 The Sweet Escape is all about living your life to the FULLEST by living with intention, being mindful and present, and enjoying the journey (the good, the bad, the ugly). We LOVE setting goals and going after things that set our souls on fire!!! As we approach the end of the first half of 2024, it's time to check in to see how your year and your goals are going.
When reviewing the list below and reflecting upon the past six month, don't become discouraged if you are not where you want to be. Keep in mind that everything you do and experience, accomplish or don't accomplish, it is all here to serve you. Find the good and the lesson in each challenge or setback. Everything is working together to get you where you are truly supposed to be. Feel your feelings, throw a little pity party, then keep going, keep learning, keep evolving. Plan again, pivot when you need to, but don't ever give up darling! It is all about your mindset. Start there and nothing can deter you from reaching your dreams <3 Here are some steps you can consider taking during this last week of the first half of the year:
And remember, we are here for you! Joining groups of like-minded women is essential to your progress. We will be hosting a plethora of workshops in the coming months, and don't forget to save the date for the WEALTHY WOMEN EMPOWERED LIVE EXPERIENCE coming THIS NOVEMBER to Tampa Florida. I would love to see you there! <3 M.
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 Happy New Year! Wanted to share my reflection on "ALL of the things" this year... Highlights and more (read to the end for the real reel)!
2023 Highlights: 🎉 Created, launched, and ran an online community for nearly six months! I connected with amazing women and got to do all of the things I love like teaching yoga and meditation classes, and motivational workshops. I had so much fun! Huge shout out to Sam, Kate, Jana, Sepi, Laura, Sandy, and more for your love and support!!! 🎉 I got to travel <3 My goal is always to take at least four trips a year. I did not think that I could afford to do it this year. But by the grace of God he let me go! I got to go to Sarasota, FL in March with my amazing Loveliest friends (Kathryn, Kelsa, and Kristen) to work on our brands and our brains and our business. Incredible Experience. Vegas in May with my BFF Andrea, Giana, and Sly to celebrate his book release #CrashingUp. The babes and I flew to NC to visit my dear friend Melissa, adding to my life goal of traveling with babies as much as possible! Lastly a little last minute visit to Denver to see @Andrea again for some MUCH needed R&R. I am so glad to have all of those amazing experiences and opportunities. 🎉 Also, I checked off another bucket list item, making my first long road trip with the babies solo to Ocean City, MD to meet up with the rest of my family and have a wonderful beach vacation. The kids did relatively excellent in the 6-8 hour car ride each way and I survived woohoo! 🎉 I had the privilege of teaching two sections of public speaking at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg! Teaching adjunct (at SRU, Clarion, and now UPG) has been one of the highlights of my life! I love teaching so much and feel very fortunate and blessed to teach about 10 classes over the past 10 years! 🎉 I assisted five local businesses with their social media marketing (Innovative Extracts, 1-Tom-Plumber, The Quinn Inn, Vision Partying, HK Equipment, Rue Boutique, The Loveliest Collective, Shatter Studios, and more), which I also enjoy very much! In grad school when everyone was wanting to work for the huge ad agencies, my prof thought it was weird that I wanted to work with small businesses haha! 🎉 Also by the Grace of God, somehow managed to maintained my full time job as the director of marketing, AND added the title of director of business development for Engage Energy and Industrial Consulting. Beyond blessed for this amazing job that gives me so many opportunities to network, get involved in industry associations (board member of Energy Leaders Network and Wellness Chair for Women's Energy Network Greater Pittsburgh), teaches me how to golf (terribly but still fun), and so much more! 🎉 I worked with my first coach, Kelly Adams!! I completed her 12-week, Mindset Reset program and it changed my life!!! I’ve also met incredible women from all over the world through her network like Laura, Kayla, Heidi, Kelly, Christina, Jena, Emma and a ton more! I am SO looking forward to continuing to work with her, go through her new program, Elevate, and attend the boss babe retreat in February in St. Pete’s! 🎉 I completed the entire first very rough draft of my first book!!! It has been a lifelong dream to write a book and I have about 20 in mind to complete. Although the book still needs a lot of work, I am so freaking proud of the fact that I finally got through the first draft, at least written and organized properly. Shout out to my author coach Kelly Schwartz Keville (who I met through Mindset Reset) who helped hold me accountable this year to get this far with the project. I am thrilled to continue working with her, becoming a published author in her next collective author book (let me know if you want to join us!!), and having her help me finish the other 20 books in my head! 