Positive Thinking Series - Are you a victim or a survivor?

Over the past six weeks, I’ve shared my Positive Thinking Series.  Last week we talked about how failure was a good thing, you can read that post HERE. 

In the final post of this series, I want to discuss ways of moving forward and not letting your past hold you back.

We’ve all experienced a setback or two in our lives.  Sometimes they are small inconveniences, and other times they are life altering situations.  How you react to these events frames the way your future self copes with other circumstances.

Have you ever listened to someone as they grumble about a physical ailment, knowing that you, or a friend, suffer from the same problem?  We all learn to cope with our setbacks in different ways. However, some people are unable to do this and live a ‘victims’ life instead.  Which would you rather be, a victim or a survivor?

Visualisation techniques for a happy life

Way back in the depths of winter I decided to cheer myself up by pre-booking a summer holiday.  It gave me something to look forward to when the weather was grey, and my mood was even darker. 

As I chomped my way through the mince pies and turkey leftovers, I believed that the extra weight I was carrying would be a distant memory by the time my holiday arrived.  Fast forward seven months and my stomach still wobbles when I walk, my boobs get in the way when I bend over to tie my shoelaces and don’t get me started on bat wings!

There is a personal development tool that I should have used to motivate myself toward that bikini fit body.  A technique that can show you what your hopes and wishes will look like, and guide you to make the right choices to manifest them.  That technique is Vision Boarding.

I’ve written about vision boards before as they are one of my favourite personal development tools.  I love the simplicity and the creativity. 

Helping Yourself To Heal

A couple of weeks ago I shared a post about Numerology and Lucky Charms; you can read that here http://myresolutionchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/looking-at-numerology-and-lucky-charms.html

I am a great believer in reading the signs around you.  Of course, this may be my inner writer looking for a new story arc, either way we are sent messages on a regular basis.  It’s up to us to tune in and hear them or carry on regardless.

When I host my vision board workshops, I help students tap into those messages to create a vision of how they would like their life to be.  If you are interested in learning more about Vision Boards you can read about them here http://myresolutionchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/a-new-vision-for-new-year.html

At the start of each year, I prepare a board for all the exciting things I want to achieve, be, have or work on during the next twelve months.  I’ve done this for years, and I continue to be astounded at how varied my boards are from year to year. 

Sink or Swim? How to Handle the New Year.

At this time of year I feel like Kate Winslet's character from the movie, Titanic.  It's that moment when Rose and Jack are clinging to the railing of the doomed ship, with seconds to reflect, before being sucked into the icy depths.

The New Year feels similar.  I'm clinging on to the old year, full of its adventures, loves and losses and wondering if I'll survive what's to come.

Just like Rose, I hold my breath and kick like crazy for the surface.  What I find each year never fails to amaze me.  I learn new lessons, meet new mentors and discover a little bit more about myself with each passing moment.

To be able to cling on so hard to the back of my ship I need to add a little structure into my life.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me the importance of planning.  Nothing changes unless you make it happen, and to do this you need to sort through your thoughts and catalogue them in the best way for you.

Every new year I ask myself two questions:

Happy Business Birthday To Me!

This week I celebrated one of my greatest achievements.  The sixth birthday of my holistic health business, Body & Soul Holistics.

So much has changed in six years.  My business has made many twists and turns along the way.  As a newbie entrepreneur, I assumed that I needed to offer as many treatments as I could.  I spent huge sums of money and precious time training in everything from the metamorphic technique to waxing.

I hated waxing!  I have a huge amount of respect for all the therapists out there who rip hairs off people's body parts day and night, but it wasn't for me!  Of course, to drop a treatment after you had paid for the course and dedicated hours to training and case studies was a sin, or so I thought.

The further along my spiritual/business journey I travelled, I began to realise that it was okay to walk away from the parts of my job that weren't working for me.  If they weren't adding benefit to my personal journey then why did I keep them in my life?  I took waxing off my treatment list, along with spray tans and facials.

