Not Sleeping.... visualising

I am getting to it......

I love a good band wagon and I will admit to finding myself frequently inspired to try something new.... especially if it boasts life changing results (think Anthony Robins on a total gym 2000 wearing caffeine infused workout pants). It is the reason I avoid late night infomercials. Regular watching could bankrupt me!

Another sadder admission is that my band wagon jumping happens in extreme slow motion. I am 'the sloth' of uptake.
If I had a mantra it would be 'better late than never', but I don't, I haven't gotten around to that yet. Sigh.

While I can laugh about running my life in slow motion, it is not actually a great approach. I am the first to admit not getting much done leads to other problems, such as anxiety and lack of self belief.

Not being able to point to an achievement with, if not pride, at least ownership is not empowering.

It is, frankly, disappointing.

One bandwagon I have been thinking about for years, is the practice of visualisation.
This practice, so say its adherents, is key to real success in any area of life. Anything in life, after all, is created first in your thoughts. Seems like a good place to 'kick start' from!

My own thoughts on visualisation are simple;

• Don't cheapen the process with focus on expensive things. While a lavish lifestyle might be a lovely result of success, is it really the point?
• First spend some time uncovering your own values. I can't imagine committing to visualising anything that either seems contrary to my own life view, or simply does not 'float my boat'.
• When you have the 'what' sorted out, spend some time writing down your visualisation script, otherwise it is too easy (for me anyway) to run off course and end up day dreaming.
• Find time by yourself, it is NOT empowering to be asked to make a sandwich mid script!

I am visualising 'doing the work' at the moment. I am hoping that this is one case where I can really, and without a hint of irony, say 'better late than never'.

The Daily Drift

Jellyfish are built for drift, they move with the currents and the tides in beautiful clusters of life constantly in gentle motion.
Drifting is great for Jellyfish, but what about people?

Is there anything really wrong with 'going with the flow', or seeing where life takes you?

If drifting for you means remaining open to opportunity, not creating attachments to soul sapping endeavours and allowing exploration to the edges of your journey, then drift.

If your drifting is aimless however, the anxious and unsatisfied squirming in your gut should be answer enough.

Om, and other important life decisions

'Beware: Currently experiencing meditation desperation'

I am desperate to start meditating, (yes I see a certain irony in that comment).
The idea of spending some time alone, in peace, unsnarling the knots in my mind is beyond appealing, it seems, well, necessary.

I have downloaded some meditations to try and am ready to get on with it. Only small problem is finding this elusive and mystical 'alone time'. The times I have available to me are after 10pm and before 5am, both time frames rife with the risk of snoozing rather than meditating.

What to do? Any ideas? Is it necessary to meditate everyday to benefit? Am I being a sook about the times available?

I'm off to do some meditation investigation, I will keep you posted.

Where do you find the time (AND the energy)?

'If I have the time, I can't be bothered'

It may come as a surprise for anyone who has read  multiple posts from this blog to learn that I have just taken the plunge and returned to work.

Better with Beats:)

Although beside the point, it also is the source of my recent time and motivation problems.
Basically the problem is this.... If I have the time to do the mundane tasks in my day, I can't be Bothered.
If I am honest, I am starting the restent the tedium of the cleaning and washing and folding and making and cooking and doing that falls (quite fairly) to me.
I am sure that this feeling is common amongst many working (or not) women and men, despite this I hope that there is a different choice to make around this.
In the meantime, I am strapping on my headphones, loading up some music with a beat and getting into it.


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Much, much later..... remind me, less whining and more doing stuff with headphones on in future. As usual, it is the thinking, and not the action that is the real problem. Cleaning is done and dare I say it, I actually had some fun (cringe) dance cleaning.
I think I might actually be a genius, for confirmation see The Best Week of My Life, where I make public my 'dance cleaning' ideas:)

The Daily Thirty

Here is a question, how late is too late in your day to exercise?
So far I have been a pretty good daily 30 adherent (as I should be on day one of the Daily 30 mission), I have written, (doing it right now as a matter of fact), I have played, I have worked on my business....... but somehow I have managed to get from 6am to 9pm without doing ANY exercise!

