Black Zen And The Weekly Wellness

It’s Labor Day and a perfect time to start relaxing if you’ve been an uptight person recently or if you’ve been in a great place and want to keep the good vibes and energy flowing. In this week’s wellness we start off with a quick read illustrating how subtle patterns and ways of thinking can negatively affect our mood, and how a one-word shift can give us the attitude adjustment needed to positively affect our circumstances and change our outlook on everything. Since the energy we give off has the power to attract obstacles or optimism, let’s make sure we give ourselves the power to decide which one…

As ambitious and driven people it makes sense that we are constantly working towards our goals with feverish passion and a clear eye on the prize, but what happens when all we end up doing is working, wanting more and grasping for the next thing? Do we totally miss our lives as they are happening because we’re busy grasping at straws and concerning ourselves with what it “could” look like or “should” be? In this week’s wellness, we encourage you to stop striving for success long enough to genuinely experience the journey and enjoy life. As soon as we loosen our grip on what we think our outcome has to look like or how we think our opportunities will show up, we open ourselves up to an incredible opportunity to receive all the other possibilities available. We also free ourselves to enjoy our ‘right now’ just as much as the ‘it’s going to be great when’…

Once we understand that thoughts become things and that some of our thoughts aren’t doing us any favors, the next step is to intentionally create new ways to see ourselves and change how we talk about our experience. In Victim to Victor, there’s a crazy story that you must read to believe (or listen to the podcast for the cliff’s notes version)! The story has an interesting conclusion about how the writer didn’t realize she was being a drama queen until someone else pointed it out. To be fair, is was a pretty crazy set of circumstances so it makes total sense that she needed some time to process all the details. However, it did get us thinking, if so much of how we experience meaning in our life has to do with how we tell our story – why not make it a good one…

This week’s wellness is all about openness, and since honesty is the best policy, I’ll go first. I hit a wall last week. I got some news that was as surprising as it was disappointing. I let one thing send me into an all-out internal panic, until I finally gave myself permission to land. It was time to change and growth finally pushed through all the angst. Even though the news I received was as surprising and shocking as it was disappointing, I was stuck in that place until a great friend of mine (none other than my sister) shared something with me that totally changed the game...

The definition of success can be a bit tricky. Truth is, it’s so relative since we all have different goals in life and our goals and objectives can change as we’re living it. Sometimes we can unintentionally measure our progress against a ruler that consists of social media likes, familial expectations, personal ambition and an imaginary timeline of when we are supposed to “arrive.” Because we also feel many of the same pressures of life, we won’t simplistically tell you not to think about those things. Instead, consider a quarter-turn on your perspective…