Don’t be afraid of the dark
Self-Care While I love celebrating Christmas as a season of light and time of spiritual renewal, often the days before and after this sacred holiday can be a bit dark for me. Between the cold, grey weather, honoring my deceased mother's birthday,…
10 things I tell clients in transition
Life & Career Coaching In 1999 I combined my 14 years of experience and training in organizational/leadership development, communications strategy, corporate coaching and personal branding and launched my first business—a career coaching and consulting firm…
5 reasons I take retreats
Women's Retreats "From stillness comes discernment." Renee Trudeau Stephen Cope, MSW, author and director of Kripalu’s Institute for Extraordinary Living says retreats don’t change our lives as much as they change where we stand in relationship…
5 questions to help you gain clarity & focus
Work Life Balance How do you react when someone asks, "How balanced is your life?" Maybe you feel defensive, frustrated, hopeless, angry or perhaps you roll your eyes and check out completely. The word balance (which can sound exasperating and unrealistic)…
Is crazy the new normal?
Self-Care, Stress ManagementLast weekend I saw the film Interstellar with my 12 year-old; I really enjoyed it. It was set in the future, a time when our soil was polluted and food supply and fresh air were dwindling. People had to re-engineer how to live and be in the…
5 ways to find spiritual renewal this holiday
Mindfulness It’s Christmas Eve, 1976. Gregorian chants are playing in the background and my mom and dad are sitting quietly with their eyes closed, hands resting upward — thumb and index finger touching — while my younger siblings crawl on their…
Can you be with what is?
Women's Empowerment This past weekend my husband and I needed to have a crucial conversation with our middle schooler, but due to schedule conflicts, his mood swings and poor timing, this talk kept getting postponed. My anxiety around wanting to have this…
My #1 life balance secret
Self-Care, Women's Retreats "Are you listening to your life; what is it trying to tell you?” Renee Trudeau Most people are surprised to hear that I love making a big pot of minestrone soup for my family and friends as much as I love getting invited to go to India…
Are your yin & yang out of balance?
Work Life Balance As a communications director, throughout my twenties and most of my thirties, I pushed myself hard. After securing media coverage for a client on the TODAY Show, I barely stopped to breathe before I was pitching their story to National…
Simplifying from the inside-out
Life Balance, Work Life Balance I remember one 4th of July weekend when my husband and I gathered a small group of friends for a “Freedom Fest." No fireworks, hot dogs, or Tchaikovsky. Instead, we had a potluck and asked each guest to bring one thing that “I want to…
Holding it together is overrated
Life Balance I’m known as the oldest of seven, the product of overachievers, a hyper-competent “woman who always has answers and knows where she’s going,” the go-to girl–the one who always seems have it together. And as I move deeper into…
What are you missing?
Mindfulness, Self-Care In the next three weeks, I will be managing an extra full plate at work: multiple speaking engagements, leading a retreat, finishing a new telecourse and more. And as I look at my schedule--all things I truly love to do and that feed me--at…