Feeling a little scattered? Not sure when to do what? Not sure how to achieve optimal time management for your business but also be present and in the moment?
I. Hear. You.
Some days, I really just want to go with the flow, and some days - I can't get through my list of to-dos fast enough.
What I'm learning to do is really lean into that and have the exact kind of day that my body, heart and mind are telling me to have. Why? Because my inner knowing is right every time.
There's A LOT to be said about how we spend our time and the shape of our lives. They are one full circle. Sometimes we take the hours, minutes and seconds we have for granted, and sometimes we PUSH through them with HAVE TOS and SHOULDS that end up depleting us.
Yes - master your minutes and own your time, but also know the difference between force and flow.
One of the first questions I ask when I'm working with someone on this: Who's owning your time? If you're struggling with focus and unable to grow in the areas you're intending to...chances are you're allowing other things/people to own your time.
We have 1440 minutes given to us in each day. How do you spend yours? I'm not suggesting you track each second - but an awareness is key - yes, even in the flow.
Here are 5 ways to keep the focus and achieve optimal time management in your business...WHILE being present, in the flow, and living a life you love.
1. Set up your day the night before with an openness to change as needed - lists are great...but also be open to those lists shifting and carrying certain tasks over to the next day. For example, if you're not feeling the highest vibe in the moment...is that when you REALLY want to be reaching out to potential clients?
If those tasks continue to move to the next day for a week - you may want to look a little deeper and ask yourself why that keeps being postponed. A little work may be required to move past that block.
2. Time block a digital calendar with reminders - Include the to-dos for your business, and also the things that bring you JOY. Love naps? Add those in. Things that bring you joy are ESSENTIAL to your productivity - and if you have things on your list to look forward to - you're going to be in a way better state than the "all work - no play" lifestyle many business owners get trapped in.
3. Eliminate distractions, time wasters and vibe-killers. You'd be surprised how much a casual conversation here and a scroll through social there can add up to hundreds of minutes lost every week...if it's not contributing to your happiness, health, or success, how much time do you really want to be giving it?
4. Schedule HIGH VIBE time! Get outside, move your body, feel good, eat well, turn on your favourite songs and dance. High vibes will help you be way more productive!
5. Constantly remind yourself of your ultimate goals, while being happy in the here and now. What are you working towards that makes that consistency so worth it? Reminding yourself of the goals while prioritizing your joy NOW will keep your heart feeling happy as you move closer to them.
The more we take full ownership of our time, the more empowered we feel and the better everything becomes around us.
Being able to ROCK time management for intuitive business owners and entrepreneurs is essential for productivity, self care and growth!
We have a whole session on this in the Beautiful Business Program, and it's one of my favourites to teach on. If you're looking to take your business to the next level - this program may be perfect for you. Find more here!
In Happiness & Health
Natalie Colalillo
Founder & CEO Happy Healthy Women
Plant-based Wellness and Business Coach
Instagram: @happy_healthy_nat
More and more women are deciding to make big change in the way they live out their lives and are moving toward entrepreneurship as a way to achieve the freedom they have been longing for. Nothing makes me happier, and it's a big piece of what we discuss in the Wellpreneur Club Mastermind Meetings and on our Monthly Leadership Calls.
While entrepreneurship is beautiful and can provide so much more opportunity, joy and creative freedom, it also requires a different skill set, mindset and discipline. The good news is, it can all be learned!
Below, I offer 5 ways that I believe are HUGE in moving from that place of part-time business or "side hustle", into a full-time, thriving business that generates a salary (yes - it's possible - with benefits) for you, and multiple team members to come.
Here are 5 ways to start making your part-time "side hustle", a full-time thriving business.
Are you looking at your business from the inside of it, as a sole proprietor doing all the things, or are you looking at it from a bird’s eye view, at all the moving parts and thinking about how to optimize each?
It doesn’t matter if you’re the only person in your organization right now. The minute you start seeing your business as a growing empire that is making space for multiple employees and an abundance of clients, is when you’re business will start attracting that.
