As I said last week with my intentions post, I’m really concentrating in 2012 on being more mindful of my actions – both big ones and the very small ones.  There are so many small things we can do on a daily basis that alert us to being more aware of what is not only going on around us but also what we are actually doing.  So today I’m going to start off very small -to ease us all in – and do a bit of a list of a few things to try to pay attention to around the house that will

• a. help us be more aware of what we actually are noticing, and
• b. help us be more mindful of our money…. and for anyone – especially us in Ireland – that is a really good thing.

Here are a few questions to ponder:

1. After you finishing using the washing machine, do you turn the knob back to ’0′ so the little light goes off?
2. Do you pay attention to how much water you are putting in the kettle for a cuppa? …is it just enough for you are you expecting the local football team to drop in unannounced?
3. After you’ve charged your phone..what do you do ?  Do you walk away and leave the charger plugged in or do you turn it off at the wall.  Do you take it out and pop it away ready for the next use?
4. Do you shutdown and unplug your computer when you’ve finished with it for the day?
5. Do you turn the lights off when you leave a room?
6. Appliances like music systems or the second tv .. Are they on stand by just waiting for you to turn them on at the weekend?
7. Do you take your washing straight out of the machine and put it in the dryer or do you hang them up to dry before giving them a burst to just ‘finish them off’? [this is an Irish blog after all ]
8. While we are on the dryer…do you turn the light off on your dryer as well when finished?
9. Do you habitually put lights on of an evening in lots of rooms just so it looks pretty even though you never go in there?
10. Do you check the timer on your central heating so it fits in with the current weather? Often we put it on for more hours when it’s chillier and don’t bother altering it when the weather gets milder for a few weeks ..like now.

These are all small things – some of them are *really* small – but by being mindful of the many little habits we have in our homes [I feel] this translates as us being more mindful of our impact on the environment and more immediately to us…our wallet.  All the above will save you money, not much mind but that is not the point.  More importantly it will save CO2 and if everyone started to do these small things then that means big things are happening…..it’s all win win win

Enjoy

ps…Soz if from the title you were expecting  a romantic tale of unrequited lust

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

Ahh 2012 …. don’t you all just love a new year?

Of course all moments are a new beginning but there is something essentially symbolic about starting a new number when we write the date.  Plus I love … let me rephrase … I LOVE starting a new diary with all the fresh pages and filling in all the reminders.  Small things delight me, what can I say…

After all the excesses of the last week or two I’m definitely ready to get back into living a more economical life again.  All those mulled wine, chocolate filled and yes I will have another slice days are over and to be perfectly honest I say good riddance  … I don’t know about you but I get a bit bored with it all after Christmas Day.  My thoughts turn to newness and activity around the 27^th Dec and I like to go into prep mode.  Unfortunately I still carry on eating all the bits whilst prepping so by the time the new year actually begins I am not only ready mentally to move on but my body is as well!

Each year I like to set an intention or two for the year; not a goal but more of an underpinning for all my choices.  This year my main one is to have greater awareness & understanding about the wider effects my decisions have [especially with what I choose to purchase] my second one is to be a whole lot more proactive when it comes to getting things done – basically to be a bit more gutsy/ballsy.  All up I’m excited about the year ahead … it’s going to be a great one! 

What are your intentions for 2012?

Some previous postings you might like to read:

•  Delight in all the turns of your life
• Simplicity Thursday – 5 things to do whilst boiling the kettle
• 20 ways to make life harder

Personally, I always find it a good idea in late November to give things a bit of a clear out and to streamline around the house a bit before all the madness and visits begin.  Two reasons for this:

1. By being aware and preparing for the extra demands on our time that will definitely crop up next month we will hopefully take some of the stress out of things.

2. Everything always looks calmer (and nicer) when unused or unwanted paraphernalia is cleared away – especially when a whole bunch of glittery baubles are about to be thrown into the mix

Organisation at this time of the year helps greatly in adding to the enjoyment of all that goes on and allows us to relax a bit more and be filled with festive cheer.  By dedicating a few moments now to preparing and planning for the coming weeks, things can be calmer and flow a bit more smoothly.

