What I Learned from my Earrings!!!

Now this is a funny story – not necessarily “funny ha ha”, but more “funny -hmmmmm”.  Anyhow, not so long ago I fell in love with an absolutely gorgeous pair of earrings and they were an ideal match for several necklaces and pendants that I had already had so I did what any self respecting diva would do and bought them!  I don’t know if any one else does this but whenever I buy something that I love then I have to wear it at the first opportunity and with jewellery … well, I just wear it and wear it and wear it until my natural tendency for change and variety kicks in.

So as I’m still in the initial flushes with these particular earrings, I put them on yesterday morning – as usual – and went off on the school run (can I just add at this point that I did have on other items of clothing as well!).  After admiringly watching my 7yr old daughter walk up the school path with her friends, I was shunted back into reality with the dreaded words “Morning, love, hasn’t she grown up? … by the way did you know YOU’VE ONLY GOT ON ONE EARRING??!!!”  Nooooooooo it can’t be true!!

In spite of the frantic grabbing of my earring-less earlobe, on several occasions, just in case she had made a mistake (or even worse, it was her idea of a joke!) and the earring was in situe all along and also my slab by slab pavement search and the shimmy like shaking of my clothes, I had to accept that there was a possibility that I could have lost it!  Back in the car and again a laser like scan and search – nothing!  The driveway – nothing. Retraced my footsteps from bedroom to car, several times, and then finally another few quick grabs of the earlobe – still nothing!   I had to accept the awful truth – the ones you love always leave you!  Random I know, but that was the thought!  Amazing how in times of stress, some of those old beliefs start to resurface.

I did realise pretty quickly, however, that I couldn’t spend my entire day lamenting over a pair of earrings – no matter how nice they were – and also reminded myself that the ones you love don’t always leave you, sometimes circumstances mean that they have to go and in the long run it will be for the best so I just had to accept that they are no more and move on.  Maybe even buy a new pair! :0

Can you imagine how I felt when, some hours later, I took off my scarf (which I had already done several times during the day for one reason or another!) and there hanging onto one of the fringes was my beloved earring??  But, I was not gonna get too excited as I had to be sure so again back to the earlobe and – ouch!! I had forgotten that I had moved the other earring to the originally empty ear (due to hair styling!!) but it was true, the wayward earring was back!! And what was the automatic thought that popped into my head??  If it is truly yours, then it will come back.

Strange, I know but my experience with my earrings reminded me of what I advise my clients to do –  to be more trusting and to believe that I am exactly in the right place at the right time because what is for me, will not pass me by whether it be earrings, people or opportunities!

I am sooooo not a morning person – or so I thought!!!

Isn’t it amazing what we tell ourselves?  The  thing is if we tell ourselves something for long enough then we not only start to believe it but we also act as if it is the absolute truth and that is exactly how it was for me and mornings!

For years, I told myself that I wasn’t a morning person and for years I behaved exactly like that – always working late,  last one to leave a party, no meetings before at least 10am, - I figured that if I had to be up, out and functioning at that time then the least I deserved was a good shot of caffeine in as relaxed an environment as possible beforehand.  I lived like this for years – ok, the parties became less frequent and were replaced by night feeds but the sentiment remained the same in that no matter what time the alarm went off in the morning, it was always still too early!

So what happened to not only get me up at the crack of dawn but also to have me bouncing around with a spring in my step??  I discovered morning exercise!!!   I can hardly believe it myself !!!     It  all started a few months ago when I really wanted to challenge myself to do something different.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “if you do the same thing you’re always gonna get the same results“, I wanted different results in my life so figured that a big change would be to get up earlier.  You know what it’s like, you make a decision to do something and then, God (in my case) starts to conspire to make it all happen.  The next thing I know, I’m getting up at 5.15AM at least twice a week – sometimes 3 times – and going off to a local fitness studio to do circuit training until 6.45AM! It’s now been nearly 3 months and counting

And what has been the side effect of all of this – aside from a few lost inches?

• I get more done in my day, in a more productive way
• My beliefs about who I am and what I can do have changed and continue to change
• Opportunities have opened up for me in areas that I hadn’t even thought about before
• I love mornings!!!!

So this is only a snippet of the benefits I feel as a result of changing things up a bit and doing things differently.  I wonder what your benefits would be if you challenged yourself.  In fact, what do you currently believe about yourself which may not actually be true????

It’s been a really ‘funny’ time recently… not quite “ha ha” type funny but more “mmmmmmm” type funny, if you get my drift!! 

