Even when you know how important self-care is to your wellbeing, it isn’t always easy to incorporate it into your daily routine. In fact, did you know many people fail when it comes to taking care of themselves?

Let’s look at why people generally fail when it comes to self-care and the main things holding them back.

Self-care is often perceived as selfish

One of the main reasons people fail to take care of themselves is because they feel it’s selfish. It could be that you feel guilty when you take time to focus on yourself. Or you may worry what other people think or that you are a terrible parent for not focusing solely on your children’s needs.

It is a total myth that self-care is selfish. In fact, it can help you to be a better parent, friend, spouse, and relative. The more you take care of yourself, the easier you’ll find it to take care of others. You’ll also show your children the importance of self-care. Teaching them to take care of their own needs is a crucial life skill...

Clearing your clutter is a great form of self-care because all of the things no longer serving you are draining your energy and affecting your health.

If you take tiny steps to let go of excess stuff, you can make space for things you do want in your life.  

If you’ve been procrastinating on a home decluttering project, chances are that the reason behind your hesitation is feeling overwhelmed or just not knowing where to start. Those things can trip anyone up on the road to organization. When you find yourself stuck in a pattern of avoidance, the best method to change that pattern is to start with small tasks. Even doing just one little thing is progress.

To help you along your way, consider one of these dozen tiny decluttering steps you can take today. 

Clear Just One Surface

Clear your kitchen table. If that’s too overwhelming, choose a segment of your countertop. Make it a surface you see daily, and be sure to keep it spotless. 

Empty a Shelf

Now that you have a surface c...

There are so many reasons why we don’t let go of our stuff. 

You know what I’m talking about…The things in our closets and drawers and our homes that don’t bring us joy, the things we don’t use, and the things that we’ve totally forgotten about. 

The THINGS that are clogging up and draining our energy. 

Here are just some of the lies we say to avoid clearing our clutter and letting go of it. 

1. I’ll sell it later and make some money
2. I paid so much for it, I can’t let it go
3. I might need it someday
4. I’ll start decluttering next weekend
5. That was a gift so I have to keep it (even though I don’t really like it). 
6. Clutter doesn’t affect me that much 

I’ll sell it later & make some money

We keep things aside to sell on sites like eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon Marketplace but then the stuff just sits around in our homes for weeks or months because of the time and effort required to list things for sale. And then we may even have to mail it to someone. It's all time-consuming and a ha...

I grew up in a home where if we discovered we had a guest coming to our house, it was a big deal. What was never really said out loud was that we couldn’t let them in the door until “the house was clean”.  We'd run around madly “cleaning” the house before a visit. 

Living in a cluttered home

Now I realize our house wasn’t actually dirty, it was just cluttered.

Our upstairs attic was filled with all the things that had been basically dumped there because no one seemed to know what to do with the stuff and we couldn't possibly throw any of it away. Because the unspoken rule was “we might need it someday.”

The thing I realize now is that no one talked about “it.” The clutter.  

Growing up with clutter

I grew up thinking everyone’s home was like this and that you just didn’t throw anything away. We had clutter everywhere and didn't think it was a problem. We just moved stuff around and hid it on the attic steps or in the attic. 

Even now, it’s an awkward thing to write about. It’s...

We need to be online so that we’re connected to work and social contacts. Yet being online seems to diminish our attention spans and take over our private lives. It’s a common catch-22 problem that needs to be addressed otherwise our brains become one with our computers. So here are 16 ways to declutter your digital life now without disconnecting. 

How To Approach Digital Decluttering

You can approach digital decluttering in a few different ways. You can begin slowly by taking a few of these tips below and starting to implement them into your daily life.  Or start with one tip then move on to another and another as you complete each one. Or you can take the “cold turkey” approach and unplug from everything, and then only add back digital elements that you truly enjoy back into your life, such as social media platforms or favorite apps.

No matter your approach, take some time to evaluate just how distracted you are with your digital clutter and analyze how you can regain some of yo...

