How often have you been told that you just need to exercise and eat a balanced diet to make you healthy? Often, we think that. However, when you focus on the four key elements, you can create balance along with lasting health and success. So, let’s discover the 4 elements of a healthy body and mind. Then create better overall holistic health. Reclaim that spring in your step.

Last week I caught up with an old friend that I had not seen in a while. During the conversation she asked how my business was going? “Great I said”. Telling her that I am taking my practice to the next level. She was quite curious and asked me to explain.

I told her that this year I had engaged a Spiritual mentor to help support me, as well as take my business to the next level. My friend’s immediate response was “oh so you are moving out of health”. I was a bit taken aback at this! Explaining that spirituality is an essential part of good health. Launching into a rather detailed conversation around my perspective on holistic health.

So, let me share some aspects on my take on health. As humans we consist of four elements. We have the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual element. When we nurture all four of these elements we come from a place of balance in all aspects of our life. We are happy, content, joyful, energised, always positive, and in flow with life.

“Your mind, emotions and body are instruments,

And the way you align and tune them determines

How well you play life”.

Harbhajan Singh Yogi

Living in a disruptive world, surrounded by lots of fear and confusion has a big impact on all four of these elements. It can lead to us to feeling disconnected, lost, lonely, exhausted, sick, anxious, and totally overwhelmed. Generally, this can be an indication that one or more of our four elements are out of balance.

So, let’s explore each element a bit more: –

MENTAL

Represents our intellectual side, the analytics, thoughts, and judgement. The way that we process information, our mind is the control centre. It is the doing part. Thee logical part that drives the body. As we connect with other elements and integrate in a gentle, functional way. It allows us to operate with an open heart that is more giving and understanding, without ego. Bring in some self-compassion and watch the internal shift occur. Recognising our value and self-worth is the foundation to build from. Aligning our values and beliefs lets us get clear on our identity. Being out of balance will manifest in conditions like brain fog, confusion, low self-esteem, doubt, and lethargy. Some techniques to help balance this element is through yoga, cardio exercise, and mentoring.

PHYSICAL

Represents our physical experience in our world. The physical health of the body must be a priority so that we can be free of pain. We must support, strengthen, and heal the body by creating space and quiet time for meditation, mindfulness, breathing and contemplation. Ingest good-quality nutrition free from preservatives and added chemicals. Move the body in a way that assists the bodies detoxifying process, especially walking barefoot in nature. The physical element is about the strength and health of our cells and organs within the body. Nutrients need to get into the cells to provide the energy required to heal and repair.

EMOTIONAL

Our emotional element is like a bridge between our physical and mental element. Our emotions trigger the actions we need to address before our body becomes aware of them. The more present we become with our feelings, the more effective we will be at understanding the messages coming from them. When we address our emotions, we heal the mind and release fear. As we create space we can now start to heal and strengthen ourselves. Breathing exercises, acts of kindness, forgiveness and dance are some ways that bring the emotional body into balance. As the emotional element strengthens and develops, energy is amplified, intuition is heightened.  Hormones, blood sugar and blood pressure start to normalise and balance

SPIRITUAL

Connects to the universe, we are all interconnected. It encompasses the union between our soul and destiny and everything in-between. Balance of this element leads to more expansive thinking and knowing that we are greater than the sum of our parts. That we are being guided and protected by a higher source. A sign of being disconnected here is having a sense of entitlement, failing to listen to your gut and feeling separate from being an active participant of society. Try meditation, mindfulness, breath work, practice gratitude and kindness to support the balance of the spiritual element.

Interestingly, the mental and physical elements carry a masculine energy, and the emotional and spiritual energies carry feminine energies. By creating a balance within ourselves with the masculine and physical energies not only improves our health and wellness but empowers us for a successful life and career.

If this blog has resonated with you, I would love to hear your thoughts?

P.S: Coming soon in early November 2021 my “TRANSFORM” Retreat, in Queensland. Being held over 5 nights and 6 days this will be a retreat to relax, unwind and go deep within to heal and transform. More information coming soon. If this resonates with you, please drop me a note if you if you would like more information?

The post Discover the 4 elements of a healthy body and mind appeared first on Joan McEwan.

Are you struggling to stay focussed on your life and career? Is multitasking the norm? Do you never seem to have enough time in the day to get through your “to do list”? Then maybe it is time to take a step back, refocus and rebalance to keep your eye on the prize!

