Meditation

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21 ways to bring mindful self-care to your day

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21 ways to bring mindful self-care to your day

One of the things which often surprises people about mindfulness is how simple it is to bring it into your day. For those who don't feel like sitting and doing a formal meditation practice, there are many options and possibilities to try.

One of the most common benefits of practicing mindfulness is the decrease in stress and burnout and increase in resilience, focus and work-life happiness. And yes, the more you practice, the greater the benefits, but if you're just looking for a place to start there's some very simple things you can do, which don't require any extra time. 

Enjoy these twenty-one simple ways to bring mindfulness to your workday...

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How to calm the voice in your head

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How to calm the voice in your head

I was heading to an appointment not long ago, it was one of those rare days when I wasn't rushing to get somewhere on time.

As I eased my way into the busy waiting room, I noticed there was only a short line-up at reception. What a stroke of luck! I headed straight over to register.

After letting the receptionist know I'd arrived, I asked her how she was doing? I knew a little bit about her, I knew she was interested in running or jogging at one time. So I casually asked her if she had done any running lately?

She shared with me that she hadn't been running nor had she been to the gym lately.  I remember the look on her face, she looked resigned and disappointed.

It's what happened next that I really want to share with you...

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Your breath. A powerful ally.

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Your breath. A powerful ally.

"As long as you're breathing, there's far more right than wrong with you no matter how ill or hopeless you feel." Jon Kabat-Zinn

If the only thing you do today is breathe, it's all good.

From the moment we're born, we breathe. It's instinctive. We don't learn how to breathe, it just happens. The trouble is, as we get older, we forget how to breathe. In fact, we aren't even consciously aware of our breathing. 

So we don't focus our attention on our breathing.

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How to turn wounds into wisdom

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How to turn wounds into wisdom
"Sometimes it takes great suffering to pierce the soul and open it up to greatness." Jocelyn Murray

Often we think of pain as something that has been inflicted on us, a stroke of very bad luck, the result of an unfair world, or bad fate in some way. An immense obstacle that propels us into primitive survival mode. It's ugly, uncomfortable and lonely. 

I'm going to throw caution to the wind here and say, I believe it is a gift to feel discomfort, and that when we avoid, ignore or try to hide from it, we are missing one of the greatest lessons that life has to offer. Every person wanting to find true peace and happiness should know this....

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You are exactly where you need to be

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You are exactly where you need to be

How would things change for you if you knew that wherever you are in your life, is exactly where you should be?

In other words, regardless of whether you're satisfied or unsatisfied with your life, or experiencing immense happiness or working through an extremely difficult situation, that any and ALL of these experiences are exactly where you should be?

On the surface, it might not be easy to wrap our minds around these ideas. After all, aren't we happier when we're constantly keeping busy, achieving things and in pursuit of something better? Yes, perhaps, at least for some of the time, this might appear true. 

But when we're constantly focused on the road ahead, as opposed to where we are right now, there are some surprising consequences.....

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The realization

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The realization

Do you find you go through periods in your life when everything feels pretty good? It’s kind of like those times when there’s nothing really significant going wrong and life feels, dare I say it? Complete. Maybe you just had a great family vacation, maybe you’re starting a new relationship, maybe business is growing, maybe you just published your first book. Basically - you’ve got it going on!

And then, in what seems like a split second, everything changes.  

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The expectation trap

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The expectation trap

I'm going to write about a small change in mindset that could have a major impact on your life.

It's to do with letting go of expectations.

I fully appreciate this may seem like a strange idea.

We all have expectations. Expectations of how we want others to be. Expectations of who we think we should be. Expectations of what we want to achieve. Expectations of what we want for our children, family, friends. We expect things about our bodies, our jobs, our lives...

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What's the point of silence?

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What's the point of silence?

I remember my first retreat only too well.

I had announced to some of my work colleagues at the time, that I was heading to a monastery for 8 days of total silence with a bunch of monks. The look on their faces said it all. Heck..I had the same look on my face, which equated to: "Am I nuts? I'm a globe-trotting marketing executive and I'm voluntarily going to go spend my vacation with some monks in complete silence, sitting and meditating all day." 

So what's the point in silence you may be wondering...?

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Why you're more than your thoughts

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Why you're more than your thoughts

Before I started meditating years ago, I had no idea I could disentangle myself from my busy mind. Our constant thinking and wandering mind, often leaves us feeling completely exhausted, stressed, and relieved to get to the end of each day. You know that feeling? When your inner voice says: "Thank god it's almost the weekend, so I can forget about my challenging week for a while." The trouble is, it's our constant thinking which pulls our attention in a thousand different directions, in very subtle ways, that we're very rarely aware of. This is what we call continuous stress.

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Do you know your Why?

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Do you know your Why?

I've been asked some provoking questions recently that have made me stop and consider more deeply what Wake Up Kate is all about.

After carefully processing each question, I realized they all came down to one single question:

Why Wake Up Kate?

Wake Up Kate originally started as a call to action to myself to WAKE UP in my life and take greater care of ME. 

I soon discovered that staying awake in my life and practising self care wasn't just another 'to do'... it was a habit that became a way of life.

That's one of the secrets you need to know about how to maintain any kind of REAL change in your work and life........

