To celebrate opening applications for the new accredited Thrivecraft Coach training programme, Maggie is giving a series of Thrivecraft ‘Business Alchemy’ Top Tips on Facebook this month.
* Home study / case studies / supervision / assignment
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Apply Now
For more info and / or application
email maggie@maggiekaywisdom.com
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Message from Maggie Kay
“I am thrilled to have been running the Thrivecraft Coach training programme since 2013 – the tenth anniversary of my Coaching Practice, Thrivecraft.
The vision to foster a community of Thrivecraft Associates and train a team of accredited Thrivecraft Coaches has been been there right from the beginning. And here we are, all these years later, passing on our special formula of Thrivecraft skills and resources.
During our programme, I’ll be sharing thirty years worth of training, skills and experience and teaching you everything I have.”
Image supplied courtesy of Kimberley Jones – http://www.kimberleyjones.com
Designed by Jennifer Cairns of Daybreak Design: Info@daybreakdesign.ca
Educators. Care professionals. Community & charity workers.
Social entrepreneurs. Ethical business people. Eco entrepreneurs.
Media creators. Artists. Musicians. Performers.
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Apply Now
For more info and/or application pack,
email: maggie@maggiekaywisdom.com
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Thrivecraft Coach Training Programme
October 2016 – June 2017
Oct / Nov / Dec Module 1: Life Coaching Essentials – Skills, Tools and Guidelines
Oct 15 – 16: Set Your Life Free – complete life coaching process – workshop (& video)
Nov 13: Training and tutorial day – life coaching skills and coaching practice
Dec 11: Training and tutorial day – life coaching skills and coaching practice
Home study (videos) of workshop – Essential Life Coaching Skills including EFT and NLP
Home study of Maggie Kay’s Newcastle College Life Coaching certified course
Home study of 10+ video extracts featuring Maggie’s teachings at previous tutorials
Personal mentoring session 1 (on personal study) with Maggie Kay
Jan / Feb / Mar Module 2: Putting Thrivecraft into Practice – Case studies
Jan 22: Training and tutorial day – preparing for case studies and coaching practice
Feb 19: Training and tutorial day – case studies and coaching practice
Mar 18 – 19: Soulful Business Booster – branding, marketing, clients and pricing workshop
Home study of Maggie Kay’s Do-Be-Do (ILM) Business Coaching certified course
Home study of 10+ video extracts featuring Maggie’s teachings at previous tutorials
Case studies: 3 x case studies consisting of 6 x 1.5 hour sessions. Keep records.
Personal mentoring session 2 (on business plans) with Maggie Kay
Apr / May / Jun Module 3: Becoming a Thrivecraft Coach – Completion and graduation
Apr 16: Training and tutorial day – coaching supervision and assessment
May 21: Training and tutorial day – coaching supervision and assessment
Jun 17 – 18: Say Yes to Abundance workshop with graduation ceremony
Complete study, case studies & business planning.
Submit written assignment and completion statement.
Personal mentoring session 3 (on training completion) with Maggie Kay
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Apply Now
For more info and / or application pack
email maggie@maggiekaywisdom.com
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The accredited Thrivecraft Coach training includes the following workshops:
Set Your Life Free
Complete Life Coaching Process
An inspiring, powerful and warm-hearted workshop
to refresh your life and set it in a new direction.
REVIEW your current life situations and relationships
CONNECT with your true purpose and ideal life
MELT AWAY doubts and obstacles
CREATE a do-able onward plan
ACTIVATE your magic
A complete Life Coaching programme in weekend format.
As well as standard Life Coaching processes, this uplifting and inspiring weekend will be laced with powerful teachings and meditations that bring magic into your everyday life.
With a mixture of interactive practical exercises, talks and guided contemplation, there will be opportunities to ask questions and give your comments along the way.
And there will be plenty of time to connect with other participants – typically a high quality group of open minded, friendly people.
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Say Yes to Abundance
Opening the Flow of Money and Prosperity
An inspiring, powerful and warm-hearted workshop to
* DISCOVER your unique soul-path to prosperity
* CLEAR AWAY habitual money worry and crippling doubts
*LIBERATE your natural gifts and appreciate your true worth
* CREATE inspiring, soulful money-making ideas and plans
* FIRE-UP your enthusiasm and set yourself into joyful action
This workshop has been specially created to help you make a shift in consciousness and allow abundance to flow into your life.
To generate enthusiasm, ideas and plans to take action with an authentic heart and fulfilled soul.
Boost your income. Grow your business. Up-level your prosprity.
Attract good fortune. Create synchronicity.
Feel free and joyful.
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Maggie Kay (then known as Srimati) talks to Karen Davies about the first ever Say Yes to Abundance workshop.
