In this week’s blog I am going to continue writing about sources of inspiration that we can find in our day to day lives.
When we are living in a place of inspiration, we experience many different emotions, from feeling joyful, happy, motivated, and we’re looking towards the future. We can see the possibility of new things in our lives. Instead of feeling that things are impossible, or things can’t be done, feeling afraid, being angry, we’re moving towards the positive emotions and feeling lighter.
That’s why being in a state of inspiration is such a wonderful place to be. Honestly, one of the easiest ways to get there is to simply go out into nature.
11. Nature – I am in awe of nature and love spending time in it…. skiing, paddle boarding, hiking, sitting, forest bathing.
I’m very, very fortunate I am surrounded by nature. I moved to Whistler, British Columbia, in October of 1990.
I spent the winter in Whistler, with all intentions of going to London, England to start a career in Merchant Banking using my Commerce Degree. Yet as I looked around, I was in awe of the sheer beauty of Mother Nature. Whistler is surrounded by mountains. People were telling me about all the different activities you could do during the summer such as kayaking, paddle boarding, canoeing and swimming in the lakes. There were gorgeous hiking trails, and places to ride your bikes, whereas winter was skiing – downhill or cross country!
I thought that sounded amazing. I decided I could push back my internship for six months, so I could enjoy the summer in Whistler. I had been thinking about what life would be like for me when I moved to London.
I’ve been there I have friends in banking, I’ve seen their stressful life. They’re long days and then going to the pub at the end of the day and eating crappy fried food and drinking beer. Then going to bed and getting up and doing it all again the next day. Is that what I wanted for my life? Or did I want to be here in this place surrounded by nature with all this beauty?
I knew I wouldn’t make as much money if I didn’t move to London and go into Merchant Banking, but what was more important to me? Money or Health? At that time, I wasn’t into health and wellness, and I had no inclination to get into that area of business either. However, I still knew that my health was the most important thing to me, more important than money.
What good is wealth if you don’t have your health, right?
32 years later, I still believe it was the best decision I could have made. I have had so many moments of inspiration, just because I am surrounded by nature and have access to some of the most beautiful parts of the world.
Mother Nature has so much to give whether it’s in person, or even through a photograph or a picture.
12. Laughter – Changes your energy, shifts your mood, boosts your immune system
They say that laughter is the best medicine, and they are right. Think about how you feel when you watch videos of babies laughing? How does that make you feel? You keep doing whatever you were doing to make that baby laugh because it is such a joyous sound, and it makes you feel good as well.
How about comedy shows? My family and I watch a show called Miranda, it is based out of the UK, each episode makes you just full-on belly laugh till your tummy hurts. Laughing is healthy for you! Did you know that?
One minute of laughter can boost your immune system for 24 hours. One minute of anger or fear or stress, on the other hand can weaken your immune system for four hours. What would you rather do? Laugh and change your energy, lighten your mood? Or live in anger, fear or stress?
I absolutely love laughter for what it does, because it makes us feel good. It’s contagious. When my oldest daughter starts laughing, she has such a contagious laugh, I can’t help but laugh along with her.
My daughter likes to play tricks on her dad and laugh at him. When she does this it gets me to laughing too. He looks at me and says “Thanks for the support”. I just cannot help myself, when my daughter starts laughing, I start laughing. Laughing is a very powerful emotion, and it can bring us together as human beings enjoying the moment.
Laughter is yet another source of inspiration.
Where can you find laughter in your life?
13. Spirituality – Meditation, prayer, and contemplation can all be a quiet source of peace and inspiration.
Inspiration comes to us when we slow down. It’s hard for inspiration to hit us when we are constantly on the go, not allowing our minds to slow down, and just be in the moment.
I know for many of you, slowing down is hard to do. I don’t know what source you may use for slowing down but I love to do yoga, for 45 minutes I am in a calm place. I close my eyes to all the external input and allow my brain time to be calm.
You can do this too! You may say “but I don’t have 45 minutes to spare”, then how about starting out with just 5 minutes doing mediation, closing your eyes, getting away from your phone, and just sitting outside all alone. Listening to nature, breathing in the air, and just being in the moment. You can easily build up the time to 10 or 15 minutes over time.
In those few moments you take to just be, inspiration will come!
14. Clients – My clients are an incredible source of inspiration to me
Perhaps for you, it’s clients, or maybe it’s colleagues, maybe it’s your bosses? Who are the people that you work with? They may be a source of inspiration for you.
Very often the clients that come to work with me have been looking for solutions to their health issues for years. They are being told there is nothing wrong with them. They feel frustrated. A lot of times they’ve almost given up. They don’t think they can heal their health issues, and they feel that there is no other choice but to feel like crap for the rest of their lives.
Which is not true because your disease does not have to be a life sentence. People are led to believe that there is nothing they can do to heal themselves. Many of my clients, when I first start working with them, tell me they feel like they don’t have any hope left. They are in a state of ‘will this work or is this another thing that won’t?’
