#encouragement

Feb 25, 2019
4 min

Health Warning! Science Continues to Prove That Girlfriend Time Makes for Longevity and Happiness

Point to Ponder: Do you view time with girlfriends as contributing to your health, happiness, longevity and ability to thrive? Have you ever heard of "kedging"? According to the book, Younger Next Year for Women, kedging is an ancient sailing term. A kedge is a light anchor, and way back when, to avoid a ship from being overcome by pirates, sailors would kedge. The act of kedging is to pull a ship along by hauling on the cable of an anchor carried out from the ship and droppe

Feb 25, 2019
4 min

Health Warning! Science Continues to Prove That Girlfriend Time Makes for Longevity and Happiness

Feb 17, 2019
3 min

Enough Already...Drop It!

Point to Ponder: What label (about yourself) do you need to drop? My sister Shonna (the same direct communicating sister I wrote about last week) has never considered herself creative. If asked, she’d say I was the creative one in the family while she wasn’t creative at all, however, over the past year she began baking and decorating gorgeous sugar cookies (pictured above). This was after only taking one decorating class! Now, she's decorating elaborate and delicious cookies

Feb 10, 2019
3 min

A Better Way to Communicate

Point to Ponder: Do you let emotion impact or direct your communication? Waayyy back in January (seems like eons ago, doesn’t it) in our Weekly News, we shared a link to our blog featuring 19 ways we believe 2019 can be a happy year. Throughout the course of 2019 we’ll eventually roll out all of our recommendations, but for the sake of today, we’re focusing on #5, which is: to Communicate More. Why? Because communication (in all areas) prevents chaos and disaster. I am confid

Feb 4, 2019
4 min

Wherever You Are, Be There

Point to Ponder: Are you going through each day living in your past or anticipating your future? Have you ever had one of those moments when you heard something and immediately thought, "Yep, that’s for me!" Actually, my exact words were, “Crap! I know this is for me.” This is what happened a few years ago while listening to an excellent podcast by John O’Leary. John O’Leary interviewed Matt Manzari, a professional athlete who was trimming trees at his church and unfortunate

Jan 13, 2019
3 min

Do You Expect To Be Surprised?

Point to Ponder: Do you ask for what you need and want in and out of life, and look for surprise and adventure? Or, have you lowered your expectations and just accepted a status quo life? My dear and passionate friend and iGnite leader, Kathleen Parker, recently shared stories of answered prayers. It’s not unlike us to have candid conversations about God and our faith, but it’s not every day we get to share answered prayer stories. On Monday I saw a clip from the Ellen Show w

Jan 7, 2019
4 min

45 Days and Beyond

Point to Ponder: What choices do you need to make in order to truly have a seize the day mindset? I believe the allure of the New Year is having a fresh, hopeful and enthusiastic opportunity to begin again and experience more mountain top moments than the year before. January 1st may in fact be the most optimistic and opportunistic day of the year. On that particular day, everything feels possible but did you know that statistics tell us by Valentine’s Day 92% of our Near Yea

Dec 28, 2018
4 min

Goals for the New Year + 19 Ways to Make 2019 Your Most Amazing Year Yet!

Points to Ponder: 1. What excites you? What scares you? 2. What goals have you set in the past? What were the results? 3. How has working toward a goal resulted in personal growth and/or understanding (regardless of whether or not the goal was met)? 4. How has the support of others helped you in achieving past goals? And how have you felt "unsupported" in the past? 5. What are your goals for 2019? Setting goals can be difficult. And certainly taking the steps (and hurdling th

Dec 16, 2018
4 min

Top 10 Reasons to iGnite the Week Before Christmas

Point to Ponder: Why should you iGnite this week? Last Wednesday through Friday I was in San Diego. I flew back for our annual Christmas party. You got it! It was a jammie party, that we’ll also have in Austin this Tuesday evening (Austin family, be sure to RSVP). While the trip was short it was full and very sweet. My flight got in too late Friday night to see the kiddos, so when we awoke Saturday morning we laid low and hung out in our pj's until noon, before heading out f

Dec 9, 2018
3 min

Distracted by Things That Do Not Matter

Point to Ponder: What things distract you from living out your priorities? Did you know the average person can’t go 10 minutes without checking their mobile device, and the average person spends 2 hours a day on social media AND for the younger generation who has grown up using a device, they will end up spending over 7 years of their life on social media! That is CRAZY!!! I’m embarrassed because shamefully I fall in that category and I don’t want to be! I’m sure we’d all agr

Dec 2, 2018
2 min

How We End Determines the Strength of Our Beginning

Point to Ponder: Do you consider your health as the best possible gift to give? "In a crowded, busy holiday season, it’s common for people to feel weighed down by family relationships, financial pressure, regret, or failure. Often, people feel overwhelmed by things God never intended for them to carry. His solution is simple: Let go of the baggage and travel light. December is a natural time to reflect on the past year—where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’d lik

Nov 26, 2018
3 min

Merry and Bright or Puffy and Tight?

