How To Optimize Sleep During Seasonal Shifts

As winter wanes and each day grows longer with more light, our natural circadian rhythm is impacted, so it's helpful to begin preparing for this shift. Spring is a wonderful season that brings about feelings of opportunity, energy, and blossoming—a stark contrast to the stillness and slowness of winter. That's why intentionally transitioning from winter to spring can...

Everyday Ways to Love Yourself Fully

What first comes to mind when you realize Valentine's Day is approaching? Is it a rush of urgency to get a loved one a gift or plan a special day? Do you start to reminisce on loving memories? How long does it take for you to think about ways you can love yourself?

How to Actually Make and Break Habits

Our habits reflect our core values, especially as we become more mindful of the habits we want to make and what our desired outcome is. If you've failed making a habit before, here's exactly how to set yourself up for success when you make a new habit:

How to Achieve Your Deepest Self Desires

Are you doing what your deepest self desires? Or are you just going through the motions in life right now? Paying the bills, feeding the family, getting through the workday…

How to Master Loving Yourself Fully & Fiercely

I connected recently with artist Peyton Turner and when I told her that I’d love to feature her art in a future journal issue, she offered to do an intuitive painting with a message for JMB Living. Of course I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to see how this would unfold. The following is a guest blog by Peyton about her experience creating the piece and its meaning.

Hygge Hacks with The Hygge Gathering

As winter approaches, we wanted to revisit hygge and share some great tips and hacks to add it into your lifestyle, and Kim is the perfect person to learn from! To learn more about her business and delve into all things hygge, we interviewed Kim to share the best information and discuss how mindfulness and hygge go hand-in-hand.

JMB Giving: How to Have a Mindful Holiday

…I wanted to incorporate gratitude and mindfulness into gift-giving. I have compiled a sort of gift guide divided into three categories: Small Businesses, Sustainable Businesses, and Intangible Gifts.

How to Manage Anxiety & Stress with Mindfulness

As we move through the holiday season and approach a period of time where many people suffer from seasonal depression, I wanted to address mindfully managing mental health.

Being Fluent in Love Languages

Knowing and understanding your own love language and those of the people you give gifts to can make your gifts more impactful and meaningful; utilizing love languages more deeply conveys your care for others and can help you effectively celebrate the holidays!

Sales & Sustainability: How to be a Mindful Consumer

Even though some of us might have many gifts to purchase, there are still tips to ensure that we are slowing down and being intentional about our purchases and maintaining balance and self-control.

Re-framing Gratitude

Being grateful is a key pillar to living a joyful, mindful, and balanced life, but what is it really, what does it entail, and what are the benefits?

Saying Hello to your Inner Critic

We’ve all got one. That voice inside your head that is quick to cut you down and put you in your place. Sometimes it’s for good reason; to keep you safe and from attempting things that truly are beyond your capacity to do. But most of the time, it’s simply a habit of letting your mind run wild and free with any negative thoughts that pop into your head. It’s time to take control of this inner dialog by getting up close and personal and saying hello to your inner critic.

Need Help on Your JMB Living Journal Journey?

I intentionally created the JMB Living Journal with an abundance of prompts to increase the structure and also freedom you have in using your journal—as in, you can fill in as many (or as few) prompts as you want each day! I love the metaphor of your journal use as a Journal Journey because everyone that purchases a journal becomes part of a community where we are all traveling different paths on the same journey to a more mindful life.

Shattering Limiting Beliefs

One of the biggest obstacles we have toward reaching our dreams is limiting beliefs. We’ve all got them. Some are up front and center in our minds and others hide away in the deep recesses. Both are challenging to tackle, but if we take the time to face them head on, we can limit their impact and even get rid of them for good. This blog post offers some tactics for exploring and updating your belief system.

7 Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of going through life with a perspective of higher self-awareness. At its most basic, mindfulness is a daily tool. At its most complex, mindfulness reaches into every aspect of our lives to increase synergy and alignment. 

