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A Life In Progress

Remember Your Way to Freedom

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Show up Brave + With Joy in Every Season

You don’t have to hunt for joy, manufacture it, or figure out how to lead a stress-free “perfect” life. You can ALLOW joy to live alongside whatever else you’re experiencing. You can WELCOME it into the messiness of your life in every season. You can learn to expand your capacity for joy.

Learning to expand our capacity for joy – to hold space for joy and allow it to live in our lives alongside whatever else we’re experiencing – isn’t only about joy specifically, though. The benefits are further reaching.

It’s really about expanding our ability to experience and not run from all emotional experiences. It’s about living resilient, present, empowered, showing up fully to life in every season (within our capacity), navigating grief or trauma or other stressful life transitions with better outcomes, and ultimately reconnecting with and befriending ourselves.

Expanding our capacity for joy or for other emotions is also not ONLY about emotional experience. Our emotions don’t live in isolation. We have embodied experiences: we experience life through the wisdom of our mind, emotions, and body. And what’s more, we have a nervous system wired to keep us safe and alive that is always at work gathering information beneath conscious awareness, deciding if we’re safe or unsafe, and impacting the ways we engage in life and relationships.

In order to live self-aware and on purpose, and walk in greater freedom, we need to reconnect with our true selves and bring awareness to what’s going on in these bodies of ours. We need to befriend ourselves and this includes befriending our nervous system so that we can show up brave, whole + with joy in every season (even the hardest of them).

Liminal Space and Emerging into Spring After a Hard Winter Season

17 May 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: In the liminal space of emerging from winter into spring, it’s important to resist urgency, to give ourselves ample space and nourishment and compassionate tending as we slowly unfurl. This is the third time I’ve been sick in the past five months. I didn’t get sick once all the years I was advocating for …

Read moreLiminal Space and Emerging into Spring After a Hard Winter Season

From Life Vision to Values-Aligned Goals: Let It Be Easy

15 May 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: Honour your wiring in a noisy and busy world by crafting strategic, honest, and values-aligned goals that help you walk out your Life Vision. This post includes a Life-Vision Flow-Chart to help you get started. Slow and steady is my favourite speed. A slow-moving body does not mean I’m not a goal-oriented person. Part …

Read moreFrom Life Vision to Values-Aligned Goals: Let It Be Easy

A Journey to Freedom or How to Become Real

3 May 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: Journey to Freedom – there’s an inextricable connection between truth-telling and unshackled living. We cannot know freedom without being real. And freedom is, largely (NOT solely), an inside job. This post includes a referral link. My intuition or inner voice is telling me to allow this season of my life to be less about to-do’s …

Read moreA Journey to Freedom or How to Become Real

How to Practice Fierce Self-Compassion to Get Unstuck

3 May 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: If you’ve ever felt stuck in fear or pain, if you’ve spent time hiding or procrastinating on what matters most to you, if you’ve felt despondent about the state of your life or the world, perhaps what could have helped is a dose of fierce self-compassion. Fierce self-compassion is about taking action to relieve …

Read moreHow to Practice Fierce Self-Compassion to Get Unstuck

Reclaim Your Agency: 7 Empowering Ways to Navigate Stress

18 April 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: Learning empowering ways of navigating stress puts us back into the driver’s seat when our life feels unmoored or shaken. We can continue building our resilience toolbox so we can show up brave, whole, and on purpose in every season (even the hardest of them). This post contains referral links. Learning empowering ways of …

Read moreReclaim Your Agency: 7 Empowering Ways to Navigate Stress

What Happens in Your Body When You’re Stressed Out

18 April 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: When you’re stressed out remember your stress reactions are biologically the same whether it’s to literally save your life or if your stress is due to a triggering, annoying, or frustrating situation. That’s not your fault. That’s biology. This post contains a referral link. We can’t avoid all stress (not to mention that not …

Read moreWhat Happens in Your Body When You’re Stressed Out

What You Need to Know About Stress to Feel More Empowered

17 April 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: What you need to know about stress: This is part one in a three-part series to help you feel more empowered as you navigate stressful life experiences. Would you agree that right now life feels more hectic and stressful than ever? That there are fewer times when you feel amazing in-the-moment clarity and confidence …

Read moreWhat You Need to Know About Stress to Feel More Empowered

Go Nose to Nose With Fear For an Unbusy Life

16 April 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: If you genuinely want to step off the hamster wheel and enjoy an unbusy life, then you will need to go nose to nose with fear. This post includes referral links. I have never felt that I fit well in this noisy, competitive, frenetic world; fear told me that I didn’t have what it …

Read moreGo Nose to Nose With Fear For an Unbusy Life

References for the Three Stress and Nervous System Regulation Posts

14 April 2022 by [email protected]

References for these three posts 1 – Canadian Mental Health Association. (2016, February 28). Stress. https://cmha.ca/brochure/stress/ 2 – National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). 5 things you should know about stress. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress 3 – US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2021, June 10). Manage stress. My healthfinder. …

Read moreReferences for the Three Stress and Nervous System Regulation Posts

Reclaim Your Voice: How To Set Healthy Boundaries

11 February 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: There is freedom in a relationship with healthy boundaries. Boundaries are not a punishment but a kindness to you and those you love. The word boundaries sometimes has a negative connotation. There seems to be an idea that only stern or cold people are good at setting boundaries. Or that boundaries only need to …

Read moreReclaim Your Voice: How To Set Healthy Boundaries

What if All I Want is A Mediocre Life?

17 January 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: What if all I really want is a small, slow, simple life. A mediocre life. A beautiful, quiet, gentle life. I think it is enough. What if all I want is a small, slow, simple life? What if I am most happy in the space of in-between. Where calm lives. What if I am …

Read moreWhat if All I Want is A Mediocre Life?