I know my programs work because I have seen them work with hundreds and hundreds of different people with amazing results. I share with them how the programs work, and I tailor the programs to work for their specific needs. They then must choose to step forward and trust in the process.
When we have hope, we can continue the healing journey. It is when we quit, that we’ve lost our hope, and nothing happens. We must keep trying and give our bodies the chance to heal.
When you are ready to step into the program and fully commit to your health, we can create an environment for our bodies to heal. My clients start to notice benefits very quickly, usually within the first three weeks. Now they have a feeling of hope, knowing there is something that can help them feel better. The journey isn’t easy, but they keep going, and by us working together we can change their health.
When I see my client’s step into the belief that they can heal and start to see the light shine in their eyes, and know that they feel HOPE once again, that inspires me. It inspires me to keep doing the work I am doing. There are so many people out there that need the help, support, guidance that I can provide on their healing journey.
I want to say thank you to every single one of my clients that placed their trust in me. You inspire me every single day! You inspire me to keep doing the work that I do. It brings me great joy, because I love seeing the results that people get.
15. Friends – Inspiring Each Other
We have all different kinds of friends, friends in different shapes and sizes, that all have different skills and different knowledge that we don’t have. This is inspiring because we can learn from each other.
I have a very good friend, who I have only known for the past six months. We met in a business coaching group we both were in, and we became accountability partners. We were a perfect match together. Honestly, this lady is an angel.
Recently she moved into the house of a neighbor who has a disabled daughter and a son. They hadn’t had a vacation since the kids were born. Caring for a disabled child is a 24/7 “job”. Jaci, decided to move into their home, leaving her own teenage son and husband in their family home, to help care for these two kids while their parents went on their first ever vacation.
Is it easy looking after a disabled child? Absolutely not. This is a disabled teenager, Jackie had to be lifting her, carrying her into bed and bathing her and helping her to eat food and taking her to her brother’s Christmas concert. She sent videos of her dancing with this child who’s standing in her leg braces and holding her up so she could dance along to the music. The brilliant smile on this girl’s face was incredible, the gift that Jaci gave this family by moving into their home and caring for their children inspires me to be a better person, because to me, she truly is an angel. As I was watching the videos, I started thinking could I do that? Would I do that? I don’t know. Jaci did it. Now if there comes a time where I’m asked to do that I would want to say yes. Jaci has inspired me to be that better person, so that I can say yes to that. Thank you, Jaci, for that inspiration.
16. Affirmations – Self-Care Mantra
I made up an affirmation that many of you have heard many times over, regarding self-care when I first started my health coaching certification course. That’s when I first learned that self-care is the most selfless act a person can do. We should be looking after ourselves first, not last. Like many of you, I always thought I had to look after everybody else first. I was always placing myself last, and honestly, I never really got to me.
When I flipped that on its head, it made so much sense! We can’t serve from an empty cup, or put the oxygen mask on last in the airplane. We need to fill our cup until it’s overflowing and then serve from the saucer! That made so much more sense to me. I created an affirmation that “self-care is the most selfless act, as it allows you to show up and give the world the best of you instead of what’s left of you.” I say that every single day.
As I shifted my habits into looking after me first, I noticed a shift in me, and I noticed a shift in my family. I was more stress resilient, and I was calmer. At the time I had two teenage daughters and I noticed they’re not riling me up like they used to. I wasn’t responding and yelling like I used to. They’d still push my buttons, but I’d respond calmly. The only difference was that I had started looking after myself, blocking myself care time in my calendar, making sure I got my workouts in or my paddleboarding or my skiing or whatever it was.
Self-care for every single person is different. For me, it’s some form of exercise, or it’s enjoying a bath at the end of the day or reading a book. For you, it might be totally different.
Affirmations really help us to change habits. We’re so programmed to just be in our comfort zone and do what we’ve always done. It can be hard to get outside of that and to create a new habit because our brain wants to keep us safe in our comfort zone. Anytime we step outside of our comfort zone our brain starts sending us messages to pull back. Our brain starts questioning what we’re doing: Why are you doing that? You sure you want to do that? That’s hard, this looks different. Is it safe? Why don’t you come back over here where I know I can keep you safe?
That’s why so often, when we’re doing something that has us stepping outside our comfort zone, we might even feel butterflies in our stomach, like standing on stage to give a speech, a piano recital standing at the start line of a marathon. Our brain is saying “whoa, what’s going on here?” It’s questioning us and we’re feeling a little bit nervous.
When we continue to step outside of our comfort zone and move forward on that path, those affirmations can help us keep moving forward.
17. Exercise – The Mirror
When we exercise, we have endorphins moving through our body, we’re feeling good, we have better oxygen flow through our body, therefore, more blood is flowing through our body. We just feel better.
