self-awareness

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Being silly

As children we have an instinctual grasp of humour and appreciate all that is silly as a matter of course. Even the smallest absurdities provoke joyous gales of giggles or laughter. As we get older, this innate ability to see the value of silliness can diminish. Work takes precedence over play, and we seem to have less incentive to exercise our imaginative minds by focusing on what is funny.  When we remember childhood, we may recall the pleasures of dressing up in funny costumes, reciting nonsense poems, making up strange games, or playing pretend. This unabashed silliness nourished our vitality and creativity. We can take in this nourishment once again by giving ourselves permission to lighten up and be silly.

Too often we believe it serves no purpose to encourage our inherent silliness that is an inborn aspect of self.  We may believe it is at odds with the grown-up culture of maturity. We play yet we don’t lose ourselves in play, and our imaginations are never truly given free reign because we regard the products of irrational creativity as being valueless. Yet silliness itself constitutes a vital part of human existence on many levels. Our first taste of ethereal bliss is often a consequence of our willingness to dabble in what we deem outrageous, nonsensical, or absurd. We delight in ridiculousness not only because laughter is intrinsically pleasurable, but also because it serves as a reminder that existence itself is fun. Skipping, doodling, and singing funny songs are no less entertaining than they were when we were children. We need not lose all interest in these cheerful and amusing activities, but to make them a part of our lives we must be ready to sacrifice a little dignity and a lot of fear.

Silliness should be regarded as a priority because so much of life is inescapably serious. Through the magic of imagination, you can be or become anything–a photographer, a professional athlete, a dancer, a pilot. Whether you take hundreds of silly pictures, revel in the adulation of your fans as you make the winning catch, boogie down rock-star style in front of your bedroom mirror, or turn your desk into a cockpit, the ensuing hilarity will help you see that light-hearted fun and adulthood are not at all incompatible.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Those first minutes of your day

Those first minutes of the day when you open your eyes and come into consciousness is an opportunity to cherish. Those first minutes set the tone for everything that comes after them, a bit like the opening scene in a film or the first chapter of a novel. In those minutes, your ability to create the day is at its most powerful, and you can offer yourself fully to this creative process by filling these minutes with whatever inspires you most. Perhaps you want to be more generous, or it may be that you want to be more open to beauty in your daily life. Whatever the case, if you bring this vision into your mind at this very fertile minute, you empower it to be the guiding principle of your day.

It is possible to wake up with a mood already seemingly in place, and it’s important to give this feeling its due. It can inform us and deepen our awareness to what’s going on inside us, as well as around us. As long as we are conscious, we can honour this feeling and also introduce our new affirmation or vision, our conscious offering to the day. We may want to decide before we go to sleep what we want to bring to the next day of our lives. It could be that we simply want to be more open to whatever comes our way. Or we may want to summon a particular quality such as confidence. Perhaps we may simply call up a feeling that perfectly captures how we want our day to be.

We can repeat our vision or affirmation as we shower and eat breakfast, as well as recalling it at various times throughout the day. We can write it down and carry it with us on a little slip of paper if this helps. Simply by being aware of those first minutes, we set the stage for a more conscious, enlivened experience, and we become active participants in the creation of our lives.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Feeling Depleted

Sometimes it seems our bodies are running on empty. We are not sick, nor are we necessarily pushing ourselves to the limit but it seems the energy we typically have has mysteriously dissipated, leaving only fatigue. Many people become accustomed to feeling this way because they do not know that it is possible to exist in any other state. The body’s natural state, however, is one of energy, clarity, and balance. Cultivating these virtues in our own bodies so that we can combat feelings of depletion is a matter of developing a refined awareness of ourselves and then making changes based on our observations.

Take a couple of moments of focused self-examination, assess your recent schedule, diet, and general health which will help you zero in on the factors causing your depletion. If you are struggling to cope with an overfull agenda, prioritising what is really important can provide you with more time to sleep and otherwise refresh yourself. Changing your eating habits so you eat plenty of nutritious foods may serve to restore your vigour. Identifying the source of your exhaustion will occasionally be more complicated than spotting a void in your lifestyle and filling it with some form of literal nourishment. Since your earthly and ethereal forms are so intimately entwined, matters of the mind and heart can take their toll on your physical self. Intense emotions such as anger, sadness, jealousy, and regret need fuel to manifest in your consciousness, and this fuel is more often than not corporeal energy. Conversely, a lack of mental and emotional stimulation may leave you feeling listless and lethargic.

