For Mum: What I Learned From My Mother
You're quite a woman and I'm so proud to be your daughter. Here's a little of what I've learned from you: As a little girl you showed me how to spin a safe, warm cocoon of sleepy love - the magic of stories, the lull of your voice, the comforting rise and fall of your...
Self-Confidence: Permission to Be Me
I’ve been away the last few days on The One Retreat run by the fabulous Shaa Wasmund down in Kent. I can truly, without gushing or exaggerating, say that it was life changing for me (for the better I hope!). I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to go, with Mum so...
Perfectly Imperfect Happiness
You know, (and sorry to disappoint if you were hoping otherwise) I don't have all the answers. I don't even wish that I did - where would be the fun in life? I also believe that no-one else has all the answers - if they think they have then I'm pretty certain they're...
10 Proven Ways to a Happier Life
Most people I come across wish they were 'happier', and in the past I was one of them. These days however, despite the currently challenging context of my life with my Mum so ill, I'm very happy with my happiness! The lovely Action for Happiness website has lots of...
Shame, Guilt… and Self-Acceptance
In my last post I wrote about how coaching journeys often reveal more of the truth about what's already there inside of us... and of course this throws up our deepest fears and what so often gets in our way; "but what if I find I'm not good enough", "I'm a bad...
What does a life coach do? Revealing What's Already There…
Over the years I've been asked many times "yes, but what do you actually do as a coach?" I'm not sure I've ever perfected a succinct way of capturing an adequate reply. Sometimes I'll explain it's about helping people to get out of their own way, and step...
Is It Selfish to Put Yourself First?
I woke this morning knowing that at some point during the night, my subconscious had led me to a deep boggy pit of self pity and thrown me in. I’m feeling grumpy and querulous with an undercurrent of deep rage, and in jumping in the pit I've left my sense of humour...
Work-Life Balance: Where Do You Place Your Attention?
Something I increasingly know to be true is that the quality of my life, the results I get and the richness I experience depend very much on where I’m placing my attention. And I don’t mean by this the usual stuff about ‘focus on the positive’ etc. Instead, what I...
What do you think of this? – Personal Growth System
I'd love to run something past you and get your comments. You may or may not know that my previous career was in forestry, and I've always had a lot of admiration for trees - I believe we can learn a lot from them! In fact, understanding a tree as a metaphor for my...
24 Years Today… (Living a Happy Married Life)
Today is our 24th Wedding Anniversary (can't believe we're old enough to have been married that long, what young babes we were)! So here are ten things I appreciate about our happy marriage: It started out as a friendship, that grew and grew until it was love, and...
Phrases That Have Helped My Clients
After 7 years of full time professional coaching I now really notice the phrases that come up time and time again, that capture the change in perspective or mindset of my client. Here, in no particular order are the top 20: We can't always control what...
Just Like Me? – Projecting Feelings Onto Others
I'm not a psychologist (although if I hadn't managed to get into University to do Forestry, it was my next choice of subject for my degree!), so I'm not claiming academic accuracy here, just an observation of what I've experienced to be true. When we feel a strong...