Braving the Spring Westerly's

We have just returned from a five day break in Filey Bay.  The westerly's were blowing off the cliff tops, blowing away the cobwebs in our heads and the sun was shining.  We had five days with nothing to do but collect pebbles, walk, read and spend quality time together.
 

The view from our cabin was inspiring. The colours, so uplifting.  Blue skies with puffy white clouds and greens, blues and sandy seas so calming.  When the wind dropped, we walked on the cliffs towards Bempton with seagulls dancing in the thermals above us.  It was cold for the time of year but no rain for four days, so who can complain?  The masses of Gorse bushes had blossomed and the almond scent was intoxicating as we wound our way around them.

The following day the wind returned so we ventured from the cliff tops down some woodland steps to Cayton Bay.  Five steps down it was still.  We could hear the wind above us blowing overhead but we were down in our little micro climate descending into a magical wood with wild pink and deep yellow primroses everywhere.  It was so peaceful.   Not another soul did we pass.  We could hear the ocean grow louder as we followed the winding path through the undergrowth.  Then out of the bushes, there was the bay.  A huge expanse of smooth yellow sand fringed with coloured pebbles and shells.  I collected small pieces of drift wood and clambered over the rocks at the crescent of the bay to discover rich amber cliffs of stone holding back the sea.  I found a small giant’s causeway to step across to take me back to the sands.

Being with nature and having the time to spend exploring and discovering new places together makes me realise just how blessed I am. The world is a wonderful place if only we take the time out to see it.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Eating with the Seasons - April

As the flavours of foods seem sadly lacking in my supermarket trolley, I have recently been drawn more and more to my local farm shops.  The misshapen cabbages and suede’s are full of flavour and takes me back to my farming roots.

Seasonal food is fresher and therefore tastier and more nutritious. If you want to enjoy food at its best, every bite bursting with flavour, there's no doubt eating seasonally is the way to go.

Eating more local seasonal food makes sense.  It costs less, as it has less distance to travel, which in turn reduces energy costs and the associated CO2 emissions.  It also supports the local economy, but most of all it helps us to reconnect with nature’s cycles and the passing of time.

Among the UK foods at their best in April are:

Vegetables: broccoli (purple sprouting), cabbages, cauliflower, spring greens, lettuce, radishes, sea kale, sorrel, watercress.

Fruit: rhubarb.

Wild greens and herbs: alexanders, chickweed, chives, wild chervil, dandelions, fat hen, hogweed shoots, hop shoots, meadowsweet, nettles, sea kale, sea spinach, sorrel, watercress, wild garlic, wild rocket.

Fungi and nuts: morels, St George's mushrooms.

Fish and shellfish: cockles, crab, pollack, salmon, sea trout.

Game: wood pigeon.

Meat: spring lamb, rabbit.

Poultry: chicken.

At this time of year, free-range eggs also taste better.  As the hours of daylight lengthen, hens naturally start laying again.  As the earth begins to warm new shoots appear and insects emerge, the chickens forage and enjoy their new diverse natural diet giving their eggs a particularly good flavour.  The beta carotene in the new grass gives the yolks that lovely deep golden colour.  And this of course gives the bird itself more flavour.

Whenever a particular UK-produced food goes out of season, you can guarantee that another delicious one has come back into season to tempt us all. Ultimately, eating seasonal food is about enjoyment.  By being aware of when foods are at their best can help us enjoy eating a naturally better quality diet.

Having a good healthy well balanced diet is one of the finest things we can do for our emotional and physical health and wellbeing.

There are some great recipes for this month’s seasonal foods.  Take a look at the following sites for ideas and move away from that winter stodge Delicious Magazine.   The BBC site has a good seasonal recipe section on bbc.co.uk  so be inspired, add some new ingredients to your shopping list and bring fresh excitement to your spring cooking.

