Coming to You From Boston

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Here I am, in my new life. My newly designed life. Not exactly as planned. But I’m thinking outside the box.

We all make plans, right? Where to go to school, what to do for a living, who we want to spend our time with. 

Then plans change. 

The pandemic has changed the trajectory of my new marriage with a closed border that’s made things very complicated for our family. We’ve been married for 2.5 years but the longest we have ever spent together under 1 roof is 3 months. That’s not what I planned. 

Now, I write to you from Boston. Where we plan to spend the next few months together as a blended family. 2 are off to college. 1 teen, 2 school-age, and an elderly dog at home.

We are together. Finally. For another stretch of time, hopefully the longest. 

This life is the one I’m creating. Yes, many things have been out of my control. But how do you colour outside the lines? Think outside the box? (Why don’t Kendall and Joe just live in L.A. AND Chicago??? (for those Bachelor in Paradise fans out there)).

Think outside the box.

What are you stuck on? What in your life isn’t going the way you planned? What if you asked “what if?”

Join me in my Mom’s Group Online for support – www.facebook.com/groups/guiltlessgrace/ 

Let’s brainstorm together how we can all think outside the box a little bit more.

Whitney

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We’re surviving

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Hey there,

I know it’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me.

I’ve been surviving this pandemic thing and staying at home. I’ve been trying to figure out how to support my kids with at-home-learning, while I also try to keep the house clean, and keep going with my business.

The biggest lesson I’m still learning is I don’t have control over everything. If I let go, I’m happier.

Let go of worrying about when the pandemic will end. Let go of trying to control my kids to be “perfect students” at home. Let go of when the government will make decisions.

It’s not always easy, but it’s helpful when I can.

If you are struggling as a mom and are wondering why, download my Isolated Monster Mom – The 3 REAL Reasons You’re Losing Your Cool. It’s got some valuable tricks that you can start using right away.

In the meantime, I’m here for you.

Whitney

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My Word of the Year

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Happy New Year Mama!

New Year’s is always like a fresh start. It’s like a brand new beginning. Where things can be a bit different and you can be a better mom and do things a little bit differently. It gives us a little bit of motivation to try new things, new recipes, new ways of thinking.

Every year I contemplate my intentions for the coming year and I like to pick a word that will encompass or guide my year. Last year my word was faith.

Last year my word was Faith

Faith in myself, faith in my decisions and faith in the future that I was building. Faith that everything was going to work out just as it should. Sometimes the faith wasn’t there or shaky. But I could always return to that word and feel it again.

Have you thought of yours yet? 

For me, how I found it was just thinking about this coming year of 2020. What my vision for it is. How I want to feel. What I hope to accomplish at home, with the kids, at work. I journaled and brainstormed then saw how each word on the page felt for me. 

My word will help guide me over the next year. I can use it to ask myself questions to make sure I’m on the right track. It can help remind me of the core of what I need this year. 

This year my word is Ignite. 

Ignite

I’m ready to ignite my world with more passion, love and fun. To brighten up my family life. To turn mundane into magical. To ignite those around me to feel inspired and hopeful. To ignite the ideas and dreams within me to the surface to burn brightly. To help others ignite the dreams and passions within themselves. So we can all live a life filled with passion and purpose. 

I’d love to know your word if you feel like sharing and why you chose it. 

Whitney

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The Goal of the Stroll

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The house we grew up in backed onto this amazing park with a soccer field and my elementary school. We had this secret door through the big gate that would open up into a world of imagination, play and adventure. I have so many childhood memories that involve friends and cousins and running out through the gate to the park.

The parks and the mature trees and the friendly neighbours are what I love so much about living in my neck of the woods. I love asking my daughters about which park they want to go to and they yell “the purple park!”

What’s even better is that there are amazing health benefits from getting outside and connecting with your neighbours. As a naturopathic doctor who works with moms, babies and kids, I love sharing about all the great reasons why it’s great to get outside and chat with your neighbours.

Park Perks

Being outside in nature just makes us feel good and this is a huge area of new research because of how much time we spend indoors and in front of tech toys like iPads, phones and TV.

Being surrounded by trees, forests and outdoor spaces has numerous health benefits for you and your kids. These include:

  • Improved short-term memory
  • Restored mental energy
  • Stress-relief
  • Lower levels of inflammation
  • Better vision
  • Improved concentration
  • Sharper thinking and creativity
  • Immune system boosts
  • Improved mental health

So, just being outside among the trees of your neighbourhood can really make you feel good.

Neighbourhood Networking

The number of neighbours who we actually know has changed over the years. We spend more time indoors and the nightly news gives us lots of reasons why we should hide out at home.

However, being with others is extremely important to our health. Having a social network helps with longevity. There was a Harvard study of graduates throughout their lifespans and they found that strong relationships are the strongest predictor of life satisfaction.

A lack of social ties is associated with depression and later-life cognitive decline as well as increased mortality. This increase in mortality risk is roughly comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. So having strong relationships is really important!

Connecting with others relieves harmful levels of stress, which can negatively affect coronary arteries, gut function, insulin regulation, and your immune system.

So, let’s get outside more, let’s start talking to our neighbours and forming those relationships with each other, we’ll feel better for it.

Dr. Whitney Young, ND

Dr. Whitney is a Naturopathic Doctor and Super Baby Coach who has a special focus on fertility, pregnancy and children’s health. She is the founder of Guiltless Grace – an online community for moms who want to ditch the Mommy Guilt!

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9 Choices of Extremely Happy People

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IMG_1791I’ve been receiving The Eco Parent magazine which is a fabulous magazines and I highly recommend subscriptions to it. I pulled out an article about “sustainable happiness”  a few months ago and it has been sitting on my desk. I love each point and I think it’s a worthwhile list to revisit every couple of months to make sure you are on your own path to your unique happiness.

Here is how we choose to be happy: The 9 choices of extremely happy people  – by Rick Foster & Greg Hicks. Putnam, New York: 1999.

  1. Intention. The active desire and commitment to be happy, and the fully conscious decision to choose happiness over unhappiness.
  2. Accountability. The choice to create the life you want to live; to assume full personal responsibility for your actions, thoughts, and feelings, and the emphatic refusal to blame others for your unhappiness.
  3. Identification. The ongoing process of looking deeply within yourself to assess what makes you uniquely happy, apart from what you’re told by others should make you happy.
  4. Centrality. The non-negotiable insistence on making that which creates happiness central in your life.
  5. Recasting. The choice to convert problems into opportunities and challenges, and to transform trauma into something meaningful, important, and a source of emotional energy.
  6. Options. The decision to approach life by creating multiple scenarios; to be open to new possibilities and to adopt a flexible approach to life’s journey.
  7. Appreciation. The choice to appreciate deeply your life and the people in it, and to stay in the present by turning each experience into something precious.
  8. Giving. The choice to share yourself with friends and community and to give to the world at large without the expectation of a “return.”
  9. Truthfulness. The choice to be honest with yourself and others in an accountable manner by not allowing societal, corporate, or family demands to violate your internal contract.

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