Pain is so much more than ‘It hurts’

When we think of pain we think ‘Ouch’. We think ‘uncomfortable’, ‘irritating’, ‘frustrating’, ‘annoying’ and ‘unpleasant’. I have started to understand that pain is so much more than that. Pain is being unable to do the gardening. It is feeling worried about being invited out for dinner as it will involve sitting for a long time. It is being unable to play the sports that you love. It is having your sleep disturbed. It is affecting your work. It means that small household tasks that other people take for granted are not easy or possible. It means brushing your hair or tying your shoes becomes difficult.
Pain is getting tired of explaining that just because you look OK doesn’t mean that you can lift a heavy box. It is worrying that you will never feel better, or that you may even get worse. It makes you feel tired and old. Pain sets you apart from other people and makes you feel vulnerable. It affects your mood and your emotions.

Pain is so much more than ‘It hurts’.

One of the pillars of Amatsu philosophy is the Godai or ‘Big Five’. These factors help me as a practitioner, to realise how important it is that I help my clients to look at all aspects of their lives, not simply the pain that they come to me with.

The first of the five is the physical aspect – the area I am most associated with! This includes balance (or otherwise) of the muscles, ligaments, tendons, joints, bones, organs and connective tissue. Imbalance here will lead to stiffness, discomfort, tightness or pain.

The second is emotional. If you are feeling low, depressed, anxious or afraid, you will not be able to express your health fully. Your mood may be affected by feelings in your body and vice versa. For example, if you are often stressed, you are likely to feel muscular tightness, discomfort in your jaw and stiff neck or back.

The third is chemical. This can be the food you eat, what you drink, if you take medication or drugs etc. Again, what we consume affects our body and emotions. If you over-indulge in sugar for example, you may get headaches and feel tiredness, lethargy and low mood.

The fourth is electrical. An example of this would be imbalances in your body that can cause electrical nerve pain or the impact that you might feel from being in front of a screen for too long such as poor posture, headaches, eye strain and tension.

The last is environmental and this has a huge impact on our well-being. What kind of work do you do? What are your hobbies? How do you sleep? Do you feel loved and supported? Any, or a combination of these, will affect how your body, mind and emotions feel.

So you can see that although pain is the key reason why most people come to see me, I understand that it is not as simple as that for you, or any of my clients.

I am currently conducting research to help me to understand, even more, the reality for people who live with pain. This involves a 30 minute confidential phone conversation so that I can find out how your pain is impacting on your life. In exchange for your time, I would like to offer you a free 30 minute Amatsu taster session so that you can experience this wonderful holistic treatment first hand.
Please email me on lorna@lornaclansey.com with Research in the title, no other information needed, and I will be in touch to arrange a mutually convenient time to speak.

The (He)Art of Amatsu – Natural Body Movement

Many of you may have heard me say that the origin of Amatsu stems from a Japanese martial art tradition, but what does that actually mean? How do you as a client benefit from this ancient wisdom? How does it manifest itself in the treatment session and what are the deeper implications of what it means to work with and receive this treatment?

Last weekend, I took part in a course with Mark Evans, an Amatsu practitioner who has also practiced Budo Taijutsu for the past 20 years. Taijutsu translates as ‘natural body movement’ and this is the martial art that underpins the modern Amatsu that we practice today. It is the main reason why Amatsu is so effective and what differentiates it from other bodywork therapies such as osteopathy, massage and chiropractic.

But what is natural body movement? Don’t we all do that everyday? Well, sadly, the answer is no.

We sit too long, we carry bags on one shoulder, we put pressure on our spine by lifting things that are too heavy for us. We sleep in beds that don’t suit us, we overwork some muscles and under use others in our daily lives. We get into bad postural habits. In fact, Dr Massaki Hatsumi, the Grand Master of the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, the organisation that combines nine teaching schools, states that human beings were the only animal that needs to be taught how to move. We have forgotten.

When I practice Amatsu, working with natural body movement, moving without tension and flowing like our martial artist ancestors helps me to foster better natural movement in my client’s body. It also heIps me to remain present. If I am aware of my own body movement, I can be more fully in the moment and then feel the subtle imbalances, tension and restrictions in your body which help me to decide where to work next.

As I move through a treatment, you may wonder how I often seem to find the bits that hurt!

‘How do you do that?’ you might say ‘I didn’t even know that place was sore!’

