Unleashing team potentials beyond the average, beyond the known and beyond the habitual requires soft skills. But is it possible to “train” respect, trust and communication skills? Or are some people just not open for change when it comes to soft skills? Is setting soft skills free something you can push or work hard on? The opposite may be the case.

New Approaches to Open up for New Skills

Use curiosity instead of installing fear, to inspire to explore beyond the presumingly safe space of the known, the box, the habitual, the way we always did the things we do. Imagine, if your organization would promote the idea of exploring new possibilities continuously. How would you feel? Would it scare you to possibly never lean back again and relax in the old routine? Does it excite you to never feel stuck, bored or frustrated at work again, since you are part of a growing and continuously developing environment? Or do you find yourself somewhere in the middle? How do you assess your colleagues? Do you think they see the opportunity and are open and willing to engage in new approaches?

Imagine your organization and the members of it: can you imagine what influence such an awareness of attitude, emotional intelligence and know-how might have on the future of your work-life? Can you imagine what impact members of your organization have not only on the future development but also on a daily life level, if they felt inspired and “safe” to show up as who they are? Are you aware of the impact of lack of awareness of those soft factors, both on the individual and on the company?

You Form the Culture you Live in

I work for companies whose leaders are willing to be engaged personally in the change process, by looking at themselves and their attitude, habits, strategies first. I believe you cannot delegate Cultural Development by hiring a coach to make the employees “function”. Look at yourself, understand and know yourself, before acting, if you want to inspire others to bring out their best.

A Safe Environment requires Trust

Creating an inspiring environment takes building trust first. Positive or “non-violant” communication skills, constructive feedback, applied emotional intelligence and openness are delicate topics to be treated with sensitivity lead to building trust. You can trust someone who walks their talk, someone who shows up as who they are. Someone real.

Huge potential of extra energy can be released and applied constructively in a positive way, when we address those unconscious, unattended issues of lack of trust.

That’s where thinking stops and flow starts…

We are all Leaders

I believe a good leader has a profound self-knowledge, engages in continuous development and applies know-how, intelligence and compassion.

Leadership that inspires fear won’t get the most out of potential talent. There is space for growth between survival and thriving. Leadership that inspires curiosity inspires creativity and even a sense of community. It is not just about writing those numbers but being seen and appreciated as a unique human with a unique approach to things.

What else is possible?

What else is possible? How can we make things better? How do we dare to go beyond imagination and allow new ideas to come up? I believe you don’t inspire that safe space by pressure. It takes a culture of understanding, trust and positive, open communication and a space for playful exploration to allow brand-new ideas fall into our awareness.

For a leader it takes openness, willingness and courage to experiment and de-velop him-or herself continuously first.

Know Thyself

Showing up as who you are and being a role model for others is more potent than taking smart decisions and delegating from the background. I guess it is for all the same: by being who and how we are, we can bring our unique authentic self to the play.

There are unlimited tools available in order to teach how to create a safe environment for trust, open communication and creativity. The first step is in becoming aware of how open your and your colleagues mindset is and playfully examining the pros and cons of the current mindset.

How to create a Safe Environment

It is about inspiring the adventurer’s spirit that dares to explore the potential of the unknown. But how do you create a safe environment to instill this spirit?

There are many ways leading to Rome: Interesting, inspiring and challenging games, experiments, volunteering opportunities, creative experiments, team-building incentives or individual or team coaching work as incentive are some.

Change starts as a mental phenomenon.

Letting go of ideas and image, daring to share your true self!

(Photos: Improvisation training at Trampa Teatre in Mallorca)

This is the real secret of life, to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

Alan Watts

Imagine if every member of your organization could use their mind the way they choose instead of being slave of a compulsive or pre-programmed thinking. When we experience moments of mental stillness, creativity can flow freely, a very pleasurable experience. To help people switch from feeling pushed or forced, into feeling pulled or inspired is a delicate skill. Yet, this training opens minds for the unknown and creates a safe environment, where trust and community can develop.

