BalAnce Blog – Page 6 – BalAnce Well-Being Centre Inc.

You belong by Pamela Lynch

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Your presence here is an invitation to remember you are love, and you belong.

I invite you to close your eyes and place your attention on your heart. Feel the word, the energy of belonging.

So many of us have navigated this life feeling that we don’t belong. We get to change that story when we are ready.

My old story was I grew up in the Air Force, and we moved a dozen times by the time I was 12. I was the new kid who felt this foreboding sense of attracting the school bully on my first day of school, which was rarely in September. At my core, I thought I didn’t belong. I didn’t fit in.

Can you relate?

What Can You Get Away With? by Cherie Hanson

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What is your personal margin of error? Is a drip on the carpet the end of the known universe as you know it? Or do you run wild and throw those black work out pants into a washing machine full of fuzz spewing sweaters and towels?

Each of us has an operating system that we let gauge our choices. What we are currently having to adapt to as a worldwide phenomenon is the unknown. When I was growing up what was unknown became more and more clarified through my knowing. If I knew one particular law of reality and lived within it, I was more likely to understand the unknown.

Babies drop a toy off of the high chair tray repeatedly engaging in a physics experiment. Will the object once released from the hand always fall to the floor? The only way to know is to conduct the experiment until you are satisfied.

Addiction by Annette Adkin

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Though living in Kelowna has many opportunities to connect and enjoy outdoor activities it also has many people who are feeling distressed and disconnected. Being distressed and not coping with life?s challenges can lead to addiction. People are trying to soothe their uneasiness and feel better. One of the biggest reasons people are prone to addiction is the presence of childhood trauma. It is great to have a few drinks by the lake or at an event in the Okanagan, but what if this leads to too many drinks, a disconnect in my relationship or consequences that I don?t feel great about afterwards.

There are 7 main addictions which are food, sex, drugs, alcohol, technology, money and unhealthy relationship patterns but for today we will focus on alcohol. When someone struggles with an addiction, they need to learn more about coping strategies and skills to help them. I also talk about recovery meaning recovering the parts of myself that were missing from my childhood. In my practice I talk about being ?addicted to turning away? from myself and things that are important in my life.

I describe addiction like someone else is driving my car and I am in the back seat saying I don?t think this is a good idea but I continue to do this behavior with negative consequences. If you are ready to make some changes or you just want to gain more knowledge to get to your next better step, contact Annette Adkin. She has over 25 yrs of experience in helping people grow and develop successful practices.

250-878-7035

https://pureinsights.ca

Keeping Your Cool in the Heat of the Moment By Maggie Reigh

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Children and teens are experts at pressing their parents’ buttons. Most of them have honed their button pressing skills over the span of their lifetime – for some of them it may be their greatest and most cherished accomplishment! And if you’re like most parents, including myself, you probably “lose it” on occasion. And you probably feel guilty later… and then lose it again, and so on. It becomes an established pattern and guilt-tripping ourselves about it is not helpful. In fact, guilt keeps the pattern going because it makes us feel bad and stresses us out even more, and so we blow again.

So how does one break this pattern? First, stop and really recognize the toll it takes on you and your children. During one of our 9 Ways to Bring out the Best in You and Your Child Leadership Training sessions, two facilitators were exploring the concept of punishment verses effective discipline. In a staged demonstration, suddenly one of the facilitators blew up at a participant. “Sherry! How many times have I told you to quit talking! Now you get to your room, right now! I’m tired of these interruptions,” she bellowed and hauled Sherry up off the couch and down the hall to her room.

SPOTLIGHT – Tricia Veltri by Tom Kernaghan

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Awaken from your past, release yourself from limiting beliefs, and begin a journey toward the happy and healthy life you deserve. The path of healing and self-acceptance can be difficult and painful, but you are not alone. Tricia Veltri, the owner of Core Level Healing Therapy, gets you, and she also gets that taking control of one’s inner world requires a commitment to change and a willingness to work. Tricia holds a master’s degree in counselling, is a registered psychotherapist and certified EMDR(™) practitioner, and she is here to get you beyond your barriers to better relationships — starting with the one you have with yourself.