So, to kick of this series of helpful pre Christmas tips I’ll start with a quick one for those who seem to accumulate a lot of paper, old magazines and papers etc…

Today’s Tip

You will need:

• a bag (an old paper clothing one is good for this job)

• to set your timer for 15 minutes (on your mobile, the cooker – whatever works for you)

Go around your whole house from room to room and put any bits of unwanted paper into the bag.  Old newspapers or magazines (don’t start flicking through them as if you haven’t read them in a while you won’t remember what you were saving it for anyway… and next thing you know 30 minutes will have passed!), plus any old envelopes left after the contents have gone, sundry bits of paper no longer needed, junk mail, etc etc – you know the sort of thing.

Keep going for the fifteen minutes and don’t think too much about it, make snap decisions regarding the paper rubbish then put it all in the recycling bin [that’s the beauty of the paper bag].  Job done

Repeat if needed in a few days or so

Whilst this is not rocket science its amazing how much can be gathered in this short space of time.  Enjoy

Other posts you might like reading:

• 3 acts of morning mindfulness?
• Spring cleaning in the now – and what I learnt

]]> http://mindfulproductivity.net/2011/11/22/festivity-looms-be-aware-prepare/feed/ 0 http://mindfulproductivity.net/2011/06/09/catherine-connors/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=catherine-connors http://mindfulproductivity.net/2011/06/09/catherine-connors/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:19:54 +0000 Be http://mindfulproductivity.net/?p=1615

Just to give everyone a bit of variety [it is the spice of life after all] I have invited the lovely Catherine A Connors to do a guest post for Mindful Productivity.  You can find out more about Catherine at the end of her post, which I trust you will all enjoy

Smelling the roses

Last weekend as I was pruning (and admiring) my roses I suddenly recalled a quote from Buddha ~ If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change

The rose that I was admiring wasn’t rushed, it had no deadline, it was allowed to grow and arrive at its perfect state in its own time, its perfume was subtle yet intoxicating, it was without question perfect, a miracle in its own right.

Perhaps we could take a lesson from nature and learn to slow down just a little….

Life today seems to move at a hectic pace, with many of us rushing from one activity to the next.  But this type of life can only lead to more stress and learning to slow down is vital, but in order to achieve this one must make a commitment to slowing down.

The stress of always rushing drains our spirit, it distracts the mind and can prevent us from focusing on what’s really important.  Some of us are so concerned with the goal or destination that we simply forget to enjoy the journey, by slowing things down a little we get the chance to look around us, to stop and enjoy the view, to chat with friends or colleagues, to see the little obstacles in the way & have enough time to find a solution or jump out of the way.  We can smell the roses and more importantly spend time with those we love.

So what can you do if your life feels like it’s out of control and you just don’t know how to slow it down?  Why not start small; here are a few simple but effective ideas:

Learn to say no – Accept that you simply cannot do everything that’s asked of you. Saying NO politely but firmly is a skill that everybody should work on.

Take a break – day-to-day activities, commuting to and from work, daily stresses and hassles can drain your energy, so it’s vital to take some ‘time out’ throughout the day to recharge your mental and emotional batteries.  Take a walk in the park, read a chapter of your book, book a massage, play with the children, take the dog out for a run…. It doesn’t matter; the important thing is that you spend a little time each day doing whatever works for you to renew your batteries for the day.

Change how you perceive time – try to stop thinking of unscheduled time as wasted time… some of life’s best moments come when you least expect them and likewise even if your time is scheduled it doesn’t mean that surprises are not waiting around the corner for you.

Slowing down doesn’t mean stopping; it simply means a pace that is healthy for our body and our emotional well-being.  So whether you’re on foot on in your car for a journey make a conscience decision to slow down a little, you never know, you might just enjoy yourself….

Do you ever feel life is just too fast paced? Why not tell me your own thoughts…..

 

Catherine A Connors first became interested in Holistic therapies and Natural treatments 14 years ago as a method to aid a member of her family who became seriously ill.   Since then her areas of expertise and knowledge of Natural solutions have grown enormously.  Catherine is well known for her dedication to her clients, her passion for her work and the countless hours she provides on a voluntary basis. Catherine also produces her own, very popular, in-house magazine ‘De-Stress 4 Life’.  Every issue is full of articles by various experts within their field and is dedicated to the subject of Stress.  De-Stress is available to view and read online for free

Catherine is a Stress Management Coach & Consultant, Time-Management Consultant, Holistic Therapist & Trainer and Natural Therapist. She currently lives in Paris, France.  To find out more about Catherine (or to connect with her) and her work please visit her website or facebook page

Photos by C A Connors

 

Some other posts you might enjoy reading:

Money talks – what does yours say?

