​My earliest memory of thinking about my body size was in the forth grade on one of my first days as a student of a new school. Up until that point, it had never come up.
 
My friends came in all shapes and sizes and none of us thought much of it. I’m not sure if it was the age we were at, or being a stranger in a new place, but one of the girls in my new class made a comment about how heavy I was and my whole world shifted.
 
Looking back now, I was by no means the biggest girl in my class, far from it actually, but I was the newest and the shyest. Regardless of what was fact and what wasn’t, things were never the same again. Fast forward through more than 20 years of struggle, which included, among many other things; self-hate, depression, yo-yo diets, binge eating and starvation, until one day, when I found myself in a loving relationship and about to have a baby. Everything changed again.
 
I began to see more of the whole picture. I remember the way I felt while I watched close family members let their size chip away at their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. I recalled all the time, thought and energy I had wasted on my obsessive focus on weight. I knew one thing, as I stood with my hand on my 30-some-week, pregnant belly: my children were not going to live like this. Letting the number on the scale, or what you THINK other people think about you, was never going to even be on my kids’ radar.
 
My husband has a normal, healthy relationship with food and his body. That is what I wanted for my children.
 
So, I enlisted the help of a counselor and began doing something I do best – research. I would become the role model I wanted for my children.
 
I did my homework and field tested many strategies. I made a plan, continually reviewed it, and made changes where needed. I started adopting healthy SUSTAINABLE habits and sticking with them. And even more importantly than fixing my physical health, I was working on getting my head right.
 
No more self-deprecating talk. No more obsession with eating this or not that. No more letting my appearance affect my confidence.
 
I wanted my children to have all of the time and energy I’ve put into one stupid goal of reaching a magic number on the scale, to be put to much better use. I wanted that for me too.
 
I look back on all of the things I could have done instead of making myself feel bad over the size written on the tag of my jeans. And I’ve learned that in reality, that number hasn’t even mattered to me. At my fittest and smallest, it was still “never good enough”.
 
Today, when I look at my 3 year old and 1 year old, I see their perfect little bodies, and their perfect sense of self-worth. I look at my body and see the woman my partner loves and the miraculous body that brought two perfect beings into this world and works hard to care for them each day.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I am still a work in progress, but I no longer look back at pictures of my 13 year old self and sneer in disgust. I don’t say negative things (aloud – I’m still working on my internal self-talk) about myself. I am a work in progress, but already I’ve grown so much.
 
If my children were to begin today, to emulate my relationship with my body, I wouldn’t be 100% satisfied (there is always room for growth), but I know that I’ve done well so far. Sometimes when I look in the mirror and smile at myself, I can almost imagine the look of surprise on my 20-something-year old face. That girl NEVER smiled in satisfaction or admiration at her reflection, but this one does. And so will my babies.
 
-M

Imagine if you were hiking on a lovely summer day, you are on a beautiful path going up a slight slope. What if you said to yourself, "wow, my legs are so tired this slope seems like it's getting steeper," and with that thought, there is a low rumble under the earth and a hill pushes up beneath your feet!

Well, now you are faced with a steeper hill, without a pause you think, "holy cow! This is turning into a mountain of a hill," and again a rumple and a shake , you are faced with a mountain. “Oh great!” you say, “every mountain path has a narrow trail, rocks and crevices, I can sure tell what I’m in for!” Sure enough, the path gets treacherous.
Thankfully, this does not happen when hiking and when we embark on a trek, we have the proper gear. Our hiking experience helps us choose safe passage, and if we are going to take a road less traveled we have google maps, or friends that will help us find our way...

This is not the case when navigating some of the “molehills” that we come across in our lives, if we do not use logical thought an automatic, negative re-frame may happen and a much more treacherous mental story is created. This can transforms that molehill into a much more difficult to navigate, mountain.

Remember, you have your gear, your past experiences can guide you and if it’s uncharted territory you do have resources and people to turn to.
​
Keep the molehills small and enjoy the hike!
-B

Our hats are off to Dr. Harvey Karp! On page 59 of a wonderful book called “The Happiest Toddler on the Block,” Dr. Karp shares a table of “Labels that Hurt – Descriptions that Help,” which depicts the very fundamentals of re-framing. How we can build our children’s self-esteem, just by being aware of the language we are using and what words actually inspire.

He points out that when a child appears to be bossy, they may be destined to leadership. He promotes the idea that most words we use which have negative connotations such as “hyper” can be easily replaced with their positive counter parts such as “energetic or passionate”. A very negative “nosy” is quite an endearing “curious”.

His list continues but instead of posting it here, I challenge you to add a comment of your favourite one word re-frames.

See the comment below to get you started!

-B

Rosy Re-Frame: It’s all in the getting there.

The things we learned from Puppets, who knew? I can recall a stuffed green frog, peddling a bicycle, singing “Moving Right Along, do do do, do do do” and although I don’t remember all of the lyrics, I can remember the “getting there is half the fun” part.

