Stacy Thomas – Page 2 – Dr. Stacy Thomas

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Breaking Old Patterns and Learning New Skills

If you’ve ever found yourself growing tired of old life patterns, you’re not alone. Life is filled with constant patterns for everyone, but these patterns don’t have to be unpleasant or stressful.

We’re all living patterns. At The Design Your Life Centre in Toronto, our therapists and I regularly discuss patterns with our clients. While some patterns are positive for our lives, a stressful life indicates that we need to replace old patterns with new ones.

Research has shown that people need to develop skills to break old patterns, and replace them with new patterns that serve them better. Helping people identify and understand limiting life patterns they are stuck in and, more importantly, the skills they can practice to create new patterns that will allow them to truly design their lives is what we do best.

Helping people in this way is our mission. Because designing you life is not just about showing up for ourselves. It helps us show up better for others too, because when we live in a way that is aligned with who we are, we are happier, we feel purposeful and that automatically gives to those in our midst. This is how doing the inner work helps to make the world a better place.

Check Out Finding Balance in response to Covid-19

Take Care,
We look forward to seeing you soon and continuing to help you Design Your Life.

Dr. Stacy & The Design Your Life Team

When You Are Invited to Have an Impact on a Bad Hair Day, You Check The Ego & Make It WERK!!

I was having a lazy Sunday; you know, one of those days where you decide not to put the usual effort into looking your best. For me, that meant putting my fuzzy mess of curls in a ponytail and donning my fabulous sequinned Kevin Allwood toque to venture out to face the day.

On that very Sunday morning, the CBC called to ask me to speak on camera about Blue Monday, the so called saddest day of the year, as well as Seasonal Affective Disorder. Of course I said yes.

I had 1.5 hours to get camera ready. On a day when I did my usual, I wouldn’t have given this a second thought. But on that particular Sunday, my hair would have still been wet had I tried to rehabilitate it the only way I know how. So the sequinned hat was going to make its debut, thankfully only on local television.

When the videographer arrived, I found myself explaining the toque and asking if it would be better for me to take it off. She encouraged me to wear it, so I did. When the camera started rolling, I proceeded to speak about how there was no evidence that ‘Blue Monday’ was the saddest day of the year, but at least it got us talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is a real challenge for many.

I felt good about having the opportunity to debunk a myth and educate the public about interventions that can help. I got a chance to share that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (learning to address the thoughts and behaviours that contribute to mood problems) helps more than light therapy (the most common form of treatment) and can actually cure SAD. That’s right. The majority of people who do CBT for SAD, don’t meet the criteria for SAD the following year. Pretty impressive.

The piece aired that evening on the 11 pm news. The following day, the story was picked up and suddenly that picture of me in all of my sparkly regalia was popping up on MSN, Yahoo, and internet news feeds all over da place.

I received requests from 6 other news platforms that Blue Monday, and I was able to fulfill three of them giving me even more of a chance to have an impact.

It was indeed a great day. And yet, every time I saw an image of myself in my sequinned toque a part of me cringed. “You look so unprofessional” was the voice that accompanied that feeling. Yup, that image was awakening my ego, that wounded part of me that rises under the perceived threat of being diminished, of being rejected for showing my true self.

Maybe you know this voice too. It’s the one that keeps you from looking at pictures of yourself having fun because all you can see is the extra weight. Or maybe its the voice that prevents you from being in the picture at all because somehow you are not prepared to look your best. Or maybe it prevents you from even going to that event, and showing up in any way shape or form, because you fear you do not belong.

This is the ego. As a woman of colour, I have had too many experience of my voice not mattering. The voice that convinces me that I have to work extra hard to look “professional” in order to be taken seriously is the ego, which rises to protect me from being thrown out of the tribe. It’s the same voice that screamed at me when I stopped straightening my hair, a decision I made to free myself from the many ways in which this practice was toxic for my mind, body and spirit, and from the racism I had absorbed and internalized that kept me doing it for years.

