Are Our Minds Like a Sat Nav?

I'm starting to believe that our minds are more like a Sat Nav than we could ever image.

With the Sat Nav we put the destination in (postcode) then we listen to the directions to get there.  So what if we just had to put our goal into our mind and then listen to the instructions to get there.

All the successful business coaches use goal setting as a huge part of what they recommend.   There are endless books written all using goal setting as the way to move forward.  Athletes use visualisation of seeing themselves winning (already having the goal) as part of their training.  Religions ask us to pray for what we want (set the goal).

So why haven’t we all got what we want? 

• Firstly we don’t set the goal, we don’t have a destination.  We drift along like a raft in the sea just being bounced around where life takes us, oblivious to the fact that we could make a difference.  We occasionally dream of something better, but without any serious intent, without writing it down and without visualising and feeling ourselves already having it, it won’t happen. Imagine going out in your car without a destination, you could end up anywhere, or even nowhere, just going round in circles.

• Secondly, if we have set our goal, then we don’t always listen to the directions/ guidance when we get it.  We shut ourselves off to the instructions on how to get there.  We carry on doing the same things, expecting to get the perfect result.  There is a saying that madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result.  We have to make change for change to happen.  If you become aware and listen you will hear the guidance, it is there whispering to you get up, focus, you can do it, it is nudging you along and as you listen synchronicity will start to happen.  The right people and situations will turn up at the right time, and your life will turn around.  It’s like a magic that happens when you listen and take action.  All the successful people know about this, they either do it naturally or have learned it.

So let’s go for it.  Set the goals, write them down, visualise yourself having them, feel what if feels like to have them, then LISTEN.  Listen to the guidance and take action, do it.  Could it all be as simple as programming your Sat Nav!

Happy New Year - Resolutions?

New Year's Resolutions -  I'm all in favour of setting positive intentions, but I just don't think 1st January is the best time for success.  I've still got a massive box of Thorntons chocolates unopened, a bottle of sparkling wine, plus a lovely raspberry roulade that we started yesterday and I want to enjoy them all.  I don't want to feel a failure by eating them, I don't want to eat them with guilt, I want to experience the pleasure of them all.  So I'm going for moderation not abstaining.  I really don't believe in the all or nothing approach, as you are either starving yourself or over eating. 

Years ago I used to diet and I would literally fast on some days, but on the days I ate I would go mad.  On the run up, to the start of a diet, it would be a time to eat everything you're not going to be allowed to eat, so you would probably get fatter before you even started.  Fortunately in 1994 I read a book that changed my relationship with food and my body for good.  It was called 'The Only Diet There Is' and it was a diet of negative thinking and beliefs.  It teaches you to eat everything with love and to look at the real issues of why you are overeating instead of just trying to use will power to achieve your goal.  You can only keep the will power up so long because the root cause still exists. 

So this year my approach to Christmas was, during December I set lots of positive intentions.  I exercised more than I had been doing.  I made an effort to meditate twice a day, which is transformational in itself.  Believe it or not meditation is the greatest tool to eating healthy, it somehow brings you into alignment with a more naturally healthy you.  I had odd minimalistic eating days when I would just eat fruit in the day then normal eating on an evening.  That helps to stop the overeating becoming a new daily habit. 

So here we are now 1st January, I don't feel my slimmest or healthiest, BUT I've eaten lots of nice things with love and I'm only fractionally heavier because my clothes still fit OK.  So all in all, I'd call it good plan for me.  I shall start weaning off the quantities of chocolate I've been having ready for really healthy eating in February.

I am now offering appointments called 'A New Relationship to Food and Weight' as I believe the key to health, happiness and being our ideal weight lies in letting go of our stress and our past baggage, learning a new positive way of thinking so we can live our life in joy as our natural healthy slender self.

A Happy New Year to you all.  I look forward to seeing you.  An appointment is only a phone call or an e-mail away.  Love Anne xx

Happiness Is An Inside Job

Simple Joy

This is a picture I took when I first moved into my house last year.  I was so excited to see an owl on top of a telegraph pole.  Then I noticed that it hadn't actually moved while I'd been looking at it.  I went back a while later and noticed it still hadn't moved.  At that point I began to realise it wasn't actually real. 

