Tag: inspiration

a feeling yet to be named

Posted on by jplatt27

I’ve been doing something a little different with my Christmas list this year. Each year, Mike’s mom asks me for a Christmas list. And each year I put the same kinds of things: clothes and books.

This year I decided I’d make an intentional Christmas list based on how I want to feel in 2014.

The adjectives I came up with are

cozy | joyful | pretty | abundant.

But at the gym this weekend I realized there’s another way I want to feel in 2014…like me. But I haven’t come up with one word that sums up this feeling.

I was doing a strength exercise in front of the mirror and the song Mirrors by Justin Timberlake was playing on my iPod. When I locked eyes with myself in the mirror I felt…radiant, strong, beautiful, loved, appreciated. Like I was really seeing myself. Seeing the true me. I felt…like me. I adore that feeling. 

Do you know the feeling I’m talking about? What is it called? I’d love to add it to my list.

link love

Posted on by jplatt27

Coffee and cinnamon buns

 

Happy Friday! Hope you had a good week. I did. I’m looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend before we hit the road for Thanksgiving travel next week. I’m also looking forward to celebrating my birthday with Mike on Sunday. I’m not sure what the plans are–it’s a surprise!

Alright, onto the love!

1. I loved this honest post about starting a business. Good things to keep in mind.

2. A friend sent me this post yesterday about the question you should ask yourself. It was a perfectly timed read for me.

3. I can definitely relate to this post from Emily about how life is messy sometimes.

4. We made this soup for dinner last Friday…mmm…mmm…mmm. So good, so easy, and quick too!

5. I haven’t been making it to the gym recently so I was excited to see this at-home workout Kristen shared in one of her Friday Favorites posts. I’ve done it twice and it’s a good one!

Have a great weekend!

three angels

Posted on by jplatt27

peonies

In the last couple months, I’ve come in contact with three women that I would call angels.

The first was a short interaction while I was walking back to my office from Starbucks one morning. I smiled at a woman as we came to the corner together and said “good morning.” She said “Good morning. Don’t you look beautiful. Do you know who you look like? The princess.” She meant Kate Middleton. She told me I looked like Kate Middleton! It was a magical moment because I had been feeling really fat, many of my clothes not fitting, and I thought my hair was kind of frizzy. But she saw something different. Made me take a step back and think about myself in a kinder way.

The second angel actually came during a visit to the National Cathedral. After leaving work early because my anxiety got the best of me, I walked over to the Cathedral for some solace. There was a service ending and was on the verge of tears. Maybe tears isn’t a strong enough word to describe what I was experiencing. I walked up to the verger and asked if she would sit with me for a minute. She gently led me to a row of pews and as soon as I sat down, I started sobbing. Deep, deep sobs. “Wow, what sadness,” she said as she held me in her arms and let me cry. She sat with me for an hour. An hour. She listened. She held the space for me to cry.

The third was sitting next to me on the second day of the Hay House I Can Do It Conference. Iyanla VanSant opened up the day with a grand entrance. She walked through the crowd singing “you’re the one I want, you’re the one I need, you’re the one for me.” And, you guessed it, I cried. I was super emotional and just let the tears flow. When she got to the stage, we sat down and she instructed us to take the hand of person on either side of us and invited us to close our eyes. “Your hand is in the hand of an angel,” she said. When we opened our eyes, she invited us to give the person next to us a big hug. Though one of my friends was on my left, I ended up turning to the stranger on my right (and she to me, though her friend was on the other side of her) and she hugged me and once again I sobbed into the arms of a stranger. She just held me. I’m pretty sure my tears were dripping on her skin and she just continued to hold me tight and just let me cry.

I’m so grateful that I crossed paths with these women when I did. Even though our time together was brief and I’ll probably never see them again, these interactions were really special.

