My Latest Blog

How many of us have read or heard the famous quote ‘Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure’ and pondered its meaning?

Marianne Williamson helped me to realize that this quote is really about understanding how we often limit ourselves, she writes: 'It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a Child of God, your ‘playing small’ does not serve the World.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do’ I love the fact that Marianne can see ‘the better place’, how the World would look if we all chose to shine.

How would our lives look if nothing held us back?

Ask yourself, if you lived your life tomorrow without fear, how would it look?

Fear is a part of our daily lives but do we recognize it when it holds us back?  Are we able to see when we stand back from speaking out because we’re afraid of what people will think of us?  Do we hold back from celebrating our strengths and play only on our weaknesses?  How do fears affect the decisions we make about our lives?  Does fear stop us from enjoying every precious moment with our family and friends?  Maybe we should try to see things through the eyes of a child.  

What would you do tomorrow if you had no fear about:

a)    your capability?

b)    how people may judge you?

c)     your faith that you will be successful in whatever you do, particularly if your aim is to help others and make the world a better place?

Would you encourage your children differently if you believed that:

a)    they could never fail?

b)    the world would always be kind to them?

c)     the world would always love them like you do?

You could make a difference

We all have a special gift that could help others, and we all have the ability to make a massive difference to the world – collectively we are very powerful.  To sum it up, I love the story about the person who was on the beach surrounded by a million starfish that had washed up on the shore, dying in the sun.  A person came along to witness her throwing the starfish back into the sea one by one and asked how could she possibly make a difference when the entire shoreline was littered with hundreds of starfish that had been washed up? As she threw another starfish back into the water, her reply was simple but profound ‘Well,  I made a difference to that one’.

Do you understand how powerful you really are?

Imagine yourself with no restrictions, fulfilling your potential, believing in yourself, being the best you can be. The World would be a truly amazing place if we all saved a starfish every day!

Love, peace and joy to you

Susan 

-x-

‘I don’t believe I have special talents, I have persistence …. After the first failure, second failure, third failure, I kept trying’.  (Carlo Rubbis, Nobel Prize winning Physicist).

Recently I’ve been feeling a little bit disillusioned and lacking in confidence.  My life plan has seemed a long way off and my motivation and faith in my own abilities has dipped.

Sometimes its hard to stay focused especially when things don’t go as we expect them to.  I’ve mapped out what I really want in life but at the moment its as if it’s a million miles away.  Mike Dooley, famous author and inspirational speaker,  reminds us of the best way to stay focused.  He encourages us not to agonise and sweat over ‘how’ our dreams will come true, just concentrate on visualising our desired end result – seeing ourselves doing those things, living in that village, running on that beach or just leading that lifestyle.

I love this quote from Winston Churchill. He defined success as ‘the ability to move from one failure to another without loss of motivation’ – this may seem like a fairly pessimistic view of life but I think Churchill was talking from experience – he wasn’t always a popular figure but he was dogmatic and  kept going despite the peaks, troughs and disappointments of his political career, eventually becoming prime minister in the UK at the, not so tender age of 62.

So how do we manage to stay motivated in between our failures? 

One way is to view a failure in a different light – what about viewing each and every disappointment as a learning experience?  Because we do learn from everything that we do, we learn how not to do it next time, we learn how it makes us feel, and we learn what gets the best results.

Once we accept that there is no such thing as a failure, we can look at disappointments from a more balanced perspective.  It’s not so easy to see this when we're stinging from the bitter blow of a new job not won or a much awaited phone call not received but when we look back, it's often easier to appreciate how maybe that particular outcome wasn’t such a bad outcome for us after all.

Another way of staying positive and motivated is to keep a journal. Before you switch off from this idea, keeping a journal of events and feelings doesn’t have to be a long winded affair, it can be as little as jotting a few words down every day – the highlight of the previous day, the lows, the highs. 

How can this help me to stay positive, I hear you ask?