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Soulful Business Booster
Brand, Price and Market Your Coaching Practice
Attract Ideal Clients With Ease
* GAIN a stronger sense of who you are, your true purpose,
and the unique gifts you have to offer the world.
* LEARN the magical art of how to magnetise
your ideal clients, customers, investors and collaborators.
* CLAIM your true self and do what you love.
* CREATE prosperity with authenticity and grace.
* ATTRACT opportunities, synchronicity and flow.
Guided by Maggie & harnessing the visionary input of the group,
you will develop a clear sense of your next steps
towards greater creative expression, prosperity and fulfillment.
Thrivecraft combines spiritual intelligence with practical know-how
to activate a rewarding shift in your life and business.
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Study video of workshop
Thrivecraft Coaching Skills
Including NLP and EFT
With Maggie Kay
and Thrivecraft Associates
Elisabeth Stirling (NLP)
and Bill Tucker (EFT)
Life and Business Coaching skills for professionals, teachers, educators, coaches, therapists, business people and for personal, relationships and home life.
Maggie Kay is founder of Maggie Kay Wisdom and Thrivecraft.
attract ideal clients or customers and increase income
– soulfully
Combining practical business know-how with spiritual intelligence.
Many of us are self employed practitioners or running our own small business. Between us, we offer a fantastic array of ethical products and services, inspired to help make the world a better place. We love what we do, but for some, the actual business side of things isn’t our strong point, especially when it comes to selling, marketing and making enough money.
Having founded Thrivecraft in 2003, Maggie Kay quickly identified the need to offer business coaching to many of her life coaching clients who were struggling to make the most of their soulful business. Combining her background in ethical business with her experience of spiritual intelligence, the popular course Mind Your Own Business was born.
Maggie Kay is once again offering a business boosting Thrivecraft workshop for ethical entrepreneurs and practitioners. On March 12/13, SOULFUL MARKETING guides participants through the practical and magical ways to find your niche, get known, attract ideal clients and customers, and increase income – without selling your soul.
The workshop is hosted by the Totnes Natural Health Centre and costs only £149. (There are three places at £99 for those who need a concession). The magical part of this workshop means that participants often make their investment back by attracting new business almost immediately!
Be your true self and do what you love.
Create prosperity with authenticity and grace.
Attract opportunities, synchronicity and flow.
Thrivecraft – Practical and Magical.
For More info and to book, click below
.
What are Thrivecraft workshops like?
Here’s what two participants had to say:
Kate Harris, juice detox expert, has found ‘her people’
Hot off the press – my episode as the guest on the Amit Kainth TV Show!
Amit is asking me about inner wisdom – Does everyone have inner wisdom? How do we tell inner wisdom from other, less helpful, inner voices? How do we access inner wisdom? And I guide a short experience of consulting our inner wisdom.
Here is the full recording of the show which was aired on Sky TV channel Star Plus in July.
attract ideal clients or customers and increase income
– without selling your soul!
Combining practical business know-how with spiritual intelligence
Many of us are self employed practitioners or running our own small business. Between us, we offer a fantastic array of ethical products and services, inspired to help make the world a better place. We love what we do, but for some, the actual business side of things isn’t our strong point, especially when it comes to selling, marketing and making enough money.
Having founded Thrivecraft in 2003, Maggie Kay quickly identified the need to offer business coaching to many of her life coaching clients who were struggling to make the most of their soulful business. Combining her background in ethical business with her experience of spiritual intelligence, the popular course Mind Your Own Business was born.
For the first time in many years, Maggie Kay is once again offering a business boosting Thrivecraft workshop for ethical entrepreneurs and practitioners. On March 14/15, SOULFUL MARKETING guides participants through the practical and magical ways to find your niche, get known, attract ideal clients and customers, and increase income – without selling your soul.
The workshop is hosted by the Totnes Natural Health Centre and costs £149. (There are three places at £99 for those who need a concession). The magical part of this workshop means that participants often make their investment back by attracting new business almost immediately!
Be your true self and do what you love.
Create prosperity with authenticity and grace.
Attract opportunities, synchronicity and flow.
Thrivecraft – Practical and Magical.
For more info and to book, click orange button below:
In this video, filmed five years ago when I was still known as Srimati, I share some tips on how to launch and develop a business with author and leadership coach, Nick Williams of www.iamnickwilliams.com
In the course of researching my existing material for my forthcoming book, I came across some interesting video chats with the very lovely and fascinating, Nick Williams. So, I thought I would share some…
Nick is a much loved author (his first book is called The Work We Are Born to Do), Coach and broadcaster, sharing fantastic inspiration, particularly to entrepreneurs and within the business sector.
I was amazed to realise that we filmed these videos almost five years ago – just at the beginning of my adventure connecting with some great people via social media and making films of our chats.
