When I dropped my son off at his college I initially thought I was fine. Then I ended up quietly cried on and off all the way home. It wasn’t just that my baby was leaving home or that he would be leaving an empty chair at the kitchen table or that I wouldn’t be able to hear his big laugh or trip over his big shoes on a daily basis. It was that this signified the end of a chapter in my life and I didn’t really know how the next chapter would unfold. 

I’m back in Seattle after a glorious visit to NYC where I got to see family, friends and, as one of them remarked, got to walk around the city while “bumping into my biography” in all kinds of places. This was the longest visit I’ve had there, probably since my kids were born, and I spent lots of time feeling enormous waves of gratitude and reflecting on how I got to where I am now in my life. If you had told twenty-year-old me that I would end up living the life I have now I likely would have been astonished. Never would I have imagined myself on the west coast! I’m also pretty sure I couldn’t have pointed to Seattle on a map. There was no such thing as a Life Coach or a Health Coach back then, and literally the only green vegetables I ate were cucumbers, celery and iceberg lettuce.

What can be said about this past year that hasn’t already been said? 2020 started out with so much promise and fanfare and then morphed into one of the most collectively stressful and disquieting years in recent history. At this point the general consensus is that we’re all happy to see the back of this year and say hello to 2021, albeit with cautious optimism.

However, like all years, 2020 was not without its gifts. Here are some things that I learned or remembered in 2020…

Ever since I started what I like to call my "Coaching 2.0" journey, I've had lots of people say to me, "Lisa, what exactly is the difference between a Life Coach and a Health Coach?" With that in mind I have created a little primer. Without further ado, here is your guide to Life Coaching vs. Health Coaching, and a look at how some kind of coaching might be helpful in your life.

I believe it’s important to find things that feel nourishing even if they have little or nothing at all to do with food. Nourishment can be about more than just the food we eat. Living a healthy lifestyle involves nourishing all your parts: body, mind and spirit.

Right before I turned 50 I was in a bit of a panic. I mean, let’s be honest, the cultural myths around being a woman over the age of 50 are overwhelmingly dismal. Now, a couple of years later and past the big 5-0 mark, I’d like to set the record straight: your fifties can be better than OK. In fact, they can be a total transformation in the best of ways.

For years I waxed poetic about my morning coffee. The flavor, the aroma, the ritual of it every morning. It was an anchor in my day and got my heart started in more ways than one. While I haven’t fallen out of love with coffee, I have a mad rush on the ancient but oh-so-trendy matcha green tea.

Somewhere in the process of becoming "Mommy" I lost something fundamental: I lost contact with my Essential Self. I would catch glimpses of her from time to time but she was like a shadow, getting bigger when the light was right, taunting me with her elusive and mercurial appearance.

For years I waxed poetic about my morning coffee. The flavor, the aroma, the ritual of it every morning. It was an anchor in my day and got my heart started in more ways than one. While I haven’t fallen out of love with coffee, I have a mad rush on the ancient but oh-so-trendy matcha green tea.

Somewhere in the process of becoming "Mommy" I lost something fundamental: I lost contact with my Essential Self. I would catch glimpses of her from time to time but she was like a shadow, getting bigger when the light was right, taunting me with her elusive and mercurial appearance.

Somewhere in the process of becoming "Mommy" I lost something fundamental: I lost contact with my Essential Self. I would catch glimpses of her from time to time but she was like a shadow, getting bigger when the light was right, taunting me with her elusive and mercurial appearance.

As we shift into Fall, now is a great time to pause, observe, and set intentions around how we want these next few months to feel and what we can do to create some of those feelings even as we do what it takes to persevere through our current situation..

For years I waxed poetic about my morning coffee. The flavor, the aroma, the ritual of it every morning. It was an anchor in my day and got my heart started in more ways than one. While I haven’t fallen out of love with coffee, I have a mad rush on the ancient but oh-so-trendy matcha green tea.