What a Concussion Looks Like

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Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Two Things I’m Giving Moms Permission to Do

 Have you ever felt like your needs don’t matter as mom? 

Megan Day, founder of Rooted & Vibrant is here to tell you that that’s normal and that it is possible to take back some control over your life with 2 basic, but not easy, skills.
When you take back control of your day to day activities, you increase your personal power and THAT can feel very liberating. 

I often hear mom’s saying that they feel overwhelmed. That there is not enough time in the day. That their house is a mess. That they don’t have time to cook healthy meals.

All human beings have a basic need for attention and power. Once our needs for food, shelter, love and safely are met, these are the next things we are concerned with. This is based on Adlerian psychology.

Have you ever felt like your needs don’t matter as mom? Like you are worrying about everyone else except yourself? Well, I’m here to tell you that that’s normal. I’m also here to tell you that it is possible to take back some control over your life with 2 basic, but not easy, skills. When you take back control of your day to day activities, you increase your personal power and THAT can feel very liberating.

 

  • The art of the NO

Why is NO such a loaded word? For me, I am a recovering people pleaser. I want to be seen as agreeable. If I really drill down, I think this stems from being an overweight pre-teen and just wanting to be the “nice” girl. I didn’t want any undue, negative attention, so I stayed quiet and agreeable. As I have matured and my self-confidence has improved I have come to recognize that this is not serving me.

Maybe you have a little people pleaser inside of you? How is that working for you? It can create overwhelm and unbalance. It can also create resentment.

 

  • Also the Art of the ASK

Asking for help. My gosh, is this difficult! When it comes to my family, I am full of pride and a bit of control freak. I recently took a parenting personality assessment that proved this. My sister and I are working through a program called Positive Parenting Solutions (more about this amazing program another day because that’s a blog post on its own). This program highlights the fact that any discipline issues you may be experiencing with your kids have two sides. You, as the parent, are 50% of the issue!

Argh! Did this hit home! I kind of already knew this but when I took the parenting personality assessment my results were staggering. I am a triple threat. I had a 3-way tie between controlling, people pleasing and superiority complex. My poor kids!

My point here is that I am a controlling parent who thinks she does things better than anyone else. Sorry! (Not sorry) This makes it challenging to ask for help. To admit that I want to do something but will need the grandparents to come and help watch the kids is hard. 

Even harder, is asking friends for help. For some reason, this takes a certain amount of vulnerability. I have gotten better at this in the past year, now that my youngest is over 2 and I’m not nursing, but trust me, it is still challenging. 

As a coach who works with ambitious and heart-centered moms, I see this internal struggle all the time between wanting to succeed in your career or business BUT also deeply desiring to be a connected parent. Finding that balance between both can be challenging. I call it the elusive quest for balance.

Together we work on developing a definition of what “success” means to you. Success means different things to different women.  Then we work on ways that you can be more successful by your own definition. Sometimes it is a mindset, illuminating your worth and uncovering your confidence. Other times, it is peeling back the layers of unrealistic expectations you have put on yourself or that you have unconsciously picked up from society. Either way, what happens is a blossoming. You take back control of your life and you step into your power as a woman and a mother. It’s a beautiful thing.

To help you take that first step in your journey, I’ve created a free online quiz for mamas. This quiz highlights what a piece of your self you may be missing. Finding ways to express that part of yourself can bring you back to who you are and what you really need to feel whole. Find the quiz HERE.   

Megan Day, MSc, CLC, is a Certified Life Coach, Meditation Instructor and the founder of Rooted & Vibrant. Her mission is to empower women to find their life’s work and to help ambitious moms create fulfilling lives.

In 2017, Megan made the decision to resign from her 10 year career in healthcare to start her own business and explore her calling. She values family, community, connection and adult conversation. She has found her life purpose in helping other moms find theirs.

Connect with Megan at www.instagram.com/rooted_and_vibrant and www.facebook.com/rootedandvibrant/.  

Reducing Stress is Prevention

Jenn Greiner of Green Thinking, shares the benefits of self care and how you can incorporate essential oils into your practice. 

