MindfulSwan

✨Thought for the week. ➡️ We tend to see things from our own perspective. That is, how we see things is coloured by our own experiences, beliefs and programming. Worth pondering, especially if something makes you go 🤯 (react mode).

Let me know what you think 👇🏻☺️

Hi there 👋🏻

🙃Is it just me or is inter-seasonal dressing a bit baffling?

For the second day in a row, guided by passing commentary from both the radio and my online yoga class, I left home wearing a winter coat. I boiled 🥵

Are you with me???

💫If you've been following me for a while, you'll know I like to talk about gratitude. One thing I am extremely grateful for in the last week is lots of time hanging out with friends IRL. And in this particular pic, also in a BEAUTIFUL place 🌿

When you practise gratitude, you train your brain to look for the positive - and so you then have more positive thoughts.

➡️ Thoughts affect the way we feel and behave (and emotions also impact our thoughts - vice versa)

➡️ More positive thoughts = feel more positive. WIN 😎

In one of study, one group was asked to write down three good things that went well and their causes/outcome, every day for ONE week. The control group did nothing. The group that did the exercise were happier and less depressed at the one month, three month and six month follow ups.

AND when you feel positive, you attract more positivity - it's in your energy field ✨

✨Have a go yourself
✨ LMK what you're grateful for today 👇🏻

Oops! 🙊 This was my “clean” wall - previously good online backdrop.

Although I now resemble a cat 🐈‍⬛ it’s actually a butterfly 🦋. And it hasn’t been up on my wall for 3 yrs since the walls were last painted. It’s a patient butterfly 😳.

Anyone else got some waiting to be accomplished? 😊

✨Mid-morning time out!! ✨

I used to feel incredibly guilty about taking anytime away from my desk. Which is crazy considering I’m designing the way I want my career to be 🤷🏻‍♀️

Habits become hard-wired and it’s not just the habits themselves but also the beliefs and emotions you’ve attached to them. ➡️ What you think other people will think of you. ➡️Thinking that everything has to be perfect ➡️That you have to work hard to get noticed (why is nobody noticing all the hard work I’m doing?!😡)➡️Feeling undervalued and unrecognised…the list goes on.

⚡️When you invest in yourself and coaching with me, I’ll help you to breakdown all the unhelpful beliefs and create new supportive ones so you can achieve more of the success (according to your definition) and happiness that you want💜

➡️Any of this sound familiar? Drop me your fave emoji if so ⚡️😵‍💫🦄🦋

🌟 Join us tomorrow, Thursday 8 July, for the first of my IGTV inspiration series!

🙋🏻‍♀️ I promised a while ago that I was going to invite on some inspiring ladies who've changed up their careers for the better. And also that we'd maybe speak to one of my clients...

Well, I'm pleased to announce that we're starting with Shanna Obluck! Shanna was my very first client and has been on, and continues to be on an inspiring career journey.

🌟 Shanna has spent the majority of her career in the health and wellness world and has a passion for helping people improve and prioritize their well-being. She currently leads the Business Development Operations for Equilibria, a rapidly growing CBD start-up in the U.S. Prior to that, she worked for one of largest physical therapy companies in the U.S. for 10 years in a variety of roles. In addition to work, she is a marathon runner and yoga teacher, and the co-host of the No BS Wellness Podcast 🎙

We go live tomorrow at 12 noon (Chicago, US)/6pm UK

⭐️This is why I love 😍 coaching!

See below, results from recent first sessions 😊

✨ A week ago, I had a first coaching session with a corporate lawyer. They said they felt powerless, miserable and at a "pinch point" with regards to their career which they'd embarked on with such drive and enthusiasm. Second session this week and they reported that they left our first meeting feeling really positive and empowered and in the intervening period, really clear that they wanted to leave their current employer. They already have an interview lined up this week ✨

✨Another client was close to burn out and felt apathy towards work (which they'd also once loved). After a coaching session working on their values, they returned to our next coaching session reporting that the values exercise had been so helpful, they'd asked to work on a new project (aligned with their values) and they were feeling really excited about work again✨

✨First session with a client "at a cross roads" and not clear on which path to take, they felt completely stuck. During the session we uncovered their real motivation was a move to New York! They left clear on the next steps they needed to take to get there ✨

So the moral being - if you want to get clear about your career, or re-ignite your enthusiasm for it, it might not be as difficult as you think.

🙋🏻‍♀️I have three spots opening up in July with other clients finishing. To arrange a no-strings chat to see if coaching is right for you, drop me a DM.

Or if you can also book straight in via my website (via the "Recalibrate" option).

😊Good morning from the motherland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

➡️I’m even in my customary lockdown outfit, which lives in Scotland due to the over-wear situation 😂😂😂

➡️What did you think about my themed posts last wk? More of the same or go back usual protocol (a mega mix basically)? Let me know!

