Week 5: Embracing Change: Finding Growth in Life’s Transitions

A few years ago, I faced a change I wasn’t ready for. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me, and all I wanted was to hold onto the way things had been. But over time, I realized that clinging to the past was like trying to stop the tide, futile and exhausting. When I finally let go and allowed myself to embrace the change, I found unexpected growth and strength on the other side.

Change is one of life’s constants, yet it can be one of the hardest things to navigate. This week, let’s explore how to approach transitions with openness and grace, finding opportunities for growth in every shift.

1. Why Embracing Change Matters:

• Builds Resilience: Facing change helps you develop strength and adaptability.
• Creates New Opportunities: Letting go of the old makes space for the new.
• Aligns You with Your Path: Change often nudges us toward what’s meant for us.

2. How to Embrace Change with Grace:

• Acknowledge Your Feelings:
  It’s okay to feel scared, sad, or uncertain. Write about your emotions in a journal to process them fully.
• Focus on What You Can Control:
  When life feels unpredictable, shift your energy to small, manageable actions, like creating a morning routine or practicing mindfulness.
• Reframe Your Perspective:
  Ask yourself, What is this change teaching me? or How can I grow through this experience?

3. Tools for Navigating Transitions:

• Create a Transition Ritual:
  Mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another with an intentional practice, like lighting a candle or meditating on your intentions for the future.
• Visualize Your Future Self:
  Close your eyes and imagine yourself thriving after the change. What do you see? How does it feel?
• Use Affirmations:
  Repeat mantras like, “I trust the process of life,” or “I am capable of handling change with grace.”
• Lean on Support Systems:
  Reach out to friends, family, or a community for encouragement. You don’t have to navigate transitions alone.

4. Crystals and Affirmation Decks for Change:

• Crystals: Labradorite for transformation and moonstone for embracing new beginnings.
• Affirmation Decks: Pull a card to find guidance or reassurance during uncertain times.

Change can be uncomfortable, but it’s often the gateway to growth and renewal. This week, take a moment to reflect on a current or past transition. How has it shaped you? What can you learn from it?

Remember, every ending is a new beginning in disguise.

Be Your Best Self.  Live Your Best Life.

Be well,
Mary-Anne

Boot Camp 2022

Spring is in the air, and I would like to offer another special!  30-day Challenge for $45/class - a 40% savings!!

4 classes to cover balancing your everyday.  Recharging your batteries, especially during such challenging times.

It is time to turn over the new leaf, pick yourself up and dust yourself off.  We have all been hibernating for far too long!

Time to step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air.  Fresh beginnings.

JOIN ME!

 

Intentional Calm’s 30-Day Challenge

 

 Happy Valentine’s Day!

Intentional Calm wants you to do something for yourself today!!  IC is offering its 30-Day Challenge (a $500 Value) for a very limited time – at no charge to you!!  You have to register by Feb 28^th – that’s two weeks (14 days) to take advantage of this amazing offer!!  Email wellness1111 @gmail.com (put “30-Day Challenge” in the Subject line) or call 413.250.0455 to register.

We will meet via ZOOM on Tuesdays in March at 7PM.  ZOOM Link will be forwarded to you once you register.  Class begins promptly at 7PM, this gives you plenty of time to get home from work and/or get the kids situated.  Classes will range from 45–90 minutes, but no longer.  You will still have time to relax before turning in for the night, which is something important we will discuss.

·        March 2^nd – Intro – 5 Tuesdays in March gives us an extra week to have a quick overview of what we will be looking to accomplish by month end.

·        March 9^th – MIND – Mental and emotional well-being.

·        March 16^th – BODY – Physical health, nutritional health – even financial health plays a role.

·        March 23^rd – SPIRIT – Our connection to all that is.

·        March 30^th – Recap – What are your take-aways?  What are your executables to make this work going forward?

You are being offered a very unique opportunity.  A 30 Day Challenge with a ‘COVID concession’ waiving the normal $500 fee due to the unprecedented situation we are currently finding ourselves in due to the pandemic.  Some of you have lost loved ones, some of you have lost jobs, some days are just plain ole hard.   IC recognizes the need and wants to give back to their community!

So…  What are you waiting for??  Email or call now!  😊

Kindly,

Intentional Calm

Inflammation: How does it affect you?

That is the real question.  How does it affect us and where is it coming from?

Inflammation has been negatively affecting me for years!  I never really understood where it came from.  I thought I was eating too much salt and I was retaining water (which I am sure was part of it).  I felt overall lethargic when inflamed.  I could tell when I was inflamed by general swelling on the outside, or subtle discomforts on the inside even if it was not evident as a visual on the outside.

