Care Package, Girlscan Blog, Self-esteem

Mom’s Are Girls Too

April 25, 2021 No Comments

GirlsCAN Create ~ Achieve ~ Nourish

Mother’s Day 2021 is on Sunday May 9, 2021. Share the love with a Mom you know with a special care package from Girlscan.

Take this opportunity to show the women in your life how important they are to you or treat yourself to this unique self care packageFilled with some amazing gifts:

Planter, natural self care products by The Willow’s Bark, and an assortment of items to take care of that inner natural goddess.

$85 pick up or $5 delivery charge within Peterborough
Partial proceeds going to YWCA Peterborough

Girlscan Blog, Self-esteem

One of my biggest goals for Girls CAN is to support my daughter, all of our daughters and help them To find their inner sparkle, allowing them to see what makes them shine from the inside out. We want girls to love and respect themselves, to see what makes them special and to feel their strength no matter what life throws at them. In order for any of us to have an effect on helping the girls in our lives we need to model that behavior and take a look at ourselves and be sure that we are treating the little girls inside of us like we always deserved to be treated!

I recently took part in a training focusing on empowerment for girls and I must admit I learned a lot about myself and about things that I need to put into practice. The reality about empowering girls is that it’s not just about telling them how incredible they are, it truly is about modelling self love and respect and feeling inner strength no matter what life throws at us.

In the training that I took part in earlier this week we talked about how we used to talk to the girl inside us, did we put ourselves down or doubt ourselves? Did we feel unworthy or less than or did we have trouble standing up for ourselves or did we just want to fit in? The girl inside any of us who isn’t standing up for ourselves, who is telling us that we don’t deserve happiness or that we could have done better, been better or looked better or whatever it is that mean girls says… let’s be honest, she isn’t nice and we need to get rid of her.

If I think about it we most likely all have that inner mean girl at some point in our lives… could have been when we were younger or now as adults. In the exercise that I took part in I had to think about what my inner mean girl would have said to me in my younger years, maybe as a pre teen, teenager or younger adult. I’m sure she said a few things but one thing I can hear her say is ‘you aren’t really sure of yourself’ or maybe ‘you need to make others happy before truly making yourself happy’!

I try to model self respect and of course I want to show kindness to others but there have been times in my life that I have doubted myself or put the needs of others before mine even when I shouldn’t have because it was detrimental to me! This exercise allowed me to remember those times and reflect on maybe what was going on during periods of my life, how I felt about myself and how I could have done things differently! I do believe my older self would have some things to say to my younger self if I had the opportunity.

Now, my opportunity is this – model it, treat myself like I deserve the best and believe in myself the way I expect my daughter to believe in herself, feel confident in how I look and how I feel because if she watches me having self love and respect she will treat herself and teach herself to do the same. My daughter Emily is my biggest fan and my drive to start Girls CAN and to share with others so I need to be what she sees in me- that strong empowered woman!

My hopes is that if you are reading this and you are a mom to one or more girls or someone who has important girls in their life – please first of all think of how you treat yourself first … that in itself will help all of of our girls know that they have an inner sparkle and we can help them take on any self doubt and move past the insecurities to let that sparkle shine through.

Be kind to yourself.

Stay tuned for our upcoming Girls CAN workshops.

Erin xo

Girlscan Blog

Keep Going!

June 3, 2020 No Comments

Girls… resilient and empowered!

How do you make it to the top of the mountain when all of the things along the way seem ridiculously hard to get past?

Ok, so this is something that I want to teach my daughter; being resilient and feeling empowered will help us get to where we want to be.. Definitely not always easy… BUT these are things we need to figure out because if we can get past the tough stuff we get to the good stuff!

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that there have been times in life of feeling overwhelmed, maybe emotions took over and things felt really hard. We’ve all been there so don’t think you’re alone. One day, we need to decide to make the conscious decision to understand that the way we think about life and the way we think about ourselves really matters. If we can see this early on and figure out that girl power is real then we will save ourselves some time and be able to reach our goals a lot faster. The second I’ve decided to change my mindset about something that didn’t feel right, to push through and actually feel how powerful I could be was the moment things would start to change for me. Realizing that letting go of the things that don’t feel good but being resilient to keep working on your goals is an extremely important move. When you start to see things differently then life can just start to come together a little bit easier than it did before. Once you realize how resilient and empowered you really are what you need to do can become a lot more clear than it was in the past.

If there is one gift I can give my daughter and any girls or women reading this it is to understand that life is not meant to be as difficult as it can seem at times. This is where resiliency comes into play and the ability to be able to recover quickly from difficult situations. Allowing ourselves to feel an emotion but then not let that emotion completely take over is a big part of having control of our own life and decisions! The way we think and what we say to ourselves really matters!