In addition to that, how is it packaged? This sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many business owners aren’t clear enough on this, and they end up creating content around the topics that their passionate about, without any real ways for their clients to enroll in what they’re offering. This has to be clear, concise and simple. A confused mind will say no.
What does that journey look like? Envision yourself taking a potential client by the hand, and walking them through your offerings. Does it all make sense? Does one offering lend itself to the next, or do you go from freebie to a $10,000 package with noting in between?
Having a clear business funnel is absolutely essential in giving you a realistic visual of what is currently happening in your business, and providing a much clearer path for both you and your potential clients.
A funnel also allows you to automatically walk people through toward making the decision that’s right for them, and will also show YOU where you need to be spending the majority of your time.
Quite often when we start a business, we imagine ourselves doing the thing we are selling. I.e., coaching. We envision ourselves with clients, on coaching calls and invoicing for our services. And yes – it's important to visualize those things for SURE, however, it’s also important for us to realize that at the beginning, 90% of our time will be spent on doing the things that actually help us get eyes on what we’re offering, not necessarily on doing the actual thing we are offering.
If you’re in this place, trust that you’re doing things right and that you’re not FAILING as an entrepreneur. You have to SHOW UP in order to GO UP.
Creating revenue streams that continue to flow while you’re working on other things, is the key to creating not only a full-time business but a solid, deeply rooted business that can withstand the stormy seasons. They WILL happen - but you can do something about it before they do!
Being able to even out the roller coaster ride of business, especially when it comes to revenue, is essential and requires a different mindset and skill set, but it’s completely doable. After all, you got into business to grow, and have a life of freedom and choice - so let's make that happen, shall we?
If the above resonates and you'd like to be in on conversations where we talk about these things as they specifically relate to YOU and YOUR business - you'll love the Wellpreneur Club! We have weekly Mastermind Sessions and High-Vibe Business chats that are there to help women get out of their head and into their heart-centered success!
In Happiness & Health
Natalie Colalillo
Founder & CEO Happy Healthy Women
Instagram: @happy_healthy_nat
We all want to grow and learn and make a positive impact in the world.
We long to do something important with our lives and for the most part, we know that it starts with ourselves - we change the world by changing how we show up in the world and how we interact with the world.
But it can be so easy to tumble down the rabbit hole of judgment. Unfortunately, nothing stops our growth and our impact like judgment.
And that is because what we judge we can not understand.
The minute that we say "He's a liberal" or "She's a conservative" is the moment that "understanding" comes to a halt.
(Or maybe a better example right now would be "He's a pro-vaxer"/"She's an anti-vaxer!")
When we decide to place a label on someone or something, we often do so with an undertone of approval or disapproval attached to it. It becomes very difficult to understand the things (and people) that we disapprove of.
The whole idea of disapproval is that it is something foreign to you or outside of you. And we all know that is ripe and fertile ground for an "us against them" environment.
As human beings, we tend to react to things that are foreign to us or outside of us in 3 different ways:
The first way we can react is to quickly reject that person, their behavior, or their ideas. For many of us this means that we don’t want them around us, we don’t include them in our friend groups and if they are family we spend as little time with them as possible. They become the them to our us. When this get’s played out on a bigger stage we see countries going to war, we see racism, we see refugees with no place to go. And we begin to use language that vilifies and depersonalizes them until in the worst cases we are ok with their complete destruction. I know that sounds extreme but how many of us watch the news and see exactly this type of behavior.
The second way that we can react is by accepting the difference as long as it’s not brought to your awareness. It’s like saying “Ok it’s fine that we are different but I don’t want to hear about it and I don’t want to see it.” This happens when we go home for thanksgiving and we say “I’m just not going to talk to Uncle Bill about politics" or we say to our partner “Since we’re not married my parents are going to make us sleep in different rooms” even though you have been living together for years. It’s saying we are fine with people being gay but we would never be friends with them. The list goes on and on....
The third way we respond is by removing all the differences and saying, “Well we are all the same.” We saw this when Black Lives Matter came on the stage and asked us to see something we didn’t necessarily want to see...so many people responded with “Well, all lives matter.” And in removing the differences we remove anything that was uncomfortable and that we could have learned from.
