Have you ever tried going to sleep with a mosquito (mosquitoes) in the room? This problem is quite common in the summer, especially in the wilderness. The buzzing sound of the mosquito is quite distracting and can prevent many of us from falling asleep.  Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we ignored the sound of this small creature and focused on the bigger picture?!

I'm truly honoured that See Beautiful has awarded me with the title "Woman of the Month" for June. See Beautiful™ strives to be a place where girls and women feel empowered and recognize their beauty. I'm so flattered and humbled by the award.  Thank you, Lydia Cryss Mays, for this and for being such an active contributor to my blog. I'm so glad I connected with you. Keep up the amazing work! Please check out the See Beautiful site after you read this and connect with them too!

Do you ever feel like you are mentally swimming in quicksand? Well, you have two choices: you can sink, or you can keep swimming.

I often struggle with a fear of failure when it comes to achievement, but I persevere. I try to stop negative thoughts dead in their tracks. The importance of squelching negative thoughts fast was brought home to me recently after admitting to my family and close friends that I had been dealing with feelings of failure.

What does this term “being a failure” mean? I have two university degrees – one undergraduate, one graduate - and I’m on my way to a wonderful career. How could I possibly believe for a second that I could be “a failure”?

I had such a wonderful walk on the beach recently that I had to share my time with you. Looking at these pictures, I hope you are reminded to see the beauty in all you do.

Come join me on my walk :) This is my first all photo post. I hope you enjoy it.

I have decided to start a new feature on my blog, “Question of the Day.” Every so often, I am posed questions; I thought I would start to share these periodically with you before doing related follow-up posts.

I was emailed a question this week that I have heard many times; I would appreciate your input.

The email was from a reader who has a friend who has been struggling with living a healthy lifestyle for several years; as a result, the friend is severely overweight.  The reader wants to be supportive and a good friend to the other.