Today, 7 November 2007, is Stress Awareness Day in the UK. Stress can take many guises and is often a word that is overused when people are under pressure or anxiety. Many people are confused about what stress actually is and the differences between pressure and stress. There are many different interpretations of stress, although one definition which I like is “a reaction to continued excessive pressure or responsibility when you feel unable to cope”.
Whether you are finding it hard to cope with stress or every day pressures, follow the link below to the National Stress Awareness site to find 10 tips to reduce stress in your life.
http://www.nationalstressawarenessday.co.uk/top10.aspx
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Taking some time out
After what I felt to be a very busy and stressful week, I took some time out yesterday at a Dru Yoga workshop in Southampton. I believe it is important to take this time occasionally and reconnect with what is important in life.
It brought me back down to earth and reminded me of something that I would like to share with you now.
We can all choose how we feel about things. If you want to feel stressed about something, you probably will feel uptight and anxious about it. You will then carry this stressed feeling into other parts of your life, and to other people. But you do have the power to change your attitude. You don't have to feel stressed about that thing - you can choose to let it go, learn and move on with your life.
In NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) terms it is known as reframing. This means taking a negative experience and reframing negative experiences in a new and more positive light. Now, this is an exercise I use with my clients regularly, but this has reminded me to refocus my own thoughts, so I hope you do too.
Now, here's to a fantastic new and chilled out week!
It brought me back down to earth and reminded me of something that I would like to share with you now.
We can all choose how we feel about things. If you want to feel stressed about something, you probably will feel uptight and anxious about it. You will then carry this stressed feeling into other parts of your life, and to other people. But you do have the power to change your attitude. You don't have to feel stressed about that thing - you can choose to let it go, learn and move on with your life.
In NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) terms it is known as reframing. This means taking a negative experience and reframing negative experiences in a new and more positive light. Now, this is an exercise I use with my clients regularly, but this has reminded me to refocus my own thoughts, so I hope you do too.
Now, here's to a fantastic new and chilled out week!
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
New experiences and fun
Gosh, its been a busy month. After running a series of workshops for a local school in Leigh Park for children, which was challenging - covering motivation, achievement and goal setting - I have now started running workshops for adults!
I ran the Build your Business Confidence workshop for the South East Hants Enterprise Gateway last week. This was a really great workshop focusing on strengths, beliefs and confidence for a group of ladies wanting to set up their own business. I had some fantastic feedback and learnt a lot myself.
I am also running the Make Time for your Life workshop on 27 October with a fellow coach. This will be a great morning, and again will focus on positive action people can take to make change.
To keep in touch with all my news, hints and tips, please sign up to my newsletter at www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/newsletters
I ran the Build your Business Confidence workshop for the South East Hants Enterprise Gateway last week. This was a really great workshop focusing on strengths, beliefs and confidence for a group of ladies wanting to set up their own business. I had some fantastic feedback and learnt a lot myself.
I am also running the Make Time for your Life workshop on 27 October with a fellow coach. This will be a great morning, and again will focus on positive action people can take to make change.
To keep in touch with all my news, hints and tips, please sign up to my newsletter at www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/newsletters
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Managing change in your life
In a previous post, I talked about being in your comfort zone and how easy it is to stay in this area. But the journey of making change is not always easy. When people make major change in their life, whether it is a voluntary or forced change, they go through a range of emotions and thoughts.
Their reactions are often as follows:
1. Denial - "it can't be true" or "I can't believe it"
2. Blaming others - "they shouldn't have done that" or "it is their fault"
3. Blaming themselves - "I should have known" or "it's my fault"
4. Accepting the new situation - "where do I go from here?"
5. Committing to change - "I'm going to do something about this"
6. Creative problem solving - "what am I going to do next?", "what are my options?"
7. Persevering and overcoming obstacles by being persistent - "I can do this!"
Sometimes people go through these stages quickly, but often they get stuck in the early stages of the model, and feel negative and sometimes depressed about a situation.
