Motivation is the driving force behind our actions, aspirations, and achievements. It’s the spark that ignites passion, propels us forward in the pursuit of our goals, and sustains our efforts in the face of challenges. Without motivation, our dreams remain dreams, and our potential goes unrealised.

Communication: Dispelling the Mind Reading Myth 🌟

One of the most important tools available to us is our words. Language is not just a means of communication; it's a force that shapes our reality, influences our emotions, and can profoundly impact our overall wellbeing. Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, studied the transformative power of words on water crystals, demonstrating how positive and negative words can affect their structure. The results demonstrate the influence words can have in our own lives. Understanding the Impact of Words Dr. Emoto's experiments revealed that positive words like "love" and "gratitude" resulted in beautifully intricate and symmetrical water crystals, while negative words produced disordered and chaotic structures. This illustrates the effect our thoughts and words can have on our environment, the people around us and ourselves. Take a look at some of the images online- they're incredible! 5 Ways to Utilise the Power of Words for Wellbeing 1.Affirmations : Start your day with positive affirmations tailored to your goals and aspirations. Affirmations like "I am capable," "I am worthy," and "I am deserving of love and happiness" can shift your mindset and boost your confidence. 2. Self-Talk : Pay attention to your inner dialogue. Replace self-criticism and doubt with words of encouragement and self-compassion. Treat yourself with the same kindness you would offer a friend. 3. Gratitude Journaling : Cultivate a daily practice of gratitude by writing down things you're thankful for. Expressing gratitude not only promotes positivity but also trains your mind to focus on the abundance in your life. 4. Compliments : Offer sincere compliments to others. Kind words have the power to uplift someone and strengthen social bonds, building a sense of connection and wellbeing for everyone involved. 5. Setting Intentions : Before embarking on tasks or activities, set positive intentions. Clarify what you hope to achieve and frame it in optimistic language. Setting intentions helps you stay focused and aligned with your goals. Summary Words hold immense power - they can heal, inspire, and transform our lives in truly incredible ways. By harnessing the power of words through practices like affirmations, gratitude, and positive self-talk, we can cultivate a mindset of wellbeing and resilience. Let's choose our words wisely, both in how we speak to ourselves and how we interact with others, creating a ripple effect of positivity and empowerment in our lives and communities.

Pivotal conversations can be defining moments in both our personal and professional lives. Whether it's negotiating your current role or a job offer, addressing a conflict at home or work, or discussing future plans with your manager or partner, these conversations can significantly impact our lives. I'm not the biggest fan of confrontation and given the choice, my default would always be to choose the peaceful option and not rock the boat. However, if it's someone that I care about, I will take confrontation on, and support them to the hilt! I know I need to treat myself with the same respect and maybe I could have had more pivotal conversations in my life so that I wouldn't be described as "the one that got away" by one of my managers. This blog explores the significance of pivotal conversations and provides practical guidance on how to prepare for and manage them effectively. So, deep breath - let's go...

The Power of Personal Core Values: 5 Reasons Why They Make a Difference in Your Life

Harnessing the Energy of the Astrological New Year for a Balanced Life

How have the last 6 months been for you? What about the next 6months? Reviews take place in companies around the world all the time. They’re useful for evaluating and reflecting on what’s happened and provides an opportunity to adjust their actions to keep them in line with achieving their goals. We’re going to look at how you can take this idea and apply it to your own life. Doing a personal review of your life can help us achieve more balance. We can reflect on the achievements of the last 6 months, and it can help us keep on track with any personal goals or projects we want to focus on for the next 6 months. What can you learn by looking back? 1. Make a list of everything you feel proud of over the past 6 months Start by thinking about your experiences you’ve had during this time. This step doesn’t just involve results or things you’ve achieved but focuses on how you feel about what you’ve done. The things that you feel proud of can be anything. Feeling proud of delivering a project for your company might be on your list, maybe alongside feeling proud of the fact that you’ve exercised a couple of times each week. It’s your list so it can be anything! 2. What were your goals at the start of the year? Have they changed? Many of us start the year with New Year’s Resolutions. You might find that these have changed over time, or at least shifted slightly. If a particular goal isn’t serving you anymore then this is the time to adjust, where necessary. As well as looking at your goals individually, reflect on your personal life as a whole: Are you feeling pulled in different directions right now? Too many commitments? Would you like to have more variety in your life? Asking yourself questions like this now, can help prevent you feeling overwhelmed or like you haven’t made the most of your time. What can you create by looking ahead? 1. Identify 2 areas of your life you’d like to focus on over the next 6 months Our lives can be broadly divided up into the following areas: Family | Leisure & fun | Career | Finance | Relationships | Health – both Mental and Physical | Our environment | Personal development Explore each area and think about how satisfied you feel with this aspect of your life right now - it can be helpful to think about your satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10. Once you’ve identified the two areas of your life you most want to focus on - these will usually be the two areas with the lowest satisfaction scores, write down three things you can do to raise your score in these areas. They don't have to be dramatic changes; consistently taking small steps can also get you to where you want to be. 2. Pick a word or phrase that will sum up your next 6 months This step might sound a little 'out there', but it’s another way of helping you stay on track between now and in 6 months time. Having a word or phrase that captures how you’d like to be during the next 6 months helps remind you of the goals and intentions you’re setting/resetting now. As you might have experienced with goals you've set before, we can start off with the best of intentions to achieve those goals, only to have commitments and distractions throw us off course. Having a word or phrase that sums up how we want to be, supports keeping us aligned with our original intentions and reduces the chance that we’ll regret how we spent our time. Our phrase at the time of writing this is: Flow with focus This is our reminder that while supporting people and companies is our core purpose, flowing rather than forcing keeps us energised and at our best both personally and professionally. And remember, these techniques can be used at any time of the year not just midway through or at the start. Just begin where you are now 

