Archive for Emotional Health
Running on Empty?! Tips to Refueling your Tank
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Are you running on empty? My first two clients this morning feel beat up by life which is contributing to a strong sense of overwhelm. Both of them feel fragmented and unable to focus, wondering “now what?”. I’m curious if this could this be you?
If you’re like my clients, you are on overload. There is so much to handle every day, with information coming at you at warp speed, and life obstacles popping up unexpectedly. Your schedule is likely jam packed with absolutely no room for an unexpected crisis like the H1N1 flu!
So let me share the conclusion that both of these coaching clients came to. Essentially they both said, “If I don’t do something today, I won’t get the results I want in my life and my business!” In both instances, these women recognized that refueling their internal gas tank is “essential” .
Here are some quick tips to refueling your tank right now:
- Go for a walk.
- Shut down your computer, your TV, your Blackberry, unplug your phone and take 15-minutes for yourself.
- Leave early today.
- Take a lunch break.
- Light a candle and sit in silence as you reconnect with your body by breathing.
- Call a friend.
- Write in your journal.
- Pray.
- Make a list of 5-things that you’re most grateful for.
- Laugh!
The bigger question is what you will do regularly to keep your internal gas tank from ending up empty? If you wait until you are totally out of gas, it takes a whole lot more effort to refuel your tank to get yourself moving again.
So bottom line, what’s your long-term plan? If you don’t have a strategy, now is the time to come up with one.
I’d love to hear what you will do. Let me know by posting your comments at the blog. For others who could use these tips to refueling, be sure to tweet it or share this post with your friends through Facebook.
Take a stand for your heart; it’s non-negotiable!
Empower your Inner Voice!
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Throughout your day, notice the thoughts that swirl inside your head? Is your thinking positive or negative? Are your thoughts enhancing your life, or draining the life from you?
You can change your life today! When you empower your inner voice, the impact is profound because an empowered inner voice fuels and energizes you.
Whenever you plant a seed in your garden, something is assured of growing; the question is “Are you harvesting what you desire?” If you plant a seed of corn and expect a tomato to grow, you cannot hope for a harvest of tomatoes because you’re obviously going to get corn. It’s the same with your thinking.
Every seed of thought that you plant will grow into something, and more of its same kind will follow as they are harvested. There is a positive or negative nature to the seeds you are planting within the garden of your mind and they may or may not get you what you actually desire in the harvest of your life or your business.
Your words, combined with the voice of your inner self-talk, have the capacity to be a loving, life-giving force, or to be a critical drain, depleting you of energy and life. Your self-talk conveys underlying messages to yourself and to others that create physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual responses.
When you change your inner self-talk, your perspectives, your reality, and your life experiences will change also. Where you focus your thoughts will make a difference in how you act, in what you speak, and in how you treat yourself and others.
Now the question becomes, “Are your inner thoughts allowing you to be the person you are created you to be?”
Today, practice empowering your inner voice. Eliminate words like “should”, “have to”, and “can’t”. Replace these with empowering words like, “I desire”, “I choose”, “I will”.
What impact does this change have on your demeanor? Your actions? Your attitude? What do you imagine will change in your life and your business?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Please post your comments and register to receive my weekly blog at www.shannonbruce.com.
Taking Care of Business means Taking Care of YOU!
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Remember that song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive called “Taking care of business?” Oddly enough, this song randomly popped into my head this morning so I googled it to find these lyrics:
Taking care of business, everyday
Taking care of business, everyway
I’ve been taking care of business, it’s all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime.
This little ditty could actually be the theme song for every woman out there, and most definitely applies to those of us who work from home as entrepreneurs and Mompreneurs! No matter who you are engaging with, whether it’s in your home, community or workplace, you are most likely “taking care of business” from the time you awaken until the time you get to bed!
And today marks the fact that there are only 100 days until the end of the year. Nothing like adding some pressure!!!
So here’s what I’m curious about. As you “take care of business” are you “taking care of you?” If not, you might be working from an empty tank, reducing the quality of your health, diluting the impact of your results and hindering the quality of your relationships.
Here’s the truth…Taking care of business means you must take care of you! To positively influence others in your life your gas tank must be refueled regularly.
You probably “know” this to be true, so the real question is whether you act in your life as if you believe it to be true. Would others in your life see you as present, loving, and available? Or do they see a woman who is distracted, on edge and unavailable?
What does it mean to take care of you? Read the list below and find one that you’ll commit to in the coming week:
- Go to bed 30-minutes earlier.
- Schedule some quiet time before your day starts.
- Take a lunch break.
- Make time to go for a 15-minute walk around the block.
