Top 5 Things To Get You Through Thanksgiving Without Feeling Stuffed And Miserable

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Tessa Todd Morgan

Thanksgiving is creeping up upon us and we all know what that means. It’s a time to stuff ourselves until we are absolutely miserable to where all we can do is barely make it to the couch to nap or go into a food coma and be anything but present or fun to those around us.

Here are my top 5 tips to help you get through Thanksgiving without feeling stuffed and miserable. And for some, let me just add in that being with family, sadly, can be miserable and it can be an opportunity for us to get triggered or upset with or without any good reason. So, with that in mind…

1) GRATITUDE, GRATITUDE and more GRATITUDE. Did you know that your brain cannot process fear and gratitude at the same time? Which means, when we are triggered – in other words – upset, annoyed, irritated or angry (possibly with family members), the best thing for us to do is to go to a place of gratitude. Even though we don’t necessarily feel fear in all of those circumstances, it is hidden somewhere underneath, so practicing gratitude as much as possible during Thanksgiving is not only great for keeping your cool, but also certainly fits right in with the theme of the holiday 😉

2) More protein & veggies and less carbs – Do you ever stop and look at how much protein you are really taking in each day? It would be great if you were getting 60-80 grams a day. I’ve heard in Asian cultures, they get closer to 100 grams a day and don’t even have a word for hot flashes! Two eggs in the morning is only 12 grams if that tells you anything, so try to look for other great sources to bring in more protein throughout your day, especially in the morning. This will help stabilize your blood sugar for the day so you get less crashes. There are some great non-meat sources of protein as well if you are vegetarian or would like to bring in more protein, along with your meat. Orzo and quinoa are some great sources of protein that I’ve been loving lately. Both are great as sides or in a salad.

3) Know when enough is enough when it comes to eating. A great way of doing this is to slow things down. When we are shoving things into our mouth so quickly, a lot of times we can keep going longer than if we take it slow and enjoy what we are eating. It’s another great opportunity to go back to #1 and appreciate and have gratitude for the wonderful food you are eating, that you have food on the table and possibly friends or family to eat it with and company to enjoy.

4) Go on a walk right after you eat your biggest meal. It’s the last thing you will want to do, trust me. But, it’s also the best think you could do for yourself. If you could make it a goal to walk after EVERY meal, even better! This is actually the best thing diabetics could do as well because it helps stabilize your blood sugar so you don’t get the crashes and ups and downs from your food turning into sugar. Give yourself this gift after that big meal that may be in your future this week!

5) Practice turning your focus to others and try to have fun, even if it’s hard in some cases. If things with the family get tense, try to lighten the mood a little. If anything, even if you are the only one, try to bring some fun to the conversation or something as simple as smiling and telling those around you that you love them or simply showing them my listening to their stories or hugging them and just spending time with them. When we take our attention off ourself for a while, it’s amazing how people can see how present you are being with them and that alone can usually lighten the mood quiet a bit.

I wish you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

May you remember all that you have to be grateful for in your life…

How Much Do You Believe In Yourself?

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Tessa Todd Morgan

“Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.” – Robert Collier

I love this quote and it makes me wonder why some of us believe in ourselves and some of us don’t.

At what point do we lose our confidence and think we aren’t capable of certain things?

Is it when we hear growing up that we are not good at x but good at something else?

Is it when we get our heart broken for the first time that we lose confidence in ourselves?

Is it when we try something and fail, even on the first go round?

At what point do we begin to stop loving ourselves enough to believe in ourselves?

I have done many things throughout the course of my life that I wasn’t very proud of and punished myself for them over many years. I also had some self hatred for myself and self sabotage going on until I had enough and decided to get some help and let coaches show me how much I had stopped loving myself.

Would you be willing to ask yourself these questions?

Where do you judge yourself?

Are your thoughts to yourself loving or critical?

When I am working with my life coaching clients, I’m amazed at how much we judge ourselves and the amount of self doubt we can have.

Do you believe you are capable of doing anything you want to do? If not, why not? And I don’t necessarily mean something like going to the Olympics if you haven’t been training to be an athlete for years, but even some of the simple things you’d like to do, but don’t believe that you can. Things like starting a new career or your own business, finishing school, writing a book, having a healthy relationship, having a child, etc.

Would you be willing to start being a little more kinder to yourself? You know, we are what we think we are and we attract what we are thinking about, so the more we think negatively about ourselves, the more we will continue to feel that way and keep acting as we tell ourselves we are.

What if you took the next week and only thought positive things about yourself? You could make a list of positive characteristics that you have and read them to yourself a couple of times a day and be grateful that you are those wonderful things.

