A Meditation For Winter
I love winter. This has not always been the case. I lived the first part of my adult life disliking winter. I would start to complain as the last of the leaves were raked up and put into the...
10 Mindful Intentions To Help You Start Your Day!
If you are anything like me, when you wake up, it is a race against the clock. It might be lunchtime before you stop, sometimes to realize, “ This day is just whacked!” Maybe your day could start...
Navigate The River Of Life With Purpose And Intention
It is a crisp December day, and sunny as I walk. The surprisingly loud honks of geese can be heard over the crunch of gravel under my boots. I am alone at the moment, but I live on a farm with my...
Mindful Holiday Survival Guide
The holidays bring joy and (if we are being honest) chaos. Is your to-do list as long as mine? Our teaching schedules leave little time for holiday prep. My daughter told me I need a holiday...
Create Your Own Calm
Mindfulness isn't a "quick fix" to solving all your problems. Instead, mindfulness is a tool kit that you can pull resources from when you're faced with moments of stress or anxiety. You can also...
Soundtrack for Fun + Focus
Kids know when we are disengaged. An act as simple as putting away tech during mealtimes can give your family the opportunity to connect in a positive way. Pop on this fun playlist to help you...
Get the ZZZ’s You Need in 5 Easy Steps!
Good sleep can lower your stress levels, decrease your risk for heart disease, and help you manage your weight. Additionally, people who sleep well tend to perform better at school and work and...
Color for Calm: 3 Free Resources to Try Now!
Coloring can activate calm and settle your nervous system. That's why we include it as a resource in our MBAwareness Educational Program. Teachers and students alike benefit from a few minutes of...
Reboot + Recharge: a 20-Minute “Mini-Meditation” Playlist
We've got a lot going on in our daily lives. Carving out a few minutes of self-care can sometimes feel like a chore. One of the best ways to tap into your self-care needs is to notice what is...
Mindful Minute: Ninja Breath
Taking just a few minutes to focus on quiet breathing techniques can transform your classroom from chaos to calm. Ninja Breath is a fun and interactive way to explore the centering nature of...
Take Your Practice into the World: Communication Tips
If your world is anything like mine, you’ve been spending a lot of time in Zoom meetings, phone meetings, and reaching out to friends and relatives via Facetime over the past few months. Instead...
5 Ways to Decrease the Stigma of Mental Health
Introduction by Annamarie Fernyak In the following blog post, Erin talks about the stigma of mental health and common biases toward people who may be suffering from mental illness. Before Erin’s...
Our Responsibility to Teach Essential Skills in the Classroom
It takes a community to raise our children! While volunteering to teach mindfulness in our local middle school, I noticed it was a struggle to get the children to focus, and there seemed to be...
Perfectionism, Rewired.
In my quest to write a perfect blog, while procrastinating with a slight fear of failing before I even get started, I will review with you a couple of ways to look at perfectionism. And perhaps...
Ask A Yogi: Body Differences + Pose Modifications
Q: I enjoy doing yoga but I get insecure about my body differences. When I need help with modifications, I am embarrassed to ask. What can I do to let the instructor know that I need some...
How Mindfulness Can Help You Explore Your Perfectionism.
Hello MBA Community, This year at Mind Body Align we are embarking on an exploration into mindfulness and wholehearted living. We began the year by offering some tools for you to use in order to...
{Im}perfect Now: March Featured Playlist
"Being Uniquely YOU is the New Perfect.” ― Stephanie Lahartced This playlist was created with our 2020 whole self theme in mind, specifically on what it means to be perfectly imperfect. ...
Believe in the Beauty of Your Dreams.
Three years from now, what will you celebrate? If anything you wanted were possible, without considering the obstacles, what would it be? These are the questions we, the Mind Body Align...
3 Quick Tips to Start Practicing Self-Love Now!
"Self-love is about being more committed to your happiness than to your suffering in every single moment."- Nitika Chopra We all know that love is the main topic of discussion in...