Twenty years ago, when I chose not to listen to what the ego was telling me about my hair, I gave myself the opportunity to discover that it’s message was not real, at least not in my present reality, and with that decision, I reclaimed my authenticity; I reclaimed my power.

Now, as I cringe at the photo, I consciously take a deep breath, and recognize that I showed up as my true self that day and had an impact. I let myself absorb this fact and just like that, the ego weakens leaving more room for my true self to expand and unfold.

So the next time you find yourself becoming small as the world beckons you to share your voice, stop, breathe, and do it anyway. It’s the only way to truly discover just how powerful you truly are.

GUEST BLOG by Shelly: Hey Mama! It’s Time to Focus on Bouncing Back Into Life After Baby, Not Just Your Body

Bearing life comes at a cost – sadly that cost is usually burdened by the Mother. For years, the pain that women go through to bring a child into the world has been a silent process. We have only recently begun to open up and talk about the bowtie pain effect that comes with having a child:

The Want and Hardships of actually getting pregnant
The Birth
and lastly The Child and You phase

Each of these bullet points warrants its own Lord of the Rings trilogy both in running time and intensity. However I want to focus on YOU for a minute.

We women often fade to the background when a child arrives just as we are about to enter one of the hardest times of our lives. We are not only adjusting to a new life, new routines…we are also adjusting to a new version of ourselves, one that seems to be in a perpetual state of transformation. With so much change, it is no wonder that we are yearning to bounce back to life as we knew it before baby.

For years, the notion that you had to “bounce back to your old body” post pregnancy was a goal most mothers strived for postpartum. As a clinical therapist working in mental health for over a decade, you can imagine my thoughts about how toxic this thinking is to our health. However, it was only after having a baby myself in 2018, that I truly understood what women face post baby and just how difficult it is to resist societal pressures to erase any signs of the incredible process me as a mother had just gone through.

As I navigated bleary eyed through the early days of my maternity leave, I was shocked to see how many people would comment about my body. Whether I was seen as having bounced back to normal or now possessed a “mom body” that I had to accept, the message I received as a result of my body being a focus of scrutiny was that no matter what I looked like, I was being judged.

There were times I wondered, “Am I doing this right? Why haven’t I truly bounced back? Is something wrong with me? Do people think I am unhealthy?” And then I stopped in my tracks. I remember sitting down with my baby in the park and thinking that I was falling victim to the Bounce Back Epidemic (The BBE) and if I continued, it was going to make me sick. That’s when I found my resolve, my determination to reclaim the experience of motherhood for myself so I did not miss out on another second of it by worrying about somehow not meeting society’s standards of being good enough.

The skills that helped me get through The BBE were the very skills I teach my clients to help them be PRESENT in their experience, no matter what it is, without judgement. These were the lessons embedded in the meditation practice I have followed and taught for years. Motherhood was the ultimate testing ground that challenged me to truly embody my practice in my daily life.

As I adopted this mindset, I began to notice the critical thoughts that swam through my own mind as just that…thoughts. I wanted more than anything to be PRESENT with my baby and not to be bombarded with critical and toxic thoughts. But sometimes they happened. Being present in my experience allowed me to recognize that I could choose to give these negative thoughts energy or I could just let them pass and wait for other more helpful ones to show up.

Weening off of social media was also critical. Expectation can be a troll and reducing exposure to media that plays on our inherent tendency to compare ourselves, was one of the most important things I did to attain inner peace. My goal was to accept all the moments and focus on what I could control. I set attainable goals that made sense based on where I was at (not where someone else thought I should be) and worked towards those realistic outcomes. I decided that I would no longer allow someone else’s ideals deter me or push me off my own centre of balance.

So with that mindset, a lot of practice, and support from some like-minded moms, I bounced back to life. I worked to connect with my baby, my husband and loved ones. I bounced back to self care. The result…more bounce in my step.

