Embrace It All!

How many times do you look at the challenges you are dealing with, whether physical or emotional, as problems?   Do these challenges make you feel like apologizing or hiding in shame? Have you ever felt like it was wrong to have the challenges you have? It can be so easy to look around at others and think there is something wrong with you when they seem to be perfect or have the perfect life.  But...

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Heather Rackham, fellow Life Coach and owner of the Latter-Day Saint Life Coach Directory.   This episode can also be heard here:  https://ldslifecoaches.com/episode/86-acknowledging-the-importance-of-our-emotions-with-angela-adams/ You know I love to discuss emotions and how important acknowledging them and allowing them is to building our emotional str...

If There is one constant in life,  it’s change. Life is all about change.  When we left our Heavenly home and came to earth, our spirit gained a physical human body, and  we were veiled from remembering our Heavenly home.  This was our first significant  introduction to an eternal lifetime of changes.  Change can bring up a myriad of feelings for all of us.  For some, change brings a sense of exci...

Getting enought sleep is so important to both our physical and our mental health.  But it's interesting to me that during the various stages of our lives, as women, we go through periods of sleep deprivation:  Being a young mom with children that awake in the night, having teen age kids coming in late from activities, and then there’s the onset of menopause and insomnia!  AWWWW.   It seems li...

We all have negative thoughts.  Negative thoughts come because our brains are always scanning for dangerous threats and discomfort.  It wants to protect us and keep us safe.  But people who deal with anxiety or depression tend to have an overabundance of negative thoughts when it comes to themselves, the world, and the future. Thoughts like, “I never do anything right”, “I am always going to fail”...

I believe that the majority of people in the world go into marriage with the desire for their marriage to last forever, but sadly, we live in a fallen world, where our agency is constantly tried and tested, and marriages don’t always last as long as originally hoped for.   But there are some that do.  Last week I was working with a client who happened to mention that her husband and her were celeb...

Children worry about so many things.  And as they grow, these worries become more than just monsters under the bed or shadows on the walls.  As they get older their worries become more  about being accepted by their peers, making mistakes, or not meeting their own or their parents expectations.   We live in a very uncertain world, and our children worry about things that we never dreamed of happen...

We are all created by God and as such have infinite value and worth.  But we also have a human brain that likes to point out all the things that are "wrong" with us,   our weaknesses and struggles,  and creates stories that make us believe that we have less worth and value than others who seem to have it all together.   I beleived this lie for years.     In this episode I will address wh...

Two weeks ago most of our family went on a beach vacation. My husband and I usually go on this vacation by ourselves,  bu this year  one of our sons and our daughter and her family were able to join us. As I was planning and preparing for our vacation, I started to notice how my brain kept offering me expectations of what I thought would make this vacation perfect for everyone involved.  Expectati...

It’s natural that we want to be in hurry, because we live in a society where we are we are constantly on the go, always in a hurry. We’ve become used to having things instantly.  .  We have become so used to this way of living that when we have to wait for something, it can be almost painful, right?  Think about how you feel when your internet is running slow.  Do you get as frustrated as I do?  W...

When we find ourselves experiencing situations we don’t care for, our brain likes to offer us so many thoughts like:  this is not how it is supposed to be it should be different I shouldn’t have to go through this He/she should not act this way  I would be so happy if this weren’t happening,  This is bad I must have done something wrong for this to be happening And on and on. And these thoughts cr...

The young adult years can be an exciting time.  Experiencing the thrill of independence and embarking on new adventures can be exhilirating.  But, like any other transition in life, it can also bring a lot of fear and uncertainty.  Over the past several years there has been an increased awareness of anxiety and depression when it comes to young adults.  College campuses across the nation have repo...

Ever have those nights when you can't fall asleep because thoughts are swirling around in your head and the overwhelm and anxiety build and build?   It happens to me all the time!  I call these "thought tornados".  In this short and sweet episode, I share the simple tool that I have found to be the most effective for me and walk you through it step-by-step.  It's amazing how so...

Our brains love to imagine all the possibilities and try to solve for every problem that may or may not  happen. Our brains like to be efficient, and it thinks that  solving for every problem imaginable beforehand is very efficient and effective.  Sometimes our brains jump immediately to the worst-case scenario and try to solve for that ahead of time, making us believe that if we don't spend...

We are bombarded daily by all the noise society screams at us, telling us how to attain that “perfect” body;  what to eat and not eat,  how much to eat,  and when.  How to exercise, when to exercise, how much and when.  And if you struggle with perfectionism and anxiety like I do, this noise becomes deafening. And in our desperation, we may even turn to drastic measures in order obtain what societ...

I think it is safe to say that each of us have areas in our lives that are a bit cluttered.  What does this clutter create for you?  For me it is chaos and anxiety.  I feel almost out of control and weighed down.  We live in a society where the belief is that having more "stuff" equals success and happiness.  But is that really true?  What if the opposite were true? In today's episo...

I used to dread Mother’s Day.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love celebrating the mothers in my life. I have an amazing mother who raised her own 7 children, and an equally amazing mother-in-law that raised 8.   But when it came to me, all I could focus on were my inadequacies and imperfections, especially while hearing so many tributes to other, more "perfect" mothers.  Sometimes I even felt g...

It's been 9 years since my dad was diagnosed with cancer and 8 years since he passed away.  I can still remember when he told me what the Dr. had found.  I was in shock.  He seemed pretty healthy, and he was so young, just 68 years old at the time.  How could this be possible?  For several days, even weeks, I was in denial.  I just couldn't believe that this was happening to him, or to o...

My mother has often told me that from the day I was born I was a very independent child and had the attitude “I can do it myself!”  Over the years this attitude has stayed with me, and I even married a man with the same independent nature. We tend to be self-reliant, not afraid of tackling most projects ourselves.  But for the longest time I had a problem that I just couldn’t solve myself. I was s...

Whenever you recieve a compliment or experience something positive in your life, how do you usually respond? For years, I would automatically discount the compliment or positive experience because I had this belief that it coulnd't be true, or that it was just a fluke.  Discounting the positive is another sneaky thought distortion that many people experience, sometimes without even realizing...

People who deal with anxiety, overwhelm, perfectionism, and even depression often spend time in what has been called distorted thinking:  thoughts that our brain has twisted in our mind that we believe are true.  One of these types of thought distortions is "All or Nothing Thinking".   All or nothing thinking is often called black and white thinking, thinking in absolutes.  It is all one...

When things happen in our lives or situations come up,  sometimes we  interpret them to be a problem and this causes us the feel something.  We might feel confused, perplexed, frustrated, discouraged, disappointed, sad, etc.  And between the situation and what we feel, there is space, the space in between.  Many times we aren't even aware of what we are filling that space with, or why we feel...

Four years ago I found a coach, and from that moment the transformation began.   No longer did I believe that living with anxiety would keep me from progressing and becoming the person I am meant to become.  There is so much more to me than my anxiety, and my coach showed me that we all have limitless possibilities to grow and progress and create the life we want.  It's truly within each of u...

We live in an “I want it now” world.    Instant gratification is quite accessible, and as a society we have become quite accustomed to it.  When we are told to wait, notice the thoughts and feelings that come up for you.  Think about when you turn on your computer and for some reason it takes more than 10 seconds to boot up.  Or when we are searching for something on the internet and it takes more...

Motherhood is probably the most complex and challenging roles we play as women, and we can be so hard on ourselves in this journey.  In today's episode I welcome Anna Mortimer, a certified Life Coach for Mothers who specializes in helping mothers let go of mom guilt so they can enjoy their relationships with their children and themselves.  For years I struggled with the constant feeling of gu...