Gifting for the Love Languages
According to Dr. Gary Chapman, we all have a “love tank” inside of us. When the love tank is full, we feel connected, supported, and secure. When the love tank is empty, we feel disconnected,...
A Note from Jen: A “Whole” Approach to 2020
I invite you to join me in this moment. Right here. Right now. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. One more breath. In and out. And, Hello! Welcome to...
Ask A Yogi: Foot Pain During Balance Poses.
You've got questions, we've got answers! Resident MBA Yogi, Amy Secrist, is available to answer questions, give insight and guidance, and help you feel great about your yoga practice. You...
Journey to New Perspectives: An Exploration of the Heart
Have you ever considered your “quality of life” from a whole-self perspective or considered the elements which create a happy and purposeful life? Possibly you have been gauging your personal...
The Road to Wholeness is Bumpy.
We live in a busy world that values busy culture. I'm busy. You're busy. Every day I think of all the things I should be doing, could be doing, and not to mention all the things I forgot to do.
The Unexamined Life
Many people talk about life as being in balance or, more commonly, “out of balance”, and yet, I’m curious, how many of those same people have defined what balance is, or means, to them? Have...
Ditch the Holiday Hustle
With the hustle and bustle that surround us this time of year, it can feel exhausting to try to cut through the noise and find a moment of calm for ourselves. I love this post by Lysianne Unruh...
A Holiday Meditation
Each week our team at Mind Body Align gathers on Tuesday afternoons for a brief group mindfulness meditation. It's a chance to connect not just as colleagues but as humans "being". This was my...
Living Beyond the Blocks
The age-old question of– “If you could go back in time what would you do differently?” has been asked by so many people. I’ve asked myself this question many times and others have asked me more...
Open yourself to gratitude
We all know that Gratitude is something that we “should” practice in order to live a happier life. But, why? What happens in the body and mind when we practice gratitude and the act of being...
Grateful for the Gift
As I write this, the late evening sunlight is shining through purple-gray clouds. It is the golden hour – that time before dark when everything is bathed in a soft yellow light. Autumn in Ohio...
Focusing, Re-branding, and Including
In March 2018, I was one of 15 people from Mansfield who went to the South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. The original intent of the trip, which was funded by a grant from the...
Looking at the Big Picture
In the year-plus since our journey to Austin, I’ve been asked numerous times about the experience. The questions drive at both the experience itself, as well as the post-Austin endeavor to write...
Awakening Within The Fertile Silence Of Nature
“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” -John O'Donohue We were four days into a week-long backpacking trip in the White Mountains of New...
Transformed by Nature
I found myself chasing butterflies at the Cole Road Prairie one afternoon. While my goal was to capture images for a new website, the result was actually much more. I truly felt transformed by...
Every Child is Potentially the Light of the World.
"Every child is potentially the light of the world—and at the same time it’s darkness; wherefore must the question of education be accounted as of primary most importance.” Bahai writings The...
Transforming the World, One Mindful Student at a Time
Imagine you are a bear hibernating for the winter. When bears hibernate, they take long, slow, deep breaths in and out, through their noses. Take a long breath in through your nose, and let it...
Showing Up – The Courage to Leave your Mark on the World
What is the courage to live a vital life? What do these words really mean? The phrase sounds good, so what do you really have to do to live a vital life? I googled the phrase, and the words, and...
Showing Up: The Courage to Live a Vital Life
When this topic was given to me a few months ago, I thought writing about a vital life would be very easy. After all, as a medical professional, when we talk about vitals we are speaking of blood...
Travel Light
Travel Light. These words are the signature to my correspondence whether it is a blog, email or a letter. People often ask if I offer tips for how to pack luggage lightly when preparing for a...
The Travel Bug: Exploring The Self
While thinking about writing this blog, I started looking back to the many opportunities I have had to travel over the years. I have been to 6 countries and all but a few states. I didn't grow up...
