Women are uniquely tasked with carefully navigating the way we interact with the people around us. We aren't to make anyone mad. We can't let anyone down. We mustn't offend anyone. Don't even think of hurting anyone's feelings. And don't you dare inconvenience anyone.

3 ways to stop picking up people's sh*t

Truth is, many of us are amazing shit-picker-uppers. It doesn’t matter who the shit belongs to, if someone drops a steaming pile of it in front of us, we always pick it up. Always.

Your Weight is Not the Problem...

When I started my health and life coaching practice 12 years ago almost all my clients wanted to lose weight. Some wanted to lose just a few "pesky" pounds. Others wanted a complete body overhaul. Together we'd start with the basics: how they were eating, exercising, sleeping, hydrating.

When We Become Brittle

As a mother, managing this hunger is a daily dance as we can’t always put ourselves first. In fact, we often need to put children first and in doing so get further away from our own feeding and need for care.

A World of Extremes

So the question arises, is there life in the middle? And if so, what the hell does that look like? And yet because life is constantly changing, constantly in flux, throwing you from one end of the spectrum to the other, there is no living permanently in the soft middle. The middle is only a place we visit, an inner sanctum we’re continually called to come back to, to find our ground, our solace, our resilience and our relief.

Calming Our Need to Control

It’s not our fault that we’re control freaks. Besides it being a natural desire to feel safe and secure, controlling ourselves is often the only way to live the misguided ideals of beauty, accomplishment and success that have been shoved down our throats since birth.

Reclaim Your Time

How many years have you lost just being so hard on yourself? It’s an interesting phenomenon. We tell ourselves that time flies, that it’s slipping through our fingers, that we must be as productive as possible to make every single minute count. And yet how much time do we continually lose to criticizing our bodies, denying our desires, questioning our true experience, and worrying what people think of us?

So Much More

You do not need to chronicle all you did today to know you're deserving of love. You do not need to catalog how hard your day was to prove you're worthy of care. You do not need to name a single action to know you're entitled to rest.

Self CareJamie GreenwoodApril 4, 2018you are more, self compassion, self belief, slowing down, mindfulness, groundingComment

What Are You Bringing?

Not a day goes by when we don’t experience some sort of a challenge. Which makes sense as challenge is part of being a human on this planet. No one “rides for free” and thank goodness for life’s challenges that make us stretch and grow.

Baby Bodies

May she look at them and say, "My mother taught me to accept my body as she is. To trust her changing, flowing nature. I choose body reverence over body revulsion and I will never abandon myself or my body for whatever false love "perfection" brings. My body is my own and not open to commentary."

MotherhoodJamie GreenwoodNovember 27, 2017mothering, daughters, body image, baby bodies, loving our bodies, body positive, self compassionComment

How Quickly We Forget

How quickly we forget the invaluable effort put out by our arms, our eyes, our legs and our lungs every single day. We forget about all the love our hearts give, all the solace our words bring, all the strength our simple presence offers those who need it.

Self CareJamie GreenwoodAugust 1, 2017forget, remember, self compassion, self reflection, be gentle with yourselfComment

The NEW LIFE of Motherhood

I used to think children ruined your life. I used to think I'd have no time for work or fun or rest. I used to think I'd be so worn down by months of middle of the night feedings that I'd be unable to function. I used to think having children would just be too hard.

MotherhoodJamie GreenwoodJuly 28, 2017mothering, parenting, new mother, new baby, doing hard things, self compassion, personal growthComment

What if You Don’t Need Fixing?

It started decades ago with my body. My arms were a problem. My stomach was a problem. My ass was a BIG problem. Over the years this sense of wrongness spread, sucking the joy out of friendships, romance, vacations, and work.

Jamie GreenwoodJuly 6, 2017personal growth, self compassion, self belief, self care, self kindness, you don't need fixingComment

Self Care Versus Soul Care

In this culture, we aren’t taught how to care for ourselves and so we’re left with the beauty-maintenance type of care that, though nice, only keeps us fed for a brief moment. That disconnect sent me looking more closely at care, to find something beyond self care that could access a purer level of nourishment that a pedicure ever could.

Enough

Is it really enough of a contribution that I spend our days feeding, burping, changing, and soothing? Certainly I could be doing more? Certainly I could find some way to prove my worth to society while stuck in this nursing chair?

MotherhoodJamie GreenwoodApril 3, 2017mothering, new mother, being enough, self compassion, being presentComment

The Game-Changing Question You Never Ask and Need To

We don’t share our likes thinking they make us seem persnickety, difficult, demanding. We fall back on people please, deciding their likes trump ours and we’ll like whatever they like because they seem to care more.

I thought my body image issues were over ... then this happened.

Now, I wish I could tell you my growing love handles didn’t bother me. But the truth is, though I didn’t freak out and go on some crazy, no-fat, no-carb diet like I would have years ago, I definitely harbored fantasies of telling new dude that we couldn’t eat out anymore and had to cut back on the drinking and dessert.

Self CareJamie GreenwoodFebruary 25, 2017body image, self compassion, self care, self kindness, loving your body, how to love your bodyComment

We belong to each other

From the stories we tell, from the hurt we’ve had. From the broken-hearts and big wins. From the major falls and epic overhauls. The truth is, we only know what we know when we know it. And to hold ourselves and others to impossible standards and should be’s is to disconnect us from us and each other, to forget that we belong.

Relationships, Self CareJamie GreenwoodFebruary 5, 2017you belong, belonging, self compassion, compassion, we belong to each otherComment

[A meditation] Thank you, Body.

On the morning of the third day I woke up early to snag a quick hike with the hope that moving my body might help shake off the fear. Cruising up the hill I took in the sunrise and the hawk gliding above and tried hard to embrace the serenity around me. I made each step a walking meditation, feeling my heel, then the ball of my foot, then my toes touch the earth.

Self Care, Practices & RitualsJamie GreenwoodDecember 5, 2016body love, thank you, gratitude, self compassion, meditation, mindfulnessComment

What doesn't get done is as important as what does

Last week I gave a presentation to a group of 50 consultants on the topic of emotional resilience and how to stay connected to ourselves during chaos. We talked about our Itty Bitty Shitty Committees (the negative voices inside our head), how to find compassion for ourselves in the face of difficult feedback and giving voice to our struggles without either denying them or getting sucked into them.