Now if you respond in one of these three ways you will notice something very interesting. You’ll notice that in each way of responding you are right. In the first two, you are right and the other person is wrong. And in the third one, you’re both right. Oh yes, that ego is one tricky son of a gun.
But there is a fourth way of responding. It's a difficult one but it will provide you with so much spiritual growth and such a rich and abundant life experience. And that is to look at things and to look at yourself through the lens of the other person - with such a deep curiosity that when you look back at your own behavior it looks strange to you.
Let me give you an example in a story that I heard:
There was a therapist that was going to go work in an Indigenous community. And when he arrived he looked at how they raised their children, the children ran from house to house acting as if each house was their own, they spent most of their time unsupervised and playing outside. When the kids misbehaved every adult felt the freedom to discipline them.
And the therapist thought - “Oh this is a huge problem. These kids are not grounded in their families, they lack connection with their mothers and fathers, they are allowed too much freedom and not enough structure” and on and on.
But the longer he stayed in the community and the more he got to know the people that lived there, he began to see the world through their lens until finally, he had some understanding.
And then when he looked back at his own community he thought “How strange it is that we live so isolated from each other, that we don’t allow the influence of other people to penetrate us, that we build so many fences and so many boundaries - perhaps that is why I have always felt so alone.”
This story is so impactful not because it glorifies one way of living over another, but because it causes us to look through more than just our own natural lens to see the world through another’s eyes and to allow what we see to pierce us and to cause us to grow!
So today ask yourself - which of these four ways of responding do I normally choose? And how would I become a more beneficial person in the world if I decided to remove my judgments and to see the world through the eyes of another the best that I could. How could I gain a more clear picture of reality if I also chose to see and accept my own strangeness as well?
Want to know more? Listen to The Art Of Being H(YOU)man Podcast - Episode 8 Accepting Other
Meg is a life coach, blogger and event host that is passionate about walking with people who want more out of life than just the status quo!
She believes that life doesn’t have to work out exactly the way we think it “should” in order to be enjoyed and that people don’t have to be perfect in order to be loved.
She believes that we all have the voice of truth inside of us but sometimes it can be hard to hear. And most importantly that we must live between the tension of accepting the things we cannot change and taking massive action on the things we can!
Meg creates spaces where women can slow down and process all the things that are influencing and controlling their lives - their everyday thoughts, emotions, and the stories they have been telling themselves.
Spaces where they can look at their inner world, gain valuable insight and then reclaim their personal authority, and make conscious decisions that transform the way they experience their lives!
Through one on one coaching, group coaching and workshops Meg helps women show up in the world with more love, and less ego, more compassion, and less judgment, more vulnerability, and less shame, more emotional agility and less fear!
Meg is also the current Branch Director of South Surrey/White Rock for Happy Healthy women.
Meg’s currently running events are:
The Self Love Series (March 2021 to June 2021)
The Art Of Being H(You)man Series (January 2021 to April 2021)
The Goddess Talks (All of 2021)
Meg lives in BC with her husband of 20 years, two teenage boys and their little dog Charlie. To learn more about Meg and her business, visit her website realexcellentliving.com
I know - many of us don't even want to hear the words "Fall" or "Autumn" as we're still Summer Lovin', but what if a few tweaks over the next few weeks could make all the difference in the abundance that comes your way next month and into the 4th quarter of 2021?
A popular topic these days in our community has been about how to create a successful 4th quarter.
Here are 5 Simple things you can do NOW, to create a successful fall in your business.
1. Get Dreaming - lie in the sand and soak up the sun...and while you're at it, let your heart and mind do a little dreaming. What does the rest of the year look like for you if you had your way? Because guess what, Lovely - you do!
2. Brand/Website Check-Up - Does your website, brand, colors, social media, newsletter etc. all speak the same language and provide a cohesive feel for your business? Do you still have classes from 2020 on your website? Look through it all as if you were a potential client. If something feels off to you, it likely needs a little refresher.