In fact, it was Nick who told me about the nifty Flip camera which I subsequently got for myself and have filmed dozens of films on since. (Note, we hadn’t quite mastered the sound at this stage, so it is not the best sound quality).
In this pair of videos, I am asking Nick how he integrates his spiritual life into his practical, business life.
The theme for this coaching day is creating prosperity in 2014 with your true vocation / soul work / creative endeavour / inspired ethical business.
During the day we will review where we are now in the fulfilment of our vocation and creation of prosperity, and explore where we’d like to make positive developments.
We will create a heart centered vision map for 2014 and practice magnetising whatever new business, income, support, resources, clarity, self belief etc we seek.
The Thrivecraft Group Coaching Day format is an opportunity for us to receive more personal input in a smaller group setting and deepen support and connection between fellow experienced Thrivecrafters.
January’s coaching day launches the Thrivecraft Programme’s business coaching module which will continue at the February and March weekend workshops (details coming soon).
Hot off the press from our Thrivecraft – Wake Up Your Wisdom – workshop last weekend, here is a video extract teaching the deep principles at work when we apply the Law of Attraction to manifest the things we want in our life.
During this relaxed workshop you can give your hard-working thinking mind a rest! Instead, you will learn how to easily tap into your own deep wisdom to find brilliant answers and solutions at every turn. But don’t be deceived by the retreat-like experience of the day – this stuff is powerful!
With a mixture of interactive practical exercises, talks and guided contemplations, you will be shown how to hone your hunches into reliable intuition you can depend on. You will learn how to make the secret law of attraction work for you and practice a powerful ‘make it happen’ technique that manifests your hopes into reality.
There will be opportunities to ask questions and give your comments along the way. And there will be plenty of time to connect with other participants – typically a calibre group of open minded professionals, creatives, innovators and conscious entrepreneurs.
You will leave feeling equipped to employ a whole new dimension of yourself – your own inner wisdom – in your life, love, work and business. With the constant wise support of your inner guidance and intuition, things will never be the quite the same. Just see what happens next!
In this brand new video, I explain why relaxing into your natural rhythm fosters inspiration and allows you to create and make things happen joyfully and with ease…
What’s new for you this year? Are you feeling the call to get together?
I definitely am and have been feeling increasingly inspired to host new events, groups and workshops this year – visiting themes that are hot for us all right now. There was such an enthusiastic response to our sell out UNITY 2012 event on 12.12.12. and our tribe continues to grow and want more!
This week our new ENDEAVOUR support group gets underway. This is a gathering of close kindred spirits (five men and five women) – each of us impressive individuals already following our calling, but keen to experience the power of the collective and take a leap together.
We are all mature body/mind/spirit professionals and artists, most of us parents, who know what it is like to carry responsibility and forge ahead. We are leaders and ‘givers’ and it is easy for us to sideline our own need for support and input. So it is great that we have decided to come together in a nourishing and stimulating peer group. Quantum leaps happen when we get together like this!
Thanks to Kimberely Jones http://www.kimberleyjones.com for contributing the above image. Artwork by Jennifer Cairns, Daybreak Design, info@daybreak.ca
Another new support group will get underway in Totnes, Devon in the coming weeks. THRIVECRAFT WEEKLY will be a Friday morning drop-in session. We will explore themes such as visioning, manifesting, channeling wisdom, using intuition and creating abundance and discover how these can be utilised in our life, love and business.
Each week I will be presenting the theme and guiding meditation, exercises and discussion. Our groups always attract a fantastic caliber of conscious, open-hearted people who contribute a lot to each other. Many friendships and connections are made. We will break for tea and there will be the opportunity to go for lunch together afterwards.
I will also be running a series of one day workshops this year. Requests are coming in for workshops on manifesting dreams and projects, boosting money and prosperity, business and marketing support and for developing intuition and channeling wisdom. Let me know if you have any more ideas and I’ll be happy to consider them.
For those of you further afield, I am currently writing some new material for online courses, webinars, e-books, audios and videos (as well as converting my existing courses into online formats). As a true Aquarian, I really feel my connection with you all worldwide and love to connect with you on the internet. Do join me on Facebook and Twitter too.
So I very much look forward to getting together with you this year and experiencing the power of our collective intention to create the happy, healthy, wealthy and wise lives we desire. By pooling our resources, we really do enhance our ability to actualize the bright new era so many of us are sensing. And right now is our opportunity to do so. See you soon!
Sometimes! As I explain in this video extract from my Entrepreneurs Find Inner Wisdom event (attended by Rachel Elnaugh, former Dragon from BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den).
