Have a good day

I’m having a pretty good day today.

I hope you do too.

Seriously.

See what you can do to make that happen.

Thanks.

Bye.

Your emotions have echoes

You know what an echo is.

You shout out into the void and the vibrations of your voice bounce back to you as a tiny little voice that calls back. Over and over again.

Now think about your emotions.

When you have a strong emotion and you put it out into the world it comes back to you in tiny little waves.

When you smile – people smile back.

When you shout – people shout back.

When you laugh – people laugh back.

When you hate – people hate back.

When you love….

Karma’s only a bitch if you are.

Sometimes you just need to get started

Morning my shiny happy people – how are you today?

It’s a beautiful sunny Monday morning here in Coventry, a bit on the nippy side, but lovely none the less.

I have to admit to something.

I’ve been procrastinating over a couple of things.

The first one was a paper work thing. I was a bit unsure about what I needed to do, so I found every excuse I could to avoid doing it. I found ‘busy’ work to do so that I could argue that I had been doing other things, I became very easily distracted by anything and everything that would take me away from it and I generally avoided having to get on with it. That has changed today and it makes me feel really good.

It feels great when you get something you have been putting off out of the way and you don’t have to think about it any more. If I do think about it, I think – well done me – I did that, rather than thinking that I should be doing it and feeling guilty and a bit rubbish about myself.

I bet you have one or two things that you are deliberately or subconsciously putting off…so what could be your trigger to getting them done?

Oddly, for me, it was getting on with something else that I had also been putting off.

My partner and I enjoy a good meal – maybe a little more than we should. Over the last few years the pounds have started to creep on and despite talking a lot about losing weight and using phases like ‘we could try this diet’ or ‘we should really do more exercise’ we hadn’t really committed to changing our habits at all – that is until this weekend. We stuck to a high protein, low carb meal plan and were quite impressed with the results – we both lost 4 pounds each. 4 pounds in 2 days is a hell of a kick start to a diet, and it made us both feel really good about sticking to it and achieving real results. This ‘win’ reminded me how good it feels to achieve something I’d been putting off and spurred me on to do my paperwork.

I was once told that the secret to getting things done is getting things started.

What are you going to start today?

Give it up for Lent

We are now in Lent – the period that one is supposed to give up something we enjoy for 40 days and nights – until Easter.

It kicked off yesterday with Pancake day or Shrove Tuesday where it is traditional to eat pancakes as this was seen as the final feast before the fasting of Lent.

Today it is very rare to fast for 40 days and nights, whatever your religion or faith system is based on, but is there any benefit to this ancient practice.

Proponents of the 5-2 diet where you eat drastically reduced calories (500-600) for 2 days a week will tell you that fasting is very good for your body. It reduces the chances of strokes, heart attacks and diabetes but I don’t think any of them would advocate a prolonged fast which would be much more likely to have a negative effect.

So how about giving up other stuff? Well if the thing you are giving up is intrinsically bad for you, such as smoking or self harming in some way, then that would be a good thing to do – and to keep up way past Easter.

What if the thing you are giving up isn’t exactly good for you, but isn’t necessarily bad either, like chocolate or the odd glass of wine. Well, again there appears to be a benefit. Showing a level of self denial or will power helps us to achieve the things we want in life. Psychologists believe that in some ways will power is like a muscle – you have to use it regularly to keep it strong.

How about giving up something you don’t like – for instance worrying or getting upset by things. Giving those up for a while could leave you feeling brilliant!

If you haven’t already given something up for Lent – why not set yourself a little challenge and see how you do?

You could even get people to sponsor you and raise a little money for charity.

Go on – Give it up!

Saturday 7th March 2015, Save the date!!

please share this – the bigger the audience the better the event!

Reclaim the Night Coventry

We are very very excited to announce that Reclaim the Night Coventry 2015 will be held on the evening of Saturday 7th March 2015. So save the date and look out for more information to follow! See you all there!

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One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where everyone annoys you?

From the person calling in to the TV show, to the person who has parked awkwardly at the supermarket, the person who wanted to stop to chat and the person who didn’t.

Literally everyone is annoying.

I was having one of those days earlier.

Weirdly the thing that snapped me out of it was someone being genuinely obnoxious.

If I had been in my normal happy go lucky kind of mood they may have irritated me, but I was already in a foul mood (for no good reason at all) and they made me laugh.

Now, I knew from the outset the the problem today was me – I was the one with the issue – not everybody else, but it never really feels that way. It was only when I was confronted with someone who was at fault that I could let go of the anger I was feeling to everyone else- because they all looked so good in comparison!

That got me thinking.

How often are we happy or unhappy with a situation just because we have compared it to others?