3. Create Your Roadmap - Where are you now and where are you going? We offer a free business roadmap template to our Collective Members that I myself designed and used to create Happy Healthy Women. I complete this roadmap once every 6 months, and it has been a game-changer in mapping out my dreams and making them a reality.
Grab the free roadmap template by signing up for a 30-day trial of the Wellpreneur Club!
4. Get In With a Community - Who are you running your ideas by? Expressing your challenges to? Learning from? Growing with? These are all really important things for women entrepreneurs, which is why I created this community. It's a must!
5. Trust - Yourself, others, the process. I fully believe the Universe is constantly working in our favor to create exactly what we're wanting, and the more you trust your inner guidance, the more will come your way.
These are just a few of the things that have been coming up lately in our Collective Mastermind Meetings about creating a successful fall in your business! And yes, you can and totally should join us!
In Happiness & Health
Natalie Colalillo
Founder & CEO Happy Healthy Women
Instagram: @happy_healthy_nat
How often do you think or feel negatively about yourself?
If you're anything like I was, I bet you do pretty often. Am I right?
Love, that it isn't the REAL you. It's your inner critic, AKA your inner "mean girl," that's talking inside your head.
If you let her, she'll drag you down in just about every aspect of your life. Believe me, I've been there too, but I overcame this, and so can you.
Here is some practical advice on silencing your inner mean girl and start channeling the real you!
When I coach women, this is just one of the things we work on. It's essential to reconnect to the REAL you.
Changing your life happens from the inside and builds the confidence to go after a life that truly lights you up.
Connect with me if you'd like to explore how we can work together so you can live that life.
XO, Stephenie
Writer’s block is a real thing. I suffer from it frequently, and I have 20 years of experience as a professional writer. Fortunately, though, there are ways around it.
If, despite your best intentions, you struggle to get your thoughts down in writing, I invite you to consider three barriers that may be standing in your way.
A topic pops into your head and you’re about to start writing when your inner critic jumps in with, “that’s been done before,” and you’re probably right. Pretty much every idea in the universe has been covered before – but not by you, and that’s what matters.
Your prospects aren’t simply people who need your services. They’re people who need your services and resonate with you as a human being.
Your packaging is what makes you unique; your language, your opinions, your insights. So own them and delve into a topic, even if it’s been covered 150,000 times before. If anything, a topic’s popularity proves there’s an audience eager to receive a fresh perspective on that very subject.
Raise your hand if you’re a perfectionist? (Thanks. You can lower your hand now.)
When I’m writing for my clients, I labour over every sentence I write because I’m being paid to deliver high-quality work. It’s my job to deliver an A+.
As a blogger, though, I aim for a B-. Why? Because my goal isn’t to win people over with my writing skills, and neither is yours. Your goal is to demonstrate your expertise while building or strengthening your rapport with people who matter.
So, follow a few best-practices, like keeping paragraphs short and proofreading your work (always), and trust that if you miss a comma here or there, nobody’s scrutinizing you because they’re not interested in your writing skills; they’re interested in your content.
If any of the above resonated with you, this may sound familiar.
You sit down at your desk, straighten up your keyboard, take a deep breath, and prepare to write. A few seconds later, you realize you haven’t eaten lunch so you stand up and head to the kitchen.
Or perhaps you think about writing a post but hey, you have a business to run, which means you have calls to make, invoices to issue, courses to take, and networking events to attend.
I get it, but here’s the thing: if you really want to write, you need to commit to the goal of writing and hold yourself accountable to that commitment. If that means setting aside an hour a week and publishing one article a month, then do it.
Commit to that hour. Put it in your calendar and show up for it as you would if you were giving that hour to a valuable client. Alternatively, join our co-writing community. We meet for two hours every second Friday and we get some serious blogging done.
Perhaps I’ll see you there!
Viv
Viv Singer is a Toronto-based freelance copywriter with 20+ years of experience helping solopreneurs and businesses of all kinds and sizes express themselves through the written word. Whether she’s writing newsletters, websites, announcements, advertisements, blog posts, or social content, she’s passionate about crafting words that capture the attention of their audiences and compel the right readers to read on.
Check out Viv’s professional copywriting portfolio, explore her personal blog, or email her to learn more about her copywriting services.
