Taking Time Out

You know how we're always talking about life-work balance, finding more "Me-Time", stopping and taking time out from time-to-time? Well, I've been doing just that the last couple of weeks.

Due to a downturn in my business (ie: no classes between academic semesters!) I've found myself with oodles of spare time. What I discovered is this...

Initially, I kept waking early despite having no appointments. That was OK, I got up and pottered in my office. Gradually, the amount of time at my desk lessened and I found other things to do. Like catch up on the gardening I've been meaning to do for ages, sort out my wardrobe, implement an idea I've had for a while.

Occasionally, I caught myself thinking "I should be getting on with some work. All this spare time and all the business I ought to be working on." Then dismissed such thoughts and decided "This is OK. I need to do this and at exactly this lovely, slow pace." I made a conscious decision to walk the talk and experience some actual re-balancing of life-work activities.

Luckily, this downturn coincided with the school holidays here (2 whole weeks, only 4 weeks prior to the main summer holiday - fabulous!) So there was a certain amount of justification - vacation time is when many people are off work too.

Anyway, my living/dining room looks great since I re-arranged things (the idea I've had since Christmas worked out really well!) and I'm relaxed and just a bit sun-tanned. The garden is cleared of lots of weeds, the tomato plants look like they'll make it as far as a harvest. AND I have a good deal of new work coming my way.

How have you been during these lovely, early summer days? Rushing around doing work-related stuff or stopping and taking some time out to enjoy the sun dappling through the trees, listen to birdsong, getting a good sniff of your favourite in-bloom flower, sipping a cold glass of your favourite tipple in the evening on your balcony, terrace, garden with friends, with a good book, or your favourite magazine? Even if you're not in a position to do any of this for 2 weeks, one afternoon is possible, isn't it? And guess what; the world won't stop turning and customers won't stop calling - life carries on and you'll be in a better frame of mind to carry on with it.

Go on. You know I'm right. Take some time out for you now! You're worth it :-)

Breaking Habits & re-writing Limiting Beliefs

Last Saturday was workshop 2 of the current SB programme. As per the plan, we reached the Limiting Beliefs part of the day. Somewhat surprisingly - pleasantly for the group, a little tricky for me as trainer - most people struggled to find any limiting beliefs!! In the spirit of completing the task in hand, both groups came up with enough material for us to have a discussion.




Later in the day, we took a look at habits & fixed behaviours and how they effect our beliefs. We may find some of our old habits don't always match beliefs that we hold now. Our habits may be holding us back when it comes to what we want to achieve today. We looked at some typical behaviours we all have and agreed to try doing them differently, e.g. brushing our hair with the opposite hand, folding our arms the other way round - just to prove how difficult it is to change ingrained habits!



One of the habits which I've wanted to change for a while, is drinking coffee every morning. I publicly - in front of the whole group - gave myself the challenge of breaking this habit. I committed to reporting back at the next workshop (July 2).

Doing this made me consider what lay behind my coffee-drinking habit. I feel that I won't be able to wake up without first drinking a coffee in the morning. Hum! This looks awfully like a limiting belief!

"I won't be able to ..... if I don't ...."

So what? one might think. Drinking coffee's not so bad. But you see, for me, it can be. I often react strongly to caffeine, sometimes I can barely speak and my hands shake. On bad days, I feel really sick and have pains in my stomach. Coffee is not good for me. But because I've convinced myself that I can't function in the morning without it, I keep drinking.



Thus my personal challenge. Test my belief - my limiting belief - and break a habit: avoid coffee first thing in the morning. The first 4 days after the workshop, I did it! No coffee - only herbal tea in the morning. Now I'm trying with only one cup later in the day (ultimately, I like coffee).

Now my belief is:

"I drink energy-giving tea in the morning and coffee just for pleasure later in the day."

Thinking about other habits I have which I'd like to change... well, that's a fairly long list. I'll keep it to myself for now and take what I've learned from breaking the "coffee habit" and use it to motivate me with the others.

What about your habits which aren't doing you any good or holding you back from living the way you want to live, achieving the goals you've set yourself. Look behind those habits, there might just be an unacknowledged limiting belief lurking....