What’s up with the oranges? Well let me tell you about the oranges. The oranges were the start of how I learned to use mindfulness in my everyday life. How I learned to slow things down and really live in the moment! I took the simple act of peeling an orange and turned it into one of the most powerful and popular classes I teach! When I introduce this class and explain what we are going to do every class has mixed feelings about it! Some people look at me like I am off my ro

Writing became my voice, when I was unable to talk. Over the years I had held back all my emotion, I hid it, kept it locked away, not willing to actually talk or express myself in any manner, acting everyday. I was scared to express myself and sooner or later I just lost the words, they just disappeared. I knew how I felt but had no way of actually saying what I wanted to say, my emotions just sitting there inside me with no way of getting them out. I was a ball of emotion, n

At everyone of my classes or talks that I do, I talked about how I really just wanted to be myself, it was my life long dream. What I wanted to be when I grew up! This also became one of my many affirmations I made for myself as part of my therapy when I started 7 years ago. This affirmation was “I am not afraid to be myself” this affirmation real became the back bone in my life because it really made me think about who I was and what I was doing in my life. Learning what th

It has been 3 years since the official launch of “Why I Run” and I am still blown away that the decision I made to write about my struggles and my recovery from my depression has done so well, reached so many people and has been such a great help. I still remember the morning when after a 14km run I decided to write the intro to “Why I Run” I took a deep breath and I thought to myself. It is all or nothing I am either going to write with total honesty about my life and my str

I have sat and listened now for a long time trying to put into words my feelings about the deaths in St Catharines. I took my time to use the best tool I have my ears. Which is what is missing in this world, people actually listening and wanting to make change where it is needed, not thinking that they can control people’s behaviours or change them, that is the root of the problem… People are not educated when it comes to mental health, they don’t understand at all, and that

Have you ever wanted to just fly away and leave the world behind? Have you ever looked up at the clouds and thought “What would it be like to play in those fluffy masses? How would it feel to be up that high in the air? What do clouds really feel like?” In this meditation, we will do just that: we will push the power of our minds and we will fly to the clouds and play in them, and it will be our own little secret! Flying in the clouds is a meditation that came to me while I w

Learning to forgive is all about self love! I never thought about it that way till I was taught what it really meant to forgive and experienced it first hand in my life. To forgive means taking the time to look at the situation that happened to you with honesty and truly feeling it and truly acknowledging the impact it has had in your life. The emotional and physical responses you have experienced because of this event. But also acknowledging what impact it is having on you n

I while ago I wrote a small blog on Radical Acceptance. Which basically means fully and with out questioning accepting things in life, then taking action to deal with those things we can not change. Accepting that these things happened then moving forward, finding solutions is the next step. We look at what happened and say yes this is what happen and I will learn from this. I will acknowledge the emotional and the physical reactions that happen to me and realize that it was

Today I would like to share an example of just how powerful our minds actually are, how when that power is focused we can accomplish great things. I often talk about this at my talks, that people who struggle with depression, anxiety, and any mental illness are some of the most brilliant and smart people you will ever meet. Their minds just working all the time. But they have never learned how to focus there over active minds in a health way. I have learned over the last 5 ye

Two years have passed since the release of my first book “Why I Run” My story of how I won my life back from the darkness of depression. I have now been in therapy for depression for 5 years. Sometimes going for sessions once a month and other times once a week or once every 2 weeks. The things I have learned about myself, the things I am capable of doing is mind blowing. I never dreamt 5 years ago I would have ever gone to anyone for help with my depression and anxiety. I ha

Three weeks ago, I was given the privilege of interviewing for a Recovery Support Worker position with Niagara Region Mental Health. This was an amazing experience that came about because of the wonderful people I have come in contact with because of my books and talks I do around St Catharines and the Niagara region. These wonder full people in no order helped with letters of recommendation, personal support and so much more, Kristie Robertson, Katie Cino, Susan Mifsud, Kare