Do your best

Have you ever done your best?

Have you ever tried as hard as you possibly can?

Have you done all of the preparation work that you possibly could?

Have you trained as hard as you could have?

Have you reread and rewritten your work enough?

Have you been focussed enough?

Have you tried every possible way to get it done?

Have you sought professional help or expertise?

Have you eliminated distractions?

Have you avoided all temptation?

Have you given it everything you’ve got?

Chances are that the answer is a big fat NO.

That’s OK.

(almost everyone else will say no to that too)

Stop beating yourself up. Accept that your not perfect and be a little nicer to yourself

There are, of course, exceptions – maybe you’re one of them – and if you are – Well Done.

I’m very impressed and all that but seriously – get a life!

Smile, relax, have fun, eat a cake, daydream, watch silly TV, make up stories in your head – it’s all really cool stuff 🙂

So maybe do your best, but then again, maybe don’t.

Try to be happy…

…but don’t try too hard!

Everyone said

Here’s my weekly poem – I hope you enjoy it

It Couldn’t Be Done

BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

      But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

      On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

      At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

      Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

      There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

      The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

      Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

Be nice to yourself.

I was with a client yesterday who told me that they were annoyed with themselves for not having done hypnotherapy earlier.

It’s something I hear quite a lot.

I felt the same way when I gave up smoking.

I was incredibly pleased with what I had done, but then became annoyed that I had smoked for 17 years.

Personally I believe the skills hypnotherapy teaches should be taught at school.

But they’re not.

Don’t focus on what you’ve struggled with before, be happy how easy it will be in the future.

Have a great day.

🙂

The Plank Challenge

As much as I don’t always like to exercise, even I accept that keeping physically fit is important to your mental health.

The same things that keep your body healthy also help to keep you mentally healthy – lots of clean water, good natural foods and appropriate exercise. Cardiovascular exercise is important as it keeps the blood flowing round our bodies and that includes making sure that your brain has a good supply of oxygen. The best sort of cardiovascular exercise to stave off brain degeneration in diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s also includes mental stimulation e.g. going for a run in a wood as opposed to on a tread mill.

But other sorts of exercise are important too. Planking is a great way to strengthen your core muscles, is easy to do, takes no special equipment and can be started by anybody no matter what fitness level, though you should always check with your GP or health professional before starting any exercise programme.

Increasing your core strength helps to improve balance, improves your posture, makes you a more efficient runner or walker, improves stability, increases upper body strength, strengthens hips and pelvic floor and increases low back strength which reduces risk of injury.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s always best to start with achievable goals – so if you would like to increase your fitness, why not start with planking. It will take less than a minute a day to start with – and anybody can commit to that, no matter what time pressures are on them. By slowly building up the amount of time you plank for, you will steadily increase your core strength which will help you to do whatever exercise goals you set yourself next.

If you look it up you will find lots of different 30 day challenge patterns for planking. The one I have added at the bottom is for demonstration purposes only. If you decide to follow one of these you should choose the one that fits in best with your ability levels. If you can do it with a friend or partner – even better – you’ll be able to keep each other motivated and the competition element will keep you doing your best.

I hope you do something today to increase your fitness. It will make you feel better, it will give you a sense of achievement and your future self will thank you for the effort you make today 🙂

Classy Cauliflower

Despite being a paler relation of the brassica family, Cauliflower has many of the same health benefits as Broccoli (see Brilliant Broccoli ) and should be considered in a healthy diet.

It has a low GI index and is High in Vitamin C, K and Folic Acid as well as being a good source of dietary fibre.

Most people are aware of how good Vitamin C and K are for you, but what about Folic Acid? We often hear about it being used a s a supplement during pregnancy, But what is it and why do we need it?

Humans cannot synthesize folic acid themselves; therefore, it has to be supplied through the diet to meet the daily requirements. The human body needs it to synthesize and repair DNA, as well as to act as a cofactor in certain biological reactions. It is especially important in aiding rapid cell division and growth, such as in infancy and pregnancy. Both children and adults both require folic acid to make healthy red blood cells and prevent anaemia.

It is believed that having a good supply of Folic acid

• Supports red blood cell production and help prevent anaemia
• Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood
• Supports cell production, especially in your skin
• Allows nerves to function properly
• Helps prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures
• Helps prevent dementias including Alzheimer’s disease

Signs that you may need more Folic Acid in your diet include

• Irritability
• Mental fatigue, forgetfulness, or confusion
• Depression
• Insomnia
• General or muscular fatigue
• Gingivitis or periodontal disease

Cauliflower is an incredibly versatile food. It can be cut up finely and steamed or stir fried to use as a substitute for rice or potatoes in a dish, it can be a side dish to a main course or it can be the main event in a curry or soup. However you choose to eat them, fresh fruits and vegetables help us to maintain a healthy mind and body, and are delicious too…

….How will you be eating yours this week?

Death or Cake?

One of my favourite comedians, the ever fabulous Eddie Izzard, once posed the question ‘death or cake?’ (if you don’t know what that refers to I strongly suggest looking it up on You Tube, you are in for a treat). But what if the question was Slim or Cake? or maybe Slim or Biscuits (or any other snack based, high fat, high sugar, low nutrition food or drink)? Isn’t that the crux of all weight issues? On one hand you say ‘I want to be slim’ and then on the other you say ‘I want cake!’ (or biscuits, chocolate, crisps, beer, wine, takeaway etc. etc.) and the other had generally wins and then puts said snack food in your mouth.

Well the first thing you need to do is to be honest with yourself. You can’t keep going around telling yourself you want to be thin and then temporarily getting selective amnesia to that fact whilst you’re stuffing food in your face. Well, you can, but you probably won’t lose any weight. If the cake is more important than being slim, that’s ok. I’m making no judgements on what you should be eating, but please, stop lying to yourself. You will just make yourself miserable.

If you decide to be honest, that can be a really good place to make a change from. Whilst we are in denial, there is no reason to change our behaviour. Once you accept that you’re making conscious choices that get you the body shape you have, You can choose differently if You want to.

That doesn’t mean you have to immediately embark on the latest diet craze or starve yourself for a month, it just means the next time someone offers you a slice of cake, the next time you see chocolate in the supermarket, the next time you think about opening that bottle of wine….you can think ‘slim or cake?’ and be honest about what it is you really want.

One of the fun things I can do as a Hypnotherapist is to help you to achieve your goals. Hypnosis can change that constant battle that runs in your mind between one thought and another – in this case, wanting to ‘be slim’ and wanting to ‘eat cake’. Using Hypnosis it is possible to get rid of the desire to ‘eat cake’ leaving you free and easy to work on being slim.

If you are in the Coventry area and would like to have a chat with me about how I could help You,

please give me a call on 07429 749936 or email me at talktherapies@gmail.com.

I look forward to talking to you.

Sue Griffin @ Talk Therapies

http://www.talktherapies.co.uk