Lunchbreak Inspiration – Brene Brown

If you haven’t checked out TED for some intelligent inspiration and entertainment I cannot recommend TED.com enough. TED is full of 5-20 minute informative talks on a huge range of subjects from many inspiring people of today.

So, I enjoyed this recently by Brene Brown – The Power of Vulnerability. It really gets you thinking about what being truly courageous is all about.

And it’s not about being strong and brave and controlling everything – it might just be about letting people see who you really are…

So, watch this awesome TED talk by Brene Brown, The Power of Vulnerability and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!

How to Create a Vision Board!

Example Vision Board

Example Vision Board

Have you created a Vision Board lately?

February can be a great month to get focused on what you want from the year ahead – or even your life!

  • Would you like some to clarify who you are, what you want or where you’re going?
  • Would you like some personal inspiration to get you through the murky days of winter?
  • Would you like to tap into your inner wisdom and create some focus for yourself?

If so, creating a personal Vision Board can help you! And if we get what we focus on – we need to make sure we’re focusing on the right things!

What is a Vision Board anyway? A Vision Board is simply a collective name for a wide variety of inspirational maps (a collage) that we create from pictures. This map can be WHO we want to be or HOW we want our lives to be. It’s a visual representation of your goals and dreams—a powerful way to make your aspirations more tangible and attainable.

You can use it to focus on tangible areas – like work, home-life, relationships, goals. Or perhaps you’d like to work on less tangible areas like your physical, emotional, social or spiritual desires. You choose!

How they work: Our minds can only hold about 7 pieces of information at any one time. And yet there are millions of pieces of information available to us all the time (look around you and think about everything you can see/hear/feel for starters). So, to ensure we do not get overwhelmed, our mind learns to filter information and to only show you pieces of information it thinks is RELEVANT. That’s why when you get a new car or find out you’re pregnant you suddenly notice little red Chevrolets everywhere or see pregnant women and moms all around you.

THIS is one of the key ways that Vision Boards work. The very act of CREATING the vision board tells our mind what’s important – and it may just draw your attention to something you might not otherwise have noticed. It’s a way of teaching our mind to focus on things that are important to us!

How to create a Vision Board: Simply cut out and collect pictures, words, quotes that inspire you or that simply catch your eye. DO NOT ANALYSE! If it grabs you, tear it out! Then paste and organize onto a big piece of paper, giving  it a title and date.

You’ll need: A piece of bristol board or cardboard, scissors, coloured pens, glue, any pictures you already have and a supply of inspirational magazines to cut out pictures from (eg. Oprah, home magazines, spiritual magazines, National Geographic – anything with pictures).

Top Tips:

  • The idea is to create a collage of the life or ‘you’ you want. You can either start with a blank piece of paper and go totally freeform or you could create a “Goal Tree”, “Dream Book” or “Destiny Star”.
  • Your Vision Board MUST HAVE PICTURES – even if they are just line drawings and stick men/women. You can even draw your own pictures if you like.
  • While you look for pictures, allow your mind to run free and dream. INCLUDE ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING that appeals or speaks to you!
  • Include PERSONAL AFFIRMATIONS or inspiring quotes to nurture and cherish your inner self.
  • Use COLOUR! Coloured felt-tip pens, colour post-it notes, colour pictures, make it VIBRANT and exciting.
  • Don’t try to understand WHY it appeals, get OUT of THINKING and turn up your CREATIVE right brain!
  • Remember that when creating a Vision Board, HOW YOU FEEL is more important that what you think!
  • You may like to actively look for the UNFAMILIAR – see outside your ‘normal’ box…
  • This is not about creating an artistic masterpiece but creating something that visually inspires and excites you!

Struggling?

  • Try answering these questions; 1) “What do you REALLY want from life?”,  2) “What is the life you REALLY want to live?” or 3) “WHO do I really want to be?”  If it helps you remember, jot down a few notes as you go along.
  • Or imagine you have a magic wand or a ‘dream machine’ that can magically create whatever you wish.
  • If you have NO IDEA where to start – LUCKY YOU! Simply start flicking through magazines, newspapers, the internet and cut out anything that inspires or grabs your attention until you have a pile of pictures to work with!

Finished? Well, there are two main schools of thought out there.

SCHOOL 1)  Says FORGET about your vision board: Put it in a closet. You’ll find it in 5 years and things will magically have happened.

The reason some people like to forget about the vision board is to remove any attachment to it – so we don’t FORCE things or try too hard. And also, this school says that when we put something somewhere obvious, after a while we tend to stop seeing it anyway.

SCHOOL 2)  Put it somewhere you will see it everyday – to remind, inspire and focus you: So, my personal preference is to keep your Vision Board somewhere you will see it regularly. And then every once in a while, just sit down and REALLY LOOK AT IT. Think about what is on there. Review it, allow yourself to feel it and get excited by it. JUST BEFORE you go to sleep is a great time to do this as it allows our mind to work on it and absorb it over night!

Because while you may achieve your vision WITHOUT taking deliberate action, if you take some action and get things moving – it’s MUCH more likely.

