Intention

18 July 2018A Balanced Life, Coachingbe do have, intentionMeg

calling of your soul intention What is your intention? How do you set an intention? There are some simple steps you can follow to help you set your intention and reach your goals. There are some levels of abstraction in doing this as you align your conscious thoughts with your subconscious mind.

Let’s start with what you want.

Take as much time as you need to ponder this and be as specific as possible.

What is it about what you want that is really important to you?
What is the ideal outcome or goal that you are seeking?
And when you get that, what will that do for you?
What is the gift in that?

The next step is to audit what you already have. So if your intention is to reduce weight, you know that you have a body, but your goal is to have a fit and slender body.

What do you need to do in order to achieve your goal? Let’s step this out…. in order to have the body shape you desire, what you have to do is to follow a sensible eating plan and incorporate some exercise or movement into your daily routine. But don’t stop here…. there’s more!

intention to be all you can be The next step is to go within and ask yourself who you have to be in order to do what you want to have.

You have to be aware of what you are eating and portion sizes; to be truthful in recording foods, kilos, centimetres; to be committed to your exercise plan. When you have all these steps in place you will find that your goal becomes easier to attain. Notice your attitude about your health and achieving vitality and fitness.

Perhaps your goal or intention is to become a coach that gets great results with clients. Firstly, you have to believe in yourself and be your own hero. Apply and follow the Be, Do, Have principles to this and see the results. Pay attention and examine what has brought you to this particular moment.

Your self- audit brings to your conscious mind that you have a gift for insights into people’s problems and some healing abilities, but your goal is to develop those skills further.

What do you need to do in order to achieve this goal? Let’s step this out again…. in order to have the skills you desire, what you have to do is to nurture yourself and let go of internal criticisms, find a mentor or a teacher who recognises your gifts and incorporate regular meditation sessions into your daily routine.

The next step is to go within and ask yourself who you have to be in order to do what you want to have. You have to be aware of what you are studying and the insights that your teachers can give you; to be committed to your clients; to be authentic; to be centred while coaching or giving treatments and so on.

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New Moon

11 July 2018A Balanced Life, visualizationcoaching, self coaching, setting goals, vision boardMeg

New Moon goals With the New Moon coming up at the end of the week, my thoughts have turned to how I might prepare my monthly vision page. As this is the first New Moon of the new financial year I have decided to structure it a little differently to usual and will approach it similarly to a self coaching session. It will be interesting to see if the results are different as I sit down after a meditation session and journal my answers to the following questions:

What do I want for the month ahead of this New Moon? I’m going to keep the language positive and in the present, recording my intentions on my vision page. I may or may not create a Q & A table to order my thoughts, but it is highly probable that I may create a page that looks more like a mind map as I am quite visual.

I might create a page around the “W” questions…What? Where? When? Who? and write the answers accordingly.

What do I want to change in the month ahead of the New Moon?
Who can help me achieve this change? Does it depend on me alone or can I ask for help?
Do I have an outcome in mind when I make these changes? By stating my outcome in positive language, my brain is more likely to accept the changes and turn the goals into reality
What do I want to achieve? Saying what I DO want will help me focus on a positive outcome and it’s important to make this about something for me and not what others might want me to do.
What action do I need to take to make these changes? A vision will remain just a dream unless there is action.
When will I take action to make these changes? If I want to write a book, then my first step would be to set a realistic time frame and to create some space on a daily basis to do some writing.
Will achieving the goals for this month have a bearing on my long term goals? As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said “Every journey starts with a single step”. By achieving small and realistic goals, we begin to feel more confident

A valuable part of the process is ensuring that my outcomes for the month will be realistic and achievable. In addition I’m going to make my page as multi sensory as possible- using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic language. What do I see, hear or feel about my vision for the month ahead?

If you would like more help in creating your Vision Book and regular pages or for more information about Coaching, follow THIS link

Success

5 July 2018A Balanced Life, successaction steps, coaching, goals, self coaching, successMeg

Create a mindset for success.

Have a list of your goals, the action steps and your alternative plan somewhere where you can readily review them. As you move closer to success and progress to your ultimate goal, regularly review your goals. Ask yourself the following question: “What would I do if this step didn’t work?”

Success also depends on your focus.