Where ever you live in this world of ours, it’s worth finding out about which seasonal foods are on offer in your locality.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Personal Growth and Tree Rings

With every season that passes the trees rings grow larger.  The tree’s biggest spurt of growth comes in the spring when it rehydrates, drawing moisture and nutrients through its softer outer tissues, to allow the buds to burst into leaf and its branches to expand.

Each season as the tree grows in height the dark dense hard centre core grows stronger to carry the new weight and withstand the weather.

At whatever age we are, humankind has a compulsion to learn and grow.  We need to stretch ourselves to feel fulfilled as we go through the different stages of our lives.  Often this means moving outside our comfort zones.

Trying new things and new ways of doing things can be scary.  Have you ever tried something new and really frightened yourself into feeling that you will never, ever put yourself through that again?  Most of us have.  You most likely took a huge leap into the unknown pushing yourself way outside your comfort zone and it made you feel so bad you vowed never to try it again.

If we try to change a little at a time, each time going out of our comfort zone by the same small amount then eventually that new place becomes the place that we are comfortable in.  Our comfort zone has expanded and we have grown gradually like the ring of the tree.

Because of our compelling need to see rapid results, we expect too much of ourselves too soon.

If we try to change and grow a little at a time, we become more confident as we widen our circle, enabling us to have a richer fuller life.

Spring encourages new growth but taking it slow and steady is the way.  Small steps done on a regular basis always brings great results.

To build and strengthen our inner core, to withstand the trials and challenges of life, is why personal growth is vital to us all.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

 

How do we Relate to Each Other?

Sometimes it takes stormy weather to bring us together.
 

This weekend it snowed and snowed, and the winds whipped it up into deep drifts, then the digging began.  It is such a nuisance when the roads are blocked, it’s dangerous for the elderly and I know it stops the wheels of industry and commerce turning but for some of us, being forced to stop in our tracks makes us see things from a completely different perspective.

After a long winter of being huddled in our homes hardly venturing out we suddenly find ourselves digging our paths and taking time to talk to our neighbours.  Everyone complains at first, but after an hour or so when the realisation sets in that no one is going anywhere, the frustration falls away and a feeling of comradeship takes over.  It’s a bit like a little battle where we all pull together against the common enemy.

Love they neighbour is what we were taught, but most of us avoid each other whenever possible, rarely saying more than simply passing the time of day because we are all so busy.  A’ snow day’ brings us together, it is a leveller.  We all look the same in our gloves, hats and wellies. 

Then there’s the humour.  The typically British sense of humour that only seems to surface in a crisis, it is so refreshing.  I didn’t know that Maureen four doors down was so funny.  As the digging continues that holiday feeling rises.  We discover each other’s forgotten personalities as we gather in the lane, then someone brings out mugs of coffee and we rest for a while, watching the children delight in their transformed surroundings.   We get mutual satisfaction from pushing the first car out of the cul-de-sac and up the lane.  It feels good to help our neighbours.

As soon as the pressure of time is taken away from us we become different people, likeable, helpful, fun-loving and caring.  We find ourselves talking to and helping perfect strangers, as if we’ve known them all our lives. We communicate and relate to our fellow man as we battle with the elements together and find that helping others gives us that warm glow inside.

Few things these days bring people closer together, but a really heavy snowfall does!

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Instant Spring

After a long hard winter we grow restless after spending too much time indoors.  Never more so than the gardeners among us who are eager to get out there and plant our seeds, get them going, and bring them on.

These days we have become accustomed to having things happen instantly by man’s ingenious innovations.  We become impatient with the computer if it takes a few seconds longer than usual to boot up.  We expect things to work instantly.  We have instant coffee, instant lighting, instant TV and instant access to the web (well some do).  Most of the time we are working in the fast zone where we make instant decisions and instant purchases.  It can be very exciting working at full speed on an adrenalin rush.  We do get through such a lot in a day, then we collapse exhausted into a chair and stare at the TV watching others running round like headless chickens. We lose the balance.

Take a moment to think about what we miss.