Coming up next:

How to Build Community

Shared resources, joint interests, joint needs, joint goals

More about “co-creating”

Help Others

Helping others in times of crisis is powerful. Whatever your talent or resource is, if you can share it with others, not only for personal benefit and not only during crisis, you can appreciate more who you are and what you do. Serving others without getting a personal benefit from it makes you feel rich. If you don’t have much income right now, there are simple ways to serve others and enhance their wellbeing:

Inspire others to join you on a 30-Day-New-Habit Challenge, e.g. going for daily walks, Cook a meal for them.
Invite them to eat more consciously with you (go to last post)
Offer a massage.
Offer to spend time together. Take time to listen without agenda.
Open up yourself, show your vulnerability, share you thoughts and feelings and invite them to do so too.
Offer kind words and kind actions for people in need.

How to Help Others in the Professional Environment

We used to think, we don’t have time for “happiness at work” or relating in a kind way with colleagues during work. The latest lockdown situation has shown how important human interaction is, also at work.

Small Things you can do

Ask for your co-workers’ current situation, both, what’s new, positive and what challenges.
Ask what they wish to change, what could be changed, and what ideas they have.
Listen from the heart without prejudice and judgement. People feel wether you really mean what you say or if you have a hidden agenda.
Dare to ask for help as well and give them the opportunity to apply their talents and resources. Share your problems, thoughts and feelings, needs and wishes concerning work during breaks.
Ask them to join you introducing more healthy lunch breaks and get committed.
Notice when others are stressed and offer help or at least a kind word.
Be practical: suggest innovative ways to better work processes or brief meetings to discuss possibilities. Be proactive. Inspire.
Dare to share your view, learn to give constructive feedback and coaching.
Make work connections more human behave honest and kind yourself.
Include human interaction as a value in your personal work ethics.


Contributing to other people’s well-being without getting anything in exchange makes you feel rich and healthy. I believe everybody has the resource and ability to improve their own and other’s experience of life. It is a question of making it a point, wanting and deciding to do so.

And even though you don’t expect anything, you do get something in return: a deep sense of connectedness and purpose.

Thanks for staying tuned in and sharing your gifts with the world!

http://theWalkingGuru.org

Clarity. Focus. Direction

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Better Together in one Direction
By Being Proactive

Most of us are forcefully thrown out the the habitual. Many experience this as a very threatening situation, financially and health-wise. Quick restructuring of processes is needed. People need to come up with new ways of doing their job, working from home or even change jobs. Everything seems even more technical and less human, less interactive.

What Can We Do?

Now is a time where proactivity and creativity is of huge value. Not just to raise turnover, profit and income and lower costs. Now, it is also about “surviving” or simply continue to live in a healthy way.

How can you make a difference? At what place are you?

This 5-Step-System how to be proactive at work by Chrissy Scivicque intends to help becoming proactive. Here is the idea for you to check out if it is for your. Personally, I believe in a good balance of pre-planning and staying agile on the way according to the situation.

1. Predict

First develop foresight.

Learn to anticipate problems and events. Right now, you can’t anticipate how regulations change due to the Virus situation. However, you understand how things work; look for patterns; recognize the regular routines, daily practices and natural cycles that exist in your business. Don’t allow yourself to become complacent.

Anticipate future outcomes by imagining scenarios. The past is not always a valuable predictor for the future. Therefor use creativity and logic. Come up with multiple scenarios for different possibilities. Let others share their perspective and visions.

2. Prevent

Proactive people foresee potential obstacles and exert their power to find ways to overcome them before those obstacles turn into concrete roadblocks. How can this look during times of Covid? New markets, wider range of products and services? Expanding your range abilities to form new cooperations? What is your colleagues view?

3. Plan

Proactive people plan for the future.

Avoid one-step, “here and now” thinking and instead, look ahead and anticipate long-term consequences. What can you do today to ensure success tomorrow? Every decision is a link in a chain of events leading to a possible final conclusion. Mindmaps and cause-and-effect-loops in order to visualize consequences and make the best decision. You have to know where you came from, where you are, and where you want to end up. Include your company and your own values and must-haves in your planning.

4. Participate

Make a contribution

In order to be proactive, you must get involved. You have to take initiative and be a part of the solution. Cooperate. Inspire. See the whole picture, the system. Recognize that you are only a piece of the whole and that you influence—and are influenced by—the actions of others. Don’t simply react to them. Engage with them. Exert your influence and make a contribution.

5. Perform

Focus on effective action.

Be decisive and willing to do the work NOW. Procrastination is not an option. Be responsable for your performance and hold yourself accountable. Stand behind your decisions. Being proactive means you have taken careful, thoughtful steps to choose the appropriate path, planning steps through; you’re not reacting impulsively to your environment.

Let us know your thoughts!

What concrete action steps do you plan to take?

Is room for improvement in your work life?

Is there a gap in your plan or mind-map?

What factors have you been missing to take into consideration in the past?

How else can you engage others to join the planning and creative process?

What tools do you suggest for better cooperation (E.g. new technical tools such as WordPress P2)

What are your tips to co-create an environment that enhances proactivity?

From Thinking to Acting: Work on yourself!

By doing something new, that is good for you, you won’t eliminate your responsibility to take care of your urgent and important problems.

Introducing a new healthy habit helps you to gain clarity, focus and energy to do so.

Even though most of us are aware of what we can influence directly and what not, it is hard to stay balanced, clear and strong in times of crises. Emotions can overrun intelligence and we keep digging in the same whole even though it is not useful, going around in the same circles.

Accept it, change it or leave it

If you have no hope, vision or energy in a difficult current situation it is human to get lost in self-pity, depression, despair or blame. Sometimes, we need to reach out for help instead of getting stuck or freezing.

What Keeps You From Positive Change?

What does it take for you to spend at least an hour a day with the intention of doing yourself some good by experimenting something new?
What keeps you from doing so?
What thoughts, expectations or feelings sabotage your way?
Yes, you won’t change your external situation immediately. You will learn to get into a more positive internal state, become present here and now and give doubts, fears and worries a break. That’s the benefit. A gap to use your energy in a positive way to nurture your system and gain clarity, focus and direction.

What New Habit Can You Experiment With?

Experiment something new helps to keep mind and heart open and fit to adjust to new situations. You can learn to wake up into a new day without repeating yesterday’s story. Now, during this world-wide incredibly challenging situation, it is a great moment and chance to engage in keeping your body, mind and spirit fresh and strong.

Are you Aware of Your Habits?

Simple actions can get you into a state of being present. Use a break from thinking in order to empty the habitual box-thinking-processor.

Drawing mandalas can help to focus and center. By coloring or painting without expectations of the outcome you can explore how creativity works for you and whether you sabotage the creative process. Hypnotic writing exercises help you explore the space beyond habitual (box-)thinking and see what else is there that you are not aware of yet. Some simple breathing techniques can help you relax, not just physiologically but also the diaphragm.

Explore different types of meditation or yoga to connect with your essence, so you can relax from ego-patterns and enjoy yourself.
Updating the way you do the things you do, helps to stay innovative, creative, overcome fear of change and find joy in the process. E.g. prepare your presentations in a new creative or innovative way.

If you live a sedentary lifestyle, this current crisis can be a chance to reconnect with the body. Try regular walking exercise/meditation for 20 minutes or start slack-lining regularly to train core, focus, physical and mental balance. If you can’t get outside try regular Tai Chi or simple Yoga exercise online. Be amazed how quickly your body, heart-rate and wellbeing will change if you stick to it!

