A Holiday Blessing: Love, Presence & Heartfelt Wishes From My Intentional Calm Family to Yours

There’s something sacred about this week.

The world feels softer… even if just for a moment.
Lights glow a little warmer. Hearts open a little wider.
And whether we’re ready or not, the holidays arrive with their familiar mix of nostalgia, tenderness, joy, and reflection.

This is the moment when we pause — not because our schedule slows, but because our spirit does.

This is the moment when love becomes the real story.

🌟 The Greatest Gifts Aren’t Wrapped

As we step into Christmas week, I’m reminded again and again that the most meaningful gifts we give are never found in a box.

They are presence.
They are empathy.
They are time, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, understanding…
They are the quiet ways we show up for one another.

And in a season where many feel deeply blessed, others may feel deeply lonely, overwhelmed, or grieving.
Your kindness — your presence — your loving energy — may be the very thing someone needs to help them feel held, seen, or remembered.

This is what the holidays are truly about.
This is what connects us — heart to heart.

💗 You Made This Year Beautiful

As I look back on this year, I want to say something I don’t say nearly enough:

Thank you.

Thank you for being part of this Intentional Calm community.
Thank you for reading, sharing, growing, healing, reflecting, and inviting more balance and light into your life.

Every message, every conversation, every moment you chose you — it matters.
And it has been my joy and privilege to walk alongside you.

🌲 A Blessing for Your Heart This Holiday

As we enter this holy, magical, deeply meaningful week, here is my holiday blessing for you:

✨ May you feel wrapped in love — the kind that settles your nervous system and reminds you you’re never alone.
✨ May you find moments of stillness that fill you, soften you, and bring you back to yourself.
✨ May your home be a place of warmth and laughter.
✨ May your heart feel connected to the people you love, whether they’re in the room or held tenderly in memory.
✨ And may this season bring you peace, clarity, and a sense that you are exactly where you’re meant to be.

Because you are.
And you’re doing better than you think.

💞 From My Heart to Yours

Thank you for being part of my Intentional Calm Family — truly.
You inspire me, uplift me, and remind me why this work matters so deeply.

And now, as you step into the week ahead, here is your gentle reminder:

Slow down.
Breathe.
Receive.
Let yourself feel the magic of this season.

From my heart to yours…

💗 Happy Holidays from my Intentional Calm Family to Yours! 💗

Love,
Mary-Anne

Finding Peace in the Pause: Slowing Down Before the Holidays

There’s a moment—usually right about now—when the world feels like it starts spinning just a little too fast.

The lists get longer.
The days get shorter.
The emotions get louder.
And suddenly… you realize you’re holding your breath without even noticing.

If this is you, my friend, you are so not alone.

This week before Christmas carries a beautiful kind of anticipation, but it also carries a weight. The pressure to make everything perfect. The rush to fit everything in. The emotional swirl that holidays can bring—joy, nostalgia, grief, overwhelm, excitement, and sometimes all at once.

So before we step into the heart of the holiday, I want to offer you something simple…
Something gentle…
Something deeply needed:

Permission to pause.

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✨ The Magic Isn’t in the Doing — It’s in the Being

Sometimes slowing down feels wrong, like you’re “behind” or missing something important.

But here’s the truth most of us forget:

The magic of the season isn’t created by the rushing.
It’s created by the presence.

The quiet cup of coffee before the house wakes up.
The conversation that lingers a little longer.
The candle you light while preparing dinner.
The ten slow breaths that bring you back to yourself.

When you pause, you return to the moment you’re actually in — not the next task, not the next errand, not the next expectation.

You return to you.

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🌬️ A Breath for This Moment

If your shoulders are up by your ears, let’s soften them.

Right here with me:

Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose…
Hold it gently…
And exhale out your mouth like you’re releasing a long, tired sigh.

Do that one more time.

Good.

