Aimee Schrank Holistic Life Coaching

09/20/2022

Greetings everyone. I hope this note finds you each of you well. I hope you are continuing to find moments to enjoy and treasure your experience as a human. It's certainly a journey of both expansion and contraction!

As I've shared before, my practice has evolved since the years of starting this community. While I love what I do, the marketing and being on social media was tough for me. I have found a way to do what I love without spending as much time here.

I am still seeing clients and will continue to do so. Keep me in mind if you are looking to find ways to manage emotions, stress, anxiety, and relentless worry. It's all part of life!

I do share occasional nuggets on my personal page, so would love to connect there if we aren't already. I'm going to be retiring this page, which is bittersweet.

Please reach out if you need anything or have questions! Thank you for being part of my journey.

Lots of love and light to each of you!

08/04/2021

02/11/2021

What, if anything, changes if you see wellness as a state of action vs a state of being?

01/28/2021

As many of you know, aside from attracting and serving my private practice clients, I do emotional wellness coaching through a company that offers mental health benefits to large corporations, as well as mindset and motivation coaching with the Diet vs Disease community.

With some of my clients I get the opportunity to track progress with wellbeing and stress assessments, and depression and anxiety assessments (to ensure they remain a good fit for coaching). I'm noticing that within 3 sessions clients are dramatically improving across ALL measures. Such a testimony to what good coaching has to offer.

If you are interested in feeling less stressed, less depressed, less anxious, and are interested in improving your overall wellbeing using evidence based practices, know that coaching with me can be a great option. Therapy is good for this too and is absolutely required when dealing with more severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma.

For me coaching is an active and present-focused short term intervention that helps people make desired changes in their lives and enhance their well-being.

I love helping my clients learn life changing skills that leave them empowered to better manage future stress, emotions, and to bust through the everyday challenges that inevitably show up in the human experience.

If this sounds like something you could use right now, send me a message and let me know you are interested. I've got space for 2-3 in my private practice.

I'm trying out a new model, commitment is just 6 sessions. Best price ever.

01/28/2021

My word for the year is self discipline. I recently heard that the gateway to freedom is self discipline. I’m experimenting this year to see if it rings true for me.

10,000 steps a day in some way shape or form is one way I plan to embody this. However I find myself thinking it’s too dark too get after it, too cold, too icy.

I ask my clients all the time to identify potential obstacles when they commit to showing up differently, and I help them plan ways to overcome those obstacles.

Today I further committed myself to this experiment of self-discipline and I’m so excited to see what I find out.

I likely won’t be perfect but I know with this plan I’ll make some serious progress in showing up for myself just a little bit more this year.

What goals are you working towards? What makes it hard to achieve those goals? What plans can you put in place to overcome those obstacles?

01/12/2021

I'm so excited to share that I'm a Featured Holistic Wellness Coach in a brand new guidebook called Live Well Dream Big - The Ultimate Guide to Becoming your Best Self and Living Life on your own Terms.

In this book, I share my personal journey to re-falling in love with the life I created and live.

The guidebook features a total of 12 inspiring wellness stories, tons of tips to support you and a powerful tool you can use right away to start creating your own transformations.

You can get your complimentary copy here: iawp.ontraport.net/t?orid=23627&opid=34

Hope you enjoy!

Live Well Dream Big. The Ultimate Guide to Becoming Your Best Self and Living Life on Your Own Terms

01/01/2021

Happy New Year!!! Don't ever doubt your resilience. You survived 2020. It may not have been perfect. It may have been messy. There may have been tears. But you did it, and that is the important thing. Be proud of yourself. Notice the strength within you.

One of the things that helped me the most this year was finding Yoga with Adriene. I found her in January. Little did I know at the time what a gift this would be.

Each January she does a 30 day free yoga series and throughout this year of mostly being quarantined, I've been working my way through past series.

Today she starts a new series called Breath, and I'd love to invite you to hook into this if it feels good to you.

The sessions are mostly short and sweet, but what I like most is that she really invites you to notice and be with and in your body in a way that I had never experienced with my history of yoga. It's definitely helped me to be more present and tuned into myself and more of the moments the past year had to offer. It has helped me to connect with joy and peace inside the tumultuous year that 2020 has been.

I'm excited to continue building on what I am learning through my practice. My intention as I navigate my yoga practice is strength and presence. My word for the year is self-discipline, because I it is key in accessing the inner Freedom I long for.

If you choose to join in this experience I'd love to know your intention as you begin the 30 day journey. I'd love to know your word this new year! I'd love to encourage you and share in this journey together. The link to join is in the comments below.

