Tag: Health

Posted in Coaching, Goal Setting, Health, Mental Health, Reflections, Sam's adventures

Passion: Finding and Pursuing it

Posted on by Snowrose

I’ve been listening to the audiobook “Prudence” by Fr. Gregory Pine OP recently. This, combined with life circumstances for myself and friends, has led me to think. I’ve been reflecting on the importance of pursuing your passion. While I believe there is an inherent need to work for the sake of supporting yourself or your family, I think it is wrong to settle. I don’t mean to be critical here, but I want to encourage true flourishing. In my opinion, it is a disservice to yourself and others to stagnate when you could be living a more genuine and fruitful life.

Why find your passion?

This is an important question to address. There is a trend these days to wanting to “live your best life”, but social media does not give a foothold on what this really means. In my opinion, living your best life is one where you live a life full of meaning (and the psychological sciences tend to back me on this). If you are living life, looking to the future for some place of happiness and contentment, you are missing the point. Life exists here and now in the present moment. When you are living out your passion, meaning is vibrant and service is life-giving. You may have hard days, but they don’t wear you down, leaving you empty.

What is your passion?

Some people have a clear idea of their passion, but not everyone does. Your vocational needs and state in life impact how you can live out your passion, but neither prevents you from finding it nor pursuing it when the time is right. There are many ways you can choose to live life and serve through work. Sometimes you will need to work for the sake of work, and finding your passion will come from reflecting on those experiences. In short, I believe your passion is the intersection of your interests and talents. In practice, this is actually a pretty broad space that will need discernment and reflection to narrow down.

A Venn Diagram of the intersection of Interest and Tallent showing Passion.

There are resources you can use to help you identify where you will flourish most, like the amazing work of Patrick Lencioni: 6 Types of Working Genius. I think this is an excellent tool to help you discover your passion and how to live it out most fruitfully. In general, though, if you take time to explore and really think about your interests and talents, you should find an area of overlap. The options of work that crop up from that overlap are where you are most likely to find something truly life-giving and meaningful.

A personal example:

After years of tumult accompanying my husband’s journey through mental illness and a career change, I found my passion, and he has found his. I personally realized that I am most interested in psychology, helping others, theology, and the arts. These have intersected with my talent for teaching, synthesizing information, art, and supporting others in this beautiful, budding business. I absolutely love this work and find it refilling.

My husband, after working in crime prevention, hoped to one day be a police officer, and looked at what he had enjoyed most in his jobs when he realized that was not a realistic option. He chose driving and went into the trucking industry. I can say long-distance trucking is NOT a family-oriented career, but he has finally found a position that he LOVES that suits our family’s needs. From wanting to clean up the streets of crime, he has discovered that his interests and talents overlap beautifully, keeping the streets clean… of garbage. He comes home satisfied even after a hard and messy day.

Want help finding yours?

If you aren’t sure where to start, come and see! As a coach, I can help you live out your best life and move towards flourishing and wellness.

Find out more!
Posted in Coaching, Goal Setting, Health, Mental Health, Sam's adventures, Stress Management

Exciting update: Grow Your Happiness

Posted on by Snowrose

Publishing soon!

Over the past two years, I have been steadily working on a book titled “Grow Your Happiness.” In this book, I offer a method of increasing your baseline happiness through intentional gratitude. The front matter explores the scientific literature on dispositional happiness (the day-to-day baseline happy feeling you return to after ups and downs) and how gratitude can increase that.

The book is almost ready for publication and will be published in September!

In “Grow Your Happiness”, I have made the scientific information accessible and easy to read, despite citing over 20 studies and primary sources. You will learn the real impacts of this virtue on the happiness you experience. Next, after exploring how gratitude can make you a happier person, you will find 365 prompts. These prompts were intentionally chosen to increase the breadth and depth of this important virtue steadily over time.

A sneak peek inside:

I’ve given the book a sunflower theme, with earth tone colours. There will be a Kindle edition in plain text for anyone who wants to use their preferred journal. I chose the sunflower theme to symbolize the journey of growing happiness. Sunflowers are beautiful plants whose blossoms always look towards the sun. After all, they need direct sunlight and grow into huge flowers that brighten up any space they are planted in. Accordingly, I hope that everyone who uses this journal can also look at the proverbial sun of gratitude and blossom into happier people!

Here is an example of the journal theme:

I hope that this book will reach many people. I believe it will make a dramatic impact if used intentionally. Gratitude is such an important virtue! Although this book focuses on increasing dispositional happiness, the research shows much more. There is research coming out showing that gratitude can positively impact your relationships, health, and more!

