Wellness

September 3, 2017 by Christine

Slow living Sundays

In a bid to share a few ways in which slow living can be easily incorporated into your weekly routine, I thought I’d share a few pics and ramblings showing my slow living Sundays.

Arguably Sunday is by far the easiest day to incorporate a little slow living into your weekly routine, but in a world where shops open seven days a week and no end of distractions all around us- even slowing down for one whole day each week can present somewhat of a challenge. Here are a few ways I’ve introduced slow living into my Sundays…

Read: Instead of turning on TV, make the most of a quiet moment to read a little something inspiring, in this weeks case- for me it was the latest House & Garden magazine. I really enjoy receiving my subscription and reading about inspiring, creative individuals who have renovated old homes or redesigned spaces, gardens and interiors- the photography is so beautiful. Allow yourself to read something that’s not overly challenging, remember the aim is to relax and slow things down.Walk: Autumn is the perfect opportunity to pop your wellies on and go for a walk, take a moment to notice the changing of the seasons. A slow Sunday walk is the ideal way to catch up with family chats, admire the trees changing colour and pick some blackberries (ideally for a crumble). Today I noticed that the floor was starting to show signs of what’s to come, the first sprinkling of golden autumn leaves has already begun.

Nap: Post walk, I’d highly recommend having a cheeky little cat nap. The option of having a mid afternoon nap is such a glorious luxury for so many of us, there’s nothing quite as restorative as a good nap. If you struggle to nap, then maybe just stick on a black and white (slow-paced) film, recline on the couch and put your feet up- after all, that’s what slow living Sundays are all about.

Dine: Mr T and I always make a point of enjoying a fabulous roast dinner, be that with friends, family or just the two of us. All the ingredients are fresh from the organic supermarket and local food market. There’s something special about sitting down to enjoy a home cooked roast dinner, to chat about the week gone by and catch up on plans for the week ahead. You really can’t beat slow food!

Incase you missed my previous post introducing slow living, you can catch up on it HERE. Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead.

‘Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why’ -Eddie Cantor

Stay fabulous

Christine

August 29, 2017 by Christine

Run your business the mindful way | Interview with Author Palma Michel

Palma Michel is an executive coach and author of ‘The Authority Guide to Mindful Leadership’ Palma’s work teaches how to run your business the mindful way using simple techniques and exercises to manage yourself, manage others and effect change in a mindful way. I caught up with Palma to find out a few of her practical tips for mindful leadership:

Tell us a little about what you do….

I work as a mindfulness teacher and coach with individuals and organisations. My coaching is focused on empowering individuals to move beyond technical expertise and become more authentic leaders and find lasting happiness and fulfilment by living with more presence, purpose and meaning. As a mindfulness teacher I support individuals with stress management, navigating transitions and times of upheaval. I also introduce mindfulness to organisations and have worked with brands like Converse, Mario Testino+, The Soho House Group, Second Home London and Cheil. When working with organisations I help them build purpose driven, innovative and sustainable cultures that allow enterprises and individuals to thrive in the 21st century. I focus on how companies can build resilience, emotional intelligence, increase productivity and boost creativity.

What inspired you to write “The Authority Guide To Mindful Leadership”

Having experienced the transformative power of meditation in my own life I felt a deep calling to empower other people to find the same inner peace and lasting fulfilment. Once I learned more about neuroscience and what happens in our brains when we are faced with uncertainty, pressure and change and how meditation can reverse this unconscious reactivity, I felt everybody should know about this. As a former board-level headhunter I have seen many examples of great leadership but also many examples of not so great leadership. We are living in pressure cooker times. In this new era, we need bold and courageous leaders who remain calm and present when under pressure. We need leaders who act with clarity, integrity and compassion and take sustainable decisions for the greater benefit of all.

Have you ever wondered, why leaders act seemingly out of character when under pressure, why we have so many leaders who lack integrity or if we can train leaders to remain calm and true to their values when the going gets rough?

