Connection...

Happy Monday Everyone!

I am loving the new Facebook group and how we are all sharing on there, it's fab! I can only apologise for not setting one up sooner. It's amazing how we can just have a blind spot sometimes and not see something so glaringly obvious until we chat to other people, the Facebook page to make it super easy for everyone to share came out of a pub conversation with a friend last week!

I have decided this is going to be a theme for me this week with the challenge. I am going to call friends I have not spoken to in ages every day this week. I have so many friends that I have just got behind in catching up with, there is always this voice in the back of my mind thinking "I really must call x" but I just get so busy with daily life I put it off. The worst thing is I had an awful wake up call last year (a year ago next week in fact) when a friend I had been meaning to call actually died, I promised myself  I wouldn't do that again and yet hear I am. So this is the week, each day I am going to reconnect with my friends!

To add to this I am also going to make an effort to do some more networking to connect with new people, for my business, so I plan to do this at least 3 times this week.

CELEBRATION ON 14th APRIL!

To mark the end of this challenge and share with each other how we have all got on with it I have booked us a table for drinks on a fab roof terrace in central London! It is at Elysee bar and restaurant on Percy Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road. This is the website. I have booked the table at 7pm.

I will also be doing the prize draw for everyone entered into the challenge to win the full Create Yourself package of an image consultation, life coaching sessions and personal training.

Please let me know if you plan to attend!

Have a great week everyone

xxx

Create Yourself

How do you like to play?

I was reading yet another interesting blog this morning that I feel really relates to our challenge; The Happiness Project. Today Gretchen Rubin is discussing how playing has a huge part in feeling happy. Thinking about our challenge of doing something we love every day and what things we are picking to do I am sure a lot of them are things we loved to do when we were younger. The things I loved to do when I was growing up are all the things that make me smile now; baking cakes, being by the sea, seeing my friends, dancing.....and even roller skating (not that I do that very often now)!


Hmm just thought of another one, I used to love making mix tapes!! Ok so that is my thing for today, I am going to create a play list (oh, how times have changed!) of all my old favourite songs from when I was 15 and under.....ooo this is going to be fun! I hope I can find Mel and Kim on Spotify!! (if you have not yet discovered Spotify it is an amazing tool for downloading free music).


Gretchen mentions a book by Stuart Brown Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul in which he lists various different "play personalities".  Going through the various options I think I must be a director, as I love to plan events/parties, and an explorer as I love going to new places and meeting new people. It helps to become present to what you are as then from there you can get ideas of things to do that will make you happy!


So I am taking on my director hat today and am booking the venue for our party on 14th April - I hope you can make it!


What is your play personality?


....and if you are stuck for things to do each day to make you smile, what would you have done when you were 8 years old?


Have fun! x

What do you "know" about Love?

As planned I had a fantastic weekend catching up with various different groups of friends. The photo on the right is of a couple of killer tigers I came across at the of an old school friend!

One thing that I consciously shifted over the weekend was the conversation I have with myself and others around money, or more specifically the lack of it! I made a decision not bring that into any discussions and instead to focus on all the plans I have ahead of me. This may sound slightly random but it left me feeling excited about my future rather than having any concerns. I realise this is not technically "doing something I love" but it did make my time with friends all the more fun and has helped create a new empowering outlook for my future.

Another thing I love to it to take photos, since May last year I have been taking a photo every day (well very nearly) to depict my life. I have set up a photo album per month on Facebook where I upload them. It's been fantastic to do as looking back at them now I can really picture what I have been doing over the past year, and friends seem to love seeing themselves in them too! The iphone Camera + app is great for taking photos then adding effects to them.....the photo below is just from a cake tin at my friends house!

I have been following a fantastic blog by Judy Clement, she is spending 2011 loving fearlessly and this week she has posted about what she has learnt about love so far. She opened the question out to her readers to find out what they know about love......so I am throwing it out to you too!