It is kind of funny that in an existence that is essentially made up of a series of journeys, we always seem to be in a hurry to get to the next thing (whatever that may be). We know how important it is to be mindful, be present. You don’t have to stall out your day to be present in a moment, you simply need to take note of the smaller bits –

there were probably 30 or more moths on my front door this morning. Which was kind of cool, as they were sitting, not flapping their furry little selves around my face, the sunrise was gorgeous and so were the two deer I allowed my-self to take note of on the way to work. Curious how the day didn’t change, I still made it to work on time, and went about things the same way I would had I not stopped to count the moths, or notice the deer.

When we are cooped up, travelling along by plane or bus or car, we can fuss and fume and be impatient for the goal, or we can enjoy the scenery, catch up on sleep, reading, laugh and talk, isn’t that valuable time?

Maybe the destination is not what is intended to be the reward, perhaps it is the richness along the way, the fall colours, the smile of a friend or stranger, the time spent with family in a vehicle.

If we think about the ultimate journey that we are all on, it is not the destination we crave, it’s really each moment along the way.

-B


Photo credit @jdmytruk

 ​Around five years ago, my life started to fall together beautifully. I had free time to enjoy myself, lived in a nice place, had the career I’d worked so hard to achieve, everyone I loved was safe and healthy and I had fallen in love with the person to whom I would eventually marry. This was a complete 180° turn from where my life had been just a few short years before. So, as everything calmed, myself and my G.P. could not figure out why I had developed these bed-drenching, wake-up-to-wring-out-your-pajamas, finger-pruning, night sweats.
 
My Dr. ran every test he could think of. I was too young for menopause, my thyroid was working fine, no allergies… all my numbers were good. We were stumped and his only suggestion was to look at my mental state. Was I anxious? Depressed?
 
Heeding my Doctor’s advice, I set myself up with a counselor who then referred me to a psychologist. Everything was so good in my life, I really had nothing to stress over. The night sweats continued and I grew more frustrated (and thoroughly grossed out!) Enter the Counselling Hypnotherapist.
 
I started seeing a hypnotherapist and after some explanation of what PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) actually looked like and a few weeks of sessions, the night sweats stopped. I went back once or twice over the next few months, then eventually never again.*
 
Things I did not know about hypnotherapy until my first visits with Bev at On Track Hypnotherapy:

1. Post traumatic stress affects many people and it is not uncommon to experience no symptoms until everything has calmed or passed.

 

1. PTSD does not mean you need to have gone through war or a natural disaster, it has many causes; injury or illness, divorce, death of a loved one, loss of a job, loved ones being injured or ill, seeing an accident, being in an accident or near miss, failing to achieve a goal, and the list goes on.

 

1. PTSD can manifest itself in a myriad of ways – mine was by sweating profusely during sleep.

 

1. Your mind and body are so connected that your mental state can cause a change in your physical state, sometimes a very drastic one.

 
 The good news is, by working with your subconscious and conscious mind to sort out the issue, remove negative or limiting beliefs and make positive new suggestions, your mind and body can be healed!
 
Visit Bev Berg CHT at othypnotherapy.com to learn more!
 
*I have been back to the hypnotherapist since, but for more fun things like hypnobirthing, which, by the way, I highly, HIGHLY recommend. 

-M

When I look out the window and see the fall colours beginning to emerge, or catch a glimpse of the V shape of a flock of Canadian Geese headed back south, I get to decide what I let my thoughts wander to.  Is it the beauty of the crimsons and golds? The majesty of the Canadian Goose and how fortunate I am to catch a glimpse of the migration? OR is it that any day now I'll be sweeping the snow off of my car and freezing my nu-nu's off, complaining of the cold and dark and ALWAYS exaggerating how long and miserable winter is?  
When the idea of our little production company was conceived about 3 years ago, the name Rosy Window was arrived at very purposefully - we all know that it is not healthy to look at the world through rose coloured glasses (that may be a bit naïve) but we can choose to see a rosier world if we look through the right frame. 
We are all creatures of habits, this is true of all of our thought processes, so when something happens or when we are going through the day to day, the habit of positive thought or negative thought is very powerful, changing this instantaneous thought process is not as hard as it may appear.  Practicing the art of re-framing is a great way to start, aware at first, purposely re-writing those thoughts, until it's no longer a conscious effort at all, it is simply noticing the "glass half full" first as the habitual thought response is positive. 
We are beginning our 12 week "Re-Frame Campaign" we would love to hear from you.  Can you think of an example of a perfect re-frame?  Is there something that you need help re-framing?  Send us a picture of your favourite window we would love to include it in our campaign.

The way we speak to ourselves can change not only our outlook on life, but our mental state all together. Our subconscious establishes a belief by repetition and once the seed of an idea has been planted it (our subconscious) actively seeks examples to confirm and reinforce that belief.  With that, negative self-talk can begin as simply as having one off day.
 