Then, when you feel the negative self talk creeping up, go back to the list. If you practice looking at them enough, you will remember some of them when you begin to get caught up in those moments and begin to say them to yourself until it becomes natural to feel that way about yourself and regain your confidence in who you are. We all have unique gifts, talents and characteristics that we can appreciate. And you’d be amazed at how much others will begin to see them too (if they are not already) when we start to appreciate them and are living them ourselves.

The best thing you can do in those moments of self doubt and negative talk is to switch to focusing on the positive and be grateful that you have those beautiful characteristics. You might be surprised at how far being grateful for what you do have can get you and you might even start to find yourself making goals and steps towards some of the things you’d like to accomplish.

I challenge you to start listening to what you tell yourself and ask yourself if that is really true and perhaps start working towards proving yourself wrong. And if you really want to get crazy, add in some words that you know you have faith you can be and want to be like, “I am confident” or “I am successful” and sit back and watch what happens 😉

I Would Have To Say The Actual Event Is Better Than The Anticipation!

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Tessa Todd Morgan

I would have to say the actual event is better than the anticipation. That is, if you can be present at the event. Here’s a photo from one of my favorite moments from the day that I talked about on my last blog.

My dream came true of getting to dance with my dad and finally celebrate my marriage. Even though it was just a family dinner and nothing super fancy, we still had my dad walk me outside following my sweet niece pictured above dropping rose petals where they led me to my wonderful husband where my dad said a prayer for us to bless our marriage.

Planning a family dinner was like planning a mini wedding, but it turned out to be absolutely perfect! And, the event WAS way better than the anticipation of it! I got to be very blessed by some beautiful ladies earlier that afternoon that threw me a shower and celebrate with some amazing women and I was very honored.

It’s a bit overwhelming when the party is over and you are sitting in a room full of gifts feeling so loved by so many. I was amazed at what people did for us and am so grateful. I made it a point to be as present as I could be in every moment.

Back to the picture…I had given my niece a couple of gifts as awards for being the best “flower girl” and about 10 minutes later, while I was dancing with my dad, she came up and gave me the bracelet she was wearing. It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. How does a tiny little 3 year old brain think to do something like that? Almost like in a funny peace offering sort of way or just “hey, you gave me something, now I want to give you this” and I found out later it was her favorite one.

I still have that bracelet sitting out where I can see it every day and remember such a sweet memory. To see that beautiful face look up at me with the sweetest angelic little face is a memory I will remember for the rest of my life.

Next time you are anticipating an event, I encourage you to try and be present in all of the moments. The planning – breathe through the stress and enjoy it because it should be fun too…the actual event – plan ahead and have someone with you to help take care of things so you can enjoy every moment happening around you.

I will also never forget the anticipation of our pool getting ready before the party. We’ve been remodeling our new home for months and up until a few days prior it was an ugly hole full of rust. I just kept telling myself not to worry and that it would all be done in time. It became swimmable at 4pm the day of the party and our family started arriving at 5pm. So, my husband and I christened the pool by jumping in fully clothed. Dress, dress shirt and all. It was a blast!

Amazing things happen to us all the time and can happen in a flash and be gone in an instant. If you are present and soaking it all in, the memories can last a lifetime.

Here’s to you having many loving and happy memories to last you a lifetime.

Hope you have a safe and happy weekend!

Gratitude Challenge Until Thanksgiving

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Tessa Todd Morgan

Are you up for a gratitude challenge until Thanksgiving?

Every morning I pull out a notebook and make a list when I wake up that starts with “I am grateful for” and I write down everything I can think of that I’m grateful for that morning. I keep the notebook in a drawer next to my bed.

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to start our day out with gratitude. We have a choice each and every day to decide to be positive or negative and this is a great way to get the positive things flowing out of us and back to us.

I’ve been doing this for almost a year now and when I first started, I immediately noticed a lot of positive things flowing my way from being in that space. Like attracts like. If you have positive thoughts and think positive things, more will come, it’s just the way it works.

I took a break for a bit and noticed the negativity creeping back in, so I got the notebook back out and now I’m hooked.

Did you know that it is impossible for your brain to be grateful and triggered at the same time?

So, the next time you are upset about something, frustrated or anxious, try shifting your attention to things you are grateful for and see what happens to your mood. You might be surprised how you feel afterwards.

Would you be willing to keep a gratefulness journal from now until Thanksgiving? And then on Thanksgiving Day, you could make an even longer list of all the things you are thankful for and then decide if you want to keep it going after the holiday.