Stay Motivated by Honoring Small Positive Changes

Inspire your neighbor and people who lack motivation to join you!
Drink water with lemon or a healthy shake during coffee-break!
Take a little walk around the block at lunch-break!
Listen to relaxing music!
Honor that you do what you do more consciously and less impulsively!

Pick ONE to start with TODAY! Repeat tomorrow!

What are your coping strategies? Please comment below and share what works for you with others! What healthy changes have you introduced in the last years?

Free Your Energy by Letting go of Resistance

Awareness to feel the way you feel

Habit No 4 was about being conscious about your own vibration, feeling, and ripple-effect you create in the world. Especially now, when everybody is in fear and panic, it is detrimental to stay in your power and not feed the panic. We talked about projections (when we project our own thoughts and emotions onto others or blame them instead of being responsible for ourselves).

Now we investigate how we can choose other stones to throw and create ripples we want to see in the world despite /particularly due to the pandemic.

Emotions and Feelings are moving Energies in the body

Please note: This is not a scientific article but an inspiration to explore and play with new possibilities openly.

In my vocabulary I use the word “feeling” as a temporary sensual feeling in the body that is related to the present moment. E.g. a child runs into your house smiling at you. You feel joy. You wake up in the morning without pain, full of energy and feel joy. You see an drunk person acting aggressively and you feel fear etc.. Those sensations tend to go away, soon after the stimulus is gone. Emotions I refer to as longterm unresolved feelings from the past: e.g. surprisingly intense emotions appear by a relatively small trigger. “Someone pushed your button” means, there has been a button programmed, once upon a time. Emotions tend to be active over a longer period of time. They may be a chance for you to bring some old forgotten story to the surface, that sabotaged your behavior in the past without even being aware of it. Now you can feel what was unsafe to feel at the time and let it go. It takes to become conscious about feelings and emotions to do that.

Thoughts change the way we feel

What was first, the hen or the egg? Wether thoughts create feelings or feelings create thoughts is hard to say. For experimental reasons we make an assumption here: a thought crosses your mind and it creates a sensual response in the body, such as butterflies, belly ache, a tight feeling around the throat. We assume that the sensation doesn’t come from nothing. Sometimes we experience an emotion (some old unresolved feeling that has been triggered) and we create a story or an assumption in the present to “make sense of it”. That kind of thing I call here a “projection”. Meditation and sharing can bring clarity and free us from unconscious patterns that seem to keep us trapped.

Words change the way we feel

Words are powerful. Words can create feelings. Watch your self-talk. Some people can be cruel to themselves (“you idiot”-self-talk). Others talk themselves into believing to be the greatest thing on earth (narcissistic tendencies). It’s the same game. Words are powerful.

Choose kind words

Talks to yourself and treat yourself like you would treat that which you love most in the whole world, like your beloved child (or animal for some). Be aware. Imagine you would be the most loving care-taker of yourself. Spoiling is not the same as loving!

Experiences change the way we feel

Intention in form of a thought or spoken word is powerful. Actions are also super powerful when it comes to changing the way you feel. Here is an action you can practice in order to change the way you feel. Getting yourself into a positive state of mind and feeling, you gain strength, vision and energy. You gain clarity and will-power.

Your new relaxing Experiment to get into your Power

One of the most powerful healthy habits that I experimented with is having is a daily walk for 30-60 minutes preferably in the early morning in nature. There you can start to train your awareness and make your heart beat, fill up and empty lungs and strengthen muscles in a very natural, easy way. You can start with 2 or 3 times a week. If you have only little time, you can practice 10 minutes Walking Meditation – focusing on your own energy field, being here now as you move very consciously. Experiment! Explore for yourself! Make it your personal wellbeing habit! Everybody is different. Get curious what you will discover! All it takes is consistency and moderation.