To get you started here are a few things I posted to her blog about what I know:

1. I know it gets easier the more you share it, the more I tell people I love them and what they mean to me the more open I get and easier it becomes to say it. I used to be very closed when I was growing up.
2. Romantic love can be a bit scary but beautiful.
3. The more you speak about love and tell people you love them the more you feel love.
4. Consciously planning to do something you love every day lifts your spirits and energy.
5. Love is what has supported me through making changes and decisions in my life, the love I feel from family and friends is the most important thing in my life. I know what ever happens to me I will always have the support and love of all the wonderful people in my life.
6. Finally loving yourself really is key. Treat yourself like you treat those you love.

I look forward to hearing what you know about love!

xx

Love and Connection

Hi All!

Hope you are all having fun doing things you love!

This weekend I am focusing on catching up with people I have not seen in a long time. I have been really focused on my business these past couple of weeks so I have arranged to see as many people as possible this weekend to feel that lovely sense of connection with the people I love!

One of my best friends is coming down from Liverpool today so we are going for lunch soon. Then straight from that I am going down to Sussex with an old school friend to stay with another school pal, I will be armed with Pretty Woman, Grease and Sex and The City DVDs for a proper girlie night in! Tomorrow I am catching up with another fab group of friends in The Calf pub in Clapham......love a good Sunday Pub session, yipppppeeeee!

Love and connection is one of our 6 human needs which just shows how important it is to make time for it no matter how busy you are.

Have fun weekends!

xx

Law of Attraction

The past couple of days have been spent working from home so not a huge amount to report aside from I have been trying out a new law of attraction process that a friend showed me......and it's definitely been making me smile! So I thought I would share it with you incase you'd like to give it a go!

1) Look in the mirror and tell yourself "I love you" (yes quite cringy this bit!)
2) Read out a statement with lots of energy about who you are in the world, what you are a stand for, what your purpose in life it.
3) Look at some photo's/pictures of what/who you want in your life. This is really to help anchor in what you want.
4) Put on some uplifting music and jump around reading your goal out aloud like you already have it, read this a few times, fast and loud as if you are celebrating achieving it.
5) Then read out aloud what your life is like a year on from achieving your goal, to really get present to the impact in your life the goal will have in the future
6) Jump around a bit more....even have a little dance :-)
7) Sit down and write a few things you are grateful for in your life.

I know this might sound slightly insane.....but honestly after you have done it you feel so energised and positive it just can't be a bad thing to start the day off with!

Go on.....give it a go......I dare you!

xxx

Music!

Yesterday after an uplifting morning of mediation, yoga and focusing on my goals I dug out an old Ibiza Classic's CD and had it on full blast until I went out to the pub. It was great to listen to all my old favourite dancing songs and really left me feeling energised......plus very excited about a trip to Ibiza for my business partner's stag do in September. We have not been for years and I know it's going to be fun fun fun!

Today I have allowed myself to be lazy, I cooked some nice food and sat in the sunshine to eat it. I wandered around the garden listening to the birds and admiring the crocuses and snowdrops that have popped up in the beds. I would never have spotted them from the house and just spending time looking at them in the garden really brought me in the the present moment. Then I allowed myself an afternoon nap and now am reading through some of my favourite blogs; Zebra Sounds, Zen Habits and Unimaginable Adventures. I can wait to start my new blog that I have been plotting over the past few weeks......will reveal all as soon as it's ready!

And how about you? What have you been doing that makes you smile? Would love to hear about it no matter how small!

xxx

Have I gone mad?!

Today the thing I have done to make me smile is spring clean my bedroom and fill it with daffodils.....cleaning isn't usually something that fills me with joy but the after effect of having a nice clean room attracting lots of new spring energy is definitely making me happy!

Off to a candle lit yoga class this evening to finish off a lovely spring day!

xx

This is just the beginning.......

I was just sat here pondering what to do today for the challenge and realised actually with out awareness everything I have done today has been something I love doing and that I am actually totally in the middle of creating my dream life right now, it's happening all around me, it just doesn't feel quite like it just yet. Sounds a bit cryptic, let me explain.....

