The Fun List

Ways to have fun

Are you struggling to find ways to have fun? Have you forgotten what fun is? In the past 2 years, we as a collective have gone through numerous shifts and changes in our daily lives. Some of us were already struggling to find ourselves and the things that brought us joy and fun. 

Last week I was challenged by my own coach to make a list of things I enjoy doing for fun. At first, I was taken aback by this. Fun? What's that? 

I had to sit there perplexed for a moment before my coach had me turn it into an exercise that helped me define what fun was to me today. 

I would like to share the exercise with you today in the hope it can help awaken your inner child and bring some fun back into your life. 

The first thing I would like you to do is to get a piece of paper. I feel like this is one of those exercises that need to be written down.

Define what the word fun means to you. This is important. Once you have a strong definition that is related to you, continue on with the exercise. 

Create 3 columns or sections and name them in this order:
  • Things I have enjoyed for fun (Past)
  • Things I do for fun now (Present)
  • Things I would like to try for fun (Future)

You want to have a minimum of 25 things that are considered fun to you. These 25 items can be scattered between the 3 columns. You can write as many as you like but shoot for 25 to start. 

Now you are probably sitting there thinking, this is hard. And to be honest, that is okay. I had some trouble too. But I want to give you some ideas on things that can be fun because you want to be able to implement some of these things into your daily life. 

You don't want all of your fun activities to require lots of planning and money to happen. You want to focus on fun items that are available to you now. 

Here are some examples: 
  • Crocheting
  • Dancing (In your living room of course!)
  • Singing
  • Painting
  • Visiting local attractions
  • Hiking
  • Going out to eat
  • Roller skating
  • Coloring
  • Having a get together with friends

Now that you have defined what fun is to you and made your list of 25 or more items I want you to pick 10 of them that you can implement into your life over the next 30 days. Some of them should be things you can do daily to bring fun into your life (Like dancing in your living room!).

I can't wait to hear about all of the fun things you implement into your life and would love to hear some of your plans. Leave them in the comments! Let's bring joy and fun to everyone who reads this!

Have fun creating!


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What's Up Weekend 4/22/2022



This here my friends is one of the things I miss so much about blogging. The fun and happy posts about what's going on around me at the present moment. 

I haven't shared yet about the first vacation I have taken in almost 5 years. It was the first vacation we took as a family with Baby Bloob, who just turned 4 on our vacation. That in itself is mindblowing to me. How is he 4 already?!

We decided to take a beach vacation. We planned it before gas skyrocketed in the United States so when that all came into play, we got a little nervous about driving and costs. We do own a hybrid car so thankfully we were able to make it work and make the trip from upstate New York to Nags Head, North Carolina without killing the bank account too much. 

Guys, when I say it was a magical place. I am not joking. We stayed at the John Yancey Oceanfront Inn in one of their Sea Building rooms. We had a slider door that walked right out onto the beach. We had a little private deck to sit and enjoy the view. When I tell you this was heaven, I am urging you to try it out for yourself.

Beach View
View from our slider door

It was also toddler heaven. He could play right off the deck in the sand. The afternoon provided a nice shade patch so he could play without the sun blaring down on him. 

Beach Front View
Afternoon play in the shade

We had a blast making memories in the sand and even some time in the water. It was quite cold, but it was fine to walk in and splash a bit. We had really nice weather for the 3 days we were at the beach. High 70's and 80's. 

Now as we go into this weekend I am focusing on getting stuff ready for our gardens for the summer. We had a random snowstorm that produced 8 inches of snow on Tuesday of this week but it all melted the next day. The grass is green. The flowers are coming up and I am 100% ready for warm days and cool nights. 

But until those days get here. here is a beautiful beach sunrise photo to soothe your soul. 



Chat soon! Happy weekend!

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Wednesday Musings 2022 Edition




Every time I turn around someone is telling me that I am meant to write. That my words soothe and teach without being over the top. I never considered myself a writer. I never would have thought it would be an outlet that brings myself peace and joy. 

