Meditating without any support (just om-ing, for instance) is hard for most of us. Like anything it’s a skill, and with practice you may find you don’t need to be guided in your meditation.
But I find that it’s much quicker to get in to the state I want to be in when I get support from an app. If you’re on any of our midlife coaching or escape the rat race programmes I will ALWAYS recommend adding meditation to your day. Here I recommend 5 very different apps!
Read MoreI’ve scoured iTunes, Spotify and something called Stitcher to find you the best podcasts for 40 and 50 somethings. Here are my top 5 to help you through the commute, keep you company on your morning walk, make you laugh or distract you from the washing up.
Read MoreIn order to create a balanced life, certain boundaries must be set. In this post, find out what boundaries are and how they can be used to create a balanced life.
It’s very gratifying knowing that people need you. But it’s also a pain.
Whether it’s your children, your parents, your partner, your friends, your colleagues, your community or, goodness help you, all of the above who turn to you when they need assistance, it’s tough to find time to go to the toilet, let alone plan your exit from corporate life and design a future where you love what you do!
The bottom line is that, if you want to bring balance to your life, you have some choices to make, and not all of those are going to be comfortable. One of those choices is to create and maintain some boundaries. Yes, it’s OK for people to need you. But you also need to take care of yourself. And you need people to take care of you. That’s where boundaries come in.
Read MoreCan you quit your corporate job without more qualifications? While it might seem like a really good idea to rack up a bank of qualifications before you quit your corporate job, it isn’t always a good idea.
In this blog I give the pros and cons of getting yet another qualification.
Read MoreMy hair is grey. My midriff is expanding. My bones ache. I still have combination skin. I’m more than halfway through my career and probably my life.
I should be driving around in a sports car by now, having traded in my first spouse for a second, younger model. Instead, I’m caring from my 11-year-old daughter and taking my parents to doctor appointments. And the sports car? Forget it. I drive a car with a big enough boot to fit my groceries AND the stuff that needs to go to the tip. That’s sexy.
Read MoreI sold my house. I bought a campervan. I took my daughter and our dogs on a 6-month adventure around Europe. I cut down on my work. I made afternoons family-time. And I still didn’t have work-life balance!
And I was angry with myself. I’m meant to be the work-life balance lady. Yet I didn’t feel balanced at all! Then it hit me. There is no such thing as work-life balance…
Read MoreIt’s all 99% perspiration, and feel the burn! He who wakes up first and goes to bed last wins!
I do wonder, however, what exactly is that person winning? Does first prize go to the person who sacrifices the most in their life? At a time when there’s increasing evidence that working fewer hours leads to more productivity and now that machines are learning to do many tasks in mere moments, it’s really important that we break our relationship with force, with pushing, with pain and suffering and embrace flow instead.
Read MoreYou’re about to see me in a way that I rarely share on social media.
I carefully manage my public image, “my brand,” as I’m sure most of us do. On social media, we share our wins, and we share our struggles after the fact when we have some perspective and have had the chance to tidy our hair and fix our makeup for a camera-ready “tell-all”.
Over the last six months I’ve had some of the most incredible moments of my life. However, I’ve also been fed up, tired, bored and frightened. I shared some of my ordeals as they happened. But not all.
Read MoreThe biggest misconception about happiness is that is it the result of our situation. If you have money, a nice house, a relationship, healthy kids and a job that befits your talents you will be happy. If you lose that job or your child gets sick or your relationship breaks down you won’t be happy.
We know this isn’t true. The evidence is everywhere. We operate from an “If only…” perspective and focus our attentions on changing the hygiene factors in our lives - the jobs we do, the place we live, the holidays we go on, the throw cushions we just have to have that will make us feel so much better every time we walk in to the living room….
Read MoreI was all geared up for today. I envisioned spending two hours working on my coaching programme pilot, an hour writing a blog for you guys, a bit of business finance, a few items on my to do list and the afternoon doing some sort of French thing. After all - we are in France - we should make the most of it.
But I woke up with a headache. I spent the first hour of my day thinking about my coaching clients - what they need and what I can do for them. Nursing a cup of tea, I was into that. It was fine - fun even. An hour went by in a flash. But then I found myself an hour behind my “schedule”. My headache returned; my daughter woke up and wanted attention; and I tried to power through.
How often do we do that? We have our plan for the day and, whatever happens, we are going to make that plan a reality.
Read MoreIt’s Good Friday and I’m working.
I’m a little resentful of this even though I have no rational reason to be. Yesterday I stopped working at midday and went to Aberystwyth with Ivy, spending the afternoon in the lovely museum there and rockpooling on the beach. On Wednesday we drove from North Wales to mid-Wales and I barely even checked my email en route.
So why should I feel hard done by if I spend a few hours on Good Friday writing and catching up on my correspondence?
Read MoreThere have been plenty of times when I had an idea and didn’t pursue it. For one reason or another I didn’t launch my “E-Male” business (get daily emails and gifts from a virtual boyfriend for a reasonable monthly subscription), I didn’t get hair extensions (I was thinking of re-inventing my look before starting university), and I didn’t buy a holiday home as a bolt hole.
We all have a few brilliant ideas stashed under the metaphorical floorboards. But the process by which you decide which to follow and which to dump normally falls into one of three categories. Being aware of your process can help you embrace your natural decision-making style and not become influenced by other people who tell you to decide their way.
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