What a difference a day makes

Yesterday this post was titled ” an ocean, a rowboat, and one paddle”. It was all about how if I’d know how traumatic it would be to publish a book, I might have changed my mind. You may never have got to read Breathing While Drowning: One Woman’s Quest for Wholeness.

It’s been almost a year since I finished the manuscript. The writing was an emotional roller coaster all on it’s own; reliving the 20-year-old journals I wrote to my daughter Jacqui Bree before and after her death at the age of four.

But if I thought that was tough…

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Is it time to show up for your own story?

There’s something magical about telling a story, and my dream has always been to write stories. Until recently, story writing was just that, a dream. But it’s a dream no longer; my book is finished and it’s being published soon.

My story is Breathing While Drowning, a memoir of my life so far. My heroine’s journey into despair, trials, tribulation and my quest for healing and return to living a vibrant and remarkable life, a life worthy of my attention. Continue reading

Are you leading a remarkable life?

When I was young, I thought of remarkable as meaning extraordinary, exceptional, amazing and wonderful. My life, like so many others, was changed forever by a remarkable event. I saw a grainy black and white image of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon – that’s what I secretly wanted to do. I wanted to leave an imprint that will be remembered forever, like Neil’s footprint on the moon. Continue reading

How hard is it to ask for help?

Ask for help for my stuff? Yoikes no! I’m fine thanks, I’ll manage. And I usually do; manage that is. I don’t know about you, but I find it so much easier to do things for other people than for myself.

I’ve found not asking for help for my own stuff, my most difficult habit to break. It just doesn’t come naturally. I have a tough time holding myself accountable for my own dreams, they tended to be last on my list and so often not done, leaving me more and more frustrated and stressed from the Zeigarnik Effect. Continue reading

Dust off those dreams

Imagination is one of the joys of being human.  What a gift to be able to create images and ideas without the thing being present or real.  Combine that with the thought that energy flows where focus goes, so whatever you focus on is what you’ll think about and be more likely to act on.  So now you have two things working to make your dreams come true.  But that’s not enough to make it happen.  Let’s face it, most of us have dreams and that’s all they are, dreams, they never become our reality.  We keep those dreams tucked up safely, gathering dust, and we don’t really believe we can have them.  And let’s not even think about whether we deserve them or not. Continue reading

Are you on track and still feeling stuck?

Human beings need to know where we’re going, we like a clear direction and a sense of certainty that we’re going to get somewhere – eventually.  We’re mostly content when we feel we have some control over our present and our future and are heading in the right direction – towards wherever it is we want to go, or whoever it is we want to be.

Now for quite a while I’ve had a pretty good sense of my life’s direction, and who I want to be.  My most joyful work is nurturing the spark of magnificence in people and giving them the confidence to find a dream and go after it.  I love this work and I love running my own business (OK three businesses).  Most days I’m clear, I’m on track, I’m motivated and ploughing through the work right on plan (I’m a coach and a project manager, I love a plan). Continue reading

Our self-doubt is a traitor

My life belongs to me. What I think, feel, do and believe matters. But what happens when what you think and feel and do sends you into a nosedive rather than filling you with joy?

Most of the time I’m an optimist but I’ve been listening to Doubting Doris, Impatient Ivy and Procrastination Pattie way too often – together they’re the DIP. And when I listen to them I find myself doubting, impatient and procrastinating – a lot! Continue reading

How’ve you been, really?

One of my best friends made a gem of a statement the other day that started me thinking about friendship and mindfulness.  We’ve been best friends since we were kids and have stayed best friends even as careers and families kept us geographically distant the last few decades.

Although we live in separate parts of the country at the moment, whenever we catch up, often months apart, it feels like it was yesterday since we spoke.  When we fill each other in on what’s been happening, my friend described it like we both have these ’bonus bubbles of life’ between our catch ups.  As if the real world is the brief time we spend together, everything else has a sense of scripted alternate reality. Goes to show how present we are and invested in the moment when we’re together. Mmm sounds like we’re being mindful. Continue reading