The world is so much different now than when our parents grew up, especially our grandparents. I'm positive our grandparents didn't hear the Word "Cancer" in the frequency we hear now, or even at all. I can't help but come to the conclusion we are bombarded with easy choices now. Convenience, easy to grab, instant, quick fixes. The food industry is booming, marketing to us, quickness and processed food. The cosmetic industry is full on about personal care choices times 1000.
Our products and our foods are not the same. We aren't growing up on grand-dads farm anymore. We are living in a time of full on temptations and the most modern, newest of the new. This trend is terrifying, knowing that our food is not just food anymore, our products have so many ingredients, many untested, that we sacrifice our health to look our best, we sacrifice our health to eat fast and convenient.
I started to question our home products when I had my first child, I was now responsible for more than myself. I started reading labels, digging deep and doing my research, it was terrifying and exhausting. I started replacing products with other products with better ingredients, but it was a process it took awhile to actually find products that were safe, I kept finding dead ends. Some products would have majority good ingredients then the dreaded fragrance (aka Perfume) would pop up, in EVERYTHING! It is now my top offender I preach about. It is an ingredient that to this day has been my pet peeve. My mom was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease many years back and now having all the knowledge I have, I find it hard not to truly believe her lifestyle had a lot to do with her current health diagnosis. I believe in body burden and all the evidence is pointing towards it being real and growing. Our bodies can only handle so much before they have to react and unfortunately that results with our health being tested, and challenged.
I love education in general but find great passion educating people on safer choices, how to identify toxins in everyday products and educating why we should care. I think it stems from the empowerment it gave me once I had finally figured out the ingredients to stay away from and the feeling it gave me as a parent to know that my home and all things in it were finally safe. Knowledge is empowerment, I love giving that to women, I think it makes us stronger as women and builds our confidence, allows us to walk and path we want with our heads up. In this case it's understanding our body systems and how we can keep them thriving, proactive health care. I know I don't want to be in a position where I need to have reactive health care, I want to live my life nurturing my body and keeping it thriving.
If you want a crash course in toxins and label reading head over to the Dirty Dozen Home Challenge I created, you will find it in my GROUP under the GUIDE section. I go through the 12 ingredients you should be aware of and try to avoid if your looking to ditch the toxins in your life.
Have you herd of the 5am club? I've been part of it for years. I was struggling finding time for myself, my kids went to bed early but I was tired, and struggled with if I did stay up at night, I paid for it in the morning. Yes I enjoyed myself at night but my body was tired and I found myself doing chores around the house not doing stuff that challenged my brain and made me excited and inspired.
Im writing you currently at 5:15am with a hot coffee on my desk and pure quiet in my home, my husband is at work and the 3 kids are sleeping. I'm truly enjoying my time. Did you know you are most creative in the early hours, it's a time our frontal cortex is most active allowing our creativity to flow. Now don't get me wrong it took me awhile of building this 5am routine to be able to get my feet on the floor and be ready to rock and roll, but just like any routine your mind and body adjust and you get better and better.
I constantly hear moms talking about wanting to achieve balance in their lives, so many struggle with finding time for themselves, and they express how lost and unfulfilled their lives seem, always catering to everyone else and forgetting about themselves. It breaks my heart honestly, because I can feel that, I was there once. That's when I started getting up in the 5am hour, it was out of wanting to change how I took care of myself, it was a mindset shift, necessity, and knowing if I didn't do me first I wasn't ready to do anyone else. I wanted to be happy to see everyone get up and happy to take care of them all day without the lingering thought in my brain, when is it my turn. So now my turn is at the beginning of the day, i''m worth putting first, I deserve to take care of me first, I know I will be taking care of everyone else all day long. What a great feeling it is knowing that i'm waking up each day to do something I'm excited about. This time can truly be the foundation for balance in your life, such a huge part of balance is taking care of yourself so you have the energy both physically and mentally to make all the other pieces fall into place.
That's where my 5am club fell into place, constantly seeing moms searching for balance, wanting to have time for themselves, struggling. I wanted to help them, I knew this was what was going to help them, but I also knew with no support they may not truly see the potential and the gravity on how this could change their lives. This is where the 5AM CLUB was born.
