CENTRE

Are you out of alignment?

Are you out of alignment?

Are you out of alignment?

After a few niggles resurfaced recently I booked myself in for a physio MOT.

I was expecting to have a few small adjustments.

A once over to iron out any little things before they became bigger. A self care top up.

It turns out my ribs were completely out of alignment!

For a long time I’d been walking around slightly twisted to the left. Compressed on one side, with my poor neck constantly stretched to try and keep my eyes level.

Yikes.

And yet it hadn’t felt ALL wrong.

It hadn’t felt completely right either, but my body had adapted and was doing a brilliant job of keeping me upright.

Until it got too tired and started to send out some signals.

How do you know when it’s time to take a break?

How do you know when it’s time to take a break?

How do you know when it’s time to take a break?

It can be so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life.

To keep going, even when we feel exhausted.

To bounce from high to low with the support of sugar and caffeine.

To not even realise that we need to stop until it’s too late.

The topic of how to manage energy - both physical and mental - has come up a lot in coaching recently.

How to be productive without burning out?

How to know when to push on and when to take a break?

And how to do so in a sustainable way?

It’s a topic that’s close to my heart.

Do you need to speed up or slow down?

Do you need to speed up or slow down?

When I’m coaching with someone - and when I’m being coached - there can often be a sense of stuckness.

We know what we need to do to move forward.

To get closer to where we want to be.

And yet, we don’t do it.

Sometimes we can be stuck with our foot on the brake, teetering on the edge of a step. Worried about making a mistake or going in the wrong direction.

Sometimes we can be stuck with our foot on the accelerator, not daring to slow down because we think we don’t have time. Scared that if we stop things could fall apart.

In the worst cases, it’s both. Pulling us in different directions and adding to the overwhelm.

It’s so easy to find ourselves here. Stuck between speeding up, and slowing down.

Do you need to design in some rest weeks?

Do you need to design in some rest weeks?

How does your energy work over time?

Do you wake up every day, every week, of every year with the same amount of it?

Or does it ebb and flow?

With times when you feel you could take on anything, times when you need to curl up and hibernate, and times when you just want to get outside and play?

Like the seasons of the year, most of us vary. We don’t all have access to the same amount of energy all the time.

And yet we can expect that we ‘should’, and feel surprised that we’re not operating at our ‘usual’ capacity.

This is me right now. Really ready for a hammock!

What does your anger feel like?

What does your anger feel like?

I’ve just finished a yoga class where I experienced really strong feelings of anger. And it was brilliant!

When I was a little girl I was super connected to my anger. I could feel it freely and easily - and often did.

As I grew older I lost my connection with it.

I wasn’t sure how to express it when I felt it (because good girls don’t get angry), and eventually I wasn’t even sure how to recognise it.

It got jumbled up in my body with other emotions.

Until recently.

Until I felt A L L the yoga rage in a hot Hatha class with the fabulous Vinna Barber.

Are you skipping the scary parts?

Are you skipping the scary parts?

The first date my husband and I went on was to see Pulp Fiction at the cinema. He quickly realised I’m not good with the scary bits!

I spent most of the film with my face pressed into his shoulder and my fingers in my ears (miraculously we’re still together nearly 30 years later).

I’m still not great with anticipatory fear on screen. I close my eyes. I block my ears. I find it really hard to watch.

And it can affect life off screen too. Fear of what might be - the unknown - can often slow me down and keep me stuck.


And yet…

The easy trap of compare and despair…

The easy trap of compare and despair…

“Do you find yourself contrasting how someone else’s life looks on the outside, with how yours feels on the inside?

Can it feel as though everyone else is doing it ‘better’?

Is compare and despair an easy trap for you to fall into?

Me too. My inner critic absolutely loves to jump into this place.

A snapshot of someone else’s life can bring up a whole lot of stuff for many of us. Especially if it lands in a tender spot.

This was brought to life for me recently - but from the other side of the experience…

Does your inner perfectionist have their magnifying glass out?

Does your inner perfectionist have their magnifying glass out?

A few weeks ago I was writing an email and found myself comparing two slightly different versions.

Which was better?

Was there a magically perfect version to be created by combining them?

What would be the best one that would make the biggest difference?

And then I caught myself. Or not me, but my inner perfectionist who loves to get her magnifying glass out and scrutinise the smallest of details.

Are you running on autopilot?

Are you running on autopilot?

We have two paths down to the cabin at the end of our garden. Can you spot them?

There’s the one we want everyone to take…

… and the one the dog has created all on his own by hurling himself down the garden.

He does this when he desperately needs to assess the situation and combat any threats to our borders. He’s on autopilot.

Funnily enough he trots back down on the ‘official one’, when he’s calm and relaxed and has everything under control.

We all have these types of automatic reactions, but often they’re not as easy to spot!

Are you carrying around a huge bag of worries right now?

Are you carrying around a huge bag of worries right now?

I’m having a lot of coaching conversations about uncertainly at the moment.

About how to navigate through it at a time of restructures, changing circumstances, and other unknowns, as well as how to help others navigate through it too.

One of the main questions has been how to start a conversation about it, in a way that’s useful.

And how to hold the worry of other people while you’re also holding your own.

I’ve been pulling out The Huge Bag of Worries by Virginia Ironside, and sharing the wisdom within it as a useful tool to explore.