“Forest Bathing”

“Forest Bathing”….Ahhhh. What is it and why does it sound sooo good? We have all experienced the beautiful sense of calm that comes from spending some quiet time in nature. I recently learned the term “forest bathing” and in my opinion, there has never been a better way to describe the act of quiet time with nature and the euphoric, calming feeling that follows. I love the term and intentional concept so much, I wanted to share it with anyone who may not have heard of it or had it registered this way.

We can thank the Japanese for this exquisite term and intentional practice. As I understand it, the term Shinrin-yoku, was created in the 1980’s by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and translates to forest bathing. This ecotherapy concept was meant to be an antidote to the burnout from the technology boom and to also encourage their culture to connect and protect Japan’s forests. Forest bathing has become a big part of Japanese preventative and restorative health care practices. This concept has gained popularity all over the world.

Shinrin-yoku/forest bathing, doesn’t literally mean go take a bath in the forest (although that could be fun too), but it does encourage absorbing the forest atmosphere through calm, quiet, mindful exercise. Like everything, forest bathing can become something different for everyone but the idea is to leave the world behind and be present with nature. If yours involves movement, maybe remove a stressful goal in order to gain all of its benefits. The practice encourages using all 5 senses to observe, soak in, and experience all that the forest wants to give us. It’s not a new surprise, but more and more studies are proving that spending time in nature strengthens our immune system; lowers our stress; eases anxiety and depression; lowers our blood pressure; elevates our mood; and helps us sleep better. The list of benefits is even longer than that!

I think this forest bathing term caught my interest because I love a forest! I fell in love with them as a little girl. My family and I spent a great amount of time in Ocala National Forest in Florida, and its surrounding sister forests too. Ever since, I have always loved spending time with trees and being in all the pretty places that house them. I don’t know that I’ve always understood all of the health benefits, but I know my time in nature has always left me feeling happy, peaceful and grounded. So much so, I’ve made hanging out in them a way of life. So many of my favorite hobbies take place in the great outdoors. I especially love hiking and feel so blessed to live in Oregon where there is an abundance of spectacular trees and forests!! I have always thought that spending time in the forest feels and smells like a magnitude of wonderful things. It’s like looking at colorful, miraculous works of art. Many forests have herby, floral smells that calm and delight like a luxurious spa. Time in the forest has allowed me many, meaningful conversations with God. They are so detailed and long, they draw you in like soft motivation from a physical trainer. A forest can feel like free therapy from a problem solving psychologist. I didn’t know I was “forest bathing” but I know I always leave the forest a stronger, better me. How fun to have a term to describe this beautiful thing I love!

The world and life can be pretty hectic, stressful, and overwhelming at times. As humans, I think we are always seeking ways to deal with it so we can enjoy our lives. If we don’t find healthy ways to do so, we can become depressed, sick or attach to unhealthy vices. Our beautiful earth has a forest or park never too far away from us. Next time you’re feeling low, overwhelmed or just in need of some fresh air and me time, go to the trees! From personal experience, I can assure you the trees will help calm you, restore you and heal you. The trees will always show you how to love and appreciate life more. Your forest bath is waiting. Go take it. You deserve it.

Sharon Caldwell Peddie is the Author of “Grow Yourself Beautiful: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Following Her Heart and Focusing on Her Inner Joy and f-words mom let us say: food, family & friends”. For more information on her books visit: sharonpeddieblog.com or https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Sharon%20caldwell%20peddie, sharonpeddieblog.com or https://www.pinterest.com/sharonpeddie/pins/

Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

Hey there, Happy Summer!

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Hey there friends,

Thank you for following my blog! I’m embarrassed how long it’s been since I wrote a blog post. Life has gotten in the way, but I love having my blog and I’ve missed creating content for it so much. I have a short lull for a few days in the development of my next book and other life duties, so I thought I’d take a moment to give my blog some fresh life and fill you in on what I’ve been up to.

I’m still doing all I can to market my first book, “Grow Yourself Beautiful: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Following Her Heart and Focusing on Her Inner Joy”, and I feel as passionate as ever about its message. The marketing takes a lot of time away from what I really love to do and that’s write more and create more to share with all of you. But that’s ok, it’s worth it! It’s still getting great reviews, and young women (and wonderfully surprising, people of all ages) are finding it helpful and comforting and that’s GYB’s purpose! (Let me know if you’d like a free eBook copy in exchange for writing a review. More reviews keep my book higher on the search engines of all the websites that sell it. Reviews help keep my book relevant and visible to bookstore buyers and librarians too!)

In addition, for the last 2 ½ years, I’ve been writing a cookbook with my 3 daughters! It’s been quite an undertaking, but being together, cooking, creating, and writing our cookbook has been our pandemic silver lining. Putting our recipes, experiences, values, philosophies, and memories in writing has felt so joyful and powerful. We can’t to share it with you!

