Recharge Yourself

Do you get anxious when you see your phone is at 10%? Of course you do, it's the Pavlovian trigger of our time. Arianna Huffington often talks about how we check in more often on how our cell phone battery is doing during the day than we check in with ourselves.

A few years ago I was reading Finding Your Own North Star, by Martha Beck, and in part of one of the exercises called Climbing Back Into Your Body she asks you to check in with your left big toe. Now this was a startling revelation for me- not that I have toes- but that I probably had not specifically checked in with each one individually since I was a child figuring out which one went to the market.  🐷

I had been really neglecting the vessel in which I live and only paying attention to my body when it's in pain 😖or in pleasure 😉. Of course there was yearly maintenance but as long as I got a ✅ that nothing was wrong it was all good until next year. Even when I would be in workout mode I was mostly going through the motions- let's get this done. Not really connecting with my energy in a way that honored how I wanted to be in the world.

Our bodies are amazing! And we take them for granted because we think if our mind is still awake and functioning enough to get us to our next hour of the day we must be fine. Ridiculous!

Look around... how many of us our numb to how exhausted we are or how we are living on auto-pilot. We do no one any good living on empty.

So what's an exhausted but grateful body to do?
Practice being as connected to our toes as we are to our texts. For me, I'm practicing having quiet time at night before I go to bed so I can calm myself before sleep. Meditating. Stretching when I feel tense. And decluttering my space regularly so I don't have my energy zapped by things that don't spark JOY.

Every time you check your phone: check your mind for clarity... check your shoulders for tension... check your heart for peace... check your gut for direction. Our phones are our tool to be in communication with the world but let's also use that battery-deplete-panic as a reminder that the most important form of communication is with ourselves.

Theme 2019

2019's Theme :) 

FRESH: New, different, full of energy and vigor, bright and healthy in appearance, cool and fairly strong.... so I'm all about fresh starts, fresh air, fresh food, fresh experiences.

What are you up to in 2019?

If you haven't created your year yet--- come join in!

(past themes)

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊🖌️

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith

Wishing YOU a fabulous 2019! 

Cheers to creating your most JOYfull Year Ever :)



And... if you're interested in mapping with ME please come join us for the next ME Workshop on the January 19th. 


*SlideShare doesn't allow editing or updating decks anymore so this version is through 2020 in case you're wondering 😉

The ME Workshop 2019

 The ME Workshop 

February 2, 2019

(rescheduled from 01.19.2019)

When:                    10am - 12:30pm

Where:                   Illinois Institute 
                               of Technology
                               201 E, Loop Rd
                               Wheaton, IL 60189          

Investment:           $100.00   

Take Aways: You’ll leave with a hard-cover 
professional artist sketchpad, an easy-to-follow guide to the technique, and a tangible blueprint of what you’ll be working on to create the life you want.

Feel free to come solo, you'll meet some lovely folks... but it's always great if you can do something this fun and important with someone you care about so invite away :)

The ThanksGiving List (🦃 + 📃)

It's THAT time of year again 🍁.... to create your grocery AND gratitude lists 

Happy Thanking! 😘

FINDING JOY: The ThanksGiving List

Over a decade ago I started my favorite tradition ever: The ThanksGiving List. It is a list of my closest friends and why I am thankful for them that year. It's specific and heartfelt and I work on it the weekend before Thanksgiving (or earlier) and it is the best thing I do all year....

Alternate Ending...

I was once in a seminar where the guy leading it, we'll call him Tom, was sharing how he came to be speaking in front of us. He spoke of the things he had screwed up in his life and how he found his path to the life he is currently living. The one story that really stuck with me is how on his quest to start a more authentic life he went back to repair his relationship with his ex-wife. He said her only question was: why did things end the way they did? 

His blunt answer was: I had made such a mess of things they didn't seem fixable so it was just easier to walk away.  

Not that he had stopped loving her, not that there was someone else- just that the mess seemed overwhelming to him so he ignored it and tried to be a better person without ever looking back. 

I thought of that story recently after seeing two movies - Juliet, Naked and A Star is Born- with characters who wanted to do the same thing: walk away. Close a chapter in their past and just try and start a new one. 

Not going to give away any endings but suffice it to say, it's harder to walk away from our lives then it is to just simply clean them up. Maybe not during to messiest of parts (clean-up sucks!) but for us to have a happy ending for sure. 


We are the authors of our lives and when one of the chapters of it goes awry we get to declare there is another chapter still to be written. It might be messy. It might need editing. But until we're dead, we have infinite options for rewrites & alternate endings. 

re·write

verb . /rēˈrīt/
write (something) again so as to alter or improve it.

What is known by screenwriters- and romantics- is that the ultimate ending is not coasting to an inevitably smooth landing or a quick ride off into the sunset... it is the road to redemption. It's harder, and hillier, and a heck of a lot easier to quit on. But the road to redemption's where things get acknowledged and repaired and fought for-- it is the option few but the strongest attempt. And it brings epic endings!

Bill Cosby might not be morally (or even mentally) up for it but he could admit his sins/crimes and take this opportunity to champion prison reform and correctional education. For decades he was America's father and he's not going to ever get back there- but he could spend the remainder of his life in service being a better person or waste it being a bitter one. A really tragic ending for all involved!