When you can accept that the underlying cause of depletion might be more complex than you at first imagined, coping with the physical depletion and healing will be easier.  A harried lifestyle or a diet low in vital nutrients can represent only one part of a larger issue affecting your mood, stamina, and energy levels. When you believe that you are ultimately in control of how you feel, you will be empowered to transform yourself and your day-to-day life so that lasting fatigue can no longer gain a foothold in your existence.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Bad Days

It feels like the world is against us when we have a bad day or that the turmoil we are experiencing will never end. One negative circumstance seems to lead to another. On a bad day, we may wonder whether anything in our lives will ever go right again. But a bad day, like any other day, can be a gift. Having a bad day can show us that it is time to slow down, change course, or lighten up. A bad day can help us glean wisdom we might otherwise have overlooked or discounted. Bad days can certainly cause us to experience uncomfortable feelings we would prefer to avoid, yet a bad day may also give us a potent means to learn about ourselves.

It may be we think a bad day is one where we’ve missed an important meeting because the car stalled, the dryer broke, or we received a piece of very bad news earlier in the morning. Multiple misfortunes that take place one after the other can leave us feeling vulnerable and intensely cognizant of our fragility. But bad days can only have a long-term negative effect on us if we allow them. It is better to ask ourselves what we can learn from these kinds of days. The state of our bad day may be an indicator that we need to stay in and hibernate or let go of our growing negativity.

Bad days contribute to the people we become. A bad day can teach us patience and perseverance though we may feel discouraged and distressed on our bad days. It is important to remember that our attitudes drive our destiny and that one negative experience does not have to be the beginning of an ongoing stroke of bad luck. A bad day is memorable because it is one day among many good days — otherwise, we wouldn’t even bother to acknowledge it as a bad day. Know too, that everybody has bad days, you are not alone, the world is not against you. Tomorrow is guaranteed to be a brighter day.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Being alone

The most important relationship you have in your life is with yourself.  Even though you are the only one who is present at every moment of your life – from conception onward – this relationship can be the most difficult one to cultivate.  This is possibly because society places such emphasis on the importance of being in a romantic partnership, even instilling beliefs that you should set aside your own needs for the needs of others.  

Until you know yourself, however, you cannot possibly choose the right relationship to support your mutual growth toward your highest potential.  By allowing yourself to be comfortable with being alone, you can become the person with whom you want to have a relationship.

It would appear that at no other time in history has it been possible for people to survive, and even thrive, whilst living alone.  We can now support ourselves financially, socially and emotionally without depending on a spouse for survival in any of these areas.  With this freedom, we can pursue our own interests and create fulfilling partnerships with friends, business partners and neighbours.  Once we’ve satisfied our needs and created our support system, a partner then becomes someone with whom we can share the bounty of all we’ve created as well as the beauty we’ve discovered within ourselves.

When we move away from tradition and fall into more natural cycles of being in the world today, we often find that there are times where being alone nourishes us while we find other times in which a partnership is best for our growth.  We may need to learn to create spaces to be alone within relationships. When we can shift our expectations of our relationships with ourselves and others to opportunities for discovery, we open ourselves to forge new paths and encounter uncharted territory. 

Being willing to know and love ourselves, and to find what truly makes us feel deeply and strongly, gives us the advantage of being able to attract and choose the right people with whom to share ourselves, whether those relationships fall into recognisable roles or not. 

Choosing to enjoy being alone allows us to fully explore our most important relationship -the one with our true selves.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Do you think you are ‘fine’?

I am aware there are a lot of people who think that they are ‘fine’ and certainly believe they have no need of coaching of any sort.  They are mistaken in their belief that there is nothing anyone else can do to help them, that there isn’t anybody else out there in the entire world who is in, or has been in, the same or similar situations as them.  They continue to plod on through life without help, without looking for answers to their questions and still believing that there is nothing they or anyone else can do to change their current situations.

I know differently.  I have been on both sides of that argument and I know exactly what I am talking about.  I have been there, I have resisted being coached. I have been coaching for 17 years and successfully changed the lives of lots of people, both male and female, young and old.  But, and this is a big BUT, I resisted being coached myself because my ego kept telling me that I was ok, I was ‘fine’.

