at a time just to meet the bare minimum. I made many job changes for better-paying jobs with bigger titles. As I got to the top of that mountain I realized, I was not that happy. I was able to support myself, making lots of money, but the happiness wasn't there. The stress increased. What was wrong?

Often times when we get bigger titles with more money, that comes with more responsibility. Now I am not saying I don't want responsibility, please don't misunderstand, but what I do mean is I took work home with me. I always felt like I needed to be "on". I never just turned it all off to relax. 

When you don't take the time to shut down and relax, you stay in a state of fight or flight. This isn't healthy. We live in constant stress and in turn, it causes health issues, anxiety, poor sleep patterns, etc. 

in October of 2021, I quit working full-time and went down to part-time. By the summer of 2022, I made the choice to 100% quit working for someone else and to work only for myself. Almost as quick as I quit that job, I committed to another person to help out part-time. 

I continue this pattern as I continue to heal myself and the money wound I have. When I "help" people out in business, I tend to take on all the stress that I wanted to leave in having a job. This time around I have started to finally put up boundaries. I will not bring home my work because I run my own business and that is what I work on at home. 

It has been a learning curve, but it is something that I realized has limited me to succeeding in my own interests. Being an entrepreneur is a new thing but it is also something that tests you in every aspect of your life. I would never give it up for anything, but it reminds me of how far I have come. 

Every day I learn a little more about my comfort levels and what I am willing to do to succeed. I wish I could help everyone all the time to succeed in business and in life, but I realized by doing that I can't succeed myself 100%.

I am less stressed now making less money than when I was at the top of my career. I am much happier now that I realized a lot of that stress came from bringing work home and always worrying about what others would think at my job. Now I focus on the important tasks and get them done - both in my business, my client's businesses, and my life. 

I am not saying that being successful at your job is wrong, but I want it to be okay for you to feel unhappy even when people assume you have it all. Having it all doesn't always mean happiness. 

When you start feeling unhappy or stressed out in your job and it continues on with no end, it is time to get quiet and see what has changed. Allow yourself grace as you put up boundaries and make choices that may feel uncomfortable. 

If you need help in this area and would like to do some coaching or energy healing, schedule a free consultation with me and we can get it sorted out. 

Talk soon!

Anyways, working in the profession I am in, which is coaching people back to joy, I recognize it is VERY easy to believe nothing is joyful when you hit a certain point in your life. We often hear how becoming an adult means we no longer get to have fun. That simply is just not true. 

We work our tails off to get good jobs, make more money, support our families, please others, and so on and so forth. It really does make adulthood seem pretty awful. 

My job as your coach is to give you a different perspective through exercises and activities. Finding balance in being a hardworking adult and also having "me" time and moments of joy isn't impossible if you have the tools to do it. 

Last week while I was sick with a nasty cold I had this bright idea. Host a challenge to get people back into a place of joy. Then I thought, wait, there needs to be more than just the self-care/gratitude aspect to this. So as I coughed my brains out on my couch, chased my pre-schooler, and also did all those adult responsibility things I mentioned above, I drafted out what is now a 12-page workbook. 

This workbook holds 30 days of exercises and prompts to really get you focused on what gratitude and joy mean to you. What brings you joy and what doesn't. It connects your joy to memories that help you recognize what you are missing today. 

SO yeah.. I went a little deep for a free challenge, but ya know what? You're worth it. I know it is hard to put life aside to focus on yourself, so I hope offering you this workbook will help you take a few minutes out of your day to really do that. 

Get yourself signed up today. I promise you won't regret it! If you aren't already following me on social media, find me on Instagram and Facebook for more mini-coaching sessions!  (Also the form below for some reason is not showing name/email in the input boxes. Your name goes in the top slot and your email in the second. Or you can click here to sign up!