20 ways to make life harder

Bringing mindfulness poster

 

 

 

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From this point of acceptance, if you do not want to be here reading this as you exactly are right now, then waste not another moment of your life and go and do something that you do want to do.  Go and do something that will add value to you, your life and your enjoyment of it.  Go and change what you wish to be different or make a start at changing.

When we fully experience what we are doing and feeling at any particular time, we enter into a place where we can make true decisions.  Decisions made from a point of total freedom

If you enjoy spending a few moments during your week reading my words then I am delighted to share this moment with you in that way [and let’s face it, my posts aren’t the longest, so it really is only a moment]

Be mindful and enjoy

Begin to believe now what you will be hereafter ~ William James

Other posts you might like to have a look at:

Life is in the moments

Life is in the doing not the having

Use the power only you have

Stations of One poster

photo © Mindful Productivity

Did you ever get presented with a topic several times out of the blue by different people in a short space of time?  Multiple occurrences which seems so out of the ordinary that you figure there must be more to it.

Frequently these signs are tiny whispers which, unless you are paying attention and being mindful, are easy to miss.  They could be a gentle feeling within or a series of small external happenings which appear to be occurring regularly.  This type of guiding usually happens over a length of time and feels gentle – without urgency.  However, sometimes it’s like everything has given up waiting for your penny to drop and the possibility of drastic action is likely.

First a whisper comes, a hint to help you work it out for yourself.  If you don’t notice the whisper a problem arises that will offer the learning instead.  If still you don’t get it then you are confronted with a crisis which will make you stand up and take notice.  When all else fails a disaster occurs which will be impossible for you to ignore and must be dealt with so the learning can [optimistically] occur.

By living mindfully and being aware of what is going on around you, you can often pick up on these guides at the whisper or problem before it gets to the latter stages.

~ Be mindful.  Take time to listen to what is going on in your life; to what your life is saying to you.  It speaks to you all the time, guiding you in the direction you were born for.  Be at one with it.

Enjoy

The olive green Be at One poster is available in our online shop

Other posts you might like to have a look at:

Being productive & mindful – 20 one minute to dos

Use the power only you have

This post was inspired from a post I did last year.  It had a nice message so thought I would visit it again

Whether you walk/cycle/drive or public transport it to your daily destination it is an opportunity to be mindful, to ease yourself from one area of your life to another.  Mindfulness creates opportunities for you to watch how the world around you is moving – how the sun is coming up, what the weather is doing, the noises that are being made or the smells of things getting cooked.  Noticing how the world unfurls in the morning brings you back to where you are in the here and now.  It brings all of you to where you physically are… so that half of you isn’t on the way to work whilst your mind is still at home stressing out or at work fretting over something that hasn’t even happened yet.

Sometimes there is a marked difference between our home life and our work life; it might be a chronic thing or something which is happening just for a short time.  Either way, it isn’t easy to move between the two if they are wildly different or especially if one of them is more stressful than the other.

Try to see the journey to and from work as a time of transition, a way of centering yourself.

By being mindful on the journey you arrive ready to connect with others and with the day that is ahead of you.  You are productive sooner as you don’t need to ‘get into work mode’ because you have arrived already in it.

With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

If, like the rest of us, you spend a good portion of your day with your thoughts somewhere else it is best to start small.  So here are a few ways to practice mindfulness when journeying between two places.

1. Notice your immediate surroundings – what are you walking/cycling by?  How does the steering wheel feel to your hands?
2. What do you see/ smell/ hear as you travel along? – birds, the breeze, lashing rain, hot coffee wafting through the air…
3. Check in ~ not with what you are thinking but with how you are feeling – happy, relieved, sad, nervous, energised etc

Equally it is the same on the way back home in the evening.  If you are coming from a stressful environment you arrive at home peaceful and reconnected with yourself, ready to relax as soon as you walk in the door or to get stuck into any jobs or hobbies you may enjoy.  Or if you are coming home to a place that is more stressful than work you will arrive calmer so as you can act from choices that are made freely; not reactionary ones made from frustration etc.

Commuting can be a way of slowing down, a chance to reconnect with yourself.  It is a great way to start and finish the work day and to feel present.  At the same time you are enhancing your productivity as you are more focused on exactly what you are doing – in yourself, in work and at home.

