"Clamouring, shouting, laughing, red, green, smiling & warm. Noises hitting me, loud colours, vibrant green leaves, frilly against the soft, creamy, slippery orange. Tomato & basil teasing my nose as it twitches in anticipation. Soft, hot, moist as it touches my tongue with an explosion of taste. Piquant, cheese, a hint of pepper, and the soft, slightly grainy sensation as my teeth cut through the slippery case to the coarse texture of mushroom & crumbly cheese. For that moment the cacophony of sound recedes. My tongue caresses the warm moist flavours, my eyes close & I am enveloped in taste & warmth, broken by the intrusion of loud, vibrant music and laughter to my left. The sounds flood into my awareness. Animated words, fast, loud, full of energy, a jumble of indistinct words & laughter. Smiles & motion, dancing colours, blue, red, violet & green. My tongue notices the flour, powdery & insubstantial on the gentle crust of the bread, as it offers resistance to my teeth. Slightly waxy & compliant in my fingers as I sweep it through the creamy orange sauce, leaving a ripple of undulating possibility against the shiny white of my bowl".
When you read this, how do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear? And do you feel hungry?
I recently had the privilege of training with John Grinder, one of the co-founders of NLP (Neuro LInguistic Programming), his partner, Carmen Bostic St Clair, and Michael Carroll, from the NLP Academy. The training exceeded my expectations, and was world class. It has enabled me to become a much better coach, and greatly enhanced my own life.
There are many positive aspects to NLP, and one of the most important things I learned was that to appreciate and understand it, the best way is to experience it directly. We all experience the world through our senses, and Carmen invited us to choose an experience, and really pay attention to it using all our senses, then write it down, using as much sensory language as possible.
Until you experience this, you may wonder what it's all about. By doing the exercise I realised how much it can enhance your experience of life, and make you feel more alive. It can be any experience, eating, having a walk, enjoying a conversation, a moment when the sunlight illuminates a distant hill, a journey on the tube, a session at the gym, or any other ordinary thing you do.
I invite you to try this, and I'd love you to e-mail me your experiences to leila@lrgcoaching.com so I can include them here. If you usually read things, and then choose not to do the exercises, (like me in the past!)change what you do, and have a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised!
Warmest wishes,
Leila
Friday, 3 April 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Creativity
Alongside the Life Coaching I paint & make silver jewellery. Having an outlet for creativity has always been important to me, and was certainly not accommodated when I was working as an accountant. (You may argue that accountants can be very creative!)
Creating a painting or a unique piece of jewellery is a wonderful way to become totally absorbed in the moment, and it is very satisfying to do. If you really don't want to do that yourself, it can still be life enhancing to enjoy looking at or touching a piece of beautiful artwork. Life can be very busy, with numerous demands on our time and attention, and allowing yourself to step off that treadmill, even for a short while, can have impressive benefits to your health and wellbeing. Are you nurturing your creativity?
Making the decision to have a series of Life Coaching sessions will enable you to look at the balance in your life, and address those areas which you are not happy with, which are likely to be different for each of us. The beauty of one to one coaching is that it is tailored to your individual needs.
You can see my paintings & jewellery at www.leilagodden.com, and the jewellery is featured in craft&design magazine March/April 2009.
Creating a painting or a unique piece of jewellery is a wonderful way to become totally absorbed in the moment, and it is very satisfying to do. If you really don't want to do that yourself, it can still be life enhancing to enjoy looking at or touching a piece of beautiful artwork. Life can be very busy, with numerous demands on our time and attention, and allowing yourself to step off that treadmill, even for a short while, can have impressive benefits to your health and wellbeing. Are you nurturing your creativity?
Making the decision to have a series of Life Coaching sessions will enable you to look at the balance in your life, and address those areas which you are not happy with, which are likely to be different for each of us. The beauty of one to one coaching is that it is tailored to your individual needs.
You can see my paintings & jewellery at www.leilagodden.com, and the jewellery is featured in craft&design magazine March/April 2009.
Your Best Year Yet
I have recently been to a workshop in London, run by the NLP Academy, called "Your Best Year Yet". It was a taster session introducing NLP (Neuro Linguistic Progamming), and looking at how important it is to decide on clear goals in order to succeed. NLP offers many useful ways of making the changes we want to make to get us from our current situation to where we want to be.
Despite the difficult economic conditions, we can all work with the things we can control to enjoy our best year yet. There's a little more about it in my February newsletter, which you can request from the contacts page if you don't already receive it. If you do receive it, you will be the first to know about special offers from LRG Coaching. This month there is a chance to win a one hour coaching session for free, which could seriously enhance your life, and put you on the road to having your best year yet!
If you are not familiar with NLP, you can find out more at www.nlpacademy.co.uk. I am very excited to be training with John Grinder, one of the co-founders, in March 2009. This will enable me to significantly improve my ability to help my clients move forward in their lives, and remove the obstacles that are stopping them from achieving what they want. NLP can be used to improve confidence, health, relationships, and overcome fears & phobias. Exciting stuff! I hope you will benefit from my experiences and training.
