Explore your wild side! We love nature and created this colourful word cloud to celebrate all the beautiful things it has to offer. We hope it inspires you to spend some time in the great outdoors.
You can download a high res version to print here.
On my happy list this month: feeling inspired by nature and magazines galore in this gorgeous little library at Anthropologie HQ, Philadelphia
Each month we share a free ‘happy list’ as a place for you to capture the things – big or small – that have made you smile each day.
Download your happy list here.
Wishing you a marvellous May,
Rachel
Each month we share a free downloadable ‘happy list’ as a place for you to capture the things – big or small – that have made you smile each day.
On my happy list – an inspired coffee break
Download your happy list here.
Wishing you an amazing April,
Rachel
PS: We are launching an exciting new course, The Business Soul Sessions, very soon. We can’t reveal the details just yet, but let’s just say it will completely change the way you think of business, and offer you a whole new blueprint for creating a soulful business that generates significant profits you can be proud of. Hop on the waiting list today to find out more and get:
We all know what it’s like to feel stressed. It happens when everything gets too much and we feel overloaded and overburdened. And when we start feeling this way we start to doubt whether we can cope with the amount of pressure being placed upon us.
Stress is the body’s natural reaction to pressure. Some of us experience physical effects, like a rise in body temperature, a churning stomach, sweaty palms and a dry mouth, others experience emotional effects, like worry, sadness or anxiety, and others are affected mentally, losing concentration and focus. All are normal and let you know us that our bodies are working exactly as they should be.
Sometimes a little bit of stress (what experts call acute stress) that you feel “in the moment” can be good. It’s a kind of fight or flight response that you have when you give a presentation, give your best performance in sport, or meet a deadline. This type of ‘stress’ is defined by the fact that it’s immediate and short term. In most cases, once the cause of your stress has been removed, your body and mind return to a normal state.
Chronic stress however, is entirely different, and it can be detrimental to your health. This type of stress is the kind that you experience every day with no reprieve because there’s no escape from the things that are making you feel stressed.
Whatever the cause of your stress, The Mayo Clinic suggests using ‘The Four As’ to help you deal with it in a healthy way… (more…)
Over the past few weeks I have had the great privilege of interviewing a series of fascinating people on the big questions that echo for us all. What is really important in life? How do we pursue our dreams? What is the future going to look like in terms of the way we work, learn and earn? How can we carve out our own path, and do things in a way which makes us happy? How can we be more creative, more adventurous, more inspired in our daily lives?
This journey of conversation has taken me to three continents, across many time zones, and it has both provided answers and sparked further questions.
We have recorded these in-depth interviews with thought leaders and put them together into a brand new FREE webinar series called Alchemy, and you are invited. It will stretch your mind, challenge your thinking and open your eyes to new ideas. I urge you to be part of it.
The videos will be shared daily by email from April 27 – May 3 to everyone signed up to the series. We will also provide an Alchemy Playbook, full of probing questions to help you squeeze all the goodness out of each conversation. And we will be hosting Twitter chats with some of our speakers at the time their interview is first broadcast, so you can ask them questions directly yourself.
And don’t worry if you are working that week, or travelling, or in a different time zone. We will provide info on how to access the videos after they have gone ‘live’ too.
So please, give yourself the gift of listening in to these vital conversations. Sign up now (remember, it’s free!)
This week we’d like to challenge you to take one minute to register for Alchemy, and then another minute to share it on social media and encourage your friends to get involved in these real and important conversations.
Thank you for caring about the big questions,
Beth and team
images in this post from the fab workshop I took with Philippa Stanton (@5ftinf on Instagram)
I woke up at 5am on Sunday morning stressed about one of the projects I am working on. I couldn’t get back to sleep, as one particular problem kept going round and round in my head like a siren. Mr K got up and made me a cup of tea, we talked through it and I felt better. But I still felt like I needed to do something about it, to spend the day working on it, even though it was Sunday. And not just any Sunday, but Mothering Sunday.