This comes back to the martial roots too. When fighting, the two combatants would be looking to see which part of the body their opponent left exposed. This would inform their next move. In the same way, when I am treating you, I look to see how your body naturally wants to move as I work my way up a limb. Does your bent leg fall in or out? Does your back arch? Does your hand naturally pull inwards? These things can be quite subtle, but these movements help me to expose the ‘weak’ bits – the parts of you that need some help.

The martial artists were always looking for ways to move that involved little effort to themselves. They used the momentum and power of their opponents movements, not muscular strength, to attack and defend. The same is true with Amatsu. Sometimes, a person may comment that I must be exhausted, treating 6 or 7 clients one after the other. But actually, I’m not because of these same principles. If I am working with my body in balance and with the natural biases in your body, I am not hauling your arms and legs into position, so it’s not tiring. It is also one of the reasons why Amatsu feels so relaxing for you – I am working with your body, not on it, and this allows you to let go.

The origins of Amatsu were made clear to me from the start of my training, but I hadn’t really appreciated how much deeper this philosophy went and how by embarking on Amatsu training and practice, I was really entering into a tradition that stretched back many thousands of years. This path was designed not only to teach participants how to fight or to heal, but how to live.  I think this was the most powerful lesson from the weekend for me. The essence of the martial art we were shown was not macho, but powerful and humble. There was great respect between opponents and a sense of joy in the art. There was an emphasis on the importance of engaging without ego, but with a good heart.

And if these are not lessons for life, I don’t know what is.

Until next time,

Lorna

PS Mark will be starting an Amatsu training course in February in Doncaster, so if you would like to learn this amazing art, please contact The Amatsu Training School for more details.

Six ways to get the very best from your Amatsu session

You have called or sent an email to arrange your Amatsu session with me. It might be your first treatment or your fiftieth, but either way you have committed to setting aside time and money for your own health and wellbeing. Hurray! This is a great thing to do for yourself! But, how can you maximise the effectiveness of the session so that you get the best possible results? In this post, I would like to share six things that you can do for yourself to really get the most out of your Amatsu treatment: 1. Arrive hydrated  Any suggestion of mine has to begin with a water mention! Why? Because it is THE most important thing you can do for your body. (Don’t believe me? Read this blog) If you arrive hydrated you will get a head start on feeling better and it is much easier for me to find out the true issues you are experiencing as opposed to those coming up just because your body is thirsty. 2. Walk to see me If you don’t live locally then it might be hard to do this, but if you drive or come by public transport, give yourself the opportunity to have a bit of a walk before and afterwards. Planning a  pre-session walk means that you will give yourself plenty of time and you won’t arrive to the session feeling too frazzled. The post-session walk allows your body to integrate the changes I have made more quickly and effectively. 3. Breeeathe A few deep delicious breaths while you are walking (preferably not next to a busy road!) will soothe your nervous system and prepare you for your treatment. Breathe in for four counts, hold for two and breathe out for eight to clear out carbon dioxide from your body and invite in fresh oxygen. 4. Be prepared to be relaxed Having a treatment offers you a brilliant opportunity to really switch off. I will be talking to you and asking you questions at some points in the treatment, but on the whole you can use this time to deeply let go. The treatment itself is very powerful, but if you are also deeply relaxed the benefits go through the roof! Turn off your phone before you come into the room and as you do so, consciously ‘turn off’ your to do list. This is time for you and your body. You will leave feeling as though you are floating 5. Take it easy After a session try to stay ‘in the zone’ for a little time afterwards. Become aware of your body and don’t grab for your mobile to check messages or make a call straight away. What does your body feel like? What’s different? Tune in and enjoy the balancing effect that Amatsu has on your physical and mental state. When you get home, drink some more water and eat simple and clean foods. Don’t exercise for 24 hours to allow your body to keep adjusting and recalibrating after the session. 6. Feel proud! Feel really good about the fact that you have squeezed as much value as you can from your session!Until next time, Lorna PS If you know anyone who is investing in bodywork treatment, please feel free to share this with them as it’s not just Amatsu that this will work for!

Is it really November already? How to use the last weeks of the year wisely..

Are you looking at your diary and thinking ‘How can it be November already? Where has this year gone?’ There is so much that I wanted to do in 2014!’

These thoughts can make us feel panicky and as a result we might start filling our diaries, packing things in and making plans so that we can direct some of that agitated energy into action. But how much of what we plan and fill our time with is actually what we really want to do with our time?

For a moment, let’s just step back and imagine that we are in a supermarket doing a weekly shop and we are hungry. We grab our trolley and set off, wanting to rush through the experience so that we can get home and eat. We whiz up and down the aisles, possibly buying more than we usually do as everything looks so tempting and inviting because our stomach is growling. We get to the checkout in record time with a groaning trolley filled with delicious things.

The cashier scans everything through and we salivate as we start imagining what we are going to eat.The bill is quite a bit more than we normally would pay, but –what the heck? – we have bought lots that will last us for ages.  It’s only when we get home and start to unpack (gobbling up a bag of crisps, some nuts or a banana on the way home!) that we realise that we haven’t really shopped well. There is undoubtedly plenty of food there, but not many meals. In our hungered state, we haven’t been able to plan and buy accordingly. We may have lots of snacks, milk, bread, fruit and cheese, we may have some meat or fish, but when we look at it on the counter we realise that we have forgotten the eggs for the tortilla that we fancied or we have no rice to go with the prawn curry.

It’s about priorities.

I went to a brilliant talk last week at Corrina Gordon Barnes’ Community Meetup and the speaker, Hannah Braime told us that until the 19^th century there was no such word as priorites – it was singular – priority, it defined the most important thing, not things.

It might be impossible for us to only have one priority these days, but use the supermarket metaphor as a guide for these last few weeks of the year. Are you racing around filling your time with lightweight activities that make you feel busy, but in the meantime, those more substantial dreams, plans and priorities for this year get trampled underfoot? Are you feeding your hunger for life with low-nutrition pastimes while the really nourishing stuff gets neglected?

As yourself today – ‘What is my priority?’ 

What is the one thing that you really want to do today? What is the one thing that at the end of the day, you will be proud/happy/relieved that you did? My suggestion is that you do it first before anything else no matter how large or small it is.   It could be going for a run, doing 2 hours work on your tax return, dealing with a complicated email, calling your best friend. It’s important, so do it first.

What is the one thing that you really want to do this week or by the end of the month or year? Make some steps towards it. Set aside a day to clear out that cupboard full of junk, join the gym and plan to go this weekend instead of in January or make an appointment with a recruitment consultant. Just by taking these steps, I guarantee that you will feel better and your ‘to do’ list will feel less overwhelming because you will be dealing with the important stuff – not just the stuff.

If you can really identify with this post, I will be going deeper with this topic with one to one phone or Skype sessions starting in January.

To begin with, these will only be part of a special package that a group of local practitoners and I have joined together to create, so will only be available to London dwellers (or those willing to travel!). This lovely package offers sessions to relax and rebalance you but also time out to get clear on what you would like the next year to hold for you.  As well as Amatsu, I will be offering 50-minute Purpose and Peace sessions which will give you time to look at your priorities (or even priority!) for the coming year in a relaxed and supportive space. You will come away feeling more clarity, a sense of direction and greater enthusiasm for the year ahead. You will also have some tools that you can use yourself throughout the year to keep you on track!

If this sounds of interest, hit ‘Reply’ now with Purpose and Peace sessions in the subject, no other information needed. I will be in touch with you in the next 2 weeks with more information and prices.

What happens when I don’t take my own advice..

I have a monthly Amatsu treatment. It involves a 3 hour round trip and I pay full price for the session but I work hard and spend a lot of time on my feet, as well as a significant portion of my week in front of a computer, so it is an important part of my health and wellbeing and I never miss a session. However, last week I didn’t follow my own post-treatment advice and I experienced, from the inside, the effect that had on the efficacy of the treatment.

This month, for a couple of days before the session, I had been feeling a burning ache around my left waist area which I knew was my 12th rib, something pretty uncomfortable when it is stuck, but relatively straightforward to correct. Now, I have absolute faith in Amatsu and my teacher Taz Faruqi, who treats me but, if you are a client of mine, you may have heard me say ‘I have you for 45 mins  a week/month, you have you for the rest of the time’ Somehow I forgot that!

The morning after my treatment I woke up feeling energised and, without thinking, decided to go for a swim. I had lovely time in the pool, enjoying the water and the movement of my body but as I left the pool, I felt a twinge right where I had been feeling it before.

My clients will know that I always suggest that they don’t exercise for 24 hours after a session. The reason for this is that after an Amatsu treatment, the body is still doing its own adjustment for hours and sometimes days later. Blood flows to areas previously constricted, muscle fibres lengthen or contract depending on need, things shift. It is important to let that inner wisdom unfold. It is part of the mystery and wonder of our bodies.

