July 5, 2022

Hi Amy,

WOW! June brought me such a surprise.

I thought after May ended with all the graduations and end-of-year hub-bub, June would settle into the hum-drum of summer. Not so! I feel like June may as well have started with a countdown of 3-2-1-GO! and has ended with a rallying cry just to make it to July 4th! My fingers are crossed for the summer slowdown to arrive soon. I was busy in June with three weddings and a surgery — and travel across the state to boot. (My youngest daughter had an ACL repair this month. The surgery went well and now the work begins for her - to rehab her knee, she’ll have to be dedicated, patient, and focused without being too serious.)

Here’s to July. Hope your summer is all the things you want it to be, whatever that is.

If it isn’t — go create something AWESOME!

Peace and Power,

Amy

Healthy Living Coaching
HealthyLiving.coach

Have You Trapped Your JOY?

We hear you. You — our community of clients, health-minded people, friends, family, and supporters — want to find JOY. Sometimes you don’t actually say that.

Sometimes you say …

“I’m overwhelmed and I can’t find any motivation!” or possibly,
“I am so anxious all the time” and occasionally plain and simple,
“I want more JOY in my life and I don’t know how to do that!”

Are you hearing anything that sounds familiar to you?

So how can you find JOY? Start looking for trapped JOY. What the heck is that?

The joy we seek in our everyday lives is easily trapped by the expectations we have about our everyday lives.

To find joy, we have to find expectations. To find expectations, we LISTEN to our thoughts for little radar pings. Little radar pings that sound like the word SHOULD.

Here’s an example. One of my most consistent sources of everyday joy is watching my youngest, Molly, play soccer. Think that perfect temp, sunny day in early spring, watching your kid in the starting lineup, playing with passion and fierceness, other parents cheering her on, relaxed and enjoying the day, and building memories! Ahhhh.

Here’s where my expectations might trap my joy ...

“We should have left earlier so we wouldn’t have had to rush to the game.”

“I should have packed a snack, now I’m cranky.”

“It should be warmer than this like the weather said it would.”

“She should be more grateful that I’m here.”

“Those other parents shouldn’t be screaming so loudly.”

“The ref definitely should have called a penalty on that.”

“I should be enjoying myself more instead of being distracted.”

When I allow my expectations of how “soccer-mom joy” should look (gorgeous day, great play, etc.) I trap any possible JOY that otherwise may be available to me in the moment.

Quick Tip — Begin to notice when you should on yourself and everybody else. That’s it. Just start there. We can cover the rest in a coaching session. 😉

Cool Tool, Tip or Resource

Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown

This book. Goodness. What a beautiful guide for learning to language your emotional experience.

Language creates experience and shares it with others. Language helps us process emotion more efficiently.

Oh, and there’s an HBOMax special too. Heaven for an afternoon on the couch with your people. ❤️

Upcoming Events

Intermittent Fasting Discussion Group

When: Monday, July 11 at 6:30 pm

Where: Fuel Hickory

Email Fran for details

Self-Care: Pilates and the Power of Positive Thoughts

When: Tuesday, July 19

Where: C7 Fitness Studio

Email Fran for details

Coach Amy Chang

Amy Chang, MS, RN, NBC-HWC is a health coach who works with people struggling to lose weight, have enough energy, and choose better health to create healthy bodies, feeling more confident and empowered with peacefulness and ease.

Amy knows that people can accomplish more than they think they can, and with a little coaching people can have the health they really want to do all the stuff they want to do with all the people they love.

Amy is a board-certified health and wellness coach through the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching

Coach Fran Paradine

Fran Paradine, MSW is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach who partners with women and men to overcome the mental and emotional roadblocks that stop them from reaching their optimal health.

She has counseled hundreds of individuals, mentored many more, and has created a podcast focused on the multi-faceted world of wellness called Creating Wellness.

Fran has a Master of Social Work degree and a Certification in Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching.

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