“Ten toes down…”
Not standing there fighting everybody…
Just standing firmly in your own humanity while other people are busy revealing theirs.
BOOM.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Tag: harmonioushealth4life
It Is Always Winter:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy
She had so much going for her.
Intelligence.
Personality.
Generosity to a fault…
And…her beauty was external, but more than that…her inner beauty shared the depth of her soul. She exuded empathy and kindness, love and compassion and patience. Forgiveness. Love…
She was so loved, but then…in the depths of abuse and neglect…she lost her way…and they abandoned her.
She stood alone. A cold, dark winter that never brought another spring…and that lasted the rest of her life…
Her beauty faded into despair.
Her despair took her life…And nobody noticed.
Did she really ever exist?
Love and blessings,
Wendy
PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY:PAUSE TO BE PRESENT. PATIENTLY PROCESS – LOVE, WENDY
Think about the people, places and things in your life that are easily accessible and comfortable…isn’t it tempting to place yourself where you know these situations are not healthy for you because it requires little to no effort to reach for familiarity…especially when you are lonely and bored and begin to romanticize the good times? Familiarity becomes seductive because it is easy, particularly when loneliness, boredom, or vulnerability lowers our resistance.
We neglect to recall the excessive stress and emotional and physical depletion that came with that person, place or thing as it existed in our space…
Once you understand your vulnerable moments, you can prepare for them.
Change your environment, practice self-care radically, place yourself in an environment that brings you peace, wellness, and happiness even when you must plan for it…
Practice delayed gratification to ensure your mental and physical well being. Instant gratification is born of anxiety and lonliness…and convenience can masquerade as comfort. Something can be familiar, accessible, and immediately gratifying while simultaneously being completely misaligned with our wellbeing.
When our actions require little to no energy…it becomes an automatic response in our behavior whether or not it is a healthy choice…and we become complacent in our wellbeing.
Each decision is a choice…
“PAUSE TO BE PRESENT. PATIENTLY PROCESS. Take one slow deep breath through your nose, and exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat three times. Your breath is your most accessible tool to intervene with your physiology in real time. Focus on your breath to align with the present moment.”
(Read more about this in my book, Write Pray Recover:A Journey To Wellness Through Spiritual Solutions and Self Care-Chapter 6 https://a.co/d/0fMlLK7Y)
Ask yourself, “Is this choice out of convenience, or is it a choice that is promoting my peace and wellbeing?” ”What do I really need in this moment to promote my wellness and peace?” Lastly, ask yourself “What is the quality of the relationship you have with yourself? How do you honor yourself daily? Write the intimate details of this relationship.”
This pause and remaining present to your reality gives you the discernment and control you need to choose again and again until you recognize and “feel” the perfect alignment.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
SEPTEMBER IS SUICIDE AWARENESS MONTH – LOVE, WENDY
September is Suicide Awareness Month…
I had the opportunity to implement my training as a Mental Health First Aider and Suicide Safety instructor yesterday in two separate incidents. And last month, I was called to use both of these trainings for a dear friend who just lost his wife to suicide. 
I am a certified trainer and would encourage you to take this 8 hour MHFA training.
In today’s culture and climate, we all need to practice our own self care in order to live with mental and physical health, and to know how to support someone else who does not have these tools.
“Mental Health First Aid gives you the skills to recognize when someone is facing mental health or substance use challenges — and the confidence to be their first source of support. Whether you’re helping a loved one or handling your own stress, MHFA offers real-world training and tools to cope with mental health challenges.”
I had experienced a physical health emergency Thursday after work requiring steroid treatment and complete bed rest, and Friday morning as I was recovering, I received two (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) requests for assistance.
Both are doing well this morning.
Sometimes words can guide and support, and as a Mental Health First Aider and teacher, I knew exactly how to use my words as my guidance and support for these precious souls.
For information on becoming a Mental Health First Aider, go to https://mentalhealthfirstaid.org/
In addition, IN HONOR OF SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH, I AM AVAILABLE VIRTUALLY TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING TRAINING:
SUICIDE SAFETY FOR SCHOOLS
APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS
I am a certified trainer licensed by the Suicide Prevention Center of NY State.
