Category: Mind-Body-Spirit

Guilt & Forgiveness, Mind-Body-Spirit, Self Love, Uncategorized

My Fast Food Addiction Almost Ruined My Life

baileysandbabiesblog

Before
After

I gave up fast food because it was killing my spirit, and probably my body too.

Fast food used to be my crutch. Each time I’d receive disappointing news, get into the headspace of not being “good enough,” feel fat (ironic much?), or have a hangover, I would buy fast food. It was so easy.

When I was younger, I had become idle in pursuing my passions, I was addicted to harmful romantic relationships, and completely detached from my body. I used to have a ritual of starting each Sunday like this: Brunch with my girlfriends, which would turn into mimosas on the beach, followed by a movie, so we could take a nap.

On my route home, feeling tired, hungry, and sad, I would pass a McDonald’s, a Taco Bell and a Wendy’s, side by side. For a while my pattern was to go to Taco Bell and order a few different options. If I was in the mood for sugar I would also stop at McDonalds or Wendy’s for a shake.

I would then drive home and eat all the stuff, half of it in the car.

I ended each week laying in bed hating myself.

Read more on Delish!

Mind-Body-Spirit, Uncategorized

How to Release Emotional Attachment to Stuff- Online Course

baileysandbabiesblog

Hey friends!

My latest online course for  Daily OM launched yesterday! Yee haw!

Here’s a peek into what it’s all about. 

This is an 8 week on-line course available from Bailey Gaddis. We will email you when your new lesson is available and you will be able to login and read each lesson on-line or print as they become available and click to listen to the guided audio meditations. Your first lesson will be available immediately after you enroll. 

Would you like your home to be organized, serene and inviting? Do you yearn for a simple and lasting method of organization? How would you feel if your inner environment mirrored your peaceful outer environment?

Many of us can muster the willpower to spend a weekend organizing our home, but what often happens is we quickly slip back into old habits, and the evidence of our hard work dissipates. When we learn how to make the process of creating and maintaining an organized home and life second nature, the weight of the struggle is lifted, and lasting change is established.

Whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, the state of your external environment has a profound effect on your internal environment, and vice versa. To create a positive exchange of energy between your inner and outer worlds we must work with them in unison to achieve harmony. Consciously bridging these two worlds will ease the practice of releasing unneeded items, dissolving negative shopping and organizing habits, and discovering the specific methods of organization that work best for your unique needs.

This course will take you the through the gentle process of tuning into this connection and harnessing its power to create a home you love spending time in, because it nourishes you- mind, body and spirit.

Over an eight-week period this course will take you through the following journey, utilizing text and 5 minute guided meditations:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* How to examine your emotional relationship to physical belongings.

* Explore what really makes you happy- and how to get more of it.

* Tap into the energy of your home, and learn how to harmonize it with the energy within you.

* How to work through the four stages of organizing- Sort, Purge, Organize, and Maintain

* Learn to integrate your new self with your new home, through blessings.

* How to continuously find center within your self and home, while moving through the eternal flux of life.

* Figure out how to motivate your housemates to join in the transformations!

You can dive into it for as little as $10! Woot woot!

Mind-Body-Spirit, Parenting, Uncategorized

Michelle Obama Reveals Her Family Used to Eat Takeout Every Night

baileysandbabiesblog

IMG_7647Did you know that the First Family used to eat takeout every night?

They were just like us, a busy family with 48 hours worth of to-dos to accomplish in 24 hours, children that needed to be fed, and a preference for couch sitting versus taking walks at the end of a long day — oh, and no private chef.

I received this used-to-eat-a-ton-of-takeout tidbit when I went to the White House for a Let’s Move event hosted by Michelle Obama. Let’s Move is an initiative Michelle started in 2010 to end childhood obesity by introducing healthier foods into schools, incorporating exercise into lesson plans, and supporting families in continuing these healthy habits at home.

The idea was birthed when Michelle took her daughters to their family physician (before they lived in the big White House) and was told they needed to make some changes to their diet.

Read more at Babble!

Childbirth, Mind-Body-Spirit, Parenting, Uncategorized

Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine!

baileysandbabiesblog

Holy moly! I’m an expert in the recent addition of Pregnancy and Newborn magazine (answering a question I could have asked- and now trying to follow my own advice.)

Childbirth, Mind-Body-Spirit, Parenting, Pregnancy, Uncategorized

Pregnancy Bagua Map

baileysandbabiesblog

N

Toying around with a “pregnancy version” of a feng shui bagua map for the Feng Shui Mommy book 🙂 A work in progress, but having fun mixing the harmony of this ancient Chinese art into the magic of pregnancy and childbirth.

Oh, are you wondering what the heck a bagua map is? The bagua map (BAH-gwa) is a tool used in feng shui to learn which parts of a space correlate with particular areas of life.

My version helps you learn what areas of your life to nurture during different stages of your journey into motherhood. 

You begin your journey in the watery North (1st trimester), explore the woods of the East (2nd trimester), absorb the warmth of the South (3rd trimester), then slide into the cool landscape of the West (4th trimester.)

