Live With Meaning Podcast

Listen as I guide you through a short meditation practice.   Visit www.livewithmeaning.net for more information. Look for the Live With Meaning podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

If there’s one thing I can hope for the New Year, is that I learn to take more responsibility for my choices. I’m not perfect and am invariably learning how to move through this life that I sometimes muck up by complicating it too much.   If I'm feeling a certain way, good or bad, I'm going to share it. I will be honest about how I'm feeling and not overanalyze it or ignore it. Yoga and meditation have taught me to listen to that "gut feeling." The intuition that we are all born with, but I know that I suppress at times.   I want to share ways that I will start to take responsibility for my choices and my life, and I hope they can help you do the same.   Be willing to say, "I am responsible." You and you alone are responsible for the choices YOU make. How we react to situations or certain people is not a group decision on how we react to things. I know I am willing to say this and mean it. I need to feel what this feels like knowing that the choices and decisions I make on a daily

We have all acted in ways that can be considered toxic or less than stellar. Things are said that we wish we can take back, or events happened where our behavior was not what it should have been.   What happens when there continues to be behavior that seems to attract negative people or attitudes into our lives? These feelings can steal our happiness without us even realizing it.   If we can identify this conduct and make some conscious decisions and choices, we can start to bring happiness and joy back into our lives. We can begin to attract the right people into our lives by making some much-needed changes.   Here are five toxic behaviors and ideas how to change them.   Acting like you are always the victim. Do you know someone like this? Or is this you? Life seems to happen to this person, and they act like they have no control over the outcome of their day. When we believe that our decisions have no impact on our existence, we no longer have to take responsibility for the outcome of o

It’s now the end of the year, and usually, this is the time when people start thinking about getting healthier, eating better, and trying new things.   We all feel we need to get healthier after we’ve been stuffing ourselves with too many desserts. Parties with family and friends where there’s tons of food starts to take its toll on our health.   But why do we always seem to fall off the bandwagon? By February, we forget what we wanted for ourselves in December and life goes back to the same routine. The gym membership gets used less and less, and we start going through the drive-thru when we promised ourselves we would eat healthier.   So how do we start to make better choices for ourselves and our family that we can implement, and make part of our routine to live healthier and feel better?   Here are four tips to making better choices- and sticking with them.   Write it down. Put what you want on a piece of paper. Seeing the words makes it much more real. Don't ju

What does an average day look like for you? Do you wake up feeling rushed and tired? Or do you wake up feeling refreshed and move into your morning with a plan for what needs to get done that day?   What are you eating throughout the day? Many of us get caught in the rut of eating fast food from the drive-thru because it's easier and faster than planning our meals. This can lead to us feeling tired and unhealthy. Are you being mindful about your diet? Are your meals healthy and you know that what you are eating is fueling your body?   How many times a day are you checking social media? If time on social media isn’t regulated it can be a time-suck for many of us, and take away the valuable time we need to fulfill our goals and passions.   Take some time and think about what is fueling you every single day. Get an overall picture of how you are moving through life and see if there are some things you may want to change.   Try to start thinking about how to fuel your body and life in th

I was reading something the other day, and the word PLEASURE stood out for me. Most of us can equate the word joy to pleasure in our life. Enjoying times of laughing, having fun, good times with friends and family can all be considered times of joy.   But what about pleasure? Some might think of sex or love when the word pleasure is thought of, but what about pleasure in our day-to-day lives?   The word pleasure at www.dictionary.com is defined as: Frivolous Enjoyment   Frivolous - it just might be my new favorite word, besides pleasure.   For many years, I didn't even realize that I wasn't enjoying life; I sure as heck wasn't having frivolous enjoyment. I had forgotten what it was like to have fun, laugh until I was crying, and my stomach hurt.   After I let go of things that no longer served me, and moved my life in a direction that I was unsure of- scared at times, but in my heart felt right- I started to find pleasure, joy, and laughter.   Here are five ways to add pleasure t

Low self-esteem can affect us at any age. Feeling worthy -that we are “enough,” are feelings that can happen at any stage of life.   Anyone who has experienced a divorce, loss of a job, end of a relationship, may experience feelings and emotions that cause us to think “I’m not enough,” “I’m not worthy.”   How do we rebuild that sense of worthiness, the sense of deserving love and all the beautiful things that life can bring to us?   Here are four ideas of how to feel worthy again.   Who is in your inner circle? I've said it a hundred times, and I will keep saying it. Who do you surround yourself with? Are there individuals who trigger that sense of "I'm not enough?” I've learned that I would rather be alone than be around people who make me feel "less than." They trigger something in me that makes me feel that I'm not living up to their expectations, or they bring a sense of stress to my life. Examine how the people in your life make y