Even when making a voluntary change, such as changing your career or setting up a new business, it is still easy to find yourself in the areas of negativity. This is especially true in the early stages, such as the first few days or weeks in a new job or the first few months of running a business.
It is important to get to stage 4 as quickly as possible, and to set a plan to move on.
When you are experiencing change, you may also want to think about the reactions of other people in your life. They may also go through these stages as life will be different, and you may need their support. You could:
Consult them when you are making decisions and seek their advice
If you have a problem, ask for their help and listen to their views
Involve them in your vision and your plan for the future
Many of my clients face change when they come to see me, many want to make significant change in their life. If you would like more details, visit www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk.
Their reactions are often as follows:
1. Denial - "it can't be true" or "I can't believe it"
2. Blaming others - "they shouldn't have done that" or "it is their fault"
3. Blaming themselves - "I should have known" or "it's my fault"
4. Accepting the new situation - "where do I go from here?"
5. Committing to change - "I'm going to do something about this"
6. Creative problem solving - "what am I going to do next?", "what are my options?"
7. Persevering and overcoming obstacles by being persistent - "I can do this!"
Sometimes people go through these stages quickly, but often they get stuck in the early stages of the model, and feel negative and sometimes depressed about a situation.
Even when making a voluntary change, such as changing your career or setting up a new business, it is still easy to find yourself in the areas of negativity. This is especially true in the early stages, such as the first few days or weeks in a new job or the first few months of running a business.
It is important to get to stage 4 as quickly as possible, and to set a plan to move on.
When you are experiencing change, you may also want to think about the reactions of other people in your life. They may also go through these stages as life will be different, and you may need their support. You could:
Consult them when you are making decisions and seek their advice
If you have a problem, ask for their help and listen to their views
Involve them in your vision and your plan for the future
Many of my clients face change when they come to see me, many want to make significant change in their life. If you would like more details, visit www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk.
Friday, 31 August 2007
Creating confident communication
I hope that you have made some steps to move out of your comfort zone over the last few weeks. It can often be hard to make steps towards something you fear or something which is out of the ordinary. There are also situations where you might have to fake it to succeed. So what do I mean?
Sometimes when you enter a new experience, you need to pretend to be more confident than you really feel, so I want to give you some tips to enable you to create confident communication.
1. Your body language can show how you feel, so stand up tall, use open body language, make eye contact with people and most importantly smile! Think about someone who is confident that you admire, and walk, act and talk like them - if it works for them, it should work for you.
2. When you go into a new situation, such as a meeting where you don't know anyone, approach someone who looks like they are in a similar situation and make small talk. Yes, you could talk about the weather, but you could also ask open questions to the other person. People love to talk about themselves, so as long as your listening skills are good, this is a great way to get to know other people.
3. Also, prepare for the new situation. This might include doing research before a meeting or getting ready for a job interview. Be prepared to meet any challenge that might arise, and this will boost your confidence.
4. And lastly for now, don't forget to learn from things that have not worked for you and most importantly, celebrate successes. Remember how you felt when you were that cool, confident person, and take this forward to the next new and challenging experience!
Sometimes when you enter a new experience, you need to pretend to be more confident than you really feel, so I want to give you some tips to enable you to create confident communication.
1. Your body language can show how you feel, so stand up tall, use open body language, make eye contact with people and most importantly smile! Think about someone who is confident that you admire, and walk, act and talk like them - if it works for them, it should work for you.
2. When you go into a new situation, such as a meeting where you don't know anyone, approach someone who looks like they are in a similar situation and make small talk. Yes, you could talk about the weather, but you could also ask open questions to the other person. People love to talk about themselves, so as long as your listening skills are good, this is a great way to get to know other people.
3. Also, prepare for the new situation. This might include doing research before a meeting or getting ready for a job interview. Be prepared to meet any challenge that might arise, and this will boost your confidence.
4. And lastly for now, don't forget to learn from things that have not worked for you and most importantly, celebrate successes. Remember how you felt when you were that cool, confident person, and take this forward to the next new and challenging experience!