I realize if you’re used to lying around on the couch, that it might be hard to find that motivation to get up and exercise, but when you do you always feel better. I don’t think anybody’s ever gone and done a workout and then said, “Gee, I wish I didn’t do that”. Exercise is inspirational because we always feel better afterwards. We’re getting out of our conscious brain when we’re exercising. Our brain will go into a state of calmness, and new thoughts, new ideas, new inspirations can come to us.
I’ve recently invested in the MIRROR from Lululemon. Now I have a whole exercise gym in my living room with over 10,000 workouts. There are so many choices of exercises that you can do just in your chair, from yoga to stretch, toning, pilates and so many more I cannot remember them all. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, advanced or an expert in exercising there is something there for everyone.
Everyday I go to the MIRROR, and I do my workouts. I do half an hour of this, or an hour of something else, with so many choices I like to try different things. I like to enjoy this time. I play music that I love to listen to. I’ll often play my energy shifting tunes because they’re faster, especially if I am doing cardio.
Oh, dance was another one I forgot to tell you, then I must play their music. I’m totally uncoordinated. You know what, it doesn’t matter because I’m at home and no one’s watching, but I’m moving. I’m creating that blood flow. I’m getting out of my thinking mind and just being in the moment and being in that space is another source of inspiration.
It doesn’t matter what exercise you like to do. Maybe it’s just getting out and going for a walk. If you like bike riding, then go ride a bike, if you hate bike riding, don’t ride a bike, find something that you like, because then you’re so much more likely to do it. Start off in baby steps, 15-minute increments, and build up. As you build up you will feel better, you will feel fitter, and you’re further inspired to keep going.
18. Acts of Kindness – Offering Compliments – so rare these days! People don’t even know how to respond!
I love this one, because so often acts of kindness don’t even have to cost you anything. Think of it if you’re just giving someone a compliment, and in this world, how often does that happen? Not often enough, to the point where if you do acknowledge someone and give them a compliment, they might feel uncomfortable, try to push it off or say it was nothing, because they’re not used to receiving compliments. Giving a compliment doesn’t cost you anything, but it gives the other person so much.
Guess what it’s giving you something as well. You feel good about giving that compliment to the other person. Any act of kindness leaves you feeling good. Whether somebody drops something, and you pick it up for them. Whether you’re opening the door for someone, whether you’re buying someone in front of you or behind you a coffee just because – whatever it is, that act of kindness leaves you feeling good. You’ve made someone else’s day, at the same time.
What if all of us could just go out and give five compliments today to five different people, genuine compliments. Notice how you feel because of doing that. Notice how you’ve made each one of those people’s day. Now, if that isn’t a source of inspiration, I don’t know what is!!
19. Change – Getting Our of Your Comfort Zone
I’ve always said the only guarantee in life is change, and yet some people are very resistant to change. They’re in that comfort zone where their brain knows they can keep them nice and safe, and they don’t want to get out of it. There’s no growth sitting in your comfort zone. To have growth we must get out of that comfort zone! Staying in it all the time simply gets boring, and boredom can lead to depression and depression can lead to negative health implications.
There’s no truer sign of that than people in retirement. They count down the days to retirement and then retirement starts and they have the first month of travel planned out, then they don’t know what to do with all their time. Before retirement they would talk about traveling or doing things that they never got to do because they were working all the time. Once they retire, they then have no idea what they are going to do with so much time on their hands. That leads to boredom, which can lead to depression, and then lead to illness.
Too many people die soon after retiring. It’s tragic because you work all these years of your life looking forward to retirement. Looking forward to all the things you can do, and then it doesn’t happen. Which is why I believe in the Japanese approach of “ikigai” where you find your passion and your purpose, and you do that every day for the rest of your life. You don’t have to retire from it because you love what you do, then retirement isn’t even a thing. You might do it less as you get older, but you don’t have to retire.
If you’re living life by design, you can take vacation when you want to take vacation, you can live your purpose when you want to live your purpose. Moving out of your comfort zone, and inviting change into your life is inspiring. When we step outside that comfort zone, it’s an adventure. We must gently tell our brain that it’ll be okay that we’ve got this. Find yourself a new comfort zone. You see, your brain is your best friend and your worst enemy at the same time. It’s your best friend when it stops you from stepping in front of a bus, but it’s your worst enemy when it’s holding you hostage in your comfort zone. You need to learn to talk back to your brain and bring it with you on your adventure out of your comfort zone. Be inspired simply by not knowing what the outcome is going to be, but be open to the journey.
20. A Conscious Rethink!
Are you in alignment in all aspects of your life?
No?
Then it’s time for you to slow down, meditate, take the time for check-ins with yourself.
Is there anything you need to shift to get into alignment? When you are in alignment in all aspects of your life, you will find yourself living in peace, harmony, and joy. When we take the time to just stop and think about all the ways that we can be inspired in our life, we can truly start to create a little bit of change. When we start to realize where boredom is setting in, where we are bogged down, when we’re just doing the same old same old, only then can we think about what we need to do to shake up our lives.
There will always be room for growth, there will be always room to try new things. That is a great source of inspiration.
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