Sarah Maxwell and Marie Andree Lessard: January 2013

January 2013

Hi WEBSITE

The whirlwind of the festive season was one of the best yet. There is nothing like going "home" to warm the heart (or in my case of being from Eastern Canada, freezing your toes off) and challenge your identity. Mid December saw us embark on Qantas all the way to picturesque New York City where friends housed us on Wall Street. Not even sure we would make it there due to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, our friends told us tales of modern survival when the power was down for over a week. The constant hum of truck-sized generators still line Water Street and famous water attractions have been destroyed yet New Yorkers have dusted themselves off and were back to the hustle of Christmas season.

Next was Montreal (where I grew up) to spend 3 short days in "the health den" (termed as such due to a lifetime devotion to eating organic and pure - even owning shares in a cow in Vermont in order to eat raw milk!) of my Canadian-beach-volleyball-partner of nine years cottage haven. My "White Christmas" fantasies were answered as the snow had gently fallen on every branch and surrounding road and provided the most magnificently typical hikes and snow-man-making opportunities! We finally nestled in with my family in Nova Scotia where Mom's isolated cottaged turned home brought together all 3 of my brothers and aunts and uncles galore. As active as our time back home was, it was the days spent on the couch, Christmas shortbreads in hand while watching an Oprah

marathon while eating and feeling the stillness of an ocean outside slowly freezing into submission that served the soul. This is what "getting away" was meant to serve.

No sooner had Christmas passed however than the subject turned to planning and resolving about 2013! A friend on Facebook aptly wrote "Enough already with words of wisdom on how to live my life in 2013, I know, I know!" On some level, can't we all relate to that? There is so much information out there on how to be happy and live your best life but knowing about it and experiencing it are not always the same thing. I tend to believe that it is even more painful to know about something and not be living it.

Hence we are in a day in age where we are more knowledgeable than ever yet more distraught and in pain than our previous generation.

While the ocean was freezing over at Mom's, the theme of RESOLUTIONS was ever present when I was asked to speak at a "Resolutions That Matter" event for women in the community where my extended family resides. Not normally something I would commit to while vacationing, I was drawn in by the powerful mission that a friend of my Mother's (in her hometown of Truro, Nova Scotia) held for the community. She is passion-bent on making Colchester County the healthiest community in Canada!

She is not shy about speaking this mission nor putting into action the engine required to get her there. So, low and behold, Nat and I (once she had me hooked, my partner in crime had no choice but to drum up her brilliance as well!) arrived to a sold out event of more than 200 women downward-dogging their way in Yoga, Gangnam-styling it during Zumba, eating a gluten-free lunch and then crying, laughing, and learning with the "Fab Four" of us women speakers on "What are you pretending not to know?" (Dr. Celina Spence), "Your Relationship between you and You" (yours truly), "Repeatable Success" (Natalie Cook), and lastly "Life, Love, Libido" (Dr. Jessica Dietrich Marsh).

What I loved most about being part of this landmark event was that every message was being exemplified through an experience. How this played out was rather than paying lip service to the importance of eating clean, gluten-free lunch was served; going beyond professing the vitality of the breath, yoga was the first activity to start the event! Community was being lived as women rose from their chairs at the end the day to share how the day had impacted them and what it would mean for their lives. Every single one of us became more for being part of that day!

So, as 2013 comes into existence, the only thing I know for sure is that I will become more for living it. No expert know-how advice here, just a willingness to be part of the journey and live and laugh my way through it. As my web-master calls me "LiveWell LoveWell MaxWell" and that pretty much sums up the intentions for me this 2013!

Some of the exciting new things being created by In The Game this year is a 12-week Relationship Between you and You Program that will become available mid year via my website www.inthegamecoaching.com as well as personalized meditations introduced to the Corporate sector and specific individuals and athletes. Our one universal as humans is our breath and so this year, I will be melding "breath in, breath out" into a tapestry of individualized statements that bring out the best version of ourselves. I have committed to assisting people access their highest self through their own unique and perfect pathway.

We are ALL our own best asset and so I have devised a way to extract what puts you in your "flow" and relay it back to you in a user-friendly MP3. It was always at my finger tips having provided this for Olympic athletes but I've come up with a strategy to extend it to Corporate and individuals alike. It feels as though the pieces of my puzzle are coming together...

I look forward to more interactions and "communifying" (don't you just love making up words!!) with you all this year. I have been inundated these past months with the value of coming together and communing and so I invite you to share yourself with me so we can all traverse this trail of life together. Who knows, we may hold the key for each other's next great adventure.

From the heat-wave of Australia,

LiveWell LoveWell MaxWell xoxo

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

The game this month is cheekily called "MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL..." and it addresses the deeper values of being in relationship with one another. What is the real purpose? Why not go it alone? What's the value of going through this life with another/others? I know that many times it feels far easier to live life without those key annoyances in our lives! A common strategy is to rid these irritants from our live and move on...until someone sneekily similar shows up in our experience :)
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