Although we are already ten days into 2011, for a lot of us, today marks the first day that we move out of holiday mode and back into our usual routine.  Being on holidays and enjoying all the festivities and seasonal delights that come with the end of a year is good fun.  Yet for myself [and I would venture to say many others] I am ready to get back into doing things of a more productive nature, too much of anything can become same old same old.

Often, that is one of the points of festivities, especially long ones like Christmas.  We enjoy the late starts, late nights, too much food and general moseying around doing not much except catching up with others and doing nothing in particular.  As non focused and uneventful as that may sound it is in itself useful and necessary; we all need periods of downtime to recharge and to reach a point of feeling that we have relaxed and feasted enough.  We become fed up with and almost yearn to be back doing activities that nurture us and add meaning to our life; to wake up in the morning with the knowledge that we have stuff to do, to learn, to offer others.

We have partaken of all the stuff we thought we would like more of yet after a short time we realise that too much of it is not what we really want; it offers us no long term satisfaction.  It merely emphasises that that which is external to us is only a tool to enable us to nourish our inner self.  That external pleasures and material objects are fleeting and should be used as an aide to our inner journey; not as a life in themselves.

So I wish you all a wonderful 2011 filled with learning and enjoyment.  Take it easy yet at the same time march onward with purpose doing what you are called to do.

Live your gifts, that is why you have them.

Enjoy

photo by Sean McEntee via Flickr

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Some of my posts from last year you might like to read:

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

Live your  song

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

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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

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?

Micro productivity, for me, is not only about utilising all those unoccupied moments it is about recognising them.  Being mindful enough about the happenings during the day that I notice when I’m not living the moment.  It’s about living in the now.

So here are 20 to start you off and hopefully give you a few ideas:

At home

1. Throw out any old newspapers etc hanging around

2. Put away that coat or jumper that has been dumped on a chair

3. Fold a few pieces of washed clothing and put them away

4. Empty the bin

5. Wipe your kitchen sink or bench

6. Load the washing machine

At your desk/computer

7. Delete something unwanted from your desktop

8. Put away the file that has been in your tray for awhile

9. Put new paper in the printer

10. Decide what the next step is of something you really don’t want to do is

11. Take the first small step of the thing you really don’t want to do

12. Sit up straight as you type or browse

Anywhere, anytime

13. Drink a glass of water

14. Sit and breathe deeply for a minute

15. List all you are grateful for in your life – in your head, on paper or computer

16. Text someone just to say hi, thinking of you or to say thanks

17. Jog on the spot for a minute for a burst of cardio

18. Delete a few messages on your phone

19. Relax and let who you truly are come through

20. Visualise achieving a goal/goals

If you have any other suggestions on how to fill the odd spare moment then please leave a comment

Enjoy

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?

Honouring your core values

Simplify your wardrobe

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

The ‘wellness industry’ (fitness, retreats, health drinks, alternate therapies etc) is booming.  Billions is spent each year all over the world with people looking for ways to improve their current lifestyle and feel more energetic.  As with many things in life, often the search is carried too far afield.  We look for another to help us when the means to accomplish what we seek is right under our noses.  This being the case I decided to post a list  (by no means complete) of ten life enhancing ways that cost absolutely nothing.  They require little or no planning and are easy to incorporate into daily life.

So here is a list of just 10 free and easy ways to enhance your life:

1. When you dream, dream big.

Donald Trump said “If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.”  What goes on in your own head costs nothing so you may as well go for it!

2. Take a few deep breaths during the day

Often we are so busy rushing and trying to get stuff done that most of our life is lived unconsciously.  During the course of a day it is easy to take a few seconds to re-centre yourself, to re-align with your inner guide so that what you are doing and the choices you are making are the ones you really wish to make and not choices that come about as your Ego reacts to a situation or habit.

3. Sit up straight

If you have ever watched a young child sit you will have noticed that they naturally sit with a straight back.  Sitting up straight not only has a beneficial effect on your posture but also puts less strain on your back, joints and muscles.

4. Walk with your head held high

‘chest out shoulders back’ – good posture makes you look and feel more confident and makes your clothing hang better.

5. Be pleasant and respectful to other human beings

What you sow you reap.

6. Be thankful for what you have

When you appreciate what you already have you set forth energies to let the universe know that you are abundant.  Like attracts like so feeling abundant attracts more abundance.

7. Be happy for others

Praise that which you want.  As with #6, being happy when others have or do something you would like sends forth energies to the universe to tell it that you are happy with what you have but are available to receive more.  By delighting in others good fortune you participate in it in a positive way, you invite it into yours and it becomes part of your life – again, like attracts like.

