How to Navigate Challenging Times

During my two-and-a half years of being homeless, I promised myself that when it was over and life was easier, I would help people navigate their own challenging times. 

Today I want to share some of my best tools for navigating a challenging time!💜

First, if you want to hear more about my homeless story and the huge lesson I learned, you can watch the video HERE.  

Second, the more stressful life is, the more important it is to bring your focus to really small things that ARE working in your life. 

Why small things? Because when we can find the wins and feel gratitude in the small things, we pave the way for more possibilities in the big things. For example: 

• Listen to a bird sing. Be present. This works for all things in nature. Maybe birds don’t wow you like they do me, pick a flower or tree. Allow yourself to feel the relief or joy or whatever emotion comes up for you. Nature is a beautiful self-soothing tool. 

• Be grateful for things we usually take for granted, like clean water and hot water with the turn of the tap, your books, or a favorite spot in your home. Anything that is small, that you typically over-look, but now you’re being intentional! No matter what your challenge is, there are hundreds of things you can be grateful for. 

• Upgrade some small life-style items like your bath soap, or dish soap. The pen you write with the coffee you drink. Being intentional about the details of your life has a powerful effect on your mindset and experience. I’m a coffee snob. Even when I was homeless and broke, somehow I managed to always have my favorite coffee on hand. I could start my day EXACTLY how I love to… with a delicious cup of Philz Coffee!! The more small pleasures you can focus on, the better you’ll feel, even if something huge is challenging you! 

If you’re going through a challenging time, please know that you're not alone! There’s so much more I can say on this topic. I’ve even thought about creating a program devoted to navigating challenging times. If that interests you, DM me on IG (@brendafloridacoach) or email me by hitting reply to this email. I always love hearing from you!!

When Life Throws Sh*t at you... I'll show you a way out!

I love inspiring stories!

Especially the rags to riches kind.

When my life is in turmoil, when I'm struggling to get up and keep going, I wonder, how did they get through those bad days?

When great people tell their story and include the adversity they've overcome, we're inspired. But they rarely talk about how they got up every day and went to work or took care of the kids, when they were drowning in despair and hopelessness.

I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life. Times when I wasn't sure how to go on. But, I had to keep going. Life keeps moving. So I did too.

Over the course of my life, I've gotten better at how I navigate those times when I'm not sure I can keep going. I do it with less fear. Less anxiety. I've even learned how to cultivate peace and self-love, BECAUSE things were so hard, not despite the difficulty.

Since becoming a life coach I've had several conversations with other coaches about these, dark nights of the soul, and how few coaches, books or programs really address how to navigate a really terrible time. Everyone agreed with me. "Yeah, no one really talks much about it."

I decided to create it. The program that will show you how.

From Darkness to Light is a four-week group coaching program. We'll meet for an hour a week via free video conferencing.

I'm going to teach and coach. The group will support and encourage each other.

Everyone will get down-to-earth tools to get through the day, when the day is shitty.

If you, or someone you know, is experiencing a difficult time, please join us.

I'm only charging $99 because I know that difficult times often hit your finances.

Get all the details below and register for our May group. All sessions are recorded.

You can move From Darkness to Light. I've done it, I'll be your guide.

Do you ever stress about money?

There's nothing that stirs up stress more than money!

I bet you can remember a time when you had the thought, "I don't have enough money." Maybe you had that thought today!

I have the cure for that thought, and any other thought that creates anxiety and stress!

It's all in my program, Think Your Way to Success.

Here's how it works.There are six videos. One outlines the entire process, the other five take each step individually. I'll walk you through all of it. It's not hard. Each video is only about 5 minutes long. There's also a worksheet you can use to help you. Then you put the process into action.

Let's take the thought, "I don't have enough money." I'm just going to run it through the first two questions so you get a taste of the magic that is waiting for you in Think Your Way to Success.

When I ask myself the first question, "Is it true?" or the second question,"Is it absolutely true?" and I slow down my frantic, freaked-out mind that is being driven by fear, I find my answer, and it's a, "no."

How do I know the answer is, "no?" Because I only have the money I have. I'm arguing with reality when I have the thought, "I don't have enough money."

I know what you're thinking, "but I actually DON'T have enough money. I can't pay my bills."

