Grow by Paulo Coelho

Take time to smell the roses

It's an often-used phrase, but actually there is sound research to suggest that taking time out for a short walk in a natural environment, doesn't just help your physical health, but also your sense of well-being.  

Find a place to walk for 20-30 minutes, like a park or canal path, where you can contemplate nature.  Take time to fully experience your environment.  Use all your senses to allow yourself to be fully present.

You are what you eat...

January. Often it's the time of year where we own up to the fact that we eat too much, and chow down on things that we know aren't good for us.  Maybe we graze a little too often, or we are guilty of substituting a good lunch for that 'bag of crisps starter with a chocolate bar desert' lunch-on-the-go, because we are busy and running behind schedule.

What we eat affects our physical and mental health.

There are thousands of websites to get information on how to eat better and apps that will help you track your calorie intake.  The real key is to make a decision that you are going to change.

Here's just one site to help you get started.  You are where you are, so if you decide to complete the University of Nottingham's self assessment questionnaire, don't feel guilty.  Make small changes that you can sustain and build on.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/work-health-wellbeing/physical-health/diet-nutrition.aspx

Sleep on it.

When was the last time you assessed the quality of your sleeping?  Sounds a bit strange, doesn't it?  But this seemingly 'doing nothing' part of our day, is vital to our health and well-being.  In these days of multiple social media channels, many people are making checking their Facebook page or emails, their first and last activity of the day.  It's not that this is necessarily a bad habit, in itself, although you could argue that receiving bad news at the start of a day is not going to help your mood for the rest of it, nor is a difficult text just before you put the lights out going to help you sleep.  What I'm really asking, is do you at least question whether or not to check your phone?  Or have you got into the habit of doing it automatically, without a thought to the consequences?  Are you sleepwalking into a bad night's sleep?

There are lots of resources out there that give advice on how to sleep better.  There are even apps that will monitor your natural bio-rhythms and wake you up in a way that sets you up for the day.

Here's just one site to get you started:

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/how-to-sleep-better.htm

Thought for the day:  What is one thing you could do (or stop doing) that would help you get the most from your sleep?

Energise yourself by doing the same for others

A bang-up-to-date take on staying energised at work appeared this week on The Chartered Institute of Personnel Management's blog (5 Jan 2016):

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2016/01/05/opinion-how-high-are-your-energy-levels-it-s-a-question-that-hr-should-ask-more.aspx

The article by Jan Hills, 'How high are your energy levels?' argues that we can have a positive effect on our colleagues.  

Here are some of the things that Jan recommends you can do to help promote energy in the workplace:

• Seek out someone who is high energy and feed off their positive emotions 

• Clarify your goals for the year and take one or two steps towards achieving them 

• Do something you feel passionate about 

• Work on something you know you are good at. We feel more energised when we connect with our competence 

• Spend time with other people, preferably people you like and preferably face to face.

Thought for the day:  Pick one of the above and experiment with it for a day.  The positive energy you put out will find a way back to you.

Letting go

One of the powerful messages in Gill Hasson's book, 'Mindfulness' is that she shows practical applications for living your life in a mindful way.  One contributing factor to our well-being is having the capacity and courage to forgive.  As Gill says in her book, 'Forgiveness means letting go of the resentment, frustration or anger that you feel as a result of someone else's actions.  It involves no longer wanting punishment, revenge or compensation.'

Acting in a forgiving way is definitely one of those things that is much easier to say than it is to do, especially if you feel you have been wronged or treated unfairly.  The first step in forgiving someone is to acknowledge how you feel.  Don't judge it, nor diminish it; it's just how you feel.  It may really be the case that you are the injured party and the other person did not act kindly towards you.  No matter, it's in the past and it's what you do next that counts.

If you can truly acknowledge how you feel about what happened to you and your feelings towards the other person, the next stage is to let go.  For some people, this happens as a natural consequence of the first step; simply giving yourself time to fully explore what happened can cause you to let it go.  At other times you may want to create a more structured or deliberate act, for example, saying, 'I forgive you' out loud.

Finally, there is the process of acceptance.  Accepting what has happened, accepting that the past cannot be changed and choosing to move forward in a way that creates the kind of future you want.

Thought for the day:  If there is something or someone, from the past, that is now holding you back, find a way to forgive.  This is for you, you are doing it for your own well-being.  If another person was involved in the original incident, they do not necessarily have to be present for you to feel better.

'We're lost in music, caught in a trap...'

In his book, 'Distraction', Damon Young argues that 'distraction is the very opposite of emancipation', or to put it another way, there are so many influences on our lives (on demand TV, social media, 24/7 news etc) that we lose sight of who we are.  We are distracted away from what is really worthwhile and trade it for feeling busy.  It's a fascinating book and in each chapter he offers up ideas for becoming less distracted, more mindful and more attuned to creating who we want to be.  

One chapter is devoted to using the arts as a way of creating or simply for becoming more mindful. As he says, that doesn't mean we all have to be artistic geniuses and aim to paint like Van Gogh while singing like Maria Callas.  It's about creating and appreciating:  

'If we can’t all be professional artists, we can certainly seek this distinctive liberty in a more attuned perception and in lively imagination.  Given the attention it deserves, art is no diversion – it can liberate us from life’s commonplace distractions. What’s common is an inability to overcome education and training, to resist the baggage of entrenched knowledge.'

Thought for the day:  Spend time looking at the inherent beauty in things.  Pick an object, study it's form or how the light falls on it and appreciate it for what it is, no more, no less.  Take five minutes of your day and allow yourself to get totally lost in a piece of music, a text or a past-time.

'If even the simplest thing can transform into a tool of art, then we can’t be lax in our concentration and sensitivity.  Art can come and go without pomp and ceremony, leaving us unaware of what we’ve lost.  But the formula for enjoying this alchemy is remarkably simple: an artist who wields his tools with honesty and care, an audience with the sincere sensitivity to watch, listen and learn – and perhaps a writer to immortalise this magic.  From these bonds come some of the most vivid, gripping and profound of life’s metamorphoses.'