🎉 And many more opportunities, adventures, and experiences! Now for the Real Reel: Hi, my name is Megan. I am a 37 year old single mom of two sweet babies. And I have astronomically large dreams 😅 I have always been a hard worker. A hustler, living in my masculine energy, constantly working and striving. And pushing for everything I have and want. My ultimate goal in life is “to be content with where I'm at while working towards where I want to be.” Which is a very difficult thing to achieve when you're a big dreamer like me and want to accomplish a lot of things. This year I did not maintain a good balance of my life mission to be content while working towards what I want. I was very discontented. I was not in alignment with my goal of being content. I was annoyed that my life was still not falling in line with the things I was working toward. which is literally the message I preach against! Telling others not to fall into the trap of life that kills your soul as you get older, but rather, to find joy in and through it all!!! But I have to tell you... I was in a dark place, trying so hard to find the light. To force the light to happen before it was ready. By the end of the year I was extremely burnt out, mostly due to adding the teaching job. Loved doing it, but it was a lot! The semester was winding down but December was still so busy. I seriously started to lose hope about being able to continue striving for my dreams. I knew it was because I was tired but I couldn’t see it getting better. Luckily, I didn’t end the year with that mindset!! After my trip to Denver where I was actually able to unwind for a few days, I finally got my renewed strength to keep going. I was able to stop and reflect on all of these amazing things I did this year and put my gratitude practice to work. THANK THE LORD I'm out of that place now. I am so grateful that I will not be ending the year in that place. Instead my brain just swarms all of the amazing things I accomplished this year, rather than focusing on what still I have on my to do list. In hindsight, I had a fairly good balance between work time, personal time, a social life, and fun time with my children. We did fun amazing things throughout the year! I got to spend time with amazing people. My family, my childhood friends, my college roommates, my best friend, my lovelies, and lots of new friends too. While I am not where I wanted to be by the end of the year financially and locationally, I know that God has been working on me and in me to prepare me for all of the amazing things that will come to fruition in his perfect timing. I hope this encourages you to reflect on the amazing things that happened in your lives as well! Even when you hit those dark patches, please know that they will pass. Embrace them. Have patience with them. Feel them fully. But don’t stay there. Keep going love. You got this!  My first self-helpery book was You Are A Badass by @jensincero. I absolutely fell in love!!! It was one of my first introductions to mindset work. Currently I'm (very slowly) reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (published in 1937 🤯) and I'm feeling that same fire that the Badass book gave me 🔥🔥 I'm only like 80 pages in so I'll probably be referring to this book over the next six months (because that is how long it will take me to get through it 🤦🏼♀️).
Below is Napoleon's Self-Confidence Formula. Basically, he states the greatest factor holding people back from success in their dreams is lack of self-confidence, and this is his formula to overcome. I absolute love and resonate with this. There are so many times that I will have a genius idea but I don't execute because of fear, because I easily convince myself I don't have enough time, because I think I don't have all the details worked out, because I'm afraid I will fail, that people will not be supportive, etc. His formula is a list of affirmations that you repeat until you believe it, speak it into existence, a prayer, manifesting your desires, fake it til you make it... all of my favorite things. Your thoughts control your attitude, your attitude controls your actions, your actions control the outcome. Stop playing small and keep working toward the life you desire! Life is fun. It is all one big experiment. Try something, go for it, give if your all. If it doesn't work out, try again. To me, that is what makes it fun. The Journey. Maybe it will be great to sit on the beach for the rest of your life without a worry in the world. But for me, the best part would be the work it I put in and the story I can tell about how I got there. Anyway... if you have a dream but have something holding you back, join me in giving this formula a try and start working on building your self-confidence. Let me know what you think!