It’s well known fact that reflection can help shift a negative perspective into a positive one.  For instance, did you realise that you were particularly down last summer and have you wondered why you were feeling that way at the time?  Maybe you ticked off another small goal towards your overall life plan and can only celebrate this when you re-visit your journal.  Were you asking certain questions or generally drifting without direction a month ago but now feel far more 'on track'?    There may be a pattern to your emotions and spotting the link between these and significant or mundane events in your week, may help you to better understand yourself.  You will only be able to see how well you’re doing now if you can reflect on when things weren't going so well - those ‘not so good’ times.

Why not make your journal into a Gratitude Journal by making a note of any good things that happen? That way you’re dwelling on the positive aspects of your life which will ensure that you’re better equipped to pick yourself up and move quickly on to deal with the next challenge, helping you to become more emotionally resilient.

Be Kind to Yourself Another way to help you stay motivated is to ease up a bit on yourself.  How often do you give yourself a hard time when something doesn’t work out?  Do you always blame yourself, how does your inner voice sound to you?  Are you busy telling yourself that you should have done this a different way, how stupid you are, how slow you are etc.  You wouldn’t speak to your best friend like this, so why do it to yourself?

It was the inventor, Thomas Edison who had an eternally optimistic  state of mind when he declared that he hadn’t failed at creating a better light bulb, he had just discovered 1,000  different ways not to make one!  Instead of being scared of failure,Edison welcomed it.  His focused, positive attitude and persistence kept him going and despite all his setbacks he declared,  “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

So why not decide to adopt a more emotionally resilient approach to life?  Why not decide to be your number one best ally from now on and while you are doing that, keep doing something every day that gives you both pleasure and purpose…….

‘Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall’ (Confucius)

Susan 

-x-

Why do we need to improve our wellbeing?

Recent statistics have shown that people who are happier, live longer.  How  you feel about yourself can be measured in terms of your overall wellbeing.  If  you value, accept and love yourself, you are more likely to understand the importance of looking after yourself and making sure that your physical as well as your mental health are both in tip top condition.  Here are five simple steps to improving your well being:

Step 2         Be active  Go for a walk or run.  Step outside.  Cycle.  Play a game.  Garden.  Dance.   Exercising makes you feel good.  Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Step 3         Take notice  Be curious.  Catch sight of beautiful things.  Remark on the unusual.  Notice the changing seasons.  Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends.  Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling.  Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Step 4         Keep learning  Try something new.  Rediscover an old interest.  Sign up for that course.  Take on a different responsibility at work.  Fix a bike.  Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food.  Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving.  Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.

Step 5         Give  Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger.  Thank someone, Smile.  Volunteer your time.  Join a community group.  Look out, as well as in.  Seeing yourself, and your happiness, as linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.

 love, peace and joy 

Susan -x-

Awakening signs from the Video by Yamze (link to the video) I was so moved recently when I watched this beautiful video - it helped me to realise how far I've come on my spiritual journey in the last year or so, but also how far I still have left to travel. The words are written below for you to meditate on. This incarnate life that you are gifted with has many keys to consciousness and has the capacity to be Heaven on Earth In this ascension lifetime, you do not ascend after death, but during your life The following are awakening signs of full transition into the consciousness of this ascension lifetime:

