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Volume 7
Welcome to Volume 7 of Living on the Edge, the fortnightly newsletter from Living Edge Life Coaching, designed to inform, educate, challenge and inspire you!
Please forward onto your friends/collegues and encourage them to subscribe.
This is the last week of Living Edge Life Coaching being physically located in New Farm. My first year's lease is up so together with that and our baby being due at the end of July, I am relocating my office to Red Hill.
I thank the community of New Farm/Teneriffe for your support and encouragement in what was a daunting yet exciting adventure and I look forward to being able to work with clients from all over Brisbane, Australia and perhaps even further afield.
Annabel Varvel
Life Coach BA.LLB
COACHING CORNER
You'll recall that in the last issue of "Living on the Edge" we began to explore our "Reticular Activating System" (RAS). I had so much positive feedback about the column I thought that I'd explore it in a bit more detail and add some specific tools that you can use to get your RAS working for you!
Recap
Your reticular activating system (RAS) is your brains ability to filter through all the stimuli it receives each second to draw your attention only toward what is important to you. Everything you see, hear, smell, feel and touch is a message entering your brain. Your RAS arouses your brain to make sure you get the right information.
Obviously, the idea is to fill your mind with that which you want your brain to notice. If you have a particular business or personal problem you want to solve, keep it at the top of your mind. Think about it, talk about it, write about it and imagine it completed. This is one of the reasons why affirmations work so well and why it is important to review your goals frequently.
Affirmations:
An affirmation is a positive statement that you make to replace whatever negative or limiting thoughts you may have about yourself and your world. They can also be used to activate your RAS. The best way to work on an affirmation is:
- Write it in the first person, present tense and postively eg 'I am content with my body' rather than 'I will not think negatively about my body' - your subconscious blocks out the "not" and hears 'I will think negatively about my body' and therefore the affirmation is counter-productive!
- Write each affirmation out several times (at least 7). Writing is a very powerful technique.
- Write each affirmation shortly before going to sleep.
- Say each affirmation privately, out loud.
- Say the affirmations in front of a mirror, looking into your eyes, with a smile on your face.
- Put the affirmations on a tape and play them while driving.
- Continue working with your affirmations until you feel that they have become a part of you, and you believe them totally.
- When you catch yourself saying a negative statement aloud or to yourself, such as, "I'm so stupid", "I know I'll mess up", or "I'll never have that," replace the negative with what you want, such as, "I'm smart", "I can do it well" or "I'll have that!"
- Get them laminated and hang them in the shower!
Visualisation
This is another great tool to enhance your RAS and really bring your goals and affirmations ALIVE! Visualisation is literally, seeing in your "mind's eye".
Since affirmations are working with restructuring thinking patterns, it is essential that the mind "sees" you being, doing, or having what you choose.
When you are visualizing a change in your life you are not "just day dreaming!" Rather, with intention, you are reprogramming yourself to create a whole new you.
Use the following steps to achieve the maximum results:
- Choose a specific time during the day to visualize. The best time is before going to sleep and upon awakening. Ten minutes is sufficient.
- Make sure you are relaxed, calm and centered.
- Allow a smile to come over your face, as you see the new you doing and acting in the desired way. While you visualize, let your body relax into all of the joyous feelings that this new way of being engenders.
- Focus on your surroundings - use all your senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
- To conclude your visualization, repeat your affirmation silently to yourself, and then voice it privately out loud.
LIVING EDGE LIFE COACHING'S
NEW HOME from 12 June 2003
28 Hawthorn Tce
Red Hill QLD 4059
p:+61 7 3511 6138
f: +61 7 3511 6137
0409 076 040
SPECIAL OFFER!
QUOTE
The best way to find out if coaching is for you is to try it!
If you or someone you know would like to try a coaching session for FREE, please call 07 3511 6138 to arrange a session. (sessions can be done over the phone as well as in person)
Both thinking and feeling are essential, and both are found in
successful organizations, but the heart of change is in the emotions. The flow of see-feel-change is more powerful than that of analysis-think-change. These distinctions between seeing and
analyzing, between feeling and thinking, are critical because, for the most part, we use the latter much more frequently, competently, and comfortably than the former.
The Heart of Change, by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen
Questions, comments or suggestions, email annabel@livingedge.net
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LIVING EDGE
LIFE COACHING
28 Hawthorn Tce Red Hill Q 4059
p: 07 3511 6138 f: 07 3511 6137 m: 0409 076 040