We are unknowns, so getting published by a traditional cookbook publisher would have taken years to possibly never, so I decided to learn how to be a publisher myself. (Hence the no time for blogging). LinkedIn and WordPress proved to be a valuable resource for us. After interviewing many, I assembled an all-female, amazing team whose skills and talents have been so incredibly valuable in helping us get our cookbook to the beautiful and professional standards we dreamed of. We are finally in the book design/layout stage! We’ve been excited about its content, but now we’re really excited about our visual vibe too! It will still need to go to photo editing and indexing, but we’re feeling confident it will be available for the holiday season. (Cookbooks make really great gifts!)

It may seem off brand and confusing that I’ve gone from writing inspiration for developing a stronger sense of self to encourage and cultivate more joy, to writing a cookbook, but I promise it will still be very authentic to who I am, what I love to write about, and the encourager I love to be.

As a mom of three girls, it’s been my passion and mission to raise confident women with a strong sense of self. There are many roads to help build that, and we’ve traveled many of them. One of my biggest surprises was seeing how learning to cook proved to be such a powerful road to developing my girls’ self-love and confidence. I’ll say, it’s done the same for me as well. Cooking has been a fun and less-pressure-packed way to build confidence than some of those other roads. My girls and I are so excited to share that experience with you. We hope it inspires women and men, girls, and boys of all ages to get into the kitchen to grow! We believe cooking truly helps us and our lives grow more meaningfully beautiful!

My blog, Instagram, FB and Pinterest will continue to share all kinds of inspiration to help “grow yourself beautiful” and “grow your life beautiful”. I’m growing right alongside with you, so it will just continue to come in different forms, i.e., this time, a cookbook! We will eventually get some TikTok recipes out there as well!

My middle daughter recently got engaged and “hired” me as her wedding planner so I’ve been busy doing that as well. I love event planning; it’s another place to be creative! I’ve done it for 25+ years for various organizations and school events so hopefully I can merge all the experience into a beautiful wedding for my daughter and her fiance. I’ll be sure to share inspiration on Pinterest for that too! We have had a ball looking at all of the Pinterest wedding content out there already.

I love Summer, especially because it rains 7 months out of the year in the PNW. I’m trying to soak up as much sunshine and outdoor fun as possible before it’s all gone. I hope you are finding time to do all of things that feed your soul. I’m sorry for the long delay in blogging. Let’s stay close on my other social media platforms as well. Let’s keep growing together! It’s always less scary and more fun when we’re holding hands!

Let’s stay in touch:

http://www.sharoncaldwellpeddie.com

http://www.sharonpeddieblog.com

Instagram: @author_sharoncaldwellpeddie

Facebook: Author Sharon Caldwell Peddie

Twitter: @SCPeddie

Hashtags: #growyourselfbeautiful #growyourlifebeautiful

Sharon Caldwell Peddie is the Author of “Grow Yourself Beautiful: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Following Her Heart and Focusing on Her Inner Joy”. For more information on her book visit www.sharoncaldwellpeddie.com or https://www.amazon.com/Grow-Yourself-Beautiful-Following-Focusing/dp/1532057342/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=grow+yourself+beautiful&qid=1567376389&s=gateway&sr=8-1 or https://sharonpeddieblog.com https://www.pinterest.com/sharonpeddie/pins/

Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

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20 Reasons We May Want to Have Gratitude for 2020…

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Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

Fall Fun!–My October article for Boca Style Magazine.

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I really enjoy being a contributor to Boca Style Magazine and citylifestyle.com. Here’s an article I wrote for their October 2020 issue. I hope it inspires you to still find the joy in Fall and Halloween, during the pandemic.

Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

Travel by Book this Summer! Boca Style Magazine Article-CityLifestyle.com

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Boca Style is a beautiful magazine and I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to their July Issue! Don Schnurr-Publisher and Marti Schnurr-Editor, are right on point with their idea for this article to help inspire us to stay hopeful and positive until the world opens up to us again. Books are the perfect way to help us have adventures and travels without ever leaving our home. In my article, I recommend 3 books that I hope will inspire you in many unexpected ways to grow you and your life more beautiful! Thank you Don, Marti and Boca Style for this fun opportunity.

Grab a sneak peek of the magazine piece below. Articles can be found later this month at Citylifestyle.com and a complete copy of the monthly magazine at Lifestylepubs.com.

