What a month May was! For my family, I’m sure like many of yours, we had a GRADUATE! Yay! My youngest finished up her high school career and is off to new chapters! It was quite the whirlwind on the heels of an eventful April. What a joy and privilege to be a part of my kids’ lives! I am grateful for the conversations, laughter, love, and shared “satisfied but exhausted” feeling of the time spent around this special milestone. Enjoy June and the slow down of summer.

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The KEY to avoiding slipping back into the Overwhelm Trap

Many of you reached out after reading our last newsletter that featured tips on OVERWHELM. I feel such a sense of dread even typing out the word. No one wants to be in overwhelm and once we are out we sure as heck don’t want to slip back in. So you finally can breathe again - what next?

Here’s what I’ve found is the KEY for preventing overwhelm - self-integrity.

Whaaattttt? 

Yea, this is a BIG concept that lives in the “bird’s eye view” category. Let’s take a minute and break it down. 

Integrity. In this context, let’s take the case that integrity is being within sound working order. As in the structural integrity of a bridge, perhaps. Bridges have to be constructed properly and maintained to maintain their structural integrity. If a support beam is out of place or faulty, the bridge is “out of integrity” and fails to operate properly.

Pretty easy to understand what it takes to keep a bridge in sound working order and that its integrity has to be maintained - or else! 

You have your own integrity that needs to be maintained. For instance, in nursing we refer to your “skin integrity” as we assess any wounds or scrapes in the skin. Those breaks in skin integrity invite infection and take energy from your body to heal. Just like bridges and skin have their integrity, you also have your “self-integrity”. This is your own “sound working order”. 

What does sound working order for you look like? How does it compare to overwhelm? Are you in self-integrity while you are in overwhelm? Do you know what “maintenance” needs to occur to preserve your “self-integrity”? And the bigger question I am stumbling around myself - do I know myself well enough to stay present to what my self-integrity is, much less to honor it by taking actions that maintain it?

This is a lot. I hope it’s got you thinking. This month’s blog is titled: Commitment to self. How Integrity in Your Relationship with Yourself Beats Overwhelms’ Ass and will follow the concept of “self-integrity” with some actionable tips that connect being in “self-integrity” and warding off overwhelm. It will be published later this month. You can access it here.

Check it out! Pecs, Pecs, and more Pecs!

Here’s a video that highlights a tool I am coming to love/hate - the pec stick. Pec Activation with Pec Stick or Medicine Ball | CrossFit Invictus | Warm-Ups

We use the pec stick to invite the pectoral muscles (the chest muscles) to activate in pushing and pressing activities (think bench press, overhead press, shoving something away from you or throwing something above your head). Be grateful for those chest muscles and warm them up before lifting!

You’ll notice in this video the narrator says “Mind Body Connection” multiple times. Golden!! This is an important part of health - listening to your body and asking kindly for your body to do what you would like for it to do. In fact, Mind Body Connection is one of the six areas of health listed on the Duke Integrative Medicine Wheel of Health Assessment tool that we use with all our coaching clients!

Client Testimonials

If you're looking for someone to pat you on the back and tell you what you want to hear, don't hire Amy Chang. But if you want someone who will ask you all the right questions, get you thinking, challenge you to see the worth you don't see in yourself (but should), and inspire you toward greatness, you would be a fool to NOT hire Amy Chang. Amy has been part of my coaches mastermind group for almost two years, has attended my workshops, and has come to me to be coached (because coaches need coaches). She is constantly seeking to learn more and improve herself so that she can empower others. Most notable is that even though she looks to me to be one of her coaches, I find myself edified, uplifted, inspired, motivated.. all the things... whenever we meet. She pushes me to keep getting better. Amy brings an energy that is genuine, passionate, and captivating. She is an exceptional listener and she CARES.

- Ray R.