I’m celebrating International Women’s Day for the women in my life. I’m celebrating it for my little girl and all the little girls who I pray will grow up to be brave, resilient, independent, full of joy and guided by love and all that is good. Happy International Women’s Day everyone.

Here is what is seriously wrong with that - you're not just waking up in the morning feeling like a five. You're also bringing that five with you when you interact with your family, your team or clients at work and even with your friends. You're solving problems from that five. You're making decisions from that five.

I've long been a fan of Julie Buczkowski and Angela Pastor, founders of The Fitzroy (Dress Rental Magic). Through their rental service, they bring an amazing assortment of designer dresses to women all across Toronto. Six months after my daughter was born I had a wedding to go to and decided to rent a gorgeous dress I never would have bought for myself. I hadn't felt that good in a long time. (It really is rental dress magic!)

Other times, we become stuck in old ways of thinking. This is equally painful as there is nothing physically stopping us from changing things, but somehow we can't get out of our own way. We may feel frustrated or a bit anxious, but feel unable to move forward even though we're not satisfied with where we are. I've felt like this when I was in a job I enjoyed but wasn't completely aligned with where I saw my future. It was a good job and the thought of letting it go was downright frightening.

Never, ever close your heart. I read this phrase in The Untethered Soul, one my favourite spiritual books, in the months after my husband passed away. I was grieving deeply for him and for me. I was feeling sorry for myself and was scared for my future. But somehow these words, “Never close your heart” were confirmation of something I already felt deep down. It was almost as if I could have written them myself. Because despite all the pity I was receiving from others, I knew those weren’t the thoughts I should embrace or absorb. What I wanted to and needed to believe was that nothing was worth closing my heart over. Even my own sad story.

The other day as I started looking for a new calendar, I thought about how each of those squares on the page make up our year. Each of those days are building blocks, or bricks, if you will, that we build our lives with. With each and every brick, we have the opportunity to get that much closer to reaching our goals and manifesting our desires. Each brick is a new chance to wake up and choose who we want to be and what we want to create.

Fellow friends over 40 and beyond, I have a quick but important message for you. Please ignore those 30 under 30 and 40 under 40 lists that come out around this time of year. Of course let’s celebrate the wins of our younger friends. But do not those lists get you down.

The idea is that no matter what want goal we wish to accomplish - it could be anything from running a marathon to feeling more fulfilled in our day to day life, we should be asking who can help us get there rather than how to get there. The fact is someone knows how to get there in a more efficient way than we do. Perhaps that person has done it before or has helped many others do it. If you want to reach your goal, why would you additionally put the pressure of how to reach it on yourself?

Do you consider yourself to be strong? I have been through many difficult experiences at a relatively young age and throughout it all I’ve taken pride in my strength. The word strong has at least sixteen different definitions. Beyond the obvious ones that don’t apply (strong odor or physically strong), the ones that I relate to the most are “not mild or weak” and “not easily upset”. Being strong has allowed me to focus, persevere, to take charge and also to take care of myself even through stressful situations. It is good to be strong. Strong is good.

Remember that from the time you were born, you shone a light as strong as a star (a nova!) on everyone and everything around you. That is your true self, your true spirit. Any pain that you experience will only deepen your compassion and understanding for yourself and others.

This is the third feature in our series, How I Live Well. Our aim through this series is to sneak a peek into the daily lives of creative, entrepreneurial and inspiring women who seem to have and do it all. Today we are featuring Haley Bogaert, a make-up artist and founder of Haley Bogaert Face.

Self-care is about far more than eating healthy, meditating and exercising regularly. It’s about doing things for yourself that add to joy to your life. So in the name of adding more JOY to your life, I suggest we truly proclaim Sunday to be our day to follow our fancies, uncover our curiosities, create our dreams.

A muse is simply someone who is a source of inspiration. It is wonderful to have someone to look up to or be inspired by. But the truth is it is very difficult to connect what makes someone else inspiring directly to ourselves. It is difficult to take what makes them inspiring and activate that in our own lives. After all, you are two different people with different experiences, personalities and spirits.

It’s time to go deeper. It’s time to let how we feel be self-directed instead of dictated by the media, current events, or social media. It’s time to go within.

We all feel sad or down sometimes. Those feelings are normal human emotions. They key is not to get stuck there. Here are eight ways to pull yourself out of a funk when you're feeling low.

Transitions are most often hard and transformations are always messy. We feel pulled between who we were, who we are becoming, who we want to be and how others see us. Sometimes our self-identity hasn’t caught up with where we want to go. But bold changes or moves can help us get there by giving us a boost into the future.

Every summer, I write something about summer being my favourite season of the year. That is how much I love it. I love the freedom of not having to check just what level of freezing it is before I get dressed for the day. I love leaving my jacket at home. I love seeing everyone on the street shed their ugly black puffy coats for colour and fashion again. I love how the city comes alive — it’s as if people come streaming outside after being released from that prison we call winter.

Us humans, we thrive on progress. We feel alive when growing, achieving and dreaming. But I’ve been reflecting a lot lately as I too focus on these things, that it should never be in exchange for fully enjoying our lives as they are right now. Yes, even with challenges and problems we are facing — personal, professional, financial, health-related, we should and can still be fully present and joyful in our lives right now. Here are five ways to do just that.

Your birthday is a big deal. It is the day you were miraculously delivered to this world. It is the day you started your life-adventure. Think of all the people you have influenced, impacted and loved since that day. How is that not a big deal? Let’s agree right now, that your birthday is a day worth truly celebrating.

This is the fifth feature in our new series, How I Live Well. Our aim through this series is to sneak a peek into the daily lives of creative, entrepreneurial and inspiring women who seem to have and do it all. What seemingly small choices do they make throughout their day in order to live fully and with purpose? How do they design their days with living well in mind? Today we are featuring Alyssa Kerbel, Founder of Mini Mioche.