How To Stay Motivated

With the recent launch of my latest book and the success of my Motivate Me Workshops for Women, I have been asked the same question over the past couple of weeks, 'How do you fit it all it?'

The honest answer is, 'It just happens!'

I have always been able to multi-task, I think this is the Gemini side of my personality, and having multiple projects on the go keeps my mind active and (hopefully) keeps me young!  This question did make me think hard about how I manage to motivate myself, and I wanted to share my findings in the hope it may help you to stay motivated.

First of all I revisited my story on the Female Entrepreneur Association website.  This was an interview about how I motivated myself to start my own business, 'Body & Soul Holistics'.  I was so proud of this feature and received some amazing feedback.  You can read that interview here.

How To Think Outside The Box

Our brain is very complex and a single thought is enough to re-wire it.  Thinking outside the box can help us be more creative and improve our well-being.  'Thoughts become things - pick the good ones' is a favourite quote of mine and an affirmation I try to use daily.



Taken from Pinterest

It really is as simple as thinking happy thoughts to be able to shift a bad mood or change a situation to your advantage and yet millions of people get stuck feeding negative thoughts and attracting more negativity in to their lives.  I saw this in action earlier this week.

Standing in a shop queue on Monday I listened to a conversation between the cashier and a woman with her young son.  'Can't wait for him to go back to school,' she said as her son nibbled on his fingernails, 'school holidays are a nightmare, they get bored and under my feet and I count the days before I can send them back again.'  She packed her bags and departed with her young, thoroughly depressed son shuffling along behind her.

The Four Zone Approach to Resolutions

When I started my Resolution Challenge blog, it was a way to keep focused on my goals for the year ahead.  I succeeded in completing every challenge I set myself and finished the year with a sense of fascination mixed with a touch of excitement.

If I could change my life in 365 days, just imagine what I could do if I kept going...oh, the possibilities.

I then had to decide what I could do in the new year to keep the momentum going and give my readers something worthwhile to read.

This was when I decided to mix it up and break my resolutions in to zones (that's the reflexologist in me talking).

Zone One - Well-Being Resolutions.

This section includes all the resolutions/goals that can help make life a little easier and less stressful, take my Vision Board post for example -

A New Vision for a New Year

New starts, new beginnings, new year's - they offer each of us some exciting opportunities.  But what if you're still unsure what direction you would like your new year or new start to take?

Panic not!  There is a simple way to discover what lies hidden in your subconscious and that's vision boarding.

I touched on vision boards many months ago, as a way to help a writer find inspiration for their short stories or characters.  The post was well received and even featured in The Writers' Idea Store, written by Paula Williams for the Writers' Forum Magazine.

For our New Year vision however, we can develop a board to help us set and achieve our personal goals.

So what do you need to get started? 

What Have You Achieved in the Last 6 Months?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary to 'achieve' means to succeed in doing something by effort, skill, or courage.

What a lovely mantra for our daily lives.

What have YOU achieved in the last 6 months?  The reason I ask this question is because it's exactly 6 months since I began My Resolution Challenge.  Yes, it's a frightening thought but we are half way through the year!

So when I began this challenge 6 months ago, my initial aim was to complete at least one or two of the items on my New Year resolution list.  I would be happy to lose 8lb, I would be over the moon to run without the aid of an oxygen tank and I would be ecstatic to have one of my stories published. 

Week 11 - A Creative Vision

Let me begin with a quick thank you for all the wonderful feedback I received this week.  It would seem that my 'creative beginnings' book tour brought up a host of childhood memories for a number of readers.  I shall have to start a petition for an adult only 'dress as your favourite book character' day; why should the kids have all the fun?  After eating all my Mother's Day chocolates I can definitely pass as Moonface from The Folk of the Faraway Tree!


One of the workshops I run at Body & Soul Holistics is a Vision Board course.  This two hour workshop helps my clients to create a vision of what they want in their lives from career, love, family or health matters.

When I was thinking about characters and scene setting for my creative writing class it dawned on me