 I’ve noticed really just how much I’ve tried to hold on to things when they had already expired their time…the great learning here is that the time for letting go comes whether you’re ready or not! 

Recently, I’ve had to face up to the reality that the growth and development of my core business means that I cannot always get involved with all the business opportunities that come my way.  This is fantastic for me – the fun and determination that I’ve had along the way is paying off.  This is also fantastic for the opportunities that I’ve had to walk away from as they will also now  be able to grow and develop with the right person alongside them.

I’ve been reminded that things happen the way they are supposed to happen. I don’t have to understand it but just trust that its right and so far so good!

Juicing…

Am really getting into this.  A friend of mine recommended a book to me called “7lbs in 7 days” and I was about to dismiss it as yet another diet book and definitely not one that I would be interested in.  However, it is actually about juicing rather than weight loss and was written by Jason “The Juicemaster” Vale - brilliant! 

To be honest, I wasn’t very good at eating lots of vegetables however, over the past few days I’ve been juicing carrots, apples, pineapples, beetroots, courgettes even spinach, kale and parsley. …and OMG…I love wheatgrass and spirulina!!!   All the juices in Jason’s book have tasted divine – bar one, which I will leave for you to discover yourself just like I did! – and the difference in my energy levels both mentally and physically in such a short space of time is remarkable.   I love it and will certainly continue juicing for the foreseeable future.   Let me know if you have any good juice or smoothie recipes.

Where have I been???

I know, I know, I know!!!  Mind you it was to be expected that I would take an unexplained absence from blogging… remember I did say in my inaugural gambit that it would be a miracle if I lasted more than a week!!

Anyhow, I must admit….I missed this weird cyber-journalling!  So, what have I been up to??  Well  I’m now a fully certified Master Practitioner in NLP!!  Extremely proud of this achievement as it has been a long time coming!!

Spent most of last week celebrating in one form or another… the highlight being that I got to see one of my ‘She-roes’ , Marianne Williamson, in person the other night as I attended a lecture she was giving in Central London – a fascinating and truly enlightening experience.  If you ever get the opportunity to hear Marianne speak – take it, you won’t regret it.

Phew…I need to sit down!

What a couple of weeks it has been!!  Its been a continuous round of living, living and more living!!! When is it all gonna stop?  The truth is I don’t know and I don’t want it to, but I’m quite happy to just keep riding this wave of excitement called life.

 Now before you start thinking that I’ve swallowed some self-help, psychobabble book or been watching “The Secret” or “What the Bleep?” The truth is that I am falling more and more in love with myself and my life on a daily basis – is that weird to do so or is it weird not to do so?

Don’t really want to go into too much detail – this is the internet, after all! – however, I beat myself up for a long time over what I SHOULD or SHOULDN’T be doing, looking or feeling and my birthday present to myself last year (November…yep, I’m a Scorpion and if your belief system is one which has expectations of that then prepare to be either disappointed or excited!) was that I was no longer gonna do that and that I was gonna give myself a different experience of me and my life by doing it differently.  

The greatest revelation, I suppose, in all of this has been that as a Specialist in Change & Development – I can actually be my own client! How fantastic is that?  And how comes I didn’t notice that before??   I am truly enjoying myself because through doing things differently and having an alternative experience, all areas of my life are going through a transition that feels exhilerating and producing some totally unexpected results – good ones too! 

My biggest learnings out of all this – i.e the things that I know for sure but was pretending that I didn’t:

• You can’t un-know what you know
• Life goes on so you may as well get involved!
• What you’re looking for could just well be under your nose.
• It doesn’t have to always make sense but it helps if it makes you smile!!

Head down and midnight oil still burning…

Yep, its course time again and you would think that by now I would have mastered the arts of preparation and allowing enough time for revision….yeah right!!!

 Instead I’m here frantically putting together my pre-course study, cramming in info that should have been in since last year and wondering how I’m gonna recreate Halle Berry’s look in the morning!!

Just wish me luck guys because when this is over I will be a Certified Master Practitioner…certified being the operative word here!!!  I wonder if the white coats are only for the staff!!

Reggae Reggae Sauce

Have you tried this yet? 

The avid Dragon’s Den fans amongst you may remember Levi – he was the guy who set his pitch to a nice, easy listening reggae tune.  Anyway, his Reggae Reggae jerk/marinade/BBQ sauce is now in Sainsbury’s so, of course, I had to buy it!  Fantastic – if you haven’t tried it yet then give it a go.  And for those of you watching the pounds (weight ones not sterling!) – it is also low fat, so even better!!

I love the blurb on the bottle “Tune into the flavours and put some music into your food”