Happy New Year! Love, Aimee

12/22/2020

Do you need to ditch some rules in 2021?

Today in a group call I led, we had a meaningful conversation about rules that really got me reflecting on how much suffering comes from our own damn rules.

I'm curious, have you ever looked at the rigid rules you might have for yourself as a mother? As a wife? As a person? As a professional?

I used to have so very many rules. I downloaded many of these rules as a small child. Society reinforced these rules over the years. My own confirmation bias endorsed and solidified these rules.

These rigid rules left me with lots of shoulds.

I've since learned that using critical words like ‘should’, ‘must’, or ‘ought’ can make us feel guilty, or like we have failed before we even try. Insert suffering here!

These rules left me contracted and weighted down, exhausted, spread thin and disconnected from all that was. They left me SUFFERING!

Don't get me wrong,the rules were well intentioned. Ironically they were meant to ensure my life was a success and that I was loved, but you see the more I held fast to them, the less successful and loveable I felt.

I think the rigid rules I adapted through the years were flawed because they took a one size fits all approach to success and lovability. They were sort of rooted in all or nothing thinking.
I believe to find true happiness we have got to stop and fine tune the rules.

Or maybe even trash them altogether and start again?

I think the worry here is that if we trash the rules we will become reckless in our ways. Find ourselves led astray.
I don't think so. I think we all have an inner compass and an inner knowing that seeks balance and goodness. I think we can trust ourselves, and learning to trust ourselves is a most beautiful thing.

So I'm here to remind each of you that it's never too late to change the rules. To show up differently.

Changing the rules to honor who I was, who my kids were, who my husband was, and who we were together was one of the best things I ever did.

It carved a clear path to freedom, to the acceptance, to the contentment I longed for all along. I'm still traveling the path. I haven't fully arrived, but there are a lot less bumps and boulders in the road.

What rules might you need to change or fine tune this holiday season, so you can access more peace, more joy, more connection, more of what you really want? Tell us in the comments below!

11/30/2020

Today I want to share with you my client Lindsay's success story!

Who is she? Lindsay, mother and wife juggling a successful and demanding career

What's the problem she came to me with? Lindsay was feeling like she was failing in so many ways, and like she was messing things up all the time when it came to her home life. She was feeling desperate. She had a lot of internal struggles she was constantly facing, and was longing to make sense of them and find her way back to peace

And the solution we found her? Lindsay learned to connect with her own internal truth and to trust it and use it to guide her. She learned skills that helped her become cognitively more flexible. She learned how to be more accepting of herself, to let things burn as she says, and to make time for what was most important in her life.

Did it work for her? While connecting with wellbeing is a work in progress for Lindsay, as it is for all of us, Lindsay no longer feels desperate or like she is failing. She has a renewed spirit of clarity, less internal battles raging within her, and increased peace. She is less hard on herself, and much more content about how she is showing up. She is having more fun!

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the video below!

Do you want to transform your motherhood experience?

Here's the deal...

You need to be ready to invest in YOU, you've got to be coachable and willing to practice new skills and apply new principles in your day to day life.

So, if you're ready to take back control of your life, your relationships, and your motherhood journey type interested below and I'll be in touch with more info.

PS: Spaces are extremely limited as I'm blessed to be nearing capacity.

Learn what recent client Lindsay had to say about working to redesign motherhood with Aimee Schrank, MCC and IAWP coach mentor

11/27/2020

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it today! I am thankful for each of you, sunshine and warmth, and these not so little turkeys of mine.

I know times are tough but my prayer is that we each stay rooted in the gift inside the struggle.

For me it helps to celebrate our strength and resilience in adjusting to pandemic life. And it helps to spend time being grateful we have each other. And boy have we had a lot of each other these last almost 9 months, lol!

Love to you all! Xoxo

11/18/2020

Oh my gosh you guys! It has been forever since I posted.

If I am honest I have been dealing with my own emotional fatigue due to election drama, the ongoing pandemic, parenting, wifing and a full schedule. All have me working hard to conserve my energy where I can.

I do hope you are all finding ways to protect your energy and nurture yourself in these crazy times.

Today I want to share some thoughts around the discounting the positive mind trap..

While it’s important to be curious in our lives and in our roles about our areas of opportunity, it’s equally important to look at what’s working and how you are showing up.

When we have a tendency to discount the positive we get really good convincing ourselves that we have further to go than we actually do when it comes to arriving. Arriving at being the mom we want to be, the wife we want to be, the professional we want to be.

We can even convince ourselves that others will never measure up, and get hyper focused on our loved ones flaws.

This mind trap has a way of convincing you that things aren’t working, that you or someone you love will never arrive, never change, never reach that best version you have in mind.

