Find a Little Me Time With Lava Shell Massage

Hands up who does everything for everyone and leaves themselves until last.  Go on, put your hand up, you know who you are.

I run a holistic health practice and offer numerous feel good therapies to my clients, I also offer them advice on what they can do for themselves in-between sessions.  So you would think I was able to take my words literally – apparently not. 

In my day-to-day work/life balance I momentarily forgot the fundamental goal; make time for me.

This lack of self-care has manifested into a physical ailment.  I am kicking myself for not taking care of my health sooner.  However, feeling very much like I’ve just closed the stable after the horse has bolted, I am taking time out for some self-help.

Looking at Numerology and Lucky Charms

Do you have a lucky pair of pants, carry a charm with you at all times to inspire good fortune, or consult the astrological gurus before you set foot outside your front door?

I believe that we can make our luck, and I am also a huge advocate for the affirmation ‘thoughts become things, pick good ones’.  However, lately I have started to question if there may be a higher force at work.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen the number 2222 everywhere.  I’ve seen it on receipts when I’ve done my food shopping (in the code NOT in the price tag – I don’t eat that much!).  Every time I glance at my alarm clock or check the time on my phone it reads 22:22.  It happened so often that I decided to investigate.

I'm Enjoying Not Living In The Now

My topic for this week was going to be about living in the now.  However, I can’t stop thinking about at an exciting future event, or the past event that allowed this future event to happen – you still with me?  To summarise - I haven’t got a hope in hell of living in the moment, at the moment.

Is that a bad thing?  I don’t think so.  When time allows, I enjoy nothing more than being silent, or absorbing myself in a task such as walking, drawing, crafts or my writing.  Each of these activities enables me to be in the now, and I feel so much better for it. 

For today though I am somewhere else!

 

The reason for my abandonment of all things meditative is, in my opinion, a just and valid cause.

Do-It-Yourself Meditation

Back in 2011 I began teaching meditation classes for those of my clients who kept asking me how to do it.

I think they initially believed it was a mystical practice for the spiritually initiated.  Did I have to roll up my one trouser leg and levitate over the coffee table?  Had I attended a secret club hosted by Yoda and the Dalai Lama?  The answer, of course, was no…I just sat still for a couple of minutes and listened to my breathing.  No secret club.  No initiation.

I knew then that I wanted to show people how easy it was to meditate.

In 2013, I published a simple pocket guide.  Meditation: A beginner’s guide.

Here is an excerpt:

If you don’t know a chakra from a chorizo, prefer a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes over walking barefoot on dew-covered grass, and the only labyrinth you’ve heard of was a 2006 Del Toro film, then you’ve come to the right place.

Create A Monthly Care Plan To Achieve Success

Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at using a Daily Practice and Weekly Intentions to achieve our goals and stay motivated.

If you’ve been following my series of posts about staying on track with your resolutions, goals or challenges, then you will be well on your way to success.  Your daily practices will be as routine as brushing your teeth, and the list of weekly intentions will be driving your goal forward.  This week I am going to share tips on creating a Monthly Care Plan. 

When I started my blog in 2013 – and subsequently wrote my book, How I Changed MyLife in a Year – I had to create a monthly plan to inspire me to succeed, month-after-month.

As with any goal, you will only achieve success if you are 100% committed.  Alongside the commitment comes planning.

Let me ask you a question – what have you achieved in your life that made you felt great?  Big or small, it doesn’t matter, just remember the feeling that washed over you and settled in your stomach; it’s called pride.

Making Weekly Intentions Will Help You Achieve Your Goals

Last week we looked at the advantages of including a ‘Daily Practice’ into our routine to help us achieve our goals.  You can read that post here.  Today I’m talking about ‘Weekly Intentions’.

We used 'running a marathon' as our example for last week so this week we'll look at another type of goal.  I know so many people who wanted to 'learn something new' as part of their resolution list.  It’s an admirable goal!  Keeping our brain active has huge benefits for our mind, body and soul.

So where do we start?  Let’s ask ourselves those all important questions:

1.      Why am I doing this?

2.      When am I doing this?

3.      What do I need to do to achieve success?

How to Stay on Track with Your Goals by Using a Daily Practice.

The majority of our New Year Resolutions, goals and aspirations fail because of a number of reasons; a lack of planning, not being fully committed or setting ourselves unattainable challenges.