Here is a 3min video on my story discovering the guru inside while walking in times of serious crisis: A simple and powerful way to feel better

Coaching questions to experiment with:

What action will you take today to change the way you feel?
What frequency would you like to throw out into your environment?
If you would permit yourself to stop thinking about the most urgent problems right now, what would you fill that space with?

Be aware of your influence and others influence on you

Everybody notices the tendency of anxiety and negativity in the air as soon as you go out or watch the news. Especially now, being careful and staying positive is necessary to stay resilient. Are you aware of how you “vibrate”? Can you resist negativity? How do you stay positive and strong? Or do you feel too busy and too stressed to take care of such things?

Just like throwing a stone into a lake will cause ripples, your energy creates ripples around you. When someone who is in an intense mood – let’s say enthusiastic or euphoric, it is common, that other people in that room will notice the wave of that feeling. When someone who is intensely angry enters the room, you will probably feel that mood too. Energy works its way, wether you know about it, or consciously decide it, or not. You have a choice though how to deal with it.

2 Minutes to Remember your Power

Today you can dedicate only 2 minutes to contemplate on the energy that is moving within you, how it influences the field around you and what your part is in this play. Sit down in a comfortable chair and close your eyes. Feel inside. What emotion do you feel? Anger? Fear? Joy? Sadness? Maybe you feel several emotions.
What is the quality of your thoughts? Is you mind rather focused or all over the place?Is it easy for you to be present or are you?
Are there any tensions in the body? Where? Are you conscious about your own feelings and the impact you have on others just by being?
What is the quality of your breath? Shallow or deep?

Repeat the 2 minute consciously-feeling-your-energy experiment as often as you want in order to train your awareness muscle.

Benefits of the 2-Minutes-Experiment

The stronger your awareness-muscle gets, the more you get to be in your power. If you used to take on the ripples of others, you can now, stay in your own energy, just by deciding to do so. All it takes is being present and more and more aware of these subtle things.

Responsibility and Freedom

When you contemplate on the ripple effect that you have on others and others have on you, you will become aware of your own power, responsibility and choice. What do you want? How important is it for you to influence your co-workers, employees, boss or family in a constructive way? How much do you care about your own health and wellbeing and those of others? Do you feel in your power or helpless and hopeless?
What choices do you have in order to change the way you vibrate? Are you aware of your choices or do you need help?

Your impact on the world

Notice that I am not referring to changing the world around you, but being responsible for yourself and your impact in the world

These 2 minutes can bring a lot of clarity into the very moment. They can also help to be compassionate, first with yourself and with those around you who are not aware of their feelings and the impact they have. You no longer need to be mad at anybody, but take care of yourself, express yourself in a kind tone of voice and responsibly choose to relax your shoulders, breath deeply and get back into a positive vibration.

x x x

You can change the way you think, feel and act – please share with friends and colleagues at risk to get lost in hopelessness!

Loads of Love

Manuela

Train your ability to be aware in the present moment

During challenging times it helps to keep focusing on useful and constructive matters rather than getting lost in loads of informations, we don’t even know if it is true or not. The latter can easily distracts us from the important things or even bring us down. If you are not yet totally focused and concentrated, you can start with a little mental exercise today:

Meditation is the one ritual that so many successful people practice that seems to make a huge difference in terms of success and contentment. These people have their aspirations clear and do not invest too much energy into distractions. They are aware of how their body-mind-emotion system operates and how to update it. They learned and keep training their ability to focus and concentrate on what is important to them and consciously engage their energy right there. In Europe, it is not common to be taught how to concentrate. Instead we practice distracting almost all day long, switching attention from one thing to another without consciously choosing to do so.

Learn to direct your awareness to here and now

In coaching I like to use this little metaphor of a torch as a simple way to train to direct your awareness to be here now (instead of allowing it to go all over the place like a wild horse…).

