I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Venice earlier this month. There was beauty around every corner… This got me thinking about the beauty in our everyday lives. It’s so easy to appreciate it when we’re in a beautiful place and somewhere new. But what about the beauty that’s all around us, every day? The things we may see often but take for granted. What about pausing to pay more attention to that? Slow down and notice what’s around you today. Stop to appreciate nature and everyday beauty. Take photos to capture what you see. Look around …Continue reading»
It’s an inside job
Things falling apart in any area of our lives can feel very scary and threatening, and all the more if it happens in more than one place at once. We all want to be able to define ourselves by certain things. It’s important to feel like we have an identity and to know who we are. We look to relationships, careers and other things outside of ourselves to help define us. We label ourselves. Depending on how these things are going we tend to feel better or worse. We look to these things as a measure of our self-worth. Other people …Continue reading»
The messy middle
I’m in the process of getting my website and associated things changed over to Kelly Burns, so I appreciate your patience as I do that. Some things are still in my old name, some things in the new. Rather than it being one smooth transition it’s been a bit more complicated than I’d hoped. Which got me thinking this is the way it goes with most transitions. Or with life in general! It isn’t always as smooth or straightforward as we would like. Things are often messier than we might choose. There are more things to consider than we may …Continue reading»
Your body is a temple and a guide
Whenever you’re feeling lost, confused or overwhelmed come back to your body. It knows the way. Sometimes there are just too many words. We need to verbally process things so that we can understand and make sense of anything that’s happening. But there can also be too much talking, too much noise. Too much input. We need to balance that with time to go inward, with time for quiet and peaceful reflection – so that we can get out of our heads and into our bodies. We need to turn our focus away from other people, from out there and …Continue reading»
6 months left to live
It does no harm to remember that life is short. It may seem morbid but the only guarantee in this life is that our lives will come to an end. We’re all heading in the same direction, we just don’t know when our individual journeys will end. Which is something most of us naturally prefer not to think about. Sometimes it’s brought frighteningly into focus, other times it may fade into the background. But actually keeping this at the forefront of our minds can make a great difference to how we live. To making sure that we’re living on purpose, …Continue reading»
What makes you unique?
Whilst I was away in The Big Apple I got to thinking about what makes each of us unique, and how easy it can be to forget. It’s so good to surround ourselves with people who see our light. Who appreciate us for what we are and all that we bring, because sometimes we forget. We stop valuing ourselves. We get knocked down, life throws us curveballs or we start to forget what makes us special. What others may love and appreciate about us. Things we do naturally that perhaps we don’t even notice. But the truth is we all …Continue reading»
One step at a time
Sometimes things feel overwhelming. We have so much on our plates and so many things we need to consider, get done, organised or dealt with. Some things we’d really rather not have to do or face. And we all have them, right? Jobs and tasks that don’t particularly fill us with joy but that just need to get done. So how we can bring some pleasure to them? And how can we treat ourselves royally in the process? Anytime you’re feeling overwhelmed take a step back. Write down anything and everything that’s in your head and all of your to-dos. …Continue reading»
Following Joy
No matter how evolved you become you will still have challenges. But you can learn to look for the joy amidst them. Joy. Laughter. Play. Lightness. They’re magnetic. They’ll help draw the right things and people to you. We need to balance anything difficult we’re going through with stopping to enjoy life. We’re so privileged and we forget that life is a gift. That it’s meant to be enjoyed and celebrated. When you follow joy and have fun, you’ll be a joy to be around. This energy will touch everyone you come into contact with. So following joy isn’t selfish …Continue reading»
Caring for ourselves as we stretch
Nothing worthwhile is easy. Success always lies outside of our comfort zones. Nothing great happens without hard work, without time and energy being invested. So we need to make sure we’re climbing the right ladders and that we’re investing in what matters most. The way we spend our time and energy is the way we spend our lives. Time is our currency and is a great equaliser. We all get exactly the same number of hours in any given day. How do you want to be spending yours? We need to stretch and expand outside of our comfort zones to …Continue reading»
What are you most proud of?
What makes you proud – of yourself, of your relationships, of other achievements? How can you be proud of the investments you make? Having a sense of pride allows us to find purpose and helps us be who we want to be, even during difficult times. Pride is something people seem to look back with at the end of their lives, alongside regret and the things they weren’t so proud of. What they’re most proud of often signals what was most important to them; what they valued the most. So it seems to me that we need to live in …Continue reading»