8. Have a bedtime routine

Getting into a routine is also a good way for your body to realise that it is time to sleep.  You can make your routine personal to what works for you.  Start maybe 30-60 minutes prior to the time you would like to fall asleep.  A few things your routine could include are: a shower followed by pjs, a 5 minute tidy of the main rooms, planning for tomorrow, making lunches, meditation or laying out of clothing for the next day and a spot of reading in bed for 20 minutes to finish off the day.  Do what ever suits you, makes you feel relaxed and fits in with your lifestyle and commitments.

9. Wake up 10 minutes earlier.

You will be amazed at how much extra you will get done, even if it is spending time having a more leisurely breakfast.

10. Be still with yourself.

Give yourself time to just be; to be with your own energy, not the thoughts and ideas of who you have learnt to be.  Being still allows your higher self (who you truly are) to come to the fore to guide you.

Enjoy

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Other postings you may enjoy reading:

Honouring your core values

Are you a participant or a bystander in your life?

Look for the oneness in others today

Simplicity can be simple

Dream Big~it’s free

It’s true, things come and go.  We do, possessions do and so do other people and experiences; it’s all part of life.  The part of our life that resides in the physical world.  Grasping onto something or someone in the hope that it will always be the same can cause much sadness and upset.  Yet, at the same time understanding that things come and go also offers relief in the realisation that something we do not enjoy going through will eventually pass.

The essence of who we truly are is at the centre of all that goes on around us but is not governed by time or form.  It doesn’t come and go, it just is – eternally.  When we understand that this is who we really are and that everything is interconnected we realise we can never really have or loose anything, because it is already part of us.

All our physical bodies go through, whether we feel it is good or bad, pleasurable or not will ultimately pass.  Another possession or experience will come and take its place and the sequence will begin all over again.  It may not be the same as the one before or even similar but it will be replaced none the less.  This is the case because life in the formed world is always evolving, changing.

Heraclitus said ‘you can never step in the same river twice’

No two moments are the same even if we are standing still in an empty room and certainly not if we are experiencing life.  Sometimes it is hard for us to be at ease with change, especially big change.  As humans, we must feel a certain sense of control within our life/situation or stress levels can rise.  However, by coming to terms with how the world and events are continually changing we can ‘roll with the punches’ or ‘go with the flow’ more easily.  That doesn’t mean we don’t grieve or feel happy at things it just means we get that it is an external process.

Realising that everything is always in a state of movement ironically helps us deal with it.  Helps us understand that when something happens (especially stuff we don’t feel the best about) we can look at it from a much larger perspective.  From a point bigger than our physical self and see that we are part of something much larger.  That we don’t ‘take it personally’ for it is …..the way it is.

Enjoy

Photo by : CmdrGravy

Other postings you might like to read:

Find your common denominator

Some of life’s rhythms

Pick your thoughts like you pick your apples

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~ ~ My contribution is on page 12

Enjoy

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Other postings you may like to read:

Simplify your wardrobe

Do you have a theme for 2010?

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Sometimes, no matter what we do or want in life the universe seems to tell us to go in a different direction.  Often it is somewhere we have already decided to go or be or do but have put it off for different reasons or self limiting beliefs.

Frequently these signs are tiny little whispers which, unless we 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 seem to be occurring regularly.  Sometimes, it is like it is really important that we acknowledge a particular message and the universe will present us with it over and over again until we start paying attention.

It can feel like no matter what we try things keep moving us along a certain path, like a security guard at a concert when we try to deviate or duck off to the side to get a better look at what is going on back stage etc.

This type of guiding usually happens over a length of time so it feels gentle and without urgency.  However, sometimes it’s like the universe has given up waiting for the penny to drop for us and is contemplating picking up a lump of wood to knock us over the head and really get our attention because the optimum time for it all is fast approaching.

First we are sent a whisper, a gentle hint to help us work it out for ourselves.  If we don’t notice the whisper a problem arises that will offer us the learning instead.  If we still don’t get it then we are confronted with a crisis which will hopefully make us stand up and take notice that we are straying too far from our intended life path.  When all else fails a disaster occurs which will be impossible to ignore and must be dealt with so the learning can occur.

By living mindfully and being aware of what is going on around us, as well as how our own bodies are behaving, we 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

(image by Tom T)

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Other postings you might like to read:

Our choices make our life

Do you have a theme for 2010?

Nov Simplicity  tip #7

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