Having navigated this journey, I am now even more confident in my ability to help other mothers fight the BBE and apply the teachings of mindful practice in their daily lives. We work on building a new life, and accepting our new identity while not losing sight of who we were before baby. It all hinges on having the intention of being present in our lives, and appreciating the journey first and foremost for ourselves.

Interested in learning more about Shelly and how she helps women Design Their Lives? Click here to learn more and to book your free consult today.

GUEST BLOG by Gabrielle: Breaking Up With Social Media

My boyfriend and I decided to take a break, a break from social media. Inspired by hearing about others who did the unthinkable and quit social media ‘cold turkey’ for 30 days, we decided to give it a try.

Thirty days was a bit more than we thought we could handle to start, so we opted for a week. Seven days with no Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat. Which interestingly, rendered our phones quite useless after all of these apps were locked.

Our 1^st challenge occurred three days into the week while at a Raptors game. I wanted to post a picture of us on Instagram. After a debate, we decided together that I could post it, but that I had to close the app right afterwards and not reopen it until the challenge was over. Five minutes later, we started to bicker about the caption on the picture. I could feel myself becoming agitated. I closed the app and while looking at one another we had the same realization. The first conflict we had since starting the challenge was when one of us started to engage with social media. Let that sit with you for a minute.

If I could describe the week in one word, it would be relief. It was a relief to learn that I could go into an experience without the pressure or expectation to share it with the world. I was relieved of the pressure to prove to someone else that I was having a good time. It was just the experience and I, and that was pretty great. We enjoyed the week so much that we continue to have time limits on our social media apps to this day and still hold each other accountable.

So many of us use these apps to express ourselves; to show the world what we love and to capture amazing memories. But ironically, the process and the pressure of capturing life’s special moments in order to share them with the world also distracts us from fully enjoying them. Moreover, our awareness of the “likes” we acquire along the way runs the risk of reinforcing a soul destroying premise: that our lives only matter if approved of by others. And then there is the automatic comparison to those who are always living a more fabulous life – a recipe for feeding the wide-spread belief most of us carry that whoever we are is not enough.

The week without social media was like finally taking a conscious deep breath and realizing just how much stress I had been carrying. We can certainly get by with shallow breathing throughout most of our days. But once we know what a deep breath feels like, well, we might decide to pay attention to the process we take for granted and consciously give ourselves more of what we really need. Which is not to live in the shallow, but to dive in, and really enjoy the deep.

I am a millennial and there is no denying that smartphones, technology, and specifically social media, have a huge influence on how I engage in the world. But I have redefined my relationship with it. Now I can see that the connections I want are all around me. For that, this was the best break I have ever had.

When was the last time you spent an extensive amount of time without social media? I invite you to try this same challenge and share your experience with us in the comments below. Or don’t comment and enjoy the experience for yourself.

Feeling grateful to have shared this with you,

Gabrielle Iwaskow, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Interested in learning more about Gabrielle and how she helps people Design Their Lives? Click here to learn more and to book your free consult today.

Yes, You Can Step Out of The Matrix and, Into a New Reality

I was about 13 years old when I was confronted with the first pivotal moment that set the stage for the rest of my life. It was my first day of riding camp. To say I loved horses is an understatement – I was obsessed with them. I even came up with a scheme to turn our backyard shed into a barn for a horse of my own, which seemed like the least my parents could give me in exchange for my good grades.

As per usual, I was the only black girl at camp. No biggie. I was used to that. But I was also one of the few new people among a group of kids who had been attending for weeks.

Everything was fine until lunch. The lunch room overlooked the riding ring with booths that could fit about four people, two people seated on each side. There was one booth in front of me with 1 seat available.

As I stood there, frozen, watching the three other girls at the table laugh and chat over their sandwiches, it was as if time stood still. It felt as if there was an invisible barrier preventing me from crossing over onto the other side, the place where I truly wanted to be.

It was within that torturous place of conflict that suddenly a voice spoke to me. Believe it or not, in an epic, Hollywood-movie kind of way, this deep male voice (think Morgan Freeman) clearly stated the following: “Don’t be afraid of people”. This was the command I heard and received to step out of the pattern of shyness and join the party.