Sustainable Growth Takes Time: Don’t Rush Who You’re Becoming

1 January 2022 by [email protected]

Inside: Media offers us quick fixes, spiritual gurus sell us bypassing, our own fear nature beckons us to hide under the covers or jump on the next shiny bandwagon; all feel preferable to slow, soul-stretching, deep work. But sustainable growth takes time. Don’t rush who you’re becoming. In the summer each year I listen inward …

Read moreSustainable Growth Takes Time: Don’t Rush Who You’re Becoming

Joy is the Most Vulnerable Emotion! How to Expand Your Capacity for JOY

28 November 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: You don’t have to hunt for joy, manufacture it, or figure out how to lead a stress-free “perfect” life. You can ALLOW joy to live alongside whatever else you’re experiencing. You can WELCOME it into the messiness of your life in every season. You can learn to expand your capacity for joy. You don’t have …

Read moreJoy is the Most Vulnerable Emotion! How to Expand Your Capacity for JOY

This is Real Life: Beauty in the Flesh

15 November 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: This is real life – joy and pain, beauty and suffering, uncertainty and delight, messily woven together to form a beautiful whole. TW: grief, child loss, suicide loss I’ve spent this weekend in Calgary, AB, with my friend Kathy Escobar who flew in from Colorado so that we could hug and talk for hours, …

Read moreThis is Real Life: Beauty in the Flesh

Overwhelmed by Life? Gift Yourself an Abundance of Rest

24 October 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: We have a right to rest simply because it’s a human need and we matter, not only as a means to an end goal! If you feel overwhelmed by life, one of the kindest and wisest things you can do is to gift yourself an abundance of rest. This post includes amazon referral links. …

Read moreOverwhelmed by Life? Gift Yourself an Abundance of Rest

When Should I Quit? How to Live a Conscious Life

10 October 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: Should you quit? An exploration of the the difference between pivoting and quitting and 9 questions to help you examine if you should quit or stay the course. This post includes referral links. I quit things all the time. I pivot, shift course, tweak, stay responsive to my body and life, and build a …

Read moreWhen Should I Quit? How to Live a Conscious Life

30 Resource Recommendations for a Compassionate + Sustainable life

8 October 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: A collection of favourite resource recommendations to help you handcraft a compassionate and sustainable life. This post includes referral links. On this page, I offer a collection of 30 resource recommendations to help you handcraft a compassionate and sustainable life. I’ve set a boundary for myself of 7 resource recommendations per section which motivates …

Read more30 Resource Recommendations for a Compassionate + Sustainable life

A Hope Map for a Brave and Beautiful Life

19 August 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: Craft a hope map for a brave and beautiful life: There are countless ways to handcraft a brave and beautiful life but if the Brave + Beautiful Community has piqued your curiosity, you can reach out for a chat to ask questions, or learn more and register here. Years ago I gained great courage …

Read moreA Hope Map for a Brave and Beautiful Life

Handcraft a Life You’re Delighted to Show Up to, One Step at a Time

12 July 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: It’s never too late to build the life you want, one that you’re delighted to show up to each day. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be yours. Isn’t it odd that we judge ourselves for not having life all figured out while we’re yet on the journey? We don’t …

Read moreHandcraft a Life You’re Delighted to Show Up to, One Step at a Time
Krista and Georges

Turning 50: Closing Out a Decade of Strength and Struggle

26 June 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: I’m turning 50! The past decade of my life has been full of sorrow, emotional and physical pain, joy, adventure, growth, and day upon day of ordinary beauty. It all came tangled up together. I’ve decided to embrace it all. TW: suicide, grief, depression The past decade has been a wild ride. As much …

Read moreTurning 50: Closing Out a Decade of Strength and Struggle

Coming Home To Myself: This Is Who I Am

13 June 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: I sat down to write today and this poem came out. Recently my clients have been telling me that my work is helping them find their way home to themselves. A beautiful testimonial. The journey home is a hard and messy one but it’s also the path of freedom. This is who I am. …

Read moreComing Home To Myself: This Is Who I Am
Black and white flowers

How To Lean In and Learn From Self-Doubt

22 May 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: How to navigate self-doubt in your creative life and work with gentleness and kindness. This is a guest post by Nicole Gullota. The post contains referral links. In my second year of college, I signed up for a publishing workshop where a handful of hopeful writers were eager to learn the secrets to securing …

Read moreHow To Lean In and Learn From Self-Doubt

7 Accessible Ways To Build Resilience In the Storm

8 May 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: We must build resilience to equip us for the storms of life. Every one of us will experience stress, loss, or hard life circumstances in varying degrees. This post offers 7 ways to build resilience in the storm. This post contains referral links. Life is messy. You’re imperfect. Show up anyway. This has been …

Read more7 Accessible Ways To Build Resilience In the Storm
Black and white image of a table set for coffee.

Choosing a Slower Pace: A New Perspective on Time

25 April 2021 by [email protected]

Inside: Can we unlearn busy and learn to slow down instead? Guest author Julia Ubbenga spent a year in Spain and shares the lessons she learned from the Spanish culture about a slower pace of life. The way I viewed time shifted in 2007. It was the year I quit my desk job, threw some …

Read moreChoosing a Slower Pace: A New Perspective on Time
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Important Stuff ↡↡↡

I gratefully live, work, and play on Treaty 6 Territory, the traditional + ancestral territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux + Nakota Sioux + home to the Métis Nation.

I (Krista) am an educator and coach, not a therapist. My mind-body support is not offered to diagnose, treat, heal, cure, or prescribe for any medical condition and none of my work or writing is a replacement for therapy or medical advice.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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