[Barbara's Daily Message] Grounded

If you are ever feeling stressed

Take your time, slow yourself down

Siphon off the build up of "over active" energy

By grounding yourself and lowering your energy

Tai chi, qi gong and yoga are good ways to ground yourself

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Forgotten?

We know that we should pace ourselves

We know that we should keep perspective on what happens around us

We know that life is for living, enjoying the moment and keeping an eye on the future

But day to day it can kind of get lost in the sea of minutiae

And we forget our path, detour via the rocky, challenging path

So we need touch points to remind us to get on the path

These can be new year resolutions, affirmations, regular get togethers with like minded people

Or even calendar reminders

Find and set up multiple touch points in your daily life to help yourself find your path when you go on a detour!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Now

We can be so focused on progressing through our journey to our destination
Growing, learning and moving onto the next challenge
That we forget to enjoy it!
We are here to enjoy ourselves as well as develop
Remember to enjoy your now, now!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Inside Vs Outside

Is there a battle going on in your life?
Inside versus outside?
Got what you want on the outside but inside everything is lousy?
Got what you want on the inside but everything on the outside is lousy?
Our goal of having inner peace and outer happiness can actually result in a contradiction and can set us up for this battle
Inner peace is about be reasonable with ourselves and aligning our internal thoughts around the ideas for inner peace
Outer happiness is about the actions and activities we take on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that bring happiness to us
Our assumption is that the two things are the same, so having one will bring about the other.
This just isn't true.
They are interdependent, having inner peace will help us towards happiness but peace is not happiness!
Having happiness will help us towards inner peace but happiness is not peace!
If inner peace and outer happiness are your goal
Plan and work on improvements in both rather than just one...

Barbara x
P.S. If you feel you've got neither inner peace or outer happiness work on one of these areas first and then the other.

[Barbara's Daily Message] What is freedom? Part 3

Mental freedom
The freedom to choose our thoughts
The freedom to change our thoughts and ideas at will
The freedom to accept or reject our own ideas, our inner conversations and our fears
Requires self acceptance at every level of our being
Accepting ourselves as a patchwork quilt of experiences, perspectives, ideas and opinions
Great bits, crappy bits, bits you'd like to rework
Except each one of us unique, each one of us with a role, each one of us with value
And together makes a patchwork quilt of light angels for our earth
Freedom for us, freedom for her too!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] What is freedom? Part 2

If the freedom of our minds is always here

Why do we build a mental jail for ourselves

Telling ourselves what we can and can't do, what we can and can't achieve

May be even being aggressive to ourselves mentally

How is this freedom?

Break yourself free from this mental jail

Treat yourself and your mind with kindness, compassion, truth, love and respect!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] What is freedom? Part 1

We know freedom as the right to make our choices a reality

Whether that is to go out when we feel like it

Or to vote or protest or campaign

To have a voice, to take action, to have public recognition of our rights

But that is the freedom of our bodies and the expression of our minds

If this freedom is taken away

What are we left with?

The freedom of our minds, discover it!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] "Difficulties"

Living with "difficulties" is normal life
An easy life without challenges, u-turns or rough patches
Is a waste of "experience"
And doesn't result in us growing nor learning
We enjoy quiet breaks
But everyday?
Choose to grow, love life!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Being Detached

We all experience busy lives
With lots of things to competing for our attention
It's easy to end up distracted, busy and trying to stay on top of things
But our assumption that we need to "stay on top"
Can lead us to being overcommitted to our activities
Without thought to the impact on ourselves or our family
Giving yourself a detached perspective on your day to day activities
Will help to you keep yourself in balance and supporting yourself.

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Who is leading?

Are you going where you want to go in life?
If the answer is yes, you have, at some point in time, decided to take control of aligning what you want with the actions you take
If the answer is no, you either know to do this but haven't got round to it
Or you don't know this is what you are here to do
Your dreams and desires are clues to your purpose
Taking the lead in your life is about living your journey and purpose
And creating that with each step, action or interaction you have
Start small and grow these everyday
Start now and going forward
Every step you take you will be taking the lead in your life!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Value Yourself

Love yourself as you would expect others to love
Enjoy life as you would expect others to enjoy it
Live life, have life, be life as you would expect others to live it

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Focus

Do you believe in what is possible?
Or do you not believe?
Do you value what you have and think about what you want to work towards next?
Or do you focus on what you don't have and feel insufficient in some way?
Seeing the possible while staying grounded in the present
Means you feel more satisfied with life
While thinking about and working towards your goals
Focus on the negative and the absence of achievement means significant dissatisfaction with life
And frustration at one's own performance
Which would rather have?
Check-in with yourself, does your day to day attitude and approach to life support your answer?

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Peace

We can all sign up to living our lives in peace
But what does it really mean?
Are we quieter, or calmer, or do we live without conflict?
Both inner and outer peace are part of the framework for our lives
Peace is actually about acceptance of ourselves, others and different opinions
Being prepared to discuss openly the differences
And finding ways for us to live, work and just be together.
Increase your peace through an open mind, acceptance of others and good listening skills!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Time

How do you spend your time?
Experiencing life in balance at variables speeds depending what is needed?
Or are you out of balance: one speed fits all or everything done yesterday or tomorrow?!
Getting the best out of life is not about using all your time, all of the time or vice versa
It's about choosing what you spend your time doing across your interests, work, family, friends
And especially, keeping yourself well looked after and in balance.

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Doubt

Do you believe in yourself?
Do you believe in being here as a loving, valuable person?
Do you believe you are a light angel?
If not, why not?
Doubting yourself does not serve your best interests
Why waste all that mental, physical and emotional energy
On dragging yourself down
We all have imperfections, so what!
Stop thinking that to fit in this world requires you to be less than you are
If you catch yourself "self-bullying" tell yourself:
"I bring what is needed, I am perfect for today!"

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Being an Angel

There are all sorts of angels
Tall ones, short ones, chatty ones, quiet ones
But they all have one thing In common...
Sharing love, peace, truth, compassion and harmony
Among our fellow humans
Keep sharing!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] For Better, For Worse

Life has its ups and downs
When life is great, when we feel happy and rested
It feels easy to change our world
To kick some bad habits, to change our life
But when life is tough, when we feel challenged and tired
When getting out of bed and taking the next step feels like an achievement
What then?
We tend to plan change and self improvement when we feel our best
But in order for it to stick we need to look at how we will manage when life feels rough
Then when we stick to our plans in the tough times
We can be confident we can make the changes that we want to.

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Recovery I

When life feels pointless remember the moments in your life when it didn't
Pull together photos, cards, souvenirs of these times, whether in a physical album or electronic
So you have them ready to help you out of the tough times
Our brains are not our soul or our spirit
While our brains can be dragged down by our thoughts
So it is true that our brains can be dragged back up to joy by our thoughts
Have your positive value and experience reminders ready to help yourself climb out of hole!

Barbara x

[Barbara's Daily Message] Valued and loved

Negative feelings of frustration, anger or apathy
Show we are being challenged and our human "plan" isn't being followed
But this doesn't mean our place in the world isn't valued
In fact, because each of us is important and loved we are given what we need
It's just what we need vs what we want aren't always the same thing!
Remember the light loves you and your unique contribution to the world.

Barbara x