Our mindfulness guru tells us why learning to say goodbye and starting afresh helps us to evolve and grow
A It’s with so much gratitude I write this column. When I sent in my first 250 words nine years ago, I never knew I would have my own column, and it has meant so much more to me than motivational sentences on a page. I hope that you have found inspiration in the words. Sometimes, we do something that seems so small and almost insignificant at the time, only to find later that it was in fact a massive step, a huge action towards your dreams.
When I contacted the editor at the time almost a decade ago, I didn’t know that in doing so I would get my own column and that having that one person believing in me, because sometimes that’s all it takes, gave me confidence to keep writing and I have learnt so much from all the editors I have worked with. In fact, it inspired me so much that I started believing that if I could write a column, then I could write a book, so I started and here we are, three published self-help books later. I would like to thank everyone who has been on this journey with me because you believing in me, giving me deadlines and teaching me how to edit and working to word counts has all been part of my journey and I will be forever grateful to you all.
If you’re reading this thinking there is something you have been wanting to do but have not done yet, then do it; start, take that first step – you never know where it will guide you! Let you reading this be your sign to take action. If a few hundred words on a page can lead me to become an author, then who knows what you can do? The key is to just start, you don’t need to know where it will go or how you will do it. What’s the worst thing that can happen? You don’t succeed, or you get a no – who cares, as long as you tried, and you can try again, if you feel pulled to do something and you have that passion.
On the flip side, don’t be scared to say goodbye to things. Anchor in the gratitude of everything you’ve learnt and get excited about what’s next. In my second book, Reinvent ME, I talk about the idea of considering, when we leave a job or relationship, that we are leaving a space open for someone else who is supposed to step into that role.
We can choose to believe that there will be someone else creating an opening for us somewhere else. Sometimes, we stay in situations holding that space way beyond the time we are actually finished because we are fearful of letting go, in case there will be nothing else, but that is believing in a lack mentality rather than abundance. In embracing an abundance mindset, you will realise that, while you were focusing on being scared of letting go of the old, you are lacking realising that something more suitable is on its way to you. You can start getting excited about the future, the new opportunities that will be open to you and being able to connect to the natural flow, which will allow you to evolve and grow.
I’m 45 now, yet I feel like I grew up through the time I have been writing this column, moved countries and started my own coaching business in LA. I would like to say thank you for sticking with me, it really has been an amazing journey and honour to share my thoughts and the mind tools with you over the years.
What to read this month
Va Va Voom, The 10 day Energy Diet by Jackie Lynch
Having met Jackie in person, I knew before I dived into this book that anything she would have written would have great substance, and I was right. We are all aware that the foods we eat affect us, but sometimes we forget how much impact our diets have on our moods, energy levels and sleep patterns. Jackie encourages you to answer a quick quiz at the beginning of the book to identify some diet and lifestyle factors that could be contributing to lack of energy. There is a thorough explanation of how our bodies can react to different foods, from carbohydrates to proteins, and Jackie makes it easy to understand how we can have sugar cravings and loss of focus from certain foods. I personally feel it can be quite a jungle out there when it comes to vitamins and supplements, but Jackie has broken it down in such an easy way, yet with so much knowledge. Inflammation in the body is something that’s talked about a lot and the book contains a lot of information about how to deal with it. There is a fantastic 10-day plan at the back of the book that will guide you through and help you create a healthy diet that will really support your wellbeing.
