I was recently helping a friend who is suffering from anxiety.
Her head is a theme park - it’s filled with adventures and ideas and wonder. The trouble is that her theme park is open 24 hours! It’s an exhausting, messed up, busy place that she wants to escape. She thinks her head is a problem- something that she could ‘get rid of’.
Read MoreThinking has become my favourite pastime! And now like all passionate people with a hobby, I am aghast at why more people are not doing this thinking thing more often. Of the thinking that I have done - my most profound thought is that…
“Our beliefs are the foundation of our lives!”
I believe that the quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives. I have spent most of the past 20 years examining, exploring and choosing what I think about everything in my life.
Read MoreLiving an exhausted life is no fun. There is no room for fun and then one day you wake up no longer sure of how fun even works…
We are a nation of exhausted women. So many exhausted, boring and unhappy women. We don’t get enough sleep, don’t eat the right food, have lost the art of being curious, have no time to wonder or wander and are too tired to make an effort, gather some support and change the way we live. And our unhappiness is contagious! We start to affect the people around us - unhappy partners, unhappy children. Our children want us to have lots of energy and have lots of fun. Our partners want us to be happy, sexy and interesting.
Read MoreHow is your parenting experiment going?
In the past 25 years of being a parent, I have finally worked out what parenting actually is - it is an experiment!
Sometimes thoroughly researched, sometimes intuitive, sometimes flying by the seat of my arse, thinking on the spot, kind of experiment!
There are lots of different types of parents running different types of experiments as we speak.
Read MoreI am delighted to be a mature woman!
Don’t get me wrong. There are days when I wish I could pop back into my young body and party all night wearing not much! But mostly, I am very happy with my maturity. There are some amazing benefits to being on the other side of fifty!
Read MoreI was accused of being pushy this week! Who me??!!
I was pushing someone to be better. Someone who had asked me to work with them. Someone who apparently wanted to be better. But when push came to shove, they dug their heels in. They went into full donkey mode.
Why? Because they were scared. Because what they want is on the other side of what they are avoiding!
Read MoreI have always thought of my life as a movie.
Different phases, different times, different movies. I find it useful. I believe that I am an actor working through the scenes that I have been given. Often I do not know how the scene will end, I am not the director. I am the actor, whose role is to do the best job I can with the people, the scenes and the costumes that I am given!
Read MoreI’m giving you 4 days off!
Easter is my favourite holiday as in my world it's the holiday with the least to do. I don’t have to wrap gifts, put up a tree and cook specific foods.
We don’t really have any Easter traditions - I used to love buying my kids winter pyjamas and slippers but they have all moved on from mummy's flannelette treats!
Read MoreAs I get older, I’m finding the things that give me pleasure are simpler. I like to watch birds. I watch the quality of light at the start and end of the day. I sing really loudly to a stupid song. Taking the time to do the things that make us glow and feel good inside is not a luxury, it is an essential part of living well.
Read MoreEvery morning my alarm goes. The wonders of my modern iPhone mean that I get to name my alarm. My morning alarm says ‘The world needs you’.
As soon as I see that I am propelled out of bed, it’s the perfect reminder. I think that we are all here for a reason. I believe that the world needs each of us or quite simply we would not be here.
Read MoreOg Mandino is one of my favourite authors. At the back of his little book “The Greatest Miracle in the World” is the ‘God Memorandum’.
It speaks to me of 8 of my favourite values.
Read MoreFeeling worthy is a huge human challenge. I have never met anyone who has not been met by ‘a wall of worthlessness’ at some point in their lives.
Some people have a bigger struggle than others. The definition of self-worth is ‘a sense of one’s own value as a human being.’ It has the word ‘self’ in it which means that no one else can fix this for you. Self-worth, self-love, self esteem are all solo endeavours. It's about building a relationship with yourself and seeing yourself for who you are rather than who you have been told you are.
Read MoreOne of the meanings of the word ‘over’ means being in excess.
I have been ‘in excess’ my whole life!
I am over-responsible, I overeat, overtalk, overspend, overcompensate, overdeliver and overdo most things!
And I refuse to make myself wrong for any of it.
Read MoreThe disease of resentment is alive and well in so many people that I meet. They are resentful that their friends' lives turned out better than theirs, that they aren't as thin or rich or successful as they had planned! Resentment can deplete your emotional energy.
Read MoreIris Apfel was one of my 'big elephants'.
A big elephant is what I call the people that you follow. When a baby elephant is born, it spends 12 years following and learning from the big elephants in its herd. From them, the little elephant learns everything that it needs to know to be an awesome elephant. At the age of 12, the elephant leaves and starts its own herd.
Read MoreI don’t know about you but I have felt behind all of this year. Like I have been several steps behind where I want to be or what I want to do. So I have a plan!
Let’s cancel March. Let’s catch up!
If we put a line through March then we have four weeks to get ready for April. Take that April fool!!!
Read MoreWhy do humans do dumb shit?
People are by and large very clever but man we do some dumb shit!
Read MoreDo you feel supported by life?
It’s a big question.
I love the idea that life happens to us. That we are being directed by a director. Your director can be whoever you appoint. Someone or something much bigger than you.
I love the idea that I am a wave and my director is the ocean. The ocean is smart. It reads the tides, knows what’s happening and directs me as to where I need to be and whether I need to be big or small or low or high.
Read MoreI love certainty. If I am being entirely honest, I also love being right!
You know that feeling of ‘I know what to do here’ but people disregard you, don’t listen and then it turns out you were right?! And you are there thinking ‘I knew that all along!😏
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