I wonder if you can relate to this - I spent a huge chunk of my life thinking there was something wrong with me.
It just seemed like I was just never enough - never smart enough, talented enough, pretty enough, successful enough, - I wasn’t enough in any area of my life.
And so I decided to go on a journey of “fixing myself.” I took classes, read books, took trainings, I practiced my craft over and over again until I got more than just good at it, I bought more expensive clothes and drove an hour to get my hair done at the best place - the things I did to try to be 'more' was just a never-ending list of to-dos!
But I had consoled myself with the fact that I at least had hope: I had this promise that if I stayed on the treadmill of self-improvement I would get to where I felt I needed to be!
But year after year I never reached that promised land and year after year I found new areas I needed to improve (hello motherhood) and new methods that I still needed to try.
And then one day I picked up a book about acceptance...not just any kind of acceptance….Radical Acceptance...and I thought well maybe I should give this a try!
And I have to be honest, I laughed through most of the first chapter - I can remember thinking - "Well this won't work! I would never do anything if I just sat and accepted myself for who I am!"
But there was a tug on the heart that made me keep reading - And I am so grateful that I did, because it turns out I had NO IDEA what Acceptance actually was!
I thought it meant giving up and giving in...a type of "It is what it is."
But Radical Acceptance is oh so different than that!
Radical acceptance has two parts:
The first part is the ability to really see what is in front of us. We might think that we have a good idea of what is happening in front of us but the truth is most of us look at the superficial circumstances and create some story about what we think is happening.
We see someone who is angry and we see someone who is out of control instead of seeing someone who is hurt. We see someone who is procrastinating and we see someone who has no drive rather than someone who is dealing with the burden of perfection.
We almost never see what really is, unless we pause and take a moment, and in that moment accept what is in front of us so that we can see clearly.
Most of the time we resist and reject what is in front of us. We see an angry person and we say "You shouldn’t be angry." We see someone who is procrastinating and we say "You should come up with a greater why."
And in saying what 'should be' we reject what is.
The second part of Radical Acceptance is to feel compassion for what we see. Normally when we look at something on the superficial level we tend to put it in the box of right or wrong - and we don’t normally feel much compassion for the things that go in the 'it's wrong' box!
But when we see what really is we can also see the pain behind the things we label wrong and when we see pain it inspires us to compassion!
And here is the good news - when we have seen what is really there and when we have felt compassion for what we see we come to a beautiful place - we come to a place where we are connected to our higher self and where we are connected to our resourcefulness and to our creativity.
Too often we see, we reject and we jump into action. And then we don’t understand why the solutions don’t bring us the joy they promised or why we still feel upset after things have technically been worked out.
We jump into action too quickly and don’t take the time to process the emotions that we are experiencing.
The truth is we are actually only ready to take action after we have practiced radical acceptance!!
Only after we truly see and find our compassion are we ready for any type of action! If we dive into action before we truly see and find our compassion we tend to react instead of act and I don't know about you but when I am reacting I am never at my best self!
So amazingly enough when I practiced Radical Acceptance in my life the quote from Carl Rogers came true when he said "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I change."
Are you curious about Radical Acceptance and how it would impact your life? Listen for more on The Art of Being H(You)man Podcast
Meg is a life coach, Hypnotherapist, blogger and event host that is passionate about walking with people who want more out of life than just the status quo!
She believes that life doesn’t have to work out exactly the way we think it “should” in order to be enjoyed and that people don’t have to be perfect in order to be loved.
She believes that we all have the voice of truth inside of us but sometimes it can be hard to hear. And most importantly that we must live between the tension of accepting the things we cannot change and taking massive action on the things we can!
Meg creates spaces where women can slow down and process all the things that are influencing and controlling their lives - their everyday thoughts, emotions, and the stories they have been telling themselves.
Spaces where they can look at their inner world, gain valuable insight and then reclaim their personal authority, and make conscious decisions that transform the way they experience their lives!
Through one on one coaching, group coaching and workshops Meg helps women show up in the world with more love, and less ego, more compassion, and less judgment, more vulnerability, and less shame, more emotional agility and less fear!