It was my profound shyness as a child that has always caused me to label myself as an introvert. Unlike true introverts who experience energy drain when they engage with others, I get energy from human interaction. For me, the more the better. I seek it. I crave it. As much as I enjoy time on my own, I much prefer doing just about anything with someone else.

I am clearly not an introvert. I have been living a pattern of introversion. It is a pattern I fell into at a young age, likely because of my awareness of being “the other”, an awareness that was communicated in subtle and not so subtle ways once I started school at the age of 3.

My shyness was my response to what I perceived was a world that noticed me, but did not seem truly interested in understanding who I was. It was the experience of being noticed and not really seen. In effect, my shyness became a way of protecting my authentic self from push back from others who I believed would not be open to receiving and respecting it. It was a coping strategy born from an inner knowing, an inner wisdom that lay far below the surface, unknowable to anyone, not even myself.

That day at riding camp as I stood staring at those other three girls, I made the choice to follow that command I heard so clearly in my head and step out of the pattern. In the movie version of this scene, you would see me walk through a transparent permeable barrier no one knew was there until I started to push into it causing ripples of concentric circles as a traversed onto the other side, into a new reality. That step I took that day out of the pattern that seemed to form the core of my personality, changed the course of my life.

The opportunity to step out of the pattern is there for all of us. It shows up in those moments of inner conflict, when you hold yourself back, keeping yourself from experiencing what your soul truly desires.

It is at those very moments, when you feel frozen that you need to listen. Just stay there and listen. Stay in the fear that has you stuck in your tracks. Notice the pattern. You have been here many times before. Pause. Listen. Whether it’s a whisper or a booming command, there is a voice there, coaxing you to break free of the matrix, to walk through the old world into a new one. A world where you will have the chance to discover your authentic self.

Learning how to access and nurture your authentic self in order to Design Your Life, is what I am all about. But in this world that is phobic of living from the inside out, it takes practice of the right mindset, and tools to do it. The Mindful World Parenting Summit, the free online summit that goes live Jan 21-27 2019, is that rare opportunity to learn what it takes to create the pause we all need when triggered, and mine these moments for all they have for us.

Here is a piece of video I took of myself after two back to back interviews I did one evening with two transformative leaders, Jennifer McLean & Les Brown.

In their own way, they each touched that little girl inside of me who continues to struggle with the fear of being unseen. The process with Jennifer happened on camera during our interview; it continued with Les after I stopped recording the interview for the summit.

I offer you this piece of my experience so that you understand that this process of unfolding and evolving into our authenticity never ends. And you don’t want it to. It is the process that allows us to connect with the source of our power and our joy.

Join me and the over 40 experts that have contributed to this summit and learn how to free yourself from The Matrix. You don’t have to be a parent to participate; all that is needed is to have had one.

With Deep Respect & Gratitude

Dr. Stacy

The Feel Bad Bandit vs. Dr. Stacy

My 8 year old son, who I have always considered my happy “Buddha baby”, stunned and surprised me with this story that he shared with me one night as we were walking home from dinner.

In “The Feel Bad Bandit vs. Dr. Stacy”, Dr. Stacy uses her super powers, developed through the practice of meditation, to swiftly dodge the jabs directed at her by the Feel Bad Bandit. Once her opponent started to get tired with his several missed attempts to defeat her, she counters with “You know..you really can be a great person”. The Feel Bad Bandit is stopped in his tracks and replies ” Oh! I haven’t heard anyone say something like that to me in so long”. Overcome by the good vibes, his entire body surrenders and he falls slowly to the floor.

How did this child come up with this? But there is more…That night as I lay beside him as he was falling asleep, he offered up some other gems…. Dr. Stacy’s Sidekicks: Able Todoit, Grace Grateful and Joy Jolly.