Fear is a very powerful emotion. It can at times be overwhelming. We can have a fear of the future, feeling afraid of getting sick or becoming old.   Our fears can get ahold of us, and sometimes we can't let it go. Even when things in our lives are going well, is there an underlying sense of fear? Do we ignore certain aspects of our lives because we are afraid to look at them?   To face our fears, we need to look at them. It's a hard thing to do, but we need to ask ourselves; What exactly am I afraid of and why? Fear can keep us stuck, keep us from the doing the things we want and are meant to do. The more we push fear away and keep it locked up, the stronger it becomes. Bringing the fear into our awareness, acknowledge that it is there, is the first step to overcoming what we are afraid of.   We have to look deeply to create change in our lives. Facing our fears can be one of the hardest things to do because we often make decisions based out of fear. We choose the wrong partner because we are

As the year comes to a close, it's a nice time to reflect on what we accomplished this year, what failed, and how we can move into the New Year with a plan and defined focus.   It’s good to acknowledge our failures and successes, but not good to dwell on them and use them as excuses as why we can’t achieve or change things this year. To grow, to find happiness, or to find love, we need to take action and put ourselves in the best place possible for success in whatever we are trying to achieve.   We have to experience life, and in the experiencing there will be discomfort and pain. We have to shift our thinking about the pain and realize it is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to change, and to find something deeper within ourselves. We need to experience the pain, but not allow it to become our identity and become a victim of the pain.   Change is necessary for growth, but it also frightening, and we can stay stuck for years if we don't allow ourselves the gift of asking ourselves s

I ran across the quote, "Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness." It stopped me. I read it a couple times, and I thought about the recent events in Paris.  It may be easy for us to quickly forget about atrocities that are happening around the world, and move along in our lives like these things don’t affect us. Do we so easily dismiss these things because we feel like there is nothing we can do to make a difference?   During my time as a police officer, I had started to believe that no matter what I did, I wasn't making a difference. I would get called to the same domestic disturbances – mostly family fights - with the same people. I would deal with the same troubled kids over and over, and nothing was getting better. I would see the same homeless people day in and out.   I had to turn off the emotional part of myself to be able to understand and deal with the everyday suffering people go through. The problem with turning off a part of myself, is that it wasn&

How you prepare yourself for going to sleep is just as important as how you get ready for your day. Establishing a routine in the evening is a great way to start to get better sleep, feel better in the morning, and feel like you had a good nights rest. Are you tired of waking up and feeling tired? You lay there frustrated when you look at the clock and realize you only had four hours of sleep.   There are a lot of factors that can affect your sleep, but having a routine in place in the evening can help you get to bed easier and sleep better. What’s nice about an evening routine is it will help the mornings go smoother and you will feel better throughout the day.   Do you have an evening routine in place? If not, try some of these tips and see if they help set you up for a better nights sleep.   Sleep environment. Take a look at your bedroom. Is the room cluttered? Do you need to make the room darker so you can fall asleep earlier when the days are longer? What is the temperature of your

Are you someone who sets your alarm clock for the very last minute so you can get up and rush to get ready for work? By the time you drop off the kids, and get to work, you’re a bundle of nerves, you’re stressed out, and you think this is the normal way of life.   It doesn’t have to be. One of the greatest things you can do for yourself and your loved ones - so that you can have some sanity in your life - is to establish a morning routine.   One of the most common traits of highly successful people is their morning routine. It is a ritual, and is not up for negotiation. It happens because it is how they start their day off on the right foot. I wanted to cover some of the key points of how to create a successful morning routine.   When you wake up, take a moment and think of what you are grateful for. It only takes a minute, but thinking about what you are grateful for can set the entire mood for your day. If you wake up and you’re dreading the day, you are setting yours

Are we making our lives harder than it has to be? Remember when we thought life was easy and carefree? Before the worries of a job, money, mortgage, spouse, kids…the list goes on. Remember the good ‘ol days? We were confident in our decisions and hopeful for the future.   As we grew older, outside influences started to change us. Maybe it was the boss who you wanted to please so badly you were willing to work 60 hours a week. Giving up time with family and friends, and missing time doing the things that you loved to do. What did you gain? A promotion? More money?   But what did you gain PERSONALLY? Are you now 50 pounds overweight? Is your family was upset with you because you haven’t taken time for them? When was the last time you did something for yourself? Can you even remember?   Over time you started to lose touch with who you were and what you wanted. Maybe once you had achieved what you thought you wanted, you looked around and didn’t like who you had become. &nb