Meg is also the current Branch Director of South Surrey/White Rock for Happy Healthy women.
Meg lives in BC with her husband of 20 years, two teenage boys and their little dog Charlie. To learn more about Meg and her business, visit her website www.megheppner.com
"Ding Ding!"
There it is. That reminder you set in your phone to workout! It's time!
But wait - you're still in bed, or in the thick of work at your computer. Your runners are under a pile of other shoes, and you're dreading that same YouTube workout you've already done a few times.
You hear that voice. The one that whispers: "skip today", and you respond: "I should. I've gotta get through all of these emails and I just don't have the time. Who was I kidding setting that alarm?"
Then you press delete on the notification...you've decided you're just not the workout kind of person - and then the whole guilt - action - inaction - guilt - action - inaction cycle starts again.
𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲, 𝟮𝟱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀. 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲?
The thing is, I really wanted to be a person who loved fitness, and the biggest things that made that happen for me, had nothing to do with setting alarms.
Here are three things that helped me get to that place and I know they'll help you too.
𝟭. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗪𝗛𝗬 - Are you working out to have a six pack, lose the baby weight and have a "bikini body"? Or are you working out to feel strong, live healthy and be in a good mental state?
The first few reasons are based on your perception on what others think of you. The others are about what YOU think of you. It's the latter that will keep you inspired to keep moving.
𝟮. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 - Time and Money. Yes. If you looked at the hours and coin you dropped on something that IS successful in your life, I bet it wouldn't be a "when I have the time and/or money" situation.
As tempting as it is - wellness is not a thing you want to cheap out on. At the beginning of my journey - I joined a boutique fitness studio to get me on the right track. It was the most I had ever spent on my fitness, but it kept me accountable.
I knew that the regular membership type deal that I had done so many times before, wasn't enough to keep me in the zone. I needed more.
𝟯. 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁 𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲 - Shift your mindset away from temporary fixes and toward lifestyle changes. Repeat after me: "I am a person that loves fitness, wellness and nutrition."
One small choice and habit at a time will get you closer to the lifestyle, state of mind and the wellness you envision.
When I coach people through my wellness program, we look at all sides. Nutrition, mindset and fitness. It's important to know that it's not just action that creates change. It's action fueled by emotion, feeling and passion. What is the life you want to be living? Let's focus on that.
Connect with me here if you'd like to explore this for yourself.
In Happiness & Health,
Natalie Colalillo
Founder & CEO Happy Healthy Women
Instagram: @happy_healthy_nat
One day a number of years back I was out for a walk and I happened to catch my reflection in the window of a store … it stopped me dead in my tracks! My 1st thought was “holy SH*T! How did you walk out of the house looking like that? You look awful! That top makes you look gigantic! And seriously…what’s up with your hair?” And the dialogue in my head went on and on.
I bet this has happened to you too. Why do we speak so unkindly to ourselves? Why do we, dare I say it, always feel that our bodies are not good enough? What if I told you that there’s ways to be a little kinder? Would you be willing to give it a go? Let’s talk about the 5 top ways we are unkind to our bodies and how we can put a stop to that NOW!!
Comparing – Cruel to Kind
Look at her! I’ll never have a body/hair/eyes like hers! We do this all the time…we compare ourselves to other people…especially if we are on a weight-loss journey. There is a big difference between admiring another person and comparing yourself to them. Think about the beautiful models you see on the front of a magazine...think about your favourite athlete; it’s their JOB to look like that! It’s our job to admire them not be them.
When we compare ourselves to others, we automatically set ourselves up for disappointment. The next time you find yourself comparing, try Reframing your thought. That might sound like “Look at her! I might never be a super-model but boy do I have gorgeous eyes!” Reframing allows us to look upon our thoughts with a more positive and gentler attitude.
Deprivation and Binging – to eat or not to eat? That is the Question!
Perhaps the most unkind thing we can do to our bodies when we are on our healthy living journey is to not fuel our bodies with good and balanced nutrition. It has been proven over and over again that diets don’t work! Let me say that again a little louder! DIETS DON’T WORK! No matter where you are on your journey you must always approach your nutrition from a place of kindness. You can not be kind to your body if you are depriving it of food or if you are consistently over-indulging.
