Scrawny: Reflections on Body Shaming – I was a very thin girl in my early adolescence. In fact, I was so skinny that people called me scrawny and pinched my skin, telling me to put some meat on my bones. At first, I didn’t realize these remarks about my weight (or lack thereof) was negative until a classmate asked me if I was anorexic. We were twelve years old. I had never before heard the word anorexic, but I got the sense from my classmate’s tone of voice and confrontational attitude that it was a negative thing. So I replied, “No.” How could I be something if I didn’t even know what it was? But my classmate wasn’t satisfied with my answer and insisted I was lying. The fact that she assumed I was lying made me angrier than her assumption that I was anorexic. After school, I asked my mom what the word anorexic meant.… …
You are Loved – Imagine reading the words, “You were created to be loved,” at a time when you feel like nobody loves you. Then imagine hearing a whisper in your ear, “Lovely child, I love you,” after spending years believing the lie that not even God loves you because of who you are. How would those words make you feel? Would they lift you from the drowning depths of despair? Would they illuminate a ray of hope in the darkest shadows of your soul? Would you cling to them like a lifeboat in a choppy sea? Would you be saved from drowning in the sea of your sorrow? *Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to a third party retailer. If you choose to purchase a product I recommend via my affiliate link, I will earn a small commission from the retailer at no additional cost to you. This will bless me financially so… …
Scrawny: Reflections on Body Shaming
I was a very thin girl in my early adolescence. In fact, I was so …
You are Loved
Imagine reading the words, “You were created to be loved,” at a time when you …
40+ Quotes to Cultivate a Healthy Body Mindset
I first became conscious of my body in elementary school around the time when other …
How to Stop Body Shaming Yourself and Cultivate a Healthy Body Mindset
Conversations about body acceptance and diversity have been cropping up in my social media feeds …
Eating Healthy is Self-Love
Did you know that by choosing to eat healthy—by only allowing your body to consume …
50+ Quotes to Live By When You are Feeling Stressed
I am in the process of healing from chronic stress and its adverse effects on …
Chronic Stress: What It Does to Your Health and How to Get It under Control
I am in the process of recovering from chronic stress. It has been two years …
How Chronic Stress Nearly Took My Life and How I Took It Back
Chronic stress nearly destroyed my life before I became aware of its presence and started …
40+ Quotes to Cultivate a Healthy Body Mindset – I first became conscious of my body in elementary school around the time when other girls in my class were starting puberty. It was around this time when the girls began comparing their changing bodies with each other. It was… …
How to Stop Body Shaming Yourself and Cultivate a Healthy Body Mindset – Conversations about body acceptance and diversity have been cropping up in my social media feeds over the past several years and I’m glad to see these conversations finally being had, especially between women. Women (and men) are speaking out about… …How to Stop Body Shaming Yourself and Cultivate a Healthy Body Mindset Read More »
Scrawny: Reflections on Body Shaming – I was a very thin girl in my early adolescence. In fact, I was so skinny that people called me scrawny and pinched my skin, telling me to put some meat on my bones. At first, I didn’t realize these… …
Eating Healthy is Self-Love – Did you know that by choosing to eat healthy—by only allowing your body to consume foods that are good for it and by forming consistent eating habits and patterns—you are performing an act of self-love? If you type “self-love” in… …
50+ Quotes to Live By When You are Feeling Stressed – I am in the process of healing from chronic stress and its adverse effects on my mental and physical health. It has been over two years since my healing journey formally began, and I’m getting better little-by-little, day-by-day, but I… …50+ Quotes to Live By When You are Feeling Stressed Read More »
Chronic Stress: What It Does to Your Health and How to Get It under Control – I am in the process of recovering from chronic stress. It has been two years and one month since my recovery journey formally began, and I’m getting better little-by-little, day-by-day, but I still have a long road of recovery ahead… …Chronic Stress: What It Does to Your Health and How to Get It under Control Read More »
How Chronic Stress Nearly Took My Life and How I Took It Back – Chronic stress nearly destroyed my life before I became aware of its presence and started taking steps to remove it from my life. It has been two years and one month since I started the recovery process, and I’m getting… …How Chronic Stress Nearly Took My Life and How I Took It Back Read More »
5 Tips to Eat Healthier When Life is Stressful – When you’re in the midst of a stressful situation, it can be hard to think about cooking a meal, let alone choosing a meal with nutritious ingredients. Often you’re in a hurry and grab the first thing you see in… …
Choosing to Live a Contemplative Lifestyle – Originally Written: June 7, 2017 Published: February 9, 2021 This week I’ve been reading the chapter on contemplative prayer in Matt Woodley’s book, The Folly of Prayer, and this chapter has really hit home for me. I have been feeling… …
A Christmas to Remember – A couple of weeks ago, I mailed out a few handmade Christmas cards to family and friends who I won’t be able to visit this Christmas. I wanted to send them a few words of encouragement and to let them… …