In this video clip from our informal cafe chat, Judy Piatkus (founder of Piatkus Books) is asking me about how to use inner wisdom in our everyday lives. Is it something anyone can access? And how do we do it?
Everyone seems to be talking about it – that the time is upon us to make radical changes – to find kinder, more balanced ways to prosper in life and business.
As the ‘old ways’ of greed and exploitation continue to falter and fall, we are digging deeper than ever to find alternatives. How can we create fair societies, healthy economies and sustainable lifestyles?
Even the government has commissioned a study on how to foster happiness, finally acknowledging how important this personal level of well being is.
I am relieved to say I have heard on a reliable grapevine that the government are genuinely taking heed of the findings.
And thank goodness some attention is being placed where it is due. After all, when we are happy we are healthier, more productive and cause less trouble! All governments should take heed!
Here’s the link to newly launched Action for Happiness whose work I follow and admire – www.actionforhappiness.org
Being a true Aquarian, I’ve been ahead of the curve on this theme. A couple of years ago, I spoke at a conference about our experience of setting up a community run shop in our village.
One of the things I mentioned was that giving and contributing to other people (in this case by volunteering in the community shop) was creating increased happiness and that Gross National Happiness was as important as Gross National Product.
But perhaps it’s true that charity begins even closer – at home i.e. within ourselves. Are we happy, in balance and being kind to ourselves?
When I spoke to former TV Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh, about this she admitted that she felt she had to get ‘tough’ in her early days of business. This left her out of balance and in need of reclaiming her feminine side.
Nowadays Rachel is actively engaged in supporting a new era of feminine wisdom in business. She is in the process of setting up her new project Source TV – a cutting edge platform, specialising in video, dedicated to supporting and promoting ‘heart-centred thought leaders’.
It is so inspiring to witness the growing strength of this wave of conscious and creative entrepreneurs and mentors. I had a very enjoyable couple of days supporting Rachel at the Business Start Up Show in London recently.
Thank you to all you amazing people who I met at Rachel’s stand. The bounce in your step and the sparkle in your eyes is the only proof I need that a time of happiness, life balance and feminine wisdom is nearly here!
Robert’s work has always intrigued me and I’ve heard great things about him from colleagues and friends. Reading his article, I remembered that Robert is a good friend of Nick Williams – another warm and inspiring UK coach who I connected with a couple of years ago.
And so, that led me onto reviewing the video chats Nick and I had recorded together. Up popped this one – Nick asking me what steps I advise people to take if they are starting out with a new business idea.
It’s called Tips for Inspired Entrepreneurs and I give three or four really good practical steps that are helpful if you are formulating or wanting to develop a new business – however big or small.
One of the points we discuss is how PERSONAL it is running your own business and how business success goes hand in hand with our own development as a person.
After all, our business is our creation and an expression of who we are. So to make the best of our business, we need to understand and manage how our personal strengths and weaknesses play out in our work .
And it works the other way too – running a business is one of the most character building endeavours we may ever find ourselves involved in. It can be enormously challenging and by the same token, enormously growthful.
So how does it all begin? How do you formulate and launch a new business idea? Have a look…
As it happens, starting new business is a topical for me as I’m planning to attend the Business Start Up Show in London next month.
My friend and colleague Rachel Elnaugh (former dragon from BBC TV Dragons’ Den) will be there to speak on ‘Metaphysical Marketing’ and ‘The Future is Feminine’ – two topics that are close to both our hearts.
Rachel will also be there ‘womaning’ her stall in support of her exciting new TV channel – Imago People TV. If you want to know more about it, have a look at Imago’s new website:-
But to give you a taste, here are Rachel and I having a video chat about telepathic marketing.
And you are welcome to track down our other videos including our discussion on the emerging Feminine Wisdom in business on my You Tube channel, Thrivecraft.
In the last few days I’ve been reading a book by spiritual teacher Dr Wayne W Dyer called There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. It’s great – so relevant, uplifting and re-assuring – and is awakening many creative thoughts within me.
Wayne first became a source of inspiration for me after my husband Pat introduced his work to me eight or nine years ago. During the 1990s, Wayne taught the Ah meditation – a manifestation practice that he’d learned from one of his Indian Gurus – and Pat and I have been passing it on to friends, colleagues and clients ever since our Thrivecraft days.
Last year, I explored the practice in depth at my Entrepreneurs Find Inner Wisdom event, held here in Totnes, Devon. This was filmed, but apart from posting the videos on my blog soon afterwards, I have not really made a point of publishing them. Despite this, I have noticed that often people find the videos searching for information on the Ah meditation, so perhaps it’s about time that I made them more available…
Having plucked Wayne’s book off my bookshelf recently (and realised it was gifted to me by my special guest at Entrepreneurs Find Inner Wisdom – former BBC TV Dragon and business mentor, Rachel Elnaugh) I took this as a sign that it was time to run the Ah meditation video series here on my blog.
