Skip to main content

Maria Connolly, LPC Facebook Facebook Facebook

Blog

sailboat

Blog

Continually grow as a person and find your work/life balance

Set Yourself Up for Success — 6 Simple Strategies You Can Use Daily

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Change Your Life, Self-Leadership Skills, Stepping Forward.

Set yourself up for success by using my 3-step system, plus 6 simple strategies that give you a firm foundation for making any kind of lasting change.Are you energized to face each new day? Or is it starting to feel like “the grind” or maybe even like a meaningless “rat race”? Many people have learned to be satisfied with the status quo, but if you want to set yourself up for success, be willing to do some fine-tuning now and then.

You can set yourself up for success by following some really simple, yet surprisingly powerful daily strategies. These are especially effective if you’re a service professional juggling the demands of a private practice with your personal life.

Continue reading

The Goal-Setting Process: The Best Checklist Answers These 10 Questions

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Stepping Forward.

This goal-setting process gives you a fail-safe way to determine if a goal is what you really want and if it’s doable by answering these 10 questions. Have you ever been in a conversation like this… “What do you want?” “Well, I’m not sure, but I know what I don’t want!” If this discussion is about dinner, then it’s not a big thing. But if it’s a conversation about life, this indecisiveness is serious. Some people actually live their whole lives without ever identifying what they want out of life because they haven’t discovered a fail-safe goal-setting process that helps them make decisions they won’t regret. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m all about mindfully developing processes and systems that make life easier.

Continue reading

Your Mind-Body Connection – 5 Simple Ways to Reduce Static and Tune In

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Somatic Embodiment.

Empower yourself with a strong mind-body connection, because once you understand how it works, you can change your body to change unhelpful emotions.Are you listening? Too often we’re so busy looking outwardly that when we try to tune in to our inner selves, all we hear is static. The good news is that you can train yourself to listen to yourself. How?  Develop a deep awareness of your mind-body connection. This involves not only identifying physical sensations but also discovering how you feel emotionally about what’s happening at any given time. Don’t just live. Learn to experience your life moment by moment. 

A somatic approach to wellness teaches us that your emotional, physical, and spiritual health are inseparable. The thing we haven’t been taught is that our emotions are experienced and stored in our bodies, and they’re manifested through body sensations.

Continue reading

How to Improve Your Feeling of Well-being — P.E.R.M.A. Model for Happiness

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Health and Wellness, Life Skills, Self-Leadership Skills, Stepping Forward.

You can improve your feeling of well-being and happiness when you focus, not on possessions or events, but on creating beauty in every moment of life. Are you in the pursuit of happiness? Or are you waiting for it to come to you? “The pursuit of happiness” is one of our unalienable rights, according to the U. S. Declaration of Independence. Isn’t that interesting? They focused on the process of searching for happiness, not happiness itself. Think about that deeply, because it will begin to profoundly change you.

If you want to improve your feeling of well-being, it’s important to make the mental shift away from the idea that “I’ll be happy when this thing happens”. Because when you get that thing, it’s not the key to lasting happiness. No, life shifts again and you want more or something different. The key to feeling happy isn’t simply obtaining your desires. The key is finding delight in the whole process of living!

Continue reading

I Am So Disappointed In Myself — What Can I Do About It?

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Self-Leadership Skills, Stepping Forward.

When you say, "I’m so disappointed in myself" – pause, peel back the layers, assess without judgment, and make a plan to move forward.“I swore I would do better, Maria. I want to do better! But every time I get hurt or stressed out, I can’t help myself. I reach for ________ ( Fill in the blank with chocolate, ice cream, cigarette, alcoholic drink, TV clicker — all the things we distract ourselves with.) I feel so disappointed in myself!”  Can you relate to my client’s heartfelt plea? What do YOU do when the person you disappoint is you? And more to the point, what healthy things can you do instead?

Since we’re our own worst critics, we tend to turn off compassion and turn on self-disgust when we disappoint ourselves.  If that’s your default setting, know that you are not alone. Neither are you locked into always responding that way. 

Continue reading

Let's get started with 30 free minutes

I invite you to learn more about me and my coaching and counseling services. Please contact me to schedule an “It starts with you!” 30-minute complimentary consultation with me, in-person, by phone or via video consultation, so we can explore our partnership.

SCHEDULE

How to Step Forward to a Future You've Created

Discover how to replace your old, self-limiting map with a new map full of possibilities for the future

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE INTRO TO STEPPING FORWARD TODAY!