31Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments
Protecting My Energy

Protecting My Energy

Mindset
Learning to empower instead of enabling The phone rings, and I feel obligated to answer. Cindy, a new acquaintance, is hysterical on the other end. I drop everything I’m doing to rush to her apartment. I need to make sure the assignment she was working on is still somewhere on her computer. The deadline is tomorrow, and she doesn’t know what happened to it. Luckily, I’m a computer whiz and must have bragged about it while making small talk the first time I met Cindy. After rushing out of my house to put out the fire, I return home exhausted. Her nervous energy and panic were all it took to drain my reserves, and even though I had my own paper to write, I curl up on the couch for a recharge nap.…
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23Sep 2019 by Kayla No Comments
What Can You Expect from my Life Coach Packages?

What Can You Expect from my Life Coach Packages?

Life Coaching
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexel The 8-week program: Some of you may be overestimating what you can do with my 8-week life coach package, and others might be underestimating it. It all depends on your perspective and your experience. Of course, we will tailor the life coach package to your needs, and we can focus it down if you want a shorter life coach package like the 4-week option. So let me break down the components of my life coach package. Make a decision to change. The first thing I need is your commitment. Without that, there is no reason to continue forward with the coaching relationship. Tony Robbins says, "Change happens when the pain of staying the same is GREATER than the pain of change." If you are there, let's talk about…
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15Sep 2019 by Kayla 4 Comments
Connecting with Positivity on Instagram

Connecting with Positivity on Instagram

Uncategorized
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a tough battle.” This is one of many quotes that Jill Hetrick, a 41-year-old woman from Erie, Pennsylvania lives by.  Jill has a mission to help others who are living with narcolepsy better their lives by improving their outlook.  Jill Hetrick, 2019 Jill was diagnosed with narcolepsy in 1996 after years of symptoms dragging her down.  During college, she found ways to cope with her sleepiness, not realizing it was beyond the realm of what a normal student would experience.  She was determined to be a good student.   “If I had a group meeting, I took a five-minute nap before the meeting and showed up. I didn’t want to let other people down.”  Jill had supportive roommates that were in many of…
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19Aug 2019 by Kayla No Comments
Types of Relaxation Techniques

Types of Relaxation Techniques

life hacks
Photo by Pixabay We all know relaxation is good for our health, but do we know how to relax? If we are unable to slow down our physical responses to stress and anxiety, then we will not experience the benefits of relaxing activities. Here are some types of relaxation techniques that should be easy to fit into your daily life. Breathing Focused Strategies How often do you pay attention to your breath? We tend to hold our breath or breathe shallowly when we are stressed. We have all been instructed to “take a deep breath” before reacting to something stressful, so we know that it is a strategy to slow down our physical reaction.  But did you know that if you practice it frequently, it can become a habit and…
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18May 2019 by Kayla No Comments
Active Listening

Active Listening

Lifestyle
Instead of blaming your memory, try practicing active listening and be amazed at what you can recall!  Have you ever been having a conversation with someone, but you can see they are obviously distracted? How many people practice active listening, using their full attention while making a conscious effort to understand the message you are trying to get across? (more…)
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10May 2019 by Kayla No Comments
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Mindset
 You may THINK you know more than you actually know. It may sound like common sense. But once you start thinking about it, it's actually a little bit more complicated than it seems.  What do I mean by that? There are lots of things that we believe are facts.  We probably learned them when we were small children, and we stored them in our mind as fact when they are actually beliefs.  We don’t think about why we believe these things are true. We are not made to question what we have already accepted. Think about it.  When was the last time you tried to prove yourself wrong? Here are some examples. [caption id="attachment_1042" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Image by White77 from Pixabay[/caption] Beliefs About Sleep Sleep is for the weak. That is…
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03May 2019 by Kayla No Comments
Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional Positive Regard

