Did you go grocery shopping in the early afternoon of Friday, June 25, 2010? If so, this letter is for you. If not, read it anyway. It’s message is still for you.

Dear Fellow  Shopper:

While you were entering or leaving the store, did you notice me? I was the one sitting next to a concrete pole, trying to catch my breath and gather my bearings. The one whose three-year-old son was standing next to, confused and a little afraid.

I was the the one with the obvious bright red spot on my right knee. The one with the golf-ball sized lump right above her right eye.

I know at least two of you saw me. One of you was leaving the store right behind me. You saw me trip and fall face-down on the concrete.

But you just walked by me. Did you think I was wearing a helmet or something? Or acting?

I also know that you, the sixty- or seventy-something, man saw me. I know, because you looked down at me as you exited the store with your shopping cart loaded with goods. And walked right on by without a word.

Did you have ice cream in your cart and was afraid it would melt in the heat? Or did you figure at your age you’d had your share of troubles, and that you deserved to be free from the bother of helping a mother who was obviously suffering?

A few others walked by me, and never even slowed their pace. Is seeing someone sitting on the path in front of a grocery store, looking distressed and checking her mouth for loose teeth, such a common thing?

Am I being too hard on you all? Maybe you just figured that someone else was in the process of helping me, or that I was one of those “liberated” women who can do it all herself? I can accept that excuse – poor as it is – for most of you.

You who actually saw me fall and crack my forehead and skin my knee on the cement, on the other hand, you deserve every bit of shame and embarrassment that comes into your life.

Were you the customer entering the store who looked at me with alarm and asked, “Are you all right?” If so, a thousand thanks. Do you realize you were the only customer who noticed and had compassion on me?

Were you one of the two employees who saw me and asked if I needed help? I thank you, but I have to ask: if you had been a customer instead of an employee, would you done anything?

To all of you grocery shoppers on June 25, 2010, even the one who ignored my painful, potentially perilous fall: I forgive you.

But I will ask you to search your hearts and ask yourself this question: “Is this the kind of person I am supposed to be?”

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Maybe you just need some Masaji to clear out the indifference and lack of compassion.

Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.

For me, one of the most vital themes of John Robbins’ book Healthy at 100 is the effects of stress on health and longevity. After finishing that book about six weeks ago, I began living without a watch.

Let me explain. For most of my teenage and all of my adult life, I have worn a wristwatch. Unless I was swimming, showering, or bathing the watch was my constant companion. I hate to be late – my personal motto is “Better early than on time” – and my watch helped me to always be the first to appear at any function. As a teacher, I needed a watch for recess and field trips.

God forbid I allow my kids to play a second longer than the fifteen minutes allotted during the school day, and if on field trip days we didn’t show up when the bus driver said he or she would be there, we would be stuck.

In my personal life, I’m always in the middle of five projects, and my watched helped me to keep a schedule so that I would finish every project as quickly and as efficiently as possible. And of course snacks and mealtimes must occur at precise hours of the day, and my watch helped to assure that I would be home at the exact time necessary to eat.

But some time in the last three and a half years I began to experience an internal struggle with time. Suddenly, I had this particular baby who wanted to be nursed at all hours of the day. His sleep schedule changed with every moon phase, new tooth and growth spurt.

My need (?) to live a scheduled life conflicted with Benjamin’s obvious more time-flexible personality, and this caused me much grief. Stress.

The effects of stress in the area of time-keeping were subtle. They no doubt contributed to my struggle with motherhood (although that was probably more nutrition-related) and occasionally suppressed immune function.

The crazy thing is, once I became a stay-at-home mom, I no longer needed to live with a rigid schedule. Who cared if I showed up at Whole Foods at eleven instead of ten-thirty? Did it really matter if I was five minutes late to a playdate? And for crying out loud, it wouldn’t kill me to eat dinner thirty minutes later than usual!

Although I knew all this in the back of my head, knew that my acute awareness of time was probably causing me stress-related illness, it didn’t sink in until I read Robbins’ book.

So now, I no longer wear a watch. Sure, I look up at the clock on the microwave or the one in my car. But you will no longer catch me glancing at my wrist while running through Target. Or staring at it every minute during our last ten minutes at the park to make sure we leave “on time.”