Get rid of the diet plans! Throw out the diet books masquerading as cook books! Cancel your memberships from diet loss programs! Honestly all you need to do to be kind to your body is to eat the best fresh foods your budget can afford. You need Power Foods and Pleasure Foods in your diet (More on that next week!). You need to eat when you’re hungry (see my next post where we talk about the mind/hunger connection and how to determine where you are on the hunger scale!). You need to hydrate with fresh water. When you follow these simple guidelines there will be no need to neither deprive nor binge. You will feel great and your body will thank you!
But I Hate Running/Yoga/Aerobics – Be More Like Monica From Friends
Have you seen the episode of Friends where Monica is taking a tap-dancing class? She’s super bad at it (kind of like me in a Zumba class!) and the teacher calls her out in front of the whole class telling her she’s doing it all wrong. Her response to the teacher is “Yah but at least I’m doing it!”.
This is a perfect example of what it means to be kind to yourself/body when you exercise. We all know how important it is to move our bodies. Exercise keeps us healthy not only physically but mentally as well. So if this is a necessary part of our day, why would you want to do something that you don’t enjoy?
Sometimes we get caught up in the “I don’t have time to exercise” dialogue with ourselves. My motto has always been it’s the Quality not the Quantity! If you find yourself not wanting to start an exercise session because of this, remember that even 10 or 15 minutes of an exercise you actually enjoy is far better than no exercise at all! Keep that body moving and it will thank you!
Being kind to your body is never an all or nothing thing! It takes work and time! Don’t expect it to happen overnight and don’t expect it to be perfect every single day. You’ll have days that the first thought you have is more on the negative side of things; that’s ok! When you notice that, go back to the Reframing exercise we talked about earlier. Or if perhaps you’ve over-indulged on the Pleasure foods today, maybe tomorrow you decide to be a little kinder to your body and fuel yourself with lots of Power foods. I invite you to share how you are practicing Body Kindness this week. Pop over to the Perfectly Imperfect Mastermind Group on FB and share your successes!
Anne Caissie
Life Metamorphosis Coach
Branch Director, Happy Healthy Women - Guelph
Facilitator, Women’s Wellness Circle – Guelph
How much attention do you pay to your emotional life? Do you actively tend to your emotional wellness, or are your feelings more of an inconvenient or inconsequential afterthought?
Emotional wellness truly does impact all areas of our lives - including our happiness, health and success. So in case you haven’t paid much attention to your feelings or learned much about them before now, here’s an intro to emotional wellness and why our feelings matter.
What is emotional wellness?
Having a healthy emotional life is a lifelong practice. It is noticing, feeling, understanding and honouring ALL of your feelings. So not just your “positive” feelings (which of course we prefer, and want to experience as often as possible), but also our “negative” feelings which are immensely important too. Together, all of our emotions help us effectively manage the inevitable ups and downs of life. They all serve a purpose in a healthy human experience.
Emotional health is one of the four essential aspects of whole wellness. It’s interconnected with the other aspects: physical, mental and spiritual health. And often, emotional health is the missing piece of the wellness puzzle that makes all the difference.
Why do feelings matter?
With the knowledge that feelings are an integral part of yourself, you may wonder why they’re worthy of your loving attention. For starters, their evolutionary purpose keeps us safe, smart and ensures our survival. Hooray for that! But you may be even more interested in how else feelings impact your modern daily life at a practical level.
In his book “Permission to Feel”, Marc Brackett, the director of Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, offers these specific benefits of emotional wellness. Here are five areas in our everyday lives where feelings are most influential.
Our feelings matter most because . . .
And if all of that isn’t enough incentive, remember the secondary benefits that your emotional wellness have on all areas of your life. When you are well, you are well equipped to effectively navigate all the other areas in your life for the better. Let’s use business as an example.
When YOU are the greatest asset of your business, your emotional health is essential to your business’ success.