Are you at a crossroads in your life? • Do you feel like there are decisions to be made and you’re not quite sure which way to go? • Are you feeling stuck and you know something has to change but you can’t quite put your finger on what that is? • Do you have good intentions to make changes but something always gets in the way? You’re not on your own. People have felt like this so many times before and they will do again. We don’t get given a rule book in life to follow all the guidance to reach the happy ever after point and stay there forever. Fairy Tales are entertaining and we can get lost in their romanticism of how life can be. But there’s something better than reading Fairy Tales. You can create your own story of your life. You have that power in the choices you make. It may take time, energy, focus and risk but the result is that you create a life that feels right for you, is aligned with who you are and what you’re passionate about. It feels amazing because you’re living your life – not someone else’s version of what your life should or could be. So, what do you do when you find yourself at a crossroads in your life? You start to make choices. Make a choice to 1. Find out what really matters to you – sit with your feelings, maybe journal on them and get closer to what your crossroads is telling you. Tell the page all the thoughts that are running through your mind. It really does help to get them out of your head and onto the page. 2. Explore what is working for you right now, what brings you joy and passion? Conversely, what’s not working for you right now. There’s no right or wrong answer here. Be true to your feelings and don’t edit your responses to fit in with what you think other people would think or say. 3. Prioritise what might need to change in your life – your job, career, relationship, how you manage stress, reduce anxiety, find your purpose and passion. Choose your priority if you have more than one. You’ll soon find other things start falling into place when you start taking action. 4. Take action. Take one small step to changing that part of your life. Do you need to do some research? Do you need to seek support? Do you need to have a conversation? Do you need to take some time out? Do something. And then keep taking a small step each day – you’ll soon be heading down the path you’ve created for yourself. 5. Celebrate your successes along the way and choose to learn from any setbacks or mistakes. They will both happen and that’s just the way life is. You can choose to blindly carry on, getting frustrated with your progress and criticising yourself for errors of judgement or you can choose to celebrate and learn. If you’re still reading, then you’re at a crossroads in your life. Make a choice to do something different today, because if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Choices – we all have them at every point of our day. #wilsonspirit #wellbeing #wellness #coaching #choices #crossroads #5toptips #makeachoice #takeaction

Why do we encourage Walking and Talking? Firstly, both of these activities are important in their own right for so many reasons. Combined together they can have so many benefits for our physical, emotional and mental health such as: • Reduces stress • Improves mood and self esteem • Increases life satisfaction • Walking or running outside can reduce feelings of anger, fatigue and sadness • Being mindful in nature by using all of our 5 senses can increase our self compassion and empathy • Produces creative solutions • Makes us aware that we are all part of something significant • Provides connection to the living world and those around us Steve and I talk about making self-care a priority and one of our non-negotiables is to get outside for a walk each day. We really do notice the difference if we don’t do it. We feel all of the benefits described above and it only needs to be a 10 or 20 minute walk to start feeling the value of walking and talking. Changing your environment, instantly changes your mindset. Whatever is on your mind may come into focus, give you more clarity or just reduce the strong emotions you may be feeling. This happens whether you walk or talk so combining them both gives you an extra boost. We don’t just go for walks for ourselves, we take our clients with us too. Our coaching programmes are delivered online, face to face, maybe a walk to a waterfall or round the Great Orme, at the beach or having a picnic – we got a lot more creative during lockdown! The breakthroughs, ideas and creative solutions that take place for our clients by being outside and talking really does give a perspective that may not have emerged in a different environment. Try and include Walking and Talking into your lives, it’s available to us all. If you’re at work, maybe arrange walking meetings whether you’re physically together or on the phone – it can help with the fatigue of video meetings taking place at the moment. And at home, schedule some time into your day to go for a walk, even for 10 minutes and have a chat with a friend or family member. It really does make you feel more positive and reframe your thoughts. #wilsonspirit #wellbeing #walkingandtalking #coaching #mindset #selfcare #benefitsofwalkingandtalking