What was the day about?  In a physical sense it was a bunch of tweeting Irish business people getting together to put faces to usernames and network off line.

In reality I think it was so much more.

It was a uniting of common interests, of similar paths, comparable hurdles and will do attitudes; a coming together of like minded individuals who have found not only business connections online but also an emotional support network of fellow travellers on the road to business success.  People who are not looking for others to do the work in their businesses for them, for freebies or an easy road to the top but who notice a raising of their own inner strength and resilience as they chat to others who are in the same place and going in the same direction.

They are business owners who want to do it themselves because they are passionate about how they have chosen to ‘make a living’.  They are passionate about Ireland moving forward and passionate about them being a part of the mechanism which will drive that movement.

What struck me from the very beginning of the day [apart from the fact that people were turning up early  ] was that everyone was exceptionally welcoming and eager to network and introduce each other – gosh, even I was going up to people I had never talked to before!  There was hugging .. and lots of it … I think we naturally ‘got’ what everyone else is going through and that in many ways broke the ice with everyone.  People travelled from all corners of the country to be part of something that was almost instinctively felt as a coming together of good energy; a start of the next chapter in the #SMEcommunity story.

The positive energy created during the day didn’t just stay in the room.  It moved online later in the evening as people arrived back to their homes.  I’m sure in the coming weeks every one that was there will feel a terrific buzz within themselves and that will naturally go into their respective businesses.

There is something really amazing happening here … a truly heartfelt approach to business support where by helping and supporting others emotionally we gain strength within ourselves.  For what was essentially a business networking event there was something unheard of in the room …. love … not mushy kissy kissy love but a heartfelt caring that comes from giving back with out asking for anything in return.

Well done all who participated in such a wonderful event

Other posts you might like to read:

• SMEcommunity – mindful business at work
• keep calm.. it’s my new mindfulness poster
• Can you feel the hug?

January is passing by rather quickly.  Well, it isn’t actually passing by any quicker than a day at a time but it feels like it is!  So far it has been a busy time for me, not so much doing things for myself but rather choosing to do things for others….is that procrastination or altruism?  I am a bit concerned it might be the former so I shall knuckle down this week and get cracking on some projects I would like to complete in the next few weeks.  I feel for these last weeks I have been treading water, not making a lot of ground, but that is of my own choosing – whatever the day brings is my own choice.

….In life sometimes we do things we may not wish to be doing.  Nonetheless we have a choice and all the choices we make, make our life.  Even if we feel we ‘have no choice’ we still have a choice about how we feel about it, how we approach the task.

If something has to be done then we may as well enjoy it; life is made of all the moments we live and not just the ones we think we enjoy at the time.  Life isn’t just made up of our holidays, weekends or romantic dinner evenings; it is also made up of the times we mop the floor, do the weekly food shop or scrub the loo; of the time when the proverbial hits the fan and when it is ‘just one of those days’.

Therefore, it makes sense [to me at least] to find something within all of these things which we do enjoy or which we can learn from.  At the end of our days here on earth, if we looked at our life from the point of the relaxing and ‘good’ bits then it would be one short life.  For most of our time we are maintaining what we have, keeping things at a level which we feel comfortable with, which nurtures and sustains us.

So find in the mundane the beauty of your life.  Embrace the wonder that is life itself.  Choose to love all you do, all you are.  Bring to it that which only you are able to; for with all things, each of us plays a vital role.  We all matter all of the time; whether we are creating something new or preserving the status quo.

Enjoy

Whatever crops up for us we are capable of navigating, of deciding not only on our course but on how we choose to sail the seas.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship ~ Louisa May Alcott

Well, helloooo to all   It has been quite the while since I graced the virtual pages of this blog and I am glad to be returning.  I am giving my typing fingers a try out today to pen a few lines in an effort to reacquaint myself with things and for you all to reacquaint with me.

Much has happened to me – both externally and most certainly internally – since I was greeting you all weekly.  My inner journey is beginning to mellow slightly now though, my ascent is not as steep and I am getting back this week into doing many of the things which I did prior to my sojourn.  However, as with many things that happen to us in life and this most certainly is the case with inner growth, I feel I carry a new attitude with me this time as I go back to things that were once so familiar.  Possibly, not so much an attitude but a deeper understanding of my own place within this world along with a redistribution of the hierarchy of what is and is not important in life. 

2010 thus far, has really been quite the humdinger for me and in all I have learnt a lot about myself – from experiences, from revisiting my teenage brain and from people telling me their impressions of me from years ago – all very enlightening.  Whilst some of the external happenings have been upsetting and unexpected, they were none the less all part of a journey.  A journey, which for the most part, I was a mere bystander to; not the ‘main attraction’. 

