Business Coaching and Training Cork Ireland

Archive for the ‘Stress’ Category

Imagine a world without stress. Imagine a world where no-one is demanding anything from you. Imagine you are the happiest you could possibly be. Can you imagine all that? I hope so, because if you cannot, that is a sure sign that you require some “ME” time.

If you can imagine all those things, then you are probably doing a lot of self-care already, as you appreciate the importance of looking after self. You appreciate and understand why it is imperative to look after your own safety on an aeroplane before your child, because if something were to happen to you first (like you do not get enough oxygen), then you are of no help to your child.

Now, just very quickly think of all the things that have been building up over the past year, and specifically those things that have spilled over into this year. Can you picture them? Has your mood changed? Is the weight of the world sharing its burden on you right now? It’s so easy to get caught up in the woes of the world, the media, our networks and indeed our own families. Is it over-burdening, over-whelming, too much to bear?

And my question to you is simply: Compared to what?

How do you know this is good for you? Are you coping with all the stress a new year can bring? On top of all the left over trauma of 2011?

Now, bear with me here and really think about the following. Write them down so you can check on them at the end of this post:

Think about the best thing that happened to you last year. Think about your greatest achievement of 2011. Think about your biggest learning for 2011. Think about the relationships you nurtured in 2011, new and old. Think about the single happiest thing that happened in 2011.

Now, pat yourself on the back, schedule some “Me” time for every day this year and plan for great things to happen, because then they will. If you write them down, and say them loudly to yourself, then you are setting the tone for your year to come.

And if you are overwhelmed just now, still reeling from the effects of 2011 and the holiday period, read this inspiring blogpost on starting your year in February, not January

Happy New Year, and may 2012 bring you everything you plan for.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. And yes, it can be very stressful.

• Have you left your card sending until the last minute?
• Have you left your Santa buying until the last minute?
• Have you left your Christmas Shopping until the last minute?
• Have you left buying the tree until the last minute?
• Have you left everything until the last minute?

If you answer YES to any of the above questions, then read on to learn a few tips on managing your stress better this year.

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday”  ~ Don Marquis

Now, for a fact – we can only experience the present moment. YES, we can really only actually experience every moment once. Everything else is imagined, whether past or future.

So if you are stressing about past Christmases, or any past event, then you are relying on memory to provide the stress factors. Those stress factors can limit us in our everyday tasks. If you are stressing about the coming Christmas, or any future event, then you are just imagining it and creating your own stress factors. Based on what? Future event stress is normally based on previous events, so we are back in the past, which is imaginary, remember?

So how do we DO procrastination? How do we manage to NOT do the important things? How do we let stress effect our wishes and goals?

Here we go, a little exercise for you:

1. Get into the role of Christmas shopping, decorating the house, planning the dinner, handling the in-Laws
2. See yourself in that role, doing those things
3. Now imagine the PERFECT day shopping, decorating or planning
4. What happens in that day? What do you see, what do you hear? What do you notice? What do you smell? What are you feeling? (really, really get into the feeling of it, remember this is your PERFECT day)
5. What exactly happens in that day? And when?
6. Now simply, imagine how you can grasp as much of that as possible. What can you tap into, what can you access?

That’s it! The rest doesn’t matter, because it’s negative, and we want positive don’t we?

Do this exercise a few times and feel the difference about the situation now. How does it feel different? Keep those feelings in mind and remind yourself of your perfect day when it’s time to do that thing!

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” ~ William James

*If you would like to learn more about tackling procrastination and the benefits of coaching, please contact Elaine through the Contact Page or by telephone at +353 (0)86 1955660. Be the CHANGE you want to be in 2012!*

Welcome to my world…

To follow is a copy of an email I sent to my close network. So rather than bombard everyone in my network, I am producing the mail below for you to read, if interested

Hi there, happy weekend!

I haven’t been in touch in a while now and wanted to let you know how the Mini Marathons went, the fundraising and of course, what the hell I am doing now.

Firstly, I am delighted to report I am pain free, unlike this time last year when I was crippled, and had to give up running altogether. My waistline was not happy!

So after intense self care and chiropractic treatments in Spring, I was promised I would be doing the 3 things I love again – gardening, driving my motorbike and running. At first it was a struggle, and my health seemed to be deteriorating rather than improving, but finally after about 2 months, I suddenly began to feel huge improvements.

So much so that I was back running with a great new podcast programme, building my distance, stamina and endurance over 9 weeks, ready for the Cork and Limerick Mini Marathons. Not only did I finish both without killing myself, I improved on last year’s times with little effort. I felt great

I decided to dedicate my efforts for charity – Age Action this time. In light of the bad weather we had last year, I felt the elderly were in dire need of vital funds, and it would give me a greater focus for my training. And it worked! I completed both runs successfully, and am delighted with the progress on last year, which was so difficult I really believed I wouldn’t run again. Read the rest of this entry »

Seefin Coaching has the pleasure of being featured in Catherine Connors winter edition of De-Stress Magazine. Head on over to page 5 to read the article on dealing with the approach of Christmas:

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Catherine is the owner of Stress Solutions for Life and is a well respected Stress Management and Time Management practitioner as well as an Holistic Therapist. She produces this fantastic magazine full of stories, tips and tricks on how to get more out of life, be less stressed and more productive.

Its a great read, especially as we feel the tension rising as we approach December. I have some great tips and advantages on page 5 for organising yourself better for the run up to Christmas.

Enjoy,
Elaine

Have you Timed-Out?

A common message you will see if you take too long to book flights or concert tickets on the internet: “Sorry, your session has timed out, please return to the Homepage and try again” or something to that effect.
How do we feel about it when that happens? We have to do it all over again, either straight away if we are not too miffed, or later when we have stopped being mad at ourselves for missing that 30 second time slot. So how well did we manage that time allocated to buying those concert or airline tickets?
Bear in mind that we were very aware of the time constraints provided and Read the rest of this entry »