a^TM                            Volume 33  February 2005l

Welcome to 2005 and Volume 33 of Living on the Edge, the monthly newsletter from Living Edge Life Coaching, designed to inform, educate, challenge and inspire you!

For previous volumes click here.!

What a busy couple of month's it's been since early December!  I hope you all had enjoyable Christmas and New Year's celebrations and are more ready for 2005 than me!  We had a lovely family break spending 3 weeks away from Brisbane, both north with Leigh's family and south with mine.  We arrived home to move house (see inspired article below!) and so we are really only just feeling ready to settle into the year.  So far it's looking like a good one for us dominated by travel to Florida in Feb/March and UK/Europe in May...

I apologise for the delay in getting this newsletter to you this month, on top of moving I've had to buy a new computer and reload all the programs and wait and wait for the internet to be connected.  It's been frustrating, but finally I can deliver this newsletter to you!

If you enjoy Living on the Edge please forward it onto your family and friends.

Annabel Varvel   Life Coach BA.LLB

COACHING CORNER

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One of life's biggest stressors.

It's up there with death, divorce, loneliness and health problems.  All but a very small number of us do it several times in our lifetime. Some do it more than others.  Some rarely do it. Some choose to do and for some other’s choose for them.  I’ve done it 8 times in my life so far the most recently one month ago.  What am I talking about?  Moving house!

We’re on a rent not buy bandwagon at the moment which for financial reasons is fantastic but the main downside is that we don’t have the ultimate control over how long we live in a particular house.  The last 2 houses we've been in we've had to move when we didn't really want to. At the end of last year our then landlords informed us we had to move out.   We didn’t want to move.  We liked the house, the outlook, the location.  We had looked previously for something else and realized what a great place we already had – there was very little around, so needless to say when we knew we really did have to go we were not (mostly me!) impressed. 

I realize now that I went through a mini grief process – denial (surely we don’t really have to move). Anger – how dare they break the contact and expect us to move. Acceptance – well if we have to move I suppose I’d better find somewhere.  Moving really can be grieving – even sorting through your belongings can be an emotional experience.

I searched for houses in the 2 weeks before Christmas knowing we were going to be away for 3 weeks over Christmas.  We had to find something before we went away or I knew I’d stress about it all holiday.  There was hardly anything decent around but eventually we did find a great place.

Rather than just tell you all about what happened I'd rather share a few things I learnt about myself in the process and a few tips.  I learnt:

• Underneath I’m really a control freak (aren’t we all?) – I like being in control of change. 
• I can perform under pressure. 
• I have a wonderful husband who helps me de-stress. 
• I’m getting better at throwing out clutter and packing boxes.
• Moving is stressful.
• Sandpits are a real hassle to move!

I would have to say I have felt this to be the most stressful move for me yet.  I’ve often had my doubts about putting moving house ‘up there’ with one of life’s most stressful events, but now I can see why!  With all these ‘character building’ experiences, it’s important to have a look at what you learn from the process.

On a more practical notes, I thought I’d share a few tips with you to help make your next move a tiny bit easier…

• Don't move house the day after returning from 3 weeks holiday... it's just a little TOO stressful!
• Try to avoid moving around Christmas
• Choose a good time of the month hormonally to move ;-)
• Enlist your friends - if your friends offer to help in any way with the move - take them up on it.  The last 2 times we've moved we've had friend's help us unpack and that has been amazing.  It has been much faster than having to do it all ourselves.  If you've got friends who are meticulous - even better - they are great at unpacking the pantry, wineglasses and fitting odd shaped things into cupboards... might be a bit slow for the pack though (get your less perfectionistic friends to help with that process)
• Get removalists - it's worth every cent and won't result in injury to yourself or your family and friends.
• Gee, if you can afford it, get the removalist company to do the pack and unpack for you too (hmmm.... maybe one day!
• Write lots of lists – what to pack when, who to contact, what services need to be changed. I was thinking it would be a good idea to write these lists on the computer so you don't have to do (there are plenty of websites dedicated to helping this with this – many have lists you can download etc).
• Get your kids looked after.  What worked well for us was moving on a Tuesday when Alexander is in daycare.  He also goes on a Wednesday so I had the next day to finish unpacking in peace too.
• Reward yourself when the process is all over – I went an had a manicure and pedicure – after all those hands and feet had done a lot of work!

I’d love any more tips you seasoned mover’s want to share…. I’ll even include them in my next newsletter for the rest of you!

NEW CONTACT DETAILS

Due to our recent move, my new contact details are:

PO Box 1419

New Farm QLD 4005

Australia

Ph: + 61 7 3359 5154

Fax: + 61 7 3205 8449

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THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH

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LIVING EDGE

LIFE COACHING

 PO Box 1419 New Farm QLD 4005 Australia

p: + 61 73359 5154 f: + 61 7 3205 8449 m: 0409 076 040

1300 137 803

coach@livingedge.net www.livingedge.net