Posted in IFS, Mental Health, Reflections, Sam's adventures, Stress Management

Building Community

Posted on by Snowrose

I have often wondered what it would be like to live somewhere where building community is part of the culture. Over the last five years, I have been trying to build community intentionally, and I have found it to be needlessly hard. Canadian culture, especially in the big cities, is not anything like the international community imagines. We have an overdeveloped sense of autonomy and an individualistic mindset. From the conversations I have had with those who immigrate to Canada, the culture shock is isolating. As someone born and raised here, I love my country, but I hate the autonomy of our culture.

My experience has been common: building community is hard. It is easier to live interdependently in rural areas, but in the city? Oh boy, individualism is the ideal. This has been detrimental to our population for so many reasons. While everyone has a fundamental integrity need for agency, individualism takes this principle too far. People wonder why rates of mental illness are continuously on the rise in Canada. The simplest answer? Broken homes and no community. I realize those topics are heavy and loaded, but as an adult child of divorce, I can attest to the impact of both. Canada is a land with so much potential, despite its cosmopolitan history. It’s not too late to turn things around for the next generations.

The solution? Intentional Community Building.

If we want to turn the tide on mental illness and suicide, we need to work intentionally to make and foster a culture of community. To be honest, we need to embrace the Canadian stereotype and welcome the level of hospitality and kindness that the international stage believes we have. To be honest, I don’t know the steps needed to make that change, but I know it is the direction that we need to go.

It has taken me 5 years to start seeing the fruit of building up a community at my local parish, with consistent support from my friends who live in other parts of the city. It took even longer to overcome the internalized autonomy. I believe every effort is worth it. As I have learned more about psychology, I’ve come to understand the importance of community. We are a species that thrives on healthy interdependence. Isolation kills, community gives life. Let’s work together on building a community.

Posted in Health, Sam's adventures

Sleeping Soundly: a Cautionary Tale

Posted on by Snowrose

Sleeping soundly is a phrase that mothers tend to forget over the years. From the moment your baby is born, sleeping seems to become a thing of the past. Some children sleep well, and their mothers are blessed with sleep. I did not experience that. My sweet boy was born and did not sleep through the night until he was 3, by which point I was not sleeping through the night for another year. Then, over the last two years, I found that sleep no longer brought rest, even when I did sleep through the night. Turns out… I have sleep apnea!

I should have investigated this sooner, but to be honest, I didn’t know my poor sleep was not a normal part of motherhood. Sleeping had become difficult and unrestful, and I chalked it up to being a lighter sleeper… that is, until I started waking in the middle of the night feeling as if I were choking. It took getting quite bad before investigating! Nearly 9 months ago, I went for a sleep test. They found that my windpipe collapsed during REM and my oxygen went to 76%. I was likely experiencing this for the majority of my motherhood, but did not take my sleep needs seriously.

Although CPAP therapy took some time to get used to, it has made an INCREDIBLE difference. When I got my CPAP back in March, I found that I could not use the full mask without many leaks throughout the night. I’ve been using the Brevida Nasal Pillow mask instead. It took around two weeks to adjust to the air pressure in the CPAP at night. Instead of waking up choking, I would wake up with intense air pressure to keep my windpipe open. Within a month, I was relaxing so much that I needed to wear a chin strap to keep my mouth closed. This setup has continued to work for me and has become a very consistent sleep cue. It may look silly and weird, but it has made a WORLD of difference in my energy.

To any moms out there struggling with daytime exhaustion, restless sleep and sleepiness: don’t wait, investigate. If you are silently suffering from sleep apnea, you aren’t sleeping soundly. You matter and ought to prioritize your needs. It takes over a year to see the metabolic changes from treating sleep apnea. Over time, you will feel better and you will find sleeping finally breathes the life back into you!

Posted in Catholic, Coaching, Health, Mental Health, Prayer, Reflections, Sam's adventures, Stress Management, Trauma

Why Everything at Once?

Posted on by Snowrose

I was having a conversation with a friend recently, who has been going through many many trials, all converging at once. She was feeling distressed, with good reason, but also found deep confusion over why God was allowing this timing.

In these circumstances it may seem like God is leaving you standing with no direction, or that you are being left to solve everything on your own. In my experience, counterintuitively, these circumstances are actually always an invitation.

An invitation? To chaos and pain? Well, no, an invitation to go deeper. Deeper into your relationship with Him, your relationship with yourself, and your relationship with others.

Diving Deep

Going through life, there are always situations that are difficult and distressing, but they don’t necessarily mean you will experience an overwhelming level of emotions. When life events stir up a huge cascade of emotions inside, there are generally 2 main causes.

  1. You do not have a FELT sense of having enough support from your internal resources or social support network.
  2. The big emotions were already there inside, and you are in a situation that is poking at the places you did not receive love, support, and safety throughout your life.

