Completing one of the biggest achievements in my life, a Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition, was no small feet especially bc it was in the midst of battling Leukemia to fight for my life.

Buuuut, I don’t need that big, fancy degree for me to tell you that by making small positive changes, life will be a WHOLE lot more in balance. I’m living proof! It definitely hasn’t been easy to get to this point, but I allowed myself to be open to the idea of being vulnerable – I’ll touch on vulnerability in a second.

Making a commitment to yourself and making small habitual changes can truly create a positive cascading effect in your life.

How do I know this? I know this bc I’ve witnessed it first hand, not just within myself, but with clients like you, my dance students of all ages, family, friends, cancer patients who were going through the same mental and physical challenges that I was as well as the nutrition students that I volunteer teach for through the local food bank.

Battling a blood cancer has not been easy. And when I say not easy – I mean AT ALL no way no how!!!

I remember when I was in the throws of it all one of my nurses said to me just take it “one day at a time.” I was like excuse me, “one day at a time?!” All I wanted was for the nightmare to be over and go back to my ‘normal’ life again.

Guess what? As days passed, I eventually realized she was absolutely right! By reframing my outlook and focusing on the good . . . like being able to get out of the hospital bed, being able to walk a full lap around the 7th floor on my own w/o assistance & then THE best day ever happened when I was able to do my first jumping jack in over a year . . . allowed me to take baby steps to be right here with you today!! 

Let me go back to vulnerability for a second.

What does it mean to be strong? I believe that strength is born from allowing yourself to be vulnerable. I’m going to say that again to let it sink in . . . Strength is gained from vulnerability!

It’s uncomfortable to start a new habit or modify an old one and disrupt your daily routine. Which if you truly think about it, in reality your daily routine really is just a bunch of different habits blended together over the years.

So, if you say, Erika I decided to make a new habit of not eating dessert after dinner as one of my wellness goals; I would say amazing you just made the 1st step towards a wholethy life! Then I would follow that statement up with you’re probably going to be uncomfortable for a bit, but this is actually a really good thing bc that means a change is happening. Woohoo!

One of the main reasons why we choose not to change is bc it’s absolutely uncomfortable being vulnerable to step outside our norm, comfort zone or routine. Our brains like to keep us comfy and cozy with no surprises. I liken it to the experience we have when your parents take away your binkie or favorite toy when you were a child.

Some of you might be thinking, Erika, deciding to cut sugar from my diet to help with weight loss goals or starting a meditation practice to cope with stress & anxiety or deciding to put Starbuck’s $$ into a retirement fund is completely different than your situation bc you didn’t have a choice. I would say, you’re right on some level I didn’t have a choice, but I could’ve chosen to give up. I didn’t.

I chose to keep diggin’ deep within and mustered the determination to stare down the ‘barrel of the gun’ and say Oh hellzzz no, not today!!! 

This is actually a real brain thing called neuroplasticity. I won’t bore you with the details, but it means that our brains can rewire neural pathways to create new thought patterns in lieu of the once believed halted brain growth after a certain age. This is awesome news for us! We can essentially train our brain to think differently than the old, dusty thought patterns that don’t service us any more.

By taking it one day at a time it gets a little bit easier as time goes on and eventually it isn’t so uncomfortable any more. So, you make a conscious effort to keep going and going and going and with this process you’re not only growing as a person, but you’re getting a whole lot . . . STRONGER!!!

Sometimes we choose not to take the first step bc the mountain in front of us seems way to massive to conquer. But, by breaking down the mountain into sections to create smaller goals within that monstrosity will have you proudly standing at the top of YOUR mountain peak in no time. It only takes one step forward!!

Thrive well my beautiful friend ❤️