Although I still make sure I am on time for any outside scheduled event, meal and snack times are now a lot more flexible. I get things done when I can get them done, and don’t worry about being “late.” And Benjamin has a somewhat mellower mommy.

I can feel the difference. I can tell that caring less about time is helping me to be happier and healthier. It is helping me to enjoy life more fully.

Living without a watch has been the best decision I’ve made in recent months.

Just please make sure,  if I meet you for a playdate in the park one day, that you have your cell phone on hand. I might need to ask you what time it is, for old time’s sake.

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Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.

What is the importance of love as it relates to your health and personal freedom? Is it possible to live up to your full potential and experience optimum health if you live in isolation, or use the people in your life only as stepping stones to get what you want?

When I began reading John Robbins’ book, Healthy at 100, I had great expectations. I had read a bit about the lives of the longest-lived people on earth, and was eager to find out all the juicy details of their daily lives, that I might get clued in a little more as to how to further impact my own health and longevity in a positive way.

I knew I would read about diet, exercise and the like; but I was surprised at Robbins’ emphasis on community and relationships. Of course I realize that people who have friends and good family relationships have a decreased risk of developing various and sundry diseases. It just never occurred to me that love might trump all else in determining how long I live in excellent health.

Upon contemplation of this idea, I began to see that love is crucial for a fulfilling life in many ways. Here are five:

1. The act of loving brings better health.

When you do something that shows love to another person, your brain releases the feel-good chemicals. These not only relieve you of stress, but provide improved mental clarity and help to boost your immune system.

2. Receiving love makes you feel more secure.

When you have someone in your life who loves you, you gain a sense of security. You therefore become more confident in yourself and your abilities, and therefore are more apt to take the necessary risks to go after your dreams and goals.

3. Loving thoughts can lengthen your life.

Your body needs to maintain a slightly alkaline state in order to be able to be at its highest state of health. Thinking loving thoughts helps to keep this alkaline state. Negative thoughts, on the other hand, turn your bodily fluids more acid, depleting your body of vital minerals and increasing your chance of developing illness and disease.

4. Love strengthens and encourages.

When you have ample loving relationships in your life, you can more easily endure and walk through life’s challenges.

5. Love conquers all.

I can’t complete and article about love without quoting from the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians: “Love never fails.” Never fails to heal. Never fails to help. Never fails to bring you back from despair. Never fails to give you the ongoing support you need to live life to the fullest.

In other words, love conquers all. When your heart is full of love, and you are surrounded by loving people, you can overcome anything because you have the greatest source of strength in the universe.

Do you take as much time to make yourself beautiful inside as you do on the outside?

Woman applying mascara

Many natural-living sites have articles or blog posts that teach you about chemical-free beauty products. (Even me: see this article and this blog post.) But if you look like Miss America but act like Atilla the Hun, you won’t be attractive to anyone who gets to know you.

Do you regularly find yourself doing any of the following?

• Complaining
• Gossiping
• Throwing a tantrum (slamming doors, screaming, giving your partner the silent treatment, etc.)
• Having hateful thoughts toward someone you believe wronged you
• Arguing in order to prove yourself right

If so, perhaps it’s time to put away your makeup kit for a few days and use the extra time to focus on what really matters: your attitude.

A negative attitude is not only annoying to the people around you, but detrimental to your health, as well. Are you aware that negative thoughts disrupt the delicate balance of your bodily fluids and make you considerably more vulnerable to illness and disease?

Furthermore, when you walk around with a dark cloud over your head, you can’t see the light that surrounds you. And if you are blinded to all the good things–a faithful spouse, helpful friends, opportunities, sunrises and sunsets–you will become stagnated in your life. Your mind will tell you that you can’t achieve your goals, and you will believe it. You will walk right past wide-open doors of opportunity to improve yourself spiritually, financially, physically, and emotionally.

However, when you have a positive attitude, the opposite happens. You believe bigger, and therefore achieve more. You see others as helpful and friendly, and they respond in kind. You take every opportunity you can to better yourself, therefore life is constantly a fun challenge and you continually grow.

And, of course, you get healthier in the process.

So how can you go from grump to great? Here are five steps to help you along the way toward increased inner beauty.

1. Recognize, write down, and release grudges.

If you are holding on to unforgiveness, the only person being punished is you. Seek Divine help, and then psychological help, if necessary. Announce out loud that you forgive so-and-so for thus-and-such. Let as many cleansing tears fall as necessary, but do not continue holding the grudge.

