Tara Shek Coaching - holistic inner child, anxiety and stress life coach

10/09/2025

Starting this round of The Calm Files (beginning Monday), calm, courage, and clarity are coming straight to your phone. 💌

When you join, you’ll not only receive exclusive text messages from me — gentle tools, quick coaching tips, and real-time encouragement — you’ll also be able to message me directly with your questions or reflections along the way.

It’s like having your calm coach right in your pocket — ready to remind you that peace is always within reach. 💜

10/05/2025

If you’ve been feeling stuck in stress, overwhelm, or “doing it all” mode lately — you’re not alone 💛
I created The Calm Files, an 8-week guided reset for women who want to find their footing again and rediscover peace in their everyday life.

Starts October 13 →

You’ve carried stress, anxiety, and overwhelm for so long that it feels like a mystery you’ll never solve. But what if you didn’t need another heavy self-help program… what if you could step into the role of detective in your own life?

10/04/2025

Growth Mindset – Changing the Roots

Mindset shapes everything—how you see yourself, how you approach challenges, and what you believe is possible. A growth mindset allows you to adapt, learn, and expand. But true growth doesn’t happen by accident—it begins at the roots of your mindset.

What Are the Roots of Your Mindset?

The roots of your mindset are the deep, often unconscious beliefs that shape how you think, feel, and act.

✨ I have to be perfect to be loved.
✨ I’m not good enough.
✨ Other people’s needs come before mine.
✨ I’ll never change, so why try?

These core beliefs quietly influence your choices and become the “soil” where your thoughts grow.

Where Did They Come From?

Most roots are planted in childhood—by what you experienced, what you were told, or what was modeled for you.

✨ Inconsistent love may plant roots of unworthiness.
✨ Criticism may plant roots of perfectionism.
✨ Over-responsibility may plant roots of people-pleasing.

The roots aren’t your fault—but they are your responsibility if you want to grow.

How Do You Want Them to Change?

This is where growth mindset comes in. Instead of clinging to old roots, you can ask:
✨ What new beliefs would help me thrive?
✨ What story do I want to grow from now?

Core Beliefs to Uproot

A growth mindset often requires uprooting these common beliefs:

❌ I can’t change → ✅ I am capable of learning and growing.

❌ Mistakes mean failure → ✅ Mistakes are proof I’m trying and learning.

❌ I’m not enough → ✅ I am worthy as I grow.

By replacing old roots with new ones, you create fertile ground for resilience, possibility, and transformation.

Final Thought

Your mindset is like a garden. If you want to flourish, you must tend to the roots—pull out the beliefs that no longer serve you, and plant new ones rooted in love, resilience, and growth.

💜 Inside The Self Love Solution, we guide you through uprooting limiting beliefs and replanting new truths—so your inner garden can thrive.

10/03/2025

Often binge eating isn’t about food at all.
It’s about stress.
It’s about loneliness.
It’s about emotions that feel too heavy to hold.

Bingeing can feel like control and comfort in the moment, but it usually leaves us with more shame and self-criticism afterward. The truth? You’re not “broken” for struggling with this. You’ve just been using food to cope with feelings that never had a safe place to land.

💡 Healing begins with compassion, not punishment.
When you learn to calm your inner world — your stress, your triggers, your nervous system — the pull toward bingeing starts to loosen too.

That’s what The Calm Files are for: a safe, gentle space to practice grounding tools, emotional resets, and real strategies for when life feels too much.

👉 Want to explore? Come join us inside The Calm Files. Your peace matters. 💜

10/02/2025

Stop waiting for “tomorrow.”
How many times have you told yourself:
👉 “I’ll eat whatever I want tonight, and start fresh Monday.”
👉 “I’ll skip the workout today, but I’ll really get on track tomorrow.”
👉 “I’ll just stay stuck in this pattern a little longer and then I’ll be different.”

Here’s the truth: That “fresh start” never arrives until you choose it in the present moment.

💜 Journaling Prompt:
“What am I really craving when I delay my goals until tomorrow — relief, control, comfort, or something else?”

Your next step doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be now. 🌸

10/01/2025

From Snake Bites to Self-Forgiveness

When someone hurts you, it’s tempting to get stuck asking: “Why did they do that?” But the truth is, trying to figure out why someone treated you poorly is like asking a snake why it bit you.

The snake bit because that’s what snakes do. People react because that’s what unprocessed triggers do.

People Respond to Triggers

When someone lashes out, withdraws, or speaks harshly, it often has little to do with you. It’s their own unprocessed pain spilling over. They’re reacting from fear, stress, or old wounds they haven’t yet learned to handle in healthy ways.

And here’s the freeing realization: you’ve done the same.

The Mirror of Self-Forgiveness

Self-forgiveness becomes powerful when you realize that, just like others, you too have responded poorly when triggered. Maybe you snapped at someone you love. Maybe you shut down or made a choice you regret.

Shame tells us to stay stuck in the darkness. But compassion whispers: “I understand why I did that. I can forgive myself and choose differently.”

When you release yourself from past shameful behaviors, you free yourself to grow.

Witnessing With Compassion

The most healing step is to compassionately witness both sides:
✨ They were triggered and acting in darkness.
✨ I too have acted in darkness when I was triggered.

