Emotional Health & Wellbeing
There are many ways that fear stops us from moving forward easily
We often become unable to take action due to fear of making mistakes. However, there's nothing wrong with mistakes. Mistakes are your friend. You cannot get up if you do not fall down. No child would ever walk if he feared falling down. It is natural to take action, learn from what happens, and move forward. In fact, it's good to make a so-called mistake. It means you've taken a risk. You've stood up to fear and became stronger than it. A great teacher, Dōgen, said, "Life is one continuous mistake."
Anytime you stand up to fear, take a risk, take action, you have won. If you fall down a hundred times, that means you have won a hundred times. You have faced fear one hundred times, got up and tried again. It doesn't matter how your action turns out. You have lessened fear's hold on you and reclaimed your original freedom.
It's that time of year again...
That time of year when we take time out, time away, time to enjoy nature and all of the beauty around us and within us. Whether we spend summer in the city or in Tuscany, we experience time differently. Summer gives us an inner summer experience of immersing ourselves in the happiness of now.
One of the gifts of summer is how it allows us to live more completely in the present moment, watch the sun go down, enjoy long evenings outside as the light slowly changes. We take time to listen to the sound of waves crashing and birds singing, feel deeply connected, and we literally come to our senses as our senses come alive, wake up and smell the roses.
Enjoy the sunshine and possibilities...
Maya Angelou writes that "you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights"
I can add a fourth thing to the list: you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles being stranded abroad and finding other ways back home when a volcano erupts and airplanes don't fly because of volcanic ash!
Like many other people all around the world, in April I was stranded abroad because of volcanic ash and had an exciting 45+ hour journey home with my family. When I left England at the beginning of April, I thought I was heading to Italy's Amalfi Coast. I wasn't expecting to have a tour of Italy, Switzerland, France and Portsmouth.
Emotional eating - the mother of invention
Recently while running some emotional eating workshops in the Sutherland Shire for the ladies participating in the Curves Women's Fitness Centres, Weight Loss Challenge, I was approached by a woman who voiced to me her desire to change her relationship with food. She told me of an incident that had happened earlier that week, where she was so desperate to stop the cycle she had done something she feel was truly embarrassing. I relate the story below.
She had fed her children and was wiping down the table when she noticed a plate with a crumbed calamari ring still on it. She found herself about to pick it up and eat it out of habit when she realised she didn't want to and in desperation she sprayed the calamari with the Spray and Wipe she had in her hand to ensure she wouldn't eat it. She was very embarrassed by this behaviour, while the rest of the group applauded her and laughed out load at her inventiveness and their admiration at her thinking outside the square. This was the start of changing the brains neural pathways and her discovering new ways to help her with her weight loss.
What are good looking defences?
Your best friend is always beautifully groomed, her makeup is flawless, her clothes are immaculate, not a hair is out of place and you've never seen her any differentlyEven when she's sick she always looks great and I don't mean she has a natural glow! And you admire her for this! Why?
What you need to ask yourself is "What's she hiding?" Is she afraid that if anyone sees the real her she will not be liked?