2. Make three positive statements for every negative one.

Whenever you catch yourself saying something negative–whether about yourself, someone else, or a situation–make yourself think of and say aloud three positive ones. The more you do this, the more you will get tired of doing it and eventually stop saying negative things just so you won’t have to think so much.

3. Start a Gratitude Journal.

Every evening for a month, write down five things that happened that day for which you are grateful. After two weeks, you will probably be looking for things to be thankful for during the day, and your complaining will drop off so much that your friends will ask if you’ve started taking a new medication.

4. Use essential oils.

If you’re a woman like me, you may be perfectly happy for two weeks out of every month, but as soon as you ovulate, boy, watch out! If PMS is the main culprit for your negativity, essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, and (especially, I’ve found) rosemary can turn your bad mood around in a matter of minutes. The absolute best and most effective oils are provided by Be Young.

5. Phrase your goals as questions.

This puts your subconscious to work, both in keeping you in a more positive frame of mind and in finding answers to questions, with little work on your part.

For example, if you want to get out of debt, ask, “How did I get out of debt so quickly?” If you want to lose weight, ask, “Why is taking off thirty pounds so easy?” If you want to eat healthier, ask, “Why is it so easy for me to stick to a healthy diet?” Whenever your mind brings up a related negative thought, shoot it down by asking your goal-question.

(By the way, The Goals Guy is an awesome resource for people who need help putting the right focus on the right things in order to achieve their goals.)

Tired of hearing yourself whine? Or of your irrational mood swings? Put these steps into action, and begin to transform your life in a wonderful, positive way!

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P.S.–Did you know that nutritional deficiencies can lead directly to negative thinking and emotions? Read my personal story at http://maqui-and-friends.com.

Laughter may truly be the best medicine. So in the spirit of living in abundant health, I’d like to give you the gift of humor and laughter this Christmas.

Here’s a joke from a site I just discovered, cleanjoke.com. A site I will begin visiting with some regularity, I think.

Little Johnnie desperately wanted a bright red wagon for Christmas.

His friends were writing letters to Santa Claus, but Johnnie decided to go one better.

“Dear Jesus,” he wrote. “If I get a red wagon for Christmas, I won’t fight with my brother Hank for a year.” Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, Hank is such a brat, I could never, ever keep that promise. So Johnnie threw away the letter and started again.

“Dear Jesus, if I get a red wagon for Christmas, I will eat all my vegetables for a year.” Then Johnnie thought, Oh, no, that means spinach, broccoli and asparagus. Yuck! I could never ever keep that promise.

Suddenly Johnnie had an idea. He went downstairs to the living room. From the mantel above the fireplace, he grabbed the family’s statue of the Virgin Mary. Taking the statue to the kitchen he wrapped it in newspapers and stuffed it into a grocery bag. He took the bag upstairs to his room, opened the closet and placed the package in the farthest, darkest corner.

He then closed the closet door, took a new sheet of paper and wrote, “Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again…”

Merry Christmas from The Crunchy Coach.

Family at Thanksgiving

Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving for us U.S. citizens. It’s the day we’re supposed to focus on being grateful for our many blessings in life, to express gratitude to God and to our loved ones for all the good things we have.

But if you choose to walk in an “attitude of gratitude” only one day a year, you are most likely sabotaging not only your health, but also your personal success. Complaining–whether in your head or out loud–and envying other people bring on negative emotions that depress the immune system and deplete your mineral reserves.

And you get what you focus on. So what happens when you’re constantly focused on what’s wrong with your life, or what you don’t have? Answer: your life doesn’t get any better. In fact, it may get worse.

I admit that I am just as guilty as the next person about whining and complaining about my life not being perfect. But I’ve determined that I am going to consciously change my thoughts and my speech so that I can more easily reach my goals. To that end, I’m going to begin this Thanksgiving holiday by changing what have been recent complaints into expressions of gratitude. Here I go:

1. I’m thankful that although he still needs a diaper for nighttime, Benjamin gets every poop into the toilet.
2. I’m thankful that because Jerry leaves the house to work every day, I get to stay home with Benjamin.
3. I’m grateful that Benjamin has lungs healthy enough to scream, and legs strong enough to run away from me.
4. I’m happy we live in a house that is a bit too big, so that the cats can escape from Benjamin.
5. I’m happy that my husband doesn’t notice when the floors haven’t been swept for two weeks.
6. I’m grateful for the world of blogging, where I can write to my heart’s content and be instantly published with no rejection letters.
7. I’m thankful that our refrigerator is always so full of food that I have difficulty finding a place for the newly bought groceries every week.
8. I’m thankful that Benjamin craves my and Jerry’s attention, a sign to me that he is sociable and bonded to his parents.