But it’s really up to you. I have had clients who have had great success with both methods. So, check in with yourself and see which you think will work for you.

MAKE IT EVEN MORE FUN: Why not get a few good friends together and spend an evening over a bottle of wine creating your own Vision Boards?

Why not use the Share This button below and let your friends know
you’d like to spend an evening Vision Boarding with them…

 

Stuff Your Pompoms!

I liked this rant – about feminism and cheerleading and whether it’s a ‘sport’ or not… Because cheerleading is now considered a sport in 37% of UK schools!

Check out  The Observer editorial here.

Sadly I found this article too late to comment – otherwise I would have added that one of the things that drives me crazy about women – is that many of us don’t know how to compete with each other in a healthy way

Competition between women often ends up in bitching, complaining, backstabbing and damaged friendships (just watch an episode of Next Top Model!). I believe this is because we don’t get to practice competing against each other enough growing up. Competition is seen as unfeminine… Whereas for men it seems growing up is ALL about competing with each other. And whilst I wouldn’t want to reach that extreme – at least they get to let all their energy and passion loose, try their hardest and then despite competing hard with each other – still be friends afterwards… I’m sure there are other women out there (like me) who have held themselves back to avoid upsetting others?

Remember, we always LOVE to hear from you.
Just comment and leave a reply below!

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Letting Go – What does it really mean?

Letting go is something that coaches and spiritual teachers often talk about – but what does it mean? How can we actually do it? 

Another word used to mean the same thing is surrender. People say we should surrender to what is, stop resisting reality, let go of trying to control everything. It’s about moving from a space of fear – to one of love. But in this masculine patriarchal world that many of us live in – love is not taken seriously. What can ‘love’ have to do with business – and most importantly – successful business?

Well, I think love is the KEY to successful business. If you love your customers, if you love your staff, if you love your shareholders – how could you be unsuccessful?

Holding this kind of contrary viewpoint takes courage – it goes against what we are taught. And I believe that by letting go – we learn to love ourselves, to love what is and to love others without trying to fix them or their problems for them.

So, if you are one of my many readers who are “Type A” personalities – and like myself you need to LET GO more – you may like this poem written by Louise Hay herself. I was inspired when I received it in my email this morning (I’m a member of the Hay House Wisdom Community) and I hope it helps and inspires you too. Thanks Louise!

Letting Go

To “let go” does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To “let go” is not to cut myself off, it’s the realization I can’t control another.

To “let go” is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another, it is to make the most of myself.

To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about.

To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To “let go” is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.

To “let go” is not to deny, but to accept.

To “let go” is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.

To “let go” is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

To “let go” is to fear less and love more.

Excited and Personal Update!

So, you may have noticed  I’ve been keeping a low profile lately. I’ve been busy both recovering from major surgery and enjoying the summer.

AND I’ve been making some changes and taking action! Recuperating from surgery gave me plenty of time to think about what I want to do with my life, what I enjoy, learn more about self-care and ponder how I want to make a difference. So:

1) I finally got together with friend and colleague Christina Richard to run an introductory seminar on Salt Spring Island about Women’s Intuition. This has been a goal of mine for a while so it felt really good! Christina is a trained intuitive, as well as the illustrator and graphic designer who helped create the Rebel Women Cafe logo!  I just love working with people when everyone is passionate about the same things! And with this workshop we introduced women to some simple tools to ground and reconnect with themselves, to learn to trust their own inner wisdom, to value themselves and learn that they already have everything inside of them that they need…

2) And inspired by our workshop, I’ve created a brand new 3 page worksheet called “Reconnect with your Heart”. This worksheet uses a symbol or image as one of the easiest and most powerful ways to access your inner self. A symbol is not only a visualization of our inner processes but also allows us to re-experience them and when used imaginatively – can become a vehicle to access our hearts, our authenticity and assist with spiritual transformation! This exercise can also be very helpful for dream work – especially if you have an image or symbol that comes up in a dream repeatedly.

You can find this fun new worksheet here in our Rebel Woman Store for just $3.95!

3) I’ve also reduced my coaching prices – significantly! In keeping with our name we wanted to make coaching simpler, more flexible and more accessible for everyone. So, we’ve slashed our prices, abolished our minimum 6 month sign-up and you can have a session as often or as infrequently as you like. It’s that simple!
Our new rates are: Just $75 for a one-hour session
And we GUARANTEE you will always leave with an action plan!
Simply contact Emma-Louise to book a session, pay (using Paypal) and you’re good to go!

Oh and NEWS! I was interviewed recently as part of “Winds of Change”. Winds of Change with Jivi is a TV programme that shares the stories of industry leaders, resident experts, and people in our communities whose curiosity about the world resulted in extraordinary discoveries. Our guests are living life to help others reach their greatest potential, and want to share what they have learned with you.”

The program won’t be aired until early 2011 – and it was fun! So, watch this space!

I hope to be posting more regularly again soon, and in the meantime,
REMEMBER to check out our awesome free tools and resources!

Today’s Date

TrailBlazing Women

Bookshelf

Friends and Enemies by Dorothy Rowe
The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman