Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

I’ve just returned home after spending a stimulating ‘dinner meeting’ (hence the duck and pitta bread) with my chums and colleagues Eddy Smerdon (hypnotherapist par excellence) and Greta Irving (accomplished psychotherapist and coach) and feel inspired and a little bit astounded with what I’ve leaned tonight. Thanks for such a stimulating evening E & G!

Have you ever noticed that when you tell children DON’T they DO?

I was thinking about this yesterday when I was talking with a group of teachers about children’s learning. Some of them find it frustrating that their ‘don’t rules are ignored but some make good use of what they’ve noticed by flipping the whole thing around – and they get great results.

Here’s an example to show you what I mean.

When they want young children to make use of a planning sheet to aid their writing, instead of saying. “Use the planning sheet.” (resulting in most of the children not using it) they say, “Now, you don’t  have to use the planning sheet. It’s just there to help you if you if you need it but you don’t have to use it at all if you don’t want to – it’s up to you.” (resulting in everyone using the planning sheet effectively)

So I’m going to suggest that you don’t have to use this ‘don’t idea’ right now to get great results like this – it’s up to you!

And when you find some great ways to use it, you don’t have to share them with everyone in the comment section below either – just a thought!  ;-))

When I referred to children in my previous post, I meant old souls of course!

I love the quotes in this short video and I thought you might like them too – so take a look.

Richard wrote ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ a wonderful (and short) story for children and the children in us all. Go read it!

Went spinning today.

A 1 ½ hour tough cycling work-out. Every minute was a joy and a pain and as I pushed on and ‘upped the effort’ again and again throughout the workout I reflected on the support that our coach Chris was giving us.  He intuitively knew when to drive us on, when to offer hope (that we were nearly at the end of an exercise), when to crack a joke and encourage us to smile and when to bring on a whoop or cheer of exhilaration when we’d completed a specially grueling minute. Every single time I began to feel like lessening the effort or to believe I couldn’t go on, he would cut through my negative thinking with a change of pace (usually harder or faster!) and just the right kind of challenge or support. The music helped to drive the pace and the atmosphere of camaraderie that Chris created stopped me from getting off the bike and leaving the room. So I completed the workout and now feel great for it. And although I did all the work myself, I know there is NO WAY I could have done it alone. Left to my own devices I know I would have stopped after the second track (6 minutes in) when my muscles began screaming to stop.

Thanks for ‘keeping me on in there’ Chris!

Hooray! The concrete is finally going down behind the house for our kitchen extension. We’re ‘over the hump’ and work should move forward quite quickly from now on. (…ever the optimist)

It’s taken a lot of time to get to this stage. We have dreamed, imagined, talked, changed our minds, discussed with planners, waited for plans to be drawn up, considered them and made alterations, waited for planning permission, negotiated obstacles etc, etc.

While this was happening there was nothing ‘concrete’ to show for the time and effort. Now there is definitely something ‘concrete’ – its CONCRETE!

Often the planning and considering part of a project can seem extraordinarily lengthy and it’s during this stage that motivation and momentum can flag unless you are aware of and prepared for it’s particular challenges.

This is often true for personal challenges or changes as well.

When steps are very small or there are long delays between steps, boredom or demoralization can set in. A slow pace can open opportunities for your inner gremlin to start making other plans: you begin to question whether you really do want the goal… “Maybe it will be best to give it a miss.”

This is where you can help yourself by recruiting support – that support can come from another person – say a friend or coach – or it can come from yourself. By being aware of the challenge you can be prepared to encourage yourself through it until you begin to see some initial results.

I’m going out now to have a good look at our concrete results.

Hey we have a new chick. It hatched last week and it’s so cute. The dogs are very interested in it. Nala wants to watch it all day – she loves to herd things. Annie is licking her lips ( she see’s hors d’oevres ) so we have to watch her. An interesting example of interpretation – same chick, very different interpretation and response from the two dogs – and the difference between life and death for the chick! I completely forgot to film it for you. It’s so easy to take the most wonderful and miraculous things completely for granted when they are going on around us all the time.

The miracle of new life – and I didn’t think to mention it until now!

It’s easy to let the wonders of life slip by right under your nose, without really noticing or savoring them, if you know what I mean…

I wonder what else I’m missing!

Hey, I met an old friend today. This ‘meeting people from the past thing’ is getting to be quite a habit. I trained with her, in the early eighties, to teach exercise to music. We were together for about a year until we became fully-fledged aerobics teachers.

She looks just the same as when I last saw her years ago – the result of a healthy lifestyle I suspect. She teaches body balance and yoga classes and works for the NHS training the trainers who deliver the “stop smoking’ programs we see advertised on TV.

We had ‘the traditional’ natter about our children. It’s quite amazing how quickly the years go by and it’s lovely to hear what they’re all doing now. Then we got to talking about what we’ve been up to in the intervening years. She’s developed her fitness repertoire and still has a passion for teaching and loves the training aspect of her work with the NHS.

I told her about my work in school and the coaching, NLP and Clean Language approaches I’ve been exploring in the context of the classroom – and with my adult coaching clients.

I explained how my aerobic teaching had stopped when I’d become ill with post viral syndrome in 1996. As I told her about the illness and my recovery from it, I found myself reflecting again on the wonderful progress I’ve made.

Lisa thought the story of my recovery would be a help to others (my doctor did tell me at the time to write it all down because it might be a help to others – but I was too busy recovering at the time and then – well life took off!)

Anyway if you’re interested I’ll put it all down here on the blog and if it’s useful to anyone I’ll be glad.

I bumped into a friend this evening in Sainsbury. We had a good old chin-wag and caught up with news about our respective children. Wow how time flies – they’re all grown up now. She is a homeopath, a lovely lady and a godsend for me when she came into my life around about 13 years ago.

We haven’t seen each other for about 10 years so she was keen to know how I was health and energy wise. She was pleased to hear (and see) that I’m full of beans, working two jobs and enjoying a healthy and active social life.

Our meeting got me thinking about how far I had come over the past decade… and how grateful I am for the experience of illness that put a sudden halt on my life and forced me to change in so many ways that have brought great positive benefits.

In those days I couldn’t walk, talk, read, write, add up or watch tv. At times I couldn’t even swallow my food. My journey back to health taught me so much and helped me to be grateful for many things in life that I once took for granted.

So that’s how a chance encounter in the isles served to remind me to stop and give thanks.

Thank you!

I’m working intensely on school reports this week and remembering to check in with my body regularly. Sometimes when I work hard or long I start to develop a tension in my body (neck, jaw and eyes are the most noticeable places) and then interpret that as feeling pressured or tired. If I catch myself doing it, I can relax, notice what’s happening RIGHT NOW and realize that I actually feel fine. Tension and ‘tiredness’ and that ‘negative kind of stress’ only get a grip when I think about how long I’ve been working or how much I wish I were doing something else, or how long it’s going to take to finish the job and how uncomfortable it will be enduring that until the bitter end. STOP!

I notice the tension starts in my tummy (even when I’m just writing those thoughts!) When I stop and notice what is real in each moment then I find that, when relaxed, the ‘chore’ is a joy… moment… by… moment. No better or worse than anything else I do moment… by… moment. And I also appreciate that it’s a privilege to be able to choose the words to summarise the particular qualities, the attainment and the progress made by all those lovely little individuals in a way that will inform and launch them onto the next stage of their learning.

And I’m grateful for this opportunity to contribute.