I began an online coaching programme, and as I read through the pages I was intrigued by the depth of work that had been put into the various modules.  I was not that keen when I was told that I would have to be coached myself, and I was l a little resistant (well my ego was) but I agreed. And I haven’t looked back.

 I worked through the programme from beginning to end, my ego has been booted into the back of beyond, I love being coached, I love coaching, I love watching people change and grow and I love all the friends I have made and continue to make.  We support each other online, on the phone, via email. We encourage each other and we learn and grow more and more each day.

So, are you in need of coaching? I suspect you are.  Are you really ‘fine’?

Do you think that you would like to experience being coached for yourself? Are you a coach who, like I did, thinks that you don’t need coaching? I was wrong, could you be too? Get in touch today to start working on yourself. 

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you. Get in touch today to book your coaching sessions.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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How you see yourself

How you see yourself begins with a combination of all of the qualities and attributes of other people that you most admire.  Your ‘self-ideal’ is a description of the person you would very much like to be, if you could embody the qualities that you most aspire to.  In fact, everything that you do on a day-to-day basis is affected by your comparing your activities with these ideal qualities.  Not only that, you constantly strive to behave consistently with them. Successful people are usually very clear about being excellent in every part of their lives. Unsuccessful people frequently have fuzzy ideals.  

When you set higher and more challenging goals, your self-ideal improves and crystallises.  When you set goals for the kind of person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live, your self-ideal rises and becomes a greater guiding and motivating force in your life. Improvements in your self-ideal begin in your imagination where there are no limits except the ones that you create and accept. Be careful of the limits you set for yourself.  Are they in your best interest? Could you stretch those limits?  Do you have a vision of the very best person you could possibly become? How would you behave each day if you already were that person?  Make a picture in your mind of how you would look and stand, how you would appear to other people? Make that picture as bright and colourful as you can.  Hear what you hear, see what you see, feel what you feel.  Make it brighter and step into that picture.  Add smells and textures if you can.  Really be the person you are envisioning.

There are more things you can do immediately to put your ideas into action. Dream big dreams. Set big, exciting, challenging goals for yourself.  Allow yourself to imagine a wonderful life ahead. Step outside of your comfort zone.  Make sure the goals you set are achievable by you, or you will become very disappointed if you fail to achieve them. Think about how you would act if you were an outstanding person in every way.  Create that picture in your mind.  Then, practice being this person. You will immediately notice a difference in your behaviour.  Not only that, other people will notice too.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Invest in yourself. The investment that won’t let you down.

In these turbulent times there is one investment that you can be sure won’t let you down. Investment in yourself. It may be that you feel your confidence has been derailed by recent events. Investing in your own personal Life Coach is one answer to getting back on track. Ask yourself this question – How do you live your life? Do you live it at cause or at effect? And what does that mean for you?

Take two people going for different jobs, both having all the right credentials and experience for the roles. One of them approaches their interview from the perspective that it’s completely down to their performance as to whether they get the job or not. They will choose how to present and project themselves and they will take 100% responsibility for their result. They feel pretty confident and in control. The other person is approaching their interview differently – from the perspective that they’ll do the best they can, but ultimately it’s down to the interviewer’s opinion of them and the other candidates’ performance against theirs. They feel they have little control over the outcome, which makes them pretty nervous, and they believe that interview situations never bring out the best in them, so why should this one be any different?

Which one is more likely to be successful? My guess would be the first person. A clear example of being ‘at cause’.  We know that a cause is something that makes something else happen. So when we’re talking about living at cause, it’s all about causing things to happen, making choices, taking action and full responsibility.

Notice the position of power this puts you in. On the other side of the equation, an effect is what happens because of the cause. So living on the effect side means having things happen to us, living with excuses and reasons why something couldn’t be, the choice and responsibility is ‘taken’ out of our hands. It’s a feeling of powerlessness and of being the victim, in many cases. The interesting thing is, that people on either side of the equation, whether at cause or effect, will each walk away patting themselves on the back. Why? Well, of course, the ‘at cause’ group chose to have their result and they got it. While for the ‘at effect’ people it was completely out of their hands right from the start. They found a reason (excuse?) why they couldn’t have their result and walked away saying “see, I knew it wouldn’t work”. Either way they were right. So the question you should really be asking yourself is – not which side do you live at, but which side do you want to live at? Cause or effect? The key point here is that at any given moment, you have the choice. You either allow what’s happening to affect you and hold on to your excuses. Or you take full responsibility for what is going on and choose to get your result. I know which I choose!