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant and successful person.  As a recovering people pleaser and validation seeker, I understand the significance of someone agreeing with you, encouraging you, giving you permission... So if you don't have someone actively and vocally supporting you, I'm here to say:
I give you permission to be happy, despite everyone telling you what could go wrong. I give you permission to be sad, despite everyone telling you it will be fine and you should be grateful for what you have. I give you permission to be excited about something seemingly impossible, despite the obstacles you might face. I give you permission to be upset with God's timing sometimes, despite having a million other blessings. I give you permission to continue to be hopeful, despite mistakes, failures, and setbacks. I give you permission to figure out life on your own terms, despite society, culture, tradition telling you what is acceptable. I give you permission to be proud of your accomplishments, your progress, no matter how big or small, despite feeling like you're bragging. I give you permission to prioritize yourself, your family, your mental health, despite the possibility of disappointing people. I give you permission to be Angry, Overwhelmed, Anxious, Nervous, and feel all your feelings, despite them being uncomfortable or making others feel uncomfortable. I give you permission to be grateful for everything you have and exactly where you are, despite it not being exactly where you want to be. DM me if you need permission for anything more specifically 😅 (short of anything too terrible or illegal 🙃)  Hi! My name is Meagan!
I'm the owner of The Sweet Escape 🌻✌️ I love all things marketing, organizing, event planning, teaching, etc. I dream of having a space someday to bring all of my loves under one roof. Currently, I am the director of marketing for a consulting company in Pittsburgh 🖤💛 I love sharing empowering & encouraging messages. I believe sometimes you just need to hear the right thing, at the right time, from the right person to change your mind or life. I'm a momma to two sweet littles - Marley Jo & Marshall. They are 18 months apart! I wanted babies for a long time and TTC for five years with my ex-husband. This was a really hard and significant part of life. In an interesting turn of events, God blessed me with these babies to another man (but that's a story for another day 😅) I am a certified yoga instructor. I ran the social media for a yoga studio for a few years which provided me access to free unlimited classes. Although this was during the busiest time of my life, it was the start of teaching me to slow down - my body, nervous system, heart, mind - and start being present, mindful, intune with the mind-body connection✌️ I was certified in 2019 and have taught a little here and there. I started Sweet Escape partially as a reason to teach more! I love trying new things! I've had more than 30 jobs plus a dozen volunteer opportunities. I've done everything from sell "I love boobies" shirts in bars when I was 24 to being an adjunct professor at a university when I was 26 😅 My formal education is a bachelor's degree in public relations from SRU and a master's degree in advertising from the University of Texas. But most of my understanding of life came from the school of hard knocks 💪 I am a Christian and have enormous faith and hope in our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ 🙏 I believe life is naturally hard but by looking at the bigger picture and from God's perspective, everything makes sense and works together for his good ❤️ I believe life is meant to be enjoyed but you have to put in the work to shift your mindset and see the good through it all. I love to travel! My goal is to visit all 50 states and I'm about 2/3 there. I've also been to Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Greece. I can't wait to see the world with my babies! I am very interested in human development, behaviors, personalities, and communication styles. Someone once coined the term "Meagan-ing" for my overzealous, yet genuine, interest in getting to know people lol I would love to get to know you 💗 Please message me anytime at [email protected]!  I want to encourage people to Choose Joy, to know they have options, they can flip the script, they don't have to be stuck. And honestly, potentially, nothing in your life, your circumstances, your situation necessarily has to change... but you do. The first step is deciding that you don't want to be where you are and that will begin opening you up to a world of possibilities.
What is Growth Mindset? - The belief that skill and intelligence is something that people can develop. As opposed to a Fixed Mindset which means you believe that you have it or you don't and everything you can do is all you will ever be able to do. Developing a greater growth mindset generally leads to more fulfillment, contentment, happiness, and success in life - and who doesn't want that!? In your wildest dreams, if there were no obstacles, if money/time/resources were not a factor, what would you love for your life to look like? Pause. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Spend 60 seconds visualizing your dream life... Open your heart to the abundance the world has to offer. Wherever you are in your life, any age, any education level, any financial situation, you can always dream. Carol Dweck (who developed the concept of the growth mindset) wrote the book Mindset, she talks a lot about how this is one of the greatest testaments to the growth mindset - seeing obstacles as welcomed challenges to overcome. I broke this into four of my favorite pillars - Joy, Hope, Peace, Love: Joy: Limitless-ness
Hope - Acknowledging Limiting beliefs
Peace - Unattachment
Love - Choose Joy
And of course, always remember: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Philippians 4:13 Let me know what you think! I would love to hear about how you view or have experienced growth mindset in your life!  If you told me to sit still and breath like 10 years ago, I would have scoffed.