It’s like we purposefully set ourselves up for a fall.  We don’t have to operate in this way.  Setting a challenge that may test us can be liberating and life changing.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me that.

Yes, we all scribble down a list of changes we want to make each year, and yes, be the end of the third week many of us have abandoned them.  I heard on the news this morning that today is the day our weight loss ambitions are discarded and we attack the biscuit tin!  If we looked at that list for a moment, we might see the reason:

What's Your Power Word of the Day?

Last week I talked about leaving behind the rigidity of goal setting to allow for the relaxed beauty of ‘flow setting’.  You can read that post here.

Today I want to introduce you to a new motivational past time that I stumbled upon whilst writing up last week’s post. 

 

It’s no secret that I adore journaling.  My home and office are full to the rafters with pretty notebooks, matching pens and folders.  ‘My name is Shelley and I am addicted to Stationery!’

So, as I spent a luxurious hour on Pinterest, my ‘super-stationery-senses’ were activated when I found a link to the seaweedkisses blog.  Michelle’s beautiful page is dedicated to her passion for journaling.  As well as sharing her tips, she invites us to take a sneak peek into the notebooks, journals and organisers from people all over the world.

Before I go on, I want to set the scene of just how excited I was to find this site.  First of all, let me ask you a question.  Who has watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)?  That’s the one with Sean Connery in it.

In Loving Memory & Tribute to Kathryn Treat

IN LOVING MEMORY OF KATHRYN CHASTAIN TREAT

 

No Need For Goal Setting - Try 'Flow' Setting Instead

Normality has returned to the Wilson household (well, as normal as you can get with three teenagers under one roof!)

We all shuffled back to school, college and work this week with as much enthusiasm as a wet mop.  I’m not surprised about the kids – that comes with the territory, but I’m a different story.  I love my job very much and yet I returned with a melancholy aura.

 

My evenings aren’t much better.  At the end of last year, I would finish work to do my household chores.  I’d feed the kids, clean the fish and then settle down in front of my laptop to bash out a chapter or two and tackle an article or blog post.

 

Instead, I find myself staring at the wall with a bewildered expression plastered to my face.  It’s not writers block.  I know this because my head is crammed full of story and blog post ideas that scream at me with every waking moment (thank goodness for post-it notes!). 

 

It finally hit me at 2am the other morning as I tossed and turned in bed and eventually turned the light on to empty my thoughts onto paper.  I’ve been so busy organising my blog content to help motivate my readers that I forgot all about setting my goals!

 

I feel like a balloon let loose in the sky and is floating aimlessly.  That perfect quote, ‘a dream without a plan is just a wish’ is on repeat in my brain.

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:

Finding Your Feet in the Blogging World

Friends come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.  Some are small and perfectly formed; some are tall and can help you pop the star on top of your Christmas tree.  Other friends are a collage of pixels crammed into a postage stamp sized photograph – yes, I’m talking about our online friends.  Tweeters, bloggers and our Facebook friends are just as important as our face to face contacts.

This blog will celebrate its second birthday on the 1^st January 2015, and its success is thanks to a mixture of people.  My holistic health spa clients who enjoy my ramblings, my family who gets to find out what I’ve been up to and my friends who support me in everything I do.  Then there are my fellow bloggers; the army of online buddies I have made along my journey.  A ‘like’ here, a ‘comment’ there, a re-blog, a Facebook share and a tweet.  The blogging community is one of the most supportive groups I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.  If you were contemplating starting a blog as a New Year Resolution – don’t think, just do!

Smile With The Stars

On the 12th December 2010 my cousin, Lee Johnson, went to sleep and never woke up.

Lee died from SUDEP (Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy) at the age of 24.  He was an incredible person who lived his short life to the full.  As a child, he played for Leeds United youth team alongside James Milner, a position he had to give up because of his condition.  He continued to play for his local team and was also an outstanding cricketer. 

His passion for sports was well known.  Lee had successfully undergone a soccer training assessment course which was to be the start of the next stage of his life - as a soccer coach on the West coast of America.

His death touched so many people.  Neither Lee, his parents Simon and Vicky or his sister Becky knew that Epilepsy could take a life.  Following Lee's premature passing, a campaign to raise awareness of Epilepsy and reduce the stigma surrounding the condition was launched.