Christmas - Celebration or Survival?

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December is here!!! Which means Christmas is fast approaching!

I LOVE Christmas! The lights, the get-togethers, the adverts, everything! I even chose to have a Christmas wedding! So this month is always one of celebration for me.

However, I understand that not everyone is such a big fan of the festive season and it can very easily spiral into a whole lot of stress. Here are some tips for keeping your Christmas merry....

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• Making a list, checking it twice - You're bound to have hundreds of thoughts racing through your mind this month - what to buy for who, how much food to have for Christmas day, Christmas parties etc etc etc. Now is the perfect time to carry around a gorgeous little notebook or diary (or even your mobile - the notes app on my iPhone is filled!) Every time you have a thought get it written down. Once it 's on paper (or smartphone), you can be safe in the knowledge you won't forget it and you can allow it to leave your busy mind. Keeping your notebook by the side of your bed will help those sleepless nights when you wake up filled with thoughts of things you had forgotten.

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• It's ok to say NO - At this time of year you may have received several invitations to Christmas parties, carol concerts, or group get-togethers. Whilst you may not want to let anyone down, feeling obliged to attend everything can be too overwhelming.  It's ok to say no! Thank them for their invitation and explain that you already have commitments on that date (unwinding in a bubble bath is most definitely a commitment!)

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• R.E.L.A.X - The best way to keep our stress levels under control during the festive season is through plenty of relaxation and tlc. Make sure you schedule time each week for a complete switch off. Unplug the phone, run a bath and make yourself a mug of chai tea. Meditation is ideal for learning to switch off those racing thoughts. Or get in touch with me for a nurturing hour of reflexology, reiki or indian head massage. Holistic therapies are perfect for keeping our energy levels up and stress levels down.

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• Delegate - Christmas isn't just your responsibility. It's a time when friends and family should all pull together. Delegation doesn't just have to be amongst family or friends either - there are so many services these days that can make life that little bit easier - online shopping can be a godsend!

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• Reflection- This is the perfect time to take a step back and look at what you have achieved over the previous 12 months. Did you set goals at the start of 2011? Have you met those goals? Even if you don't feel 2011 has been a good year for you - decide what it is you want to let go of? What bad habits or emotions or experiences do you want to leave behind with 2011? Celebrate your successes and give yourself recogntion where it's due. Then look forward to the approaching fresh start of 2012. (More on that later in the month....)

I wish you all a very chilled out and merry Christmas!

I'm going to finish this post with a quote from my favourite Christmas film - Elf - if you're looking to bring out the big kid in you this Christmas, then this is the one to watch!

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Attitude of Gratitude

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With it being Thanksgiving across the pond this week, it seems fitting to focus this week's post on gratitude! 


When you're going through a challenging time in your life, it is so easy to become fully focused on how much is going wrong. Or rather how much you are lacking in life. These thoughts only lead to a darker place! It can be soooo difficult to pull yourself out of this dark place. How can you find positivity in your life when everything feels so hard!?


The best place to find it.....right where you are! We take so much for granted in our lives and amongst the fog of our challenges, we often can't see the positive things that are already part of who we are. Gratitude is the starting point...


Even if your life is in a really difficult place - maybe you've lost your job or you've been unable to start a family or perhaps an important relationship has broken down - put all your energy into finding that gratitude.  I guarantee there will be many things in your life that others can only wish they had. Ok it doesn't make everything perfect but the immediate lift it can give you surely makes it worth a try?


So what are you grateful for in your life right now......Go right back to basics if you have to!


Your Health?

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A Supportive Partner?

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Close Friends?

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A Warm Home?

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“An attitude of gratitude brings great things.”  Yogi Bhajan

But if you want to discover if the quote above rings true, you need to start bringing gratitude into your daily life. But how?


Try keeping a notebook by the side of your bed and end each evening by listing three things you are grateful for that day - that toffee nut latte, missing the traffic -  really notice the little things.


Or pull out the albums and take a look through your photographs - how many things do they capture that you are truly grateful for?


As a list lady and lover of photography, I like to keep my gratitude practice right here

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

Are you feeling lucky?

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It was after watching the final episode of Derren Brown: The Experiments that I decided to focus this week's blog post on luck and how we can all become lucky.

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The show (which I really recommend watching!) was based in a town where after lots of careful planning by Derren and his team, a rumour was started.  The rumour was that a statue of a dog in the local park was lucky. As the story spread, people start to visit the lucky dog.  The programme followed up on many of these people and discovered that after touching the dog some people had indeed experienced their own strokes of luck.

