If finding time to look after yourself is your biggest challenge let me suggest you create pockets of time just for you because the last thing you need is self-care to be another thing to add to your to-do list! How can you use one of these snippets of time to do something that will improve your mood or help you to feel present so you are able to be more of how you want to feel?

Self-awareness happens in the slowing down.

Understanding your personal seasons gives you more appreciation for your emotional well-being. This gives you more creative and intuitive control over your life and inner landscape allowing you to rebalance and reconnect with less effort, more often.

It’s the Autumn Equinox, (in the Northern Hemisphere) the time of year when we sense the shift in the seasons, our moods and our lifestyles… It’s when plants and trees are slowing down as sunlight decreases to get ready for the colder season ahead. We too are being called to slow down and turn inward but how we choose to do that nowadays is somewhat confusing in today’s hectic modern world.

September is when I start to reflect on what I wanted from and for myself this year, it's a time when I renew my intentions and have a deep desire to make these next few weeks and months really count! If you feel the same it’s easy to see how easily you can get caught up in the hustling energy and become impatient. It’s when we allow ourselves to get swept up in the doing that we lose a sense of why we’re doing it in the first place.

How you choose to take care of yourself depends on what makes you feel good, what helps you relax, what energises and replenishes you. Self-care is unique and personal, it’s also seasonal. With a shift in seasons comes a need to alter how we do things in reflection of how we are feeling within that transition.

Self-confidence is an emotion that influences you on all levels because your emotions are a bridge between what you think in your head and how you physically feel in your body. It’s no wonder then that confidence is so interwoven with your wellbeing. Confidence isn’t skin-deep, it’s soul-deep and cultivating more of it is a practice of self-love.

Grounding has become a daily practice and one of the most important things I do to support myself when feeling flustered, anxious or overwhelmed, whether I am worried about an experience or an event in the future it is a simple practice self-care that works by bringing me back into the present and helping to reconnect to my body.

How to find focus and consistency with your health and wellness intentions.
Do you have the best intentions only to lose interest within the first few days or weeks of starting something new? Are you initially enthusiastic about making changes to your lifestyle yet life seems to get in the way, and nothing seems to stick? Have you ever found something you loved yet fallen out of practice? Have you lost your rhythm, or perhaps, never really found it? When it comes to your health and wellbeing we all have the best intentions but how can we keep ourselves focused and consistent?

Your mind is highly intelligent and incredibly creative. You experience over 6,000 thoughts throughout the day paying attention to only a few which are often either the most unhelpful ones or the all-singing, all-dancing ones. We humans like to play to extremes. Notice I said, ‘experience’…
It’s important to consider a mental thought as something you experience, observing your thoughts and being witness to them rather than allowing your negative thinking to run the show!

Let me tell you a story… About 5 years ago I started practising mindfulness, in a small way every day because I needed something to focus my mind on and help cultivate more positive thoughts. My internal chatter had become pretty challenging and it was hard to silence the negative self-talk especially at night, I was unhappy but didn’t think I had any justification for feeling the way I did.

Big Love is about creating a positive change in how people think, speak and feel about mental health, their own and other people's well-being. The word Movement relates not only to the movement of the physical body but within society; a shift in perspective, a change in how we see things as a collective and a way to challenge the stigma around mental health. This is a mission and a life’s work and it started as a page in a journal…

‘I want to build a community where I can create a positive change for people’s wellbeing.’

Mindfulness supports you by helping you cope better with stress by drawing you back into the present, slowing things down and quietening the internal worry; the mind-chatter.

When you learn to slow things down, even for a short while, you’ll find you have more focus, what you’re focusing on will flow better and everything you do will get a little kickstart!

The language we use and how we use it has a huge impact on our mental health. Whether you look at how you talk to yourself; the thoughts you have and the words you use when thinking them, or whether you reflect on how you speak to the people around you, you'll start to notice those words create an emotional response in them and in you, and often a physical one too.

You’re mental,

I’m mental

We’re all mental because we all have MENTAL health

Here’s some food for thought; what does connection mean to you?

I’ll lead with a quote from the inspirational Brené Brown who appears to have nailed the ultimate definition; “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

Wellbeing is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as; the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy, so if you thought it was all about happiness you’re wrong, my friend! Not only is this definition subjective, but it’s also massively multi-layered and it’s something I bang on about all the time!

Why are we suddenly so bad at sleeping?

I love to sleep and I love the fact I get to do it for 7-9 hours a night I just wish I could manage it more than a few times a week, I’ve become absolutely rubbish at sleeping through the night!

Every day this week I’ve heard from friends and clients telling me how much busier and more stressed they're feeling with work. I even heard one friend was working on a project even though she was furloughed! Now while I appreciate businesses need to keep running and are working harder than ever to forge a new path and they need you, but I don’t see the need to push people to their limits.

Every year I start by thinking long and hard about what my intention will be for the year ahead. The is something very exciting about creating the vibe I want to carry through my year, it’s like a cheerleader for every grand plan and unfolding opportunity that lays ahead. If you’ve never set an intention but are someone who loves to set yourself goals, I urge you to try this.