- Take a hot bath.
- Slow down your pace.
Any one of these activities will become a conscious way to replenish. With a full tank, you’ll be much more effective at “taking care of business, every day.”
What will you commit to? I’d love to hear what you’ll say “yes”. Post your comments below…and Enjoy!
Forget Perfect; Be Excellent Instead!
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a swirling undercurrent in the river of life that’s attempting to drown life from your heart. It’s subtle and it’s stealth-like, as this thing called “perfectionism” comes in through the back door to thwart you.
Over the past week, a repetitive theme of perfectionism has emerged in the coaching of my clients. When this happens, I assert that there are more of you out there experiencing the same frustration and defeat that comes as a result of this striving for perfection.
Before I make this assumption, let me ask you a few questions.
- Are you exhausted because you can never reach the high bar that’s been set, because it’s continually being raised higher and higher?
- Do you find yourself running ragged trying to manage your household, your business, your relationships and everything on your To-Do List, to the point you feel chaos swirling within and around you?
- Is your life running you?
If you find yourself answering “yes” to any of these questions, I give you full permission to “Forget Perfect”! It doesn’t exist and the more you chase after it, the more elusive it becomes leading you to a life of inner chaos, overwhelm, and defeat.
Michael J. Fox said it so profoundly when he said, “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”
Let that soak in for a minute. Breathe in the truth of that statement as you give yourself permission to reconnect with your humanness!
It’s time to make the bold commitment to “forget perfect”, since after all that’s really God’s business. Let’s all choose a perspective of “excellence” instead!
Here are three tips to assist you in the reach for excellence:
- Define Excellence. If this were a new value that you used as a filter for your life and work, what does it mean to you? Since values have an internal sense of rightness, make the definition personal and use this as an internal barometer for all that you do.
- Be your Best Self. Who are you at your best? What qualities and characteristics show up? Being excellent means bringing forth these attributes consistently and intentionally into your life and work.
- Extend Compassion. Remember you are human; you have strengths and weaknesses. The more you embrace the whole of who you are, the easier it will be for you to stay on the path of excellence. Let your life experiences be your learning tool that keep molding and shaping you into a more “excellent” you.
So what do you think? Let me know by posting your comments below.
Distracted
Posted by: | CommentsEver had one of those days where you can’t seem to focus and you flit from one thing to the next? You have so much to do, yet at the end of the day you seemed to have accomplished nothing, nada, zilch. You end up feeling unaccomplished, and your negative self-talk beats you up incessantly for not getting enough done, or not doing it well, right, etc. Can you relate?
When I started this post on Monday after dropping my daughter off to 3rd grade, I thought I was just having one of those kind of days. After taking the entire day off yesterday because of the flu, I realize I’m having one of those kind of weeks! I know I’m not alone in this idea of being “distracted”, so I’ve sorted through the scattered thoughts and feelings to access the nuggets of wisdom to benefit you as a woman, mom and entrepreneur.
I wasn’t prepared for the impact the 3rd grade drop off would have on my heart as I watched in awe of this little girl grow into a young lady. I know I am not unique in the bittersweet emotions that come from dropping your child off to school, yet there is more to our story. Taylor has overcome so many health challenges in her earlier years that the magnitude of this 3rd grade drop off is profound for me as I watch her blossom.
Then, the flu yesterday that literally had me in bed all day, heading into today with an overabundant list of things to do and new opportunities coming at me at warp speed.
How do you make sense of it all? Here’s what I am learning through being “distracted”:
- There are gifts and wisdom in the distractions. Give yourself permission to explore what’s in the distraction and you’ll find your deeper truths leading to more powerful choices. For me, it meant leaving work early to pick my daughter up after her first day of 3rd grade. I needed this time with her at the end of the day to be complete with my emotions.
- Reprioritize to focus on what’s absolutely essential. Go back to your key priorities and identify one or two things that you must get done for each. You don’t want to have more than 5 priorities at a time or you will be overwhelmed. In my example, my health, my family and my work became of utmost importance so I identified my action steps for these three areas: pick up Taylor from school, get to bed early/stay in bed, connect with prospects and get the blog & newsletter done.
- Find the small wins you can be grateful for. There is always, always, always something to celebrate. Put your attention over there and you’ll see that you really have made progress.
- Make time to debrief with yourself. You must pause to find out what you’re learning, what you want to celebrate, and what you want to do differently. If you don’t, you’ll remain “distracted” and run by your life rather than you making empowered choices that serve you.
In the end, remember this:
“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.” Christopher Columbus
What do you think? Share your comments below. If you’d like to receive our next team newsletter on the theme of “Intentional Living” you can sign up here.