And it’s really really powerful because unfortunately, if you can’t see what is working, and what you or others are doing well, you won’t be able to identify those as strategies to boost progress or to facilitate connection in the future. Furthermore you won't be able to keep motivation and inspiration alive. And we all feel better when those wheels are turning within us, right?!!

So if you have a tendency to discount the positive when it comes to life, to relationships with yourself and others, then I encourage you to take time this week to reflect on what is working, to reflect on how you are showing up.

Keep a journal. Write it down. Read it and reread it.

Do this and watch your glass go from half empty to half full.
Watch as you feel more empowered, motivated, and proud of all you have accomplished. Watch as your inner critic fades away, even if just a little. Watch as your loved ones become more lovable.

Let us know in the comments if this is a mind trap you fall victim to and let us know if you have strategies to share on how you work your way out of it.

And if you need 1:1 support becoming a glass is full kind of person, I've got you covered. 💕💕

11/04/2020

For those that are feeling anxious during this season...

Remember this and make adjustments to see if you can't release some tension.

Overestimating danger + Underestimating Personal Coping= High Anxiety

Helpful? Let me know!

(Equation proposed by Aaron Beck)

10/30/2020

Do your thoughts have you overgeneralizing things?

When we overgeneralize in life, we have a tendency to draw broad conclusions based on one experience or one moment in time.

It usually involves us ruminating on an experience where we fall short, and then taking that information and using it to predict how we will show up in the future.

For example on occasion I might loose my temper and yell at my kids over something that really wasn't that big of a deal. And then because I feel so bad about not showing up in alignment with my values, I might conclude that I always yell, and will probably yell next time.That I'm a yeller, despite the fact I asked nicely the 9 times before or handled myself with grace in a thousand ways leading up to this. I might also sadly go on to conclude a lot of unhelpful things if I let the thought train run away.

Sound familiar?

And here is the worst of it if you ask me.... overgeneralizations strengthen negative beliefs we have about ourselves. For example they may strengthen an underlying belief that I am falling short as a mom, wife, employee.

Overgeneralization leads us to catastrophize. We can easily convince ourselves that because we messed up, we will never be good enough. It plants fear and even shame in us.

And you know what happens when we feel fear and shame? We feel bad, and tense, and irritable and so we are more likely to yell again.

The thing about engaging in overgeneralizations is that they are based on insufficient data, and don’t lead to truthful conclusions. We need to know this.

Learning this and being on the look out for this can be everything.

If we can learn to take a more gentle compassionate look at our journey, we can see that it makes sense that we have setbacks. We can take into consideration the whole of life, and see that all in all we are doing quite well.

We can mindfully look at ALL the data.

It’s usually not fair to make big sweeping conclusions about our ability to succeed based on one or a few recent or past experiences. Every experience is different. Every moment is different.

So try to stop drawing untrue high stakes conclusions about yourself. Try to see yourself in a more positive light.

Know that you are good enough, and believe that you are capable of becoming the person you want to be.

And if you need help creating a game plan so you can indeed become the person you long to be, let me know. I've got 2 spots available in my private practice at this time.

10/16/2020

I'm reading a new book (Recover your Perspective) about disordered eating for the work I do with the diet vs disease community.

The book addresses the fact that eating disorders have their own voice, and that voice is often one that is quite distorted.

What has really struck me in reading this book is how similar the distorted thinking in the voice of an eating disorder is to the distorted thinking of perfectionism.

All or nothing thinking.driven by past perfectionism made me divide things into extremes and absolutes.

The author points out, and I couldn't agree more, that when we struggle with all or nothing thinking we either see ourselves as perfect or as terrible.

We are either kicking butt or failing miserably.

We are either on track or off the rails.

We are either succeeding or failing.

All or nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion that doesn’t allow for flexibility, creativity or forgiveness.

All or nothing thinking sucks and gets us into real trouble.

When we see ourselves as the failure, we feel alone, separate, broken and/or inadequate.

It breeds loneliness and suffering, and causes us to disconnect from those we love.

Instead of addressing the real problem, the all or nothing thinking, most will shoot for the positive or more desirable side of the all or nothing.

But life is not black and white.

There are always exceptions.

There are always more options.

There is always another way to see things.

While perfection is sexy, it never delivers.

Yes or no, does your all or nothing thinking cause trouble in life? I'd love to hear how in the comments below.

10/07/2020

Do you ever know exactly what you need to do to feel better, to get unstuck, and yet can't seem to do it?

Understanding what drives our inaction can help you course correct.