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How I stay motivated in stressful times

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How I stay motivated in stressful times

Here's what I tell my audiences, my clients and myself... 

YOU CAN ALWAYS COME BACK TO THE BREATH.

Last year I walked away from stability and a healthy six figure income to launch Wake Up Kate, a mindfulness and stress resilience consultancy. What can I say?... It's been amazing. A truly powerful experience. It's the most incredible rewarding work I've ever done and I have to pinch myself sometimes that this is really happening. But as we all know (and sometimes forget) great things take time. You have to think of it as a 'ten year project'.... so I can assure you, there's plenty of impatience, frustration and worry to deal with as well. 

Actually, something happened while I was writing this blog, that should have caused a complete meltdown (aka significant stress) but it didn't. Read on to hear about it....

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The holidays, stress and mindfulness

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The holidays, stress and mindfulness

I'm somewhat disconnected from the mad rush of Christmas, because my family and I have chosen to spend it this year focusing more on creating small but meaningful experiences throughout the month of December, rather than giving many gifts.

Christmas is of course one of the biggest holidays of the year for many of us.

A time of joy and celebration, and yet it can also be a time of emotional worry. The mad rush of last minute shopping, waiting in huge lines, feeling frustrated, having frayed nerves.........

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The truth about meditating

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The truth about meditating

It was exactly one year ago today I went on a 9-day silent retreat. 

I remember a sinking feeling in my stomach as we approached the monastery.

I felt nervous. But most of all what I remember were thoughts screaming at me: "Why on earth am I going to a monastery to spend nine days in silence with some monks?"

We pulled into the parking lot and my husband offered to carry my bags into the reception area. I told him to leave me there and just go. I wanted my family to depart as quickly as possible, or else I'd be too tempted to jump back in the car and go with them!

I checked in and found my room. The door next to mine led to a chapel and prayer room. There was a crucifix above my bed. Nothing else on the walls. Oh god, what had I let myself in for?.......

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This one thing could change your day

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This one thing could change your day

Curiosity.

It's the gateway to creativity, care, change and possibility and has gently shifted my ability to face adversities in life.

We're all curious by nature, it's innate in us. But many of us lose it over time. It vanishes. Partly because of the way our brains map experience and partly because of our conditioning, culture and education.  

Adopting a mindful attitude of friendly curiosity means......

How to believe in yourself

How to believe in yourself

Wisdom is beautiful.

Much of our wisdom comes from life experience, both good and bad; a process that takes a lot of time and a lot of living. The more curious and open we are to learning from it, the more transformational it can be. 

There's also a wisdom that exists inside ourselves. 

I learned a few years ago, how little I paid attention to my inner wisdom and instinct. How too much of my goal setting was reliant on left brain thinking - thinking that caused me stress and left me with a constantly churning mind, often for days.

Then I discovered something remarkable....

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3 steps to becoming more resilient

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3 steps to becoming more resilient

Many of us don't bounce back after getting knocked down. 

The main consequence of living in a culture that’s so focused on planning, certainty and perfection is that we have no idea what to do when things go wrong.

When the job you thought you would love turns out to be a disaster. When your romantic relationship falls apart. When you realize that everything you’ve worked so hard for doesn’t make you happy. 

We come crashing down. Then what? .......

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3 things I wish I'd known when starting out in life

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3 things I wish I'd known when starting out in life

Have you ever considered giving yourself a whack over the head? 

Sometimes that's what it takes to put things in perspective. To see things differently. To change your life for the better.

Some people have an ability to see the writing on the wall. They are blessed with a built-in radar that helps them navigate potential disaster, to avoid hitting......

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Is flow the secret to happiness?

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Is flow the secret to happiness?

"THE MORE FLOW WE EXPERIENCE IN DAILY LIFE, THE MORE LIKELY WE ARE TO FEEL HAPPY OVERALL."         

Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a leading authority on positive psychology.

A good friend of mine living in Singapore asked me recently if I'm finding 'a flow' with all I'm learning and doing - as a side note - I recently transitioned from a 19 year career in marketing and branding to move into the business of emotional resilience.

I digress, back to flow.............

I LOVE that she asked that question.

BECAUSE OVER THE PAST MONTH, I FOUND AN UNEXPECTED..........

12 ways to be happy right now

12 ways to be happy right now

It's easy to think of happiness as a goal or something that is dependent on material things. Many of us say, "Once I'm making this or that income, then I'll be happy" or, "Once I'm ten pounds lighter, then I'll be happy", or "When I retire and can do what I want, then I'll be happy." 

While the conditions of our lives may contribute to part of our happiness, I think it's likely that happiness is also highly dependent upon our ability to live in the present moment. About how we relate to ourselves and others. About how we choose to walk through life. 

I'll be the first to admit...

3 powerful ways to quiet your worried mind

3 powerful ways to quiet your worried mind

Constant worrying takes a heavy toll.

It can keep us up at night and make us edgy during the day. We agonize about matters that often never occur. So why is it so difficult to stop worrying?

Worrying is a built-in feature of our brain's safety processing. It's part of our fight or flight response system which is never turned off. It puts us into a state of heightened awareness so we're prepared for...