Cooking and Coaching - what on earth do they have in common? (Apart from a little light relief from the General Election).
Maybe nothing for you. For me though 
1. Cooking is the way I express a large part of my creativity.
2. Cooking is a way to make a difference in other peoples lives.
3. Cooking is about moving forward, not dwelling on the past.
4. With cooking you have to take action.
5. With cooking I am interested to continue to learn and grow.

All of the above are qualities a Coach should have
1. A Coach needs to have a creative mind. No two clients are the same and finding the words/vision/analogy to help your client achieve their goal requires creativity.

2. With cooking you are giving flavour, texture and taste experiences and sensations. I've had friends for dinner who have said I don't usually like that and today it was cooked in a different way and it was amazing. Or when cooking some of my friends still recall memorable meals and the other fantastic aspects of the time spent together. As a Coach you make a difference in peoples lives - they achieve their goals and then achieve beyond their original goals. And, as with cooking a great meal, this is the point where you can reflect and feel that happiness halo.

3. Everyone has kitchen disasters! The oven doesn't come up to the right temperature, you forget to buy something vital for the recipe - whatever! Of course you are fed up at the time, but it just makes you more determined to do better next time. And that's the crucial words - next time. There is always a next time. We learn from what went before or we choose to "put it down to experience" and not examine it too much. And with coaching whilst the past may come up in conversation, it is the future that matters. I love this food analogy I'm about to share - food only has a certain shelf life and isn't that just amazing! It can't go back and say, actually I wanted to be edible for another 2 weeks. It decomposes and we put it in our green bin and the energy is not lost, it is changed ( this is another topic). With food we have to move forward. It is part of the life cycle and it is a huge part of of coaching. Forward, Goals, Achievement.......

4. Of course flour, butter, eggs and cheese need to have something done to them to make the delicious parmesan shortbread in the above photo. Simply shoving these ingredients without any action into the oven would result in a gloopy mess at best!
Coaching is about asking your client to take action - it is about taking all their best bits, their achievements, who they are, their desire to achieve their goal/dream - putting it all in a "pot" and working with them to find the right way for them to achieve their own "parmesan shortbread".

5. Finally, a good coach needs to be committed to their own personal development. I can't think of a better example then cooking for this! The final of Masterchef - the amateurs has just finished. Looking back to day one and comparing it to where the finalists are now is amazing! They were so committed to becoming chefs of Michelin star quality. Could they see how to get there when they first stepped in that kitchen? No! They trusted the process. And as a Coach I trust that too. I don't know how that's going to happen - I just know it will. 

Should I do a Blog post in a years time and let you know?

Anyone want this ridiculously easy recipe?

Blogging Challenge - what is that all about? That's exactly what I asked, and exactly what my friends ask when I tell them I'm doing a 30 day blogging challenge.
Quite simply it is writing a blog post every day for 30 days - easy! No!

Why are you doing it? Is the next most popular question. This is an excellent question and one that I can't yet fully answer. However, on my blogging journey I would say that the following are the reasons I can give so far:
1. It looked like fun!
2. I love writing and this would give me an outlet to be able to express myself.
3. It was "only" 30 days. For those of you that know me well, you will know that I recently did a 90 day fitness challenge, so 30 days would be easy - err maybe not!
4. It was a challenge - I love a challenge. Always have done and always will do. Sometimes a challenge can take us out of our comfort zone. And that is often when we learn the most. 
5. I wanted to improve my blogging. When I say improve, what I mean is that it was non-existent before.
6. I wanted to learn the best tips and techniques - I'm learning loads! There's lots of fantastic free content and if I've even understood a third of it I'd be surprised. And that doesn't matter. Getting out there and blogging is how you learn. Then I will go back to the content of the daily e-mails in the future and more of it will make sense.
7. Surprisingly, I have found that I enjoy other peoples blog posts and I've learned lots of tips and techniques on all manner of things. My favourite post so far was about surviving an e-mail sand dune!

This is day 5. If you are interested to see how I get on then check back here again soon! 
And if you fancy taking part yourself then head over to   https://www.facebook.com/groups/30DayBloggingChallenge/
where Sarah will get you signed up and well on your way to being an expert blogger too.

Have an amazing day!
Heather

Feeling a bit under the weather today. I have a couple of extra days off and my plan for today was to get on in the garden, sort out some things in the house and go to the gym.

It is a good reminder that sometimes other things get in the way of life. And I can already hear my good friend saying "You are exactly where you are meant to be". Thank you :)
And that "there will be a reason that I feel a bit under the weather" - I just don't know what that is right now!

How many times has this happened to you?

I remember during my week off in October my horse went lame. He is an older horse so doesn't get ridden now. I see him every day and feed him and look after him. I was almost certain that the lameness on this occasion was caused by a foot abscess. It is the most common form of lameness in horses especially un-shod horses. This meant that I had to attend him twice a day and steep his foot in a hot bucket of water and poultice it. What a pain was my first reaction - now I had to factor in an evening visit to the horse! Then I took some time for reflection and realised that it was a gift. I really enjoy seeing my elderly horse - he has given me so much pleasure over the years and in his day was a Champion in the show ring. Him being lame allowed me to spend extra time with him, which is something that I wouldn't have necessarily considered during that week off.

He is an amazing horse and I felt lucky to have that extra time with him. We have a very special partnership and during that week I was reminded of this in the way that he accepted my nursing - calmly, unlike many other horses that make a song and a dance of anything outwith their normal routine.

I'm so grateful to have this horse. He's not one in a million - he's unique!

Have an amazing day.

Heather

A quick introduction to Grounding

Wednesday is yoga day for me. I have been to a couple of teachers, both excellent and with their own style. I really love the feeling of calmness at the end of each session. It is like being in a different world for 90 minutes of the week.

So today she says to us "feel your body grounded" and I thought about how I understood exactly what she was talking about having been introduced to grounding by a friend a few months ago.

Various definitions of grounded give "mentally and emotionally stable" or in a ships case "to become beached".

However, I believe that what was being referred to today was a discovery that was made fairly recently - 1998 by Clint Ober about how a human being can benefit from re-connecting with the Earth and therefore the Earth's energy.

How do I do this you may ask? Easy - take your shoes and socks off and walk barefoot on the grass, on the beach or even on concrete. These surfaces are conductors and your body is a conductor of energy so energy can flow through the earth and into the body. Rubber soled shoes are not conductors of energy and therefore cause a barrier for this energy flow.

So what I can hear you ask? Those that suffer pain and sleep disorders can benefit from Grounding. The electrons from the Earth's surface can counteract those in the body that cause chronic swelling, irritation and soreness. So long as the electrons can flow to the body benefit can be gained. And this is easily achieved merely by going barefoot.

There are simple barefoot substitutes available to buy that allow you to connect a mat or sheet to a ground port within your home. Although not particularly cheap, they offer a way to re-connect to the Earth's energy whilst you are sleeping or resting.

Let me know if you have experienced grounding and how it helped you.

Further online information on this topic is available at:

http://www.earthinginstitute.net/

With warmer days now arriving, it is the time of year to get outside, kick those shoes and socks off and soak up some of those lovely electrons.

Happy Grounding and have an amazing day!

Heather