Girls CAN is an important place to talk about how we can work on feeling resilient and empowered. We are offering coaching sessions / activities for girls and women of various ages and stages helping to build resiliency and to find our empowered selves – would absolutely love to share this with you so please get in touch if you are interested or have any questions of how we can help you find some of that kick ass power you’ve got inside you.

Girlscan Blog

You’ve Got This!

June 1, 2020 No Comments

Self Confidence

Let’s be honest, sometimes us girls have struggled with finding our self confidence!. Even when life might look great to others on the outside, on the inside we may not feel that strength, bravery or confidence that is deep down inside us.

The definition of self confidence – ‘a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities and judgement’ – oh yes, pretty sure there have been more than a few times that I’ve lacked in one or all of those areas.

This is why Girls CAN exists …. to let all of us girls know that IF WE BELIEVE WE CAN THEN WE WILL!!! That’s me shouting that to all of you… I hope you can hear me.

Whether young or not so young we all need this reminder! We all need to look in the mirror and take on the challenge of believing in ourselves. Sometimes that self confidence can get lost along the way, and we may not be the little girls that were running around singing at the top of their lungs, dancing like no one was watching or showing the world who is boss.

So, Girls CAN wants to create a space to celebrate our successes, provide support to find that inner self confidence and work on getting to where we all want to be – Girl Power is real so let’s show it off no matter what age or stage we are at in our lives …

To all of the ladies…. remember

Look in the mirror and remind yourself that you have so much beauty both inside and out
Remember you can’t always make everyone else happy – work on making yourself happy first
Get involved and try new things – even if you’re not perfect at something at least you are trying
Even when you feel nervous to put yourself out there it will feel so good when you do
Compliment other girls because it just feels good
Use your voice even when you think no one will hear you
Love yourself, talk nicely to yourself and remember you are worth it

Self Love, Self Care, Self Confidence – if we love ourselves, take care of ourselves and believe we can then we will –

girls, you’ve got this!

Please no matter who you are or how old you are, we would love to hear a story that you’d like to share of you or a girl in your life showing some true bravery, trying something new, reaching a goal, showing that Girls CAN do whatever they put their mind to… send a pic, write a story and send it in… we are here to celebrate together xo

Girlscan Blog

Stay Happy and Healthy

May 30, 2020 No Comments

Stay Happy and Healthy

How many of you have experienced the benefits of essential oils? I admit for years I’d heard of others using them and of course I assumed that there were benefits but I hadn’t really experienced anything personally. Now, after my experiences over the last year or so I have to admit they do feel pretty essential in my house.

Right now as the whole world should be focusing on health and wellness, I thought it would be a good time for me to share a bit of my own health and wellness journey. Before a few years ago I felt like I wasn’t following through on some of my self care goals and thinking I was just too busy! After taking a good look at myself I realized that the only person who was getting in the way of any of that was myself because in reality I had the time – I just needed to make it work. I wanted to learn about various health and wellness routines, products and methods for myself and my family so I decided to make that my goal.

I started to educate and arm myself with what I felt would be most beneficial. Along with a few other things, I wanted to learn more about essential oils – the essence of a plant that is distilled and created to bring the power of nature into our homes. As I was just dabbling here and there and admittedly not really knowing what the big deal was with essential oils (other than they made my house smell fantastic) I met up with an old friend at a local yoga festival who was selling essential oils and sharing her experiences with others. This felt like an opportunity for me to actually start to learn, buy some products and get started. I purchased a start up package with some of the main household basic oils and I haven’t looked back. Gradually, I’ve become more familiar of the many benefits and have made oils at home my ‘GO TO’ for many of our needs. Anywhere from the benefits of peppermint – energizing, beneficial for headaches, digestion, allergies, and a great way to freshen breath and add some great flavour in the kitchen… to the benefits of clementine – elevating mood and positive emotions, assisting in anxiety and cleansing the air. Now, I have to say that I have experienced these benefits personally.

Allergy season, turn on the diffuser – lavender, eucalyptus, lemon and peppermint – filling the air with a very delicious smell but also the benefits of lavender that will work like a natural antihistamine, has strong anti-inflammatory properties that will relieve most allergic reactions, and the strong, fresh minty peppermint that will start to open up the airways.

Headaches? Try some peppermint oil before loading up on Tylenol… peppermint oil in a bottle with a roller and it feels amazing when being rolled on temples, back of neck or shoulders or even chest (DO NOT get in your eye… trust me I know from personal experience). Peppermint having the ability to relax muscles and ease pain – give it a shot

Blends that have immune supporting properties and and can help with cleansing and purifying the air; orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus, and rosemary

For a restful sleep add a few drops of lavender to the diffuser at night for a calming effect and easing tension, for the most part we sleep like babies at our house.