An invitation

This is where the invitation comes in. In the first example, if you are in a difficult situation without feeling supported- it’s time to reach out and get help. That is no easy task, because it may not feel safe to do so, but you would be surprised how many people have lived through similar situations and who may have an attentive ear. You are not alone in the journey, others are traveling through the storms like you.

If your heart is being flooded by the intensity of your past experiences, that’s where you are being invited deeper into a relationship with God and yourself. Those places that you have lived through hardships that were held onto are usually there because the original experience was like scenario 1. You didn’t have the external connections necessary for post-traumatic growth. These are the places that we protect ourselves from the most inside, the places of trauma–big “T” and little “t” alike. Truly, these are the places that God wants to come into for healing and communion. These are the places we shut everyone out from, ourselves, others, and God alike.

But why?

Can’t he just take it all away? Make it better? Of course, but only with an invitation in, entering into the worst of it freely. God allows the circumstances of our lives to be invitations to self-reflection and awareness of the pains that we hold inside our hearts so that we can invite Him in on our own time to finally meet those unmet needs. We are made with such dignity that God will not tread freely through our hearts but will wait patiently until we are ready to say yes.

If life is getting too much, will you open the door?

Posted in Catholic, Health, Sam's adventures

Sometimes healing is unexpected…

Posted on by Snowrose

As we come to the end of January, I can’t help but reflect on the upcoming anniversary that I don’t think I could ever have anticipated until it happened. 4 years ago, this February 21, God healed me in a powerful and miraculous way. It was unexpected, unanticipated and wholly life changing.

You see, I have celiac disease that went undiagnosed until I was 20, which had by then wreaked havoc on my system. Within a year of diagnosis I was diagnosed with co-morbid conditions and complications that at the time were deemed permanent. The decade of life proclaimed as the greatest time for self discovery and exploration was instead forecast to be marked with severe illness, that was incurable. I was found to have fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis in every single joint in my body. I have a lesion in my cerebellum that my neurologist says is caused by celiac disease and I was having migraines 25+ days of the month, among other issues. It was a pretty terrible time, though God’s grace was abundant as he led me to conversion to the Catholic church.

For years I did everything I could to read the latest research, which my doctor was fully supportive of as she herself promoted patient self-advocacy. I learned to balance pushing forward in exercise with avoiding excessive flare ups that would last for months. Back then gluten free options tasted, as a friend once brilliantly said, “like rice and sadness”, but I was making the most of the situation. I offered my pain in union with Christ’s cross, and truthfully never thought to ask for my own healing. I was too focused on learning natural remedies that actually helped when the medications caused strange and often disorienting side effects.

When you least expect it…

Then, it happened when I least expected it. I went to the Tuesday night adoration evening at our local parish, and sitting in front of the monstrance I was captivated. It is not possible to put it into words that would accurately describe the experience, but it was as though the monstrance was simultaneously standing on the altar but super imposed with the infant Jesus in the manger and the adult Jesus on the cross. I was transfixed on this scene when I heard in my soul the very clear message that God was answering my husband’s prayers and was healing the permanent conditions right then and there. I understood that anything left over would be curable over time, with some effort.

You see, even though I hadn’t been praying for my own healing, my husband had been praying a raw and honest prayer for 7 years. He had been agnostic when we met, though he couldn’t deny the impact my relationship with God had, so he prayed “God, if you are real, heal her”. I had gone into the church with labored breath, ungraceful movements constricted by arthritic joints, and left painless walking with ease. My close friend saw the difference immediately when we got up to leave at the end of the holy hour, and asked what happened. I shared it, delighted.

The healing journey continues…

I still struggle with celiac disease, though the reactions are no where near as bad or long lasting, and a few conditions that are treatable (like the most recent discovery of sleep apnea and nocturnal hypoxemia), but since that day I have been changed and capable of so much more than I imagined. Sometimes God heals us when we least expect it. Never lose hope, never give up faith, God knows what we need and when we need it. Sometimes it takes time. In my case, 7 years of my husband petitioning God on my behalf, without my knowing… but God will act, right when the time is ripe.

Posted in Coaching, Goal Setting

What is life coaching?

Posted on by Snowrose

Unlike sports, where a coach directs the team to encourage growth and hopefully skill within the rules of a game, life comes without such clear cut direction. A life coach is someone who is given the opportunity to ask questions that facilitate growth while maintaining accountability in the direction that is right for you!

Do you feel satisfied in your life? Are you driven to accomplish your goals? Do you have motivation to fulfill your inner calling? If you answered no to any of these, a life coach can be of great assistance! Working together, we can sweep away the confusion of the demands of modern life and open a path to fulfilling your goals and achieving your dreams.

