Balance – Page 3 – Melissa Schlies

Change is Coming

About a month into my freshman year of college, I was recruited by a local youth pastor to volunteer in his youth ministry. Two months later, after I fell in love with the students and was invested in the program, he announced he was leaving. Suddenly, my volunteer role began to get a whole lot bigger. There are times, you don’t see change coming. Whether good or bad, it seems to fall out of the air and land right in front of you, interrupting your path. At times, altering it forever. Thankfully though, this isn’t the only way change occurs [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-11-08T18:20:12+00:00November 9th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Change, Creativity, Preparation|Comments Off

Scary Movies, Scary Times, & Taking Care of Yourself

When I was a youth pastor, many of my students liked horror movies. In between church services or during our after school program, they’d tell me about the latest film they’d seen. Then, I’d ask them why they liked it, and they couldn’t always say. But they did tell me, they liked the rush it gave them of being afraid. Now, what I usually didn’t tell my students was that: I hate scary movies. For me, stories—whether in books or movies—often live on in my brain for a while after I read or see them. The characters find me in [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-11-01T22:14:04+00:00November 2nd, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Declutter Your Mind, Fear, Health, Self Care|Comments Off

This Isn’t the Season

Last week, on a cool fall morning, Tony and I walked down the streets of our new city. Though we’ve been here about a hundred times over the past fifteen years, I still say, “New” because we live here now. We’re no longer visiting. That day, we were heading to do our annual screening for our health insurance. When we arrived, we checked in with the receptionist. Then one at a time, we went into a small room where the technician drew the curtain. She measured our height, waist, and—the part I was dreading—our weight. But as she said my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-22T00:39:09+00:00October 22nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Balance, Body Image, Change, discipline, Failure, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Practice, Self Care|Comments Off

What To Do When Finding Your Routine Feels Impossible

When I was a teenager, every September, I’d get grumpy. Not because I was upset to be back at school. In fact, if you look at my extracurriculars in High School, you’d see I practically lived there. But each fall, the beginning of a new year was especially difficult for me. (This is where I send a shout out to my mom for loving my teenage self) For almost the entire first month of school, I’d come home every afternoon in a horrible mood. I was exhausted from my day, overwhelmed by homework, and basically hated my life. But then, [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-16T14:39:15+00:00October 19th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Change, discipline, Habit Making, Health, Hope, Practice, Purpose, Routines, Self Care|Comments Off

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

Have I ever told you, fall is my favorite season? The beautiful colors the leaves on the trees turn mesmerizes me. The weather is finally cool enough to bake, which is convenient because I love almost anything baked with locally grown apples or pumpkin. And there is just something in the air that makes me want to walk downtown to the farmers market, or find a hiking trail nearby. Fall is fantastic. Only fall is also when, every four years, our country faces its most crucial election season. Yards are marked with candidate signs. Social Media is more politically charged [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-14T23:42:06+00:00October 15th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Conflict, Fear, Habit Making, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Relationships, Self Care|Comments Off

Don’t Forget To Be Still

“When we feel like there isn’t enough time in the day for us to get everything done, when we wish for more time, we don’t actually need more time. We need more stillness.” —Christine Carter One of the scariest things to do, when we feel stressed, is to stop. To put down what we’re doing, and to cease our productivity. Only sometimes, what we need more than anything, seems to be the most counterintuitive: We need to take a break. Unfortunately, last week, I was reminded of this truth in one of the most inconvenient—yet effective ways: I pulled my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-08T00:06:06+00:00October 8th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Practice, Self Care|Comments Off

On Mountaintop Tea Parties & Remembering What’s Most Important

Friends, I have one last travel story for this month. Hope you enjoyed this series, as much as I did. And, if you have any travel stories of your own you’d like to share—please do so in the comments section! One of my favorite travel memories, didn’t happen to me. In other words, what I am about to tell you is not an experience of my own. Rather, it is one I witnessed on the top of Cadillac Mountain, in Maine, just before sunrise. Now, I realize most people on their vacations rarely ever see the sunrise. But, as it [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-27T19:54:43+00:00September 28th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Balance, FOMO, Food, Relationships, Social Distancing, Staycation, Travel|Comments Off

Why It’s Important to Make Time for “Us” —Even In the Time of Covid

This past weekend, Tony and I took a trip with our closest friends to the Finger Lakes in New York. There we had “socially distanced” wine tastings. We hiked the gorge in Watkins Glen with our masks on. And we ate almost all of our meals at the little cottage we rented. Proving that traveling in the time of COVID is challenging, but not impossible. If someone was to ask me and Tony what makes our marriage not only work, but also thrive, we’d probably tell them two things. In seasons like these, travel can often feel like a luxury. [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-23T21:05:08+00:00September 24th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Marriage, Mental Health, Relationships, Travel|Comments Off

Three Things To Do If You Didn’t Get the Vacation You Needed

Earlier this week, I woke up feeling cold. It’s finally been cool enough to open our windows in Pennsylvania. Only one morning our windows were still open, and it was forty-eight degrees outside. It felt like I went to bed and it was summer time, then I woke up and Now it is fall. Where did this year go? In some ways, many of us can take solace in the fact that 2020 isn’t dragging its heels. As, let’s be honest—none of us will be sad to see it go. But probably like me, you too are feeling that in [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-09-16T20:53:52+00:00September 17th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Practice, Saying No, Self Care, Staycation|Comments Off

On Exploring Tuscany & Five Life Changing Facts About Self Care

For the next few weeks, I am re-sharing a few stories from trips we’ve taken, for all those of us who are missing travel terribly. It was a Tuesday, and we were in Tuscany.* We had driven over an hour to the small medieval city of Montalcino known most for its Brunello wine. Only the last thing on my mind was wine tasting or the way the sun warmly reflected off its streets made of stone. I had to pee. We’d found parking in a lot below the wall of Montalcino which meant we had to climb the steep hill [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-31T15:16:19+00:00September 3rd, 2020|Categories: Balance, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Self Care|Comments Off

Change is Coming

Scary Movies, Scary Times, & Taking Care of Yourself

This Isn’t the Season

What To Do When Finding Your Routine Feels Impossible

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

Don’t Forget To Be Still

Why It’s Important to Make Time for “Us” —Even In the Time of Covid

Three Things To Do If You Didn’t Get the Vacation You Needed

On Exploring Tuscany & Five Life Changing Facts About Self Care

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