As the holiday season rolls around, it often brings a mix of emotions—joy, excitement, and, for many of us, a tinge of sorrow. This year has been challenging for many, me included. Perhaps you've lost someone dear, experienced a significant change, or simply feel the weight of the world’s uncertainties. The holidays, while magical in many ways, can also amplify feelings of loss and longing. Yet, amid the challenges, there is space for healing, hope, and creating a brighter future.

Honoring the Ones We Miss

Grief during the holidays can feel like a heavy blanket, and there are meaningful ways to honor those we miss while still embracing the season’s spirit:

1. Create a Tribute Tradition: Light a candle, hang an ornament, or prepare their favorite dish. These small acts can keep their memory alive in a way that feels warm and comforting.
2. Share Stories: Gather with loved ones to share favorite memories. Laughter and reminiscing can often bring a sense of closeness and healing.
3. Give...

Visualization is a powerful tool that I’ve used over the course of my career to reach some of my biggest goals.

In case you’re new to the Connect To The Core Blog, I often speak about mindfulness and how I use tools like meditation, yoga and journaling to bring me into the present moment. Visualization is another important piece to that puzzle that I have yet to dedicate a full post to – until now.

In this blog I’m covering what visualization is and why I believe it’s critical for success, some easy ways to implement visualization into your life, and why visualization is only the first (yet extremely important) step to conquering your goals.

What is visualization and why is it so important for success?

In the context of goal-setting, visualization is a practice that can be used to help visually motivate or stimulate someone to take action. It can also be used to relieve anxiety, rehearse a presentation, enhance confidence and gratitude, and so much more.

I believe that writing a g...

It’s no secret that confidence plays a big role in our lives and careers. I’ve learned that confidence is a life-long journey that we never really “arrive at”, and there are steps we can take to feel more confident day-to-day.

I’m a big believer that you don’t have to wait until the New Year to make changes or set new goals for yourself, you can do that anytime. 

With that said, I often find January to be a motivating time for me. I’m recharged after spending time with family and friends over the holidays and I’m ready to set and achieve my goals.

If that’s the same for you, you’re in the right place. In this blog, I’ll be sharing 10 ways to build confidence that will in turn motivate you to crush the goals you’ve set for yourself.

1. Take small steps out of your comfort zone

I saw this awesome image on Instagram the other day that used the analogy of walking up a set of stairs in comparison with reaching your goals over a long period of time. Each step you take up the stairs feel...

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. And it hasn’t always been that way. The ‘Sunday scaries’ used to get the best of me more times than I can count.

It wasn’t until I began taking Sundays as an intentional day to rest, reflect and learn that I started to thoroughly enjoy them.

I began viewing them as a day to plan and enjoy as opposed to a day to stress about all the things I hadn’t done the previous week. I hope this post inspires you to reclaim Sundays as your day rather than a day that you dread.

Without further ado, here’s a list of my non-negotiables every Sunday to prepare for a great start to the week.

1. Take some time for you

Up first on the list, do at least one activity that fills your cup (1). Take the first part of your Sunday to enjoy in whatever way makes you the happiest. This could be going on an adventure, a walk, doing yoga, watching your favorite show or movie, getting lost in a good book, grabbing coffee with a friend, you get the idea. 

Pick the activity ...

A few weeks ago, we published a blog called 4 Simple and Effective Ways to Stay on Track with Your New Years Goals. In that blog, we spoke a lot about how to accomplish goals once you have them, and also about how to course-correct if you feel like you’ve been de-railed.

This week, we will introduce a fresh way of looking at goals and provide more insight into the “before” part of goal setting. Specifically, how to make the distinction between goals and tasks. They might appear the same on the surface, yet they’re very different and our recommendation is that you approach them in different ways.

The key attribute that distinguishes a true goal from a task is the emotional connection we have with the result. With goals, we have a deeper emotional connection that inspires us toward achievement. 

As an example, and for the purpose of this blog, I’ll use a “goal” that just about everyone has had at one point or another – that elusive “lose 5 pounds” (or 10, or 20, or fill in the blank)....

So, we made it through the first month of 2021 (*insert happy dance). 

Maybe you set some goals for yourself at the end of 2020 that didn’t quite pan out the way you wanted them to in January. I mean, hey, we’re still in a pandemic. Sticking to our resolutions isn’t always easy, and it can be especially difficult when the future is so unknown (how did “dry January” treat you?).

Maybe you’re not big on New Year’s Resolutions in general. After all, we can change the course of our lives at any given moment. And it’s not always possible or practical to wait until a New Year to make some serious changes. 

Whatever your stance is, I’m a big believer that any opportunity to reset and reassess our situation can be helpful. And it’s all a matter of doing it in a way that works best for you.

In this post, we’re going to cover 4 simple yet effective ways to stay on track with your new year’s goals, or goals of any kind, rather than feel overwhelmed by them. 

1.  Align Your Goals With Your Va...