How committed are you to the goals you have set, regardless of the obstacles that may pop up in your way? By focusing on the goal and making it the most important thing in your life (for now) you must learn to ignore your inner critic by taking consistent action. Let go of the final outcome and focus on your journey.

Evaluate your progress and make a note of what is working for you and what’s not.

Is there room for improvement?
Do you need to change your approach? Evaluate your original plan and notice if it is still relevant and even more important, once you have reached your ultimate goal….
What’s next?

Start planning for your next goal following these five steps to success!

Did you miss the success tips?

Here they are briefly:

Create a mindset for success
List your goals
Action steps
Have a Plan B
Review regularly

If you would like more information on coaching or any of the other services that I offer, fill in the contact form below.

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Meg Phillips Master Practitioner Member of ABNLP

Setting A Goal

19 June 2018A Balanced Life, Coachingcoaching, flexibility, setting goals, successMeg

There is a difference between setting a goal and achieving that same goal.

The idea of setting a goal is to move you from one place (usually “stuck”) to another. If you don’t know the way, you may well get lost or easily sidetracked, but if you have a map, even a rudimentary one or an ancient one – well used, you will get there more easily.

You may need to adjust your journey according to the conditions at the time.

For me to set a goal, I also need to include some measure of flexibility. The first thing to think about when setting a goal is where do you want to go to or achieve?

To achieve your goal you need to follow some specific steps.

Seems simple enough, but let me share some steps that I use with coaching clients with you to make it easier. Traditional and specific ways of setting a goal that I have found useful are based on using the following prompts:

When – setting a date for when you want to achieve your goal
What – what exactly do you want? State this in the present tense so that your subconscious mind registers the goal “as if” the goal has been achieved.
Where – if you are looking for a new house or a job, where do you want it to be?
How – how will you achieve your goal?
Who – do you have anyone to help you achieve your goals? Who can you enlist to be accountable?
Why – What are the benefits to YOU for achieving your goals?

To be continued….

Risk

14 June 2018A Balanced Life, creativityAkashic Records, focus, letting go, RiskMeg

There is an element of risk in most things – driving your car, walking down the street – life is full of possible risks and there is no guarantee that we won’t encounter risk of some sort in our lifetime. There is a great book, Feel the Fear and do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers that encourages us to turn fear into action.

One o and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom f the benefits (yes, there are benefits) of coming down with the flu or something similar, is that it gives you time to reflect on a whole host of things and usually in an altered state of reality. Allowing yourself time to reflect is certainly part of the healing process and should you subscribe to the effects of various celestial events, all part of the process to work towards enlightenment.

I was recently gifted an Akashic Records session and accepted it without hesitation. So, with the old adage in mind “nothing ventured, nothing gained”, the session was booked in. As the process began, I started to feel quite emotional which was unusual as the session was being done over the phone. Allowing myself to go with the flow and experience this journey, it was somewhat disconcerting to hear the facilitator telling me she saw an archway behind me and a guide standing there. She wouldn’t have realized that the door to my clinic room was open and the hallway arch was behind me! The other images and metaphors that were revealed were equally as fascinating as the guides communicated through her to me.

Of interest to me was the observation that I have been getting sick as a result of fear of letting go. This certainly fitted in with my realization that I have had frequent illnesses since leaving teaching….. I need to fully let go of the unhelpful energies around a disappointing teaching position and open up to the flow and trusting that I will always be safe when connected to the Universe.

The session was over all too quickly and it inspired me to open up and offer some workshops to the wider public, rather than just my client list and within minutes I had an email indicating that someone would like to attend one of the workshops.

Having focused on what I wanted more of and taken the advice and opened myself to better opportunities and possibilities, I can see that there is truth in being aware of where your thoughts take you as there is a powerful energy in intention.

The Cycle of Life

27 April 2018A Balanced Life, Abundance, Autumn Equinoxcycle of lifeMeg

Autumn for me is a time of introspection and reflection on the cycle of life. Recently I have been going through stored boxes that contain stuff from my deceased parents. The years have made it easier to discard what is no longer relevant, but certain items awaken long buried memories. Your sap is in my sap; we are one thing. Part of the healing is making time to read a little each day, varying between fiction and educational works, I have to admit that Manuscript found in Accra is not the easiest book that I have read by Paulo Coelho.