I am sure we can relate to someone who is so disorganised that we feel stressed being around them. It is easy to notice that they seem to be “all over the place”. They seem to be anxious and on edge all the time but never really seem to achieve very much.

Neuroscience tells us that our brain works most efficiently when we focus on one task at a time. This allows us to put all our energy into this task to complete it efficiently. However too much focus for too long can cause us to exhaust the focus circuits in our brain causing us to drain our energy and impair our decision-making ability. The data suggests that the brain works optimally when we flip between focussed and unfocussed periods during the day.

When we create a balance, we get the best out of our body, mind, and life. Try alternating between focussed and unfocussed tasks to stay energised and prevent depletion. Use tools like task lists, and calendar reminders and alternate these with some downtime. This allows your mind to daydream, practice mindfulness or read a novel.

It is exciting that every day we are learning more about how we can work smarter and not harder. So how do we stay focussed on our end goal our prize? Discussing ways to create efficiencies with my clients can often create stress. They are often just too exhausted to think about planning a new strategy.

Did you know that people who can visually describe their goals are 1.2 – 2.4 times more likely to achieve their goals. Part of the reason this happens that when we write things down and visualise them. They are more likely to be stored in our long-term memory.

You see our currency for success is energy. As we become more energised, this equips us to maintain and sustain our success. However, being too exhausted prevents our ability to maintain the momentum to succeed.

As Tony Robbins says, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”. Having a vision (your prize) is important but if you don’t have a plan to get there then you will constantly feel depleted, frustrated and success will be hard to reach and sustain.

3 Tips to keep your eye on the prize!

1. Plan and visualise your key tasks every day. We know that thoughts create our reality and in turn generate emotions and feelings. This causes us to take action to produce results.
2. Get to know how you feel and what time of the day you feel most productive. Once you identify this period, schedule your most important tasks during this time.
3. Avoid multitasking and instead alternate between focussed and unfocussed tasks. That way you are creating a balance and conserving your energy.

Viewing your body and mind currency as energy helps to better understand how to fuel our body. Good fuel in = greater efficiencies, productivity, and success. This creates a “feel good” experience that makes us want to do more of this.

The food that you eat becomes currency for your body to strengthen and become more efficient, while supporting healthy longevity. So, when you consider the food, you eat as fuel for your body and mind then you start to make better food choices. To start, consider adding foods to your diet that will improve brain health such as avocado’s, olive oil, walnuts, and cold-water fish such as tuna and salmon.

Look forward to hearing how you go?

The post Keep your eye on the prize! appeared first on Joan McEwan.

Each season brings new perspectives and new opportunities to make changes and evaluate the current status. Deciding to tweak the journey to stay dynamic, flexible, and growing is a choice. Brought about by increased awareness. However, changing direction can feel uncomfortable!

“When you change the way, you look at things.

The things you look at change”

– Wayne Dyer

Many years ago, I was living a comfortable life. Married, building a career whilst studying, supporting the kids through school, all while taking our extended family for granted. It was a busy time. At times it felt like we were just hanging on as the merry go round went furiously round and round. Stuck in a routine that kept us comfortable.

So, what changed? One winter day, I received a phone call just after breakfast from my sister. She broke the news to me that she was sick, with 12 months to live. What a shock this news was. I was totally unprepared. However later I realised that it was a defining moment in my life.

It was at the end of winter the following year, as spring was emerging when we buried my sister. I could feel a change in the air but was not sure what it meant. Somehow, I knew life was going to be different from this minute on. My life was about to change in ways I could not have imagined!

Changing direction can feel uncomfortable! Over the next few months my life became chaotic. Career change, job change, family dynamics all changed as well as my values. What had felt important before, no longer seemed to matter. I felt challenged on all facets of my life and career and feeling uncomfortable quickly became the norm. Struggling through life for a while, manoeuvring through the storm of change and emotions that came with it. It took a while for that chaos to settle and clarity to emerge.

On reflection I could see that during that fateful springtime, when we buried my sister, the chaos that ensued because of this event pushed me out of my comfort zone. Feeling this discomfort and leaning into it was challenging. However, in a way it strengthened my resilience and I found myself being faced with opportunities that I just leaped right into.

Like many of us, we get caught up with life, career, and family. Not enough time to appreciate the important things in life. Our priorities get all out of whack! We become out of balance and dis-ease sets in. Quite often we are unaware of this for a while. It can be an insidious process.