Warmest wishes,
Leila
Despite the difficult economic conditions, we can all work with the things we can control to enjoy our best year yet. There's a little more about it in my February newsletter, which you can request from the contacts page if you don't already receive it. If you do receive it, you will be the first to know about special offers from LRG Coaching. This month there is a chance to win a one hour coaching session for free, which could seriously enhance your life, and put you on the road to having your best year yet!
If you are not familiar with NLP, you can find out more at www.nlpacademy.co.uk. I am very excited to be training with John Grinder, one of the co-founders, in March 2009. This will enable me to significantly improve my ability to help my clients move forward in their lives, and remove the obstacles that are stopping them from achieving what they want. NLP can be used to improve confidence, health, relationships, and overcome fears & phobias. Exciting stuff! I hope you will benefit from my experiences and training.
Warmest wishes,
Leila
Friday, 9 January 2009
Adapting to change
Success and happiness in life is often about adapting to circumstances, and responding to our experiences.
It is often the case that we are fearful of change, and delay taking action because we think that we must get it absolutely right. In many cases, the right solution may be a series of actions. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.
A good example is when we learn to walk. When a small child struggles to take their first step, and falls down, do you say "Oh well, nice try. You'll never do it", or do you encourage them? A child will continue until he or she succeeds. Imagine the consequences of giving up, and spending the rest of your life crawling or shuffling around on your bottom! This is an encouraging thought if you are doing something new, and finding it hard. It will get easier with practice and the will to succeed.
I set out to provide a monthly blog, and have decided that a newsletter is a more personal thing to provide. The January edition is available now, and you can subscribe from the contacts page. You are free to unsubscribe at any time. I will include news, special offers, and positive things you can do to make life happier and more successful for you and those around you. My initial aim is to have 100 people subscribing, and I am asking for your help to do this.
Wishing you a happy, healthy and successful 2009!
Warmest wishes,
Leila
It is often the case that we are fearful of change, and delay taking action because we think that we must get it absolutely right. In many cases, the right solution may be a series of actions. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.
A good example is when we learn to walk. When a small child struggles to take their first step, and falls down, do you say "Oh well, nice try. You'll never do it", or do you encourage them? A child will continue until he or she succeeds. Imagine the consequences of giving up, and spending the rest of your life crawling or shuffling around on your bottom! This is an encouraging thought if you are doing something new, and finding it hard. It will get easier with practice and the will to succeed.
I set out to provide a monthly blog, and have decided that a newsletter is a more personal thing to provide. The January edition is available now, and you can subscribe from the contacts page. You are free to unsubscribe at any time. I will include news, special offers, and positive things you can do to make life happier and more successful for you and those around you. My initial aim is to have 100 people subscribing, and I am asking for your help to do this.
Wishing you a happy, healthy and successful 2009!
Warmest wishes,
Leila
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Benefits of setting goals and how to do it
“Hello, this is your captain speaking. We’ll take off soon, probably head for the sea, and fly quite high. After a couple of hours or so, if we haven’t run out of fuel, we’ll see where we’ve got to, and I’ll look for somewhere to land. OK? Enjoy your flight!”
A silly story of course, and no doubt you’d be out of that plane as fast as you could. We all know how important it is to have a clear route, destination, and timescale for a flight, but how important is it to decide where we want to get to in life?
The first step toward success is knowing what it is that you aim to do.
Until you know where you want to go, you are leaving your happiness and fulfilment to chance. Once you set clear goals, you take control of your destiny, accept responsibility for your life and what happens to you, and you will enjoy success.
If you are not used to setting goals, you may find it a daunting prospect. If so, this 6 step guide will help you.
1. Collect your IDEAS about what you want. It’s much easier if you sort them into different areas of your life, eg Health, Wealth, Family& home, Relationships, Spiritual, Work, Relaxation & fun. You might choose different ones.
2. Take some time to decide specifically WHAT you really want. Use your imagination about how your life could be. If you don’t know what you want, think about what you don’t want, then the opposite. Imagine exactly how it will look, feel, and what you can hear. Imagine it has already happened. This will give your powerful subconscious mind a clear idea of what you want. It’s like a Christmas list. If you don’t say exactly what you want, you may well get something quite different and disappointing!
3. WRITE IT DOWN with as much detail as you can, so you feel really excited about it. This is what you really want, and this is the first step to making it happen.
4. To change it from just a wish into a goal, decide WHEN you want it. Put a specific date against it. This reinforces to your subconscious mind when you will achieve it. Your subconscious mind will act like a heat seeking missile, and point you towards your goal. That's why it is important to focus on what you want, rather than what you don’t want. Have you ever thought “I don’t want to do that”, such as “I don’t want to spill this red wine on the cream carpet…” It puts the thought in your mind, and you are more likely to do it.