💫Also, I know I mentioned in my stories recently but if you aren’t already signed up to my newsletter 📧, please do. Mainly because on here, Mark Zuckerberg owns your deets and should this all implode (or more likely, I leave Instagram), I’d have no way of getting in touch. Link in bio and you can still get my free 5 day how to retreat at home series (combo of boundaries and calm techniques, 5 mins per day)

☀️p.s. you can also DM me your email and I’ll do the sign-up for you ☀️

Happy Monday! 😎

✨I dare you....everytime someone pays you a compliment for the next week, do this:

🎈Look them in the eye 👀
🎈Say thank you
🎈Smile 🙂

Your only get out of jail free, is if you can't initially do the eye thing. Work up to it!

Maybe it's a British thing but there is a tendancy to follow a compliment, say on what you're wearing, with something along the lines of:
🙄"What? This old thing?"
🙄"It was a tenner in Topshop"
🙄"uuugggh, I feel disgusting"

Why do you do this? You tell me. Maybe it's cultural, maybe it's something to do with being taught that you need to be humble or a fear of being perceived as arrogant? The thing is, there is a big space between accepting/acknowledging a compliment and NOT being humble or behaving in an arrogant way. Here's what happens when you deny compliments:

➡You're telling your brain that it's a lie. On repeat 🔁 if this is your regular reaction. Your brain stores up your reaction and it becomes your default. The impact, over time is that this dimishes your confidence. It feeds the imposter voice inside you. And i'm sure you don't want to hear more of that. It makes you play small and holds you back.

➡By disagreeing with the person giving you the compliment, how do you think you make them feel? Depending on your response, you might be insinuating that what they're saying is a lie. In the very least, you might make them feel uncomfortable .

➡And my last point - saying thank you and FEELING it, gives you a sense of gratitude and I'm sure by know if you've been following me a while. You know the benefits and upward/positive emotional spiral that this can initiate . Your smile, is infectious. Humans mirror one and other. Smiling releases feel good chemicals (see Google!)

The more you do it, the easier it gets. After wk 1…keep going!💪🏻

Tell me what you think about accepting compliments - do you/don't you?

✨I used to talk to people about "autopilot" in the context of the journey to work. That is, you might be able to remember a time when you arrived at the office and couldn't remember what you'd done to get there, or particular points of your journey 🤷‍♀️.

This is all down to the genius of your subconscious mind. When you do things on repeat🔁, they become hard wired programmes that you don't need to think about, you just DO them.

⚠️But this has downsides too, because it can stop you being present in the moment and from making conscious decisions. It has been argued that this was part of the issue with the credit crunch...

✨For more than a year, we've all been in this strange experience, which for most of you, has meant you don't take the same old journey to work everyday. Nor do you follow the same routines. And this has meant breaking that "autopilot" situation. Hurrah! But wait...Yes, the uncomfortable part of this, is the questions that have arisen:

"why am I doing this job?",
"what else could I possibly do?",
"how have I been operating like this for so long??"

✨Sound familiar? I speak to a lot of you who say that it's been uncomfortable just being with your own thoughts, without the usual distractions and potentially high octane ways of working.

The good news is that help is on hand! 🙋‍♀️ Having navigated the journey from career inertia to career reimagination I can help you do the same. That might mean upleveling your experience where you are, or thinking about new opportunities and directions.

➡️ DM me to arrange a free 30 min, no-strings chat, or you can apply directily via my website which will cleverly send you a zoom booking link (one of the very tedious systems jobs I did during lockdown that I'm now delighted I did 🤣).

You'll also see that I have a signature programme called "Recalibrate", or you can choose a more bespoke option depending on what you want to work on.

Speak soon! 😘

🙋‍♀️Do you have a decision to make or feel like you're going round and round in circles and can't get clear on the direction you're headed?

➡️As well as my 3 month coaching programme, I offer a 90 minute "Uplevel" session to new clients, which is perfect for this. Elizabeth left her testimonial above after her recent session, where she wanted to consider staying put with her current employer Vs moving on.

✨We used the time to get clear on what her values were and how she was going to put this knowledge into practice.

🌟How it works - I'll send you a link to fill out a quick questionnaire with any relevant information, so we're clear on what you want to get from the session. Having the information upfront also ensures you get as much as possible from our time. ➡️You'll get a link to my booking system at the same time to choose a time that works for you and then, we zoom! Easy!✨

➡️Some examples you might bring:
⚡️gaining clarity on a decision, so you can confidently step forward
⚡️getting clear on values, so you can apply these and thus feel more fulfilled in life/at work
⚡️strategies to deal with overwhelm, so you can access more calm
⚡️getting visible with your business, so you can reach more people with your message

Depending on the topic, you might want to do a mix of mentoring/coaching. Your choice.😊

✨I only do a few of these every month, so get in quickly - next week I have ONE slot available on Weds PM (2nd June)