In The Authority Guide To Mindful Leadership, I explore these questions including insights on how our brain works, why some people feel stressed and others don´t even when faced with the same conditions. I also explain how training the brain through mindfulness practices creates more focused, compassionate and innovative leaders and how mindfulness

is not just a nice to have but a core capacity for today´s and tomorrow´s leaders. To me, before managing anything else, leaders need to learn how to manage themselves, which starts by “managing” their nervous system. The Authority Guide To Mindful Leadership offers a practical toolbox of exercises and techniques for managing yourself, managing others and effecting broader change by creating sustainable companies with a purpose. It is a practical roadmap for applying mindfulness practices to leadership and business challenges.

Can you share your top 3 practical tips for on how to use mindfulness to create a culture for creativity

Manage Your Nervous System: Culture is usually built from the top, hence the behaviour and management style of the leadership team is key. Leaders need to be comfortable with the space of uncertainty and not knowing and able to hold the creative container during times of upheaval.

The problem is that when faced with pressure, uncertainty, volatility, lack of sleep or emotional turmoil, there is a tendency to jump to conclusions, to react unconsciously, to procrastinate or to collapse the creative roller-coaster prematurely – in short, a tendency to get out of the situation as quickly as possible, without being aware of the possible long-term consequences of the actions taken. There is a tendency to have a tunnel vision and to become closed, defensive and blame others when things go wrong. In those moments there is no space in our minds and it is impossible for our brains to get into a relaxed alpha wave state, which is required for those “light bulb” moments.

Whenever you feel stressed, under pressure, notice negative thoughts or feel triggered in any way, try this short breathing exercise to calm down your amygdala and get yourself back into the control zone: Take a few conscious breaths through your nostrils, inhaling deeply all the way into your abdomen. Exhale through your nostrils – the key is to make your exhale slightly longer than your inhale. Count to two on your inhale and elongate your exhale by counting to four.

Open Communication: Leaders also need to create an environment where everyone can participate and everyone´s voice is heard, rather than one person dominating or shouting others down. Diversity of backgrounds and opinions and learning how to encourage collaboration across functions are other crucial factors.

From my experience everyone wants to be heard and seen and most people think they are much better listeners than they really are. If you finish other people´s sentences or just wait for your turn to speak, this can stifle your team´s confidence and creativity. Encourage all team members to speak and listen with curiosity and openness and allow difference in opinion. This openness includes listening to difficult truth without blaming anyone. During team meetings try to bring your full attention to whoever is speaking; if your attention wonders off, the moment you notice that, bring your attention back to the speaker.
Ask Questions: Asking questions creates an openness where something new can arise. When managers and companies stop asking questions and assume they know all the answers, there is a risk for complacency and creativity is blocked. A lot of what we do on a daily basis and as a business is habitual and on autopilot. Once a habit is formed, we no longer question it. Sometimes it takes a newcomer to a business to ask why are we “doing X” for us to notice that it no longer makes sense in the current environment.. Asking questions is an easy way to interrupt the autopilot, break through the mental noise and bring curiosity to any situation. Don´t assume you know the answer or something is a given, but continuously ask questions and challenge your assumptions including your own beliefs about a situation. Questions you can ask to get started: Why are we doing what we are doing and how is that aligned with our purpose? What can we learn? What do our customers really need?

Find out more from Palma and grab a copy of her book at: www.authorityguides.co.uk

Stay fabulous

Christine (big thank you to Palma for sharing her wisdom)

August 27, 2017 by Christine

A beginners guide to companion planting

In the age of the supermarket, it’s easy to take the things we eat for granted. Food is becoming increasingly far removed from its natural origins, individually plastic-wrapped fruits and convenience foods devoid of vital vitamins and minerals symbolise the disconnect between our ‘food shop’ and where natural, organic, real food comes from.

Choosing to tend your own garden and produce even a small part of your diet at home is, in such an atmosphere, a radical gesture: but as society in general becomes ever more alienated from the natural processes around us, more engaged individuals are discovering that the care they give to non-human life-forms is reciprocated in strange and wonderful ways. The natural world, of which we are still a part, is deeply interconnected. Here’s a beginners guide to companion planting…

For those who raise their own crops, a great example of this interconnectedness and reciprocal care can be found in the cultivation of complementary plants. What goes on in the air and under the earth of your garden is remarkable. It’s a micro-system of sharing and communication that can be utilized through thoughtful strategizing.