The politicians that are currently using these political divides in our country to make a career and/or a profit could spend their days granted to them in office taking what they can get and go down in history -if at all- being enablers of these times. Or they can spend them bringing our country together, finding bi-partisan agreement, and putting country before party. True Patriotism!  🇺🇸


Tom's ex forgave him for the hurt he inflicted into their marriage and they are both happily re-married, but she did say: it would have been great if you could have worked on yourself while I was there trying to get you to- it really would have been nice if we could have had our own happy ending. 🥺

The hero's journey needs conflict to be overcome to allow for the story to be inspiring. It's part of the journey and only thing to be ashamed of is leaving our mess in someone else's path. 

🤔Are we living as the hero in our own story? Are we the villain in someone else's? Are there messes to be cleaned up? Rewrites to be written? 

How do we get to our happily-ever-after?

Yours to say... ✍️

The SPLASH

[Warning: There will be lots of shitty language and upsetting thoughts below--- 
if you're having a shitty or delicate day maybe skip this post.]


Shittiness doesn't just have the power to ruin someone's day, or year, or their career but can ruin their entire life or our whole world. 

See, when we are shitty it doesn't neatly stay confined to just us and the person we are shitty to........ it splashes and goes everywhere ........ I mean EVERYWHERE!

Because Stephen Miller is a shitty person a young boy separated from his mother at the border doesn't even recognize her anymore. Because the killer was a shitty husband my high school friend Ron Goldman is dead and his sister, Kim, has spent years of her life anguished by his loss. Because Donald Trump is a shitty president world leaders have had to adjust their economies, foreign policies, and military plans because they no longer have one of their staunchest allies as a reliable partner.

SHIT SPLASH hits the person you're directly shitty to and then ripples and gets on anyone who is in their life... and so on... and so on ... and so on... 

Imagine knowing Harvey Weinstein raped your friend and having to see him win award after award. Well you don't have to, there are women who can tell us how that not only affected their friend but how just knowing there was a serial-rapist in their midst changed what movies they went for, who they might be able to trust, and how they felt about the industry they had dreamed of working in. Clearly it must have been horrible for Louis CK's daughters to hear/read about the creepy things he had done but how shitty must it have been for his tv-daughters to know their director and co-star has now tainted what they spent a good portion of their young lives working on.

How sick must it have been for anyone who knew the true Cosby to see him being touted as America's Dad. He didn't just rape and ruin the lives of his victims he splashed that shit on anyone they loved or dealing with the fallout from their pain. 

The butterfly effect states: a very small change in initial conditions can create a significantly different outcome. That is a delicate way of saying your shit splash can ruin things you aren't even aware of for people who are merely in your vicinity. 
Splash, splash, splash!

We are all shitty at some time in our lives- heck in many of our day-to-day actions- but we can make life and our world better if we: limit how shitty we are to ourselves and others and by leaving less of a crappy-mess behind in our wake.

What can you do if you've been The Splasher?

• Map It Out: Take an inventory of your life, including your shit.
• Own your ME-anness: Take responsibility for your energy (& shit).
• End It: Stop being so shitty and clean up the mess.
• Do Good: Repair the shit you've broken.
• Create Art: Make helpful shit. 🎨💩👍

What if you've been a victim of shittiness? 
Do as Oprah did... take all the shit that has happened to you and turn it into fertilizer and  🌱 🌿 🌳 GROW!

My LINE of DEMARCATION

This Spring I lost two friends within weeks of each other. And in addition to the grief I felt I also couldn't help being overwhelmed with inspiration for their amazing lives-- these good, kind, generous, decent, loving people renewed my joy of life and the preciousness of living true to ourselves. I felt a deep urgency not to waste any of the life I have left.

This isn't the first time I've lost people I loved within a short time of each other and if you would have asked me when the before and after of my life was it would have been in 2002. Everyone who knows me well knows of the Summer of Discombobulation ... also highlighted in the start of my workshop and how ME Mapping came into my life.

Well as I was driving away from my dear friend Jim's funeral luncheon in May I recognized I was again in a new place in my life. Within the last three weeks I had visited with my past, been reunited with some people I had not seen in years, made peace with a few ex-friends, and had been reminded death can show up whenever it damn well pleases so none of us are guaranteed a thing.

Weirdly this Summer of 2018 and my 2nd big time of loss and transformation just happens to correspond with a big birthday-- so I have drawn a line of demarcation.
I'm done with anything weighing me down from my first  50 and on to what is worthy of this new time in my life. I had put up with things that weren't working in my life in the past and on this side of the line that's simply not going to work for me.
Life is too short for un-JOYfull living!

I made a Project 50 list of things I want to work on this year and who I want to be in this next decade of my life. It won't be easy to manifest it all but I know what I want and don't want in my life and I'm going to fully practice attracting what I want and decluttering and detaching from what I don't. Existential angst is a good wake up call for how you want to live your life. It's a gift. Not the one I was hoping for (wanted a new iPhone📱😉) but hopefully one that will keep me appreciative of life and saying fuck it to anything that is not truly important.

Cheers to the lives and memories of Sue Casey 🥂and Jim Tulley 🍻
You are loved and missed dearly! 😘😘

Happy Birthday to ME! 🎂🎉🎈

Happy joyfull life to us ALL for as long as we are blessed to be here!! 🤘😍✌️