Health and honesty

Today's Quote: "Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy." ~ Lao Tzu

Today's Questions: What are you doing for good health?

A Bit About Me:

The last couple of days someone close to me has been in hospital and it brings home to me (again) how health is (as Lao Tzu stated over 2,500 years ago) our greatest possession. Without health we can no longer do the things we want or be the person we are. Sometimes it is completely unavoidable but sometimes it is our not looking after ourselves which leads eventually to sickness, of the body and the mind!

So I encourage you to look at your own current level of health and ask yourself "what am I doing to look after my health?" Be honest with yourself and when you receive the answer from your own wisdom, do something to address it.

We only have one body to carry our soul through this lifetime and we would do well to look after it and treat it like the precious thing it actually is.

For my health I got honest this year and realised I needed to lose at least 20kg's, start working out every single day (not just incidental exercise but really hard, red in the face, sweating kind of exercise), reduce my portion size and start eating a vegetarian diet (meat has never really been my friend) and since January I have lost 10kg's. I am halfway there and feel wonderful for the benefits that this has had in my body and indeed my mind.

Now it's your turn to get honest.....

Living your own life

Today's Quote: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking." ~ Steve Jobs

Today's Question: Are you living someone else's life?

A Bit About Me:

I used to want to be the person other people wanted me to be. That was how I thought I could bring about harmony in the world. By being someone else's version of myself. I know now that this was not the way to harmony- being myself, truly, deeply living from my unshakeable core is the way.

Are you going to take a bite out of the apple of your own life?

Presence

Today's Quote: "The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Today's Question: Are you being present in your life?

A Bit About Me:

Many of us rush through our day going from meeting to meeting, getting caught up in office politics, going from one task to the next without really being present.

Having brought mindfulness and presence into my day now for the past few years I have a much better handle on what happens during my day. Yes sometimes I can slip on this, it happens, yet I aim to be present more often than not.

It is my gift to others. When we become more present to ourselves and our daily interactions with people and become more mindful of how we are showing up in our lives, we are better equipped to truly be there for others. Try it for yourself by possibly reading a book on mindfulness, taking a course on it or simply spending one day a week for the next few weeks thinking about presence and how you are present in your life.

Others may remark on it or you may begin to notice somethings you never noticed before but give yourself and others this gift and watch how your life changes ♡

Celebrating your own beauty

Today's Quote is a part of a poem written by Hafiz:

Do you know how beautiful you are?

I think not, my dear

Yet Hafiz could set you upon a stage

And worship you forever

Today's Question: Do you celebrate your own beauty? What do you do to worship yourself?

A Bit About Me:

I started a practice a while back to begin to celebrate my own body. This entailed me thanking a different part of my body each day after my morning shower. I would say to my legs "thank you for holding me up, for being so strong and enabling me to walk through the beauty of this world" and "thank you arms for being strong enough to hold everything that comes my way, for being loving enough to hug my husband every single day." Stuff like that.

I don't do this as much anymore but I do have a practice of telling myself "I love you Yvonne, just the way you are." Look into a mirror and try it sometime, this is in no way an ego thing. This is a loving practice to celebrate you and the essence of you. Louise Hay who has written many books on healing suggests this practice and I think it is an amazing way to see yourself in all of your glory. We always want to be versions of someone else but how about we try being exceptional versions of ourselves?

No Judgement

Today's Quote: "Judge me, define me, put me in a box and that box will be your coffin." ~ Rumi

Today's Question: Who or what are you judging in your life?

A Bit About Me:

I really don't judge people. I can say this with real conviction. I take everyone as I find them. I don't see myself above or below anyone. I see us all as one, as a collective.

So if someone judges me, although I don't get it, I respect that the person may have a different opinion and set of beliefs and so although I can sometimes feel wounded or lower in vibration, I can still love that person through their judgement of me. I say I don't judge people yet I often harshly judge myself and can sometimes harm myself with these judgements. So I ask of you who or what you are judging and even if it is yourself, ask how you can lessen or let go of the judging and bring more harmony in your life. I am asking right along with you to stop judging myself.....

Peace & Unity

Today's Quote:“Awareness creates action and action will save lives. Music is one of the key tools we use to raise awareness of Peace Day 21 September.”~ Jeremy Gilley, founder and chairman of Peace One Day

Today's Question: How aware are you? Of yourself? Of the world?

A Bit About Me:

I recently watched Jeremy Gilley's talk at TED which was about Peace. He speaks passionately about uniting and living in a world of peace. Some amazing things have come from this one individual who is aware, has a purpose and is taking action towards it!

It made me think of how aware we are of ourselves and the role we play however small or big we may think it is, in making the idea of unity a possibility.

I have been developing some workshops to deliver into workplaces here in NZ and hopefully further afield but is it enough and will enough people believe in it for change to be possible? I really don't know the answer and sometimes I feel like I am doing too little. Then I got to thinking that however small my part may be in making this a reality at least I am doing something. I am even going to join in on Peace day this September 21st. Check out Peace One Day's site here and get involved and in that way we can all work on this together and give peace a chance.✌

Understanding

Today's Quote: "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." ~ Carl Jung

Today's Question: Who is irritating you? What message can you take from it?