Point to Ponder: Are you feeling the holiday fluff and puff? Confession: I treated myself to a new pair of Lululemon shorts, just tried them on and they are tight. Yep, my butt and inner thighs have expanded, however rather than take the shorts back or change into something more flattering and comfortable, I’ve decided to keep it real, continue to wear them and do what I know works: hydrate, increase my protein, decrease my carbs and exercise. If you’re reading this and have

Nov 18, 2018
4 min

20 Thankful Thoughts

Point to Ponder: Do you find it difficult to be grateful? I am a terrible receiver! While I have grown into being able to receive a generous compliment with a "Thank you" and accept help, when it comes to opening gifts and hand-written notes, I struggle. It sometimes takes me months to open and read cards, as I find it to be an extremely sentimental process. The time, thoughtfulness and love that is poured into a gift or card are overwhelming and humbling. When opening or r

Nov 12, 2018
4 min

And Then Some: A Veteran's Day Tribute

Point to Ponder: Do you look for ways to serve and be in gratitude towards others, or do you expect for others to serve you and be in gratitude of you? Yesterday I drove from Tulsa to Austin by myself. It’s a seven hour drive that is by and large an easy one, and while I love having my kids with me, I also love having the time to myself: a time to be with my thoughts, to listen to whatever I want and not be interrupted with restroom requests. This trip was particularly good b

Nov 4, 2018
4 min

Proactively Approach the Holidays with Grit, Grateful & Like a Honey Badger

Point to Ponder: Do you proactively and strategically approach the holiday season or do you let the holiday season dictate you, your goals and your health? Joy! The season of gratitude is here and we know what’s coming: family, friends, food, fun, football, parties, emotions running high, sugar, more sugar and runny noses. It’s also the season of fluctuating temperatures, sleep deprivation, allergies, congestion, the cold and flu…which all lead to distractions. I promise I’m

Oct 28, 2018
4 min

Transformational Tools for Your Toolbox

Point to Ponder: How often do you make assumptions and take things personally? Last week and upon focusing on integrity I had a several interesting conversations with friends about being impeccable with our word--specifically how we speak to ourselves and having our yes mean yes and no mean no. These conversations led to one of my favorite transformational books, The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz, as being impeccable with your word is the first of four agreements. In th

Oct 21, 2018
7 min

Integrity- Living In or Out

Point to Ponder: Are you living in integrity? How good are you to your word? I know this is a heavy question however I’m bringing it up because integrity is one of iGnite’s four core values and “Act with Integrity” is one of our 21 fundamentals. Integrity can mean slightly different things to everyone, but for iGnite it means to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to doing the right thing in every action we take and in every decision we make, even when no one is looking. It

Oct 14, 2018
2 min

We Are Family

Despite founding and creating iGnite and having a very clear vision and mission, I am the worst at accurately describing who we are. For over simplification purposes I can say we are a holistic women’s fitness community, but in my opinion that doesn’t come close to describing us. For years I lamented over an "elevator pitch" (you know, the one I'm supposed to be able to say in 30 seconds or less), but have been wildly unsuccessful at creating one. Fortunately we've been able

Oct 7, 2018
3 min

Why Having Fun is Non-Negotiable

Point to Ponder: Are you laughing and having enough fun? Personally, I don’t think there’s anything better than laughing and having fun. Maybe it’s because my mom was and still is the best at it! She taught my sister and I how to laugh at everything, especially ourselves. As a single mom I know she had plenty to cry about, but we never saw anything beyond a mother who was full of joy, laughter and always smiling. Later in life she let us know about the days when she was so do

Sep 30, 2018
5 min

What's Up With the Butterfly?

Point to Ponder: What is the most challenging area in your life you need to grow in? As we all learned in elementary school, before a caterpillar can become a butterfly it first starts as an egg, which grows into a robust worm, (a.k.a., caterpillar) eats everything in sight, spins itself into a cocoon and then emerges as a butterfly. But, what I bet you didn’t know is the unpleasant process that takes place inside the cocoon. The caterpillar first digests itself, releasing en