Initially I was disappointed, but then it turned to joy again.  Someone had bothered to put a model owl on top of a telegraph pole.  They had climbed to the top and positioned it so perfectly.  

I thought what a wonderful place to live.  I felt like I'd moved to some magical place where people still cared . 

The simple things in life can still bring great joy - even a plastic owl!  I still look at that owl and it brings me the same pleasure every time - someone bothered to do it.

Remember Who You Are

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

In this busy world it is so easy to forget who we really are. Life can become one endless treadmill.  Get up, go to work, come home from work, eat, fall asleep.  Then start it all over again.  During all of these activities, there can be some sense of fulfilment, achievement, even a laugh or two but what really is difficult to hold onto in this busy world is the STILLNESS WITHIN.  This is the part of us that keeps us balanced, helps us to make positive choices, tells us when to stop, rest, go within, allowing us to come home to ourselves.

In this coming home to ourselves all the stress and strain can melt away, we can access a wisdom beyond our logical imagination.  Life just seems easier and the stuff that really doesn't matter can fall away.  Make a commitment to yourself to REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.  Make some quiet still time for yourself.  Breath deeply and slowly, bring your awareness inside the centre of your body, rest there, get to know your true self.  You are amazing.

Change Versus 'Better The Devil You Know'

How many of us remember the saying 'Better The Devil You Know, Than The Devil You Don't Know'  How many times has that held people stuck in life.

We fear change so much that we stop with 'familiar' how ever uncomfortable it may be. It amazes me the power of familiar, how it makes us feel safe even if we don't like it.  It's really worth being aware of this and slowly starting to dare to move away from it.   Moving out of our comfort zone may seem frightening but it's really worth giving it a go.  Who knows what wonders are out there waiting for us.   Someone recently said to me 'comfort is over rated' and it's true, if we dare to move beyond it we can grow beyond our wildest imagination.  So go for change, dare to live and watch your life transform.  Trust your inner feelings to guide you to take the right steps.  You deserve to be happy.

Blessings Retreat and it's not religious

Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

I've just been away on a 'Blessings Retreat' in Derbyshire run by Pierre Pradervand author of 'The Gentle Art Of Blessing'.  It was a lovely experience and I've finally got the message, to be really happy we have to work at it, otherwise we are just at the mercy of life being thrown around by the circumstances of our life.

The good news is that the working at it is really quite simple.  All we have to do it send out blessings, kind thoughts, love or even just an intention, as often as we can, all day long.  As the saying goes 'the more the merrier'.  By doing this we are constantly putting ourselves into a positive energy and what we give out we get back.  The law of attraction, like attracts like. 

The really good thing about this is, even when you are really down you can do it and it will lift you.  Think of someone or something really special to you and send them/it love and notice how much better you feel.

The next step then is to send yourself blessings/love in the form of an affirmation :  I send love and blessings to myself in my joy of life, my vibrant health and vitality.  Send it in the positive as if you already have it.  You can add whatever you want.  It's so much fun and amazing how good you start to feel. 

At one point over the weekend we were sent off for half and hour on our own and told to notice everything around us and send it blessings/love/positive energy.  I found myself walking really briskly and being grateful for my body being able to do this.  I even had a little run to appreciate the fact that my body could run.  It gave me a sense of freedom and joy of the moment.  I then climbed a stile and saw 20 baby cows (I know they are called calves but I like to call them babies and I counted them).  They were all laid down in the sun and they let me walk amongst them.  I even touched one of them.  I stood amongst them for about 5 minutes and sent them love and blessings that they have a happy life and they are always treated well. I felt quite emotional at such an experience, their innocence and trust they had of me and their beauty.

I then walked back briskly enjoying being in my body, noticing all the wonders around me.  In Derbyshire there are a lot of wonders to see.

People sometimes associate the work 'blessings' with religion but really it has nothing to do with religion it is just a kindness.  When someone sneezes we say 'bless you', it's a good word that I think we should use more often.

I send BLESSINGS to you all that your lives continue to bring you happiness, health and wellbeing.  (Positive affirmation for you)