Have you come in contact with any angels lately?

a lesson from wine country

Posted on by jplatt27

wine glasses

One of the biggest things I took away from wine country was that it’s about what you like. Often, our friends would love a wine and I wouldn’t understand the hype or I’d love a wine and they didn’t care for it. But we were told over and over that it’s about what you like. Your taste is your taste and you like what you like.

It was challenging to remember at times. I’d get caught up comparing myself to other people in our group with stronger, more refined palates. I’d wonder why I wasn’t loving the wines that they loved. Why I didn’t enjoy this wine that was so complex and such a treat that every else bought bottles of it. Why do I love this seriously sweet wine that everyone else thinks is too much? Is something wrong with me? But the sommeliers assured us over and over that it’s about what you like.

I think this is a good metaphor for life. We all like different things and at different intensities, and that’s OK.

the right question: take out the shoulds

Posted on by jplatt27

I often wake up thinking “what should I do this morning?” and on weekends it’s “what should I do today?”

These questions make me feel totally overwhelmed and set me up for failure.

This is essentially like asking “what am I supposed to do today?” OR “what pressure can I put on myself today?” OR “what obligations can I create for myself today so that when I inevitably don’t do them all I feel bad about myself?”

In response, I’ll start to think about all the things I could do: chores, business tasks, people to call, things that I should do because I live in the city and I should take advantage of them. And then I think about all the reasons why I don’t want to do those things or why I can’t do those things.

It’s pretty terrible actually. It makes me feel terrible and almost paralyzed.

I realized this morning that I do the same with blogging.

I’ll think “what should I write about today?”

Then I start listing possible topics followed by the reasons they’re not the right post for the day or why I can’t or don’t feel like writing that today. And then I just shutdown and don’t write anything.

In my opinion weekends should not be about shoulds. 

And blogging shouldn’t either.

So I’ve come up with two new questions:

What would I like to do today/right now? | What would I like to share on the blog today?

Are there areas of your life where you’re asking questions like these? If so, where and what’s a new question you can ask yourself?

P.S. Part of the reason these questions give me so much trouble: Janice has a field day with them.

link love

Posted on by jplatt27

There is nothing better than waking up on Saturday morning, getting coffee, and reading. Each Friday, I’ll share some links that I think are worthy of falling into that precious Saturday morning time.

Chaippucino and crossaint.jpg

 

1. I’ve been feeling intense sadness lately and appreciate this post from Danielle LaPorte about the difference between depression and sadness. I’m definitely sad, not depressed.

2. Members of Congress meditating? Yep, you read that right. I’m really interested in Congressman Tim Ryan’s work and spent last Saturday morning reading his book A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit. I’m excited to share this Huffington Post article about his efforts to bring mindfulness meditation to Capitol Hill.

3. I spent the month of June creating space in my life so when I read this post about an anti-frantic life, I was like yes. This post totally gives words for what I’ve experienced and what I’d like to create. If you’re a go-go-go-go-go type of person, read this.

4. Need a little pep talk? Watch this. Gets me every time. (Maybe schedule a calendar reminder to watch it on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.)

Only one new post on the blog this week:

I’ll be back with more new posts next week. Have a great weekend!

 

daring greatly: a must read

Posted on by jplatt27

I finished Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown last weekend. I’m still trying to process it all, and actually plan to go back to the beginning to re-read the parts I’ve underlined and maybe compile a series of posts here, but I wanted to share this first.

Daring Greatly

This book is a must-read.

This book is a must-read for anyone in a position to influence others, ie everyone. This book will be especially powerful for teachers, managers, and parents.

Brené Brown is a researcher that focuses on shame and vulnerability. While based in years of academic research, the message of this book is practical and accessible to everyone.

To get a preview of what Daring Greatly is all about, watch Brené’s TED talk.

Have you read Daring Greatly? What was one ah-ha moment you had as a result?

 

link love

Posted on by jplatt27

I think there is nothing better than waking up on Saturday morning, getting coffee, and reading. Each Friday, I’ll share some links that I think are worthy of falling into that precious Saturday morning time.