Scientists have spent the last decade studying the human brain and which parts we use for coming up with creative insight. They are now able to see inside your brain using MRI scanners and witness the spark as it happens and what they have discovered is that you and every one of us can become more creative.

Most of our waking hours we use our left logical side of the brain where the brain waves are fast and furiously coming up with logical solutions to life’s problems.  However, in order to allow the right brain to begin its work we need to slow down, relax and be patient.

Nothing in nature is instant.  Everything takes its time.  The only reason we get to see snowdrops pushing through the snow is that the shoots have evolved and developed thick waxy short structures that can withstand the freezing temperatures.  Most other plants have to wait.

I know we can trick seedlings into growing in propagators early, but if we plant them outside too early before the soil has had chance to warm up, they will die.  We can’t fool nature.  She wins every time.

If we want to get the best out of ourselves and our lives then we need to make some time for it.

Why miss out on those wonderful eureka moments when sudden flashes of inspiration jump into our conscious minds, when all we need to do is relax and be patient.

Oxford English Dictionary definition

‘Patience'  – Calm endurance of hardship, provocation, pain and delay.  Tolerance, perseverance or forbearance.  The capacity for calm self-possessed waiting.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

 

Finding Alpha Level in Spring

I have just returned from a lovely break in the countryside.  Having had that essential connection with nature, my spirits are raised and my soul is centred again.  I feel invigorated with new ideas and a new resolve to build more relaxation into my daily routine this springtime.

It is the pace of life that we struggle with in these modern times.  Our minds race through at Beta level as we busily juggle our lives.  When we are in a relaxed state our brain waves slow down to Alpha level creating a wakeful relaxed feeling enabling us to make connections with our subconscious mind to help us find solutions to the challenges life brings.

You may find during restful sleep in the night, you wake up with an idea or a solution to a problem that has been with you for some time.  Solutions to life’s problems often come to us while we are on holiday in a relaxed state for the same reason.  When our body and our mind are fully relaxed we allow the genius within us to emerge.

Keeping busy until bedtime every day and working hard on the To Do list, ticking off the boxes and ignoring the need for relaxation, leads to our general health paying the price.  We become mentally and physically exhausted.

Choosing not to build any proper relaxation time into our busy schedules on a regular basis means we are depriving ourselves of our natural resources that lie within us.

Relaxation if as vital as exercise in helping us to keep the balance of our emotional and physical selves centred.

Many of us are not lucky enough to have the countryside on our doorstep but a simple walk round the block will give us fresh air and some precious present moments to enjoy the emerging signs of spring and clear our heads.  If walking is not an option then simply find a quiet place, close your eyes, take deep breaths and focus on each area of your body until it is completely relaxed.  Then allow your mind to relax.

Building healthy relaxation into our lives will help us to grow and flourish, as we were meant to.

There is a saying that ‘If March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb.’  For us here, it began with biting winds and snow showers, and so it bodes well then that we shall see some lambs and warmer days very soon.  It’s all in front of us!

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

 

 

March on to Better Health

The word March comes from the Roman word ‘Martius’ named after Mars the god of war. In those times March was the first month of the calendar year when the start of the Mediterranean spring made it possible for the imperial armies to get back to fighting after the winter break.

These days we use the Gregorian calendar, also called the Western calendar and the Christian calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582.

March and the season of spring now symbolises the beginnings of new life not death.

When I was little, spring marked the beginning of our school ‘nature walks’ that I loved so much.  We would skip across the fields and Miss would point out all the swollen buds on the trees and primroses in the grass. We collected pussy willow branches with their soft silvery tufts and yellow Willow Catkins that bobbed up and down like lambs tails.  Miss would arrange them in a vase on our return to the classroom to study and draw. The magic of those little buds and flowers formed my lifelong fascination for things that grow.

Nature knows when it has its best chance of success and that’s not the beginning of January.  All through the winter the trees have been resting, the soil around the roots has been broken up by the frost and the autumn leaves have decomposed and washed back into it by the rain for nourishment. 

