Self-Care: Check-in

At the moment, I feel pretty great.  I’ve slept in the past two mornings.  I’m currently sitting at my kitchen island with no makeup on, drinking fresh homemade lemon ginger tea.  I’ve actually gotten to see and spend time with my husband the past two days (which is incredibly rare because of our conflicting work schedules).  Not to mention, I’ve been “catching up” on some things that have taken a back seat recently. I feel pretty awesome at the moment.  I’ve found my chill.  My Happy Place. But the past couple weeks (let’s all be honest here… the past couple months really) I’ve been a mess.  I’ve been so caught up in the hustle of every day life and work. I haven’t been sleeping well.  I’ve been stressing excessively about everything going on both at work and at home (all good stuff, promise! just lots of it). And  my body has been sending me huge flashing signs that things aren’t right.  I’ve been feeling sick, tired, and achy but all without being actually sick. I’ve been in a not so great Read More

Handling the Hard Parts of Owning a Business

Don’t get me wrong for even one second.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE what I do. In fact, I wrote a whole post about it recently on our Leaders Blog.    I sincerely believe I have the best/coolest/most rewarding job on the face of the planet.  And really, who could argue with this cuteness?  But that’s where the conversation usually ends with most people who also think they have the “best/coolest/most rewarding job”.  Most business owners I know won’t openly divulge the icky, not-so-fun parts of what they do, which is terribly unfair.  Business ownership is often put on a tall, shiny pedestal without so much as a mention of how that pedestal was built, how it stays standing and polished, and what it takes to stay there living the perceived awesome entrepreneurial life. Want the honest to goodness truth??  It takes a lot of hard work and grit. We are talking serious determination. Long hours. Unpaid work. Tons of trial AND error. Revisions like you wouldn’t believe. And so on and so on… There are things I have dealt with as a business owner that I never Read More

Using Music for Personal Healing

Yesterday afternoon, my mom called to tell me my great aunt had passed away.  She was in her late 80s and not in great health.  She had been in and out of the hospital a lot recently.  So it wasn’t entirely unexpected,  but that’s not to say that it didn’t break my heart a little. We weren’t terribly close, but my Aunt Lorraine is one of the sweetest people I know and has always treated me splendidly.  She and my uncle Jack have always supported me in everything I have done (including generously helping me buy attire for pageant I didn’t place in) , sent cards for every holiday and major event, and spent time talking with me fairly regularly. I was distracted by the news and was having trouble focusing on things. My stress level was already high and the loss I felt wasn’t helping. Certain songs kept playing in my head distracting me even more from what I was trying to accomplish. So, I put everything down and listened to what the music was trying to tell me. I Read More

It’s Tuesday… and I’m Exhausted

Actually, to be honest, I was exhausted yesterday when it was only Monday (and even the day before when it was Sunday) and that feels like that was forever ago.  Really, truly,  Monday feels like it was at least three days ago. But why am I sharing this?  Why do I sound whiny instead of sharing something useful? I need to be honest and vulnerable with you. I can preach things like self-care, simplifying, and work flow until the cows come home, but you have to know that I still struggle with these things.  I struggle to take time for myself when I need it, say no when people ask for things, or simplify when life gets too busy for me to actually accomplish everything I want to. I still struggle and I know I’m not alone. So, by telling you the truth that I’m exhausted and having a hard time accomplishing what I want to right now, I hope it gives you the room to be honest with yourself and do what you need to in order to better Read More

Being a Supervisor…

…definitely has it’s challenges and tough moments.  There are long nights, hard conversations, sweat, tears, stress, etc.  I get it! However, it is one of the most rewarding and consistently joyful things I have ever done professionally.  I love having the opportunity and ability to influence someone and help them grow into the professional they want to be.  I love being there when they have questions and being able to answer them or learning new things along the way by finding the answer together.  I like being able to have conversations where we talk about the aspects of Music Therapy or business that often get swept under the rug or taken for granted.  AND I am absolutely thrilled whenever I see my intern succeed. The past few weeks, Alisabeth has displayed an incredible amount of growth (whether she realizes it or not) and in spite of some really challenging situations. Needless to say, I am beyond excited to see where the next few weeks lead! Mostly, I just wanted to take a moment to encourage anyone in a teacher, supervisor, student, or Read More