The philosophy of minimalism is being embraced by people everywhere. It’s appealing to consider simplifying your life by getting rid of unnecessary physical possessions and concentrating instead on the experiences that bring fulfillment.

Except, for many, the actual process of lessening their load can be daunting, especially if you’ve accumulated years of stuff all in one place. For me, as someone who came from a long line of people who loved to keep things, it's a challenge even knowing where to begin.

Let’s make things more manageable and take a look at some specific ways that you can handle decluttering overwhelm. 

Know Your Why For Decluttering

In this world of chaos and unpredictability, it's easy to get lost in everything. Many people use the phrase, “Know your why,”  and it's used as a motivator to remind yourself of the reasons why you're doing anything. 

This same concept is essential for keeping you on-task when the decluttering process becomes difficult. Understanding...

Clutter. It drives us all mad and if you're like me, the harder you try to deal with it, the worse it gets.

All that extra “stuff” in our lives does harm to our brains and our wellbeing. It’s a hot topic and for good reason. As a society in the western world, and the US in particular we have more stuff than ever before.

Our houses are bigger, our closets are bigger, yet every closet, the spare bedroom, and the garage is full of stuff. There's now an entire industry that’s grown around helping us deal with our clutter from stores that sell organizing solutions, to organizing and decluttering consultants, and even storage units that allow us to keep even more stuff that we don’t have room for. 

Clutter Is A Distraction 

If nothing else, all this clutter and all this extra stuff can be very distracting.

When was the last time you spent more than a couple of minutes trying to find something among all the extra things you’re keeping around “just in case”?

Think about all of the ...

When I worked in Alaska for 4 months in the winter of 2012, I learned the true power of overriding fear. I've never forgotten what it took for me to be able to have a one-of-a-kind adventure and what I learned from the experience. 

It was simply meant to be a Christmas present for my husband. He's a pilot and would rather fly than anything.

It’s one of those passions your spouse has that you say, “I’m glad you love being a pilot but not me. I'll stand on the ground and watch while you go up."

But I'm not married to that kind of man. He wants me to go with him, to share, to enjoy the experience with him. He wants me up there with him. Oh brother.

Flying over a mountain 

So when I told him that his Christmas present would be flying on a ski plane to Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America, he loved this idea. And quietly I added, I’ll be staying back at the lodge and taking pictures.

“Well, I’m not going if you don’t go," he said. 

"But, but…I don’t know if I can do i...

It’s that time of year of the winter solstice. 

The solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It's the first day of winter here in the Northern hemisphere. 

This video was created and performed by my very dear friends Helene and Dave Van Manen. Dave wrote this song 30 years ago but it’s still relevant today. I hope you sit back, relax, and allow yourself to feel the beauty in nature as you watch this amazing video. You'll probably want to watch it more than once!  You can listen to more of their music here.

Lessons from nature during the Winter Solstice

This time of year often passes by unnoticed as we are usually in a frenzy during the holidays.

Nature, however, can teach us so much now, not only how to navigate the darkness and the cold, but life lessons that we need to learn. Mother Earth tells us to listen and watch all around us as the leaves fall away and the roots settle underneath the ground to nourish themselves.

Trees don't die, they go dorma...

I’ve been lucky to have experienced 70 Christmases in my lifetime. Yep, I said 70. That’s kinda crazy when you think about it. But every year about this time I feel torn about the holidays.  

There are two things that get me:

1. The commercialism around Christmas and the pressure all around to buy, buy, buy...way before December 25 rolls around.   AND
2. The people who are not as lucky as I am, who don’t have a loving family or have huge losses, depression, trauma, or addiction. The holidays can highlight what they don’t have and make their situation seem even more difficult to deal with. 

I think about what if there was a way that we could all be kind, grateful, present, and have a Christmas we’ll always remember. What if?

Christmas can be very stressful. And it can be wonderful. 

How do you want this one to be? 

Remember last year? Most of us were at home, unable to see or be with our families because of Covid. It was a sad time.

I remember seeing my grans at a distance to g...