Early spring is a great time to ease our way into building new patterns of healthy exercise into our daily routine and getting back to nature.  Try and use the two extra hours of daylight we now have to give you that extra incentive to get outdoors.  Just walking for half an hour a day is a great way to begin exercising and being aware of the beauty that is awakening all around us in our environment as the new season emerges.

If the Romans New Year’s resolutions were made in March then why not make yours now too?

A fresh season and a fresh start, this is the perfect time.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Change is in the Air

‘It’s not that things are difficult that we don’t dare;
it’s because we don’t dare that things are difficult.’

 -    Lucius Annaeus Seneca – Roman Philosopher

For many adults daring to take on the challenge of change takes great courage.  Even the smallest of changes are so easily put off.

When we were babies we were unaware of the obstacles of change.  We hadn’t learned yet the complex weight of if’s, what’s and buts that might stand in our way.  When a baby attempts to crawl it has the instinct to move and the curiosity to explore, so off it goes.  Its successive attempts to walk are the same.  The baby doesn’t have a seed of doubt that it can’t walk, so it tries, falls down, learns from its mistakes then tries again.  The baby gets lots of praise, encouragement and help during its attempts.

The baby grows in confidence then after many failed attempts it eventually walks unaided, never going back to not knowing how to walk ever again.  It may have a few more stumbles but after its first steps the baby has built up a belief in itself that it can walk which sustains it through the stumbles until it has full control over its gait.

All that prevents us from daring to change are the learned patterns and programmes from our past which hold us back as we tell ourselves:

-          We might fail miserably and lose any slight confidence we may have had

-          We might make ourselves look foolish if we don’t succeed

-          Because creating new patterns can be difficult, it is easier to procrastinate and avoid them

-          We have tried before and it didn’t work

-          We let others influence us who would rather we didn’t change

If you look at the odds that we stack against ourselves it is understandable that we put off our attempts to make change.

Eventually we fall back into our old routines dissatisfied, that even though we considered change, we weren’t willing to work at it long enough to achieve success.

If the changes you seek are down to bad habits and therefore detrimental to your physical or emotional health then surely they are worth the effort to keep attempting them.  Make this your year.

Spring will soon be upon us and there is no better time to attempt change than this time of year when everything in nature is changing and growing. 

The long term benefits of your efforts are bound to be worthwhile as you are already aware, and imagine one day looking back and wondering why you made it so hard on yourself for so long, instead of just doing it.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Winter of Life

Ruminating the seasons I realise that I am in the autumn of my life, my daughters are in the summer of theirs and my parents in their winter.  As nature replaces vigour with wisdom we go through life’s cycles.

I am in a reflective mood as I enter my new age, measuring my achievements of the past and planning changes for the future.  Family and friendships come high on my list as I decide what I want to Be, Do or Have this coming spring.  Nurturing our relationships comes natural to most women.  We are hard-wired to be this way which is why it is so important to manage our relationships well, keeping us in balance.

New friendships are full of surprises.  I have a very dear friend Doris who is in the winter of her life.  She is ninety one and is my greatest inspiration.  I have only known her for a couple of years but feel I have known her all my life.  Like anyone of her great age she suffers with aches and pains, though she laughs and brushes them off with a ‘Well I can’t complain.’

When I spend time with her I am calm, happy, contented and completely myself.  I never want to leave.  She doesn’t try to impart her wisdom on me, she is just wise and I just recognise it.  They say ‘teach them how you live’ and she does just that.  She is calm, happy, contented and completely herself.  She has life sorted.

Doris doesn’t sit back and observe life; she takes each day and decides what she is going to make of it, grateful that she has been granted it.  She has lots of projects on the go, sending parcels abroad, growing tomato plants from seed and emailing her friends and family overseas.  She cooks her home grown vegetables and is always being visited by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She is a treasure. She has an open mind and is open to new ideas.  She is an optimist.  I also know she is very rare. 