In fact it is the type of book that I pick up and read a snippet at a time and come back to days or weeks later. The book is in plain view on my desk to encourage myself to delve back into it and am glad that I am taking this approach as the re-reading is delivering greater insights than the first reading. In a way this complements the cycle of life, in that there is no beginning and no end. Occasionally a passage just jumps out from the page and can be immediately related to.

“Does a leaf, when it falls from the tree in winter, feel defeated by the cold?

The tree says to the leaf: ‘That’s the cycle of life. You may think you’re going to die, but you live on in me. It’s thanks to you that I’m alive, because I can breathe. It’s also thanks to you that I have felt loved, because I was able to give shade to the weary traveller. Your sap is in my sap; we are one thing.”

Paulo Coelho – Manuscript found in Accra.

With the autumn leaves turning various shades and creating delicious carpets of colour on the lawns and paths which some will delight in and others grumpily observe as a chore, the leaves once swept and gathered will make valuable compost to add back to the garden at a later time. You may think you’re going to die, but you live on in me.

It’s not a time to be sad, especially if you look at the vibrant hues of nature’s palette as the leaves respond to the cooler nights. Still, I will miss the warmer days and the summer light, but this heralds a time to harvest crops and reflect on what lies within and what will come or return after winter. The cycle of life….

Autumn and the cycle of life

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A Sense of Self

13 April 2018A Balanced Life6 core needs, growth, maslow's hierarchy, Self, significanceMeg

It begins with trust. You have to listen to your innermost being or soul and trust, without being led astray by the ego which is often distracted by bright, shiny things. A sense of self is the recognition that we are spiritual beings using the human body as a vehicle. Delve deeply and you will find that a sense of self is often tied to our identity.

Often we align our sense of “Self” with our identity of what we do for a living. For instance, I was a teacher, so often my conversations were defined by teaching, school, students and so on. Being a “school teacher” was a vehicle that has been superseded by other vehicles that I have chosen. I still use the teacher identity or vehicle on occasion, but it’s more like a vintage car that is garaged and brought out for special occasions.

The vehicle you choose to use can be changed so long as it works in a powerful way that allows you to be congruent with your inner self. Ideally, what you do for a living should be aligned with your personal beliefs. There are many unhappy people walking this earth studying or working in fields that they “should” do or are expected to do, and this can be dictated by our core needs.

A sense of self and Maslow's Hierarchy of needs Anthony Robbins suggests that we have at least 6 Core Needs that have to be fulfilled to achieve success and ultimately happiness. Compare this to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs where he organized 5 basic needs into a pyramid where physiological needs like food and shelter and safety needs such as security form the base of the pyramid.

Maslow then orders “Belongingness and Love” relating to friends and relationships and “Esteem” which relates to accomplishments are our psychological needs. The cap on Maslow’s pyramid is Self Actualization which can only be fulfilled once all the other needs below have been met.

Four of Robbins Core Needs relate to our personality and he outlined these in a much viewed TED talk. These needs are Certainty/ Variety; Uncertainty/Significance and Love & Connection and there is a certain level of contradiction between each core need. For instance if we have too much certainty in our lives, then there is no variety and if we put too much weight on achieving significance, then often we will neglect our connection with loved ones.

What does certainty mean to you? Robbins puts forward a list that includes safety, stability, security, comfort and order and you can certainly see how they would fit into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. There are many people in the world today that would love to have certainty in their lives, yet are denied it by shifting political and environmental confines.

“Variety is the spice of life” is an old saying. Without it we wouldn’t have our intrepid explorers who craved adventure or being able to rise to a challenge as we seek to make changes in our existence.

Significance is about the need to feel needed or wanted. Taking pride in what you do demonstrates the core need to feel special or important whether it is for personal satisfaction or for others. Volunteering is a wonderful example of meeting our need for significance. We can also be quite unresourceful when attempting to meet this need for significance. Who hasn’t been the recipient of gossip or had to listen to endless sad tales about someone’s life?

Love and connection is innate. From birth we crave connection as we are essentially social creatures. Business networking, memberships of clubs and associations fulfill the adult need for connection, even if it may seem overly purposeful at times.

The remaining two core needs are Growth and Contribution and these relate to our needs of the spirit. To nourish our spirit we need to feed it with emotional and spiritual activities. One of my favourite sayings (& I can’t remember where it came from) is “You are either green and growing or ripe and rotting”.