At the center of it all is the grounding presence of the Earth, which holds the power to harmonize the light and dark moments of your journey (yin and yang.)

Guilt & Forgiveness, Mind-Body-Spirit, Parenting, Uncategorized

I Was Bullied at 13, and I’m Just Now Dealing With the Damage It Did

baileysandbabiesblog

My heart crumbled when I watched the older boy shove him down, grab his toy, and run away with the other children. My son’s lip puffed out, then was immediately sucked in and bit down on as he balled up his tiny body and fought back tears. I rushed over to him as I pushed down my own ball of tears lodging itself in my throat.

I wrapped my arms around my son and rocked him, feeling so helpless and triggered by my own memories of rejection.

Then, the little boy who had pushed him down returned, handed my son his toy and asked him if he wanted to kick a ball. My tiny man hopped up smiling and ran after the boy howling the toddler cry-of-joy.

I stayed on the grass, continuing to rock myself.

Read more on Babble

Mind-Body-Spirit, Uncategorized

How to Release Emotional Attachments to Stuff- Online Course

baileysandbabiesblog

Hey friends!

I have a new online course launching on Daily OM April 5th, but you can jump on it now if you’re into it 🙂

Here’s a peek into what it’s all about. 

This is an 8 week on-line course available from Bailey Gaddis. We will email you when your new lesson is available and you will be able to login and read each lesson on-line or print as they become available and click to listen to the guided audio meditations. Your first lesson will be available immediately after you enroll. 

Would you like your home to be organized, serene and inviting? Do you yearn for a simple and lasting method of organization? How would you feel if your inner environment mirrored your peaceful outer environment?

Many of us can muster the willpower to spend a weekend organizing our home, but what often happens is we quickly slip back into old habits, and the evidence of our hard work dissipates. When we learn how to make the process of creating and maintaining an organized home and life second nature, the weight of the struggle is lifted, and lasting change is established.

Whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, the state of your external environment has a profound effect on your internal environment, and vice versa. To create a positive exchange of energy between your inner and outer worlds we must work with them in unison to achieve harmony. Consciously bridging these two worlds will ease the practice of releasing unneeded items, dissolving negative shopping and organizing habits, and discovering the specific methods of organization that work best for your unique needs.

This course will take you the through the gentle process of tuning into this connection and harnessing its power to create a home you love spending time in, because it nourishes you- mind, body and spirit.

Over an eight-week period this course will take you through the following journey, utilizing text and 5 minute guided meditations:

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

* How to examine your emotional relationship to physical belongings.

* Explore what really makes you happy- and how to get more of it.

* Tap into the energy of your home, and learn how to harmonize it with the energy within you.

* How to work through the four stages of organizing- Sort, Purge, Organize, and Maintain

* Learn to integrate your new self with your new home, through blessings.

* How to continuously find center within your self and home, while moving through the eternal flux of life.

* Figure out how to motivate your housemates to join in the transformations!

You can dive into it for as little as $10! Woot woot!

Mind-Body-Spirit, Self Love, Uncategorized

9 Amazing Things That Happen When Adults Start Coloring

baileysandbabiesblog

IMG_7324Coloring in the outline of a trendy owl will make you a better person.

The hardest part of coloring is starting. My initial thoughts, upon setting my adult coloring book and colored pencils on my little TV tray, was, “Shouldn’t I be doing something more adult? Like scrubbing a toilet? Eh, it says ‘adult’ on the book so I’m good. But what if I suck at coloring inside the lines? Embarrassing.”

And then I started and didn’t look up for two hours (except to get a glass of wine, because wine makes you better at coloring). Here’s what will happen when you start.

  1. You slip into a vortex known as “the zone.”

And it feels amazing. Instead of grubbing on a tub of frozen sugar or binge-watching Bravo, you can make your escape through a classic childhood pastime. The zone (sometimes known as hypnosis) feels so fabulous, it’s like an emotional massage.

Read more at YourTango!

Childbirth, Mind-Body-Spirit, Uncategorized

8 Truths About Having a HypnoBirth

baileysandbabiesblog

IMG_1238It’s basically like creating your own personal fantasyland.

The idea of pushing a human out of the vagina is incomprehensible, even if you’ve already done it. The foreign woods between pregnancy and the postpartum experience, childbirth, are a fantasy land where the body, mind, and spirit are pushed past their limits to a space where they’re floating in timeless (sometimes painless) amnesia.

If you’re having a natural birth, without the aid of a childbirth preparation method, you must move through the bowels of pain before you reach the fantasy land.

If you’re having an assisted birth, sans childbirth preparation tools, you must wait for the needle to be injected before you flow into the fantasy land.

If you’re having a hypnobirth, you create your own fantasyland and get yourself there as soon as possible.

A hypnobirth consists of mixing the ins and outs (emphasis on “out”) of traditional childbirth preparation, like conscious breathing, uterus and perineum education, and how to not pulverize the birthing partner emotionally or physically, with the real gems like affirmations, visualization, and the crown jewel: self-hypnosis.