You don’t come across a Doris every day and I am lucky to know her.   She has given me hope that if I am fortunate to reach the winter of my life that I have the most amazing role model to emulate. Just now, she makes me feel like I’m just a bairn, which of course I am from her perspective.

‘But like of each thing that in season grows.’  - William Shakespeare

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

 

Winter Preparation - Opportunity out of Adversity

This morning on the radio I was listening to an interview with Professor Alan Watson who has spent forty years studying cosmic rays.  He says ‘These rays are the most energetic particles in nature.’  When asked what they are he says: ‘They are charged particles from outer space and a million of them go through your body every night.  He also says ‘We are biologically adapted to them.’

When asked what had sparked the Professor’s interest in physics he said that as a boy towards the end of the war he contracted Polio and spent a year in bed.  At the time his father was a grocer.  Rationing coupons were still being issued and his father gave him the bacon and cheese coupons to count before he sent them off to the ministry. After a year, his fascination for number was established.

While listening to this I was reminded of my own misfortune when in my early 30’s I fell down the stairs and hurt my back.  I had a slipped disc and after weeks of traction and bed rest I was eventually given physiotherapy and sent home with a list of exercises to perform on a regular basis.  Like most of us I expect, I did the exercises until I felt okay than slipped.  After only a few days, the pain began to return and still does today if I don’t keep on top of my exercise routine.

I had no choice but to build exercise into my daily life and as a consequence I am fitter today than I would have ever been, had I not had the fall.  It not only created the need for regular exercise but also sparked off my interest in self-help and motivation.

Over the years I have adapted my exercise routines and continue to alter them according to the seasons and the weather.  That extra hour of daylight we now have as the earth begins to warm, brings with it that wonderful feeling of change.  The first yellow crocuses open up offering inspiration, those hardy harbingers of spring that have pushed through the frozen earth lift me and remind me that there is so much more to come.

I believe just as we have biologically adapted to Professor Watson’s cosmic rays, we have also biologically adapted to the seasons. As we begin to feel the stirrings of growth in the great outdoors, we also feel our own readiness for fresh air and exercise.

Sometimes we may have to look that bit harder or from a different point of view to gain our opportunity from adversity. But look and you will find, what is unsought will go undetected.

"Out of adversity comes opportunity.” - Ben Franklin (1706–1790)

“Every adversity carries with it the seed of equal or greater benefit.” -- Napoleon Hill

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

 

Winter Preparation – Emotional Cycles

Looking back to when I was forty two I realise my self-awareness was pretty much non-existent. 

It was the month of May.  Bluebells carpeted the woodland walk we were on, when I was physically jolted when my husband raised the question ‘Had I noticed anything different about my behaviour?  His questions were tentative as only a couple of days before we had had a full blown row about a minor matter that I cannot recall. Of course I dismissed the question entirely, defending myself, as you do, and blaming my bad behaviour on other circumstances.  I started my period two days later.

I had niggling doubts that things were not quite right as I realised and admitted to myself that what used to be my one PMT day had now turned into about seven.  The kids had been ducking and diving around me at that time and it was obvious to everyone but me that I had changed.

After a blood test confirmed that I was peri-menopausal I got my head down to learn as much about the menopause as possible.  I had been as regular as clockwork and still was, but my cycle now included fluctuations in my hormone levels that affected my emotional state and at those times I was a complete bitch to live with.

Knowledge is power and though there is little we can do about our changing hormonal patterns, at least by admitting it to ourselves we can see when we are likely to be at our most vulnerable emotionally. I began logging my cycle.  As well as understanding myself better it helped when planning holidays, weekends away, when to start something new, and more to the point, when not to. 

I urge you to do the same.  Write down your cycle dates and keep a log on how you feel physically and emotionally at this time.   Knowing where you are on this score will help you use your self-awareness to your own advantage rather than waiting for that hated question, ‘Is it that time of the month darling?’ when you could gladly throttle him on the spot.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com  for more information.

