Mind Makeover

Are you overly judgemental? Do you ever show compassion or empathy toward yourself, or others? Do you find yourself forming instant opinions & judgements about other people, without even a moment’s thought about why they behave the way they do? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a real people-watcher & have become more so over the last few years. It can provide hours of entertainment! I just love to sit & watch people go about their daily lives, whilst pondering what’s going on in their minds, in their backgrounds.   What are the stories playing on a repeat loop in their minds? What are they telling themselves about their life circumstances - their today, their yesterdays & their tomorrows? Are they engaging in positive or negative self-talk - beating themselves up or encouraging themselves? How are they feeling about themselves - confident, despondent or perhaps indifferent? What does it feel like to be them - physically & emotionally? What does the w...

What motivates you? What do you intend to achieve? Have you found your purpose? Not someone else's purpose ... your purpose! Have you got plans or goals for yourself, your family, your relationships or some other aspect of your life at the moment? I truly hope you have! It's beneficial to both our physical & mental health to aspire to do a particular thing, to be motivated toward achieving something, to have a goal to strive toward ... to have a purpose .  Because, really, without some sort of purpose or intention, what are our minutes, hours, days, weeks, months & years actually for? And what will they be filled with? More mindless social media scrolling or Netflix bingeing? I'm not criticising, because I enjoy both of these activities ... sometimes more than I should! And there's a time & place for trivial relaxation & entertainment, because we all need to switch off from reality at times ... but it's no...

Are you guided by abundance or scarcity, fear or courage? And if it's fear, how can we change it? Do you have an abundance or scarcity mindset? Is your default mode for reaction or response based on a fear of what you perceive yourself, or your life, to be lacking? Or is it based upon appreciating & acknowledging everything that you do really have in your life &, therefore, behaving courageously? When we experience life through the lens of scarcity we are laser focused on everything that’s missing, all the little things we don’t have, every seemingly insurmountable obstacle that’s been placed in our path. Our approach to everything is based upon not having enough … not enough money, not enough knowledge, not enough experience, not enough support, not enough time, not enough, not enough, not enough.   And this frame of mind pervades every action we take & every decision we make. If we believe we don’t have enough money, we won’t invest in that course we’d love to do, be...

Gratitude is mentioned everywhere, but have you realised yet how easy & powerful it really is? There have probably been millions of words written & spoken about gratitude & its benefits, yet many of us still don't really appreciate how powerful this simple practice is. Who knows, maybe the number of times our parents told us as children that we should be grateful for something dimmed it's shine a little? But I think, as we begin this new invigorating (that's code for extremely chilly, if you didn't realise!!!) Winter season, it's an ideal time to revisit it. Gratitude comes from the Latin word 'gratis' & means pleasing & thankful. It is an action (expressing thanks for something or someone) & an incredibly beneficial positive emotion (feeling thankful for something or someone). It may seem like gratitude is merely the latest trendy concept, or just another way for self-improvement...

Do you accept responsibility for the good, bad & ugly of your life? Or do you blame others? What's your perception regarding the level of control you have over your life? How much control do you feel you have over the events that influence you, your happiness, your success? If you're facing some type of challenge in life, do you feel as though you have control over the outcome or that it's in the hands of outside forces? Your approach to life, & perception of these things, refers to your locus of control & whether it's internal or external. It can impact your propensity to respond or react, motivation to take action & your personality. If you attribute success to your own efforts, believe you have significant control over what happens to you & take responsibility for your actions, you possess an internal locus of control. You would also be less influenced by other people's opinions, perform better when allowed to work at your own ...

Do you only experience gratitude for the positive aspects of your life when things take a turn for the worst? Are you stuck in your past or constantly living in the future? Covid recently struck in our house & I’m writing this while still recovering from the damn virus that’s impacted the world for much longer than I think anyone ever imagined it might. My husband & I managed to dodge the Covid bullet as most of our family succumbed to it over the past few months but, alas, our stealthy avoidance tactics eventually failed us! And as we’ve been alternating between sleeping more than we ever have & experiencing insomnia; regularly coughing up a lung (lucky we have two!); wondering how much mucus the  human nose can actually produce (I googled & apparently it’s about 1 litre!!!); contemplating the exact time that our heads may explode (thankfully, neither of us got that one right!); having the attention span of a goldfish (hello brain fog) & binge watching a variet...