One of my strongest principles is to lead by example.
This is not easy sometimes but it is important. It gives you a goal to work toward and it is rewarding for both you and the people around you.
Granted no one is perfect you are exactly the way you are. But Reach for the goal.
To that end, I am off on a week long vacation, open air, great scenery and no email or phone.
I’ll be back in a week, with a tan and ready to get to work!
See you all then!
Oct
6
A big part of creating more success in life is rewarding yourself when you succeed. So, it’s important to reward your inner child as well. Every time you work hard to meet a goal, the part of you that just wants to have fun has to sit still and be good. However, just like any kid, if it knows it will be rewarded later with a treat, it will hang in there with you.
How can you reward your inner child?
• Take a 20-minute walk after an hour or two of concentrated work
• Go for walks in the morning with your spouse, friend, or significant other
• Take 20 minutes to listen to music and daydream
• Take most weekends totally off
• Take several weeklong vacations throughout the year
• Get regular massages • Engage in daily meditation, exercise and yoga
• Take music lessons
• Go to movies, concerts and plays
• Listen to comedy tapes and watch the Comedy Network
• Listen to motivational audio programs when driving
Sep
30
Myth: I know ALL of this, I have tired and I failed!
Truth: Knowing is one thing, taking ACTION is totally different.
I am not one to dwell on the negative or the failures. Great you tired and failed before, that means one less way to try it. Now is the time to try something new. This one is for you! After reading many books and websites I noticed that there is always a specific person they are talking to, I mean it makes sense, there is no way to talk to everyone.
There are some many different people, places, environments, no one person can possible reach everyone. From my brief history you read at the beginning, you can see, I am just an everyday woman, with everyday problems and challenges like you.
I would never drink my water out of a crystal wine glass, a nice thought, but not at all particle with 4 teenagers and 6 cats running around the house. I am not the kind of woman that appreciates manicured nails, what will they look like after 5 minutes in the garden. I am not going to tell you something that I haven?t already tired and succeeded at. I believe the Extreme Simplicity as just as important as Extreme Self Care.
If the action isn?t easy, I just won?t do it. Life can be complicated and it can offer up some unbelievable challenges. Actions need to be very simple in order to be successful. Now that you know and now that you know just how simple it really can be, you must certainly can pick yourself up and try again.
Now is the time to take action! One action, one step on the journey to Extreme Self Care. Success doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about doing the little things every day. Each week, focus on making one change.
Once you get it down, focus on something else. If you improve just one thing every week, imagine the change you’ll see over the next five years.
Anyone can journey toward Extreme Self Care:
You can down load the full version of The 5 Myths of Self Care as well as the Audio of a call talking about the 5 myths here
Full Version - Click Here
Audio - Click Here
Sep
23
Myth: If you can’t do it all it right, don’t do it at all!
Truth: Simple Changes make a big difference.
There are some people (me included) that has some trouble with this. You maybe a control freak or a perfectionist, either way you have placed on yourself these enormous expectations. You have being doing it for as long as you can remember and you probably have no clue about where to even begin to stop.
But you can stop and you can move on from here.
First: Breathe
Second: Breathe again
Third: Pick just one thing to change
It is not possible to change everything in one day, one week or one year even, this is a process, a journey to create a better you.
Sep
16
Myth: I don’t have the time!
Truth: Creating organization gives you the time.
Sure you can keep avoiding this for the rest of your life, or you can make the time. Daily habits or rituals will help you organize your time. How much time do you spend looking for your bills at the end of the month? How much time do you spend on Saturday on doing laundry?
Now I have made a conscious effort to get up 30 minutes early so that I have time to my self in the mornings, to me the effort to get up is very little compared to the enormous benefits I get from having my day completely organized.
Here is My Nourishing Getup Ritual – Nourishing to your soul and body.
Some simple things that help, pick an alarm clock that has a nice sound or use the radio so that you wake up to music. I give myself a few extra minutes in the morning, this allows me to wake up and stretch my way awake, with out feeling the rush, rush of the day. I have made it a practice to get up with enough time to get myself up, showered and ready before it was necessary to get the kids up.
Sep
9
Myth: My Family doesn’t understand me!
Truth: Do you know how to ask for what you need?
It is not that you family doesn’t understand you…. It is that you have let them walk all over you, of course not intentionally. You didn’t know better, they didn’t know better. The generation pervious to us, grew up and learned how to live based on the “Leave it to Beaver” family. The Wife stayed home, her whole existence was to be a good wife and mother. The Husband went off to work at 7am and came home at 5pm for dinner.
Today we live in a completely different environment. It is not easy to support a family on just one income and we are working hard and longer hours just to stay above the water. Now I believe that these strong values of taking care of our value are still very, very important. I believe that we adapt to what we need to get this task done.
Sep
2
…..(Or what kind of excuses can I come up with today?)
Myth: This make me feel too selfish!
Truth: If you don’t take care of you, who will?
It is human nature to take care of others first; normally it is our immediate or extended families. It is survival right, taking care of our offspring, making sure that humanity survives the big bad world. Okay back to reality now, in North America we don’t have to worry that much about surviving. We can find shelter, food, and clothes those most basic survival needs. So we can move past the “survival of fittest” and work on self care.
What would your family do, they are expecting you to take care of things, they are expecting you to cook, clean, do laundry, mend their bodies, help them feel better, get them over heart breaks and problems.
Ask yourself this… what would your family do if you died of a heart attack? Who would fix them then?