Winter Preparation - Having Fun

How long is it since you did something just for the fun of it? 

Having fun helps us ward off anxiety and depression.  My research on this subject tells me many of us habitually hold ourselves back from having fun, for a variety of reasons.  Can you identify with any of these?

‘I just don’t think about it, it’s not part of my routine.’

‘I would be afraid of feeling embarrassed.’

‘I’m not allowed to have fun; there is too much work to do and not enough time.’

‘My colleagues, partner, parent would not approve of me doing something just for the fun of it.’

‘I would feel self-indulgent and guilty.’

Well I certainly can identify with some of these,  I have bookshelves of creative hobby books that I’ve never read,  I have drawers full of beads and bric-a-brac waiting to become something, I have palettes, easels , empty canvasses and boxes of oil and water paints going dry.  I have sketch books and charcoals and pencils unused.  And I have made no time for fun.

Mid-winter can be a particularly depressing time.   This must be the right time to plan some space for fun.  Our need for self-improvement is part of human nature.  Having fun is another human need that many of us neglect.

The National Institute for Play http://www.nifplay.org explains why play is so important to our personal health and wellbeing:

‘Play is the gateway to vitality.

By its nature it is uniquely and intrinsically rewarding. It generates optimism, seeks out novelty, makes perseverance fun, leads to mastery, gives the immune system a bounce, fosters empathy and promotes a sense of belonging and community. Each of these play by-products are indices of personal health, and their shortage predicts impending health problems and personal fragility.

A life or a culture devoid of or deficient in play exists as a heightened major public health risk factor. The prevalence of depression, stress related diseases, interpersonal violence, the addictions, and other health and well-being problems can be linked, like a deficiency disease, to the prolonged deprivation of play.’

I realise that play cannot be forced and needs the element of spontaneity to benefit us so how can we make it happen?  If we don’t search out the space for it in our lives then we are left with just waiting for it to come along by chance.

Whilst I am immersed in the development of my seasonal coaching sessions I realise that I have fallen into the trap of not having any fun.  So I have now written down what constitutes ‘fun’ for me. 

Why don’t you give it a go and write down what activities would constitute having fun for you?  These can include; body play and movement, object play, social play, imaginative and pretend play, storytelling-Narrative play and transformative-integrative and creative play.  For ideas and a greater understanding of these types of play visit http://www.nifplay.org.

While the dark evenings persist, I shall now endeavour to practice what I preach and finally get out my paints and have some fun.  And I feel sure, if I let my imagination run riot, I can think of much more exciting things that I can have fun with!

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com  for more information.

Where did that resolve go?

Come the end of January and most people who tried to give up their bad habits will by now have fallen right back into them, research says.  The most popular New Year’s resolutions are to stop smoking, drink less alcohol, eat healthily, exercise more and get into shape.

The problem with dramatic change is that it is much harder for most people to stick to than a more gradual change.  A sudden lifestyle shift is not a belief that we have built on and therefore we cannot sustain it for long. More thought, preparation and planning is needed to making lasting change if it is going to work.

So instead of feeling a failure at this time of the month, we could look to January as just the beginning of making actual real change.

Bad Habits

As Mark Twain said:  ‘Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by man, but coaxed downstairs, a step at a time. ‘

Certainly this is the method that suits many of us including me.  My stopping smoking was a gradual affair, much the way I started.  When I did finally did stop I had to go through all four seasons at least once before I could go on a night out and not think about having a cigarette.  I struggled through winter days of hot coffee and no cigarette, lovely red wine casserole and no cigarette, celebrations, holidays, BBQ’s and many stressful events before I had proven to myself that I could do all of them,  throughout each season, without the need of a cigarette. Once I had the proof, the belief, I was never going back.

Our basic human motivation is to be the best person we can.  New Year helps us to reflect and identify areas of ourselves that we would like to improve and it is a good time to start working on being a better person.

