Embrace life #2

“One of the greatest gifts is the present”

1. BEING PRESENT
   The benefit of Being Present and living “in the now” is two-fold:1. We enjoy the activities and people that we are engaging in and with
   2. It gets us “out of our heads” so that we can stop the incessant chatter of worrying and anxious thoughts that cause our bodies to react physiologically (Did you know that our bodies react in the same way whether we are thinking about a stressful event or actually experiencing it!?)

   The second tool that we are going to share with you is an exercise to help you practice staying present in any given situation:

It is simply to – focus on your senses.

At regular intervals throughout the day, stop doing whatever you’re doing, and think about

• what you’re hearing,
• what you’re seeing,
• what you’re smelling,
• what you’re feeling,
• what you’re tasting,
• what you’re touching.

For example, If I am walking along the road and caught up in my thoughts and worries, I will start focusing on my senses. I start to really take in every detail around me – the trees and their different shades of green, their fresh minty smell, the hardness of the road beneath my feet, the feeling of the warm breeze on my skin, the sounds of birds chirping in the trees, the pounding of my heart as it pumps the blood into my legs. I become acutely aware of how tensed up my shoulders are and the fact that as I have been walking I have been oblivious to everything around me and focused on the worries and thoughts in my head… once I get out of my head and into my body, I feel refreshed, focused, clear and energised! This exercise can be done anywhere and at any time. Try itJ

Wishing you a week of magical moments in the present

Warm regards

Julie and Liz

Embrace life #1

Embrace Life !

What does it mean to “Embrace Life”?

The word embrace suggests “hugging”, so to embrace – to hug or to hold – conjures up feelings of warmth, comfort, nurturing and love!

A hug makes you feel accepted, wanted and welcomed.

Accept Yourself,

Your Life,

Your Lessons,

Welcome them!

In the movie, The Bucketlist, Jack Nicolson and Morgan Freeman make the decision to HONOUR themselves and to do all the things in life that they had been putting off. They, of course, had the luxury of lots of money, but many of the things on our own personal ‘bucketlists’ cost nothing – visiting a friend, sending that email, hugging our children everyday, giving up an unhealthy habit.

One of my favorite quotations when going through a challenging time in my life was: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain!”

I’ve added to that, the permission to be human and to sit in a puddle and cry (for a bit, if I need to); or to go inside and keep warm by the fire and simply enjoy the sound of the rain drumming on the roof.

It’s ok to acknowledge that you are human and to sit with where you’re at. As long as the sitting doesn’t become an excessive, on-going “wallowing” and is simply a time to Rest, Reflect, and Rejuvenate, before you Embrace Life again and Dance!

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing with you some of the most helpful tools for embracing life that we have used personally, or had clients use with great success.

The first tool that we will share with you this week is:

Keeping a Gratitude Journal
Gratitude involves focusing on what you DO have… I have used this tool for myself and clients and experienced and seen radical shifts in thinking. We create our lives by the ‘stories’ we tell. In an article “The Power of Positive Thanking” by Marianne Williamson, she says that “Gratitude has a cleansing effect on the soul, healing us from the inside out. To say thank you is an act of spiritual power”.

Start the day and/ or end the day with a list of five things that you are grateful for. If you’ve had a really “bad” day, you can usually still think of five things to be thankful for, even if it’s just a warm cup of tea, a hot bath, a cosy bed…etc.

The more aware people become of what they do have, the more abundance they manifest in their lives. This leads to being more positive, and the easier it is to embrace life.

We wish you a week of wonderful things to be grateful for!

Warm regards

Julie and Liz

Grace

I had a client last week who shared the most delightful story of “Grace”. She had been feeling particularly stressed and (as is typical of most of us who are mothers), ended up “losing it” with her 10 year old and yelling at him. Her husband returned home and heard his wife shouting. He came in and sat with the now distraught child, while my client said that she went to her room to calm down. When her husband came into the room, she fully expected him to berate her for losing her temper. Instead he walked up to her, put his arms around her, and simply asked “Are you OK?”. She said that it completely took her by surprise, and the “defense” that she had been preparing was lost. She was able to look at herself and apologise for her inappropriate rage rather than being defensive. Her husband gave her the Grace and Space to do that.

In their book “Slowing Down to the Speed of Life”, Richard Carlson & Joseph Bailey say that “if you forgive others [show Grace] and then share with them your feelings, they will be more likely to listen to you non-defensively. If you confront others with judgement, they will most likely get defensive, not be able to hear you, and even find something to blame you for. This keeps the cycle going: blame-resentment-defensiveness-transgression”.

Make it your aim to show Grace this week:-)

(Liz Witherspoon – Life & Wellness Coach)