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"Working regularly with Penny was game-changing and made learning and maintaining a mindfulness practice easy. My new habit has resulted in greater self-awareness, a better ability to ride life's ups and downs, and enhanced skills in maintaining perspective when facing significant challenges. I recommend Penny to anyone seeking to achieve the same and who wants to take a significant step forwards in their personal development."
Message me to chat about whether mindfulness might be useful to you
This was the sunset over London last night. It's freezing and the days are short but we can find snippets of beauty, or happiness, or things to be grateful for during the day.
It is easy to feel busy and stressed all the time, but we can try to change that and that makes life feel better. We just have to look for the good stuff sometimes. And sometimes we have to look harder than others.
Sometimes I run in the pouring rain and greet people along the way by saying, "Hello, what a lovely day", as you would if it was sunny. It makes them smile, most of them, some look a bit confused to be honest, maybe they get it by the time I've run past, maybe not.
At the moment, it's either cold and sunny or raining and warmer. When I started practicing mindfulness I made a conscious decision not to complain about the weather ever again, and to discourage conversations focused on negativity around the weather.
When we moan about things we tend to bring each other down, not up, unless one of us is really funny about it.
Lately it has been freezing, raining, things have been blown around and broken in our gardens, my house very nearly flooded, but also there are some really nice sunrises.
The one thing we can control is what we focus on
This evening I'm giving a talk about mindfulness and how we can use it to improve every aspect of our lives. Mindfulness will help us to manage stress and anxiety, it can also enable us appreciate the good times and feel generally calmer and happier.
People tend to think that it's only their own brain which malfunctions and is easily distracted but actually we are all in the same boat and it can be useful to learn some simple strategies that make life easier.
Contact me for more details
"Research at the University College London (UCL) has revealed promising findings regarding the efficiency of mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in helping menopause-related mood symptoms, memory issues and concentration problems"
I had a client whose anxiety levels had gone through the roof during peri menopause. She had gone from functioning normally to feeling unable to drive and barely left the house. She accessed HRT through a specialist who recommended me to her.
Over the next few months she committed to changing things around. She tried every technique I suggested and slowly started to get on top of her anxiety.
This was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had while teaching mindfulness. When she came to me she had never heard of mindfulness but was looking for a solution to the problem
She totally changed her life through a combination of HRT, nutrition and mindfulness. She meditated every day and I can see from my SoundCloud that she's still keeping this up. The whole concept was new to her but she just gave it a go.
When she left me she had just got a puppy and had started taking it for a walk just a few steps outside the house, their confidence in the world growing together.
The next time we spoke she had bought a car and started driving again.
It was genuinely a privilege to be part of her journey and one that I'll never forget.
"I have actually slept a lot better these past two weeks. For multiple reasons, but predominantly because I’ve given myself more time to unwind in the evening. Also, getting your phone stolen and not having that screen/social media will help 😂. It’s honestly been a blessing in disguise."
I love it when clients are totally honest with me. This week I have had this email and also someone saying that honestly they have got too busy to do their mindfulness practice and they knew they were going to have to confess this to me and are already making plans to get back on track.
Any sort of coach can be useful for providing the accountability that we need to help us do the things we need to do to keep on the path towards achieving the outcomes that we are working towards, whether they are emotional or physical or both.
Giving ourselves time to unwind is essential but hard to do. Being honest about the amount of time that we spend on phones is almost impossible. Maybe being honest about how far we tend to fall short of our own expectations is one of the hardest things.
It can be useful to have someone to help us to keep on top of these things. It is nice to be able to be that someone and to offer a totally nonjudgemental ear for people as they start to recognise these patterns of behaviour and to support them through the highs and lows of their journey.