So get out there and invest in yourself. As the consumer you have the choice of individual one-to-one life enhancing sessions in person or over the telephone or, if you prefer, you can choose one of the hundreds of inspirational one-day or half-day  workshops on offer where not only experiences are shared and ideas bounced off each other, but new friends are made. Just the discovery that you aren’t the only one in this situation is very empowering. Don’t be one of the 90% of people who will look back with regret, knowing their lives could have been different. Take this golden opportunity to invest in yourself. The investment that won’t let you down.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Having consideration for others

Every action we take and every thought we think has an impact on the world around us. To be aware of this is to be conscious of our impact on all the people in our lives. Sometimes we just want to do what we want to do, but considering the full effects of our actions can be an important part of our growth and awareness. At first, being more conscious will need some effort, but once we have made it a habit, it will become second nature. The more we practice this awareness of others, the more we find ourselves in easy alignment with our integrity.

Our thoughts are an important place to begin this practice because our thoughts are the seeds of our actions. It is not necessary to obsessively monitor all our thoughts, but we can choose one thought or action per day and simply notice if we are in alignment with this experience of integrity. For example, we may find ourselves replaying a negative encounter with someone in our minds. We may think that this doesn’t affect the person about whom we are thinking, but the laws of energy tell us that it does. When we hold someone negatively in our minds, we risk trapping them in negativity. If we were this person, we might wish for forgiveness and release. We can offer this by simply letting go of the negative thought and replacing it with a wish for healing on that person’s behalf.

With regard to our actions, we may have something difficult to express to someone. Taking the time to consider how we would feel if we were in his or her shoes will enable us to communicate more sensitively than we would if we just expressed ourselves from our own perspective. When we change our approach by taking someone else’s feelings into account, we bring benefit to that person and ourselves equally. The more we do this, the more we reaffirm our integrity and the integrity of our relationship to the world around us.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk

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Belly Laughs

When we were children we laughed hundreds of times each day, delighted by the newness of living. When we grew up we tended to not allow ourselves to let go in a good belly laugh for whatever reason.  We can get laughter back into our lives simply by making the conscious decision to laugh. Though most of us are incited to laugh only when exposed to humour or the unexpected, each of us is actually capable of laughing at will. A laugh that comes from the belly carries with it the same positive effects whether prompted by a funny joke or consciously willed into existence. When our laughter comes from the core of our being, it permeates every cell in our physical selves, beginning in the centre and radiating outward, a bit like the ripples on a pond, until we are not merely belly laughing but rather body laughing.

Photo by Singkham on Pexels.com

Laughter has been a part of the human mode of expression for thousands of years, probably before we humans learned to talk. Through it, we connected with allies while demonstrating our connection with people we didn’t know. In the present, laughter allows us to enjoy positive shared experiences with strangers and loved ones alike. Yet solitary laughter has its own range of benefits. An energetic and enthusiastic bout of whole-body laughter exercises the muscles, the lungs, and the mind in equal measure, leaving us feeling relaxed and content. When we laugh heartily at life’s ridiculousness instead of responding irritably, our focus shifts. Anger, stress, guilt, and sadness no longer have any influence over us, and we are empowered to make light of what we originally feared. Laughter also opens our hearts, letting love and light in, changing our perspective, and enabling us to fix our attention on what is positive in our lives.

It is easy to laugh when we feel good, but it is when the world appears dim that we most need laughter in our lives. Our laughter then resonates through our hearts, filling the empty spaces with pure, unadulterated joy. We regain our footing in the moment and remember that no sorrow is powerful enough to rob us of our inborn happiness. When we understand that uninhibited laughter is the food of the soul, nourishing us from within, we know instinctively that life is worthwhile.

If this has resonated with you in any way, please get in touch.

I offer coaching and mentoring to you – for you to make the changes you want to in your life. Build your confidence in your abilities.  Read my clients’ testimonials here. To help you to have more fun, more freedom and less stress. That is it. There is no catch. I believe in you.

Maggie Currie

Professional Transformational Coach, Consultant
Founder of MAGGIE CURRIE COACHING

Website:       http://www.maggiecurrie.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/maggielifecoach/

Email:          hello@maggiecurrie.co.uk