Insight-Clarity-Growth Blog- Living Small January 15, 20204 min read I recently read Amanda Lang’s The Beauty of Discomfort. She explains that “As we learn to lean into our discomfort, it will gradually turn into comfort. Our zone of discomfort moves, in other words, as our comfort … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Labyrinth of Life November 5, 20194 min read Several months ago, about three weeks before my dad died, a friend and I walked a small stone labyrinth close to my home. I’d never walked a labyrinth before but thought I was familiar with the concept. … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Allowing January 12, 20194 min read I attended a meditation retreat last summer and heard the poem She Let Go by Safire Rose for the first time. This beautiful poem resonated so deeply with me that I printed it out and put it … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- I Said What? July 19, 20184 min read Today is my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday. Joyce passed away two years ago. I still miss her no-nonsense, real way of looking at life. We didn’t always see eye to eye but now that she is gone I … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Listen May 9, 20184 min read Sometimes innocuous things scare me. Poetry was one of those things. My fear dates back to high school when we had to read poems I didn’t understand, composed of elements I didn’t understand. Iambic pentameter comes to … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Pause July 30, 20173 min read If you follow this blog, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in several months. I’ve been trying to write posts but I haven’t been feeling inspired. So instead of forcing myself to decide whether … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Don’t Take it Personally April 30, 20173 min read How much time have you wasted worrying about why someone was seemingly curt or rude to you? Ruminating about what you might have said or done that offended them? If you are like me, probably too much! … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Authentic Communication April 1, 20173 min read I’ve always considered myself to be a pretty good communicator. I’m a good listener and usually fairly competent at getting my point across. However, after listening to an online talk by the late Dr. Marshall Rosenberg on … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Are You Holding Back? February 7, 20174 min read My daughter has been applying for summer camp counsellor jobs. She’s been a camp counsellor the last three summers, in addition to being a lifeguard and swim instructor during the school year. Pretty darn qualified! So why did … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Fearlessness December 31, 20164 min read Like most people, I have experienced profound, life-threatening fear over the years – meeting a grizzly bear on a walking trail at Lake Louise, spinning out on ice on Highway 401, a bomb threat on a commercial … Continue reading →Lisa Ivaldi
- Living Small January 15, 2020
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Savour Life
3 min read I went through a very busy period last year. I was quickly moving from one task to the next, always rushing and often trying to do more than one thing at once. It was stressful and tiring … Continue reading
Posted in Behaviour, Uncategorized
Tagged insight clarity growth, Lisa Ivaldi, mindfulness
10 Comments
You Can’t Know!
4 min read When my daughter was little she used to say “I can’t know” instead of “I don’t know”. It was very cute, “Where’s your teddy bear?” – “I can’t know!” However, over the years I have come to … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
5 Comments
Lighten Up
3 min read This year I have been reading Pema Chödrön’s Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion. I try and read one of the teachings each morning before I get up. Number 29 struck home so … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
Focus on What You Want
3 min read Back in July 2011 I wrote a blog post about Setting Your Intentions. The general idea was to focus on what you do want and not on what you don’t want. Sounds simple enough, but it is … Continue reading
Illusion
3 min read I recently read an email from my sister-in-law where she mentioned her “baby food processor”. When I jokingly wrote back that I wasn’t even going to ask why my babyless sister-in-law had a baby food processor, I found … Continue reading
Are you excited?
2 min read My 15 year old daughter is always asking me if I am excited about things that are coming up. Even though I am usually looking forward to whatever it is that she is asking about, I can … Continue reading
Preconceptions
3 min read Preconceptions … we all have them, about everything – that guy looks mean, she looks smart, that course will be hard, that jacket will be expensive. We form a judgement “in advance of adequate knowledge or experience” – the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Clarity, Growth, Insight, limiting beliefs, Lisa Ivaldi, perception, preconceptions
2 Comments
Me and My Shadow
3 min read Up until a year or two ago, I had an idea or a mental image of how I should look that was nothing like I actually looked. I had it in my head that other people all … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Clarity, Growth, Insight, Lisa Ivaldi, self-image, shadow, The tools
1 Comment
Choose to be Happy
2 min read We recently watched a movie called Small Apartments. It was pretty offbeat but I’m really glad we watched it because at the very end there was a real nugget of wisdom in the form of a man’s advice to his younger brother: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged choose to be happy, Clarity, control, Growth, happiness, Insight, Lisa Ivaldi
4 Comments
Incremental Change
3 min read Change can be overwhelming. We look at where we are and where we want to be and the gap can seem huge and insurmountable. That’s why, many times, we don’t even try. We can’t. The change appears … Continue reading