This is how you recalibrate your nervous system.
This is how you shift from “holiday survival mode” to intentional presence.
This is how you honor your energy — with small, nourishing pauses.

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💛 You Don’t Need to Earn Your Rest

One of the great myths of this season is that rest comes after everything is done.

But rest is the thing that allows you to do everything with heart.

So maybe this week…

✨ You leave a few things undone.
✨ You make space for the moments that matter.
✨ You choose connection over perfection.
✨ You give yourself grace — wildly, freely, unapologetically.

Because you deserve to experience this season, not just hustle through it.

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🌟 A Gentle Invitation

As we move into this final stretch before Christmas:

Slow down.
Breathe.
Sit for a moment longer than feels necessary.
Let your heart catch up to your body.
Let your spirit soften into presence.

There is peace available to you — not after the holidays, not when everything is “right,” but right now, in the pause.

Wishing you a week filled with calm breaths, gentle moments, and a soft landing into the heart of the season. 💚💗

With love,
Mary-Anne

When Life Shifts, Part II: Making the Holidays About People, Presence & Giving Back

There’s something about the holiday season that magnifies everything — the joy,
the magic, the nostalgia, and yes… the awareness that not everyone is celebrating from a place of comfort or ease.

After Thanksgiving, many of us carry a renewed sense of gratitude. But gratitude, when it’s truly embodied, naturally wants to overflow. It wants to reach outward. It wants to become something bigger than a feeling — it wants to become an action.

And this is where giving back becomes part of the story.

🎁 The Heart of the Season Isn’t in the Gifts… It’s in the Giving

In a world that moves fast, the greatest gift you can offer someone is your time.
Your presence.
Your listening ear.
Your willingness to show up for someone who maybe hasn’t had many people show up for them.

Giving back doesn’t have to be grand or expensive. Sometimes the most meaningful acts are small, human, and deeply felt.

✨ Checking on an elderly neighbor
✨ Donating to a local pantry
✨ Bringing warm clothes or toiletries to a shelter
✨ Writing a card to someone who’s grieving or alone
✨ Paying for someone’s coffee
✨ Volunteering for an afternoon
✨ Sitting with someone who simply needs company

These are the moments that remind us that the holidays were never meant to be measured in purchases — but in connection.

💛 Because Not Everyone Is Celebrating From a Place of Joy

This time of year can be tender.
For the grieving.
For the lonely.
For families struggling financially.
For those dealing with health challenges, loss, or uncertainty.

When we choose to give back, we’re not just performing an act of kindness — we’re creating a ripple of compassion that might reach someone at exactly the moment they need it most.

You never know whose spirit you’re lifting.
You never know whose hope you’re restoring.
You never know when your small gesture becomes someone else’s turning point.

🌟 Make This Holiday Season About What (and Who) Matters

As life shifts — and as our own perspective deepens with age, wisdom, and experience — we realize something profound:

It was never about the “stuff.”
It’s always been about the people.
The moments.
The memories.
The love we give and the impact we leave.

So this year…
Let’s choose presence over pressure.
Connection over consumption.
Giving over getting.
And humanity over hustle.

Because when we give back, we don’t just brighten someone else’s holiday…
We expand our own hearts in the process.

With love and intention,
Mary-Anne

When Life Shifts: The Blessing of Perspective, Gratitude & Life’s Simple Pleasures

A Post-Thanksgiving Reflection

Every once in a while, life hands you a moment — sometimes gentle, sometimes earth-shaking — that rearranges everything you thought you knew about what truly matters. One day, you’re moving through life on autopilot… and the next, a single experience shifts your entire perspective. Suddenly, the things you used to stress about fade into the background, and the things that were once “simple” become sacred.

We all have a day like that — the day your priorities reorder themselves, not because you decided they should, but because life demanded it. For me, that moment was a profound internal shift, one where everything that “was” important suddenly felt small, and what is important became crystal clear: health, family, peace, purpose, connection, well-being, and the precious time we’re given.