1. Beginning to look younger, experiencing more vitality
2. An increased interest in exercising in ways that honour your body-mind-spirit connection
3. Awareness of heat coming from your hands and feet
4. Heightened senses of hearing, taste and smell
5. An increasing ability to access inner peace in the lower chakras
6. Becoming more aware of how your body moves through space and activating grace and fluidity of movement through posture and breath
7. Paying attention to the places of pain/restriction in your body in order to move into them knowing that these places within your body are showing you about areas of great opportunities for growth on all levels
8. A feeling of being grounded to the core of the earth
9. Seeking holistic health care practitioners as partners in your healing journey - no longer seeking a doctor to fix you with prescriptions
10. Disconnecting from the white noise and negative information (TV, radio)
11. More frequent flashes of ‘inner-tuition’ or intuition
12. Increasing Gnosis (knowledge of spiritual mysteries)
13. Making a conscious effort to connect to people through the eyes and the heart
14. Ability to learn new concepts or languages rapidly increases – this stems from opening to all your soul records and remembering who you are
15. Greater understanding of symbols, numbers and sacred geometry
16. Increasing sense of empathy and connection with all people
17. An increasing willingness to show your emotions to all people rather than cover up and hide your true self
18. An increased sense of humour and the ability to laugh at the self
19. Feelings of bliss when experiencing simple things such a sunset or seeing a beautiful cloud formation
20. A returning ability to allow your tears to flow in situations of emotional intensity
21. Letting go of the need to control outcomes
22. Giving yourself permission to follow your heart’s desires
23. “I can and I am” become your key words rather than “I can’t and I am not”
24. Offering, from the heart to help others, in times of need, knowing that you are helping yourself
25. Increasingly seeing the Divine in the mundane
26. Meeting new people in serendipitous ways and knowing that this is Divine direction in your life
27. Loving yourself as you are without the need to qualify
28. Asking for and receiving confirmation from your guides on a regular basis
29. Experiencing true surrender to Divine Will without feeling victimized by your own choices
30. Remembering your dreams and knowing what your spirit is telling you through the symbolism of your dreams
31. Seeing the beauty in each and every person in your life
32. Letting go of expectations of how you think things ‘should be’ and accepting them as they are
33. Being led by spiritual intuition rather than being led by emotional fear
34. Being able to transcend limited perceptions of incarnate dimensions and seeing your life experience in the holographic reality of your soul
35. Feeling God within your body
36. Knowing you are home Now and in every Now you create

A special wish of love, peace and joy to you all

Susan -x-

How much do you allow yourself to dream about your Ideal Life?

Dreams are thoughts and thoughts create reality.  Everything that exists, once started off as a thought (think of an architect's plans for a house or a composer creating a piece of music).  If you allowed yourself time to think about how your Ideal Life looks, do you think you would you be surprised at what you create?  Answer 7 simple questions to help you find what’s missing from your life. Will there be any surprises along the way?  Take this little test and find out for yourself

1        What are the qualities I most admire in people that I would like to have?

I would like to be more…….

To others………

(helpful, confident…)

To myself……..

(kinder, more focused…)

What would I have to do differently to make this happen?

2        What would I like to have more of in my life?

 (more fulfillment, fitness, financial security?)

What would be my first step to making this happen?

3        What have I always wanted to do?

Do I want it enough to put it on this list?

If so, how could I plan towards this dream becoming a reality?

4        What would I like to receive more of?………

From my partner…………

From my work mates……………..

From my friends……………….

From my family………………

From my children…………..

5         What would I like to give more of?…….

(time, patience, encouragement)

To my partner………………….

To my children………………..

To my friends………………

To my colleagues…………………

6        What am I really glad to have?…… (achievements, possessions, careers, children, friends etc)

7        What I would like to change the most in my life?

What’s holding me back from doing this?

How can I see myself if you achieve it?

What differences will it make to my life?

What are the first steps I need to make this happen?

Find yourself wanting to move forward?  Goal setting can be the best way to progress towards something you really want in life.  Why not take a look at my goal setting page for more inspiration?

What have you discovered about yourself?

Do you find yourself thinking about any of these subjects?

• Are you keen to change your work/life balance?
• Are you struggling to find the right direction in your career?
• Are you facing a major decision but just can't decide which way to go
• Does your lack of confidence or fears hold you back from doing what you want in life?
• Do you feel that your relationships cause you more pain than happiness?
• Do you find it increasingly hard to be positive about life?