Sharon Caldwell Peddie is also the Author of “Grow Yourself Beautiful: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Following Her Heart and Focusing on Her Inner Joy”. For more information on her book visit www.sharoncaldwellpeddie.com or https://www.amazon.com/Grow-Yourself-Beautiful-Following-Focusing/dp/1532057342/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=grow+yourself+beautiful&qid=1567376389&s=gateway&sr=8-1 or https://sharonpeddieblog.com https://www.pinterest.com/sharonpeddie/pins/

Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

There’s a Storm but the Sky isn’t Falling

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There is a tumultuous storm named Coronavirus (Covid-19) pounding and drenching the world right now. It’s frightening for many reasons but for most of us, the sky is NOT falling. Many weren’t fortunate to have warning. Their tragedy began striking before they knew what was even happening.

We’re hearing a lot of screaming around us. The Chicken Little crowd is loud and wants to always force us to see only doom and gloom. However, if we’re wisely adhering to precautions, it can be just a very dark storm and the sun will shine again soon.

I don’t want to discount the big disappointments for all of us. There will be financial repercussions for most. There are many beautiful plans being cancelled left and right. It seems every day we’re forced to give up something a bit more from our “normal” life as we know it.

Things are very weird and chaotic and yes, it feels scary and unsure. Let’s feel our feelings and validate them. Let’s validate other people’s feelings about it too.

These feelings associated with this pandemic have been piled on top of what we were already facing.

This will challenge our character.

Our flexibility, creativity, and resilience are being dared by the minute.

Whenever life knocks me down, I try to get back up as soon as possible. Standing up quickly makes me feel powerful and in control, regardless of the situation. Part of getting up is quickly looking for positive perspective.

We’re all feeling the same way. How often is the whole world on the same team? How often do we all wake up with same problem to solve? We’ve all been sucker punched by Coronavirus. But if we don’t have it, let’s stand back up as quickly as we can. Let’s not let Coronavirus make us feel like we’re sick patients if we’re not. Let’s punch back at it and see how many beautiful and healthy things it actually may bring.

There isn’t a lot we can control in life. We can only control our perspective and they way we receive the things that happen to us. We gain a sense of control when we build ourselves to have a beautiful perspective. We do have control of the beauty happening inside our minds and hearts.

If we’re following safety protocol, we will have more time on our hands than we’ve had in a long time. I don’t want this virus to make us act sick if we’re not. Let’s find the beauty and all of the silver linings right in front of us. Let’s create them. Let’s be brave and brilliant, not bored. Let’s use this unusual time to pray, meditate, value and thank. Let’s exercise, rest, sleep and rejuvenate. Let’s dream, imagine, think, solve and create. Let’s read, learn, strategize and plan. Let’s love, be present, listen, connect and help. Let’s cook and sing! Let’s build. Let’s evolve and excel. Let’s make beautiful contributions to ourselves and others.

The sky isn’t falling unless we let it.

#growyourselfbeautiful

Anything contained in my blog that is written or shared by me is just my personal view. If you find inspiration in any of my content, please be responsible, safe and legal.

Summer Grillin’ and Chillin’

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Hey there blog friends! I’m sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve posted on my blog. It’s been a month of full of busy! It’s finally Summer though…..ahhhh deep breath. Summer is my favorite time of year! I’m not sure it will slow down much for me but at least it will be filled with longer days of sunshine, family and friends. I hope that’s the case for all of us!

I promised you a variety of inspiration on my blog and no season inspires me as much as Summer. Maybe it’s because I’m a Summer baby?!

Besides the vibe, warmth and sunshine, one of my favorite things about Summer is the gorgeous bounty of food it brings. Everything is so ripe and colorful! Farm to Fork is my favorite way to create a menu and eat, so I try to get to our local Farmers’ Market as much as possible during the Summer. I absolutely love the palettes of fresh, beautiful fruits, vegetables and flowers!

I also love that Summer is grilling season. Can we all agree that grilled foods are some of the tastiest? Grilling allows us to present food so clean and unfussy. Fresh fruits, veggies and grilled food make for such a perfectly delicious Summer food combination. It’s art for the eyes and food for our souls.

Loving grilled food, I’ve made sure I have that skill in my personal tool box. My husband has had to travel a lot for work over the years so I’ve gotten pretty handy at various tasks around the house. Grilling is one of them!

In general, I enjoy the creativity and love involved in cooking. It warms my heart to make food for my family and friends–it’s definitely one of my love languages. Summer evenings and temperatures are so lovely in Oregon and cooking outside feels more like a beautiful experience than a chore.

Throughout the Summer, I’ll share a few of my favorite grilled Summer meals. I hope it inspires you to be outside, get to a local Farmers’ Market and hone your “grill skills”. All of those things I promise, will fill your heart with some of life’s simple joys.

Here’s what was on the menu at our house for Father’s Day. My hubby loves a juicy pork chop and a Summer peach so that’s what we gave him!