They would mourn and miss you, sure! You are a great person, well liked and dearly loved. But they would pick up their lives and move on. They would grow up and grow old, whether you are there or not. Wouldn’t you like to be there?
Tune out, turn off: take 30 minutes to ignore your cell phones, pagers, computers, watches and other devices. Use this “techno-free” time to nap, read, visit a friend, etc.
Aug
26
A great little Article I just had to share with you all!
I was determined to take it easy and just relax. I had worked every day for 10 straight days and envisioned a day by the pool maybe even with a cold beer and a good book. I like relaxing, it’s enjoyable and good for you so why wouldn’t anybody do it as much as possible?
I’ll tell you why, because of stuff, that’s why.
Stuff is designed to stop you doing what you really want to do, Stuff expands to fill available time, Stuff arrives when you least expect it and Stuff does its utmost to throw you off track. It has a contract to adhere to because its job is to test you to the limits of your endurance and then just a little bit more. Like a maternal aunt that doesn’t realize she outstayed her welcome in 1988 Stuff will hang around ad infinitum if you don’t throw it out.
So what is Stuff?
That’s a tricky question because it can morph into anything you don’t want it to be. It could be a toilet overflowing when you are about to go to the movies, it could be a knock on the door that ends up being a 30 minute conversation you didn’t want, it could be a call to your bank that ends up being 45 minutes long of which 40 minutes is on hold, it could be losing your Internet connection and the phone company saying it’s a router fault and the router company saying it’s a problem with the phone line, it can be a million different things or just one.
So yesterday I got hit by Stuff early on and never recovered. I did deal very harshly with some ants, collect some groceries, write a post. mop the floors, clean out my car, cook dinner, collect a part for the TV but nothing that I actually wanted or intended to do.
Can Stuff be beaten?
Oh yes, it surely can if only we remember how. Unlike nature, Stuff loves a vacuum. It loves it because it is its job to fill it and fill it quickly. So don’t give it chance! Plan out your day even the ones that do not involve work. If you need 4 hours to chill and relax then write it down in your planner or on your calendar as you would any other appointment, the same goes for the gym, or meditating or even watching TV if that is what helps you relax. Be brutal and selfish with your own time because Stuff hates that.
This sounds like a lot of trouble and if Stuff never manages to get its talons in you then it may be unnecessary. However, if you are one of an increasingly large percentage of people that gets to the end of the day and wanders where it went and why you didn’t get much done then it may be a sensible consideration.
Tim Brownson is a qualified English born Life Coach, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapist. He is based just outside Orlando, Florida but coaches people all over the US and UK. His time is split between telephone and face-to-face coaching helping people fulfill their potential and get more out of life. He can be contacted via http://www.adaringadventure.com
Jul
1
Today we have more stress in our lives than ever before – good stress, bad stress, red stress, blue stress (my little ode to Dr. Seuss). No matter what kind of stress it is, a real crisis or an imagined one, stress is incredibly harmful to our body, mind and soul.
Here are my favourite self-care habits for dealing with stress:
1. Get in the habit of noticing.
Take an inventory of all the things that just don’t feel right in your life or that you know are causing you stress. For example, when you approach certain people, places or situations do you feel more stress and tension? Once you have your list in place, look at what you can change yourself, and do it. You can also use this list to predict stressful situations before they occur.
2. Get in the habit of asking for help.
For what you can’t change yourself, you need a team. Build a team of experts to handle your list. A coach, at the top of the list, will help with the big picture and will keep you honest about your efforts. Other team members might be a family doctor who listens to you, a financial planner, a massage therapist and an exercise partner.
3. Get in the habit of bouncing back.
Think of Plan A as your basic self-care plan while stress is under control. Now imagine something happens and you are under stress. Instead of abandoning all self-care because you can’t do it all, have a Plan B ready beforehand.
4. Get in the habit of relaxing.
If you practice relaxation techniques (breathing, meditation, imagery, music) every day, then when stressful situations come up you’ll have the tools at your fingertips.
5. Get in the habit of gratitude.
Our attitude comes from our emotions and our emotions come from our thoughts. Thinking about what we’re grateful for and what we’re good at can keep things positive. It’s not about shying away from what’s challenging you – it’s about approaching life from a place of strength and not as a victim.
6. Get in the habit of creating.
Experiment with a new recipe in the kitchen, write a poem, bang a drum, do a craft, take a dance class or do something else that feels creative to you.
7. Get in the habit of putting your stuff away.
Physical clutter can really impact on mental, emotional and physical health. Get rid of things that don’t make you happy when you look at them. Organize your stuff. Find a place for everything and keep it there.
8. Get in the habit of breathing.
This is the simplest and quickest way to relax yourself in a stressful situation. The minute you focus on your breathing it automatically gets slower and deeper.
9. Get in the habit of daydreaming.
Take yourself away on an imaginary holiday. Just close your eyes and go! Picture somewhere you’ve been or somewhere you’ve dreamed of.
10. Get in the habit of giggling.
Laugh out loud every day.
Don’t let your stress get the better of you! Which one of these strategies can you apply this week to manage your stress?
Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services. All rights reserved.
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Linda Dessau, MTA, CPCC, is a self-care expert, accredited music therapist and certified life coach. Learn more about using singing for stress management, personal growth and spiritual development at http://www.singoutyourstress.com, where you can download the FREE report, “Top 10 Ways to Sing Out Your Stress”. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Dessau |