In a one-on-one context, a life coach can work with you to uncover what is stirring in your heart as a priority for this season of life, and give that fine tuned attention. In a group, you benefit from witnessing breakthroughs in each other and additional accountability towards the goals you have set for yourself. No matter your age and stage, a life coach can help you flourish and grow!

Have any questions? Want to work with me? Contact me! I’d love to hear from you. 😀

Let’s art the journey together!

Posted in Health, Herbalism, Sam's adventures

The most helpful education!

Posted on by Snowrose

Yesterday, I received my diploma from Dominion Herbal College in the mail! I am officially a chartered herbalist. To be honest, this, of all my educational experiences had been the most satisfying, affirming, and USEFUL. I first learned about Dominion Herbal College when I was in high school, long long ago.

While it was truthfully what I wanted to learn most, as I scribbled and researched plans for a future forest garden orchard, I felt out of place applying to a college distance learning program. You see, I was in the International Baccalaureate program, and I was convinced that I ought to pursue university rather than college (in Canada there is a difference). I left off this pursuit for Linguistics and later Religious Studies… Only to come full circle in mental health and the practical application of herbs for the treatment of somatic symptoms.

This last year has been particularly tricky to juggle school with homeschooling our son, while my husband’s career change has been rocky! It offered plenty of opportunity for growth and grit. I had times where I wondered if I would be able to finish the program in time, not for lack of effort or desire, but the roller coaster of life throwing curve balls my way. In the end, I finished and feel confident that this is a very important facet of my life calling.

This isn’t why I feel this diploma is the most useful part of my education though. The most useful part? For the first time in 12 years, I have a way to treat celiac reactions! For those who aren’t familiar, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that is triggered by the ingestion of gluten. I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2012, and I’m one of those lucky ones that react to less than 10ppm and get neurological/systemic reactions. Ever lost control over the use of your mouth, hands, limbs? Well, it isn’t so fun. Up until now, literally nothing has helped. My only option has been to be very careful for cross contamination and ride the waves of excruciating pain/debilitating neurological symptoms until they finished.

No more!! I have officially, through my studies as an herbalist, found a remedy that WORKS. It is a beautiful infusion made of slippery elm, cloves, cayenne, ginger, chamomile, cinnamon and a little bit of sugar to taste. A few weeks ago I had an accidental gluten exposure, and after taking it 3 times within the following 24h I was completely symptom free. This is the most valuable thing I have learned in my whole education.

Posted in ADHD, Goal Setting, Mental Health, Sam's adventures

What am I all about?

Posted on by Snowrose

If there is one thing that I am passionate about, it is helping an individual heal, grow and flourish. I can’t say that I have been on this road for very long, but the more I travel it, the more I realize, “yep, this is for me”. Over the last 4 years, I have had the privilege of accompanying my husband on his healing journey battling mental illness. Let’s be clear, I am no spring chicken, I’ve had my fair share having gone through major depression caused by chronic illness in my mid-twenties, and Post-Partum depression after my son was born… but there is something different walking with someone else. Was it easy? No. Was it fun? Eh, not really. Was it worth it to get to the other side and really experience them beginning to flourish and grow? You bet.

My husband and I both came into our marriage knowing we had no idea what the heck we were doing. We grew up in broken families, with divorced and remarried parents, stability wasn’t really our forte. I can’t say we did it right, but I can say we tried our best in the first years. After miscarrying twice, we had our son, our little rainbow baby. That’s when my husband’s mental health took a turn for the worse. You see, he had been working shift work for more than a decade by that point, had undiagnosed sleep apnea and the physical implications of that were really starting to hit the fan. Add in a little munchkin bundle of joy? Well, I learned that you start reliving your experiences of childhood… and either embrace them and grow or repress them and get pretty stuck in who you are. For my husband, mixing those with a toxic work environment, some added family struggles helping extended relatives, a little COVID Isolation, and well, it was enough to reach the breaking point.

It was this journey of accompanying him that set me on the path I am on now, determined to be there and accompany those who are ready to take the next active step in their lives. It took us 4 years, many hurdles and hardships, a lot of grit and even more grace, to get here, and I will never look back. Now that he has been symptom-free for almost a year, we are building a healthy home based on accountability, forgiveness, gratitude and trust; we are learning as we go and overcoming obstacles along the way. I am homeschooling our son, studying to reach my goals, and building my business.

I have to say that starting a business based on art, healing, growing and flourishing, is also not easy, but, it is oh so worth the efforts. I am loving coaching, and making art. It may be a small start, but it is the right direction and I look forward to meeting all the beautiful people who will come and join me on this path.