I started this challenge to raise money for Anna's amazing charity and event plans in November. My business is all around helping people go for what they want in their lives so it is already my passion. The week before the challenge started I found out my key stream of income, coaching and training part time with in a business, has dried up. They are cutting costs and I no longer have regular work there. Luckily for me I still have my own business and clients but it still isn't a guaranteed income. Anyway this shift has caused me to think, well maybe now is the time to radically shake up my life, I help other people do it and now it's time for me!!!

As a result of this I am currently consumed with "what's next?". It is incredibly exciting but also incredibly scary as it feels totally out of my comfort zone.  I know I have been playing a  bit small though and I think now is the time to start to play for my dream life! I may even be leaving London for a while and following my dream of spending 6 months in India. How perfect is the timing of this challenge, and I promise I had no idea this was around the corner.

I will reveal what the new plans are as soon as I have actually decided on them but in the mean time things I have been doing that I love over the past couple of days are:

• I ran my last time management course for team leaders yesterday and I received some great feedback after it, it feels amazing to have hopefully made a bit of a difference to someone's day.
• I went on a last team lunch yesterday and we ate somewhere new that I had always wanted to try, it was delicious and of course I had fab company!
• Last night I had a good cry and then enjoyed putting the world to rights over a bottle of wine with a great friend from college days.
• I was up at 6 this morning working on my new ideas, sending emails, checking social media - love all that!
• I chatted to my boyfriend who is in Australia, what a brilliant invention Skype is!
• Had a very hot and sweaty yoga class
• And now the afternoon is for blogging and learning more about my new business idea.....which actually is all about blogging and making money online.

So all in all it's a very exciting time!

xx

Beach time!

I've been having a lovely weekend down with my parents, and then catching up with a good friend I haven't seen since last summer! Below are some pics I have snapped from last nights sunset and a walk on the sand this morning.....bliss :-)

Next on the agenda is baking a chocolate cake with my mum this afternoon.....I don't think we have done that together since I was about 10!!

xxx

Send out LOVE today!

Just a little post to let you know (if you believe in this kind of thing) that today's full moon brings a focus to the heart. This mean's it's a great time to focus on those you love, send out love to everyone around and to our world and it's also a time for self love.

When I was at the ashram in India in January one thing I learnt about mediating was to slow your breath down and focus either on your heart, if you are a person of love and devotion, or if you are more of an intellectual nature then the point in between your eyebrows. (Little photo below explaining this from the hall in the ashram) A lovely mediation to do is to sit and focus on your heart sending out love to everyone you know, focusing on one person at a time and saying "I Love You" or "I send out love to you" What ever works for you. You might simply like to repeat "I am Love" over and over like a mantra.

Doing this really has a lovely effect and sends out lot of positive vibrations to those you care about.

Thank you all for joining this challenge!

Lots of love to you all

xxxxxxx

Operation beautiful!

Inspired by the AMAZING Operation Beautiful I just sneaked into my friend's (and flatmate!) room and left a note on her mirror saying she is beautiful, I love her and thanks for being such a fab friend. It feels really lovely to express how you feel about someone, especially when they least expect it, he he :-)

xx

Day 3....allowing myself to stop!

Before I start I just have to say.....Tiffany your cats are GORGEOUS!!! I tried to add a comment but for some reason I couldn't write anything, hope that fixes itself soon! But they really are so beautiful, awww!

Well my first little treat was a Cadbury's cream egg today, the first one of the season! I try to leave it as long as possible usually and once the seal is broken there is no turning back. It was indeed very yummy, although must say Maltesers Bunnies are big competition this year :-)

After scoffing the egg I spent my lunch break on the search of someone to compliment, I just thought it would be a nice thing to do, it was fun I felt like I was on some kind of make over show running around undercover checking out what people were wearing!! When I did find my lady she looked rather chuffed to be told how lovely she looks.

I've ended up going for a triple whammy and have decided to give myself a night off tonight, instead of planned yoga and then work I am going to turn the laptop off after this, have a long soak in a bath and then read my book....(and not feel at all guilty!).....bliss.