Enjoy

Other posts you might like:

What is mindfulness?

5 things to do whilst boiling the kettle

~

This month marks two years since my blogging debut.  It has gone by very quickly and I have enjoyed posting and learning things of an online nature.  It has also been educational for me from a personal angle and this has certainly been the case over the last twelve months in particular.  As a result I have evolved and am ready for new pastures and new ways to explore life and all it offers.  Ready to delve further within and see what comes up or comes out; ready to see what I can let go of so as to be ready for what I can receive.  I am excited.

I would like to become more creative in what I do and to branch out into other areas and see what happens.  With the blog, I have decided to focus a bit more on two areas: mindfulness and productivity.  This carries on from what I have been blogging about over the last two years but sort of streamlines it a bit more.  The blog was always an ‘exploration of how to find a happy medium between the internal and external aspects of who we are as a whole human being’ and whilst it will still be that it will be less broad.

As I have been dabbling into both these areas for some time my awareness as well as their importance has grown and together that has brought me to the changes I would like to make.   I am really looking forward to broadening my own knowledge in both mindfulness and productivity as well as passing on things which I trust will be useful to you and help you on your own journey as I move along on my own.  To define the changes to the blog I will be altering the blogs name to Mindful Productivity [mindfulproductivity.net].  This will take place in the next few weeks or so as I have to work out how to do it all first   I would also like to change the theme a bit so I can use more photos etc.  So stay tuned and we can see how it all turns out together.

If you have any comments about the changes or things you would like to see on the blog please leave a comment as I would like to make it as good as possible.

Enjoy

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photo by bikehikedive via Flickr

other posts you may like:

Some of life’s rythyms

Are internal possessions cluttering your space for potential?

The external journey is so passe

Look for the oneness in others today

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It’s a foggy old morning outside today [see above pic] – sort of how we can feel sometimes within ourselves.  That misty feeling we get where we cannot seem to see things clearly.  Where if we try to look too far ahead of where we are it all seems blank, murky and unsafe.  A time when taking it slow and being a bit more cautious seems thrust upon us like a big heavy blanket, weighing us down as we walk.  All around seems to say ‘be still’.  When the fog comes to our surroundings, quietness seems de rigueur, the wind doesn’t blow, the birds don’t make much noise and there never seems to be anyone out and about.  Nature appears to shut down, to have a post slumber slumber…sort of a Sunday lay in even though it may not be a Sunday.

Yet often these foggy mornings give rise to a fabulous afternoon of glorious sunshine; one which seems to have more hours in it than it should, appears to last longer and ends up being very productive.  There appears to be more life around, more movement, more laughter and activity; the lethargic fogginess of the previous hours is long forgotten as we make use of the bright sunshine that now seems to cocoon us and inject us with cheerfulness and vitality.

So, if like me, you are feeling a tad foggy this Monday morning – brace yourself.  The haze will soon lift; our inner sunshine will shine bright and where earlier we could not see what to do next we will soon be seeing into the distance.  Imbued with renewed energy after our inner lay in……ready and eager for all that is ahead.

Enjoy

photo by B

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Some previous postings you might like to read:

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

Every now and then, the tussle of showing externally what we understand and know within can feel like trying to blend oil and water.  No matter how hard we try it seems to not make any difference to our current actions.  Our inner calm will not be heard and we react in the moment instead of making a conscious decision and acting from a centred point.

Hard enough as it is to struggle with self imposed hurdles and boundaries, those which appear to be put in front of us by others can often be even harder.  When confronted by people who we perceive to be ‘pushing our buttons’ we can become frustrated and our reactions can intensify over time.

Yet, if we take a moment when we are not in reaction mode, we can see that all things/people/events etc are presented to us as an opportunity to learn; to grow.  That maybe, our increased frustration towards a certain something or someone is merely a combination of that opportunity making itself a bit more obvious [because we haven’t already learnt from it what we should] and our external self puffing up to appear larger to meet the assumed threat to its dominance.

If we wish our inner self to grow we should recognise the learning and growth in all; especially those situations where we may feel we need to inflate.  As a defence a toad can puff up until it is too big for the predator to swallow.   What sort of defences do you put up when confronted by the actions/attitudes of another?

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Photo by Sam Fraser- Smith via Flick (cc)

Some previous postings you might like to read:

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