Mistress Wellbeing

Vibrant happiness anyone? 🌻   I spent much of my early life in very negative, painful mental states.   Joy was hard to find   Contentment impossible.   Even though externally I had it all.   Here’s what I know now.   Happiness is not something that only happens if you’re lucky. You don’t just trip over it one day. It’s not for the fortunate few. It doesn’t come from outside circumstances.   Join me on the podcast, and in the Facebook group,' Creating Vibrant Happiness for Midlife Women'.

I want more connection in my life, and I'm taking steps to make that happen.

Good quality connection.

Where we come together around a common cause or interest.

Where everyone is present and engaged.

Where there is an excitement about creating growth.

Because something is afoot in our society, which is creating isolation. The loneliness epidemic is upon us. Australia and the UK now have a minister to tackle it.

Lack of social connection is the new smoking.

It carries a greater health hazard than smoking 15 cigarettes a day and can decrease life expectancy by 15 years.

Join me on the podcast and in the Facebook group, Creating Vibrant Happiness for Midlife Women

 

 

The road to success is up and down, not a straight line.

Today I'm sharing a little about my process in the lead up to tomorrow's webinar.

How I've had to really stay 'present at the edge' with my anxiety and use the breath to turn it into excitement.

I've forced myself into this interesting, alive place between my critic and my inner mentor for the past two weeks and it feels awake, alive, stretched, and exciting.

I feel I'm growing and glowing!

I've also started a private Facebook group called,

'Creating Vibrant Happiness for Women in Midlife'. 

Do come over and join me there.

Here's the link to the webinar,

Thursday 2nd February, 12 pm. AEST   How to Shift From Self-Criticism to Self-Compassion.  

Self-compassion means not beating yourself up about ‘failures’ and understanding that they are learnings.   It means being gentle with yourself when things don’t go well instead of shouting at yourself when you’re down.   It means opening your heart to yourself instead of being perfectionist, demanding and unrealistic.   It means appreciating your unique, vulnerable humanity and the vulnerabilities of others.   It means being kinder to yourself and others.   It means staying connected to yourself and believing in yourself instead of abandoning and punishing yourself.   I'm exploring this and the support I've needed to make big shifts in 2023.   Here's the link to the Day Retreat!    

Crushing self-criticism, spiralling anxiety and superhuman standards. Does this sound familiar?   It’s what I hear from many clients in my practice, and it’s my passion to support a new narrative so that you can stop using pain as a motivator and create a vision which propels you instead.   Allowing self-critical internal talk to run unchecked creates a downward spiral of mood and self-destructive behaviour, which can eventually result in serious mental illness such as panic disorder, generalised anxiety and depression.   These conditions show up with much higher frequency among professional women than in the general population.   This is why I'm offering my first (courageous) free webinar of 2023 on this topic. I'd like it to be a conversation rather than a tutorial, so come and join me for a discussion and learn some real life tools to use.   Sign up for the free webinar here   Thursday February 2nd, 12 pm

Welcome back to Mistress Wellbeing for another year of adventure, growth, and connection.

Last weekend I attended a Dao Cultivation meeting and was interested to find much of the teaching echoed the journey of psychotherapy I experience with my clients.

So today, I'm exploring the concepts shared in the teaching about how we are tempered by difficult emotions and challenging experiences.

This speaks to the heart of my beliefs about my work. 

That challenges are actually gold dust for learning, growing and finding peace, contentment and inner calm.

That we all have access to a true self, a bigger self, the Big S Self that Jung described, beyond ego.

Why do this work?

Because being a better human means less suffering for you and for everyone you encounter!

Emotions can seem messy and overwhelming.

Better kept at bay and preferably never seeing the light of day.

Emotional expression can feel a little like washing your dirty linen in public.

But keeping ourselves in an emotional straitjacket has consequences which I'm exploring today, along with some tips about how to access emotion safely and create stability in your system so it can allow emotions to pass through. 

Emotions last 30-90 seconds when they arise, yet we spend a lifetime defending against them.

So today, let's jump in and start the process!

(Please note that extreme trauma is the exception, where expression can re-traumatise, and this needs to be held much more tightly.)

 

How many times do I hear this from the mouths of amazing women?

"I should stay small, in the background, looking after others and not expect recognition for my work".

It's a common belief that stems from conditioning in family, religion and culture, and it leads to resentment, anger and burnout.

So, what to do?

It's counterintuitive to ask you to step into your magnificence when this belief is rampant.

But what if we changed the narrative, chewed up the concepts and rearranged them?

Today I'm exploring this, and the multiple polarities of staying small, being good, and unseen.

This may seem controversial, but your happiness is right next to you, waiting to be seized.

The thing is, it gets drowned out by the incessant negativity bias of our minds, and the ease with which we reach out for not enough, not good enough and not ok.

So today we will explore exactly how to reach out for that deep wellspring of joy which is literally at your fingertips.

You can build this muscle over time and it will take you to a much better place!

Imagine having a deep river of contentment available to you.

Imagine feeling wholly ok about yourself, your life, your kids.

Imagine being relieved of the not ok, not enough, not good enough, just for five minutes a day!

It's a gift and it's waiting for you to unwrap it, so I hope today's episode lands for you!

 

 

I've had a heck of a year in 2022.

Six friends have passed away unexpectedly, and it's sent me on a deep dive into how to make sense of death.

Today I'm talking about the Top Five Regrets of the Dying, a book by Bonnie Ware.

I know it sounds a little maudlin, but actually, death has made me plunge wholeheartedly into life, taking risks and finding courage to launch my biggest rockets of desire.

The Provence retreat 2023 is happening thanks to these experiences, and I now have a group of amazing women to take on a 10 day retreat in Provence next May.

That's what I call living!

If you want to join us, there is one place remaining and the early bird rate expires today!