Being Balanced

Remembering the lives lost on September 11, 2001, and holding in our hearts the families, loved ones, first responders, and communities forever changed by that day.

We remember.

Slow Your Pace with Matilda Grace 🐾

Unclench.

Sometimes we don’t even realize how much we’re holding.

Take a moment and notice your jaw.
Notice your hands.
Notice your shoulders.

Are you gripping, clenching, or holding a little more tension than you need right now?

You don’t have to make yourself relax. Just notice what’s there and see if your body is willing to soften a little.

Maybe your jaw loosens.
Your hands release.
Your shoulders drop.

No forcing. No need to get it perfectly relaxed.

Just notice… and give your body the opportunity to let go of what it doesn’t need to hold right now.

Matilda says paws count too. 🐾

Now that we're practicing... let's talk about emotions.

We often move pretty quickly when an emotion shows up.
We explain it.
Judge it.
Try to fix it.
Push it aside.
Or start telling ourselves why we shouldn't feel that way.

But what happens if we pause before doing any of that?

Maybe we notice where the emotion shows up in the body.
A heaviness in the chest.
Heat in the face.
Tightness in the throat.
Restlessness in the arms or legs.
The urge to pull away, move, cry, speak, or become very still.

We don't have to figure it all out.
And we don't have to make the feeling go away.

Sometimes the practice is simply being able to notice:
Something is here.

Can I stay with it for a moment?
What am I noticing in my body?
What might support me while this feeling is here?

Emotions are part of our nervous system experience. Learning to notice them without immediately reacting to them—or trying to get rid of them—can give us a little more room to choose what comes next.

Notice → Support → Connect → Grow

Maybe it’s not just the hot flashes. 💜

Maybe you’ve noticed that sleep feels different. Your patience is shorter. You’re more easily overwhelmed. Stress seems to hit harder, and sometimes your brain simply doesn’t seem to cooperate the way it used to.

Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause can affect much more than temperature. They can influence sleep, energy, mood, cognition, stress response — and the way your nervous system responds to the demands of everyday life.

🩵 And then there’s all the advice.

Eat this. Don’t eat that. Lift heavier. Rest more. Take this. Avoid that.

Some of it may be helpful. But every woman’s body, life and nervous system are different.

What if, instead of trying to follow every recommendation, you learned more about what is happening in your body — and became curious about what actually supports YOU?

🌿 Hot Flashes, Cool Strategies is a Nervous System Wellness Workshop designed to help you better understand this season of change, explore your own patterns and responses, and find practical strategies that fit your body and your life.

Live Online • 60 minutes • $30

💜 A little understanding can go a long way toward feeling more at home in a body that seems to be changing the rules.

🔗 Learn more + register:
beingbalanced.net/ns-wellness

If money can't buy happiness...
why do they keep putting prices on puppies?

🐾 From the Mind of Matilda Grace

🦘 A Quokka's Perspective

The words we use.

Sometimes it isn't the whole sentence that changes how something lands.

Sometimes it's one tiny word.

Always.
Never.

“I always mess this up.”
“Things never work out for me.”

Take a moment and read those slowly.
Notice what happens in your body when you hear them.

Now try:

“This didn't go right this time.”
“Things didn't work out the way I hoped.”

Pause again.
Did anything shift?

Always and never can take something that happened in one moment and turn it into a much bigger story.

One mistake becomes I always mess up.
One disappointment becomes things never work out.

The new words don't change what happened.
They don't ask us to pretend it didn't matter.

They simply leave a little more room around it.

Room for this time to be this time — not every time.

❤️ Tiny words can change the whole story.

This month, we'll be playing with some of the little words we use every day — and noticing what changes when we listen to them not just with our minds, but with our bodies.

Small shifts. Gentle practice.

Slow Your Pace with Matilda Grace 🐾

Sometimes we get so focused on what’s right in front of us that our world gets a little small.

So, every now and then, look up.

Let your eyes move away from the task in front of you and notice something farther away. Look out the window. Notice a tree, the sky, the light, or simply what’s happening around you.

It doesn’t have to be a long break. Just a small shift in your attention can give you a moment to reset before bringing your focus back to what you were doing.
Your task will still be there.

And according to Matilda, even your ball can wait a moment. 🧡🐾

Now that we're practicing... let's talk about boundaries.

Sometimes the first sign that we need a boundary isn't the word "no."
It's the pause before we say yes.

A tightening in the stomach.
A change in our breathing.
A little tension in the shoulders.
That feeling of wanting to pull back, even while we're already starting to agree.

When we're used to accommodating, helping, keeping the peace, or simply getting things done, "yes" can come out pretty quickly.

Our nervous system may have noticed something before we did.
The practice isn't to make every uncomfortable feeling mean "no."

It's to notice.
What happened in my body when I was asked?
Do I actually have the capacity for this?
What do I need?
Do I need a moment before I answer?

Awareness creates a little more room between being asked and automatically responding.

And in that room, we may find we have more choices.

Notice → Support → Connect → Grow