Mindset
You may know about unconditional love, but have you heard of unconditional positive regard? When you wake up in the morning, do you ever think… “I really want to make some people mad today! I’m going to piss them off, hurt their feelings, and really make them feel awful.”  I doubt it. I honestly doubt I know anyone that wakes up and thinks that. Sure, I’m not going to argue that there are people like that who exist, but in the circle of people that I interact with, I haven’t seen them. So why is it that we all come across situations where we do piss people off? We do hurt people’s feelings, even when it's not our intention. Often it feels like it's out of our control.   [caption…
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23Mar 2019 by Kayla 2 Comments
Letter From a Person Living with Narcolepsy

Letter From a Person Living with Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy, Personal Story
Dear friend, Do you remember that time we had big plans to do something amazing on the weekend? I told you at the last minute that I really wanted to go but I just couldn’t do it.  Well, I remember it. Because it was hard for me to make the decision to take care of myself instead of going to do something fun that I was really looking forward to. What did I do that day? Instead, I spent the day making sure I had healthy food lined up for the week. As part of my self-care routine, I took a few short controlled naps. Focused on physical and mental health, I drank a gallon of water and meditated. I arranged my calendar for the week so I would not…
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12Mar 2019 by Kayla 6 Comments
Observations About Myanmar from an Expat

Observations About Myanmar from an Expat

Travel
It has been one year now since I came to Myanmar! What I planned as a three-week adventure has evolved into so much more! So I thought it was time to update this post on my observations about Myanmar. I have gone from being a tourist to an expat.  (Expat is short for expatriate, a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than their native country. I can't remember if I knew or used this word before coming here.)  (more…)
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27Feb 2019 by Kayla No Comments
How to Treat Narcolepsy

How to Treat Narcolepsy

Diet, Lifestyle, Narcolepsy
There are a million resources out there that will tell you how to treat narcolepsy medically including various stimulants, or other medications like Baclofen, or Xyrem. There are also some new medications being tested that sound promising, but I don't have any personal experience with those. For some people, when they receive the right combination of medications, their narcolepsy is managed well and they go on with their life, which is amazing.  But for many of us, the medications alone don’t give us the results we desire. Physically our bodies are all different and mentally we are all in different places as well. So, it makes sense we all need different things to treat narcolepsy symptoms. (more…)
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14Feb 2019 by Kayla 4 Comments
From Self-Hate to Self-Love

From Self-Hate to Self-Love

Mindset, Personal Story
Her small hands hesitate just the slightest bit as they brush over the thick pink scars.  Brown eyes meet mine and then immediately flick back down to the rushing water of the pedicure chair. Her eyes pry, "What happened to you?" or "Who did this to you?" I can't be sure which. (more…)
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01Feb 2019 by Kayla No Comments
Tell me how you take time to love yourself!

Tell me how you take time to love yourself!

Narcolepsy
Write down the five things that are most important to you in the whole world. I'll wait a moment while you do that…. If you are anything like me, your list may include values like independence or peace; it may consist of goals or aspirations, or people like your family or friends. But tell me, are YOU on that list? (more…)
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03Jan 2019 by Kayla No Comments
My New Year’s Revolution

My New Year’s Revolution

Mindset, Narcolepsy
Most New Year's Resolutions I have made in the past have been about changing myself.  They could be changing my appearance, like losing weight or taking better care of my skin. Others have been about making more money or saving more money in the hopes of feeling a certain way.  Some have been about exercising more, doing more meditation, or reading more books. But this year I am going to try something different. (more…)
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12Dec 2018 by Kayla 4 Comments
Breaking up with Keto – Stopping the Ketogenic Diet

Breaking up with Keto – Stopping the Ketogenic Diet

Mindset, Personal Story
So, I've got a theory about stopping the ketogenic diet.  It is a theory that I am ready to test out; my mind is more powerful than my body.  You see, my whole life I've worked to try to fix my body, trying to do things to it to make it better, to change it.  For as long as I can remember, I have fought with my body. Today I've decided to surrender. Narcolepsy My parents and I searched for something to explain my insurmountable sleepiness and lack of energy. When I was about 13 years old, I was diagnosed with narcolepsy.   Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that disturbs the sleep-wake cycle.  But little did I know, its more than just feeling sleepy.  I took that diagnosis and wrapped it…
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