Practice – Page 2 – Melissa Schlies

Instead of Setting New Year’s Resolutions, Start Here

About eight months ago, we all began looking forward to 2021. About two months ago, a few crazy people on my social media feed started talking about their New Year’s resolutions. Only, now we’re a few days into 2021, and things aren’t looking that much different from 2020 yet. The pandemic isn’t over. Many of our same struggles from last year remain. And we’re still grappling with a world that looks so much different from how it did a year ago. With a new year, many of us want to begin moving toward a new life, only this hard [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-01-05T16:48:16+00:00January 4th, 2021|Categories: Habit Making, Making Decisions, perseverance, Practice, Preparation, Routines, Self Care, Social Distancing, Start Here, Success, Uncategorized|Comments Off

For the Person Asking “Why Even Bother Celebrating Christmas?”

For many of us, when things don’t go the way we want, our first response is, “What’s the point?” Why should we continue with our plans if they can’t happen the way we want them to? Why should we even bother? Since buying our house earlier this year, in the middle of COVID, I’ve been tempted to think this way many times. Only for all of us, this defeatist attitude stems not from our plans being changed. Rather it is our desires that drove us to make our plans in the first place. My struggle to keep from throwing in [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-12-15T15:27:06+00:00December 14th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Christmas, Faith, grief, Habit Making, Holidays, Hope, perseverance, Practice, Preparation, Waiting|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

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

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

The Real Secret to Creating A Sense of Balance In Your Life

Baking bread is one of my favorite creative endeavors. Kneading dough is therapeutic. And the smell of bread baking in the oven is heavenly. Only, when I first began learning how to make bread, it wasn’t great. In fact, I wouldn’t use the words “therapeutic” or “heavenly” to describe my experience. Honestly, using the words “melt down,” would be more accurate. At least, if we’re talking about the day I tried to make Challah bread to bring to a friend’s house for Easter. Yes, I had ignored the cardinal rule—never try a new recipe on anyone other than your family—but [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-19T10:09:16+00:00August 20th, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Balance, Body Image, discipline, Failure, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, perseverance, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Nine Signs Your Routine Is Off

Before I experience it anywhere else, I feel it in my chest. I wake up in the morning to an anxious tightening in my lungs that makes it hard to breathe. And it’s as if my body knows before my brain does that I am overwhelmed. I can’t see the forest for the trees. I know I have a lot to do. Only, I can’t figure out what to focus on or accomplish first. I may not even know what day it is. For me, these experiences and feelings are my first clues that my routine is off. That my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-12T20:49:26+00:00August 13th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Sometimes, Change Isn’t the Problem

Sometimes, change isn’t our problem. I know it feels like a weird time to say this, as change is all many of us have experienced this year. Not only that, but many of the changes that have come our way, haven’t been good. The difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Only the difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Rather, it’s the many minuscule reactionary changes that it sets off in its wake. I’ve been feeling this especially since our move last month. As I shared two weeks ago, after eight years of trying to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-08T23:28:06+00:00August 10th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Change, Habit Making, Health, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Five Reasons Not To Ignore Self Care During Times of Change

There are two kinds of change in this world: The change we long for and the change that finds us. Before 2020, the timing of these changes were typically different for each of us. For me, I got married after a lot of my friends but before all of my sisters. And when my first career was ending, some of my friends’ jobs were just taking off. But then COVID hit, and change found us all. Our world came to a stand still, and our lives changed in ways we are still discovering. Collectively we’ve all experienced trauma, while individually [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-30T15:30:26+00:00July 2nd, 2020|Categories: Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, Practice, Self Care|Comments Off

For the Person Asking “Why Even Bother Celebrating Christmas?”

This Isn’t the Season

What To Do When Finding Your Routine Feels Impossible

Don’t Forget To Be Still

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

The Real Secret to Creating A Sense of Balance In Your Life

Nine Signs Your Routine Is Off

Sometimes, Change Isn’t the Problem

Five Reasons Not To Ignore Self Care During Times of Change

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