Let The Boat Rock

I am now entering into a new stage of my life; a fierier, more honest and more dynamic one – and this I find very exciting. I call this stage ‘Let The Boat Rock’. It’s time to speak clearly about what my message is; about what Wake Up To Health really means.

I no longer need to hold on so tightly to the sides of the boat, hoping that it will stay still, hoping that it won’t collide with others. It’s OK for bigger waves to come. And I believe that this is the direction I should be going in now, in allowing the existence of greater waves.

Until recently, I had been happy sailing forwards smoothly and on gentle waves. I thought it was tranquillity that I was after. Life is but a dream eh? But now I realise that I was actually afraid of disturbing the peace, of showing other sides of myself and exploring other voices; my own as well as others, and so I rejected and censored anything that did not fit in with the tranquil picture that I had created. But I don’t feel the need to play the peacekeeper anymore.

A learning for me is this: it isn’t about keeping the peace and making sure everything is nicey-nicey. We are not here to please everyone, and in fact we can’t! It is energy lost in trying to do so. Instead of going out of our way and losing ourselves, we need to speak our truth, staying on our personal path. And what I’ve actually noticed is that the more I let myself speak, the better the response I am getting from others, as well as from myself.

Once we give up the need to edit ourselves and censor other voices, we find our strength and allow ourselves the gift of self-acceptance. When we can stand strong on a rocking boat and be hit by the biggest wave and not fall down – this is when we know we are speaking our truth.

Let us feel our strength, our force and our energy.

In feeling mine, I lay out my message for you, the uncensored and unedited version:

Let us think carefully about what we are doing here
And what our purpose is.
Are we living our true potential?
Are we the happiest and healthiest we can be?

If not, why not?
What is getting in the way?
We need to take full responsibility for our lives,
For our health and for our well-being
In knowing that we can change at any moment.
We can find strength and take good care of ourselves.
We can feel incredible.

We have choice.
Health is a choice.

Good Habits

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Good Habits make a Good Life!

When your habits are good, you feel better, you have more energy, you see positive effects from the things you do, you have much more time available to do more of the things you love and the world just seems to work so much better!

Good Habits are not something just a percentage of us can have – they are out there for the taking by each and everyone!

The sooner you start to pay attention to your habits, the quicker life will brighten up. You will begin to notice that the world doesn’t happen ‘to you’, but that you get to choose your circumstances, make your mark and reach for the top! And there’s no time better to do so than the present moment!

Have a think about your current daily habits. How do you feel about them? Do you feel they are contributing to your life, your goals, your dreams in a positive way? Or do you feel led by circumstances, driven by a ‘fixed’ behavioural pattern or unhappy with how things are unfolding?

Often we mistake our habits for our ‘selves’. We think that the things we repeatedly do are indicators of our personalities, genes and make-up. Inescapable, unavoidable. ‘It’s just the way I am’ you may hear yourself say. But this is not the case. Habits can be cast away, changed and created! There is nothing set in stone about the way you are from moment to moment. You can change the script at any time you like….

So be courageous, bring an active mind and create Good Habits today! Here are some examples to get you started! -

- Getting up early and having a slow morning pace, bringing a calm, clear focus for the day. 10-30 minutes exercises will give you an extra boost too!
- Spending 10 or 15 minutes each morning setting a positive intention for your day, identifying a source of motivation to keep you energised and on track and planning your daily doings.
- Having a healthy breakfast – a wonderful source of energy first thing that sets you off well!
- Planning your daily exercise/fitness early on, writing it in your diary and keeping to this important appointment with yourself! (You can look to your source of motivation to spark your thirst for this.)
- Making and setting goals and dreams that you can work towards and which provide a central meaning to your life.
- Arriving at appointments/meetings 10 minutes early – this will help you feel calm, settled and on top of things, whilst also not letting yourself or anyone else down!
- Choosing 3 positive things to do or say daily to loved ones, colleagues or strangers!
– Acting and living by your principles, values and what means dear to you.
- Making healthy food choices throughout your day – by staying fully aware and responsible for what you fuel yourself on.
- Being outdoors in the fresh air each day and lapping up the breeze!
- Having a phone chat/ meet up with someone you love spending time with – and who you leave feeling refreshed and happy.
- Choosing to use positive, meaningful words and language and dropping the rest that’s holding you back.
- Thinking positively about your career, the benefits you gain, aspects you love or perhaps considering an alternative occupation that’d suit you better.
- Keeping your room clear, tidy and organised – a clear surrounding space helps a clear and focused mind. Recycle or take to a charity shop anything that’s no longer of use to you – it may just well be of fantastic use to someone else!
- Creating a night-time routine – getting a good night’s seep, finishing off any lingering task from the day and thinking over everything that went positively whilst falling off to sleep.

Getting into the swing of nurturing good habits allows the best you to shine! You’ll feel forever satisfied and thankful for it.

Create some good habits today and reap the rewards they bring you….

Breathe It Away

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“Just Breathe It Away” are the wise words once uttered to me.

And which I’ll never forget. They’ve stayed with me since and have brought me great freedom from life’s difficult times.

The truth is there are going to be difficult times on your life’s journey. Moments of unease, frustration, anger, fear, weakness or pain.

But it’s up to you to choose your response, your approach to whatever’s thrown your way.

You can let things consume you, get at you, aggravate you, have power over you. Or you can choose to Breathe It Away and thereby release yourself from any hold.

The breath is a very powerful tool, that we are all so fortunate to have. At your beckon call it comes forth, in any state that you so ask for.

Allow the breath to guide you, steer you, strengthen you, free you.

You won’t always have the security, the comfort, the peace of being under your covers, wrapped in your blanket, on your meditation cushion or under the dimmed and assuring lights of your yoga class. Sometimes you have to face the music – directly.

So say you’re sitting opposite someone and they say something that gets your back up, that annoying or ridiculous thing they’ve said before and you just know they’ll say again! “How dare they!” When they know how much it upsets or annoys you why are they doing it? Why aren’t they changing?” Or you see something that makes you see red, you hear something that makes your heart sink, your stomach churn. And you feel like there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. “No escape” you say. “I just can’t cope, I’m just so argh right now, my heart is thumping uncontrollably and I need to shout out!” “I need to leave this space. I need to go back to my room, shut the door and stay under my covers, until they change.”

And this is perfectly natural. As human beings, you will feel things, experience different emotions, be ruffled in different ways.

But another truth for you, which may seem shocking: They don’t need to change. They simply are, it simply is this way. You need to change.

You can only ever work on yourself.

So when you feel so strongly in such a way that it causes you pain. Bring it back to you – see the effect, the unhealthiness this is creating for you. Know that it is time for a new response. You can change the cycle, start afresh!

Start by surrendering to your powerlessness. You don’t need to deny how you feel – feelings will change in time with new habits – you just need to bring acceptance to where you are right now and learn to feel your breath.

Breathe It Away. Breathe It Away.
Wherever you are, whatever the difficult situation bring a conscious awareness to your breathing, slow it down and count to 10. And just stay present. You don’t need to escape.

In doing so you will find new answers, new meaning, new responses and new guidance you may not have known could exist.

Try it – Breathe It Away – and find your release.

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