Maggie Currie

Today the sun is shining and it is lovely and warm, a great change from last week when it was raining and cold. Outside my window, I live upstairs on the first floor, I have put a bird feeder that I fill with wild bird seed and two containers for those fat balls that the birds love so much. Every day I am visited by jackdaws, starlings, tiny finches, blue tits, wood pigeons, sparrows and a little robin. They all feed happily and it is a delight to watch them. At this time of year they are all scurrying around collecting twigs and leaves for their nests. Watching the birds pull twigs out of the hedgerows and carry them up to their nests is just fascinating, they work so hard.

Being aware of what is around me is just as vital as being aware of what is within me for my own personal growth and development and, as I have gone through YOU University, I have become so much more self aware and trusting of myself and my abilities.

This course has shown me how to open up to strangers who have now become dear friends and to tell them things that, until now, I had not even remembered. The more I open up the more I am remembering and the better I get at expressing my feelings and emotions and the better I become at understanding the pain and healing of the other coaches. This has been a huge lesson for me in my personal growth and development as a person and as a coach.

The journaling part has been fabulous too and instrumental in my enlightenment. This was something I was very resistant to until beginning this course and now I love it and enjoy writing about my feelings, the stuff around me and I love reading other people’s entries. I learn so much from other people and they learn from me too. The journaling community is very safe and supportive and there is absolutely no judgement.  I know that whatever I write will be read and understood.  There are comments, of course, and I take on board all the wisdom that other members write.  Another huge lesson in my personal growth and development as the best me I can be.

When I comment on other people’s entries I am supportive and loving.  I know it is sometimes difficult to pour out your feelings to strangers, but I don’t feel they are strangers to me. I feel I know them, each one of them personally, and we have mutual respect.

Just the other day I thought I had a mental block when I came to write in my journal, but I found that the words just flew off the keyboard and what I wrote came from the heart. My personal growth and development is ongoing, and I am enjoying the journey.

You know the phrase, “We teach what we have to learn”? Well, I should never be surprised that I spend a good deal of my days teaching, coaching, reminding clients about the very things I need to be reminded of. Some days I find I’ve done such a great job that my clients say exactly what I need to hear! Today was such a day.  I needed to hear that I should be living in the now and that’s what happened.

My client started describing how she believes she is overcoming her anxiety. Besides being vigilant about what thoughts she’s thinking and giving up complaining, she realized that when she consciously was living in the now situation (whatever situation or task it is she’s involved in), her experience this past week has been – way less anxiety.

Just the reminder I need. I’m not having a problem with anxiety but I sometimes have a problem of feeling emotionally flat. I believe that habit comes from my childhood when the negative feelings and sense of powerlessness was so acute for me that I had to numb out so that I could survive my childhood. And that habit has survived to some extent all these years later. But when I am living in the now, I feel myself and feel my lively, juicy interior self.

You might be wondering how you are in the now or not even know what I mean.  I’ll do it right in this moment and stop and explain the experience.

1. I stop and notice whether my full attention is on what I’m involved in. Right now I’m writing on the computer and because I write often and fairly easily, I notice that part of me is a little absent which means I am not in the present.
2. Now I come out from behind what feels like an inner door and be here with all of my attention focused on this very moment.
3. Now I’m trying to type and stay present with what I am doing – notice my fingers on the keys, my eyes following the type on the screen.

I knew even as I wrote the above that it isn’t the best description in the world but, hopefully, you know what I mean, will practice a bit and can duplicate my experience of living in the now.

Click here and watch the Three Magic Secrets Movie for free – a free self-help ebook!

]]> http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/living-in-the-now/feed 1 http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/personal-growth-and-inspiratio-2 http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/personal-growth-and-inspiratio-2#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:37 +0000 allaboutlifecoaching http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/?p=171 Personal Growth or Stagnate

Being human means personal growth and development or stagnation. If you want to grow and develop:

• you’ll need to identify what you do best, and do more of it.
• Identify what you do worst, and stop doing it.

A lot of people have trouble identifying their strengths. Here are five questions to ask yourself that will help you identify your strengths:

Question #1: What do I like to talk about without stopping?

Things that interest you most get you talking on and on. If you have a positive passion, sort out what you like most about it.

Question #2: Everyone is different. Do you get excited by people or by ideas or by things?

If you’re a real people person, you’ll need contact with lots of people! Idea people may want to find more time to write, or do research. People who are great with things are  usually  mechanically  inclined.

Question #3: What do you enjoy most about the things you do today?