This workshop offers the following goals in prevention and awareness:
To review the importance of suicide prevention
Describe characteristics of at-risk students
Outline your critical but limited role
Clarify your building referral process
Identify school and community resources
Talking about suicide in the classroom
What every teacher should know
Understanding warning signs
Understanding protective factors
Understanding a “warm hand-off”
Email me at wendyblanchard044@gmail.com
Text TRAINING to 845-263-4094.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Off Duty:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy
You don’t have to stop loving someone in order to stop accommodating the behaviors that are destroying your peace…You don’t have to keep participating in the cycle that leads to a wild goose chase.
If you are a follower of my work, you have read the words I write and speak often…”Peace begins with me” My peace is non-negotiable. My peace is my power. And most recently I made the decision to NOT share my whereabouts, relationships or activities on social media because I have come to realize that, “Privacy protects my peace.”
You can step away from an unhealthy relationship or situation, protect your peace, and allow one to live with the consequences of one’s own lack of emotional work.
Let go of trying to save them.
This isn’t abandonment.
This is a boundary.
One of the most important lessons that I have learned in my 14 years of recovery is that the only person I can save, change or heal…is myself.
There is a difference between “I don’t love you anymore.”and “I love you, but I am no longer willing to lose myself trying to save you.” Trust me…there is NO situation where we can save another unless we are asked to step in to assist…and even then, it is not our burden or work to carry. We can simply guide according to one’s stated desires and needs.
And perhaps the deepest healing is realizing that your nervous system doesn’t have to remain on duty for someone else’s life…otherwise, it tends to “arrest” our own lived experiences.
Affirm: “I am not responsible for rescuing people from places they choose to remain.”
Stand in your power…
“Peace begins with me.”
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Come Wonder With Me:Spiritual Wellness-“Soul Notes” – Love, Wendy
Some of my deepest writing doesn’t begin with me sitting down to write…it begins at 2 or 3 a.m., when I awaken with words and vivid pictures already formed in my mind…
A spiritual bolt?
Another” awakening”?
Or simply the Universe refusing to let me sleep until I pay attention?…
Come wonder with me…
I’ve been developing a theory of spiritual wellness centered on four interconnected pillars which I have coined and copyrighted…
Connection, Consciousness, Curiosity, and Consistency and how their synergy can lead us toward deeper meaning.
This emerging theory has become the foundation of my upcoming book, Soul Notes, and I’m excited to share the beginning of this lifelong exploration with you…
COME WONDER WITH ME
I have questions that have awakened something in me.
Come wonder with me.
Because the more you explore, the more there is to explore.
The more you learn, the more you realize there is still so much to learn.
The more you question, the more questions you’ll have.
And perhaps there is no final chapter because we have not yet arrived.
Perhaps this is the journey.
At the heart of my upcoming book, Soul Notes, is a theory I have been developing and contemplating for a long time about spiritual wellness.
Not spirituality as a set of prescribed beliefs.
Not certainty.
Not having all the answers.
But an ongoing state of connection, consciousness, curiosity, and consistent exploration of meaning.
I propose that these are the four pillars of spiritual wellness:
CONNECTION
Our relationship with ourselves, with nature, with the gorgeous and mysterious Universe, and with the spiritual dimensions of our own subjective experiences.
CONSCIOUSNESS
The awareness that we are not isolated beings, but part of something larger connected to one another and to something beyond ourselves, soul to soul.
CURIOSITY
The willingness to keep questioning, exploring, discovering, and remaining open to a variety of eventualities that we may not yet understand…and perhaps we never will.
CONSISTENCY
The practice of returning to that exploration again and again, allowing ourselves to continue to question and wonder, while integrating what we discover into our lived experience in real time as we understand it.
Together, these four pillars create what I think of as a Synergistic Loop of Spiritual Wellness:
Connection → Consciousness → Curiosity → Consistency → Deeper Connection
Our curiosity drives us deeper into consciousness and connection.