Coffee cup

1. This beautifully written article about body image: A 5 year old called me fat and changed my perspective

2. I love flavored water and may make one of these three recipes for my next vision board party

3. Part of my dream job is helping other people find their dream job so I loved this article from Fast Company that confirmed what I already know to be true: in order to find your dream job, you have to know and be able to articulate exactly what you’re looking for (if you want me to help you find work you love, ask me about my what do you REALLY want to do session)

4. This video has been going around on Facebook this week but I just love it…kids are so sweet

5. Do you feel stressed? Try tapping. Short intro with demo. Longer video that explains tapping and has demo. 

What you may have missed on Love Always, Jo this week:

 

fired up on fitting in

Posted on by jplatt27

On Facebook this weekend, I posted that I was feeling very feisty and writing a blog post.  I don’t usually write when I’m mad. It’s really not advisable. But this gets me so fired up, I just had to write about it.

What was the cause of my feistiness? This little clip from the June issue of SELF magazine.

Self Clip.jpg

“Not feeling it tonight? Curl up in your pj’s and connect your Foursquare to CouchCachet.com. It will find stuff in your ‘hood, like a concert, and create a faux check-in. That Say Yes to the Dress binge is your li’l secret.”

Uh, what?!

Seriously? Seriously?! Create a fake check-in? That’s just sad.

But my reaction didn’t stop there. I spent a lot of time thinking about this, my reaction swinging back and forth between anger and sadness.

So why did this little blurb get me so fired up?

Honestly because it’s inauthentic. I’m a life coach so that I can help women step fully into the amazing women they are. To really be themselves.

And this is promoting the exact opposite of that.

First I thought, this is ridiculous, you’ve got to be kidding me. Is the pressure to fit in, to be cool, really that great that we have to fake our plans to keep up? Frustration, anger. At society, at the negative aspect of our social media culture.

And then I thought about the women that would use this app and what they must be thinking, the pressure they must feel to go to these lengths to protect themselves like this. And that made me really sad.

This is a societal thing but an individual thing too. It’s something that’s only going to change one person at a time.

So how about this?

Not feeling it tonight? That’s ok. Be you and own the fact that you just want to have a night to yourself. It’s cool. In fact, posting something on Facebook about what you’re really doing–watching Pitch Perfect or a Say Yes to the Dress marathon–may inspire other people to do the same.

In addition, if you feel like there is so much pressure on you to go-go-go-go-go and be someone other than 100% you. Let’s talk.

Because I know that the real you is worthy. Is amazing just the way you are. Is capable of being who you really are and doing what you really want and still being loved and valued.

So please, if this is you, reach out to me.

P.S. Like Love Always, Jo on Facebook! Already like? Share the page with a friend or two!

have you met janice?

Posted on by jplatt27

Janice

This is Janice. She looks pretty cute, right? Yeah, don’t let that fool you. She can be vicious.

Janice represents the little voice in my head that tries to keep me small. She says that I’m not good enough, I’m not doing enough. She says that perfect is the only way. That I can do more, be more.

She can be so loud and so convincing. And she means well. She wants to protect me and make sure I live up to my potential. But if I listened to everything Janice said, I wouldn’t step into my greatness, into my power.

We all have a Janice.

IPEC (my coaching school) calls this your Gremlin.

Martha Beck calls this your inner lizard.

Others call this your inner critic.

Regardless of what you call it, it’s that voice in your head that just. won’t. shut. up. The one that says you’re not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough.  That you’ll never be able to land your dream job, that you’ll be single forever, that you’ll never have enough money.

It’s like a little devil on your shoulder.

Giving your gremlin a name is the first step in overcoming the blocks that your gremlin creates.

Want to take the first step in overcoming your gremlin? Give him/her/it a name and persona. That way, when you hear the voice, you can recognize it for what it is.

Want to go deeper? The Calm Your Inner Critic Process might be perfect for you.