I. Was. Floored.

Not only by the genius of his creativity, but because Dr. Stacy’s sidekicks perfectly represent the three resiliency practices I integrated into each day of The Growing Forward Journal I authored: competence, gratitude, and joy.

How he thought to include them in the story is unbelievable to me. I am going to chalk it up to a combination of our otherworldly psychic connection and his pure Buddha spirit which has touched mine from the moment I knew of his existence in the womb.

Connecting with the magic our children bring into our lives is the biggest gift a parent can receive. This is why I am so excited about the upcoming Mindful World Parenting Summit.

After having absorbed all of the wisdom shared through the 56 interviews I conducted over the past 3 months, I am far more attuned to the connection with my children and the shifts are translating into such joyful energy that is pervading our home.

Have you registered yet? What are you waiting for? Click here to register today and get instant access to preview talks so you can check out the quality of the more than 30 hours of content contributed by leading experts in the areas of parenting, mental health, brain science, nutrition, education, and mindfulness. You will also gain access to free gifts, including The Growing Forward Journal.

Curious about what other epic battles might occur between The Feel Bad Bandit and Dr. Stacy? Stay tuned. I have officially offered my son the opportunity to be a guest blogger. :))

With Deep Respect,

Always

Dr. Stacy

Alicia Keys Beautiful Tribute to Consciously Parenting in a Blended Family

I already loved Alicia Keys. But then I came across her incredible song and video inspired by her own experience of parenting in a blended family and my love and respect for her went through the roof. Alicia Keys, her husband, and her husband’s former wife are incredible role models of co-parenting in a blended family.

As you see all of the love and joy shared among all of the parents in this family along with the kids, I can imagine that it all seems too good to be true. It’s not. But it does require a commitment to do the inner work and to recognize that the child deserves to have a relationship with each of their parents.

This is what Dorcy Pruter, Conscious Co-Parenting Expert and Coach talks about during her interview for The Mindful World Parenting Summit. If you are in a situation where you are contemplating divorce or are already co-parenting, you absolutely need to watch this interview to learn about the powerful and revolutionary program Dorcy has devised that is proven so effective in getting people to come together and work cooperatively for the sake of the children, that it is now court mandated in some US jurisdictions.

In the meantime, check out Ms. Alicia Keys and her beautiful offering, Blended Family (What You Do For Love) ft. A$AP Rocky

May the good vibes be with you

(It’s what you do, what you do, what you do, what you do for love… this video chokes me up every time. So good)

Dr. Stacy

The MINDFUL WORLD PARENTING SUMMIT: An Invitation to Be Part of The Change that Can Change the World

How did you come to host this? This is one of the most common questions I get asked by my interviewees after we stop recording their contribution for the Mindful World Parenting Summit, a free, 7-day online event that has brought together leading experts on parenting, mental health, brain science, nutrition, education, and mindfulness in service of creating a more mindful world. The subtext I hear is, “why you?”. It’s a fair question. I do not have much of a following. I am not a best-selling author. I have not been on a podcast nor have I done a TED Talk. I am an unknown; a virtual nobody in our virtual world.

My answer to the question is quite simple: I just committed to doing something to make a difference. With no following, I just decided to do it – to try to expand my reach beyond the four walls of my office. I sincerely did not feel I had a choice to do otherwise.

The process started 2 years ago, when I was shaken to my core with the turmoil I witnessed happening in the world. As upsetting as it all was, once I got quiet through my own practice of meditation and expressive writing, there were two things that soon became crystal clear: 1) that within the darkness and the chaos, there would be a natural attraction of the masses to anything and anyone that inspired the light and 2) I needed to do more to democratize mental health and make evidence-based mental wellness tools more accessible.

The latter was something I felt deeply called to do. This was not about me. It was about doing what I could to have a positive impact because there were clearly too many who needed to be supported to do the inner work necessary for the world to change.

