Author: lynne

Modern day distractions come in many forms and vary drastically depending on a your lifestyle. From the mundane – like scrolling through social media – to the more complex such as getting lost in a book, distractions are all around us. Technology has made it easier than ever to be side-tracked from our intentions, whether we’re spending too much time on our phones, or indulging in online shopping. Also, the ubiquity of modern day work culture can lead to long hours and high stress, which can lead to further mental and emotional exhaustion. That may lead to negative patterns of…

Read full article

Overwhelm can show up in a variety of ways, both physically and emotionally. Physically, you might experience fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, and digestive troubles. Emotionally, you might experience anxiousness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty making decisions. However it transpires for you, I know it won’t be a pleasant state to live in. Overwhelm can also lead to negative self-talk, such as self-judgement, self-criticism, and rumination. Finally, overwhelm can manifest as procrastination, avoidance, and irrational behaviours. At work you might be totally swamped, inundated with demands from all directions, and perhaps that’s become the normal state. While this might not be…

Read full article

There were two things that struck me. Disclaimer: this is based entirely on personal observations and no scientific research at all. Firstly, cats are fully present. They live in the moment all the time. They follow their natural instincts. Now I know this is a big generalisation and is based on simply my own observations of being a life-long cat lover. I can also only speculate that this is the case – that they don’t have conscious awareness of the past and present. Perhaps they do. Clearly they can recognise their owners so they do have memories. What I’m thinking…

Read full article

Here’s my 50 things: what I’ve Done, what’s In Progress, and what’s still to do Completed 1-12 This was a fascinating thing to do. I ended up with a box of white mushrooms that I started first, then the chestnut mushrooms a few weeks later. At one point I had so many mushrooms I was giving them to friends. I was harvesting for around a month and I’ll definitely be doing this again. I have actually had lychee a long long time ago and from memory I didn’t like them. However it was on a plane and I’m certain this…

Read full article

A little more about why I was doing this challenge Like a lot of people, I shy away from doing things that push me out of my comfort zone. This is a natural human tendency. My personal reasons for doing this challenge were connected with fear of embarrassment and having doubts about my knowledge, fear of not being ‘as good as others’, fear of looking ridiculous (in terms of confidence and in comparison to others, and also in terms of my actual physical appearance). All these factors merge and create an ugly internal dialogue. The real resistance to doing the…

Read full article

The point of the challenge is to get myself to do the thing that makes me feel uncomfortable, but not so far outside the fluffy happy zone that I get panicked and actually do want to run away and hide. What this means is that I have to enter the Fear Zone, allow myself to be vulnerable and accept that I lack self-confidence. And that’s the thing with confidence, you build it by doing the hard stuff, but in a safe and controlled way. I’m heading into the Learning Zone and acquiring new skills. By doing that, you stretch yourself,…

Read full article