Here are some reasons why you might sabotage your success in creating desired changes:

1. There might be a mismatch between what you believe about your ability to have success and the success you are experiencing.

Humans appreciate consistency—and actions and behaviors tend to reflect true beliefs. When they don’t match up, you make an effort to make them match. When you start to find success, yet see yourself as flawed, incapable or inadequate, you need to change things up so they can match up with your inner beliefs.

What to do about: Work on your inner belief so it becomes one that says you can, you are capable, you are adequate.

2. It feels safer to know failure is coming than for it to surprise you and make you feel like things are out of control.

What to do about it: Adjust how you see failure. Failure is not final. Failure part of the process. It’s through failure we have opportunity to self reflect on what is working and what isn’t. On what needs to shift ultimately so we can keep moving forward. Also adjust how you see progress. Progress doesn’t happen in straight lines.

3. You don’t want to crash and burn. The closer you get to success, the harder it is to fail which you still ultimately believe is your destiny. The belief and inaction creep in and save you from having to fall so far and maybe ultimately lose control in a way you never have.

What to do about it: Adjust your belief in your ability to be resilient

Which belief do you need to adjust: 1,2, or 3? Let us know in the comments below.

09/28/2020

I got this question last week in a group call.

How do you keep positive when your pain can be overwhelming?

While the original question was around physical pain, I think we often approach emotional pain in motherhood the same.

We fight through it and try to find a way to show up as positive because that's what we think we should do. We think that we shouldn't have the negative emotions that surface in parenting. They don't correlate with our understanding of what it means to love someone or to be a good parent.

Before we force the positive to deflect what we are truly feeling, I think it is important to consider the following:

What feels important about being positive for you?
Why do you believe that your answer to the above is important for you?
Could there be another possibility to achieving this than forcing positivity?

Certainly we don’t want to fall into a trap where we are only focused on what isn’t working. Making time and space to create awareness of what is working is important, but I know emotional regulation happens when we are able to be with what is.

Emotional dysregulation can happen when we resist that which is. You've heard me say it before, "That which we resist persists. "

In my experience, it is hard to force emotions. It's what we have the least control over. That's why I use the story reversal technique with clients. When we sit with the emotion and are willing to identify the connected stories, we can explore ways to change the thoughts connected with the emotions, and that is where the relief lies.

When we push through our reality as if we are fighting what is, it can add to anxiety and depression which also makes everything worse.

If it feels good to you, I would work on giving yourself permission to sit with and explore the emotions that come up rather than forcing something that isn't a vibrational match to where you truly are.

And if you struggle in general to be with your negative emotions and would like to learn how to explore what it means to be present without judgement with these emotions, let me know. I'd love to guide you in the process.

09/18/2020

I absolutely love what I do. I love working with clients and leading them to create shifts that open the floodgates to peace, energy, and enhanced satisfaction in life.

If you're interested in learning a bit about my work and how I help my clients excel, here is an interview I hosted with a recent and brave client of mine. THANK YOU AMY!

I'm so grateful she was willing to step out of her comfort zone and share about her experience of working together!

If you'd like to know more about how you too can work with me, type interested in the comments below or send me a DM and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.

09/01/2020

I think one of the biggest shifts I made as a mother was coming to terms with the fact that stress and negative emotions were part of the journey.

Originally I seemed to hold the belief that if I could eliminate stress in our home, and all emotional outburst, I would then have evidence that I was a good mom. I believed subconsciously that it was my responsibility to create a stress free and happy home.

This created a ton of stress and negative emotion in me, because I was striving for the impossible, and always always failing.

When I stopped trying to eliminate the stress, and focused instead on learning to manage it, ironically my stress dropped dramatically.

For me the key in motherhood is to accept that stress and big emotions are part of the journey, and to focus on finding ways to manage your stress and to process your big emotions, without activating your fight or flight system continuously.

The more you know about what stresses you out, and your typical response to stress, the easier it is to change your response to those same stressors.

The more you know about what triggers big emotions, and your typical response, the easier it is to change your response to those same triggers.

Here are some tips that have helped me learn to manage the stressors and big emotions that come with motherhood:
1. Start paying attention to how you feel, think and behave in response to stress triggers and big emotions
2. Practice getting curious and accepting your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a place of non judgement vs reacting to them
3. Determine ahead of time what it would look like to respond to stress and emotional triggers in a way that aligns with your values.
4. Learn mindfulness meditation so you can access the pause and respond with purpose to triggers and stressors
5. Prevent fight or flight by committing to and scheduling in mindfulness meditation and other formal relaxation practices

What's your take on stress and big emotions in motherhood? Would love to hear from you in the comments below.