And so I just started. I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I was committed to doing what I could and waited for inspiration. A year later, the how I was looking for began to take shape in the form of a guided journal. A year after that, after having self published the Growing Forward Journal, and bearing witness to the impact and massive shifts people made almost instantly as they accessed, and shared the truth that came through on the page as they got quiet, and allowed the pen to express what they needed to hear, I knew that I was on the right track.

Along the way, I happened to share The Growing Forward Journal with Stephen Huszar, a friend and one of the founders of Mindful World. Mindful World produced Milton’s Secret, a gem of a movie starring Donald Sutherland, based on the Ekhart Tolle book of the same name. I had gifted my time as a consultant to help with the development of the learning materials based on Ekhart’s response to the film. Interestingly, my involvement happened soon after my awakening two years ago.

Stephen loved the journal and encouraged me with much needed advice about how to launch it to a wider audience. As part of the launch and the community I wanted to build around it, I had always envisioned inviting other experts and seekers, known and unknown, to offer their wisdom about growing forward through life’s challenges.

This vision is what I had in mind during The New Moon Ceremony I hosted this past summer along with Roseline Mouana. It was a truly magical night on the roof at 321 Carlaw where my office is located. After having let go of all that did not serve us, getting grounded through yoga, and coming together in celebration of all that we were inviting into our lives, I found myself setting this intention:

About a month later, the opportunity of a lifetime came my way, courtesy of Stephen: I was invited to host The Mindful World Parenting Summit. I was indeed going to be sharing my Big Voice with other Big Voices for Big Impact in a way I had never thought possible.

The Summit, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. This psychologist, who can barely figure out how to post on Facebook, was suddenly given access to professionals and thought leaders I have long admired, who themselves are also dedicated to having a positive impact on the world. The opportunity to engage with them and share their teachings has touched me so much. It has impacted the way I parent and has affirmed a truth that I know without question: We humans are at a turning point in our evolution.

It is an exciting time. Our best science undeniably confirms the power of mindful practices for building the parts of the brain that allow us to respond vs. react and to feel deeply connected with ourselves and others. We can now literally see how the mind, i.e. our thoughts, impacts the physical structure of our brains. And we have irrefutable evidence that as creatures of attachment, it is through the ability to connect that we are able to realize our highest potential.

Yes, there is indeed a science to happiness and it is high time that everyone learns about it and understands how to practically apply this knowledge so we can all start living from the inside out, build true resilience and thrive. This is how we can change a generation. This is how we can change the world.

So if you are on my mailing list, or follow me on social media, you can expect that I will be talking a lot about this event for the next several weeks. This event is far too important for me to be shy about promoting it.

My hope is that you will help me with this mission. Click the link and register. And once you are done registering, share it with everyone you know.

The summit runs from January 21-27, 2019. But as soon as you sign up, you will get access to a bunch of free gifts, including two interviews included in the summit, one of them being with Dr. Shefali Tsabary one of my favourite conscious parenting experts of all time. You will also get access to The Growing Forward Journal by your truly, as well as other books and programs from the event producers and some of our more prolific experts in the summit.

As for my journey…the lesson I hope you take from it is to commit and act. You know that idea that has been rattling around in your brain for months, maybe even years? It is there for a reason. That reason is bigger than you. You owe it to yourself to discover that gift you have to offer to the world that only you can give in the way that you can. And know that if you commit to making it happen, even if you don’t know how to do it, the universe will help you. It has your back. My story is proof of it.

With Deep Respect & Gratitude for joining me in helping to create a more mindful world.

Let’s do this, together!

Dr. Stacy

An Invitation to Recharge & Refresh with the Muse Brain-Sensing Headband

My vision for The Design Your Life Centre has always been for it to become a hub for all things related to mental wellness, a place where people could stop in and find resources to help them on their journey or even just use it as a place of refuge to take a break and recharge before going back to face the challenges of the day. So rather than allowing my extra treatment room to sit empty when not in use, I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to turn it into The Muse Room, a place where people can engage with a cool piece of technology that has helped so many around the world build a meditation practice and reap the benefits of improved focus and calm.