Imagine waking up in the morning and as you walk to the bathroom, you stub your toe. As you mutter a bad word under your breath, you think to yourself, “ouch. That was stupid.”
 
You continue with your morning, you have a big presentation at work today and you are excited. You’ve been researching and preparing for weeks and you know your idea is amazing. You get ready to go, you dress for success and feel prepared for the day. You hop in your car and as you glance at the time, notice you have a couple extra minutes to swing into the coffee shop and grab a coffee on your way. You park and run in, with your presentation on your mind, you walk to the counter and as you begin to give the barista your order, the guy in the lineup behind you, whom you have just cut in front of, mutters a few choice words under his breath and calls you stupid. Embarrassed, you apologize, grab your coffee and head to the counter to add cream and sugar, snap on a lid and leave.
 
Back in the car, you take a sip from your coffee and too late realize that the lid is not on correctly. You spill coffee down the front of your shirt, look at the mess and say, “Ugh. That was stupid.”
 
You get to work, clean yourself up, pump yourself up and nail the presentation. You’re feeling awesome as you drive home that final important point and when you scan the room, your gaze lands on the face of your manager. A face that is currently looking at you like you have two heads. A face that obviously thinks you, or your idea, or both, are stupid.
 
So there you go, in one day you’re subconscious has been told 4 times that you are stupid. Twice by you, who is, lets face it, the leading authority on ‘you’. Once by a complete stranger and once by a person in a position of authority.
 
But lets re-cap:

1. Stubbing your toe has absolutely nothing to do with your I.Q.. It was an accident.
2. The man at the coffee shop may have been having a bad day, or perhaps was just not a very nice person. Either way, he doesn’t know you and therefore can have zero opinion on how smart you are.
3. Being in a hurry and not putting the lid on your coffee tells you that you need to pay a bit more attention, not that you are unintelligent.
4. Your boss did not say a word after your presentation. YOU decided that the look on his face meant you were stupid. Perhaps he was thinking about how to implement your idea or maybe he just didn’t think the timing was right. Regardless, you are not a mind reader and furthermore, if someone doesn’t agree with your idea, it does not mean you are stupid.

 
And there you have it, a belief has been suggested, confirmed and reinforced by your subconscious. A belief that is not only untrue, but negative and potentially destructive as well. Our subconscious is an amazing goal seeker and once it has established a belief, it will then seek out to re-affirm that belief. In the case of this story, that means pointing out to your conscious every time you do something to prove that you are “stupid”.
 
This is why we use relaxation modalities such as guided imagery, meditation or hypnotherapy. When we relax the body, the mind slows and the theory is that when our brainwaves slow, our subconscious becomes open to suggestion. That is when we can bypass the critical thinking consciousness and give the positive suggestions to our subconscious that will change or replace the negative self-talk.
 

-B

​From the time you are born, you grow and change. You are not the same person you were yesterday or the day before. Sometimes change happens naturally and sometimes you are striving to change for health or well-being, or to better your situation. 
When you falter or you don't make progress as quickly as you think you should (instantly and flawlessly) the abuse begins - the internal brow beating that you are so good at giving yourself. Magnifying your "failure" and denying any sense of accomplishment at all. 
Imagine if instead of talking yourself into giving up hope, you could have the same dialogue internally that you would have in supporting your best friend? Kind and considerate words of encouragement. Cheering yourself on as you navigate the journey that is life. Loving. Supporting. Encouraging. Imagine self-talk that lifts you up, carries you forward, and adds fuel to your fire.

-RWP

Two things have happened in the last couple month that without another thought, I would have let them slide by, unconnected and independent of each other.  The first was a room full of educators that listened respectfully and intently as I spoke of my recent work. The next was a couple of weeks later as I did some housework with my hair up and in my sweats, kicked on a podcast to “keep me company” as I did my chores.

The podcast – The Influencer – had a business coach as a guest and as they explored her story of how she had come to do this line of work and eventually what she offered clients, nothing grabbed my attention until she explained that she began with drilling down into the “why did you start your company?”  Yes to be self-employed. Yes to have flexible hours. But why this business.
​
That’s when I began to think of all those people who begin a business, a career, a mission.  To move toward a “life’s work” instead of having just a job or career. To choose what they do because they want to make a difference.  Drilling down to the big WHY THIS, to the simplest core. So once I answered that question for myself – I wanted to give to children tools for life,  so they don’t need to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms, so they have solid self-esteem, and can manage what life throws at them. And so, you might ask, what does that have to do with a room full of teachers?  There they are, by choice, sometimes overworked, underappreciated and, let's face it, not the career if your aspire to drive a Lamborghini.

Sometimes life just takes us and leads us to a job, career, situation and it’s good, we do our best and are grateful , we may even find our calling or just really enjoy what we do.  

But tell me if you have choose what you do or if you could choose, what would it be and why?

​-B