Learn how the words you use affect the results you're going to get! As an amazingly intricate piece of work, our mind is constantly filtering and sorting for evidence that the world around us matches how we think it should be. We are constantly evaluating...thinking and analysing people, circumstances, words, actions, our environment, today, yesterday, tomorrow, and in particular what these all mean to us. If you stop to think about it long enough, we are constantly evaluating. So, since we spend most of our day doing it, should we get clearer on exactly what an evaluation is? I tried to evaluate what an evaluation is and then I realised I was asking myself a series of questions. Is it possible that evaluations are questions? Of course, that in itself is a question is it not? Can it be that thinking itself is nothing but the process of asking and answering questions? Are you familiar with that little voice that pops up from time to time, that little fella that sits on your shoulder a...

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If you’re anything like me, you’re probably swamped with numerous things to do, all pulling you in different directions and all demanding your immediate attention. Thing is, we so often get caught up in doing the small things, or the more enjoyable things, that before we know it, time has passed us by and that big task that you say you’ll keep getting to tomorrow, still isn’t done! 2008 is drawing to an end so now’s the time to stop … take a deep breath … and jump right in! If you’re finding everything a little too overwhelming then make sure you take some time out each day (even if its only for 30mins) to just relax and recharge your mind. If its that you really can’t get motivated to do it, then change the environment you’re doing it in, alter the process or bring someone else on board to keep you company. Your time is valuable – make sure you like how you spend it. If your task is still too daunting, then look at it in a new way… We’ve all heard many times before that we need t...

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  Is your life being affected by clutter? Without you realising it your life may be suffering as the result of clutter. Clutter can have a debilitating and detrimental effect on us. Clutter can occur in 2 forms: Physical Mental Physical clutter is the more apparent of the 2 as we can see it. Be aware though that clutter occurs also in our mental space. Let us address both of these types of clutter. Physical clutter occurs when we let go of managing items in our physical space and as a result our physical space becomes crowded, disorganised, unruly and untidy. Typical and common areas that tend to suffer from clutter are garages, offices and bedrooms. On the other hand, mental clutter occurs when we have too many things on our mind to focus on. The mental clutter generally occurs because we are thinking about things that we have not yet taken action on. It is important to understand that clutter in your physical space can lead to clutter in your mental space ...

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WHAT DOES MAKING A MISTAKE MEAN TO YOU? Success doesn’t mean you always succeed and never fail. It means you learn from every experience and make every experience work for you in some way. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. If we attempt to avoid mistakes we avoid what we need to learn, if we avoid what we need to learn we avoid personal growth. If you have the belief that you cannot experience failure, it gives you much more freedom to be willing to play, explore, learn and grow. Everything that happens is simply feedback, it’s a means of monitoring our behaviour, attitude, actions, to make finer distinctions and do it differently next time. Most of us see an error, every mistake as emotional baggage, a failure. It reflects badly on us. Are you beating yourself up with negative self talk - I am hopeless, why me, I cant do it – can you begin to imagine what that does to your confidence? How about more supportive questions, ones that are really going to stretch you and give y...

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Life is so precious; we take it for granted sometimes and live each week just like any other. We get into a routine and mentally cross out the calendar as each day goes by. For those who work for somebody else this is a real significance as you approach the end of the working week and count down until Friday afternoon. We also take our health for granted, thinking it will always be there for us, and when we have a health challenge then we hit a brick wall and wonder ‘why me?’ Most of us fall into the victim mode and become reactive at what life throws us. This is like we are against the world in the boxing ring and we are loosing the battle. As our emotions run high and we cannot see clearly as we are in the bubble of our drama. The power is in turning this around and owning your health issue, researching options, becoming the investigator and the observer in our situation. I have gone through this cycle and it is amazing the self- growth you get from coming out the other side. Beca...

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  Pay attention and be aware of the type of questions that you find yourself using. The questions that you ask yourself can either be helpful or detrimental. It is important to focus on asking helping questions. It is unfortunate that the majority of people unwittingly ask themselves questions that keep them stuck in life’s challenges. They ask themselves questions that dwell on the problem, lay blame and reinforce negatives. I term them ‘Stuck’ questions because they don’t allow you to move forward and overcome the challenges. Have you ever asked yourself these types of questions? “Why does this always happen to me?” “Why can’t I do anything right?” “What is wrong with me?” “Who is to blame for this?” “Why doesn’t anybody like me?” I’m sure you have. We are all guilty of asking ourselves these types of questions. The problem occurs for us when we spend most of our time asking these types of questions. You really do not want the answers to t...

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Don’t you just love it when you still learn something new about your partner/husband, even though you’ve been together for so long! The other day I was having a conversation with my other half about friendship and our respective circle of friends (with particular reference to why he regards certain school friends as more “my friends” and not “his friends”.) The fact that we have both known them equally for 15 years doesn’t sway him to my rationale that they are “our friends”. As far as he is concerned his circle is full at the moment... We always say we need to get out of our comfort zone (and he would be the first to agree that that is an area that he could work on) but sometimes we also need to pull back on ourselves and be realistic. His reason for not taking on “more friends” - he can’t even look after the ones he’s got! Why should he stretch himself to the point where he can’t maintain a decent friendship with anyone? I’m using the analogy of friendship for shock value (for the ...

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  Forgiveness is about willingly letting go of past hurts so that we are able to live a happier life in the present. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things for us to do. It is easier said than done, especially when something has caused us great pain or hurt in our lives. We have all experienced events in our lives that have and will continue to affect us in a negative way if we allow it. These hurts cause us to have feelings such as sadness, confusion, guilt, bitterness and anger and can lead us possibly to wanting to seek revenge. The more that we dwell on these hurts the more powerful and destructive they become. They can poison our lives. They can also consume a lot of our focus and energy; focus and energy which could be better directed to more important things in our life that will bring us joy and happiness. While we are dwelling on the past hurts we could be missing out on wonderful opportunities in the present. In my own life experiences I have had situations where ...

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In 2005 I was in pieces. I was shattered by a relationship break down. The path ahead was no longer clear, and I was full of self-doubt. It was at this point that I turned inwards, and my journey of spiritual discovery began. What I found was my Inner Essence through self development. It enabled me to recognise the power and strength at the core of my being. I was able to unlock my hidden potential. Along the way I was assisted by spiritual guides, angels and ascended masters. Shared experiences with friends moulded who I became. Like the caterpillar, after metamorphosis, I emerged a beautiful butterfly. So how can you discover your Inner Essence? I would like to share with you seven techniques which will help you on your own spiritual journey of enlightenment. Revisit painful experiences. Do you feel angry about a relationship break down? Do you resent the promotion of a work colleague? Are you feeling guilty about the way you treated a family member? To move on yo...

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  Too many times we judge and blame ourselves or others rather than seek to understand why we or they think or behave in certain ways. Judging and blaming keeps us stuck and does not allow us to progress in a positive direction. It just keeps us going around in vicious circles. A lack of understanding in our life creates anger, frustration, heartache, stress, anxiety and negative experiences. If you take the time to understand yourself and others it will improve the quality of your life. This understanding allows us to become more aware of why we and others think and behave in the manner that we do and provides us with an opportunity to adjust our thoughts and behaviours as required. For instance, we all have personalities that will influence our thoughts and behaviours. My personality style is Stable/Steady. Approximately 65% of the population falls into this category of personality. The greatest fear of a Stable/Steady personality type is loss of security and one of thei...

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