With compassion, you move beyond blame into understanding. And when you choose to step into the light, you embrace not only healing but also your inner faith—the belief that love, growth, and forgiveness are stronger than fear.

Final Thought

Stop asking the snake why it bit you. Instead, recognize that unprocessed triggers drive human behavior—for others and for you.

When you witness this truth with compassion, practice self-forgiveness, and step into the light, you find freedom. You are no longer chained by shame, but guided by faith and love.

💜 Inside The Calm Files and The Self Love Solution, we practice forgiveness—for others and for ourselves—so that shame loses its grip and love becomes the guide.

09/30/2025

Brianna Wiest’s The Mountain Is You is a compassionate guide for anyone who has realized their greatest obstacle isn’t the outside world — it’s themselves. Self-sabotage isn’t laziness or weakness; it’s outdated survival patterns that once kept us safe but now hold us back. Wiest shows us how to recognize these patterns, release them, and start climbing the “mountain within.”

Key Lessons from the Book:

Self-sabotage is protection, not failure. Healing begins when we see it as fear rather than flaw.

Your resistance is your inner child. Growth comes by comforting, not rejecting, the part of you that’s scared.

Clarity comes through action. Answers emerge when you move, not when you overthink.

You can outgrow old roles. Perfectionist, people-pleaser, overachiever — you’re allowed to evolve.

Feeling lost signals rebirth. Confusion often means something false is ending so something real can begin.

You can’t heal where you were hurt. Growth sometimes requires boundaries, distance, or walking away.

The mountain is the way. Struggles aren’t punishments; they’re invitations to become who you’re meant to be.

Ultimately, Wiest reminds us that we’re not broken — we’re becoming. Transformation isn’t dramatic; it’s the daily choice to stop abandoning ourselves and keep climbing. The mountain isn’t in your way — it is the way home.

09/30/2025

The Power of Active Listening

We live in a world that’s constantly noisy—people talking over each other, distractions pulling at our focus, and conversations that feel more like waiting for our turn to speak than true connection. That’s why active listening is such a powerful practice.

Active listening is more than just hearing words. It’s giving your full attention, noticing tone and body language, and responding in a way that shows you truly care. It transforms conversations from surface-level exchanges into moments of real connection.

What Active Listening Looks Like

✨ Presence: Putting down your phone, turning toward the person, and giving your attention fully.
✨ Reflection: Repeating or paraphrasing what you heard to confirm understanding.
✨ Curiosity: Asking gentle questions instead of jumping in with solutions.
✨ Empathy: Listening with the intention to understand—not to judge or fix.

Why It Matters

When you practice active listening, you send a powerful message: “You matter. I see you. I hear you.”

This builds trust, deepens relationships, and creates safety for others to open up. And here’s the bonus: practicing active listening with others also teaches you to listen more deeply to yourself—your emotions, your needs, your inner guidance.

How to Practice Today

Choose one conversation to slow down in.

Listen without interrupting or planning your response.

Repeat back one thing the other person said, to show you understood.

Ask, “Is there more you’d like me to know?”

Small shifts create big change.

Final Thought

Active listening is a gift—both to others and to yourself. It’s how we move beyond words into connection, beyond noise into understanding.

💜 Inside The Self Love Solution, we practice tools like active listening to build healthier relationships—with ourselves and with others.

09/29/2025

“Self-help” is not really a thing.

If we could fix every struggle on our own, we would’ve already done it.

Real growth happens in relationship — when we allow safe people to witness us, encourage us, and walk beside us. Self-love is the soil, but change is watered in community.

And the good news? You don’t have to do it alone.

www.tarashek.com/calm

09/28/2025

Your Predicting Brain Creates Your Reality

In her book 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett shares a powerful truth: our brains aren’t wired for accuracy—they’re wired to keep us alive.

That means your brain is less concerned with being “right” and more concerned with keeping you safe. It constantly predicts what will happen next based on your past experiences—and those predictions shape your reality.

How the Predicting Brain Works

Your brain is always running predictions:
✨ That sound might be danger.
✨ That look means rejection.
✨ This situation feels familiar—I should be anxious.

When your brain’s prediction is accurate, it feels like confirmation: See? I knew it.
But when your brain’s prediction is wrong, something fascinating happens: your brain still creates your reality around it.

Right or Wrong—It Still Feels Real

If your brain predicts rejection, you might hold back—even if the other person was ready to accept you.
If your brain predicts failure, you may self-sabotage—fulfilling the very outcome you feared.

This is why two people can experience the same event and interpret it completely differently. Each is living in the reality their brain predicted.

What This Means for You

The good news is that if your brain can create a fearful reality, it can also create a hopeful one.

✨ Notice your predictions—are they rooted in fear or growth?
✨ Question them—ask: Is this fact, or just a familiar story?
✨ Practice new predictions—tell your brain a different story: “I can handle this. I am safe. I am capable.”

Over time, your brain rewires. New predictions create new realities.

Final Thought

Your brain’s job is survival, not accuracy. But with awareness, you can train your predicting brain to move from fear-based guesses to love-based choices.

💜 Inside The Calm Files (and coming in 2026 … The Self Love Solution), we explore tools to challenge old predictions, create new truths, and rewire your reality for peace, growth, and freedom.

GET YOUR FREE ACTION GUIDE / JOURNALING PAGE HERE:
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