So, what is the point? Well, it is often difficult to see the changes that we need to make on our life journey when we are experiencing the chaos that life can bring to us. I believe that we are all more alike than different and we are all called upon to change direction as we go through life. So how do we get comfortable with being uncomfortable?

Here are my three tips that may help:

1. Develop and attitude of gratitude, find the simple things in your life to be grateful for and most of all be kind to yourself
2. Review your vision board and update it to reflect your current situation
3. Put on some calm, relaxing music as you Identify your current fear and sit with it, then do some deep belly breathing for a couple of minutes and with each breath you exhale let go of a piece of the fear. Repeat this as often as you feel that you need to

Remember, changing direction can feel uncomfortable! When we find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation, we can turn this to our advantage, lean into it and use this energy to assist us to tweak our journey and goals. The lighter our energy becomes, the more agile and flexible we are, change and growth occur, mindset shifts, and we feel happier with increased momentum.

Would love to hear your thoughts?

The post Changing direction can feel uncomfortable! appeared first on Joan McEwan.

We are all leaders whether it be in business, in our personal life or in our career. Many leaders strive to be authentic, but many miss the mark. I believe to be authentic and inspirational; you must be wise. Understanding yourself gives you the courage and ability to support others in a truly authentic way. Wise leadership starts with you!

Personal Power!

Own your personal power, live by your values and integrity, this takes courage and builds trust. Raising your vibrational energy to attract simplicity and honesty into your life as you build on your self-compassion. What we see in others is a reflection of what is within us. People come into our lives not by chance but for a reason. Often it is to help us explore a deeper level of ourselves. To learn from them and become a better person.

Story!

Recently, I started working with a client that I had worked with many years ago in the Corporate world. Let’s call her Stacey. For the last few years, she had been working overseas for some large global companies. Her skills were highly sought after, and she was chasing the fame and fortune that comes with working for these large global entities. Initially, it was exciting. She felt like she was riding on the crest of a wave and then insidiously the tides turned.

What had changed?

Once Stacey settled into the rhythm of the organisation, knowing that she was doing great work, the board loved the work she was doing, however it was becoming clearer that there was a disconnect.

However, Stacey’s work was acknowledged and filed away, without being executed. Unable to influence others effectively, due to her mindset. It had shifted, she was becoming negative as she was feeling undervalued. This state escalated. Stacey became more vocal within the organisation, making her quite unpopular with the board. She realised that if she did not conform to the “rules of the organisation” her work would remain a compliance exercise. Her work being filed away until the next organisational audit. Merely a reference tool!

Being a leader!

As Max De Pree quoted “the leader is the servant who removes the obstacles that prevent people from doing their jobs”. Stacey realised that she had stopped being a leader as she felt like she was facing an avalanche of obstacles every day and couldn’t clear them away. Her team were getting mixed messages and as a result lost confidence in Stacey’s leadership, their trust in her diminished and fragmentation of the team occurred.

Take a holistic approach!

When we talk about authentic leadership or wise leadership, it requires integration of the thoughts in the mind, feelings of the heart and sensation from the gut. Research is now showing that when you integrate your thinking along with your intuition, you build a sound base of self-compassion this leads to you becoming a wise and trusted leader. You learn to trust yourself, you become really honest with yourself and it assists you with aligning the work you do with your values and beliefs.

It is all about influencing and not controlling your team, gaining their trust as they get to know the real you. This is hard to do when you lose sight of your values and direction. As Simon Sinek said, “a boss has the title, a leader has the people”.

Time to re-invent!

Stacey had realised that her leadership style had become confused, and she came to me seeking answers to how she could re-invent herself to become a more sustainable leader, a wise leader. After our initial chat she realised that wise leadership begins with you! This was her defining moment. Realising, she had to go within herself to become stronger, more courageous to become that fulfilled leader. She wanted to become that wise leader.

Dynamic leadership of the future requires wise leaders to have an entrepreneurial mind, that is open and expansive, always looking for opportunities and “out of the box” thinking. This needs to align with a strong moral compass and a soul that cares for themselves, others as well as the environment.

21st Century leadership!

21^st century leadership needs to be holistic, looking at all aspects as we are all interconnected in the universe. Moving forward in a sustainable, agile and dynamic way requires acknowledgement and consideration of all aspects to achieve the best results. Therefore, wise leadership starts with you!

So, like Stacey, when you are ready to re-energise your leadership style and develop a wise leadership model? Consider the following 3 steps:

1. Be more mindful and make conscious decisions based on your beliefs and values
2. Focus on self-compassion, really dig deep, be honest with yourself and unravel what your purpose is. Time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable!
3. A greater sense of self-compassion creates stronger connections. Building trust allowing for collaboration to amplify.