I hear you and I've been there, so I say this from experience. It's still not true.

When we argue with reality, it is stressful. What if I reframed my story. "I'm a woman without the money to pay all her bills, (if that's a fact, it's a fact and it doesn't not have to have shame or embarrassment with it. I'm also a woman who is 5'10. I don't have shame or embarrassment about that. If you have shame or embarrassment, there are other thoughts surrounding it that tell you good people, smart people, responsible people always have the money to pay their bills, etc.) and I'm grateful that new opportunities are always coming to me that allow me to receive more money. I am loving to myself during challenging times and I know there's always something for me to learn."

The reframe allows me to be in the same circumstance and not be stressed. Which thought will ultimately help me find a way out of my situation and into something more profitable for me? That's right, the reframe.

Here's the big lie your mind tells you, that by being afraid, or freaked out, or hyper-vigilant about anticipating the worst-case scenario, you'll be safer. It's not true. The best solutions are always found when we are calm and in an attitude of love and gratitude.

I'm not saying it's easy. You're going against thousands of years of fear-based programing, but I promise you, when you slay the stressful thought, even in the same circumstances, you miraculously find a solution. And it's a loving solution. Not a stressful, critical or shaming one.

Magic is available.

Think Your Way to Success is the tool.

Work the tool and find the magic. <3

Read more about Think Your Way to Success, and get it in your toolbox, here.

Everything Begins With a Thought

Every invention, piece of art, new technology or way of life, begins with a thought.

"I'd like to travel more."

"I want to paint."

"I want to start a business."

"I want to make more money."

Then come the thoughts of diminishment. "You can't do that!" "Who do you think you are." "You're not good enough."

In today’s video I'll show you how to breakthrough that thought and live the life of your dreams. 

Get all the details on Think Your Way to Success right here.

The Connection Between Health and Pleasure

Did you know that cortisol, a hormone your brain triggers when you are stressed, makes it five times more likely that you’ll die from a heart attack? Tell me, how much of your day is filled with stress?

We all know that stress isn’t good for us.

How do we change it? Is there really a way out?

There is.

I’ve experienced it. I’ve coached people through it.

Where do you begin?

Pleasure.

Yes, it’s that simple. Or, hard. We don’t often give ourselves permission to have pleasure in our lives. Especially not when life is stressful.

I’ve got a challenge for you.

I call it, The Pleasure Power 5 Day Facebook Challenge.

Join me for five days. Just five. Each day I’ll send you a short audio with a challenge for bringing a little pleasure into your life that day. You’ll decide what you want to do, then post something about it in a private Facebook group where a bunch of other awesome people are doing the same.

It will be fun and easy. You can even use it to reduce stress.

Get the information and register here. We start on Monday, July 16 and we’ll finish on Friday, July 20. There’s even a great prize (a commissioned piece of jewelry) for someone who posts in the FB Group each of the five days.

What have you got to lose….a deadly heart attack? I think it’s worth giving pleasure a shot!

Navigating Life's Transitions

Do you hate change?

I hear this so often as a life coach. There are plenty of folks who hate change. And yet...nothing that grows is stagnant. It seems to me like change is a pretty good thing! I sure as hell don't want to be stagnant. That's not living lavishly to me.

How can we leverage life's transitions?

Our thoughts are the predictors of how stressful our transitions and life changes will feel to us. Today I've got a great demonstration of the power of your thoughts to create joy or stress and how you can use this Life Coach tool to change how stressful your next transition.

Try it out and tell me how it worked for you!

Get videos and other cool  stuff to Live Lavishly every day right here.

What do we do When Life Sucks?

Yes, that's today's question. What do we do when life sucks?

None of us are immune to difficult times. It may be a stressful time at work, in your business, in your relationship or with family, whatever the difficulty is, we all have times where it feels like life sucks. So what do we do about that?

Allow, allow, allow

What if, instead of judging ourselves or criticizing life, others, our spouse, our boss, politics, whatever it is we want to blame for why life sucks...we allowed ourselves to feel what we feel? How would that work?

In today's video I'll explore the power of allowing your feelings without resistance and give you some tips for how to practice the art of allowing. It may sound passive...but it's not! It's incredibly empowering!