I must say that I’ve been loving to learn and experiment, anywhere from trying different oils in diffusers, topically or in my morning water or various recipes, making candles with a few different oils to clean the air or to create a mood, using specific blends to disinfect household surfaces, creating a room spray to assist in freshening the air, making a natural bug repellent, a natural hand sanitizer and various skin care products… it’s nice to know that by using these products I’m making healthy choices for myself and my family, every little bit counts in my mind.

So, please reach out if you are interested in learning more, want to ask me questions or if you’ve decided that it’s time to add a health and wellness goal to your to do list. I would be happy to share any knowledge and experience I have and help you to learn how to get started and feel supported along the way. I think we all need to feel comfortable to ask questions because if we don’t then we just won’t learn and I promise this stuff is worth learning.

Make health and wellness a priority and take care of yourself because you are worth it

Girlscan Blog

Share the Love

May 1, 2020 No Comments

Share the Love

So, girls – let’s be honest – we need one another!!!! I love the girls in my life and the more I think about how important those relationships are the more I want to make sure that my daughter finds those amazing girl friends in her life.

in this time of social isolation I’ve noticed that we are missing the girls night dinners, the lunchtime walks with the girls, a last minute tea with friends after a yoga class. We need to share the love with our girlfriends because it is healthy! It feels good to laugh together, cry together, share funny stories about our home lives, vent to one another or share tips and tricks of how to balance the sometimes busy schedule of life responsibilities and still keep our sanity. Now, in this very crazy difficult time if it’s having a face-time call, a long needed chat over the phone – please make the time for your girls. It is soooo good for you and you will feel better for doing it.

Thinking about the girls in my life and I must say I have some pretty important females in my life and each one of those relationships has meant a lot to me and helped me in some way. I want to encourage my daughter Emily, find those girls – not just any girl but those girls – the girls that you just feel like you can be yourself with, those you can share the love and be silly, laugh at yourself or cry in front of and never feel like you are being judged – just love! I have finally found my tribe and I’m not sure I always had the right girls in my life but now that I do I’m sitting here writing this and appreciating every single one of them …hoping they all know how important they are to me.

So, my lesson for all of us girls is to just love one another be good to one another and find those girls that you just click with, Encourage good friendships for your daughters and find those friendships for yourselves because once you have found them you will realize that you need those incredible women in your life!

I’m so grateful for all of the amazing, strong, brave, smart, creative, hilarious girls I have in my life and I hope they all know it!

Girlscan Blog

Get Creative

April 25, 2020 No Comments

CREATIVITY ~ find the time because it is so worth it!

One of the things that we try to do at home but we definitely want to do more of is to make the time to work on being more creative – singing, playing an instrument, painting, cooking, gardening, photography, dancing, writing, whatever the form or expression – creating!

Not only is being creative fun and gives us an outlet to express different parts of ourselves it also helps in reducing anxiety – Some people believe might that taking on a creative project can be a form a meditation and for any of you who have really allowed yourself to get into a painting, a song… let lose and let go of the outside world I would have to admit it can be extremely meditating and an excellent way to focus on your mind.

My daughter has been the one to remind me and bring me back to my creative side because sometimes with life responsibilities as we get older we can forget about how good it feels to get into a creative project. I hope to teach my daughter to hold onto her incredible creativity during her life and as she deals with the trials and tribulations that life is going to throw at her, it will be a helpful tool, give her an outlet and provide her with so many benefits in life.

The calming effects that doing something creative has on both our mind and our body is pretty incredible and it’s said that something like gardening can actually release dopamine, the natural anti-depressant. Even something as simply as colouring will actually improve both your mental health and your physical health! There is a state called ‘flow’ and this is when we are absorbed into something and the outside world doesn’t seem to matter in that moment then reducing anxiety and stress levels. Yes that’s the feeling of being able to LET IT GO!!!

To name a few benefits… reducing dementia, improving mood, making us smarter and even boosting our immune systems… WHAT?

Two simple activities that many of us do or really should try to do – Writing in a journal and listening to music are said to actually benefit and boost your immune system!!! I agree I wasn’t sure how or why and sounds like experts still haven’t completely figured that out yet but our immune system is said to be stronger when engaging in both writing and music.

So, what am I trying to say? I’m not asking you to be the best painter, to be a master pianist or all of sudden become little miss crafty – I mean try… put yourself out there and try. Buy a canvas and paint something, create a garden, write a story or a song or even just something little about what you are grateful for at the end of the day. If you want to learn pottery, do it, if you want to pick up where you’ve left off learning that musical instrument, do it. They say that playing a musical instrument actually makes us smarter and those who know how to play an instrument have better connectivity between the left and right side of our brain. The left side controlling our motor functions and the right side focusing on melody – when both sides come together that’s when cognitive function starts to really improve and yes we can become smarter!!!

So, get to it, make some time because I promise you it will be worth it and who knows maybe you will find that hidden creative talent you’ve been looking for. Please feel free to send in any creative piece you want to share, any project that you feel extra proud of, we would love to see it and share it with our girls.

Have fun xo