Growing Older, Seeking Wiser
What do you want to be when you grow up? At age 15, as a messy mix of idealistic earnestness and reckless curiosity, one thing to me was clear — when I grew up, what I wanted to be was wise. I...
Health Elevated – Biohacks for Modern Aging
I remember the cartoon The Jetsons-- George, Jane, daughter Judy, son Elroy, and their dog, Astro. They were zipping around with jetpacks, moving sidewalks, robot maids, and flying cars. It was...
Stripping Labels: Leading By Living
Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is an idiom often used to express an optimistic perception of life. But the sad truth is, optimism is a disposition rarely extended to others....
Stripping Your Label: Going Beyond Stereotypes
When I was asked to do this blog my first thought was, I don’t want to strip my label. I don’t think labels are always bad. I am a librarian, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a 29-year breast...
The Power Of Owning Your Story
Confession time: I used to be kind of a snob about journalism. When I was earning my degree at The Ohio State University, social media was just beginning to take off. I only made a Twitter...
Embracing Positivity Through Digital Media
Hey there! I’m Emily Parsons, a digital marketing guru and lifestyle blogger. I believe that everyone has influence and the power of consciously influencing those for the better. It wasn’t that...
Creating Your Sanctuary
When I was a child, I had two sanctuaries. One was under a huge tree in the woods visible from my house. The leaves of this tree were thick and the ground beneath was soft with leaves and moss....
Creating Your Sanctuary
My first thought when approached with the subject of Creating Your Sanctuary was “easy peasy, I’m a designer at McCready Interiors, I do that for clients and customers every day”. I ask many...
Intention For Life
Ok, so I’ve never written a blog post before. My first reaction is to behave as if I am publishing all of the world’s research on intention from the beginning of time. Of course, the achiever...
Setting Intentions
When I got the email from Diana Hostettler at Mind Body Align to write a blog on Setting Intentions, I was flattered and terrified. I can get up and...
Service is a love language
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.1 Peter 4:10 We have all been given specific talents and gifts. We are all called to serve. Whether in our homes,...
Helping Others, Helping Yourself – a lesson in self-care
I need to be completely transparent here. When I was asked (in January) to write this blog for Mind Body Align, I knew very little about what went on at the Butterfly House, nor did I think that...
Meet Me At The Table: Reducing Food Waste
The holidays are quickly approaching and if your family is anything like ours, food is the centerpiece to your festive celebrations. There seems no better time to aim a...
Meet Me at The Table: Food is Tradition, Art, and Love
Remembering Close your eyes and imagine the food of your childhood, deeply breathe in that remembered scent, more importantly that feeling. Perhaps it’s the sweet smell of an apple pie baking or...
The Courage to Create
Let us inspire each other with both our successes and our failures. Life is for living, and we best all get busy – there’s so much to try! Take faith and have courage and don’t let unobtainable perfection stand in your way. If you stumble, we’ve got your back, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Bravery Over Perfection
Ok. So let's be honest right up front. No matter how I start this BLOG post off I will shuffle half a dozen more ideas around in my head and even after this is written I will critique it and...
Last diet hack for lifelong wellness
In 2015, I was among the almost 40% of American adults that are obese, and me, morbidly so. Little kids would hug my leg and call me Santa Claus. I was on several blood pressure (BP) medications,...
The Journey
If you were sneaking into my house with the intention of finding out who I am, you might take a look inside my refrigerator. I often feel you can tell a lot about a person by what is in their...
Paving New Roads To Be The Next Comeback City
It was a cold December day, 20 years ago. The plane had landed on the tarmac of JFK airport an hour ago and now I stood nervously, clutching my passport tightly, waiting to be signaled by the...
Paving New Roads
Paving these new roads is simultaneously exciting and exhausting labor. However, keep in mind that change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end. If the City of Cleveland can go from “The Mistake on the Lake” to “Believeland,” I have no doubt in my mind that the City of Mansfield can change its perception as “Danger City” to “Dreamfield” in the not too distant future.
