What happens when you hit a fork in the road

What happens when you hit a fork in the road

There are times when we find ourselves at a fork in the road.

Sometimes it's by choice. Sometimes it's not.

You've been travelling down a familiar road for what feels like a long time. There are minor bumps along the way, but little of consequence.  

Suddenly you're caught up in a tornado. You know it's not life threatening but you still take cover and when you eventually open your eyes, you find yourself at a fork in the road. 

Have you been there? At that fork in the road? 

It's a somewhat familiar place for me...

Turning towards stress

Turning towards stress

I was in a conference room with two hundred people.

A microphone was making its way towards me. Each person had to share their greatest fear. We had to be honest and as unscripted as possible. As the microphone came closer I began to feel my heart pounding and my throat began to tighten. It became harder to swallow. I felt heat as my cheeks began to flush. My hands were sweating and my mind went blank.  I'd never felt more self conscious and...

10 ways to listen better

10 ways to listen better

Listening well can be one of the most important skills we have. How well we listen has a profound impact on our life and work and on the quality of our relationships with others.

Here are ten lessons I've learned from mindful listening that have helped me to better understand the difference between only hearing someone rather than deeply listening to them.  

1. CREATE SPACE

Pay attention to the urge to speak or offer input too soon. Hold that feeling in your awareness and continue to listen rather than respond too quickly. 

2. DON'T JUDGE

While judging can be a helpful way to evaluate, maintaining a non-judging, curious attitude can encourage the speaker to relax and be more...

5 tips to quit being overwhelmed

5 tips to quit being overwhelmed

There was a time when I used to ignore my stress.

I'd have conversations about it over a glass of wine with my friends and that's it.  Something to complain and forget about. Not something to do anything about.  

Did you know? Statistics indicate that 60% of corporate workers feel stressed, on edge and overwhelmed trying to balance work and life. Our minds are in a constant state of partial attention and it takes 23 minutes to get back on task after our attention is yanked away. Even being stuck in traffic can now expose you to burnout, especially when...

I don't have time

I don't have time

I think time is an illusion.

The more we fill our lives with time-saving devices the more rushed we are. While the possibilities of information technology are potentially endless, they also put us under more pressure than ever to get more done, in less time. 

At some points we may feel there is never enough time to do what we need to do and time passes too quickly.  At other times...

7 reasons to let down your guard

7 reasons to let down your guard

I didn't know what I was doing there, in that room full of strangers.

Not just strangers, but people who had experienced some of life's greatest challenges. I felt like an outsider, as if I was somehow misplaced among these suffering people. What on earth was I doing there with all of them?  

What I was doing with them, was attending a 12-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Interpersonal Neurobiology course. 

The truth is, I've led and participated in dozens of executive workshops, but never one in which...

Don't just do something. Sit there.

Don't just do something. Sit there.

Don't just do something. Sit there.

It sounds completely counterintuitive and jarring.

Yet it says a lot in just a few words.

We spend much of our time "doing" things in our day as opposed to "being" in our day.

Being in our day requires some silence and stillness, observing, listening, letting things be. Getting out of our own way. Holding our thoughts, emotions, fears and sensations in our awareness, as opposed to acting on them.  

Let's be clear, I'm not suggesting that we abandon 'doing things'...

Breathe

Breathe

Breathe.

In our breath, lies a completely overlooked source of power that can transform life. Yet we take it for granted much of the time. There are a couple of reasons why.

It's automatic. Like the sun rising and setting every day. It just happens. We don't have to consciously make ourselves breathe. Our body does it for us. 

It's instinctive. From the moment we are born to the moment we die, we breathe. We didn't have to take classes to teach us how to breathe. It's just part of...

Why weaving a parachute every day might change your life

Why weaving a parachute every day might change your life

Jon Kabat-Zinn wrote, "Make sure you weave your parachute every day, rather than leave it to the time you have to jump out of the plane."

Excellent advice for skydivers and pilots. Is it also good advice for those of us who remain earthbound?

I was sitting in a room with 12 strangers, taking part in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, when I first heard about...

When do people really start to live?

When do people really start to live?

It was an ordinary day. I was at work. My phone rang.  

When I looked at the screen it said it was my doctor. I answered it and she asked, "Where are you?"  I said I was at work. "Can you find somewhere private to go... right now?" I found a small room and shut the door. "I don't know how to tell you this... but you have a rare, aggressive and advanced cancer." 

In so few words, everything changed...

3 ways to reinvent work-life balance

3 ways to reinvent work-life balance

I struggled to find work-life balance, both as a single person and a married mum with young kids. I worked hard, didn't look after myself particularly well, got too few hours sleep, didn't spend enough time with my family and spent a lot of money on things I didn't need. Oh and I also happened to eat 3-4 tubs of Haagen-Dazs every week.

I became vaguely aware over the years, of a slight nagging...

What does success mean?

What does success mean?

I have never been a quitter. I've always been a fighter. My fighting (or feisty) spirit, as friends would say, has served me for better or worse and in more ways than one. When it comes to quitting, I used to think it meant you were giving up, admitting defeat unwilling to persevere through hard times. Then I discovered that sometimes the smartest thing to do is to walk away. There's a time to quit and time to stay. The difficulty is...