SHE GETS IT Elizabeth Irvine’s words speak to me because she just “gets it”. She understands how chaos can destruct our bodies and our relationships and our souls. She understands because she has lived it and her realness comes out through the pages of this book.

SECRETS SHARED This book spoke to me, in the soft and soothing tones of its author. The entire message of this book whispers encouraging words about moving towards living in the present moment and working and planning towards surrounding ourselves with peace and calm.

BOOK LOVER Through this book I learned to catch myself and be in the moment when I had time to just Be. It’s an easy read, with beautiful images, and ideas and suggestions that I Can Do. Very worth the read.

EASY TO IMPLEMENT, THOUGHTFUL READ This beautiful book offers simple, yet profound ways to connect with goodness and peace in your life. Any woman who has ever felt the push and pull of day’s fast paced society needs this book.

 PURCHASE A MOMENT’S PEACE E-BOOK

My publisher, Bright Sky Press along with social media guru Kirtsy cooked up the idea for me to help a mom create peace and calm in their life in conjunction with my latest book, A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide to Creating Calm Amidst Chaos.

Jen submitted her name and entered the contest. And, just as life seems to sometimes have mysterious ways of finding solutions, I began to understand why Jen had won and could truly use a moment’s peace. Together Jen and I where about to craft ideas and remedies for more peace and calm amidst the life of a mom who was in the middle of transitioning between leaving a fifteen year career as the national director for Young Life to caring for three young boys (one with Down Syndrome) in her California home.

The day was here
The contest day had arrived. Jen picked me up from my hotel and as she got out of her car to greet me I felt as if I was hugging an old friend. Her natural warmth radiated out to me and made me feel as a “local” in an unfamiliar city. We drove off to one of her favorite cafe’s for lunch and I knew this was going to be tons of fun.

Loved the conversation
The cafe was actually a bakery too. The scent of freshly baked bread and a relaxed ease with Jen created more than my delicious sandwich– it was a Californian treat.  As we ate we told each other our stories. We talked about my books and how my son’s illness was the catalyst for entering into my work today. Jen shared her life, her joys and her struggles. I loved our conversation. Real. Not forced. Natural. The kind of conversation I like to have. The kind that allows one to get directly to the point. No tennis-match-style formality back and forth about a correct and polite life. What I took from our conversation was Jen’s grace under pressure. Our conversation (which lasted nearly 12 hours straight) felt like twelve minutes. For me, that’s a crystal clear sign that life has unfolded exactly as it should. Time is a funny thing. An elusion of “not enough” or “slips away”, are always positive signs for me that I am in my groove.

Creating a peaceful vibe
After lunch, we drove to Jen’s house. Both of us excited to get started in creating a peaceful vibe to run through her charming home and life in San Diego. As we pulled into her drive I could sense that Jen had a natural “effortlessly put together” kind of style. She made us a delicious coffee to sip on and we settled into the chairs on the porch just outside her kitchen.
Over the afternoon we talked about lots of thing. A few main points that I hope made the same impression on Jen, as they did on me in creating a peaceful space in her home and life are these:

• Strike a balance everyday. Translation: take time everyday for Jen. I suggested 20 minutes a day at minimum. This time is dedicated for caring for body and soul. Whether that’s yoga, a walk, gardening, meditating or soaking in the bath. Just do it. Eventually this begins to feel as natural as forming a smile or taking a breath!

• Set the intention and dedicate your energy. What needs to shift in life? It’s hard to fix a problem until you call out what that issue is. Think about what you want. Then set the intention and dedicate your energy to making that change happen.

• Clear clutter. Even if it’s the kitchen junk drawer. Start small. The shield-your-eyes closet or over-stuffed drawer needs to be cleared. Clearing with intention not only physically, but emotionally makes “room” for the new– freedom, opportunities or even new “stuff” to enter in!

• Use your intuition. What feels right? Think about your space. How do you use it? How can you use it better? Right now, which room in your house “feels” the best? Why?