Each and every one of us is born with a unique gift. We are here to do something in this life. But how do you find what you are meant to do? Do you know what makes your heart sing?   A good way to find what makes your heart sing, is what do you do when no one is expecting anything from you? Think about the times when you felt the most fulfilled   Is the job you go to day in and day out sucking the life out of you? Do you dread doing it but you say to yourself that you have to do it? You have to pay the mortgage, the car payment, but what if you didn't have those things, what would you do that fulfills you.   What are you willing to give up to do what you love. Can you move to a smaller place, something that isn't so expensive? Buy a cheaper car? Find a roommate to help with the expenses? What are you willing to give up and change to be able to do what you love.   The problem is we have been trained that to be happy we need to have the big house, the nice car, expensive clothes and a ridicu

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Buddha   Forgiveness is one of those tricky things that can eat away at us if we don’t address it. Allowing forgiveness requires introspection, to look at the situation objectively and to accept your own responsibility. This can be very difficult. We all like to think we are right and the other person is wrong. But maybe, just maybe you can let go of some things that you’re hanging onto and can free yourself from a bad situation.   Forgiveness can be very healing for a past event. It doesn’t excuse any behavior on either part, but it allows a place where you can look at it differently. Try some of these tips and see if you can allow forgiveness to heal your thoughts and ideas around a situation. You never know what you will learn about yourself when you allow forgiveness to enter.   Forgiveness is for you and not for anyone else. Stop expecting other people to change just because y

If you could take all the thoughts you have in one day and have them replayed for you, what would you hear? Do you talk down to yourself? Do you talk down to others? Do you limit yourself by what you say?   The book ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz has four agreements that people need to make with themselves. The first one is ‘Be Impeccable With Your Word.’ It’s not just being honest and doing what you say you are going to do, but be impeccable with your word to yourself.   When you have a bad day or an argument, are you telling yourself negative things? “It’s my fault.” “I’m not that smart.” The list is endless and I’m sure we all have said some things to ourselves that if we heard them said out loud, we would be appalled and embarrassed.   So how do we start to change what we think and say? How do we change our self-talk? Here are some tips that I hope can be helpful as we all start to be more impeccable with our

We all have them – failures – big or small, we have all experienced them. Some were life changing and you consider them huge failures in your life, maybe you’re even embarrassed by them and don’t like to talk about it.   What if we changed that internal dialogue about these missteps and looked at them as lessons?   Think about the situation and ask yourself, “What did I learn?” There’s a lesson in everything we do. Sometimes we miss the lesson and don’t want to think about it, so we move past it. If this is considered a failure in your life, why not look at it differently and see if you can learn from it?   We don’t like to fail. It’s a hard pill to swallow when we fail at something. We want to be successful and a failure means defeat, something went wrong. No one wants to come home and say they lost their job, or were fired. It’s not a time to break out the champagne; it feels horrible.   The other side of the failure coin

What is holding you back from finding the relationship that fills your heart and soul? From losing the weight you’ve been trying to lose for years? From achieving your career goals? From living the most fulfilled life possible?   Identifying a core limiting belief can sometimes be difficult because it requires us to be completely honest with how we are feeling and why. It can feel like an unveiling to a part of yourself that you keep hidden. It can be stripping away parts of yourself to get to the core of some things that are holding you back.   So think for a moment, what is holding me back? What is the belief behind it? I’m not good enough, I’m not strong enough, I can’t do it, I need more education, I need more money, fill in the blank. Really think about it, what is the belief behind it?   Now I want you to think about that belief, where do you feel it in the body. Feel whatever story comes with that belief, and just notice if there is any sensation in the body. It&r

How To Find A Little More Happiness     Do you ever find yourself comparing what someone else has, to what you have? A nicer car? Bigger house? Designer clothes?   Is life perfect? No, but let’s stop comparing, judging, blaming and criticizing others and find ways to feel happy with what we have. I can guarantee there are plenty of people who would give anything to have even half of what you currently have. This isn’t just about physical possessions, but the things you can’t buy. Your family, your friends, your self-worth, your happiness.   So I encourage you to try some or all of these little ways to find a little more happiness in your life.   ŸAccept everything that you are. Stop wasting time comparing yourself to others. This is such an energy drain thinking you are not enough or someone is better than you. Accept yourself just as you are.   ŸLook for the lessons. Appreciate the lessons in life. The good and the bad all have lessons in them. Focus on what yo

How To Become More Mindful   Be in the moment with one task. Instead of moving from one task to another, checking your email, checking your phone, the television is on, and dividing your attention in five different directions - focus on one thing at a time. The task you are working on gets 100 % of your attention. You are focusing on the present moment.   Being mindful is observing your thoughts without judgment. When things are good or bad, taking a moment and becoming aware of the thoughts. Try to separate the emotional attachment to the thought.   A couple ways to practice being more mindful:   When walking, think only about walking. Feel one foot move and then the other. Feel the surface you are walking on. Notice how your body feels to be moving.   Notice your breath in different situations throughout the day, especially when something feels stressful or intense. Listen and feel your breath, noticing, not trying to change anything.   Bring attention to physical sensations. N