I could have kicked myself as I realised straight away what I had done. Only 12 hours after my treatment, I had been joyfully flinging myself up and down the pool using floats and challenging my arms and legs to work solo. I’d had a lovely time, but my body wasn’t quite ready for it. I hadn’t given it the opportunity to work its magic and assimilate what Taz had started. It’s a week later now and I’m totally fine again, but I had at least 5 days where I felt some sort of twinge which was pretty frustrating.

It’s not always easy to walk the talk as a practitioner – none of us are perfect – but it was a wonderful reminder of why the simple advice I give is actually important. Sometimes it’s harder to do the simple stuff. We think ‘Does it really make a difference?’ So I’m grateful for the reminder that just because the advice is simple, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. Next time, I’ll leave the goggles where they are for a day!

Until next time,

Lorna

Do you have a savings account?

We are often told that it is important to be in the present but most of us also want to have some thoughts about our future and what it might contain. Most of us want to have some direction and plans even if they might be quite hazy. We want to imagine a long and healthy life, so we may put aside some of what we earn in a savings account, a pension, some property or other investments. Now, please bear with me on this one! These topics don’t necessarily float my boat, but I know it’s important to have an awareness and take some interest and action now so that I can have a more stable and comfortable old age. I know that for some of you, thinking about health and wellbeing may not float your boat either. It can seem boring, expensive, time consuming or unnecessary in the here and now. There are so many other things that take your time, energy, commitment and finances. There aren’t enough hours in the day to fit it all in. But I would like to encourage you to shift your mindset a little and start to think of your health giving actions as an investment. Whether it’s a trip to the swimming pool, cutting down on sugar, drinking more water, hiring a personal trainer, having regular Amatsu or other bodywork, starting to eat organic or buying a new pair of trainers (and using them!), these are investments in your future you. We will all get older if we are lucky, and what we are doing today helps to determine our body of the future.

 A slightly more poetic way of looking at it is to imagine that we are novice gardeners. When we do health enhancing things, we are sowing seeds and planting bulbs.

When we cut down on things that don’t serve us, we are weeding out the thistles and nettles that stop our garden from thriving. When we set ourself a goal such as weight loss or giving up smoking we are landscaping a whole new area of our garden, adding a different dimension to ourselves. And the beautiful thing about a garden is that we invest time, energy, inspiration and love but we often don’t see all the results straight away.  Mowing the lawn has an immediate effect, perhaps like getting an amazing nights sleep, but planting requires trust that what you have spent your time on is worth it.

And in this garden of your health, it’s ok to start small.

It’s ok to have treats and lazy days when you just bask in the sun.

It’s ok not to be disciplined in absolutely every part of your garden.

It’s ok to experiment, try new things and then let them go if they don’t suit you.

But I urge you, as you may start a savings account with £10, or a window-box herb garden, to invest something now and regularly. Of course, we can’t know our future and we can’t protect ourselves fully from Life or disease or getting older.  But we can be active participants in this journey, planting a vigorous and beautiful garden of ourselves that we can enjoy for years and years to come.

And autumn is absolutely the right time to plant bulbs – so pull on your wellies and come and join me in the garden 🙂

Until next time,

Lorna

Oh no. She’s banging on about water again!

A new client came to see me recently. She had been recommended to me by her partner who had warned her that I was a water drinking fanatic! As this is true I didn’t mind at all! Some of you may even remember the Christmas card that I sent a couple of years ago with Father Christmas looking puzzled at the offering of a glass of water instead of the usual sherry and mince pies!

But is it really that important to drink water?

Well I’ll let you read this and make up your own mind…

Last week, a client who has been coming to see me for 4 years came for his regular monthly ‘MOT’. He arrived looking a little warm as he had cycled and the weather had been unseasonably mild. I started the treatment and was surprised to find that this usually quite well man had quite a number of imbalances. In addition, these were things I had never seen in his body and I feel I know him very well.

‘Are you feeling under the weather?’ I asked

He replied that no, he felt fine.

Then a lightbulb moment.

‘Are you thirsty?’

‘Well yes, as it happens’ he answered ‘ I had a glass of water ready to drink before I left work but I got distracted and forgot to have it’

So I handed him a glass of water and he drank it and lay back on my couch.

The effect was drastic and immediate. OK I know that sounds dramatic – and to anyone else in the room, there wasn’t a lot to see – there was no steam rising from him or sparks of light shooting from every pore! But as a slightly geeky Amatsu practitioner I get very excited about the changes I see in the tests that I do so please humour me! because when I resumed my assessment, the things that had confused me, the things that made me wonder if he had a cold coming, or had eaten something that had disagreed with him, were no longer showing in his body. He was now the client I knew, with a little tightness in his lower back but nothing more.

Even now after 6 years of studying the body using Amatsu, I am still blown away by this and all it implies.

My client’s body was dehydrated which made it look, and on some level feel, sick even though that hadn’t become something he was aware of yet. This client is usually great at drinking water so you could say that because he is usually hydrated it was more of a shock to his system not to be. I disagree. Our body just needs water, whoever we are. The problem is, that so many of us are chronically dehydrated and we have actually lost the ability to feel thirst (and often mistake it for hunger – a whole other topic!). But our body still needs that water. So if you are generally well but have achy joints, dry or flaky skin, digestive issues, constipation, headaches, brittle nails, cracked lips, feel sluggish and tired, lack concentration or feel stiff when you wake up.. and you know that you have less than 6-8 glasses of water a day, well, start slurping and see if it makes a difference to any of these things.

It’s one of those simple things, so simple that we forget. But as I was reminded thanks to my thirsty client, simple things can make dramatic changes. So be kind to your body, make it easy for yourself and drink! 🙂

Until next time,

Lorna x

doing the work

It was almost ten years ago that I started my journey towards the work I am doing now. At that point I was an extremely confused young woman. I felt trapped in a life that didn’t belong to me – I had a job that didn’t nourish me and was in a destructive and unsuitable relationship. I wanted someone to save me. I started looking, searching desperately in fact for what would make me feel better. I was frantic for change. Who could help me? When I came across people who inspired me or those with immense experience or knowledge, i wanted to absorb what they knew by osmosis. I asked lots of questions: what training had they done, where had they visited, what had they read? I wanted change in my life, but the mess I felt I was in seemed so large, so complicated – where to begin? Complex emotions made up of fear, guilt, disillusionment and feeling trapped were part of my everyday. It was a horrible place to be. Who could take that away from me?

This may seem a familiar scenario to some of you. You may feel tired. Tired of churning through options. Tired of making plans to escape your life as it is now, but not having the courage to make changes. Spending time getting all determined, only to lose momentum or belief . Listening to your inner gremlins that tell you you will be poor/lonely/badly thought of if you follow your dreams.You might seek out inspirational people who seem so strong, so brave and so sure. Their lives appear ordered, joyful and purposeful. You want that – even just a little piece of it  – so it is only natural that you are drawn to them.

But I’d like to share something with you that I’ve since figured out. The vast majority of those people have been in a place quite similar to the one you find yourself in. Amazing healthcare practitioners have often suffered illness or pain, yoga teachers have often rehabilitated themselves after an accident, inspirational coaches have often had life traumas. It was through doing their own work -whether that was self enquiry, exercise, changing their lifestyle, extricating themselves from a toxic job or relationship or a combination of all of those – that they have learnt the stuff we are desperate to glean from them. And they are still learning. And of course, still making mistakes. It is, like so many of the things I talk about, a process. The learning is everything. We want short cuts but we don’t realise that by trying to find them we are missing the point completely. If we ever want to be peaceful, joyful, capable and calm like those we admire, we have to do our own work and, even with the best of intentions, no-one can do it for us.

That can feel scary, I know, but we all have inner reserves that we don’t know exist until we try to utilise them. We all have capacities and capabilities that are as yet undiscovered. And by doing our own work, we gradually transform ourselves – the greatest satisfaction of all.

So don’t lose heart. Find authentic people who inspire you and learn from them, read books, watch talks, do whatever it is that makes you feel uplifted and energised, take tiny steps towards what you want your life to look like. And day by day learning about yourself, make small tweaks and changes to take you towards that place. It really is a journey.

 Bon voyage!

http://www.canal-river-boats.com/sailingboats

Helping you to love your body a little more

 

 

Which part of your body do you really like?

Image: Philip Martin.com

 Do you have nicely shaped hands, strong legs or straight teeth? Do you have fabulously thick hair or large expressive eyes? Do people always comment on your great skin or your wonderful smile?

And which parts are you not so keen on?  I’m guessing that it ‘s easier to come up with a list! Your funny feet, wobbly thighs, or less than flat tummy are much more likely to pop to mind than the bits you feel happy with. We look at our body as lots of different parts and give them  scores – good, alright, less than perfect, awful. 