5. Look at your CURRENT SITUATION, so you know what your starting point is.
6. Consider HOW YOU WILL KNOW when you’ve achieved it, so you can measure your success, (and celebrate!)
Your goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound (SMART). Effective goal setting is a huge topic, and this is only intended as a short guide to get you started. You can find out more in Curly Martin’s book “The Personal Success Handbook”, as well as many other excellent books.
This is a great time of year to set your goals for 2009. You can follow the six steps for each area of your life where you want to make changes, and make some powerful New Year resolutions.
Next month (1st January), we’ll look at how to turn your goals into reality, fuelled by motivation and passion, to get you off to a flying start for 2009, on a clear route to success.
Thank you for the feedback about what topics you want me to cover. Setting your goals was a big one, and time management is at the top of most people’s list. I have produced a FREE REPORT, “MAKING TIME”, which gives you ten top tips for effective time management.
Visit the contact page to order your copy now.
A silly story of course, and no doubt you’d be out of that plane as fast as you could. We all know how important it is to have a clear route, destination, and timescale for a flight, but how important is it to decide where we want to get to in life?
The first step toward success is knowing what it is that you aim to do.
Until you know where you want to go, you are leaving your happiness and fulfilment to chance. Once you set clear goals, you take control of your destiny, accept responsibility for your life and what happens to you, and you will enjoy success.
If you are not used to setting goals, you may find it a daunting prospect. If so, this 6 step guide will help you.
1. Collect your IDEAS about what you want. It’s much easier if you sort them into different areas of your life, eg Health, Wealth, Family& home, Relationships, Spiritual, Work, Relaxation & fun. You might choose different ones.
2. Take some time to decide specifically WHAT you really want. Use your imagination about how your life could be. If you don’t know what you want, think about what you don’t want, then the opposite. Imagine exactly how it will look, feel, and what you can hear. Imagine it has already happened. This will give your powerful subconscious mind a clear idea of what you want. It’s like a Christmas list. If you don’t say exactly what you want, you may well get something quite different and disappointing!
3. WRITE IT DOWN with as much detail as you can, so you feel really excited about it. This is what you really want, and this is the first step to making it happen.
4. To change it from just a wish into a goal, decide WHEN you want it. Put a specific date against it. This reinforces to your subconscious mind when you will achieve it. Your subconscious mind will act like a heat seeking missile, and point you towards your goal. That's why it is important to focus on what you want, rather than what you don’t want. Have you ever thought “I don’t want to do that”, such as “I don’t want to spill this red wine on the cream carpet…” It puts the thought in your mind, and you are more likely to do it.
5. Look at your CURRENT SITUATION, so you know what your starting point is.
6. Consider HOW YOU WILL KNOW when you’ve achieved it, so you can measure your success, (and celebrate!)
Your goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound (SMART). Effective goal setting is a huge topic, and this is only intended as a short guide to get you started. You can find out more in Curly Martin’s book “The Personal Success Handbook”, as well as many other excellent books.
This is a great time of year to set your goals for 2009. You can follow the six steps for each area of your life where you want to make changes, and make some powerful New Year resolutions.
Next month (1st January), we’ll look at how to turn your goals into reality, fuelled by motivation and passion, to get you off to a flying start for 2009, on a clear route to success.
Thank you for the feedback about what topics you want me to cover. Setting your goals was a big one, and time management is at the top of most people’s list. I have produced a FREE REPORT, “MAKING TIME”, which gives you ten top tips for effective time management.
Visit the contact page to order your copy now.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
How you can benefit from reading this blog
Hello, and welcome to my first blog!
My first piece of news is that I have qualified as a Life Coach, with Achievement Specialists. Thank you to everyone who has helped me. It has been a fabulous journey, and you can benefit from my experiences and the continuing support I receive from Curly Martin and her team of top coaches, if you choose to.
The blog postings are for you, to offer useful insights and practical things you can do to make the changes you want in your life. I will post a monthly blog covering a specific topic. You can sign up on the contacts page to receive a reminder which will tell you what the new topic is. It will be concise, to stop you suffering blog overload!
To make sure you find this really useful, let me know what coaching related topics you would like me to cover. I love feedback, and it will enable me to give YOU a better service.
Take the first step to live the life you really want.
Warmest wishes,
Leila
My first piece of news is that I have qualified as a Life Coach, with Achievement Specialists. Thank you to everyone who has helped me. It has been a fabulous journey, and you can benefit from my experiences and the continuing support I receive from Curly Martin and her team of top coaches, if you choose to.
The blog postings are for you, to offer useful insights and practical things you can do to make the changes you want in your life. I will post a monthly blog covering a specific topic. You can sign up on the contacts page to receive a reminder which will tell you what the new topic is. It will be concise, to stop you suffering blog overload!
To make sure you find this really useful, let me know what coaching related topics you would like me to cover. I love feedback, and it will enable me to give YOU a better service.
Take the first step to live the life you really want.
Warmest wishes,
Leila
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