What do we need?

Psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote a hierarchy of human needs which explains our higher and lower needs in the form of a pyramid.  Our lower needs the basic physiological needs of food, warmth, shelter and rest, which is what we naturally tend to focus on in these cold, dark winter months. 

I believe we are going against our natural rhythms by trying to drive ourselves through dramatic changes at the wrong time of year.  Why not let the seasons help us.

What do we want?

We could spend our winter as a time to reflect, evaluate, and become more self-aware.  We could become mindful of our thoughts and behaviour patterns, and gain a better understanding of our emotional and physical selves on these dark evenings before we enter into a real commitment to make the changes we really want. This is the first step in creating lasting change.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit www.susanloveday.com for more information.

Seasons - Midwinter Resolutions

New Year is not the time to stop doing things; it’s a time to start doing new things, particularly if you live in the UK or anywhere else in the Northern hemisphere.  We are in the deepest midwinter with less than half the hours of daylight than we get in midsummer, so making life even harder than it already is seems daft to me. 

I say we should follow Mother Nature with her seasons and cycles of life and growth.  Animals go into hibernation, birds migrate and plants are dormant at this time of year.

In winter the trees are not dead, the sap slowly stops rising as the temperature drops, the leaves crisp and curl and the winter winds blow them away leaving the tree to rest, to regenerate, standing strong against the gales of the season.

Old bad habits need to be challenged, but every year resolutions are broken because it is the worst time of year for us to give up comfort.  Those of us in the Northern hemisphere know we still have to endure lack of daylight and sunshine for many weeks yet.  Why not choose to tackle your big challenges when life is a little easier, with the climate a little kinder?

You may even be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  If you are not familiar with SAD check out www.SAD.org.uk which explains how lack of daylight and sunshine can affect us. It also offers ways to combat this feeling of winter blues.  It’s worth a look even if you are only mildly affected by the seasons.

A fresh start

The Calendar can be a useful tool to help us make new beginnings.  So instead of focusing on what to stop doing, find something that you have always wanted to do but never gotten round to.  Begin by writing a list of things you would like to be Be, Do or Have and keep going until you have exhausted every possibility.  Keep picking up the list over the course of a few days adding to it until you are satisfied.   Then prioritise your list and select the one thing you want the most.  Start with this one first.

Now the most important part, do make a start.  Don’t procrastinate, make your first step easy, but make a start.  Small steps done on a regular basis always bring great results.  If you need to gather more information, then start gathering.  If you want to take up art, pick up a pencil and start drawing.

If you are not sure about what you would like to do, here are some ideas to get your imagination going. 

Indoor Creative time

Reading, drawing, painting, performing arts, needlework, learning to play a musical instrument, collecting, cooking, baking, scrapbooking, dancing, jewellery making, singing, woodworking, photography, guided relaxation or yoga.

 If you have a smart phone then check out your apps store to give you more ideas and help get you started or surf the net to spark your enthusiasm.

Build into your life things that will help you grow and feel fulfilled.  That’s what we need to do in the New Year.  The good news is every day it is getting that little bit lighter.

For one to one Skype coaching sessions contact Susan on susan@susanloveday.com or visit susanloveday.com for more information.

Coaching - Life Choices

My mum had a breakdown in the late 60’s and I didn’t know how to help her.  I was fifteen at the time.  Mum was prescribed tranquillizers which led to years of drug dependency and an inability to cope with life.   She lost her self-confidence, self-belief and self-respect.  If only I’d known then, what I know now.

Coaching came to me later in life after mum suffered a stroke and lost all memory of her past.  She lost all the good stuff but thankfully has lost all the bad stuff that made her so unhappy, anxious and confused.  Now all she has is the present moment that I share with her and encourage a smile.

It’s too late for my mum, but not for the rest of us.  We have it within our grasp to challenge our lot.  To have a greater understanding of ourselves and to choose how we think and how we feel. I believe we all have a choice.



susanloveday.com