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How are you doing?

Do you believe that I really and truly want to know? I do want to know, yet others use it as a simple greeting.

When I hear that question being asked, or have it asked of me, I sometimes ponder if it's a genuine wonderment from the person asking. 

I'm sure it could be, but sometimes the person who asked it doesn't actually want to know the real answer. The answer could have elements in it that the receiver might not know how to handle, not want to hear or be too rushed to spend the proper time on with you. (This happened often when we were in the NICU with Skye. Too tough for some people to fathom - heartfelt, but uncomfortable.)

And then there are those dangerous answers too like: "Fine." "Alright." "Okay." If someone answers with these I often offer a space to say more because the one word answers can contain a lot behind them.

Those answers roll off the tongue and don't seem to have any substance, but you and I both know we have a ton of...

Honouring yourself and what your needs are is not always an easy task. You're a parent, a caregiver, a child, a partner, a worker, a grandchild and much more I'm sure. Those who need you the most are your children because they are the ones learning from you and teaching you every day.

The close runner-up to being the first to need you, is You.

I'm a culprit of forgetting this and sometimes life takes over and makes me stop.

That's what happened over the last few weeks, I got really sick and my body made me stop physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually for a while.

At first the break was all about not getting worse and actually sleeping a lot.
Then is was about getting better in case my Skye or Scott got sick - which I quickly learned, I can't force myself to get better, it's just about doing what you can while you feel like crap. :)

The next stage for me was realizing I had time to rest and to think. My spirit finally came back through to me consciously and asked me...

So many times we take our breath, our lungs and our body for granted and recently I've had a lot of conversations around anxiety and having too much going on.

Interestingly enough, when I ask what people are doing to care for themselves they often don't say breathing.

Now I know it's easy to say to take a breath and not always easy to remember it in the moments you need it, however, if you practice while you're in a good headspace then remembering the tools when you need them will come more naturally.

In this vlog, I remind you of some ways to use breath as a tool with Box breathing, Belly breathing and Back breathing.

You may have heard of all these, you may not have. Either way, remember yourself and how you can care for your body that takes so much good care of you all the time.

Love you tons!
Leanne Rose 

Do you often want to take time away just for yourself and either can't or don't?

Sometimes, and especially if you're a single parent, you just have no options to escape and take time for yourself. It's very difficult to find someone you trust with the kiddo and you have feelings of guilt because you often hear things like, "He'll grow up soon and you'll have all the time you want." or "I never had time away, that was never an option for me."

Whether you have these voices coming from someone else or from inside your head, being a parent is a lot of work and the gremlin voices giving messages of guilt, shame and thoughts of 'you must power through', are NOT helpful!

The voice is not something that I feel I can trust because if that voice is making me feel pressured or guilty or tied down, then what is it serving? Certainly doesn't feel like it's serving me!

A few weekends ago, I was gifted the realization that taking care of ourselves, as leaders of a family, business...

How often do we let ourselves make mistakes as adults? as parents? as people who are considered responsible in the society? When do we have the ability to say, "Well, hey, we were allowed to make mistakes and stuff at school. We're allowed to make mistakes when we're kids. Why aren't we allowed to make mistakes when we're adults?”

It's this thing that we're holding on ourselves and we hold each other up to that and it's a very strange rule that this society has seemed to hold on to for people who are older. The last time I sent an email out I forgot to add the ’t' at the end of the word ‘thought.’ Some of you may have noticed that. I noticed it after the fact and I hesitated sending something out saying, “Oops, forgot the ’t' but then I was like, “well everyone knows that I'm talking about. The phrase is Food For Thought. Why did I worry about that?

Do we worry when we are parents who have all these details to think about? Yes, of course!