I don’t really know of alot of women who as little girls dreamed of one day becoming a single parent. The thought of raising children, alone and on your own just never seem to make it into most of our plans for life. However, before we even noticed it – Life just happens – And we find ourselves, in a strange place. Our careers – we planned and prepared for. Our perfect husbands – we prayed and pressed for. But becoming a single mother – nope, there was no strategy on the best way to accomplish that. Single parenthood just wasn’t even in the cards – we thought…. but again, LIFE just happens. I noticed that life tends to come to me in cycles. Once I conquer one area – mentally, physically, and even spiritually – the next cycle of life and challenges show up. Single parenting has been the same way…. I didn’t plan or expect it. As a matter of fact for the longest time I thought ALL of my hopes and original dreams for my life were now GONE because of it. Becoming a single mother – for me – was traumatic. We all handle emergencies in our own way, however as women and mothers we are innate survivors. So the first phase of being a single mom for me was SURVIVAL. — How do we live? Where do we live? How will I take care of us? Where can I find income? Where can I find daycare? Are we safe? Who’s in this with me? Who can I count on? Who is against me? Where is my support system? How will we eat? And so on, and so on. I learned that the SURVIVAL phase can last a while and...

A few weeks ago my 4 year had a toothache, and in addition to it being the middle of the night – there was also a bigger problem: we didn’t have INSURANCE. So, what did we do to get past this scary moment? We checked in with some old school remedies and guess what, they worked! Here’s how we got through the toothache without dental insurance.

5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance Beat burnout by making more time for the activities and people that matter most to you. If you’re finding it more challenging than ever to juggle the demands of your job and the rest of your life, you’re not alone. Many people are putting in extra hours, or using their smartphones to be on call when they’re not physically at work. “A lot of people are having a more difficult time finding balance in their lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work. They’re afraid it may happen to them, so they’re putting in more hours,” says psychologist Robert Brooks, PhD, co-author of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life. “But even if you don’t have much control over the hours you have to work, you can ask yourself: In what other ways am I bringing greater enjoyment into my life?” Brooks says. “Focus your time and attention on things you can control.” Here are five ways to bring a little more balance to your daily routine: 1. Build downtime into your schedule. When you plan your week, make it a point to schedule time with your family and friends, and activities that help you recharge. If a date night with your spouse or a softball game with friends is on your calendar, you’ll have something to look forward to and an extra incentive to manage your time well so you don’t have to cancel. “It helps to be proactive about scheduling,” says Laura Stack, a productivity expert in Denver and author ofSuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best. “When I go out with my girlfriends, we all whip out our cell phones and put another girls’ night...

The problem with an “assault” is that its hard to be attacked from a distance. Times are changing…and (especially when you look at the news headlines) the ones who end up assaulting you are often the ones YOU gave close access to you too. (You cant reach me or stab me in my back from across the room….you’ve got to be close!)

We are taught to not feel angry. But the truth is that anger is a necessary emotion. You need anger to motivate you into action when some sort of injustice has been done to you or to someone you love. Anger occurs when you feel that you are not being seen, heard, valued or respected. You need this negative emotion to stimulate the actions that will initiate change. What is not necessary is the behavior that arises from anger that can be damaging to you and others—when you react with a punch or vengeance, rather than respond with clarity and balance. Research even shows that such reactivity can hurt your health. Hostility and anger, for instance, have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease. To respond with clarity and balance, you want to be able to allow yourself to be angry, then release it as you heal your own hurt. Here are some things you can do: 1. Allow–allow yourself to feel angry. You have every right to feel this way. You are not “bad” and you are hurting no one by allowing yourself to “feel angry.” 2. Acknowledge to yourself that you are in need of attention, value and comfort. 3. Express & Release–anger is a powerful force of energy that needs to be let out—watch kids. When they are angry, they scream. When as children we are taught that it is bad to scream, we are essentially being told that it is bad to self-express. Here are some ways to let it out: a. Scream into a pillow. b. Get a punching bag and beat it up–what I prefer, because I prefer not to experience pain in my hands, is do a qi gong exercise (which is actually something that...