For example, planting particular vegetables or herbs near other particular food plants can improve the flavour of your crop. Other plants will attract helpful insects, or deter pests – which saves you from needing to add more chemicals into the system. Certain plants will provide shelter to smaller plants, while still others can be used to mask the scent of stinkier plants. Let’s take a look at some of the partnerships you can create.

Strawberries: These ‘little old earth men’ like to have plenty of personal space, but it doesn’t mean you need to leave them entirely alone. The borage herb (Borago officinalis) is a particular helper, attracting pollinators who in turn attract critters such as the praying mantis and the wasp, which feed on the kind of pests that can otherwise damage your strawberry crop. Most strawberry farmers reckon borage improves their strawberries’ taste, too.

Leek: The spicy leek has a wonderful relationship with the juicy carrot: each of them has a tendency to be plagued by their own particular breed of fly, but repels those flies that pester the other. Plant carrots and leeks together, and you should see a natural reduction in both carrot flies and onion flies. Keep your beans somewhere else, though, as bean growth seems to be inhibited by the presence of leeks.

Carrots: If you’re not planting your carrots alongside leeks, you have the go ahead to plant your beans alongside your carrots instead. It’s a one way affair – carrots improve your bean crop, but not vice versa. Sage and chives will help your carrots by repelling flies, as well adding subtle flavour to your veggies. Avoid coriander and dill, though, as these herbs excrete harmful substances in the earth around your precious carrots.

Broccoli: The best broccoli is truly one of nature’s gifts to us. Poorly cultivated or prepared broccoli, on the other hand, is a nightmare that every child carries through to adult life. Rosemary, sage, dill, and mint will all help you grow full, healthy broccoli; chamomile will improve its flavour, as will celery or onions. But please, please, after all this hard work – don’t overcook it!

Tomatoes: Toms are a real mainstay of the home gardener. They’re both achievable and, in general, much tastier than the ones you’ll find in the shops. Tomatoes respond very sensitively to the environment, so it’s worth using a variety of breeds in your first crop so you observe which ones will thrive in your garden. One good rule is that if it goes well in tomato soup, it goes well alongside tomato in the earth: basil, carrots, celery and chives will all have benefits for the flavour, with some of these suspects also providing respite from pests and other growth-blights.

Beans: As you’ll already have noticed, beans have a complex relationship with the other foods of your garden. Marigolds are a surprising companion plant for many beans: they deter beetles and other insect pests, as well as producing a substance that suppresses the microscopic worms that blight the roots of so many promising young bean crops. The leek is not the only food that doesn’t get along with beans: all members of the allium family – including garlic, the onion, and the scallion – will keep your beans from growing into big strong soup fodder.

Garlic: If it doesn’t get along so well with beans, in general garlic is super-helpful in the garden. It deters pests and repels hungry insects like aphids, and the sulphur that it accumulates can function as a natural fungicide. It will keep ants and snails off your roses, too.

Potatoes: Basil, parsley and thyme can all spice up the sturdy old potato, so these make for good companions. Nightshade plants such as eggplant, peppers and tomatoes suffer from the same diseases as potatoes so it is best to keep them apart in your garden. Raspberries and sunflowers are also thought to inhibit potato growth, although nobody really knows why.

Sunflowers: A sunflower brightens up any garden: grow it big, strong and bright, and it will repay you with that iconic glowing smile we know and love, not to mention its healthy seeds. The sunflower will also help out your cucumbers by repelling beetles and aphids while attracting more beneficial predators to keep pests at bay.

Cucumbers: The cucumber is a bold and confident plant that can rather tend to take over your garden. Luckily, they’re also pretty friendly, and a healthy cucumber will pay back by adding nitrogen to the soil – which is great for peas and beans. Potatoes should be kept apart, though, since otherwise they will compete for the same nutrients and water.

As you see, it’s a real soap opera in your garden – but learning to put complementary plants together can be rewarding for the eye, the belly and the soul. For a quick visual reminder on which plants like which, check out this new guide from Home Advisor before you start to map your healthy garden network.

‘Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty’ -Albert Einstein

Stay fabulous

Christine

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