You’re Already Living in Your Amazingness. Recognizing it is the Hard Part
I’ll admit it; this particular topic was difficult for me at this point in my life. You see, for the last several weeks I have felt more un-amazing than anything else. I dragged my feet on...
You’re More Amazing Than You Think
Once upon a time, there was a woman who thought only the best things about herself. She embraced who she was, valued herself, and knew that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to....
What’s Your Definition of Living Vibrantly?
When I was asked to write about living vibrantly, I had to stop and think. Do I live a vibrant life? Do I know how to live vibrantly? What is living vibrantly? Sure, I put on a great smile for...
How I Am Living My Most Vibrant Life
Many people see me as lively, animated, and energetic so writing on the topic of vibrant living seems a natural fit. Those adjectives are synonyms for vibrant, sure, and yet, I think sometimes...
Putting Happiness on Trial
When I was given the assignment of writing this blog the introductory premise was, “There are few people who are naturally happy”, hence the need to make the affirmative choice to pursue...
Happiness is Found Beyond the Box
In 2014, I experienced something that changed my life forever. I had a sleeve gastrectomy (weight loss surgery.) Before the surgery I had no confidence, often felt depressed, and my body hurt. I...
Create Your Tribe: Be Vulnerable
I’m not sure if I chose my tribe or if my tribe chose me, but I’m certain it was a bit of both. I really couldn’t be more fortunate to have the people in my life that I do right now, while also...
Creating Your Tribe – Expose Your Inner Self
I remember walking into gym class, returning to the school that I had attended through 4th grade. Over the summer I had moved and I started 5th grade in another school in the district. But a...
I am enough
I, too, yearn to live a wholehearted life, and according to Brené Brown, that means engaging our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage and compassion and connection...
Rising Strong: Can we find value in failure?
One of my favorite “save myself” lines that I say to myself after a failure is, “Oh, it is okay as long as I have learned something from it.” But who am I kidding? It is still a fail and learning...
Getting Unstuck – Pushing Through The Fear
Afraid of everything... that was me growing up. I was always scared of the monster under the bed or in my closet. I never wanted to be out in the dark... fraidy cat. As I began to think about my...
Getting Unstuck: Ideas for Financial Wellness
When we take control of our finances, we begin to feel more secure, and when we feel more secure, the road to peace of mind becomes easier to navigate. It is essential that we not let our...
Journey to a new perspective: living your best life
The Mind Body Align topic for the month is Starting Over, Beginning Anew. The topic isn’t about wiping the slate of your life clean but allowing you to discover your life from a new perspective....
Embracing the new you
2018 is going to be an AMAZING YEAR! “8” is the number of new beginnings and there’s no better time to envision a fresh start than at the start of a new year. You might say that New Year’s...
Love is a verb
Some say love is a feeling, but I maintain that love, in fact, is a way of being. An ancient text* tells us that love is patient and kind. That it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not...
Loving someone takes action
It’s 4:30 am and I awake to the smell of apples cooking. I stretch and move Sam, our dog, off my feet so I can get up to stir the apples. I don’t think I imagined at the age of 13 or 14 that I...
Recognize the good – Hakarat ha’Tov
Choosing to be grateful is just a shift in thinking. For some, it is a significant shift. For others more subtle. To me, the key word in our topic for November is choice. Our thoughts naturally...
Cherish the gifts of gratitude
I pulled in the driveway late, the dog was waiting to be walked, my shoulders ached from sitting in front of the computer or in meetings all day, and I had just had a short, clipped conversation...
Infinite possibilities and real life abundance
Recently, my husband and I discovered what it's like to have an empty nest. My youngest is away at college, and my oldest is "adulting". Our parents health has stabilized and life is good. It's...
Living your dream with infinite possibilities
The Mind Body Align topic for this month is "infinite possibilities." Do you live as if anything is possible or, in other words, without limitations? Can I live as if I can achieve or experience...
