
Who do you want to BE in 2018?
Mindfulness, SpiritualityKind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless. ~ Mother Teresa
Years ago, my husband, son, and I visited our dear family friends —and native Irish speakers — who live in a fishing village outside of…

3 reasons I think we should all do yoga
Mindfulness, Self-CareThis past weekend I was visiting with a group of women who were sharing about their battles with depression. My friend Cara turned to me and asked, "Renee, what do you when you feel down or hopeless?" I thought for a moment about all the loss…

Maybe everything is perfect
Mindfulness, Self-Care
"If you want reality to be different than what it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.” Author/teacher Byron Katie
We had a really bumpy holiday. There was some extended-family discord around our Christmas celebration,…

5 ways to support rest & renewal this holiday
Mindfulness, Self-CareYesterday I spent an hour with my November/December calendar--not penciling things in, but cancelling pending events and making choices that supported a more open, spacious, restorative winter schedule.
Does the thought of hanging lights…

4 good things born from these times
MindfulnessAs I travel around the US speaking and facilitating resiliency workshops/retreats, just about everywhere I go, I witness emotional fatigue and exhaustion. I know Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, “We were made for these times.” But between all…

Are your relationships fueled by love or fear?
Mindfulness
I don’t write much about my son, now 15, out of respect for his privacy and journey to becoming a young man. But it’s not a secret among my friends that parenting a teen has been the hardest thing my husband and I have ever done. (I’m…

Change your environment, change your perspective
Mindfulness, Self-CareThis past weekend while I was leading a women’s self-care retreat at Esalen–a beautiful, legendary 40-year-old retreat center in stunning Big Sur, CA–I was reminded of the power of changing environments to shift perspective.
As I lay…

Do you see things in black and white?
Mindfulness“Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” ~Shakespeare
Around the globe, many of us are experiencing deep frustration and despair right now. Others are expanding joyfully into new ways of being and seeing.
And most…

Feeling powerless? Try action-motivation-action
MindfulnessThis past July I was driving in Austin and heard a news story about Syrian refugees who were stranded in the middle of the Mediterranean in a political gridlock with slim hopes of making it to a safe haven. They apparently had embarked on the…

Beware of a sense of urgency
MindfulnessAs I reflect on how I want to experience this fall, I'm reminded about a parenting workshop I attended years ago at my son’s Montessori school on peace-based education. The seminar offered kids and parents a model for conflict resolution and…

Ask yourself THIS before summer slips away
Life Balance, MindfulnessMy son starts his sophomore year of high school in two weeks and I feel like the last day of school was yesterday.
If I had to choose a few words to describe our family's summer, I'd say productive, fruitful and filled with growth and challenges.…

When we feel it, we heal it
Life Balance, MindfulnessHow comfortable are you "feeling uncomfortable feelings?" During my 20's and 30's I experienced my parent's divorce, my brother's suicide, and the death of my mother and father. All of the pain, sadness, betrayal, anger and abandonment these…