20 Seasonal Activities to Delight Your Inner Child

This year, as we savor the last bits of summer freedom and activity and welcome the changes fall brings, we can let our inner child drive our seasonal shift! Here are some fun ideas to keep the child in you alive:

Prolonged Grief During COVID

None of us are immune to the amount of loss and change we’ve seen in the last couple of years. Lives, jobs, friendships, and many aspects of our lives as we know it have disappeared, possibly forever. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t think all the changes have been bad. Some relationships are closer, many have taken time to truly understand what is important to them and are taking steps to bring more joy into their daily lives. But this blog post isn’t about that. It’s about handling loss in this unprecedented time. I share my story of loss and some suggestions on coping for those that may be struggling with this now.

Living your Bucket List

I created The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Dream Bucket List based on a mindset shift from dying without regrets, to living without regrets. This is a step-by-step comprehensive guide that allows you to explore the most fulfilling desires you have and how to accomplish them.

Chocolate for Mind, Body, and Soul

Chocolate is delicious, but it also has a rich and diverse variety of meanings and benefits. Join me as I reminisce about a perfect cup of hot cocoa in Peru, explore the differences between cocoa, cacao and ceremonial cacao, share a healthy dessert recipe and contemplate how to mindfully consume this wonderful substance.

How to Live Holistically in Kindness

My mentality when it comes to kindness is simply, “why not?” There are never negative consequences to being kind, and it is a pillar of joy and contentment. This is why each week of every JMB Living Journal begins with a “Kindness Karma”, a suggestion about how to live outside of yourself and take one opportunity a week to serve someone else, expecting nothing in return.

How to Have a Fresh Start with the Summer Solstice

Now is the perfect time to refresh our dreams and goals for the year and evaluate how we can achieve them before the year ends! Here are some tips to have a fresh start with the summer solstice:

Habit Tracker Hacks

After a few months of using a habit tracker, I realized that while they are extremely helpful in making progress toward making and breaking a habit, there are a few things you can do to help set yourself up for success in the process. While some of this I’ve discovered through trial and error, research seems to back up many of my conclusions. Herein are five hacks for making the best use of your habit tracker, followed by a couple of unique ways I’m using mine.

Tips for Tackling Life Challenges

Part of the experience of being human is working our way through the challenges that we either consciously decide to take on or that are thrown in our path along the way. Sometimes we fall flat on our faces or seemingly fail miserably in the process. Yet what is more important is how we pick ourselves back up to continue to rise to the challenge and tackle it head-on.

Journaling Outside the Lines

I was immediately attached to the idea of the JMB Living Journal being like an adult coloring book: the lines and bigger picture are provided, and you fill it with your own personal flair and perspective to express yourself.

How to Give a Meaningful Mother’s Day Gift

What do we give the most giving women in our lives? While I can’t tell you the perfect gift for your mother, I have some tips to help guide your search:

How Journaling Can Change Your Life

Holistic journaling and applying intent to our narratives allows us to have more internal control on external factors, while bringing us closer to achieving what we both want and need most by allowing our inner strength and mindfulness to engage with our daily lives.

March Mindfulness: Springtime Nutrition

Over the years, I’ve found answers on how to live in harmony with the seasons through Ayurveda and seasonal eating. Ayurveda is the sanskrit word for “The Science of Life”, and within this science, I find many helpful guidelines for living in tune with the seasons. One of the ways I am allowing myself to adjust to spring, is with a focus on preparing my meals and consuming in a way that helps to optimize health.

Mops and Mindfulness: Spring Cleaning Essentials

Spring cleaning in itself seems like a daunting, laborious task—and it can be. However, implementing different aspects of mindfulness will make it more worthwhile and beneficial in a way that will make you feel peaceful and accomplished by the time you’re finished.