Imagine the mind as a vast space with many sections. The “torch of awareness” is a light that can light up any section you direct your focus on. If you keep the torch on that section longer, you concentrate on that section. Imagine you have this little torch and you can use it to light up certain sections within the the mind: light up the emotion section (focus on your emotions), change focus to the food section, turn over the light to the senses section, go back to the food section, etc.. Where your torch of awareness goes somewhere else, your focus, attention and energy leaves as well. In whatever you choose to engage longer, that’s what you concentrate on. That’s were you consciously or unconsciously keep focusing the torch. That area seems to become “bigger” in your world, both in you mind and in your perception.

The exercise

Here is a little mental exercise that can take you in a different state of awareness in only half a minute or so. I discovered this imaginative “trick” when I lived in the mountains of Lake Tahoe. Practicing regularly, it can take you in a different state of awareness instantly. Note: Do not exercise/ read on if you suffer from animal phobia!

In Lake Tahoe, you still find mountain lions. They are rare, but if you happen to see one, it is certainly an impressive encounter in wilderness. You don’t want to mess with this majestic animal. There were rumors, a mountain lion was in the area. Next thing you know, a neighbor saw the lion right behind our houses. Here is the exercise to learn to focus on here and now (versus getting lost in distractions):

Try this right here where you are: imagine there could be a wild animal anywhere hidden near you. Imagine all you have to do in order to not mess with the wild animal is to stay calm and be aware, then, there is no risk, you are and stay in your space, the lion stays in its space. There is space for all. Just be totally aware and stay calm.

You start being present, using your senses in a much more attentive way than before. You could use another animals as a trigger for this experiment, e.g. a scarred baby cat or an insect. Your senses (such as seeing or hearing) are totally tuned into here and now. You are present with all you senses.

You start looking more clearly. You start moving more consciously. You start breathing more consciously. The invitation is, to experiment with the imaginative situation to notice your own power to shift from allowing your attention go wild and distracted to being here now!

Once you managed to experiment with this exercise a few times, you can “install a trigger”, such as snipping your finger, to get you into this state of higher or clearer and awareness without having to imagine wild animals.

This may sound ridiculous or irrelevant at first. Yet, if you suffer from your attention going all over the place like a monkey, this can be a simple start to gain control over your ability to focus and concentrate.
This experiment is free of risk, has no cost and needs hardly any time. You will notice that it is your choice if you want to learn to chose what you focus on, or prefer to allow to be distracted.

Love

Manuela

Practicing habit #1 as part of daily life you will help you start feeling differently over time. If you missed it you find it here. In the current situation, there are many questions: How will your business survive? How will you pay your bills? How can you pay your employees? How can you proceed in general during this situation?

Inner peace and redefining your Important-Ugent-Matrix

Especially now, in a state of crisis, staying calm and redefining the Important-Urgent-Matrix is valuable in order to stay focused and concentrated.

Today you can start to do the things you do in or more mindful, meditative way and stay focused and concentrated, no matter what.

Changing the way you do the things you do

Selling vegetables on the street, running a business or teaching children at school; no work, fear to lose your business or too much work? Experiment with today’s exercise:

Habit #2 is about the way you do the things you do. Instead of getting lost in worries, you now first define what is really important and urgent, then, what is important and not urgent and start your chores as follows:

Consciously choose to do the things you do in a kind way

Today, first clarify what is important and what is urgent. Then, start doing what you do in a more conscious, attentive, mindful and kind way. One thing at a time. No multi-tasking.

Are you used to multitasking?

Even if you are used to the habit of dispersing your attention on different directions multi-tasking, today, you can make a conscious decision to start doing everything you do with full concentration and awareness in a kind, attentive way! Be here now with full attention while you do what you do. BTW this exercise is energy efficient.

It starts with brushing your teeth, cooking, cleaning, working in the office, having a meeting or driving to visit your customers: every little action is your meditation today. When you listen, you listen, you don’t prepare an answer while listening. When you clean you clean, you don’t plan ahead nor do you judge if you like cleaning or not. When you plan you plan, you don’t distract with checking emails in between. You put full focus on one activity at a time. The thing you do simultaneously is breathing 🙂

Relax! You don’t need to be good at it. It is good enough to keep practicing day by day and keep practicing.