A Bit About Me:

We are all one another's mirrors of reflection. When we have a very strong reaction to someone and say "oh so and so is so irritating and so infuriating", we may be seeing something in that person which we haven't fully accepted in ourselves yet. Let me give you an example.

A client of mine was very angry at his manager for always thinking he knew what was best for him. He was constantly being irritated by his boss's approach to his work and how he always had a better way of doing things. I asked him what the quality his manager was displaying was. He said it was controlling and egotistical. I then asked him to close his eyes and look for anytime in his life where he had displayed these qualities. He got quite passionate and said straight away, "never, I would never be like him, I couldn't. I am so not controlling and ego filled." I asked him to really dig deep and see if he had ever in his life displayed those qualities. Again he huffed and puffed and I remained quiet.

Eventually he said "well, I do tell my wife what she should wear sometimes when we go out. I wouldn't call that controlling though. I just like her to look her best when we go to work functions. I like people to see how beautiful my wife is."

I remained quiet. I heard his intake of breath and he said "That is rather controlling huh? And I guess you could even say that I my ego is telling me to promote my wife too."

So you have displayed those qualities in the past. "Yes" came his quiet voice.

So the next time you see your boss displaying those qualities, please will you let me know what happens now you can see that you have that in you too?"

He was still quite resistant but he said he would.

What happens is when we can accept the qualities in someone who irritates us and see them in ourselves then they lose their power to annoy us when we see them displayed before us.

Try it for yourself and please let me know what happened!

Light & Love

Today's Quote: "In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all, and it often comes with bitter agony. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it, will make you less miserable now. I have had enough experience to make this statement."

--Abraham Lincoln

Today's Question: Do you know of someone who suffers with depression? If so, how can you contribute to their world and possibly shine much needed light and love in their direction?

A Bit About Me: I have known many people who suffer from this often debilitating condition. It is very common and sadly many people in the medical profession believe that a tablet can help. Whilst I believe it can in some cases, it can get some people to a place wherby they can deal with their depression in a proactive way. Therapy and exercises such as those described in the book Flourish by Martin Seligman (the father of the positive psychology movement) can provide much needed assistance in dealing with this condition.

A tablet can only work when it is being taken. It is like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound (it will hold it together for a short while) but it is not a one-stop shop for dealing with depression. Unless we do something about the underlying depression.

There may be some people out there who will always have a level of depression but can learn to work with it and still lead a productive and fulfilling life.

I have been fortunate in my life to be able to shine some light and love in the direction of fellow humans who have been suffering and now know the things you don't say to someone who is depressed like "snap out of it." "Just think positively."

Simply surround the person with love and that is a start ♥

Parts of you

Today's Quote:

"My legs not be as thin as they were in my earlier years, yet they know now where they are going." ~ Yvonne Anderson

Today's Question: What part of you do you find older but wiser?

A Bit About Me:

I was thinking today about growing another year older and I was struck by how much I have grown just recently. My body is growing towards a different but better place. A place where I can look at imperfections and not feel disgusted by them and even though I am working out daily and eating well, it is no longer my sole intention to do it for looks. I actually madly love working out, have done since I started doing the Elle McPherson workout when I was a youngster. It is a practice I will continue once I shed the next 10kg's...

I believe that we could all eat well and be healthier humans and in doing so we would have less of an impact on the resources of the world- I am talking healthcare here. Prevention is way better than curative.....

Stay well and work out what parts of you could do with kind words and insight xx

A World of Friends

Today's Quote: "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

- Anais Nin

Today's Question: What do your friends birth in you?

A Bit About Me:

Having lived in different countries and moved around a lot my friends are scattered across the world. They are all special and all unique and each of them births something different in me. I don't see many of them as much as I would like yet they remain in my heart.

With each new friend comes a new possibility and I have seen this lately more and more. A friend introduces you to someone and you have a shared synergy/energy, whatever you want to call it. New ideas are created and excitement and yes brand new possibilities that you maybe haven't seen before open up like a beautiful flower ✿

Perception

Today's Quote: "We can control our lives by controling our perceptions." ~ Bruce H. Lipton

Today's Question: What would your life be like if you controlled your perceptions?

A Bit About Me:

I think a lot about perceptions. How I perceive a situation in my life can alter the very course of my life. I can let things bring me down just like the next person but my aim is never to dwell in it. I ask myself, what am I getting out of perceiving the situation this way? What is another way to perceive this situation- a better way, a more gentle and loving way? Often when the answer comes to me the situation is no longer as huge an issue and I can do something more positively about it.

Using your senses, insight and intuition more can be hugely beneficial in dealing with the dramas in your life. Control is something we all try, but we usually aim to use our control when something is simply none of our business. We can only control how we are, not those around us. Be more in the business of you than the business of them.

An remember, if I place a mug in the centre of a round table and ask people sitting round the table to describe it in detail, a few will swear blind that there is no handle yet it can clearly be seen and described from people on the other side.