We can feel Spring in the air!  Us New Englanders take this as the sign to get out our summer clothes and try not to get sick anymore.  The kids start having more energy and are able to be outside more. Us adults may become overwhelmed by Spring cleaning & Spring Fever!  So what can we do to take care of ourselves when the stress increases with warm weather just around the corner?!?

Heightened states of stress causes a few things to happen in our bodies:

  • Increased release of our stress hormone, Cortisol.  

    *This hormone is only meant to be released for short periods of time during a fight or flight response.  

  • A very important protein (Immunoglobulin A – IgA) goes down.

    *This protein helps ‘healthy immune function and the internal defense system (Dispenza, 2017, p. 42).  

    *This lowered protein makes us susceptible to sickness.

    • Our bodies believe they are stuck in this stressful environment.  

    Dr. Dispenza studied this IgA protein and wondered if our mood could increase our immune system.  

    His study showed that if you can elevate your mood, even just for a few days, your body starts to believe it’s in a new environment and can increase the protein up to 50% and decrease Cortisol by 16%!!

    Maintaining a low to null stress level is part of preventing illness!  We can do this in so many ways. One way I’ve found myself talking about a lot is mindfulness.  

    I have gotten into the habit of meditating every morning and the impact I see that it has made on my life is invaluable.  If I don’t meditate, I feel irritable, moody and do not have very good days overall. When I do meditate, I have a sense of calm, lower stress and feel that I can better manage whatever the universe throws my way.

    Another great way to lower stress is self-care.  Making time for yourself to do the things you enjoy and make you feel good.  It could be small things like showering or eating. It could also include crafting, cooking or being in the outdoors.   It doesn’t have to be done on your own either! Have game night with your family so that you’re full of love & laughs!

    Another way to help prevent illness, is using essential oils.  You can use essential oils to manage your stress. Use lavender for calming, Wild Orange for anxiety, Rosemary for focus, Cedarwood for grounding and so many more!  (See my blog for how you can use these oils.)

    In my opinion, the best oil for preventing sickness is On Guard, the Protective Blend.  It helps kills germs and boost our immune systems. There is a wide variety of On Guard products.  I use the Foaming Hand Wash in the kitchen and bathroom and the Concentrate to clean my surfaces.  Starting around this time, I start putting one drop of On Guard oil on the bottoms of my feet.  I also carry my Immunity rollerball with me during travel.  Also check out some of my favorite diffuser blends for kiddos.

     

    • How do you help keep you & your family healthy?
    •  Which is your favorite On Guard product?
    •  Do you have a self-care routine?

    Jennifer Greiner began discovering her passions and areas of interest at a young age which developed through her academic career.  She has always enjoyed learning new alternative, natural methods to integrate into her own lifestyle.

     

    In 2014 she received a graduate degree in Art Therapy and began working in the mental health field with children and families.

     

    Through integrating essential oils into her own lifestyle, she saw her overall health & wellness increase and became eager to include these tools for her clients. She developed Green Thinking in 2016 so she could enjoy sharing methods and tools with her clients and growing community. She offers mental health counseling to address personal development goals.

     

    Concussion

    Life happens. No matter how much we might sometimes not want it to happen the way that it does, it does in fact happen.

    Like my current concussion.

    Life happens. No matter how much we might sometimes not want it to happen the way that it does, it does in fact happen.

    I got a concussion in early February. I didn’t even manage to hit my head or get in a car accident or slip on ice or anything terribly exciting. Because of that I didn’t even realize I had a concussion for almost 48 hours after the fact.

    I was stepping over our ottoman that had been pushed out of the way to become part of a fort that was being disassembled in my living room. As I stepped over said ottoman I didn’t realize there was a piece of clothing on the floor and my foot slid out from under me and down I went landing hard on my tailbone and having the impact go straight up my spine. I remember feeling that. I do not remember losing track of any time or of having hit my head on anything. I didn’t know that a major injury had occurred.

    But it had. I had a headache about 25 minutes after the fall that got worse. My pupils stayed dilated correctly so I just took things easy. Thursday morning I felt better for about two hours and then the headache was back and continued to get worse. By Friday when I was watching another set of kids to keep my kids busy, I had dizziness and nausea going on with my headache and my husband came home and off to the ER we went to get the confirmation of a concussion and a CT scan which came back normal.