So here you are, a series of six short videos on the Ah meditation to dip into. Do let me know what you think – and what results you get! Enjoy!
1. Manfestation – You are a magician!
2. Introducing the Ah Meditation – Background and How to
3. Questions on the Ah Meditation – Do You Have to Believe for it to Work?
4. Preparing to do the Ah Meditation – Guided Relaxation / Opening the Chakras
5. Practising the Ah Meditation – Guided Practice
6. Concluding the Ah Meditation – Guided Om Chanting
I made this video with Nick Williams a few years ago when we first met. We are talking about inner wisdom and intuition – how to find it and how to trust it – and how it makes life so much easier!
Nick is a lovely guy and we found we had very resonant interests and approaches to spirituality, work and inner life. He is author of several books including his signature work – Discover the Work You Were Born to Do and runs www.inspired-entrepreneur.com– a vibrant community of heart and soul centered entrepreneurs.
You can download Nick’s free guide to discovering the work you were born to do on his website and find out about all the activities and resources on offer.
Here is our video chat where Nick is asking me about inner wisdom and how I use it in my coaching work to shortcut to the real ‘gold’ within us. (Note that Nick introduces me as Srimati, as I was named in those days!)
I’ve just returned from London where I was attending my friend Rachel Elnaugh’s live mentoring filming event – Business Magic.
As an award winning entrepreneur (for her multi-million first business, Red Letter Days); former Dragon from BBC TV Dragons’ Den; and author of Business Nightmares and forthcoming Business Magic, Rachel is a formidable business mentor.
From the autumn, however, Rachel is winding up her mentoring programme to make way for an exciting new project – see ‘message from Rachel’ on her website www.rachelelnaugh.com Before she does this, she wanted to capture some business mentoring on film in order to create a DVD programme.
And so, at the atmospheric Magic Circle (and on the night of a full moon and lunar eclipse!) we all gathered to hear Rachel reveal her business magic live on stage.
Fantastic! So inspiring!
Coming home, I remembered that I was fortunate to have some live mentoring from Rachel myself last year. And that we filmed it! And that I’ve not shared it with you yet!
So here it is – Rachel digging in to my inner story to help me define my name, brand and the title of a book I was writing.
Pat and I moved in February. Caravan dwelling came to a sudden end when problems staying on the field all year round prompted a rethink. The result was a move into this dinky modern house on the edge of the village with my 16 year old son Jamie. We are familiar with the house because its where Jamie has been living with his dad, Colin, and its been our support base whilst living in the wildfield. So Colin moved out and we moved in – taking over the main parenting role again and allowing Jamie to remain in situ in the big bedroom!
Weekdays have a different rhythm now – up at 6.45am with a quiet mug of earl grey in time to wake Jamie for school. Then its sandwich making, reminders about what’s needed for the day, making sure he catches the bus… By 8am I am out in the conservatory – the nearest thing to a caravan in the house – and getting on with my work. Evenings generally involve collecting Jamie from various after school activities, preparing a meal, a bit of TV – often with a foot massage from my guardian angel husband – and flaking out by 11.
I have to admit that I am relishing being a full-time mum again – and its much needed and long overdue. That’s probably why it feels so right. Colin and I have always lived near each other and co-parented amicably since we separated, but its the first time Jamie has been living in one home with me in all those years. The demands of Colin’s work has changed and its been hard for him to support Jamie on his own. With Pat and I sharing the home parent role and my work enjoying the flexibility of self employment, this is a much better arrangement for Jamie’s last few years of school.
The idea came out of the blue and fell into place immediately. None of us had been thinking along those lines at all. However, even Pat – a reclusive wild man and caravan-life adorer – was convinced of the plan’s merits as soon as it arose. He’s having the toughest time adapting back to ‘normal’ domestic life, but he’s doing his best for the greater good.
Part of the idea is that we keep the caravans and use them during the camping season. This means that any of us can escape back to the wildfield when we need to – just a stone’s throw away but a whole different world. And look out for a new retreat package I’ll be offering soon including accomodation in the wildfield – a perfect place to get away from it all.
Caravans in the Wildfield
So, only 7 months after the biggest downsizing move of my life, it’s been time to upscale again! Having given away all our furniture and household belongings, we needed to start over. However, the abundant universe soon showerered us with gifts and blessings. Within 10 days of moving our new home was all ready and we were celebrating a house-warming with our generous friends and family. Another plus is that after spending a severe, snowy winter in a 25 foot caravan, this modest 2up/2down feels like a palace of comfort and modern conveniences!
