Change can be hard but it’s a normal part of life. Some examples of change that you may face throughout your lifetime are:

• Marriage
• Divorce
• Having a baby/adopting
• Illness
• Work/career changes
• Managing an adolescent
• “Midlife crisis”
• Empty-nest

These phase of life shifts can be caused by any event that dramatically affects your normal routine in life, and they can cause intense emotional turmoil and stress that may interfere with your everyday life. However, change can also be transformative in positive ways, and it’s important to know how to embrace these changes and enjoy your life fully.

Self-concept (or self-perception, self-image, etc) is how you feel about yourself and how you perceive yourself. When someone asks you to describe yourself, do you do it lovingly or with disdain?

How would you describe yourself to yourself? What do you tell yourself? This self-talk is vitally important to how you feel about you! Confidence in yourself comes from your self-esteem; therefore, low self-esteem equals low self-confidence and sometimes lack of motivation as well.

One of the biggest things that can hold you back from transforming into your best self is low self-esteem. If you struggle with low self-esteem you may also experience:

• Lack of control in your life
• Negative social comparison
• Trouble asking for what you need or asking for help
• Worry and self-doubt
• Trouble accepting compliments or positive feedback
• Negative self-talk
• Fear of failure
• Poor outlook of your future
• Self-sabotage
• Lack of boundaries
• People-pleasing

All of these things can significantly impact your capacity for joy. It’s time to change this!

Stress is a normal part of life and some stress is good. (think preparing for a presentation!) However, when it starts to affect your emotions and makes you feel anxious, that’s when you may need help.

Anxiety is closely related to stress in that it feels like worry, nervousness, or unease. Sometimes anxiety is triggered by an upcoming event or something with an uncertain outcome or anything that makes you feel apprehensive (like an unexpected experience or something that makes you feel quite uncomfortable).

If you feel like your anxiety and stress are holding you back from living your most joyful life and transforming into your best self, then it’s time to get to the root of what’s causing these issues.

Feelings of sadness that are intense or prolonged can be described as a depressive mood and can feel like intense persistent sadness and sometimes loss of interest. There’s a difference between having a “case of the Mondays” and battling depression. It affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to many different emotional and/or physical problems.

Other possible negative side effects are feeling hopeless or helpless. Sometimes depression can be a result of not fulfilling your life purpose or not doing what you really want to do in life.

Determining what’s causing your sadness or depression can help you to transform those feelings of hopelessness and helplessness into hope and action!