Free Energy
Image from: Olafur Eliasson - IN REAL LIFE exhibition, Tate Modern July 2019
Over the last 3 months I’ve been listening to an array of webinars and collected things which I find interesting, helpful or just plain obvious. I thought I’d share with you some easy and free tips for keeping energy levels up and motivation high.
- Those few early moments of your morning, after you have woken up, influence how you will feel for the rest of the day says Suzy Gaskie @PeppermintWellness. Ensure you start the day right and ‘don’t get out of bed on the wrong side’. For example, if like me you’re are getting more and more saddened by the news, don’t wake up to Radio 4 Today!
- Wake is induced with daylight, just as sleep is prompted by nighttime. Exercise, daylight and nature are all natural energisers, so take a walk before breakfast.
- Creating early morning ‘energy routines’ will change the way you feel during the day, helping you respond calmly instead of [over] reacting to challenges
- I know we all breathe, but we don’t breathe properly. Inhale deep, slow breaths so that the air reaches your toes, or at least your diaphragm.
- @AbodliShabi suggests we adjust our pace to the current rhythm – don’t fight it, go with the flow and accept that which you cannot change
- Embrace uncertainty and enjoy the moment. Lack of certainty causes internal stress so let it go, concentrate on what you a can control, not what’s outside your control
- Christina Paulus @JazzMindset invites us to embrace VUCA (Volitily, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) to see what creativity you can find in your world.
- For @JulieFlowler improvisation (of the comedy type, if possible) is the way forward and encourages us to adopt a ‘Yes’ culture and reject the ‘yes, BUT’ response. See how it changes your attitude to a positive mindset in your though process
- The day is drawing to a close and sleep is prompted by the setting sun. Switch off your mobile and enjoy your evening without constant ‘ping’ interruptions.
- …and before you sleep write down two things (they can be tiny things) that you have been grateful for that day. Go to bed with a smile. Sweet Dreams….
It’s all about managing our personal internal expectations and outcomes for our different individual situations.
Please send me your collection of webinar takeaways.
#wellness #motivation #coaching #feelgood #newroutine #personalenergy #engerylevels
Upon Westminster Bridge
Upon Westmister Bridge
I’ve loved this poem since school days, when London was an exciting city in ‘The South’, the centre of all new things, Houses of Parliament, pigeons in Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, fashion, theatre and the Arts.
Until lock-down I regularly walked across Waterloo Bridge and looked towards Westminster Bridge or the City. After 30 years I still feel a buzz when I cross The Thames, seeing the old buildings repurposed into offices or residential developments and all the new high-rise additions along the river.
With the onset of the lockdown I began to think about how Wordsworth's words resonate with me now that I cannot visit my beloved city only 14 miles away. If I were ever to get weary of London and all it offers, I would indeed be dull and soulless. I’m looking forward to the day when we can safely enjoy all that London has to offer in full.
Until the City gets back to some form of normality, the traffic returns, and commuters rush to work; enjoy and feel the calm of all that a virtual Westminster Bridge is offering you.
I invite you to read the poem below and imagine you are stood on Westminster Bridge at sunrise: it could have been written yesterday. Do you feel the same?
#London #Cityskyline #Wordsworth #WestminsterBridge
Composed upon Westminster Bridge on 3rd September 1802
Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!