I want every mom to feel like they are worth putting first, I'm so over hearing about moms who put everyone before themselves. We have one life, to be able to give our best we have to be at our best and that only happens when our needs are met, we feel fulfilled. If you are ready to change how you approach your life and to start finding your balance pop over to the 5AM CLUB you will find it in the units section of my GROUP. Let's change how moms are taking care of themselves in a big way!
Do you find yourself making excuses for certain things and why you will do it later or the time isn't right at this moment. I did this for a long time with setting time aside for myself and also for not pushing myself and just creating the career life I wanted. I would tell myself, the kids are going to be older soon, things will get easier time freedom wise, i'll do that thing for myself when they all start school. Why do we do this, why do we always put ourselves last. Truth is, it doesn't get easier nor should we be waiting, the time is never right we just make the decision to make the time right and put our needs and wants as a priority.
If we are putting important things on the back burner it's time to dig a little deeper and find the true reasons we are doing this.
Fear is a huge player in this, we may have a fear at failing at the task or job
Being Comfortable it's how we feel about our life, it can really affect our motivation to jump into the things that will make our dreams happen. You may be in a spot where you are comfortable but not coming closer to your dreams, your not in a spot where you are in that much pain that you must make the steps to get to a new spot of desire. It's time to asses and figure out if you will really settle for mediocre for your life story.
Distractions are a huge rd block, they cloud our visions, when we have to much going on we get caught up sometimes in survival mode and forget what our real passions, dreams, and intentions for our life was. Eliminating unnecessary distractions and simplifying your life can make everything clear again.
Excuses are a given, we all have excuses, but being conscious about our inner talk is key. For every one reason you should do something there will always be 2 telling you not to. Belonging to a group for accountably or having someone along side of you doing the same path is a great way to push those excuses out and not let them creep in and paralyze our progress.
Uncertainty can put a halt to everything great, you need a clear picture of where you are going, what your dreams are, the things that need to happen to get you there. Making a voyage without a map boils down to luck, this is life, if you leave it up to luck you may be greatly disappointed. This is where mapping out a plan will pay off, figuring out where you want to be and how you are going to get there isn't as hard as you think, it actually is pretty exciting to get excited about the things you are going to do to get you to your goal.
All these things held me back at different times in my life, and that's ok. What makes me not worry about all the time I wasted getting hung up on them is the fact I made a choice to push through. Recognize I needed direction, found it and put the things in place I needed to rock life. Being a stay at home mom is a full time job, it leaves little time to even realize that these things may be impacting your greatness. Setting time aside to self asses, breathe, be with your thoughts is so important. Us moms are known for putting ourselves last and that doesn't show our kids how to live. So stop with the negative talk and start getting your dreams in line. If you want to hang out with other moms who want to do that exact thing and moms who are, pop over to my FB GROUP (Happy & Thriving Moms) it's a place we learn how to move forward, push past the doubts and carve out the life we always wanted.
It's never to late to start working towards your dreams.
Ebony
New Year's resolutions are always exciting, we have all this new found energy and excitement that we are going to do certain things that are going to change our lives. Big plans, big dreams nothing is going to stand in our way, can you relate? I love the process of reflection and then goal setting to kick off the New Year with amazing intentions for the coming year.
Since being a mom I have always looked back at the previous year in reflection and figured out what great things am I going to do in the coming year to make life as I want it, how do I want home life to look, is this the year I make exercise a priority, maybe we plan something big with the kids, maybe there is a money goal. Let's be real though, the excitement can dim very quickly when real life takes over and the day to day grind wears on you, and you don't have an actual plan to hold yourself to these resolutions or goals. I'm guilty for not following through on many goals and resolutions in the past and it can be a big hit to the self confidence a few months in and you realize no consistent steps have been taken in the direction of those goals.
The past is behind us so let's hit this years goals with a new found intentions and success. Here are 6 steps to make your New Years Resolution and Goals a success.
- Get Specific, you need to really narrow down and get specific about what that goal is, so jut saying I'm going to exercise isn't going to be as effective as I'm going to loose 40 pounds, or I'm going to be a confident runner by spring 2021.
