Category: Challenges

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Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Today’s post is written by a guest blogger, Ree Ree Rockette of Rockalily Cuts. It continues the theme of creating your own happiness. Enjoy!

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone and Leaving

What You Know for What You Love

Teaching was definitely deep within my comfort zone; being in control, a cause I felt passionate about, a respectable career path, a clear path to promotion. But yet, it wasn’t quite enough for me. I liked it, but the idea of doing it for the next ten years caused a wave of panic through my veins!

I was good at teaching, and really wasn’t sure what else I could ever be good at. I’d never been creative, never been particularly practical with my hands, or had any talents with an obvious value.

Ree Ree is now a blogger and business woman

I think I started with a brainstorming session. My blog had been gaining its own legs, so I started by thinking about whether my blog could become anything else. Could any of my new experiences in my part time job (stage managing burlesque shows) or my blogging lead me to any new career paths?

It was pretty obvious that I didn’t really want to work for someone else, although of course I knew I’d need a part time job while I started something of my own. What would I love doing, if it wasn’t teaching?!

Rather than the scary task of flicking through career books, I started by dreaming of my dream day. Did I want to start early or late? Did I want to work solo or with a team? Did I like deadlines? Did I want an office or a job I could do at home? I then moved on to considering what my actual talents and skills were. What transferrable skills had I developed?

Another perk of running your own business: the salon dog, Ellington makes himself at home

I also asked people who knew me, what they thought I’d be good at. The answers sometimes surprised me, but they always made me reflect on what I wanted my life to become.

Eventually the path led to creating my own lipstick brand, and recently to opening my own hair salon in London. Part of my soul will always be a teacher, but this is definitely what I love. I get to challenge my brain, stretch my personal abilities, and measure my success by concrete achievements. I have loved learning about business, branding and marketing, and I also get to pass on some of my experiences with the business group I set up, called Wonderful Women: Minding Our Own Business.

It wasn’t obvious at the start what I loved, and I definitely liked teaching a lot, but in the end (and I’m only at the beginning really!) I found the right path for me. And I love it.

Ree Ree Rockette’s website is Rockalily.com. You can find her salon Rockalily Cuts at 205a, Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AN.

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New challenges: Cognitive Hypnotherapy

Spring in London, Regent’s ParkThis weekend was really exciting for me as I began fulfilling a long-wished-for dream – I have begun my training to be a cognitive hypnotherapist. I am really excited (and slightly daunted) by the prospect of leaning so much more about hypnotherapy, the mind and NLP, and how I can use these skills to support my clients. I had spent ages looking for the right course, and as soon as I had my interview, I knew it was the right place for me. This weekend was full of exciting content and I felt a deepening in a lot of my understandings. The new techniques and philosophies I will be learning sit really well with what I have already learnt, so I feel that I can build on the skills I already have and hone new ones. I hope that as well as enjoying the amazing journey, all of this will help me become an even better therapist.

The picture above is of a beautiful tree I walked past on the way to the college. Even thought it’s is a very busy part of London, I noticed several other people stopping to take a photo of it too 🙂

The picture below is from Action for Happiness – it sums up how I feel about the work I do.
Working with people and helping them to be the best they can is what I enjoy the most

If you’d like to talk to me more about NLP, hypnotherapy or anything else, drop me a line or connect via Facebook or Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Self Coaching Tip – Do Something Difficult

Looking down on Curral das Freiras, Madeira. I have been persisting with trying to write this blog for 18 months now, and it has been something which I have found really hard. To start with, I felt as though I didn’t know much about technology, and even though I enjoyed reading other blogs on diverse subjects, I wasn’t sure whether anyone would be interested in anything I had to say. After talking to other bloggers, I finally took the plunge, nervously I might add. On the one hand, I wondered if anyone had seen my post, and on the other, I was scared that anybody would have! I was very self-conscious about it and didn’t really tell anyone that I had started a blog.

Even now, after 18 months I find it very hard. I am incredibly chatty and have lots of ideas, thoughts and feelings about many subjects, but writing about them has been a huge challenge for me. I am still finding my ‘voice’ as it were. So, it would make sense to just stop writing, which would save me lots of time and effort, but that is precisely the reason I have to carry on. The fact that it is so hard for me, gives me even greater satisfaction when I publish a blog post, or I hear that someone else has benefited from what I have learnt. 

 Persistence and resilience are king in this tip, but I am also going to practice writing, specifically free writing (just allowing myself to write about whatever comes into my head without a particular format). I think that will help me to clarify my ideas before I sit down at the computer and might make it less difficult for me.