The programme then also focused on a local butcher who considered himself unlucky. To try and change his mindset, Derren planted a number of lucky opportunities for this man. Sadly, each time Derren did this, the man either didn't notice the opportunity right in front of his face or he turned it down flat. I'm not going to reveal every detail of the show but once this man had been shown the footage, he suddenly realised that maybe he wasn't unlucky - maybe he just didn't take notice of the opportunities in his life!

And as for the people who experienced luck - it wasn't the dog that gave them magical powers! It was their open-minded and proactive nature that mattered. Firstly, they believed the dog could bring them good luck and more importantly they went out looking for opportunities to be lucky!

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How many opportunities in your life do you grab?

How many opportunities do you pass off as a waste of time?

How many opportunities do you not even notice?

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There are so many opportunities out there.  It may not always seem that way but believe me there are. You have to open your mind and open your eyes in order to find them:

• Really look at what is happening around you when you step outside each day (if you watched the programme, you'll remember the £20 notes being handed out!) 

• Take time to talk to people in the real world and online (Twitter has been my haven for opportunities in the last year!) You never know where a conversation may lead...

• Try something new! Be it a hobbie, a new class, just get out there! You may discover a new talent, a new passion or meet interesting and like-minded people.

• Don't pass off opportunities with the belief that 'it's too good to be true' - go for it and see what happens. Those of you who watched the show will know the end of Derren's experiment really showed the value in this last point!

What opportunities have you grabbed over this last year? How will you seek new opportunities in 2012?

Now is the Right Time!

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This blog post starts with a low (sorry!). A family member found out this week that they were being made redundant.  It was from a job that they had put everything into for the past 20 years. The job seemed stable and they had gone from strength to strength.  The redundancy came completely out of the blue. After the initial shock had settled down, it really hit home to us all that nothing is ever certain! The safest most stable situation can change in an instant. Now this all sounds pretty depressing but there is a positive ending!


The person in question had talked for years and years about one day owning a boat. It was clearly a big dream for them but they were always waiting for the 'right time'. Which is where we go back to the redundancy... This situation has brought about a whole new outlook on life for that person. They have suddenly realised that life is far too short to be waiting to do what you have always dreamed of.  Life is for living! If you aren't living life to the fullest now, when will you start!? So this weekend they are joining their local boat club and starting the search for their dream boat! Redundancy is a pretty scary and understandably stressful time - but in this case it's enabled a whole new lease of life.

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So that's where my question to you arrives - are you living the life you dreamed? If you are, fantastic! But what if you're waiting for the 'right time'?  When is the right time!?


It doesn't mean you should achieve all your dreams right this very moment.  Or even that all practicalities go out of the window.  We can't always have what we want right now.  Not all dreams can be found in the boat yard!  But what is important is that you are doing something every day, no matter how small, to move towards your dreams.


But what if you're not sure what your dreams are?  What if you're feeling stuck? There are some fun ways to discover what really sets your heart alight. Ways to turn on your intuition. Give some of these a try:


Write a Bucket List - write out 100 things you would like to do in your lifetime. Don't think too hard about it, just put pen to paper and scribble down everything and anything that comes to mind.  Maybe it's something extreme like doing a skydive or maybe it's something really simple like growing a herb garden. Write it down!

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Create a Vision Board - so maybe you're not a list person. Then it's time to build a vision board! Get together a stack of magazines and catalogues. Go through each one and pull out any images that strike a chord. Any images that make you smile or represent the life you would like to lead. Once you have a collection of images, attach each of them to your vision board. What themes keep coming up in your images? Keep the vision board close by. Put it up in your home office or next to your bed - focus on it each day.

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This leads to Visualisations! Visualisations can be so powerful and I always recommend to clients that they should visualise the goal they are trying to achieve. Spend a few minutes each day just sitting or lying in a quiet space and visualise your dream life. Really look at all the details - Where are you? What are you wearing? How do you feel? Put yourself there. Make it as vivid as you can! And do this as often as you can.

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Write a Letter from your Future Self - address the letter to anyone you like but make sure you describe exactly what your future life is like. Where do you live? Do you have a family? Where do you work? As you write out your letter, really tune in to what it would be like to live that life.

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Each of these activities is a future blog post in itself, but this should get you started. Once you've spent some time doing these activities, you may find that the same dreams are coming up for you each time. This is the direction you should aim to move in.  And don't wait for the right time.  Start today! If you need a set amount of money to achieve your dream, open up a savings account this week and start paying as much as you can into it (even if it's just a pound!). Or if your dreams are pointing you towards a new career, make this week's goal to research the various training options available.  


What small step can you take today to start living the life you dream of?

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