- Break Big Dreams Into Smaller Steps, this is very important, this is where the planning comes in, you are really thinking about your goal and how you will achieve it. Being able to accomplish smaller steps within the goal builds confidence and keeps you on track to the big picture. So instead of only have a goal of loosing 40 lbs with no road map, break it down, what things have to happen for that to be achieved? regular exercise, healthy eating, a trainer or group to keep you accountable, a set time in your schedule to exercise, a space to exercise, the list could go on. Small steps keep you motivated as you accomplish them and keep you working in a clear direction.
- Understand Why You Haven't Made A Change In The Past, until you really grasp why you haven't already changed or why your sticking to these old habits it's going to be really hard to find the motivation and energy to make that hard left to a new life. Identify rd blocks in the past and map out new ways to get past them, seeing those bumps in the rd before they come can really help you succeed when life gets hard.
- Commit Yourself, this is where accountability comes in, say those goals out loud to your friends or family, heck both. Join an in person or online group that will get you connected to other people with similar goals, excitement and motivation is contagious, this strategy can really help you hold to your plan and when things get tough you have a group of people behind you to cheer you on, they will be invested in your success as you will be in theirs, this hands down has been the deal breaker for me staying on track to achieving goals.
- Change Is A Process, don't get caught up with how long its taking, as long as you continue to move forward you are winning. Remember unhealthy or undesired habits that you are trying to change probably took years to develop so how can we expect to change them in a matter of weeks or even months. Many times we are working toward a goal of implementing something for the rest of our lives, so just being consistent and doing it everyday or so many times a week is a huge win right there, be patient with yourself and see the wins amongst the daily things you do that are getting you that much closer to the goal.
- How You Handle Set Backs, a setback is one of the most common reasons why people give up on their goals or resolutions. If you suddenly fall back into a bad habit, don't view that as a failure, the rd to success isn't straight we will all encounter twists and dead ends at times, it's important to asses and pivot. Figure out why it happened, did something trigger your setback, and what might you do differently next time. Give yourself grace and continue on working towards your goal.
Keep your eye on the prize, accomplishing a goal is an amazing feeling, it can boost your confidence and your self worth. It is worth working hard towards, pushing when times get hard, you made this resolution or goal for a reason, a good reason, keep that clear in your mind. Not only do we work towards goals for ourselves but we do it to show our children how important it is to set your eyes on something you want and work hard for it.
If you need a place where moms support moms and their goals, pop over to my FB GROUP ( Stay At Home Moms Crushing Life's Doubts)
I'll be cheering you on!
Ebony
Not only is being a mom down right hard, it can have you second guessing yourself all the time. We are in unknown territory, we've never done this before, there's definitely no manual. Do you find yourself doubting and second guessing yourself all the time? If it's a yes, this can cause so much unwanted stress in your life, leading to sadness, lower confidence, conflict within relationships, seclusion, and so much more.
So why do we second guess ourselves so much? A lot of times this is something that is developed early on. You probably struggled with lower confidence before babe came along, if you think back to earlier years I'm sure some memories of times where you were unsure if you made the right choice took over a situation. Second guessing and doubting yourself are forms of insecurity that many people experience when thinking about the situation they are in and have they made the right decisions, you aren't completely trusting in yourself, you are unsure you have the right info to make the right choice. Do know you are not along, this is so common, and there are ways to overcome it!
It's harder to learn some skills later on, not impossible but harder, this is why it's so important to teach our kids these foundation skills growing up, cooking, organization, communication, cleaning, self care, self love, how to prioritize, my goodness my list could go on, my point being if you are struggling with these things it's time to gain the skills you feel you are lacking to be able to model and teach your children so they don't end up struggling in the areas you do.
I belong to a few mom groups and second guessing and self doubt pops up everywhere, so many questions are asked each day around simple everyday things that moms are worried and unsure of. For many these questions seems so simple but for self doubting, second guessing moms they are huge, and often crippling. Building confidence, working on yourself is so worth it, pushing through the hard things that sometimes seem impossible but once done really aren't that hard are huge boosts of confidence, but doing that along is sure to be near impossible. That's where I knew I needed to create a space to nature those struggles, help women succeed in those everyday things we all want to be able to do with confidence and courage. A place we can cheer each other on but also voice our struggles and look for solutions. If this sounds like a place you want to be pop over to my FB GROUP (Happy & Thriving Moms - Stay At Home Moms Crushing Life's Doubts)
Can't wait to cheer you on!
Ebony