To benefit from this self coaching tip, I would urge you to:

do something new that you find difficult, or persist a little longer at something you are thinking of abandoning.

You might just find it brings you more than you expected. 

If you have any thoughts on this subject, please leave me a comment or press the ‘share’ buttons below. 

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Visit to Edinburgh and Climbing Arthur’s Seat

I have always wanted to visit Edinburgh, so I took the opportunity to do so when I was last up in Northumberland, just before Christmas. However, the idea of walking around the shops three days before Christmas was the last thing I wanted to do, so instead the day was spent exploring Holyrood Park and climbing Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano.

Beautiful lake on the climb up. It took me 30 minutes to climb to this bit.

View of Edinburgh from Arthur’s Seat (still a climb to the top)

The top of Arthur’s Seat! 251 metres up in the air!

Doing this climb was quite a challenge for me, being rather unfit! Luckily, it was a dry and fair day, although it was pretty cold. Climbing up was hard in terms of breathing (I was huffing and puffing a lot), but climbing down was tricky because it looked a lot steeper in real life than it does in the photos! There was one bit which where it was hard to get a firm foot hold, so I just wriggled down on my bottom 🙂

This may not look steep, but it felt like it at the time!

I was really chuffed that I managed to complete this climb. It’s something that I would have been too afraid to attempt in the past, given the history of my arthritis. It took me longer than most people, and there were people jogging near the top (!), but this was still a good achievement for me. Everytime I do something new which I have never done before, I feel great.

If you liked this post, you might like Self Coaching Tip – Do Something Difficult, which is on a similar subject. As ever, please leave me a comment below or click ‘share’ to post on Facebook or Twitter!

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Best Year Ever – 2012!

Hello everyone and a very belated Happy New Year to you! I can’t believe that 3 weeks of 2012 are already over! I have been enjoying an extended holiday and rest period and am now ready to get back to work. This year I have many exciting ventures up my sleeves and I am ready to face some personal challenges too. I also intend to write blog posts more often, sharing self-help tips and inspiration to help you live a happier life. I am taking the leap and embracing new opportunities and want to help encourage you to do that too. So, if you are not already on the mailing list, click the subscribe button, pop in your email address and you’ll never need to miss a blog post again! Let’s make 2012 our best year ever.

View of the sea, Garajau, Madeira

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Lemon Posset and Brandy Snap biscuits!

A few weeks ago my husband and I made a really lovely dessert for friends who were coming over for dinner – Lemon Posset served with Brandy Snap biscuits – Mmmm..! I am not much of a baker or maker of sweet things so I am always truly impressed when someone makes a dessert from scratch. As you will find out, my Brandy Snap biscuits a). contain no alcohol and b). were not supposed to look the way they do in the picture above! I don’t have a very sweet tooth , but my husband on the other hand does love a dessert after dinner, and he was determined to get the possets prepared the night before the party while I was out.

This is the recipe he used for the Lemon Posset:

Ingredients:

  • 600 ml double cream
  • 140 g caster sugar
  • 2 large lemons, juice and grated zest
  • vanilla seeds

Method:

1. Put the double cream in a large pan with the sugar. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Take it off the heat, add the lemon juice and zest and whisk well. 

2. Pour into 6 ramekins and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Sprinkle with the pared lemon zest before serving with strawberries.

He actually poured the mixture straight into coffee cups to set in the fridge overnight (covered with lots of cling film).

My Brandy Snap recipe, taken from The Telegraph’s food and drink section

Ingredients:

  • 45g/1.5oz butter
  • 45g/1.5oz caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 45g/1.5oz plain flour
  • half tsp ground ginger
  • A little lemon zest
  • 1 tsp brandy (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with silicone paper. In a saucepan place butter, sugar and syrup. Heat until the mixture has turned runny and is well mixed. Sift flour and ginger before adding to your mixture, along with the (brandy and) lemon zest.

Dollop on to the baking trays. Bake for five minutes until the snaps have started to turn a darker brown. Remove by rolling on to wooden spoon handles. Leave until they start to set. Remove spoon handles with care. Cool on a rack. 

I actually ended up pouring the mixture into silicone cake moulds as they kept sticking to the various incorrect types of paper I used, but they were delicious as star-shaped biscuits all the same!

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Happy Birthday Blog!

Hello September and sorry to have disappeared for what seems like ages! What with a very dodgy internet connection and the beginning of a new school term, I have got very behind on my blog. So apologies and thank you to my new subscribers – finally you might actually find something new to read!