Embrace and Inspire Ideas
I am very honored and humbled to be your guest blogger and assigned, “embrace and inspire” as the topic. I was assigned this almost a year ago and I had many thoughts and ideas cross my mind. To...
Embrace Aging and Inspire Acceptance
Diana H. asked, “Hey Karen can you share your thoughts on the terms embrace and inspire?” I said sure. It’s my hope that my brief, but spectacular, piece will inspire people to embrace the...
Becoming Comfortable on the Edge of Your Comfort Zone
I got into a bad habit of waking up at 3:30 in the morning to check my phone. This breaks every tech rule, but it seriously became a compulsion. I had to see the photos of my child. Let me back...
Ease and Joy through Mindfulness
In this moment, I am contemplating the task of writing about living at the edge of my comfort zone which is the Mind Body Align topic for August. As my mind is revving up; touching on words,...
Discover Fun Ways to Nourish Your World
Nourish: provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition. July is the month of Nourishing at Mind Body Align. Nourish is one of my favorite words. You...
What does “Nourish” really mean?
When the MBA team gave me the topic of “Nourish” it seemed like a logical fit for someone in the restaurant business. But the longer I thought about the topic, the less I felt qualified to write...
Running to Live Vibrantly with Diabetes
When Mind Body Align asked me to write the Live Vibrantly blog, I was honored and excited to be given this topic. It is, as a matter of fact, the way I strive to live my life. My hope...
Gratitude & Ice Cream: Tips for Living Vibrantly, Even When You Don’t Feel Like It
It’s easy to live an energetic life when everything is going your way. But how do we live a thriving life when things aren’t going the way we planned? Life is hard. As “life” wears on us, we...
The Day We Discover Why
When I was asked to write about “Honor the Story”, my real story about my values and life purpose in this moment today, it terrified me and created a long thought provoking session within myself....
Honoring your story
Growing up, I was very sheltered. At eighteen, I decided that my life was to include going to college then graduate school, have a career, a husband, a house, and kids. I found myself feeling...
Why Meditate?
The ancient practice of meditation has made a home in our modern culture for good reason. Learning to sit still and calm the mind can be a powerful antidote to the speed, stress and strain of our...
Life Balance – stay in tune to achieve your potential
Balance - One Version: “A state in which two opposing forces or factors are of equal strength or importance so that they effectively cancel each other out and stability is maintained to form a...
Conscious Living: My Loving Awareness
When asked about conscious living, my thoughts were all over the place. I have actually delayed writing this because I couldn't figure out how to put it in words. Here are my thoughts in...
Conscious living
While the phrase “conscious living” can lead to a complex discussion of everything from carbon footprints to how my abdomen feels when I breathe, I prefer to keep things simple. To be clear, I do...
Beautifully thriving life
Take a moment to consider our naturally designed state of being; like the love, happiness and curiosity of a toddler. You see, we are created in love, therefore; we are love. As an adult, we must...
You are uniquely and wonderfully made!
What does unique mean? By definition, there is only one, there is no other. Isn’t that incredible? I mean think about it. You were created to be...you! Even if you are a twin, they are not you!...
New Year, New Perspective
“I want to be a secretary like my mom.” As a child, that was my response every time someone had asked what I wanted my future career to be. Like many children, I aspired for my life to reflect...
One Track Mind
Have you heard the research that 98% of the thoughts we had today, we had yesterday? It turns out that we have 65,000 – 90,000 thoughts each day and most of those thoughts are recycled. The...
At the Heart of Giving
Have you ever been at the healthiest place in your life—but slip away from your habits and routines—only to eventually get back to your healthy place again, thinking: “I’m so fulfilled and happy...
Giving and the Language of Love
Why do you give? What do you want the impact of your giving to be? What do you intend to create for yourself, your loved ones, and your community through the act of giving? When I ask myself...