Soft Skin with DIY Mango Body Butter

I like to give my skin a little extra TLC in the wintertime to combat the drying effects of heating the house. And lately, I have fallen in love with this DIY Mango Body Butter that I have been making, so I wanted to share it with you. It’s super easy to make and my skin feels so soft for hours after using it. I also love that it absorbs quickly so that you don’t end up feeling greasy like often is the case with some DIY lotions and body creams.

How to Keep Smiling While COVID Rages On

This week’s journal theme is about smiles. The mindful moment challenge is to become fascinated with smiles; in a time where finding a reason to smile can be challenging at times, I wanted to share my sources for smiling and weathering the long-lasting emotional wear from COVID.

Cast Iron Apple Oatmeal Custard and Mindful in the Kitchen

…Today I’ll share the recipe for one of my favorite baked oatmeals while first throwing in some tips for making it mindfully along the way. Feel free to scroll straight to the bottom for the recipe, or meander with me to get there while I talk a little bit about mindfulness in the kitchen.  

Tips to Establish Good Journaling Habits

…I’d like to share some tips and best practices for staying motivated to consistently update and use a journal. Journaling is intrinsically a personal act, and you should customize it according to you.

My Journal, My Friend, My Guide to More Joy

Okay, this may sound a little weird, but my journal is kind of like a best friend. It helps me start my day on a happy note, encouraging me with uplifting messages to be the best me I can be. It hangs out with me during the day, keeping me on track of what I need to do. And it brings a smile to my heart as I wind down and reflect back on the beauty, joy and small wins that occurred throughout the day. It reminds me of what I am working towards and gently admonishes me when I get off track. I share my secrets and in exchange, I am rewarded with insights. This is a post about my relationship with my JMB Living Journal and how we speak to each other, but it is my hope that you take away some ideas regardless of what planner or journal you use.

Cultivating Virtues to Heal a Fractured Nation - Part 3

This post concludes the three-part series detailing six virtues I am working to cultivate in my life with the intent of contributing to society by being a better human. I can’t help but wonder if the actions of some in our political organizations can’t be motivated by greed and power. And as I notice these faults in others, I challenge myself to increase the opposite in the way I choose to live—with simplicity and generosity.

Cultivating Virtues to Heal a Fractured Nation - Part 2

This post is the second of a three-part series the delves into six virtues I have decided to cultivate in my life in an effort to do my part toward helping heal the divisions in our nation by striving to become a better human myself. This second part of the series focuses on compassion and how we can make sure we are getting the full story to be able to better “step into another’s shoes”. It also focuses on kindness, offering a few thoughts on both kindness to self as well as to others.

Cultivating Virtues to Heal a Fractured Nation - Part 1

In today’s blog post, I share a personal story of a falling out this weekend and how it served to remind me of how I can practice one of my chosen virtues - Honesty. I do a pretty good job at not telling outright lies, as Mom and Dad did a good job in my wee years of instilling that yucky feeling down in the pit of my stomach each time I told a little fib. However, I realize that it is the area of self-deception that could use a bit more focus and attention in my life. I’ll share with you how I go about uncovering these areas, as they can be tricky little buggers to bring to light and resolve.

Embracing New Beginnings

The New Year is a celebration that embodies releasing the past and making a fresh start. I intend to simultaneously embrace what can be learned from 2020 and the opportunities that 2021 holds. And I encourage us all to take advantage of the increased spiritual meaning that the genesis of a new year brings.

The Art of Letting Go to Create Space for What’s Next

This post explains why this week is the perfect time for this letting go and shares insights on different techniques that can be used depending on whether you are letting go of negative thoughts/energies, beliefs, excess things around the house, projects or when necessary, people in your life. A process of intentional reflection can help you more clearly and more intentionally decide what is useful in your life and what would be better off discarded or left behind. Taking steps to create space in our physical, mental and emotional houses is so advantageous in helping to lay a firm foundation for new dreams and future projects. 