I am very excited because it is just over a year since I started writing this blog. I had been reading blogs for some time, but just couldn’t get myself started on my own. Although I wrote a blog whilst I was away travelling, I found it difficult to find my voice in this blog. I think it’s because my travel blog was for a very specific audience – my friends and family who wanted to read the details of what I was up to for the 6 months I was away. With this blog, I was unsure of who would be reading it (-if indeed anyone was). I have several people to thank for giving me the confidence to a) start it, b) continue it and c) continue to work on finding my voice in my blog writing.

So like many a proud parent I have had lots of help from my friends. Massive thanks go to ReeRee Rockette who I interviewed back in January 2010. She has taught me to blog with pride! You can read her blog here:www.rockalily.com/blog

Also Justin Wayne of DIY DTF who encouraged me to find my voice and be myself in my blog.

And my friend Caz who inspires me with her life-challenges and amazing sense of freedom. Her blog is brilliant and you can read it here: lifeislimitless.com

Last but not least to my wonderful hubby who encourages me in everything I do 🙂

Please continue to leave your comments! I cannot explain how much it means to have your feedback 🙂

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Vegetarian Experiment Day 16 and Review of Goals

Stuffed field mushrooms topped with parmesan cheese served with mixed vegetable wild rice

This is the last post from me for a while as I am getting ready to go on holiday, and although the beach, the pool, lots of relaxation and an abundance of wonderful vegetarian food will be featuring, my lap-top will not! In any case I thought around half way is a good time to review my goals and consider the impact of my vegetarian diet so far.

When I started thinking about a vegetarian diet these were my goals:

  1. To increase my energy levels
  2. To feel less fatigue and tiredness (Not the opposite of 1, but linked to 3)
  3. To reduce the symptoms of my Psoriatic Arthritis
  4. To reduce my intake of tea from 6 to 3 cups, plus herbal tea at night
  5. To increase my intake of water gradually over the month from 0.5 litres to 2 litres
  6. To avoid processed foods as much as possible

I would say that I have achieved 1 and 4 definitely. My energy levels been up; I have been working very hard and have been raring to go most mornings. Re-discovering Jasmine tea has made number 4 easy to do!

I have made good progress with 6 – avoiding processed foods. I have cooked from scratch most evenings, and I have only eaten processed foods when I have been out and could not avoid it.

I have not achieved number 5 – I am still terrible at drinking water! I will practise this on holiday.

Numbers 2 and 3 are to do with the effects of my Psoriatic Arthritis – I would say this is inconclusive. I have still had aches and pains, swellings, stiffness etc all over my body and at different times. I think it would take a very long time for me to be able to conclude that this sort of diet has a healing or positive effect on a chronic disease. However, I think there are many other positive effects which are not as easy to measure – like the strength of my nails, hair and skin (which are all looking and feeling super healthy). My whole digestive system has felt as though it is working more efficiently and I have not felt bloated or gassy (which surprised me)!

I would also say that the psychological effects of this diet have been very positive. It gives me the feeling that I am in control of what goes into my body, (so why not choose good things?) and that the fresh food can get to work straight away as it’s being digested easily, without lots of synthetic ingredients getting in the way.

 A colourful side dish of seasoned raw vegetables – I would not eat this as a whole meal, but as a little side dish, it is a crunchier version of a traditional salad

I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts. As always please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I promise to keep working on my goals whilst I am away and will bring back some photos to share 🙂

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Vegetarian Experiment Day 15

Tonight I went a bit soup mad and cooked two kinds: a mushroom and walnut soup and a carrot and coriander soup. I had the former tonight, but I am keeping the carrot soup for tomorrow.

Mushroom and walnut soup

 Part of the reason I cooked two soups is because firstly I wanted to use up the veggies in my fridge and secondly I already had all of the equipment out so I made sense to use it before it all went back into the cupboard. I have one of those kitchens where it takes longer to get out all of the necessary equipment than to do the actual cooking. The lack of surfaces means everything gets into a huge mess before anything gets done! So, it’s official: cooking from scratch can be a real pain, but on the whole the food taste great and I do get a real sense of satisfaction knowing I cooked it all myself, and that I also know exactly what has gone into it.

Carrot and Coriander soup, topped with parsley

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Vegetarian Experiment Day 14

Strawberry, avocado and lettuce salad a la Jamie

Last night’s dinner was a strawberry, lettuce and avocado salad, served with button mushrooms and wild rice. I love all of those ingredients, but you, like me may be thinking: strawberry? In a salad? I would never had dreamed up this combination on my own, but I saw Jamie Oliver on ‘Jamie at Home’ create something similar. The dressing I made was my standard one – olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, but it really worked! Give it a try if you don’t believe me!