    I got told to drink lots of water, minimize my screen time and that because I have four kids it would probably take longer than normal for the concussion to pass. I also got anti-nausea medication that wouldn’t make me drowsy and told to follow up with my primary in a week.

    So began my move into my bedroom. It has been about two weeks of a concussion as I write this and I have listened and read a total of 8 books. Unfortunately the final book in an exciting 5 book series I had only on Kindle so I haven’t been able to finish that. In the past week or so I have been able to start knitting while listening to audio books a bit.

    Driving does my head in. As does anytime my kids get loud or decide to all talk at once, or heaven forbid have a fight. This week a dear friend has taken my kids all day (through dinner) for the first two days of the week and I have had the house to myself and my very demanding cats (who seem to enjoy the fact that I am now stuck in bed.

    I have had to miss overnight winter camping with Girl Scouts and my eldest (even though the woman running it was able to find us a ride). I have had to not run Girl Scout meetings and move a workshop I was going to run for three weeks in the future. I have had to miss a lot of family time.

    I work in 20 minute bursts with at least 20 minutes between them for my work at the moment, with a lot of things taking a back seat. I have had to spend whole days lying down because the world spins if I sit up.

    I have high doses of fish oil and some turmeric and B vitamins prescribed by my primary. I am still waiting on a call back from the concussion specialist for a referral. I don’t know how long this is going to take. I keep getting glimpses of good days only to have the next day (even though I try my damnedest not to push anything on my good days) slap me back in the face.

    It is hard and frustrating. It is hard and frustrating on my family too. My girls have had to do more and get less time with their mom (though they are getting more 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 time as that is about all my head can handle at the moment). I haven’t gotten to watch any TV in over two weeks now. This is the first time I have gotten to write anything beyond very short emails rescheduling things.

    I am tired of reading (I never thought I would say that) and I am tired of winter because I can’t get out and walk due to the ice. And any place I could walk inside is way to stimulating for this little brain of mine.

    I am trying to be patient. And wait for my brain to just completely reboot itself. I am being taken care of by friends and family. I am having to wait. This was suppose to be a busy winter/spring with my book launch coming in May, and well things are just taking a little bit longer. I am taking a little bit longer. My brain is apparently very tired.

    I will do my best to keep the blog posts coming but there may be a few weeks missed, depending on my other work load and how my screen time goes. Right now an hour is about my max and there is only so much I can get done in that amount of time, no matter how efficient I am

    Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
    You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

    5 Quick and Easy Ways to Simplify Your Life (and Feel Better Right Away)

    Megan Day, MSc, CLC, and founder of Rooted & Vibrant, is back with us today to share her tips that to help simplify your life.

    Some of them are mindset shifts that require inner work and others are quick action steps that you can implement right away (a great start to the new year!?).

    When it comes to simplifying life, it’s not only about minimizing the amount physical stuff we own, it’s also about how we spend our time and the quality of the activities and relationships in our lives.

    The more simple your life, the better. This is what I’m starting to think and I recognize that I’m not the first genius to think of this. Marie Kondo is an international sensation for a reason after all. As a mom, however, this can be easier said than done.

    Life can be complicated and messy. Many of us are struggling with overwhelm or anxiety.  Many of us harken back to a time of greater simplicity. We tend to over-romanticize the 1950’s and 60’s as a simpler time. Heck, I have always thought I should have been born back then so that I could be a hippie. I am quite infatuated by the whole idea of being a hippie, minus the drugs and nudity of course.

     Instead, what if we could find the simplicity of those times but maintain the current democratic and egalitarian society we currently live in. Honestly, 2019 is not all that bad, we have come a long way especially as women. Let us find ways to reconnect to that carefree feeling that we had as children.

     Now, I have a confession to make. I am definitely not a minimalist. My house and my minivan are messy and full of stuff. In fact, I continually oscillate between the states of consumeristic overdrive and Zen Buddhist monk.

