Balance – Page 5 – Melissa Schlies

Social Distancing: Five Tips To Working From Home

It’s a strange thing to find oneself at home interminably, when so much of your life has been at your job. If you live alone, all of a sudden everything is very quiet and still. If you have kids, it’s the opposite. And, if your home has become your work place, it is all the stranger. To do work in the place you rest feels unnatural, and terribly distracting. Yet this is where most of us have found ourselves this past week: Working from home. As I decided to pursue writing and life coaching a few years ago, this reality [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-18T23:19:26+00:00March 19th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Creativity, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Preparation, Routines, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

It is the second to last day of January. How did that happen? I don’t know about you, but 2020 has already thrown me a few surprises. Some good, some really hard, and more than a few I am not ready for—yet here we are. And as much as my planner self hates to admit, there are only a few things we actually have control over in life. We can fill out our Start Here: Dream Planners, and come up with brilliant strategies for how we want to approach 2020. But that doesn’t mean everything is going to go to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:40:25+00:00January 30th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Freedom, Health, Hope, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, podcasts I love|Comments Off

In 2020, Let’s Use A New Word

One day, this past year, I sat in child’s pose on my yoga mat. I was in my living room, streaming a yoga class on my laptop. And like any class you’ve taken more than two or three times, I was only half paying attention. I knew what I needed to do (breathe). And I knew what I needed to do next (downward dog). But then, the instructor said something I had heard her say before. Only this time, the full meaning of her words took root. She said, “Today, pay attention to where you are at in your practice.” [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:37:38+00:00January 20th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Change, discipline, Failure, Habit Making, perseverance, Practice, Preparation, Routines|Comments Off

Three Things to Remember About Making New Year’s Goals

As I shared last week, I love a good challenge. I am not talking about an in-the-moment dare to do something crazy. But rather a thoughtfully planned, thirty or so day challenge to do something that helps me grow and change. But even though challenges are great because they jumpstart us short-term, they can still be hard. Challenges are hard, because change is hard. Whether you have jumpstarted your 2020 with a Challenge, or you’ve gone the traditional route of modifying your habits to help you reach your goals—by now, I know you are feeling this. Cutting out indulgences, or [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:36:58+00:00January 16th, 2020|Categories: Balance, Change, Courage, discipline, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Routines, Success|Comments Off

Holding Our Holiday Plans Loosely

One of my favorite holiday memories as a kid was on Thanksgiving. As most childhood memories go, I can’t for the life of me remember what our family’s plans were supposed to be that day. I only remember what happened. But most likely, for dinner, we were supposed to go see our grandparents, who lived over an hour away. Then, We got a big New England snow storm. The kind that created drifts far taller than my youngest sister. She was four or five then, and the snow banks made her cry out from not being able to see my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-12-05T22:01:21+00:00December 9th, 2019|Categories: Balance, Christmas, Freedom, Preparation|Comments Off

Love Learn Lead November 21, 2019

Friends, it is hard to believe we are closing in on Thanksgiving already. A week from today, we will be with friends and family, eating turkey and pie. Then, a week from tomorrow, the countdown to Christmas will begin. For many of us, I know, our schedules have already begun to pick up before the Holidays. With all the busyness, in some ways, I felt a little crazy to talk about self care on the blog this month. But if you have stayed with me on this journey, I hope you have felt valued and maybe even, you’re taking me [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-11-20T20:02:50+00:00November 21st, 2019|Categories: Balance, discipline, Good Books, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Routines, Self Care, Uncategorized|Comments Off

An Open Letter to All My Fellow People Pleasers

Dear friends, I have a feeling there are more of us than we realize. “Us” being anyone who has spent more time making other people happy, than they have spent thinking about their own happiness. Or anyone who has felt it’s more trouble to speak up for oneself than it is to suffer the consequences. Chances are, you are one of “us,” if you’ve ever: Agreed to doing more than you can handle for a Holiday dinner, event, or party. Heard your boss say that you didn’t get time off for the Holiday because you were the only one who [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-11-13T16:33:05+00:00November 18th, 2019|Categories: Balance, Christmas, Conflict, Freedom, Health, Self Care, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Three Ways to Practice Self Care This Holiday Season

“Self-comfort numbs us, weakens us, hides us; it can be soporific. But self-care awakens us, strengthens us, and emboldens us to rise.” —Sarah Bessey Ever since I read these words from Sarah, in her latest book, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things, they’ve lingered in my mind. So much so that I am sharing them here on the blog for the second time this month. Never have I heard someone so clearly delineate the difference between self-comfort and self-care. For much of my life, I’ve engaged in self-comfort, while believing self-care was selfish. Only I didn’t realize the damage all my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-11-13T16:07:49+00:00November 14th, 2019|Categories: Balance, Christmas, discipline, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love Learn Lead, Self Care, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Love Learn Lead October 10, 2019

When I was a kid, I was homeschooled until sixth grade. This meant, that while my classmates had figured out the social structure of public school all the way back in Kindergarten, I was just beginning. Seeking to survive middle school, I couldn’t help but compare myself to the “cool kids,” to those who my teacher had deemed the “smart kids,” and who socially, had been designated to their own lonely corner of the lunch table. Looking back, I don’t know that I ever fully found my place. Only, even at the age of twelve, comparison led me to judge [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-10-09T15:44:29+00:00October 10th, 2019|Categories: Balance, comparison, FOMO, Food, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, podcasts I love|Comments Off

Five Changes I Wish I’d Made In My Twenties

Life is hard. There are dreams or goals we work for without any guarantee that they will ever happen. There are difficult family relationships for us to navigate. Friendships that never last as long as we’d like. Physical or mental ailments or allergies that wear us down or threaten to hold us back. And don’t even get me started on dating or marriage. Only sometimes, we are so focused on these things that we can’t see our biggest obstacle to living healthier and more joyful lives—is ourselves. Where some of our everyday behaviors are tripping us up. And possibly, even [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2019-08-30T19:50:23+00:00September 12th, 2019|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Preparation|1 Comment

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

In 2020, Let’s Use A New Word

Three Things to Remember About Making New Year’s Goals

Holding Our Holiday Plans Loosely

Love Learn Lead November 21, 2019

An Open Letter to All My Fellow People Pleasers

Three Ways to Practice Self Care This Holiday Season

Love Learn Lead October 10, 2019

Five Changes I Wish I’d Made In My Twenties

ABOUT ME

RECENT POSTS