A lot of times I repeat things on my list, but I’m sure we could get creative and make them original every single day if we really wanted to! Even if you think you have nothing to be grateful for, I promise, you do! It could be as simple as having a bed to sleep in, food to eat, a computer to be reading this on and vision to be able to read. With the cold weather here, I think about the fact that there are so many people in the world that don’t even have heat and I cannot fathom what that would be like to have to sleep in those conditions, which makes it easy for me to be grateful for a warm house and bed, if anything.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may you find many things to be grateful for along the way.

What Do You Do When The Power Goes Out?

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Tessa Todd Morgan

What do you do when the power goes out?

I’ve been without power since yesterday around 4:30 PM. I kept thinking it would come back on, but it hasn’t.

The storms in Texas have caused hundreds of thousands of people to be without power the past few days and it sounds like 100,000 homes are out just in the area I live in alone, in Dallas.

Driving around to try and catch a yoga class last night seemed impossible. And actually it was because I didn’t make it in time. Most of the stoplights were out. I had people jet out in front of me running these imaginary stoplights and it seemed that frustrated people were all around. Once I made it to where I wanted to go, I couldn’t even find a parking place because the shopping center was so packed with people circling around three floors of a parking garage to find a space, so I just left and went to eat dinner instead.

It took my boyfriend 3 hours to get home last night and it took my sister an hour and 1/2 to drive a mile and 1/2. She had her 2-year-old little girl in the car and had to get creative on how to entertain her. She picked up dinner in the car and just improvised with what was in front of her until she got home. Smart woman 🙂

It was hot last night and a little hard to sleep, but it made me think about all of the things that we take for granted and it made my gratefulness journal easy to write in this morning. I am grateful that I have a comfortable bed to sleep in and that I can find rest. I am grateful that I have electricity (normally ;). I am grateful that I have things that keep me warm and cool me off when I sleep. I am grateful that we have the ability to switch a switch on the wall and can automatically see much better. It’s amazing how even after hours of walking around with a flashlight and seeing by candlelight, you still switch it on out of habit over and over again. It made me laugh each time.

We can complain, get worked up in traffic, yell, scream and get frustrated and feel like crap or we can decide to enjoy the silence when lying in bed thinking about what it was like for people back in the day when they had no electricity and count all the things we have to be grateful for and look forward to when we have it again. I’m choosing the latter.

So, as I sit here on a hard bench in a restaurant in a tiny spot where I could find an outlet to charge my phone, be on my computer and get wifi, I’m grateful that I could find a place to get some work done. I’m also choosing to find things I can appreciate about the others surrounding me that our in the same situation I am after catching myself from starting to be annoyed that their voices were too loud and annoying because they were so close to me 🙂 I promise life is much more fun this way.

What can you choose to be grateful for despite your circumstances today?

Do You Know When Enough Is Enough?

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Tessa Todd Morgan

Do you know when enough is enough? I’ve been asking myself this question all week long.

I won’t bore you by going into how busy I am right now. But, just so you know I’ve been juggling working on a project the past few months through the end of this month that has led me to almost need help having someone run to the store to buy toilet paper for me if that gives you any idea. And the other day it occurred to me that sometimes enough is enough.

I’m not saying that caused me to stop working on the project by any means, but it just made me realize that sometimes it is mandatory to stop and take a break.

I had a meeting scheduled at a coffee shop and got notice that the woman I was meeting wasn’t going to be able to make it. I decided to go sit in my car and make a phone call. Before I made the call, I had a chance to just sit and be by myself for a few minutes in complete silence and feel the sun beating down on my arms through the sunroof in my car. I felt like I was on vacation.

Did I mention that earlier that morning I had interviewed the mayor of Dallas, a pastor and one of the heads of the Dallas Police Department? What?!?! My head was spinning a little bit to say the least…

Amazing that being able to sit alone in silence for a few minutes can seem like being on vacation. But, it really can. And I was so grateful for those few minutes that I had just to sit. Taking time to breathe and be silent is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves for our mind, body and soul.

I also had a chance last week to escape the hustle and bustle of the project for a bit and go have some fun with a few people that I’m working with (see photo above) and was so grateful for that opportunity as well.

When you’ve reached a point where you are maxed out after going 100% for so many days at a time, you must stop at some point and breathe, do something fun, do something that you love to do or that you enjoy doing.

Thank you Hal and Alisa for treating me to a break to go have some random fun! I am so lucky to be working with such talented artists right now and am grateful for the experiences that we are having together. You two inspire me more than you could ever possibly imagine. (To see more about their awesome work, you can visit http://www.halsamples.com and http://www.alisalevy.com)

I hope you find a way to stop and breathe along the way of your journey and hopefully have some fun too. Here’s to an awesome weekend…

Cheers!