I'll admit - I've been holding out on this one.

There's one, big, huge message I want every single person to know. And not just know, but truly deeply BELIEVE to the core of your being.

I also feel like it's the climax moment in Grounded Wildness and I didn't want to give it way before you read the book. I've hinted around it several times, but I was afraid you might not buy the book if I told you this message directly.

Then I decided I wanted you to hear this even if you never read Grounded Wildness.

Three weeks ago I bought a house. I was SO excited when the offer was accepted. Everything in my body and intuition told me this was the right decision. Even with all this knowing and excitement, there were still MANY moments I completely freaked out. Here’s what I did to reconnect to the truth and calm my boy and mind.

It's that time of year again. When the new year's resolutioning kicks into high gear, you start seeing nonstop ads for gyms and weight-loss solutions, and you feel the pressure (and sometimes real desire!) to improve every aspect of your life.

There's nothing innately wrong with using the energy of the new year to make changes. I've spent many hours over the past few weeks both reflecting on 2022 and visioning for 2023 - and I'm excited to move towards that vision and do some things differently this coming year.

I also know it can be a lot. The motivation to change can turn into the weight to change which can morph into the inner critic punishing you for NOT doing the change perfectly pretty darn quickly.

I recently presented my keynote at a large conference for women in Engineering. I opened my keynote — Discover Your Authentic Voice - And How To Use It To Create Change — with a story about the feedback I received in my corporate career that I was too direct. Because of that feedback, I started to hold back the bold, fiery side of me. I questioned my voice and began to speak more cautiously. Not thoughtfully, cautiously.Which begs the question -- should I have ever listened to that feedback in the first place?!?

“How did you find the motivation to start saying no?” The answer to this one came to me immediately: I didn't want to keep dealing with the consequences of saying yes FAR too often. I didn't want to be tired the rest of my life. I didn't want to be resentful for taking on work that paid me less than I was worth. That was my initial motivation. I wanted to get rid of the consequences of over-yessing. Over time, though, the motivation started to include what I DESIRED from saying no. Because there are SO MANY benefits of saying no.

How do you know when to be persistent and stay the course - and when to make a change? In my experience, this comes down to four words: SLOW DOWN. TURN INWARD.

A few weeks ago I was thinking about what I wanted to do this summer and the thought came to me: One of my GOALS is to spend more time in the mountains.

Even though it was my own thought (hello past programming!), I immediately recoiled.

This is going to be fun! It's time to do some Marie Kondo-ing. And we're taking this way beyond your closet.

I invite you to think about how you can Marie Kondo your entire life. I've been doing this slowly over the past several years - and can I tell you how FREEING it is?

You can Marie Kondo your activities, decorations in your house, even relationships. It's okay to let go of things that are no longer you. Or that never were you - you only had them because of the "should" and "supposed-to" rules you've been taught.

You also get to ADD what DOES feel like you.

So many things can take YOU away from YOU. There's the busy chaos of your day-to-day life. The voices of OTHER people rattling around in your head telling you what to do. The lying, imposter syndrome-inducing inner critic. The rules passed down to you that said you have to take care of everyone, be responsible for everything, and never, ever disappoint anyone. Any of that sound familiar?

Do you feel like you're FORCING things in your work - or life as a whole? Like everything you do has to be successful - and you're going to MAKE that happen no matter what? I used to feel this way a lot. And it's not fun!

I read and research a lot about burnout. What causes it, how we can recover from it individually and collectively, how we are experiencing burnout differently now than 6 months ago...and 6 months before that.

I had planned to write a different blog today. But then something came up for me that I needed to share -- and I think you'll resonate with it as well. It's about the anxiety of this moment -- and how it creeps up on me and sometimes smacks me right over the head out of nowhere. Like Monday night…

Spring always sparks a stirring inside of me—one represented by new growth peeking through the snow and the returning chirps of birds as they begin building their nests. This stirring is one of aliveness, regeneration, and hope. I’d like to share with you what I know to be true about this human experience and what it means to be alive.