personal empowerment – Cynthia D. Griffin

empowerment, self-care, self-care coaching, self-care practice, self-empowerment, self-improvement

Brand New! I Am Now Offering Self-Care Coaching Services

Posted on November 6, 2021November 7, 2021 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Self-Care has been a big topic for me for the past year. I have dedicated a lot of time and energy to taking care of myself, being more aware of how I feel about pretty much everything, and making new choices that fall inline with what actually matters to me. In doing this, I have significantly changed my life for the better.

How do I know this? Because not only have I healed unresolved childhood trauma, moved past significant personal blocks, but I also feel good most days (instead of feeling bad most days like I used to). I have even gotten to the point where I am excited about the idea of stepping forward to start helping others develop their own self-care paths too.

Becoming a self-care coach has been something I have been thinking about for a little while now, but the time never seemed right. Recently, a series of events made me realize that it was time to reconsider becoming a coach. One of those events was my husband out of the blue having a rapid decline in health that required an emergency hospital visit.

Thankfully, my husband took his health scare seriously, and even while he was still in the hospital started making the mental changes to take much better care of himself. He’s been home almost a week now, and I’ve seen a major improvement in his health and the way he’s getting serious about his own self-care. While it was not an experience any of our family would like to relive, it has been a major blessing in disguise. It reminded our whole family of the importance of self-care, and that all my own self-care practice really paid off as I was able to deal with the situation better than I ever thought possible.

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blog series, Celebrating the Journey Of, creativity, empowerment, inspirational

Celebrating the Journey of FortCraftGaming (YouTuber)

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Cynthia D. Griffin

So today I am going to shamelessly promote my thirteen year old son. He has been dedicating a lot of his time and energy to getting his YouTube Channel off the ground in the last few months, because he has dreams of becoming a well-established YouTuber. His name (for the purpose of this post) is FortCraftGaming.

Above is a video he posted that he says he loves the most so far. I’ve enjoyed most of them simply because I like watching the progress of his personal growth, over all creativity, and the increase in video editing skills (and yes, I’m being a proud and supportive momma too). Sometimes he’s a little whacky, sometimes he’s very informative (such as how he makes his videos), and he also loves to demonstrate some of the video games he plays.

One of the things I admire most about him is his determination. When he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen (even if it takes awhile). And I know this will take him far in his journey of life whether he sticks it out with YouTube, or eventually decides to pursue something else.

He began his YouTube journey several years ago as he started watching the journey of YourTubers like Unspeakable, DanTDM, and MrBeast.

So let’s turn this over to FortCraftGaming so he can tell a little more about his journey.

So tell us a little bit about your journey as a YouTuber? What inspired you to take this journey?

I’ve always liked making videos, and when I found out that YouTube existed, and that anyone could make videos, I was just like “Yeah, this is what I wanna do.”

What do you like the most about what you do?

The support I get from my friends and fans, also editing and making thumbnails is fun.

What sort of topics or things do you do in your videos?

Whatever I think of doing really. I’ve done videos on gaming with Minecraft and AirMech Arena. I’ve also done some skits. And for a month I did the Stereotypical YouTuber Challenge (SYTC).

Is there any special equipment or knowledge you need to know about being a YouTuber?

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blog tour, book series, ebook, empowerment, guest post, hooked on books, writing

Guest Post By Phoebe Ritter: How I Became An Empowered Writer

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Writing the Daughter of the Zel trilogy was hugely empowering for me. I’d always enjoyed writing and dreamt of having something published, but I never had the confidence to put my work out there.

Then, a few years ago, I was having a rather tough time personally, which led me to quit my job and move back home. Even with everything going on, I found myself with a load of free time I hadn’t ever had before.

As a distraction, I set myself the challenge of writing a novel in a month. I’d always wanted to do NaNoWriMo, but November was never convenient. Every day after work I’d sit down and type until my brain ran out of scenes. The rapid progress towards a final word count slowed towards the end, and I had to go back and carefully stitch together key scenes to make a complete story.

I had an idea for where the book was going and every time I wrote it felt like clearing space in my head. Making this mental room meant I’d get an idea for a new scene, usually when I was trying to get to sleep.

Now, like then, in the early days of a story, I get these rather annoying moments where I’m unable to go to sleep because of new phrases, places, people that pop into my head. There’s a process I’ve learned to follow by turning the bedside light on, writing the thought down in my notebook, and turning the light off again before immediately having another thought and repeating it. Eventually my brain lets me sleep.

I have found that the first draft is always shocking. I’ve come to terms with that. One of my betas recently said how she’d love to write a novel, but was worried it’d be awful. I explained the number of drafts my work passes through before she even sees a beta version. I hope this encourages her to get something down on paper. That’s the hardest bit.

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better life, empowerment, goals, self-improvement, writing

The Best Way to Navigate the New Year

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Taken from https://www.pixelstalk.net/hd-peaceful-wallpapers-free/

It’s a brand new year, and with a new year comes new goals, plans, and a new energy to take action. A lot can be accomplished with the forward momentum of a new year, but it can also be easy to veer off course and land in a rut with wheels spinning.

That was me. I was spinning my wheels earlier today. I knew it was time for action. I had spent the better part of November and December learning, thinking, planning, and growing into what I wanted to do for 2020 (and yes, there’s some awesome stuff coming).

So the first of January arrived, and I was ready to go. But instead of going, I became stuck in a fog of anxiousness, not sure what to do first. My mind stuck in a loop as I considered what I would be doing for the next month and over the next year.

I have learned from past experience that when I this happens, the best thing to do is to just stop everything. So I took a few hours to go outside and enjoy the gorgeous, warm day we happened to be blessed with on the first day of January.

After some relaxation and contemplation, I realized where I messed up. I was paying so much attention to tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month, ect. I wasn’t actually paying attention to the now. And the now was pretty freaking awesome as I basked in golden sunlight.

Why the heck was I so upset in the first place?

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better life, empowerment, finding balance, inspirational

10 Ways to Have More Joy in Your Life

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Happiness is a feeling of comfort and contentment. It’s a feeling of rightness and peace. It’s a beautiful thing. But joy… joy is a feeling of excitement and thrill. It’s a combined feeling of freedom, confidence, and absolute pleasure. There is no emotion (that I have yet to experience) bigger than joy. It’s happiness with a kick, and it’s freaking awesome.

I have been working hard to get to a place where happiness, peace, and joy are constant companions of mine. I’m still working on the constant part, but I would have to say these emotions are more with me than not. So for my benefit, and others, I am setting down here some of the key steps I have found to having more joy in my life.

1. Being More Grateful

The number one best way to bring any sort of positivity, happiness, peace, and joy into life is to be more grateful. That is how I started this journey towards more joy years ago, and my gratitude has only grown since. As it did, so did the best parts of my life. I have learned first hand that the more grateful I am, the more I will have to be grateful about. It really is that simple.

2. Being Aware of Your Mood

We cannot change our mood without first being aware of what our mood is in any given situation. So I have taken care to observe how I feel. I don’t judge myself for feeling upset or anger. I just notice what sets me off. What are my triggers, and how can I find ways to move past them or release them? I also pay attention to what makes me feel good. There’s a lot of power in just observing and being aware. A situation can’t change unless we are first aware of it.

3. Being Aware of What You Give Your Attention To

After becoming more aware of my mood, I then began to notice more specifics about what I was giving my attention to. I started to see distinct situations, people, and even thoughts that were dragging me down. It took time to identify everything, but the more attention I paid to my mood, the more aware I became of where my attention was going, and I started to cut back or completely cut out anything and everything that could be a potential joy stealer.

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