I have written this blog for many years and it just hit me today that it is one of my joys in life. I was looking for a specific post I wrote back in 2018 and all the memories rushed in. 

This blog has brought so many forms of joy into my life. Community. Friends. Opportunies. Peace. 

I've shared new adventures. life events, heartbreaks, struggles, and favorite things here. I've shared tips, reviews, life stories, goals and silly memes. It's quite a smorgesboard of content to be honest. 

I have tried to change the feel of this blog recently and it really didn't feel authentic to me. I have never been a strict professional topic blog and I am seeing now that I wasn't meant to be. I was trying to mesh my business with my blog and it isn't working quite yet. This blog in itself was once a business of its own. But it definitely doesn't like to share the spotlight. 

So until I figure that out, here are some things I do know.. 

I really miss doing fashion posts. 

I really miss reviewing amazing things I am using. 

I really miss goal posts. 

I really miss random Friday happy posts and silly memes. 

I really miss sharing adventures and tips with you. 

I really miss my yoga journey. 

I am going to bring those things back and add these things:

My journey to becoming an entreprenuer. 

My love for meditation and energy healing. 

My weight loss joutney (Yep, finally decided to healthy and lose the baby weight).

I can almost hear the eye rolls from my long time readers. They are probably thinking.. "Trish. You say this stuff all the time. Just do you boo!". I do appreciate that setiment. My long time readers with their eye rolls are why I keep coming back.

If you're new here, welcome! Enjoy the ride. There are lots of twists and turns here, but I mostly like to keep it the zen between the chaos. 

Ta Ta for now!


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3 Ways to Calm Grief

Calming grief


Yesterday I got a a call no one ever wants to get. A dear friend passed suddenly. I was sitting in a restaurant about to eat a late lunch. My appetite gone. Nowhere to go to let the tears flow. 

I quietly sat with my family with every kind of thought running through my mind. Desperately trying to find an answer that made sense. Desperately trying to find a way to blame myself for not being a better friend. Desperately grasping at anything to make myself feel balanced. 

I cried. I internally questioned everything. And then I did these 3 things that really helped:

1. Spoke with a "safe" person

I called someone who I felt safest with to talk to. This person is someone you can tell anything to, even if it feels silly and they do not judge. This person can be anyone- a friend, family member, colleague or mentor. It doesn't matter, as long as you feel safe. 

2. Sat quietly and meditated

Meditating can help when grief hits. When you allow yourself to focus on your breath you can turn down the internal chatter. Being in stillness allows you to solely focus on your body and allows you to bring the stress and worry levels down, even if just for a little while. 

3. Allowed myself to feel any emotion without judgement

This one is important. When grief hits we get all the "should of" thoughts. I know this because I went through them last night. I also had to remind myself that nothing can change what "is" in the current moment. Giving yourself grace is the best option. Grief has so many layers. So many "should of's". So many stories. Do what makes you feel best. 

Grief is different for everyone. There are so many possibilities to help sooth your soul. I hope some of these I listed can help you. 

I miss my friend deeply. Now I need to be gentle with myself. 

Have a beautiful week, friends. 

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Zen Between the Chaos is LIVE!

It is a glorious day! It has been in the making for more time than I can even imagine at this point, but my new professional website is now live! 

If you have dabbled in my writing over the years, you probably have come to know that I really love making people's lives better in any way I can. I had to take some time to really work on myself more to be able to really help others of course, but I am finally there folks. 

Zen Between the Chaos is now live and ready for your critique (and hopefully maybe your business?). One thing I am not is an expert website builder. I can do it, but man did I want to pull my hair out in the process. Oh and when it officially went live, the mobile version was a HOT MESS. 

I put a ton of my time into this website and I know it still needs love, but for now, it has what it needs to introduce you to what I have to offer. 

If you are a woman (I am not necessarily not specifically working with men, but right now it seems like more women gravitate towards my work than men...) I would love to help you find joy in life again. 

