Always Remember

Disney's Tribute - Focus on the Positive

From 'Meh' to Me

You wake up in the morning, your energy levels are low, you're more 'Beyond Help' than 'Beyonce' and your get up and go is nowhere to be seen.  What do you do?

You're initial reaction may be to pull that duvet over your head and hide out. Whilst I fully believe in going with your gut, sometimes it's good to go a little deeper, beyond the surface.   Going back under the duvet doesn't have to mean surrender.  We don't have to make everything a monumental step.  It can be as simple as a step back and taking the opportunity to start again.

Remember that this is your body and this is your day, you can choose to focus on whatever version of 'what is' you like. I'm liking that it's a glorious Autumn morning and I get to choose what I do with the day.  Believe it or not there is always choice.

How are you choosing to face the day?

Namaste

Catherine

Where to Start???

A Recent Pin

There’s a whole lot of starting going on around here right now.  I’m going through the frustration of so many things being half done because everything is tied together.

That’s what happens when you decide to live holistically, you begin to see the connectedness of everything.  It can be pretty overwhelming at times but taking it one step at a time and breathing helps a lot.

How do you decide what to do first when there is so much to do, and it’s all part of the whole picture?

So much to do – that’s my September Issue.  What's yours?

Namaste

Catherine

September Resolutions from the Eternal Student

September is one of my favourite months, I love the change in seasons, the natural change of colours and change in temperature.  I’ve seen September as a time for new beginnings for many years, perhaps why I prefer mid year diaries.

So whilst I’m staying with my Belief in the Magic of 2014, I’m using this month as a well needed time for reviewing what’s going on here in the land of WHEN and with my Creative Abundance Centre.  There may not be a mega amount of physical crafting going on this week, I’ll be crafting a holistic hub, lots of planning, clarifying a vision and getting ready for lots of doing.

For as Joel A Barker said “Vision with action can change the world”. (Tweet it out)

In keeping with Monday's blogging Crafting Community I will show a piece of work I've completed this week.

This is HoliStitch, Ive created her for the marketing material I'm compiling for my Creative Abundance Centre.  I'll be using her to promote my Indian Head Massage.

My knee jerk reaction to this title when I wrote it was that I am the Eternal Student because my ‘student years’ were a time where I held a lust for life and where my long term goal in life was to be happy, a yearning for a more mystical time.  But it turns out that I am, by nature, an eternal student.

Namaste

Catherine

xxx

The Art of The To Do List

Love them or loathe them we all come across a time when we need a ‘To Do’ List.  To be honest I’ve never really been a fan but as I build my Abundance Centre I find myself with more and more things to do and a need to put them somewhere.

There is a tremendous release in endorphins as we tick that done box and relax in the knowledge that something is done.

The big advantage I am currently finding with my to do list, (I have one Big To Do List, that I add to whenever a ‘To Do’ arises and review on a weekly basis), is that knowing I have added the To Do means I can let it go until it’s time to do something with it.

A great lesson I’ve also learnt is that just because it’s on the list doesn’t mean it has to be done.  I’m finding that there is an additional endorphin release in ‘letting go’.  Could letting go be the new done?

A fun to do list from Pinterest for Friday.

Some Fun From Pinterest

Namaste

Catherine x

Mind Over Medicine - More a Recommendation than a Review

From My Pinterest Inspiration Art

Anyone who’s read my blog for any length of time will know that I have, in the past struggled with depression.  Struggled with admitting to it’s existence, understanding what it is and with the long and arduous journey out of the depths.  If you know me, at all, you will also know that I am a recovering Self Help Addict. Today’s post is evidence that it’s all a one day at a time journey.  And that helping yourself is a more natural reponse than you might think.

‘Mind over Medicine’ by Dr Lissa Rankin is a book that brings into perspective the shortcomings of the medical professionals and our own responsibility in our recovery and wellbeing.  And whilst I am not affiliated with Dr Rankin or Amazon in any way I highly recommend you get yourself a copy.

Strangely enough, I started reading this not so much on a Self Help kick but as I found myself questioning more and more the authenticity and validity of the medical professionals I was coming into contact with on a daily basis, regarding the treatment of a family member.

Dr Rankin validated my belief that these professionals were not treating the patient, but individual symptoms.  Hence we went through over a year of endless poking and prodding at various hospitals, each time seeing no light at the end of an endless dark tunnel.   Every so often there would be a little glimmer of light from someone who ‘understood how we felt’ , only for it to extinguish as they were blinkered to the Big Picture. But I digress...

Do you know how ingenious your body is?  Do you know what it does best?  It has “the ability to heal itself”.  The ‘Relaxation Response’, a natural function of our body, activates self repair mechanisms, releasing endorphins and other healing chemicals.  And this healing process is very much a by product of what is going on in our minds. Hence the title of ‘Mind Over Medicine.

Whilst there is still a need for Doctors, they are highly qualified and experts in their fields, the need to treat the patient as a whole person is key to the holistic approach and the achievement of the finest healing process.

This book is a breath of fresh air.  It asks the patient ‘what does your body need in order to heal’’, recognises there is courage in taking responsibility for your own healing, “healing yourself is not for the faint of heart” and that we are all entitled to the best level of care.  And that you are a key member ot your care team, there is no ranking, but perhaps for the fact that you have been with your body the longest and thus know it best.

Do what you can to encourage that Relaxation Response to do it’s thing, it’s alter ego the ‘Stress Response’ has the key to the toxic cabinet so don’t let it go there.

Happy reading.

Namaste

Catherine x

Drawing With Scissors – I Just Didn’t Get It.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Paisley, one of many throughout this summer, and I felt I was taking a trip to see some ‘grown up ‘ art.  And as such, I should appreciate it.  This was a timely reminder in why I don’t do ‘shoulds’.  Because I just didn’t get it.

Before I visited the Matisse Exhibition, Drawing With Scissors, at Paisley Museum and Art Galleries  I had been reeled in by Matise’s words, ‘the paper cut-out allows me to draw in the colour’.  Iwas intrigued and I was on my way.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to see.  Perhaps my expectations had been heightened by pieces I’d recently added to my pinterest boards.

Now that's what I call 'Drawing with Scissors'!

I found the whole exhibition to be pretty basic and disappointing.  Allowances may perhaps be made for the fact that these works were completed by Matisse as he lay in his sick bed toward the end of his life, 1950-54. (Matisse died in 1954).  Not wishing to be too harsh but I’m sure many an art project of a similair style may have been put together by a child home from school and needing some entertainment to soothe the boredom.  I’m not sure what it is about this exhibition that has stayed with me.  Perhaps the vibrancy of the colours or my wonder at the stark simplicity of the pieces, who knows – perhaps you should see it for yourself to find out.

Your visit would be enhanced further by the ever present Paisley Pattern and Weaving Galleries and by the current ‘Generation’Exhibition, tracing the development of Contemporary Art over the last 25 years.  Now some of these pieces were starkly simple but I got the point. 

This is more of a what other people made Hand Made Monday piece, all the same I'm off to see what everyone else has been up to, it's been a while...

The Matisse Exhibition remains at the Galleries until 28 September, with Generation running till 5 October, finishing just before we get to see some more Lego Brilliance with Brick Wonders opening 11 October.

Namaste

Catherine x