Winter Blues: Stuck in the post-holiday doldrums?
After all the holiday celebrations, Christmas family visits, and Spring Festival travel, you may feel a bit down returning to your routine in Shanghai. The winter weather doesn’t help. Many people feel more lethargic and moody during the cold, dreary weather. Some people face more serious seasonal depression. What can you do to deal with winter blues? • If you are feeling sad or grieving, take time to legitimize your pain...
Beyond Valentine’s Day: How to Nurture Romantic Relationships
How to be a Real Romantic: Beyond Candy & Flowers We celebrate romance on Valentine’s Day, but love and relationships are an ongoing “discipline”, something we need to work at and celebrate every day. All couples need to practice that discipline, especially as they face different challenges and life changes. Some common relationship issues that Shanghai residents come to us for include infidelity, communication problems and issues regarding the individual’s personal path....
Planning and Manifesting Your Best 2017
Many times “new year’s resolutions” fail because we state an intention but then we don’t focus on it. This may come from the fact that we don’t spend time reflecting on what we really want and how we will put energy towards those goals. Rather than making failed resolutions again this year, here is a plan for manifesting your best 2017: 1. Think about what your values and priorities are. Be...
Was 2016 a Really Bad Year?
How to Close Out 2016 on a Positive Note • Be aware of things you’ve learned about yourself. This is an important way to reframe your experiences and use them to continue making positive changes. • Be grateful for the people who appeared in your life and for those who have left. This last part is especially important in Shanghai where people come and go frequently. It’s easy to dwell on the...
How to Ruin the Holidays
1. Compare and complain. For example, if you go home to a small town you can focus on how nothing is as exciting or interesting as Shanghai (and tell everyone about it). If you stay in Shanghai for the holidays, you can complain about how much better the holidays are at home. 2. Take everything personally. The holidays bring out a lot of emotions and we can easily fall into a...
Creating Your Own Oasis in Shanghai
It’s common for Shanghai expats to focus on escapism, in other words always looking toward “the day it’s over”. Both unconsciously and in statements and actions, expats are often waiting for the next vacation, trip home, or repatriation for an escape. Or, they may pack their schedules all week with constant meetings, errands and a full to-do list so that they’re exhausted by Friday and always awaiting the weekend to...
Five Tips to Be Ready for a Healthy, Happy Relationship
If you are single, you have a wonderful opportunity to prepare yourself for a healthy relationship and to choose the right partner. In choosing a partner, you should not feel you have to “sacrifice” things. That negative connotation is not a great way to start a relationship. Here are a few key steps to being prepared for a healthy partnership: 1. Have an awareness of your beliefs. Hear what you’re telling yourself...
Changing Your Energy to Change Your Life: Nine Simple Habits for a Happier Life
We are all made of energy. It only takes 12 seconds to invite something (outcome, experience, situation, person or mental statement) to be part of your vibrational level. What does this mean? It means that if you focus for more than 12 seconds on negative ideas, outcomes, experiences or people you will invite that energy to remain as part of yourself. You have the power to change and create a...
Dealing with Emotions
First, when encountering a situation (could be a person, external stimulus, event or issue), people see it with certain assumptions (these are preconceived concepts based on the belief system). Through this filter, one reacts based on his/her biology and the way he/she measures reality. Reaction is always associated with emotion. There are two types of emotion: primary and secondary. Primary is the emotion that one can show (socially speaking)—the conscious/social emotion....
Common Emotional and Relationship Issues for Today’s Woman
The devaluation of the feminine energy and our attempts to fit into society’s/other’s view of our roles plays a part in many of the emotional and relationship issues women face today. I work with many clients to better understand how these issues are affecting their lives and to examine how they see themselves and how they can reconnect with their feminine energy. One common example is the successful career woman in...