Although my role was crucial it was also to be secondary.  It is, I feel, about understanding that sometimes when we give of ourselves we do so, so others can fully receive.  That it is in our acceptance of not being the centre and asking for nothing in return that we are gifted with both the knowledge of another’s depth as well as an insight into our own.

I am looking forward to getting back into blogging as well as catching up with some of my Twitter friends and inspirers who I have greatly neglected of late.  I have been toying with some new plans for on here so I will keep you all posted and we shall see together what road we/I/the blog takes. 

Enjoy

photo courtesy of Scott*eric via Flickr [cc]

A few of my previous blogs you might like to check out:

Life is in the doing not the having 

Delight in all the turns of your life

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No matter how slowly a duck or even an insect moves on a pond, ripples will still be made.  Movement other than that which is created by the mover will happen.  The water cannot help but to react to what ever is moving through it.

So it is with life.

No matter how quietly we may feel we move through life, what we do [and don't do] ripples far beyond the immediate spot we fill.  Tiny waves of energy emanate from our movements, meeting with energy that has originated from others to create new movement that neither may ever know about.

We may feel we live a non eventful life, that we achieve nothing spectacular, historic or dramatic during our day or our time here on earth.  Yet the energy which flows from us is powerful.  It continues to reverberate long after we are gone in a physical sense.

The life we lead and our attitude to our time is precious and powerful.  Use it wisely; send forth good energies – for they live on after we have finished with them.  They continue to create when we no longer can in a physical sense.

photo by Dawn via Flickr cc

idttmosvr

Some other postings:

Life is in the doing not the having

Delight in all the turns of your life

Simplicity Thursday – 5 things to do whilst boiling the kettle

In the silence are all the answers you seek

20 ways to make life harder

Earlier this week I was reading a post on a blog by a lovely lady called Andie which is 101 things in 1001 days.  Andie has 101 goals to accomplish and one of those goals is to list 100 things that make her happy.  I thought that was a great idea and it inspired me to pen my own 100 things.   So later that day I sat down and began to write type, all the while picturing myself feeling happy and listing all the pictures and feelings that came into my mind.  One hundred of them flowed out pretty easily – there was a bit of a pause around the #28 mark when I looked at the number wondered if I would get to 100.  I didn’t try to list big or ‘deep’ things as I believe it is in the small that our lives are lived, moment by moment.  Happiness is felt in the now and I wrote the list from the place of what gives me happiness as it happens not so much what makes me happy over the longer term, though a few of them crept in as well.

My list was varied and I shan’t bore you will the complete 100 but shall give a few snippets to give you the gist.

#24 having a computer

#25 the internet

#96 travelling and holidays

#26 watching a good movie

#5 being me *flicks hair over shoulder*

#87 eating sushi in one of those places where it revolves around [love this]

#72 all the possibilities that are ahead of me

#88 warmth from the sun

#17 when I achieve a life time goal

#4 feeling loved

#36 going to sleep

Making the list reminded me how much happiness I have in my life [thanks Andie].  A lot of the things on my list cost nothing; they are gifted to me – like love or warmth from the sun.  Happiness is truly in the way we view things.  If we look for the goodness in all things that is what we shall find and being grateful for what we currently have in our lives instantly makes our life great.  Life is good if we decide it is good, similarly if we decide everything in our life is crap then a crap life is what we will get.

Whether we currently feel we have a little or a lot [especially in a material sense] if we look at all that makes us happy we instantly have a lot, we instantly live a rich life.  When you go shopping do you bother looking at the stuff to don’t like?

~ You might like to do your own list of 100 things that make you happy or even share some in the comments section below.  Either way it is focusing you on what is good and great in your life.  Sending the signal out to the universe that this is your life, your happy life.  What you focus on expands as they say, so focus on the happiness in your life and watch it grow.

Enjoy

above photo by renaissancechambara via Flickr [cc]

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Some other postings you might like:

Happiness, fulfilment – what’s stopping you?

Life is in the doing not the having

Allow your inner voice to speak

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#101 my ‘official’ two cups of morning coffee always makes me happy

photo by ballistik coffee boy via Flickr [cc]

Quotes

I usually put a few quotes up on Twitter during the day but sometimes I come across excellent ones that are too long to change into 140 characters.  Here are some that resonate with me and maybe will with you too:

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smilingly, non apologetically to say ‘no’ to other things and the way to do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside  ~Stephen Covey

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What you are, so is your world.  Everything in the universe is resolved into your own inward experience.  It matters little what is without, for it is all a reflection of your own state of consciousness.  It matters everything what you are within, for everything without will be mirrored and coloured accordingly ~  James Allen

~~

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.  Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary ~ Steve Jobs

Photo credit: umjanedoan

Enjoy

A few of my other posts you might like to read:

You don’t have to save the world

Do you live a quantity or quality life?

