Last weekend my focus was on taking time out for me, to “fill my cup” and recharge. Time to top up my self-compassion tank. This is a key element to finding happiness and a successful journey. Many of us ask ourselves what happiness is and why is it so important? Others think that being happy whilst in the company of others is enough.

Whilst many of us feel happy when we are in the company of other like-minded people, however often this feeling is often short-lived. It is easy to look to others for our happiness, but the reality is we must find happiness deep within us for it to have meaning in our life. A quick fix is only temporary and when it fades, we start looking for other “quick happiness fixes”. It can be an exhausting process and can leave us feeling empty inside.

Happiness is not something ready made.

It comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

This emotion must come from us so that it becomes aligned to our values and resonates with us. Digging deep to understand what brings us joy and makes us happy. To journey into that quiet space deep within and explore the feelings that arise. What are they telling us? What is it that our soul is yearning for? Listening to these whispers is a bit like exploring our roadmap and making sense of our journey. Being supported as we are guided.

Last weekend, I hung out with some of my family as we celebrated my youngest grandchild’s birthday. It was a fun and noisy time with lots of food, drinks, play, and balloon popping! My granddaughter loved opening and playing with her presents, and later I asked her “what was the best part of her birthday”. She responded, “it was having my family at my house and playing with me”.

Out of the mouth of babes! Children intuitively know what they need and what brings them joy. Most of the time they pick up on emotions and intuitively gravitate to them, which leads them to their “happy place”. Even though it was exciting to get lots of presents, it was the human connection of family that had the greatest impact. Being able to share her special day with people she loves and trusts. People who are in her corner cheering her on, guiding and supporting her.

As adults, we sometimes lose sight of this and get a bit disconnected from our feelings. When this happens, it is a reminder that it is time to return home. To go within and ask ourselves “what is it that brings me joy and makes my heart sing”?

Going within to understand yourself better helps the healing process on so many levels and lays the foundation to set you for success. Happiness is a necessary ingredient to heal, it helps raise the energy of the body. When our body energy becomes raised and amplified, less negativity can impact us.

Here is my recipe to get started on your journey to find real happiness: –

1. Respect yourself: As you begin to respect yourself, you are accepting your values and beliefs. Starting to trust the fact that you are worthy and gain confidence to speak your truth and have a voice.

2. Love yourself: As you look in the mirror every day, remind yourself of all the positive attributes that you have. Know that this is what makes you unique and own your own story. These are your life lessons to learn.

3. Believe in yourself: When you love yourself, it is easy to believe in yourself. Your self-belief is the foundation that allows you to gain strength and acts as a building block to provide more structure to your road map.

4. Forgive yourself and others: When you forgive, it allows you to let go of deep-seated resentment. Letting go of the negativity that would otherwise fester within you creating dis-ease. Forgiveness is paramount to healing and in turn success. Holding onto negative thoughts and feelings uses too much energy, so let them go and free up this energy for positive thoughts and let happiness in.  

Would love to hear your recipe is for happiness?

The post Happiness is? appeared first on Joan McEwan.

As we come to the second half of a very turbulent year, many of my clients have been struggling with anxiety and fear around their lives and their future. You are not alone; this has been a common theme for many people both in business, career and personally. Is it time to refocus and re-energise?

Does this sound like you?

• Wondering where you are now?
• Reflecting on where you have been?
• Confused about the direction you thought you were going in?

Do you feel tired and bored of the same old routine? Feel that you need a re-boot to get you out of your comfort zone and feel motivated and inspired? Besides, It is time to refocus and re-energise. Use the energies around you to support the changes in a gentle way.

Our mind and body are one system that is intrinsically connected, although we often view them as separate. When we do a reset, we need to work with both the mind and body in parallel to get balance. Most importantly we need to have fun while we do this and enjoy our life, so creating a balance is super important.

The more balance that is created and maintained the more positive results can be achieved. It’s a bit like when you do a spring clean in your house and get rid of the clutter and dust, the house becomes cleaner and feels lighter as the air is also cleaned. Just like the house when you reset and refocus your body and mind it becomes lighter and clearer. Providing a clear space for new thinking and recharging of energy.

Furthermore, as you reset you need to ask yourself “where do you want to go?” and feel how excited this makes you feel. In fact, changing your environment and surrounding yourself with like-minded people will stimulate new thinking and ideas for you. Particularly, it helps you to get some clarity.

These simple steps start the healing process from within. Deepak Chopra talks about the metaphysics of our bodies and how we are atoms in the universe. He goes on to discuss how energy affects spiritual and physical health. As such, we understand that before we have dis – ease within the physical body we have had clues in our energy fields that have been alerting us to take certain actions with our thought processes.

Let’s imagine that we have a thought, and it is telling us to slow down, to take better care of ourselves. Quite often we do not listen to that thought, our inner voice and, we keep going, getting busier and busier, burning the candle at both ends.

We may even start to take more supplements, energy drinks, and anything that may give us a boost of energy. This will support us for a while but eventually, the body becomes so depleted both emotionally and physically that something drastic happens to bring your attention to a part of you that needs to stop and make a change.

For example, you may have sustained a broken leg, twisted ankle, or back injury that forces you to slow down. You instantly become immobile. The injury incapacitates and makes you listen to what your body is telling you. This is an opportunity to reset and re-energise. Learn the lesson and move forward with a different perspective.

Let’s head back to the basics as we do a reset and start with simple practices that will help heal the body and mind.

How herbal teas can help:

1. A cup of camomile tea will aid relaxation, reduce inflammation, and boost your immune system.
2. Drink ginger tea in the morning, it acts as a circulatory stimulant, boosts metabolism, and increases blood flow whilst supporting digestion.
3. A cup of peppermint tea in the morning may support your digestion and reduce that bloating sensation.

If this newsletter has resonated with you and you are being called to refocus and re-energise in your business, career, or life. I wanted to let you know about a special opportunity to help you refocus, re-energise, and learn how to use energy to change your life positively on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

If you are curious about how you can change and transform, don’t wait any longer. Transform and Heal workshops are running on the Gold Coast, through August to October 2021, check out available dates here.

PS – Would you also consider forwarding this email to another high-performing businesswoman you know? This may just be the perfect workshop for her to refocus and re-energise.

The post Is it time to refocus and re-energise? appeared first on Joan McEwan.