Essence Blog

Do you have a graveyard of notebooks hidden away somewhere in your home? Do you keep a journal but rarely revisit the entries? If so, you may be missing out on valuable insights and inspiration.

It's easy to forget the value of our notes and journal entries, but they often contain a wealth of ideas, thoughts, and aha moments that can spark creativity and offer guidance. If you attended a course, workshop, or conference and took notes, go back and read them. If you keep a journal, go back and...

Have you ever made something harder than it needed to be?  

Once, I gathered with some entrepreneur friends. I had my head in my hands, stress in my chest, and dread in my gut over what seemed like an impossible mountain of work I had in front of me.  

They patiently listened to my pity party-esqe whine and then pointed out a few things. What if I simply send an email about problem A, switch around problems B and C, and drop problem D altogether? 

I, of course,...

Did you see the Oscars this year? I was in NYC, and after seeing Little Shop of Horrors, my family returned to our hotel room and turned on the TV immediately, hoping to catch the end of the Oscars. 

And that's when we watched Michelle Yeoh's historic win for Best Actress. Of course, seeing someone achieve a dream they worked so hard for always makes me emotional, but this was bigger than that. My eyes filled with tears. 

In 95 years of awards given by the Academy, only two women of...

When kids head off to school with new backpacks and new hopes for a new year- so do I. Maybe it’s because of my first career as a teacher or maybe because I love a blank notebook and the feel of new pens. Fall feels like a new start. Even when the weather in Florida is still 90 degrees, and the world feels uncertain, Fall holds the promise of hope. 

With a new schedule comes the desire to get back into routines, prioritize, and plan. One of my fall rituals, besides putting cinnamon...

Do you know that draining feeling of being stuck because you can’t make a final decision on something? You keep ping-ponging back and forth between two choices or you agonize over the research or the details?  It’s this classic overthinking which leads to limbo. It’s what I call the Wishy-Washy Gremlin.

Recently,   I’ve been wishy-washy over picking two much-needed appliances because I got overwhelmed and worried about making the wrong decision....

Originally posted May 2020 

It’s been almost exactly two months since things shifted in the world, and so I continue to ask myself, what is shifting within me? Here are a few things I’ve noticed. 

• 50 Shades of Gray has made a comeback. Turns out it’s my actual hair color.

 

• Telling yourself, you’ll shower after you exercise later can result in days when you don’t shower or exercise. 

 

• The “home edition” of my meals...