2019 — Kayla M Douglas

31Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Protecting My Energy

Mindset

Learning to empower instead of enabling The phone rings, and I feel obligated to answer. Cindy, a new acquaintance, is hysterical on the other end. I drop everything I’m doing to rush to her apartment. I need to make sure the assignment she was working on is still somewhere on her computer. The deadline is tomorrow, and she doesn’t know what happened to it. Luckily, I’m a computer whiz and must have bragged about it while making small talk the first time I met Cindy. After rushing out of my house to put out the fire, I return home exhausted. Her nervous energy and panic were all it took to drain my reserves, and even though I had my own paper to write, I curl up on the couch for a recharge nap.…

23Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Are you authentic?

Mindset

And what does it mean? “Who are you?” I was asked that question in an interview on Monday. I fumbled a lot because I have this definition of WHO I am, but I didn’t feel like it was the answer my interviewer was looking for. What did I say? I answered that I was a life coach, an American living in Myanmar, a former ESL teacher, and a person with narcolepsy and chronic migraine. Why? The interview was for a volunteer position with the Migraine World Summit, so that’s what seemed relevant. We’ve been trained to show the sides of us that make us most qualified for a position in life, to get the job. Even though I know better, my training kicked in, and I said what I had…

17Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Accepting the Changes to My Sexual Identity

Personal Story

And being okay if others don't Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Kisses scatter across my long, pale, leg as I hurriedly tell my friend I will have to call her back at another time. His dark hair tickles my thigh as he moves lower, kissing me next to my knee. I feel so ticklish and giggly and 100% completely in love with this man. But there are things I miss about my identity when I was dating a woman. Being LGBTQ I miss my individuality. I miss being recognized as an LGBTQ person by outsiders, even if I never felt accepted by the community. It may be shallow but know its true because every chance I get, I slip it into conversations. “You know, before I met my current partner, I was…

13Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Five Ways to Respond to Rude Comments

life hacks

No one can reject you without your permission We all want to be more connected; genetically we are programmed to seek connection because in our more primitive forms we needed our tribe or group for survival. But when someone rejects you, you need to know how to respond to rude comments in order to keep your self-esteem in tact. Long ago, rejection meant being shunned, banned, or excommunicated. This type of punishment was worse than death. Our bodies are still programmed to respond to rejection negatively, even though we don’t require our peers’ help with basic needs like food, water, or shelter and security anymore. That explains why we feel our adrenaline spiking when we face rejection. Our hearts beat faster, and we feel our pulse quickening. In those moments,…

03Dec 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Stop Reacting and Start Responding

Life Coaching

Some tips for how to get started I blink back tears and swallow the words that want to come spilling out of my mouth. My partner is looking at me, encouraging me to go on speaking my mind but I know it's not useful. I need to stop reacting to my emotions and take a moment. If I give my energy to these emotions, they will continue. I know they don’t deserve my voice. If I can acknowledge where they are coming from, recognize that I am no longer in that place, and bring myself back to the present moment, I can move past them. What Happened I let myself travel back into the past for a short time to write an article about a painful time in my life and how…

19Nov 2019 by Kayla 2 Comments

Mindful Coloring

Mindset

This week I met with some wonderful people to talk about mindfulness and how we can be more mindful throughout the day. The first technique we talked about was to remove the words "no" and "not" from what we tell our brain to do. For example, instead of saying, "Don't forget your sunglasses, you can say, Remember your sunglasses." The brain receives the message better that way and you are more likely to actually remember them. We also discussed observing the barrage of thoughts in our heads like a train. You can either be aware and watch the train go by or you can get on the train and visit all the emotional states the train takes off to. Everyone was encouraged to choose a trigger point, something you do…

04Nov 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Why I’m So Grateful for Gratitude

Life Coaching, Mindset, Personal Story

It helped me stop feeling like a victim! My alarm was blaring and I reached around clumsily, my eyes still closed trying to make the noise stop. I was angry and frustrated with my poor night of sleep. I had a horrific dream about someone I loved being tortured, and I stayed up for an hour trying to change my thought process to avoid going back into the same nightmare again. The images were fuzzy and dark, but I knew they would be stuck in my mind all day. I stumbled to the bathroom, stubbed my toe on, and slipped in water on my bathroom floor. My partner had left the shower curtain outside the tub, and the whole floor was soaked. I was lucky I hadn't hit my head,…

20Oct 2019 by Kayla 2 Comments

One Self-Hypnosis Technique to Manage Emotions

Life Coaching, life hacks, Mindset

Photo by Mark Daynes on Unsplash Do you ever feel yourself reacting emotionally to a situation and wish you had more control? Maybe your kids are screaming at you and instead of remaining calm, you give them what they want. Maybe someone pulls out in front of your car in traffic and you feel anger bubbling up inside. Or are you the one who can completely ignore your emotions when they emerge and have no idea what I’m talking about? Whichever is the case, we all have situations where emotions appear and we need to deal with them in a constructive way. Self-Hypnosis is a handy tool that can make that quite simple. How Does Self-Hypnosis Work? There are so many different ways to use self-hypnosis they wouldn’t even fit in one book…