Cozy Christmas in Strasbourg and Keeping it Simple this Year

…The time together and the memories created are something I know that we’ll cherish and look back on for years to come. So this post is a trip down memory lane for anyone interested in knowing a little bit about visiting the Christmas markets in Europe, followed by a recipe for Vin Chaud and some thoughts on keeping it simple during the holiday season this year.

Hygge and Soul

…In a year like 2020 where we spend so much time in our homes, they truly serve as our sanctuaries—and hygge can help create that sacred feeling of comfort we could all use so much right now.

Taking Gratitude Up a Notch

…You can also use this connection of mind and body to give more oomph to your gratitude practice. Combined with mindfulness, I have found that a daily gratitude practice is arguably one of the simplest tools you have at your disposal for making positive, long-lasting changes in your life and it is also one of the most powerful.  

Putting Your Own (Face) Mask on First:

Harnessing the Mind-Body Connection

…Yet this amazing connection between your mind and body can also be harnessed in a powerful way to help you reach your goals and simply to create more positivity in your life. This blog post focuses on a few techniques that you can use to maximize the power in your own mind-body connection toward getting all you want out of life.  

Why Indiegogo and why crowdfunding?

As you may be aware, we are getting ready to launch our newest product, the JMB Living Journal very soon. And you may be aware that we’ve decided to using a crowdfunding platform to do so. After careful contemplation, we’ve decided that Indiegogo is the best option for us, as it will give us the ability to get the journals in the mail to everyone a little sooner.

Creating Control Among Chaos with the Enneagram

As the election and the conclusion of 2020 draw near, so many of us are struggling to find a sense of control in the middle of the chaos that this year has become. During a year where the majority of us had no choice but to be at home with our thoughts during quarantine, it has offered an opportunity for deeper self reflection. And in this space, therein also lies the opportunity for a deeper understanding of what you can control - and where the source of this control resides: within.

Ribollita - A Tuscan Vegetable Stew

Ribolita is traditionally a thick Tuscan vegetable stew that is thickened with day old bread. I prefer to simply use a bit less liquid to keep it nice and thick, but if adding the bread appeals to you, a crusty French bread would do nicely. The word Ribollita in Italian means twice boiled or re-boiled. Hence this was often a leftover minestrone soup to which chunks of bread were added just prior to serving..

Tips to Tackle Overwhelm

Have you ever wanted to take on a big project, but continued to procrastinate because you haven’t known where to start? Do you have a dream that has languished because you haven’t managed to figure out how to tackle the overwhelm that looms large every time you attempt to decide where to begin? Are you struggling to work through a challenging situation in your life that feels overwhelming and for which you can’t seem to figure out how to move through? You are not alone my friend. In today’s blog post we’ll talk about some tips to tackle overwhelm and get things moving again.

Celebrating Seasonal Shifts

It’s time for pumpkins, colorful mums, drinking apple cider and more! The fall season is upon us and there are so ways to celebrate this shift of the seasons. Yet if we take our cues from nature, we can reconnect even more deeply with the rhythms and wisdom of this season.

Advantages of an Abundance Mindset

A little clay bull sits beside the computer monitor at my desk to remind me to have an abundance mindset. Why would a clay bull remind me of this you ask? In today’s post I’ll explain the significance behind the bull, tell you a story of how an abundance mindset saved me $10,000 dollars and share some suggestions for cultivating an abundance mindset yourself.

Inspiration for the Home from the Sacred Valley

While snipping and stashing away my lemongrass cuttings before the cold evenings of Autumn begin to set in, my mind travels back to when I first began to enjoy lemongrass in my tea. It was a couple of years ago while in a lovely little dining room at the historic and romantic El Albergue hotel in Ollantaytambo, Peru. I was there for our annual Travel to Transform retreat and each morning we would meander down to the dining room to start our day with a fresh cooked meal and a cup of coca tea to help adjust to the change in altitude. They had a table in the dining room where they set out bowls of freshly cut lemongrass, fresh mint leaves and dried coca leaves (for assisting with the change in altitude), as well as fresh fruit, yogurt, granola and other breakfast goodies.