The only thing you can do consistently and with excellence is something you really love to do. If you don’t love doing something, you’ll never be anything but good at it.

Question #4: Who can you find who works in a field you like?

Call someone who does something that might interest you. Finding out what you don’t want to do is as important as finding your passion.

Question #5: Who will be your future mentors?

One of the most important things you can do is to find a good mentor and/or life coach. A good mentor has experience traveling the personal growth path you want to travel, likes you, can laugh with you and will allow you to experiment while drawing on their wisdom.

Click here and watch the Three Magic Secrets Movie for free – a free self-help ebook!

If you have no way to handle your undermining thoughts and feelings, you will be bringing them all into your relationship with inappropriate behavior and words. On this day I wrote about my path which made me realize that in a very important way I’ve assumed the most important part of what makes a long-term relationship work – fully committed to following my own path.  Which brings me to this past weekend…

On a Friday during the night I developed my very first bladder infection. It is highly uncomfortable. What I’ve learned to do is to deal with it on the spiritual/emotional level and the physical level so I searched on the internet and found out that lots of water and lots of vitamin C would get rid of it and I also looked in a very important little book called Heal Your Body by Louise Hay. It says that bladder problems are about “Anxiety. Holding onto old ideas. Fear of letting go. Being ‘pissed off’.” It also says the positive affirmation to use is “I comfortably and easily let go the old and welcome the new in my life. I am safe.”

At the time I wrote about here there was much new in my life: someone else living with me and the Martian, being 65, having an old client quit, dealing with foods that don’t work for me constantly around and often calling to me because someone else was living here, etc. So I was consciously repeating that affirmation and watching my thoughts about all of these new things. And by the way, the infection was gone in 24 hours! I am blessed.

Then there was the day before I wrote this. My step-daughter seemed to be having some feelings that she didn’t express. It may be my imagination but I believe I have always been quite susceptible to picking up others feelings and I have had a fairly easy time of it recently because I’ve been alone a lot and my husband is pretty good at expressing and taking responsibility for his. Well, we now had a new person who is emotionally built differently than I and whose process is different. I can’t ask or expect her to do it my way. I invited her here knowing full well that there would be personal challenges for me. When I have these unidentified feelings which seem to build up into a kind of pressure that wants to be alleviated by eating (or overeating), I often eat and now there are things like brownies and lasagna in the house – all of which don’t work for this carbohydrate sensitive person that I am. New challenge!

It was apparently time for me to finally work all of these things out but if I didn’t do them myself I would soon be a self-critical bitch who took her bad feelings out on her partner. Whew! But I didn’t do that.

I am fully committed to my own path – the 11th Secret.

Click here and watch the Three Magic Secrets Movie for free – a free self-help ebook!

]]> http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/anxiety-bladderinfection/feed 2 http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/self-awareness-definition-by-maggie-currie-you-university-coach http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/self-awareness-definition-by-maggie-currie-you-university-coach#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:06:51 +0000 allaboutlifecoaching http://allaboutlifecoaching.com/?p=8899

Maggie Currie

When I was in my teens and even up to my early 40s I didn’t even know the self awareness definition. I plodded along doing what I was told to do, manipulated by so many people. I was so totally not self aware I didn’t even notice that I was living my life on other people’s terms.

 It is only since I have trained to be a life coach that I have really discovered myself and discovered the self awareness definition and my own self awareness. I have found that to be able to grow into my own self-awareness I have to understand my feelings and emotions. This was quite a difficult journey for me, as I have suppressed feelings and emotions for many years. The reason – I was told by my parents when I was a child that I should be seen and not heard. I was told that I should not express anger or display any emotion. And so I learned to repress them.

Having this understanding now after learning so much about my feelings and emotions and rediscovering who I am really am, I know that I can express my feelings and emotions – and there is nothing to be afraid of. And this is a huge step for me towards self-awareness.

But what does my own self-awareness definition do for me? What are the benefits to me?

• Knowing my own self awareness definition and being self-aware has given me the opportunity and freedom to change those things I want to change about myself and create the life that I want.
• I now don’t allow others to manipulate me.
•  live my life on my terms.
• I am seen and heard and I do express my feelings and emotions.

 The more clarity I get about who I am and what I want, and of course why I want it, the more I empower myself to consciously make those wants a reality.

 But, how do I get this clarity? I turn to the expert – ME.  I know more about myself than anyone else, I know I have been manipulated and by whom.  I know I have suppressed my feelings and emotions and I know why.  And I have got to know myself even better over the past few years by becoming so much more self aware.  I am, of course, still learning.