Read more at YourTango!

Childbirth, Mind-Body-Spirit, Parenting, Self Love, Uncategorized

Why I Celebrate My Honest Postpartum Body

baileysandbabiesblog

IMG_1436Tell her she’s beautiful. Tell her she’s perfect. Tell her she deserves to feel at home in her body.

Remember the ditty “Do Your Ears Hang Low”? Well… Do your boobs sag down, do they jiggle to and fro? Do they swing to the right and then reach down to the floor?  Mine do. At least, I think they’re mine.

The postpartum boob transformation occurred quicker than the flick of a baby finger. My old breasts were small, perky, and fluid-free. These new things attached to my chest are droopy bags, albeit fabulous droopy bags. They fill with and distribute milk, but they’re just so different and devoid of perkiness.

And “my” stomach — where did that come from? It’s flattish, wide, and different. It’s so different from the stomach I came to know so well. Come to think of it, the only parts of my naked postpartum body I recognize are my knee caps. They’re not saggy … yet.

Read more at YourTango!

Guilt & Forgiveness, Mind-Body-Spirit, Uncategorized

How We Deal With Post-Baby Sex Guilt

baileysandbabiesblog

IMG_5627Having a baby sent a surprising jolt through my sex life. I was expecting that aspect of my life to be as dry as the Mohave until my child left for college, but I was wrong.

Sex became a forbidden fruit I constantly craved. The strange sex dreams pregnant women often have started for me after the baby came out.

Before the baby, sex was a daily staple in our relationship. It was lovely and relaxing–and it was totally expected. Throughout pregnancy it did slow down a bit, but could still be done on a whim and without limits, with the exception of my protruding belly.

The constraints of a baby spiced things up and taught us to pre-plan our sexcapades, which was actually sexy. And while the anticipation was delicious, there was also another feeling: guilt. The guilt was horrible.

Read more at Good Housekeeping!

Mind-Body-Spirit, Self Love, Uncategorized

11 Real Struggles Only Shy People Will Understand

baileysandbabiesblog

*Big ole vulnerable dose of myself.

I’m a shy extrovert. These two aspects of myself are in constant battle. My shy, introverted self pulls me back to my shell of WiFi and Netflix, while my extrovert self pushes me to connect with real-life people and find work that requires me to talk in front of people for hours. It’s tricky.

I enjoy my extroverted tendencies, but find my shyness leading the way most of the time. And it usually leads into a quiet room with snacks, my laptop, and a bed. Shyness can be a true struggle, and here’s why.

  1. Face-to-face networking is a rare form of torture.

To grow in a professional (and personal) sense, I need to connect with fellow writers, professionals, hypnotherapists, and general human beings. This means going into a room of strangers, awkwardly going up to people and saying something at least slightly interesting without stuttering.

Read more on YourTango!

Mind-Body-Spirit, Self Love, Uncategorized

What Would Happen If We Dipped Into a New Creative Medium?

baileysandbabiesblog

Hot off the Feng Shui Mommy Newsletter press.
Adult coloring books are all the rage right now. While I usually shy away from trends, purely because they’re trendy, I’m all over this fad. Actually, I was all over this before it was even a “thing.” I was that mom in the restaurant trying to keep my son from scribbling over my color-in-the-lines masterpiece. Now I just bring my own coloring book.

Initially, I thought I could only partake in this extracurricular indulgence on the weekends, or the rare moments when all my “important” work was complete- coloring seemed frivolous. 

“Shouldn’t I be writing? That’s my thing– my soul’s work.”

What I noticed after a week of partaking in this delicious frivolity every day, was my writing got better! And, I got better at that whole “living in the moment” trend. Interesting.

Stepping out of my creative bubble, made it burst, and let in some pretty juicy newness.

What’s your creative medium of choice? The activity that feeds your soul and injects a hearty dose of purpose into your day?

What would it be like if you tried something outside your creative wheelhouse? Something that you’re not a pro at, and would be exploring just for the sake of dipping into something different.

This newness may stir up latent insecurities, fear of change, and guilt that you’re not doing something you’re “supposed” to do. How fabulous.

Dipping into those seemingly negative areas of your being is the only way to release them. It also produces fabulous material for your primary creative work.

When I realized I wasn’t so great at coloring within the lines (and should really be washing those piles of dishes and clothes instead of sitting at my son’s mini-table with colored pencils and a coloring book) I felt really insecure, and questioned myself. 

Then, I sat down to write that evening and had so much fresh material. I had gently loosened pieces of myself I didn’t like to look at, but were so interesting when I allowed them to come out and play.

IMG_7324

On the days I pull out the colors, and then transition into writing, I end the day feeling emotionally free, mentally clear, and spiritually accomplished- it’s pretty cool. All this from flipping back the cover of a 5 by 7-inch coloring book.

You don’t need to jump on the coloring bandwagon, but consider the places some of the other creative bandwagons may take you. Likely, somewhere fresh and exhilarating.

Sending you love and encouragement for investing in something new, just for you.

Xoxo,
Bailey