Tricia specializes in the struggles that keep women imprisoned within — trauma, anxiety, stress, and relationship challenges — and treats her clients the way she would want to be treated: “keep it real” to help you heal. For Tricia, it’s not about meditating on a mountaintop. It’s about fully and skillfully engaging those who are ready to go to the core, root out old patterns, and form new habits. Tricia understands this process on a professional level and on a personal one: she has walked her own road to recovery and reclamation.

I was eager to find out more about Tricia’s work, and her journey.

May on the acreage by Sherry Lukey

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May on the acreage can be a little overwhelming because there’s a lot of grass to cut, planting, weeding, watering, etc. I love being outside and doing all those things. However, keeping up with the spring growth takes extra time, and in the past, it would trigger guilt for me.

Guilt.

Before I discovered EFT tapping, we moved to the acreage, and I felt so guilty because I didn’t feel worthy of having such a beautiful piece of property. I didn’t really feel deserving of much, actually, and I had no idea how much my low-self worth negatively impacted me and my life.

Lizards and Snakes and Bugs, Oh MY! by Debra Kelly

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When you’re hanging out with friends and sharing a few Corona’s the conversation can lead to some interesting wildlife stories.

Undoubtedly someone will always try and ‘one up’ the other to win the best ‘worst encounter with a bug or animal’ story. We Canadians can tell some great black bear encounters or moose tales, but Mexico animal stories wins all!

Everyone lucky enough to live in Cabo has experienced some crazy and scary encounters with a scorpion or giant spider and with time the story gets more and more exciting. My lizard story is a good one.

Stay Positive, Stay Asleep by Bonita Kay Summers

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As you’re scrolling through your social media, how often do you come across profiles full of quotes on staying positive? There can be the temptation to “keep our head above water and paddle like mad” rather than allowing ourselves to feel the full extent of our emotional range. Thinking that being positive is a better choice can give us the idea that it’s somehow a failing if we don’t eschew the uncomfortable emotions for staying in our “happy place”. Happiness and optimism have their place in our lives, but we lose a great deal of our self-awareness if we exercise too much control over our emotions, preferring one feeling over another.

I often think about my 10-day stay at a Vipassana retreat in 2014, where we were encouraged to feel everything with “equanimity”. That meant accepting ALL the feelings, including rage, grief, fear, boredom, and every little spinal ache and muscle pain from sitting for prolonged periods while practicing Adhiṭṭhāna (determined sitting). This involved not moving a muscle while I observed the intense emotions that such stillness was bound to bring to the surface.

SPOTLIGHT – Barri Harris by Tom Kernaghan

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Are you a toxic manager?

For Barri Harris, transformation coach and founder of The Eureka Project, answering this question begins with a single step toward abiding self-awareness. Barri understands that bridging the seeming chasm between high dysfunction and high performance requires leaders confront their own blind spots and foster trust among their teams. Her vision is brave and inspiring: to create a community where leaders can discuss challenges, share stories, and offer information with a focus on best practices — collectively, to become the “tipping point that ends toxic workplaces” and leads to lasting legacies.

Barri knows a thing or two about workplaces. Guided by the motto “live by design, not by default,” she helps a vast array of organizations embrace and move through difficult transformations as smoothly and effectively as possible. Holding a CMA, an MA in international economics and finance, and several strategic management facilitation certifications, and having excelled as a high-level human performance improvement consultant for 15 years, she can easily recognize the systemic and cultural challenges that hamper workplace progress when people have neither full awareness nor the right tools. Barri also gets why many managers struggle: she has travelled that road herself.

How’s Your Health Doing? by Judy Holt

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Often we are too busy to consider how our health is ranking or how we can make a simple change to improve our energy, immunity and general vitality. It begins with taking a look at your daily habitual choices and discovering areas you can make improvements.

It’s not about guilting yourself for making bad choices, but it’s about being open to new options…

A daily self-care practice that’s actually a part of your “to do” list on your calendar is a great way to stay committed and set yourself up for success!

Some easy places to begin:

Are you eating a good protein packed breakfast? If not, try incorporating a quick energizing protein smoothie packed with veggies, fruit & a good quality protein powder.

How are often are you eating throughout the day? Focus on eating something with protein every 3 hours so your blood sugar stays regulated which can help reduce cravings for caffeine, sugar or white flour/gluten laden foods that are high in calorie.