One question to ask yourself

You are free to slow down & ask yourself, "does this moment call for stillness or action?"

Imagine we did this at every moment of challenge, grief, stress, anxiety, joy or gratitude. The best example of this is when you're stressed, can't get out of your own head and are struggling to concentrate / be present as a result. Is action really required in that moment? More work? A knee-jerk reply? Or is the better solution lying with your legs up the wall in silence for 5 minutes... (trust me on that one)? Only when we slow down can we regulate ourselves and create the space required for a helpful decision and action. 

Something to consider

"Maybe the amount of extraordinary things that happen in your life depend on what you notice." - Sophia Joan Short (via Lucy Lord)

I remember reading a book by Paul Coelho, where he reminds us that the simple things are the most extraordinary things, that only the wise can see them. Be wise. To what do you direct your attention? Bitterness or sweet? Schadenfreude or freudenfreude? Meditation and gratitude both contributed to my current preference for slowing down and smelling the flowers, but I don't think these things are essential for simply paying attention to where we place our attention. 

One thing I'd tell my younger self.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" - Maya Angelou

When I first heard these words from our collective hero, I remember feeling pretty perplexed. But people show me who I want them to be, they lure me in, pretend to be something they're not, I'd think. Why believe that? I didn't get it. I didn't understand that Maya (first name terms yes) was telling us to trust our intuition, the signals people send, our perceptions. In a world of societal conditioning and 'shoulds', trusting your gut is belittled to the point that even when true character shows, we tell ourselves 'they're not really like that, I know the true them from what they've told me'. No babe, believe what a person demonstrates themselves to be, regardless of who they claim they are.

One thing to try this week

Any job that takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it in the moment

This is a life hack I adopted about a year ago and it genuinely changed a lot of my perceived stress. Before, I'd find myself taking weeks to reply to a simple request, allowing the list of 'things to do' to build up in my brain, creating feelings of being behind, when realistically, half of it could have been done in the instant it was needed. I did not need to add everything to my to-do list. I don't believe in instant reply culture in general (unless said reply is urgently needed which is rarely is), but little things like changing the toilet roll, replying to the quick email request, emptying the dishwasher - if it's less than 3 minutes, do it then and there. 

I recognise babies might need a bit of a disclaimer here, as often 2 minutes is too many minutes in those situations, so let's keep our perspective of my meaning. 

A few things to tell you...

Navigating time off as a business owner, charging your worth, when to refer and when to post on social media on the ETPHD mentoring podcast here. 

Eating intuitively for weight maintenance, in the moment binge eating tools, managing comfort eating, peri-menopause body image and more on the ETPHD podcast here.

The psychology of FAD diets, HRT & challenging our nutritional biases on the EIQ nutrition podcast here. 

If anyone is coming to IFS this weekend, we can't wait to see you!  Make sure to come see Em and myself talking all things women's health, business and support Anna who'll be chatting burnout in coaches. See you soon!

One more thing...

Please share your favourite stuff.

I'm really trying to have a more positive impact this year (it's where this Monday email spawned from). If there's something you really relate to or know someone who'd benefit from something in this email, please share it and pay it forward. Words are magical, and if I've learned anything from writing these emails to you for years, you never know when someone needs to hear the exact thing you've got to say.