The ever-thoughtful Mr K was planning to have Sienna for the day while I took a workshop with Philippa Stanton, known on Instagram to her nearly-half-a-million followers as @5ftinf, famous for sharing stunning still life photos of flowers and objects laid out on her wooden kitchen table. This was to be my first creative workshop in months, and I had been looking forward to it for ages. But as I sat there eating my toast and giving Sienna her breakfast I nearly cancelled the workshop, feeling guilty about wasting money if I cancelled, feeling guilty about wanting to work on Mother’s Day, and so it goes on. I am sure you know the feeling.
But Mr K encouraged me to go anyway, to forget about everything else and have a nice time. It felt very indulgent – six whole hours arranging objects into pretty configurations, when I had other pressing things to do – but I went, and I am so glad that I did. Those six hours disappeared in a dreamy haze of colour exploration, meditative composition, nosing around Philippa’s lovely house, picking flowers from the garden and sharing stories over tea and cake with the five other mothers at the workshop.
Snacking is a normal part of 21st century life and, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s estimated that by 2015 the world snack foods market is expected to reach almost $335 billion. So why is the industry growing so fast and why are we snacking more now than we ever have before? It seems that longer work weeks, busier schedules, irregular meal times, and stress are all key triggers, and that we also snack for comfort or to give ourselves a pick-me-up if we’re feeling low, tired, lonely or bored.
Snacking isn’t necessarily bad; it can even be healthy. But it depends on the food you choose. When a snack attack strikes, instead of heading for the vending machine, opt for foods that are high in fibre or protein and low in sugar which will stop your hunger pangs and keep you going until your next meal.
Here are some simple healthy snack ideas for busy people on the go…
This is a guest post by Lara Tabatznik who talks more about building 42 Acres – a dream retreat in Somerset, UK. You can find out more about Lara here, read our interview with her here and read her last blog post here.
I found that the most daunting part of building this dream was making the decision to actually do it. It is always scary when you’ve never done something before and so much is unknown; it takes courage and conviction to take that blind leap of faith and go for it.
After that the most difficult bit was actually getting started. I really have just been putting one foot in front of the other, making mistakes, learning from them, and fully trusting the process. I recognised early on that I needed to seek advice from people I trust and ask for help, something I don’t do often, but I allowed my intuition to lead the way. I believe with a strong foundation for being, the doing is much easier. When we are open to receiving the wisdom of each moment as it unfolds, we invite synchronistic magic into our daily lives.
Me on site at 42 Acres – project managing my dream
How well do you look after yourself? When we get busy it can be easy to neglect ourselves; we eat badly, put off exercise, don’t get enough sleep, and spend too long in front of the computer screen. Taking a few minutes of ‘me time’ each day is not a treat, it’s vital for your physical health and your mental and emotional wellbeing. It really does make you happier, more focussed and more productive. In a series of weekly posts throughout March we will share some simple tools and techniques which we hope will inspire you to take better care of yourself.
“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” ~ Max Ehrmann
Relaxation, weight loss, greater flexibility, glowing skin, a calm mind, improved health and a more positive outlook… yoga can give you all this and much more besides.
If you’ve never tried it before, you might just assume that you need to be ‘good’ at folding, twisting, standing on your head or bending like a pretzel but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Yoga is an art of personal discovery and growth. It combines mind (focus, concentration and meditation), energy (life-force cultivation through breathing practices) and body (physical movement and postures) to create complete wellbeing – not just physical but mental, and spiritual as well. This results in a powerful all-round practice that restores health, mental balance and vitality.
When you lead a hectic life finding time to nurture your mind, body and soul can be a challenge. But the great news is that you don’t have to take a 90-minute class to start feeling the amazing benefits of yoga. When your energy levels are waning it’s incredible how a little deep breathing and muscle movement can completely re-invent your mood. These simple techniques and poses are suitable for all ages and levels of fitness and you can do them as a series, or mix them one by one into your hectic schedule to help you feel relaxed, refreshed and re-invigorated.
March is on it’s way… and that means springtime, flowers and many more hours of sunshine! So much to be thankful for.
On my happy list… discovering a secret fairy door on an enchanting woodland walk
Each month we share a free downloadable ‘Happy List’ as a place for you to capture the things – big and small – that make you smile each day. Get yours here.
Wishing you a magical March!
Rachel