• Collect a few things to a place near you that bring comfort and represent beauty or a connection to something beyond this world–the flame of a candle, a flower, a photo. Create sacred space.

Using this list of ideas above we moved through Jen’s house to create a new feeling. As we spent the afternoon moving from room to room talking through ideas Jen and I both realized that the shift had already begun. The atmosphere in Jen’s home and life had already started to change. A new peace was almost palpable.

Small Steps to a better place
Think about which room (or part of a room) in your home holds a special quiet feel to it. What does your current space need to create privacy, a serene or uninterrupted  refuge? Is it clean and welcoming? What can you do to make it sacred and beautiful? Finding your way out of an overwhelming place happens in small steps. Adding lots of little steps together eventually leads you to a place where a clear, calm, positive mental attitude ripples out into every aspect of your life.

The suggestions above come from A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide To Creating Calm Amidst Chaos. For more ideas check out A Moment’s Peace Daily Inspiration or a guided relaxation podcast to help create a moment’s peace in your every day.

A note of special thanks to my good friend Shannon Mann of Mann Designs for her prior design consultation in helping Jen’s home feel beautifully peaceful.

This is how I felt when I recently came across the site- Mother Nature Network (MNN). I also discovered one of their writers  Jen Savadge who writes about green parenting, raising eco-friendly kids and she had this to say about Finding A Moment’s Peace

Check it out- they have loads of great information.

P.S. Haven’t been on vacation this summer? Need a virtual one? Check out Mother Nature Network’s slide show 8 of the Greatest Eco-Friendly Beaches

Research shows to change any habit, it requires 28 days to create a new way of being. During the month of May while the contest is live, I am committing to publishing daily inspirations on how to create calm amidst chaos. These suggestions and ideas are all ways that I incorporates peace and calm and joy even amidst the most chaotic days of my life.  I encourage you to come back daily or subscribe to my feed and create peace amidst your chaos.

In addition to my daily inspirations I want to offer one lucky reader a copy of A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide to Creating Calm Amidst Chaos.

How to Enter Giveaway:
Share with me about a time in your life that you could use some help finding a moment’s peace!

Additional Entries:
(one entry per com­ment, above entry must be com­plete before addi­tional entries)

1. Comment on your favorite Daily Inspiration post and tell me which one in a comment below
2. Go enter the Kirtsy contest and leave a comment here confirming your entry
3. Blog about this giveaway including a link back to this post; leave permalink within comment
4. Blog about the Kirtsy contest linking to both my blog & Kirtsy; leave permalink within comment
5. Tweet (once per day only) about this giveaway including link to post; leave permalink within comment
6. Tweet (once per day only) about the Kirtsy contest including link to Kirtsy; leave permalink within comment
7. Follow ElizabethIrvine on twitter and leave your twitter handle in comment
8. Subscribe to ElizabethIrvine RSS Feed and leave email address in comment

*Giveaway is open to all U.S. Residents 18+ in age. Entries will be accepted until Friday June 4th at mid­night CST.  Any and all com­ments after that time will not be counted towards give­away entries.  Reader must leave a method of con­tact within com­ment and must respond within 24 hours of con­tact, oth­er­wise a new win­ner will be cho­sen.  Random.org will be used to select a ran­dom win­ner from com­ments on this post.

Giveaway has ended.

Congratulations to Joannie for winning the giveaway and thank you to everyone who entered.

A Special Mom

Of course all mothers deserve a moment’s peace, but we are searching for one who is unique. Do you know a mom who’s life’s circumstances fill up a platter instead of the typical plate that we all manage? We want to know about her. We want to honor her. Think about who you know? Send us her story and we will do our very best to choose a mom who deserves to be recognized, pampered and given a moment’s peace. A Moments Peace Give-Away

Daily Inspirations

Research shows to change any habit, it requires 28 days to create a new way of being. So, for the entire month of May check in daily for your “Moment’s Peace Daily Inspirations,” 28 tools (everyday for the rest of May) are coming to inspire you on how to create a moment’s peace every day–really. These suggestions and ideas are all ways that I incorporate peace and calm and joy even amidst the most chaotic days in my life.