To get a clearer sense of self, ask yourself the following questions. Make a list or a table of your answers and include alongside them your skills and unique characteristics.

What have you achieved?

What do you believe you can still achieve?

What are your limits?

What are your values?

What are your fears?

Who are you becoming?

Need a little help in getting clear about your core needs? Call to discuss which coaching package is best suited for you.

How’s your Mercury Retrograde going?

27 March 2018labyrinthbalance4life, labyrinth, mercury retrograde, Spiral pathMeg

What does Mercury Retrograde mean?

3 times a year Mercury orbits Earth and appears to move backward
Each of these periods lasts about 3 weeks
Many believe that during this time problems will occur with communication, transport, technology and more

However Mercury doesn’t go backwards….. that’s an illusion. And likewise this period can be a very positive time if you set your mind to it, because when you focus on the negative….that’s what you’ll get.

If you would like to use the Spiral Path (or 7 Ring Cretan labyrinth) to reset during this time you can download the PDF Spiral Path – Mercury Retrograde by clicking the hyperlink.

Dreaming

23 March 2018Autumn Equinox, creativity, dreamingDream GatesMeg

I often wonder what each night’s dreaming will bring….. most nights are very full of activity and adventure and every dream is in colour. Quite often the location is an old house I’ve lived in or a school that I’ve been to. Other times I’m dreaming that I’m in a familiar place but I cannot name where it is.

There are familiar faces in some dreams but more often there is a cast of characters that are not related to any people that I know in this lifetime.

Over the years, I’ve read some books on dreaming, the first was many years ago and was Carlos Casteneda’s Art of Dreaming which I found fascinating. Without using any substances to alter my state of consciousness, my dreams provide me with rich visual and auditory experiences that cannot be found even when viewing a movie. Carlos Casteneda puts forward that there are seven gates to dreaming and to be able to pass through the first gate, one must become aware of the actual moment of falling asleep.

Delving into other books such as Lucid Dreaming by Pamela Ball has expanded my awareness of dreaming even further. It is wonderful to step out of a dream whose script has gone “wrong” and pause and go back to sleep with the intent to change it and make it a more pleasant experience. Pamela Ball writes that “Healing and dreams are closely interlinked” and I’m sure that this is true for the retreat. The powerful combination of the labyrinths and Reiki energy as well as the organic practices used are no doubt having an effect on the land.

The dreams are also affected by my physical location. At the retreat the dreams seem to be set in times gone by and I have woken on occasion to the sounds of sheep and horses passing by then going back to sleep. When I do wake fully from the dream and know that I am really awake, I have had on occasion, needed to check that the troughs and haystacks are not outside the cottage as I had dreamt!

A psychic friend offered her opinion after I had told her of one particularly vivid dream, that I was having historical dreams….. Picking up on the energy of people who had been passing through on the land..

Robert Moss in his course Dream Gates – a journey into active dreaming suggests not only keeping a dream journal (as do many other teachers) to record themes that are relevant to the dreamer, but he gives useful shamanic exercises in connecting with spiritual guides both animal or angelic and how to use dreams in a constructive, healing way.

Frequently remnants of my dreams stay with me for some time during the day, allowing my subconscious mind to process any message that may have been delivered. In one dream, some time ago, I retained the image of a country road and a driveway that I knew was my home. For years as we travelled along country roads and outback Australia, I looked for that driveway, never finding it. When my parents legacy to me was finalized, I began looking for a country property where I could realize another dream … to create a retreat for healers.

Weekends were spent scouring the internet for properties for sale and then making a list, travelling to the area to inspect and although one or two seemed attractive in the advertisements, in reality they were not suitable. One popped up, twice the acreage of what I was looking for and a little over budget, but I decided to have a look to see what it offered. After arranging to meet the agent, we made the 2 and a half hour trip to view it. It was on a road we had often travelled on to go to the Easter Parade, but further down than the usual turnoff.

Turning into the driveway, my body reacted…. this was the driveway of my dream.

A strong feeling of Déjà vu as we drove down the driveway to where the cottage was located. An area nearby was semi cleared similar to a drawing in my vision book, convincing me that dreams are a powerful agent in the manifesting process.