11Oct 2019 by Kayla 1 Comment

Recovering From Depression

life hacks, Lifestyle, Mindset

Why Skills Work Better Than Pills There is nothing wrong with taking medication for depression. I've done it before, and it helped me for a while. However, since most of us don't like the idea of taking medication to manage our moods forever, its good to also have some tools that can move us out of a depressed state. So let's talk about depression. Who Gets Depressed? Anyone who has moods can become depressed. Depression is simply a mood disorder. This may sound bleak knowing that literally everyone is vulnerable to depression, but it also means we can all learn some skills to fight back. What medication can't do While medication may be useful for getting you into a state where you can take action, it cannot take the action…

01Oct 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Set Your 3-Month Goals Now!

Life Coaching

It’s the perfect time to complete them by the end of the year Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels Setting goals for yourself is one way to make sure you continue moving forward in your life. But it’s hard to know just how far out to set your goals. Set 3-month goals if you want to see continuous growth and progress. Staying focused on one thing for 12 months can be a challenge. Think back to January, do you even remember what New Year’s Resolution you set for 2019? If so, you have three months left before the end of the year. What steps have to take toward your goal? Can you make it in this last stretch? Why Set 3-Month Goals Twelve weeks is a short enough time to keep our momentum…

23Sep 2019 by Kayla No Comments

What Can You Expect from my Life Coach Packages?

Life Coaching

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexel The 8-week program: Some of you may be overestimating what you can do with my 8-week life coach package, and others might be underestimating it. It all depends on your perspective and your experience. Of course, we will tailor the life coach package to your needs, and we can focus it down if you want a shorter life coach package like the 4-week option. So let me break down the components of my life coach package. Make a decision to change. The first thing I need is your commitment. Without that, there is no reason to continue forward with the coaching relationship. Tony Robbins says, "Change happens when the pain of staying the same is GREATER than the pain of change." If you are there, let's talk about…

15Sep 2019 by Kayla 4 Comments

Connecting with Positivity on Instagram

Uncategorized

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a tough battle.” This is one of many quotes that Jill Hetrick, a 41-year-old woman from Erie, Pennsylvania lives by. Jill has a mission to help others who are living with narcolepsy better their lives by improving their outlook. Jill Hetrick, 2019 Jill was diagnosed with narcolepsy in 1996 after years of symptoms dragging her down. During college, she found ways to cope with her sleepiness, not realizing it was beyond the realm of what a normal student would experience. She was determined to be a good student. “If I had a group meeting, I took a five-minute nap before the meeting and showed up. I didn’t want to let other people down.” Jill had supportive roommates that were in many of…

11Sep 2019 by Kayla No Comments

I Got a Daith Piercing for Migraines

Personal Story

And accept that I don’t need to be cured to be okay Knowing that others have been “cured” of chronic migraines makes me feel like there is something that I should be able to do that would “fix me.” I already follow a ketogenic diet to manage narcolepsy. I stopped using artificial sweeteners, and quit drinking alcohol. I practice mindfulness and use energy therapy like EFT, the Emotion Code, and Reiki. What more do I need to do? The answer is nothing. I don’t need to be fixed. I’m not broken. (Neither are you.) Pain is a part of human existence, and everyone experiences it in one way or another. My version is no better or worse than anybody else’s. So what I need to work on is acceptance. I need to…

04Sep 2019 by Kayla No Comments

What’s a Life Coach?

Life Coaching

And will they make my dreams come true? Life coaches are not fairies that can grant wishes. Sorry, if that’s all you wanted to know you can stop reading here. We have all heard about people who win the lottery and end up broke and depressed. If a life coach could hand you your dream, you may end up like those winners. Would you like to know why? For most of us, success is determined by having a role or responsibility in reaching our goal. There is no joy without progress. If the results are handed to you, you are at the top, and you played no part in getting there. Then the only way to go is down! You can’t replicate the process that got you to the top.…

19Aug 2019 by Kayla No Comments

Types of Relaxation Techniques

life hacks

Photo by Pixabay We all know relaxation is good for our health, but do we know how to relax? If we are unable to slow down our physical responses to stress and anxiety, then we will not experience the benefits of relaxing activities. Here are some types of relaxation techniques that should be easy to fit into your daily life. Breathing Focused Strategies How often do you pay attention to your breath? We tend to hold our breath or breathe shallowly when we are stressed. We have all been instructed to “take a deep breath” before reacting to something stressful, so we know that it is a strategy to slow down our physical reaction. But did you know that if you practice it frequently, it can become a habit and…