Honouring your core values

What would it be like to live a life full of enjoyment and to feel that every day has been fulfilling and useful?  What would it be to wake up in the morning and know that on this day you will make a difference to others and the world by doing what you truly enjoy doing?  It all sounds wonderful…. and something which ‘in theory’ would be great.  However, in a world of deadlines, family responsiblities, daily chores and all the other stuff we feel compelled to do it just doesn’t seem possible.

But why doesn’t it?

Why can you not wake up and do that which makes you happy?  Be happy doing all the great as well as the mundane things which make up your existence in the world.  Why, no matter what you do can you not shift that niggling feeling that resides within you to do something more with your life?  Why is it so hard to fully believe that

a) you are here for a purpose – to accomplish something you really enjoy doing          and

b) that in fulfilling that purpose a full happy life where you are enthused all the moments of each of your days is awaiting you.

What prevents you from living your life that way?  What hinders you from incorporating even a little bit of that into your life today?

Enjoy

Photo credit: Robert Snache (cc)

Other posts you might enjoy reading:

1. What will you learn from the snow
2. Simplicity tip #3
3. Why living the life of your dreams is not being selfish

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life should be a journey

it should not be rushed

one should flow through it like water in a stream…trickling

gently moving with no haste

slowing at times almost to a pause but never gushing by the moment so quickly

that no connection is noticed between you both

~

take in all that surrounds you

glide through your journey

respecting each you meet is on their own

for they too have as much right as anyone else to have their own path and flow at their own pace

~

serenity is a state of being

~

absorb the flavours of the moment, of the day, of the week, month and season

light in all it’s forms flowing onto the body is a gift, delight in all its shades

Enjoy

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photo credit: US National Archives [The Commons]

Other postings you might like reading:

Are you are participant in your life or a bystander?
Are you living your true self 24 hours a day?

As we place less and less emphasis on the external world for our happiness and fulfilment and move to find it within, we ironically become more united with others.  We move from being alone to recognising our togetherness with all people and the universe itself.

The physical aspect of who we are is transient, finite and temporal and as such all that it experiences is fleeting.  On the other hand the non physical of us is infinite and spans all times, all things, all everything.

The more we move away from having a reliance on the material side of our lives the more at one with ourselves we become; the more solid in the feeling of whom we truly are.  Off hand comments by others ruffle our feathers less as they are like the wings of a butterfly against the sturdiness that we have now become.  They flow like the proverbial water off a duck’s back.  They cannot penetrate us for we fully believe they carry no weight in deciding or shaping who we truly are.  The issue lies with the other person and their journey, not ours.  By not absorbing the negative comments [energy] that is pointed in our direction it looses its momentum and returns to where it came from.

We do not feel the need to take things ‘personally’ because there is no personally, there is only oneness.

Those comments which slip through, and some do because we are not perfect, usually contain elements of truth which we do not wish to admit to our self.  Yet because we are comfortable and confident with who we really are we recognise that there is learning for us in the comment or can laugh at the keen eye of the one who passed it.

Enjoy

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(creative commons) photo credit: Clearly Ambiguous

Some of my other posts you might like:

10 free ways to enhance your life

Things just come and go, that’s the way it is

Do you have a theme for 2010?

In us all there is a great power – a power no one else has.  Whether we feel confident, shy, ambitious, unmotivated etc it resides within.  It is the power of choice.  To focus and choose what we want to do next, what to put our concentration on.  Only we have the power to choose what to put our focus on.  We can choose to focus on what we like about our life or what we don’t.  Whatever choice is made will be expanded on.  What we focus on expands, it’s a universal law, the way the world works.  We aren’t far along the path yet to know why but it does, but it does – this I fully believe.  No matter what is going on in life we can always choose to focus on the positive aspects of the situation.  This we have complete control over, this no one can take from us.  Yes, it can be hard to make these choices especially in the midst of turmoil or feeling cruddy but they are there for us to make. When we concentrate on the good aspects of a situation we say to the universe ‘this is my world’ and the universe will increase it; likewise if we focus on the not so good parts.  So if we focus more on the good in our lives then our concentration will be there and we will start seeing that aspect of our lives increase.

Change your thoughts and you change your world ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Enjoy

image credit: Editor B

Other posts in the logos coaching blog:

10 free ways to enhance your life

Our choices make our life

Take at least a small step each day