Please don’t be hard on yourself. Act like a loving mom/dad observing her/his child. When you notice you get off track, you kindly get back on your chore and stay there. When you do a phone call, notice how you talk, the sound of your voice, the speed, your ability to really listen, tension in the body. Just notice and be a little kinder in what you are doing.

Be as kind and loving as you can be right in this moment

Important: Do not judge. Just make a decision to be as kind and loving to yourself and others as you can be. If this seems difficult for you, start by changing your facial expression: for no reason just decide to relax your face, your front, your jaw. Add a little interior smile. Relax your shoulders. Do it as an experiment for your own good and for the people around you. Nobody needs to know. It doesn’t cost extra energy, boosts your mental power and emotional balance.

Yes, the crisis around the virus won’t change directly. And yes, you won’t immediately influence the future of your business. And yes, you will change the very next reality that is in your power: create a small space of kindness within and around you, where you and the people around you can afford to detach from worries and boost their immune system while focusing on what has to be done in a positive way. You are creating a safe environment where yet to know possibilities can appear, grow and be nurtured. After some days or weeks you will experience an energizing flow feeling. The following blogposts will help you strengthen your ability to stay focused and concentrate even more for you to sharpen the saw and polish your inner diamond.

Do you have any comments, helping hints or suggestions for us? Please share!

With Love,

Manuela

The whole world is in fear, economic crisis. The scientific world is in controversy with many politicians. Nobody really knows what is going on and how to deal with it. The consequences are huge. A worldwide economic crisis leads to poverty consciousness, disease and deaths, not only/necessarily due to the virus, but also due to weakened immune systems, and hospitals not operating as usual. What can you do?

This is a series of coaching tips to experiment with in order to create a strong and stable mindset and to meet the challenges in life that you don’t have direct control over such as the worldwide situation due to Covid-19.
These new habits are helping individuals to stay mentally and emotionally strong, calm and focused no matter what. They won’t change your financial situation immediately, nor change the Governmental restrictions during the worldwide state of crisis. However, they can change the way you deal with a situation: to stay clear, balanced, make wise decisions and have a positive impact on others.
I dis–covered these things during times of major crisis (see below) by continuously observing my mind, emotions and habits. These things are nothing new. If the way I communicate resonates with you, this may help you to apply these tips, knowing that when you practice something many times you create a new habit and your default reaction can change from fear or anger to calmness and clarity and keep you healthy.

What simple things can do for you

My intention is to contribute to the mission of the Early Birds Club, an organization teaching how to become balanced, stable and purposeful even during challenging times, driven by values such as kindness, compassion and unconditional love not bound to race, financial status or religion. Humans are healthy, resilient and purposeful by nature and it is a question of not getting out of balance, or trapped in limiting habitual reactions but practicing those resilience habits to be able to apply them in any situation.

Create a powerful habit

Tips can be helpful. Tips can be really powerful once you make them a habit in your daily life. If you want to maintain resilience, go ahead and contemplate, practice and experiment right away! Those 10 little things are strengthening your “resilience muscle”, so you have it, when you need it most.

Tip No 1

Appreciate the small stuff

This is a 5 minute exercise that can experimented with 1×5 minutes or 5×1 minutes. You can’t fail on this: all it takes is shifting attention and focus to something positive right here, right now. Anywhere. When you notice your mind is stuck in fearful thinking, that might be a great moment to give it a go!

Shift attention right here, right now

Even in the most difficult situation, you can find a small thing in your life right here, right now, that is positive: a plant, the rain, the air to breathe, a smile or your own potential to gift a smile to a stranger. Your thinking mind might say “nothing changes when I do that”, but I observed something does change: the way you vibrate is different when you focus on something positive.