Let me give you an example.

If you walked into work tomorrow and the boss called you into the office and told you he was giving you a 10% pay rise, you would probably be pretty pleased. If you later found out that everyone else had been given 15%, how would you feel? You still have the 10% raise that you were happy with, but now it just seems unfair and a bit rubbish.

On the other hand if you found out everyone else was only getting a 5% raise, your 10% would feel even better…even though it’s still the same 10%.

So, If you want to change the way you are thinking or feeling, try to do some comparisons that will make you feel good. There are always people who have it worse or harder than you do and there will always be people who have it better. If you are constantly comparing yourself to those who have what you perceive to be a better time of it, you will leave yourself feeling fed up and hard done by. Compare yourself to the ones who have it worse off and you will elevate your mood. You might even decide to do something to help them, which will make you feel even better (research shows that people doing a good deed get more from it than the people to whom a good deed is done).

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:

50 would be female
50 would be male

26 would be children
There would be 74 adults,
8 of whom would be 65 and older

There would be:
60 Asians
15 Africans
14 people from the Americas
11 Europeans

33 Christians
22 Muslims
14 Hindus
7 Buddhists
12 people who practice other religions
12 people who would not be aligned with a religion

12 would speak Chinese
5 would speak Spanish
5 would speak English
3 would speak Arabic
3 would speak Hindi
3 would speak Bengali
3 would speak Portuguese
2 would speak Russian
2 would speak Japanese
62 would speak other languages

83 would be able to read and write; 17 would not

7 would have a college degree
22 would own or share a computer

77 people would have a place to shelter them
from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not

1 would be dying of starvation
15 would be undernourished
21 would be overweight

87 would have access to safe drinking water
13 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Word of the Month – Persistence

Persistence

Lets be honest – this is where most of us fall down.

We start off with good intentions, full of enthusiasm for what we are about to do, the mountains we’ll climb, the heights we will reach, the success we’ll achieve.

Then we start to get a bit bored.

It starts to seem like a bit too much work.

We forget what we wanted to achieve in the first place and start to think about what we want to do right at this particular moment.

Maybe a few obstacles have got in our way.

Maybe someone has said something that has demotivated us.

Maybe those mountains seem a bit too high right now.

You haven’t failed until you’ve stopped trying.

Persistence is King

It’s said that experts in a field have failed at it more times than most people have even tried.

Persistence

Mastering a skill – really mastering it – takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

Persistence

So, think back to the start of this year – what did you want to achieve?

Are you still on track?

If not, maybe it’s time to remember why you wanted to do it in the first place.

Pick yourself up, forgive yourself for not being as amazing as you had hoped you would be and get back on it.

Persistence

Extraterrestrial Culture Day

Today is Extraterrestrial Culture Day.

Now I’m definitely not saying there is no such thing as aliens, but when I saw this it reminded me of a lovely phrase…

… Don’t open your mind too much, your brain might fall out.

I think the important part of that sentence is the ‘too much’.

It’s important to keep an open mind – that’s how we learn things.

It’s also important to question what you are told – that’s how we don’t make idiots of ourselves, or become pawns in someone else’s games.

Be sceptical – sceptical is good – it asks for evidence.

Don’t be cynical – cynical is bad – it means you dismiss ideas just because you don’t like them.

So keep interested, keep open minded, look for proof and ask lots and lots of questions.

Happy ET culture day

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The Truth is out there!

How do I change my Life?

How do I change my life?

I don’t

I change me

I change how I think

I change how I act

I change what I do

I change what I want

I change what I eat

I change what I know

I change what I feel

I change me

and then my life changes all on its own

My Sunday poem delivered on a Monday – If

I like to post a poem on a Sunday, but I must admit to having a rather lazy weekend and not doing very much of anything except catching up on some TV and eating plenty of yummy food with my partner. We were in hibernation mode – no excuses – just felt like it.

Today the guilt is kicking in and I feel like we wasted a perfectly lovely day.

But then again, was it a waste, as we had a perfectly lovely day?

So, I’ve decided to get over the guilt, roll up my sleeves and do all the stuff that I would have normally done yesterday today and be extra productive on this beautiful Monday – so here’s yesterdays poem – I hope you like it.

I decided to post this one as it was written in a letter to a contestant on celebrity big brother this year. Most people seemed moved by the poem, yet almost all of them had never heard it before, which surprised me as I believed it was very well known.

For those of you that know it, be reminded of these stunning words. For those of you that are new to it, enjoy it, share it and live it.

If—

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

In a modern day of equal opportunity I feel the same applies to Man or Woman and these glorious goals are things I aspire to.

Have a great week 🙂