Living room to conservatory in new house
The move back into householder life marks the conclusion of an unusually introverted few months over the winter. By the end of October last year (the date of my last blog entry!) I was starting to put the breaks on ever expanding business plans and activities to concentrate on things closer to home. After more than a decade of being full on and ‘out there’ with my vocation, finances and family needed my full attention for a while. It was time to get my own house in order!
Initially, I simply wanted to be around my mum in Scotland as much as possible. She’s been going through extensive medical treatment and I could think of nothing better than to drop everything and be with her. In the event, Pat and I spent most of December up there. Mum lives in a lovely villa on a tiny island off the west coast of the mainland. We spent much of the UK’s ‘big freeze’ up there – helping with driving and hospital visits, enjoying family communion and filling our souls with the stunning beauty of the place.
View out to sea from mum’s upstairs window
Scotland was a tonic after spending November with my nose in account books. As well as doing my current end of year accounts, it was time to face some financial music about a business that hadn’t been doing so well and needed winding up. It was painful and confronting, demanding ruthless soul searching as well as loads of practical work. Every assumption, motive, decision, choice and step that Pat and I had made in recent years had to be examined. With no stone unturned on any level, it was excruciatingly personal and challenging to our self-esteem – and SO hard to forgive mistakes and let go!
As my colleague Rachel Elnaugh will tell you in her brilliant book, Business Nightmares, most entrepreneurs go through extreme financial challenges. Yet there’s a lot of shame and secrecy surrounding it – especially in the UK – and therefore its rarely discussed. But without sharing this crucial business experience how can we learn how to handle it from each other?
Business Nightmares is such an encouraging, inspiring and informative read. By revealling the inside stories of how even well known and successful entrepreneurs struggle, Rachel makes you realise you are not alone. And far from being shameful, knowing what the entrepreneur has been through makes you respect them even more. Do get yourself a copy if you haven’t already. It’s so well written by the wise, warm and witty former TV Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh. Click here to find out more www.rachelelnaugh.com
Telling the Coaching Connect conference about Rachel’s book
During November’s process of intense self-examination, it also dawned on me that I’d become a little bedazzled by a kind of ‘ambitious glitz’. I’d spent the previous 18 months vigourously developing my expert platform (as its called!) – glamming up my public image, publishing blogs and videos, courting book and media deals, launching new workshops, speaking at conferences, cultivating exciting new colleagues and establishing an international network via social media.
All that had been so much fun that I didn’t realise I’d got a bit carried away, taken flight and lost touch with my home ground, or that a certain pushy “must have big success” had crept into me. I knew something wasn’t right because things stopped coming to fruition and I was feeling increasingly strained. Eventually I consulted my inner guidance about it and the message came through loud and clear – “Just STOP, Srimati!” And so I decided to drop everything and take some time out.
It was scary letting go and not knowing what was going to happen, but my courage was rewarded. Having followed my soulful beckonings through the dark of winter, I did find myself back on firm ground and free from the burden of grasping after future success.
There’s a new ease and relaxation in my approach to my vocation and I feel deeply contented and quietly confident that the right work will come to me at the right time. Of course the universe has received my telepathic energetic transmission instantly and a graceful wave of wonderful new work is now gently cascading into my well balanced life. It sure beats chasing the big time!
So I’ll leave you with a video of a conversation Rachel and I had last year. We are talking about telepathic marketing – the art of attracting business opportunities by paying attention to our inner life. It draws on the universal principle that life simply delivers to you whatever you energetically expect will come – whether good or bad – and whether you are conscious of it or not. To find out more about this phenomenon, see the book Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.
The trick is to be aware of your beliefs about life and the signals you are therefore putting out. With a little inner work, you can make sure that they are genuinely aligned with your best interests – and so the universe delivers what’s in your best interests. And as I can testify, there’s nothing better than graceful waves of wonderful things cascading into your life because you’ve put your own house in order!
Do you trust your own rhythms? Do you allow yourself to do nothing and stare into space just because you feel like it? If a rush of creative ideas wakes you up at night, do you get up and start scribbling or smother it down because ‘you must get your sleep’? When all your energy has vanished, do you force yourself to get on with some work or allow yourself to rest?
Observing the ebb and flow of my creative energy here at the wild field has prompted me think about this. When we first moved, it was easy to see why I wasn’t dreaming up any new workshops or enthusiastically promoting my latest inner wisdom product – I was knackered! Then the weeks went on and I settled deeply into my inner world – wanting to do little more than meditate and write.
After a while, I started to get a bit concerned. What if all that creative juice has gone? Should I try to drum something up? But no matter how I looked at it, I just did not feel like it. I know from hard experience that it’s counter-productive to exhaust myself trying to swim against the tide, but it’s not always easy to keep the faith. None-the-less, this time I managed to wait and trust that the change would come naturally.