🍂 Gratitude Isn’t a Holiday — It’s a Way of Living

Thanksgiving may be behind us, but the feeling we’re left with — the slowing down, the appreciation, the noticing — has a longer shelf life than most people realize.

In fact, every major study released this year — from the APA to Harvard Health, the Cleveland Clinic, and even lifestyle medicine research — continues to confirm the same truth:

Gratitude rewires the brain for resilience, calm, and overall well-being.

It lowers stress.
It improves sleep.
It strengthens relationships.
It boosts immune function.
It increases feelings of optimism, purpose, and meaning.

And now, in the quiet space after the holiday, we get to decide whether we carry that feeling forward… or pack it away until next year.

🌾 The Beauty of Life’s Simple Pleasures

This is the weekend when so many people return home, catch their breath, clean up the kitchen, and feel that collective exhale. And in that exhale, something beautiful often happens:

We notice the small things again.

A warm blanket.
A slow morning.
A peaceful mind.
A dog curled up beside us.
A meal cooked with love.
A quiet house after company leaves.
A moment to reconnect with ourselves.

Life’s simple pleasures are not just comforts — they are anchors.

✨ Letting the Rest Fall Away

The older I get, the more I realize that clarity comes in layers. What mattered “before” doesn’t always matter after a perspective shift — whether that shift came from loss, love, burnout, healing, or a moment of deep awakening.

This season of my life — especially the work I do through Intentional Calm — has taught me that letting go is a form of self-respect. When your priorities change, your habits, your boundaries, and your perspective naturally follow.

And there is profound freedom in that.

🕊️ Carrying Gratitude Forward

As we wrap up Thanksgiving weekend, this is the perfect moment to pause and ask:

“What do I want to carry with me into the rest of the year — and what can I leave behind?”

Because that is the heart of intentional living.

Gratitude is not a moment. It’s a practice.
Perspective is not an accident. It’s a choice.
Peace is not found. It’s created.
And joy is rarely loud — it’s subtle, honest, and simple.

May this be the season you return to yourself.
May this be the moment you release what no longer serves you.
And may you move forward anchored in what truly matters.

Here’s to a peaceful, grateful, grounded holiday season ahead. 🤍✨

With love and gratitude,
Mary-Anne

The Art of Unwinding: How to Gently Disconnect and Reconnect with Yourself

There’s a moment many of us know well — that pause where you look up from
your to-do list or your laptop and think, “I’m running on fumes.”

I’ve had those moments too.
But recently, I made a decision that I haven’t made in a long time:
I took three full weeks to step back, breathe, reset, and truly unwind.

Not the “rest while still answering emails” kind of break.  A real one.

But before I say another word, I want to be clear:

⭐ You do NOT need three weeks away to make a meaningful shift in your life.

Unwinding isn’t about the length of the break.
It’s about the quality of the pause and the intention behind it.

Some of the biggest changes you’ll ever feel come from the smallest moments you choose for yourself.

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🌤️ Practicing What I Preach: My Own Reset

During my time away, I walked the walk.
I practiced everything I teach:

• slowing down
• softening the noise
• focusing on my breath
• honoring my nervous system
• choosing presence over productivity
• listening to my body’s whispers before they became shouts

And here’s what happened:

I came back feeling renewed.
Rebooted.
Regrouped.
Clearer than I’ve been in months.

But the truth is…
It wasn’t the three weeks that changed me.

It was the permission I gave myself.
Permission to stop.
Permission to unwind.
Permission to let myself be a human being, not just a human doing.

And that’s permission you can give yourself today — without waiting for vacation time.

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🌸 Why Unwinding Matters

You don’t have to hit burnout to earn a break.
In fact, unwinding is one of the most powerful ways to prevent burnout.

Here’s why those intentional pauses matter:

✧ Reset your nervous system

A few minutes of slowing down can shift your body out of stress mode and into a state of balance.