Grilled Pork Chops with Traeger’s Apricot BBQ Sauce, topped with balsamic glazed grilled peaches, Grilled Corn on the Cob and a Watermelon, feta, mint leaf salad with a balsamic glaze.

Link to Traeger’s Apricot BBQ Sauce:https://www.traegergrills.com/sauces/apricot-bbq-sauce?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=1818582670&utm_kwd=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwo7foBRD8ARIsAHTy2wl4L0-u71ooWwbP4F_zCmWwY7IH7Q-9J-g2KCdmBXJMwJlsBlCzR_4aAiP6EALw_wcB

I paired this meal with an Oregon Pinot Noir of course!
**Link to Ponzi Wines:**
https://www.ponzivineyards.com/product/2015-Ponzi-Pinot-Noir-Reserve?pageID=3F5D6E95-ACCA-B533-3700-17F0E1015B40&sortBy=DisplayOrder&maxRows=10&

Another delicious Ponzi Pinot Noir is their Tavola (often available at Costco and wine.com see link below )
https://www.wine.com/product/ponzi-tavola-pinot-noir-2017/522571?state=CA&s=GoogleBase_CSE_&cid=GoogleBase_CSE_522571_3664&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Google_Shopping_CA_Beta&gclid=Cj0KCQjwo7foBRD8ARIsAHTy2wmLTm2wvHGhbt0tV-yaiO9yE80CgPVK3SS005gIaBTag30yc5KGbAgaAqXTEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#

Falling in Love with Change

April 17, 2019April 18, 2019Leave a comment

For many years of my life, I was terrified of change. The fear of the unknown. The loss that might come from it. Would I have the ability to handle it?

However, I’ve always been someone who bores easily with robotic routine. I love the comfort of my normal routines but having new experiences out of my comfort zone feeds my soul. I like the security to keep repeating what I’m good at but I crave learning something new. It electrifies me and recharges my life. While I hold on tight to my oldest and dearest friends, I also love the magic in meeting new people and making new friends. I feel grounding roots in revisiting my favorite places, but experiencing a new piece of earth invigorates and excitingly educates me. This is why I have learned to love and embrace change rather than be afraid of it.

Change is really the only “constant” we have in life. Unless we learn to embrace it, we will always feel unsettled. Resisting it causes us anxiety and exhaustion. Embracing it brings inner peace and tremendous growth. The difference between resisting or embracing is either a negative life or a positive one.

Right now, my life is full of change. I wanted to write about my philosophy of positively embracing change as a therapeutic reminder to myself and to also help anyone else needing it too. I have a lot of personal change just with myself as individual–but also with my family unit who has been the center of my life. My oldest daughter moved out on her own. My middle is graduating college and she will live where she finds her job. My youngest is graduating high school and she’ll leave for college in less than 4 months. My husband and I will soon be empty nesters asking ourselves what we want the rest of our lives to look like. My step-dad for 41 years just passed away this week. All of this on top of each other could have made a younger me buckle, but change has shown me it’s all a sign of a full, well-loved, well-lived life!

Reasons to Fall in Love with Change:

Change closes the doors to bad situations and black spots in life. Change causes it to finally end. It moves us forward.
Change opens new exciting chapters to our story. It provides a chance for fresh new words and pages!
Change keeps life from being boring. The same routines make us feel stale and like sleepy robots.
Change adds mystery to our life. When we aren’t sure what lies ahead in the dark, we are forced to be more alert. It causes us to be more open, seeing and hearing things like we didn’t before.
Change opens new doors. There are new people to love and to love us. There are new opportunities to make our life more exciting!
Change brings valuable lessons and better perspective. Every time we go through a change, we learn so much about life and ourselves. It makes us look at everything through a fresher, sharper, wiser lens.
Change makes us more loving and more compassionate. With every new change comes an experience that helps us see what walking in someone else’s shoes feels like.
Change makes us more flexible. There are many things every single day we can’t control. When we learn flexibility, we get to have inner peace when things don’t go as we planned. When we learn how to be flexible, we become less afraid we’ll break.
Change builds strength and resilience. I devoted a whole chapter to resilience in my book because I believe resilience is our most important life skill. Resilience is like a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger it gets. Every time we go through a tough or challenging change, it builds our resilience. It shows us, we will be ok. We will be just fine.

Spring is the perfect time to plant our intentions to grow a more positive mindset about change. There are so many signs in Spring from God, the Universe and Nature that assure us change brings us faith, light, hope, joy and love. Change helps us grow stronger and more beautiful.

Sharon is the author of “Grow Yourself Beautiful”. For more information on her book, visit www.sharoncaldwellpeddie.com,sharonpeddieblog.com