     Where would I like to be? Somewhere in the middle, “the middle way” as the Buddhists call it (see I told you I was a monk).  The middle way refers to moderation. Nothing too extreme. Not too tight, not too loose. This is the paradox of the universe, not just my problem.

     As a mom, I find the desire to provide my kids with the best of everything to be a strong motivator. On the other hand, I recognize that all of this stuff is oftentimes unfulfilling. So I bought a new necklace? I get the instant high of the purchase but if the item, a necklace in this particular example, doesn’t carry with it any particular meaning, then it gets forgotten quickly and any positive emotion I gained at the moment of purchase is long gone.

     The other drawback is that clutter in your physical space can manifest as clutter in your mind. I don’t know about you, but clarity of mind is something I could use more of. I work from home the majority of the time as well, so having a space that is clean is important to me. I’m sure my coaching clients who visit my home office appreciate coming to a place of clarity and calm. Not only is clarity good for your mental health, it’s also good for productivity and business.

     I don’t’ want to get too into this, but the environmental impact of consumerism cannot be forgotten. Our landfills are overflowing and we are using valuable resources to pump out piles and piles of plastic crap for the masses to buy. Adopting more moderate spending habits and creating ways in which we recycle and reuse our items will benefit good mother earth.

     So I have a few tips that I would like to share, to help simplify your life and mine, as I will be trying them too. Some of them are mindset shifts that require inner work and others are quick action steps that you can implement right away (a great start to the new year!?). When it comes to simplifying life, it’s not only about minimizing the amount physical stuff we own, it’s also about how we spend our time and the quality of the activities and relationships in our lives.

     Here it goes:

    1. Set Boundaries. Evaluate how you are spending your time and set some boundaries. Learn to say NO to low quality activities. Say NO to the stuff that is not serving you. You can write out a big long list of all of the things you do in a week. Then, one by one, evaluate whether these are necessary or if they can be cut out.
    2. Limit screen time. Limit you media consumption and your e-communication time. This includes limiting use of the cellphone, desktop computers, television, streaming TV, all of it. This is so hard for me, especially since so much of my work is online, however I notice that when I do cut back I feel greater connection to the people I am with.   
    3. Downsize your stuff. Go through an overhaul. This is where the Marie Kondo craze comes into play. More and more people are starting to understand that clutter weighs you down. Find a local organizer to get you started if it feels too overwhelming to tackle on your own. I know some people are even downsizing their house and moving into a tiny house. Cool, right?
    4. Fill Up on Quality Time. Spend time with people you love, doing things you love. This seems like a no brainer, but I think it needs to be said. Surround yourself with people who are supportive and loving. Stay around people who get you, and appreciate the best version of yourself.
    5. Build some predictability into your life. Auto-pilot is a real problem for many of us but we can use that to our advantage as well. Create a weekly meal plan with healthy meals, a workout schedule, a regular movie night or board game night, schedule a monthly or quarterly date night with your partner. When these important things are scheduled in it frees up mental space. It means that when you go on “auto-pilot” it will be a healthy routine rather than the easiest and most-convenient choices. Having a routine also gives you an excuse to say NO to things that don’t serve you. “Sorry, I would love to help you that night but that is workout time!” Or “Sorry, I can’t be there, that is date night!”

    This is just a short list of the things you can implement today to start to simplify your life. To simplify means to fill up on the things that are important to you and nourish you and to pare down on the things that are draining and not in alignment with the person you are. I’d love to hear your tips and what has worked for you. If you are having trouble wading through the complexity of motherhood and modern life let’s set up a non-obligation consult call to see if I can help.  

    Megan Day, MSc, CLC, is a Certified Life Coach, Meditation Instructor and the founder of Rooted & Vibrant. Her mission is to empower women to find their life’s work and become confident mothers and deeply fulfilled women. In 2017, Megan made the decision to resign from her 10 year career in healthcare to start her own business and explore her calling. She values family, community, connection and new ideas. She has found her life purpose in helping other moms find theirs.

    Connect with Megan on Instagram and Facebook.  

    Illuminating and Unearthing YOU

    Andrea Parker, founder of Rejuvenation Grange, explains what an Illuminated Life is and how it she went from a withering single mom to being able to fuse her light, expertise, and passions.