Friday, 10 August 2007
Moving beyond your comfort zone
In my August newsletter I wrote an article to help people to move out of their comfort zone. But as a life coach, it is important to note that I walk my talk and I too have gone out of my comfort zone over the last couple of weeks!
My brother in law has a pilots licence and a couple of weeks ago he asked me if I would like to go flying with him. I didn't give it a second thought and said yes. So when we got into the tiny two seater plane, I suddenly remembered how much I didn't like heights! Leaving from near Woking, we followed the seemingly vacant airspace south towards Portsmouth.
On such an amazingly beautiful day, it was worth stepping beyond my own comfort zone and doing something new. Flying over my house in Portsmouth, the Spinaker tower and the dockyard was a fantastic experience. We flew over the Solent towards the Isle of Wight and could even (just) see the white cliffs of Dover in the far distance. It felt like we had the sky to ourselves. And what would have happened if I had said no - I wouldn't have had this awesome experience and would have never contemplated doing something different.
So take a risk today and try new and unusual experiences! For other interesting articles, hints and tips, sign up to my newsletter today.
My brother in law has a pilots licence and a couple of weeks ago he asked me if I would like to go flying with him. I didn't give it a second thought and said yes. So when we got into the tiny two seater plane, I suddenly remembered how much I didn't like heights! Leaving from near Woking, we followed the seemingly vacant airspace south towards Portsmouth.
On such an amazingly beautiful day, it was worth stepping beyond my own comfort zone and doing something new. Flying over my house in Portsmouth, the Spinaker tower and the dockyard was a fantastic experience. We flew over the Solent towards the Isle of Wight and could even (just) see the white cliffs of Dover in the far distance. It felt like we had the sky to ourselves. And what would have happened if I had said no - I wouldn't have had this awesome experience and would have never contemplated doing something different.
So take a risk today and try new and unusual experiences! For other interesting articles, hints and tips, sign up to my newsletter today.
Saturday, 28 July 2007
Do you know the secret?
I would like to tell you about The Secret. It is a book, audio CD and DVD about the law of attraction. It looks at how you can create unlimited joy, health, money, and relationships - everything you could ever want. Complete with real life stories, The Secret shares the stories of how people have overcome obstacles to achieve what they thought was impossible.
It has sparked a lot interest and controversy over the last few months, and love it or hate it, the power of attraction is very real.
The law of attraction means that you attract everything into your life by what you are thinking. This is why it is important to think about what you want rather than you what you don't want. Put your energy into achieving clear and tangible goals or targets, then the world is your oyster.
Here are my top tips to attract what you want into your life:
1. Be clear about what you really want - make sure it is specific. What exactly do you want to achieve? How are you going to do it?
2. Ask the universe for what you want - keep a diary or record what you want to achieve, remembering to focus on what you really want. Or you could create a vision or mood board, be creative and use pictures or words to clearly identify what you want in your life.
3. Have faith that you will have it. To enforce this belief, visualise yourself once you have achieved it. What do you see, feel, hear?
4. Take action to manifest what you want. Focus on it daily, and take small but manageable steps towards its achievement.
It has sparked a lot interest and controversy over the last few months, and love it or hate it, the power of attraction is very real.
The law of attraction means that you attract everything into your life by what you are thinking. This is why it is important to think about what you want rather than you what you don't want. Put your energy into achieving clear and tangible goals or targets, then the world is your oyster.
Here are my top tips to attract what you want into your life:
1. Be clear about what you really want - make sure it is specific. What exactly do you want to achieve? How are you going to do it?
2. Ask the universe for what you want - keep a diary or record what you want to achieve, remembering to focus on what you really want. Or you could create a vision or mood board, be creative and use pictures or words to clearly identify what you want in your life.
3. Have faith that you will have it. To enforce this belief, visualise yourself once you have achieved it. What do you see, feel, hear?
4. Take action to manifest what you want. Focus on it daily, and take small but manageable steps towards its achievement.
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