I could probably list more if I wanted to take the time, but right now, Benjamin is showing that he is sociable and bonded to his parents.

What complaints have you been carrying that you should turn into an expression of thankfulness?

Dealing with PMS mood swings has been the bane of my (and in recent years, my husband’s) existence. Despite eating all the right foods, avoiding the wrong foods, etc., I still experience an emotional rollercoaster ride several days each month. And it always hits without warning.

I thought I would have to endure mood swings through menopause. I mean, I was doing everything I could, right? Then one day, I was searching online for natural health remedies in general, and ran across a website about Bach Flower Therapy.

Back in the 1930′s, Dr. Edward Bach got fed up with conventional medicine and set out to find a method of treating disease that was even more pure than homeopathy. In the process, he discovered that extracts from different flowers alleviated particular emotional states of distress.

There is a Bach Flower Remedy (which you can find here) for every emotional problem; for example, to help a timid person feel more confident, an impatient person feel calmer, an irritable person feel happy. This sounds too good to be true, I thought.

Then I went to one of my crunchy mama forums and found a thread about Rescue Remedy, a combination of Bach remedies that some mamas were saying instantly stopped their kids’ tantrums. I was intrigued.

Could it help with PMS?

Not too many days later, I bought a bottle of the mustard, which “brings back joy and cheerfulness when gloom descends for no obvious reason”, and a bottle of the cherry plum, which “helps you act rationally and think clearly with a calm and balanced mind when you fear losing control.” I was armed and ready.

About a week before my next period, I woke up wanting to do great violence to somebody. When I realized that my mood was hormonally related, I prepare the Bach essences. I had read that you can combine them, so I did: I half-filled a glass with water and put two drops from each of the two bottles of Bach Therapy in the water.

And I began to sip it down. A sip here, a couple more sips, and I went out to do some work in the garden. Five minutes later the heavy cloud that had been crushing me down was completely gone. And I didn’t have any more moodiness the rest of the day.

I have taken it several times since then. Every time, a mood that previously would have persisted for three hours was gone within ten minutes.

Amazing.

Except that it leaves me with one burning question:

Where were Bach Flower Essences when I was a teenager?

And remember, they were not created as a PMS remedy per se. Rescue Remedy, for example, was formulated to help anyone of either gender that is under stress–even kids throwing a tantrum! Whether you’re struggling with feeling overwhelmed, depression, anger, or fear, Bach Flower has a remedy for you. There are even remedies for your cat and dog!

Although the remedies are formulated with alcohol, since you take mere drops at a time they have no negative effect whatsoever on your system.

Finally, a natural and effective way to get rid of mood swings! (What are you waiting for? )

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Since writing this post, I have discovered something that works better than Bach Flower remedies – and it has no alcohol, a big downside with the Bach Flower.

Several essential oils work as fast and as well as, if not better than, the Bach Flower. Chamomile and lavendar are two. The one I’ve found that works best for me is rosemary essential oil.

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Learn the principles of living in optimum health.

Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils. Combined with a proper diet, essential oils can help the body along in healing cancer.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.

Holiday stress: The state of being overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of activities and errands during the period beginning November 1 and ending January 1.

In our material-driven society today, stress during the holidays has become so commonplace that fewer and fewer people truly enjoy the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Besides your regular duties and activities, you may be expected to send out cards, prepare fancy meals, buy gifts, show up at every party, and/or bake goodies (or spend your hard-earned money in the grocery store bakery department).

If you are a parent with children under the age of eighteen, life is all the more complicated during those two months. Chauffering, classroom-party volunteering, and trying to figure out how to balance your Christmas budget against all the things your kids are asking for threaten to bring you to the brink of your sanity.