    Winter, for me over the last few years has been a time for visioning, for watering the seeds of desire and lovingly building the soil around them as they lay in a state of wait.

    Then come spring when the snow melts and the sun warms the moist ground they can sprout. However, for the years before I sat in the never ending winter; I had let my desires sit dormant in an arid frozen tundra.

    A decade ago I became a single mom when my daughter was 2. I through myself, due to fear, into full survival mode and placed my desires, my dreams of being a creative entrepreneur into a box and buried them so deep that I couldn’t feel their heartbeat calling me.

    I did this because of self doubt from my divorce and because I had a misunderstanding with creative currency. My familial story lead me to believe that being creative meant that you wouldn’t make money. At that time, I was my daughter’s sole provider, until she was six. That meant, in my mind of limits, that nurturing my dream was not an option. I had to make a living to support my daughter which I decided subconsciously meant leaving all my desires behind.

    So,

    I stopped painting for me- I painted with my daughter but it was for her.

    I stopped going on outdoor adventures to photograph and write because I didn’t want to ask for support so that I could.

    I stopped finding the time to connect with my body and let it flourish through dance and movement except for the occasional dance party with my daughter in the kitchen or 10 minute yoga sessions that fit a young girls attention span.

    I stopped allowing myself to explore and dream and create because I was so far down into the shadow, I couldn’t see the light.

    As I denied my creativity,  my light dimmed to a flicker and it wasn’t until one day while brushing my teeth and looking at myself in the mirror, that I truly saw the withered sadness in my eyes, my furrowed brow and frown lines..

    I didn’t recognize me in that reflection! In fact, a jolt ran through my body and in that moment I decided I had to reconnect to me or I would slowly die. A bit dramatic yes, but at that moment that was my truth.

    I needed to rebuild the soil, reconnect with my desires, my passion and figure out how to make the space to do that.

    I was done withering so I began my slow journey back to me.

    My journey to what I call my Illuminated Life took a few years of saying yes to exploring my creativity again, of excavating my limiting beliefs around money and creativity, of asking for and investing in support so I could find the time to play for me, of trusting myself and being open to creating new loving relationships, and finally curating a business that fused my talent and my experience as a teacher together.

    Illumination is the process of coming home to you, to revisit those forgotten desires, to reconnect and play with them and then to see where they lead you. As adults and especially as parents you get sucked into the whirlpool deferred desires, where you place the needs of children, the needs of your job, the needs of your partner or parents often get placed ahead of our own. This will suck the life out you and shroud you from the magic of playing with your passions, or creating deep connections to yourself and others, it will dim your light and wither your your joy if you don’t start making the time ( little bits at first) to do something that will illuminate you!

    Through doing this work I was able to fuse my light, my expertise and my passions into my business where I now run workshops, retreats and programs that help others Illuminate their light and curate their sacred vision and passionate action plan.

    If you are interested in illuminating you and want to be lead on that journey in a supportive, creative and sacred space join me on Saturday, March 9th from 10-2 virtually from the comfort of your home, or coffee shop, or office via Zoom.

    You can learn more about the Illuminating Your Sacred Vision Virtual Retreat HERE. 

    May You Shine On!

    Hi, I am Andrea Parker, founder of The Rejuvenation Grange.

    I am a Master educator, experiential business coach, and soulful facilitator. I am also a mom to a beautiful 12 year old.

    I spent the first 12 years of my professional life teaching children through integrating curriculum with play and exploration. This joyful work gave me the skills of getting people where they are and helping them create playfully while facilitating their own transformation. This journey of playing my way to creating a business I loved has been an amazing journey and given me the space and time to:

    Explore my creative visions.
    Be present in my daughter’s life.
    Create my unique daily and weekly rhythm and
    Make a difference in the world and make a living doing all of this.

    The Rejuvenation Grange was born from my sacred vision of making space for people to explore their playful nature and push themselves to their own fertile edge and create a joyful life and business.

    I do this by guiding people to bring their Sacred Creative Vision to the world, design their entrepreneurial playground ( playful and grounded business processes) and coach them to create a vibrant work/life rhythm that feed their souls.