I thought about moving out of Los Angeles for a few years now. I felt like I wasn’t moving forward at the pace I wanted and I was stuck in so many ways. Professionally, romantically, and not to mention literally…the traffic in LA is insane and can drive a person insane, especially when my occupation requires me to drive about 2,000 miles a month. Every time I traveled whether it was within the U.S. or internationally, I always kept my feelers out to see if it was a place I could see myself living. I considered a lot of different places such as Lake Tahoe, Playa Del Carmen, Thailand, Costa ..read more

My first lesson of the day on being a better human started today at 7 A.M. at Dunkin Donuts.  After scouring the menu thoroughly to choose the healthiest vegetarian breakfast option at Dunkin Donuts, the only thing open right now in this tiny town where my brother lives, it was my turn for the person at the register to take my order.  When she asked me what would I like to order, I read to her exactly as it was written on the menu, “Multigrain brown sugar oatmeal with dried fruit and a small Americano, please.” She looks at me confused and I couldn’t tell if she couldn’t hear me or if I ..read more

There’s ALWAYS a choice. In fact, we always have 4 basic choices…no matter what situation we are in which are in. We just have to remember that we have the free will to decide what we want to do. While I was kidnapped, locked in that room for 3 months, it took me awhile to come to the realization that I had choices to make. I was paralyzed by fear of the unknown until I couldn’t stand the pain of staying the same any longer. When the pain of reality the way it was became too great, I was no longer willing to accept that the current reality was my only option. At the time I couldn’t think o ..read more

On May 26, 2014 I took my first selfie ever. In this day and age of social media, and someone who sees my Instagram page with dozens of photos may think, “Why is that such a big deal?” The reason why this date is important to me is because it was the exact day that I decided to change my life. The selfie was one of the first actions I took despite one of my deepest fears…to be seen. Imagine you just graduated 8th grade and you’re about to have the best summer of your life before you go to high school, except you don’t because you’ve been kidnapped by gunpoint by a stranger who keeps you loc ..read more

I don’t know about you, but I have ups and downs in my life. When I didn’t know myself as well, I wasn’t able to recognize when I was in a down swing. It might sound silly that I was so unaware of myself that I didn’t know when I was down. But when you’re actually going through it, it’s hard to see yourself. It’s kind of like being in a dream and sometimes you don’t know you’re dreaming. I didn’t know what my triggers were, how long it would last, what were my symptoms or behaviors during this period of time, and I didn’t know how to get myself out of it. I used to call these periods of times ..read more

It’s easy to blame everyone but yourself for things that happen in your life that you don’t like. I used to do that too. But when I started taking FULL responsibility of every single thing in my life, acknowledging that every part was created by me, this changed my entire world. After I acknowledged my power in the creation of all the content, “good” AND “bad”, I decided to focus on creating “good” and life started to become REALLY fun. For a long time it was hard to accept that every single thing was created by me. I mean, how was it me who created having an alcoholic father who beat me e ..read more

Have you ever had a period of time when you felt like you finally found a rhythm in all areas of your life and then bam! You get sick. Being sick sucks. But what I appreciate about it is how it reminds me that life gives me EXACTLY what I need at the precise right time. This is how I use being sick as an opportunity: Time to Reflect: What areas of my life have been stressful? I look at my immune system as a defense system. When stress is high, my defense system is overworked because my mind has too many areas it is focusing on without the proper needed rest. I’m thinking too much. Wh ..read more

I remember a time when I was very insecure in social situations. If I’m being honest, it was because I didn’t like a lot of types of people because I didn’t like myself very much. Looking back, I can see now that all the things I didn’t like in other people were a reflection of the lessons I needed to learn to improve my love and respect for myself. I needed to improve my character. It was hard to see this reality because it was well hidden by justifications that appeared real to my ego, which was directing the movie of my life. But I finally started to see that the character I was being in ..read more

I had tried meditation several years ago but it wasn’t until about a year ago that I decided to make it a priority and incorporate it into my daily routine. I made the decision to make it a priority because I realized how important it is to exercise my mind, which is consciousness, which is spirit. I wanted to have a healthier spirit so that my strong, healthy spirit would dictate my level of happiness, not circumstances of life.  The following is how I practice meditating. They are not the official names of mediation, but they are how I like to describe them. Guided Meditation (to imp ..read more

My doctor recommended that I take time off from working out for a while after I got into a car accident. Before the accident, exercising regularly was one of the only things I noticed that really helped relieve my back pain. I had sustained back injuries while serving active duty in the U.S. Army and I was getting medical care for ongoing back problems as a disabled veteran. The stronger my back and abs were, the less pain I felt. The less pain I felt, the more energy I had to do things I enjoyed. The more things I did that I enjoyed the happier I felt overall. Since the car accident and takin ..read more