I am Sheryl Smikle-Russell, and I am a life coach. I was close to turning 50, and I wanted to focus on doing something that I enjoyed and could do from anywhere in the world. I always had the mindset that anything I put my mind to was within reach, which is how I ended up with so many careers. But this time, I was looking to do something that would take care of me. My mother always told me that I should “focus on doing the things that only I could do." Then, I did not realize the tremendous...

Picture yourself standing on one leg in the middle of a balance beam, with both hands supporting the things in your life that you consider being most important. What is your next step? Isaiah 43:1 says, "Don't fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine." Fear decreases our hope and limits our victories. Fear is real. It is an unpleasant emotion that is usually caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause us pain or...

In my last blog post “What’s Real?” I spoke about how we’ve been limiting our social interactions with each other in the way that we communicate and how this social distancing has been happening long before the COVID-19 outbreak. Even when given the opportunity to have an honest conversation with our friends or relatives, we default to the automated light-hearted answers that keep others a safe distance away from our true feeling and emotions. I ended the blog with the question, “can we be...