My Journey I started meditating about five years ago when I was trying to get pregnant. I had been trying for a few years at that point, going through all of the medical avenues and it still wasn't happening. I was trying more holistic approaches as well - changing my diet, acupuncture, and yoga and mediation. I have never been one to be able to slow down or sit for very long so this was quite challenging. I don't think I was very stressed but I learned that yoga and meditation could really help calm and regulate your nervous system and eventually give you the ability to slow down - physically and mentally. I continue to meditate because I love the benefits. I don't do it every day but at least a few times per week. Especially when:
I know it is important to regulate my body and emotions for mysel and for my family. I grew up in a busy, intense, emotionally unregulated household and I want to provide a different experience for my children. Unfortunately, when my kids are upset or whiney, it is more natural for my heart rate to increase, be annoyed and frustrated, and want to yell. So for me, taking what I've learned from yoga and meditation to be less reactive, take step back, slow down, think clearly, and approach them, and any situation with more love, kindness, and compassion. I've seen this affect my reactions in so many facets of my life too - driving, bosses and coworkers, comments from friends and family that would usually trigger me, and just everyday little frustrations. I can laugh more easily at myself and any situation. Not perfect! But better and trying to be better, and being more aware of my feelings and my body because of this practice. Technically So meditation in a general sense is about focusing on your breath, being still, and clearing your mind. There are eight limbs of yoga. Most people think of Asana when they think of yoga, which is the postures and movement. Yoga actually means linking your breath, body, and mind - for each asana, or pose, there is a specific breathwork.
They are all interconnected and work together You can choose to focus in a specific area and really go in depth. I once attended a two hour workshop on pranayama and we literally just learned a dozen breathing techniques. There is a breathwork class right after mine at SolSpace on Sundays. Meditation is Magnificent Used to sharpen focus and attention, connect the body and breath, develop acceptance of difficult emotions, reduce stress, improve your physical and mental health.
I found an article outlining nine types of meditation:
Another real life benefit for me in additional to slowing reactivity is that meditation really encourages non-judgment and starting again, "if your mind wanders, simply acknowledge the thought, and come back to the practice and refocus." - I just think that is a great motto for life - a new years resolution, a diet, workout goals, relationships, to do list, etc. If you get off track, simply try again.
But even just five or ten minutes a day is a great place to start (or stay). You can start with mindful breathing - make the effort to start being aware of your thoughts and body sensations. Driving, washing the dishes, folding clothes - instead of zoning out, listening to the radio, watching TV - can you use that time to come into your body (visual of floating outside of yourself - think of you to-do list, what someone said to you, a past situation, a future desire). Stop and take a breath when you start to feel agitated. You can rewire your brain, you can break generational patterns, you can have a better outlook, which can lead to so much more positivity in your life ✌️  When I was completing my yoga teacher training and learning about the niyamas, Santosha was the one that resonated the most with me.
Santosha means contentment. To me that means to "want" less and appreciate more. I feel like it's so easy to get sucked into the trap of wanting - a bigger house, a fancy car, a new job, a shopping spree at TJMaxx 😆 It's a little hard for my to sit still, to stay in one place (er, moved ten times in 15 years lol), to not always be thinking "what's next"... I've gotten a little better in recent years but I still have some work to do. There is definitely a balance between enjoying where you are while working toward the future. So I'm making a conscious effort to "Live in the present moment without regretting the past or anticipating the future." From www.dailydownwarddog.com: How to Practice Santosha: ❤ Releasing control over what you think your life should look like, and accepting every facet for what it is at the present moment. ❤ Cultivating an inner peace and joy that is not dependent on what is happening in our lives. ❤ If something comes, let it come. If not, it doesn’t matter. ❤ Practice remaining calm in success and failure. ❤ Cut back on energy wasted in thoughts of liking or disliking what is. ❤ Practice living mindfully. ❤ Ask yourself if you really need that new [fill in the blank] to be content. Seriously, do you really need more “stuff” in your life? “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu Happiness is not found in people, things, or places. Not striving for what you don't have but accepting with joy what you do. A peace inside that remains regardless of circumstances. I often think "If nothing changes - my living arrangements, my job, my daily routine, my finances, my relationships - could I still be content?" Although on a regular basis I dream about a new home, having an event space, etc. If I stop and think about it, I believe I could enjoy this life, just as it is, for the foreseeable future... and I am so grateful for that. I hate to see those that are constantly in want, seemingly feeling unrest because of their dissatisfaction with life, miserable because they are not who/where/with who they want to or thought they would be by now, because I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must be! So what can you do to start enjoying life now you ask?