And, may I say, if you are striving to live as natural and simple a life as possible, all these expectations most certainly drive you out of your tree. Is there not a way, you ask yourself, to have fun over the holidays without turning those days into Materialism Madness?

If you’re looking for ways to reduce holiday stress for both you and your family, the following five tips will help you enormously.

Tip #1: Ditch the Christmas card tradition

So you’re mother’s cousin’s niece will get offended if you stop sending her a paper card every year. Even though you met her only once fifteen years ago and haven’t talked to her since. So what?

Two years ago I decided to stop playing the Christmas card game. Instead, I began sending a monthly family e-newsletter to friends and family. I figured it would be more meaningful than sending the same old Nativity picture or cheesy drawing of Santa, as everyone would get to hear what we were up to on a monthly basis.

I think I figured correctly, as several people on my newsletter list have told me that they enjoy hearing our regular family updates.

If you’re not quite ready to completely stop sending Christmas cards, save yourself time and money and send out e-cards.

Tip #2: Limit party-going

If various members of your family often get invited to two or more Christmas parties per year, make a rule that limits each member to one party each. The exception is if someone on your block has a party, which eliminates any commuting. But in that case, make sure all of your children can attend so you don’t end up refereeing the “it’s not fair” argument.

Tip #3: Simplify gift-giving

Here are some ideas on how to do that:

• Limit gift-giving to nuclear family members only, or convince your material-minded extended family members to draw names so that each person has to buy only one gift for the person whose name they drew. I know that is hard to do in some families. But you never know; your cousins may loathe trying to figure out your annual gift just as much as you despise figuring out theirs.
• For your kids, use the Jesus gift rule: “Jesus received three presents; so you will receive three presents.” You as parents can decide to get each other one to three gifts, or none at all. While you’re at it, be “green” and order from online stores that sell only fair-trade items, such as Gifts With Humanity or Craftsbury Kids.
• Pool the money you would have spent on gifts and use it to “buy” an extra-special vacation. Older kids would love to help figure out where to go and what to do. If you homeschool (or even if you don’t), you could turn this idea into a budgeting project.

Tip #4: Save the sweets.

I’m about to get really heretical now.

Don’t bake any special cookies. Or, if that is an important part of your holiday tradition, bake one batch every couple of weeks with your children’s assistance (kids over the age of eight may even be able to whip up a batch of sugar cookies by themselves).

Believe me, your kids will be exposed to way more sweets than you want them to in that short period of time known as “the holidays.” If you decide to put up your feet and read a good book instead of knocking yourself out to prepare foods that will probably just depress everyone’s immune system anyway take away time and energy from your already too-busy life, you will definitely reduce the amount of holiday stress you experience.

Tip #5: Don’t travel

For the first time in my whole life, last Christmas I did not return to Minnesota–where my mom and siblings live–to celebrate. Neither did we visit to any of my husband’s relatives in Louisiana. And we agreed that it was the most relaxing Christmas we’d ever had.

Yes, your in-laws might get bent out of shape. Patiently explain that you want your holidays to be low-key, and to establish unique family traditions with your own children, and that you would be happy to visit another time of year.

Got any more ideas on how to make the holidays a more relaxing time of the year? Share them below!

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Learn the principles of living in optimum health.

Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils. Combined with a proper diet, essential oils can help the body along in healing cancer.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.

For centuries, non-Western health practictioners have understood how emotions affect your health.  They have taught that relaxation and meditation techniques enhance the body’s innate ability to heal itself. They have seen otherwise fatal diseases and conditions turned around merely by a patient changing his or her thought processes.

Finally, Western science is catching up with this marvelous truth. Below is an excerpt from a recent article posted on mercola.com:

[An experiment] done by the Institute of Heartmath…involved human placental DNA, which is the most pristine form of DNA. It was again placed into a container from which they could measure its changes.

Twenty-eight vials of DNA were given to 28 researchers, who were specially trained in how to generate and feel strong emotions on demand. The results were astounding.

Each DNA sample changed shape according to its researcher’s feelings:

1. When the researchers felt love, joy, and gratitude, the DNA responded by relaxing: the strands unwound and actually lengthened.
2. When the researchers felt anger, fear, frustration, or stress, the DNA tightened up, became shorter, and even switched off many of its codes!
3. When the researchers felt love, joy, and gratitude again, the codes switched back on.