The way you vibrate

Focusing on something positive right here and now keeps us from getting lost in negativity. And that’s it. That’s all. The exercise does not replace your responsibility to act appropriately. You can simply stay balanced, strong and focused!

Many talk about gratitude and affirmations. Memorizing and reciting somebody else’s lines is easy. Feeling what you say is not necessarily easy. When we say something without feeling it, the energy is moving into different directions. Appreciating the small stuff is about consciously keeping heart and mind open in order to detect, notice and appreciate the things around you in daily life that are positive. Instead of drinking (alcohol) to forget, we focus to remember. Instead of talking about what goes we suppose is wrong, we stay centered. You can shifting focus from what you judge as bad to what you recognize as positive in such a way that you may notice on a sensation of expansion in the heart: felt gratitude versus empty recited words. And that sensation is what fuels your power to stay balanced.

Count your blessings

What are you grateful about right now?

What does it take for you to invest 5 minutes a day to simply focus on something that you appreciate as positive, nurturing or helpful? You can exercise each time you have a cup of tea or water, when you walk to the car or bus, when you wake up or before you go to sleep! It doesn’t cost any more effort, just focus, maybe good will and a loving attitude towards yourself.

Here is an example:
Right now I can witness a beautiful landscape as I write this article. I feel rich.
To my left is a plant. You might see its beauty right away, but if you look closer, you can witness the magic behind it: it hardly needs any water, keeps staying green, strong and resistant. I am amazed and feel connected to this magic that I am part of.

If you find it difficult to discover small stuff around you, that you can appreciate, don’t hesitate to share. We are all here in the same planet, happy to assist each other to sharpen our tools.

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My story for those who like stories

I had the privilege to grow up in a middle class family in Germany. Good manners, discipline and respect were important values there. I find they are real virtues, if kept in balance: Applied without real kindness, compassion and love those values can be empty and manipulative.

In 2000 I experienced a persistent state of negativity within myself. I just couldn’t stop thinking about my work duties as a managing director since a long time and was lacking meaning. I felt alone in the marriage and guilty for not being with the children most of the day. I didn’t have the tools I have today. During the week I would be in the office or visit clients, on many weekends I would organize seminars and take the kids along.

I had created a no-win situation in the mind. I left the marriage, the job, the money and the “security”. The same year I was diagnosed with Stage IV malign melanoma. I believe my immune system was low from all the stress that I had created. Now that was a different story: it was no longer about doing the right thing and making good decisions. It was about living or dying. I don’t wish anybody this kind of a learning lesson.

What did I learn?

I realized that I had not appreciated my own life! I had taken the gift of life for granted, full of heavy expectations, duties, hard on myself without saying “No” or “Stop”, without personal boundaries. And that was without COVID-19. The thinking patterns I had unconsciously taken on did not allow a life at ease. My mind was setup to detect possible reasons in every day’s life to justify not feeling good about myself, never good enough, unconsciously. I learned that it is common that we have unconscious patterns running inside of us, programs that we took on somehow during childhood or otherwise. Those patterns can be cleansed and transformed, so we can live our true nature. That became my job.

Focus on the positive side of the story

Everything changed in 2000. I studied Coaching, NLP, presentation, mediation, communication and learned personal development tools with the idea in mind to help myself. Then an epiphany appeared and I became a “Walking Coach”. Soon after, my first client showed up out of the blue. During a trip volunteering for a children’s foster home I bumped into my Yoga Guru in India and learned about yogic lifestyle. Ever since I promote connecting with nature and coach people to change inner patterns and live a healthy lifestyle. I know that there is a power within me, a power that I am part of, that gives me free will how to respond to any situation.

Appreciate the small stuff

5 minutes a day can make the difference in your ability to keep focusing on what is truly important to you and how you want to show up in this world, no matter what.

You can do that too! It’s simple, more fun and effective.

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