One thing I had found recently that had been negatively effecting me is gluten.  Now, not  to just jump all over this new GF bandwagon, but truly...  Gluten is my arch-nemesis!  It seems to have been part of who I was for a long, long time, yet, I knew that, at least for me, gluten was an inflammatory.  I decided to remove gluten from my diet - pretty much completely and saw amazing results!   1.  Weight loss (not a bad side effect) and 2.  No more Emergency Room visits.  Yes! that's right, even without a Celiac Disease diagnosis from my doctor, gluten consumption landed me on a gurney in the Emergency Department every time! 

Third time was a charm and I decided to "diagnose myself", eliminated gluten and Viola!   No more ER visits and... I felt better!  And magically...  no more heartburn!  I had heartburn from hell eating gluten!!  I was diagnosed with GERD and put on Prilosec.  I could always tell if there may have been a little gluten in something I ate.  Not ER kind of pain, since I still attempted to eat GF, but there may have been a coating on something, or a gluten filled ingredient that a server may not have even realized and I would have awful heartburn all night.  I am proud to say I have stayed GF for over 10 years now.

So, one  down...  Gluten - eliminated.

Still feeling a little achy in the mornings and also feeling still a little swollen or puffy,  I investigated more.  Upon more research, it appeared that for me, two more culprits were making me inflamed from the inside out.  Sugar and Dairy.  I know!  Don't freak out!!!  Mind you I am a full fledged sugar addict!   "Hi, my name is Mary-Anne and I am addicted to sugar".  It is awful!  I have read that sugar addiction is worse than an opioid addiction...  I BELIEVE IT!!  Plus, dairy??  How could I survive without my cheese!!  😞

Giving up sugar will be allot harder for me.  Gluten was hard at first, but now there are so many GF options.  But sugar???  Guess what makes all those GF options taste so good????  Yep!  You guessed it...  Sugar!  This will be a real challenge for me.  I know people say the more you eliminate sugar the less you crave it, well...  they lie!  lol  or at least I have yet to see the full benefits from that!  Maybe I have just not followed through long enough to see those positive results.

I have tried The Whole 30.  I will have to say, I was pretty pumped to start and did follow through for the well, I'll say 28 out of the 30 days, but did realize a 10 pound weight loss and I felt less bloated.

I have tried most all the fad diets over the years...  early on it was "Fit for Life" and "The Atkins Diet" then there came "SouthBeach" and then the new and improved Atkins diet - "Keto".  They repackage allot of the same information and deliver it in such a way that it seems new...  (Another perfect example of this is the book "The Secret" as if that information was new...  Bitc#, please!  I will discuss this in another post).  I digress...  I even bought all the  books for those diets, downloaded any apps plus ordered matching cook books!  I try. I succeed for a while, and then right back where I started...  Ugh...  The struggle, my friends, is real.

Is this another fad, I don't think so, since it seems very factual plus no one in particular is financially benefiting from the information, but... I just watched The Game Changers.  WOW!  I advise checking it out.  It will change how you look at what you eat everyday.  Subsequently I have watched What the Health & Cowspiracy.  Also very interesting and, not going to lie...  A little fareaken gross!!!  Wait until you get to the puss part.  Yes, puss.  And the allowed level of puss.  (It's as if I can see your face!!  I am literally LOL)  Where they just slice the pustule on the animal, let the puss gush out right there on the line and it keeps going onto production for packaging...  ewwwww.....  😝   Sorry had to share!

I know what you are thinking... Holy S#!t....  C'mon...  What's a girl to eat???  No meat, no cheese, no sugar...  Say it isn't so!!!

Welcome to my new challenge.  What do I eat, that will sustain me while still tasting good.  I am Italian, and I LOVE to eat...  I'm a foodie!  Yes, I am one of those ones who posts pics of almost everything they eat!!  LOL  Presentation is key.  I need food to taste good!  All of my socializing is based around food...  well, plus cocktails!   (Yes, I post those too!)  And yes, I do know that alcohol breaks down into sugar.  But let's curb one thing at a time, shall we?  😉

Join me over the next few weeks and months to see how I transform my overall well being with diet.  Lets talk about what's in your pantry to what's in your fridge plus I will be joining a farm share!  We will get to exercise and physical health later...  as well as the other factors...  emotional, mental, spiritual as well as financial health.

Thank you for reading!
Be Well
Mary-Anne

Welcome!

The "intention", no pun intended...  (well, yeh!  maybe it is intended!  ;)  of this site is to give you good healthful information that you will use to help yourself feel better.

There will be information on physical health, financial health, spiritual health, nutritional health, as well as mental and emotional health.

I am hoping to begin this journey with you, so we can work together to a more healthful and peaceful way of living.

                                         Welcome to...           Intentional Calm.