Our consistency anchors those discoveries into our everyday lives.
And then we return to connection again…only a little deeper, a little more conscious, and with even more questions.
There most likely will never be a definitive answer.
And that is okay because…
The more I learn, the more I learn.
The more I question, the more questions I have.
And I find that exhilarating.
Because maybe spiritual wellness isn’t about finally arriving.
Maybe it is about remaining awake enough, curious enough, connected enough, and open enough to keep exploring…to continue to wonder.
There is no final chapter because I haven’t arrived.
And neither have you.
This is the journey.
This is Soul Notes.
Come wonder with me.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Politics and Emotional Regulation…Or Lack Thereof – Love, Wendy
It is physically painful and emotionally jarring to observe so many in society devoid of empathy, lacking the emotional intelligence and grace to hear and respect others’ perspectives, and choosing instead to purposefully berate and judge others by becoming combative without provocation.
I also read the most evil and hateful comments on social media,…And for this person in particular, I am reminded of what a small-minded, angry little man I was once tied to, and I thank God every day for removing such evil from my heart and space.
People can have radically different political beliefs, values, and perspectives and still treat one another with basic human dignity.
Some people seem to take pleasure from their high horse, in dehumanizing, humiliating, or attacking someone simply because they disagree with them…whether in person or the cowardly and manipulative setting of social media abuse.
Whatever someone’s political opinion… I am NOT witnessing substantive political discourse…Pure dysregulated contempt.
You don’t have to become numb to cruelty in order to protect your peace. You can see it, feel the sadness of it, recognize it for what it is…and then choose, “I don’t want this in my heart, my relationships, my home, or my space anymore.”
And perhaps that’s the most powerful contrast of all…we don’t have to become less discerning. We can become less willing to let anger and contempt become our way of being.
Remember…we are all sharing a common space while we are here…and when we put such evil out into the world, we have to be very careful because it can boomerang right back at us…
And when we try to run…there’s nowhere to hide.
Remember that.
For goodness sake…learn to emotionally regulate.
Hold your tongue. Close your laptop. Scroll on by. And don’t let everything that lives in your head find its way out of your mouth. Because that is where the “truth” about who we are is revealed.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Copyright © 2026 www.writeprayrecover.com
Spiritual Wellness:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy
Spiritual well-being is not necessarily about religion, in fact…it is not the only pathway to spiritual wellness…
It is about exploring what it is in our bodies that connects to nature where we honor our own human understanding of connection, consciousness and curiosity with intention, passion and commitment.
I hold a certification in Spiritual Wellness…AND… I experience daily a profound sense of connection to what I am certain is a loving, guiding “force” that is “supernatural” in nature.
There is a difference between believing something because you have been taught, and experiencing something and making meaning from that experience where you strengthen your spiritual roots.
My certification gives me a professional framework for understanding spiritual wellness, while my personal spiritual experiences give that framework a very intimate dimension.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
STRUT…DON’T WALK:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy
For years I walked around with gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe…slowing my pace and keeping me from moving forward.
Yesterday, I finally yanked off that stubborn, sticky piece of gum and threw it in the trash…
A twelve-year marathon that “trained” me to walk with discernment, and to never again dance with the devil.
No longer dragging my feet…
Strutting into my autonomy for the distance and finally standing in my power.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Restoration:Soul Notes – Love, Wendy
Serenity and peace are an early Sunday morning walk, taken slowly and purposefully…listening to my favorite music and watching the pond water ripple as the wind gently blows across its surface.
Nowhere to rush to, but excited to get home to bake fresh gluten-free Chinese almond cookies…then enjoy a beautiful cup of coffee while looking around at the haven I’ve created and thinking about how far I’ve come in these past 14 years of recovery. My heart is filled with gratitude.
Serenity and peace are cultivated intentionally, in whatever ways we choose to create them.
Simple. Strategic. Single-handed.
Restoration isn’t complicated. It’s intentional.
Love and blessings,
Wendy
Write Pray Recover 