 To get the clarity I want I have learned to ask myself questions and expect specific answers. The more specific my answers, the more impact they have on my life and then I have a much clearer picture of  me.  Of course, there are times when my answer is ‘I don’t know’ and I know that is ok too.  I give myself the freedom to take a wild guess and this allows me to carry on.  What I have discovered is that I really do know more than I ever thought I did.

 Honesty is vital in my answers to myself.  It will lead to my true self awareness definition and my true self awareness, but it does take a lot of courage.  It is the courage to face my fears or to face something I find difficult to accept about myself.  For instance, I know that I am impatient and want things to happen now.  I also know that when people are speaking to me I get impatient to hear the end of what they are saying, and I tend to try to finish their sentences for them.  I know this about myself and do my best to bite my tongue and not jump in with the answers.  By being totally honest with myself I take ownership of my actions, thoughts and feelings and find those beliefs that are no longer serving me. Those beliefs can then be discarded, altered or whatever feels right for me.

 I find that sometimes I do slip up and give an answer that perhaps I think I should give, rather than what I really know is right. That means I am giving answers from my head rather than getting in touch with my feelings and getting the answer there. To get out of my head again, I take several deep breaths and start to listen to my body, to notice where it is hurting and breathe into that place. This helps me to balance myself and to find the answers I need, and they come from inside me rather than from my head. Because I have my own self awareness definition, I know when I am living it or living in my head again.

 I know that whatever I discover about myself I can handle with ease and acceptance.  I trust that whatever I discover about myself will in some way lead to a greater sense of me and increased self-awareness and a broader self awareness definition.

 I have found that going through YOU University has enabled me to get to grips with my emotions and feelings in a way that I have never been able to do before.  And of course I am learning every day more and more about myself too.

Everybody gets angry sometimes. However, if anger is very frequent reaction for you, there may be some deep-rooted problems you need to address. There are many resources available to help you manage your emotions and replace that frustration with more appropriate reactions.

Anger management comes in many different forms from classes to more in-depth counseling.

• One self-help method allows you to relieve frustration and deal with feelings of anger by clearing your mind, sitting in a quiet room and practicing a few breathing techniques, you can learn to relax and release those angry feelings. This method is more effective than you may think and practiced by many individuals.

• Frequent bouts of anger happen because you have old, buried angry feelings that haven’t been dealt with. Another useful and free technique to deal with that are Love Letters or Feeling Letter, a technique developed by author, John Gray.

• The most common form of anger management is practiced by attending classes. Just as with substance abuse, acknowledging the problem is the first step towards a solution. These classes well help you to learn how anger works, why people become angry and how to manage anger to a point where it does not become detrimental.

Anger management help with courses are available throughout the world and tend to be rather affordable. Because anger is such an issue in today’s society, most of these organizations try to make their services and resources available to as many people as they can.

Click here and watch the Three Magic Secrets Movie for free – a free self-help ebook!

Well as you will see in the story below you must look into your personal growth and inspiration. Sometimes after some searching we can see that what we think we want and what we really want are two separate items.

Sometimes on no-work mornings my husband asks me to put on my coach’s hat and help him through a situation as I would a client. So this morning over coffee he reiterated his situation: he teaches high school and this semester he has not had much success in the teaching material department. Usually, although his population of kids are inner city bi-lingual and not up to where we’d like to see them in high school, he has successes all through the semester to give him (and his ego) happiness at his achievements as a teacher. This semester it just isn’t happening that way and as a result, he’s not been having a very enjoyable time.

What’s the coach to suggest? (Of course this little article will take you a minute to read and the “coaching session” took an hour, so don’t get the impression that I get asked a question and then just jump to an answer. Then I’d be the “answer woman” not the coach.)  So after our own personal growth and inspiration talk, it came down to two main things:

1. He has something very special to offer the kids whether they are learning the material or not. And that is he respects them and they are not usually treated that way. That impression that he makes on them will follow them throughout their life whereas Physics probably won’t.
2. He has to be the parent or whoever is in charge of keeping his ego satisfied. It wants to see outer success. So he needs to keep telling it that it is succeeding by looking at the impact he’s had on other kids and feeding his ego the facts it wants to justify its existence and desire to protect him.

How can personal growth and inspiration be applied to you or anyone you are coaching, when they are or are not enjoying a certain situation?

1. Find the purpose within your life relating to any situation.
2. Stay in charge of your ego and give it what it needs.

Click here and watch the Three Magic Secrets Movie for free – a free self-help ebook!