Then, a week or two ago, it happened – a huge uprush of creativity and inspiration came bursting through. Ideas, excitement, enthusiasm and energy aplenty – fully formed and in such abundance – and my new workshop was conceived. A couple of phone calls were made and the people and resources I wanted fell into place beautifully. There was a quality of effortless co-operation with a power so much greater and wiser than myself. My job was to be switched on enough to notice the turning tide, fit enough to get on the surf board and keep my balance, and from there-on-in simply have a wonderful ride!
And so I can announce to you with enormous enthusiasm and excitement that I’m taking my new workshop to Glasgow in Scotland next month. Wake Up Your Wisdom – a day retreat for entrepreneurs and professionals ready to develop red-hot intuition and learn the secrets of mind-to-mind marketing. My fabulous colleague, Rachel Elnaugh (former Dragon on BBC TV’s Dragon’s Den), has agreed to give a presentation on her experience of using inner wisdom for business success. I can’t wait to give my first ever workshop in my home city! More details here – www.srimati.com/events
To me, one of the greatest gifts of my self-determining lifestyle is the delicious opportunity to follow my natural rhythms more truly. Sometimes its an emotional rhythm – feeling slow and sad or fast and excited; sometimes its intellectual – clear as a bell or dull as dish water. Then there are physical rhythms prompted by hormonal changes or meal, exercise and sleep patterns. And of course there’s the environment – the light, the dark, the sun the moon, the seasons, the weather, the surroundings…
Our bodies and psyches are fantastically engineered sensing machines. Should you pay attention – simply pay attention! – you get all the bio/psychic feedback you need in a nano second and you will KNOW what’s right for you at every turn. However, if you override this awareness by getting too busy and out of touch with yourself (or giving too much of your power and freedom away to an over-demanding person or job), you lose one of your most precious abilities – to regulate a happy, balanced lifestyle for yourself. What’s more, regulating yourself like this is your primary responsibility in life. No one else can do this for you or be blamed if you do not do it for yourself.
I’m quite impressed with Paul McKenna’s work with regard to this. Paul McKenna www.paulmckenna.com is a British hypnotherapist who has written many excellent self-help books including I Can Make You Thin. The core principle of this book is that to eat appropriately (and therefore lose excess weight) you simply need to tune into this self-regulating ability. By slowing down and paying deep attention to what food your body really wants, you naturally find your optimum weight. I used this method myself last year and effortlessly shed 20 lbs in so many weeks. (I seem to be in a ‘putting it back on’ phase at the moment – but that’s another story!).
However, there’s another whole dimension of rhythm in our lives – the ebb and flow of INSPIRATION – our spiritual rhythm. When you are inspired you feel a creative energy rising up within you, giving you the ideas, direction and impetus to make something new happen. It seems to bubble up from inside you even if its triggered by an external source like a stimulating talk or a sublime piece of music. Sometimes it just seems to come from no-where.
The Buddha taught that inspiration can only be experienced when you have prepared yourself to receive it. When you first start to meditate, it can take a while to draw all your disparate energies into some sort of coherence. That’s what meditation does for you first of all – it helps you feel less scattered and more focussed and more whole and complete. This is the initial stage of INTEGRATION (bringing together).
Only then – when you have a sense of being in possession of your whole self – can inspiration start to come through into an adequate container. This second stage, not surprisingly, is called INSPIRATION. Having pulled yourself into some sort of shape, your natural creative energy has a place to arise and a vehicle through which to express itself. It feels like you have a well-spring within you, constantly bubbling up from your deep inner source.
I explain these two aspects of meditation in this video – Meditation for Integration and Insight
As a coach, I’ve always preferred to work with inspiration rather than motivation. As well as being a carrot rather than stick approach, it is a much more empowering and graceful way to work. Helping people ignite their own natural joyful impetus is more independently sustainable for the client than trying to push them up a mountain they’d rather not climb.
Sometimes I think we’ve got it all wrong – that we think we have to ‘make’ ourselves do stuff because it’s ‘good for us’. No, no! Spend the time to develop the self-love and find the thing you really want to be doing because you were meant to be doing it! Then its just a matter of lighting the touch-paper and standing back while an inspired new lifestyle takes off!
Inspiration is a massive force for the good. When you are inspired you are in touch with who you truly are and feel moved by love and joy rather than fear and dread. One of my favourite tips is the one that tells us how to know when you are making the right decision. By asking yourself , ‘Am I making this choice from love or fear?’ you can discern whether you are doing things for the best (the best way is ALWAYS the one that is inspired by love rather than avoiding fear). If you are making a choice based on love, you feel expanded and free. If you are making the choice from fear, you feel contracted and strained. You can feel that expansion or contraction in your body – often in your tummy area. There’s a reason why we use the term ‘gut instinct’.
