As my Facebook news feed fills with first day of school photos with freshly cut bangs, college dorm rooms with new comforters and matching pillows with scripted initials hanging overhead, sorority girls wearing matching clothing doing I don't know what (never joined a sorority, but that's another post), cars loaded with college gear, and for my East Coast friends photos of kiddos returning from summer sleep-away camp..I can't help but think back to a year ago today. Moving my middle son into college (even making his bed), for his Freshman year, driving my then 10th grader back and forth to band camp practice, and wondering about my college senior's future.

What a difference a year makes. My now 11th grader, wakes herself up and drives to band camp as I roll over in bed.  My now sophomore son loaded up his car, drove himself to college and has hopefully unpacked, and my college graduate now lives in Washington DC, employed and paying his own rent. A year ago I could not have even imagined!

What seemed so challenging and emotional last year, does not even seem like it should have been a hurdle this year.  I have noticed this same sentiment among the clients I have worked with this past year.  A client who a year ago could not imagine going gluten-free is now bragging to me about all the yummy quinoa recipes she is preparing. My " I am too tired to exercise" client is now out after work walking the dog or doing yoga moves in the morning before work.

What seems foreign to us seems hard.  What is not a part of our usual routine and pattern is outside of our comfort zone, and this unknown...its SCARY! When I left my son at school last year I had to adjust to a "new normal", and with each passing day the newness and emptiness I felt became my "new normal" and it became easier. The same is true with new health habits.

The more you add drinking water to your routine the less you will have to remind yourself to drink it.  The more you take time out of your day for self-care the more you will become aware that you are a bit "off" when you skip it.

I am writing this post as I sit here at the Dallas County Courthouse serving jury duty. We are blessed in this country to have the freedoms and judicial system we have. We are free to choose how we worship, where we send our children to school, what we choose as our career, what and how we eat, and how we take care of ourselves. I encourage us to appreciate these freedoms, and while it may be scary at times to embrace the changes we want to make in our lives, we must do so with gratitude and trust in our ability to navigate these new roads.

To learn more about my health coaching email harmonioushealth@sbcglobal.net or visit my website

Fondly,
Suzy



Photo from my most recent "change embracing" climb up these rocks in Utah on the Iron Canyon hiking trail!!