✧ Restore clarity & creativity

Your best ideas and decisions happen when you’re not overwhelmed.

✧ Strengthen emotional resilience

Unwinding helps you process what you’ve been holding.

✧ Reconnect with what matters

Your joy. Your breath. Your inner rhythm.

✧ Protect your energy

You can’t pour from an empty vessel — but you also don’t have to wait until you’re empty to refill.

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How to Gently Unwind (No Palm Trees Required)

Here are simple, powerful practices you can begin today:

1. Create a 3–5 Minute Micro-Ritual

• Step outside
• Take 5 slow breaths
• Drop your shoulders
• Set one tiny intention
“Today, I choose calm.”

2. Lower the Volume of the World

• Dim the lights
• Play soft music
• Have something warm to drink
• Put your phone in another room
Let your senses guide you home to yourself.

3. Protect Your Time

• No emails/texts after a certain hour
• One quiet evening a week
• A gentle morning reset
Boundaries aren’t walls — they're energy protectors.

4. Move Gently

• Slow walk
• Light stretching
• Simple movement to release stagnant energy

5. Ask Yourself:

“What do I need right now?”
Close your eyes.
Listen without judgment.

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🌙 A Reset Isn’t a Luxury — It’s a Lifeline

My three-week break didn’t make me more distant from my life…
It brought me back into my life with intention.

But your reset doesn’t need to look like mine.
It doesn’t need to be long.
It doesn’t need to be perfect.
It just needs to be yours.

A few minutes of intentional unwinding can change your day — and over time, your life.

Give yourself that permission.

You deserve it.

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🌟 Next Steps on Your Journey to Inner Calm

If today’s message resonated, here are gentle ways to deepen your practice:

✧ 1. Start a Weekly Calm Ritual

Pick one unwinding practice and repeat it weekly.
Small shifts, big returns.

✧ 2. Join the Intentional Calm Community

Get weekly inspiration, tools, and grounding practices right in your inbox.
(https://www.intentionalcalm.com/ - on the right hand side(desktop view) - click follow.)

✧ 3. Explore One-on-One Holistic Consulting    

When you're ready, my holistic consulting sessions offer personalized guidance to support your mind, body, and energy. Together, we’ll explore practical tools and gentle strategies to help you unwind, reset, and reconnect with yourself. (https://www.intentionalcalm.com/p/services-healing-sessions.html)

✧ 4. Stay Connected

New posts every week to support your journey toward balance, clarity, and a more intentional life.

With light and gentle balance,
Mary-Anne

Training vs. Working Out — Why the Difference Matters More Than You Think

For decades, I tried everything. Every workout plan. Every diet trend. Every “start over on Monday” cycle you can imagine. And while I worked hard, I wasn’t truly transforming. Not deeply. Not sustainably. Not from the inside out.

Then COVID happened, the world went online, and for the first time I stopped long enough to ask: “What if I’m doing this all backwards?”

That was the moment I took the leap and hired Billy Beck III (BB3)—someone I admired for years through Tony Robbins. And what my husband and I learned through that experience changed everything.

We stopped working out, and we started training—not for a diet, not for an event, not for a finish line…but for our life. And with the new mindset, we became the strongest, healthiest, most grounded versions of ourselves we had EVER been.

That’s when I realized something profound:

People don’t fail because they don’t work hard. They fail because they don’t train with intention.

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A Local Surprise That Changed Everything

What struck me immediately about Dr. Mike Laviolette was his rare combination of passion, intellect, and heart—the same kind of “geek out on human potential” energy I experienced while working with Billy Beck III. The moment we talked, I recognized that familiar spark: the genuine desire to help people become stronger, healthier, and more aligned from the inside out.

Inspired by the powerful work of Tony Robbins and Billy Beck, this partnership naturally evolved into something uniquely ours—translated into a holistic, grounding, and accessible approach for the people we serve.

