A little known fact about me is the first sport I loved was going fishing.

Being the youngest of four, I got thrown into sports like golf, skiing and swimming at an early age to be able to keep up with my older siblings and play with my parents.

My Dad was an avid recreational fisherman and spent a week a year in northern Quebec, flying in and out by floatplane, with his buddies to a remote lodge.

Each summer, he’d take time to fish with me at a YMCA family camp we went to on Lake Couchiching called Geneva Park.

Every chance I got when I was small,  my Dad and I would head out early in the morning and sit with my line in the lake, waiting for a bite.  I even really liked to put the worm on the hook.

It was magic!

We’d catch and release sunfish and some bass. The anticipation of the catch was often much higher than the actual event.

But I got lost in time and space for those hours on the lake.

Nothing else in the world mattered except living in that moment, just being calm and quiet.

There was so much power in the stillness that I can still feel it now as I write about it.

As an entrepreneur, I end up working a lot, and it’s not easy to stop my brain from playing and creating. For the first time in 18 months, I’m going to take a well-deserved break.

It’s been a whirlwind for me between launching a book and an online coaching program.

Slowing down is CRUCIAL for both our mental and physical health.

It’s the one positive thing I’ve been reminded the most about in 2020.

Let’s face it: the day-to-day responsibility of our well-being has to come from inside each of us as individuals. We all have to be our own best advocates for health.

Have you ever felt like pressing the pause button?  Do you do enough for your self-care?

Athletes live by the same mindset in a technique called periodization.

It breaks their training year into “periods” of 4-6 weeks to focus on one technical or strength skill before moving on to the next in the skill sequence.

What started as a regime practiced in the 1970s by Olympic athletes in Eastern Europe is still the foundation of training regimes worldwide.

Self-care isn’t selfish.

Even though many stressors are good for us (like exercise – play, learning, and change), they only make us stronger if we give ourselves the chance to recover.

So, you won’t hear from me for a few weeks.

I’ll be lost in nature, playing in the lake, and watching the stars at night.

I cannot wait to get back to that feeling.

I’m going fishing🎣