Newsletter Archive: December 2008

 

Text Box:     December 2008 Welcome to the Dare to Blossom newsletter If this has been forwarded to you by someone else, you can sign up for your own copy every month here. If you do not wish to receive future editions, please email me to unsubscribe. Everyone who is on the mailing list will be entered into a draw twice a year (at the end of June and the end of December) with a chance to win a prize of six free life coaching sessions. In this issue: Reflections: Creating Abundance with Passion The Dare to Blossom Inspiration Package: a gift that lasts beyond Christmas Future events: 14 March 2009, Chacewater Village Hall Reflections: Creating Abundance with Passion My reflections this month are influenced by the half day taster workshop that took place this weekend at Chacewater in Cornwall. There was a fantastic response and sixteen people gathered at 9.30 for refreshments and started getting to know each other. There was soon a fantastic buzz in the room and a lively morning followed. For those of you who were not able to be there, here is a description of some of the activities that we did, with some of the comments made in feedback, and my reflections on the event. Firstly people split into groups and discussed the items they had brought with them that represented the abundance already in their lives. These were pictures of family and friends, treasured items such as stones or ornaments that represented a gift, all sorts of things. Far from having to encourage people to talk about themselves, I had to draw the discussions to an end when the time allotted passed. The next activity* was a quiet personal one, which you can try too: Write down all the things that make you happy – and when you think you have finished, write some more. Look at your list and see how many of those things are in your life already. Look again and see how many you can bring into your life now (often they are free of any cost). Feel abundant and blessed! Review and add to your list whenever you need a boost. Just 12 minutes was given to this activity, and people said they would be adding to their lists at home. You might like to revisit your list regularly, can you get up to 100? There was an animated discussion about how a lot of the things that make us happy are already in our lives, may be we do not give enough time or attention to them? For example, nature, walking, our pets, connections with family and friends. Someone pointed out that although many of these do not need money, other things do and that needs to be considered as well. This gave me lots to reflect on about how to present this exercise again in future to make it feel more grounded and real in these times when many people do have financial issues to contend with (myself included). It was not my intention that people would feel that this exercise was unrealistic or superficial, nor that thinking about money is a negative thing. Money is a part of our lives and as such deserves due consideration and attention in the same way as all the other parts do. Following a break for refreshments and conversation, we continued with a creativity exercise using unconventional materials such as silver foil, paper plates, scraps of rug wool and coloured paper clips. Even those people who began by proclaiming that they were “not creative” produced something full of fun and beauty by the end of the session. Those who wished to showed us their piece and described what it meant to them, or how the activity felt for them. Victoria Field made a beautifully simple sleeping moon face on a paper plate, and on her feedback form wrote a poem that she has given me permission to share: A pale moon rose in my consciousness She’s sleeping but soon she will waken Moon, inspiration, ebb and flow Love and smiles, a sense of wonder. In a longer workshop I would give time for personal writing after this exercise, before sharing and discussion, which often leads to deeper insights. The morning ended with a brief discussion about life coaching and how I work to help people as a coach. I encouraged the people there to book a free consultation to explore in more depth how particular parts of their lives might benefit from using coaching techniques. This offer is open to anyone reading this, you can contact me to arrange a telephone discussion at a convenient time for you, and there is no obligation to book any further coaching sessions if the time isn’t right for you for any reason. What next? The feedback comments that people wrote showed they were keen to follow up this short workshop. I will definitely put on a full day workshop in the New Year and will investigate venues for a regular monthly or bi-monthly half day that would enable people to build deeper connections. One person wrote: “I liked the informality and freshness. It would be nice if this were the intro to a regular workshop where we encouraged each other to be abundant and creative.” Other people would like an opportunity to work on turning negative thoughts to positive, more time for group discussions, additional quiet time for personal writing, and more on “what makes me happy”. It was also pointed out that although we covered “Creating” and “Abundance”, I had not related those directly to the “with Passion” part of the workshop title. A very good point and one I was aware of at the time, perhaps I was over ambitious and tried to fit too much in to a morning. I am reassured by another comment: “I felt we managed to achieve a lot in a comparatively short time, without feeling rushed.” Certainly there is much for me to reflect on and develop for future events. I will put more details of the feedback on my website as soon as possible. If any readers who were not able to attend this time have a view on whether they would like to attend a one-off full day workshop (anywhere in the country) or a workshop series (in Cornwall) do contact me. See below for the date of the next full day workshop in Cornwall. I feel very blessed and abundant with all the support from those who attended, plenty of feedback to reflect on to make it even better next time, and new ideas to develop for next year. Thank you from my heart to all of you. I will close my reflections this month with the piece I read at the end of the workshop: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people around you don’t feel insecure. We are all meant to shine as children do. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically releases others. Variously attributed to Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech, and Marianne Williamson (“Return to Love”) (*thank you to my dear friend Debbie Trewin for passing on the idea for this exercise, her contact details are below). I d e n t i t i e s  o f  D i s ti n c t i o n   ~ by Debbie (01392) 833 003  "Making your true identity work for you  - Personally, Professionally & in Business" The Dare to Blossom Inspiration Package: a gift that lasts beyond Christmas For someone very special there is the Inspiration Package, a copy of the book (so you have something physical to gift wrap and send, or I can do this for you and send direct), plus a gift voucher for two 30 minute telephone life coaching sessions. All for the combined price of £49, including post and packing. (The price if you bought these items separately would be £101.95, so less than half price) This is a wonderful gift at any time of year, but what better time than Christmas to open the gifts and New Year to receive the boost of the personally tailored coaching sessions? Or – if you are thinking about trying out coaching, why not treat yourself? Details and order form here. Of course my books are available separately as well, click here for details. Future Events: The next full day Dare to Blossom workshop will be on Saturday 14 March at Chacewater Village Hall. The programme will build on “Creating Abundance with Passion” and I will develop it in detail over the New Year when I have had more time to reflect and develop new ideas. Put the date in your diary now if you are interested! And do contact me with suggestions or requests for other venues. Thank you for reading, do email me with any questions, comments or suggestions, or feedback on particular items. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think may be interested. All best wishes for a very happy Christmas, full of love and joy, and for a peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.   Mary



 

 

 

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Newsletter Archive

December 2008

 

 

 
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