Listen to Anger! It is Your Best Friend.

It was a rare moment as a parent. I was in awe as the sun shone on the table. I had the full and undivided attention of my teenager. It is such a rarity in this highly engaging world that I cherished the moment as long as I could. What I thought would be a fleeting event lasted for a full 2 hours. I was in heaven.

It started with a question.

This simple question lead us through a half-century of life experiences. Mostly focusing on all the ways I had failed. In the end, we both saw how all the failures, when tallied together was the secret to my success.

What was the question? “Mom, how do you deal with anger?”

(more…)

Continue ReadingListen to Anger! It is Your Best Friend.

3 Simple Steps to Relieving Stress

It was the third time in a single day that I had seen a blue heron fly over my head. To many of the Native Americans I work with, the blue heron represents a time to go inward. A time for a vision quest or a time to get near water and contemplate your life path. As I pulled my van into the school’s “pick-up-your-student-here” line, I realized why the Universe had given me “the bird” not once, but thrice. It was time for me to pull out of the day-to-day activities and do more thinking then doing.

This takes a bit of creativity when you’re a single-parent and working with multiple schools, scout troops, writing books, running a business and making sure that food is served with each meal. Here are a few tricks I’ve learned to calm myself down and put more effort into thinking rather than staying on the stress machine of doing, doing, doing without thought.

(more…)

Continue Reading3 Simple Steps to Relieving Stress