Cultivating a Thankful Heart during Hard Times – I’m especially thankful for my family. We have been through a lot together and we have had (and still have) more than our share of hardships, but those hardships have bonded us together like glue, and not just any ordinary… …
You are Loved – Imagine reading the words, “You were created to be loved,” at a time when you feel like nobody loves you. Then imagine hearing a whisper in your ear, “Lovely child, I love you,” after spending years believing the lie that… …
Taking Off My Rose-Coloured Glasses – Reflections on Systematic Racism and Oppression in Canada Have you heard the phrase “looking through rose-coloured glasses?” It is an idiom that has been used since the 1840’s to describe a way of looking at life with optimism and cheerfulness.… …
First Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask – A Self-Care Journey, Part 3 Last week I shared an article about what self-care is and what it is not (see blog post here) and the week before I shared a story of my own self-care journey (see blog post… …
Self-Care: That Thing You Do To Keep the Motor Running – Last week I shared a story about my own struggles with self-care and how I fell prey to the lie that productivity is the key to success (see blog post here). Today, I want to explain what self-care is and… …Self-Care: That Thing You Do To Keep the Motor Running Read More »
The Lies Productivity Whispers in Your Ear – I’m terrible at self-care and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I never really understood what self-care is. I’ve always had this impression of self-care as “girly-girl” activities, such as manicures, pedicures, facials, spas, hair dos, body sugaring, etc…… …
A Mother’s Day without Mom – Mother’s Day during a pandemic is new territory for many of us, although the absence of our mothers may be familiar territory for a few of us. Some of us have the opportunity to live in the same house with… …
Be Still: Finding Peace in Times of Trouble – A little more than three weeks ago, I had a panic attack as the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic pressed down on me. Prior to this, I hadn’t given the pandemic much thought. The lockdowns haven’t inconvenienced me all that… …
The Stress Monster – Do you remember the opening scene in Star Wars: A New Hope when Darth Vader grips a crewmember aboard Princess Leia’s ship in a chokehold as he asks questions about where the transmission with the Death Star plans are? Stress… …
25 Ways to Stay Social While Social Distancing – The Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) that is currently affecting the world has dramatically changed the way we interact with other people… When uncertain and difficult times charge the air like static electricity, we are susceptible to shocks of fear and doubt.… …
Stuck on a Crazy Train – Originally Published: March 22, 2020 Revised: January 22, 2021 There’s a song by Ozzy Osbourne with a line in the chorus that goes, “I’m going off the rails on a crazy train.” For about a year and a half, I… …
Not an All Weather Road – I have always had an explorative spirit, although it has simmered down a little over the years because my husband, “Teddy,” doesn’t care to explore. He grew up in the city all his life and never had the privilege of… …
A Well of Hope – a Philippines Travel Experience A year ago this week, I went on a vacation I will never forget. My husband and I joined several members of his family (immediate and extended) on a trip to the Philippines to visit the… …
A New Year to Be – Originally Published: December 29, 2019 Revised: December 30, 2020 It’s that time of year when we take some time to look back on what we accomplished in the past year and to plan what we will accomplish in the next… …
The Christmas List – *Disclaimer: “The Christmas List” is a work of fiction and does not represent any real people or charitable organizations. It was four weeks before Christmas and I still hadn’t finished writing my Christmas list. Mom wanted it on her desk… …
A Heart That Grew Three Sizes – The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year and sometimes I wonder if it’s worth all the stress, extra work and late nights. Don’t get me wrong: I love Christmas! It has been my favourite holiday since childhood… …
Sweeter Than Chocolate – When I was a child, Christmas was the most anticipated season of the year. It couldn’t have been a happier time—with the setting up of the Christmas tree and decorations; the hours spent in the wet snow building snowmen, forts,… …
Christmas Angel – When I was thirteen, I met an angel, named Wayne, two days before Christmas in 1998 following a car accident involving my aunt, my two sisters, and me during our last-minute Christmas shopping expedition to downtown Winnipeg. The traffic on… …
Control Freak – The fallacy of believing we are in control when, in fact, the steering wheel is just for show. I loved going to the carnival when I was a kid. There was something so entrancing about the carnival—it was a whole… …
Love is All You Do – In the summer of 1967 the Beatles released a song titled “All You Need Is Love,” which reached international success and became the anthem for the “flower power” hippie movement over that summer. The song had profound political implications during… …
Giving Thanks – Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend in Canada, which means it’s that time of year for me to contemplate what I’m thankful for. Usually I have no trouble making a list, but these last few years I have felt it… …
A Boomerang Called Kindness – The subject of kindness has been tugging at my heartstrings for a number of years, but it has tugged the hardest most recently when my husband and I walked by an elementary school in our neighborhood and found laminated pink… …
New Beginnings – J.P. Morgan once said, “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” As I write this blog entry, I have finally decided to not stay where I’ve been for the past… …