I spent last night talking with my dear friend Morgan over dinner, sharing the ups and downs we have been through in the last several months since we last saw one another. Almost all of our get-togethers have the same excited, loving, and supportive energy driving our conversations. Afterall, in the last 15 years, we have been through break-ups and makeups, divorce, marriage, health issues, job loss, and sincere heartache. The kindness, openness, and support that I experience in the simple act of grabbing dinner with a friend is an inspiration to me personally and professionally. It is in the vain of these conversations that I am driven to start writing and sharing again.

The last few years have been difficult. I experienced profound loss, struggled with infertility, watched my husband suffer from lyme disease, and witnessed my family coping with grief in a variety of ways. These of course are on top of the typical stressors that we all feel in our increasingly hostile and negative environment that is the American political and cultural landscape. These hardships though have pushed me to my limit, and forced me to make some changes in my life that I feel paying off ten-fold. While it’s all still a work in progress, I am committed to making healthier, kinder, and more mindful choices in my life.

It’s not possible for me to note this daily, but for now, here are some items that I found helpful in kick-starting the change that I needed to make in my own life:

1. Follow yung Pueblo on instagram – @yung_pueblo – his reminders about mindfulness, balance, and finding inner peace and acceptance were surprisingly helpful to me at random times in the last several months.  
2. Read Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. Someone recommended it to me last fall, and I was really opposed to reading it as it initially struck me as too “out-there”, too “self-help-ish”, and way too connected to Buddhism. I am not someone that meditates (although I keep trying to be), I’m not religious, and I’m generally a pretty put-together individual. I finally came around to reading this book, and I can’t speak enough about how subtly it helped to shift my perspective and mindset. If you are on the fence about reading it, I can’t’ recommend it enough. 
3. I also returned to my yoga practice. I started watching YouTube and following Yoga with Adriene. Then, I expanded my practice and now attend Alma Yoga as well. If you are in the Hudson Valley, it’s worth checking out this studio. The kindness of the instructors and the sense of humor that they possess makes yoga so much more fun and supportive than I ever remember it being in the past at other studio’s I have tried.

These are just three quick items that helped me today, but if you need a boost, or a shift in your own mindset, give them a try! I’m looking forward to sharing more experiences and tips as I am working to meet my own goals, overcome infertility, and generally live a healthier life.

What tips do you share with your friends when they need to make a change? How do you shift your mindset to be more positive?