What to do? My lazy side (which has obviously been in charge for most of the day) is saying the cause is lost, at least for today.
So tell me, what are your thoughts? Is the effort more important that the possible sleep affecting impacts? Or should I know when to call it quits?

Ideas without follow through? Pointless.....

I think that since I have started blogging my subconscious has had a bit of a panic attack.
Not that I am judgemental of its' concerns, after all I do have some track record of starting projects and then realising months, if not years later that I have not given said project any thought in, well, months or years.
This panic attack has manifested in a great eruption of advice and thoughts to be extracted from my mind and recorded before this whole blogging thing is forgotten too (or so the fear goes).

Problem is, I have discovered that I have written so many things to do, with no follow through.
As soon as one idea is down in print, I have moved onto the next without so much as a backward glance, or even a dot point implementation plan.
This is not progress! This is the brain equivalent of bureaucratic red tape.

 'You must not attempt any self improvement until ALL ideas have been logged, recorded and evaluated.'

Never one to listen to the 'Man', I am rebelling and taking on one previously blogged challenge this week. Heck, if all goes well I might even try another one next week! Take that, mental volcano!
Taking inspiration from my post The best week of my life I am going to incorporate the daily 30 into my week. That's 30 minutes exercise, 30 minutes playing, 30 minutes working on my business and 30 minutes writing.
The challenge will be time, as it always is. I might have to revisit my plan to rise earlier everyday as well........

Crushing the Cranky

'choosing your mood is one of lifes super powers'

Apparently for breakfast this morning I ate a bowl of 'Cranky Cow' oats followed by a large cup of 'Don't push me!' coffee. 

Wow, I am in a BAD mood. EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is annoying me. 

My child does not know how close I was to sending him to his room for drinking milk....... and breathing loudly at the same time! Obviously this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated!

Hmmmm.... perhaps I need have a little look at my own good self and figure out how to untie the cranky knot I can feel in my gut before I ruin everyone's day.

So what to do? Here is a list of things I am trying, in real time. I will let you know how I go. My approach is going to be from no effort (hope this one works) upwards until I have sorted my cranky mind out.

1. Breathe slowly and count backwards from 10: Lets see..... can still feel cranky knot. Am not likely to lash out in the next ten seconds, but all bets are off after that. Probably good for emergency cranky intervention, but not longer term mood alteration.
2. Make a masking tape line of the floor and step over it: Could not immediately find masking tape which was frustrating, ended up just putting a ruler on the floor and stepping over it. Imagined that I was crossing the line between a good mood and a bad one. Strangely enough, I do feel a bit happier. My brain is weird.
3. Cutting out the caffeine: It strikes me that perhaps my mood and the knotty feeling inside might be related to too much caffeine this morning. Can't give you immediate results on this one, but am cutting it out for the day. Might make me serene:)
4. Put on some music: Just opened Pandora on my iphone (best app in the world) and switched to the 'Pop' channel. Can do this because no one is home I have to pretend I have good music taste for. Wait....wait.... think I might have just smiled. :)
5. For the first time ever.... I am trying laughing yoga: Or my version of it. Hope my kids don't hear me. (after) Well that was strange. I was really expecting fake laughter to merge into real laughter after time. Did. not. happen. Maybe this is better when you are watching other people fake laugh as well. In the end, it became apparent that making the 'ha ha ha ha' sound was helping with my breathing though so I kept it up regardless. Do feel better after some rounds of salute to the sun. 

After completing the above, I would describe my mood as optimistically neutral. I can work with that. Might even be able to watch my kids eat lunch without having a melt down.

I would love to hear your approaches to mood improvement, after all, choosing your mood is one of lifes super powers.