Moving Forward

Growing up, I was a natural explorer and hiker. In fact, I always felt closest to God in nature, on a hike. Many of those who have known me a while, know that in my 20's and even early 30's, I enjoyed backpacking. With goals early on of hiking the AT, the Grand Canyon, the Alps, and trails all over Colorado, New Mexico, Canada and of course, Texas.  Always on the move, striving, and learning to test my limits, to persist, and overcome. As I grew older, I learned the weight of gravity after a long climb. I would often share with my sons that as the hardest part, the descent after the summit. In fact, my knees, joints, etc. would just be in so much pain climbing down from a mountain.  For the majority of my adult life, I have been very purpose and passion driven. Often, I would spend years working on a higher cause or purpose beyond myself and pouring so much into others or causes. I am so grateful for all of the opportunities afforded to me. I have never been one to not achieve...

Over the last decade, I have been working on healing myself spiritually and recently experienced a breakthrough. During my recovery journey, I have learned to deal with my unconscious pain from past traumas and family of origin and generational issues. For me, this has been a process that has taken a lot of time, with a focus on dealing with my needs first before helping others. I had to learn this as my family of origin tends to be very self-sacrificing and as a result cycles of abuse are a generational issue. This type of cycle is actually very common I have learned. I have learned to recognize toxic environments, abuse, advocate for my needs in a calm and professional way, and to detach when the other party chooses to continue toxic patterns.  Boundaries Attract Your Tribe:   When you use boundaries, you will attract the right people and teach people how to treat you. These are both internal and external boundaries.  Take Time to Improve the Relationship with Yourself:...

It is really hard for me to take a break. I have always been wired to achieve, and as a contributor, I am learning that REST is so vitally important to your health. After teaching during COVID-19, I have found myself exhausted.  I have decided to take a break this summer and spent much of the last few days outdoors, walking in nature, reading, feeding my spirit, unplugging, and journaling. I have jotted a few items or thoughts down over the weekend and decided it was time to revisit my personal growth blog. I have come a long way since I started on this journey in 2014 of healing. I believe I had a breakthrough over the last year in 2020. Finally, working on childhood patterns that were developed, I made a lot of headway. As I began noticing patterns in my life that kept reappearing, I began to really equip myself by first recognizing the emotional traumas from my youth and began a commitment to recovery. Part of that recovery is self-reflecting on these topics in th...

During 2016, I completed my PhD and checked off a huge career milestone. There are so many people I am grateful to, encouraging me to the finish line. I am sure I will blog more about this later this month. I can now get my life back. Wait a minute.... Life has drastically changed. What will I do now? I now have time to actually take care of myself. Practicing unconditional love toward myself is very hard. It is hard for me to not look toward others for strength. However, this year I am committed to learning how to practice extreme self care, focusing attention to spiritual growth, health, and home. I want to create a healthier balanced life, a new start, and leverage resources to live a creative, joyful, peaceful and abundant life. To kick this off, I have entered a 5K on Saturday, thanks to the encouragement of a good friend. Other friends are helping me by suggesting recipes, possible fitness centers, books, and I even had someone suggest that I subscribe to Dawn Jackson Blatne...

Reminders on how we can be kinder to ourselves. Responsibility Versus Blame: Responsibility is making a conscious choice on how you will respond to a situation or idea. How can you learn from this experience? What can you learn from this experience? Blame creates guilt, guilt creates punishment and punishment creates pain. Respond to yourself and life in a loving way. Relax and Meditate: Relaxation is essential to the healing process. We can't heal if we are tense. Mediation and deep breathing helps to be centered. Tell yourself that you love you and all is well. Notice how much easier your body is. Do this several times a day. What is it you need to know today? You can consider this question during meditation. Meditation creates the space in which we can quiet down and listen to your inner self. Become connected to yourself, through meditation. Affirmations : Praise yourself as much as you can daily. Tell yourself, I love you. What can you do today to make yourself happy? ...

Growing up my family taught me a large appreciation for the Great Outdoors. Hiking with my father and grandmother early in life formed a spirit of adventure and love for nature.  I feel like we have passed on to my two sons. Growing up in rural Texas, I spent a lot of time hiking around the Colorado River, exploring caves, playing hide and seek with friends in the hill country. In fact, graduation night I will never forget our Glen Rose M&W Ranch adventure. As a college student, I backpacked, canoed, and explored the Great American West.  As young adult hiked the Grand Canyon in 1999, parts of the AT in 1999, 5 trips in a tent across Europe from 1998-2009, Ontario in 2010 and 2012, and have camped in over 33 states. During the last 5 years, like so many became preoccupied with other things and haven't backpacked. I know I haven't backpacked  alone in over 20 years. This last weekend I was fortunate to connect with the North Texas Outdoors Meetup Group and took a le...