The Muse is a game changer. It is an EEG device that reads your brainwaves and gives you audible feedback so you can redirect to the intended focus of your breath whenever your attention drifts. And afterwards you can see exactly where those drifts happened. In addition to allowing to see what is actually happening in your brain when you meditate, it will also help you understand that those times that you do drift and resume focus is akin to doing a push up for your brain. It is those reversals that improve your ability to focus, and actually has a positive physical impact on building the parts of your brain designed just for this.

As part of the recognition of the 1 year anniversary of The Design Your Life Centre, I will be offering up the muse room experience free to anyone who wants to use it. Come once, come daily. Its all good.

Click here to book your free 15-minute experience in The Muse Room today.

When you arrive, Nora, my assistant extraordinaire, will be there to meet you and walk you through the process.

We look forward to seeing you soon and helping you start the habit that is actually good for your brain.

Warm Regards Always

Dr. Stacy

Dr. Stacy, Live! and Open to Meeting Your Community Wherever You Are At.

When I say that I am on a mission, I am not playing. And the universe knows it.

I decided to make it my mission to do whatever I can to motivate people to learn how to access their truth and come into their authentic selves, and the universe has responded with sending more opportunities my way to share what I have to offer. Below is a little snippet of where my mission has taken me in the past few months.

In July, I was invited to speak at the Goodlife AGM for their Personal Trainers.

I loved this event! There is nothing like being in a room full of beautiful people who are open to being challenged.

With Will Greenblatt, Co-founder & Managing Director of Outloud Speakers School, & Nsuani Baffoe, GoodLife Manager of Personal Training.

Receiving invaluable notes from Will about moderating my energy, being sure to cast my gaze around the room, and working on articulation of a few words. Got it!

I always love the opportunity to connect with members of the audience one-on-one afterwards

I took a gamble and just pulled someone from the audience to share what they were able to access through the brief expressive writing exercise we did together. And as I suspected, the message that came through was one that everyone in the room needed to hear

That same month, I also had the opportunity to speak to a group of young francophone immigrant women at Charity Leo’s Wellness & Beauty Day.

With Leonie Tchatat, Founder of Charity Leo

It was so great to connect with these young, courageous women, who know what its like to take that leap of faith and leave all they know for new opportunities. As I thought about many of their experiences, particularly the women of colour who were often subjected to blatant racism, I decided to bring us all together to write a love letter to the skin we are in.

The engagement was tremendous and there were some beautiful moments of healing and connection shared among strangers who left feeling more connected to themselves and their new community.

Just recently, I travelled all the way to the wilds of Mississauga (lol) in morning traffic (which is no joke) to meet with employees at Intact Insurance for another expressive writing workshop. I was not sure whether this kind of event would fly at the workplace. But it did.

Together, we succeeded at creating an atmosphere of radical acceptance and participants learned how to break through the internal judge and were surprised to see how easily the pen moved across the page. Some even surprised me further by sharing some of the words that came through. The experience proved to me that it is indeed important to find space to bring our true selves into wherever we are, even at work, and that people are open to this.

And…This October 20, I am really excited to give back to one of the most supportive community of mom-bosses ever! MamaCon 2018, the annual conference put on by Mamas & Co., a community for mom-preneurs in Toronto, is happening and I am one of the presenters along with Erica Ehm (yes, THE Erica Ehm from Much Music) and Shane Lee Simmons of the New School of Finance. This year’s theme is absolutely up my alley: Courage in Business. I will be leading the group through an expressive writing exercise where we will access our most courageous selves to help us get out of our own way, break through limiting beliefs, face our fears and move forward in spite of them to make room for endless possibility. You can check out my guest blog on the Mamas & Co website and purchase tickets here. But don’t delay, they are already 80% sold and will likely sell out soon.

Interested in experiencing the Growing Forward Through Writing Workshop at your organization? Send me an email. I am happy to meet you wherever you and your people are at.

With Deep Respect

Your Mission Driven Psychologist

Dr. Stacy

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