Coach Lani

Honey, you are pure magic ✨

Follow my poetry page for more magic .poetry

BRB...

I'm currently going through a tough period of transition and change. Deep healing, rest, processing, strength, authenticity, and presence are required of me right now in my personal life. As such, I'm less present on here, but I will be dipping in and out.

In time, I will share. But right now, I'm living it.

A reminder that we never know what someone else is going through, so be kind always ❤️

Big love 😘

Dancing is an essential daily activity 💃

🐺🐺🐺

The way to find each other is to notice who else is howling at the full moon 🌕✨

This is a poem from my book "When the mouse became the lion" which will be released in late September (date pending 🫣)

If you, like me, love words and poetry...you can follow my other account .poetry where I post weekly poems and excerpts from my book. It's also where you can access book sales and info after the release date. Ahhh, I wrote a book guys...a fkn BOOK 👀😱🤗

Do you have regular 'me' days?

A 'me' day is a whole day (or half a day if, like me, you have small children) where you can do WHATEVER you like. All the things that make your heart sing and fill your cup ❤️

I schedule a 'me' day once a month 🗓️ and, when my daughter is going through a particularly tough developmental stage, it is my lifeline. I count down the days until I have some space to just be. That doesn't mean I don't create space and do some self-care each day, because I do. But it is SO different when it's a whole (or half) a day without any responsibility!

Here are the things I like to do on my 'me' days:
🚗 Drive somewhere new
✍🏼 Write poetry and journal
🏖️ Go for a swim (weather permitting)
📚 Spend hours in bookstores
☕ Enjoy a slow and quiet meal in a cafe

What would you do if you had a whole day just for you?

Today I'm celebrating me 🎉🎉🎉

32 years of this life and I am loving who I am becoming (or more accurately, who I am returning back to) ❤️

As per my yearly practice on my birthday, I reflect back on the past year. It has been a year of deep rest and going slow. I've decided to do less and just be. It was challenging! And I'm glad I held myself back from going full throttle because going slower has taught me that I don't always have to be doing something in order to be valuable. I am valuable by being. I am enough. I am enough. I am enough. A big learning for my inner child 🥺

I'm grateful for all of the lessons learnt this year, for every honest vulnerable conversation, for every internal realisation, for the shedding, the courage, the becoming, the returning home. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I'm ready to invite in this next year of my life. I sense in my bones that it will be a big one 👀

Who else is a Leo? 🦁

P.S.A 📢

I'm interrupting my normal posts to say something very important...

If you're into poetry and have not yet discovered

..where have you been?!

I discovered Rupi about 3 years ago. I was late to the party because she published her first book almost 10 years ago...but I've made up for it by reading her books a zillion times 🫣

Her poetry is what inspired me to pick up the pen again (after having a baby and losing motivation for writing) and deciding to try my hand at poetry. It was then I found my passion, and something I'm naturally good at 😍 I've even started my own poetry page (.poetry) and am in the process of self-publishing my own book 😱 I owe it all to randomly picking up Rupi's book one day in a bookstore and being obsessed ever since. I was even lucky enough to watch her perform her poetry live when she toured Australia, which only fanned the flames of my passion for poetry (and feminism) even more.

So, my points?

1. Check out Rupi's poetry
2. Occasionally buy random books/things that you wouldn't normally gravitate towards...they may just lead you to your passion!

Ok, back to normal scheduling. Happy Sunday 😊

This is me in 2014...

I was graduating with my Bachelor of Business Management (HR & Marketing) 🎓

10 years later and I find myself about to dive back into tertiary study...this time for my Masters of Counselling & Psychotherapy.

The girl in this image would have never dreamed of returning back to Uni. She thought her essay writing days were behind her! 🤣

But the woman I am today yearns for knowledge, growth and continued learning. I want to continue to build on my skillset so that I can be of maximum value to my clients, and to expand my own understanding of therapy and different approaches available.

It's going to be a long journey...almost 5 years (part-time) 🫠

It will be hard, it will seem impossible at times, it will be interesting, insightful, engaging, boring, frustrating...

It will be all of these things, as many things in life are. Nothing, not even what we have wished for, is ever easy. And that's what makes it worthwhile.

I remember how I felt when I took this picture 10 years ago. Proud. Accomplished. Hopeful about the future.

I know that the next time I wear a mortarboard 🎓 I will feel all of these things more intensely knowing that my daughter will be in the crowd cheering me on 🥰

Of course, I will share my journey with you all along the way ❤️ I'm so grateful for this community, especially those of you who have been with me since day 1 when I opened this account to share about my Life Coaching journey. Who knew this is where it would lead?!

The universe is funny like that...you take the first steps and it shows you a whole new staircase!

What new steps are you taking this year?

📖 Book Recommendation...

..'How to communicate like a buddhist' by Cynthia Kane

If you want to learn how to listen respectfully to others and talk so that people will listen to you - this is your book!

Some key learnings for me:

🗣️ Always question the inner dialogue/stories you tell yourself because this will impact on your feelings and therefore on how you come across to others. For example- ask yourself if your internal dialogue is true, or are you exaggerating facts? Is there another way to view the situation?

🗣️"Unless you deliberately fight a habit- unless you find new routines- the pattern will unfold automatically"....including in how you communicate with others

🗣️Respond instead of react! Pause...identify what feelings are arising for you and therefore what thoughts, challenge your thoughts, and consider alternative views...and only then respond.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

"We all carry inside us, the people who came before us"

Our ancestors stories, their triumphs and their trauma, live on within us. It's up to us to learn their stories so that we can heal our lineage and put a stop to any recurring generational cycles.

If you would like to begin to heal your generational cycles and your lineage, I can help you on this journey. It starts with exploring your ancestry and learning how their trauma is impacting you today.

DM me for more info 💬

A must read for all married people...and just generally anyone who is in, or has ever been in, a relationship!

I've shared before about my intense love of 😍 which is a treasure trove of life lessons and was founded by Alain de Botton. Seriously, if you haven't heard of it...check it out 👀

Alain is also the author of many fantastic books, and one of them is shown in the image above- "The Course of Love". It is a fictional story about a couple who fall in love and get married, only to discover just how difficult marriage can be. The book explores what happens to love when it gets lost in the mundane-ness (is that a word?) of everyday life.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 "Whereas we can say something sensible and polite to any stranger, it is only in the presence of the lover we wholeheartedly believe in that we can dare to be extravagantly and boundlessly unreasonable"
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 "Pronouncing a lover 'perfect' can only be a sign that we have failed to understand them. We can claim to have begun to know someone only when they have substantially disappointed us"
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 "Both equally aware that it would be a genuine waste of time to stand in an aisle at IKEA and argue at length about something as petty as which glasses they should buy..., with increasing I'll temper, and to the mounting interest of other shoppers, they nonetheless stand in an isle at IKEA and argue at length about which sort of glasses they should buy"

I mean...if you are married and can't relate to the last point, are you even married? 😂😂😂

Who has read this? What did you think?