I hope you love your life today ❤  The Sweet Escape is my platform to encourage you to find contentment and enjoy life through sharing our stories, mindset work, and movement. I am passionate about this because I want to break the cycle and patterns and outdated traditions. I want better for my life and my children and their children and for you.
I know that everything I share is common sense. You know what you need to do but it's usually easier said than done. It is easy to get sucked into the hardships, difficulties, stress, and challenges of life. God says "don't worry" yet all we do is worry 🙄 My messaging and classes are just a gentle reminder to keep going. Sometime you need to hear the right thing, at the right time, from the right person for it to click and propel you to make a change, have faith, or try again. Recently, I lead a virtual workshop about living a "Happy Life" so I wanted to share my thoughts about the topic here! What a Happy Life is Not:
What a Happy Life is to Me
How to Achieve a Happy Life
Final thoughts
My yoga journey actually started about 20 years ago 🤯 In high school, my brother just got back from bootcamp or a deployment and he took me to the mall to buy anything I wanted! I got a yellow Sony CD Walkman and a instructional yoga book 😄 He was like are you sure that's what you want? "Of course!" I replied... I never opened it until last year 🤣
I don't think I took an actual class until grad school. I had a TeXercise pass and actually went pretty regularly for at least one semester. After that I would take a few classes here and there. I enjoyed it because I'm somewhat naturally bendy so I looked like I knew what I was doing on occasion. 2018 kicked off my one-third life crisis. My ex-husband and I had just decided to take a break from trying to conceive after five years. He said, "Maybe God has a different plan for us." And you know what... He sure did! I embarked on an adventurous year of trying to find the meaning of life basically lol! One of my first search results led me to an interview to be a cleaning lady at a gym 😅 I think I would have been paid with a gym membership. I didn't get the job 🙄 In fact they hired the girl that interviewed before me and I'm pretty sure they forgot I was coming in.. super awkward but blessing in disguise! The next day I called about a social media manager job at the local yoga studio. The owner said they already found someone but then called back two minutes later and invited me to interview!!! Thankfully this job was paid in unlimited yoga and actual money. That's when I began to fall in love with it. I started going go class at least 2-3 times a week. I learned so much not only in class but researching for captions to post on their social media. I got stronger, learned to breathe and be still, met wonderful people, etc. With my year-end bonus from my full time job, I enrolled in teacher training that summer. I went through the four-week intensive training while I was five months pregnant 😅 I started to teach Mindful Movement and Meditation with Meagan on Mondays ha! Then good ol Covid came along and shut everything down 😕 Other areas of life took over and yoga slowly faded away. I taught online a few times, but it just wasn't the same. Last summer I joined The Beauty Boost and I absolutely love the organization - doing various pop-up events at different locations with various vendors. It was part of the inspiration to start Sweet Escape. I wanted to teach and do all the things I love but I'm not as flexible and reliable as I used to be. I needed an outlet to teach on my own terms. My goal is to do one pop up a month for now and hopefully do more over the next few years 🤞 Five-year plan is to have an event space 😍 but until then I'm enjoying building the brand and figuring things out as I go ✌ _______________________________ SO! That is the history of my yoga story but what I really wanted to share with you is what I learned over the last 20 years (lol ok more like five but still...). Here is what you need to know about yoga and how you can benefit from giving it a try:
Yoga doesn't make you perfect (although some might say you come close LOL jk jk). For me, it was the ultimate first step toward self-helpery. My motto has always been "constant improvement". I love learning, growing, changing, evolving, but yoga was a game changer when I started to see how it affected every aspect of my life outside of class and off the mat. I feel like so many people spend their lives flying by the seat of their pants just trying to survive. Yoga and life itself is such a journey. Just when you think you made it to the next level of understanding, another breakthrough is coming. I don't practice asana everyday but the fundamentals of what I've learned though going to yoga class has carry though every day. PS I still get annoyed at people and yell at my kids on a regular basis but I can only imagine how much better I am at life now haha! |