Good night! x

50 things that make me smile!

OK here is my list of 50 things that put a big smile on my face.....as I started I wondered how I would think of 50 but as i got going more and more kept springing in to mind! Now I just want to go do them all :-)

I look forward to reading all of yours!

x

1. Walking along the Thames
2. Going into nice cosy old London pubs with open fires in the winter
3. Visiting Brighton
4. Going down to the New Forest to see my parents, love seeing the ponies wandering around
5. Running along the cliff top/ sea wall where my parents live
6. Roller skating
7. Dancing
8. Bikram Yoga
9. Reading a good book, love Paulo Coehlo
10. Cooking a roast for a big Sunday lunch with friends
11. Hosting a dinner party
12. Throwing a party
13. Looking around shops
14. Baking Cake
15. Being spun around salsa dancing
16. Tooting bec lido in the summer
17. Writing my blog/diary
18. My cat
19. Lying in a hammock
20. Eating fresh fish by a beach in Thailand/India
21. Kyaking through crystal clear sea
22. Snorkelling
23. Chatting to friends abroad on Skype
24. Planning a holiday
25. Having a really great open conversation with someone I care about where you really share yourselves and learn more about each other
26. Kissing :-)
27. Going for coffee and cake with a friend for a good catch up
28. Going to the cinema on my own in the middle of the day
29. Going to the Tate Modern
30. Sitting somewhere peaceful and meditating
31. Running along the Thames
32. Borough Food Market, going saturday morning and wandering around feasting on everything!
33. Saturdays at Portobello Market with a friend and glass of vino after shopping
34. Pie and mash after a good nose around Spitalsfield market on a Sunday
35. Going to seminars that inspire me and help me to grow
36. Seeing my friends children, they are all so cute!
37. Taking photos, I aim to take one a day
38. The feeling at the end of a personal shop where the client is excited about all his/her new clothes
39. The energy I get when I am coaching someone and they start to make the changes they desire, to see their confidence and excitement growing is a true gift
40. Waking up in the arms of my boyfriend
41. Ordering food in a new restaurant
42. Eating delicious food
43. Listening to music up LOUD!
44. Dancing round the lounge to a great song on full blast
45. Playing Wii with friends
46. Visiting somewhere new and exploring
47. Long windy walks where your cheeks are pink and you feel wind swept by the end of it
48. Swimming in the sea, even in UK!
49. Getting dressed up with friends to go out, music on, wine open!
50. Going to concerts/gigs

It's time to sign up!

I can't believe how much the time has flown and the time is here for everyone to sign up for the Challenge! I have just spent a wonderful 5 weeks doing things I love every day in India and feel even MORE excited about the impact I know this challenge will have on all those doing it. Just consiously planning to do something that makes you smile every day really does shift your thoughts and feelings for that day.

To sign up please go to this site and donate via the paypal link. Then I will add you on to this blog so you can start contributing. Some suggested tips to get you started are:

• As soon as you recieve an email from me to say you are added to the blog write a quick post just to introduce yourself to everyone. I am sure people would be interested to get to know a bit about everyone doing the challenge and who knows you might get to know some people who can help you/ you help them etc
• Then before the challenge started on Valentines day you may like to post an idea of the kind of things you will be doing. A great exercise to create some ideas of what to do is to write a list of 50 things that make you smile, then you can start to plan to do them. They might be things you like to do now, things you haven't done for years or something you have always wanted to try.
• On Valentines please start posting what you do every day, it doesn't have to be long just a quick few lines to share ideas and experiences with everyone.
• It's perfectly ok to copy other peoples ideas!! That is one of the reasons for this blog to inspire each other.
• Above all HAVE FUN!

Once I have an idea of how many people are on the challenge I will then book a venue for the party to celebrate the end on 14th April.

Again the site to sign up is: www.createalifeyoulove.co.uk

Over the new week I will post my list of 50 things that make me smile too :-)

Thanks everyone for your support!!

Louise xx