Confidently Facing Perimenopause: Embracing Change with Self-Assurance

The physical symptoms of perimenopause can include hot flushes, night sweats, joint pain, brain fog, the feeling of ‘can’t be arsed’ – the CBAs, irregular periods and sleep disturbances to name just a few. The Balance App from Dr Louise Newson is a great resource where you can log and track your own blend of symptoms. I highly recommend doing this so you have evidence to speak from with health professionals. The emotional symptoms can include mood swings, anxiety, depression, and irritability. All of these changes can take a toll on your confidence, leaving you feeling uncertain and overwhelmed. What…

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My Menopause Journey

When did I first notice things ‘weren’t right’ This is impossible to pin down precisely, and exactly why perimenopause is such a challenge. A switch didn’t flip overnight like breaking a bone in an accident and suddenly I knew “I’m in perimenopause”. There wasn’t a clear idea that I’d lost my sense of ‘self’. I didn’t wake one day and say, oh, now I’m perimenopausal and the roll call of symptoms presented in an orderly and neat manner. Perimenopause is messy. It is overwhelming and confusing. You might at some point realise you’ve lost your mojo, or you might not….

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How to beat the Distraction Gremlins

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…

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Feeling Overwhelmed?

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…

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Outdoor Coaching

Lynne Taylor Life Coaching Mindset Coaching

Benefits of Outdoor Coaching Outdoor life coaching has several benefits, such as: I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees. Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau Coaching outdoors is a wonderful way to work through your thoughts and challenges. The vast space you can feel by looking out across a valley or as you pause to admire how far you’ve come help to unlock negative thoughts and see solutions clearly. Our understanding can be broadened and deepened by immersing our selves in the natural world. Being indoors or having space held for you online…

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Cats, Self-Care & Life Coaching

life coaching lynne taylor mindset coaching self-care

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…

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50 Things Before I’m 50 Challenge

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…

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Reflections on my 21 Day Video Challenge

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…

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Boosting my Confidence

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,…

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Transitions

I remember how it feels to dread Monday morning. You’re still in the weekend, trying to relax and you’re already apprehensive at the thought of being stuck in an office or doing a job that doesn’t bring you joy for the next five days. That’s on top of facing the hideous commute on overpacked trains, tubes or buses. Days blur together, you’re on a treadmill with the same things rolling past you mindlessly. You numb out time and self-medicate by binge watching TV series’, or shopping on your lunch break for things you don’t want or really need. The vicious…

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A Listening Superhero

“We’ve got to get out of this place, it’s killing us!!!” I said to my partner one day. It wasn’t an overnight revelation. Life had been slowly draining from us and it had been happening unnoticed over months and years. When I lived in London I wish I’d had a safe space to explore who I really was inside. I didn’t come to a major crisis point before we left London, in some ways that might have made it easier to realise things weren’t right with how life was back then. Hindsight is frustrating and enlightening in equal measures. My…

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Trust

Trust is one of my core values. It feels like one of those aspects in life which is central to everything. If there isn’t trust, then there’s no foundation to build a relationship. In my world, trust is the one thing that stands behind respect and honesty. When I trust someone I know that they will show me respect and will do the things they say they will. I won’t be let down. This is how I behave, and how I wish to be treated – with respect, honesty and trust. There’s an element of feeling safe when trust is…

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