Supporting Our Kids: Seeking New Approaches

My heart broke with the recent traumatic news from Parkland, Florida.  The statistics alone are shocking.  Over 170 schools in the United States have experienced similar situations since the Columbine High School shootings with 18 schools just this year.  Now our children – the students – are seeking to elevate the discussion to seek some resolutions. They have planned several national walk out …

Enjoy Your Smoothie Fix Today

Let’s face it.  Our lives can be crazy with jammed packed schedules and difficulties finding time to make healthy and nutritional meals.  If simply for the sake of convenience and pure enjoyment, I thought it might be fun to explore the latest as it relates to healthy (and even not-so-healthy) smoothies. I began my journey by learning of 20 healthy …

Love Actually

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – …

Recognizing & Supporting Family Caregiving

Recognizing and Supporting Family Caregivers

“Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn’t know possible.”  Tia Walker, author Think back on your life for a moment.  When in your life did you have to dig deep into your reserves to face another day?  For many of us, it is likely a time that required us to care for another person.  It might be our …

Halloween Hauntings

Halloween Hauntings: Do You Believe?

This is the time of year when darkness overtakes the daylight.  We transition from a time of warm days and plenty of fruits and vegetables to colder days and less variety.  It’s also a time when we are reminded of the eeriness and spookiness of things we don’t know. Those unseen forces, unseen energies that come into our focus as …

Living a Life Free of Judgments

  “Some folks got a light around them that shine for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels, and in that tunnel, maybe the only light they had was inside of them. And then, even long after they escaped that tunnel… They still be shining for everybody else.” Clareece “Precious” Jones   In the 2009 …

Meditation Basics

Meditation Basics: How to Start A Meditation Practice

In August, I posted an article on how to calm the “monkey mind” during meditation. The article explored the chatter that often happens while entering into a meditative state.  It offered tips on how to alleviate the mind’s chatter. After posting the article, several readers reached out to me stating they didn’t understand how to start a meditation, forget worrying about the …

Healthy Meals for the Kids - Four Directions Wellness

Healthy Meals for the Kids

Meals can feel like a struggle with children today. Kids are marketed to directly today via mobile devices, television and YouTube video advertising, and even with product placement in movies and cartoons. This creates a delicate tug-of-war between parents (you) and brands vying to get your kids to eat what you believe is best and foods they want to sell …

Mindfulness Mondays: Staying in the Present

Mindfulness Mondays happens every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month at Four Directions Wellness.  At noon, people from the community join at the office for an hour of complimentary meditation and inner reflection.  All are welcome! This is Boring! As you were reading that first paragraph, you might have found that you were thinking – “this is boring.”  Or …