Does your leadership style need to be updated or re-energised? Reach out for a chat or to have a consultation with me now

The post Wise leadership starts with you! appeared first on Joan McEwan.

At times it is easier to travel the path of least resistance. To just keep doing what other people tell you to do without question when the financial reward means that you can feed and support your family in a comfortable way. We create a disconnect when we do not align with our values and beliefs, creating a lack of fulfilment. Perceptions are clouded when we stop seeing the signs!

Choices!

Choosing to earn a comfortable wage, at the cost of sacrificing religious principles, personal health, and family values can have devastating consequences. Commonly, we can all experience this, Getting caught up in the cycle of trying to fast-track our career, Trying to make a better life for ourselves and our family, or just simply wanting more.

Exploitation!

The Sherpa documentary highlights how easy it is to get caught up in doing work that you do not believe in. The impacts can affect many. This documentary highlights the plight of the Nepalese ethnic tribe, the Sherpas, who are quiet, gentle, and unassuming people. These people act as guides to prepare the way up the mountain to make it as safe as possible for the climbers to reach the summit.

The Sherpas earning more in the two-month climbing period each year than what they would earn from an annual Nepal wage. Bringing to light how tour operators in collaboration with the Nepal government exploited their good nature.

Expedition climbers paid an extraordinary amount of money to climb Mount Everest. A portion of this money went to the local government and the tour operators. In comparison, the Sherpas only received a small amount.

The Risks!

For the expedition climbers to reach the summit, the Sherpas had to risk their lives to make the passage up the mountain as safe as possible. This entailed conducting many trips up the mountain under hazardous conditions, carrying large volumes of equipment whilst setting up camps for the climbers.

The 2014 Everest climbing period, marked the turning point of the exploitation of the Sherpas. Being a Sherpa is more than a job. They are a religious tribe that are spiritually connected to the mountain. But despite their respect for the mountain, they ignored the fear that was growing inside them, knowing that the climbing had become too commercial.  Respect for the Sherpas and the mountain had waned.

Consequently, the Sherpas were forced to take more risks. During a night climb, a 14,000-ton block of ice crashes down on the group, killing sixteen Sherpas. However, the expedition climbers all escaped injury and wanted to continue the climb.

The Change!

The Sherpas were angry and fearful. Even the government failed to support them. Eventually, they cancelled the climbing season. The healing process began as the Sherpas went home to their village to grieve for the loss of their family members and friends.

A year later, again, the climbing season was cancelled due to an avalanche killing over 22 people. Two major tragedies with loss of life forced the Sherpas to revisit their values, culture, and religious beliefs. They had lost sight of what was important to them, family, friends, and the spirituality of the mountain.

Tragedy should be utilised as a source of strength.

No matter what sort of difficulties,

how painful experience is,

if we lose our hope,

that’s our real disaster”.

Dalai Lama

Can you relate?

Can you relate to this? Have you lost sight of what is important to you? Has your career and earning capacity affected your decision making? Have your values and beliefs been impacted on choices you are making that may not be serving your best interests?

When we stop listening to the messages! It is a timely reminder that it is time to “put the brakes on” and reset. What are the messages that you have been ignoring? And what will be the consequences if you don’t start listening and make some changes?

The Price to pay!

Unfortunately for the Sherpas, two major tragedies occured with many fatalities occurring before they were forced to take a look at what had happened to them, their culture, and their communities.

They had just been ignoring the messages from their families when they told them they didn’t want them climbing the mountain. The families were fearful for their lives. They had become out of balance with everything.

So, where to start?

1. Take time to listen to what your instincts are telling you and resonate with them, your feelings and emotions will guide you to make the right choices.
2. Ask yourself, does your job, lifestyle, career make you happy, or do you feel “empty” and unfulfilled? If so, you know what you need to do.
3. Practice short bursts of mindfulness or meditation, clear the mind fog, and give yourself space to think clearer
4. Drink 8 – 10 glasses of filtered water every day to start to flush out some toxins and rehydrate your brain cells so they can work more efficiently.

Simple steps will allow you to make the changes that you need in life. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. When you’re ready to take the next step, check out the “Heal in Noosa” Retreat, this might just be the nudge you are looking for to make different choices!

The post When we stop seeing the signs! appeared first on Joan McEwan.