When thinking about who my target market was, I realized she was a lot like me. She is ambitious, hardworking, raising kids, and feeling a little less like herself each day as she tried to do it all and be superhuman to everyone. She woke up one day and thought, "Omg, where did I go? I don't even recognize myself anymore". She was having a lot of success in her life but it wasn't lighting her up anymore. Her soul wasn't being fed like it should. 

So back to me.. The pandemic brought me closer to that breaking point and I finally started the work myself. I started a spiritual life coaching program that really took me deep into my own stuff to help prepare me to work with others. When I completed my program, I was finally ready to combine my yoga studies with my coaching studies, and the Zen Between the Chaos was born.

I will be offering life coaching with a twist.. I incorporate meditation, reiki, inquiry, and yoga into all of my sessions. We track events that happen in your everyday life and use the events to move forward in goals and dreams.

I will also be offering individual yoga sessions. My specialty is focusing on restorative and chair yoga modalities. I enjoy working with those who have bad knees and limited mobility. 

All of my sessions: coaching and yoga will be offered remotely. I will be able to serve anyone who can connect on Zoom or a phone call. 

I am really excited about this work and can't wait to share it with the world. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me - hello@zenbetweenthechaos.com.

I will be headed out for my very first vacation since before Baby Bloob was born. We are headed out this weekend to the beach. It just also happens to be his 4th birthday this weekend. How is that even possible?

So my point with telling you that is, I might have some fun stories to tell when I get back and will most definitely have some fun Instagram stories to share if you want to follow along

I really truly appreciate all of you who have been reading this blog for years and those who are new and are giving me a whirl. I will be here more often blogging and I hope it brings you some joy. 

Have a wonderful weekend friends, I will see you back here next week (Maybe.. vacation and all..). I will update you all on the trip and look forward to connecting soon! MUAH!!

XoXo

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Hello April!



Happy April! Happy New Moon! We are in Aries season and in case you haven't noticed, the energy has been a little whiney. It took me reading my new moon update to connect the dots of that "woe is me" stuff I have been feeling. I have caught myself complaining a lot this week and wanting to give up in a tantrum like a 2-year-old would. 

Not fun, friends, not fun. 

I know you didn't come here for my rambles, or maybe you did? Either way, I am glad you are here. This is another one of those re-introduction posts. What better time than on the new moon?

I have been busy working behind the scenes learning how to be an entrepreneur and run my own business. You know it is serious when you actually have to hire an accountant to help you get through it all. Math scares me, so taxes always give me heart palpitations on a normal day. 

In early 2021 I decided to start a side hustle doing virtual assistant work for health/wellness/spiritual coaches and entrepreneurs. I was so successful in this area that I almost become overwhelmed. I know, not a bad problem to have, but this was just supposed to be a side hustle. 

Around the time I decided to do this, I also started my life coaching certification because since I could remember I wanted to combine my yoga certification with life coaching. I had this vision and I knew I could make it work, I just needed to get additional tools to get there. 

Today I am working on a website to combine self-development coaching that incorporates meditation, reiki, and yoga principles and my business services.

I approach both areas with an open heart. I can help people in both life and business and it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive to one thing. Coaching can help both business owners/entrepreneurs and those who just need guidance in life. 

I focus all of my energy on what each client needs. This is not about me, it is about you. 

What can you expect from this blog moving forward? For starters, this space has grown with me over the years. It has been around since 2014 and continues to evolve. 

I will still be writing lifestyle posts with a mix of business (fun posts I swear) and spiritual topics. Now when I say spiritual, I mean living a holistic life. It can be a little woowoo at times if you will. It will mainly focus on mind/body/soul topics - yoga, meditation, healing, and other fun topics. 

I am here to educate and guide in all that I do. I have been walking down this path for many years and am super excited to continue to be able to offer you all the knowledge I have learned and to learn from all of you. 

I am offering free meditation on Saturday mornings on Instagram. If you are interested join me at 10:00am EST here. Give me a follow so you don't miss anything exciting coming up!

Thank you for continuing down this path with me and look for at least one new post a week. I want to commit to more but I don't want to let ya down if I don't get more than one up. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!


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