We think ‘If only I wasn’t going grey/had a smaller nose/had less unruly hair/fewer wrinkles… Most of us are not happy with what we have!

Working in my job as an Amatsu practitioner I am constantly observing, touching and moving people’s bodies. And the more I do so, the more I can honestly say that I think they are all beautiful and fascinating. Of course, my clients are not usually models or athletes or any of the other types of people whose bodies we aspire to or dream of having. But all of their bodies are beautiful in their individuality and their unparalleled mechanisms and engineering. They are all beautiful in the way they cope with life and the stories they have to tell – the marks, the scars, the bumps, the breaks. A totally unique history is written there.

I try not to, but I can’t help but see people I work on on two different levels.  I see them – their story, their work, their personality, their dreams, frustrations and pain – and I see their body. I see this amazing, mysterious, wise and yes, beautiful body that is asking me ( or anyone else who cares to listen!) for help. I see the subtle but real clues that their body is giving me that may help to unravel the mystery of why they are feeling discomfort or can’t move properly. The fact that a person can’t turn their head or that they wake up with a tight and painful jaw tells me something. The fact that their knees hurt when they go downstairs or there is a pain between their shoulder blades are clues too -my clients’ beautiful body showing where it is going wrong.

We look at the outside of ourselves and judge it. We forget about the inner, miraculous layers that we never see. And I can assure you – those inner layers are truly lovely. Remember them 🙂

 

Distractions

 

Last week I watched a beautiful and moving Italian film called The Great Beauty. In it, the main character lamented that he couldn’t write a book while living in Rome as it was too full of distractions. It resonated with me, so today I wanted to share some thoughts about it with you.

Distractions are often fun. They capture the interest of the part of our brain designed to be stimulated by novelty. They are often short-lived and pleasurable activities. We all enjoy distractions from time to time in our busy world. But what if those distractions, like for the character in the film, are actually filling our day and getting in the way of us achieving the dreams or ideas that really set us alive? 

A few years ago, I realised my life was getting too full. I was working 4 days a week in an office, running an Amatsu business, seeing friends, enjoying a new relationship, travelling and spending time with family. I also wanted to keep up to date with new films, restaurants, courses and talks. I needed to complete Continued Professional Development courses for my Amatsu work but also had a strong desire to spend more time at Embercombe,  a sustainability centre in Devon.  I wanted to practice yoga and meditate regularly, go walking at weekends and swim at least once a week. Guess what? My life was making me stressed – or more accurately, my idea of what my life should include was making me stressed.  So many of the things that I wanted to do seemed really important. I wanted to exercise, sleep and eat well, be sociable and keep learning, but of course each of those things demanded time. But I didn’t want to give any of them up! 

 But as is often the case in this journey of life, I eventually realised there was a lesson that I had to learn. What did I REALLY want? I forced myself to sit down and truly think about what seeds I wanted to plant in my life now, so that they would flourish in the future. Which people did I want to spend time with that really uplifted, nourished and inspired me? What did I really prefer to do when I wanted downtime and relaxation?

It was quite tough, but I realised that quite a few of the things I was putting my precious time towards were simply distractions. I couldn’t do it all, so what did I really want to do. What could I let go of that would allow more space for those things? So, I unsubscribed from the mailing lists offering me deals on things I would never have thought to do or buy otherwise. I only went to concerts or talks that really really interested me. I stopped buying books on all manner of subjects!  I focused. 

Now this may seem contradictory to some of you who have read some of the other posts I’ve written suggesting that you try something new to boost your creativity or inspiration, but one thing I have learnt is that life is contradictory! Although it might be nice sometimes, there is no instruction manual telling us how to live in the best and most fruitful way. Sometimes life is confusing and we have to find our own way to ride the waves of it. So my offering to you this week is the suggestion to look at your life – and what  fills it – with a fresh perspective. 

What will be the things, people and habits that stay with you through a lifetime? What do you really want to have done by the end of this day, week, year?

 How will you feel if you don’t get this piece of work done, see that film, visit that friend or read that book? Will you have missed a beautiful opportunity, will you not even notice or will you even feel a sense of relief? 

Which things would break your heart if they weren’t in your life?

Use your gut feel and your sense of knowing to ask and answer those questions. 

And then sweep out some of those distractions and get on with living towards your dreams! 

Good luck and have fun!