I am on my way to Saba, a tiny island in the Caribbean that I call home in the winter months. Right now, I am writing from my hotel room in Boston because I have a big goal (a scary one too!) that I’d like to ask you all to participate in with me.

Last week, I made a pact with a dear friend to relase (once and for all) “not good enough.”

You know not good enough…that belief that makes us feel unworthy and unloved. For me, it was “not good enough” that made me strive and stive, burning the candle at both ends. It’s what rocks me to my core when someone says something mean about me, giving me that feeling that this one thing is a statement about my whole life.

Not good enough blows things way out of proportion.

It can keep you awake at night, bring on anxiety or depression and wreak all sorts of havoc to your self-esteem. And yes, it is one of the particularly sticky contributors to eating disorders.

Today, I still know that there are cords of this feeling of not being good enough and I am ready to cut them once and for all!

But you know what? When my friend and I made a pact to release it, I asked for a date, a deadline of sorts. She said January 1st, 2008. Whoa. That scared me. Why?
(more…)

I’m not sure when I started to “hate” the winter. But I can tell you that “hating” anything, including the winter, did more harm than good. Here’s why….AND how to shift your perspective.

If I were to look back, I think I can trace this hate of winter to college. I went to school in Burlington, VT, one of the most beautiful locations in the country, yet also one of the coldest. In the wintery weather, walking to my classes seemed like an experience in suffering. Back then, no one really wore hats or warm boots (well, probably the truly smart people did!).

I remember feeling two things about winter. One was that it got dark earlier, making me feel stifled because it was unsafe for women to walk alone on campus. The other was the feeling of wanting to stay inside permanently and not face the harsh winds that often went well below zero.

During this time, I began to experience an increase in chronic digestive pain and feelings of depression. The depression seemed to invade my body just as the darkness invaded the day. (more…)