I go into the art of following the right inner promptings in this video – ‘Which Voice in Your Head Do You Trust?
So please do keep the faith, dear people – you do know what’s best for you. Your only responsibility is to cultivate sensitivity to your rhythms and allow inspiration to flow. Of course many of us have busy lives with many demands, but even within that, it’s possible to invest a little time developing awareness. Meditation is a brilliant way to do this. Just ten minutes a day – sitting quietly, feeling your breath move through your body – is a wonderful start. For superb meditation guidance, try www.wildmind.org
That is the question! At least, it’s the question that was asked of me this week: Should I be revealing so much personal experience in my Raw and Real blog? Is it okay for someone in my position – a self-development professional – to display vulnerability? My answer: You betcha!
That’s what I believe anyway. I recognise that it’s not everyone’s approach to coaching and teaching, however, it is totally and absolutely mine. Sharing myself with you like this feels like the ‘signature dish’ of my delightful vocation. I’m just not the aloof, out of reach, theorist type. I’m interested in the applied stuff – the real stuff that makes a difference, that moves us to the core, the stuff that I know from the inside out. As far as I can make out, sharing my own trials and tribulations and the wisdom that I learn from them, helps and inspires you far more than mere academic ideas.
Just the other day, a coaching client said to me “I find it so helpful to know that you struggle too. It gives me hope. If it seemed you were all sorted and I wasn’t, I’d just feel like I was a lost cause. Knowing that you go through it too – and come out the other end – shows me that I can do it too.” And I’m delighted to say that I’ve had such a surge of appreciative and supportive comments and clicks onto my website that I just know that my ‘brave, honest accounts’ are hitting the mark.
I’ve always looked up to others in my field who tell their revealing true stories. Their vulnerability and authenticity inspires me. I can relate to them, to the challenges they face, to how they feel. I can follow in their footsteps as they traverse the wilderness, climb up and down mountains and run for joy through meadows. Their story is not just a dry, dusty road map. The colour and texture of their account becomes a 3D virtual reality experience that I can breathe and pant and sigh within. More importantly, in the process I become equipped to go on in my own life’s journey.
One of my inspirations is Oriah Mountain Dreamer who wrote The Invitation. This little poem, published in 1995, rocked the world with its piercing depth and quickly developed into a best-selling book. You can read the poem and find out about Oriah’s amazing work at www.oriah.org , however the poem begins…
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it…
Reading the book had a profound effect on me back in 2001. I’d just moved to Devon from London and it gave me some crucial inspiration that led to meeting my (now) husband, Pat. I wrote about this incredible experience in an article called Meeting My Match. (Here’s the link: http://wp.me/ps0N4-9U ) Recently, Oriah herself thanked me for sharing this article on her Facebook page. I was thrilled to be personally acknowledged by such an awesome role model!
Ironically, I’ve actually been holding myself back from splurging all to you this week. It’s been very quiet and settled here in the wild field, and I’ve been absolutely loving the retreat-like lifestyle. For the last 10 days or so, I’ve been working on a personal spiritual development programme. However, this programme requires me to “haud ma wheesht”, which is old Scots (“hold my quiet”) for keeping my mouth shut! Now, I have to admit that this is a bit challenging for my personality. When I’m excited about something, I find it hard to contain. But contain it I must as it is vital for the process to work properly.
It’s a case of practising what I preach. As I often advise clients, there are times when we must keep things to ourselves in order to thoroughly internalise a change and contain the energy of our endeavours. Should we share our stories too soon, we risk dissipating our focus, or worse still, invite the shaking heads and wagging fingers of the nay sayers. There’s nothing worse than a negative Nelly to undermine our tender new attempts at positive change.
Anyway, to satisfy the part of me that wants to document my inspiration and teach it to others, I’ve been quietly journaling and filming my progress with this exciting new programme. (I’m also already getting juicy ideas for presenting fabulous future workshops with this material, but I know I need to be patient!) One day, all will be revealed in the ‘Raw and Real’, but not until the time is right!
So, to reveal or not to reveal? Well, with the exception noted above, I say reveal. It is my experience that I am being spiritually guided to be personally revealing in the way I write and speak in order to fulfil my vocation. And I’m not the only one. I am so enjoying meeting and collaborating with a growing network of like-minded authentic colleagues worldwide. One of the kings of authenticity, in my opinion, is the lovely Nick Williams, author of Discover of the Work You Were Born to Do, collaborator in The International Association of Conscious and Creative Writers www.iaccw.com and founder of www.inspired-entrepreneur.com
So, I will leave you with some inspiration – a couple of short videos of Nick and I talking about the role of authenticity in our coaching work.
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