So which of these benefits is the most inspiring reason for you to nurture your emotional wellness? Let us know in the comments below.
And remember that you matter, so your feelings matter too. Follow your heart to the results that matter most to you!
Nicole Moorey coaches women entrepreneurs to consistently prioritize their own self-care needs and emotional wellness, so they can give their best to themselves and their businesses.
She’s pleased to lead HHW Thunder Bay as Branch Director: Facebook
Benefits of meditation are many: better concentration and mood management, relaxation leading to better sleep, improved mental health and immunity, lower blood pressure, and on and on the list goes.
Each one of these benefits is helpful in the life of any human, but what if you’re not quite like any other human? What if you want more? What if you’re an entrepreneur? Can you get more bang for your buck from meditation?
YES, yes you can!
Breath, mantra, mudra, and intention are all the elements of meditation. Let me explain each one, and how it can support a busy person who wishes prosperity and business success:
But guess what’s the most effective? If you combine all of these elements and extend the mudra to your entire body, you get a practice that is stunningly powerful! With that practice we can demolish the blocks (physical, mental, emotional) that are standing in our way to prosperity and abundance.
Last year, a few weeks after going into the first lockdown, I succumbed to the wave of panic and confusion, as many small business owners did. I recognized that I needed to pivot, but I wasn’t clear on how exactly, so I started doing this practice. Pretty shortly after that, a new way to serve in my business clarified, I was able to continue with a new sense of purpose, drive and optimism, and a new source of income.
Do you want in? Join me for a 40-day group practice of Param Karam Dharam kriya - a moving meditation that will help you align with the flow of prosperity. You will discover new openings for growth and abundance in places that were previously unavailable to you. You will make shifts effortlessly, as you practice with the flow of energy, and that flow will carry you through your life and business. Awaken to new possibilities!
Spring is in the air. Can you feel it? After a long winter, are you ready for a fresh new season? And are you just as ready for some fresh new self-care ideas?
If you struggle to consistently take good care of yourself and your wellness needs, you’re going to love this simple seasonal approach.
By tuning into the infinite wisdom of spring, you can then apply those insights in a practical way to your own daily self-care. Since we as humans are nature too, we thrive when we can work with and not against the natural energy and rhythms of the seasons. Here’s how . . .
1) Notice the season around you.
What do you sense and feel on a typical spring day where you live? I picture fresh starts and stepping out, cleansing rains, invigorating winds and warm sunshine, all leading to buds, sprouts and blossoms. It’s a season of action, attending and adventure.
Once you understand spring’s vibe, you can reflect on what this specifically means for you and your self-care:
How could I incorporate more of the parts of spring that I most enjoy into my self-care practice?
How could I consider the parts of spring that I least enjoy to adapt my self-care practice?
2) Notice the season within you.
Now that you know what spring energy means to you, do your inner thoughts and feelings match? Or are there areas in your life where you’re just not feeling the spring vibe? Perhaps you’d rather rest like winter, savour like summer or finalize details like fall. Just because it’s spring outside, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily up for new beginnings and blossoming in all areas of your life.
Awareness of your inner metaphorical season can help you have more compassion for yourself and customize your self-care to truly meet your needs:
In what one area of my life am I experiencing spring energy? How can I nurture that energy in my self-care?
In what one area of my life am I not experiencing spring energy? How can I nurture that alternate energy in my self-care?
3) Nurture your needs with ONE self-care practice.
Having reflected on your literal and metaphorical seasons, you’re now in an excellent place to choose ONE self-care practice to try. Don’t overthink it. Just go with the one that feels right, that energizes or soothes you, that feels like home.
And try it today! The best self-care is the self-care that actually happens, so by keeping it simple and starting right away you increase your chance of success.
By noticing the natural rhythm of the season around you and noting how that relates to the season within you, you have incredible insights on how to best nurture your unique needs. Your self-care will spring to life!
Nicole Moorey coaches women to consistently prioritize themselves and their own wellness needs, so they can give their best to themselves, their businesses and their loved ones: nicolemoorey.com
She’s pleased to lead HHW Thunder Bay as Branch Director: Facebook