The experiment was later followed up by testing HIV-positive patients. Here, researchers discovered that feelings of love, joy and gratitude resulted in the HIV patients becoming 300,000 times more resistant to the virus than when they were not feeling these emotions.

What do you think? Do emotions affect your health?

“The codes” being referred to are the innumerable “commands”, if you will, that instruct the cells in a person’s body how to act. DNA codes inform everything from hair color to reactions to toxins to personality to immune system response.

And this study shows that when DNA is placed under stress, it may actually shut down some of its codes. When that happens, your body cannot function at an optimal level. Your health becomes adversely affected, and your risk of disease increases.

So, what’ll it be? Happy or depressed? Angry or at peace? Trusting or fearful?

I realize that it’s hard to just switch negative emotions off sometimes. If you (or someone you know) struggle with chronic negativity, whether it be depression or anger or any other emotional issue, I have two resources to offer.

1. GrowthCentral.com They offer materials to help you overcome such emotional difficulties as depression and anger.

2. GoalsGuy.com Often, negative emotions result in not having direction in life, or having lost that direction by overwhelming circumstances. The Goals Guy exist to help people to find direction, and to achieve the necessary goals to move in that direction.

May your days be merry and bright.

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Learn the principles of living in optimum health.

Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils. Combined with a proper diet, essential oils can help the body along in healing cancer.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.

Time management is a tricky, yet crucial, skill to learn in today’s busy world. Setting goals is another skill that eludes us busy people. Between jobs, schedules, kids, and various activities the common cry is, “But I don’t have time to set goals!”

The problem with that mindset is that you end up running around in circles, getting nowhere in life and never coming close to achieving what you really want. You have to re-prioritize and make time to set goals. Where can you find that time? Give up television for the rest of your life a couple of evenings. Say “no” — just one time — to the weekly Sunday brunch you have with friends. Get up thirty minutes early for a week, and dedicate that time to goal-writing.

See, you can find time to make and write goals if doing so is important to you.

As it should be. Without goals, you cannot effectively manage your time, because you don’t really know what you want you (or your family) to accomplish.

Sure, you can create arbitrary schedules. “Wake kids at 7. To school at 7:45. Pick up groceries before work, because I have carpool this afternoon. Go to work at 8:30. Business lunch at 12:30. Etc. Etc.” But this isn’t time management. It’s schedule management. True time management goes beyond the basics of day-to-day living and moves you toward the achievement of specific goals.

For example, if one of your goals is to write an article for a popular magazine, but you work a day job, you might manage your time this way: spend an hour before work and an hour after work Monday and Tuesday brainstorming and researching for the article, then on Wednesday through Friday spend those hours writing the first draft of the article.

Or, if you want your family to spend more time together, you will make sure that everyone has the hour of 7 to 8p.m. free at least three nights a week, and make plans to spend Saturday morning (or afternoon) having fun together. Those are examples of time management, rather than schedule management. You’re making time to achieve your goals, rather than just focusing on a daily routine of a stressful and/or boring life.

As a work-at-home mom of a busy toddler-turning-preschooler, I’ve found time management to be especially challenging. Benjamin is extremely jealous of my laptop, and prefers to play with Mommy (or at least sit in her lap) over entertaining himself. And now it seems he may be giving up his naps. *Sigh.*

The problem is, writing this blog isn’t the only thing I have going. I’ve set other goals, have other projects on the back burner that I want to move to the front burner.

And I have, maybe, a total of two-and-a-half hours during the day and evenings that I can work. Something’s gotta give.

My initial plan for this blog was to be able to write one post a day for every weekday, occasionally taking Wednesdays off. In the interest of being able to forge ahead with other projects without frustrating my son (or husband), I have decided to post on TheCrunchyCoach blog four days a week, using Wednesdays to work on other things.

That might be just as well. After all, I’ll be able to continually come up with fresh posts on new topics if I’m not posting every day, right?

Anyway, here’s the point: make time to set goals, then make time to work toward those goals. And if real life ends up not matching with your ideal time management system, modify it (the system, not your life ).

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Learn the principles of living in optimum health.

Looking for natural, chemical-free treatments and cures that work? Try undiluted, unadulterated essential oils.

There is no better supplement than Masaji. Find out how it changed my life here.

You’re improving your health; ready to get really free? Check out my other blog, freetoliveyourdreams.com.