If you answered yes to any of these, the simple process of personal coaching offers you solutions.  Coaching will give you clarity and focus but most of all, the invaluable tool of gaining perspective!  So often we get caught up in the headlights trying to be the best we can, do what we feel we 'should' etc and we tend to only see the situation from one narrow perspective.  Find The Real Coaching works with you to help you discover a whole new way of thinking about yourself, often discovering choices that you didn’t realise you had but ultimately giving you back the power to change YOUR life!

Love, peace and joy

Susan

-x-

Who are you and do you understand what makes you tick?

I’m just beginning to understand what makes me tick and how values and beliefs underpin pretty much everything we do in life.

But if we find out what our values and beliefs are, how will this make a difference in our lives?

Someone close to me finds that by understanding what her values and beliefs are, she is able to make decisions easier.  Recently she was trying to decide whether to go to a church event connected to her daughter’s school but when she referred to her Values List, she then found it easy to decide.  Family and spirituality were both in her top 3!

Beliefs dictate the results you get

Beliefs are so strong in influencing our success in life that they are responsible for everything we see in our lives – look around you at the home you live in, the job you have, the clothes you wear, the friends you have.

When was the last time you didn’t feel happy a situation?Was it because you believed a certain fact about the situation  or did you find that you were not getting what you valued out of it? Its important to live true to our beliefs.  If we don’t we may not realise something’s wrong straight away but over a period of time, there’s a build up of pressure and before you know where you are, it could actually begin to make us ill – being our authentic ‘selves’ is the key to true inner peace.

Spotting our limiting beliefs

Some beliefs aren’t really ours – they’re inherited from our parents because we soak beliefs up like a sponge when we’re children. Our sub conscious mind is full of everything we learn in the first 6 years of our lives

When we believe something is true we‘re subconsciously looking for ways to reaffirm this.  So for instance, if you believe that you won’t be successful at achieving a goal, like giving up smoking, your  subconscious will be looking for an opportunity to prove to yourself that you’re right!   

The first opportunity you get to have a cigarette will be sending a message to your subconscious mind – ‘you were right, you predicted this and that’s why you thought it was too easy when everything was actually going well’

Try asking yourself:

How much love do you believe you deserve to receive in life?

What about how much you think you deserve to earn?

The placebo effect is a famous example of the power of our beliefs over reality: studies show that at least 30% of clinical patients report positive results after swallowing a sugar pill that they believe is genuine medication.

And in 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile which up until then was believed by everyone to be impossible.  Following his record breaking performance, 300 other runners achieved the very same thing in the following year.

So how do you identify what you value?

If you value being able to make decisions at work about how you like to structure your day….

and you work in a call centre……   you may find that you satisfaction score for your career is pretty low!

Values are not just about whether we think something is right or wrong – they are about what we value in our lives

Once we know what we value, we understand why certain things are important to us.

Think of 6 things you most value in your life and by a process of elimination, identify the top 3

For instance say your top 6 are:

•  Quality time with family
• Fulfilled career
• Financial freedom
• Vibrant health
• Loads of leisure time

To find your top 3 ask yourself:

Do I value financial freedom over lots of leisure time?

Or

Do I value quality time with the family more than a fulfilling job?

Keep doing this until you end up with your Top 3 Values List.

Once you’ve gone through this process, its as if something slots into place – you can take a step back and ask yourself, ‘how much does my life reflect what really matters to me?. How much of my life is working for me so that I get to do what matters the most to me? The benefit of recognising your values and beliefs means you can create your very own unique identity

This is who I am

Try writing a list of ‘ I Am’s’ and see how it feels

Avoid labelling yourself – ‘ I am a mother, I am a secretary etc’

An example:

I am caring and supportive

I am intuitive and open to messages from the Universe

I am always looking for the best in every situation

I am a successful writer and coach

This exercise helps us to be more self compassionate, supportive towards ourselves and of course, more forgiving.

Your Values list acts as a road map to focus you on the direction you want to go towards.

 So why not, create your map, check in with  who you really are, buckle up and enjoy life’s journey!!

 Happy driving everyone 

Susan x