The reactive parent

I believe we all want to be good parents but what we hold in our heads and our hearts isn’t always in line with the behaviour we exhibit. As parents, we hold fantasies of how our children should be based on our beliefs and past experiences.  And when things aren’t as we had imagined, we react.  Often we are not even aware of what triggers our reactions. What are some of our fantasies?  ‘My child will be the best athlete or the … Read More

Do you stress about how things should be?

My life ‘should be’ different.  But it’s not.  Things happen in my life which ‘should not’ happen.  But the fact is, they do happen.  I do things that I know I ‘should not’ do.   But I do them anyway.  People around me do things that they clearly ‘should not’ do.  But the fact is, they too, do them anyway.  There are things I ‘should have’ known to prevent something.  But the fact is, I did not know.  And I have come to … Read More

Really? That triggers my behaviour?

Over my career in dietetics, marketing and sales, understanding how to effectively break habits and change behaviour has been a key goal.  Additionally, I feel a need to change my behaviour in my roles as mother, spouse, coworker, friend and community member.  Our traditional approaches ask us to identify the behaviours we want to change and then put in place action items and timelines to change them.  The general thinking is that if we can stick to our new plan … Read More

Do you know what your stress feels like?

We readily talk about how stressed out we are.  We can explain in great detail how our work, our family, our friends and our chores wear us down.  However, we rarely take time to quietly sit back and get in touch with what our stress feels like in each situation.  It can be uncomfortable to get in touch with these feelings so we avoid the sensations by adding more things to our ‘to do’ list. Instead, we create more stress for ourselves and for those … Read More

Life happens. We need to prep our toolbox.

I have been working on my personal development for a long time. I am versed in stress management, physical fitness, healthy eating, parenting techniques and the list goes on but even with knowing what I needed to do, I still reacted to the same things the same way.   With the introduction of LOGOSYNTHESIS™, the triggers that cause me to react no longer have the same effect.  I believe I have lots to work on but I do feel that I … Read More

Hey Atlantic Canada, what’s holding us back?

I am the daughter of immigrants who came to Atlantic Canada with nothing.  My parents were able to create something special on the banks of the Miramichi River through hard work and determination.  What was the secret of their success? I challenge that a significant factor was their experiences as children.  Growing up during World War II in Holland imprinted that when times got tough, they had no choice but to work through the challenges.  They knew that they didn’t need much … Read More

Are you looking for a new approach to HEALTHY LIVING?

THE HEALTHY LIVING PLAN  is a forum to share my learnings and perspectives on personal development with the aim to stretch all of our thinking beyond our comfort zone so that we can build upon but are not limited to our habits and the teachings of our parents and our professions.  I am a dietitian but this is not in the scope of dietetics practise.  I have an MBA and although organizational behaviour theory has certainly plays a role, this is … Read More