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“Where focus goes, energy flows.” — Tony Robbins

This truth is the heartbeat of this entire conversation. When you focus on quick fixes, your energy follows. When you focus on training for your life, your energy flows toward true transformation.

This is why training isn’t about marathons or competitions. You are training for:

• your life

• your joy

• your resilience

• your future

• the best version of YOU

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Training vs. Working Out — The Real Difference

Working Out:

• Sporadic, motivated by short-term goals

• Often tied to dieting and quick fixes

Training:

• Consistent, identity-based, and purpose-driven

• Integrated into your lifestyle for long-term vitality

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A Gentle Teaser of What’s to Come

And this is just the beginning. I’m excited to share that I’ll soon be introducing more about how we can bring this philosophy into our local community in a holistic and accessible way. Stay tuned—more details are coming soon!

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Conclusion

If you’re tired of starting over, done with quick fixes, and ready for a lifestyle that supports your mind, body, and energy, then it’s time to train for your life.

I can’t wait to walk this path with you.
More to come...

                                    ...Stay tuned!

Part 3 of 3: The Integration Blueprint — Where Strength Meets Stillness

Over the past two weeks, we’ve explored the physical side of healing with Dr. Mike Laviolette — from building strength and restoring energy, to addressing what our bodies have been trying to tell us for years. His insights have been powerful, practical, and deeply validating for so many of you.

In today’s final piece, we’re bringing it all together.

Because true healing doesn’t live in silos. It lives in synergy.

When we align physical health with emotional well-being and energetic balance, we begin to feel connected again — not just stronger or calmer, but truly whole. This is where wholistic meets holistic. And this is where transformation begins.

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🔌 Why Integration Matters

We often treat the body, mind, and spirit as separate systems — physical therapy over here, journaling over there, Reiki as a “bonus” when things feel heavy. But what if your neck pain isn’t just mechanical? What if your chronic fatigue is also emotional? What if your body is doing its best to protect you from an energetic wound you haven’t yet named?

When we address all parts of the self, healing no longer feels like a struggle — it becomes a conversation.

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🏋️ + 🌟 How Physical Therapy and Holistic Healing Work Together

Here’s how my work and Dr. Mike’s complement each other:

Dr. Mike (Wholistic PT)	Mary-Anne (Holistic Healing)
Restores movement & mobility	Balances energy & emotion
Strengthens muscle and posture	Calms the nervous system
Boosts physical resilience	Releases trapped emotions
Reduces pain through alignment	Encourages inner peace through intuition
Trains the body with intention	Aligns the spirit with intention

When these approaches are combined, your healing journey accelerates — because we’re working on all levels.

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✨ A Simple Framework: Move – Release – Align

1. Move — Build strength, stimulate circulation, wake up your nervous system

2. Release — Let go of what’s stuck in your energy body or emotional memory

3. Align — Reconnect with your intuition, your breath, your truth

This is how you reset your system — not just physically, but soulfully.

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📅 Introducing: The Wholistic Reset Package

We’re excited to now offer a special collaborative experience that integrates:

• Personalized sessions with Dr. Mike (strength, mobility, injury prevention)

• Healing sessions with Mary-Anne (Reiki, Craniosacral Therapy, EFT, Chakra Balancing)

• Guided tools for journaling, reflection, and daily movement

Whether you're recovering from injury, rebuilding energy, or starting a new chapter, this reset package is designed to help you feel strong, calm, and aligned — in body, mind, and spirit.

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🌿 Your Next Step

You don’t have to do it all at once.
You don’t have to be perfect.
You just have to begin.

Let this be your invitation to stop compartmentalizing your wellness and start embracing the power of integration.

Because strength is beautiful. Stillness is powerful. But together?
They’re unstoppable. DM me if interested in learning more...

A huge shout out to Dr. Mike for sharing his expertise with us~  Please visit Evolve Health Physical Therapy to learn more about his services.

Stay intentional,
💛 Mary-Anne