So join me each day in May and let me hear from you. What suggestions work for you?

What mom doesn’t long for a moment’s peace? Through her various roles as an ICU nurse, mother of three, yoga instructor, and author, Elizabeth Irvine has developed a keen sense of how to bring equilibrium into her life and to those around her. The perfect antidote to the ever-evolving speed of modern life, the idea is simple but ever challenging: finding peace—in the midst of motherhood.

When

Monday, May 3, 2010
11:30 Social
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch and Speaker, Elizabeth Irvine

Where

St Martins Bagby Parish Hall, Houston TX

Book Party at Indulge Boutique from Elizabeth Irvine on Vimeo.

Simultaneously attempting to plan a quick dinner menu and pack healthy lunches it seems everybody has some kind of complaint: a runny nose, a dull headache,“I can’t focus at school,” or didn’t sleep well. As a mother, it can seem nearly impossible to create health and happiness, not only for yourself but for your whole family.

But even though I still have mornings like the one above, I am here to tell you that once you discover health and happiness begins from the inside out, it really is possible to feel good for no reason, everyday. And, it begins through creating a place of capacity, emotional and physical “shock absorbers” to help you and your children withstand everyday challenges through a routine of preventive care. In the end Benjamin Franklin got it right, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
For the last fifteen years, the focus of my work has been helping others create a healthy balance in their day-to-day life. And yes, I personally struggle with the same stress, pressure, and not having enough time in the day to squeeze it all in as you do. But I know all too well that the wear and tear of our demanding lifestyles takes its toll on all of us, parents and kids.

Our bodies can put up with it only for so long until our stress manifests as a physical or emotional problem, be it the common cold, a headache, insomnia, or a bad mood. Lucky for us, by focusing on prevention—building up our emotional and physical reserves—we can avoid many of those problems entirely, creating families that are wholly happy and healthy in the process.

Excerpt from Healthy Mother Healthy Child: Creating Whole Families From the Inside Out

If your life is anything like mine—and what mom’s isn’t?—at least some part of the scenario above rings some bells for you. What would you do for a moment’s peace? Lock yourself in the bathroom? Leverage your house? Sell your soul? Anything? If you’re an average mom, you need a moment’s peace more than anyone else, and if you’re an average mom, you probably feel like a simple moment of peace is also entirely beyond your reach. Let’s face it, as wonderful as it is, motherhood can sometimes feel like a continual series of interruptions, your every thought and task fragmented as your attention is continually pulled in different directions.

Not so unlike my experience—not only as a mother, but as a nurse in a large hospital working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the heart-wrenching section of the hospital that houses critically ill infants.

It was my first job out of college, and it was overwhelming. I was twenty-two years old, green, fresh out of school, and scared.The hospital was a place of great intensity, as everyone in the NICU busy with their assigned tasks and I was just expected to perform. I guess it happened instinctually, just like being thrown off a dock in the deep end of a lake and being told to swim.There’s no time to stop and think about the pros and cons of whether you know how to keep yourself afloat—you’re operating on survival instinct. But as hectic and frightening as it was, those early days in my nursing career taught me a critical lesson: how to keep a cool head and allow intuition to move through me and get the job done.

Extracted from A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide to Creating Calm Amidst Chaos

When: Thursday, May 6, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Where: Kuhl Linscomb, Houston, TX

An evening of good will and good fun. The wonderful philanthropic organization Dress for Success joins Elizabeth for a fun-filled, feel-good evening at the exquisite shop, Kuhl Linscomb.

Bring a gently used black handbag as your donation to Dress for Success, a cause that empowers women with more than clothes– a healthy dose of confidence and self-esteem.

Enjoy this evening of shopping, food by the deliciously organic certified green restaurant, Ruggles Green and celebrate the arrival of Elizabeth’s brand new titles A Moment’s Peace: A Mom’s Guide to Creating Calm Amidst Chaos and the new Healthy Mother Healthy Child: Creating Whole Families From the Inside Out as well as helping women in need.